 George F. Parks, 1856-1888 Waiter at the Commercial Hotel Originally buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Block 4, Lot 3; Now in Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, Section 8, Block 17, Lot 4, Space 2 (Grave marker photo courtesy of Donna L. Carr) George Fremont Parks was born in California in 1856. His parents were Charles Parks and Irene Taylor, and he had a younger brother named Charles.
Following the death of George’s father, the Parks family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1879, Mrs. Parks married George Patterson, an immigrant from Norway. Young George Parks worked as a waiter at the Commercial Hotel in Phoenix during the winter months. During the summers, when there were fewer travelers lodging at the hotel, he would go up to Prescott to work. Like many local men, he was a member of the volunteer Phoenix Fire Department, Hose Company. On October 12, 1882, George married Mary Agnes Thompson Lucas, but the marriage may have been of short duration, as nothing more is known about her. On the evening of December 10, 1888, after serving supper to the hotel’s guests, George and three other waiters sat down to enjoy their own meal in the dining room of the Commercial Hotel. They were apparently talking and joking among themselves when the hotel’s Chinese cook, Wong Lee, passed by. Thinking that they were making fun of him, he made some profane remarks, to which George took exception. George and the cook took their dispute outdoors, where they probably exchanged a blow or two. Evidently George considered the incident resolved, for he came back to the dining room and resumed his seat. But the cook’s anger had not been appeased, for he followed George and, drawing a knife, stabbed him. George exclaimed, “He’s knifed me; look out for him!” and ran into the bar where he seized a pistol and went after his assailant. However, Constable McDonald caught George as he collapsed and carried him back to the dining room. Dr. McGlasson was summoned, but the knife had penetrated to the heart. George lingered for two or three hours, remaining conscious long enough to bid farewell to his grief-stricken mother. Wong Lee, George’s assailant, was swiftly apprehended and jailed amid muttered threats of lynching. Nevertheless, he stood trial in early February before Judge DeForest Porter and was adjudged guilty of manslaughter. Late in May, 1889, Wong Lee was conveyed to the penitentiary in Yuma to serve a six-year sentence. George F. Parks was initially buried in City Loosley Cemetery. Scarcely a year later, his mother passed away and was buried next to him. In 1918, their remains, as well as those of George Patterson, were removed to Greenwood Cemetery. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 3 December 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!
0 Comments
 Andrew Jackson Brawley, 1835-1884 Stock Raiser Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Block 3, Lot 13 (Image generated using Bing AI) Born April 14 1835 in Carroll County, Tennessee, Andrew Jackson Brawley was one of eight children fathered by Milton Braley (sic). His mother was Milton’s first wife, name unknown. Around 1840, the Braley family moved to Franklin County, Arkansas, and took up land there. After the first Mrs. Braley died sometime after 1843 (her last child was born then), Milton married a widow, Mary Catherine Green Moffett, in 1847. They had two more children.
The second Mrs. Braley seems to have brought a considerable amount of property to her new marriage. But Milton fell ill and died, probably early in 1852. His estate consisted of 320 acres of farmland, farm implements, quite a number of cattle and one male slave. Settling Milton’s financial affairs took years as lawyers worked out how to divide the assets between Milton’s heirs, and Mary Catherine and the children of her first marriage to Mr. Moffett. A guardian was initially appointed for Andrew and his younger brother Dennis but, by the time they reached the age of 21, they were living with their older brother Ephraim’s family. Of the Braly siblings, only Andrew moved west, before the beginning of the Civil War. By 1865, Andrew—or A. J. Brawley, as he had taken to calling himself—was in Fresno, California, where he married Arza Jane Stroud on September 10th. Arza was the daughter of Ira Stroud and Rebecca Williams. Brawley evidently knew cattle, as he became a successful rancher. When the 1870 federal census was taken, he was a stock raiser worth $2,000. He and Arza had seven children in quick succession. Late in 1878, the Brawley family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and it appears that the Strouds came with them. Once in Phoenix, Brawley opened a general store and became a butcher. By 1882, he was supplementing his income by acting as night watchman and special constable. Mrs. Brawley was busy, too; early in 1884, she and her oldest daughter Alice had opened an ice cream parlor on Washington Street across from the Phoenix Hotel. By 1884, Brawley was the proprietor of the Dublin Corral, where he boarded and rented horses. A little after 6 AM on December 5th, he was going about his work when he was stricken by a sudden heart attack and died at the age of 49. He was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. Brawley’s widow was left with several young children to raise. Fortunately, her parents were also in Phoenix and she could count on their support. In 1886, she married Eugene Bridgeman. Arza died in Los Angeles on July 3, 1910, while visiting her adult children. Her remains were returned to Phoenix for burial next to her first husband in City/Loosley Cemetery. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 30 November 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!  Perlina Swetnam Osborn, 1821-1912 Arizona Pioneer Buried in AOUW Cemetery, Block 17, Lot 4, Grave 2 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) Perlina Elizabeth Swetnam was born on January 21, 1821, in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The daughter of Neri Swetnam and Mildred Cross, she was the youngest of their nine children. As Perlina is an unusual name, she sometimes appears on the census as "Paulina."
