Solomon Dotson 1894-1940 World War I Veteran Buried in Cementerio Lindo, exact location unknown [image - two unidentified World War I soldiers, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)] Although no contemporary record of his birth has been found, Solomon Dotson is believed to have been born on Christmas Day, 1894, in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas.
As early as August 1916, Dotson was serving as a private in Company H, 365th Infantry, U.S. Army. The 365th was a racially-segregated, all Negro regiment. However, it was somewhat unusual in that, unlike most other segregated units, it had African American officers. Dotson’s commanding officer was Captain William Washington Green. Green was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star for his heroic actions during World War I. Therefore, it seems likely that Solomon Dotson too saw combat during the War. Promoted to the rank of private first class, Dotson continues to appear on the 365th ‘s roster until January 31, 1919, when he was presumably discharged. The federal census of 1920 found him in Okfuskee, Oklahoma, living in the household of George Gray and working as a farmhand. In March of that year, Dotson married Gray’s daughter, Angeline. They soon had a son, Julius, and daughters Lonnie and Alice. Sometime before 1930, the Grays moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they resided at 14th Avenue and Buckeye. A news article from that year reports that Solomon was injured in a car accident, the vehicle being driven by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Maggie Gray. By 1933, Solomon Dotson was working as a barber at the Palm Barber Shop. Proud of his World War I service, Dotson was active in veterans’ organizations throughout his later years. In 1936, he was the finance officer for the William F. Blake American Legion Post #40 (the post appears to have been renamed the Tilden White Post at a later date). Dotson’s teenaged daughter, Lonnie, was president of the post’s junior auxiliary. Dotson also belonged to the Virgil Bell Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1710, which still exists. Son Julius Dotson graduated from the Phoenix colored high school in the spring of 1939. By the following year, he was enrolled at Phoenix College, taking art classes. 1940 was an election year, and Solomon Dotson was active in the "Wilkie for President" club. However, he didn’t live to see the outcome of the election as he died on October 15th of a cerebral hemorrhage associated with hypertension. His funeral took place at the Calvary Baptist Church, after which he was laid to rest in the Maricopa County Cemetery (now Cementerio Lindo). © 2023 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 28 January 2023. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!
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Mary A. Lee 1862-1900 African American Restauranteur Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown (generic image of a couple dining generated using Bing AI) Advertisement from the Border Vignette, Feb. 18, 1899 A rather breathless ad in the December 5, 1897, issue of the Arizona Daily Star, a Tucson newspaper, described Mary as "...the famous caterer who is known to prepare the finest dinner, breakfast, or luncheon in Arizona…"
The aforementioned Mary A. Lee was a single, African American woman born about 1862. Nothing is known about her early life, or where she was born, but she apparently began her culinary career at the Luray Hotel in Denver, Colorado. She appears to have entered the Phoenix scene around 1892, when she partnered with Samuel W. Slade, also from Denver, to form a catering service called Lee & Slade. By April 17, 1892, the partners were managing the dining room at the Commercial Hotel in Phoenix. In 1895, Lee & Slade were running the Opera House café, with a menu featuring "game, fish, and oysters". However, they had their sights set on something even bigger. When the newly-built Ford Hotel opened for business on November 1, 1895, Lee & Slade had secured a five-year lease for $18,000 to maintain a restaurant on the premises. However, it seems that the new hotel experienced some sort of shake-up in management as, about a month later, hotel manager L. B. Hayes resigned and was replaced by H. R. Borden. It is not known whether this change had any bearing on Mary’s relationship with Samuel W. Slade, but the partnership dissolved in 1896, and Mary sold her inventory back to the hotel for the sum of $3000. Not long thereafter, she moved to Tucson where she opened the Orndorff Cafe. To assist her, she invited A. R. Wagner, another acquaintance from her Denver days, to act as head steward. By 1899, Mary was running the Alhambra Café, advertising “Banquets and Afternoon Teas our Specialties”. She was also listed as the ‘manageress’ of the Williams Boarding House next door. Her success was remarkable for the time, as women were not often seen in managerial roles. Mary’s career was cut short, however, when she contracted tuberculosis. She gave up her lease on the Alhambra Café early in June, 1900, after which her health declined rapidly. In mid-October, she moved back to Phoenix, where she expired on October 26, 1900. Mary A. Lee was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although the exact location of her grave is no longer known. Although Mary’s probate record states that she had a balance of $325 in an account at the National Bank of Arizona in Tucson, as well as a trunk of personal effects in Phoenix, her executor later stated that these items could not be found. © 2020 by Patricia Gault. Last revised 24 January 2024. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! Pleas Hutchinson 1887-1941 World War I Veteran Buried in Cementerio Lindo, exact location unknown (image - Unnamed African American soldier, World War I, National Archives) Pleas Hutchinson, African American, was born on May 26, 1887, in or near Forrest City, Saint Francis County, Arkansas. Forrest City was named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan, but historically it has had an African American majority population.
