Daniel H. Wallace (1821-1894) - Banker and Judge

 

Donna Carr

Daniel Hendrickson Wallace was born November 3, 1821, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  The son of Robert James Wallace and Margaret Hendrickson, he came from a large family--eight brothers and two sisters.

In 1845, he wed Mary Jane Elder and embarked upon domestic life.  Career advancement came gradually, however; in 1850, he was working as a jailer in his home town of Beaver.  However, by 1860, he was a banker in New Castle, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, with personal property worth $10,000.

Although he was already successful businessman and nearly forty years old, Wallace enlisted in the 76th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 28, 1861.  He soon achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel and was present at the capture of Fort Pulaski, Georgia, on April 11, 1862. Shortly after, he was severely injured in a fall from a horse and was discharged as incapacitated on August 19, 1862.  Thereafter, he returned home and resumed his lucrative banking practice.

Wallace and his wife Mary Jane had six children while residing in New Castle, two of whom died in early childhood.  Mary Jane herself passed away in July, 1867, after which Wallace married Rebecca Cunningham, with whom he had four more children.  By 1870, his personal fortune had reached $25,000.

Throughout his career, Wallace maintained contacts with fellow Republicans in Washington, D. C. and, in 1885, he accepted an appointment as receiver of the U. S. Land Office in Tucson, Arizona.  Although he lost his patronage post in the next general election, he then moved to Phoenix where he practiced land law and became a judge.  His widowed daughter Ada acted as his legal assistant.

Having already applied for a disability pension on the basis of his 1862 injury, Wallace joined the John Wren Owen GAR post.  He died on January 14, 1894, of pneumonia and a liver abscess.  Initially buried in Porter Cemetery, his remains were moved to Greenwood in 1917.

The judge’s daughter, Ada Wallace Irvin, achieved local prominence as a member of the Woman’s Relief Corps, an auxiliary to the G.A.R.  When she died in 1923, she was buried in the same plot in Greenwood.

 

- by Donna L. Carr

 

Anna Mary Fisher Dameron (1839-1894) - From Missouri to Arizona

 

Porter Cemetery - PCA Archives

Anna Mary Fisher was born March 27, 1839, in Lewis County, Missouri.  She was one of five children of James Fisher and Lucinda Doke, who were fairly well-to-do farmers.

On Valentine’s Day 1866, Anna married Willis Monroe Dameron in Adams County, Illinois.   Willis had been married previously to Sarah Dysart, the daughter of a clergyman. She had died in 1860, presumably from complications following childbirth.   Dameron, who was supporting his widowed mother and his little son Everett, seems not to have served on either side during the Civil War.

After their marriage, Willis and Anna farmed in La Belle, Lewis County, Missouri.  They had two sons of their own:  Logan Douglas, born in 1867, and Richard Monroe, born in 1872. Logan was named after his paternal uncle, a successful dry goods merchant.

The Damerons’ son Logan attended La Belle Academy and taught for five years before enrolling in Hospital Medical College in Louisville, Kentucky.  After graduating in 1891, he moved to Phoenix where he went into practice with Dr. H. A. Hughes.

By then, Anna was in poor health.  When Logan returned to Missouri for a Christmas visit in December, 1892, he persuaded Anna and Willis to accompany him back to Phoenix.

Anna lived for two more years before dying of pneumonia on December 31, 1894.  After a Methodist Episcopal service conducted by Rev. W. A. Harris, she was buried in Porter Cemetery.  Her husband joined her in January, 1907.

Shortly after Anna’s death, her son Logan married Bettie Hughes, the daughter of his partner.  Having helped to start the Arizona chapter of the American Medical Association, he became its president in 1903.

 - by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Professor Dayton Alonzo Reed (1841-1894) - Principal, Arizona Territorial Normal School

PCA Archives

Dayton Reed was born on 22 Dec 1841 in Millbrook, Wayne County, Ohio.  He was one of seven children born to James Reed and Mary Ann Keister.  Since Dayton’s father was a millwright, young Dayton learned this craft along with farming. 

 After earning his teaching credentials, Dayton moved to Belleville, Ohio where he served as a high school principal from 1866 to 1873.  During that time, his sister Eliza Jane came to keep house for him after her marriage to William Douglass ended in divorce.  She brought with her her young son, Beach.

Dayton had married Sarah Ordway on December 27, 1871 in Richland, Ohio.  However, the marriage seems to have ended with each party going his own way.  By 1880, Sarah was living with her widowed father back in Belleville, Ohio.  Since the census describes Sarah’s father as consumptive, she may have gone there to care for him.  No evidence of divorce has been found, and Sarah did not remarry until after Dayton’s death.

