Emma Burrows French (1885-1911) - San Carlos Mohave

Stock photo of Mohave mother and child, ca. 1900.

Wikimedia

Emma Burrows was born around 1885.  She was a member of the San Carlos Mohave (Yuman) tribe.  Her maiden name appears in the written record as Burrows, Burroughs and Burris.

She graduated from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1906.  On 7 August 1907, she married William French, a Salt River Maricopa who had been a student at the Phoenix Indian School.  Witnesses to the marriage were William’s brother Clarence and a woman named Ossie Mollie.

Emma’s first child, a girl, was born 22 July 1908 but died 11 May 1909 of whooping cough and lobar pneumonia.  The Frenches were living at 231 North 2^nd Street at the time.

On 4 December 1909, Emma gave birth to a boy, William.  However, he too died on 13 April 1911 of pulmonary tuberculosis.  Both children were buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Phoenix.  When little William expired, the family was residing at 918 East Jefferson Street in Phoenix.

By May 1911, Emma herself was in the last stages of pulmonary tuberculosis.  She was taken to Fort McDowell, possibly for medical care, and died there on 14 May.  She was buried in Rosedale, presumably near her children.

William French remained a widower for more than two years, after which he married Ada Quorah (Cora) and fathered seven more children.

-by Donna Carr

Trinidad Silvas (1866 - 1911) - Struck by Lightning

Microsoft Clip Art

Trinidad Silvas was most likely born in Mexico around 1866.  In the summer of 1911, she and her long-time partner, José Alvarez, were working for a local rancher and temporarily living in a tent on his property about four miles northeast of the Phoenix townsite. 

During the night of July 16th, a terrific thunderstorm blew up.  Alvarez had been lying awake on his cot and listening to the roar of the thunder for quite a while. Then, all of a sudden, he saw a bright flash of lightning and heard a loud thunderclap.  It seemed to him that a ball of fire rolled into the tent!

Alvarez was tossed across the floor of the tent and lost unconsciousness for a few minutes.   When he came to, he ascertained that his thirteen-year-old daughter, who was lying on a pallet, had not been harmed—in fact, she had not even awakened.  Trinidad, however, had died instantly, the hair on one side of her head burned away.

Alvarez ran to the nearest habitation and poured out the tragic news.  Coroner Johnstone was summoned and ordered that the body not be moved pending an inquest on the following day.  The investigation revealed a small hole with charred edges, burned in the tent canvas.   It was speculated that the tragic event had been an example of a rare phenomenon known as ‘ball lightning’.

In the same neighborhood—and almost at the same time-- a valuable gray horse belonging to W. Bivins was also struck and killed by lightning.

Trinidad was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery.  It is not known what became of José Alvarez and the couple’s young daughter.

-By Debe B.

Samuel Calvin McElhaney (1861-1905) and Sarah Ella Hill McElhaney (1872-1911) - Pioneer Ranchers

McElhaneys

Taken from Headstone at the PMMP

Samuel Calvin McElhaney was born 9 October 1861 in Alabama.  As a young man, he drove a herd of cattle and horses from Texas to Phoenix and settled near the Salt River, with its assured supply of water. 

On January 10, 1889, McElhaney was among those who incorporated as the Fairmount Water Storage Company, for the purpose of selling water for irrigation and mining purposes in Maricopa County.  Another shareholder was Reuben Hill, soon to become his father-in-law.  Sam married Sarah Ella Hill, daughter of Reuben Hill and Mary Perry, on April 10, 1889. 

The newlyweds moved to Holbrook, where they enjoyed a few years of success before a severe drought forced ranchers to leave the high country.  The McElhaneys then drove their stock back down to the Salt River Valley and established a farm in the old Fowler district just south of Glendale, where Sam built a house for his growing family.  Son Randolph Hill Mc Elhaney was born in 15 July 1890.  He was soon followed by a daughter, Nina Inez, born 24 January 1892.

Sam McElhaney and George Keefer were obviously good friends, seeing as how Sam named his second son, born in 1894, Louis Keefer McElhaney.  That child died in January 1897.

More children followed.  Daughter Pearl was born 21 November 1898.  Another son, Coyt Ruben, was born about 1901.  Byron Samuel McElhaney was born 7 April 1903.

From an early age, Randolph was his father’s right-hand man.  On November 28, 1905, while loading some fat hogs into a wagon to be taken to market, Sam severely jammed his thumb, causing him agonizing pain.  Although he repeatedly assured his son that he was hurt in no place but the thumb, the pain was so unbearable that he fainted twice while attempting to walk the short distance to the house. He was dead, presumably of shock, by the time the doctor arrived.  Following the funeral at First Baptist Church, Sam McElhaney, aged 43, was buried in Loosley Cemetery.

This left Sam’s widow Ella and son Randolph to manage their farm.  Ella’s last child, Samuel Jr., was born posthumously in 1906.  When she died on 18 March 1911, she too was buried in the family plot in Loosley. 

Both Randolph and Samuel Jr. went on establish large ranches of their own in the 1930s.  Randolph settled in Chino Valley and Samuel founded the McElhaney Cattle Company of Wellton, Arizona, which remained under family control until 2010.

-Debe Branning and Donna Carr