In March 25, 1841, she married John Preston Osborn, a native of Claiborne County, Tennessee. By 1850, they were farming in Morgan County, Kentucky., and already had four children. Around 1853, the Osborns relocated to Adams County, Iowa. The Civil War was in full swing by 1863, when they moved to Colorado, but they had their sights set on the newly created territory of Arizona. Early in 1864, the Osborns joined a party of emigrants traveling via Santa Fe to northern Arizona. They arrived in Prescott on July 6, 1864, with three or four ox teams and wagons loaded with flour, ham, and bacon which they sold to Prescott’s hungry miners. With flour selling at $1 a pound and bacon at $.75 a pound, they soon had enough capital to begin their family’s new life in Arizona. The Osborns built Osborn House, one of Prescott’s first hotels, which provided modest accommodations with a menu of pork and beans, bread and coffee. Perlina, by now expecting her tenth child, remained in Prescott to run it while John Preston explored Del Rio and the Verde Valley and tried his hand at farming and ranching. Unfortunately, his attempts came to naught as the local Yavapai tribesmen repeatedly raided his livestock and crops. The Osborns’ oldest children having reached marrying age, daughter Jenettie wed Joseph Thomas Barnum in 1865, and Louisa married an up-and-coming lawyer named John Alsap on June 6, 1866. However, the alliance was short-lived as she died barely a year later. The Osborn's son, John Jr., along with his erstwhile brother-in-law, John Alsap, moved south to the Salt River Valley in 1869, and John Sr. and Perlina joined them in January 1870, establishing a homestead at what would become McDowell and Seventh Street. Once again, the Osborns were among the first white families to settle in a pioneer town. John Preston, now in his sixties, became an influential citizen of the new town. Perlina was known for her nursing skills, and the Osborns hosted many a traveling minister during Phoenix’s early years. When John Preston Osborn died on January 19, 1900, he was buried in the A.O.U.W. Cemetery. Around the time of Osborn's death, the street that ran along the south side of the Osborns' farm became known as Osborn Road, a tribute to this pioneer family. Perlina passed away on December 3, 1912, at the age of 91. © 2024 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised November 28, 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!  Amos G. Randal, about 1828 -1897 Undertaker Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 38, Grave G (Grave marker image courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Amos Randal was born in Cattaraugus County, New York state, about 1828. In 1849, he caught gold fever and journeyed overland to California. However, he seems not to have had much luck at mining and so turned to other occupations.
