Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/13

Rh There was, however, at least one such school in operation during the earlier years of American dominion, for Gov. Goodwin mentions it in his message to the first assembly in September, 1864. This was the mission of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson.

McClintock states that a Catholic school was established at Tucson in 1866 under a teacher named Vincent, and that in 1870 the Sisters of St. Joseph organized a girls’ school there and erected buildings. Of this school for girls Hamilton says:

In view of these conditions, and with the exception of the two schools mentioned above, one of which was for Indians and the other for girls, in matters of education, the men who organized the Territory of Arizona at Navajo Springs in December, 1863, and began laying the foundations for an American public-school system, found among the white settlers of American origin a field practically unoccupied. What, then, was the origin and race of the white settlers and what were the conditions which the advocates of the American public school found in Arizona?