The Rest of 1869.

Finishing out the year 1869 as one story had been written about (See April 29, How to Raise a Shepherd Dog) a few more pieces of information have been found about a few of the men engaged in sheep raising with Arizona.

In mid-February, Jim Baker had his sheep at Camp Willows but had not trekked them to the Prescott area due to bad weather conditions. By May he has his sheep in Chino Valley and was ready to start to New Mexico with Antonio V. Wanners to purchase sheep. Campbell and Buffum were reported to have sheared up to 1,600 pounds of fair quality wool. The newspaper stated that “We are glad that a commencement has been made in the business, and hope others will engage in it.” Mr. Campbell told the newspaper that sheep were doing extremely well in this country adding to the hopes of the men of the newspaper that others would soon engage in sheep raising.

The only other item for this year was for a proposal to be submitted for furnishing the military posts in the Territory with beef and mutton for the contract year, 1870.  The military stated that they would need approximately 3,000 cattle and 1,000 sheep.

We have three sheepmen who came early into Arizona and at least two, Campbell and Baker, were sheepmen into the early 1900s. It will be interesting to track them and their sheep through the rest of the 1800s. With more newspapers digitized, more early sheep history may come to light, and we may learn what happen to Buffum. But for now, this is the news for 1869.