Why Are There Single Graves at PMMP?

 

Restoration of Rev. Emerson's Grave

A Single Grave Near

the Rosedale Fenceline - PCA Archives

When you look at the historic maps of Rosedale and City/Loosley Cemeteries in Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, you’ll notice something unusual: rows of single graves with large plots. But why?

In the late 1800s, cemeteries needed flexibility. Single graves were mapped out and sold for many reasons:

•     Urgent Burials: Epidemics and sudden deaths meant families needed immediate options. In 1884, when burials were moved into City Loosley, some blocks were even divided into single spaces to make room for the large amounts of reburials taking place.
•     Cost-Effective: A single grave was far more affordable than a family plot, making burial possible for working-class families and newcomers.
•     Frontier Populations: Phoenix was a town of transients.  There were miners, railroad workers, and travelers who often didn’t plan on staying long term…but did anyway.
•     Benevolence:  Different organizations bought graves and then donated them to low-income individuals or families. 
•     Efficient Land Use: Cemeteries could manage revenue and space more effectively by laying out single rows, especially along fence lines or open areas.

Some “single” graves are even present in our lots or blocks.  Some people would buy graves from families or individuals who had a plot.  Many undertakers in town bought blocks of graves.  They also used these graves as “holding places”.  Before refrigeration, single graves sometimes served as short-term resting spots until loved ones could be claimed. Some were never moved, and those individuals remain here today.

These are just a few reasons that we know.  In any case, our cemeteries show a city that was adapting to change in an evolving frontier town.

Alexander Peter Petit (1819 - 1895) - Phoenix Architect (Repost)

 

rosson house, Library of Congress

Alexander Peter Petit was a well-known architect of his time in 1850s California designing theaters such as the National Theater and the New Pacific Theater.  Born in Pennsylvania around 1819 he and wife Catherine arrived in Phoenix about 1878 from California. 

Shortly after his arrival, he designed the Irvine Building on First and Washington Streets, one of the first two story brick buildings in Phoenix.  Petit and his wife moved to Tucson where he designed and built some of the commercial buildings along Congress Street, including the Henry Buehman Photography Studio and Gallery and a school near Military Plaza.  The Arizona Daily Star erected in 1883 is the only remaining evidence of Petit’s work in Tucson.

The Petits returned to Phoenix where in February 1891 Catherine died after a short illness.  She was buried in the IOOF Cemetery at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. 

Petit continued his work and his last design was the Rosson House located at 6^th Street and Monroe.  The Rosson House was completed a month before Petit died in March 1895. 

Alexander Petit’s contributions to Arizona have faded over time and one must search for his history.  The Petits’ graves were unmarked for many years in the cemetery making finding the Petits even harder to any historian.  In 2015 the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, through our Memorial Marker Program, placed two new markers on the Petits’ graves in the I.O.O.F. 

-Donna Carr

Professor Dayton Alonzo Reed (1841-1894) - Principal, Arizona Territorial Normal School

PCA Archives

Dayton Reed was born on 22 Dec 1841 in Millbrook, Wayne County, Ohio.  He was one of seven children born to James Reed and Mary Ann Keister.  Since Dayton’s father was a millwright, young Dayton learned this craft along with farming. 

 After earning his teaching credentials, Dayton moved to Belleville, Ohio where he served as a high school principal from 1866 to 1873.  During that time, his sister Eliza Jane came to keep house for him after her marriage to William Douglass ended in divorce.  She brought with her her young son, Beach.

Dayton had married Sarah Ordway on December 27, 1871 in Richland, Ohio.  However, the marriage seems to have ended with each party going his own way.  By 1880, Sarah was living with her widowed father back in Belleville, Ohio.  Since the census describes Sarah’s father as consumptive, she may have gone there to care for him.  No evidence of divorce has been found, and Sarah did not remarry until after Dayton’s death.

Around 1873, Dayton moved to Los Angeles, California, where he continued to teach for 12 years.  He then moved to Arizona where he became a principal for the Phoenix Public School system in 1885.  He resigned that position in 1887 to enter into the more lucrative real estate and banking business in Phoenix.   

