Henry Hiram Wilky (1838-1900) - Farmer

 

PCA Archives

Henry Wilky began life as Heinrich Wilke.  He was born on January 8, 1838, in Duchy of Brunswick (Braunschweig), Germany, to a farm family.

Germany saw much political turmoil in the following years, as a revolution in 1848 failed and Prussia became the most powerful of Germany’s many duchies.  Europe was also undergoing an industrial revolution, as farms with mechanized equipment were soon outcompeting small farms that depended on hand labor.  Prussia’s imperial ambitions also led to the conscription of young men into the military.  Wilke may have left Braunschweig for any of these reasons.

He arrived in New Orleans in 1855 and made his way up the Mississippi River to Burton, Adams County, Illinois, where he found employment on the farm of Peter Rump.  The Rumps were originally from Hanover--only 40 miles from Braunschweig. 

Henry obviously intended to remain in the United States, as he filed a naturalization petition in 1860.  By 1861, he had a farm of his own and, on April 2^nd, he married Sophia Lutgerding, a neighbor.  She was the daughter of George Lutgerding and Elizabeth Rump (possibly a relative of Peter Rump) of Adams County, Illinois.

The Wilkys had six children:  George L., born 1862; William H., born 1865; Frederick Daniel, born 1867; John Adolph, born 1870; Clara Ellen, born 1877: and Lena Madelia, born 1880.  The family very likely spoke German at home.  By 1870, they had moved to Marion County, Missouri, where the census recorded them as Wilkys.

By 1882, the oldest Wilky sons were adults and needed farms of their own.  Henry and Sophia sold their property in Missouri and came by train to Maricopa in November.  From Maricopa, they traveled by wagon to Phoenix.   At first, they homesteaded in the area of 99^th Ave and Indian School but, due to lack of water, they had to move to about 67^th Ave and Indian School.

The Wilkys’ last years were marked by the loss of close relatives.  Their son John Adolph died in 1886 and son Frederick Daniel in 1900.   Henry Wilky himself died on December 22, 1900, of septicemia.  He was buried in the family plot in City Loosley Cemetery.  Sophia followed him in 1908.

The Wilkys’ descendants prospered in Arizona.   More than a century after their arrival in the Valley of the Sun, they generously donated funds for a wrought iron arch for Rosedale Cemetery.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

George W. DeGroot (1842-1903) - Railroad Employee

PCA Archives

George Washington DeGroot was born on January 3, 1842, in New York City.  His parents were Edward DeGroot and Hannah West.  The surname ‘DeGroot’ suggests Dutch origins.

In 1850, George’s father was listed on the federal census as a ‘clothier, someone who made and sold good-quality men’s clothing.  He might have had a small shop.  Living on the same street near the DeGroots were a shoemaker and a tailor.

Between 1855 and 1860, Edward DeGroot moved his family to Adams County, Illinois, where he became quite a well-to-do farmer.  Although George registered for the Civil War draft in 1863, no evidence of Civil War service has been found to date.  George was working on his father’s farm in 1870.  

On December 11, 1878, George married Laura F. Garner in Illinois.  Over the years, they had five children:  Eugene Dawe, 1879; William Clyde, born 1881; Edith and Harry Lester (twins), born 1886; and Robert Stanley, born 1889.

Instead of continuing as a farmer, George DeGroot became a railroad employee, possibly for the famous Rock Island Line.  For some years between 1886 and 1890, the DeGroots were in St. Louis, Missouri.  By 1900, they were back in Rock Island County, Illinois, and George and his son Clyde were working as a baggage handlers.

In 1901, after 23 years of marriage, Laura DeGroot divorced George on the grounds of cruelty and infidelity.  Not long thereafter, DeGroot seems to have come alone to Arizona.

He was living at 4^th Avenue and Jackson near the railroad tracks when on December 13, 1903, he died of pulmonary tuberculosis.  He was buried in Rosedale North, where he has a grave marker.

- by Donna L. Carr

12 Graves of Christmas - 2025

 

Rosedale Cemetery - Janet Winnicke

The 12 Graves of Christmas Begins Friday!

