Rev. Hans Jurgen Ehlers (1826 -1902) - Presbyterian Minister

 

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Hans Jurgen Ehlers was born around 1826 in the Duchy of Holstein.  It might have been the lure of gold that brought him to the United States, for he became a naturalized citizen on September 20, 1860, in Yreka, California. 

The 1870 federal census of Yreka shows him engaged in mining and living with a woman named Olive.  How Ehlers’ relationship with Olive ended is not known but, on November 30, 1879, he married Elizabeth Gorrsen in San Francisco. 

Initially, Ehlers was a Methodist, but eventually he became affiliated with the Presbyterian church.  Ehlers seems not to have been a particularly successful (or devoted?) minister of the Gospel, as he apparently held other jobs during his lifetime.

In 1880, Ehlers was recorded as preaching in Florence, Arizona.  By 1886, he was living in Yuma, Arizona, where he served for a time as a chaplain at the territorial penitentiary there.  

The Ehlers family moved to Phoenix in October, 1889.  In 1890, he was elected one of several school trustees in Maricopa County. 

On December 12, 1893, Ehlers filed final proof on a homestead.  On July 7, 1896, the Ehlerses’ seven-year-old son, Joseph William, accidentally shot himself with a rifle.   A doctor was summoned, but the boy died before he arrived.  Little Joseph was probably buried in City Loosley Cemetery, it being the closest.  Shortly thereafter, Ehlers and his wife quitclaimed their homestead to E. Irvine and moved into Phoenix.

The Ehlerses’ oldest son Henry was a rebellious youth.  By age 16, he had been involved in numerous petty thefts before being convicted of second-degree burglary.  On November 20, 1898, he was sentenced to two years in the territorial prison at Yuma.   Discharged at the end of his sentence, he evidently had not learned his lesson.  He and an accomplice were believed to have robbed the New River and Goddard stage stations only a short time later.   Ehlers then fled to California.  He is said to have committed suicide in 1902 after murdering his wife.

Rev. Ehlers was about 76 when he died in Phoenix of pneumonia.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although there is no grave marker.   No probate record has been found, so perhaps he had little to leave.  Not long thereafter, his widow Elizabeth took their remaining two children and relocated to California.

by Patricia G. and Donna Carr

 

 

Limewashing Our Vaults - Thank You Volunteers!

All Pictures by Patty

We are grateful for two of our volunteers who are a bit camera shy but recently continued our preservation efforts at PMMP. Steve and Oscar spent the day lime-washing our burial vaults in the north cemeteries. This natural process protects these structures from moisture and our harsh sun for years to come.

Thank You Volunteers - 2025

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all our amazing cemetery volunteers, from research to restoration, and every caring hand in between. We truly couldn’t do it without you! 

Starting in May, we’ll be spotlighting our volunteers each week so you can meet the incredible “CEOs” (Caretakers, Enthusiasts, and Organizers) who keep our mission alive. Stay tuned! 

 

 

Happy Earth Day 2025

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Happy Earth Day from Pioneer & Military Memorial Park 

Today, we honor the Earth and the grounds that hold the stories of our past. Cemeteries like ours are more than resting places; they are green spaces of reflection, peace, and preservation.

Every tree, every flower, and every weathered stone is part of a living landscape that connects us to history and to nature. By caring for this historic cemetery, we’re also caring for our planet, conserving water, native species, and protecting historical space in the heart of our city.

On this Earth Day, we recommit to being good stewards of this land for those who came before us and for those who will walk these paths long after us.

Pioneers' Cemetery Association: www.azhistcemeteries.com

Rev. L. Phillip Smithey (abt 1855-1889) - Methodist Missionary

 

PCA Archives

Louis Phillip Smithey was born on October 24, 1855 or 1857, in Jetersville, Amelia County, Virginia.  He was a younger son of Royal Smithey and his wife Mary Ann Elizabeth Hubbard.   On the eve of the Civil War, Royal was employed as an overseer for George W. Jones, a wealthy farmer in Nottoway County.   After the war, he returned to farming.

Phil Smithey seems to have been in somewhat delicate health as a boy, but early in life he aspired to go into the ministry.   His older brother William also became a minister.

Following his father’s death in 1883, young Smithey enrolled in Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  It was a Methodist Episcopal college, and Smithey took classes in the theological department.  However, ill health impelled him to go west after a year.  Moving to California, he served as a deacon in Azusa and Duarte.  By 1887, his phthisis had advanced, and he was suffering from pulmonary hemorrhages.

Seeking a drier climate, Phil Smithey moved to Prescott, Arizona, in the fall of 1887 and engaged in missionary work in what was then a wide-open frontier town.  Though uncompromising against sin, he was said to have been of a cheerful disposition and ever sympathetic towards others. 

Thanks to Arizona’s salubrious climate, he lived for another two years and gained a small but devoted following among the residents of Prescott.  Nevertheless, his health, never robust, continued to decline.  When death became imminent, some advised him to go home to his family in Virginia, but he insisted on remaining in Arizona.

Smithey moved to Phoenix in August 1889, and died two months later, on October 12.  He was buried in the Masons Cemetery.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Mystery of the Church Drawings - Do You Recognize These?

 

Arizona Memory Project

Phoenix Church History Challenge!

This beautiful postcard illustration shows several early churches in Phoenix. Our researchers are trying to name all of them. Some of them were probably churches that our PMMP ministers served in. Do you recognize any of these?

 

Spring Fashion Notes - 1883

 

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🧵✨ Spring Fashion Trends of 1883 ✨🧵

Love fashion? Step back into the Gilded Age and see what was in style for fashionable women of 1883!

Popular Looks

• Plaids & Scotch gingham were all the rage
• Combination costumes offered stylish variety
• Soft woolen dresses were kept simple and plain for home wear

Accessories & Accents

• Long gloves, laced boots, and black silk stockings were wardrobe staples
• Lace came in all shades, with black jetted lace a favorite for dressy outfits
• Feathers, flowers, and pompons adorned the latest bonnets

Fabrics & Colors

• Pastels made way for corn blue, checked summer silks, and even black velvet
• Capes just to the waist were the perfect spring wrap — in round, square, or pointed styles

Hair Today, Fashion Tomorrow

• The "small German knot" hairstyle with crimped or waved hair was the go-to updo

Fun Fact: The most fashionable shoes? Low heels!

Resource: Arizona Republic, April 1883, Fashion Notes

Rev. Freeman D. Rickerson (1837-1892) - Baptist Minister

 

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Freeman D. Rickerson was born on the 23rd of November, 1837, in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York.   He was the son of Daniel Wilcox Rickerson and his second wife, Malina Corpe. 

Rickerson received his theological education in Rochester, which had a Baptist seminary founded in 1850 (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School today).   Instead of remaining in New York state, however, Rickerson felt called to minister in the Midwest.  He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was licensed to preach in October of 1858.  After serving a period as an assistant pastor in Grinnell, Iowa, he was ordained in April 1859.  Thereafter, he was instrumental in founding and/or serving Baptist congregations in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

While he was in Grinnell, Rev. Rickerson met and married Eunice Langworthy.  Like him, she and her family were from New York state.  They eventually had a daughter, Melina May, born in 1870 in Waukegan, Illinois.

In addition to being a man of the cloth, Rev. Rickerson was a high-ranking Mason, advancing to the rank of commander and grand prelate in the Grand Commandery of Illinois.  He was convinced that his religious faith and his Masonic ideals went hand in hand and so preached.  He is said to have been learned, honest and broad-minded, attributes not always evident in frontier preachers.

The Rickersons came to Phoenix in 1889, after Rev. Rickerson was appointed to fill the pulpit of the Baptist Church at 2nd Avenue and Jefferson.   When he arrived, Rickerson found the church in a neglected state and the treasury empty.   He remedied this by soliciting donations from more affluent churches back east, and a new building was eventually raised.

Rickerson proved to be tireless in his work but, after less than three years, heart disease cut short his tenure in Phoenix.  Although he was known to have been in declining health, his death still came as a shock to his congregation.   He was visiting at the home of B. F. McFall when he suffered an apoplexy and died on March 29, 1892. 

Chaplain Winfield Scott from Scottsdale preached the funeral sermon.  Rickerson being the  prelate of the Phoenix commandery at the time of his death, he was buried in Masons Cemetery, as befitting his high status in the order.

The Rickersons’ daughter Melina or “May”, as she preferred, wed John Swilling, Jr. in Phoenix in 1916.  It was a second marriage for both parties.  However, the union seems to have been of short duration; by 1920, May was living with her widowed mother in California.   

-by Donna L. Carr           

               

 

 

April Showers Open House - April 19th

Come visit us for Open House on April 19th at 1317 W. Jefferson. There will be a scavenger hunt and free plant seeds!

William Hancock Story - with Steve Schumacher, The Phoenix's Mayor's Office Official Historian

 

Some people watch history happen… William Hancock made it.

He surveyed Phoenix. Built its first building. Served as its first postmaster and sheriff. Discover the man who laid the groundwork, literally, for the city we call home.

Steve Schumacher, The Phoenix Mayor's Office Official Historian, @phoenix_official_historian, narrates this territorial tale.

Watch the story of The Father of Phoenix — William Hancock.

 

 

Rev. John Fremont Ames (1858-1892) - Baptist Minister

 

PCA Archives

John Fremont Ames was born 13 May 1858 in De Ruyter, New York, to Fordyce Ames and Electa Elmira Ray.   He lost his mother at age 20, a tragedy which may have inspired him to enter the ministry.

After graduating from a Madison, New York, university in 1886, he married Sophie Wall on June 22nd.  Sophie’s sister Zelda was married in the same service to a Fred Hendee.  The newlyweds honeymooned at Niagara Falls, after which John accepted a call to work as an assistant pastor in Genoa, New York.  The Ameses’ first child, Francis, was born in April 1887.

Ames was ordained to the ministry on December 9, 1887.   He then decided to study theology at Rochester Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in June 1890.  Having indicated that he wanted to serve a congregation that really needed him, even though it couldn’t afford to pay him a salary commensurate with his education, he accepted a call to a church in Madison, South Dakota. 

While in Madison, the Ameses had a daughter, Mary Lorena, born in 1891.  Unfortunately, Sophie then developed an intractable cough and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In hopes of improving Sophie’s health, the family moved in 1892 to Milton, Tennessee, where they rented a house from relatives.  However, Tennessee did not suit them.  The rainy weather aggravated Sophie’s cough, and John disliked the racial segregation which forbade him to preach to whites and blacks at the same gathering.   Ames was then offered the pastorate of a Baptist Church in Phoenix.   It seemed an attractive offer as the dry climate of Arizona was said to be salubrious for invalids.  Accordingly, the Ameses moved to Arizona and took up residence on the ranch of a parishioner who lived east of the city.

On July  31, 1892, Reverend Ames was in a buggy on his way to church in downtown Phoenix when he overtook a steam threshing engine on the street.  When the driver blew his whistle, the unexpected noise so frightened the reverend’s horse that it took off in a mad run.  As the buggy careened around the corner of Washington and Montezuma, Dr. Ames either tried to jump or was thrown from the buggy.   He fell against an electric light pole with such force that he suffered head trauma and his left leg was broken below the hip.   He was carried into Frakes’ Livery, where Drs. Hughes and Dameron stabilized him.  However they were not optimistic about his chances for recovery.

Since Ames could not be moved, he was cared for at Mr. Elwell’s house.  He regained consciousness enough to take water and medicine, but was unable to recall what had happened or to recognize family members.  Though attended by three physicians, he died August 13th.

Ames’s wife Sophie, already an invalid, was prostrated by his death.  She could not bear light or sound;  throughout  the hot summer evenings she sat on the porch with a wet cloth over her face.  In October 1892 she declared that she was ready to join her husband.   She lingered until November before passing away.  The Ameses were buried in the Masons Cemetery.

- by Donna Carr

Coming Soon! Biographies of the Ministers Buried at the PMMP!

PCA Archives

 

🕊️ Coming Soon: Ministers of the Past ⛪

We’re proud to launch a new series of bios featuring the ministers and faith leaders buried at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. These are people of conviction who served Phoenix’s early communities through prayer, perseverance, and deep dedication.

From humble church beginnings to powerful moments of revival, their stories offer a window into the spiritual heartbeat of frontier Arizona.

✨ Join us as we honor their legacies and explore how faith shaped our city’s earliest days.

🔗 Learn more and follow each story at:

www.azhistcemeteries.org

https://behindtheepitaph.blogspot.com/

#PioneerHistory #HistoricCemetery #FaithfulServants #PhoenixHeritage #CemeteryStories #ArizonaMinisters #PMMPHistory

 

Mother's Day Craft Day - May 4th