Around 1873, Dayton moved to Los Angeles, California, where he continued to teach for 12 years.  He then moved to Arizona where he became a principal for the Phoenix Public School system in 1885.  He resigned that position in 1887 to enter into the more lucrative real estate and banking business in Phoenix.   

On June 28, 1890, Dayton became the third principal of the Arizona Territorial Normal School (now Arizona State University) where he taught language, mathematics and pedagogy.  During his brief, ten-month tenure as principal, he improved the appearance of the campus by having fencing, trees and plumbing installed.  His salary was $200 a month, a generous sum for the time.

Eventually, Dayton was diagnosed with consumption and was forced to resign his position because of ill health.  A long-time member of the Masons, he was elevated to Grand Master of the Phoenix lodge prior to his death.  He died July 12, 1894 and was buried in the Masons Cemetery (now part of the Phoenix Military and Memorial Park). 

Dayton’s sister, Eliza Jane Douglass, succumbed to cancer on February 3, 1895, and was buried next to him in the Masons Cemetery.

 

- by Patricia 

Grace Curns (1877-1894) - Beloved by All

 

AI Bing

Grace was born in 1877 in Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas.   She was the second child of John Wesley Curns and his wife, Frances Virginia Hulse.  In 1880, John Wesley was a real estate agent. Grace’s older brother, John Frank, had been born in 1871, and a younger brother, Edison Speed Curns, was born in 1879.  Edison died at the age of seven and was buried in Winfield, Kansas. 

The Curns family moved to Phoenix sometime between 1887 and April 1893.  Though newcomers, they evidently moved in the best circles and were considered relatively cultured.   The Curnses were members of the Presbyterian Church whose pastor, Rev. Preston McKinney, they had previously known in Kansas. 

As a member of the Phoenix high school class of 1895, Grace belonged to the Ionian Literary Society and Philomathean (musical) Society.  Both societies often performed at community events.   In August 1894, she joined several others in a trip to Mogollons to escape the summer heat.

Grace fell ill early in November and died on November 21, 1894, of cerebritis or a swelling of the brain resulting in severe headaches and seizures.  It is often found in persons with lupus although it may also have been caused by a bacterial infection. 

Her obituary describes her as a dutiful daughter, kind sister, affectionate friend and a young lady of high intellect and industry.  Schoolmates draped her desk in black and covered it with flowers.  At the Presbyterian church, a thirty-six string harp with one broken string symbolized the loss of a favorite Sunday School student.   Rev. Preston McKinney conducted the funeral service, after which the remains were borne to Porter Cemetery.  Grace’s coffin was deposited upon a carpet of flowers that lined the grave in the east half of Block 18.

A few years after Grace’s death, Mr. and Mrs. Curns moved to Willow Creek in Yavapai County. The federal census of 1900 records Mr. Curns as a farmer.  Grace’s surviving brother was a bookkeeper.

- by Donna Carr

 

#10 Tallman Jacob "T.J" Trask (1852-1894) - Pioneer Grocer

 

PCA Archives

Tallman Jacob Trask was born 1852 in Vassalboro, Maine, one of eleven children born to William Chase Trask and his second wife, Sophia Winslow.  By 1860, the Trask family had moved to Concord, Illinois.

When he was 17, Tallman, or T. J. as he was known, went to work for Abel Gum as a clerk in Gum’s dry goods store.  T.J. roomed with the Gum family while he learned the ins-and-outs of the mercantile trade. 

Around 1876, young Trask traveled west to Pueblo, Colorado, where he became the head clerk in the grocery store of John D. Miller..  It was there that he met Laura E. Cooper, whom he married in July of 1877.   The couple had two children born between 1878 and 1879, but both died in infancy and were buried in the Odd Fellows section of the Pueblo Pioneer Cemetery.

In 1879, T. J and Laura moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to start a new store with Lyman Putney, a business man from Lawrence, Kansas.  The store, which specialized in wholesale groceries and exotic fruits from California, was located in downtown Albuquerque on Railroad Avenue, opposite the train depot. 

T.J. and Laura had a tumultuous relationship, with Laura spending much of her time with her family in Pueblo and Kansas.  In the spring of 1884, T. J. filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion.  It was granted in October of 1884.  In December of 1884, he married Lizzie Strother of Ohio, thought by some to have been “an adventuress”.  T. J. dissolved his business interests with his partner Lyman Putney and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he opened a store with his new brother-in-law, Emory Kays. 

Still later, in 1892, T.J. opened another store with Charles Kessler and T.J’s brother Alonzo. Located on Washington between modern-day Central Ave and 1st Avenue in Phoenix, the Trask-Kessler wholesale grocery soon became one of the largest grocery stores in town.