This December, we’re celebrating the season by sharing 12 stories of pioneers buried in our historic cemeteries. Each day, we’ll highlight a life that helped shape our community.

The holidays are a time for reflection and gratitude, and honoring the people who came before us is one of the greatest ways we keep their legacy alive.

Follow along as we bring history to light, one grave at a time.

Photo: PCA Archives

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

William Belcher (1846 – 1898) - “The Cockney”

 

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William A. Belcher was born in London, England around 1846.  Not much is known about him prior to 1880, when he was living in Missoula, Montana.  At that time he was working as a watchmaker and living on Front Street. According to news reports, William inherited $5570 from his mother who had died in England.  William quit his profession and began enjoying his money.

William migrated to Phoenix, Arizona and began bartending for Rose Gregory, aka Minnie Powers, a well-known madam.  They began living together and, because William had a problem with alcohol, Rose became his money manager. 

William and Rose had a tumultuous relationship because of his drinking and her profession.  William would end up in jail because of his behavior and while he was gone, Rose would entertain other gentlemen callers.  He would become jealous of her relationships with men and threaten to kill her. 

After his release from jail on September 17, 1898, he went for a few drinks and obtained a .44 caliber handgun.  He then went to where Rose and he were living at 720 Railroad Avenue in Phoenix and entered the residence around 9 a.m.

William found Rose alone and asleep in bed.  He shot her in the head and then shot himself, falling across her.  They were not discovered until 1 p.m. when Flora Wilson, one of the other women living in the house, found the bodies. 

William and Rose were buried in Rosedale Cemetery.  William’s location in the cemetery is unknown, as there is no grave marker.  

- by Patty

 

William B. Casey (1870-1898) - Hot Tempered Ranch Hand

 

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Aerial of Rosedale

William B. Casey’s story is one of those wild tales from early Phoenix that reminds us how rough life could be on the frontier. Born in New York in 1870, he went west as a young man, described as tall, athletic, and quick to quarrel. By the time he reached Arizona, his hot temper was well known. He tried his hand at a milk delivery business in Phoenix, but the partnership fell apart, and Casey found himself in frequent trouble with the law.

Things came to a head in September 1898. While working at Ben Anderson’s ranch north of town, Casey was asked to saddle a horse for Anderson’s granddaughter. Taking offense, he lashed out at Anderson’s son-in-law with a pitchfork, leaving him badly injured. Only days later, still spoiling for a fight, Casey confronted rancher James Marler over rumors of insults. When words didn’t satisfy him, he attacked with his fists, then turned on a hired hand, George Moudy. As Casey rushed forward, Moudy fired in self-defense. One bullet to the heart ended Casey’s violent streak.

A coroner’s jury quickly ruled the killing justified, given Casey’s attacks in the days before. William B. Casey was buried on September 12, 1898, after a Catholic funeral service.  Despite his bad temper and reputation, a large crowd of family and friends were there to pay their last respects and follow his coffin to Rosedale Cemetery.   

Paul Gutike (1842- 1898) - Architect

 

Arizona weekly journal-miner. [volume], June 15,1892

 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85032938/1892-06-15/ed-1/seq-6/

Paul O. Gutike was born about 1842 in Berlin, Prussia, supposedly to a good family which afforded him an excellent education. He arrived in New York on October 2, 1862, aboard the ship St. Bernhard, hoping to find work as an architect. However, the Civil War interrupted his career plans.

Scarcely three weeks later, on October 23, 1862, Paul found himself in Company K, 53rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (later became the 162nd). He may have been short of funds and enlisted voluntarily, but it’s also possible that he was more or less ‘drafted’.

On December 11, 1865, Gutike reenlisted in the 3rd U. S. Cavalry, being discharged three years later on October 1, 1868, at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He signed up again at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to serve in Company H, 5th U. S. Infantry, but deserted on May 28, 1870. He was dishonorably discharged December 4, 1870, at Fort Harker, Kansas.

Gutike had many more adventures with the military, some of them not so honorable.  

By 1887, Gutike had found work as a draftsman for James Riely Gordon in San Antonio, Texas. Gordon eventually gained national renown for his Texas courthouse designs.

