(Unknown Author)

Arizona’s first Democratic Executive was a hostage at Nacozari when he was made governor.

(1915) – M. T. Donovan, better known as “Doc” Donovan, a Tucson man, and scout, courier, and detective under General Crook, one of the handiest men with a gun in the pioneer days was the man sent to Sonora to bring out the new governor.

It all happened this way: Grover Cleveland had been an intimate friend of C. Meyer Zulick when the latter was a surrogate in New York. When there was a vacancy in the office of governor of Arizona, President Cleveland knew that Judge Zulick was somewhere in this state and sent the nomination of his friend to the Senate.

At the time the mines at Nacozari were being operated by Richardson Brothers at Newark, N.J. “Doc” Donovan was their Arizona manager, and Mr. Zulick had been sent down to Nacozari to look after their interests on the ground. The company fell into financial troubles and Mr. Zulick was detained at Nacozari as a hostage by the authorities until his employers should pay their debts and the wages of the men that had been working for them.

W. K. Meade, who was living in Tombstone in 1885, during the halcyon days of that camp, received a telegram that he had been appointed U.S. marshal by President Cleveland and that C. Meyer Zulick had been named governor. He looked up “Doc” Donovan, who at that time was running a cattle ranch in the Sulphur Springs Valley and interested at Nacozari, and asked him if he could locate Meyer Zulick. “Doc” told the new marshal that Zulick was held in bondage at the Sonora mining camp. “Well then, you must get him out,” replied Meade. “If there is one man in Arizona who can do the job, you are that man.” Meade was familiar with the record which Donavan had made under Crook in Wyoming and Arizona.

Donovan was eager to tackle the job of bringing the new governor out of Sonora and accordingly, Meade secured a team of mules and a mountain wagon. It was loaded up with small arsenal and plenty of provisions and Donovan set out for Nacozari. He had made the trip many times and was familiar with every foot of the way. He arranged it so as to reach the Mexican mining camp after midnight and pulled up near the house where C. Meyer Zulick was living, along about 2 a.m. He knocked at Zulick’s door and succeeded in awakening him. Great was Zulick’s surprise on seeing Doc Donovan at that time of night, but he hastily obeyed Donovan’s orders to pack his grip and jump in the mountain wagon, and in a short time, they were headed for the American line.

Not until they made camp on the American side a few miles above what is now the city of Douglas, did “Doc” break the news to his new governor. “C. Meyer Zulick,” he said “I have something to say to you.” Zulick straightened up, not knowing what to expect, when Donovan said, “C. Meyer Zulick, governor of Arizona, I congratulate you.” The short and stock Dutchman was literally taken off his feet. He actually shed tears when he realized the full import of Donovan’s remarks and promised the man, who had brought him out of Sonora, any office from lieutenant governor down.

And so the two went on to Tombstone. When they pulled up at the Occidental hotel at that camp, hundreds of men crowded around the wagon, and Zulick was borne on their shoulders to the hotel lobby. That night Tom Gregory and his wife, who has a restaurant in Tombstone, gave a great dinner for the new governor at which all of the notables in the camp were invited, and “Doc” Donovan came in for his share of the glory for rescuing the new governor from Sonora and carrying him safely to American soil.

“Doc” Donovan afterward served as a Deputy Field Marshal under both Meade and McCord and is today considering an offer to re-enter the government service, where he first served under Crook, and during all of the Indian campaigns in Arizona from 1875 to 1887. When he is not serving Uncle Sam, Mr. Donovan devotes his time to mining and makes his home in Tucson.

Published on Bisbee Daily Review
Bisbee, Arizona, February 10, 1915
Vol. 17, No. 213

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