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.   

Magdalena Mendivil Donnelly (1830 - 1905) - Rancher’s Wife

PCA Archives

Maria Magdalena Mendivil was born sometime between 1832 and 1839 in Altar, Sonora, Mexico.  She came north around 1857 with three of her brothers.  While her brothers went on to Monterey, California, in search of work, Magdalena remained with family friends in Yuma.  By the time the brothers returned, however, they found that Magdalena had moved in with George Kippen, an agent for a mining company, who was about twenty years older than she.

To date, no record of an actual marriage has been found.  Very likely this was because George Kippen was already married to Jane A. Nichols of Fairfield County, Connecticut, by whom he had three children.   Sometime after the birth of the third child, George left Connecticut for good.  By 1852, he was working as a miner in California.

The 1860 federal census of Colorado, San Diego County, California, shows George Kippen and Madalena Maldives [sic] living there in the same household, although not married.  Their first son John was born 1860.  John was quickly followed by a daughter, Delfina.

Having had little success at mining, Kippen got a contract to haul supplies from California to the military outposts in Arizona.  He was at Camp McDowell, working as a sutler’s clerk and pharmacist, when he died suddenly on 22 February 1868 and was buried in the post cemetery.  Because Kippen was a civilian employee, his body was not transferred to the national cemetery in San Francisco when the post was decommissioned in 1891.  His headstone can still be seen today at Fort McDowell. 

With Kippen dead, Magdalena was hard-pressed to support her children.  By 1870 the family were living in the household of a Charles Foster in Arizona City, Yuma County, Arizona.  They appear on the 1870 federal census under the surname “Kippin”.

Around 1871, Magdalena met and married a wagonmaster, Frank “Owen” Donnelly, in Yuma, Arizona.  Donnelly, an Irish Catholic, had been born around 1837 in the village of Tyme, County Cork, Ireland.  Upon immigrating to the United States, he found few job opportunities for Irish immigrants.  So, on 21 June 1859, Donnelly enlisted as a private in Battery F, 2^nd U. S. Artillery, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and served until he was discharged on 2 May 1862.

Frank “Owen” Donnelly and Magdalena’s first child, Amelia was born 12 April 1872 in Yuma.  Isabelle “Lizzie” was born 7 April 1874, and Katherine “Kate” Inez was born 6 December 1878.  The Donnellys eventually moved to a ranch near Florence, on the San Pedro River.

By 1890, Frank Owen Donnelly was infirm and living in the Old Soldiers’ Home in Sawtelle, Los Angeles County, California.  He died there on 21 September 1894 and was buried in the National Cemetery in Los Angeles.  Magdalena received a widow’s pension based on his Civil War service.

On the 1900 federal census, Magdalena was recorded living in Pinal County, Arizona, on the Donnelly ranch with her son John Kippen, daughter Kate Donnelly, and granddaughter Elsie Harrington.  She died of pneumonia in Phoenix on 11 February 1905 and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, Phoenix.

-by Donna

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

 

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

 

 

Luke Monihon (1841 - 1879) - A Murdered Rancher

 

PCA Archives

Luke Monihon was born November 15, 1841, in Waddington, St. Lawrence County, New York.  He was the son of James Monaghan and Ann Martin, immigrants from Ireland who had arrived in the United States between 1833 and 1837.  The Monaghans were farmers.

James Davidson Monihon, Luke’s older brother, caught ‘gold fever’ in 1854 and went off to California to become a placer miner.

In 1860, Luke was working as a hired hand for a Rutherford family, also in St. Lawrence County.  No evidence has been found that Luke himself served during the Civil War, although his brother James enlisted in Company F, 1st California Infantry, which brought him to Arizona in 1863.  Evidently James saw potential in the Salt River Valley and invited his brothers to join him.

Of Luke’s and James’s siblings, Joseph and Christopher also came to Arizona.  While their kin back in New York continued to spell their surname as Monaghan, the brothers in Arizona were known as Monahans, Monahons and, finally-- Monihons.

Luke Monihon was in Arizona by at least August 1875, when he filed on a homestead near his brother James’s, in the new Phoenix township.  After “proving up”, he received his homestead patent in May, 1878.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Wilcoxen, daughter of his neighbor Andrew Jackson Willcoxen, although the marriage appears to have been of short duration and there were no children.  Sarah had been married previously and had a son by her first husband.

On August 19, 1879, Monihon was driving home with a load of wood when he was shot in the back by an assailant who had been lying in wait along the road.  The team of horses continued home where a ranch hand, seeing no driver, backtracked and found Monihon’s body.

Luke Monihon is buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 2, Lot 6, north half.  Come hear the rest of the story at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park!

-By Donna Carr