Pleas was the son of Allen Hutchinson and his first wife, Viney Brandon. After Viney died in 1894, Allen remarried a woman named Leanna Snipes. Although Pleas was thirteen years old in 1900, he had had only about two years of schooling. The federal census of 1910 found the Hutchinsons farming near Eufaula, Oklahoma. Living next to the Hutchinson farm was a family named Perkins. Pleas married Mamie Perkins in 1911. By the time he registered for the World War I draft in 1917, Pleas was already the father of three children. Although the shooting was over by the time Pleas joined the U.S. Army in December, 1918, the Treaty of Versailles was not signed until June, 1919, making Pleas a veteran of World War I. During and after the war, racially-segregated African American units unloaded supplies from ships, cleared out trenches, and buried the United States' war dead. By 1920, Pleas was at home again in Oklahoma, farming near his father and brothers. However, in 1923, the family moved west to Phoenix, Arizona. Pleas and Mamie were living at Buckeye Road and South 15th Avenue when they gave permission for their oldest daughter Olive (or Ollie) to marry in December 1927. Just a month later, their two youngest daughters, Mildred and Zenolia, died of meningitis and polio respectively. Both were buried in the nearby Maricopa County Cemetery. Pleas was the owner of a small farm near South 15th Avenue in 1930, when the federal census listed his assets as $1000. The Hutchinsons had three more children during the 1930s, but the Depression may have cost them their farm. By 1940, Pleas was working for WPA, doing highway construction. Late in 1940, Pleas suffered a stroke brought on by chronic hypertension. He died on May 12, 1941, at his home at 1325 West Sinola Street, Phoenix, and was buried in the Maricopa County Cemetery, now known as Cementerio Lindo. Although the exact location of his grave is not known, he has a cenotaph in the cemetery’s memorial garden. © 2023 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 8 September 2023. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! Georgia A. DeLoach Lewis 1872-1909 Wife of John E. Lewis, Barber Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown (image created using Bing AI) Georgia was born on March 10, 1872, in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio. She was one of at least nine children of George W. DeLoach and Mary Stewart, African Americans.
She married Frank M. Hailstock on December 24, 1898, but he died only eight weeks later. On the 1900 federal census of Ohio, Georgia was listed as a young widow, living in her parents' household. Georgia married John Edward Lewis shortly thereafter. John had been a Buffalo Soldier with the 10th Cavalry. Their firstborn son was Frank Hailstock Lewis. Both John and Georgia must have thought highly of Georgia’s deceased first husband to have named their son after him. While in Ohio, Georgia and John also had a daughter Ruth, born in 1905. The Lewis family moved to Phoenix because of Georgia’s health. Her husband John became a well-known barber; he also ran a boxing gym. Unfortunately, Georgia died on August 26, 1909, at the age of 37. She was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although her grave does not have a marker and its exact location is no longer known. In 1912, John Edward Lewis married Mattie Drake in Norton, Yuma County, Arizona, and he and Mattie had several children together. One was boxer Nathaniel Christy Lewis, biological grandfather of rap artist LL Cool J, as revealed in season 3, episode 7 of the popular TV series, “Finding Your Roots”. John Edward Lewis died on July 17, 1947, and was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. © 2024 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 7 January 2024. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! Edgar R. Laplante, about 1888-1944 Internationally known Con Artist Buried in Cementerio Lindo, exact location unknown (Archival photo by Turner Studios, 1918, courtesy of the Library of Congress) Edgar Laplante, a.k.a. Chief White Elk, a.k.a. Dr. White Eagle, a.k.a. Ray Tewanna, was a charming, internationally-known con artist who routinely assumed a Native American persona.
