Sophia Augusta Wall Ames (1861-1892) - Baptist Minister’s Wife

 

PCA Archive

Sophia Augusta Wall was born on June 24, 1861, in De Ruyter, Madison County, New York.  Her parents were William Frederick Wall and Mary Jane Coon, farmers. 

On June 22, 1886, she married a divinity student, John Fremont Ames, in a double ceremony with her sister Zella, who married Fred Hendee.  The newlyweds honeymooned at Niagara Falls, after which John accepted a call to work as an assistant pastor in Genoa, New York.  The Ameses’ first child, Francis, was born there on April 19, 1887.

Ames was ordained to the Baptist ministry on December 9, 1887.  He then decided to study theology at Rochester Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in June 1890. 

Having indicated that he wanted to serve a congregation that really needed him, even though it couldn’t afford to pay him a salary commensurate with his education, Ames accepted a call to a church in Madison, South Dakota.   While in South Dakota, the Ameses had a little daughter, Mary Lorena, born on August 2, 1891.  Unfortunately, Sophie developed an intractable cough and was shortly diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In hopes of improving Sophie’s health, the family moved in 1892 to Milton, Tennessee, where they rented a house from relatives.  However, Tennessee did not suit them.  The rainy weather aggravated Sophie’s cough, and John disliked the racial segregation which forbade him to preach to whites and blacks at the same gathering.   Ames was then offered the pastorate of a Baptist Church in Phoenix.   It seemed an attractive offer as the dry climate of Arizona was said to be salubrious for invalids.  So the Ameses moved once more.

On July 31, 1892, Reverend Ames was in his buggy on his way to church in downtown Phoenix when he overtook and passed a steam threshing engine.  When the driver blew his whistle twice, the unexpected noise so frightened the reverend’s horse that it took off in a mad run.  As the buggy careened around a corner, Dr. Ames either tried to jump or was thrown from the buggy.   He suffered head trauma and his left leg was broken.  He was carried into Frakes’ Livery, where Drs. Hughes and Dameron stabilized him.  However, they were not optimistic about his chances for recovery.   Since Sophie herself was too ill and distraught to nurse her husband, Rev. Ames was attended by others.  He died on August 12, almost two weeks after his accident.

Already an invalid, Sophie was prostrated by her husband’s death.  She could not bear light or sound; throughout the hot summer evenings she sat on the porch with a wet cloth over her face.  Though cared for by her sister-in-law, Fannie Card Wall, Sophia declared in October 1892 she was ready to join her husband.   She lingered until November before passing away.  The Ameses were buried in the Masons Cemetery.

The orphaned Ames children were raised by George and Fannie Wall in Woodbury County, Iowa.

- by Donna L. Carr

The Reburial of Darrell Duppa, 1991

 

PCA Archives

Darrell Duppa, the Englishman who named Phoenix, left a legacy as bold as the city itself. But, his story didn’t end with his death. After his death in 1892, and the Daughters of the American Revolution marked his grave in 1910 at Pioneer & Military Memorial Park (PMMP), neglect led to his removal in 1921 to Greenwood Memorial Park.

Almost 100 years later, in 1991, history came full circle. A coalition of groups — the Cities of Phoenix and Tempe, the Masons, Greenwood Memorial Park, Channel 3, the Tempe Historical Society, the Phoenix Museum of History, and the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association — came together to return him to PMMP. His reburial was marked by a horse-drawn funeral procession with mourners in authentic 1890s attire.

Phoenix once again honored the man who gave it its name.

 

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 

Mary “Minnie” Perry Bassett (1878-1903) - Schoolteacher

 

PCA Archives

Mary Adeline Perry was born December 21, 1878, in Badger Springs, Arizona to William Henry Perry and Mary Agnes Clark.  William Perry was a rancher whose land later became part of Perry Mesa within the Agua Fria National Monument.   Mary was one of nine children, according to a homestead claim her father filed in 1889.

She and her sisters--Grace, Maud, Agnes and Charlotte “Lottie”—eventually attended Tempe Normal School (now Arizona State University).  Education for women was obviously valued in the Perry household.  Mary graduated in 1899 and became a schoolteacher.  One of her first teaching posts was in Arizola, Arizona.

