ARIZONA HISTORY AFFECTING THE HATCH FAMILY
The region [where the Hatch family settled in Arizona] had been held precariously by U.S. soldiers during the intermittent warfare (1861–86) with the Apaches, who were led by Cochise and later Geronimo. General George Crook waged a successful campaign against the Apaches in 1882–85, and in 1886 Geronimo finally surrendered to federal troops. When Confederate troops were routed and Union soldiers went east to fight in the Civil War, settlement was abandoned. It was resumed after the war and encouraged by the Homestead Act (1862), the Desert Land Act (1877), and the Carey Land Act (1894)—all of which turned land over to settlers and required them to develop it.
Woodruff, Navajo, Arizona, USA elevation 5144 '
In 1878, 2 years after
Mormons first colonized the area, Lorenzo Hill Hatch moved Catherine and her
family from Savoia, New Mexico by trading
his property there to Ammon, Nathan and Samuel Tenney for their property at
'Tenney's Settlement, Arizona'. The small village was renamed
'Woodruff' in honor of apostle Wilford Woodruff.
In 1884, the Aztec Land and Cattle Company of Boston began operations
in Arizona with
its headquarters situated across the Little Colorado River from the site
of Saint Joseph (now Joseph City.) The
third largest cattle company in North America, the organization was better
known as the Hashknife Outfit, because their brand resembled the old hash
knives used by chuck wagon cooks.
The next year, the Aztec Company transferred its
headquarters to Holbrook, Arizona and
in 1886, they purchased one million
acres of former railroad land from the Atlantic and Pacific for 50 cents an
acre. The ranch claimed a range that stretched some 650 miles, from
the New Mexico border
to just south of Flagstaff.
In an effort to reduce the growing debt it had incurred in
constructing its western line, the Atlantic
and Pacific Railroad Company attempted to sell 5,424,800 acres of land granted
to it by Congress in 1866. Over one million of these acres was acquired at
a cost of 50 cents per acre by the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, a consortium
of eastern businessmen and Texas ranching interests. The land claimed by the
Aztec Company included every other
section extending from 12 miles east to 50 miles west of Snowflake for a depth
of 50 miles south of the railroad line. By owning every other section
and by controlling all critical water sources throughout its vast domain, the
Aztec Company monopolized over 2,000,000 acres of range land and, in
effect, removed a substantial resource from local utilization.
… The Aztec Company imported between 33,000 and 40,000 head
of cattle into Arizona by the close of 1887, which quickly grew to a herd of
60,000. Successive droughts, repeated economic crises, and declining cattle
prices during the 1890s produced
dangerously overstocked ranges within the basin, just as they had in western
Texas the previous decade.
In the end, the cumulative effect of drought, range
deterioration, falling prices and heavy losses of cattle from starvation and
rustling forced the Aztec Company to declare bankruptcy in 1900. After only 16
years of operation, the company had to liquidate its extensive holdings in the
basin, thus ending the speculative cattle ranching era in this region. However,
despite its brief reign, the Aztec Company had a devastating impact on local
ranges and, therefore, a decidedly negative effect on the peoples and
communities that depended on these ranges for their survival.
The arrival of the Aztec Company had an immediate and severe
impact on local farmers and ranchers in the region. By excluding all
competitors from over two million acres of rangeland, the Aztec Company imposed
a considerable hardship on the numerous local cattle ranchers and sheep herders
who had previously exploited this formerly open range and who now had to
compete with one another for the substantially reduced grazing lands that
remained.
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