Doña María Eulalia Elías González Romo de Vivar (February 12, 1788 – August 6, 1865) was a

Mexican American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexico, Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the Unite ...

rancher who established the first major cattle ranch in Arizona. She was inducted into the

Arizona Women's Hall of Fame The Arizona Women's Hall of Fame recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Arizona for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. In 1979, the office of Governor Bruce Babbitt worked with the Arizona Women's Commi ...

Biography

The Elías González family, of which Eulalia was a part, was descended from her grandfather, Captain

Francisco Elías Gonzalez Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

, a native of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

, Spain. The family was very powerful in the colonial era of Sonora and Arizona, and included a

president of Mexico The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

, two governors of Sonora, a governor of Chihuahua and several priests of the church in Mexico. Eulalia Elías was born on February 12, 1788, in

Arizpe Arizpe (or Arispe) is a small town and the municipal seat of the Arizpe Municipality in the north of the Mexican state of Sonora. It is located at 30°20'"N 110°09'"W. The area of the municipality is 2,806.78 sq.km. The population in 2020 was ...

. Her father, José Francisco Antonio Elías González Díaz del Carpio, held 30 large land grants and thousands of acres. On July 1, 1827, she applied to purchase land along the Babocómari Creek. Later that year, she and her brother Don Ignacio received a grant for about along the creek. Called San Juan de Babocómari (later renamed to San Ignacio de Babocómari), the siblings began to bring in large amounts of livestock and purchase more land, eventually reaching 130,000 acres around Sierra Vista. The deed to the additional land was granted on December 25, 1832, and immediately construction was begun on a walled fort. The land grew into the first major cattle ranch in Arizona, holding 40,000 head of cattle and horses in 1840. The ranch prospered until the death of two of Eulalia's brothers in

Apache Indian The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north int ...

raids. By 1849, the family abandoned the ranch and moved back to Arizpe. Eulalia Elías, who never married, played a large role in managing much of the financial and land prospects of her family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elias, Eulalia 1788 births 1865 deaths Ranchers from Arizona People from Arizpe Mexican people of Spanish descent People from New Spain