Nicholas A. Connick (1838-1898) - Merchant and Accountant

 

Bing AI Generated

Nicholas A. Connick is believed to have been of Irish descent, but he was born about 1837 in Pennsylvania.  However, he didn’t remain there.  Unlike the majority of immigrant Irish who settled in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the industrial northwest, Connick was living in Texas at the outbreak of the Civil War. 

He seems to have had a fairly good education since, on August 26, 1861, he enlisted as a sergeant in Capt. Charles Mason’s Company D, Cook’s Battalion, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery.  By October, 1861, he was with the Pelican Battery at Galveston, defending the Texas coast from ships of the Union Navy. 

Connick’s military service was short, however, as he was discharged on November 22, 1861, after being promoted to the rank of major.  Thereafter, he served the Confederate cause as chief clerk in a Houston commissary.  A Confederate coupon from 1864, worth two dollars in groceries, bears his signature, written in a fair hand.

On April 27, 1862, Connick married Nathalia F. Gaye in Christ Church, Houston, Texas. The 1880 federal census found Nicholas Connick living in the newly-formed county of Somervell, Texas, and working as a bookkeeper.  By this time, he was a widower.

Sometime before 1891, Connick arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, where he opened a saloon near the train depot.  The Great Flood of 1891 forced the relocation of the establishment to higher ground.

Early in January, 1891, Connick joined a newly formed group of ex-Confederates.  Twenty-three local men attended its first meeting.  Ivy Cox was elected president and Connick became the secretary.  Thomas Greenhaw and Dr. Oscar Mahoney formed a committee to look into permanent organization.  The group’s goal was to promote good fellowship and assist old comrades in distress.

Perhaps competition drove Connick out of the saloon business, as the 1892 city directory of Phoenix listed him as an accountant.  In addition to being proficient with figures, he was regarded as being a sociable, cultured man and a brilliant conversationalist, with vivid memories of the Civil War.

On November 18, 1898, Connick died of typhoid at the county hospital in Phoenix.  Although his death certificate suggests that he was to be buried in the county cemetery, his old comrades arranged to have him interred as a veteran in Porter Cemetery.  No grave marker survives.

- Donna L. Carr

 

 

Henry Hiram Wilky (1838-1900) - Farmer

 

PCA Archives

Henry Wilky began life as Heinrich Wilke.  He was born on January 8, 1838, in Duchy of Brunswick (Braunschweig), Germany, to a farm family.

Germany saw much political turmoil in the following years, as a revolution in 1848 failed and Prussia became the most powerful of Germany’s many duchies.  Europe was also undergoing an industrial revolution, as farms with mechanized equipment were soon outcompeting small farms that depended on hand labor.  Prussia’s imperial ambitions also led to the conscription of young men into the military.  Wilke may have left Braunschweig for any of these reasons.

He arrived in New Orleans in 1855 and made his way up the Mississippi River to Burton, Adams County, Illinois, where he found employment on the farm of Peter Rump.  The Rumps were originally from Hanover--only 40 miles from Braunschweig. 

Henry obviously intended to remain in the United States, as he filed a naturalization petition in 1860.  By 1861, he had a farm of his own and, on April 2^nd, he married Sophia Lutgerding, a neighbor.  She was the daughter of George Lutgerding and Elizabeth Rump (possibly a relative of Peter Rump) of Adams County, Illinois.

The Wilkys had six children:  George L., born 1862; William H., born 1865; Frederick Daniel, born 1867; John Adolph, born 1870; Clara Ellen, born 1877: and Lena Madelia, born 1880.  The family very likely spoke German at home.  By 1870, they had moved to Marion County, Missouri, where the census recorded them as Wilkys.

By 1882, the oldest Wilky sons were adults and needed farms of their own.  Henry and Sophia sold their property in Missouri and came by train to Maricopa in November.  From Maricopa, they traveled by wagon to Phoenix.   At first, they homesteaded in the area of 99^th Ave and Indian School but, due to lack of water, they had to move to about 67^th Ave and Indian School.

The Wilkys’ last years were marked by the loss of close relatives.  Their son John Adolph died in 1886 and son Frederick Daniel in 1900.   Henry Wilky himself died on December 22, 1900, of septicemia.  He was buried in the family plot in City Loosley Cemetery.  Sophia followed him in 1908.

The Wilkys’ descendants prospered in Arizona.   More than a century after their arrival in the Valley of the Sun, they generously donated funds for a wrought iron arch for Rosedale Cemetery.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

Saloma E. Newland - Lady Prospector

Val Digital Art and AI

Saloma E. Larcombe Newland was a female prospector in territorial Arizona. She was born around 1838 in Massachusetts.  It is unknown who her parents were, or if she had any siblings.  Prior to 1880, there are no census records that list her, and what has been discovered comes mostly from newspaper articles. 