Gutike’s career as an architect and civil engineer burgeoned in Arizona.  In 1889, Mrs. Vina Brown commissioned him to design some apartments at 4th Avenue and Adams in anticipation of providing quarters for winter visitors coming to Phoenix.  The following year, he designed the plans for the Burke Hotel in Prescott, Arizona.  The Burke was advantageously located on the corner of Montezuma and Gurley Streets and included ground-floor shops along with well-appointed rooms.  (Advertised as the only “fire-proof” hotel in Arizona, the Burke was nevertheless destroyed during Prescott’s Great Fire of 1900.  St. Michael’s Hotel is located on the site today.)

Gutike hadn’t forgotten his years in the military, either.  In 1891, he drew up plans for two new buildings to house troops at Fort Whipple.

Paul became well known in Phoenix, but according to his obituary, had a propensity for drink.  He died in July 21, 1898 of gastritis and was buried in the Rosedale Cemetery.

-by Patty

 

St. Michaels now stands on the corner where the Burke once stood - Val W.

Why Are There Single Graves at PMMP?

 

Restoration of Rev. Emerson's Grave

A Single Grave Near

the Rosedale Fenceline - PCA Archives

When you look at the historic maps of Rosedale and City/Loosley Cemeteries in Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, you’ll notice something unusual: rows of single graves with large plots. But why?

In the late 1800s, cemeteries needed flexibility. Single graves were mapped out and sold for many reasons:

•     Urgent Burials: Epidemics and sudden deaths meant families needed immediate options. In 1884, when burials were moved into City Loosley, some blocks were even divided into single spaces to make room for the large amounts of reburials taking place.
•     Cost-Effective: A single grave was far more affordable than a family plot, making burial possible for working-class families and newcomers.
•     Frontier Populations: Phoenix was a town of transients.  There were miners, railroad workers, and travelers who often didn’t plan on staying long term…but did anyway.
•     Benevolence:  Different organizations bought graves and then donated them to low-income individuals or families. 
•     Efficient Land Use: Cemeteries could manage revenue and space more effectively by laying out single rows, especially along fence lines or open areas.

Some “single” graves are even present in our lots or blocks.  Some people would buy graves from families or individuals who had a plot.  Many undertakers in town bought blocks of graves.  They also used these graves as “holding places”.  Before refrigeration, single graves sometimes served as short-term resting spots until loved ones could be claimed. Some were never moved, and those individuals remain here today.

These are just a few reasons that we know.  In any case, our cemeteries show a city that was adapting to change in an evolving frontier town.

Cemetery Mystery: Who Was Sam Elliott?

PCA Archives

 

Cemetery Mystery: Who Was Sam Elliott?

Tucked away in the Wooldridge Vault at Rosedale Cemetery lies a mystery we've yet to solve - an orphaned gravestone belonging to Sam Elliott, who passed away in 1851 at the age of 71. The grave maker does not belong to anyone in the vault.

This headstone is in great condition, yet its presence baffles us. It predates our cemetery by decades. Where did it come from? How did it end up here? Who was Sam Elliott, and more importantly, where is he truly buried?

If you know of an early Arizona settler by that name… if you’ve seen his name in family history… or if you just love a good historical puzzle, we welcome your theories.

Help us uncover the story behind the gravestone. Who knows? Maybe you hold the missing piece.

Frank Albert Barnes (1868-1903) - Circus Seal Trainer

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Frank Albert Barnes was born November 11, 1868, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, to James Barnes and Mary Jane Cain.  James was an oilwell driller who had immigrated from England to work in Pennsylvania’s oil fields.  By the 1890s, the family was in Akron, Ohio.  They lived in a cottage near railroad tracks, from which the Barnes youngsters would have seen trains come and go every day.  Frank’s younger brother James, Jr., became a locomotive engineer.

It is not known exactly how Frank Barnes joined the circus.  In 1897, he was employed by the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Soon thereafter, he joined the Ringling Brothers Circus where he became a seal trainer and performer.

