William Hudson Kirkland
12 Jul 1832 - 19 Jan 1910
diedWinkelman, Arizona, USA
bornPetersburg, Virginia, USA
SchooltblData
BiographyFreighter; Rancher; Miner; Canal Builder; Politician.Came to Tempe c1868.
He was one of the first Anglo-Americans to move to Tucson, arriving on 17 Jan 1856.
He had a contract to supply army camps with lumber and provisions. He raised cattle in the Santa Cruz Valley for a few years, traveled throughout the Southwest, and prospected, discovering gold in the Kirkland Valley area in 1863.
Moved to the Salt River Valley, c1868.
With James B. McKinney, promoted the development of the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch, the
first canal on the south side of the Salt River which watered lands on the east side of the Tempe Butte by 1870.
Member of the original Hardy Irrigating Canal Company formed in 1870; later shareholder in Tempe Irrigating Canal Company, he held 2 water rights in the company on 9 Oct 1873.
He is credited with having built the first family residence in the Phoenix townsite in 1870. In 1872, he started a farm just east of Tempe Butte. He lived in a house in the Tempe district on the east side of Tempe Butte, c1872-1874.
Elected secretary of Tempe Irrigating Canal Co.
In 1872 served as Justice of the Peace, and was elected to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Donated an 80-acre site on the south side of Tempe Butte in 1872 for a new Hispanic settlement called San Pablo.
In 1874 he resigned his posts and moved to Silver City, NM. He then moved to Texas, where he went into the cattle business, but he longed for his Kirkland Valley home and finally organized an immigrant train to Arizona.
He returned to the Salt River Valley in 1876.
OSB 94
BIO-Kirkland
Double Butte Cemetery, Tempe
TH-231.01
HPS-232
Solliday, Journey to Rio Salado, pp. 51-52, 55, 58
Person TypeIndividual
