HUGO O’CONÓR (1732-1779)
Most people believe that the major figures in the history of the southwestern United States are Spanish. They are correct in thinking that they served the Spanish, but not all of them were Spanish. One of the most important figures in that history was an Irishman, Hugh O’Conor, born in Dublin in 1734. He is considered the founder of the Arizona city of Tucson, based on his establishment of a presidio there in 1775.
In the long tradition of Irish adventurers and displaced people, and historically known as “The Flight of the Wild Geese,” O’Conor left Ireland when he was 16. Though many went to France, others, like O’Conor, joined the army of Spain, Europe’s other Catholic power. There, renamed “Hugo” O’Conor, he began a steady rise in the Spanish army. By 1775, he was the inspector general of outposts of New Spain. That year he decided to move the presidio of Tubac, in what is Arizona today, northward on the Santa Cruz river to the location of present-day Tucson.
On August 20, 1775, a few months after Paul Revere’s famed ride, the Spanish Crown sent Hugo O’Connor, an Irishman who came to be fondly referred to by the locals as Don Hugo O’Connor, to Tucson to survey the region, locate sites to be used as military posts (presidios), and establish trade routes. In 1775, Hugo O’Conor establishes the Tucson Presido. This year marks the official birthdate of the City of Tucson. In 1776, Don Hugo continued to established additional sites: Presidio San Agustin, a site near the center of what is now downtown Tucson. O’Conor decided on the site of San Agustín after noting that water flowed in the nearby Santa Cruz and that the surrounding mesquite bosques and mountains would provide plenty of wood. The walled Presidio San Agustin became the northernmost outpost of Spain in the New World, providing refuge for residents and travelers, and soon was nicknamed the “Old Pueblo,” an endearment still used today. In Spanish “Pueblo” means Town or Village.”
As the Apaches relentlessly attacked the isolated settlements under Hugo’s care, O’Conor’s job was twofold. He was to bring order and discipline to the remote presidios and, more importantly to Tucson’s history, establish a new “presidial line.” This string of strategically placed forts from the Baja to the Gulf of Mexico was to stamp out the Apache menace once and for all. O’Conor was a loyal officer, eager to carry out his duties, and he approached his Apache mission with vigor. So tenacious was he in his attacks on the enemy that they gave him the name el capitán colorado, The Red Captain, due in part to his red hair.
In 1880, the Southern Pacific Railroad reaches Tucson and the population reaches 8,000. Arizona becomes an official territory in 1863. Between 1867 and 1877, Tucson holds the title of territorial capitol. In 1912, Arizona becomes the 48th state in the Union.
San Xavier del Bac.
August 20, 1775
I, Hugo Oconor, knight of the order of Calatrava, colonel of infantry in His Majesty’s armies and commandant inspector of the frontier posts of New Spain
Certify that having conducted the exploration prescribed in Article three of the New Royal Regulation of Presidios issued by His Majesty on the tenth of September of 1772 for the moving of the company of San Ignacio de Tubac in the Province of Sonora, I selected and marked out in the presence of Father Francisco Garces and Lieutenant Juan de Carmona a place known as San Agustin del Tucson as the new site of the Presidio. It is situated at a distance of eighteen leagues from Tubac, fulfills the requirements of water, pasture, and wood and effectively closes the Apache frontier. The designation of the New Presidio becomes official with the signatures of myself, Father Francisco Garces, and Lieutenant Juan de Carmona, at this mission of San Xavier del Bac, on this twentieth day of August of the year 1775.
Hugo Oconor
Fray Francisco Garces
Juan Fernandez Carmona
