 Clyde Johnny, 1909-1911 Yurok Child Buried in Rosedale, exact location unknown (Image generated using Bing AI Image Creator) Clyde Johnny was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 3, 1909. His parents were Chester Johnny, 21, and his young bride, Lillie Secahonka, 20.
Chester Johnny was a Yurok from northern California and Lillie was a Hopi from Holbrook, Arizona; they had met while both were attending Phoenix Indian School. Evidently, their intertribal romance excited some interest, for their June 30, 1908, wedding was reported in a San Francisco newspaper (Chester’s tribe was erroneously listed as Klamath). The ceremony took place on the front porch of the Phoenix Indian School’s girls’ dormitory. The federal census of 1910 found the young family living at 912 East Monroe in Phoenix. Chester was employed in a local flour mill. Within the year, they had moved to 804 East Washington. Sadly, their first child, Clyde, died of meningitis on March 9, 1911, and was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown. Although little Clyde’s life ended prematurely, his parents were not left childless. In fact, at the time of his death, Clyde’s mother Lillie was expecting her second baby. Sarah Johnny was born just three weeks later. Within the next four years, Chester and Lillie had two more daughters: Emma and Lillie. Between 1915 and 1917, the Johnny family moved back to Chester’s birthplace in Humboldt County, California, settling near the town of Arcata. Over the next ten years, Chester and Lillie added five more children to their family. The federal census of 1940 records Chester Johnny living in Klamath, where he was a laborer working on the construction of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Road. Humboldt County’s tall pine and redwood forests provided lumber for World War II military installations and the post-war population boom along the Pacific Coast. Lillie died in 1942, leaving Chester to raise their four youngest children by himself. The 1950 federal census shows Chester Johnny as a patient in a private hospital. He died on November 10, 1960, and was buried in the family cemetery on the Hoopa Reservation. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr and Denise Foster. Last revised 15 October 2026. 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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 Starlight ‘Nellie’ York, about 1898-1937 Woman of Mystery Buried in Cementerio Lindo, exact location unknown (Silhouette generated using ChatGPT) According to her marriage record, Starlight Vadlay was a full-blood Native American born in 1902 in Pawnee, Oklahoma, to Clarence Vadlay and Wannetta Bird. Unfortunately, the marriage record does not specify her tribe; many tribes had been moved to Oklahoma when it was Indian Territory. As none of these three names have been found so far in other records, it has not been possible to establish their identity and background with any certainty.
On September 10, 1925, Starlight married 53-year-old Horace Judson York in Glendive, Dawson County, Montana. Horace was an itinerant farm laborer with three grown children from his first marriage. How Starlight and he met is not known, although this was at a time when Native Americans had few rights and sometimes needed Anglo "guardians" to conduct their legal and business affairs. Apparently, Horace and Starlight never had children of their own. The Yorks have not been found on the 1930 federal census so far. This census was taken during the first year of the Great Depression, when many had lost their homes and jobs and were traveling the western states as migrants in search of work. 1937 found Horace living with a woman named Nellie at 1701 East Washington Street in Phoenix, Arizona. Had Starlight adopted the Anglicized name of ‘Nellie’? Possibly. Nellie died on June 17, 1937, at the age of 39 of a liver and gall bladder ailment. She was buried in the Maricopa County cemetery. On her death certificate, Horace gave her father’s name as "Chief Cloud". Can you help the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association solve this mystery? © 2022 by Donna Carr. Last revised 5 October 2026. 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!  Jacquelina Biggs King, 1844-1887 A Keetoowah Woman Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Block 2, Lot 6, Space 1 (Tintype of Jacquelina King, courtesy of Janelle Molony) By the time Jacquelina Biggs King arrived in Phoenix in 1887, she was 43 years old and had crossed the western United States at least twice by wagon train. According to a somewhat fictionalized memoir penned by her son, Frank Marion King, she was the quintessential pioneer woman.
