CHAPTER XIII.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS (Continued).

WELLS AND OSBORN PARTY-BIOGRAPHY OF E. W. WELLS SETTLEMENTS IN WILLIAMSON VALLEY, WALNUT GROVE, KIRKLAND VALLEY, PEEPLES VALLEY AND SKULL VALLEYSHABBY TREATMENT OF SETTLERS BY THE GOVERNMENT "MINER" EDITORIAL-FIRST MORMON SETTLEMENTS-HINES' DITCHWOOLSEY AND MARTIN PURCHASE AGUA CALIENTE RANCH-TAKE OUT DITCH-BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE MARTIN.

The Wells and Osborn party, of which E. W. Wells was captain, and John P. Osborn, James M. Swetnam, Joseph Ehle and others, were members, was organized in Colorado, and arrived in Prescott in July, 1864. Captain Wells remained in the Territory about three years, when he returned to the East. John P. Osborn was accompanied by his wife and seven children. Osborn had three or four ox teams, all loaded down with flour, hams and bacon, also a herd of cattle. Most of the cattle the Indians confiscated. Mr. Osborn sold the remainder to butchers in Prescott. When Mr. Osborn arrived at Prescott, bacon was worth seventy-five cents a pound, flour a dollar, and so on, which gave him quite a capital to commence business. As has already been stated, he built the first hotel in Prescott, and afterwards took a prominent part in laying out the city of Phoenix. He was born in Tennessee on the 25th of March, 1815, and was eighty-five years old at the time of his death.