University of Arizona

Everyone is welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am - 5 pm, Mon - Fri. Note that beginning April 1st, our hours will be 9 am - 4 pm

Fred Riecker Papers

Fred Riecker Aboard SS Manhattan, March 14, 1939

Fred A. Riecker was born in San Francisco, California, 1878, but shortly thereafter moved with his mother to Tucson, Arizona. He later began his professional career as a railroad survey engineer during the early 20th century for various locomotive companies throughout the American Southwest. In subsequent years, he worked as a civil engineer in Tucson. Throughout his life, he was intellectually engaged in a number of civil issues concerning Tucson and the greater Southwest that prompted his extensive writing of letters to various newspaper editors and politicians. In his later years, Fred A. Riecker published a semi-autobiographical manuscript detailing the pre- and post-railroad Tucson pioneer life of his family in “Horatio Algebra and Chief One and One.”

The papers include correspondence, legal documents, ledgers, real estate abstracts, photographic prints, negatives, maps, charts, railroad tickets and itineraries, dated 1858-1967 (bulk 1930-1967) pertaining to Fred A. Riecker and the Riecker family. The bulk of the material consists of legal and financial documents that relate to the parcel of real estate, otherwise known as Riecker’s Addition, as well as Fred A. Riecker’s professional career as a railroad surveying engineer and civil advocate for Tucson.