On June 28, 1890, Dayton became the third principal of the Arizona Territorial Normal School (now Arizona State University) where he taught language, mathematics and pedagogy.  During his brief, ten-month tenure as principal, he improved the appearance of the campus by having fencing, trees and plumbing installed.  His salary was $200 a month, a generous sum for the time.

Eventually, Dayton was diagnosed with consumption and was forced to resign his position because of ill health.  A long-time member of the Masons, he was elevated to Grand Master of the Phoenix lodge prior to his death.  He died July 12, 1894 and was buried in the Masons Cemetery (now part of the Phoenix Military and Memorial Park). 

Dayton’s sister, Eliza Jane Douglass, succumbed to cancer on February 3, 1895, and was buried next to him in the Masons Cemetery.

 

- by Patricia 

Labor Day 2025

New York Parage, Labor Day, 1895

Library of Congress

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

 

Caroline Myrick Goodhue: Phoenix’s Ice Cream Pioneer

 

Photographs: Ad - Arizona Republic, 1883 Ice Cream - Library of Congress

In 1883, Caroline Myrick Goodhue made her mark on early Phoenix by purchasing Lots 6, 8, 10, and 12 in Block 31 from the Common Council of the City of Phoenix. This block was located near 4th Street and Jefferson, placing her in the heart of the growing town. Around the same time, she opened her Ice Cream Parlor near 1st Street and Washington, a central location close to both the Arctic Ice Works and the Phoenix Ice Factory, two businesses that were vital to preserving perishables in the desert climate. The proximity of her shop to the ice houses made perfect sense, as ice cream was still a luxury in frontier towns.

An 1883 newspaper article celebrated her return from visiting family in Canada, recalling with fondness the “happy associations in the hearts of our belles and beaux” and how her parlor was known for its tastefully arranged rooms, ice cream, cake, and social gatherings. Mrs. Goodhue’s establishment was more than a business—it was a social hub, offering Phoenix residents and visitors a refined place to gather in the Territory’s rough early days.

Her presence in the business district reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of pioneer women, who contributed to the cultural and social life of Phoenix as much as its economic growth. Through her ice cream parlor, Caroline Goodhue helped bring a touch of sweetness and civility to a frontier community carving its identity in the desert.

Anne Morrison Perley (1865-1932) - A Teacher in Puerto Rico

Pinterest Post Card - 1907

Anne Morrison Perley was born January 28, 1865, in Henry County, Illinois, to Peleg Stone Perley and Nancy Eliza Morrison.  Anne had three siblings:  Bruce, Grace and Harriet (known as Polly).  

Anne came from a family of teachers.  Her grandfather, Nathanial Perley, had been an educator for over 30 years, and her father Peleg was a teacher prior to becoming a lawyer and practicing law in Henry, Illinois.

  Peleg Perley was the postmaster of Henry, Illinois, in the early 1880s.  In 1883, he employed Anne as a postal clerk.   She was attending Washington University’s College of Fine Arts in St. Louis in 1887.

 The Perley family moved to Arizona where Peleg continued his legal career in a milder climate.  Anne travelled to Tombstone to fill the position of assistant principal at Tombstone High School in January, 1892. It was a temporary appointment, and she returned to Phoenix at the end of the school year in June.  Having acquired some administrative experience, she was then hired as the assistant principal for the old Central School at 201 North Central Avenue in Phoenix. 

Anne remained in Phoenix, teaching, until after the death of her parents--her father in 1898 and her mother in 1900.  Thereafter, she went to teach in Bisbee, returning to Phoenix in 1903.  A few years later, Anne departed Arizona for New York and accepted an offer to teach in Puerto Rico.  She arrived there in September 1909 aboard the Steamship Coamo.   The 1910 federal census recorded her as a schoolteacher living in Pueblo Norte, Aibonito. 

Anne may have learned to speak Spanish during her years of teaching in Tombstone, Bisbee and Phoenix.  Acquired by the United States from Spain in 1898, Puerto Rico had a need for bilingual teachers, especially after the Foraker Act of 1901 mandated that English should be the language of instruction in Puerto Rican high schools.

