Charles Debrille Poston (April 20, 1825 â€" June 24, 1902) was an
American explorer, prospector, author, politician, and civil servant.
He is referred to as the "Father of Arizona" due to his efforts
lobbying for creation of the territory. Poston was also Arizona
Territory's first Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.Poston
was born near Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Temple and Judith Debrille
Poston. His father was a printer and he served as a printer's devil.
Poston was orphaned at the age of twelve, and was apprenticed to the
local county clerk, Samuel Haycraft. Following his apprenticeship, he
moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he clerked for the Tennessee
Supreme Court while reading law. Poston married Haycraft's daughter,
Margaret, in November 1849 and the couple had a daughter, Sarah Lee
Poston, who reached adulthood. Margaret Poston became paralyzed on
February 12, 1851, possibly from a stroke while giving birth to a
second child, and was cared for by relatives until her death from
cancer on February 26, 1884. On July 27, 1885, Poston married former
newspaper typesetter Martha "Mattie" Tucker. The couple separated
shortly afterwards, but there is no evidence they ever divorced.Poston
traveled to California as part of the Gold Rush and took a clerk
position at the San Francisco Customs House in February 1851. Poston
was demoted in 1853 and complained that his replacement was a
professional gambler and political appointee. While at this job, he
became involved with a group of French bankers interested in the lands
of the recently negotiated Gadsden Purchase. In late 1853, with the
bankers' backing, Poston joined with mining engineer Herman Ehrenberg
to organize an expedition into the territory Mexico was expected to
sell to the United States. Taking a ship from San Francisco, the two
became shipwrecked near the Mexican port of Guaymas. They were then
detained temporarily by Mexican authorities as suspected filibusters
before heading north to the Gadsden territory. The expedition visited
San Xavier del Bac and Ajo, collecting mineral samples along the way,
before traveling down the Gila River. At Fort Yuma, a U.S. Army post
near the confluence of the Gila and Colorado River, Poston first met
the fort's commander Major Samuel P. Heintzelman. While at Fort Yuma
Poston surveyed a townsite on the south side of the river a mile below
the fort, at Jaeger's Ferry. Poston sold the townsite called Colorado
City for $20,000 when he returned to San Francisco.After returning to
San Francisco, Poston left for the East Coast in search of capital to
fund a mining operation in the newly acquired territory. After several
unsuccessful attempts, he was introduced to several Cincinnati, Ohio
investors by Heintzelman. On March 24, 1856, US$2 million was secured
to found the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company with Heintzelman as
company president and Poston as managing supervisor. The company set
up headquarters in Tubac, Arizona and began mining operations in the
nearby Santa Rita Mountains and elsewhere. Poston served as alcalde of
the settlement and became known as "Colonel" Poston in the town of
roughly 800 people. Using the authority granted to him by the
government of New Mexico Territory, he printed his own money and
officiated over marriages, divorces, and the baptisms of children.
This continued until Father Macheboeuf, the vicar of Bishop
Jean-Baptiste Lamy, was sent from Santa Fe to investigate the
goings-on in Tubac. The validity of the marriages Poston had performed
was questioned by the vicar, and a US$700 donation made before Father
Macheboeuf sanctified the unions. Charles Poston's brother, John, was
murdered by Mexican outlaws at Cerro Colorado in southern Arizona, the
town was established by Charles Poston. Charles Debrille Poston Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter