William Lindsey George (1832-1897) - Farmer and Contractor

 

PCA Archive

William Lindsey George was born April 29, 1832, in Shelby County, Kentucky, to James Whitefield George and Frances Booker, farmers.  The Georges had a total of eleven children.

Shelby County was not far from Louisville—and the Ohio River.  Many of Kentucky’s agricultural products were floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on flatboats to New Orleans.  So, after faraway Texas became a state, the Georges moved there, settling in Guadalupe around 1854.

William married Eliza LeGette in about 1858 and they soon had an infant son, James.  The federal census of 1860 records the family farming in New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas.  William’s parents and younger siblings lived on a ranch not far away.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, William waited until March 26, 1862, when he enlisted in Seguin, Texas.  He was assigned to Company K, 8th Texas Infantry, CSA, later under the command of Colonel Ireland.  The 8th Texas Infantry served in East Texas throughout the war, so William was able to visit his family occasionally.  His wife Eliza gave birth to son Henry in September, 1862, and to William Jr. in March 1864.  At the end of the war, William was discharged with the rank of captain.

Big events were taking place on the Great Plains, as the Transcontinental Railroad pushed westward.  By 1870, the entire George family had moved to Kansas City, where they worked as cattle traders.  William even became (briefly) the president of a Kansas City bank.

In 1886, the Georges moved to Arizona, where William ran a freighting business and became involved in building railroads, canals and reservoirs.  He was one of the contractors who built the Gila Bend canal and the Agua Fria reservoir.

As a prominent businessman, William maintained a keen interest in local politics and was several times asked to run for office.  In 1888, he yielded to voters’ entreaties but bowed out rather than stoop to the kind of unethical behavior needed to get elected.  Thereafter, he was elected to the County Board of Supervisors strictly on his merits.

In August 1897, William experienced a couple of angina attacks.  Although the attacks passed, his doctor advised him to send for his wife, who was in California.  She arrived in Phoenix just five hours before William died early in the morning of August 20th. 

The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. W. E. Vaughan of the Methodist Episcopal church.  A modest man, William had previously requested that there be no empty eulogies, but his friends and business associates attested to his honesty and moral uprightness.   He was buried near his brother James Benjamin in Porter Cemetery, Block 41, space B. 

by Donna L. Carr 

Joseph Thomas Barnum (1832-1909) - Maricopa County Sheriff

 

Thomas Barnum

Photo from Maricopa for Lodge #5

Joseph Thomas Barnum was born in 1832 in New York state, the son of Truman Barnum and Harriet Rich.  Although he is said to have been a cousin of P.T. Barnum, the famous showman (Phineas was the son of Philo, while Joseph Thomas was the son of Truman), so far no proof has been found that Philo and Truman were brothers. 

The Barnums came to Arizona in 1864 and settled first in Prescott, where Joseph Thomas met and married Jeanette Jane “Jenettie” Osborn, daughter of John P. Osborn and Perlina Swetnam, on 10 May 1865.  He was 33, almost 17 years older than his teenaged bride.

When Barnum, who usually went by his middle name of Thomas, moved his family to the Salt River Valley in 1868, his wife was one of only four Anglo women in the rough settlement.  Barnum was quick to see the Valley's potential and went into partnership with J. W. Swilling in digging irrigation ditches.   He was also one of the signers of the original Salt River Valley Town Association pact on 20 October 1870.

When Maricopa County was created in 1871 from Yavapai County, it became necessary to elect county officials for the first time.  After one candidate for sheriff, a man named Chenoweth, shot and killed another candidate, J. Favorite, in a gunfight, Barnum became the front runner for the office.  He was elected and served from May until August, 1871.

Besides enforcing the law, Barnum's duties included developing a tax roll and collecting taxes for the new county.  He also had to take convicted felons to the state prison in Yuma and transport the insane to the nearest mental hospital which was in California.  Being out of town so often made it difficult for Barnum to attend to the running of his ranch, so he resigned as sheriff in August of 1871.  The federal census of 1880 lists his occupation as ‘saloonkeeper’.

Barnum’s ranch eventually prospered but, between 1873 and 1884, he and his wife mourned the loss of five of their thirteen children. 

As he had demonstrated earlier in digging irrigation canals, Barnum was willing to invest in the future. In 1901, he was among the signers of the articles of incorporation for the Phoenix Independent Telephone Company.  Like many other Arizona pioneers, he also had mining interests and became a partner in the Gold Coin Mining Company in 1901 [8].

Barnum died on 26 January 1909 at the age of 77 [9].  Although his death certificate says he was buried in 'the Catholic Cemetery', it is believed that he was actually buried in the Catholic section of Loosley Cemetery, next to his five little sons.  The rest of the Barnum family is buried about a mile away in Forest Lawn Cemetery [10].

 -by Donna Carr

 

Christopher Baine (1832 - 1899) - Carpenter and Firefighter

 

PCA Archives

Christopher Baine was born about 1832 in Dublin, Ireland—possibly to Lawrence and Ellen Bain.  It is not known when he immigrated to the United States but, by 1860, he was living in Sacramento, California, and working as a wheelwright and wagon-maker.  Several newspaper articles attest to the fact that, while living in Sacramento, Baine was a member of the city’s fire department.  He served in Engine Company #2.

 Baine was in Arizona City (now Yuma), Arizona, in 1868, when he married Jesus Dominguez Esquer, born 1844.  At the time of the marriage, Jesus Dominguez already had a little daughter named Maria Cruz by her previous relationship with Donaciano Cruz.  With Baine, she had a daughter Guadalupe, born 1869, a daughter Emilia, born 1871, a son Thomas/Tomás, born 1873, a daughter Sarah, born in 1875, and a daughter Juanita, born in 1879.

 The Baine family’s life in Yuma was thrown into turmoil on July 29, 1879, when Baine shot and killed his brother-in-law, Antonio Ruiz, who was married to Jesus’s sister.  At about 1 AM, Ruiz, drunk, appeared at the Baines’ house, from which he had been ejected a month before.  When told to leave, he did, but returned a few hours later.  Baine, fearing that Ruiz had come back with a gun, again ordered him to leave.  When Ruiz advanced instead, Baine fired four times.  Ruiz died several hours later.

 Baine immediately turned himself in to the sheriff.  The grand jury set his bail at $1000.  It does not appear, however, that Baine was charged with anything beyond defending his home from an intruder. 

There is more to this story!  Baine is buried in City Loosley.  Come find out more about him at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park!

-By Donna Carr

PCA Archives

Bryan Darell Duppa (1832 - 1892) - Phoenix City Pioneer

 

Lord Duppa - Arizona Archives

Bryan Philip Darell Duppa was born 9 October 1832 in Paris, France, where his parents, Baldwin Francis Duppa and Catherine Darell, were living at the time. Although not a titled family, they were landed gentry. The family seat, Hollingbourne Manor, was in Maidstone, Kent, England. It was to this mansion that Duppa came as a three-year-old in 1835.

Duppa received a classical education at Cambridge University, where he learned French, Spanish, Italian and German, in addition to the required Greek and Latin. In later life, he was known to recite Shakespeare for hours from memory.

Since Duppa had an older brother, Baldwin, who would inherit the Duppa estate, he had to find some other occupation. It seems more likely that he spent some time on his uncle George’s sheep station in New Zealand and that this might have whetted his appetite for further adventure.

Duppa was known to have been in Prescott, Arizona in December of 1863. He became friends with Jack Swilling and it is likely that the two came to Phoenix together in 1867. Recognizing the area’s potential for growth, Duppa homesteaded 175 acres near what is now downtown Phoenix.  An
adobe building that has been associated with the property sits at what is now 116 West Sherman.

Both he and Swilling were much interested in the evidence of a vanished Hohokam culture on the banks of the Salt River—specifically, its system of canals. When the question of what to name the new settlement arose, Duppa proposed Phoenix, for it suggested a city rising from the ashes of a previous civilization. Duppa is also credited with having named Tempe. - Adapted story of Debe Branning and Donna Carr.

Find out why he was called "Lord" and was actually re-buried in 1991 by coming to Pioneer Military and Memorial Park!

See us on our website: azhistcemeteries.org

James Braswell (1832 - 1898) - Civil War Soldier

Confederate Prisoners

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Washington, D.C., USA   //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.15835

James Belton Braswell is believed to have been born 7 September 1835 in South Carolina. He received training as a brickmason and later worked as a building contractor.

During the Civil War, James enlisted initially as a private in Company B, 26th Alabama Infantry (O’Neal’s Regiment), but in August 1862, he and his brother W. D. deserted. They were captured by the Union Army at Camp Davies, Mississippi, on 28 December 1863. Five months later, on 31 May 1864, they took a loyalty oath and enlisted in the U. S. Army. Braswell’s own account was much more colorful.

After a year or two of soldiering, he and a comrade named R. A. Crowley were fighting in Georgia when they deserted for the first time. They were soon captured by their Confederate fellows. The South, being by then desperate for soldiers, did not execute the pair, but confined them to the guardhouse. Braswell and Crowley escaped a second time by knocking a guard down. Recaptured and confined yet again, they made a third attempt to escape, but were foiled. Despairing of keeping the slippery pair in uniform, the commanding officer ordered them to be shot the next morning at sunrise.

As the condemned men sat in the guardhouse that night, Braswell persuaded Crowley to make one last break for it, saying “Let us try one more run. The chances are that we won’t make it wand will most likely get killed, but what of that? We’ll only shorten our years by five hours.”

The pair surprised and killed a guard, fleeing into the night. Before morning they reached a dense swamp and made their way to Sherman’s lines, where they surrendered.

James Braswell married his first wife, Mary Jane DuBose in Indiana in 1863. After the war, Braswell’s skills as a brickmason were undoubtedly in demand as new settlements sprang up out West. By 1870, the Braswells were living in Elk City, Kansas, and were the parents of three children, Sophronia Belle, George Belton, and James Elliot.

Around 1884, the Braswells moved to Arizona, accompanied by James’s old friend Crowley. Their last five children: Claude, John Wesley, Maude Pauline, Audrey and Joseph Franklin, were born in Phoenix. Although Braswell claimed to have been the father of 24 children, only 14 have been documented.

Although Braswell had been an industrious and skillful workman for most of his life, he took up drinking during his last years. When he expired on 13 January 1898, bottles of laudanum and paregoric were found in his pockets. Thinking that he might have committed suicide, Justice Johnstone ordered an inquest. The cause of death was cleared up when Mrs. Braswell testified that he habitually carried them to relieve a persistent ear ache.

James Braswell is buried in Porter Cemetery.  Come visit us, and learn more about this soldier at the PMMP! - adapted by a story from Sue Wilcox

Bryan Philip Darell Duppa (1832 - 1892) - Renaissance Men

Lord Duppa - Arizona Archives

Bryan Philip Darell Duppa was born 9 October 1832 in Paris, France, where his parents, Baldwin Francis Duppa and Catherine Darell, were living at the time. Although not a titled family, they were landed gentry. The family seat, Hollingbourne Manor, was in Maidstone, Kent, England. It was to this mansion that Duppa came as a three-year-old in 1835.

Duppa received a classical education at Cambridge University, where he learned French, Spanish, Italian and German, in addition to the required Greek and Latin. In later life, he was known to recite Shakespeare for hours from memory.

Since Duppa had an older brother, Baldwin, who would inherit the Duppa estate, he had to find some other occupation. It seems more likely that he spent some time on his uncle George’s sheep station in New Zealand and that this might have whetted his appetite for further adventure.

Duppa was known to have been in Prescott, Arizona in December of 1863. He became friends with Jack Swilling and it is likely that the two came to Phoenix together in 1867. Recognizing the area’s potential for growth, Duppa homesteaded 175 acres near what is now downtown Phoenix.  An
adobe building that has been associated with the property sits at what is now 116 West Sherman.

Both he and Swilling were much interested in the evidence of a vanished Hohokam culture on the banks of the Salt River—specifically, its system of canals. When the question of what to name the new settlement arose, Duppa proposed Phoenix, for it suggested a city rising from the ashes of a previous civilization. Duppa is also credited with having named Tempe. - Adapted story of Debe Branning and Donna Carr.

Find out why he was called "Lord" and was actually re-buried in 1991 by coming to Pioneer Military and Memorial Park!

See us on our website: azhistcemeteries.org