In 1860, he was a single man living in Marysville, Yuba County, California, and running a stationery store with two Lassiter brothers. While there, he met and married Clara Jane McGrew on July 14, 1862. Their first child, Norina Katherine, was born in March, 1864. During the Civil War, Randal supplemented his income from the stationery store by serving in the militia as a recruiting officer. In June, 1863, he was commissioned a sergeant major in the 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, California Militia. On April 22, 1865, with the war drawing to a close, Randal enlisted in Company A, 4th California Infantry at the Presidio in San Francisco. He went in as a 2nd lieutenant and soon rose to the rank of captain. His military career turned out to be very short, however, as his unit mustered out on November 30, 1865. The California Great Register of 1867 recorded the Randals living in Oakland, California. Son Ernest Grant was born in 1868. Another daughter, Margaret “Daisy”, was born in 1874 in Tulare, California. The federal census of 1880 found the Randals living in Hills Ferry, Stanislaus County, California, where Randal was working as a carpenter. Around 1882, the family moved to Prescott, Arizona, and Randal went into the undertaking business. In April 1886, the Randals’ last child, Theodore, was born. Moving to Phoenix in 1892, Randal became associated with the undertaking firm of Mr. W. A. Davis. Amos Randal then applied for an invalid pension, citing health issues, but his application was rejected because his service had not begun until after the Civil War had ended. Around 1894, Randal contracted blood poisoning when he stabbed his finger with an embalming needle. He had several relapses which caused him much suffering. Due to his ongoing health problems, his application for an invalid pension was finally approved in 1896. On December 1, 1897, Randal was in Porter Cemetery, assisting with the burial of Gustavus A. Kirtley, a Confederate veteran. As the mourners were leaving the grave, Randal walked to his buggy, then suddenly fell to his knees, pitched forward on his face and expired. Dr. Wylie was summoned, but Randal was beyond help. A coroner’s jury decided that he had died of heart trouble, brought on by his bout of blood poisoning. Randal was interred two days later in Porter Cemetery, after services conducted by the local GAR post. Randal’s widow, Clara Jane, applied for and received a widow’s pension. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 29 September 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!  George Washington Sanders, 1839-1904 Union Veteran and Mining Superintendent Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 35, Grave C (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) George Washington Sanders was born September 6, 1839, in Fort Covington, New York. He was the oldest of eleven children born to Eliphalet Pike Sanders and his first wife, Melissa Henry. In 1846, the Sanders family moved to Ashtabula, Ohio.
On September 9, 1861, George Sanders enlisted in the Union Army at Trumbull, Ohio, and was assigned to Battery C of the 1st Regiment Ohio Light Artillery. However, he did not see much action as he was often sick and in the hospital. On September 26, 1862, he was discharged for disability at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Despite his relatively short service, he became a devoted member of the Grand Army of the Republic, being elected commander of the Arizona Department in April 1903 at the San Francisco Grand Encampment. Sanders moved to Polk, Iowa, in 1863. In 1866, he married Mary Beebe, and they soon had two children, Albert and Ethel. After Ethel’s birth, Sanders moved the family to Salt Lake City. He and Mary had two more children in Utah—Ida and George. After Mary’s death in childbirth in 1877, Sanders took his family back to Iowa. By 1880 he was remarried to a woman named Lizzie. It wasn’t long before Sanders set his sights on the West again. This time he travelled to Arizona. By 1881, he and nine other men had created the Sanders Arizona Mining company which aimed to produce copper, silver, gold and other metals from mines in Pima County. It was right at the turn of the century and near the end of his life that Sanders experienced his greatest achievements and his greatest losses. By 1899, he had divorced his second wife Lizzie and lost his daughter Ethel and grandson Sanders in what was believed to be a murder-suicide. But it was also that same year when he became superintendent of the Vulture Mine near Wickenburg and began work to get the mine back into production. When Sanders first took charge, the Vulture Mine didn’t have enough water. By cyaniding the tailings, he recovered enough gold to finance drilling the mine deeper to locate an existing water source. In 1901, the mine struck a new vein of gold ore. As one of the financiers, Sanders received much of the initial profits. It was also during 1901 that Sanders was married for the third time--to Clara Glenn. On March 20, 1902, Sanders sustained serious injuries when he was thrown from a streetcar of the Phoenix Railway Company. He died on February 6, 1904, of heart complications attributed to his 1902 accident. He was buried in Porter Cemetery under the auspices of the local GAR post. © 2024 by Tricia Alexander. Last revised 10 November 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 Wren Owen, 1822-1877 Union Veteran and County Treasurer Buried in Loosley Cemetery, Block 6, Lot 8, NW corner (Photo of John Wren Owen, courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) John Wren Owen was born December 16, 1822, in Franklin County, Illinois, the son of Thomas Harvey Owen and Mary Paine Wren, hence his middle name.
