Bisbee daily review., 1906-08-05
BANTA WRITES OF EARLY HISTORY IN ARIZONA
 TERRITORY

| A F. Banta. one of the few originai pioneers of the territory still living, a veteran newspaper man and one of the best versed men in the communication to the International American, tells in an interesting vein of some of the best known of the pion- eers and also takes issue with some of the territorial papers with reference l to certain articles they have from time to time published.
 | He especially finds fault with the Phoenix Republican which he charac- terizes as the worst offender in this respect.
 MT. Banta's story, together with his obser Lations on some of the current newspaper stories of the early days in Arizona, follows:
 | (By A. F. Banta)
 It is a real shame that so many Arizona papers give publicity to hot air. or hearsay stories anent the early days of Arizona.
 Some time ago the Phoenix Repub- lican, in mentioning the death of Hen " Wickenburg. said he organized and led the party which discovered Rich Hill, and another paper recently stat ed for a fact that Edward Peoples" I neither of these organized or led the party; on the contrary it was organ ized in Tucson by Captain John w | Swiling, known to all Arizonans as Jack Swiling, and under the guidance of a Pima Indian the discovery was made. The Pimas loved Jack as did everyone else who knew his noble nature. Jack had promised the h. dian five ponies and sl00 in silver to show him the home of the red metal" As to Henry Wickenburg and A. H. Peoples, the first named was not at any time member of the party but MT. Peoples was with it All who knew Jack Swiling will know full well that of any party with which he was associated he was the natural leader by mutual consent of all. Captain Jack was a leader among men and in the fore part of the war i explained a company of desperate 1 Texans. The writer was a personal friend of Jack Swliing and is ac- quainted with his personal history as boy in North Carolina and as a man in Texas and Arizona.
 Discusses Willis Story.
 The foregoing will do as a prelude and I will now devote some space to pointing out a few weak points in the Willis yarn recently published in the Phoenix Republican.
 Mir. Willis says he enlisted in the regular army in 1845 at Troy, New York. This was sixty-one years ago. How old is he now ana at what ten der age did he enlist? Yet says the Republican, MT. Willis is still a stout and hearty looking man, at times en- gagged in heavy railroad work, thus conveying the impression that MT Willis is yet a kid, notwithstanding he was a soldier siXty-one years ago
 After enlisting at Troy, so his story goes, he was sent to Independ, ence, Mo, and from the latter point was assigned for little side trip to Old Mexico under Gen. Taylor. 4 singular procedure by the government was thIs, seeing that General Taylor was not far from the mouth of the Rio Grande in southeastern Tex as
 The Mexicans had declared war against the United States the casus , belli being the annexation of Texas. |. Mexico also claimed it's boundary line to be the Nueces river while the Texans declared the Rio Grande 10 be the true and natural boundary. ] f1ONe ever, DelUTe WAT was OSC!dTSI, Gen. Taylor moved his army Of ob- seTvatiOn," consisting of 5000 men, to the north bank of the Rio GTande and there built Fort Brown, known : as Brownsville, near the mouth of the river in Texas. Tn the light of these historical facts why was Willis sent to Independence, Mo, to join Tayiors command, which was at that ; time near the mouth of the Rio |. Grande?
 Another Statement Exploded.
 Now follows some of the most ab- surd statements Of the entire made of the whole cloth story. Willis says, according to the Republican, at the close of the Mexican war his com mand was marched back through Ari- ZOna and held at the old town of ! Crittenden for some time" This state ment is absurd for at that time there was no old town of Crittenden," as Mexicans were not in the habit of applying English names to their towns. At the close of the war, in lS48, all of arizona south of the Gila river belonged to -Aexico and was not acquired by the United States until 1854. The strip was known as the Gadsden purchase.
 When the civil war broke out in 1861 there were but two military posts in all of what is now called Arizona and these two posts were in the Gads- den purchase and were known as Fort Breckenridge and Fort Buchan. an, the former on the San Pedro river and the latter at the base of the San ta Rita mountains about sixty miles southeasterly from Tucson. When hostilities began between the North and the South, those two posts were abandoned and all the government property that could not be carried away was destroyed by fire. Some time afterwards troops were ordered back to Arizona and Forts Breckin- ridge and Buchanan were rehabiIi- tated, the former under the name of camp Grant and the latter camp Crittenden.
 At the time Willis claimed to have