Englishman found Yuma politics turbulent
The Yuma Sun is reprinting articles from past newspapers honoring Yuma’s unique history. This column is one in a series written by local historian Frank Love that appeared periodically in the newspaper.
Henry Fitzgerald was only 6 years old when he arrived in the United States from his native England in 1852. The Fitzgerald family settled in New York City with others of the large immigrant population.
Anxious to prove his patriotic feelings about his adopted country, Henry joined the Union Army at the tender age of 16. As a member of Col. Abram Duryee’s Zouaves of the 5th New York Infantry, Henry quickly demonstrated that he was more mature than his age would suggest.
Quickly promoted from the enlisted ranks, he had become a lieutenant by the battle of Bull Run. Wounded three times during that fight, Fitzgerald recovered and continued serving until the war ended in 1865.
What brought Henry to Arizona Territory after the war isn’t reported in the sources, but he was here in Yuma by 1872. The local newspaper announced that he was opening a Main Street store in partnership with Charles Kenyon on May 11. His partner was also the agent for the stagecoach company operating between Yuma and Tucson.
Although Henry was only 28 years old in 1874, Yuma’s voters felt enough confidence in the young merchant to elect him as their town treasurer that year. The position may have been rewarding for several years, but it became uncomfortable when conflict arose between District Attorney James Reilly and George Tyng, editor of the Sentinel newspaper.
Reilly was a controversial Irish immigrant who came to Yuma in 1870. He had arrived in New York with his widowed mother at 18 years of age. Enlisting in the army soon afterward, Reilly served in the infantry for a decade before his discharge in 1859.
With the outbreak of the Civil War two years later, one might guess that with his prior army experience, Reilly would have enlisted to serve his adopted country. There is no evidence he did, and it appears he avoided military service by going to Mexico.
Reilly farmed below the border until 1863 when he made the mistake of killing a Mexican citizen. Convicted of manslaughter, he got a four-year sentence and was in jail in Baja California until 1866.
When he was released, Reilly came to Arizona where he found employment as a deputy for Yuma Sheriff William Werninger. Serving in that position, he learned enough about legal proceedings to be elected district attorney in 1876.
Fitzgerald’s problems began in Yuma when he became one of the county supervisors in 1878. He was soon involved in the war of words that sprang up between the town’s competing newspapers, the Sentinel and the Yuma Expositor, which had been created by Reilly in August of 1878.
It appears that news stories in the Sentinel attacking Reilly, which accused him of disrupting county supervisor meetings, may have been responsible for him starting a competing newspaper. An article in the Sentinel on Aug.
18, 1877, had alleged that Reilly was responsible for “an unusually violent scene at a session of the Board of Supervisors,” and it accused him of “extreme discourtesy.”
It appears that the Sentinel’s negative stories about supervisor meetings soon took their toll on the entire board. In an editorial on April 12, 1878, Editor Tyng wrote, “(Supervisor) Sampter resigned; then Fitzgerald; Lorette was appointed and he too resigned, but was persuaded to stay; Lyons was appointed, and he too resigned; last of all Grow has resigned.”
Who was to blame for Yuma County only having one supervisor? The Sentinel editor on April 13 blamed it on “the arrogant presumption and brutal insolence of a flannel-mouthed alien like our District Attorney James Reilly – an ignorant, ramping, and braying ass ...”
But it was soon clear that District Attorney Reilly wasn’t the only person responsible for the supervisor resignations. Former supervisors Sampter, Fitzgerald, Lyons, Grow and Lorette all sued the Sentinel for libel. They wanted $36,000 on grounds that the newspaper was habitually insulting and abusive. Their suit alleged that editor Tyng was contemptuous of them, and that was why they resigned their positions.
Tyng believed District Attorney Reilly was really behind the lawsuit and reported his conclusion in the Sentinel. It appears that the lawsuit was withdrawn when Reilly announced he would start a new newspaper to compete with the Sentinel. He began publication as the Territorial Expositor in late July with Sam Purdy as editor.
The Expositor announced it would support Democrats rather than Republicans as the Sentinel had been doing. Tyng’s Sentinel responded to the creation of a competing newspaper with the announcement, “We cannot say that we wish the new paper success, for we don’t wish it!”
There is evidence some of the businessmen in Yuma were unhappy with the Sentinel and editor Tyng. This is suggested by the first issue of Reilly’s Expositor on Aug. 1, which contained more than a dozen advertisements by local businesses.
It appears that politics may have been another reason why the Expositor was created. Yuma was on the verge of a village election when it began publication. The new paper appears to have aided Democratic candidates in the village election of Aug. 13.
Democrat A.E. Decorse was elected mayor despite opposition by the Sentinel, District Judge Deforest Porter and others. “Village Election! The Ring Broken! The People Win! The Expositor Cheered!,” Reilly bragged in his newspaper on Aug. 15.
It is likely that Reilly soon realized there wasn’t enough advertising business or enough subscribers to support two newspapers in the small town of Yuma. The town’s population was only about 800. Perhaps realizing Yuma was too small for both papers, he only continued publishing it in Yuma for another nine months before moving the Expositor to Phoenix.