Benjamin Joseph Franklin (1834-1898) - Arizona's 12th Territorial Governor

 

PCA Archives

Benjamin Joseph Franklin was born in Kentucky.  By 1860, he was practicing law in Leavenworth, Kansas.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Franklin, a Southern sympathizer, moved to Missouri so that he could enlist in the Confederate Army.  He served for the duration of the war, rising to the rank of captain. 

Since Franklin had been an officer, he was forbidden to practice law or hold public office after the war until he had taken an oath of allegiance. From 1865 to 1868, he farmed in Columbia, Missouri.  After taking the oath of allegiance in 1868, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and opened a law office.

Franklin was married to Anne Barbour Johnston, stepdaughter of Alfred William Morrison, previously the treasurer of the state of Missouri.  From 1871 to 1875, Franklin was the prosecuting attorney for Jackson County.  In 1875, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served two terms before returning to his private law practice.

In 1885, Franklin travelled to Washington, D. C., where he successfully lobbied President Grover Cleveland for an appointment as U. S. Consul to China.  His family accompanied him to Hankow, where they lived for the next five years

In 1890, the Franklins returned to California.  By 1892, they were in Phoenix.  Aware of efforts to have territorial governor Hughes removed from office, Franklin decided to seek the office himself.  He persuaded several prominent local men to send letters on his behalf to President Cleveland.  Cleveland responded by appointing him the twelfth territorial governor of Arizona on 18 April 1896.  Franklin’s son Alfred served as his personal secretary.

During his term in office, Franklin pushed for statehood and tax reform, feeling that many businesses and individuals were not paying their fair share of taxes.  Although as a fiscal conservative he was averse to soliciting funds from Congress, he knew that only the federal government could build the dams that Arizona so desperately needed.  In January 1897, Franklin had suffered a heart attack but recovered through “sheer force of will”.

After Republican William McKinley was elected President, he replaced Franklin with a man of his own party, Myron Hawley McCord.  On 22 July 1897, Franklin left office and returned to his private law practice in the Fleming building, with Alfred as his partner.  Franklin is generally regarded as having been personally honest and competent although not particularly effective as a governor, given his short tenure.

After he left office, Franklin’s health declined further.  When he did not wake from a nap on 19 May 1898, it was determined that he had died of a recurrence of his heart trouble.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery following an Episcopalian funeral service.

-by Donna Carr

 

Save the Date for our Annual Holiday Party! - November 6th

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The Mysterious Man of Lillian Gross - Good Samaritan?

Bing AI/Val Prompt

Lillian M. Hisey Gross of Congress, Arizona, passed away on Friday, July 9, 1897, at the Ford Hotel in Phoenix. She arrived at the hotel accompanied by an unidentified man on the Prescott train, and they registered under the names "E. M. Scott and wife" from Chicago. They were given separate rooms, and the man disappeared the following morning.

Lillian had been suffering from uremia, a kidney disease exacerbated by excessive drinking. Upon arrival at the hotel, her health rapidly deteriorated, and despite medical attention, she passed away. Before her death, a nurse discovered that Lillian lived in Congress, and that her husband, George Gross, was a miner employed in Wickenburg by Richard Baxter.

Lillian mentioned that the mystery man was a gambler but refrained from providing further details, only stating that "he is all right." When doctors suggested that she notify her husband, Lillian resisted, not wanting to worry him. 

Nonetheless, the doctors sent a telegram to Mr. Gross, who had been working at Vulture. Upon learning of his wife’s critical condition in Phoenix, he immediately traveled there. However, instead of heading straight to the hotel, he sat at the courthouse plaza, although it's not really known why. When he finally arrived at the hotel, he encountered men carrying his wife’s body.

George Gross was perplexed by his wife’s behavior.  She had been struggling with kidney disease for some time and was only 29 years old. The couple had married in Prescott four years earlier and had lived happily in Congress until George lost his job. Three weeks before her death, he had started working at Vulture, with plans for Lillian to join him later.

The unknown man was described as slightly over six feet tall, with dark hair and eyes, and a tendency to carry his head forward. He was of an age below middle-aged. George Gross did not recognize the description, although he had a specific individual in mind, but the description did not match. Mr. Gross did not believe that the individual had any ill intentions.  

It was speculated that the man had met Lillian on the train and, upon realizing she was unwell, took care of her. Registering at the hotel as his wife might have been the most convenient way to avoid unnecessary questions or complications. George Gross sent inquiries to Congress to learn more about her traveling companion, suspecting someone from there might have accompanied her.

The mystery even reached California, with San Francisco authorities searching for the unidentified man. However, it remains unclear why the mystery man was suspected as having come from there.  

The identification of the man, based on this researcher's initial search, was not discovered.  There was an E. M. Scott working in San Francisco and Los Angeles at about this time.  He was a real estate broker, and traveled to other states.  However, it's not known if this was the E.M. Scott that Mrs. Gross registered with at the Ford Hotel. 

-summary By Val (Resources: the San Francisco Call and Post, July 13, 1897 and the Phoenix Weekly, July 15, 1897) 

John Tabor Alsap (1830 - 1886) - First Mayor of Phoenix

 

Arizona Archives

John Tabor Alsap was born 28 February 1830 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He was the only son of Rev. John Alsap (sometimes spelled Alsop) and his wife Keziah Randall.  After studying medicine in Ohio, young John went to California in 1853, intending to practice medicine there. Once in California, however, he developed an interest in mining--an interest which brought him to the Walker diggings in Yavapai county, in November 1863.

Alsap’s medical skills came in handy in 1864 when he accompanied King Woolsey's second punitive expedition against the Apaches as the party's surgeon.  His reputation thus established, he was appointed territorial treasurer in late 1864 by Gov. John Noble Goodwin.

He soon opened the first saloon in Prescott, a shrewd business move which brought him into contact with much of Prescott’s electorate.  On 6 June 1866, Alsap married Louise A. Osborn, daughter of pioneer John Preston Osborn.  Tragically, she died barely a year later.

Alsap became Yavapai County's representative to the territorial legislature in 1868.  However, his larger political ambitions were not to be fulfilled in Prescott. In 1869, he moved south to the Salt River Valley, where he helped to select the 320 acres comprising the original Phoenix townsite.  He was one of the original commissioners of the Salt River Town Association, formed in 1870 to promote settlement along the Salt River.

Alsap now turned his attention from the practice of medicine and mining to the practice of law.  As the fledgling community along the Salt River gained a foothold, he petitioned to have a new county created, with Phoenix as its seat.  Following the creation of Maricopa County in 1871, Governor Safford appointed Alsap its first probate judge. As judge, he sometimes officiated at civil weddings when no minister was available. He also served as superintendent of public education. 

Between 1873 and 1879, Alsap held a seat in the territorial legislature.  On 7 September 1876, he wed Anna Dugan Murray, one of the eight daughters of William P. Murray and his wife Margaret.  All the Murray girls married well-connected men and founded some of Phoenix’s ‘first families’.  Alsap's contributions to the city of Phoenix were recognized when he was elected its first mayor in 1881.

Alsap was an ardent Mason throughout his life.  A photograph taken in Contra Costa, California, shows him dressed in his Masonic regalia.  He was the first master of the Azlan Masonic Lodge in Prescott and also of the Arizona Masonic Lodge in Phoenix, and he chartered the Royal Arch Masonic Lodge. Upon his death in 1886, he was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Phoenix.  A modern granite headstone marks his grave.

-By Donna Carr

Fall Fashion Notes - 1897

Phoenix Weekly Herald, September 30, 1897