Mary often visited friends in the Arizola area.  There was known to be a mountain lion in the area which had been taking livestock for some time.  One day, Mary was alone and on foot near the  Bellamy ranch when the lion appeared in her path.  Mary was certain that she was going to be attacked until she suddenly remembered reading about “the power of the human eyes on savage beasts.”  Mary looked the lion right in the eye and it turned and fled.  The lion, when later shot by a hunting party, was found to measure eight feet from nose to tail.

While teaching in Cordes, Arizona, Mary met Joseph Reuben Bassett, a cowboy who was working cattle on a nearby ranch.  They were married in Phoenix on April 17, 1902.

The young couple was living in Safford, Arizona, when on January 24, 1903, they welcomed a son, Walter into their household.   Unfortunately, Mary never recovered from the birth.  She died on February 4, 1903 in Safford, with childbirth listed as the cause.  She was buried in Masons Cemetery in Phoenix.

Although Joseph R. Bassett remarried a few years later, apparently little Walter was raised by his sister and her husband.  Joseph died at the Pioneers’ Home in Prescott, Arizona, in 1957.

Mary’s father, William Henry Perry outlived her by many years.  When he died in 1929, his ashes were scattered over Perry Mesa.

- by Patricia 

 

George Frank Breninger (1865-1905) - Naturalist

 

Masons Cemetery with Masonic Memorial - PCA Archives

George Frank Breninger was born September, 1865, probably in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  From age fifteen, he manifested an intense fascination with nature, collecting specimens, pelts and eggs.  His collection of birds’ eggs was at one time considered the fourth largest in the country.

Breninger became an ornithologist and expert taxidermist, mounting many of his specimens himself.  As a naturalist, he had traveled widely in the continental United States from the Rockies as far south as the Isthmus of Panama to locate and collect rare species.  Some of his work was sent to the Smithsonian Museum and Field Columbian Museum in Chicago.  Another of his collections was at Colorado State University. 

He married Margaret J. Hoag, daughter of Addison Hoag in Fort Collins, Colorado, on September 19, 1888.  Although he and his wife had five children, only their oldest son, David Addison, had a somewhat normal lifespan.  Juvenile diabetes seems to have run in the family, as son Walter and daughter May both died of it before insulin became available to treat it.  Another child died in infancy, and daughter Luella Ruth died of scarlet fever in 1903.

The family moved to Phoenix around 1897.  In 1900, Professor Breninger spent six months in the Rockies, collecting specimens for the Foote Mineral Museum in Philadelphia.  He published several scholarly papers about birds.

In 1903, Professor Breninger traveled to Guatemala and Nicaragua for four months to secure 500 bird specimens for the Field Columbian Museum.   The conditions of the trip were rather primitive and Breninger’s team was regarded with some suspicion by the locals, who feared they might be a filibustering expedition intent on destabilizing the Mexican government.  Breninger collected many parrot specimens and even some ocelots.  He also brought back an orchid plant.  It survived the six-week journey back to Arizona and bloomed in 1904.

Breninger grew different varieties of crops on his farm to determine whether they could survive in desert conditions.  His wife Margaret had a fine flower garden and sold cut flowers in season.  It is not known whether they had a greenhouse for their more delicate plants, although there were greenhouses in Phoenix by 1913.

For years, Breninger was exposed to arsenic in the course of his taxidermy work.  Although he knew it was detrimental to his health, such was his devotion to his nature studies that he accepted the risk.  He suffered three strokes, with each one leaving him weaker. 

He died on December 2, 1905, at his home at 386 North Sixth Avenue.  After a Christian Science funeral, he was buried in Masons Cemetery. 

-by Donna Carr

 

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Ethel M. Kent (1884-1901) - Twice Unlucky

 

PCA Archives

Ethel M. Kent was born August 1884 in Socorro County, New Mexico.  Her parents were Alexander John Kent and Abigail Dudley.  She had two older sisters and a brother.  Alexander Kent was a quartz miner, and the family moved to Phoenix sometime after Ethel’s birth.

In 1900, when Ethel was sixteen years old, she was stricken with some kind of neurological disorder (possible seizures) resulting from pressure on the brain.  Her doctors feared that it might be a brain tumor and decided to relieve the pressure by removing a 2-inch section of her skull, a procedure known as trepanning. 

The delicate surgery was performed on July 20th by Dr. J. W. Thomas, assisted by three other physicians.  For days thereafter, Ethel lay in a coma, and traffic outside her home was rerouted so that she could have absolute quiet.  To everyone’s amazement, she made a full recovery and was once again able to resume normal activities, the hole in her skull covered by a silver plate.

