Chapter III.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. SAFFORD—THE STATE SUPERINTENDENCY ESTABLISHED, 1869–1879.
The law of 1868 brought to a close what may be called the first period of public education in Arizona. Little was accomplished during that period. The school system was not organized and had not yet found its leader.
This leader came in the person of Anson P. K. Safford, who on April 7, 1869, was appointed third governor of the Territory. Gov. Safford had been a member of the California House of Representatives, had been surveyor general of Nevada, and is said to have been unusually well equipped for his new position. He was governor for nearly eight years—the longest term during which any one man has as yet held the office. He is believed to have influenced the history of the Territory far more than any other executive, and was more generally supported in his efforts for the public good. Owing in part to more favorable conditions, he was also more successful than his predecessors in advancing the material interests of the Territory, but his fame as an able administrator rests mainly on his successful efforts to solve the educational problem of Arizona.
It should not be understood, however, that Gov. Safford’s task in convincing the members of the legislature of the correctness of his educational views was an easy matter, or that the vigorous, self-contained, and self-reliant men who made up that frontier legislature were won except by the strongest and soundest arguments, as the following pages will show.
His message to the legislature of 1871, the first which met during his administration, is in part an eloquent oration on the importance and necessity of education. When we consider the character of the country, the scarcity of population, the savage Apache, and the lack of all facilities for education, the sublime faith and devotion of Gov. Safford really earned the reward which posterity has recognized as being his due, and which they have in part repaid by calling one of the towns of the upper Gila Valley, in Graham County, in his honor.
Fortunately for the historian, Gov. Safford has himself told in glowing periods of this educational development; and his review, when supplemented and reenforced by his messages, presents a story well worthy of being retold for the sake of those who face difficulties less severe than those faced by Gov. Safford in 1871.
