Annie McMurtry Trott (1859-1906) - Surveyor’s Wife

 

PCA Archives

Margaret Anna McMurtry is believed to have been born on July 8, between 1856 and 1858, in White County, Illinois, to James Harrell McMurtry and Martha McMurtry neé Sharp.  While the inscription on Annie’s grave marker says that she was born in 1859, her death record gives her birthyear as 1858.

The 1860 federal census found the widow McMurtry living in the household of a George W. Overton and working as a seamstress. 

Ten years later, the McMurtrys were farming in Gallatin County, Illinois, and Ann was recorded as being 13 years old.

On February 22, 1879, Annie married Franklin P. Trott, in El Dorado, Saline County, Illinois.  Trott was a civil engineer.  Their first child, a daughter named Nellie, was born about five months later.

The 1880 federal census recorded Annie and her baby daughter living with Martha, who was managing a boarding house in El Dorado.  Franklin, a station agent for the Santa Fe Railroad, was not in the household (he was temporarily in Benton, Franklin County, Illinois), although he must have rejoined it shortly thereafter, since the Trotts had another daughter, Bessie, born in 1881.

Shortly thereafter, the Trotts, accompanied by Annie’s widowed mother, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Franklin worked by turns as a civil engineer, county surveyor, deputy sheriff and water commissioner.  As head of the zanjeros in Maricopa County, Trott was generally well-regarded. 

The Trotts had a home at 472 North 2nd Street in Phoenix and seem to have enjoyed some years of relative prosperity during the 1880s.  Sadly, both of their daughters fell ill with scarlet fever in 1890.  Nellie recovered, but Bessie, aged nine, died in December and was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Like so many others of the time, Annie was eventually diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis.  Not wanting to spend the summer in Phoenix, she traveled to Los Angeles in 1906, accompanied by her daughter Nellie.  Annie died there on August 11, and her remains were returned to Phoenix for burial in the family plot.

Franklin P. Trott lived until May 2, 1936.  He and his daughter Nellie are buried in the Encanto Mausoleum at Greenwood Memory Lawn in Phoenix.

- by Donna L. Carr 

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

 

 

Robert Plumridge (1845-1906) - Gambler and Bookmaker

PCA Archive - Rosedale Cemetery

Robert Plumridge was born on December 1844 in New Zealand.  This would have been barely three years after the local Maori chieftains signed a treaty and New Zealand was made a British colony. 

It is possible that Robert was the son of George Plumridge, born in England, and Catherine Norris, born in Ireland.  The 1852 state census of California lists a boy by that name, living in the household of R. Watson and his wife Catherine.  Watson, a hotel steward, might have been Robert’s stepfather.

Plumridge was working as a waiter in California when the Civil War began in 1861.   On September 20, 1861, he enlisted at Coloma, El Dorado County, California, for a term of three years.  He mustered in at Auburn, Placer County, on October 16 and was assigned to Company F, 4th California Infantry.  The regiment never saw battle; instead, its soldiers were assigned as support personnel to posts along the west coast of the United States.  By September of 1862, Plumridge was working in the bake house of a military hospital.   At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was discharged at Fort Yuma on September 20, 1864.

Fort Yuma was on the California side of the Colorado River, across from the Arizona Territory.  Plumridge seems to have chosen Arizona over California, for he was recorded as voting in Prescott in 1876.  In 1880, he was listed as managing a hotel in Tombstone.

On November 10, 1883, Plumridge wed Isabel Acedo in Tucson, Arizona (she also appears in several records as ‘Elizabeth’).   Isabel was twenty years his junior.  They settled in Phoenix, where they had five children.

Instead of employing his skills as a baker, Plumridge made his living in Phoenix as a gambler and bookmaker.  According to his obituary, he was an ardent ‘sporting man’ and an authority on card games, horse races and boxing.  Nevertheless, he had such a reputation for honesty and fair play that even those who lost their bets could not complain.  He was employed for several years by the Capitol Saloon as a faro dealer, although he sometimes took time off to attend sporting events where money was likely to change hands.

On September 7, 1895, Plumridge applied for an invalid pension due to respiratory problems contracted during his service.  He was awarded Pension # 938,379.  

Plumridge died on June 19, 1906, of carcinoma of the bowels.   Following an Episcopal funeral service, he was buried in Rosedale, Section: R-N.

Plumridge’s wife Elizabeth received widow’s pension # 852,345, based on his military service.  She died August 1, 1927, in Los Angeles, California.

 -by Donna Carr

 

Alfred Scott (1881-1906) - Phoenix Indian School Student

 

PCA Archives

Alfred Scott was born about 1881 in California.  His records at Phoenix Indian School list him as a ‘Mission’ Indian, probably Luiseño.

Opened in 1890, the Phoenix Indian School was intended to function as a residential industrial school and to teach Native American teens and young adults useful occupations such as carpentry, animal husbandry and the domestic arts--sewing, cooking, nursing.  In time, its dormitories housed a total of about 700 pupils from 35 different tribes, including some advanced students from other Western states.