Jacquelina is thought to have been born on May 9, 1844, in Arkansas. Her Anglo father, David Biggs, Sr., was an Indian trader who operated in the Trans-Mississippi West. There, he met and married Martha “Patsy” Chisholm, said to have been the half-sister of the famous frontiersman, Jesse Chisholm. They had at least seven children. Martha (and by extension, her children) were Keetoowah, the official name of their band today. Natives of the southeastern United States, the Keetoowah had begun moving west as early as 1817. Because of this, they were already established in Indian Territory by 1838 and so escaped the Trail of Tears experience. The Biggses resided in Cherokee County, Texas until about 1852, when David Biggs decided to move his family to California. Over the course of several months, they drove a herd of five hundred head of cattle through El Paso and Yuma to California. The 1860 federal census records the family living in Tulare County, where the Biggs men acquired land and became prosperous farmers almost overnight. Meanwhile, Jacquelina had become acquainted with another newcomer, Samuel Houston King. They were married in Visalia, California, on April 1, 1860. The 1870 federal census found the Kings farming in Los Angeles County. By 1871, they had five children. In hopes of obtaining homestead land in Oklahoma, the Kings made the arduous trek back to Indian Territory in 1872 so that Jacquelina could register formally as a member of the Keetoowah band. Her tribal membership was confirmed on November 27, 1872, and her children were listed as beneficiaries, although no government allotments were actually made until years later. Instead of returning to California, the Kings remained in Clay County, Texas, until 1879, when they moved to Golden, New Mexico. The 1880 federal census records 44-year-old Sam Houston King and his 17-year-old son Francis working as copper miners. Although Sam seems to have retained his mining interests in New Mexico, he and Jacquelina were in Phoenix, Arizona, when she died in September 6, 1887. She was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. Sam Houston King died in Florence, Arizona, in 1915. © 2026 by Janelle Molony and Donna Carr. Last revised 30 September 2026. 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!  Carmel Bracamonte Balsz, 1868-1895 Young Wife and Mother Buried in IOOF Cemetery, Block 2, Lot 1, Grave 4 (Generic image created using Bing Image Creator) Carmel Bracamonte was probably born in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. She was the sixth of eight children belonging to Juan Bracamonte and Jesus Celaya. The name given to this girl child at her christening in 1868 was Maria Benigna Carmen Bracamonte Celaya, although she seems to have been called ‘Carmel’ or ‘Carmelita’ thereafter.
Carmel was still a child when her mother passed away in Altar, Sonora, Mexico. Shortly afterward, the entire family moved north to Phoenix, Arizona. Since her father does not appear to have remarried, Carmel and her younger siblings were probably raised by their older sister Sotela and/or other relatives. On October 29, 1879, Carmel’s sister Sotela married Frederick Balsz in Phoenix. Balsz was a prosperous, 48-year-old widower with several children; Sotela was only about seventeen. She would be his fourth—and last—wife. Two years later, on Christmas Day 1881, Carmel herself married Frederick’s son Nicholas. At the time, Nicholas was 21 and Carmel might have been about 13. According to Arizona territorial law, the minimum age for girls to marry with parental consent was 16, but perhaps Carmel looked older than she was--or maybe she had been baptized as a little girl, not as a newborn. Their first child was born in November 1882, but died at the age of one month. The Balszes went on to have four more children—all boys. Like his father, Nicholas Balsz was a meat-cutter and may have worked in the Balsz family butcher shop. It seems likely, therefore, that the family enjoyed some of the comforts of a middle-class life. Nevertheless, Carmel died of uremia on February 5, 1895, and was buried in the same lot with other Balsz relatives in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery. Her widowed husband, Nick Balsz, married Cruz Chretin in 1896. However, the 1900 federal census records him living not with his new wife or his four sons by Carmel, but in the household of his aged father Frederick. Nick died of typhoid fever in October 1902. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 24 September 2026. 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!  Efren Gonzales, 1861-1908 Blacksmith and Fireman Buried in AOUW Cemetery, exact location unknown (Photo courtesy of Tim Kovacs, Phoenix Fire Department, Historic Station #8) Efren Gonzales is believed to have been born July 9, 1861, in Sonora, Mexico, although he came to the United States as a youngster. He must have been literate and had a good command of English for he registered to vote in Tucson in 1886, although he did not actually become a naturalized citizen until 1890 in Phoenix.
