Edward Ohmer Rouzer (1879-1906) and Mary E. Smith Rouzer (1883-1906) - Honeymoon Ends in Tragedy

Photo:  Donna Carr

Hotel Del Monte 1906 - Library of Congress

Edward Ohmer Rouzer was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1879.  He was the son of Charles Conover Rouzer and Jennie Ellen Morton.  Charles was in the hotel business and was for many years the manager of Indianapolis’s exclusive Columbia Club.

In 1901, the Rouzers moved to Bisbee, Arizona, where Charles became the manager of the Copper Queen Hotel.  The 44-room hotel boasted Italianate architecture and opulent furnishings suitable for the mining magnates and businessmen that made up its clientele.  As the front desk clerk, Rouzer’s son Edward earned an enviable reputation for amiability, courtesy and efficiency.  By 1904, Charles Rouzer had returned to Indianapolis, leaving Edward in charge of the Copper Queen.

Edward probably met Mary Elizabeth Smith while she was visiting her married sister, Winifred Smith Buxton, in Bisbee.  Mary had been born in Phoenix on July 9, 1883.  She was the daughter of John Y. T. Smith and his wife Ellen “Nellie” Shaver.  Smith owned a flour mill in Phoenix.  Mary herself had graduated from Pomona College in California in 1905.   The engagement of Mary Smith to Edward Rouzer was announced in January, 1906.

Friends and relatives traveled to Los Angeles to see the happy couple united in marriage by Rev. John Fry on April 11, 1906.  The Rouzers planned to honeymoon in San Francisco before returning to Bisbee in May.  They checked into an upstairs room with a view of the ocean at the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey, California, on April 17th.

In the predawn hours of April 18th, an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude struck the west coast of California.  A chimney on the Del Monte Hotel toppled onto the room where the Rouzers were sleeping; they were crushed instantly under tons of bricks.  No one else in the hotel was injured. 

Owing to the general confusion following the earthquake, it was a day or so before the Rouzers’ families were notified of their demise.  The bodies were returned to Phoenix by train and held at the Easterling & Whitney funeral home until the Rouzers could arrive from Indianapolis and Mary’s mother and brother-in-law from Los Angeles, where they had gone to attend the wedding only a week earlier.  Rev. John Fry, the same minister who had officiated at the nuptials, conducted the funeral service on April 25th, and Edward and Mary were buried together in Rosedale Cemetery.  Friends of Edward Rouzer, who had pooled their funds to buy the Rouzers a wedding present, used the money for flowers instead.

In 1914, the Rouzers’ remains were moved to Greenwood, where Mary’s mother, Mrs. Nellie Smith, had purchased a family plot.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Henry “Harry” Sayers (1832 – 1879) - The Dublin "Sportsman"

 

Henry “Harry” Sayers was born in Ireland around 1832, in a time when many people sought new lives across the sea. He made that journey himself and found new opportunity in the American frontier.

Also known as “Dublin” or “Dublin Tricks”, Sayers carved out his place in history not only as an early Phoenix settler but also as a United States Army soldier. His path to citizenship came through military service, Records show he was naturalized thanks to that service and at least one record shows him registered to vote in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory, on October 14, 1876.

Sayers’ military service appears to have begun in New York in 1858, when he enlisted at the age of 23 in Company E, 5th United States Infantry. A plumber by trade before donning the uniform, he served through the challenging years that included the Civil War era, though his own term concluded before its end. He was discharged at Los Pinos, New Mexico Territory, in 1863.

After his Army years, Sayers eventually settled in Arizona, Known to be a “sporting” character, he appeared in a local newspaper in 1873 offering to fight any man in the Arizona Territory in a prize match under London Prize Ring rules, with $1000 wagered on each side. By 1878, he had established a feed, exchange, and sales stable with a bar attached to it advertising the “best liquor and cigars”.  Henry appeared to be a colorful and savvy part of the gritty fabric of pioneer life.

Henry “Harry” Sayers died on June 28, 1879. He was 47 years old, though records vary slightly on his exact birth year. He is buried in the Loosley section of Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. Originally, his grave was among the earliest in the Old Phoenix Cemetery but was relocated to Loosley when the new cemetery was established.

During the 2025 preservation event, our historian, Patty, reported that his headstone was found in Loosley with its top portion broken off and lying face-up on the ground. The base was discovered about a foot underground using careful probing and was brought back to the surface to restore the marker's presence. The headstone itself was made in Tucson, as confirmed by the maker’s markings, adding another historic layer to this pioneer’s enduring story in Arizona.  Watch the video above to see this restoration.  

-by Val W.

Luke Monihon (1841 - 1879) - A Murdered Rancher

 

PCA Archives

Luke Monihon was born November 15, 1841, in Waddington, St. Lawrence County, New York.  He was the son of James Monaghan and Ann Martin, immigrants from Ireland who had arrived in the United States between 1833 and 1837.  The Monaghans were farmers.

James Davidson Monihon, Luke’s older brother, caught ‘gold fever’ in 1854 and went off to California to become a placer miner.

In 1860, Luke was working as a hired hand for a Rutherford family, also in St. Lawrence County.  No evidence has been found that Luke himself served during the Civil War, although his brother James enlisted in Company F, 1st California Infantry, which brought him to Arizona in 1863.  Evidently James saw potential in the Salt River Valley and invited his brothers to join him.

Of Luke’s and James’s siblings, Joseph and Christopher also came to Arizona.  While their kin back in New York continued to spell their surname as Monaghan, the brothers in Arizona were known as Monahans, Monahons and, finally-- Monihons.

Luke Monihon was in Arizona by at least August 1875, when he filed on a homestead near his brother James’s, in the new Phoenix township.  After “proving up”, he received his homestead patent in May, 1878.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Wilcoxen, daughter of his neighbor Andrew Jackson Willcoxen, although the marriage appears to have been of short duration and there were no children.  Sarah had been married previously and had a son by her first husband.

On August 19, 1879, Monihon was driving home with a load of wood when he was shot in the back by an assailant who had been lying in wait along the road.  The team of horses continued home where a ranch hand, seeing no driver, backtracked and found Monihon’s body.

Luke Monihon is buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 2, Lot 6, north half.  Come hear the rest of the story at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park!

-By Donna Carr