King Woolsey, 1832-1879 Arizona Historical Foundation Born in Alabama sometime around 1832, Woolsey came from a large land-holding family who moved to the Arkansas-Louisiana border, attended schools in both states and was being prepared for the priesthood in a Catholic seminary when at around 15 he rebelled and escaped. Supposedly he joined a filibustering expedition to Cuba and in 1850 went in California. In 1855 he joined William Walker on an ill-fated expedition to Nicaraugua and afterwards he returned to California where he remained for some years. Hearing about rich mineral discoveries along the Colorado River in 1860, he traveled by horseback from Calaveras County by way of San Francisco in the company of a Mr. Benedict and a Colonel Jackson. Armed but only possessing five dollars between them they arrived at Fort Yuma where Woolsey obtained employment as a mule driver while his companions moved on to Yavapai County. Woolsey soon formed a partnership with George Martin, a druggist, and bought the Agua Caliente Ranch, a promising spot on the north side of the Gila River eighty miles above Yuma for $1800 in gold. It was a well watered spot, boasted luxurious grasses fed by springs and was a favorite stopping place for freighters and travels on the road between Tucson and Yuma. Here, Woolsey raised cattle and horses. When word reached Woolsey that Colonel Albert Sydney Johnson was traveling overland with a party bound for secessia, Woolsey made plans to join him at Maricopa wells. The scheme was ironically thwarted by illness which kept him from meeting Johnson. In 1862, near Burke's station in the act of filling one of his hay contracts for the army, Woolsey, accompanied by a couple of employees, was attacked by a band of 15-20 Apaches. Unarmed except for a shotgun, Woolsey tried firstto dissuade his attackers, but when the Indians, sensing their advantage closed in for the kill, Woolsey Coolystood his ground and brought down a chief with a load of buckshot. When the Walker Party, ostensibly miners, but suspected of being in sympathy with the South, stopped off at the Agua Caliente Ranch in the spring of 1863, Woolsey joined them as an "independent prospector" in searches up the Agua Fria. With John Dickson, a member of Walker's group he took up a ranch on the lower Agua Fria some 25 miles east of Prescott. Though he did not remain long in "Woolsey Valley"--as his Yavapai Ranch came to be called--he returned to the Agua Caliente Ranch to begin construction of a wagon road from the Gila to the Walker Diggings on the Hassayampa River. Experiences in the region with raiding Tonto and Pinal Apaches who came to look on the miners as new sources of plunder, convinced Woolsey that nothing short of forceful action could save the day. Ranchers, settlers and miners around Wickenburg, Peeples Valley, Walnut Grove and along the Verde were increasingly marauded of cattle and horses. His attitude towards Apaches unquestionably hardened when the Agua Fria Ranch came in for raids and stock stolen.On one of his numerous trips from Agua Caliente to the Weaver and Walker Diggings, he was prevailed upon by angry miners to organize and lead a company of frontiersmen to mete out retribution to the attackers. Hurriedly organizing 28 men, handy with rifle and pistol, Woolsey in January 1864 set out on the trail of stolenstock. From the Hassayampa to the Agua Fria which they crossed twelve miles above Frog Tanks, they rode down the Black Canyon, crossed the Verde but encountered no Indians. After 16 days, provision ran out and Woolsey sent a small party to the Pima Villages on the Gila for fresh supplies. When the needed supplies returned accompanied by a band of fourteen Maricopa warriors under Chief Juan Chivaria, two whites also joined named Cyrus Lennan and a man named Fisher. Through a friendly Yuma named Jack, Woolsey invited the Apaches to come in for talk. When they approached, Woolsey met with h=the Indian delegation. Paramucka, one of the Apachesub-chiefs did most of the talking.While the talks were proceeding an Apache brave entered the council dragging two lances at his heels. Another came with knives which were distributed among the onlookers. At the height of the negotiations, an Indian boy rushed in out of breath and said Delshay had ordered them to withdraw from the conference as he was about to attack all Whites and Maricopas. Woolsey gave a signal by touching his