It is not known how long Anne remained in Puerto Rico teaching.  However, by 1920 she was back in Brooklyn, New York, and working as a translator for an export business.  Presumably, she was by then fluent in Spanish. 

Anne was still living in Brooklyn in 1930 when she fell ill and was sent to a private sanitarium in Stamford, Connecticut.  She died there on May 23, 1932.[i]  Her sister Grace arranged for her cremains to be returned to Arizona where she was buried in her parents’ cemetery plot in Porter Cemetery.

 - by Patricia 

The Toilet Parlor: From Discreet Luxury to Modern Beauty Salon

 

Women Believed to be Martha Matilda Harper

Library of Congress

The other day, I was researching a wife of one of the pioneers buried in our cemetery.  I came across an ad in 1897 that she had placed in the newspaper.  She had a business in her home called a "toilet parlor", and of course, I was surprised!

In late 19th-century America, the phrase “toilet parlor” did not refer to a bathroom, but to a discreet and fashionable space for women’s grooming, hairdressing, and beauty treatments. The word “toilet” derived from toilette—the French term for the rituals of dressing and personal care—while “parlor” suggested refinement and privacy.

For much of the 19th century, women’s beauty culture carried a social stigma. Cosmetics were associated with actresses or “painted women,” and many respectable women avoided overt grooming outside the home. A toilet parlor solved this dilemma. By providing a female-centered, parlor-like atmosphere, these establishments offered:

• Privacy: women could have their hair styled or receive treatments away from the male-dominated barber shop.
• Respectability: the word “parlor” softened the act of professional grooming, presenting it as genteel rather than vain.
• Social comfort: toilet parlors often doubled as gathering spots, where women could converse in safe, female-only environments.

One of the most influential figures in legitimizing women’s beauty spaces was Martha Matilda Harper, a Canadian immigrant who opened her first public hair salon in Rochester, New York, in 1888. Harper introduced innovations such as the reclining shampoo chair and emphasized cleanliness, health, and moral uplift alongside beauty. She also pioneered one of the earliest franchise systems, spreading “Harper Method” salons across the U.S. and abroad, helping to transform hairdressing into a respected profession for women.

At the same time, trade publications like The American Hairdresser (founded in 1877 and later renamed American Salon) chronicled the rise of professional beauty culture. These journals helped standardize techniques, advertised new products, and promoted the idea of the beauty parlor as a legitimate business rather than a questionable indulgence.

In practice, a toilet parlor was the forerunner of the modern beauty salon. Inside, women might find:

• Hairdressing and wig services
• Facial massages, skin treatments, and “toilet waters” (light perfumes)
• Manicures and nail buffing
• A parlor furnished with chairs, mirrors, and draped curtains—designed to feel more like a sitting room than a shop

By the 1890s, toilet parlors reflected a broader cultural shift. What once might have branded a woman as frivolous or “wayward” was increasingly recast as a mark of modern refinement and self-care. Thanks to pioneers like Martha Harper and the professionalization of the trade, the toilet parlor laid the foundation for today’s beauty salons.

 - by Val

Mary “Minnie” Perry Bassett (1878-1903) - Schoolteacher

 

PCA Archives

Mary Adeline Perry was born December 21, 1878, in Badger Springs, Arizona to William Henry Perry and Mary Agnes Clark.  William Perry was a rancher whose land later became part of Perry Mesa within the Agua Fria National Monument.   Mary was one of nine children, according to a homestead claim her father filed in 1889.

She and her sisters--Grace, Maud, Agnes and Charlotte “Lottie”—eventually attended Tempe Normal School (now Arizona State University).  Education for women was obviously valued in the Perry household.  Mary graduated in 1899 and became a schoolteacher.  One of her first teaching posts was in Arizola, Arizona.

