Pima-Maricopa County AZ Archives Biographies.....Reilly, James 1830 - living in 1896
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 7, 2005, 11:50 am

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 539-540

  HON. JAMES REILLY. In the profession of law a man must be endowed with
superior intelligence and have gone through with years of careful study and
training to be able to cope with the brilliant minds which do honor to the bench
and bar of today. Prominent in the ranks of the foremost lawyers of Tombstone,
Arizona, stands the name of Hon. James Reilly. He was born in the parish of
Larah, County Cavan, Ireland, October, 1830; son of Terence and Eleanor (Brady)
Reilly, both natives of the same parish. The maternal grandparents, Terence and
Mary Brady, were born in the same parish, as was also the paternal grandfather,
Terence Reilly, and all were tillers of the soil. Until eighteen years old James
Reilly assisted his widowed mother in the duties on the farm, and then left his
native country to seek his fortune in America. Landing in New York City he
announced his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States, at City
Hall, New York, in February, 1849. In June of the same year he enlisted in the
United States Army at Albany, New York, and was sent to Texas, then a
wilderness, to join company C, Eighth United States Infantry, at Fort Crogan,
now in Hamilton County, with which company he remained, in Texas and New Mexico,
until 1859. During about three years of that time the company was mounted and
was constantly engaged under General Harney in hunting and fighting Indians. For
three years after that Mr. Reilly was engaged in merchandising and cattle
raising. When discharged in 1859, he went to teaming and freighting, and in the
fall and winter of 1860 made a trip from Port La Vaca, Texas, to Ft Buchanan,
Arizona, with freight, in company with McComb, Rooney, Walker and Chandler. The
last named was a member of the Texas Legislature and the secession movement was
strong. An extra session of the Legislature was called by the governor, and
Chandler, leaving the party west of San Antonio, went to the Capital. The party
then consisted of twenty-one Mexican teamsters and herders, and four Americans,
with eighteen ten-mule teams. The trip was a very hard one and night guards were
kept constantly after leaving the settled portions of Texas. Water and feed were
scarce and one to two feet of snow fell in the vicinity of Stein's Peak. However
they arrived all right at Fort Buchanan early in February, 1861. The company,
generally, was enthusiastic on the question of secession, and all, except
Reilly, returned to the Lone Star State. He remained at Fort Buchanan, hauling
supplies for Suttler White, but one night the Indians stole all his mules but
two from within ten paces of the sentinel's walk. From there he went to Sonora,
with a very small capital, and engaged in farming and milling, and in June,
1863, brought up in La Paz, Lower California, where he did not know a soul. From
that time until the fall of 1866 he worked in mines at Cacachilas, Triumph and
San Antonio. From there he went to Arizona by way of the Gulf and Colorado River
and after thirty-nine  days of  suffering from  high  winds and lack of food and
water, they arrived at Port Isabelle—mouth of the Colorado River—and there met
Captain Polhemus, of the C. S. N. Co., who took the party to Yuma for half fare.
After this until January, 1875, Mr. Reilly worked in the mines, at Wickenburg
and Bradshaw, drove teams and chopped and hauled wood, and then was appointed
deputy sheriff under William Werninger, then sheriff of Yuma County. About that
time Mr. Reilly commenced the study of law in earnest and was elected district
attorney of Yuma County in the fall of 1876. He started a newspaper in Yuma in
1878, but the following year moved to Phoenix, where he continued the paper
until May, 1880. He then abandoned that business and moved to Tombstone, where
he has since given his entire time to study and the practice of law. In 1892 he
was elected on the Democratic ticket a member of the 17th Legislative Assembly
of Arizona. Mr. Reilly was born a Democrat, but of late years he has earned for
himself the reputation of a "kicker, "a "crank," etc., and has finally quit the
Democratic party forever, unless that party shall be born again, a thing not
likely, nor perhaps possible. In April, 1893, Mr. Reilly was married at Phoenix
to Miss Nicolasa Ruiz, the daughter of Abran and Luz Ruiz.


Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896



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