Collection includes appointments, correspondence, financial
records and reports relating to his activities as United States Special Indian
Agent and Physician for the Papago (now known as Tohono O'Odham) Indians; and
personal and family papers including correspondence, tax records and
receipts.
Collection Number:
AZ 565
Repository:
University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections
University of Arizona
PO Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
Phone: 520-621-6423
Fax: 520-621-9733
URL: http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/
Biographical Note
Dr. Wilbur was born in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1840 and graduated from
the Harvard Medical School in 1863. He moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1865,
established a medical practice and homesteaded ranch lands near Arivaca,
Arizona. In 1868-1869, he was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct
a vaccination program for the Papago and Pima Indians. On February 8, 1871, he
was appointed United States Special Indian Agent to the Papagos residing in the
Arizona Territory; on February 18, 1871, Wilbur was also appointed Attending
Physician to the Papagos.
After leaving office, Wilbur operated his cattle ranch at Arivaca, spent
a great deal of time trying to clarify his financial position with the federal
government regarding expenditures when he was Indian Agent, submitted several
proposals for mail route contracts and became involved in mining ventures in
Sonora, Mexico. It is of interest to note that in 1880, prominent Arizona
pioneer, Charles Poston filed a civil lawsuit against Wilbur in the 1st
Judicial District Court to recover certain lands near Arivaca that were part of
Wilbur's ranch.
Wilbur died suddenly in 1882, while on a trip to Massachusetts and was
buried in Plymouth. His wife, Raphuela Wilbur continued to operate the ranch
near Arivaca until the turn of the century and it has remained in the family.
It is now being operated by Wilbur's granddaughter, Mrs. Eva Antonia
Wilbur-Cruce and her husband, Marshall W. Cruce.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of the first subgroup relating to the administration of the
Papago Indian Agency document administrative and financial activities, efforts
to recover Apache children taken hostage by participants of the Camp Grant
Massacre, arguments for the establishment of a reservation for the Papagos at
San Xavier, the problem of non-Indian settlers on Papago lands, and arguments
between Dr. Wilbur and Bishop Salpointe concerning expenditures for a school at
San Xavier that culminated with Wilbur's removal as Agent in 1874.
The papers of the second subgroup relate to personal and family affairs,
the bulk of which are related to the operation of the Wilbur Ranch near
Arivaca, Arizona, mining activities in Sonora, Mexico and activities of Mrs.
Raphuela Wilbur after Dr. Wilbur's death in 1882. There is no information on
Dr. Wilbur's medical practice before or after his tenure as Papago Agent.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish
from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record,
the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The
user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the
University of Arizona, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all
claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of
copyright.
Access Terms
Personal Name(s)
Gibbs, George
Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis),
1830-1909
McCormick, Richard C. (Richard
Cunningham), 1832-1901
Miles, Evan
Salpointe, John Baptist,
1825-1898
Titus, John, d. 1878
Whitman, Royal
Wilbur, Raphuela
Corporate Name(s)
Catholic Church -- Arizona --
History
Mission San Xavier del Bac (Tucson,
Ariz.)
United States. Bureau of Indian
Affairs
Geographic Name(s)
Aribac Grant (Arivaca Valley, Ariz.)
Subject(s)
Tohono O'Odham Indians -- History
Apache Indians -- History
Indian agents -- Arizona
Mines and mineral resources -- Mexico -- Sonora (State)
Contains appointment papers of Dr. Wilbur as United States Special
Agent for the Papago Indians in the Arizona Territory, dated February 8, 1871
and as Attending Physician to the Papago Indians of the Arizona Territory,
dated February 18, 1871. Includes a $10,000 bond, dated March 18, 1871,
supported by securities pledged by Estevan Ochoa, William Scott, James Lee and
Robert Crandall.
Contains the agency letterbooks (unbound) for 1871-1873, that
document the daily business of the agency. Also includes letters to and from
the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the United States Treasury
Department and the Pima Indian Agency. Items of note in this correspondence
include discussions of the Camp Grant Massacre, efforts to recover Apache
children held captive from that incident and extensive documentation of Dr.
Wilbur's financial problems relating to expenditures made at the Papago Agency.
In addition, this series contains documentation of the political feud that
developed between Dr. Wilbur and Bishop Salpointe of the Tucson Catholic
Diocese, the problem of encroachment of non-Indian settlers on Papago lands
near San Xavier, Wilbur's suggestions for a Papago Reservation, and requests
for assistance in obtaining anthropological field data from the Smithsonian
Institution.
