Profits from Yuma hotel probably vanished after investment

Editor’s Note: This column was published in 2006, and is reprinted today as part of the Yuma Sun’s 150th anniversary, honoring Yuma’s unique history.

The Southern Pacific Hotel in Yuma was the best residence for temporary visitors in the early 1890s. Who owned it before Sam Gillespie took over its management in 1889 isn’t reported in the old newspapers, but he was its owner when he sold it to Mr. Curtis and Mrs. Marshall in 1894.

An advertisement which Sam placed in Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star on May 4, 1890, advertised the hotel as “The Sanitarium of the West.” Claiming that Yuma’s air was “pure, dry and invigorating,” it reported that people suffering from “pulmonary complaints” came to Yuma to restore their health by drinking Colorado River water and “attest to the fact of its medicinal properties.”

Where Sam came from or what brought him to Yuma in 1889 wasn’t reported in the local papers, but he arrived in March that year to manage the hotel.

This writer couldn’t locate a photo of Sam, but it seems a fair guess that he was a very large man. This conclusion comes from a report in Yuma’s Sentinel Newspaper on July 6, 1889, which said that he participated in a fat man’s race on the 4th with J.H. Shannssey. It seems likely Gillespie’s opponent may have weighed less than Sam because he won the race.

Later in the same year, Yuma’s Sentinel Newspaper reported that Gillespie and Frank Wells were attacked by three men while crossing the river on the railroad bridge. Yuma residents often walked over that span to get to the California side of the Colorado.

The paper reported that Wells was hit on the head with a stone, but it gave no information about any injury to Sam. Yuma Sheriff Nugent arrested the attackers upon learning about it.

Like many early Yumans, Sam believed he might strike it rich in mining. A news story in Yuma’s Arizona Sentinel reported on Dec. 10, 1890, that along with Thomas Gates, who had earlier been the superintendent of the Territorial Prison, he invested his hotel profits in a mine in the Gila City area. It seems likely the mine was a failure because nothing more appeared about it in the Yuma newspapers, and a later newspaper story suggested that the money Sam made operating his hotel was lost in mining ventures.

In addition to operating his Yuma hotel, Gillespie had political ambitions. He was a candidate for county supervisor as a Republican in 1890, but wasn’t elected.

When the town was flooded by a rise in the Gila River in February of 1891, destroying half the businesses and homes, a relief committee chose Sam as the person to accept contributions for assisting the 300 homeless persons. Water was standing five feet deep on some streets.

It seems likely his efforts to assist the victims gained him popularity. It may explain why he was able to win a position on the town council the following year.

While his election to the council suggests Gillespie was popular with some Yumans, a stabbing which could have cost his life in 1891 suggests he wasn’t liked by everyone.

Sam had been attending the opening of the new Yuma Exchange Saloon on a July night. After enjoying the music, he left with Thomas Gates to go back to the Southern Pacific Hotel when Estephano Montano, a man who had been selling cookies and cakes for several months in town, jumped from behind a mesquite tree.

Montano was carrying a knife and struck with it at Gillespie. Seeing the knife thrust, Gillespie threw up his hand, but the knife hit him, nearly cutting off several fingers. Gates, who was behind Sam about eight feet, drew his gun and prepared to hit Montano over the head, but Estephano escaped by running into the Yuma Exchange Saloon.

Hearing the commotion, Deputy Sheriff Nugent, who was nearby, arrested Montano. Exactly what sparked the attack by Montano isn’t known. Gillespie had earlier bought his attacker a drink in the saloon. Was it bad liquor?

Eventually discouraged by his Yuma business ventures, Sam sold his Yuma hotel to Mr. Curtis and Mrs. Marshall in

June of 1894 after operating it for five years. He moved to El Paso with his wife, where he found employment as a conductor on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Pacific Coast Limited passenger train.

Nothing about Gillespie appeared afterward in the

Yuma papers.