W. P. Mahoney

Mahoney spent his time working in the mines in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Butte, Montana, Tonopah, Nevada, and several locations in northwest Arizona in the 1900s. He became acquainted with Wyatt Earp while at Goldfield, Arizona.[3] He continued to work in the mining field in the Oatman area during the 1910s, as well as having interests in ranching properties.[9][10] Mahoney and his family moved from Oatman to Kingman, Arizona in 1918, after he was elected sheriff.[11] The house they built and lived in was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.[12]

In 1921, Mahoney and two partners formed the New Comstock Consolidated Mining Company, which owned several claims in Mohave County east of the Gold Chain Mine.[13][14] Mahoney accepted a job as a divisional special agent for the Santa Fe Railroad in December 1926.[15] Since the position was based in Winslow, Arizona, he moved there in 1927.[3][16]

During the 1932 presidential election, Mahoney was the security expert assigned to meet the train carrying Franklin D. Roosevelt to Arizona.[17] In 1936, he was promoted from special agent for the railroad to head of the lease and livestock agency within the railroad for all of Arizona. Mahoney, who had been living in Winslow, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where the agency was headquartered.[3][18]

On the day Arizona became a state, February 14, 1912, Mahoney was among those who accompanied Governor George W. P. Hunt on his walk to open the new capitol.[2] He ran for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives from Mohave County during the 1914 election.[19] He defeated John Ellis and W. E. Moroney in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee F. A. Wilde and Socialist nominee Samuel T. Ryan in the general election, receiving 744, 523, and 181 votes, respectively.[20][21][22] He ran to succeed Henry Lovin in the Arizona Senate in the 1916 election. He defeated Dan Angius and Kean St. Charles in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee H. R. Shannon and Socialist nominee Paul E. White in the general election.[23][24][25][26]

He ran for the position of sheriff in Mohave County in the 1918 election and won the Democratic nomination against Asa F. Harris before defeating Republican nominee J.N. Cohenour in the election.[27][28][29][30] He defeated independent candidate Fred Brawn in the 1920 election.[31][32][33] During the 1922 election he defeated W. B. Stephens in the Democratic primary with it being described as a "heated contest".[34][35][36] He was sheriff of Mohave County from 1918 to 1926.[2] He ran against incumbent Arizona State Mine Inspector Tom Foster in the 1926 election, but Foster won against Mahoney in the Democratic primary.[37][38]