Frontier towns such as Phoenix had many saloons, where men frequently overindulged in strong drink.  Like many young ladies of the time, Ethel belonged to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U)., which advocated abstinence from alcohol.

A year later, Ethel’s health was still a cause for concern, and she was unable to tolerate the summer heat in Phoenix.  For that reason, the family sought relief in July, 1901, by going on a camping trip to Mr. Kent’s mining site in Yavapai County.

A young man at the campsite, Bert Ohmerty, had carelessly left his loaded hunting rifle propped up against a rock.  Apparently, Ethel stumbled against it and it discharged, blowing away half of her foot.  The nearest medical help being in Congress, Arizona, she was bundled into a wagon for the three-hour journey. However, the incessant jolting, pain and loss of blood proved to be too much, and Ethel expired the next morning.  Her body was returned to Phoenix for burial in Masons Cemetery.

Bert Ohmerty, the man whose gun had injured Ethel, was plagued by guilt over her death.  He committed suicide just a week later.

 - by Debe Branning

 

 

Rev. L. Phillip Smithey (abt 1855-1889) - Methodist Missionary

 

PCA Archives

Louis Phillip Smithey was born on October 24, 1855 or 1857, in Jetersville, Amelia County, Virginia.  He was a younger son of Royal Smithey and his wife Mary Ann Elizabeth Hubbard.   On the eve of the Civil War, Royal was employed as an overseer for George W. Jones, a wealthy farmer in Nottoway County.   After the war, he returned to farming.

Phil Smithey seems to have been in somewhat delicate health as a boy, but early in life he aspired to go into the ministry.   His older brother William also became a minister.

Following his father’s death in 1883, young Smithey enrolled in Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  It was a Methodist Episcopal college, and Smithey took classes in the theological department.  However, ill health impelled him to go west after a year.  Moving to California, he served as a deacon in Azusa and Duarte.  By 1887, his phthisis had advanced, and he was suffering from pulmonary hemorrhages.

Seeking a drier climate, Phil Smithey moved to Prescott, Arizona, in the fall of 1887 and engaged in missionary work in what was then a wide-open frontier town.  Though uncompromising against sin, he was said to have been of a cheerful disposition and ever sympathetic towards others. 

Thanks to Arizona’s salubrious climate, he lived for another two years and gained a small but devoted following among the residents of Prescott.  Nevertheless, his health, never robust, continued to decline.  When death became imminent, some advised him to go home to his family in Virginia, but he insisted on remaining in Arizona.

Smithey moved to Phoenix in August 1889, and died two months later, on October 12.  He was buried in the Masons Cemetery.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Rev. Freeman D. Rickerson (1837-1892) - Baptist Minister

 

Bing AI

Freeman D. Rickerson was born on the 23rd of November, 1837, in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York.   He was the son of Daniel Wilcox Rickerson and his second wife, Malina Corpe. 

Rickerson received his theological education in Rochester, which had a Baptist seminary founded in 1850 (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School today).   Instead of remaining in New York state, however, Rickerson felt called to minister in the Midwest.  He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was licensed to preach in October of 1858.  After serving a period as an assistant pastor in Grinnell, Iowa, he was ordained in April 1859.  Thereafter, he was instrumental in founding and/or serving Baptist congregations in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

While he was in Grinnell, Rev. Rickerson met and married Eunice Langworthy.  Like him, she and her family were from New York state.  They eventually had a daughter, Melina May, born in 1870 in Waukegan, Illinois.

In addition to being a man of the cloth, Rev. Rickerson was a high-ranking Mason, advancing to the rank of commander and grand prelate in the Grand Commandery of Illinois.  He was convinced that his religious faith and his Masonic ideals went hand in hand and so preached.  He is said to have been learned, honest and broad-minded, attributes not always evident in frontier preachers.

The Rickersons came to Phoenix in 1889, after Rev. Rickerson was appointed to fill the pulpit of the Baptist Church at 2nd Avenue and Jefferson.   When he arrived, Rickerson found the church in a neglected state and the treasury empty.   He remedied this by soliciting donations from more affluent churches back east, and a new building was eventually raised.

