 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!
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James Henry Broomell was born August 2, 1837, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was one of several children born to John Broomell and his second wife, Esther Moore, who died in 1842. John then married Esther’s sister Sarah. The Moores were Quakers.
James was a schoolteacher when he enlisted in the 124th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 6, 1862, for a period of nine months. On September 17, with barely a month of training, Broomell received his baptism of fire at the Battle of Antietam. The regiment’s next major assignment was the Chancellorsville campaign in May, 1863, after which Broomell’s enlistment ended and he returned home. Broomell reenlisted on June 15, 1863, this time as a private in Company A of the 29th Pennsylvania Militia Infantry. Although his regiment did not see action at Gettysburg, it did help evacuate the wounded after the battle. Broomell was mustered out of service on August 1, 1863, at Harrisburg, his soldiering days over. In 1864, Broomell went to Arkansas to raise cotton on land that had been abandoned by Confederate sympathizers. While there, he met a Quaker schoolteacher, Mary Wickersham, who had come to teach the newly freed slaves. The couple married on July 11, 1867, at the Friends’ Meetinghouse in Rich Square, Indiana, and eventually had four children. In 1870, the family was living in Chicago with James’ older half-brother, George D. Broomell. George was an assistant superintendent of schools and James was a school principal. By 1880, the Broomells had moved to Aurora, Illinois, where James became a cheese-maker. Unfortunately, their dairy went bankrupt, and the family moved to Phoenix in 1886 with only a few hundred dollars. Mary’s brother bought them 80 acres of undeveloped land in Maricopa County, and the Broomells’ two sons built a one-room house with curtains to separate each living area. Mary and the children grew vegetables, alfalfa, wheat and barley, while James devoted himself to beekeeping. Soon they acquired cattle and the ranch began to turn a profit. James became a member of the Maricopa County Normal School board and its president in 1893. He was also president of the local beekeepers’ association and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for Union veterans of the Civil War. By now suffering from tuberculosis, Broomell applied for and was granted Invalid Pension (# 680.261) in 1891. He died in Phoenix on September 6, 1896, from his illness. On his deathbed, he deeded his land to his wife, Mary. Broomell was buried in Porter Cemetery, where he has both a military and a private family headstone. © 2012 by Jan Huber, SUVCW. Last revised 6 November 2012. 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 Riley Silsbee, about 1844-1890 Died in the Walnut Grove Dam Disaster Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 33, Grave B (Grave marker photograph courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) When the Walnut Grove Dam in Yavapai County burst on February 22, 1890, John Silsbee, a Union Army veteran of the Civil War, was one of the victims.
John Riley Silsbee was born between late 1843 and summer 1844 in Lee, Oneida County, New York, to John Silsbee and Mary Wright. In 1845, the Silsbee family moved to Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Twenty-year-old John had been working as a photographer when he accepted a bounty payment for enlisting in the Union Army on September 3, 1864, in Albany, New York. He mustered in on September 5, 1864, as a private in Company A, 10th New York Heavy Artillery. It appears that Silsbee’s artillery unit participated in the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, followed by duty in the Shenandoah Valley until December, when it returned to Washington, D.C. From there, it manned defenses at Bermuda Hundred until the Appomattox Campaign in March and the fall of Petersburg on April 2, 1865. The 10th New York Artillery was mustered out on June 23 at the conclusion of the war. By 1874, John and his older brother Edward were residing in Prescott, Arizona Territory. When a significant lode of silver was found between Crown King and New River, John and Edward briefly became saloonkeepers at the Tip Top mining