He named Phoenix, Tempe, and Kyrene
He was known as Lord Duppa,
Darell Duppa seemed to be out of place on the Arizona frontier. He spoke five languages, kept a well worn library, read Roman and Greek classics in the original language, and frequently quoted Shakespeare1 He spoke English with care and precision with an accent seldom heard on the frontier. However, like many frontiersmen, he was not concerned with tidiness, formality of dress, or genteel manners. Also, like many, he liked his whiskey,2 leading to intoxication and brawling.3
Bryan Philip Darell Duppa was born in France in 1832.4 He was the fourth child and second son of Frank and Catherine Darell Duppa. The family were landed gentry, but were not aristocracy. They were living in France to lower expenses, as Frank’s father, Baldwin Duppa, was still alive and controlled the family estates. The family returned to England, and Frank began practicing law as a barrister. A major part of his practice involved advising Baldwin about the financial problems of the estate. Frank was also very active in school reform, which probably accounts for Darell’s extensive knowledge. Unfortunately, Frank Duppa died when Darell was seven years old. This meant that Darell’s older brother, Franky was in line to inherit the Duppa holdings. However, if he died childless, then Darell would inherit the estate.
Like most younger sons, upon maturity, Darell had to fend for himself, having no
inheritance. He went to New Zealand and went to work for his father’s younger brother
George, who had built up a large estate and amassed a fortune shipping wool and wood
to England. However, Imitable Darell’s Happy-
When Darell’s grand father died, the estate went to Darell’s older brother. In a complicated will, Darell received very little. When Uncle George moved to England to try to purchase the ancestral estate, Darell went to America.5
In 1863 Duppa came to Arizona from California.6 He lived in Prescott, where he worked at mining. His assets were listed at $800.7 In 1867 Duppa arrived in Phoenix with the first settlers. He helped build the Swilling Ditch8 and homesteaded 175 acres adjacent to the Phoenix townsite.9 He built a house at 115 W. Sherman, which is the oldest house in Phoenix today.
Rumors abounded about Duppa’s past. He was reputed to have been a colonel in the British army who killed another officer in a duel. Another rumor stated that he came to America because of a failed romance.10 He was also supposed to be a member of the French Aristocracy, the son of a Count who was banished to America because he had participated in the French Revolution.11 [This is obviously absurd, as the French Revolution began over 40 years before his birth] Because of these rumors, and coupled with his accent, bearing, and education, he became known as Lord Darell Duppa.12
Duppa was far from being a mild fainthearted dandy. He was a brave frontiersman and a ferocious fighter. He was “not afraid of man or devil. Three bullet wounds received in three different fights with the Apaches attested his grit.”13 In one battle, he and Dr. Aslap14 were attacked by a large band of Tonto Apaches. Duppa was wounded by an arrow. As he aimed at the shooter, the Indian cried, “Don’t shoot!’ It was too late, as Duppa had already pulled the trigger. After the battle, they discovered that the supposed Indian was a white woman. Nothing more about her could be learned.15
Duppa moved from Phoenix to today’s New River on the Agua Fria River, and established a stage station. He lived in a crude one room ramada. When asked why he chose to live in such a forlorn spot, he answered that the Apaches had attacked him as he was approaching the area. After he had repulsed them, he decided to stay there to let them know he could do it.16
He returned to Phoenix and grew more eccentric as he aged. “At times he would go
off in the mountains and stay until his hair came down to his shoulders and sometimes
when he came back he didn’t look like a human.”17 His friend John Cady related that,
“He would appear with a few thousand dollars, more or less, spend every cent of
it in treating the boys in my house [saloon].” “He used to sing La Marseillaise -
When his brother died, Darell inherited the family estate in England. The family sent his younger brother John to convince him to return, but he told John to return to England “satisfied that I will never return.”19 When he was asked why he did not return to England to his inheritance, he replied, “It is useless at this time of life. To do so would require a radical change in my life, and I have lived so many years on the frontiers of civilization that I how have no desire to again assume the life and the attendant responsibilities which would fall to my lot should I return to England.” 20
Duppa was reported to have drowned in the great Salt River flood of 1891. However, he and four others, turned up in Phoenix the day after the flood. They had build a five foot embankment around their house, saving both themselves and the house.21 He only lived another year. On January 30, 1892 he died at the age of 59 and was buried in the Odd Fellows section of the Old City cemetery in Phoenix.22
Duppa was one of the pioneers of central Arizona and was one of the founding fathers of Phoenix. He had traveled the world, worked as a farmer, miner, and stage station agent. He had a classical education and spoke at least five languages. But, he is best known for naming Phoenix and Tempe. He is also credited with naming Kyrene.