Rickerson proved to be tireless in his work but, after less than three years, heart disease cut short his tenure in Phoenix.  Although he was known to have been in declining health, his death still came as a shock to his congregation.   He was visiting at the home of B. F. McFall when he suffered an apoplexy and died on March 29, 1892. 

Chaplain Winfield Scott from Scottsdale preached the funeral sermon.  Rickerson being the  prelate of the Phoenix commandery at the time of his death, he was buried in Masons Cemetery, as befitting his high status in the order.

The Rickersons’ daughter Melina or “May”, as she preferred, wed John Swilling, Jr. in Phoenix in 1916.  It was a second marriage for both parties.  However, the union seems to have been of short duration; by 1920, May was living with her widowed mother in California.   

-by Donna L. Carr           

               

 

 

Rev. John Fremont Ames (1858-1892) - Baptist Minister

 

PCA Archives

John Fremont Ames was born 13 May 1858 in De Ruyter, New York, to Fordyce Ames and Electa Elmira Ray.   He lost his mother at age 20, a tragedy which may have inspired him to enter the ministry.

After graduating from a Madison, New York, university in 1886, he married Sophie Wall on June 22nd.  Sophie’s sister Zelda was married in the same service to a Fred Hendee.  The newlyweds honeymooned at Niagara Falls, after which John accepted a call to work as an assistant pastor in Genoa, New York.  The Ameses’ first child, Francis, was born in April 1887.

Ames was ordained to the ministry on December 9, 1887.   He then decided to study theology at Rochester Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in June 1890.  Having indicated that he wanted to serve a congregation that really needed him, even though it couldn’t afford to pay him a salary commensurate with his education, he accepted a call to a church in Madison, South Dakota. 

While in Madison, the Ameses had a daughter, Mary Lorena, born in 1891.  Unfortunately, Sophie then developed an intractable cough and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In hopes of improving Sophie’s health, the family moved in 1892 to Milton, Tennessee, where they rented a house from relatives.  However, Tennessee did not suit them.  The rainy weather aggravated Sophie’s cough, and John disliked the racial segregation which forbade him to preach to whites and blacks at the same gathering.   Ames was then offered the pastorate of a Baptist Church in Phoenix.   It seemed an attractive offer as the dry climate of Arizona was said to be salubrious for invalids.  Accordingly, the Ameses moved to Arizona and took up residence on the ranch of a parishioner who lived east of the city.

On July  31, 1892, Reverend Ames was in a buggy on his way to church in downtown Phoenix when he overtook a steam threshing engine on the street.  When the driver blew his whistle, the unexpected noise so frightened the reverend’s horse that it took off in a mad run.  As the buggy careened around the corner of Washington and Montezuma, Dr. Ames either tried to jump or was thrown from the buggy.   He fell against an electric light pole with such force that he suffered head trauma and his left leg was broken below the hip.   He was carried into Frakes’ Livery, where Drs. Hughes and Dameron stabilized him.  However they were not optimistic about his chances for recovery.

Since Ames could not be moved, he was cared for at Mr. Elwell’s house.  He regained consciousness enough to take water and medicine, but was unable to recall what had happened or to recognize family members.  Though attended by three physicians, he died August 13th.

Ames’s wife Sophie, already an invalid, was prostrated by his death.  She could not bear light or sound;  throughout  the hot summer evenings she sat on the porch with a wet cloth over her face.  In October 1892 she declared that she was ready to join her husband.   She lingered until November before passing away.  The Ameses were buried in the Masons Cemetery.

- by Donna Carr

John B. Kelly (1837 - 1896) - Butcher and Saloon Owner

PCA Archives

John Barnes Kelly (or Kelley) was born about 1837 in Hermon, St. Lawrence County, New York.   Although he and his older brother Henry initially went to California in 1851 in hopes of finding gold, they instead made their fortune in the butchering trade. 

J. B. married Elizabeth Ann Morrow on July 8, 1860, in Jackson, Amador County, California.  They had four daughters, including a set of twins born in Sutter Creek, Amador County, California.

Apparently Elizabeth died in 1874 or 1875, as J. B. then married Laura E. Hoyt on December 1, 1875.  They had a son and a daughter while living in California, after which they relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, and had three more daughters.