camp. However, the silver strike eventually played out. By late 1883, John R. Silsbee was in Phoenix, working as a house and sign painter. While there, he joined the John Wren Owen post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). In 1886, he was elected Quartermaster Sergeant. In February 1890, the Silsbee brothers journeyed over the Bradshaw Mountains to visit friends working near or at the Walnut Grove Dam. The dam was located along the Hassayampa River, 20 miles downstream from Prescott. It was one of the four largest dams in the western United States intended for water storage purposes. Though designed to be 80 feet high, it was built to 110 feet—a fatal mistake! Around midnight on February 22, 1890, the Walnut Grove Dam burst, sending a wall of water a hundred feet high--including tons of rock--roaring down the canyon at over sixty miles an hour. The reservoir behind the dam released its immense store of 4 billion gallons of water in about an hour, leaving a scene of devastation below the dam site. John Silsbee was among the casualties, although his brother Edmund [sic] Silsbee survived. Edward Silsbee had his brother’s body transported to Phoenix for burial in the City Cemetery. On August 25, 1902, Silsbee was reinterred in Porter Cemetery, next to his Union Army comrades. In 1941, a government-issued military grave marker was installed on Private Silsbee’s grave. © 2023 by Bob Cox. Last revised June 23, 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!  Ramona Ruiz Amavisca, about 1874-1913 Immigrant Mother Buried in City Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (AI image generated using Dall-E 3 via MicroSoft Bing) In addition to being a temptation to children, Phoenix’s open canals were sometimes a last resort for the despondent.
Ramona Ruiz was born around 1872 in Yécora, Sonora, Mexico. In January, 1890, she married Saturnino Amavisca, a local man. Amavisca’s first wife had died just a few weeks earlier, leaving him with an infant son named Francisco to raise. Ramona’s first child, José Lidio, was born in Arizpe, Sonora, and christened in the mission church, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, there. That child may have died in childhood, as he does not appear on subsequent censuses. It seems likely that the Amaviscas came to Arizona as migrant laborers about this time since, barely a year later, Ramona gave birth to another boy in Agua Caliente, Maricopa County, Arizona. He was called Frank, to distinguish him from his older half-brother. Ramona continued to have another child every couple of years, until there were eight. Her last, a daughter named Rosario, was born on May 19, 1907. Saturnino Sr. may have died then, as he was no longer in the household in 1910. Instead, Ramona’s stepson Francisco and her third son Saturnino were supporting the family by working in a railroad yard in Phoenix. In 1913, the Amaviscas lived five miles west of Phoenix, on the road to Yuma. When Ramona disappeared from the family’s adobe house on April 28, 1913, one of her daughters walked into town to notify Sheriff Jeff Adams. However, just hours later, word arrived that Ramona’s body had been pulled from a canal two miles west of Phoenix. The coroner ruled the death a drowning. At the time, her oldest son was 25 and daughter Rosario, the youngest, was only six. Ramona was buried on April 30th, with Father Alban officiating at the funeral. In spite of the fact that the Catholic Church considered suicide a mortal sin, Ramona’s friends grieved her loss. She was known to have been in poor health for some time, and may have despaired of recovering. Although the funeral notice suggests that Ramona was to be interred in Greenwood Cemetery, her death record says that she was buried in City Loosley Cemetery. Thomas Hayden’s 1935 survey of that cemetery mentions a grave marker for her. That marker no longer exists. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 7 July 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!  Mahlon Irvine, about 1886-1898 Drowned in a Canal Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 5, Lot 2, Grave 1 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers Cemetery Association, Inc.) During warm weather, the canals that ran through frontier Phoenix were an irresistible temptation to children, with predictable consequences.
