Sylvester Mowry
Encyclopedia
Sylvester Mowry was an American
best known as a pioneer
of Arizona
and the founder of Mowry, Arizona. He also served as an officer in the United States Army
and was arrested as a traitor during the American Civil War
.
, Sylvester Mowry attended West Point in 1848 until graduating in 1852 as a lieutenant
. Well educated, he spoke Latin
and later became the author of the 1863 book The geography and resources of Arizona and Sonora. After West Point, Mowry went west and explored with the army for the Pacific Railroad
until 1854. In 1856, Mowry was elected to be a delegate in the 35th Congress for the creation of Arizona Territory
but because the bill did not pass, Mowry never took his seat. From then until 1857, Sylvester was stationed at Benecia, California and Fort Yuma
. During his military career Mowry became enemies with another officer named James H. Carleton who later arrested him during the Civil War. Mowry served at Old Fort Buchanan
before resigning his commission on July 31, 1858. He then went and lived in Tubac
where on July 8, 1859 he fough a duel with Edward E. Cross
who was an editor for the Weekly Arizonian
and had written questionable things about Tucson
and Mowry's mining operations. Both of the men were armed with rifles and they dueled on one of Tubac's streets. Four shots were fired but Cross disarmed himself sometime during the exchange and Mowry refused to continue shooting at an unarmed man. So the duel ended without bloodshed and the two apologized to each other. Cross was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg
in 1863.
In 1860 he was appointed by President James Buchanan
a commissioner to establish the border between California
and Nevada
, but he was removed in 1861 due to politics. During his time as commissioner, Mowry became interested in mining
and prospecting
and in 1860 he purchased the Patagonia silver
mine just southeast of the Santa Rita Mountains
in southern Arizona. After renaming it the Mowry Silver Mine, Mowry began constructing a mill and a smelter for extracting precious minerals.
A small settlement formed around the mining works which today is the ghost town
of Mowry, Arizona. Mining occupied Mowry's time until 1862, by this time the Civil War had already begun and Confederate Arizona Territory had been established. Though a northerner and Republican
, Mowry was a firm supporter of the new territory, as were many other Republicans in Arizona, during the Civil War, the majority of the Confederacy
's political leadership were Democrat
s. The California Column
began their advance across Confederate Arizona in 1862 from Fort Yuma, now a general, Mowry's enemy James H. Carleton was in command. After the Union capture
of Tucson on May 20, 1862, First Lieutenant
Edward Banker Willis
proceeded to arrest Sylvester Mowry at his mine. Charged with selling lead to Arizona's Confederate militia
s, Mowry was detained at Fort Yuma from July 2, 1862 to November 8. He was released after a court appearance in which no evidence could be found that he had ever sold lead to rebels. Despite this fact, Mowry defended himself in court and justified his selling of lead to rebels even though he was found innocent. In his defense he mentioned the basic American principals of Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
.
Mowry also went on to describe New Mexico Territory
, the eastern half being a great place of American progress on the frontier and the other a war zone, ravaged by the Apache
and unfit for civilization. Mowry felt an obligation to sell lead to his fellow frontiersmen, regardless of political stance. In the early 1860s the Apache were fighting all across southern Arizona. The Mowry Mine and it's immediate surroundings was the scene of several Apache attacks
before the town was mostly destroyed in 1863. Mowry later angrily described a way in which to defeat the Apaches;
Upon his release from Fort Yuma, Sylvester was denied his land for several years and by the time of his return, the mine was too deteriorated so any attempt to restart operations would be very expensive. Mowry was once more elected to Congress after the Civil War but again he did not take his seat. Thus Mowry ended his life in the United States and eventually went to London
, England
to raise funds in order to return to Arizona. However, he died in London just before his birth day on October 15, 1871. News of Mowry's death reached Prescott, Arizona
by October 19, which was a signifiant communications feat at the time, it usually took months to transfer information from Great Britain
to the American frontier. Mowry's legacy is foremost the mine he left behind, it was later resettled and continued to be populated until well after the turn of the 20th century. Mowry is also an important figure in American folklore
and is well known in many other American states. As of 2010, several adobe
walls from the Mowry Mine are intact. Author John Ross Browne
visited the ruins in 1864 and later wrote the book Adventures in the Apache Country describing in detail the mine's infrastructure and history before it was destroyed.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
best known as a pioneer
American pioneer
American pioneers are any of the people in American history who migrated west to join in settling and developing new areas. The term especially refers to those who were going to settle any territory which had previously not been settled or developed by European or American society, although the...
of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and the founder of Mowry, Arizona. He also served as an officer in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and was arrested as a traitor during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Biography
Born in 1830 at Providence, Rhode IslandProvidence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, Sylvester Mowry attended West Point in 1848 until graduating in 1852 as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. Well educated, he spoke Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and later became the author of the 1863 book The geography and resources of Arizona and Sonora. After West Point, Mowry went west and explored with the army for the Pacific Railroad
Pacific Railroad
The Pacific Railroad was a railroad based in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was a predecessor of both the Missouri Pacific Railroad and St. Louis-San Francisco Railway.The Pacific was chartered by Missouri in 1849 to extend "from St...
until 1854. In 1856, Mowry was elected to be a delegate in the 35th Congress for the creation of Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
but because the bill did not pass, Mowry never took his seat. From then until 1857, Sylvester was stationed at Benecia, California and Fort Yuma
Fort Yuma
Fort Yuma is a fort in California that is located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861 and was abandoned May 16, 1883, and transferred to the Department of the Interior. The Fort Yuma Indian School and a...