On the evening of October 4, 1903, Barnes suffered a fractured skull when he fell from a Ringling Brothers circus train as it was passing through Gila Bend, Arizona, at about 20 miles an hour.  He had been riding on a flatcar, next to the cages of his flippered charges, when the accident occurred.  It is presumed that he had fallen asleep. 

Train employees telegraphed ahead to the Circus’s ‘advance man’, Mr. Nagle, who was already in Phoenix making arrangements for the circus train’s arrival, and he had an ambulance waiting at the station.  Barnes was conveyed at once to Sisters Hospital in Phoenix, but he died on October 7, never having regained consciousness.

Barnes’s funeral was conducted from the undertaking parlor of J. Bradley, with all expenses covered by the Ringling Brothers Circus.  His body was temporarily interred in Rosedale Cemetery until the following spring, when the Circus had it transported back to Akron for burial in his family’s plot. It is a well-known fact that circus performers are a close-knit group and look after each other in death as in life.  Barnes being something of a local celebrity, his demise was widely reported in Akron newspapers.

- by Donna 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

 

L. D. Davis (1847-1899) - "Little Yankee Devil"

 

Bing AI

L. D. Davis was born about 1847, possibly in New York state.  Although his mother was originally from Maine, she married a Kentuckian and raised her son in the Bluegrass state. 

When the Civil War broke out, the Davis family split along sectional lines.  Davis's mother returned to Maine while his father joined the Confederacy.

Having been raised in Kentucky, young Davis's sympathies lay with the South although in speech and manner, he appeared to be thoroughly Northern. This made him invaluable to the Confederacy as a scout and spy. 

Davis too joined the Confederate army and served under General John Hunt Morgan, where he earned his soubriquet, "the Little Yankee Devil".  At fifteen or sixteen, not only was he a fresh-faced youth, he may also have been small in stature.  He could infiltrate Union camps, hire on to care for the officers’ horses and pass unnoticed while gathering information about troop movements.  He was with Morgan on the latter's ill-fated 1863 raid into Indiana and Ohio and, by his account, was the only Rebel soldier to avoid capture.

After the war, L. D. continued to do what he did best—work with horses.  He was much sought after by the racing set as a horse trainer and driver.  Acquaintances described him as being of a quiet disposition, not speaking much about his background or family.  In recent years, researchers have tried without success to pin down his identity; General Morgan’s command included several L. Davises about whom little is known.  His name might have been L. R., Lewis or Luther.

L. D. is believed to have moved to Phoenix around 1895, possibly for his health.   The November 15, 1895, issue of the Arizona Republican newspaper shows a man by that name registered as a guest at the Commercial Hotel.  Thereafter, Davis found employment locally as a horse trainer.

Davis died of tuberculosis on August 27, 1899, in his lodgings at 229 North Center Street.  Since he had no known family, his funeral was a quiet affair.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown.

Note:  the term "Little Yankee Devil" usually refers to Johnny Clem, a Union drummer boy at the Battle of Shiloh and Chickamauga.  However, it could have been applied to Davis as well.

- by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Rev. Hans Jurgen Ehlers (1826 -1902) - Presbyterian Minister

 

Bing AI

Hans Jurgen Ehlers was born around 1826 in the Duchy of Holstein.  It might have been the lure of gold that brought him to the United States, for he became a naturalized citizen on September 20, 1860, in Yreka, California. 

The 1870 federal census of Yreka shows him engaged in mining and living with a woman named Olive.  How Ehlers’ relationship with Olive ended is not known but, on November 30, 1879, he married Elizabeth Gorrsen in San Francisco. 

Initially, Ehlers was a Methodist, but eventually he became affiliated with the Presbyterian church.  Ehlers seems not to have been a particularly successful (or devoted?) minister of the Gospel, as he apparently held other jobs during his lifetime.

In 1880, Ehlers was recorded as preaching in Florence, Arizona.  By 1886, he was living in Yuma, Arizona, where he served for a time as a chaplain at the territorial penitentiary there.  

The Ehlers family moved to Phoenix in October, 1889.  In 1890, he was elected one of several school trustees in Maricopa County. 

