William Isaac was born 8 March 1827 in Tennessee. The Isaac family moved west, ending up in Platte County, Missouri, where William married Jane "Jennie" Netherton on 11 July 1848.
William and Jennie’s first child, a son named Eli Egbert, was born in Platte County in 1849. Three daughters and another son followed at two-year intervals.
Between 1858 and 1860, the Isaacs moved to California, where they were recorded on the federal census of 1860 for Contra Costa County. William was a farmer. Besides his own wife and five children, William was supporting his widowed mother Mary as well as several of his younger siblings. Six more children were born to the Isaacs in California.
By the 1870 federal census, the Isaacs were living in Gilroy Township, Santa Clara County, and William’s occupation was listed as ‘surveyor’. He also served as a Baptist minister and member of the San Jose Board of Education.
The William Isaac family left Salinas, California, in the spring of 1875, bound for the Arizona Territory. Arriving in Prescott, they stayed there for the summer. In the fall, William Isaac and his grown sons rode south to the Salt River Valley, where they staked out a homestead west of Phoenix.
In the spring of 1876, the Isaacs moved to Phoenix. They resided in an adobe structure at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Jackson Street while the men constructed a house on their new homestead, near what is now 35th Avenue and McDowell Road.
Among the household items the Isaacs had brought with them from California was a four-octave melodeon. On Sundays, the legs were removed and it was conveyed by buggy to the South Methodist (now Central Methodist) Church in Phoenix, where it provided music during the worship services.
To ensure that his younger children got an education, William Isaac founded the Isaac school. He assisted Captain Hancock in surveying the Grand Canal and was active in the local Masonic lodge.
William Isaac retired from active farming around 1890. He died 23 March 1900 of 'dilatation of the heart' and was buried in the Masons Cemetery. - adapted from a story by Donna Carr and Dean Isaac
Find out more about the amazing person by coming to the PMMP!
Two well known people in this photograph are descending into a 3,000 foot mine shaft to tour the Congress Gold Mine in 1901.
Who were they?
Answer: William McKinely and Theodore Roosevelt
Scarcely three weeks later, on October 23, 1862, Paul found himself in Company K, 53rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (later became the 162nd). He may have been short of funds and enlisted voluntarily, but it’s also possible that he was more or less ‘drafted’.
On December 11, 1865, Gutike reenlisted in the 3rd U. S. Cavalry, being discharged three years later on October 1, 1868, at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He signed up again at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to serve in Company H, 5th U. S. Infantry, but deserted on May 28, 1870. He was dishonorably discharged December 4, 1870, at Fort Harker, Kansas.
Gutike had many more adventures with the military, some of them not so honorable.
By 1887, Gutike had found work as a draftsman for James Riely Gordon in San Antonio, Texas. Gordon eventually gained national renown for his Texas courthouse designs.
Gutike’s career as an architect and civil engineer burgeoned in Arizona. In 1889, Mrs. Vina Brown commissioned him to design some apartments at 4th Avenue and Adams in anticipation of providing quarters for winter visitors coming to Phoenix. In later years, he designed several commercial landmarks, and became quite well known. Learn more about Paul Gutike at the PMMP! - adapted from a story written by Patty Gault
Clark Churchill was born in Pennsylvania during June 1836. In 1861, he traveled to San Francisco where he studied law. He was considered to be very bright.
During 1863, Churchill relocated to Virginia City, Nevada, where he became a junior partner with an established law firm, also serving as city attorney there in 1865. Clark returned to San Francisco during 1866-1877, winning new laurels at the bar.
In 1877 he removed to Prescott, Arizona. While there, in addition to his legal and official duties, he successfully carried through the great project of the Arizona Canal. His business interests also prospered.
While on a professional visit to Phoenix in 1880, he was so impressed with the great resources and fertility of the soil in the Salt River Valley that he determined to take up residence there, making the development of the Valley his life’s work. He served as territorial attorney general in 1881, dividing his time between Prescott and Phoenix.
He invested heavily in lands in Phoenix, developing the Churchill Addition and building a mansion at 5th St. and Van Buren.
Clark Churchill was a high-ranking member of the Masons, a member of the National Republican Committee, the territorial adjutant general for four years and attorney general for six years. Toward the end of his life he suffered a downturn in fortunes and eventually had to sell his mansion. Acquired in 1897 by the City of Phoenix, it became Phoenix High School.
Churchill’s wife and two nephews are handsomely memorialized in the family plot in the Masons Cemetery, but he is not. - adapted from a story by Bob Cox
Lindley Hogue Orme was born in Maryland on December
19, 1848 to Charles and Deborah Orme, who were both part of the original
Colonial families of the United States. He
served in the Company B, 35th Virginia Cavalry Regt, Virginia, Confederate
States Army as a private, and was admitted to the hospital for measles at one
point. In his early years after the
war, he lived in California, and arrived in Arizona in 1870, with his brother
John following him in 1877, and his brother Henry in 1879.
During his residency in Phoenix, he became a well known citizen, serving the area in an official capacity for several years. In 1880, he was elected sheriff, and elected again in 1882. From there, he served on the Territorial Council, and was elected again as sheriff in 1891, serving two terms.
During his devoted service to
the community, he built the first Phoenix jail with incandescent lamps,
conducted quarantines for smallpox, assisted in securing the state capital to
Phoenix, and serving justice to civil and criminal offenses alike.
At one point, he even interrupted a plot to rob a bank!
For More information on this loyal lawman, come find out more at the PMMP! - Val W.