The school was designed to be a self-sufficient as possible.  Vegetables were raised in the gardens.  Male students tended the cows in the dairy and made the furniture used in the classrooms and dormitories.  Female students sewed school uniforms and practiced some native crafts such as basket-weaving.

In addition to classes in occupational skills, the school had an academic curriculum similar to that taught in the average high school of the time.  Many of the teachers were themselves Native Americans from tribes elsewhere in the United States, on the theory that they would serve as relatable role models. The school newspaper was produced in the campus print shop, and the school’s military drill team, marching band and football and baseball teams were highly regarded.  Each fall, students participated in the annual territorial fair, exhibiting handicrafts and taking part in horse races and foot races.

Alfred Scott played left outfield on the school’s baseball team in 1901.  In 1904, he gave a declamation entitled “The Road to Placerville”, from Mark Twain’s book Roughing it, at a literary night performance.

On 1905, Alfred married an Anglo schoolteacher, Mae Glase, in Los Angeles, California.  They had met while Miss Glase was teaching at the Phoenix Indian School.  After the wedding, the young couple moved to Fort McDowell, where Mae taught elementary school.

Tragically, Alfred was already suffering from tuberculosis and died less than a year later on 10 April 1906.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, and his widow had a red sandstone monument placed on his grave.

Mae Glase Scott eventually moved to Murray, Utah, where she was employed for 33 years as a schoolteacher and principal.  She died in Seattle in 1951.

-by Donna Carr

The Indigenous Architects of Phoenix

Maricopa Woman, 1907

Library of Congress

Several Indigenous peoples were directly connected to the early establishment of what is now Phoenix.  They were central to the development of the region.  They contributed knowledge, irrigation infrastructure, and agricultural expertise that helped sustain the early settler communities in the Salt River Valley.  Here are a few examples of their amazing contributions:

Hohokam
The ancient Hohokam civilization developed the extensive irrigation canals in the Salt River Valley between 300 and 1450 AD, which made the region viable for large-scale agriculture. These canals were later restored and used by settlers in the Phoenix area, directly influencing the city’s foundation and agricultural base.

Akimel O'odham (River People)
Descendants of the Hohokam, the Akimel O'odham continued to live in the region near the Salt and Gila Rivers. They maintained and adapted some of the Hohokam’s canal systems and practiced agriculture. The Akimel O'odham were instrumental in helping early settlers with knowledge of farming techniques and the local environment.

Piipaash
The Maricopa, or Piipaash, migrated to the area and allied with the Akimel O'odham along the Gila River. They contributed to the agricultural practices and trade network in the region, forming a mutually beneficial relationship with the Akimel O'odham. They brought unique traditions, such as pottery styles and cultural practices that have enriched the broader landscape of the area. 

We honor and are thankful for all that they did for the city of Phoenix in making it what it is today.

Frank B. Moss (1852-1906) - Mayor and Fire Chief

Phoenix Fire Department

Frank Benjamin Moss was born on September 15, 1852, in Slades Corners, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, to Francis Maas and Christina Schmidt.  He grew up in Wheatland, Wisconsin, where he began at the age of 16 to learn the blacksmithing trade from his father.

As a young man, he moved to the boom town of Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked at his trade and also ran a lumberyard.  He moved to Tombstone in 1878, where he initially worked as a teamster.  Wagon trains crossing southern Arizona traveled mostly at night to avoid the day’s heat and attacks by Apache Indians.  Reportedly, Moss came under fire on two occasions but escaped unharmed. 

About 1880, Moss relocated to Phoenix where he set up a blacksmith and wagon-making shop at the northeast corner of First Avenue and Adams Street.  On May 31, 1885, he married Ida May Harriman in Mesa.  They had three sons: Earl, Ralph and Ernest.

Business was good and Moss prospered.  He invested in real estate, ranched and raised cattle, did some mining and owned and trained race horses.  He also joined the volunteer Phoenix Fire Department, where his skills as a blacksmith and wagon-maker were appreciated.  By 1890, he was an assistant chief and by 1892 he was the chief. After being injured on the job, he had to give up his position as fire chief.  Moss then turned his attention to city politics and, in 1894, won a seat on the Phoenix City Council.

The political climate in the growing city was sometimes volatile.  Fed up with the wrangling, Dr. Roland Rosson resigned as mayor on April 6, 1896.  Moss was appointed acting mayor, a position he held until a special election was held on June 2, 1896.   Moss returned to work in his new blacksmith shop on the corner of Washington Street and Fourth Avenue.

On December 4, 1898, for unknown reasons, Moss moved out of his home and separated from his wife.   Citing abandonment as the cause, Ida filed for divorce on June 14, 1899.  Scarcely a month after the divorce became final, she married Orrin W. Lawrence, a Phoenix policeman. 

