#12 Perlina Swetnam Osborn (1821-1912) - Arizona Pioneer

PCA Archives

Perlina Elizabeth Swetnam was born on January 21, 1821, in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  The daughter of Neri Swetnam and Mildred Cross, she was the youngest of their nine children.  As Perlina is an unusual name, she sometimes appears on the census as ‘Paulina’.

In March 25, 1841, she married John Preston Osborn, a native of Claiborne County, Tennessee.  By 1850, they were farming in Morgan County, Kentucky., and already had four children.

Around 1853, the Osborns relocated to Adams County, Iowa.  The Civil War was in full swing by 1863, when they moved to Colorado, but they had their sights set on the newly created territory of Arizona.  Early in 1864, the Osborns joined a party of emigrants traveling via Santa Fe to northern Arizona.  They arrived in Prescott on July 6, 1864, with three or four ox teams and wagons loaded with flour, ham and bacon which they sold to Prescott’s hungry miners.  With flour selling at $1 a pound and bacon at $.75 a pound, they soon had enough capital to begin their family’s new life in Arizona.

The Osborns built Osborn House, one of Prescott’s first hotels, which provided modest accommodations with a menu of pork and beans, bread and coffee.  Perlina, by now expecting her tenth child, remained in Prescott to run it while John Preston explored Del Rio and the Verde Valley and tried his hand at farming and ranching.  Unfortunately, his attempts came to naught as the local Yavapai tribesmen repeatedly raided his livestock and crops.

The Osborns’ oldest children having reached marrying age, daughter Jenettie wed Joseph Thomas Barnum in 1865, and Louisa married an up-and-coming lawyer named John Alsap on June 6, 1866. However, the alliance was short-lived as she died barely a year later.

The Osborn's son, John Jr., along with his erstwhile brother-in-law, John Alsap, moved south to the Salt River Valley in 1869, and John Sr. and Perlina joined them in January 1870, establishing a homestead at what would become McDowell and Seventh Street.

Once again, the Osborns were among the first white families to settle in a pioneer town.  John Preston, now in his sixties, became an influential citizen of the new town.  Perlina was known for her nursing skills, and the Osborns hosted many a traveling minister during Phoenix’s early years.

When John Preston Osborn died on January 19, 1900, he was buried in the A.O.U.W. Cemetery.  Around the time of Osborn's death, the street that ran along the south side of the Osborns' farm became known as Osborn Road, a tribute to this pioneer family.

Perlina passed away on December 3, 1912, at the age of 91. 

-by Donna Carr