Mary often visited friends in the Arizola area.  There was known to be a mountain lion in the area which had been taking livestock for some time.  One day, Mary was alone and on foot near the  Bellamy ranch when the lion appeared in her path.  Mary was certain that she was going to be attacked until she suddenly remembered reading about “the power of the human eyes on savage beasts.”  Mary looked the lion right in the eye and it turned and fled.  The lion, when later shot by a hunting party, was found to measure eight feet from nose to tail.

While teaching in Cordes, Arizona, Mary met Joseph Reuben Bassett, a cowboy who was working cattle on a nearby ranch.  They were married in Phoenix on April 17, 1902.

The young couple was living in Safford, Arizona, when on January 24, 1903, they welcomed a son, Walter into their household.   Unfortunately, Mary never recovered from the birth.  She died on February 4, 1903 in Safford, with childbirth listed as the cause.  She was buried in Masons Cemetery in Phoenix.

Although Joseph R. Bassett remarried a few years later, apparently little Walter was raised by his sister and her husband.  Joseph died at the Pioneers’ Home in Prescott, Arizona, in 1957.

Mary’s father, William Henry Perry outlived her by many years.  When he died in 1929, his ashes were scattered over Perry Mesa.

- by Patricia 

 

The Reburial of the Forgotten Pioneers

 

PCA Archives

When Phoenix was incorporated on February of 1881, city leaders were already facing a pressing issue, which was what to do with the town’s first cemetery. Located between Madison and Harrison from 7th Ave to 5th Ave., the cemetery stood in the way of the growing community. 

By 1884, after much political discussion, the graves were moved to a new site between 13th and 15th Avenues and Harrison and Madison. the move was considered done in 1888. Many hoped this would be the end of the matter, but over the years, as the city expanded and new buildings went up on the old burial grounds, human remains continued to be found. In 1935, partial remains were unearthed during construction, and once again, the city moved on.

The story resurfaced in May 2012, when excavation for a new county building revealed more remains. Archaeologists, including Dr. Todd Pitezel from the Arizona State Museum and Mark Hackbarth of Logan Simpson Design, investigated the site. They discovered partial remains belonging to 14 separate individuals, but no complete skeletons. The identities of these pioneers will never be known.

The Pioneer Cemetery Association stepped in, determined to ensure the remains would find a proper final resting place at Pioneer & Military Memorial Park (PMMP). PCA had a spot picked out that they had painstaking researched.  After months of waiting, the call finally came — the remains would be coming home!

In the quiet early hours of June 11, 2013, without public fanfare, the 14 individuals were reburied in the Loosley Cemetery, Block 8 Lot 8. Respecting a request from involved agencies, no public notice was given until after the reburial was complete.

Today, the burial spot marked with a grave marker honor these forgotten Phoenix residents. 

Pictures by Logan Simpson

Maude Ball (1864-1899) - Teaching Instructor

PCA Archives - AOUW

Maude was born June 21, 1864, in Marshall, Michigan, to Dr. Alexander Rawson Ball and Delilah née Weld.  She was the youngest of their ten children.  Maude’s father was a well-regarded homeopathic physician until his death at the age of 79 in 1902.  Her sister Hannah became a homeopath like her father and sister Fannie trained as a teacher.

By 1880, the Ball family was living in Mason, Shiawassee County, Michigan.  Maude herself graduated with a teaching degree in 1882 and eventually became an educator of teachers at Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University) for several years. She then transferred to Whitewater Normal School (now University of Wisconsin--Whitewater) around 1897and served as secretary of the teachers' association.

Maude’s sister Delilah had married George Homer Jones in 1874.  On December 12, 1898, he died suddenly at the home of his mother in Michigan.  By September 1899, Maude was suffering from tubercular laryngitis, so her widowed sister Delilah accompanied her to Phoenix, Arizona Territory.

Like so many others who came to Phoenix during that time, Maude had been hoping that she would recover in the warm Arizona climate.  However, she died on December 26, 1899, at the home of her sister Delilah in Phoenix.

- by Patricia 

 

 

How Did They Move the Dead When Relocating a Cemetery?