As a butcher, J. B. worked closely with the Balsz family of Phoenix.  The Balszes operated a large ranch near Yuma as well as feedlots in Phoenix, and J. B. was one of the butchers who turned steers into steaks for local restaurants.   The Kellys lived in a fine house at Center and Monroe Streets.   J. B. joined the local Masonic lodge and made a foray into politics; he ran for sheriff but was narrowly defeated.

Men outnumbered women in 1880s Phoenix, so J. B.’s three oldest daughters were a welcome addition to the social scene.  All three married local men.  Harriet Lillian married J. J. Sweeney, a butcher like her father.  Addie married Daniel P. Conroy, and her twin, Ada, had a career as a schoolteacher before and after her marriage.

J. B. died on February 24, 1896, of a stomach hemorrhage (possibly a perforated ulcer?)  He was buried with Masonic and Episcopalian rites in Phoenix’s Masons Cemetery.  

The Cabinet, his upscale saloon on Washington Street, he left to his widow.  She sold it two months later and eventually returned to her home state of California, where she settled in Oakland.  She was last recorded on the 1930 federal census, living with her youngest daughter, Laura R. Kelly.

- by Donna Carr

 

 

John Alsap, Phoenix's First Mayor - Narrated by Steve Schumacher, Phoenix Mayor's Office Official Historian

 

✨ Step back in time with The Phoenix Mayor's Office Official Historian, Steve Schumacher @phoenix_official_historian, as he tells the story of John Alsap. John is buried in Masons Cemetery at the PMMP, and was a man of many hats. 🏜️⚰️

Script and video created by PCA Treasurer Val! 

Watch now and uncover the past!

The Lost Children of the Norris Family - Masons Cemetery

"Days Events" Arizona Republic, May 1901

In a quiet section of Masons Cemetery, a small grave marks the short life of Baby Adelade Norris. Born on May 12, 1901, she passed away the very next day. She was one of several children born to Walter and Garnet Norris, but tragically, she was not the only child they lost.

Beside her, in a single grave, rest three of her siblings:

🕊️ Walter Lum Jr. (d. 1906, 2 months old)

🕊️ Thelma (d. 1907, 3 years old)

🕊️ Lucille (d. 1909, 1 year old)

At one time, round boulders marked these siblings’ resting places, a simple but heartfelt tribute. Over the years, those markers disappeared, but the memories of these children remain. PCA has a marker near their graves to keep their memory alive. 

The Norris family had deep roots in the area. Baby Adelade and her siblings were the great-grandchildren of James MacKenzie Norris and Jane Odom, who are buried next to the little ones. Through marriage, the family was also connected to Columbus Gray, another familiar name in local history.

Losing one child was devastating, losing four is almost unimaginable. In the early 1900s, illnesses we can now prevent were often fatal for young children. Tuberculosis, typhoid, scarlet fever, and other diseases often took Lives of the young and old alike.

A full biography of the Norris family is in the works, and we look forward to sharing more of their story soon. Until then, we remember Baby Adelade, Lucille, Thelma, and Walter Lum Jr., four little lives, gone too soon but never forgotten.

Hayden Burial Map Late 1930s 

Lot 1 of Block 24 in Masons Cemetery

PCA Marker for Norris Children

PCA Archives

 

#1 Amos J. Dye (1847-1905) - Judge and Ohio State Legislator

 

PCA Archives

Amos J. Dye was born April 2, 1847, in Marietta, Ohio.  He was the son of Amos J. Dye, Sr., and Maria Taylor.  In 1860, the Dyes owned a large and valuable tobacco farm.

On 18 January 1864, at the age of eighteen, Amos enlisted in the Union army and was assigned to Company H, 77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Just a few weeks thereafter, he married Marinda Jane McCowan on February 11, 1864. 

On January 1, 1865, he transferred to Company D, 77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He was discharged March 8, 1866 in Brownsville, Texas, with the rank of private.  Possibly his unit went there after the Civil War as part of the Reconstruction effort.

Amos Dye and Marinda had a son, Herbert, in 1867, and a daughter, Ida, in 1868.   He was admitted to the Ohio bar as a lawyer in 1877.  By 1880, the Dyes were living in Huntington, West Virginia, where Amos was practicing law.

Marinda died of stomach cancer in May, 1894, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she had been active in a fraternal society called the Knights and Ladies of Honor.  Amos Dye himself was by then a Mason, and a Republican state legislator.  Soon, he became an attorney for the Ohio State Dairy and Food Department.

