Yuma-Pima-Santa Cruz County AZ Archives Biographies.....Kirkland, Bill circa 1835 - living in 1896
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 8, 2005, 11:39 am

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 611-612

  BILL KIRKLAND. Of the early settlers of Arizona who lately came to Tucson for
the purpose of deposing evidence of Indian depredations with the Special United
States Attorney, there is no more interesting or romantic character than Bill
Kirkland of Palomas on the Gila. Forty years ago, when but twenty-one years old.
Bill had the reputation of being the best six-horse stage driver on the Pacific
slope, and today, at the, age of sixty-one, hale, hearty and powerful, a
magnificent specimen of physical manhood, he is engaged in freighting ore for
Hubbard & Powers' big Bonanza Mine in the Harqua Halas. He knew Arizona when at
the Gadsden Purchase it was inhabited by the merest handful of venturesome
whites. He has not only witnessed its growth to its present condition of
importance, but has taken no inconsiderable part in its settlement and
rebuilding. Of the first little party of five Americans who, coming overland
from California, settled in Tucson in January, 1856, Kirkland was one. They
found at Tucson a presidio garrisoned by Mexican soldiers and commanded by Don
Elario Garcillo. Mr. Kirkland purchased the land of the Mexican soldiers, paying
$20 for a ranch of twenty acres. He was the first of the Arizona pioneers who
married a white woman in this country, having met his wife, the daughter of
William Bacon of Arizona, when, as one of a company of emigrants, she arrived at
Tucson in 1859. His daughter, Lizzie, now Mrs. Thomas Steele of Croton Springs,
was born February 28, 1861, the first white child in the Territory. Mr. Kirkland
also participated in the rejoicings, when for the first time the stars and
stripes were hoisted over the adobe huts of the primitive settlement of Tucson.
Having settled here he engaged at once in the lumber business. He built the
first road from this city to the Santa Rita Mountains, and began to haul logs
into the settlement, receiving for this $1.25 to $2.50 per thousand. During
these trips to the mountains he had frequent encounters with the Apache Indians
and on one memorable occasion had the first parley with them from which any
white man had so far escaped unscathed. Accompanied by two others, in a heavy
wagon with plenty of provisions and six yoke of oxen, he had penetrated well
into the tree country when suddenly a party of twenty-seven Apaches came upon
them. The lives of all three were that day saved by the boldness of Kirkland.
Realizing in an instant the dangerous position they were in, he seized his
loaded revolver, and holding it calmly, walked into the presence of the chief
and asked him what was wanted. The Indian asked for the weapon, which Mf.
Kirkland refused to surrender, believing that death would most likely ensue
anyway, and deciding to shoot the chief at the first intimation of hostilities.
After a short interview the conversation having been carried on through a little
captive Mexican boy, who was with the party of Indians, the latter received a
yoke of oxen for beef and a portion of the provender. An old, one-eyed savage,
upon being vigorously repulsed in an effort to secure Mr. Kirkland's shirt,
lanced him in the back, causing the blood to flow freely. This Bill deemed it
wise not to notice, but retiring to the wagon proceeded on the journey as if not
at all dismayed by the encounter. Several years after he recognized at Fort
McDowell, the one-eyed Indian who had hurt him, and that savage addressed him as
"Brave Captain" in Spanish, related the circumstances of the meeting and wished
to present him with his son, a boy about twelve years old. It was unfortunate
for the youngster that Mr. Kirkland could not accept the offer, for he, with his
parents and a number of other offending Apaches, were slaughtered by the
soldiers. In those days Bill Kirkland was (and is yet) a dead shot. In 1857 he
located what is known as the Canova ranch, the first ranch in this part of the
country stocked with cattle by white men. About the same time he was leader of a
party of twenty who interviewed a horde of five hundred Apaches at Arivaca Canon
for the purpose of effecting an exchange of prisoners, and recovering his
adopted daughter, Mercides, a little Mexican girl, who afterward became the
first wife of County Recorder Shibell, and who, with Mrs. Page, now Judge
Scott's wife of Tucson, had been abducted by the Indians a few weeks before.
Later Mr. Kirkland settled at Casa Blanco, near Fort Buchanan, and while
residing there a band of sixteen or seventeen Indians drove off a dozen of his
mules and a number of his horses. Alone, on foot and armed only with a Spencer
rifle and a revolver, he pursued the party. Coming up with them, he charged on
them in an open field and shot and killed one. During this time the Indians were
circling around him on their ponies, displaying very little of their bodies, and
shooting at him. He scattered them, however, but failed to recover his stock.
His losses at various times by their depredations would reach many thousand
dollars. In spite of his years Bill Kirkland carries his tall form as erect as
one of the native giant cacti. Strong and rugged he appears, too, and the fire
of his clear blue eye is yet undimmed. His big, rough, brown hands are palpable
evidences of many a day's honest toil under a semi-tropic sun. His whole bearing
is that of the ideal frontiersman, a type of man which the nation well may
boast. Long may he be spared to the people of Arizona is the wish of all who
know him.


Additional Comments:
From:

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



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