On September 30, 1889, Gonzales married Aurora Maria Otero in Phoenix, Arizona. Aurora was the daughter of Jesus Leopoldo Otero and Maria Cristina Ortega. It is not known how they met, but the Oteros had been in Phoenix since about 1873. The young couple had eight children at about two-year intervals, all born in Phoenix. They were Edwin (or Edward?), twins Efren William and Arthur, Aurora, Henry, Matilda, Adeline and Ernest. Efren Gonzales was a mechanic and blacksmith by trade and, later in life, had a blacksmith shop on West Jefferson Street. Like numerous other tradesmen in Phoenix, he joined the volunteer Yucatec Hose Company to provide fire-fighting services for his community. To support his growing family, Gonzales opened a grocery store on the northeast corner of First Street and Monroe in 1896. Said to have been a devoted father and family man, Gonzales had saved enough money by 1902 to purchase lot 6 in block 65 for $3,500 from John Kersting and his wife. However, by his forties, Gonzales’s health had been compromised by a lifetime of blacksmithing and heavy manual labor. He retired in 1908 and died just two months later on October 26 of endocarditis. His funeral was conducted under the auspices of the AOUW, the Spanish Alliance, and the Phoenix Fire Department, and he was buried in the local AOUW cemetery. No grave marker has survived. To support her eight children who ranged in age from 18 to 6, Aurora moved her family to San Francisco, where her mother had bought them a large house in San Francisco’s Richmond District. While in San Francisco, the three oldest Gonzales boys experimented with flying gliders. Having worked in their father’s blacksmith shop, they knew all about gears and welding so they constructed their own gliders, which they flew on the sandy dunes behind their grandmother’s house. Their careers as aspiring aeronauts were interrupted by World War I, though, when Edwin enlisted in the U. S. military. After the war ended, the boys moved to Los Angeles, married, and went into other occupations. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 17 September 2026. 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!  Julio Marron, 1860-1909 Fire Department Chief Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Photo courtesy of Tim Kovacs, Phoenix Fire Department, Historic Station #8) Julio Marron became Phoenix’s first Hispanic fire department chief in 1898.
Marron was born a United States citizen on January 31, 1860, in Los Angeles, California. He was the eleventh of twelve children belonging to Juan Marron and Maria Elena Carrillo. During his early years—and especially after the arrival of the railroads--Julio Marron saw Los Angeles change from an originally Hispanic town to one dominated by Anglo culture. Marron may have been in Phoenix as early as 1875, according to an article in the Arizona Miner Jan. 22, 1875. In 1880, he appears on the census, employed in a blacksmith shop belonging to J. A. Marshall. On April 8, 1885, he wed Clara Concepcion Woolsey, the unacknowledged daughter of King S. Woolsey, a well-known Arizona pioneer. Julio and Clara had a son in 1885 or 1886, but he died at age two and was buried in Tempe. Another son, Esteban, was born in Phoenix in 1887. On August 17, 1889, the Marrons welcomed a son they named Julio, after his father. Children Fernando, Ellen, Clara, Helen and Louisa followed at regular intervals, although Fernando and Ellen did not survive childhood. In 1892, Marron joined other Hispanic blacksmiths in the all-volunteer Yucatec Hose Company to provide the Phoenix community with fire-fighting services. They probably kept their hose carts at their shops, ready to put down their tools and roll at a moment’s notice. Marron was elected assistant fire chief in 1898. Later that same year, he became Phoenix’s first Hispanic fire chief when his predecessor stepped down. While the Marron family seems not to have been recorded on the 1900 federal census, voter registration rolls prove that they were living in Phoenix. As a leading Hispanic citizen in Phoenix, Marron was active in the Junta Patriótica Mexicana, a local organization that advocated for Hispanics’ rights and sponsored the annual Fiestas Patrias celebration each September. In September, 1903, Marron was seriously injured while helping to construct the historic sugar beet factory in Glendale. A heavy timber fell on him, fracturing his skull. Immediate surgery reconstructed his cranium, and he lived for another five years. Like so many others, Julio Marron succumbed to tuberculosis on March 16, 1909. Although his grave in City/Loosley Cemetery might have had a marker originally, it has since disappeared; consequently, the exact location of his grave is unknown. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 10 September 2026. 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!  Sisto Lizárraga, about 1848-1912 Town Gravedigger Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 29 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) Sisto Lizárraga was born in Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico, about 1848, to Francisco Lizárraga and Maria Dolores Velasquez. His actual name may have been Sixto, although Arizona records list him as Sisto. His surname is not a common one and is thought to be of Basque origin.
