Home > Carnegie Center > Arizona Women's Hall of Fame > Inductees > Elias, Eulalia
Eulalia Elias
1788 - 1865
Inducted in 1982
Captain Francisco Elias Gonzalez de Zaya, a Spaniard, came to Mexico in
1729 at the age of 12. From this Spanish army captain descended the Elias
family that for six generations produced important figures in the military,
religious, governmental and economic life of Arizona and the Mexican states
of Chihuahua and Sonora. The family contributed a president of Mexico,
two governors of Sonora, a governor of Chihuahua and several priests of
the church in Mexico.
As landowners and ranchers, the various members of the Elias family acquired
and operated no less than 30 large land grants and ranches in Sonora and
southern Arizona between 1766 and 1855. One member of this remarkable
family was Eulalia Elias, who was born in Arizpe, Sonora, in 1786. She
spent 16 years managing the Babocomari land grant in southeast Arizona.
It was the first major cattle ranching operation in what would eventually
become a major industry in Arizona.
The family's expansion into the area began in 1827. That year, Eulalia
and her brother Ignacio Elias took advantage of Mexico's 1824 Law of Colonization
to purchase a tract of land on the San Pedro River. The following year
they purchased approximately 130,000 acres a few miles north of the present
day city of Sierra Vista. This land was referred to as the San Juan de
Babocomari grant. The title to the grant was issued by the treasurer general
of Sonora, Mexico, on December 25, 1832.
In the spring of 1833, the Eliases began construction of a fortified hacienda
on Babocomari Creek. The hacienda was built of adobe and consisted of 15
foot high walls that formed a square about 100 feet long on each side.
There was only one entrance, a gate on the east side. The interior of the
square was lined with rooms, the roofs of which formed a fighting platform
behind the wall. The layout was typical of the early fortified haciendas
on Mexico's northern frontier.
The administration of the ranch at Babocomari was handled primarily by
Eulalia and her brother Juan Elias, a priest. The Elias women were not
the secluded and protected ladies of old Spain; they played an active role
in managing the family's ranches, stores and agricultural holdings.
The Eliases grazed thousands of cattle and horses on the lush grasslands
that extended from the Santa Rita Mountains to the San Pedro River. By
1840, the Baboconiari ranch apparently supported 40,000 head of cattle.
But after 18 years of relative prosperity, the family's fortunes turned. By
the end of the 1840s, Ignacio had died and two of the Elias brothers had
been killed by Apaches. The Indian raids, which were more and more frequent,
took their toll. In 1849 the family was forced to abandon the hacienda
and return to Arizpe in Sonora.
Just two years later, J.R. Bartlett, head of the U.S. Boundary Commission,
which was charged with establishing the international boundary line between
the United States and Mexico, stopped at the Babocomari ranch. He wrote
the following account:
"The valley of the Babocomari, is here from a quarter to half a mile
in breadth, and covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. The stream which
is about twenty feet wide winds through this valley, with willows and large
cottonwood trees growing along its margin ... This hacienda, as I afterwards
learned, was one of the largest cattle establishments in the State of Sonora.
The cattle roamed the entire length of the valley, and at the time it was
abandoned there were no less than forty thousand head, besides a large
number of horses. The same cause which led to the abandonment of so many
other ranches and villages, had been the ruin of this. The Apaches encroached,
drove off the animals and murdered their herdsmen. The owners, to save
the rest, drove them (the cattle) further into the interior and left the
place. Many cattle and horses remained, however, and ranged over the hills
and valleys nearby. From these, numerous wild herds have sprung which now
cover the entire length of the San Pedro and its tributary, the Babocomari."
Eulalia died in Arizpe on August 6, 1865, at the age of 79. She was buried
with the cofounder of Babocomari, her brother Ignacio, in the cemetery
at Arizpe.
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