On July 10, 1905, Moss again became acting mayor. This time, he held the seat for almost a year.  During his stint, he signed into law several progressive city ordinances.

On the evening of March 19, 1906, Mayor Moss rode his bicycle to City Hall.  While climbing the steps, he complained of chest pain and medical help was summoned.  Moss died between 9 and 10 PM, likely of a heart attack.  He was 53 years old.

 Throngs of citizens viewed Moss’s body as it lay in state at City Hall.   After the funeral, he was interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. 

 -by Mark Lamm and Derek Horn

 

Happy Labor Day - Labor Day Parade 1906

 

Library of Congress, Labor Day Parade 1906

Labor Day, celebrated on the first Monday of September in the United States, honors the contributions and achievements of American workers. The holiday was established in the late 19th century during the labor movement, which advocated for fair working conditions, reasonable hours, and better wages. Labor Day was first recognized as a federal holiday in 1894, following widespread labor strikes and the Pullman Strike, which highlighted the need for a national day of rest and recognition for workers' rights. The day also marks the unofficial end of summer and is often celebrated with parades, picnics, and other community events.

Louis A. Geary (1869-1906) - Music Teacher and Orchestra Leader

 

Bing AI

According to his 1906 newspaper obituary, Louis A. Geary had been a music teacher and the leader of an orchestra in California before he fell ill with consumption and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, for his health.

Geary was born in 1869, probably in Binghamton, Broome County, New York, to Patrick Geary and Mary Garvey.  Patrick was an Irish immigrant and a shoemaker by trade.  The Gearys had five children.  Although Mr. Geary probably made a respectable living, it is still surprising that three of the Geary children were able to study music.

In 1892, Mary E. “Mamie” Geary, the eldest daughter, was listed simply as a music teacher but, by 1895, she was a violin instructor at Ward’s Seminary for Young Ladies in Nashville, Tennessee.  She is said to have studied with Madame Dove Boetti, Professor Giuseppe Vecchione, and Madame Carmilla Urso, a violin virtuoso—all important names in their day.  By 1915, Mamie was the head of the New City School of Music in Chicago, and her sister Margaret was also a piano instructor in Chicago

Their brother Louis seems to have come to his musical career by a more circuitous route.  In 1892, he appeared on the New York State census as a cigar-maker.  Not until later did he move to California, where he taught music and performed with an orchestra.

By 1906, Louis Geary was suffering from consumption, and he and his wife came to Phoenix, where they took up lodgings on North First Street.  Nevertheless, Geary’s health declined rapidly.  When he died on May 29th, his widow was practically penniless and sought financial help from the in-laws she had heard about but never met. 

Geary’s funeral was delayed while Phoenix Marshal Kinney telegraphed his father, who was by then living in Chicago, Illinois.  When Geary’s father responded a week after his death, Kinney learned that his family back East had not heard from him in two years and were not even aware that he had married.  Perhaps a family rift had caused the Gearys to stop communicating.

Louis Geary was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.   Since no headstone has been found, the exact location is no longer known.  The fate of his widow is also unknown, although she probably returned to California.

 

Dennis Flynn (1849 - 1906) - Construction Foreman

 

PCA Archives

Dennis Flynn was born about 1849 in Ireland.  He came from Ireland to Boston at a young age, and an uncle provided for his schooling.  He was in Virginia City, Nevada, during the height of the Comstock Lode in the 1870s.  From there, he moved to Austin, Nevada, and Grass Valley, California.   His name being a common one, it has not been possible to document his movements before he arrived in Arizona.

After moving to Arizona, he resided mostly in Yavapai County.  He was a construction foreman on the Walnut Grove Dam at some point between 1886 and 1890.  From about 1898 on, Flynn lived in Yarnell. 

The 1900 census recorded Flynn living in a boarding house in Wagoner, Yavapai County.  He was single, said he came to the United States in June 1884 (perhaps he meant Arizona?) and was not a citizen, although he had registered to vote in Arizona from 1892 on.  In 1900, he was a foreman at the Crown Point mine owned by Alexander Brodie.

Flynn was a miner for about 25 years, although he apparently supplemented that income with other jobs.  In 1905, he was road overseer for the county road from Kirkland to Congress and Octave.

Somewhere along the way, Flynn contracted tuberculosis and his health began to fail.    Seeking a warmer environment, he came from Peeples Valley to Phoenix on December 7, 1906, and took lodgings at the Commercial Hotel.   Scarcely a day later, he was stricken unexpectedly and taken to Sisters hospital by his friend Ross Moore.  That hospital being full, he was taken to the County hospital, where he died on December 9th.   Another friend, Leopold Wallrath, arranged the funeral.   Flynn’s obituary describes him as being of a pleasant and kind-hearted disposition who would be missed by those who knew him.  He had no known relatives in this part of the country.  

come see him in Porter Cemetery! 

-by Donna Carr