Edward Irvine and his son Joseph had come to Phoenix in 1870. Mr. Irvine owned a "book and news depot," located directly west of the City Hall plaza. Besides selling print materials, Irvine acted as a news correspondent for a Prescott newspaper and as a lawyer. He also purchased several lots in Phoenix; the Irvine Addition was named for him. Edward Irvine and his third wife, Izora Elizabeth Jackson, had several children. Mahlon, born in 1887, was one of them. On the morning of April 23, 1898, Mahlon’s parents were out of town; they had gone to visit Mrs. Irvine’s parents in Buckeye. Young Mahlon had gone with his friends Walden Kemp and Newton Levy to look for birds’ nests. Eventually they arrived at the confluence of the Maricopa and Salt River canals, about four miles north of downtown Phoenix. There was a dam below the Consolidated head where the water was estimated to be about fifteen feet deep. The day being warm, Mahlon suggested that they jump in to cool off. The two younger boys did not know how to swim and thought the water too cold, so they decided simply to wade near the edge of the canal. Mahlon, however, paddled about for a short time, showing off, before he suddenly gave a cry, went under and did not reappear. Alarmed, the other two boys ran for help to Bernard’s roadhouse nearby. Four or five men came back with them but, due to the coldness and depth of the water, they were unable to locate the missing boy. About an hour later, Dr. Scroggs was passing by the canal in his carriage. Noticing the commotion at the spot, he stopped, dove in and retrieved Mahlon’s body. Mahlon’s parents learned the sad news as they were returning from their day trip. Justice Kincaid empaneled a coroner’s jury to hear testimony from the two boys who had been with Mahlon, and they described what had happened. The verdict was as expected: accidental death by drowning. Mahlon Irvine was buried two days later in the Masons Cemetery, next to his little niece Lillie May who had died in 1885. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 17 July 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!  Daniel Geisinger, 1834-1886 Freighter Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Sketch by Edwin Forbes, artist, 1863. Library of Congress.) Before dams were built upstream, crossing the Salt River could be a hazardous undertaking. It’s how Daniel Geisinger lost his life in 1886.
Daniel Geisinger was born on November 20, 1834, in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, to John Geisinger and Mary Ann Bachman. Pennsylvania was home to large numbers of German immigrants, and Geisinger (or Geissinger) was a common surname there. Daniel had seven siblings. The family seems to have moved every few years, so evidently they were not farmers. The 1850 census lists John Geisinger as a miller. In about 1854, several of the older Geisinger siblings—Rebecca, David, Mary Ann—moved to Dixon, Lee County, Illinois. Late in life, David moved further west to Iowa. Although the younger Geisinger children remained in Pennsylvania, Daniel was perhaps restless and looking for adventure. On March 27, 1855, he signed up at Newport, Kentucky, for a five-year term in the U. S. Army. The enlistment contract described him as being 5 feet 7 inches tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was assigned to Company A, 3rd United States Cavalry. At the end of the war with Mexico in 1848, the U.S. Army had reverted to its peacetime size. Since its principal duties were guarding the border with Mexico and protecting frontier settlements from Indian attacks, Daniel very likely served somewhere out West. He mustered out with the rank of corporal at Fort Garland, Colorado Territory, March 27, 1860. Reportedly, Geisinger arrived in Arizona around 1863. In 1876, he registered to vote in Yavapai County; by 1882, he was in Pinal County. Newspaper accounts as early as 1875 identify him as a long-distance freighter, hauling supplies for Arizona mercantiles. Geisinger died on April 26, 1886, while fording the Salt River at Phoenix. A sixteen-mule team was pulling a loaded freight wagon, and Geisinger was riding his favorite mare alongside the lead mules when the strong current swept several off their feet. In the ensuing confusion, Geisinger leaped from his saddle in an attempt to keep the mules from drowning, but he became entangled in their harness. Although his companion, Grant LeBarr, tried valiantly to save him, Geisinger too was swept away downstream. Geisinger’s body was recovered several days later, and he was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. At his funeral, the old mare he had been riding on the day of his death was draped in black crepe as a poignant reminder of the tragedy. Geisinger’s grave has no surviving marker. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 8 July 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!  Martha Richey Beatty, 1829-1902 Patron of Education Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, Section 119, Lot 11, Grave 2 (Grave marker photo courtesy of the PCA) In an era when bathing involved heating water on a hot stove, filling a bathtub and emptying it afterward, some Phoenix residents preferred to use the public baths at Frank Shirley’s barbershop…and that is where Martha Beatty met her end.
