Tom Childs, Jr. (10 June 1870 – 5 February 1951) was an Arizona miner and rancher.

Biography

He was born in Arizona City (renamed Yuma), Arizona. His father was Tom Childs, Sr. His mother was Mary Thornberry. Thomas Childs, Sr. was a teamster, stage coach station manager, prospector, miner and rancher in Arizona having entered the territory by 1850. They finally settled on Lytle Creek near present

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 ce ...

. When he was 18 years old he joined a party heading for Sonora. After following the "Camino del Diablo" to Sonoita, Sonora, on the U.S.-Mexican border, the party went on to the Cubabi mines where they split up. In the years that followed, he did everything from running a sawmill in the

Santa Rita Mountains The Santa Rita Mountains ( O'odham: To:wa Kuswo Doʼag), located about 65 km (40 mi) southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km (26 mi) from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastwards into the Pat ...

south of

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, to digging for silver at the famous Planchas de Plata below

Nogales, Sonora Heroica Nogales (), more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and the county seat of the Municipality of Nogales. It is located on the northern border of the Mexican state of Sonora. The city is abutted on its north by the city of Nogales, Arizo ...

. In 1875, the Childs family moved to

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

, to start the children in school. After Mrs. Mary Childs died, they moved to

Ajo, Arizona Ajo ( ) is an unincorporated community in Pima County, Arizona, United States. It is the closest community to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The population was 3,304 at the 2010 census. Ajo is located on State Route 85 just from the ...

. The elder Childs had wandered by there in 1850 while looking for the

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

deposits that Mexicans in Sonora had told him about. The Childs family went to Ajo to get a start in the

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

business but never got far away from mining. Both elder and younger Childs located the first mines at

in 1887. At first they were in partnership with the Shotwell-Calado Company, but their money soon gave out. After another try with the St. Louis Copper Company, they decided to handle it by themselves. In 1912, they sold out their holdings to the Calumet and Arizona Company. Later this firm became a part of the

Phelps Dodge Corporation Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the o ...

. The Childs post office and station of the

Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend Railroad The Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend Railroad went from Gila Bend, Arizona to Ajo, Arizona. The railroad was incorporated in 1915 for use by the New Cornelia mine at Ajo. Originally, the railroad was intended to connect to Tucson. The railroad was ...

was named for Childs. Tom Childs, Jr. established a ranch in the mesquite thickets of

Tenmile Wash Tenmile Wash is an ephemeral wash and watercourse about long in the northern Sonoran Desert of south-central Arizona. It forms the eastern drainage of a two drainage system of dry washes into the Gila River Valley; both flow northwesterly, and th ...

near Ajo, Arizona. During this time, he began to take an interest in his Tohono O'odham neighbors. The Tohono O'odham knew him as "Muta" ("Woodpecker's nest inside of a

Saguaro The saguaro (, ) (''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountai ...

"). He married a tribe member, Martina Thomas, with whom he had twelve children. One of his daughters, Fillman Childs Bell, became a published author and respected historian. Tom Childs Jr died at the New Cornelia Hospital in Ajo and was buried next to his wife at the Childs Cemetery on the Ten Mile Ranch north of Ajo.

References

Other sources

* Bill Hoy (1999
"Don Tomás and Tomasito: The Childs Family Legacy in Southern Arizona"
(''The Journal of Arizona History'', Vol. 40, No. 1), pp. 1–28) {{DEFAULTSORT:Childs, Tom 1870 births People from Yuma, Arizona Year of death missing Arizona pioneers People from Pima County, Arizona

Biography

See also

References

Other sources