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| Affiliation | Republican |
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| Name | Lewis Wolfley |
| Address |
Prescott, Arizona , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
October 08, 1839
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| Died | February 12, 1910
(70 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Thomas Walker
Dec 14, 2005 05:03pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Never a serious politician, his term as governor would split the Republican Party in the territory of Arizona. He would go so far as to withold pay from judges in order to replace them with what he deemed "Good Republicans". He also set up the newspaper the Arizona Republican (now known as the Arizona Republic) in order to further his own political ends. This last act would quicken his removal as governor. In general, his administration had few accomplishments and many disasters.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania October 8, 1839 to Lewis Wolfley and Eleanor Irwin Wolfley. He grew up on the Ohio-Kentucky border after his family moved there following his father's death. He studied law in the area, but joined the Kentucky Calvary for the Union during the Civil War and was popularly known as "Sherman's Fighting General" (his was only a lieutenant at the time he left the army following the Civil War). He made his home in Tucson in the 1880s and later applied for the governorship of the Arizona Territory with the endorsement of then famous General Nelson Miles of Geronimo fame. With this endorsement, and many others, he received the appointment in April of 1889.
He arrived in Tucson, Arizona after his confirmation in April and moved on to Phoenix the next night. During his administration, he vetoed the creation of Coconino County and feuded with both Democrats and Republicans. He quickly made many enemies, most of them vying for the governorship themselves. The Governor opposed the appointment of Richard Sloan to the Territorial Supreme Court. (This was the same Sloan that would later become governor of the territory just before it was established as a state). Governor Wolfley was accused of profiting financially from being in office, that he was suspicious of people, and that he was unable to cooperate with others.
A bond program created by him helped lower the territorial debt, but this was overshadowed by many disasters, not all necessarily his fault. The Chirachua Apaches, including Geronimo, were scheduled to return to Arizona after their stay on a Florida reservation. Governor Wolfley blocked their return with much popular support and had them redirected to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where Geronimo would die 20 years later. Another affair he had to face was the embarrassing Peralta Grant scandal. Con man James Reavis forged documents that made it appear that his wife's lineage was linked to a Spanish landowner prior to United States occupation. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago and the Gadsen Purchase signed after the Mexican War in 1848) allowed any claims from former Spanish or Mexican landowners to be legitimate if proven. As a result, James Reavis would be the owner of some of the richest mines in Arizona and own a large portion of the state. However, his fraud was discovered and he would go to jail for his criminal actions. Furthermore, Governor Wolfley also had to contend with what he described as the "Mormon Problem". Mormons were sending stakes into newly developed areas in order to gain control over local politics. There were four stakes in all, two in Apache County, one in Maricopa County, and one in Graham County. (A stake is a block of 2,000 Mormons who were sent to areas to vote in blocks for measures or politicians that favored their agenda). The Governor's final problem was the most costly and the most tragic, the Gila River Dam washed out costing the territory $750,000 in damages. The Secretary of the Interior would ask for his resignation on August 20, 1890 after only a year and a half in office.
After his administration he surveyed for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company in 1893. He made another attempt at the governorship in 1897 but failed. In 1908, he is found in California attempting to generate electricity from the power of ocean waves. He died in California on February 12, 1910 when he was run down by a street car. He is buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Prescott, he was the only bachelor to serve as territorial governor.
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