Dye married Ida Selma Schaetzle, a divorcee, on December 12, 1895.  A son named Amos was born in 1897 and a daughter, Selma, in 1901.   Another son, Stelman, seems to have died in infancy.

In 1896, Amos Dye was accused of accepting a $5000 bribe from a representative of the Paskola Company on condition that the state would not prosecute a case against the company.  Dye vigorously denied taking a bribe and countersued.  Apparently he did not lose his state position since he continued to handle cases.

Tiring of Ohio winters, Dye purchased the Rumney house on Grand Avenue in 1902 and thereafter, the Dyes spent their winters in Phoenix.  The Dye family was living a mile and a half north of Grand Avenue when Amos died on December 30, 1905, of cardiac insufficiency.  He was buried in the Masons Cemetery, Block 17, Lot 3, Grave 3.

Dye’s widow Ida was left to raise their two surviving children alone.  She filed for a widow’s pension on February 17, 1906, but her application was rejected on the grounds that Dye’s cause of death was not the result of his military service.  She did not remain alone for long, though.  Sometime in 1908, she married Peter William De Jong.  Ida lived until 1954.

-by Donna Carr

 

John Tabor Alsap (1830 - 1886) - First Mayor of Phoenix

 

Arizona Archives

John Tabor Alsap was born 28 February 1830 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He was the only son of Rev. John Alsap (sometimes spelled Alsop) and his wife Keziah Randall.  After studying medicine in Ohio, young John went to California in 1853, intending to practice medicine there. Once in California, however, he developed an interest in mining--an interest which brought him to the Walker diggings in Yavapai county, in November 1863.

Alsap’s medical skills came in handy in 1864 when he accompanied King Woolsey's second punitive expedition against the Apaches as the party's surgeon.  His reputation thus established, he was appointed territorial treasurer in late 1864 by Gov. John Noble Goodwin.

He soon opened the first saloon in Prescott, a shrewd business move which brought him into contact with much of Prescott’s electorate.  On 6 June 1866, Alsap married Louise A. Osborn, daughter of pioneer John Preston Osborn.  Tragically, she died barely a year later.

Alsap became Yavapai County's representative to the territorial legislature in 1868.  However, his larger political ambitions were not to be fulfilled in Prescott. In 1869, he moved south to the Salt River Valley, where he helped to select the 320 acres comprising the original Phoenix townsite.  He was one of the original commissioners of the Salt River Town Association, formed in 1870 to promote settlement along the Salt River.

Alsap now turned his attention from the practice of medicine and mining to the practice of law.  As the fledgling community along the Salt River gained a foothold, he petitioned to have a new county created, with Phoenix as its seat.  Following the creation of Maricopa County in 1871, Governor Safford appointed Alsap its first probate judge. As judge, he sometimes officiated at civil weddings when no minister was available. He also served as superintendent of public education. 

Between 1873 and 1879, Alsap held a seat in the territorial legislature.  On 7 September 1876, he wed Anna Dugan Murray, one of the eight daughters of William P. Murray and his wife Margaret.  All the Murray girls married well-connected men and founded some of Phoenix’s ‘first families’.  Alsap's contributions to the city of Phoenix were recognized when he was elected its first mayor in 1881.

Alsap was an ardent Mason throughout his life.  A photograph taken in Contra Costa, California, shows him dressed in his Masonic regalia.  He was the first master of the Azlan Masonic Lodge in Prescott and also of the Arizona Masonic Lodge in Phoenix, and he chartered the Royal Arch Masonic Lodge. Upon his death in 1886, he was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Phoenix.  A modern granite headstone marks his grave.

-By Donna Carr

George Ulmer Collins (1835-1904) - Farmer and Rancher

 

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At the time of his death, George U. Collins was a prosperous cattleman and farmer, as well as a member of the Arizona Territorial Legislature.

Born March 1835 in the state of Maine, George was the oldest child of Thomas R. Collins and Lucy W. Ulmer.  The 1850 federal census of Liberty, Waldo County, Maine, records the Collinses as farmers.

By 1860, young George was living in East Boston, Massachusetts, and his occupation was listed as ‘ship’s carpenter’.  Perhaps George took advantage of his proximity to sailing ships to do some traveling.  At any rate, 1870 found him living in Santa Cruz, California, living with Mary Fenderson, whom he had met and married there in 1861.  George was working as a tollgate keeper in 1870, and his estimated worth was $2000—not bad for the times!