Martha Richey was born in Ohio in August, 1829. On May 3, 1851, she married Benjamin Beatty in La Salle, Illinois. The Beatties had no children, although Martha's will mentions an adopted daughter, Blanche, who was in the household in 1870. By 1880, the Beatties were living in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where Benjamin owned a grocery store. He must have died between then and 1884 for Mrs. Beatty's will, dated February 15, 1884, does not mention him. Martha was living in Eddyville, Iowa, when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She determined to move to a more congenial climate and arrived in Phoenix around 1894. The 1900 federal census records Martha as a widow who owned her own home on East Jefferson Street, near the street car barns. One of her neighbors was a Mrs. S. J. Conley. Since it would have been difficult for an elderly woman to heat water and fill a bathtub in her own kitchen, Mrs. Beatty took her baths at Frank Shirley's Tonsorial Parlor (barbershop) in the basement of Goodman's Drug Store. The Tonsorial Parlor rented curtained cubicles for bathing, as most private residences of the time did not yet have indoor plumbing. On August 9, 1902, Martha went to the bathhouse, having arranged with Mrs. Conley to meet her there at 1 PM. However, Mrs. Conley was delayed and did not arrive until 2 PM. Imagine her horror when she entered the cubicle only to find Mrs. Beatty lying on her side with her face completely under the surface of the water. Dr. Plath was sent for, but efforts to revive Martha failed. The coroner's jury convened the following day and found that Mrs. Beatty must have fainted on account of the hot water and drowned. Martha Beatty's funeral took place on August 11, after which she was interred in Rosedale Cemetery. A petition for the probate of Mrs. Beatty's will was filed the next day. At the time of her death, her estate was valued at $3,292.50 (about $98,700 in 2019). She left only $5 of her estate to her heirs; the rest of it went to Lincoln University in Lincoln, Illinois. According to the newspaper reports, Mrs. Beatty had relatives in Lincoln who had refused to come to Phoenix and nurse her during her final illness, and it was for this reason that she decided to leave her property to the educational institution instead. The inscription on her monument reads, “A Patron of Education.” © 2020 by Patricia Gault. Last revised March 2020. 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!  Elizabeth Mason Gardiner, about 1838-1895 Textile Mill Worker and Hotel Manager Buried in Porter Cemetery, Lot 46, Grave D (Generic image created using Dall-E 3 via MicroSoft Bing) England’s industrial revolution of the early and mid-1800s created jobs for many women in textile factories.
Elizabeth Mason was born about 1838 in Gloucestershire, England. On April 1, 1862, she married a local man named Jehoiada Gardiner in the Registry office in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The young couple had decided to emigrate to the United States in hopes of making their fortune there. Three weeks after their wedding, Jehoiada boarded the ship John J. Boyd, sailing from Liverpool to New York. He intended to send for Elizabeth after he had found employment. Unbeknownst to him, she was already pregnant. She gave birth to their son, John Mason Gardiner, in December 1862. At first, the couple exchanged letters. However, when the letters stopped sometime around 1869, Elizabeth assumed that Jehoiada had died. Left to raise her son alone, she found work in a woolen mill. In 1882, Jehoiada turned up while visiting England. What a shock it must have been for Elizabeth to discover that her husband was not only alive, but a successful businessman in Arizona and remarried to another woman! Jehoiada, who was now calling himself John J. Gardiner, arranged for Elizabeth and their now 20-year-old son to travel at once to the United States—but he asked them to remain in Salt Lake City while he broke the news to his second wife that they were not married after all. Two years passed, and John J. was still working on a legal settlement that would provide for the woman who had been living with him as his wife for nearly fourteen years. Frustrated by the long delay, Elizabeth and her son John moved to Petaluma, California, where she began divorce proceedings herself. This got John J.’s attention. He persuaded her to drop her case and remain married to him. In 1885, Elizabeth and her son finally joined John J. in Phoenix. Elizabeth helped to manage the Capitol Hotel, and John J. gave his son a job in the Phoenix Water Company. In 1887, Elizabeth’s son John wed Honora Reppy. In due course of time, they presented John J. and Elizabeth with a granddaughter named Hilda and son named Charles. Elizabeth joined the local Church of Christ. During the last year of her life, she contended with heart disease and asthma but bore her sufferings with Christian fortitude. Death was expected and came on April 13, 1895. Elder W. H. Matlock was in charge of the funeral, after which she was buried in Porter Cemetery. © 2026 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 23 June 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!  Caroline Myrick Goodhue, 1837-1888 Opened First Ice Cream Parlor in Phoenix Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Image generated using ChatGPT’s Dall-E 3) Mrs. Caroline Goodhue’s ice cream parlor helped to bring a touch of sweetness and civility to a frontier community establishing its identity in 1883.
