 Rev. L. Phillip Smithey, about 1855-1889 Methodist Missionary Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 8, Lot 1, Grave 4 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) 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 (tuberculosis) 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. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 24 March 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!
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 Rev. Freeman D. Rickerson, 1837-1892 Baptist Minister Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 9, Lot 3, Grave 1 (Image created using 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, 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. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 31 March 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Rev. John Fremont Ames, 1858-1892 Baptist Minister Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 9, Lot 3, Grave 5 (Photo Courtesy of Ames’ Descendants) 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. © 2018 by Donna Carr. Last revised 28 April 2018. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Frederick J. O’Hara, 1875-1901 Member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 17, Space F (Grave marker photo courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Fred J. O’Hara was born on July 3, 1875, in Kent County, Michigan. He was the son of Sarah J. Lamoreaux and her second husband, Bryan O’Hara. Bryan O’Hara seems to have been a two-fisted Irish immigrant who caroused and drank heavily.
From at least 1874 to 1887, the O’Haras lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Bryan worked as a cabinet-maker. Sarah divorced Bryan in 1885, claiming that he was a drunkard and failed to support her and the children. On December 7, 1887, Bryan O'Hara died as a result of injuries received during a saloon fight in Evansville, Indiana. Sarah and her two children moved west to Tacoma, Washington, after Bryan’s death. Son Fred may have become a touring musician, as his comings and goings from Tacoma were occasionally noted in the newspapers. Apparently, his banjo was briefly stolen—but recovered—in 1895. He soon joined the Eagles, a fraternal organization formed in 1898 in Seattle which drew its membership from among those in the performing arts. Suffering from an unspecified illness, Fred had moved to Phoenix, Arizona, by 1901. He died of peritonitis at Sisters’ Hospital on November 1, 1901, and was buried in Porter Cemetery by the local chapter of the Eagles, Aeyrie 178. The Eagles also provided his grave marker. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 20 February 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  James B. Lacy, about 1847-1896 Owned the Phoenix Illuminating Electric and Gas Works Buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Block 16, Lot 3, Grave 6 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) James B. Lacy was born January 26, 1847 in Erinsville, Ontario, Canada. The name of the town is appropriate, since it was founded by Irish, largely Roman Catholic, immigrants. He was the third of eight children born to Bryan Lacey and his wife, Ellen Clancy. The Laceys were farmers who had immigrated to Canada from County Wexford, Ireland.
In 1868, James Lacy had emigrated to the United States and was living in Mendocino County, California. Around 1873, he moved to Virginia City, Nevada, possibly with a cousin named Bernard. They were employed as miners, working the Comstock Lode. Like many miners, Lacy followed the latest strikes. By 1889, he was in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where he was employed as a watchman at the Contention Mine. Lacy eventually moved to Phoenix around 1894, where he purchased the Phoenix Illuminating Electric and Gas Company. Being a prominent businessman, he was elected to a term on the City council. He was said to have been genial and well-liked. At the age of 49, Lacy passed away rather unexpectedly of heart disease. Whereas he had always appeared to be hale and hearty, a few days after Christmas 1895, he complained of edema in his right arm. Soon it became clear that his kidneys were failing, too. He was attended by Drs. Stroud, Helm, and Goodfellow, but nothing could be done for him. James Lacy died on January 1, 1896, and was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery. In accordance with his beliefs, his funeral service was conducted by a Free Thinker, not a Roman Catholic as might have been expected. John F. Kearney, a cousin of Lacy’s, was a miner in Congress, Arizona. On January 9, Kearney’s wife Katie entered Lacy’s will into probate, and J. W. Jensen was appointed executor. Lacy’s estate was divided between his mother and his sister. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 22 February 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Catherine A. Lacy, 1860-1896 Died in a House Fire Buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Block 16, Lot 3, Grave 2 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) Catherine A. Lacy was born March 1, 1860, in Erinsville, Ontario, Canada. The name of the town is appropriate, since it was founded by Irish, largely Roman Catholic, immigrants. Catherine was the youngest of eight children born to Bryan Lacey and his wife, Ellen Clancy. The Laceys were farmers who had immigrated to Canada from County Wexford, Ireland.
