Manuel Harvey Reno (1831-1899) - Kentucky Judge

 

PCA Archives

Manuel H. Reno was born January 28, 1831, in Ballard County, Kentucky.  He was one of nine children belonging to Richard D. Reno and Celia Bohannon, a farming couple.  The federal census of 1850 suggests that the Renos had moved to Kentucky around 1830 from Alabama.

Around 1855, Reno married Ann D. Ellis in Ballard County, Kentucky.   Their first child, a daughter named Mary Belle, was born on March 23, 1856.  She was followed quickly by Susan Theodocia, born 1857, William Richard, born 1858, and Maggie, born 1862.

No evidence has been found that Reno was ever in the Confederate army.  Kentucky being a border state, it is possible that his sentiments aligned with the Union.  He seems to have remained a small farmer throughout the war. 

By 1880, the Renos were farming in Clinton, Hickman County, Kentucky.  Although there is no mention of where he read law, Reno eventually became a county judge in Kentucky.

The Renos retired to Phoenix around 1892.   Although Reno doesn’t seem to have practiced law in Arizona, he was active in local politics.  Originally a member of the Grange Party, he later became a member of the Populist Party which supported Buckey O’Neill’s short-lived political career.

In 1894, Reno launched an Arizona chapter of the Child’s Aid Society, which seems to have been an insurance company benefitting the children of deceased members when they came into their majority by providing them with a small fund to get a start in life.  In an era when fathers could not necessarily count on living long enough to see their children grow up, this might have been an attractive option.

Reno was an officer of the Hopeton Baptist Church and taught Sunday school there.

He died on December 11, 1899, of valvular heart disease.  After a funeral sermon preached by Rev. Lewis Halsey of the Baptist Church, he was buried in Ancient Order of United Workmen Cemetery. 

At the time of Reno’s death, his eldest daughter, Mary Belle, was teaching school at the Sacaton Indian Agency.  Although she had married James Zimmerman in Kentucky in 1883, she may have been a widow by 1899.

- by Donna L. Carr

Alexander Chapman Lansdon (1834-1899) - Soldier, Miner, Carpenter

 

PCA Archives

Alexander Chapman Lansdon was born in Russellville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1834.  He was the son of Zachariah Lansdon and Frances Hambleton.   The family moved to Illinois sometime between 1834 and 1838.  The federal census of 1850 records the Lansdons living in Eden, Schuyler County, Illinois.

By 1861, Alexander was in California.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company B (Old), 2nd California Cavalry in San Francisco on September 21, 1861.  As a member of the historic California Column, he marched from Los Angeles County, California, to the Río Grande River early in the war.  Private Lansdon re-enlisted in Co. B (New), same regiment, at San Francisco on July 1, 1864. He was promoted to sergeant five months later and saw service at posts in New Mexico and Nevada.

On November 17, 1865, Lansdon was wounded in a fight with Indians at the Black Rock Mountains in Nevada.  He was court-martialed for an undisclosed reason and dishonorably discharged at Fort Churchill, Nevada, on April 20, 1866.

Around 1872, Alexander returned to New Mexico, where he met Maria Francisca Garcia.   She had previously been in a relationship with a Captain George A. Burkett, by whom she had three children born between 1867 and 1872: Camilla, John C. and Mary Inez.  Coincidentally, Burkett had been stationed at one of the posts where Lansdon had served, although there is no evidence that they were there at the same time.  Since no marriage record for Captain George A. Burkett and Francisca has been located, it is not known whether they were ever formally married.  At any rate, Lansdon and Francisca set up housekeeping in 1872 and remained together until his death many years later.

By 1880, Alexander and Francisca had left New Mexico for Arizona, initially living in Bisbee where Alexander worked in the copper mines.  Later, they settled in the small community of Dos Cabezas.  Their household included Francisca's three children from her alliance with Burkett, as well as three more children she had with Lansdon: James, Lola, and Marguerite (Maggie).   After the mine where Lansdon was working played out, the family moved to Willcox, where Alexander found work as a carpenter. He and Francisca had a fourth child, Henry, born in Willcox in 1889.

Early in 1898, the Lansdons moved to Phoenix so that Alexander could seek medical attention for a throat affliction, likely the result of years of mining. They lived with Francisca's oldest son, John C. Burkett, who lived on West Lincoln Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Alexander died there on February 12, 1899, and was laid to rest in Rosedale Cemetery.  Francisca passed away on September 4, 1901, and was also buried in Rosedale.

-by Donna Carr

Wilson Augustus McGinnis 91850-1899) - Architect

 

AI Generated Generic Image

Wilson Augustus McGinnis was born in Dyer County, Tennessee, in February, 1850.  He was the youngest of ten children belonging to John S. McGinnis and his wife, Martha Mathis (or Matthews?). 

