Isaac T. Stoddard
Isaac Taft Stoddard (January 19, 1851 – November 10, 1914) was an American businessman. Born in the State of New York, he started in the insurance industry there and in Connecticut before turning his attention to copper mining in the Arizona Territory. He owned either personally or with investors several mines in Yavapai County, built the first smelter in that part of the state, and secured the investment of over $1,000,000 in the mines to increase production. Another business venture was assisting out-of-territory corporations in incorporating in the territory. He served as the twelfth Secretaryof the Arizona Territory from 1902 to 1904, but was forced to resign amid criticism over conflict between this business and his position as Secretary. He continued in mining and incorporating, and later became president of a telephone and telegraph company.
Stoddard was born in Triangle, New York to Roswell W. and Angelina (Taft) Stoddard on January 19, 1851. His father was a merchant; his mother was a cousin of President William Taft[1] He was educated in public schools and at the academy in Whitney Point, New York. Stoddard began reading law at the age of 12.[2] For a short time, he worked informally as an attorney practicing in local New York courts.[2] In 1874 at age 18, he then became a special agent for the Hartford Accident Company dealing with fire and accident insurance.[1] and moved from New York to Hartford, Connecticut.[2] Shortly after joining the firm he was promoted to general superintendent[3] and within three years he was the head of the legal department.[1]
During an 1878 summer vacation, Stoddard was walking on a beach in Block Island, about 13 miles (21 km) off the Rhode Island coast, when he noticed a boy in a small boat drop his oars and begin drifting out to sea. He saved the boy, who could not swim, by swimming out to the boat. The boy, John Maynard Harlan, was the son of John Marshall Harlan, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Stoddard met John Maynard Harlan 35 years later in Arizona and then learned that he was the boy he saved. John Maynard Harlan's son, John Marshall Harlan II, also became a Supreme Court justice.[4]
Around 1879, Stoddard began to develop a series of business interests in Arizona Territory.[3] These interests would grow to include two groups of patented mines and the first copper smelter in Central or Northern Arizona.[1][2] One operation was the Copper Mountain Mine, whose claim he owned along with his uncle, M. S. Taft. Stoddard organized the Copper Mountain Mining Co. in 1882 to work the mine, primarily with investors from Hartford. Taft oversaw the day-to-day operations in Arizona,[5] until he resigned in 1883, leaving Stoddard in charge.[6] The mine was located near the Agua Fria River, which provided a sufficient water supply for operating the mine and smelter.[7] Another mine was operated by the Stoddard Copper Company.[2]
Stoddard resigned from the insurance firm in 1884 and lived seasonally in both Arizona and New York City. In 1892 he moved permanently to the company town of Stoddard, Arizona Territory.[2][a]