During the short reign of Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, a teen-aged Sisto served in Maximillian’s army as a soldier for about three months. During the fighting, he was captured by the opposing forces who then made him serve in their ranks for three months. Many years later, Sisto would describe his youthful military experience in the Arizona Republican newspaper and give it as an explanation for why he cared little about the Mexican Revolution then raging. Sisto and other members of his extended family made their way north to Arizona in the 1880s. In addition to his other jobs, he served as a handyman who dug graves in Phoenix’s first city cemetery. He married Felipa Valencia, the daughter of Jesus Valencia and Francisca Luna, and they had at least ten children. Four who died in infancy were buried in PMMP and Cementerio Lindo. Sisto eventually became known as the cemetery’s “official” grave digger, even though he never received a formal appointment. A well-known and popular person in the community, Sisto made interesting copy for the local newspapers. In 1908, the Arizona Republican ran a feature story about him where he talked about exhuming and moving the remains of a woman buried in the Salt River bed and complained that his gravedigging business was suffering because many bodies of the local deceased were being sent out of state for burial. In 1910, the newspaper reported on Sisto’s efforts to clean up the cemetery, which had become a jungle of weeds, mesquite brush, and other desert growth. Sisto expressed the hope that he and his crew would receive some payment for their efforts by grateful members of the community, but it is unknown if they ever did. Sisto Lizárraga died on March 21, 1912, of a strangulated hernia at his humble home in the alley between Washington and Adams and 3rd and 4th Streets. In recognition of the man who had served them and the community faithfully and honorably, the local undertakers donated a coffin, a hearse and carriages for the funeral, and Sisto was eulogized by the newspaper that had previously brought him a small measure of local fame. Although Sisto’s grave in Porter Cemetery may have been marked initially, the marker later disappeared with the ravages of time. It was later replaced with a wrought iron cross and a simple stone. © 2018 by Derek Horn. Last revised 7 September 2024. 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!  Horace Roberts, 1850-1885 Clerk and Accountant Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 6, Lot 1, Grave 2 (Grave marker photograph courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Roberts was born on December 5, 1850, in Gwynedd, Lower Gwynedd Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania. The son of Job Roberts and Hannah Pickering, he had brothers named William Preston, Ellwood R. and Richard. The family were Quaker farmers.
By 1860, Horace and his three brothers were living with their widowed mother in the same community. While they may have experienced some financial hardship, they were apparently able to hold on until their situation improved. Brothers William Preston and Ellwood both served during the Civil War. Ellwood died in 1864, but William Preston, the oldest, became a successful lawyer and a Grand Master Mason. The federal census of 1870 records Horace as clerking in a local store and living with his widowed mother, his paternal grandfather, and his younger brother Richard. By then, the family’s fortunes had recovered and Hannah’s financial worth was $3000. On October 17, 1877, Horace married Edith Robinson Hooper. She had been born in Mobile, Alabama, and was still there in 1860; however, by 1870 she was in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Since her parents seem to have been New Englanders originally, perhaps they left Alabama when the Civil War broke out. In 1880, Horace was employed as an accountant in Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The Robertses do not seem to have had children. Horace was only 34 when he and Edith came to Phoenix in 1884 on account of his health. In March 1885, he was hunting in the Salt River bottom when an accidental blast from his shotgun so damaged his hand that it had to be amputated. The wound refused to heal and he died five weeks later on April 15, 1885. Horace Roberts was buried in Phoenix’s Masons Cemetery, where he has a marble grave marker. There is also a cenotaph bearing his name in the Roberts family plot in the Gwynedd Friends Cemetery that confirms his death in Phoenix. His widow Edith survived him by many years, dying in 1939. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 26 August 2026. ----------------------------- Take care not to confuse this Horace Roberts with a different Horace Roberts who was related to George and Gideon Roberts. Both may have been in Phoenix at about the same time, but the second Horace Roberts was from Virginia and his wife’s name was Mary. 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!  Dr. Jacob Heald Way, 1841-1887 Homeopathic Physician Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 7, Lot 1, Grave 7 (Grave marker image courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Jacob Heald Way of Chester County, Pennsylvania, was a Civil War veteran and homeopathic physician.