Evidently, George used some of his funds to move to Arizona in 1875 and purchase land.  By 1880, he and his family were living on a farm in Township 1N2E, three and a half miles southwest of the original Phoenix townsite and not far from the Salt River.  Collins was an early user of irrigation water, which he used to grow alfalfa.  As the little settlement of Phoenix grew, George became a prosperous farmer and rancher.

George’s wife Mary died unexpectedly on October 29, 1890.  One of her sons was bringing an armload of firewood to the house when he saw her fall, but he was unable to revive her.  She was buried in a Phoenix cemetery, most probably in what is now the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park.  Two of her grandchildren were buried in City Loosley Cemetery--possibly near her--a few years later. 

George continued working on the family farm.  Rather than relying on gravity to fill his irrigation ditches, he began digging a well in 1900.  Although he struck water at 29 feet, he continued digging to assure a good source of water throughout the dry season.  In 1901, he installed a 60-hp pump to bring the water to the surface, thereby making his property the best watered in the area. 

As an influential early settler, George joined the Masonic Order, the Knights Templar and the B.P.O.E. He was also active in local politics, being elected to the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1903.

Shortly before Christmas in 1903, George came down with a cough which turned into pneumonia.  He died on January 1, 1904, and was buried in the Masons cemetery.  There is no grave marker.

When George’s will was entered into probate, his adult sons were chagrined to learn that he had left half of his estate to the Knights Templar, of which he had been a long-time member.  The other half was to be divided between his two sons.  They argued that their father had been unduly influenced by one of his Masonic brethren, who might stand to benefit in some way.  However, the court ruled that the will was valid, since George’s bequest was to the Order itself and not to any particular individual.

-By Donna

 

#2 - Ann Murray Alsap (1855 - 1902) - Socialite

 

PCA Archives

Anna Murray Alsap was born in 1855 in Texas to William Pinckney Murray and his wife Margaret White. The Murrays had nine daughters who became known as “the Murray girls”.  They all married, and several are remembered as the matriarchs of prominent Phoenix families.   In 1876, Anna became the second wife of Judge John Tabor Alsap, who was considerably older than she. During Judge Alsap’s brief tenure as the first mayor of Phoenix, she undoubtedly gave dinner parties attended by the town’s elite. The Alsaps had five children before Judge Alsap’s death in 1886. Anna died on December 20, 1902, and was buried in the Masons Cemetery.

Bryan Darell Duppa (1832 - 1892) - Phoenix City Pioneer

 

Lord Duppa - Arizona Archives

Bryan Philip Darell Duppa was born 9 October 1832 in Paris, France, where his parents, Baldwin Francis Duppa and Catherine Darell, were living at the time. Although not a titled family, they were landed gentry. The family seat, Hollingbourne Manor, was in Maidstone, Kent, England. It was to this mansion that Duppa came as a three-year-old in 1835.

Duppa received a classical education at Cambridge University, where he learned French, Spanish, Italian and German, in addition to the required Greek and Latin. In later life, he was known to recite Shakespeare for hours from memory.

Since Duppa had an older brother, Baldwin, who would inherit the Duppa estate, he had to find some other occupation. It seems more likely that he spent some time on his uncle George’s sheep station in New Zealand and that this might have whetted his appetite for further adventure.

Duppa was known to have been in Prescott, Arizona in December of 1863. He became friends with Jack Swilling and it is likely that the two came to Phoenix together in 1867. Recognizing the area’s potential for growth, Duppa homesteaded 175 acres near what is now downtown Phoenix.  An
adobe building that has been associated with the property sits at what is now 116 West Sherman.

Both he and Swilling were much interested in the evidence of a vanished Hohokam culture on the banks of the Salt River—specifically, its system of canals. When the question of what to name the new settlement arose, Duppa proposed Phoenix, for it suggested a city rising from the ashes of a previous civilization. Duppa is also credited with having named Tempe. - Adapted story of Debe Branning and Donna Carr.

Find out why he was called "Lord" and was actually re-buried in 1991 by coming to Pioneer Military and Memorial Park!

