George Wiley Paul Hunt walked from his Phoenix hotel to the Capitol on Feb. 14, 1912 to be sworn in as Arizona’s first governor.
A Missouri native, he’d come to the territory 30 years earlier, driving a burro, in search of gold.
The F. Ronstadt Co., Tucson’s leading wagon maker, was so buoyed by the economic prosperity it expected to follow statehood that it announced plans that February to build a new 4,000-square-foot shop.
The company’s namesake, Federico José MarÃa Ronstadt, had also arrived 30 years earlier. His father brought the 14-year-old from Mexico to apprentice at a blacksmith shop.
Hunt and Ronstadt were among the 200,000 people living in Arizona on that Valentine’s Day 1912 when we became the 48th state.
It was a prize Arizonans had hoped for since shortly after President Abraham Lincoln declared Arizona a territory, separate from New Mexico, in 1863.
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Over this year leading up to Arizona’s centennial on Feb. 14, 2012, the Star will publish a series of special sections and coverage.
We begin today with our list of 100 interesting people who made Arizona what it was by statehood. Our list leans toward Southern Arizonans because this is the oldest settled part of the state and because it was the population center back then. Southern Arizona is also what the Arizona Daily Star knows best; we’ve been covering it since our founding in 1877.
Gov. Hunt, by the way, was re-elected a record six times. Ronstadt remained both a business and community leader until his death in 1954, and descendants continue that tradition to this day.
Schedule of centennial coverage
April 10: The Old West. Tough sheriffs, cattle rustlers, stagecoach and train robbers, vigilantes, gamblers, prospectors and dancing girls. The stuff of Hollywood movies actually did take place — right here in Southern Arizona.
May 22-Aug. 29: The 100 most important sports people, teams and events in Arizona history.
Sept. 11: Southern Arizona’s oldest businesses and institutions.
Oct. 30: The Best of Arizona, from books to buildings and from artists to natural wonders.
Feb. 12, 2012: Arizona turns 100.
