Died from Exposure
While going out to the milking Christmas morning Master Jack O’Keefe received a shock he will remember as long as he lives. There had been quite a fall of snow which had covered the ground to a depth of two or three inches, and loading a fleecy whiteness to the branches of all the trees. Drinking in the beauty of the scene and scuffling along in the snow without paying attention to his immediate vicinity he stumbled over a snow covered object lying across his course and fell over a dead man. Frightened half out of his wits Master Jack made for the house in hot haste and gave an alarm.
Investigation showed that the deceased was a man 55 years of age. Justice Chatham was notified and that official on viewing the body recognized the deceased as one Jose Palomares, a Mexican who lives on the road to the Santa Cruz with the Saldates, at the spring alongside the highway. He had been in town the day preceding Christmas with a load of wood, and after disposing of it he unhitched his team on the flat, tied the horses to the wagon and proceeded to tank up. It was evident that in an inebriated condition the deceased had wandered into O’Keefe’s premises, laid down under the lee of the retaining wall of the court house lot, and in the hard storm of the night died from exposure. The man was a heavy drinker and had been several times in the police court for drunkenness.
Justice Chathafm summoned a coroner’s jury who Monday viewed the body which was then removed to the Marsh undertaking rooms and afterward buried at the expense of the county. Tuesday the jury took evidence in the case and rendered a verdict accordingly.
Nogales, Circa 1911
In 1897, a railway was built connecting Benson, Arizona to Guaymas, Mexico. The rail line crossed in to Mexico at Nogales, which was then called Line City. Twin bilingual communities grew up along the railroad with lively business districts. In 1899 Santa Cruz County was created and the town of Nogales, Arizona opened its first hospital. By 1904, there were 122 telephones in town.
A significant portion of the town’s revenue came from charging customs duties on the passage of goods between foreign countries and the US., from which a healthy trade in the smuggling of goods and persons developed. In 1910, the Mexican revolution broke out, and troops were sent to Nogales, initiating a full-scale border war. The federal governments of Mexico and the US ordered the dual towns of Nogales to be divided along the border and buildings cleared for 60 feet on both sides. Mexican rebels took over the Mexican side of Nogales in 1913, and it remained under revolutionary control until 1916.