By 1884, Wilson was in Phillips County, Arkansas, where he married Letitia “Lula” Vaughan on February 15th.  Their first child, Neil Weston McGinnis, was born about a year later across the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee.   Eula, their second child, was born in August 1886 in Texas.   By July 20, 1888, the McGinnises was in Phoenix, Arizona, where four more children were born to them.

Wilson McGinnis was a very busy architect, surveyor and civil engineer in Phoenix and central-northern Arizona.  He formed a partnership with another architect, Fred Heinlein, and, in 1890, they were the architects for the territorial insane asylum.  He served as Phoenix’s city engineer until February 1893, when he resigned over a disagreement with the City Council.

McGinnis owned an almond orchard in south Phoenix.  In July 1895, the trees were bearing nuts.  He was also interested in growing ramie, a natural fiber.

On June 27, 1896, Fred Heinlein, the architect originally selected for the Normal School in Tempe, was discharged and the position given to McGinnis.  A year later, he received a contract to examine the unfinished boys’ reform school in Flagstaff and design plans to convert it into an insane asylum.  However, the contract was cancelled in August, 1897.

W. A. Mc Ginnis was the Maricopa County surveyor until he suffered a breakdown in 1898.  In June, he was remanded to the asylum he had helped design.  His wife took him back to Tennessee in July in hopes that a change of scenery would benefit him, but to no avail.

McGinnis’s illness left two of his projects unfinished.  Evidently the Board of Control decided that one insane asylum was enough for the Territory.  The reform school in Flagstaff was converted instead into Northern Arizona University.  Architect James Miller Creighton stepped in to finish Old Main at what is now ASU.

McGinnis died on August 2, 1899.  He was buried initially in the AOUW cemetery, Block 18, Lot 3.  His remains and those of his little daughter Etta were later moved to the newly-opened Greenwood Cemetery.

McGinnis had an AOUW life insurance policy which paid $2000 on his demise.  The money was used to pay off the mortgage on his almond orchard in the expectation that it would provide an income for his family.

-  by Tim Kovacs and Donna Carr

Maude Ball (1864-1899) - Teaching Instructor

PCA Archives - AOUW

Maude was born June 21, 1864, in Marshall, Michigan, to Dr. Alexander Rawson Ball and Delilah née Weld.  She was the youngest of their ten children.  Maude’s father was a well-regarded homeopathic physician until his death at the age of 79 in 1902.  Her sister Hannah became a homeopath like her father and sister Fannie trained as a teacher.

By 1880, the Ball family was living in Mason, Shiawassee County, Michigan.  Maude herself graduated with a teaching degree in 1882 and eventually became an educator of teachers at Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University) for several years. She then transferred to Whitewater Normal School (now University of Wisconsin--Whitewater) around 1897and served as secretary of the teachers' association.

Maude’s sister Delilah had married George Homer Jones in 1874.  On December 12, 1898, he died suddenly at the home of his mother in Michigan.  By September 1899, Maude was suffering from tubercular laryngitis, so her widowed sister Delilah accompanied her to Phoenix, Arizona Territory.

Like so many others who came to Phoenix during that time, Maude had been hoping that she would recover in the warm Arizona climate.  However, she died on December 26, 1899, at the home of her sister Delilah in Phoenix.

- by Patricia 

 

 

#3 Angeline “Angie” Piper (1876-1899) - Schoolteacher

 

Stock Photo

Angeline Piper was born 1876 in Kansas to Ray Piper and Sarah née Fortney.  Angie’s parents had been married in Bourbon, Kansas, on October 22, 1874.  Angie had a younger brother John, who was born in 1878, but he died in 1881.  Nearly two years later, Angie’s father also died, leaving her mother to raise Angie and her sister Raye, born after Mr. Piper’s death.  Since Angie’s mother did not remarry, perhaps she had sufficient means to raise two children on her own.

In 1887, a rabid dog bit Angie, her mother and sister.  According to one news report, only a “mad stone” (a bezoar stone found in the digestive tract of some animals) would save them from contracting rabies.  One was found in Chetopa, Kansas, and all must have gone well, as they all survived.

 Angie began attending Oswego College for Young Ladies in 1893 and obtained a teaching certificate.  At some point, she joined the Royal Neighbors Society.  The Society, established in 1895, was a progressive women’s fraternal benefit association and an auxiliary to Modern Woodmen of America.  It focused on assisting women and children in need and offering life insurance for women--an option never before available to women.  Today, Royal Neighbor is the largest women-led life insurer in the country.

In April 1898, Angie became quite sick while teaching in Fort Scott, Kansas, and her mother was sent for.  Under her mother’s care, Angie recovered and, in November, her mother left for Arizona to visit relatives.  Angie remained in Fort Scott at the home of an uncle, but later joined her mother in Arizona.