 

PCA Archives - Loosley Cemetery

How Did They Move the Dead? A Look at Phoenix’s Early Cemetery Relocations 

We’re often asked: “How did they relocate graves from the old Phoenix cemetery?” Historical records from 19th-century cemetery relocations across the U.S., including Phoenix, often mention rudimentary mapping methods such as stakes, string (twine), and hand-drawn grids. These were used to mark grave locations and guide exhumation crews, especially in cemeteries that lacked formal headstones or clear lot maps. In some cases, someone just told them where to look or dig.

In Phoenix's case, there's strong anecdotal and documented evidence that:

·         The Original Phoenix Townsite Cemetery (Old City Cemetery) had minimal or deteriorating grave markers by the 1880s.

·         City workers and contractors relied on simple surveying tools: stakes, twine, and memory to create rows and sections.

·         John Loosley, who was paid to move remains to the new cemetery starting in 1884, kept basic records, but many were incomplete or lost.

·    Later discoveries when building the Maricopa County Sheriff's Administration Building strongly suggest that remains were missed or accidentally fragmented, which is common when relocations lack precise mapping.

Stay tuned! We will be highlighting the move of some forgotten unknown individuals to the PMMP that occurred in 2012.

 

Cemetery Mystery: Who Was Sam Elliott?

PCA Archives

 

Cemetery Mystery: Who Was Sam Elliott?

Tucked away in the Wooldridge Vault at Rosedale Cemetery lies a mystery we've yet to solve - an orphaned gravestone belonging to Sam Elliott, who passed away in 1851 at the age of 71. The grave maker does not belong to anyone in the vault.

This headstone is in great condition, yet its presence baffles us. It predates our cemetery by decades. Where did it come from? How did it end up here? Who was Sam Elliott, and more importantly, where is he truly buried?

If you know of an early Arizona settler by that name… if you’ve seen his name in family history… or if you just love a good historical puzzle, we welcome your theories.

Help us uncover the story behind the gravestone. Who knows? Maybe you hold the missing piece.

Frank Albert Barnes (1868-1903) - Circus Seal Trainer

Generic AI Generated Image

Frank Albert Barnes was born November 11, 1868, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, to James Barnes and Mary Jane Cain.  James was an oilwell driller who had immigrated from England to work in Pennsylvania’s oil fields.  By the 1890s, the family was in Akron, Ohio.  They lived in a cottage near railroad tracks, from which the Barnes youngsters would have seen trains come and go every day.  Frank’s younger brother James, Jr., became a locomotive engineer.

It is not known exactly how Frank Barnes joined the circus.  In 1897, he was employed by the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Soon thereafter, he joined the Ringling Brothers Circus where he became a seal trainer and performer.

On the evening of October 4, 1903, Barnes suffered a fractured skull when he fell from a Ringling Brothers circus train as it was passing through Gila Bend, Arizona, at about 20 miles an hour.  He had been riding on a flatcar, next to the cages of his flippered charges, when the accident occurred.  It is presumed that he had fallen asleep. 

Train employees telegraphed ahead to the Circus’s ‘advance man’, Mr. Nagle, who was already in Phoenix making arrangements for the circus train’s arrival, and he had an ambulance waiting at the station.  Barnes was conveyed at once to Sisters Hospital in Phoenix, but he died on October 7, never having regained consciousness.

Barnes’s funeral was conducted from the undertaking parlor of J. Bradley, with all expenses covered by the Ringling Brothers Circus.  His body was temporarily interred in Rosedale Cemetery until the following spring, when the Circus had it transported back to Akron for burial in his family’s plot. It is a well-known fact that circus performers are a close-knit group and look after each other in death as in life.  Barnes being something of a local celebrity, his demise was widely reported in Akron newspapers.

- by Donna Carr

 

 

Mary Florence Mann (1841 - 1897) - Educator (reposted)

 

West End School 

Library of Congress

Industrial Drawing - 1894

Library of Congress

We are highlighting some of our business leaders in territorial Phoenix who were women.  Meet Mary Florence Mann!

