M.O. Davidson and the Cerro Colorado Mine
July 1, 2010
Arivaca in the 1860s. Abandoned? That’s what J. Ross Browne reported when he came through in 1864: “Up to the abandonment of the Territory in 1861 it [the Arivaca Ranch] was in a progressive state of improvement under the auspices of the [Arizona Mining] Company’s agent. The reduction works of the Heintzelman mine were situated on this ranch for the convenience of wood, water, and pasturage, and were projected on a costly and extensive scale. Little now remains of them save the ruins of the mill and furnaces, the adobe store-houses and offices, and a dilapidated corral. We camped in the old mill and spent a couple of days very pleasantly in visiting the mines and exploring the gulches of the neighboring mountains. Game was abundant. ” But that’s not all the story. At about the time that Browne came through, Colonel M. Oliver Davidson was arriving to take charge of the Cerro Colorado Mine (Heintzelman). He was listed in the census as in residence there in April, 1864, having been named as Superintendent of the mine in late 1863, taking over from Eliju Baker. From other documents we have, we know that Browne knew very well he was there but for some reason doesn’t mention it in this book.
Mathias Oliver Davidson had come from New York, where he was born in 1819. In his youth he was known for having been the brother of Margaret and Lucretia Davidson, whose poetry was well known, but who had tragically died young. (Lucretia’s poetry has recently received attention from a literary critic in an article about her work in a 1997 article in the Yale Journal of Criticism.) M. Oliver received a good education in engineering, having been born into a prominent family. His father was a doctor and his mother a poet also. Davidson had been superintendent of the Cumberland coal works in Maryland and then Chief Engineer of the Havana Railroad in Cuba, where he learned Spanish. This would stand him in good stead in Arizona. Davidson was hired by the Arizona Mining Company of New York, who owned the Heintzelman Mine at that time, to reopen the mine and start production again. Not to be too dependent upon local laborers, he brought with him 30 men to serve as miners, engineers and artisans at the Cerro Colorado mine. Arriving at the mine, Davidson and his new crew pumped out the water and began to mine. In May 1865 a newspaper reporter visiting the Heintzelman mine described the scene he saw: “You ride into the plaza of the Cerro Colorado Hacienda and a scene of apparently chaotic confusion, bustle and work meets you. It was toward sundown there was the last of this long string of huge Sonora wagons unloading, herds being driven in by Pabago (sic) herders; little Mexican carts discharging corn into the granary; team animals tied to a picket rope being fed with nose-bags, making the air hideous with their noise as their food came down, the noise of hammers and iron in the blacksmith shop; the creaking of the mule power hoisting out of the old perpendicular shaft of the Heintzelman vein; busy men almost run against each other, lazy Mexicans loafed about, as it were in a sort of dream, not knowing what this all meant. We met Col. D and he promptly assigned a place for our escort to camp, took us to his room, all he has finished; it is a circular looped hotel tower at the corner of the great wall that is designed to enclose the whole Hacienda. A tame Apache boy, his body servant, soon brought us our dinner and after it, by the blazing fire we sat into the wee small hours, the triangle outside striking the hours, showing the guards were on post.
“Col. D is one of those agreeable men that have the faculty of, at evening, throwing off business entirely. The vexatious cares, the weighty responsibilities of managing this gigantic undertaking, do not stalk like grim ghosts into the fireside circle to mar its genial serenity…”
Putnam goes on to describe the facilities: The works …are all to be enclosed in one wall, to protect against external enemies, the danger of thieving and so arranged are the towers as to guard against a peon insurrection such as has occurred once before under the old management. A large reservoir has been made to hold the rains of the rainy season…The Heintzelman mine has, I suppose, produced the richest rock in Arizona and probably more dollars have been taken out of the old shaft than from any other mine. But the vein is very narrow, at times dividing into threads, and not always bearing mineral. All the experts, however, I believe, pronouncing it a true vein, so that it was very problematical whether enough rock to justify extensive reduction works could be got here in this single shaft.
“But Col. D’s plans to not rely at all on that shaft alone; it is his design to sink at short intervals on the whole extent of the vein (it has been traced over two miles) in fact to rely upon a hundred working shafts on this and other veins for the rock to keep his work employed…
“Among the things unique for Arizona that have arrived is a telegraphic apparatus to enable the officer here to communicate with the Enreguita Mining Co. ’s works, about seven miles away, which is likewise under Col D. ’s direction. I did not go there, but I understood the vein there is to be gold bearing quartz and in such quantities that the company feels justified in getting out a fifty stamp mill, which will make those works quite as extensive as these here…There are some hundred Americans employed here, beside the Mexicans and Indians, making a large settlement. ” (Putnam, for the Hartford Evening Press, Hartford, Conn.)
This telegraph line was the first in Arizona territory. It ran from the Cerro Colorado to the mine workings at the Enriquetta mine, going through Arivaca. It was finished by May of 1865, because it is mentioned in a report by John A. Clark, Surveyor General of Arizona. Virtually nothing remains of it.
At the same time as he was serving as the Superintendent at the mines at Arivaca, M.O. Davidson was also serving as the Agent for the Papago tribe. This involved making sure there were sufficient supplies for tribal needs, keeping order, and protecting them from exploitation, or as it was phrased, “to exercise a beneficial influence over these friendless people. ” It was a political plum that allowed the Agent a government salary ($1000/year) in a far territory when a steady income was hard to come by. If supplies became lost, as for example, when a ship was attacked in Guaymas harbor, it was Davidson’s job to try to recover the loss. In this case it was from the government of France, which had taken over power in Mexico, causing unrest and rebellion and resulting in the attack on the French ship by Governor Pesqueira of Sonora.
M. O. Davidson was still in Arizona in June of 1866, but not for long. By 1867 he was back in New York and serving as Chief Engineer of Streets, a post that he held until 1872. He reissued some of Lucrecia’s poetry in 1871, including some poetry of his own in the book. Davidson died in Fordham, NY in 1873 at the age of 54. He left a widow, Harriett Standish Davidson, with whom he had five children. Davidson Playground and Davidson Avenue in the Bronx are named after him.
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