In 1850, shortly after the beginning of the California Gold Rush, his parents moved their family to Solano County, California, where they engaged in farming. By 1860, John Wren Owen was working as a real estate speculator at Suisun, Solano County. On November 30, 1864, Owen enlisted in the Union Army at the Presidio in San Francisco, California. He was commissioned a captain and given command of Company F, 7th California Infantry, on December 15, 1864. He transferred to Camp McDowell in Arizona Territory on August 2, 1865, after the Civil War had ended, and mustered out with his company at the Presidio on April 18, 1866. Apparently, Owen’s time in Arizona had made an impression on him for he returned to Pima County. He was elected to the Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1868. The 1870 federal census shows him working as a clerk at Camp Crittenden in Pima County. In 1874, Owen was elected treasurer of Maricopa County and reelected in 1876. As treasurer, he was responsible for paying certain bills out of the county taxes; however, he seems to have exercised those responsibilities loosely. He made no quarterly report of the funds in his possession to the territorial treasurer on June 30 or on September 30, 1877. When Owen requested money for the public schools, the territorial treasurer authorized him to use the funds already in his possession, promising that he would be compensated later. On October 11, 1877, Owen replied that he did not have the money to hand but would have it by the end of the month. He then fell ill and died on November 4th. When his body was prepared for burial in the first City Cemetery, he had only $2 in his pocket. His fellow veterans turned out for his funeral and he was eulogized as "a man of few faults and many virtues." It appears that John Wren Owen never married, and his obituaries did not mention any next of kin. Following his death, a thorough search of his dwelling did not turn up any of the county's money. His friends speculated that perhaps Owen had loaned the money to someone and that that individual was keeping mum about it. A less charitable speculation was that he had spent it himself. At any rate, no money was ever recovered. Notwithstanding the missing County funds, the late Captain Owen seems to have enjoyed a good enough reputation that, when Union veterans established a post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in Phoenix in September 1885, it was named in his honor. © 2024 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 11 November 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!  Edward O. Schwartz, 1842-1904 Civil War Veteran and Adjutant General of Arizona Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 37, Space F (Photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) Edward O. Schwartz was born in New York on February 19, 1842, to Louis Schwartz and Catherine Boese.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Schwartz enlisted in the 8th New York Militia in April 1861 and mustered out in August of that year. He then enlisted in the 4th New York Cavalry in January 1862. Although he fell ill with typhoid fever later that year, he recovered sufficiently to achieve the rank of lieutenant. A year later, he was promoted to captain and, in March 1864, he became a major. Schwartz fought in several major battles which included the battle of Cross Keys, Virginia; Second Bull Run (Manassas); Chancellorsville; and Gettysburg. In 1864, he participated in General Philip Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley campaign and was present at the June 11-12 battle of Trevilian Station. He was honorably discharged at the end of the war. After the war, Schwartz went West. He was part of a military detachment that escorted engineer and geologist Clarence King through northern Arizona and other parts of the West in the Fortieth Parallel Survey of 1867-1873. Schwartz later relocated to New Mexico where he left service and married Angeline Flint in Santa Fe in 1880. Their union produced one daughter. A few years later, the family moved to Phoenix, where Schwartz engaged in various business enterprises. An engraver by trade, he was elected recorder of the City of Phoenix in 1890, a post he held for six years. In 1891, he joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), becoming commander of the Arizona GAR that same year. In April 1893, the new territorial governor, Louis Cameron Hughes, appointed Schwartz Adjutant General of Arizona. He served for six years and was regarded as an able commander. The Schwartzes left Phoenix in 1897 and moved to Seattle. From there, they went to San Francisco before returning to Phoenix in 1899. In a newspaper article, Schwartz declared, “Not until one leaves Phoenix does he appreciate the business advantages it presents.” One of the last services Schwartz performed for his community was organizing the Decoration Day service for the GAR which took place on May 29, 1903, at the city cemetery. There was no march, as it was deemed too much of a strain for the old soldiers, but Major Schwartz did invite veterans of the Confederacy to participate in the ceremonies too. Major Edward Schwartz died at home on March 1, 1904. On March 3rd, he was interred in the Porter Cemetery with full military honors. © 2017 by Mark Lamm. Last revised 15 November 2017. 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!  Alexander Chapman Lansdon, 1834-1899 Soldier, Miner, Carpenter Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown (Photo from FamilySearch, courtesy of Clinton DeWitt) Alexander Chapman Lansdon was born in Russellville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1834. He was the son of Zachariah Lansdon and Frances Hambleton. The family moved to Illinois sometime between 1834 and 1838. The federal census of 1850 records the Lansdons living in Eden, Schuyler County, Illinois.
