Memorial Day! Come Celebrate with Us - 9am - 12pm

Memorial Day, 1988 at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park

🌟Join Us This Memorial Day🌟

The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will hold a flag-raising ceremony at 9:00 am this Monday at Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in honor of Memorial Day.

Whether you're passionate about history or simply want to pay your respects, we invite you to stop by.

The cemetery will be open from 9am - 12pm for quiet reflection and self-guided tours. Let’s honor the memory of those who served, both past and present.

📍 1317 W. Jefferson St., Phoenix, AZ

📅 Monday, May 26th • Flag Raising at 9:00 AM

By the way, the picture above is a "throwback" from Memorial Day at the cemetery in 1988!

#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.