As he prospered, T.J. took on many civic duties, becoming president of the Arizona Industrial Exposition Association and territorial fair.  His most notable exhibits were a pagoda made from grains grown on his farm, and a display of hanging tea cups and saucers from his wholesale grocery store that spelled “Trask-Kessler”.  He also served as president of the Immigration Union, vice president of the Business Chamber of Commerce in Phoenix, and was on the board of the Phoenix and Prescott Toll Road Company. 

T. J. died on December 8, 1894, from an intestinal ailment which he had fought for eight months. He was laid to rest in Porter cemetery. His headstone is of an unusual Moorish design and describes him as an “upright businessman”.

-by Val Wilson

 

Electric Belt, Medical Device (1894) - The Shadow Archives

The Arizona Republic, Sat, Jan 20, 1894

The Electric Belt, turning every day into a shocking adventure!

the 19th Century used many creative techniques and tools for curing what ails you.  Electricity was relatively new, and it was believed to help or cure many illnesses.  Here are ways it was used:

Electrotherapy

This was one of the most popular uses of electricity in medicine. It involved applying electric currents to the body to treat a variety of ailments, including pain, muscle weakness, and even paralysis. Physicians believed that electricity could stimulate nerves and muscles, promoting healing and restoring function. Devices like the Faradic and Galvanic batteries were common tools for delivering these treatments.

Electric Belts and Corsets

Devices like the Electric Belt became quite popular during the late 19th century. These belts claimed to channel electric currents through the body to cure everything from indigestion to impotence. Advertised as a miracle cure for a wide range of conditions, these belts were often just simple devices with minimal or no real electric charge, relying more on the placebo effect than any actual therapeutic benefit.

Electromagnetic Therapy

This involved the use of magnets or coils that generated electromagnetic fields, which were believed to have healing properties. Patients would often be treated with magnetic insoles, bracelets, or even entire beds designed to channel electromagnetic energy through the body. These treatments were thought to improve circulation, reduce pain, and treat a variety of ailments.

 

Thomas A. Cochrane (1836-1894) - Prospector

Broderbund Clip Art

Thomas Augustus Cochrane was born in Canada around 1836 to parents who had immigrated to Canada from England.  In about 1838, his widowed mother brought Thomas and his older sister Mary Ann to Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois.

According to his obituary, Cochrane went to California in 1849 when he was only 13 years old.  He spent the rest of his life as a prospector and mining consultant.  He never married.

City directories, census returns and voter registrations record his travels throughout California and Arizona.  In 1864, he was a miner, living in San Francisco.  By 1870, he was a miner in Tuolumne, California.  He had moved to Pinal County, Arizona, by 1880.

Cochrane registered to vote in Maricopa County, Arizona, in 1886, although he continued to have business dealings in Globe.  By this time, he was well regarded as a mining man.

In June, 1890, Cochrane and his business partner Frank Kirkland were selling shares in a mining corporation with gold mines located near Harqua Hala.  One of the mines, the Golden Eagle, had been ‘jumped’ by M. H. Horn, and the partners along with Columbus Gray had to get an injunction to make Horn leave.

Cochrane returned from trip East in August 1890, after which he was planning to go to Baker City, Oregon, to superintend operations at a new mine there.  He was said to be a man of great skill and integrity.

Early in 1893, T. A. Cochrane made a prospecting trip into the Bradshaw Mountains.  In May, he was a member of the coroner’s jury convened to determine the cause of Tessie Murray’s (Letitia Rice’s) death.

Just a few days before his death, Cochrane was exhibiting a gold nugget the size of a hen’s egg, which he said was taken from a digging on the Hassayampa River north of Wickenburg.

Thomas A. Cochrane died in his room at a Phoenix boarding house on September 18, 1894, of what was almost certainly a heart attack.  Captain Calderwood took up a collection for his funeral expenses, which his sister in Illinois reimbursed shortly thereafter.  Cochrane was buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 16, Lot 7, Space N 1/3.

-Donna carr

Louis Roth (1859 - 1894) - Shopkeeper

 

Tim Kovacs

Louis Roth, son of Yosef Avraham and his wife Tcharne, was born about 1859 in what is now Kovácsvágás, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hungary.  He was later known as Louis, Lajos or Leo.

After the Austrian Hapsburgs teamed up with Tsar Nicholas I of Russia to put down the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Hungarian Jews lost the few civil rights they had enjoyed and became subject to the Russian military draft.  Louis’s older brother Jacob was conscripted in this fashion, prompting their father to urge his other sons to emigrate as soon as possible.

