James Ayres Newspaper Index
Early Southern Arizona Newspaper Index
1859-1911

Introduction
In the early 2000s, Jim Ayres began reviewing microfilm copies of Southern Arizona’s early English-language newspapers at the Arizona Historical Society library in Tucson. He eventually began recording by hand, on hundreds of yellow legal pads, enormous amounts of material from newspapers published between 1859 and 1911, and occasionally later.

Ayre’s original focus was on Chinese immigrants to Southern Arizona, people in whom he had long been interested. Later, though, he recorded information from articles, and even a few advertisements, on approximately 300 subjects.

The subject terms are Ayres’ and represent the terms found in the newspapers at the time. He noted references about subjects from minor to major, irrespective of their length. Many of these items may be only a sentence or two in length, especially with earlier newspaper editions, short mentions were used.

Organization
The name of the newspaper is followed by the day, month, and year of the issue, and then a reference to the page and column in which the specific article or advertisement can be located. (It is suggested that the researcher read the entire column and page.)

Occasionally there were more than two references on the same page, and these are designated either by a (2) following the column number, or by separate listings. Advertisements are indicated with an X in the Ad column; note that there frequently is a corresponding mention in the text. The right-hand column of the page often contains Ayres’ annotation comments. He didn’t annotate everything, but when he did, his notes should help researchers quickly narrow their focus.