| Notes: According to UA film 811, roll 11: Manuel José de Sosa was foreman on the Guevavi and San Mateo Ranches, employed by their owner, Juan Bautista de Anssa. Sosa's wife being a Gómez de Silva was obviously related to Rosa Becerra, Anza's wife, as her mother was a Gómez de Silva. Not only was he Anza's foreman at the Guevavi Ranch, but he was a certified escribano eclesiastico, or “ecclesiastic scribe,” and notario publico, or “notary public.” He wrote nearly all of the orders and letters that were dictated and signed by Captain Anza during the famous silver discovery of 1736. In fact, he was dispatched by Anza to carry samples of the silver and copies of all the documents to Mexico City. Corriendo la posta, or “running the post horses,” he traveled over 1300 miles in 26 days (an average of over 50 miles per day) 123 years before the creation of the pony express! The silver was discovered about fifteen miles southwest of present-day Nogales, Arizona/Sonora, at a place Anza named “San Antonio de Padua.” However, the above mentioned dispatches written by Sosa, were compiled, dated, and signed another fifteen miles further southwest down the canyon at Bernardo de Urrea’s ranch called “Arizona.” Because Sosa was seated at Urrea’s table when he wrote the majority of the numerous statements and orders about the fabulous silver discovery, and because he dated and addressed them at that ranch, the name became famous overnight as a place of unbelievable mineral wealth. Well over a hundred years later, Claude Jones, who was one of several people who had petitioned for a new territory to be made of the Gadsden Purchase, suggested the name to Congress. It was an obvious choice since he and his associates were advertising that the new territory was unexcelled in mineral wealth. Congress agreed and the bill establishing the new Territory of Arizona was signed by Abraham Lincoln. Later when the territory became a state, the new state retained the name. However, had Sosa’s writings not brought world fame to the place, it would still be just the obscure and unknown ranch that still goes by that name in northern Sonora, Mexico, and the state would have undoubtedly been named something else. |
