Anson P. K. Safford

Anson Pacely Killen Safford ( born February 14, 1830 in Hyde Park, Lamoille County, Vermont, † December 15, 1891 in Tarpon Springs, Florida ) was an American politician and from 1869 to 1877 governor of the Arizona Territory.

Early years

At the age of eight years Safford moved with his parents to Crete in Illinois. There, the family managed a farm. Anson Safford visited only sporadically the schools of his home. He later acquired even the most knowledgeable. His parents died in 1848 or 1849. Anson has then in 1850 joined the gold rush in California. There he secured a claim, from which he took out 5 to 20 dollars a day.

Political rise

At that time he was a member of the Democratic Party, for which he unsuccessfully applied in 1854 for a seat in the House of Representatives from California. In the years 1857 and 1859, he was but then elected to this body. After his parliamentary time he moved to San Francisco. During the Civil War Safford joined the Republican Party. Since 1862 he has been resident in Nevada. There, he held several local political offices. In November 1863 he was chairman of the regional congress of his party in Nevada. After two years of post education trip to Europe Safford returned to Nevada. There he refused a nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives. Instead, he was appointed in 1867 in the field of President Andrew Johnson to head the land surveying.

Territorial Governor of Arizona

In April 1869 Safford was appointed at the request of a congressional delegation and many prominent people of the Arizona Territory by President Ulysses S. Grant to the new territorial governor of the area. This office he held between July 9, 1869 and 5 April 1877. During this time, the territory was still haunted by Indians and marauding gangs. The roads were unsafe and had to be secured by voluntary militias. Stricter laws and the construction of a prison should deter the criminals. Nevertheless, his successor John Philo Hoyt was still struggling with these problems. There were also a controversy between the military and the civilian population as well as a contrast between the population in the north and in the south of the territory.

While Safford could not place a resounding success in terms of violence, he succeeded in its territory the school system to organize. With the help of a new income tax schools were built and recruited teachers. At the end of his term in 1877, Safford was able to announce that by 2955 children to read and write in their territory after all, 1450 could. The were only 49 percent, but compared to the time before he took office, this was a significant increase.

Further CV

After his governorship Safford founded a bank with branches in Tucson and Tombstone. He was also president of the Tombstone Gold and Siver Milling and Mining Company. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, was nominated for the James A. Garfield 's presidential candidate. Later, he sold all his shares in the west for approximately $ 140,000 and moved to Philadelphia, later to New York City. In 1882, he helped build the city in Florida Tarpon Springs. In 1889, he was again as territorial governor of Arizona in conversation. He was eventually no longer appointed to this office. Anson Safford died 1891 in Tarbon Springs. He was married three times. The divorce from his first wife Jenny Tracy made ​​headlines in 1873 in Arizona.

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