He was born around 1888 in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to a Canadian immigrant couple. In 1917, he was working as a barker for a silent movie theater on Coney Island. Perhaps the attention that his Native American regalia and somber mien attracted led him to reinvent himself as "Chief White Elk." By 1918, Chief White Elk was the toast of Salt Lake City, Utah, giving patriotic speeches to raise funds for World War I Liberty bonds. On March 13, 1918, he married Bertha Thompson, a half-Klamath model and aspiring actress from Eureka, California. The federal census of 1920 recorded the couple living in Portland, Oregon. Shortly thereafter, however, Laplante appears to have deserted Bertha to go on a whistle-stop tour of Canada. Laplante’s next port of call was London, where he passed himself off as a Cherokee chieftain (from Canada!) and expressed a desire to meet personally with King George V. Finding himself short of cash, Laplante began calling himself Prince Ray Tewanna and married an English widow, Ethel Elizabeth Holmes, ignoring the fact that he was still married to Bertha. Laplante soon left his new wife to visit France and Italy. Taking up lodgings in Paris, he walked the arts districts wearing his Native American costume. Although his French was of the French-Canadian variety, Laplante had no trouble charming the Parisians. Next, Laplante moved on to Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Countess Melania Khevenhüller-Metsch. The countess seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of Italian lira, and Laplante was happy to help her spend it. His sympathy for the poor made him the darling of Italy’s Fascist Party, and he was photographed several times with Mussolini’s Black Shirts. However, in 1925, Laplante was unmasked and sentenced to a prison term in Italy for defrauding the countess. By the time he was free to return to the United States, he was so broke that he had to accept work as a waiter in order to pay for his steamship passage. Back in the U.S., Laplante didn’t change his shtick; he simply took to touring rural areas, trusting that he would be unknown there. A 1931 newspaper article from Tuscaloosa proved that he had resumed his "Chief White Elk" persona. Found walking along a California highway in 1939, he claimed to be a spokesman for an Aleutian tribe on his way to Washington, D.C. By the time of his death in 1944, Laplante was living at Schmidt’s Haven of Rest in Phoenix, Arizona. His death certificate lists him as "Edward La Plante (Dr. White Eagle)," a Native American born near Gila Bend, Arizona. An indigent, he was buried at public expense in the Maricopa County Cemetery. Edgar Laplante's cenotaph is in Cementerio Lindo. ©2022 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 29 March 2022. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! Saloma E. Newland, about 1838–1898 Telegraph Operator and Lady Prospector Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown. There is no grave marker. (Stock image courtesy of Broderbund Clip Art) Saloma first appears in the public record in 1864, when she was listed as Mrs. J. B. Larcombe, an agent of the Florence Sewing Machine Company. It looks as though she was living in Virginia City, Nevada Territory—a raw, frontier town at the time.
Her name appears next in the notice of her 1870 divorce from Joseph Blount Larcombe, published in the San Francisco Examiner. The decree was granted based on the grounds that the plaintiff had not provided the defendant with the common necessities of life for two years. Evidently, Saloma had been supporting herself for several years prior to her divorce as an agent for the Florence Sewing Machine Company, which had a factory in San Francisco. Between 1866 to 1877, Saloma had also been employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company, working her way up to manager of the telegraph office in San Francisco’s newly-opened Palace Hotel. Joseph’s and Saloma’s daughter, Flora, had been born about 1858 in Ohio. Saloma had income sufficient to send her to the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, California, the predecessor of Mills College in Oakland. It was a smart move. On March 6, 1875, Flora married Barry Baldwin in Martinez, California. In 1877, Saloma left California for Tucson, Arizona, to learn about geology and prospecting. Less than a year later, she was recorded as buying and selling shares in the Little Amicus mine and the Saloma mine. A newspaper reporter caught up with her about this time and found her operating a hotel in Watsonville. Shortly thereafter, she married a miner named Thomas Jefferson Newland. Newland had a chronic respiratory condition, so Saloma did the actual prospecting and brought the ores to him so he could judge whether her find looked promising. Together, they filed on several mining claims in Yavapai and Gila Counties. Thomas Newland died on December 12, 1896, but Saloma, having developed a fondness for the Arizona wilderness, carried on by herself, living in a little camp near the Model mine in Yavapai County. In 1897, a reporter from the The San Francisco Call interviewed her and was surprised to find her well educated, well mannered and the mother-in-law of United States Marshal Barry Baldwin (Flora’s husband). Saloma Larcombe Newland died of cancer December 31, 1898, at Sister’s Hospital in Phoenix. She was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery in Phoenix, possibly near her husband. © 2020 by Val Wilson. Last revised 3 May 2020. To obtain a copy of the sources used for this article, please contact the PCA to make a suggested donation. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! John McCarty, 1855-1901 Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 17, Lot 3, Grave 8 (Photo courtesy of Patricia Powers, great-granddaughter) On June 6, 1901 John McCarty set off from his remote camp near Clear Creek on Arizona’s Mogollon Rim to hunt for some rare pigeons and four dozen tassel-eared squirrels. He was never seen alive again. A few months later a body was discovered and identified as McCarty’s, but was it really his?
