1864, “THE MOWRY SILVER MINING COMPANY” BOND

“THE MOWRY SILVER MINING COMPANY” BOND “Few men did more for Arizona during its early history than Sylvester Mowry”

This $1,000 Mortgage Bond was issued to William Tell Coleman (1824-1893), a prominent and early resident of San Francisco where he became a successful shipping merchant, running a Steamship Line to New York. 

The Mowry Massacres

Also known as the Mowry Murders, were a series of Apache attacks in and around the mining town of Mowry, Arizona between 1863 and 1865. At least sixteen American settlers were killed during the period.

The former United States Army lieutenant, Sylvester Mowry, purchased the Patagonia mine in 1860 from a party of Mexicans. Soon after, Mowry began operating the mine and attracted miners to the area for work. The Chiricahua and other Apache bands were also attracted though, and they considered the Santa Rita Mountains to be sacred ground and they defended it accordingly by raiding and ambushing settlers. As the American Civil War began, United States Army troops were withdrawn from the frontier of Arizona to fight the Confederates in the South. This left the settlers unprotected and vulnerable to attack, even after Union troops from California arrived.

A grave along the trail to Mowry, a victim of an Apache ambush.

Offices and headquarters of the Mowry Mine in southwestern AZ.

The Mowry Mine in 1862 was famous in the east because Sylvester Mowry appeared in Congress more than once appealing for AZ to be made a state. 

His mine produced a large amount of silver coin and easterners were told about it in a number of newspapers. (He was a graduate of West Point and a former Union officer who had been based in Yuma before buying the mine and developing into one with a smelter.) 

Headquarters of the Mowry Mine

The Mowry Mine, Originally the Patagonia Mine 

 In 1860 Sylvester Mowry purchased the Patagonia Mine and renamed it the Mowry Mine.