Angie went to Arizona primarily to recuperate.  Unfortunately, she developed typhoid fever and died December 30, 1899.  Although she was initially buried in Rosedale Cemetery, her mother later had her remains moved to the IOOF Cemetery when Angie’s Royal Neighbors Society insurance policy paid out.

by Patricia G.

 

Laura Long Cochran (1871-1899) - Matron at Phoenix Indian School

 

Arizona Memory Project - Main Building Behind School, 1900

Laura Long was born on September 11, 1871, in Kansas.  She was the daughter of Isaac Zane Long, a prominent member of the Wyandotte Nation, and Catherine McConnell.  Her father Isaac is thought to have been a descendant of the famous frontiersman Isaac Zane and his wife of the Wyandotte Nation, Myeerah. Born in Zanesfield, Ohio, Isaac went west when the remnants of the Wyandotte tribe were removed to reservations in Kansas around 1843.

Even though school records list Laura as being only one-sixteenth Wyandotte, she seems to have been regarded as Native American throughout her life.  In 1891, she was working and going to school at the Quapaw-Wyandotte Indian School in Seneca, Kansas.  Thereafter, she attended Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, from which she graduated in 1895.  By 1896, she was employed as a matron at the Phoenix Indian School.

Opened in 1891, the Phoenix Indian School was intended to function as a residential industrial school, training Native American teens and young adults in useful occupations such as carpentry, animal husbandry and the domestic art, such as sewing, cooking, nursing.  In time, its dormitories housed a total of about 700 pupils from 35 different tribes, including advanced students from other Western states.  Like Laura, many of the teachers were themselves Native Americans from tribes elsewhere in the United States, on the theory that they would serve as relatable teachers. 

On February 22, 1897, Laura Long married John Piper Cochran, a blacksmith at the Phoenix Indian School. Laura and John had one son, John D. Cochran, born March 30, 1898, in Phoenix.

Laura died on January 8, 1899, of inflammation of the bowels and peritonitis (possibly a ruptured appendix).  After a Methodist funeral service attended by almost all the Indian School students, she was laid to rest in Rosedale North, Lot 43. 

Weeks later, her husband’s parents, William C. and Mary Cochran, came to Phoenix to take nine-month-old John back to Kansas with them.  Following John P. Cochran’s remarriage in 1901, young John went to live with his father and his new stepmother.

- by Donna Carr

Forgotten Grave of a Little One - The Shadow Archives

Bing AI/Val Wilson Prompt

As I delve into various histories and family stories, I often uncover articles, photographs, and fragments of history that are both unusual and forgotten. During my research on a pioneer in Rosedale Cemetery, I stumbled upon a hidden tale in Porter Cemetery. An old newspaper article revealed the existence of an unknown infant buried there. According to the article, the infant, a child of Mr. and Mrs. White, passed away in January of 1899 from a mysterious illness. Further investigation by Patty revealed that Mr. and Mrs. Fred White were the brother-in-law and sister of James McNeil, a merchant in Tempe. This discovery adds a new layer to the rich tapestry of our history. Welcome to our cemeteries, where the past continuously unveils its secrets.  You can read the article below.  

 Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona, Tue, Jan 31, 1899

Christopher Baine (1832 - 1899) - Carpenter and Firefighter

 

PCA Archives

Christopher Baine was born about 1832 in Dublin, Ireland—possibly to Lawrence and Ellen Bain.  It is not known when he immigrated to the United States but, by 1860, he was living in Sacramento, California, and working as a wheelwright and wagon-maker.  Several newspaper articles attest to the fact that, while living in Sacramento, Baine was a member of the city’s fire department.  He served in Engine Company #2.

 Baine was in Arizona City (now Yuma), Arizona, in 1868, when he married Jesus Dominguez Esquer, born 1844.  At the time of the marriage, Jesus Dominguez already had a little daughter named Maria Cruz by her previous relationship with Donaciano Cruz.  With Baine, she had a daughter Guadalupe, born 1869, a daughter Emilia, born 1871, a son Thomas/Tomás, born 1873, a daughter Sarah, born in 1875, and a daughter Juanita, born in 1879.

 The Baine family’s life in Yuma was thrown into turmoil on July 29, 1879, when Baine shot and killed his brother-in-law, Antonio Ruiz, who was married to Jesus’s sister.  At about 1 AM, Ruiz, drunk, appeared at the Baines’ house, from which he had been ejected a month before.  When told to leave, he did, but returned a few hours later.  Baine, fearing that Ruiz had come back with a gun, again ordered him to leave.  When Ruiz advanced instead, Baine fired four times.  Ruiz died several hours later.

 Baine immediately turned himself in to the sheriff.  The grand jury set his bail at $1000.  It does not appear, however, that Baine was charged with anything beyond defending his home from an intruder. 

There is more to this story!  Baine is buried in City Loosley.  Come find out more about him at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park!

-By Donna Carr

PCA Archives