On December 12, 1893, Ehlers filed final proof on a homestead.  On July 7, 1896, the Ehlerses’ seven-year-old son, Joseph William, accidentally shot himself with a rifle.   A doctor was summoned, but the boy died before he arrived.  Little Joseph was probably buried in City Loosley Cemetery, it being the closest.  Shortly thereafter, Ehlers and his wife quitclaimed their homestead to E. Irvine and moved into Phoenix.

The Ehlerses’ oldest son Henry was a rebellious youth.  By age 16, he had been involved in numerous petty thefts before being convicted of second-degree burglary.  On November 20, 1898, he was sentenced to two years in the territorial prison at Yuma.   Discharged at the end of his sentence, he evidently had not learned his lesson.  He and an accomplice were believed to have robbed the New River and Goddard stage stations only a short time later.   Ehlers then fled to California.  He is said to have committed suicide in 1902 after murdering his wife.

Rev. Ehlers was about 76 when he died in Phoenix of pneumonia.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although there is no grave marker.   No probate record has been found, so perhaps he had little to leave.  Not long thereafter, his widow Elizabeth took their remaining two children and relocated to California.

by Patricia G. and Donna Carr

 

 

Robert E. Lee Brown (1865-1902) - Mining Engineer and Adventurer

 

PCA Archives

R. E. L. Brown may be one of the most unique characters in the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, both for his colorful life--and the speed with which he was forgotten after his demise.

Born May 31, 1865, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Laurence and Martha Brown, he trained as a mining engineer, then went out west to locate promising mines.

In 1889, Brown was surveying potential mining claims in Washington state. During a violent labor strike in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1892, he started a newspaper called The Barbarian, which took the side of the mine owners versus the unionized miners.  This earned him the nickname “Barbarian Brown”.  Threatened with death during the strike, he caused a cannon to be wheeled into the street outside his office.

Much as he enjoyed the furor his newspaper editorials provoked, Brown remained first and foremost a mining engineer.  He speculated in mines and was well regarded internationally for his expertise.  Seeking new adventures, Brown journeyed to South Africa in hopes of securing some promising claims during a land rush in Witfontein in 1895. Competition was fierce for the best claims, but Brown hit upon a method that could outrun the swiftest horse:  a heliograph!  He set up heliograph stations by which he could transmit confirmation almost instantaneously to his confederates in the field who were waiting to stake his claims. 

On July 19, 1895, the day of the land rush, twelve thousand miners were gathered in Doornkoop to register their permits.  But Brown had devised a plan to ensure that he would be first in line.  A fan of American football, he recruited a group of rough men from local bars to form a “flying wedge” to cut through the crowd.  The ruse worked; however, the Pretoria government initially refused to honor his claims.  Brown sued the Boer government and eventually won a huge judgment, the exact value of which has never been ascertained.

Having worn out his welcome in South Africa, the brash engineer returned to North America where, on September 26, 1898, he wed Maud Higgins in Victoria, British Columbia. 

Brown was in London in 1901 when he apparently contracted tuberculosis.  In late 1902, he traveled to Phoenix in a private train car with his wife, his personal physician and a nurse.  Unfortunately, he had left it too late; he died on October 3, 1902, scarcely a week after his arrival.   Despite his fame and fortune, his death rated only a few lines in the local newspaper, and he was buried under a simple wooden headboard in Rosedale Cemetery.  

One can only speculate as to why Brown’s remains were not shipped back East and why a more elaborate headstone was never erected over his grave.

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 -  by Donna L. Carr

 

 

Edward J. Lowry (1855-1905) - Sheriff in Ferry County, Washington

 

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Edward J. Lowry was born in 1855 in Carbon Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.  He was the son of Irish immigrants Michael Lowry and Bridget Conley. 

Huntingdon was coal-mining country, and Michael was miner.  He may also have been a member of the Molly Maguires, a secret society whose intent was to counter the exploitation and terrible working conditions of coal miners.  The Molly Maguires are sometimes considered a precursor to the labor unions of later decades.  If Michael was involved with the Molly Maguires, perhaps that was why the Lowry family left Pennsylvania for Saline County, Ohio.  By 1870, Edward, aged 15, was himself working in the coal mines there.

