Tiburcio Sotelo
ABT 1810 - 1872
bornAltar, Sonora, Mexico
diedTempe, Arizona, USA
SchooltblData
BiographyTiburcio Sotelo grew up at the presidio of Tubac. After Apaches destroyed settlements in the Santa Cruz Valley in 1849, he took his family south and settled in the village of Pitiquito on the Altar River in northern Sonora. About 1863 he returned to Tubac with his two oldest sons. In the summer of 1866, he decided to bring the rest of his family to his childhood home. A small expedition left the Altar Valley; a covered wagon drawn by six oxen carried the women and children and twelve armed men followed. The group traveled up the east side of the Baboquivari Mountains and through Arivaca to the Santa Cruz River. The church at Tumacacori Mission, where hewas married, and where his parents were buried, was in ruins. At Tubac, a serious epidemic had broken out. All records of his father's land grant had been destroyed, so they had no home to claim. He decided that they would continue on to Tucson, where his sons were working. About 1870, after hearing that canals were being built in the Salt River Valley, Tiburcio and his sons went north to homestead land near what would later become Tempe. He and his sons worked on the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch, c1870-1871. After his death, his wife, with their daughters and youngest son, settled on the land.
Tubac census, 1831
Federal census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900
Maria Sotelo Miller bio, ASU Archives
San Agustin Cath. Church, Marriage Register, 1866
Florence Cath. Church, Marriage Register, 1873-1876
Maricopa Cty Superior Court, Manuela Sotelo probate
Officer, Hispanic Arizona
Tempe Old Settlers Book
Bents, History of Tubac
Solliday, Rio Salado, 56-57, 38
Person TypeIndividual
