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 

 

Before Daylight Savings Time - "The Day of Two Noons"

Taking the Time, Brooklyn Navy Yard. ca. 1890-1901. 

Detroit Publishing Company. Prints & Photographs Division

The advent of the railroad and telegraph systems necessitated a more standardized approach to timekeeping, as scheduling became increasingly complex with the multitude of local times. This led to the creation of standard time zones, which were first proposed by Sir Sandford Fleming in the late 19th century and gradually adopted worldwide. The United States, for example, adopted standardized time zones on November 18, 1883, an event known as "The Day of Two Noons," when railroad stations set their clocks to the new standard time as the sun reached noon.

 

Daylight Savings Time - Why is it Practiced?

 

Daylight Savings Time Ad

1918

Library of Congress

Daylight Saving Time (DST) originated from an idea proposed by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, in 1895. Hudson's proposal aimed to make better use of daylight by shifting the clocks forward in the summer months. However, it was not until World War I that DST was widely adopted, initially by Germany and its allies in 1916, to conserve coal by reducing the need for artificial lighting in the evening hours. This practice quickly spread to other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, as a way to save energy during the war effort. The concept behind DST was to make better use of daylight during the evenings, thereby saving on energy consumption.