In 1877, Edward married Sarah Humphrey.  The young couple moved to Boulder, Colorado, where their first child, Edward, Jr., was born in 1879.  Edward continued to work as a miner, and he also became an organizer for a short-lived union, the Knights of Labor.

Something must have intervened in the late 1880s to set Edward on a different path.  Sarah was living temporarily with her parents in Bevier, Missouri, when the Lowrys’ second son, Ralph, was born on April 18, 1889.  A decade later, in 1900, the family had reunited in Republic, Washington, a sparsely populated region in the far West.  Edward and his older son were still working as coal miners until, in late 1900, Edward was elected sheriff of Ferry County.

Apparently, Edward was pretty good at his job.  The local newspapers printed detailed accounts of the sheriff’s activities, including the time when five prisoners sawed through the wooden ceiling of their cell and escaped via the roof on Christmas morning, 1901.  Hot on the trail of the fugitives, Sheriff Lowry caught up with two of them three days later, just as they were in the act of robbing the customers of a saloon!

January 1904 brought a case of a personal nature.  Sheriff Lowry’s wife Sarah, who had been suffering from an unspecified mental illness, escaped from the Mount View sanitarium in Spokane.  Fortunately, she was found the next day at a local hotel.

By 1905, Lowry was suffering from tuberculosis.   Seeking a warmer climate, he and his 16-year-old son Ralph set out by train for Phoenix, Arizona, arriving on October 9th.  Perhaps the long trip had exhausted Lowry’s strength, for he died the following day.  The Fraternal Order of Eagles arranged for his funeral and burial in Rosedale Cemetery.

Lowry’s son Ralph graduated from Washington State College in 1917 with a degree in civil engineering.  He was eventually employed as a senior engineer for the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation and worked on the Hoover Dam, the Shasta Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam.

-by Joseph P. Lowry

 

 

Noah Broadway (1831?-1905) - Maricopa County Sheriff

PCA Archives

Noah Broadway is believed to have been the son of William M.  Broadway and Mary “Polly” Key.  On the federal census of 1850, Broadway was living with his brother John in Kemper County, Mississippi, and his age was given as 19, making him born around 1831. 

No photo of Broadway has ever been found, nor evidence of him marrying or serving during the Civil War.  He seems to have been a somewhat solitary man.

Broadway is known to have been farming in the Salt River Valley by 1868.  He and seven other men formed the Prescott Ditch company on 26 Sep 1870, and dug the Prescott (later Broadway) Ditch to irrigate his crops.

The Maricopa Crossing was on Broadway’s ranch.  It was a nice crossing with a firm gravel bottom, and the stages usually crossed the Salt River there.  The road which ran through Broadway’s ranch is known today as Broadway Road.

Broadway never sought public office but was nominated for sheriff by Dr. W. W. Jones and elected on the 14th ballot in late 1884.  Although he was considered to be of good and honest character, some didn’t support him as he had publicly expressed a desire to ‘string up’ men who were selling whiskey to Indians. 

Broadway was the first sheriff to have his office in the new, two-story brick courthouse between First and Second Avenues facing Washington, the previous office being in an adobe structure.  The county jail was not very secure and security was lax; eight prisoners almost escaped one day when someone failed to lock up.

As sheriff, Broadway regularly conveyed prisoners to Yuma.   Another of Broadway’s duties was conveying insane people to the hospital in Stockton, California.  On 9 March 1885, the county approved the issuance of bonds to build an insane asylum in Phoenix. 

Broadway’s term as sheriff was plagued by a rash of armed robberies.   Men dressed as Indians held up stagecoaches carrying Wells Fargo boxes north of Phoenix.  Detective work led to the arrest of one John Pennington and two cohorts. The massacre of the Martin family in 1886, supposedly by the Valenzuela gang led by S. P. Stanton, also occurred during Broadway’s watch.

Water rights were a contentious issue in frontier Phoenix, for land was virtually worthless without it.  Broadway occasionally had to fight for his rights in court.  He owned the NW quarter of Section 30, Township 1N, Range #E.  He later acquired the NE quarter and the NE quarter of Section 25, Township 1N, Range 2E.  In time, Broadway and Michael Wormser became the two biggest landholders in south Phoenix.

