King Woolsey

Woolsey Peak 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 Native Americans.

In 1862, Woolsey and a partner bought the Agua Caliente ranch, near the Gila River in what is now western Maricopa County, Arizona.

During the American Civil War, after 1863, practically all troops were withdrawn from Arizona, and Indian attacks on white settlers and their property increased.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 to the vicinity of present-day Miami, Arizona, where they encountered a large party of Tonto Apaches.

[3] 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.

[5]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.

The Howell Code statutes collectively made Lucia Martinez economically, racially, and sexually subservient to her master, King Woolsey.

[9] King Woolsey's contemporaries charged that Robert's handicap might have been reversed under proper medical care that the father neglected to provide.

[10] King Woolsey did not recognize Clara, Johanna (aka Chona and Concepcion), or Robert as his legitimate biological children.

King Woolsey's daughter Clara bought a ranch in Phoenix, Arizona located near Broadway and 16th Street.