See us on our website: azhistcemeteries.org

Samuel Korrick (1871 - 1903) - Territorial Phoenix Businessman

Charles and Sam Korrick, about 1901

Courtesy of the Korrick family

Samuel Korrick was born in April, 1871, in Grodno, then part of tsarist Russia. After coming to the United States around 1890, he worked briefly as a dry goods clerk in New York before moving on to another store in El Paso. In 1895, Korrick was on his way to California when he stopped in Phoenix. Something about the up-and-coming city attracted him, and he decided to stay. Despite his relative youth, he was able to combine his previous experience in the dry goods business with a flair for merchandising, determination and hard work. He set up his first store in a narrow space at 218 East Washington Street. 

To make his shop sound more sophisticated, he called it the New York Store. Korrick was a savvy businessman. Newspaper advertisements for his store trumpeted quality merchandise, low prices, seasonal and annual clearance sales. The ads noted his buying trips to Eastern markets, which must have added a certain cachet for his customers. 

Korrick was more than just a successful merchant. He joined the Freemasons and the Elks, and he donated handsomely to Sisters’ Hospital, now St. Joseph’s. He was active in the local Jewish community and ran newspaper notices announcing the Jewish high holy days. Running the New York Store left Korrick little time for a private life; he never married. As the business expanded, he brought his younger brother Charles over from Russia in 1899. Charles became his understudy in running the business. 

Tragically, Korrick’s health began to decline in 1901 and he died on March 23, 1903, at the age of 32. According to Korrick’s obituary, no other man had "left such a deep impression upon the mercantile life of Phoenix." Customers and competitors alike esteemed him as an honest and upright businessman. Korrick’s funeral service was an ecumenical affair. After the reading of Jewish rites, a Methodist minister delivered a eulogy. The hearse was accompanied by a long cortege, and Korrick was interred in accordance with Masonic rites in the Masons Cemetery. 

 © Derek Horn and Debe Branning. Last revised May 21, 2023. 

check out the PCA website at azhistcemeteries.org

Masons Cemetery Scavenger Hunt

 

Photo by Sterling Foster

Masons Cemetery Scavenger Hunt!  

the masons are a fraternal order that have been around for centuries.  the organization's goals focuses on philanthropic work, as well as developing good character traits.  In the 1800s, the masons purchased a section of land for burials, and is now part of our historical cemetery block.

We use the term "masons" (without the apostrophe) Cemetery as this reference is in most of the records we have of the section.

Clark Churchill was a proud Politician and buried in the Masons Section.

Here are some other individuals who are also buried there.  

The answers can be found on Find a Grave.  Our volunteers have placed all of our interred on this platform.  

Can you Figure out the clues?  Good Luck!

Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records

1.  Married to the first mayor of Phoenix.

2.  School teacher, and buried in 1901.  Husband is not buried with her.

3.  Grave marker marked "Epworth League".  Fatally shot in the foot by a falling gun in 1901.  Previously had survived surgery on her skull for a brain tumor.

4.  Little boy who drowned while "bird's nesting" in 1898.  

5.  First burial in the Masonic section, and died from ingesting morphine pills.  

Jennie Isaac (1827 - 1902) - Women's History Month

Jennie Isaac with Husband, PCA Archives

Jane “Jennie” Netherton Isaac was born 1827 in Tennessee. She married William in 1848 and they would eventually have 11 children, 8 survived to adulthood. The family moved to California around 1860 and in 1870 were in Gilroy where they were farmers. William would also serve as a Baptist Minister and on the Board of Education. Education would continue to be a priority for this family. 

In the Spring of 1875, Jennie packed up her household and all headed for Prescott with two wagons, each pulled by four horses. It took two months to arrive, at one point crossing the Colorado River. The family would remain in Prescott until the Spring of 1876, moving temporarily to a small adobe house in Phoenix. A home was built on 400 acres of land at what is now 35th Ave. & McDowell Rd. The Isaacs needing to educate their children, donated the land founding Isaac School. That school is still in existence. 

The Isaacs prospered and in 1884 Jennie began conducting business in her own name dealing with stock and farming products. The Arizona Legislature had given married women that right in 1865. In 1887 Jennie helped start a chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star as William was a Mason. Jennie held the office of the “Electa,” who shares the lesson of Charity and Hospitality. Jennie’s husband William died March 23, 1900. Jennie lived alone until she developed grippe, the flu, and died after seven days on February 10, 1902.  Jennie is buried in the Masons Cemetery next to her husband.

-Donna Carr