
King S. Woolsey (ca. 1832 – June 30, 1879) was an
American pioneer
American pioneers, also known as American settlers, were European American,Asian American, and African American settlers who migrated westward from the British Thirteen Colonies and later the United States of America to settle and develop areas ...
rancher, prospector and politician in 19th century
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
.
Woolsey Peak
Woolsey Peak Wilderness is a protected wilderness area centered around its namesake Woolsey Peak, rising 2,500 feet to a summit at 3270 feet (996 m) in the Gila Bend Mountains in the U.S. state of Arizona. Established in 1990 under the Arizon ...
and other features of Arizona geography have been named after him, but he has also been criticized by historians for
brutality in his battles with
Apache
The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
Native Americans.
Biography
Woolsey, born in
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
, moved to Arizona from
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
in 1860, first at
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064.
Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...
and
Fort Yuma
Fort Yuma was a fort in California located in Imperial County, across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. It was established in 1848. It served as a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from 1858 until 1861. The fort was retired from ...
, where he sold supplies to the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
. In 1862, Woolsey and a partner bought the
Agua Caliente ranch, near the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
in what is now western
Maricopa County, Arizona
Maricopa County () is a County (United States), county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the List ...
. They dug
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
ditches from the river and planted crops. Woolsey operated Arizona's first
flour mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
at Agua Caliente, and brought the first
threshing machine
A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of agricultural machinery, farm equipment that separates grain seed from the plant stem, stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed ...
into the territory. Woolsey Peak in the
Gila Bend Mountains
The Gila Bend Mountains are a long mountain range of the north-central Sonoran Desert southwest of Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona and in southwest Maricopa County.
The Gila River of New Mexico and Arizona transects the entire state of Arizo ...
– a prominent landmark near his ranch – and the
Woolsey Peak Wilderness Area, were both later named to honor him.
American Civil War service
In 1863, Woolsey joined the
Walker Party to explore the
Hassayampa River
The Hassayampa River (Yavapai language, Yavapai: Hasaya:mvo or ʼHasayamcho:) is an intermittent river, the headwaters of which are just south of Prescott, Arizona, and flows mostly south towards Wickenburg, Arizona, Wickenburg, entering the Gila ...
for gold. Soon after, he homesteaded and established the Agua Fria ranch, near present-day
Dewey, Arizona. Woolsey is most famous (or notorious) for his forays against the native
Indians
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Associated with India
* of or related to India
** Indian people
** Indian diaspora
** Languages of India
** Indian English, a dialect of the English language
** Indian cuisine
Associated with indigenous peoples o ...
in central Arizona. During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, after 1863, practically all troops were withdrawn from Arizona, and Indian attacks on white settlers and their property increased.

In 1864, after a series of livestock thefts, Woolsey led a group of
settlers
A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...
to the vicinity of present-day
Miami, Arizona
Miami ( Western Apache: Goshtłʼish Tú) is a town in Gila County, Arizona, United States. Miami is a classic Western copper boom-town. Miami's old downtown has been partly renovated, and the Bullion Plaza Museum features the cultural, min ...
, where they encountered a large party of
Tonto Apache
The Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona or Tonto Apache () is a federally recognized tribe of Western Apache people located in northwestern Gila County, Arizona. The term "Tonto" is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Weste ...
s. In the ensuing
Battle of Bloody Tanks, the settlers killed (and later scalped) at least 24 Indians, with the loss of one settler. It appears that the settlers opened fire first, during a parley. After this fight, Woolsey was appointed
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Arizona territorial
militia
A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...
by Governor
John N. Goodwin.
Later in 1864, Woolsey and several other men were working their
mining claim
Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (see Split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surfa ...
s in the
Bradshaw Mountains
The Bradshaw Mountains are a mountain range in central Arizona, United States, named for brothers Isaac and William D. Bradshaw after their deaths, having been formerly known in English as the Silver Mountain Range.
History
The first known set ...
. They were apparently confronted by a large party of Indians, probably
Yavapais. Woolsey called for a parley, after first hiding a sack of
pinole
Pinole, also called pinol, is roasted ground maize. The resulting powder is then used as a nutrient-dense ingredient to make different foods, such as cereals, baked goods, tortillas, and beverages. For example, it can be mixed with a combination ...
poisoned with
strychnine
Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
nearby. As he had hoped, the Indians found the poisoned meal and ate it while he talked to their chiefs. As the poison took effect, and the others fled, his men opened fire on them. This encounter was later called the Pinole Massacre.
The first Territorial Legislature voted a commendation to King Woolsey and his volunteers for,
inter alia, "taking the lives of numbers of Apaches, and destroying the property and crops in their country." In 1864 Woolsey was elected to the first
Legislature
A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...
of the
Territory of Arizona
The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...
, and was re-elected to several subsequent legislatures.
After the war