She lived in Ohio at some point, as her daughter Flora Larcombe was born on January 14th, 1859 in Steubenville, Ohio. Flora had married Barry Baldwin in 1875 who was a United States Marshal for the Northern District of California. 

Saloma also lived in California on and off for several years as Mrs. S.E. Larcombe, having married a Thomas B. Larcombe, a miner, at some point.  She divorced him in 1870.  In 1864, she worked as a sales agent in Virginia, Nevada Territory for the Florence sewing machine.  In 1866, she worked as the manager of the Western Union Telegraph Office in Santa Barbara, along with another job as operator at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.  She left California in 1877, and came to Arizona to pursue her interest in prospecting. 

She would continue her mining endeavours in Globe while managing a hotel in “Watsonville”, a mining camp near Ramboz peak.  After marrying Thomas Newland in 1878, together, they mined several claims, which included prospecting the Defiance, Pioneer, and Saloma Mines in the area of Globe.  In 1896, Thomas died of  chronic pneumonia at 66 years of age.  Saloma continued mining their prospects, earning her notoriety in the Arizona Republic, and an article written about her in the The San Francisco Call in 1897 called “Arizona’s Lady Prospector”. 

Saloma Larcombe Newland died of cancer December 31, 1898, and is buried in Loosley.  She has no headstone.  For more information on her, come to the Pioneer Military and Memorial Park to learn about this fascinating “lady miner”. 

- bio by Val Wilson

James Moore Hall (1838 - 1903) - Troubles Unbearable

James Moore Hall was born August 1838 in Tennessee. He was the son of John Mabin Hall and Elizabeth White Moore.

Judging from the birthplaces of James’s siblings, the Hall family moved to Mississippi around 1844. Their mother Elizabeth Moore died soon thereafter. In 1846, the family moved to Locust Bayou, Ouachita County, Arkansas, where John Mabin Hall wed his second wife, Elizabeth Jane Dowdle.

James’s father died in 1864 and his adult siblings scattered. By 1870, he was married to Mary Hudson and living in the household of his brother-in-law, Warren F. Hudson.

James and Mary remained in Texas until at least 1881, with perhaps a brief sojourn in New Mexico between 1875 and 1878. This is based on the birthplaces of their children as listed on the 1880 federal census.

The Halls moved to Phoenix around 1884. In June 1899, James, Mary and their daughter Lula Bell were among the founding members of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Phoenix. Perhaps this afforded Mary some spiritual solace, as she died 8 October 1899 of cancer.

Following the death of his wife, Hall is reported to have suffered from bouts of despondency. In 1903, he sold most of his property to his son John, then gambled away the money he had received in the vain hope of recouping his lost fortune, and died tragically in 1903. - adapted from a story by Donna carr.  

For more information on James Hall, come visit us!

Saloma Newland (1838 - 1898) - Lady Prospector - Enterprising Women

Globe Mining District
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
//hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pan.6a17352

Saloma E. Larcombe Newland was a female prospector in territorial Arizona. She was born around 1838 in Massachusetts.  It is unknown who her parents were, or if she had any siblings.  Prior to 1880, there are no census records that list her, and what has been discovered comes mostly from newspaper articles. 

She lived in Ohio at some point, as her daughter Flora Larcombe was born on January 14th, 1859 in Steubenville, Ohio. Flora had married Barry Baldwin in 1875 who was a United States Marshal for the Northern District of California. 

Saloma also lived in California on and off for several years as Mrs. S.E. Larcombe, having married a Thomas B. Larcombe, a miner, at some point.  She divorced him in 1870.  In 1864, she worked as a sales agent in Virginia, Nevada Territory for the Florence sewing machine.  In 1866, she worked as the manager of the Western Union Telegraph Office in Santa Barbara, along with another job as operator at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.  She left California in 1877, and came to Arizona to pursue her interest in prospecting. 

She would continue her mining endeavours in Globe while managing a hotel in “Watsonville”, a mining camp near Ramboz peak.  After marrying Thomas Newland in 1878, together, they mined several claims, which included prospecting the Defiance, Pioneer, and Saloma Mines in the area of Globe.  In 1896, Thomas died of  chronic pneumonia at 66 years of age.  Saloma continued mining their prospects, earning her notoriety in the Arizona Republic, and an article written about her in the The San Francisco Call in 1897 called “Arizona’s Lady Prospector”. 

Saloma Larcombe Newland died of cancer December 31, 1898, and is buried in Loosley.  She has no headstone.  For more information on her, come to the Pioneer Military and Memorial Park to learn about this fascinating “lady miner”.