Papers of Joseph Thomas McKinney
Note from Henry Roberts Concerning a Slave
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: 1841-1927 bulk (bulk 1841-1887)
Autobiographical sketch, letter, and documents. The 19-page sketch includes his involvement as a law enforcement officer in the Graham- Tewksbury feud; and a letter, 1927, to his son describes a hanging at the Arizona State Prison at Florence. Also present are deeds, tax receipts, certificates of land purchases, bills of sale for slaves during the 1840s, and other documents relating to his grandfather, Joseph Thomas Cook, in Arkansas in Alabama, and to his uncle, J.W. Cook, in Texas.
Joseph Thomas McKinney was born June 20th 1858 in Arkansas. McKinney was a pioneer and law enforcement officer in the Arizona territory. He arrived in Arizona in 1885 and worked for the Wabash Cattle Company in St. Johns for about a year. In 1885 he was appointed undersheriff of Apache County by Commodore Perry Owens and several years later he became Constable for Winslow. Joseph T. McKinney ranched in Fort Thomas until he moved to Bowie, Arizona in 1896. In 1905 he relocated to Yuma where he became a guard at the state pen. He died at the age of 90 in 1948.
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