. During his military career Mowry became enemies with another officer named James H. Carleton who later arrested him during the Civil War. Mowry served at Old Fort Buchanan
Fort Buchanan
Fort Buchanan is the name of two United States Army forts:* Fort Buchanan, Arizona, is a former United States Army base in Arizona to control land purchased in the Gadsden Purchase* Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico is the only active U.S...
before resigning his commission on July 31, 1858. He then went and lived in Tubac
Tubac, Arizona
Tubac is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 949 at the 2000 census. The place name Tubac is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of the O'odham name, which translates into English as "rotten". The original O'odham name is written...
where on July 8, 1859 he fough a duel with Edward E. Cross
Edward E. Cross
Edward Ephraim Cross was a newspaperman and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Journalist:...
who was an editor for the Weekly Arizonian
Weekly Arizonian
The Weekly Arizonian was a newspaper published in Arizona Territory with a checkered existence from 1859 to 1871. It holds a special place in Arizona history as its first printed work, first newspaper and first political organ.-Political background:...
and had written questionable things about Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
and Mowry's mining operations. Both of the men were armed with rifles and they dueled on one of Tubac's streets. Four shots were fired but Cross disarmed himself sometime during the exchange and Mowry refused to continue shooting at an unarmed man. So the duel ended without bloodshed and the two apologized to each other. Cross was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
in 1863.
In 1860 he was appointed by President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
a commissioner to establish the border between California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, but he was removed in 1861 due to politics. During his time as commissioner, Mowry became interested in mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
and prospecting
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
and in 1860 he purchased the Patagonia silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
mine just southeast of the Santa Rita Mountains
Santa Rita Mountains
The Santa Rita Mountains, located about 65 km southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastwards into the Patagonia Mountains, trending northwest by southeast...
in southern Arizona. After renaming it the Mowry Silver Mine, Mowry began constructing a mill and a smelter for extracting precious minerals.
A small settlement formed around the mining works which today is the ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Mowry, Arizona. Mining occupied Mowry's time until 1862, by this time the Civil War had already begun and Confederate Arizona Territory had been established. Though a northerner and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, Mowry was a firm supporter of the new territory, as were many other Republicans in Arizona, during the Civil War, the majority of the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
's political leadership were Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
s. The California Column
California Column
The California Column, a force of Union volunteers, marched from April to August 1862 over 900 miles from California, across the southern New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and then into western Texas during the American Civil War. At the time, this was the longest trek through desert terrain...
began their advance across Confederate Arizona in 1862 from Fort Yuma, now a general, Mowry's enemy James H. Carleton was in command. After the Union capture
Capture of Tucson (1862)
The Capture of Tucson was a United States attack on Tucson in Confederate Arizona on May 20, 1862. A Union force of 2,000 took the city from ten Tucson militiamen without a shot fired.-Background:...
of Tucson on May 20, 1862, First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
Edward Banker Willis
Edward Banker Willis
Edward Banker Willis was a United States military officer during the American Civil War. He participated in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, fighting rebels and hostile native Americans in the frontier of Arizona and New Mexico.-Biography:Willis was born on January 9, 1831 in New York City and when...
proceeded to arrest Sylvester Mowry at his mine. Charged with selling lead to Arizona's Confederate militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
s, Mowry was detained at Fort Yuma from July 2, 1862 to November 8. He was released after a court appearance in which no evidence could be found that he had ever sold lead to rebels. Despite this fact, Mowry defended himself in court and justified his selling of lead to rebels even though he was found innocent. In his defense he mentioned the basic American principals of Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence and considered by some as part of one of the most well crafted, influential sentences in the history of the English language...
.
Mowry also went on to describe New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
, the eastern half being a great place of American progress on the frontier and the other a war zone, ravaged by the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
and unfit for civilization. Mowry felt an obligation to sell lead to his fellow frontiersmen, regardless of political stance. In the early 1860s the Apache were fighting all across southern Arizona. The Mowry Mine and it's immediate surroundings was the scene of several Apache attacks
Mowry Massacres
The Mowry Massacres, also known as the Mowry Murders, were a series of Apache attacks in and around the mining town of Mowry, Arizona between 1863 and 1865. At least sixteen American settlers were killed during the period.-Massacres:...
before the town was mostly destroyed in 1863. Mowry later angrily described a way in which to defeat the Apaches;
Upon his release from Fort Yuma, Sylvester was denied his land for several years and by the time of his return, the mine was too deteriorated so any attempt to restart operations would be very expensive. Mowry was once more elected to Congress after the Civil War but again he did not take his seat. Thus Mowry ended his life in the United States and eventually went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to raise funds in order to return to Arizona. However, he died in London just before his birth day on October 15, 1871. News of Mowry's death reached Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
by October 19, which was a signifiant communications feat at the time, it usually took months to transfer information from Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
to the American frontier. Mowry's legacy is foremost the mine he left behind, it was later resettled and continued to be populated until well after the turn of the 20th century. Mowry is also an important figure in American folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
and is well known in many other American states. As of 2010, several adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
walls from the Mowry Mine are intact. Author John Ross Browne
John Ross Browne
John Ross Browne , often called J. Ross Browne, date of birth sometimes given as 1917, was an Irish-born American traveler, artist and writer.-Biography:...
visited the ruins in 1864 and later wrote the book Adventures in the Apache Country describing in detail the mine's infrastructure and history before it was destroyed.