Mary Florence was born about 1841 in Oswego, New York. She was the fourth of five children born to Daniel and Jane C. Shapley Card, farmers.  She entered the Oswego Normal and Training School in her late teens, graduating in 1863 with a teaching degree. By 1867, she was earning $500 a year as a schoolteacher in Cuba, New York. Sometime in the 1870s, she married Henry D. Mann, a physician and surgeon. The young couple moved to Tiffin, Ohio, where Henry attended Heidelberg College. Later, he did his residency at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor before graduating from the Medical College in Albany, New York. He practiced for a short time in Ohio and Illinois before settling in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Florence continued to teach for a few years after marrying, but she is listed as a housewife on the 1880 federal census of Terre Haute. At some point thereafter, she and Henry separated but did not divorce.

In 1890, Florence came to Phoenix and was hired to teach in the Phoenix school system. Based on newspaper articles, she became well known as an educator. Besides teaching in the elementary schools, she often provided professional council and training at the Maricopa County Teachers’ Institutes, where she excelled in mechanical and industrial drawing.

She even persuaded the Phoenix school board to open a free night school for children over the age of 10 who were unable to attend day classes because of family obligations.

In 1893 Florence was appointed to the Maricopa Advisory Committee on Textbooks and School Law. Her duties included selecting the textbooks to be used throughout the district.

After retiring from teaching, she opened an art studio in Phoenix. A gifted artist, she painted many scenes of animals and the “wild and untamed west” in oils and watercolors. And she continued to volunteer at the night school she had started.

Florence died unexpectedly around 8 PM on March 22, 1897, while on her way home from seeing her students at the night school. Passersby heard her cry out in the alley beside the Ford Hotel on Washington Street and 2nd Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona, but she was gone before medical help arrived. Her doctor opined that she had died of an apoplexy—probably a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a burst aneurysm—as there were no signs of any trauma. She was 56 years old.

She was buried in City Loosley Cemetery and has no marker.  

- by Val

More Facts on Smurthwaite House!

PCA Archives

 

More facts on Smurthwaite House!

Robert Plumridge (1845-1906) - Gambler and Bookmaker

PCA Archive - Rosedale Cemetery

Robert Plumridge was born on December 1844 in New Zealand.  This would have been barely three years after the local Maori chieftains signed a treaty and New Zealand was made a British colony. 

It is possible that Robert was the son of George Plumridge, born in England, and Catherine Norris, born in Ireland.  The 1852 state census of California lists a boy by that name, living in the household of R. Watson and his wife Catherine.  Watson, a hotel steward, might have been Robert’s stepfather.

Plumridge was working as a waiter in California when the Civil War began in 1861.   On September 20, 1861, he enlisted at Coloma, El Dorado County, California, for a term of three years.  He mustered in at Auburn, Placer County, on October 16 and was assigned to Company F, 4th California Infantry.  The regiment never saw battle; instead, its soldiers were assigned as support personnel to posts along the west coast of the United States.  By September of 1862, Plumridge was working in the bake house of a military hospital.   At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was discharged at Fort Yuma on September 20, 1864.

Fort Yuma was on the California side of the Colorado River, across from the Arizona Territory.  Plumridge seems to have chosen Arizona over California, for he was recorded as voting in Prescott in 1876.  In 1880, he was listed as managing a hotel in Tombstone.

On November 10, 1883, Plumridge wed Isabel Acedo in Tucson, Arizona (she also appears in several records as ‘Elizabeth’).   Isabel was twenty years his junior.  They settled in Phoenix, where they had five children.

Instead of employing his skills as a baker, Plumridge made his living in Phoenix as a gambler and bookmaker.  According to his obituary, he was an ardent ‘sporting man’ and an authority on card games, horse races and boxing.  Nevertheless, he had such a reputation for honesty and fair play that even those who lost their bets could not complain.  He was employed for several years by the Capitol Saloon as a faro dealer, although he sometimes took time off to attend sporting events where money was likely to change hands.

On September 7, 1895, Plumridge applied for an invalid pension due to respiratory problems contracted during his service.  He was awarded Pension # 938,379.  

