Historic Downtown

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George Hand’s Tucson

by Ken Scoville

aily life in Downtown Tucson revolves around modern high-rise buildings, automobiles, and cell phones. The Old Pueblo of adobe buildings, dirt streets, and isolation from the outside world seems almost fictional except for photographs and personal remembrances on faded paper. The local and national media portray daily life in the context of fame, fortune, and misfortune. What doesn’t sell is the stuff of real existence that George Hand provides in his diary of daily life as a saloon keeper in 1870s Tucson. The human drama that is forever unfolding is the same for each of us: friendship and betrayal, sickness and death, love and fellowship. These are the timeless connections to the Old Pueblo that George knew. The streets are dirt, the buildings are adobe, but the human drama is the same.

George Hand was another transplant to Tucson, arriving the first time in the spring of 1862 while employed by the United States Government as a soldier for the Union. This was a passing visit for supplies and rest before reaching the Rio Grande in the fall. He never had a confrontation with a rebel soldier and spent his three-year enlistment with the California Column performing routine military endeavors in the remote regions of the Territory. George was drawn from his New York birthplace by the California Gold Rush but, like most of the other seekers, found no fortune. He arrived in Tucson for good in 1867 after several marginal business ventures, but he had begun his greatest legacy, a diary of his Civil War experience and later his life in Tucson.

The discipline involved in keeping a diary gives a clue to the personality that George possessed compared to other men involved in the saloon business. Some of his diary may have been lost or destroyed, but it is known that for the periods when he did not keep a diary, he regretted the lapse in this daily endeavor. The only diary accounts of his years as a saloon keeper are from January 1875 to December 1878. The treasures in this diary are the startlingly honest notations of the isolation, fellowship, and challenges of daily life when life itself can be so short.

Hand and his friend George Foster opened a saloon in 1869 on Main Street and by 1874 had moved the operation to the northwest corner of Mesilla and Meyer Street. This location is where the Hotel Arizona is now situated. Within blocks were all the necessities of life with the San Agustin Cathedral, Maiden Lane (red light district), Palace Hotel, Charles Brown’s saloon, Levin’s park and Zeckendorf’s store being of major importance. Prior to 1880 passengers and mail arrived by stage three times a week but the cost and hardship of the stagecoach meant that you were pretty much here for good once you arrived. Drinking, gambling, and “soiled doves” (prostitutes) were the main diversions for the male population of the Old Pueblo but friendship, compassion, and help when you were infirm kept you going. Drinking was the most affordable escape from the isolation and tedium of everyday life and everyone was getting “tight”, but the expression really meant you were affected by the alcohol but not unable to function. The saloon business would always be a business with a continuous clientele.

New Year’s Day in 1875 was a time for celebration and gambling while a year later George was on the mend.

“January 1, 1875: Cold but pleasant morning. I made some eggnog. Everywhere the boys were all drunk before breakfast. I went to the races with Davis. We rode out with Sam Hughes. I got very tight [drunk]. Bought into a pool for $10. The race was a single dash of one mile. Results -- Tom Gardner’s Grey Eagle, 1. Smith Turner’s Gila Grey, 2. Jim Lee’s Grey, 3. Soldier’s horse, 4. Red Fox, 5. I won every bet. We rode home with Frank Griffen. Everyone was drunk all evening. I went home with Bedford and slept with the sister of Bernardo. Expenses today $10.00. Won on Grey Eagle $48.00.”

“January 1, 1876: Got up at 8:30 in the morning. My eye was very sore and much swollen by the fall yesterday. I carried a drink to Clark and McCaffry who are both on a spree. Took a few drinks myself. Made a few calls, mostly on saloons. Spent nearly the whole day in my room with Charley White, the mail carrier. Jim Quinlin’s wagons left today and took Smith. There was a funeral this afternoon and several dances tonight. Went to bed early with a raw-potato poultice on my eye.”

Back to January of 1875 there is an intimate look at daily life.

“January 13, 1875: Nothing of importance transpired today. John Justice left on his ear [fighting mad] for Cal. Cruz -- $5.00.” [Hand recorded his dealings with prostitutes in this manner.]

How cold was it?

“January 17, 1876: Very cold -- froze the water in the ollas. Sent papers to Bradley, Nickerson, and Roberts. One stage came in from the east, another left for the west. Had dinner by candlelight. Closed at 8:30 o’clock. Morgan and I sat by the fire in my room. I read an oration by George W. Curtis given at Concord on the anniversary of the battle on the 19th of April, 1775.”

The Old Pueblo that George Hand left us in his diary is gone. There are just a handful of buildings that have survived to remind us of the town George lived and loved in while he was a saloon keeper. The saloon he owned with George Foster is gone along with his neighborhood, thanks to urban renewal. Even his remains have been moved twice for real estate development.

George Hand died on May 4, 1887. His last diary entry read: “April 25, 1887: Cool morning. Feel better this morning. Slept none last night.”

Diary entries quoted here are from the masterful effort of Neil Carmony, “Whiskey, Six-guns & Red-light Ladies: George Hand’s Saloon Diary, Tucson, 1875-1878.”

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