Obituary from
the Arizona
Daily Star, December 23, 1888
Patrick Hamilton was born in January, 1843, in County Cork, Ireland. According to his newspaper obituary, he and his parents arrived in New York in 1846, at the beginning of the Irish Potato Famine. He received a liberal education in New York schools.
At age 20, he went west to Colorado, where fur trapping had given way to prospecting. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hamilton claimed to have joined the 3rd Colorado Volunteer Infantry and participated in several engagements. However, no evidence of his actual enlistment has been discovered. Possibly he was employed in some civilian capacity.
Hamilton was in Arizona by 1876, and the 1880 federal census records him as a miner in Prescott. He became a member of the Correspondents’ Club and went into the newspaper business, managing the Prescott Democrat before buying The Expositor.
Hamilton had hoped to be named Arizona’s territorial secretary, but the legislature appointed him Commissioner of Immigration instead. His duties included compiling a comprehensive list of Arizona’s natural resources with a view toward dispelling the image of Arizona as a vast wasteland and encouraging people to settle there.
Hamilton threw himself into the project enthusiastically, moving to Tombstone to report on the silver mining boom there. Having earned a reputation for colorful editorials in his newspaper, the Tombstone Independent, he got crosswise of Samuel Purdy, editor of the rival Tombstone Epitaph. in September 1882, Purdy challenged Hamilton to a duel. Since dueling was illegal in Arizona, the two men crossed the border into Sonora. The entire incident came to naught, however, as they could not come to an agreement about which pistols to use.
While in Tombstone, Hamilton made the acquaintance of a widow, Mrs. Frances McBride, and they declared their intention to marry. They finally achieved their objective on September 2, 1886 in San Diego.
Between 1881 and 1886, Hamilton travelled extensively throughout Arizona, first writing and then updating his 270-page book, The Natural Resources of Arizona. It was well-received and went through several editions, with over 10,000 copies printed. An inveterate Arizona ‘booster’, Hamilton had excerpts published in Arizona and California newspapers.
Like so many others, Hamilton contracted tuberculosis and died in Phoenix on December 20, 1888, of a pulmonary hemorrhage. He was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery. There is no marker.
- Donna L. Carr