Plumridge died on June 19, 1906, of carcinoma of the bowels.   Following an Episcopal funeral service, he was buried in Rosedale, Section: R-N.

Plumridge’s wife Elizabeth received widow’s pension # 852,345, based on his military service.  She died August 1, 1927, in Los Angeles, California.

 -by Donna Carr

 

Women of Grit: Business Owners at the PMMP

Ford Hotel - Location of Mary Lee's Ford Hotel Restaurant

Arizona Memory Project

 

In the 1800s, women were often limited to a narrow set of occupational roles which included teacher, servant, housekeeper, Sunday School instructor, or professions like saloon girl or madame. However, with the settling of the West, more opportunities developed for women, and many could start and own their own businesses.   

Here at the PMMP lie remarkable women who defied the norms of their day. 

🍨 Caroline Goodhue ran an ice cream shop
🍽️ Mary A. Lee operated her own restaurant
🍸 Edna Laziola kept a saloon
🖼️ Mary Florence Mann offered private lessons as an art teacher
🛠️ Saloma Newland owned and mined her own claims throughout Arizona

We also honor two of our cemetery owners.  Lulu Porter owned Porter Cemetery.  She sold and managed plots of land from it for burials.  Hortense Peery owned a large portion of Rosedale Cemetery, while in her late teens, no doubt, from California.

These women weren’t just business owners. They were barrier breakers, paving the way for generations to come.

Stay tuned for more stories about these entrepreneurs! 

 

Early Burials at the PMMP - Who Were They?

 

Cassie Smith - City Loosley Cemetery - PCA Archives

Early Burial Locations - PMMP

Ed Dobbins

Ed Dobbins in his research has revealed the following:

"The City/Loosley burial records contain the names of 133 individuals who died prior to the cemetery’s opening. With a few exceptions, most of the people on the list are believed to have been first interred at the Original Phoenix Township (OPT) cemetery.  Location information is available for thirty of the graves. Fifteen are marked by original monuments and nine by memorials recently placed by the PCA.

On the accompanying map (above), the red filled lots contain graves that were relocated from the OPT to City/Loosley Cemetery. Most are in the northwest quarter of Loosley. Two units with the OPT burials are in the southern portion of City Cemetery in Blocks XVII and XVIII.

Visible remains at City Cemetery of this final effort to empty the old cemetery include an impressive row of five original monuments in Block XVII in the southeast corner. A more recent marker appears in a family group of three in the northeast corner of the adjacent Block XVIII. The presence of these markers suggests that Blocks XVII and XVIII were considered part of the “city Potter’s field” mentioned by Loosley and contain unidentified remains from the OPT cemetery."

Here are just a few of the early burials:

🕯️ Cassandra Smith – 1872, age 3
🕯️ William Morrell – 1876, age 52
🕯️ Josiah Phy – 1877, 6 weeks
🕯️ Melvina Morrell – 1877, age 38
🕯️ John Wren Owen – 1877, age 54
🕯️ Henry “Harry” Sayers – 1879, age 47
🕯️ King S. Woolsey – 1879, age 47
🕯️ Luke Monihon – 1879, age 38
🕯️ Hiram Dunham – 1880, age 52
🕯️ Carmen Alvarez – 1881, age 35

the oldest original standing grave marker in the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park is Cassandra Smith.  In September 1872, little Cassandra Smith, daughter of William and Fanny Smith, passed away after just two days of illness. Described as intelligent, pretty, and affectionate, she holds a solemn place in Phoenix history.  

It is beyond amazing that after 150 years, her grave marker still stands.  We welcome you to tour our grounds to see the other original markers.

George Frank Breninger (1865-1905) - Naturalist

 

Masons Cemetery with Masonic Memorial - PCA Archives

George Frank Breninger was born September, 1865, probably in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  From age fifteen, he manifested an intense fascination with nature, collecting specimens, pelts and eggs.  His collection of birds’ eggs was at one time considered the fourth largest in the country.