Also present is the draft of a letter sent to John Titus, Chief
Justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court, from Dr. Wilbur requesting
legal assistance in the recovery of Apache children kidnapped during the Camp
Grant Massacre. All of the correspondence that postdates Wilbur's removal as
Papago Agent in 1874 documents efforts to resolve financial problems that
occurred when he held the office of Papago Agent.
box
folder
1
2-4
Sent Correspondence: Letterbooks.
, 1871-1873
1
5
Sent Correspondence: Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
, 1878-1880
1
6
Sent Correspondence: John Titus.
, 1871
1
7
Received Correspondence: Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
, 1872-1879
1
8
Received Correspondence: Pima Agency.
, 1879-1880
1
9
Received Correspondence: Smithsonian.
, 1879
1
10
Received Correspondence: Treasury Department.
, 1879-1880
1
11
Sent and Received Correspondence: John B. Salpointe.
, 1873-1874
Annual Report prepared and sent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
which includes information on schools, distribution of annuities and tools,
problems of drunkenness, non-Indian settlers living on Papago lands, livestock,
farming and a strong statement containing Wilbur's perceptions of the influence
of the Catholic Church in their dealings with the Papagos.
Contains property lists, receipts and bills, statements of public
funds, vouchers for expenses, certificates of support for vouchers, subvouchers
for expenses, receipts from the Treasury Department, and remarks of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs on agency accounts and statements of differences
from the Auditor's Office at the Treasury Department that document expenses
incurred during the operation of the Papago Agency from 1871-1874. The bulk of
this material relates to Dr. Wilbur's financial difficulties of justifying
agency expenses. A portion of this material was produced after Dr. Wilbur left
office in 1874, but it all pertains to financial activities that occurred
during his tenure as Special Agent and Physician to the Papago.
box
folder
1
13
Property Lists.
, 1873-1874
1
14
Receipts and Bills.
, 1871-1876
1
15
Statements of Public Funds.
, 1873
1
16
Vouchers, Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches, San Carlos.
, 1873
1
17
Vouchers, Papago Agency.
, 1872-1873
1
18
Certificates of Support for Vouchers.
, 1871-1875
1
19
Subvouchers.
, 1877-1880
1
20
Receipts from Treasury Department.
, 1873-1874
1
21
Remarks from Office of Indian Affairs.
, 1871-1876
1
22
Statements of Differences from the Auditor's Office at
the Treasury Department.
, 1871-1877
Contains holographic list, probably prepared by Dr. Wilbur early
in his tenure as agent, which has the names of the "Captains" and "Adjutants"
for several Papago villages labeled as "pueblos." These terms represent a
holdover of a Spanish practice of assigning village leaders specific titles.
All of the villages listed represent communities located west of San Xavier on
what is now the main Papago Reservation.
"Ethnology and Philology of America," George Gibbs.
Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Contributions, No. 160, 33 pp., Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution.
, 1863
2
2
Remarks of Hon. Richard C. McCormick of Arizona in the
House of Representatives, 43rd Congress, 8 pp., Washington, D.C.: GPO.
, 1874
Remarks relate to the Army Appropriation Bill, Preservation of
the Buffalo, Reduction of the Army, National Washington Monument, the Military
Telegraph and Title to Lands in Arizona.
2
2
Speech of Hon. Richard C. McCormick of Arizona in the
House of Representatives on the Indian Appropriations Bill, 43rd Congress, 12
pp., Washington, D.C.: GPO.
, May 11,
1874
2
2
Laws and Regulations relating to Indian Affairs, loose
signatures tied with string, octavo. 93 pp., Washington, D.C.: GPO.
, 1830s-1860s
Contains a summons from the 1st Judicial District Court in Pima
County, a holographic draft of the summons and two additional summonses from
the United States Surveyor-General's Office for the Territory of Arizona. These
all relate to a civil suit filed against Dr. Wilbur by Charles Poston and
Santiago Ainsa in a dispute over the ownership of the "La Aribac" land claim in
the Arivaca Valley, Arizona.
Contains receipts, bills of sale, notes, lists and tax receipts
that relate primarily to the operation of the Wilbur Ranch near Arivaca,
Arizona. Also includes several mail carrier proposals submitted by Dr. Wilbur
in 1877. Receipts and bills also document Mrs. Wilbur's purchases from a
variety of merchants in Tucson and a contribution made by Dr. Wilbur to the
Republican Congressional Committee in 1874.
