Manuel Gonzales
ABT 1838 - 12 Mar 1898
diedTempe, Arizona, USA
bornUres, Sonora, Mexico
SchooltblData
BiographyFarmer.Came to Tempe c1870.
One of the first of the Gonzales brothers from San Miguel Horcasitas and Ures, Sonora, to arrive in the Tempe area. After his marriage in 1857, he went to live in Hermosillo, Sonora, where he heard of work being done in central Arizona. In 1869, he headed north to the Salt River Valley and settled on land near the mouth of the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch. While his family stayed in Tucson, he worked on the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch, which earned him a
water right in the "canal of the Palo Verde," which later became one share in the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company, c1872. He homesteaded lands along the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch, east of Tempe Butte, and under the San Francisco Canal, west of Tempe. He later bought another ranch in the area from Santiago Franco. With his brothers, he operated a 240-acre farm near present-day University Drive, between Priest and 44th Street. He also worked for the Charles T. Hayden Co. until c1892, when he sold his house, at 320 W. First Street, and a lot in Tempe to Jesus Martinez. At the time of his death, he was growing wheat, barley,
alfalfa, and corn, and raising forty head of cattle on a 160-acre ranch; owned a half interest in
SE4 section 13, T.1 N., R.4 E., 11 lots in "the old town of Tempe", and one share of water stock in the Western Branch of the Tempe Canal.
He became a naturalized citizen in 1878.
He apparently represented the local Mexican
population in acquiring the 40-acre site from William H. Kirkland which would become the San Pablo townsite, c1871.
Maricopa Cty Sup. Court, Probate Case No. 446
Maricopa County Great Register, 1882
Tempe Old Settlers Book
Florence Catholic church, marriage register, 1870-1878
Federal census, 1880, 1900
Juanita Gonzales Fellows ms., Arizona State Library
HPS-142
HPS-160
TH-231.01
Solliday, Journey to Rio Salado, pp. 39, 57, 62, 67
Person TypeIndividual