Little is known about McCarty’s past. Census records suggest that he was born around 1855 in Scott, Virginia, to James and Mary McCarty. At any rate, he was in Arizona when he began to advertise as a professional hunter around 1890. For the next ten years, newspapers related his adventures as he roamed the Territory, hunting bears, mountain lions and other livestock predators. He also collected rare animal specimens for museums and universities. Because of his extensive knowledge of the territory and its wildlife, he was appointed Fish and Game Commissioner in the fall of 1898. On April 15, 1900, he married Lillie S. Sparks, then aged sixteen. McCarty left his young wife, pregnant with their first child, with her grandparents when he set off on his last hunting trip a little over a year later. Shortly before he departed, he had taken out six separate life insurance policies that totaled $27,000, nearly $750,000 in today’s currency. When McCarty did not return from his hunting trip on the Mogollon Rim east of Pine, his partner, J. K. Day, went to search the area. Week after week, the search turned up nothing. Finally, on August 19, a body was found. Near it lay McCarty’s shotgun with a burst barrel. It was surmised that McCarty had been stalking a bear. Apparently, the barrel of the gun had burst when he fired, likely disabling him and leaving him at the mercy of the angry bear. The body was taken to Flagstaff, where an inquest ruled McCarty’s death accidental. His associates had his body transported to Phoenix for burial in the Masonic Cemetery. Hardly was McCarty in his grave before the insurance companies refused to honor the policies he had bought, alleging fraud. They claimed that McCarty was still alive somewhere and that his friends had connived to plant a body that they then ‘found’ and identified as his. As legal guardian for her granddaughter Lillie and Lillie’s posthumous infant son, Mrs. Susannah Cosgray sued the insurance companies for payment. Having failed to produce McCarty alive, they finally paid the claims. Nevertheless, rumors persisted for years that McCarty was still alive. Was his insurance buying spree part of an elaborate and successful fraud? Or, since he was engaged in a dangerous profession, was he simply making provision for his young wife and unborn child? The debate continues to this day. © 2018 by Derek Horn. Last revised 17 November 2021. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! W. H. “Red” Nelson, 1860-1895 Traveling hot-air balloonist Buried in City Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Image generated using Bing AI) W. H. Nelson was said to have been born in York, Pennsylvania, around 1860. At some point, he became a parachutist whose act involved jumping from a hot-air balloon. How he came to his risky occupation is not known, but he and his partner, Otto Burke, a.k.a. Lochbaum, had been touring the West Coast with a carnival show.
Red and Burke billed themselves as “aeronauts.” Their act depended upon a balloon which, when inflated, was fifty feet high and about thirty feet in diameter. On August 1, 1895, they were booked to perform in Phoenix at a vacant lot on Jackson and Center Streets, where a merry-go-round had also been set up. Coincidentally, this was the same lot where evangelists from the Salvation Army had been preaching in a tent nightly for about a year. Many bought tickets to see the ascent that afternoon. The huge balloon was inflated and, when the ground ropes were untied, it rose about thirty feet in the air. Unfortunately, the balloon sprang a leak and collapsed; Burke received minor injuries in the fall. The balloon was mended and inflated a second time at 7:15 PM. This time, “Red” Nelson was to make the ascent, as his partner was on crutches. It seems likely that Nelson was tired from having worked on the balloon in the hot August afternoon but felt he had to perform, as the crowd had become restive and were muttering about the act being a fraud. When the balloon had ascended several hundred feet into the air, Nelson jumped. His parachute opened properly but, in the gathering dusk, Nelson may have miscalculated his distance from the ground and detached the trapeze bar from the parachute too soon. The Thalheimer family was having supper when they heard a terrific crash on the roof, then something rolled off the roof into the back yard. Nelson was found unconscious, his right hand still clutching the trapeze bar. No one could say just how far Nelson had fallen, but it must have been from a considerable height. Although the attending physician ascertained that only Nelson’s shoulder was broken, he was badly bruised over half of his body and had sustained several deep cuts to his face. He lingered for almost two days, never regaining consciousness but being heard to murmur in his delirium, "Give me a clear fall and I'll make it all right" and "No, I can't hold on; I'm too tired." When Nelson vomited blood, it became clear that he had suffered irreparable internal injuries. He expired on August 3rd and was buried on August 6th in City/Loosley Cemetery. He had no known relatives, and the exact location of his grave has been lost. The tragic demise of the aeronaut had a sobering effect on the citizenry. Pious folk murmured that the accident was divine retribution for using the Salvation Army’s meeting place for entertainment purposes…and poor “Red” Nelson had paid the price. © 2023 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 27 December 2023. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at pioneercem@yahoo.com at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! And on our 12th Day of Christmas please join us on a special remembrance and celebration of the life of Thomas Hayden, a very special man, who devoted a significant amount of time to plotting the graves of the interred of the historic cemeteries of Phoenix and rejuvenated the Pioneers' Cemetery Association! Yes, he has a special place in our hearts on our 40th Anniversary year! Enjoy the graphic of his short bio and a few historic photos and memories. Interment of Thomas HaydenCaptioning credits - Dan Craig. Photographer - unknown. Left to Right: Jose Villela, President of PCA, 1986 & 1987; Robert Villela; Allie Figueroa, President of PCA, 1988; unknown - installed cremains of Tom Hayden; Daniel Craig, Founder and Past President of PCA, 1983-1985; Elwood Darton Harris; Bill Soderman; Philip and Algona Winslow; unknown minister; Mark Lamm; Marge West, President of PCA, 1999 & 2000. |