By 1902 Broadway’s health was declining and his ranch was much neglected.  When he died in 1905, his lawyer sold the ranch and liquidated his assets, which amounted $12737.  Since Broadway had no other heirs, this sum was divided among his three surviving sisters.

-by Donna Carr

#4 John “Sailor Jack” Twentyman, 1824-1901 An English Seaman in Arizona

 

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John Twentyman was born England in September, 1823.  In his youth, he had been a sailor, landing in California just as the Gold Rush was beginning.  Thereafter, he engaged in mining, ranching and driving a stagecoach.  He was said to have discovered the Sailor Jack mine in Oregon.

Around 1876 he came to Phoenix, where he was employed by ranchers such as W. W. Cook, the Alkire brothers and Jack Miller.  During the 1890s, he appears to have moved to Prescott for a couple of years, for he registered to vote there.

In early November, 1900, Sailor Jack, then aged 76, was assaulted and robbed by two gunmen who held up Goddard’s Station on the Black Canyon road.  This incident seems to have weighed upon his mind and he decided to move into a room in Phoenix.  Jack was said to have been a kind-hearted soul; although he had no known relatives, he had many friends and acquaintances with whom to pass the time of day.

With advancing age came ill health.  Despondent, Sailor Jack committed suicide on December 27, 1901.  While at the Anheuser Saloon in Phoenix, he slipped out back for a moment to ingest a lethal dose of strychnine.  He then reentered the saloon and sat calmly until a single convulsion signaled his demise.  According to the coroner, a bottle of strychnine was found in his pocket but no money, although he was known to have had some the day before.  Possibly he had given it away.

Mr. Twentyman was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, Block 12, Grave 6.

-by Donna Carr

#5 Alexander D. Cole (1839-1907) - Union Veteran

 

PCA Archives

Alexander D. Cole was born May 17, 1839, in Moosup, Connecticut, to Caleb Cole and Hannah Crandall.  The Coles were fairly prosperous farmers.

In October 1862, Cole enlisted in Company A, 12th Rhode Island Infantry, for a period of nine months.  His regiment took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg that December.  After that, it was on guard duty in Kentucky and Ohio.  Cole reenlisted at the end of his initial hitch and served until July 29, 1865.

On January 16, 1868, Alexander Cole wed Ella Augusta Lord in Boston, Massachusetts.  The young couple was living in Southbridge, Massachusetts, when their first child, Fannie, was born on November 20, 1869.   Alexander was employed in a woolen mill.

Although little Fannie thrived, the Coles’ next three children—Charles, Henry and Gertrude—did not live long enough to see their first birthdays.  It wasn’t until October 28, 1876, that Ella gave birth to a son, George Elbert, who would grow to adulthood.  One more child, Nellie, was born May 26, 1882.

Over the years, Alexander and Ella seem to have parted ways, as he is listed as divorced on the federal census of 1900; he gave his occupation as ‘landlord’.  He and his two daughters had moved to Phoenix around 1895, possibly because Fannie was suffering from a malady which caused her joints to ossify, limiting her mobility (may have been something like rheumatoid or osteoarthritis). 

At first, Fannie was active in the local Presbyterian church and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W.T.C.U.).  In time, however, she was confined to bed, unable to bend her arms and legs.  On September 17, 1901, her doctor tried a surgical intervention to ‘break’ her joints, but Fannie died of shock following the operation.   After a funeral conducted by Rev. McAfee of the Presbyterian Church, she was buried in Rosedale Cemetery.

While living in Phoenix, Alexander Cole joined the John Wren Owen G.A.R. post.  In March, 1907, he applied for an invalid pension and received Certificate #969811.  He passed away on October 5, 1907, of cardiac dilation, and was buried next to his daughter Fannie in Rosedale.

