Michael Wormser
27 Jun 1827 - 25 Apr 1898
bornMittelbronn, Lorraine, France
SchooltblData
BiographyMerchant and farmer.Came to the United States in 1858.
He went from New York to California and worked at a variety of odd jobs, including peddler, horse trader, and money lender. In 1863, at the urging of his cousin, Ben Block, he removed to La Paz, Arizona, where he established a store and bought mining claims. With the decline of La Paz mining district in 1869, he closed his store and moved first to Wickenburg, and then to Prescott, where he opened a store on the town plaza. During those years he had several business partners, and in 1873, he moved to Phoenix and opened a store there. The death of his business partner in 1874 caused him to eventually give up merchandizing. In the mid-1870s he turned to large-scale agriculture, and was a dealer in grain. He started purchasing land along the San Francisco Canal, in the area south of Phoenix and west of Tempe. He made repairs on the canal, and in May 1873, secured a number of contracts in which he provided seed grain and supplies on credit to the local farmers, and held a mortgage on their crops. As farmers defaulted, he insisted that they obtain clear title to their land, and then he purchased the acreage for the amount owed him. He soon acquired 9,000 acres and the San Francisco Canal. In 1874, he expanded the canal and irrigated a total of 4,000 acres. He bought 13 1/2 shares in the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company. He connected the Hayden Ditch to the head of the San Francisco Canal in 1894. He was one of the largest landowners in the Salt River Valley in the early 1890s, when he sued a canal company over water rights in a case that produced the landmark Kibbey Decision.
He became a naturalized citizen in 1880, in Phoenix.
Member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, c1880-1885.
He was elected as a director of the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company in October 1887, and he was elected as a director of the Southern Branch of the canal system in 1898.
After his death, there was five year legal battle over his quarter million dollar estate. Virtually all of his land was eventually sold to the Bartlett-Heard Land and Cattle Company.
BIO-Wormser
Lewis, History of Irrigation in Tempe, p. 35
HPS-232
Maricopa County Great Register, 1882
Solliday, Journey to Rio Salado, pp. 68-69
Person TypeIndividual