Accordingly, Louis and Max, the next two oldest sons, came to America in 1879.  Louis appears to have filed a declaration of intent to become a naturalized U. S. citizen under the name of Lewis Roth in Fairfield County, Ohio, on January 30, 1885.  By 1888, Louis and his younger siblings had reunited in Los Angeles, where he had found work with the Kline Clothing Company and the Excelsior Clothing Company.  The Roth family—Max, Rosa, Kelly, Mike and Isidor—ultimately became very involved in Los Angeles’s Hungarian Jewish community.

In January, 1888, Louis’s financial position was stable enough for him to marry Miss Fannie Gerson.  Unfortunately, the marriage did not last; they divorced just five months later.

By January 1891, Louis was in Phoenix, Arizona, operating his own cigar and confectionary shop on Washington Street, near the Monihon Building.  It’s possible that he came to Arizona for his health, considering that he died of consumption on April 12, 1894.

Louis’s brother Max traveled to Phoenix to see him properly buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery and to close out his business affairs.  When Beth Israel Cemetery opened in 1903, the family had his remains moved there and a fine marble monument erected in his memory.

Fast forward to January 2019, when Tim Kovacs was visiting the Beth Israel Cemetery.  While there, he happened upon a broken marker on which he recognized the place name Kovacs Vagas—a Hungarian village about 33 miles from where his own ancestors originated.

On February 9, 2021, Tim received a surprising message from Geri Roth Jacobson, Louis Roth’s great-niece.  She had spent thirty years looking for a grave marker for her “Uncle Leo” in California, but to no avail.  Only by luck had she come upon his memorial on Find A Grave.

Because Roth had originally been buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Geri appealed to the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association for help with repairs, and its preservation team responded.  The restoration was a success and, on December 21, 2022, Geri and a contingent of relatives from California visited the grave for the first time ever to view the results.

- By Tim Kovacs and Donna Carr

 

Solomon Dotson (1894 - 1940) - World War I Veteran

 

Val Digital Art and AI

Although no contemporary record of his birth has been found, Solomon Dotson is believed to have been born on Christmas Day, 1894, in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas.

As early as August 1916, Dotson was serving as a private in Company H, 365th Infantry, U.S. Army.  The 365th was a racially-segregated, all Negro regiment.  However, it was somewhat unusual in that, unlike most other segregated units, it had African American officers.  Dotson’s commanding officer was Captain William Washington Green.  Green was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star for his heroic actions during World War I.  Therefore, it seems likely that Solomon Dotson too saw combat during the War.

Solomon had several service tours throughout his life.  Promoted to the rank of private first class, Dotson continues to appear on the 365th ‘s roster until January 31, 1919, when he was presumably discharged.

Proud of his World War I service, Dotson was active in veterans’ organizations throughout his later years.   In 1936, he was the finance officer for the William F. Blake American Legion Post #40 (the post appears to have been renamed the Tilden White Post at a later date).   Dotson’s teenaged daughter Lonnie was president of the post’s junior auxiliary.  Dotson also belonged to the Virgil Bell Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1710, which still exists.

1940 was an election year, and Solomon Dotson was active in the ‘Wilkie for President’ club.  However, he didn’t live to see the outcome of the election as he died on October 15th of a cerebral hemorrhage associated with hypertension.  His funeral took place at the Calvary Baptist Church, after which he was laid to rest in the Maricopa County Cemetery (now Cementerio Lindo).

-story shortened, story by Donna Carr

Willie Meade (1894 - 1900) - Tragic Death

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
//hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b19075

William “Willie” Meade began life in 1894 as the son of William “Billy” Meade and Laura Dawson.  His father was known as a genius at the roulette table.  

His mother worked as a waitress at the Louvre Garden Café that by 1895 was owned by Rose Gregory, a well-known Madam in Phoenix. 

The following facts are what we know about Willie.

Willie developed scarlet fever shortly after his birth and the disease eventually destroyed his hearing and vocal cords.

When Willie was six, his mother was living with her parents.

Willie’s grandparents lived near the railroad tracks in Phoenix.

On Feb 17, 1900, Willie was playing with other children near the tracks at Jackson St - between 3^rd and 4^th St.

As he started to run across the track in pursuit of his dog, a train engine began to move, startling Willie.  Willie tried to jump up onto the front of the train.

The engineer did not see Willie as he started the engine and when he began to move the train car, Willie was thrown underneath, killing him instantly.

Willie’s father belonged to the Improved Order of RedMen and the Independent Order of Foresters.

Willie is buried close to the railroad tracks in Rosedale Cemetery where the train is still heard in the background.

Complexion and Constipation Corrector - 1894

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Cures constipation and clears up your skin......hmmm.  

**We do not endorse any ad for medical treatments.  Ads are placed for historical and anecdotal purposes only.  

Picture from:  The Oasis. [volume] (Arizola, Ariz.), 14 June 1894.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

<https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85032933/1894-06-14/ed-1/seq-7/