hat, wrenched out a six-shooter and shot Paramucka on a blanket nearby. Chivaria, Dye, Lennan and Jack followed his lead with deadly accuracy. In the melee that followed, Lennan was lanced by an Apache, but Joe Dye killed his assailant. After the Apaches retired with their wounded, leaving twenty Tontos and four Pinals dead, the place, near the present site of Miami became knownas "Bloody Tanks" on the maps. On February 25, 1864, according to the Arizona Miner of March 9, Woolsey's Agua Fria Ranch was attacked and thirty head of stock were driven off. The area around Prescott was also hit hard and citizen groups responded. While Robert Groom was fielding a company of 60 miners to scour the upper Hassayampa, Woolsey organized 100 men. (Among them, Augusta Brichta left an account in his reminscences) Woolsey wrote to the Territorial Secretary Richard C. McCormick from Ash Creek on April 2, 1864 that he had attacked a rancheria the day before, having found his own cattle there and killed fourteen Indians. Woolsey credited Charles Beach with killing three of the enemy and W. Holman with one and admitted to only one casualty, Artemus Ingalls,wounded by an arrow. Though the party returned to the Agua Fria Ranch on April 17, they did succeed in provoking an encounter at Squaw Hollow and in attacking another rancheria at Quartz Canyon on April 4, killing 16 apaches. Indian raids continued and in 1871, Woolsey again organized an expedition. Agreeing upon a date of assembly, May 11, 1864, Woolsey made necessary preparations. He recruited in Prescott, lined up Sam Miller's pack train, and he sent it in charge of Dick Gird, Jack Beauchamp, J.C. Dunn and others to buy supplies. William J. Berry contributed $40 in gunsmithing services, Henry Johnson, Henry Paine, blacksmiths, contributed $10 in shoeing mules. In November 1866 ,the Miner reported that three out of four employees moving supplies from the ranch to the Bully Bueno Mine--William Trahen, Leroy Jay and L.M. Linton were ambushed by Indians and killed. Sometime in 1866 or 1867 Woolsey proved himself a fast-draw artist when he was confronted by Jeff Standifer, a "cool nervy killer" bent on adding to his reputation by threatening Woolsely.In a Prescott bar where Woolsey went to call the man's bluff with a six-gun, Standifer backed off. In May 1867, Woolsey's Agua Fria Ranch and varies other mining holdings were passed to his creditors, Herbert and Nathan Bowers to cover a $56,000 deficit. In the spring of 1872 Woolsey captured a desperado, Ramon Cordova, implicated in the slaying of John W. Baker, Blue Water Station keeper, his wife and child and he turned Cordova over to Maricopa Sheriff Tom Worden and his deputy Joseph Phy. When George R. Whistler, keeper at Burke's Station on the Yuma-Tucson road was shot to death by a Mexican employee, Ventura Nunez on July 7, 1874, Woolsey posted a $500 reward on the part of the Territory and organized a posse. Before pillaging the station Nunez had driven a state driver, W.M. Matlock barefooted across the desert toward Stanwix. Sixty miles south of the scene, Nunez was overtaken after exchanging pistolfire with his pursuers. Captured by Ramon and Guas Amabisca and Ignacio Mirenda, together with the good stolen from the station, Nunez was returned, tried and hanged. About the time Phoenix was being established in the Salt River Valley, Woolsey purchased improved farming land. He also fitted up a very comfortable bathing house at the Agua Caliente Springs, took brief sojourns with his wife in California and received the nomination of the People's Conventions which met in Phoenix, September 25, 1874 for a seat in the council. Woolsey began a new business venture in partnership with John Smith and C.W. Stearns in the operation of a flour mill. He also experimented with sugar cane. In June 1878 he opened the first skating rink in Phoenix at the Woolly and Wentworth Hall, charged $.50 admission including skates. Woosley was about 47 when he died in Phoenix at his Lyle Ranch of heart disease, June 29, 1879. At the time of his death, he was serving as director in several water companies aimed at benefiting farmers by more equitable distribution of water privileges. He was laid to rest in the western part of the old Phoenix cemetery beneath a stone marker which reads: He braved the dangers and hardships of frontier life for 19 years with success and the hero of many battles with the Apaches in Arizona.