Early county officials controversial

Editor’s Note: The Yuma Sun is reprinting articles from past newspapers throughout the year as part of the Yuma Sun’s 150th anniversary, honoring Yuma’s unique history. This column is one in a series written by local historian Frank Love that appeared periodically in the newspaper.

Yuma County was created in 1864, and its politics were filled with charges of dishonesty in the early days. One of the county’s first elected sheriffs was Marcus Dobbins. Dobbins quickly gave up the position when his election was challenged. It wasn’t proven that Dobbins rigged his election as sheriff in 1866, but he turned the office over to David King without a fight.

When Sheriff King demonstrated his inability to account for the tax money he collected, Dobbins, who had become district attorney, was paid to straighten out King’s tax collection records. When they appeared short by $1,500, King resigned and left La Paz.

District Attorney Dobbins realized that a shift in the Colorado River, which had left La Paz some distance away, along with a decline in placer mining, would kill the young county seat. He moved south to Yuma in 1869, then known as Arizona City. He may have guessed that La Paz would soon be a ghost town.

It was, and Yuma became the county seat in 1871.

Dobbins hadn’t been here very long before a Prescott newspaper, The Arizona Miner, suggested he was dishonest. The accusation appeared in news stories about the killing of Major Montgomery, a former Army officer.

When the Miner first reported Montgomery’s death, it announced he was killed after he broke out of the Yuma jail where he was imprisoned for an illegal cattle deal. It announced that Quechan Indian trackers were sent after Montgomery and shot him when he resisted arrest.

One suspects the Prescott editor didn’t believe the details he was given because he ended his report with, “or so the story goes.”

A week later, the Miner had a second version of the Montgomery death. It was in a letter from Yuman C.G. Chavanne who wrote that Montgomery had been arrested by Yuma Constable Smith without a warrant or even a reason given. The letter also claimed Constable Smith was wanted in Los Angeles for murder.

Chavanne’s letter said that Montgomery escaped from the Yuma jail with two other prisoners. It claimed that Constable Smith trailed the escapes with the assistance of the Quechan trackers. Upon finding Montgomery, Chavanne wrote, Smith ordered the Quechans to shoot him and they obeyed.

A second letter about the Montgomery killing held that Dobbins was partly responsible. Written by Thomas Hughes of Yuma, among its allegations were that Constable Smith and Dobbins “under the cover of the law have fleeced almost all who have fallen into their clutches.” It reported the two unlawfully took Montgomery’s money when he was arrested, and Yuma’s residents for a time considered lynching the pair.

One can only wonder why Yuma County voters would elect Marcus Dobbins to another term in the Territorial Legislature in 1871 if he was despised as the two letters claimed. It seems possible that he regained respect by suing the Colorado River Steamboat Company and several other Yuma businesses for unpaid Yuma County taxes.

The tax dispute arose over the question of whether the area facing the river in Yuma was in California or Arizona. When the original boundary was drawn, it crossed the Colorado to the mouth of the Gila River beyond where the Territorial Prison would later be built. This put a small section next to the river in California.

Claiming the land where their businesses were located was in California, the steamboat company and others refused to pay taxes to Arizona. Dobbins filed lawsuits against the non-paying companies in July of 1870. Eventually, the area was declared to be in Arizona, and the companies paid their Yuma County taxes.

Dobbins didn’t live to see it happen. He died in 1871. Although not wealthy, his small estate immediately caused a controversy. Two Yumans, Dr. A.A. Mix and R.B. Kelley, were named to settle his debts and determine how much remained.

The administrators were quickly at odds. Yuma was too small for a bank, so a local business, Hooper, Whiting and Company, was holding Dobbins’ money. Without telling his co-administrator what he was doing, Mix went to the Hooper store and demanded Dobbin’s money.

The store refused until the Territorial Supreme Court declared Dr. Mix the “sole administrator” of Dobbins’ estate.

Soon after receiving the Dobbins’ money, Mix told a newspaper that less then $1,500 remained after his bills were paid. It alarmed county supervisors because they believed Dobbins estate was worth more than Mix said it was. Fearing the doctor might be stealing Dobbins’ assets, they ordered Mix to bond himself to assure honesty.

When Mix didn’t get the bond ordered, the district attorney went to Mix’s office to find out why. The doctor was gone. Yuma’s newspaper of Sept. 21, 1872 announced, “Dr. Mix Absconded.” It reported he had stolen nearly $2,500 from estates he was managing.

Mix fled to Mexico and was living there as late as 1887.