Breninger became an ornithologist and expert taxidermist, mounting many of his specimens himself.  As a naturalist, he had traveled widely in the continental United States from the Rockies as far south as the Isthmus of Panama to locate and collect rare species.  Some of his work was sent to the Smithsonian Museum and Field Columbian Museum in Chicago.  Another of his collections was at Colorado State University. 

He married Margaret J. Hoag, daughter of Addison Hoag in Fort Collins, Colorado, on September 19, 1888.  Although he and his wife had five children, only their oldest son, David Addison, had a somewhat normal lifespan.  Juvenile diabetes seems to have run in the family, as son Walter and daughter May both died of it before insulin became available to treat it.  Another child died in infancy, and daughter Luella Ruth died of scarlet fever in 1903.

The family moved to Phoenix around 1897.  In 1900, Professor Breninger spent six months in the Rockies, collecting specimens for the Foote Mineral Museum in Philadelphia.  He published several scholarly papers about birds.

In 1903, Professor Breninger traveled to Guatemala and Nicaragua for four months to secure 500 bird specimens for the Field Columbian Museum.   The conditions of the trip were rather primitive and Breninger’s team was regarded with some suspicion by the locals, who feared they might be a filibustering expedition intent on destabilizing the Mexican government.  Breninger collected many parrot specimens and even some ocelots.  He also brought back an orchid plant.  It survived the six-week journey back to Arizona and bloomed in 1904.

Breninger grew different varieties of crops on his farm to determine whether they could survive in desert conditions.  His wife Margaret had a fine flower garden and sold cut flowers in season.  It is not known whether they had a greenhouse for their more delicate plants, although there were greenhouses in Phoenix by 1913.

For years, Breninger was exposed to arsenic in the course of his taxidermy work.  Although he knew it was detrimental to his health, such was his devotion to his nature studies that he accepted the risk.  He suffered three strokes, with each one leaving him weaker. 

He died on December 2, 1905, at his home at 386 North Sixth Avenue.  After a Christian Science funeral, he was buried in Masons Cemetery. 

-by Donna Carr

 

Generated with AI Bing Image Creator

A Bird’s-Eye View of History: Comparing PMMP from 1930 to 2025

 

A New View of Our History!

On April 25, 2025, a drone soared above Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, capturing stunning high-resolution aerial photographs of the entire cemetery from just 50–60 feet above ground. Using precise parallel flight paths, every inch of both the north and south cemeteries was documented in detail.

But the real magic? We're comparing these 2025 drone images to aerial photos dating as far back as the 1930s! Take a look at these shots and see how the landscape has changed!

Photographs: City of Phoenix

Volunteer Spotlight: Meet Donna!

 

PCA Archives

When Donna Carr first met Marge West in 1985, both were working at Cholla Branch Library. Like Marge, Donna was a librarian and family genealogist well before personal computers were widely available.  From time to time, Marge would mention her work at the pioneer cemetery near the State Capitol and how she was reading rolls of newspaper microfilm, searching for obituaries of those buried there.  Still, it wasn't until 2004 that Donna had enough free time to actually join the Pioneers Cemetery Association, becoming its first webmaster.

In addition to long-time PCA member Marge, Donna then met Diane Sumrall, Frank Barrios and Reba Grandrud.  She assisted with major projects such as the 2012 Inventory of Arizona's Historic Cemeteries and the compilation of a burial list for nearby Cementerio Lindo.  Between 2015 and 2017, she was on the team that revised the burial list of the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in light of additional information that had been unearthed since the publication of the first edition in 2005.  And she sometimes donned period-appropriate dress for the PCA's annual Memorial Day observances.

In 2017, the PCA coordinated with author Derek Horn and the History Press to publish a book specifically about some of the notable characters buried in the Pioneer Cemetery. As chair of the PCA's Living History team, Donna has carried on that project by researching and writing almost 200 short biographical sketches of the Cemetery's 'residents'--with more to come!  She has paid particular attention to documenting the lives of African American, Chinese, Hispanic, Native American and women pioneers who rest in the cemeteries that the PCA manages.

Thank you Donna for all you do!