Martha Tannehill Evans (1846-1903) - Pioneer Grit

 

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Martha Tannehill Evans was born in September, 1846, in Logan County, Ohio, the daughter of James Tannehill and Ruth Patterson.  The Tannehills’ first two children were born in Ohio but, around 1847, the family had moved to Davis County, Iowa, where their last six children were born.

Possibly it was the promise of abundant farmland that attracted the Tannehills to Iowa, as James was a farmer and his sons became farmers.

On November 30, 1876, Martha married John Robert Evans in Davis County, Iowa.  Surprisingly, she was thirty years old by then and probably would have been considered a ‘spinster’.  However, since Martha’s younger sister Lovena was blind, perhaps she was needed at home until then

John Robert Evans was a farmer, like the Tannehills.  A widower, he was twenty years older than Martha and had been married previously to Louisa Adeline Miller, who died in 1875.  John Robert often appears in the public record as J. R. Evans.

Martha very likely raised J. R.’s two youngest children, and they did have a ‘late in life’ son of their own, Robert James, born in 1885 when J. R. was nearly sixty.

The Evanses farmed near Bloomfield, Iowa, until November 22, 1898, when they moved to Phoenix, Arizona.   Martha’s younger brother Joseph Edgar Tannehill had moved there around 1896, and perhaps the Evanses found the idea of a warmer climate appealing as they grew older.  Nor were they alone in that, as Martha’s widowed father and four more of her Tannehill siblings either accompanied them or joined them soon afterward in Arizona.

The Evanses were Presbyterian and Martha was active in church work during the last years of her life.

Martha died of pneumonia on December 15, 1903 at the family home about a mile west of the Indian School.  She was buried in the family plot in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 6, Lot 5, next to her little step-grandson, Otto Evans. 

-          - by Donna L. Carr

William Belcher (1846 – 1898) - “The Cockney”

 

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William A. Belcher was born in London, England around 1846.  Not much is known about him prior to 1880, when he was living in Missoula, Montana.  At that time he was working as a watchmaker and living on Front Street. According to news reports, William inherited $5570 from his mother who had died in England.  William quit his profession and began enjoying his money.

William migrated to Phoenix, Arizona and began bartending for Rose Gregory, aka Minnie Powers, a well-known madam.  They began living together and, because William had a problem with alcohol, Rose became his money manager. 

William and Rose had a tumultuous relationship because of his drinking and her profession.  William would end up in jail because of his behavior and while he was gone, Rose would entertain other gentlemen callers.  He would become jealous of her relationships with men and threaten to kill her. 

After his release from jail on September 17, 1898, he went for a few drinks and obtained a .44 caliber handgun.  He then went to where Rose and he were living at 720 Railroad Avenue in Phoenix and entered the residence around 9 a.m.

William found Rose alone and asleep in bed.  He shot her in the head and then shot himself, falling across her.  They were not discovered until 1 p.m. when Flora Wilson, one of the other women living in the house, found the bodies. 

William and Rose were buried in Rosedale Cemetery.  William’s location in the cemetery is unknown, as there is no grave marker.  

- by Patty

 

Dr. Joshua A. Miller Jr. (1846-1901) - Superintendent of the Insane Asylum

 

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Joshua Abston Miller, Jr., was born in Macon County, Missouri, on May 5, 1846.  His parents were Joshua A. Miller, Sr., and Nancy Jane Turner. 

Joshua attended high school on the other side of the Missouri River in Brownville, Nebraska, with the intention of becoming a physician.  Under the tutelage of Dr. William Arnold, he applied for and was admitted to the University of Michigan medical school in 1868. 

While a medical student in Michigan, Miller met and married Mary Crampton on September 21, 1869.  Upon graduation in 1872, Miller opened a practice in Michigan.

In 1879, Miller traveled to New York to gain additional experience at Belleview Hospital.  He then moved his family to Kansas City in 1882, where he helped establish a medical school at the University of Kansas City.   He was for six years the head of orthopedic surgery there.

Perhaps the deaths of two of their young children had strained Joshua’s and Mary’s marriage to the breaking point.  At any rate, she does not appear to have accompanied Miller when he moved to Prescott, Arizona, in 1888.  On December 16, 1890, Miller married his second wife, Minnie Hume, in Prescott.

In 1892, Gov. N. O. Murphy appointed Miller superintendent of the territorial insane asylum in Phoenix.  When Miller assumed his position, there were 87 inmates, some of whom had originally been sent to asylums in California.  Having them back in Phoenix made it possible for family members to visit and see that they were properly cared for. It appears that Miller took his responsibilities seriously.  He had the asylum grounds landscaped with trees and walkways.  His wife Minnie, who was a nurse, served as matron.

In 1898, Gov. Murphy again appointed Dr. Miller to take over management of the insane asylum from outgoing superintendent Dr. Hamblin.  This time, there were 177 patients. 

 One of Miller’s accomplishments was to help found the Maricopa County Medical Society so that the 12 to 14 medical practitioners in the Salt River Valley could meet regularly to discuss new developments in their profession.

Scientific curiosity led to Miller’s interest in prehistoric societies of the American Southwest.  In 1895, he was elected president of the Arizona Antiquarian Society and in 1901 he conducted the first excavation of Pueblo Grande, a prehistoric site east of Phoenix. 

Dr. Miller was on his way to New Mexico on Saturday, July 19, 1901, to observe the annual Hopi snake dance at Walpi when he fell ill and had to get off the train at Flagstaff.   Taken to a hospital there, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  He died on the evening of July 22nd.  His body was returned to Phoenix for burial in Rosedale Cemetery.

by Donna L. Carr

 

Czar James Dyer (1846 - 1903) - Renaissance Men

Czar James Dyer Map of Phoenix - Arizona Memory Project

Although he was an authentic Arizona pioneer, the gentleman with the extraordinary first name--Czar--was born in 1846 in the state of Michigan and grew to manhood there.

Dyer enlisted in the U. S. Navy at the age of 18 and served from August 20, 1864, to July 28, 1865 as a 'powder monkey' aboard the U.S.S. Mattabassett.   After his year of service in the Union Navy, Dyer's travels took him to California.

The federal census of 1880 shows C. J. Dyer residing in Oakland, Alameda County, California, in the household of Frank and Nellie Jones. He gave his age as 31 and his occupation as 'artist'.  Shortly thereafter, he moved to Prescott in the Arizona Territory. Within a few years, he had moved further south to the young settlement of Phoenix, arriving on the scene as the city was in a period of rapid growth and development. A personable fellow, "C. J.", as he was popularly known, made the acquaintance of many key individuals in town, thus immediately involving himself in local commerce and government affairs. 

An artist, specifically a cartographer by profession, Dyer was soon appointed mapmaker for the growing city.  - Adapted from a story by Rose Sullivan

What was unique about James Dyer?  Find out at the PMMP!