While living in Canada, Catherine’s father seems to have Anglicized his name to Bernard. He died on January 23, 1878, and was buried in the local Catholic cemetery. In 1881, Catherine was still living on the family farm near Sheffield with her widowed mother and several siblings. Her older brother James, however, had emigrated to the United States and was working as a miner in Virginia City, Nevada, possibly with a cousin named Bernard. Catherine seems to have joined James after he had moved to Phoenix, Arizona Territory. James passed away rather unexpectedly in Phoenix on January 1, 1896, of heart disease. He was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery. Catherine herself died just a few months later on May 15, 1896, of burns received in a house fire. Ironically, her apartment was located in a building behind the Phoenix Gas Works, previously owned by her brother James. She had arisen early and lit a portable gas stove with a match to heat water for her bath. She may have left the stove or match unattended for a moment, for the curtains ignited. As she attempted to extinguish the flames, her robe also caught fire, enveloping her in flames. She tried desperately to get the door open but apparently the smoke was so thick she couldn’t find the doorknob. Passersby noticed flames, broke out the window and put out the fire, but by then she was unconscious and burned almost beyond recognition. She died an hour later. After a Catholic funeral service, Catherine Lacy was buried near her brother in the IOOF Cemetery. Neither one of them had ever married. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 15 February 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  John B. Kelly, 1837-1896 Butcher and Saloon Owner Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 3, Lot 2, Grave 8 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) 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. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 15 February 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Thomas A. Hayden, 1880-1940 Civil Engineer and Surveyor Cremains buried in the Avenue of Flags (Photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Although Thomas Albert Hayden was neither a pioneer or early resident of Phoenix, his dedication to the cemeteries earned him a final resting place among Phoenix’s first citizens.
Thomas Albert Hayden was born 2 June 1880 in Green Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Thomas Hayden and Elmyra Ringer. He attended Sheffield Scientific School in New Haven, Connecticut, but left in 1899 before graduating to go out West for his health. In Santa Fe, Hayden met Harvie Sheffield DuVal, an attorney and civil engineer who had moved to New Mexico in 1903. Hayden married DuVal’s youngest daughter Irene in 1905. The couple had one son, Irwin, born 1905 in Albuquerque. Between 1906 and 1915, Hayden oversaw the construction of the Urraca Dam in Colfax County, New Mexico, and did drainage work in the Florida Everglades. By 1912, he was back in private practice in Santa Fe, where he was also the city engineer. Suffering from tuberculosis, Hayden moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1915. After recovering, he found work as a civil engineer with the U.S. Surveyor General’s office. During World War I, he served briefly in the Second Battery, 16th Provisional Training Regiment, probably as a training officer. By 1918, Hayden was an engineer for Salt River Valley Water Users Association. Thomas and Irene eventually divorced, after which he married a much younger divorcee, Anna Marjorie Kessler. They had four more children born between 1927 and 1935. To keep fit, Hayden was in the habit of walking from his office near the Arizona State Capitol to his home at 339 East Palm Lane in Phoenix. In doing so, he often passed by an overgrown, abandoned cemetery at 14th Avenue and Jefferson. A little investigation confirmed that it was the last resting place of many Arizona notables. Hayden surveyed the cemetery, created a map and recorded all the extant headstones. In 1939, he also prevailed upon some of his acquaintances in government to form the original Pioneer Cemetery Association, the purpose of which was to preserve the seven historic cemeteries now known as the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park. Among the charter members were Rep. Carl Hayden, Lindley Bell Orme, and a young Barry Goldwater. Thomas died at home on December 23, 1940, following a heart attack. His body was cremated and the stated intention was to have him buried in Greenwood Cemetery. However, his cremains were left at the J. T. Whitney Funeral Home for another 48 years, until they were interred on the Avenue of Flags in the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in 1988. It is not known why the original burial never took place. © 2018 by Donna Carr, PCA. Last revised 1 June 2021. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Jay H. Miller, 1865-1895 A Mystery of Long Standing Buried in the Knights of Pythias Cemetery, Block 6, Lot 2, Grave 7 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) For over a century, the Knights of Pythias Cemetery has held an unusual grave marker. Unlike the typical headstone, it was a large, smooth, pink granite boulder inscribed with a barely visible inscription: “In Adoring Memory of Jay.” But who was Jay?