By 1861, Alexander was in California. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company B (Old), 2nd California Cavalry in San Francisco on September 21, 1861. As a member of the historic California Column, he marched from Los Angeles County, California, to the Río Grande River early in the war. Private Lansdon re-enlisted in Co. B (New), same regiment, at San Francisco on July 1, 1864. He was promoted to sergeant five months later and saw service at posts in New Mexico and Nevada. On November 17, 1865, Lansdon was wounded in a fight with Indians at the Black Rock Mountains in Nevada. He was court-martialed for an undisclosed reason and dishonorably discharged at Fort Churchill, Nevada, on April 20, 1866. Around 1872, Alexander returned to New Mexico, where he met Maria Francisca Garcia. She had previously been in a relationship with a Captain George A. Burkett, by whom she had three children born between 1867 and 1872: Camilla, John C. and Mary Inez. Coincidentally, Burkett had been stationed at one of the posts where Lansdon had served, although there is no evidence that they were there at the same time. Since no marriage record for Captain George A. Burkett and Francisca has been located, it is not known whether they were ever formally married. At any rate, Lansdon and Francisca set up housekeeping in 1872 and remained together until his death many years later. By 1880, Alexander and Francisca had left New Mexico for Arizona, initially living in Bisbee where Alexander worked in the copper mines. Later, they settled in the small community of Dos Cabezas. Their household included Francisca's three children from her alliance with Burkett, as well as three more children she had with Lansdon: James, Lola, and Marguerite (Maggie). After the mine where Lansdon was working played out, the family moved to Willcox, where Alexander found work as a carpenter. He and Francisca had a fourth child, Henry, born in Willcox in 1889. Early in 1898, the Lansdons moved to Phoenix so that Alexander could seek medical attention for a throat affliction, likely the result of years of mining. They lived with Francisca's oldest son, John C. Burkett, who lived on West Lincoln Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. Alexander died there on February 12, 1899, and was laid to rest in Rosedale Cemetery. Francisca passed away on September 4, 1901, and was also buried in Rosedale. © 2022 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 23 December 2022. 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!  Theodore Buck, 1824-1896 A Union Artilleryman at Vicksburg Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 33, Plot C (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers Cemetery Association) Theodore Buck claimed to have been born in 1824 in Prussia.
Buck was older than the average recruit when he enlisted in the Union Army on November 23, 1862, in Clinton, Illinois. While serving as a private in Battery F, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, he suffered deafness in both ears, likely caused by the incessant cannonading during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. He was discharged July 27, 1865 with the rank of private. By 1878, Buck was in Phoenix, where he registered to vote. The 1880 federal census of Phoenix, Arizona, shows a Theodor Buck, born Prussia 1825, unmarried, living in the household of Miguel Peralta, a general store proprietor. Buck was working as a porter in the store. Theodore Buck was a founding member of the John Wren Owen GAR post. In 1887 and again in 1892, he visited the hospital at the Old Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, for medical attention. He applied for and received invalid pension #771,427. When he died on October 24, 1896, Buck was living at the Star Lodging House and working as a janitor at the Five Points School. He was buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 33, Grave C. His grave has a military marker. © 2024 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 8 November 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!  William Belcher, 1846 – 1898 “The Cockney” Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown. (Image generated using Bing AI) William A. Belcher was born in London, England around 1846. Not much is known about him prior to 1880, when he was living in Missoula, Montana. At that time he was working as a watchmaker and living on Front Street. According to news reports, William inherited $5,570 from his mother who had died in England. William quit his profession and began enjoying his money.
William migrated to Phoenix, Arizona and began bartending for Rose Gregory, aka Minnie Powers, a well-known madam. They began living together and, because William had a problem with alcohol, Rose became his money manager. William and Rose had a tumultuous relationship because of his drinking and her profession. William would end up in jail because of his behavior and while he was gone, Rose would entertain other gentlemen callers. He would become jealous of her relationships with men and threaten to kill her. After his release from jail on September 17, 1898, he went for a few drinks and obtained a .44 caliber handgun. He then went to where Rose and he were living at 720 Railroad Avenue in Phoenix and entered the residence around 9 a.m. William found Rose alone and asleep in bed. He shot her in the head and then shot himself, falling across her. They were not discovered until 1 p.m. when Flora Wilson, one of the other women living in the house, found the bodies. William and Rose were buried in Rosedale Cemetery. William’s location in the cemetery is unknown, as there is no grave marker. © 2018 by Patricia Gault. Last revised February 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! |