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| Gila River Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html |
Rebecca Reid Davenport was born October 1820 in Indiana. Rebecca
was married to Bailey McNess Davenport most likely in Missouri around
1840. She was the mother of 10 children.
The family remained in Missouri until 1854, when they moved
to California. The family prospered while in California, but sadly Bailey died
on July 17, 1875 in Los Angeles County. Rebecca administered the
estate, and Bailey was buried with a beautiful headstone in the Santa Ana
Cemetery.
Rebecca left California for Arizona around
1880. Her son Jacob was married by then and working in
Phoenix. She would travel back and forth to California where her other
children still lived. In 1892, Rebecca began homesteading 158 acres
in the area of what is now Citrus Valley Road and W. Sisson in Gila
Bend. Rebecca wrote in the homestead application that she first
lived in a tent before the house was built a year later. She would
have been 74 years old.
Rebecca described her house as being built of lumber and
having three rooms. Another house was added along with a well, two
corrals and a dairy room. She indicated that 80 acres had been cleared
and were in use. Her sons Jacob and Thomas were living with her and
working the land. Some of those outbuildings can still be seen on
the property.
Rebecca was living alone by 1899 according to her homestead
application, and in 1900 she was granted a land patent. She went to
California for a short time and was living with daughter Martha
Ivory.
Rebecca returned to Phoenix where she transferred ownership
of her property to son Charles prior to her death.
Rebecca is buried in the City Loosely Cemetery surrounded by
her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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