Charles H. Knapp (1845-1898) - Veteran, Court Clerk, Mason

 

PCA Archives

Charles H. Knapp was a longtime court clerk in frontier Phoenix, Arizona.

Knapp was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1845, to Charles Knapp and Susan Ludlow. While yet a child, he moved with his parents to Terra Haute, Indiana in the spring of 1850.   He was subsequently educated at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

He was but 19 when he accepted a bounty to enlist in the Union army on March 11, 1864, for a term of three years.   Assigned to Company I, Eleventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteer infantry, he was promoted to corporal on May 2, 1865, and discharged on July 26, 1865, the Civil War having ended. 

Following the war, he lived for a time in Chillicothe, Missouri, before moving to McPherson, Kansas.  On October 8, 1873, Knapp married Anna Rezzer in Newton, Kansas.  They had one son and four daughters.

In April of 1881, the Knapps moved to Phoenix.  Charles served as either deputy clerk or clerk of District Court for the rest of his life.  He was said to have been a popular and capable official, discharging his duties in a most satisfactory manner.

In 1884, the Knapps had a fourth daughter, Anne, but she died on June 26, 1886, at the age of two.  Mrs. Knapp died on January 30, 1889, ten days after giving birth to a fifth daughter.  Both was interred next to little Anne in the family plot in Masons Cemetery. 

Two years later, Charles Knapp married Mary Ann Davidson.  She was twenty years his junior and from Alexander, Louisiana.

Charles Knapp was a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic, (GAR) and became a commander of the Phoenix Knights Templar.  Being only 53 at the time of his death on November 28, 1898, he had not yet filed for a military pension.  He was laid to rest with his first wife and children in the Masons cemetery, Block 10, Lot 2, Grave 2.  His grave has a military headstone.

His widow applied for a widow’s pension, but her application was initially rejected.   She tried again later and it was accepted on October 19, 1916.

- by Val

 

 

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

 

Higinio Bernal (1845-1912) - Farmer

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Higinio was born around 1845 in Ures, Sonora, Mexico.  He was one of several children born to Tiburcio Bernal and his wife.   Higinio had an older sister, Trinidad, born 1843, as well as a younger brother named José Maria, born 1853, also in Sonora.

The Bernals seem to have been farmers throughout their lives.  Both of the Bernal brothers were living in San Bernardino County, California, in 1872, as that is where Higinio married Juana Ruberto Albañez.   According to the 1900 federal census, she was the mother of ten children total, of whom the oldest six may have been born in California. 

Around 1877, Higinio and Juana moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they had four more children.  These younger children are the ones who appear in the Bernal household on the 1900 census.

A retired farmer, Higinio was living at 800 South 5th Avenue in Phoenix when he passed away on April 22, 1912  He had been paralyzed and bedridden for some time prior.  He was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Block 19.  There is no grave marker.

His widow Juana died in 1933 and was buried in St. Francis Cemetery.

-Donna Carr

 

Francis Eugene Lake (1845 - 1890) - Civil War Veteran

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Francis "Frank" E. Lake was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1845.  Not much is known about Frank, other than his military record and history of illness. He died in June of 1890 at the county hospital after a long struggle with consumption, and was buried with military honors in Porter Cemetery.  He served in the 72nd Illinois Infantry, Company F, known as the Chicago Board of Trade Regiment, during the Civil War.  Frank Lake served from 1862 to 1865.  The infantry lost 242 men during its time in the war to disease and battle.  

It is not known if Frank was ever married or had children.  His military records state that when he was mustered in at 17, he was a farmer in St. Joseph, Michigan.  He was single, and stood 5'5" with black hair and blue eyes.  He had apparently contracted consumption during his service in the war.  It is not known when he came to Phoenix, although an 1884 voter registration log was found with his name in it.  

The sentiments of a newspaper reporter described his funeral procession as a "sad and pitiful cortege passing down Washington" in which 15 union veterans from G.A.R. followed stepping in time to the Death March.  There were no other mourners.  The reporter went on to say "No flag was half-mast, no secession in the busy rush of trade....not many seemed to know or care that one who bared his breast to the shock of war from which they today enjoy an undivided country" was being laid to rest, reflecting a sentiment that some shared that society was forgetting about those who had fallen for freedom.  

Frank died in poverty, and was buried by his Union comrades.  He is marked with a simple military marker.