Anson Peacely-Killen Safford, prominent for his mining ventures, served as the third territorial governor of Arizona from 1869-1877.
A native of Hyde Park, Vermont, he ventured to California to participate in its gold rush during the early 1850s. He later served as a mining recorder in Nevada before accepting the nomination as governor of Arizona Territory by President Ulysses S. Grant.
His nomination was at the request of powerful railroad promoters including Coles Bashford who, like Safford, was also a fellow incorporator of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Safford is known for his focus on law, order and education during his political tenure.
But it was his mining ventures and unequivocal support for the railroads that secured him financial stability and helped exploit Arizona’s mineral wealth at the dawn of the Industrial Era. A notable “grubstaker,” Safford provided financing for prospectors in return for a percentage of their earnings in the claims they staked.
The Trench Mine, patented in 1873, was one of the mines Safford, along with business associates R.N. Leatherwood, John W. Hopkins, Dr. J.C. Handy and Thomas Gardner, took an active interest in . It was known for a 4- to 10-foot vein of argentiferous galena and employed up to 50 men in the Patagonia Mountains.
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