|
Florence (O'odham: S-auppag) is a town, sixty-one miles southeast of Phoenix, in the Pinal County of Arizona, United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 Florence, which is the county seat of Pinal County, is one of the oldest towns in that county and is regarded as a National Historic District with over 25 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The population of Florence was 25,536 at the 2010 census. ==History== The area where the current town of Florence is located was once inhabited by the members of the Athabascans, ancestors of the San Carlos Apache tribe.〔(Arizona Republic )〕 Prior to the establishment of the town, the Gila River served as a part of the border between the United States and Mexico. In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase extended American territory well south of the Gila. Levi Ruggles, a veteran of the American Civil War founded the town of Florence, on the southern boundary of the Gila River. He came to Arizona Territory in 1866 as a U.S. Indian Agent. Recognizing the agricultural potential of the valley, he found an easily fordable crossing on the Gila River and surveyed a townsite there. With the aid of Governor R.C. McCormick, he secured a post office in August of the same year. Ruggles held numerous public offices including that of Territorial Legislator. Listed as Historic by the Historic District Advisory Commission.〔(Lei Ruggles, Founder of Florence )〕 Florence became the government seat of Pinal County Courthouse in the newly formed Pinal County and silver was discovered at the Silver King Mine in 1875.〔(About Florence )〕 In 1870, Fred Adams founded a farming community 2 miles west from the Florence original town-site. The farming town had stores, homes a post office, a flour mill and water tanks, It was named Adamsville. In the 1900s (decade), the Gila River overflowed after a storm and ran over the banks. Most of the small town was wiped out and the residents moved to Florence. The area where the town was established is now called a Ghost town and is within the boundaries of Florence. On the junction of Highway 79 and 287. there is a historical marker telling about Adamsville.〔(Ghost towns )〕 A canal was built in the 1880s which enabled water from the Gila River to be diverted for irrigation. Farming and ranching again played a major role in Florence’s economy. All of the federal land transactions for Southern Arizona were conducted in Florence until 1881, when the Federal Land Office was moved to Tucson. In 1875, silver was discovered in the nearby mountain and the mine established there was called the Silver King Mine.〔 One of the most notable gunfights in the old American southwest occurred in Florence. Sheriff Pete Gabriel hired thirty nine year old Joseph Phy as his deputy in 1883. Gabriel decided to not run for sheriff in 1886 and supported his deputy Joseph (Joe) Phy for the job. Later Gabriel withdraw his support because of personal differences with Phy. The two friends became bitter enemies and had a confrontation on May 31, 1888 in the Tunnel Saloon. A gunfight ensued and spread to the street. Both men received gun wounds. Phy died a few hours after the fight and Gabriel 10 died years later.〔(Shootout at the Tunnel Saloon )〕 The Arizona State Prison moved to Florence in 1908 replacing the Territorial Prison in Yuma.〔 The Second Pinal County Courthouse was built in 1891. It was the site where the trials of three notorious women were presented. They were Pearl Heart, Eva Dugan and Winnie Ruth Judd, known as the "Trunk Murderess". Pearl Heart (birth surname: Hart) was an outlaw of the American Old West. She committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States; her crime gained notoriety primarily because of her gender. She was tried in 1899 and was acquitted, however the judge ordered a second trial and she was found guilty and sentenced to five years of prison. In the 1930s Eva Dugan was convicted of murder. She was sentenced to be executed by hanging at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. Her hanging resulted in her decapitation and influenced the state of Arizona to replace hanging with the lethal gas chamber as a method of execution.〔(1930: Eva Dugan ), her head jerked clean off, Executed Today]〕 Winnie Ruth Judd was a Phoenix medical secretary who was found guilty of murdering and dismembering her friends Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson over the alleged affections of her lover Jack Halloran. The jury found her guilty of first-degree murder on February 8, 1932. An appeal was unsuccessful. Her trial was marked by sensationalized newspaper coverage and suspicious circumstances. Judd was sentenced to be hanged February 17, 1933, and sent to Arizona State Prison in Florence. The sentence she received raised debate about capital punishment. The death sentence was overturned after a ten-day hearing found her mentally incompetent; she was then sent to Arizona State Asylum for the Insane on April 24, 1933.〔Arizona State Hospital History http://www.azdhs.gov/azsh/history.htm〕 In 1940, cowboy-movie star Tom Mix was killed when he lost control of his speeding Cord Phaeton convertible and rolled into a dry wash (now called the Tom Mix Wash) in Florence, Arizona. Mix, who was a regular tenant in the Ross/ Fryer-Cushman House, was returning to Florence from Tucson. There is a 2-foot–tall iron statue of a riderless horse with a plaque on the site of the accident.〔(History )〕 Located just north of Florence during World War II was a large prisoner of war camp for German and Italian prisoners of war, mainly captured during the North Africa campaign.〔("Camp Florence Days", a book and blog by a WWII guard at the Florence POW camp. )〕 Japanese Americans arrested as "enemy aliens" after the U.S. entered the war were also interned at the site.〔("Florence (detention facility)" ) ''Densho Encyclopedia'' (accessed 17 Jun 2014)〕 The prisoners picked cotton in the camp and were paid 50 cents an hour. They were not allowed to buy cigarettes, however they could buy tobacco which they rolled in paper and smoked.〔(Star )〕 McFarland State Historic Park in Ruggles Ave. has a display and information on this period of Arizona history. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Florence, Arizona」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|