In 1768, Spanish soldiers from the presidio of Tucson started a small settlement called La Cebadilla in the Rincon Mountains overlooking the San Pedro Valley, at a place now known as Redington Pass. Soldiers and Indians intermittently tended a farm along the San Pedro River at Tres Alamos to supply food for the presidio. In the late 1830s, Mexican settlers started a more permanent farming operation at Tres Alamos, and transported their produce to Tucson under the protection of an escort of presidial soldiers.
Around 1860, the four sons of Jose Calistro Soza settled in the San Pedro Valley, where they established a prosperous ranch. By 1870, Placido and Juan had sold their share of the land to their brothers, Antonio and Nicolas, and moved to the Salt River Valley. As other Hispanic families moved into the area, Antonio Soza generously extended his hospitality and became a leader of the fledgling community. He later built an adobe chapel, La Capilla de San Antonio de Padua de Lisboa, a grist mill, and a school, and hired a teacher to instruct the children of the settlement. The Soza ranch became the center of social activity for the isolated farmers.
In December of 1865, six Anglo ranchers from Tucson established a short-lived community in the San Pedro Valley. A year later they harvested 400,000 pounds of wheat, barley, and corn, which was hauled to Tucson. But after an Apache attack, most of these newcomers left the area. The Hispanic families that stayed continued to grow crops for their own needs, rather than for Tucson. They raised wheat, oats, chiles, pinto beans, garbanzos, tepary beans, and melons. Some, such as Epimenio Salazar and Lauriano and Juana Moraga, moved farther downstream to the Arivaipa Canyon area, and farmed there until 1871, when the Camp Grant Apache reservation was created and they were forced to leave. In 1875, two brothers from New York, Lem and Henry Redfield, built a new village in the valley. All of the valley settlements soon became known as Redington.
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Copyright © Scott Solliday 2002