A descendant of a prominent Quaker family that has lived in Pennsylvania since 1692, Jacob Way was born on February 3, 1841, in East Marlborough Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania to Jacob Way (1797-1848) and Mary Jackson (1801-1889). During the Civil War, young Jacob served for a period of nine months in Company A, 124th Pennsylvania Infantry. Following his discharge on May 16, 1863, Way enrolled in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Shortly after graduating, he married a fellow Quaker, Rachel Ann Pugh, on April 8, 1866. She was the daughter of Abner Pugh and Charlotte Wickersham. The young couple then moved to Nebraska City, Nebraska, where Way began his medical career. Their first child, a daughter named Charlotte, was born on February 24, 1867. In 1869, Way opened his own practice as a homeopathic physician, surgeon and obstetrician. He joined the Masonic Order and became a Good Templar. In addition to his medical practice, he bought a 160-acre farm and raised poultry which he sometimes exhibited at local fairs. The Ways’ second child was born on November 20, 1870, but died in 1872. In 1874, Dr. Way suffered a bout of ill health, sold his Nebraska practice and returned to Pennsylvania, where he seems to have recovered. In April 1876, he set up a new practice there. On November 7, 1876, the Ways had a third child, Abner. The Ways’ fourth child, Mary, was born on November 20, 1880. However, she fell ill and died on August 24, 1886, at Longport, New Jersey, while the family was visiting the seashore. After 1876, Dr. Way’s health was never robust, and cold weather exacerbated his symptoms. After being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1883, he sold his medical practice in West Chester and, in October 1885, decided to move permanently to Tempe, Arizona, in hopes that the desert climate would restore his health. Once there, he rode twenty miles a day, slept in the open air on the front porch of his house, and reported himself much improved. Unfortunately, Way’s health took a turn for the worse in 1887, when hot weather set in and he was unable to continue his ambitious regimen. He died on September 3, 1887, and was buried in Masons Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona, where he has a private headstone. Way also has a marker in Little Elk Friends Burying Ground, Hickory Hill, Chester County, Pennsylvania, as do his children, although they too died elsewhere. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 18 August 2026. 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!  Susannah Beeghley Hadsell, 1848-1893 Dunkard Pioneer Buried in Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Generic image created using ChatGPT) Flat terrain, fertile soil, and abundant water from the Salt River made Phoenix an agricultural mecca during its early days. Among its settlers were adherents of religious groups who came not only to "make the desert bloom," but also to found new congregations.
Susannah was born May 30, 1848, in Allen County, Ohio. She was the daughter of Elias Beeghley and Sarah Erbaugh, and the second of ten children born to them. Rather surprising for the times, Susannah was already 31 years old when she married Burgess Almon Hadsell on February 2, 1879, in Montgomery County, Ohio. Hadsell was the son of George Myron Hadsell and Mariah Thayer, believed to have been Dunkards. The Dunkards were a small sect of Anabaptists who, like the Quakers and Mennonites, wore "plain" garb and were pacifists. In 1880, Burgess and Susannah were living in Bath, Allen County, Ohio. With no time to waste, the couple welcomed a son in 1880, a daughter in 1885 and another daughter in 1886. Burgess had previously purchased 160 acres of land in eastern Kansas in 1873, possibly with the intention of founding another Dunkard community. However, he sold that land in 1886 and travelled to Covina, California, with two companions. Once there, they located a tract of land suitable for a new Dunkard community. Burgess then moved his family from Ohio to Chicago, Illinois, where he and Susannah’s last daughter was born in November, 1888. In Chicago, Burgess went into the wholesale and retail clothing business, selling ready-made "plain" clothing to Dunkards, Mennonites, and other Anabaptist sects. It is not known whether Susannah had a hand in the business. By 1890, it was clear that Susannah’s health was in decline, so the Hadsells sought a warmer climate. They bought 300 acres in Glendale, Arizona, to found a Dunkard Temperance Colony there, and Burgess also helped to start a Brethren church in Glendale in 1892. Because of Susannah’s poor health, however, the family lived in a brick house in Phoenix, and Burgess opened an office in the Monaghan Building. Unfortunately, Susannah did not recover. She contracted pneumonia and succumbed on March 14, 1893. She is presumed to have been buried in Loosley Cemetery, although no grave marker has been found. Burgess Hadsell eventually remarried and moved to Buckeye, Arizona. He became a very successful apiarist; he and his children built the largest bee industry in the Salt River Valley. Hadsell died in November 28, 1936, and was buried in Phoenix’s Greenwood Cemetery. © 2019 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 9 August 2026. 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! |