Nothing further is known of Cole’s younger daughter, Nellie; likely she married.  Cole’s son George Elbert lived in Phoenix for a brief time, at least.  In 1910, his nine-year-old daughter Ella died of tuberculosis while residing at 716 West Madison.  She too was buried in Rosedale, probably in the Cole family plot.

by Donna Carr

 

 

 

#8 Margarita Wall Chretin (1882-1904) - A Life Cut Short

PCA Archives

Margarita Wall was born February 14, 1882, most likely in Arizona.  She was the first-born daughter of Fred Wall and Refugio Rebecca Ramirez.  Fred Wall is thought to have been an immigrant from Ireland and sometime miner.  A sister, Matilda, was born about four years later, after which her parents parted.  Their mother remarried several times thereafter.

On February 15, 1904, Margarita (or Maggie, as she was known), wed Carlos Robledo Chretin in Phoenix, Arizona.  Chretin’s unusual surname was due to the fact that his father, Jean-Marie Chretin, was a Frenchman who had married a Mexican woman.

Maggie was probably suffering from tuberculosis already at the time of her marriage.  She gave birth to a male infant on December 2, 1904, and died only six days later, on December 8.  She was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, with a three-piece marble monument marking her grave.

Maggie’s newborn son was originally named Fred John Chretin.  Upon his mother’s death, he was given to his maternal grandmother, Refugio Rebecca Ramirez, who was already nursing an eight-month-old daughter named Ruby O’Leary.   Baby Fred’s life was most likely saved because of this steady supply of breastmilk, which also imparted some degree of immunity to childhood illnesses.  Fred and Ruby grew up together, and Fred always regarded her as his sister, even though she was actually his half-aunt.  Being raised in his grandmother’s household, Fred adopted the surname of her then husband, Daniel O’Leary.

Margaret Chretin’s widower, Carlos Chretin, eventually remarried and had several more children with his second wife, Marta Hernandez.   Both the Chretins and the O’Learys moved to Los Angeles around 1918.

- by Donna Carr

 

#11 Reuben A. Hill (1839-1905) - Skilled Soldier, But Odd With Money

PCA Archives

Reuben A. Hill was born November 5, 1839, in  Naples, Cumberland County, Maine.  He was the son of John Hill and Rebecca Garland, farmers in the area.  Farming did not seem to be in Reuben’s future, however.  By 1860, he was already in San Francisco, California, working as a common laborer.

That changed with the outbreak of the Civil War, when Reuben Hill enlisted in the Union Army for a term of three years.  On September 29, 1861, he mustered in at Camp Downey, near Oakland, California, as a third corporal in Co. I, 1st California Infantry. 

As part of the California Column commanded by Colonel James H. Carleton, Hill’s unit was posted to the New Mexico Territory, where it saw action against the Confederates at Picacho Peak, Arizona.  Hill seems to have been an effective soldier.  He was promoted to sergeant and then commissioned a captain in Co. K, 1st New Mexico Volunteers (New), at Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, Feb. 29, 1864.  Captain Hill resigned at Fort Union, New Mexico Territory, on February 6, 1866. 

After the war, Hill returned to Maine where he married Vesta Marhon Whittier on January 19, 1865, presumably while on leave from his military duties.  They remained married until January 1880, when Reuben divorced Vesta so that he could marry a widow, Jane Tyler Burrell Wilson.

Jane later alleged that Hill drank excessively and was abusive.  By the time he moved out in 1894, he had spent all of Jane’s money.  Destitute, Jane was forced to move in with her married daughter.  Although Hill suggested that Jane divorce him, she did not do so—possibly because of the social stigma of being a divorced woman.

Reuben Hill then secured a loan from another widow, Olivia S. W. Payne, with which he purchased a hotel in Strafford, New Hampshire.  He remained in New Hampshire until about 1902, when he sold the hotel and moved to Arizona to speculate in mines.  Once in Phoenix, Hill was cagey about his past and intimated that he had traveled in Europe on a mission for the U. S. government’s secret service. 

On December 7, 1905, Reuben Hill died of a broken neck when thrown from his wagon near his mining property at Cave Creek, Arizona Territory.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, North section,  Block 168, Grave 7.

Hill’s widow Jane did not learn of his death until her son-in-law saw a notice published in a Boston newspaper.  Since she was still legally married to Hill at the time of his death, she applied for and received a widow’s pension based on his Civil War service.

 -by the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.