A name was needed for the new settlement on the Salt River. One suggestion was to call it Stonewall. Another was to call it Salina.23 Duppa spoke up and said Phoenix would be a good name. “Today’s civilization rises from the ashes of the past.”24 “Prehistoric cities, now in ruins, are all around you; a prehistoric civilization existed in this valley. Let the new city arise from the ashes of those ruins.” “After Duppa explained the meaning of the word, all agreed that Phoenix was the very name, and so, ‘Phoenix, Salt River Valley’ was written for the first time.”25
This place is varied with many beautiful recesses; not the works of art, but of spontaneous
nature, whose embellishments appear to have been studiously lavished on this favoured
spot; for copious and thick ivy, like the spreading vine, twines up the highest trees,
while the rocks are shaded by abundant verdues, refreshing to the eye. Within the
vale are many forests and retired spots, which in the heat of summer refresh and
alleviate the weary traveller. Frequent rivulets and springs, of the best and coolest
water, strengthen those who bathe in them. The slow and sluggish Peneois flows through
the vale as smooth as oil. The thick foliage of the trees, with their wide-
Tempe was originally called Hayden’s Ferry, and the small community a few hundred yards to the east was called San Pablo. In 1879, when Duppa saw the Butte, the river and the expanse of irrigated fields, he said that it reminded him of the Vale of Tempe in Greece.26
However, one wonders if Duppa had ever visited the Vale of Tempe. The Vale is a narrow gorge, through which the river Peneois flows. It is about six miles long, 90 to 165 feet wide, with cliffs rising 1650 feet above the river.27 It is described in the Works of Lord Byron:
The Salt River next to the Hayden Butte in Tempe, even at its most lush, cannot be described as having rivulets flowing into the river. The only tributary flowing into the Salt river in the “gorge,” Indian Bend Wash, normally has no water. Nor, are there growths of thick ivy, or many forests of thick foliage. Tempe Butte rises to a height of 330 feet, not 1650 feet above the river, and that is only on the south side. The peak on the north side of the river rises only 100 feet above the river. The length of the gorge is at most one half of a mile.29 Pictures of the Vale do not show a resemblance. Even pictures from Duppa’s era fail to show a resemblance.
Darell Duppa is also credited with naming Kyrene. The Kyrene area is generally considered to be from Guadalupe Road south to Pecos Road, and from Price Road west to Priest Road.30 The original site of Kyrene was at Warner and McClintock Roads. Later it was moved to Warner and Kyrene Roads. Most of Kyrene is in Tempe today. It was named after either Cyrene in Libya or Kyrenia on the island of Cyprus. “What relevance Duppa may have seen between the area south of Tempe and a seaport on the Mediterranean is hard to understand.”31
The port of Kyrenia has less resemblance to the flat desert area of Kyrene. It was a bustling seaport and vivrant city. “It can be said in Duppa’s defense that even though Cyprus and Libya border a great sea and there is no sea near our area, the climate and the land along the Mediterranean are similar to that of Kyrene.”32
Perhaps “Lord Duppa” considered his place names a good joke on the unsophisticated frontiersmen of Arizona. An incident in the 1860’s may give some insight into this. Duppa, Jack Swilling and Dr. J. T. Alsap went prospecting in the Sierra Estrella mountains, south of Phoenix. They climbed the highest peak in their wanderings. After their descent, Duppa realized that he had left a prospector’s hammer on the summit. He remarked that some day someone would find that hammer and this would cause the residents to engage in endless speculation about how the hammer could have gotten there.33 Perhaps he wished the same thing for those thinking about the names of Tempe and Kyrene.
Duppa Names Tempe
Kyrene
Notes
1. “Lord Darrell Duppa,” http://www.thenaturalamerican.com/lord_duppa.htm.
2. Stanley R. Mathews and Elwyn Ll Evans, “The Father of Arizona,” The Journal of Arizona History, Vol 29. Number 3, p.225.
3. Ibid, p. 224
4. United States Department of the Interior, Arizona and New Mexico Territories Census, 1864.
5. Mathews and Evans, p. 230-
6. Thomas Edwin Farish, History of Arizona, Filmer Brothers Electrotype Company, 1918, Vol. VI, Chapter IV, p. 74.
7. United States Department of the Interior, Arizona and New Mexico Territories Census, 1864.
8. Farish, Vol. VI, Chapter IV, p. 71-
9. Farish, Vol VI, Chapter IV, p. 75
10. “Lord Darrell Duppa,” ibid.
11. John H. Cady, Arizona’s Yesterday, NP, 1916. p. 77.
12. “What is the Origin of the name, Kyrene?” Tempe Historical Museum, http://www.tempe.gov/museum/Tempe_history/basics
/faq.htm.
13. John G. Bourke, On the Border With Crook, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1892, p. 173.
14. Dr. John T. Alsap was the first treasurer of Arizona Territory, built the first saloon in Prescott, and was a prospector who was
involved in many skirmishes with the Apaches.
15. “A White Woman as an Apache Warrior,” The Yuma Times, quoted in Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, Ohio, Sept. 17, 1894.
16. Bourke, p. 174.
17. Farish, Vol II, Chapter XII, p. 259, Narrative of Mary Gray.
18. Cady, p. 77-
19. Farish, Vol VI chapter XII, p. 258
20. Farish, Vol. VI, Chapter IV, pp. 80-
21. “A number of Missing Ones Found All Right-
22. http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/az/obits/1892.txt.
23. Mathews and Evans, p. 236.
24. Farish, Vol. VI, Chapter IV, p. 74.
25. Mathews and Evans, p. 236-
26. “How Did Tempe Get Its Name?” Tempe Historical Museum, http://www.Tempe.gov/museum/Tempe_history/basics/name.htm
27. Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-
28. W. Brockedon, Finder’s Illustrations of the Life and works of Lord Byron, Vol.
II, NP, 1833, pp. 8-
29. Topo USA 6.0, PN20 Edition, Delorme, 2006, The top of the butte is 1439 feet, the lake at the base is 1151 feet in elevation.
30, Ben Furlong, The Story of Kyrene, NP, ND, p. 17.
31. Ibid, p. 19.
32. Ibid.
33. “Lord Duppa’s Hammer,” Arizona Republican, May 17, 1906.