By Al Bates
Who was King S. Woolsey? He was at times a mule driver, a farmer, a miner and military guide. He was also a colonel of militia, road builder, miller, merchant, legislator, and oh yes, a famed Indian fighter.
His list of accomplishments and his career in public service place him in the very first rank of early Arizona pioneers. Today, however, when he is remembered at all it is for a single incident: the battle at Bloody Tanks, often referred to as the “Pinole Treaty” massacre. Pinole was a basic foodstuff for Indians, settlers and the military alike. It was easily portable and lasted indefinitely. It was made from Indian corn baked ground and mixed with brown sugar. Pinole could be eaten dry or mixed with water to make a nutritious beverage.
The name “Pinole Treaty” comes from accusations that Woolsey fed poisoned pinole to unsuspecting Apaches during treaty talks at Bloody Tanks in early 1864. I have read graphic accounts with phrases such as: “42 Apache braves writhing on the ground in agony.” Another published version of the story claims that he fed poisoned candy to Apache children.
My intention is to try to separate the facts from fiction of the battle at Bloody Tanks from the myths that grew up around it. But first let’s look at Woolsey himself.
Very little is known about King W. Woolsey’s early life. It is believed that he was born in Alabama in late 1831 or early 1832. Nothing is known about his family or how he came to be named “King.” Legend has it that as a youth he decamped from a Catholic seminary to seek a life of adventure. Another legend says that he was captured on a filibustering expedition in Cuba and narrowly escaped execution. True or just good yarns? Probably just good yarns. Woolsey is believed to have spent 10 years in California before coming to Arizona at age 29, but there is no record of his presence there.
According to his wife, Mary, Woolsey and two companions arrived at Fort Yuma late in 1860 from “somewhere south of San Francisco.” Except for their horses and personal gear, the trio’s total assets consisted of $5 in silver belonging to Woolsey.
Once in southwest Arizona, Woolsey found work as a mule driver. He then acquired his own team and turned to cutting wild grasses along the lower Gila River for sale as hay. Woolsey, like all transplanted Southerners, was suspected of Confederate leanings, but he was a farmer and businessman, not a rebel, and he soon had a contract to supply hay to the Union army for its march from California to New Mexico.
Woolsey’s early reputation as an Indian fighter was established while gathering wild grass near Stanwix, a stage station between Gila Bend and Yuma. He and two hired hands were attacked by a band of Apaches. Woolsey used their only defensive weapon – a shotgun – to slay the Apache leader. In the confusion that followed, Woolsey and his men escaped. He returned with reinforcements and hung the corpse from a mesquite tree as a warning to the Apaches. (Artist and writer J. Ross Browne mad a sketch of the still-hanging corpse about two years later.) It is important to note that the Pima and Maricopa Indians shared Woolsey’s dislike for Apaches and they later add a pin cushion effect with arrows.
By mid-1862, Woolsey was half owner of a ranch across the Gila River from Stanwix where he raised stock and farmed. Hot springs gave the ranch its name of Agua Caliente and later fame as a health spa. His ranch house there was the first permanent structure built by an Anglo north of the Gila River. Woolsey was well established at Agua Caliente, growing a variety of crops, when the Walker party, guided by Jack Swilling, passed through the Pima Villages at Maricopa Wells in the spring of 1863.
It is unclear when or how Woolsey joined those earliest of Prescott-area pioneers, but his name appears on the first list of placer mining claims recorded by members of the Walker party in 1863.
Later that same month, Woolsey and a partner “recorded a claim” on two quarter sections of land on the Agua Fria River near Dewey where he established a second ranch. The stone ranch house he built there with rocks from a nearby prehistoric ruin was the first permanent structure built by an Anglo in the Prescott area. The ruins of his Agua Fria ranch house still can be seen south of Yung’s Farm just off the Old Black Canyon Highway.
Just in case there’s any confusion, Woolsey then had two establishments: Agua Caliente or “hot water” on the Gila, and Agua Fria or “cold water” at Dewey.
It was from the Agua Fria Ranch in early 1864 that Woolsey led three civilian expeditions against marauding Apache bands that were continuously stealing stock from both the settlers and the soldiers.
The first of these expeditions resulted in the deaths of at least 24 Apache braves in the Bloody Tanks incident. The second Woolsey expedition killed 30 Apaches including women and children. Woolsey was unrepentant about deaths of Apache women and children, writing that he “stood on a broad platform of extermination.”
The third Woolsey expedition was costly and fruitless. Army officers led all subsequent anti-Apache expeditions. The first expedition so impressed Governor Goodwin that he named Woolsey as a military aide with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Territorial Militia.
When the governor went on his February, 1864, expedition to view potential sites for a Territorial Capitol, “Colonel” Woolsey went along as a guide. Unfortunately for Woolsey, Apaches raided the Agua Fria ranch while he was gone and ran off almost of his remaining stock.
In July 1864, the voters elected Woolsey to the first Territorial Legislature as a member of the upper chamber. A year later he won re-election to a second term. The Agua Fria Ranch prospered: Woolsey continued his interest in mining and built a water-powered stamp mill on the Agua Fria. But by May 1867, Woolsey became overextended because of mining ventures and lost the Agua Fria property to mortgage foreclosure.
Woolsey then retreated to the Agua Caliente ranch where he began paying off debts and rebuilding his fortune. He soon acquired the old Stanwix Stage Station which continued as an important stopping place for freight wagons and stage coaches until the Southern Pacific Railroad took the place of those modes of transport.
Woolsey had two known wives. His first common-law wife was Lucia, nicknamed Lucy, Martinez. She bore him three children, two girls and a boy. The second wife was Mary Taylor in a childless relationship that may have been bigamous on both sides. How Woolsey first met Lucy and how Mary replaced her makes another interesting tale for another time.
In the early 1870’s Woolsey turned much of his attention to the new community of Phoenix, while continuing to run Stanwix and Agua Caliente with Mary’s help. Soon he was back in the Territorial Legislature’s upper chamber, representing newly created Maricopa County. He was re-elected to that post twice and was presiding officer of the upper chamber for two terms.
In 1878 Woolsey made an unsuccessful try for election as the Territorial Representative to the U.S. Congress. He ran well in Maricopa County but did poorly in Prescott and Yavapai County, in part because he wanted to move the Territorial Capitol to Phoenix.
In the meantime Woolsey had acquired a ranch and other property in Phoenix. His Phoenix ranch featured a variety of crops including sugar cane. Woolsey also started the first flour mill in Phoenix and salt mines on the upper Salt River. His holdings in Maricopa County included over 2000 acres of farmland and 28 Phoenix city lots. The “Woolsey and Wentworth Hall” provided Phoenix with its first skating rink.
It was at his Phoenix ranch, June 29, 1879, that Woolsey died of a heart attack at age 47. His was a large funeral and the mourners included his old friend Chief Juan Chiveria of the Maricopa tribe and a large group of Maricopa warriors. Woolsey’s remains today are in the Pioneers’ Cemetery close to the state capitol.
(Al Bates is an active member of the Prescott Corral of Westerners International.)
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