1879 Letter from Tucson Mayor James H. Toole Attempting to Tender His Resignation, with an Anti-Semitic Note from C.R. Drake.
Fort Apache, Arizona: May 1879. Single 5 x 7 ½ inch page on War Department letterhead. Folded with tears at folds; excellent. Item #List2861
An 1879 letter from Tucson Mayor James H. Toole to City Councilman Charles Rivers Drake. Toole (1824–1884) was a merchant from New York who went to California for the gold rush in 1849 before settling in Tucson. There, besides business, he held a number of posts including four terms as Mayor, from 1873–1875 and 1878–1879. He writes here to Charles Rivers Drake (1811–1889), a fellow businessman who was at the time a City Councilor. Toole and Drake were instrumental in Tucson becoming a stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1884, following the failure of the Hudson & Co. Bank which Toole had co-founded, he fatally shot himself in the heart.
Here, Toole tells Drake that he is resigning as mayor:
“I have to return to this pace and perhaps to to Santa Fe I send my resignation as mayor present to next regular meeting. Call election – H.S. Stevens good candidate”
H.S. Stevens is probably Hiram Sanford Stevens (1832–1893). Stevens was a merchant, cattle rancher, mine owner, moneylender, and politician. He served in the 5th, 6th, and 7th Arizona Territorial Legislatures and as a delegate to the House from 1874 to 1879. In 1893 Stevens also fatally shot himself due to business losses, though not without first attempting to murder his wife. Drake, before forwarding Toole’s letter to Stevens, wrote in pencil at the bottom:
“H.S. Stevens, For Gods sake run for mayor + not let the office go into the hands of the Jews–”
According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, the total Jewish population in all of Arizona in 1880 was fifty individuals. It seems that Toole served out his full term after all, and was succeeded in 1880 by Robert Leatherwood – a Baptist.
Price: $850.00
Status: On Hold