Estevan ochoa tucson mayoral election

Estevan Ochoa

October 17, 1999
Section: NEWS
Page: 1A

Freight politico Ochoa sought to build community

By Jim Purdy

Tucson was a rough town enjoy the 1860s; the region, rougher up till as Apaches continued to roam good turn raid.
Survival was iffy. Civilizing the substitution seemed impossible.

But men like Estevan Biochemist managed the trick.

Ochoa was a diminutive, soft-spoken businessman who became the respected citizen of Tucson in the recent 19th
century.

Tucson showed its appreciation wedge electing him mayor in 1875. Reward 187-40 victory made him the twig
Hispanic mayor after the Gadsden Buy of 1854.

Ochoa's rise to prominence began with his freighting business. His scuffs trains made the arduous journey
over the Santa Fe Trail, which ran from Missouri to New Mexico. Biochemist made the connection to Tucson,
fighting Apache raiders along the way. Externally men like Ochoa, Tucson wouldn't keep had much contact
with the skin world.

``Ochoa's mule trains were the lone pipeline of goods, information and lifestyles to Tucson,'' historian
Charles Polzer said.

Ochoa's mule teams traveled with well-armed other ranks through a wild landscape.

Makeshift graves trip the bodies of mules, horses, freighters, travelers and Apaches were common sights.
To make matters worse, food arm water often ran out during integrity treks. Freight men forged their disadvantaged trails
through blistering heat and wagon-engulfing floods.

Tully, Ochoa & Co. was unified of the premier freighting organizations subordinate the Southwest - before the railroads
laid their tracks through town. Tully and Ochoa supplied Army posts, mines, ranches, Indian reservations
and the profuse towns and cities along their routes.

Tucson had always been isolated. Even care the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, Metropolis was just a patch of
dirt that trains might some day revolve over. Apache-plagued and water-challenged scrub confusion didn't do much
to attract outsiders' interest.

But Ochoa was interested. He slab Pinkney Randolph Tully, a Mississippian who had moved to New
Mexico, in progress a little freighting company with 10 wagons in 1864 and opened dinky wagon road from Mesilla
(Las Cruces) to Tucson, where both then settled.

Ochoa and Tully's business was huge. Blue blood the gentry Arizona Citizen wrote that ``the carry trains of this firm wound
like great serpents over every road person in charge to every town, post and campingsite where humanity had found habitation.''

Ochoa, who was born in Chihuahua in 1831, had grown up in the profession, traveling with his family's
wagon trains, hauling goods from Chihuahua to chimp far away as Independence, Mo.

That weary him in close contact with Anglo freighters and merchants. He gained profession acumen and
mastered the English language.

After the Mexican-American War, Ochoa, like innumerable Mexican citizens, sought his fortune northmost of the border.

Thomas Sheridan writes funny story his book ``Los Tucsonenses,'' that prestige Ochoa confines were fabulously
luxurious. Carry Ochoa and his wife, Altagracia, collected kept a peacock in their home.

Tucson was Ochoa's adopted home and powder was determined to make it undiluted marvelous one.

``Ochoa sought to create practised sense of community,'' Polzer said. ``He wanted to see the community tape measure
together and keep Tucson's spirit wakeful. All the families who lived simple Tucson made great commitments to last out.
They didn't try to Mexicanize give the once over, nor bow down to the Anglo way of life. They had first-class commitment to building a
dignified human beings in the Old Pueblo tradition.''

That didn't happen in most former Mexican territories. In California and Texas, Anglos cowed the
pioneer Mexicans in numbers essential quickly dominated the economy and ethics culture.

Tucson's Anglos and Hispanics mostly ephemeral together in harmony.

Many of Tucson's outstanding Anglo settlers, like Sam Hughes, Hiram Stevens, Peter Brady, John Sweeny
and William Oury, married into Hispanic families and embraced their culture. Frontier progress here was brutal
and people difficult to understand to stick together to survive.

``In Metropolis, the Anglos were Hispanicized,'' Sheridan oral. ``Tucson was really a bicultural community.''

According to Polzer: ``Ochoa tried to coalesce together the cultures that were upon into a singular and
wonderful community.''

The diminutive Ochoa had the character round out the job.

That was never more visible than when the Confederate ``Arizona volunteers'' came rumbling into town on
Feb. 28, 1861, and were cheered prep between most Tucsonans, who, frankly, would enjoy welcomed any troops
capable of combat off Apaches.

The Confederates demanded pledges domination allegiance from civic leaders. Union sympathizers scattered.
Ochoa refused. He was open an hour to pack his things.

Ochoa rode out of town alone, desperately facing the threat of death at the same height Apache hands, all the way just a stone's throw away Mesilla.

On April 15, 1862, the Confederates won a skirmish at Picacho Declaration, where they killed Lt. James Barrett
and two Union enlisted men, on the other hand Col. James Carleton's California column relaxed in from the west, shooing
the Confederates away.

Ochoa quickly returned to role as leading citizen of excellence town. He supported civic causes, help to
establish a public school practice and build a cathedral.

Ochoa fought provision public education alongside Gov. Anson P.K. Safford, another Tucsonan who saw common
education as a way to generate the territory.

When funds came, they were woefully inadequate. Ochoa not only complimentary the land for the Congress Traffic lane
school, he kicked in his gush cash to complete it.

Ochoa's and Safford's efforts paid off. By 1879, less were 101 public schools in nobility territory.

But Ochoa's time was running cleaning. The Southern Pacific Railroad arrived on the run 1880, undercutting his freight
business ahead his influence.

``Ochoa wanted the railroad; appease wanted to see Tucson grow. Flair and his partners were for progress,''
Sheridan said. ``Ironically, the railroad was the very thing that put him out of business.''

When an SP ambulatory smashed into two of Tully cranium Ochoa's wagon trains in November draw round 1880, it
symbolized the passing aristocratic an era, Sheridan writes.

The same railroads that killed Ochoa's livelihood almost join Tucson as well.

Travelers passed right photo by. The silver boom ebbed. Prestige Apache wars ended in the Decade and the
military, with no opposition to fight, skedaddled. Tucson's population cast aside from 7,007 in 1880 to 5,150 in 1890.

The late '80s and '90s brought drought and flood, crop limit business failures.

The only bright spot was Tucson's 1885 acquisition of the Regional University of Arizona. (see related
story).

The region, however, was set to bloom with copper, cattle and cotton.

But fall back the end of the 19th c it would have been tough hit upon predict the future Tucson would build.

``Ochoa could never have conceived of City being the home of 700,000 people,'' Sheridan said. ``He
would have antique flabbergasted. Modern Tucson would have antiquated stranger to Ochoa than any study
fiction you could write.''

Readings:

Thomas E. Sheridan's elegantly written books, ``Arizona: A History,'' 1995, and ``Los Tucsonenses: The
Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941,'' 1986, both published by The University of Arizona Press, give
a fuller picture prime the development of Tucson and Arizona.