In the late afternoon of November 25, 2006, longtime PCA volunteer Diane Sumrall was picking up trash in the cemetery. As she passed Jay’s boulder, she chanced to glance up at the underside of the stone. The setting sun was just at the right angle to reveal another faint inscription that had been hidden from view. It read “H. Miller.” Mystery solved! Jay H. Miller was born in California on January 7, 1865, to James Miller of Tennessee and Susan Sawyer Miller. Mr. Miller seems to have died before 1870, as the 1870 census records only Susan, a seamstress, her son Jay, and her mother Abigale in Sacramento. By 1880, Susan was living with teenaged Jay and her new husband, John W. Hughes. Jay Miller moved to Phoenix around 1887, where he began working for the newly established Maricopa & Phoenix Railroad. He eventually became the Maricopa & Phoenix Railroad’s commercial agent in Phoenix, responsible for running its freight department. With increased responsibility came a better salary. Around 1892, Miller acquired a large lot at the southeast corner of Seventh and Pierce Streets. He hired C. J. Dyer to create a plat map and subdivided the lot into 10 individual smaller lots. By 1895, the Phoenix Street Railway system had been extended so it ran along Pierce Street in front of Miller’s property; easy access to the streetcar line must have increased its value and potential for development. On the evening of September 7, 1895, Miller shared some drinks with companions at the Cabinet Saloon on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Washington Street. Around 10 PM, he stepped out into the alley behind his office with a Mr. Conroy. A few moments later, two shots rang out and Conroy ran for help, saying that Miller had killed himself. The Arizona Republican newspaper covered the coroner’s inquest in great detail. Almost 50 individuals testified about Miller’s activities that night, and several indicated that he sometimes seemed despondent and had spoken of suicide in the past. Jay Miller was buried in the Knights of Pythias Cemetery. Since he had died intestate, his mother was his sole heir. Undoubtedly it was she who had the pink granite boulder inscribed with his name and installed on his grave as a tombstone. © 2006, Diane Sumrall, Debe Branning, Derek Horn. Last revised 22 April 2023. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!  Candido Diaz, 1889-1919 Copper miner and farmer Buried in Cementerio Lindo, exact location unknown (Photo courtesy of Dolores Mendez, granddaughter) Candido Diaz was born February 2, 1889, in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico. He was the oldest of ten children born to Juan Diaz and Maria del Refugio Garcia.
On January 17, 1913, he married Candida Guzman of the same town. The young couple is believed to have had two little daughters, although only the second, Maria Engracia, has a birth record. She was born on April 3, 1915, and christened a few days later. The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, lasted until 1920. Perhaps the Diazes hoped to avoid being drawn into the fighting. By 1917, they were living in Tyrone, New Mexico, a mining town run by Phelps Dodge Corporation. Supposedly, their first daughter died there. In 1919, Diaz was a copper miner and farmer in Miami, Arizona, another Phelps Dodge town. When he contracted influenza, he was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, where he died on February 7. The virulence of the Spanish Flu epidemic made immediate burial necessary. His wife Candida, who spoke only Spanish, had to rely upon English-speaking strangers to make the arrangements. She never knew exactly where her husband was buried. Nevertheless, Candido's story was passed on for nearly a century, until his granddaughter, Dolores “Lola” Mendez, found his death certificate on line. As was often the case with Mexican names, Diaz's death certificate was incorrectly filed; it’s under 'Candido Garcia'4, his mother’s maiden name. Still, it was possible to positively identify him by the date of death. He had been buried in the Maricopa County Cemetery, now known as Cementerio Lindo. Although Candido Diaz has no grave marker and the exact location of his grave is forever unknown, his family is relieved to know that he was accorded a Christian burial and rests beside so many other victims of the influenza epidemic. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 2 February 2025. If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers! |