A Rare Glimpse: Early Chinese Mason Funeral in 1880s Phoenix

 

By Patty -  Loosley Looking West

PCA Archives - Loosley Looking South

Back in the 1880s, Phoenix was still a dusty, growing frontier town. People from all over the world were building lives here, including a small Chinese community that brought its own rich traditions. One story we came across recently gives us a rare glimpse into that time: the early recorded Chinese Masonic funeral in Phoenix.

The funeral was for a former cook from the mining town of Seymour, Arizona, who had passed away from tuberculosis. His friends honored him with traditional Chinese funeral customs.  This consisted of incense burning, white mourning clothes, and even a hired mourner to wail in sorrow. The Phoenix Brass Band led a procession through the streets, and firecrackers popped in the air to scare away evil spirits.

It must have been an amazing sight for the people of Phoenix, many of whom had never seen anything like it before.

Sadly, while tradition called for the soul to return to China, frontier realities were different. Based on the timing, it’s very likely he was buried in Phoenix’s original town cemetery and remained there. When that cemetery was moved to what is now the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park, unclaimed graves were moved into a mass grave at Loosley Cemetery.

Today, we don’t know exactly where that mass grave is. It's one of many pieces of history that have been lost to time.  We hope he was sent back to China.  We just don't know.  

Still, stories like this remind us that Phoenix’s history has always been a rich tapestry of cultures, traditions, and untold journeys. Every life mattered and remembering them keeps their spirit alive.

Note - Chee Kung Tong (致公堂) were referred to as the Chinese Freemasons in Phoenix

Historical Source:
The Phoenix Herald (Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory), August 13, 1880.

(Note: Some terminology and descriptions in the original article reflect the prejudices of the era.)

-Want to help us uncover more stories and preserve Phoenix’s earliest cemeteries?
www.azhistcemeteries.org

Thomas A. Hayden (1880-1940) - Civil Engineer and Surveyor

 

PCA Archives

Although Thomas Albert Hayden was neither a pioneer or early resident of Phoenix, his dedication to the cemeteries earned him a final resting place among Phoenix’s first citizens.

Thomas Albert Hayden was born 2 June 1880 in Green Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Thomas Hayden and Elmyra Ringer.  He attended Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, but left in 1899 before graduating to go out West for his health. 

In Santa Fe, Hayden met Harvie Sheffield DuVal, an attorney and civil engineer who had moved to New Mexico in 1903.  Hayden married DuVal’s youngest daughter Irene in 1905.  The couple had one son, Irwin, born 1905 in Albuquerque.

Between 1906 and 1915, Hayden oversaw the construction of the Urraca Dam in Colfax County, New Mexico, and did drainage work in the Florida Everglades.  By 1912, he was back in private practice in Santa Fe, where he was also the city engineer.

Suffering from tuberculosis, Hayden moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1915.  After recovering, he found work as a civil engineer with the U.S. Surveyor General’s office.   During World War I, he served briefly in the Second Battery, 16th Provisional Training Regiment, probably as a training officer.  By 1918, Hayden was an engineer for Salt River Valley Water Users Association.

 Thomas and Irene eventually divorced, after which he married a much younger divorcee, Anna Marjorie Kessler.  They had four more children born between 1927 and 1935.

To keep fit, Hayden was in the habit of walking from his office near the Arizona State Capitol to his home at 339 East Palm Lane in Phoenix.  In doing so, he often passed by an overgrown, abandoned cemetery at 14th Avenue and Jefferson.  A little investigation confirmed that it was the last resting place of many Arizona notables.

Hayden surveyed the cemetery, created a map and recorded all the extant headstones. In 1939, he also prevailed upon some of his acquaintances in government to form the original Pioneer Cemetery Association, the purpose of which was to preserve the seven historic cemeteries now known as the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park.   Among the charter members were Rep. Carl Hayden, Lindley Bell Orme, and a young Barry Goldwater.  

Thomas died at home on December 23, 1940, following a heart attack.  His body was cremated and the stated intention was to have him buried in Greenwood Cemetery.  However, his cremains were left at the J. T. Whitney Funeral Home for another 48 years, until they were interred on the Avenue of Flags in the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in 1988.  It is not known why the original burial never took place.

- by Donna Carr

 

#12 - Thomas Hayden (1880-1940) - Engineer

 

PCA Archive

Thomas Hayden was born June 2, 1880, in Nova Scotia, Canada, to Thomas Hayden and Elmyra Ringer. Young Thomas studied civil engineering at Yale and, in 1908, came west to work on a dam in New Mexico. He was in Phoenix by the outbreak of World War I, during which he served. After the war, he returned to Phoenix where he became a surveyor and engineer for the Salt River Valley Water Users Association. Walking home from his office near the State Capitol, he often passed by a neglected pioneer cemetery. Intrigued, he surveyed the graves in 1937 and helped found the Pioneer’s Cemetery Association to preserve the site. Following Hayden’s unexpected death on December 23, 1940, his ashes sat unclaimed at the mortuary for 48 years. In 1988, they were finally interred on the south side of the Avenue of Flags in the cemetery he had helped to save.