The creation of the
Democratic Party in Arizona Territory was largely due to Woolsey's efforts. Since its creation by a
Republican-dominated Congress in 1863, the Republicans had controlled Arizona politics. Woolsey called a meeting of like-minded Democrats in February 1873 in Tucson. Presiding at the meeting, he introduced a series of resolutions which led to organization of the Democratic Party in the Arizona Territory. He was the Democratic candidate for
Territorial Delegate to the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
in the 1878 election, but was defeated.
Woolsey died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
at his
Agua Fria ranch in 1879. He was 47 years old. He is buried in
Pioneer and Military Memorial Park in
Phoenix.
Family

In July 1864, ten year old
Lucia Martinez (1854-1935), a Yaqui girl from Sonora Mexico, who had been kidnapped by the Apaches, made her escape along the Black River Valley in Arizona. King Woolsey noted only that "a Jaqui
sic
''Sic'', as the label " ic''" found immediately following a copy of text, indicates that a use that may seem erroneous is in fact transcribed faithfully.
Sic, SIC, etc., also may refer to:
Arts, media, and entertainment
* Sic (band), styled as ...
squaw about ten years of age came into our camp. She had been a captive among the Apaches, and had just made her escape. She came in with us, and is now at my Agua Fria ranch."
Lucia Martinez became King Woolsey's servant at his Agua Fria Ranch. The Howell Code statutes collectively made Lucia Martinez economically, racially, and sexually subservient to her master, King Woolsey. At the age of thirteen, Lucia Martinez, King Woolsey's servant, bore King Woolsey's first child, a healthy daughter named Clara, on February 4, 1867, and then she bore their second daughter, Johanna (aka Chona and Concepcion), in 1869. Her third child, a boy named Robert, was born in 1870 with a lame foot. King Woolsey's contemporaries charged that Robert's handicap might have been reversed under proper medical care that the father neglected to provide. King Woolsey did not recognize Clara, Johanna (aka Chona and Concepcion), or Robert as his legitimate biological children.
Clara had two children, Julio and Clara.
[Barrios, Frank M. Mexicans in Phoenix. Arcadia Publishing, 2008, pages 10, 81.] Clara married Julio Marron in 1885. They had eight children - Esteven Marron (1887-1923), Julio Marron Jr. (1889-Died in WW1), Clara Marron Jr. (1889-1965), Helen Marron (1901-1966), Fernando Marron (1892-1896), Jose Marron (1894-1896), Ellen Marron (1897-1900), and Luisa Marron (Romero) (1903-1983).
King Woolsey's daughter Clara bought a ranch in Phoenix, Arizona located near Broadway and 16th Street. Her daughter Luisa Marron Romero and Luisa's two children, Richard Romero and Robert Marron Romero, grew up on the ranch.
See also
*
History of Phoenix, Arizona
The history of Phoenix, Arizona, goes back millennia, beginning with nomadic paleo-Indians who existed in the Americas in general, and the Salt River Valley in particular, about 7,000 BC until about 6,000 BC. Mammoths were the primary prey of hun ...
*
Pioneer and Military Memorial Park
*
Bradshaw Mountains
The Bradshaw Mountains are a mountain range in central Arizona, United States, named for brothers Isaac and William D. Bradshaw after their deaths, having been formerly known in English as the Silver Mountain Range.
History
The first known set ...
*
History of Arizona
The history of Arizona encompasses the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Post-Archaic, Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona. A few thousand years ago, the Ancestral Pu ...
References
* Kate Ruland-Thorne, 2007, ''Gold, Greed and Glory: the Territorial history of Prescott and the Verde Valley, 1864–1912.'' Baltimore, Publish America, .
* Thomas Edwin Farish, 1915–1918, ''History of Arizona'', available online at http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/swetc/
External links
Woolsey Peak Wilderness Areaat
BLM
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolsey, King
1830s births
1879 deaths
American gold prospectors
Ranchers from Arizona
Apache Wars
Arizona pioneers
Arizona Democrats
Members of the Arizona Territorial Legislature
19th-century American legislators
Woolsey family