She was born Caroline Myrick in Ontario, Canada. She and her husband, Peter Waldron Goodhue, were living in Visalia, Tulare County, California, when their daughter Ella Mary was born in 1857. Peter was operating a livery stable in 1860. Ten years later, the Goodhues were raising livestock and growing oranges on their ranch. On December 5, 1876, Ella (or Eleanor) wed Allen John Stroud in Melrose, Alameda County, California. Allen was the son of Ira Stroud of Fresno, California. In April of 1878, Eleanor, Allen, and their infant son joined the Ira Stroud family in their move to Phoenix. Carrie Goodhue was also in Phoenix by 1882. Since Peter was no longer with her, it is likely that he had died by this time, and Caroline had decided to join her married daughter. Evidently, she had a good deal of money to invest. In 1883, she purchased several lots in Block 31, near the downtown area. Ads for Mrs. Goodhue’s ice cream parlor began appearing in local newspapers in April, 1883, offering day and evening hours for families and private parties. Located at Montezuma Street and Washington, the ice cream parlor was conveniently placed near the Arctic Ice Works and the Phoenix Ice Factory, two businesses that were vital to preserving perishables in the desert climate. Of course, Mrs. Goodhue’s establishment was more than just a business—it was a social hub, offering Phoenicians and their guests a genteel place to gather. During late June 1882, 1883 and 1884, Mrs. Goodhue’s booth was among several others at the fiesta grounds in Phoenix, where residents celebrated the Feast of St. John despite the summer heat. In the fall of 1884, Mrs. Goodhue traveled to Canada to visit relatives. On New Year’s Day, 1885, a newspaper article celebrated her return, recalling with fondness the “happy associations in the hearts of our belles and beaux” and how her parlor was known for its tastefully arranged rooms, ice cream, cake, and social gatherings. Since no more ads appeared after 1884, perhaps Mrs. Goodhue’s health was in decline. She died on January 7, 1888, and was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. Mrs. Goodhue’s presence in the business sphere reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of pioneer women, who contributed to the cultural and social life of Phoenix as well as its economic growth. © 2025 by Val Wilson. Last revised 17 June 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!  Emma Beauchamp McGehon, 1861-1903 Ran a Stage Station Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Section B10, Lot 2, Grave 9 (Photo of Mrs. Emma McGehon and her son, Van Murray McGehon, from the archives of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Managing a hotel or boarding house was one way for a respectable lady to earn a living during the Victorian era.
Emma was born around 1861 in Santa Cruz, California, to Causten Van Rensler Beauchamp and Sarah Elizabeth Hinton, who was originally from Virginia. It should be noted that the name "Beauchamp" is usually rendered as "Beechum" in early documents, since that’s how it’s pronounced. The Beauchamp family moved to Phoenix from Santa Cruz, California, around 1878. They managed the Swilling Hotel (not as grand as it sounds—it was a simple adobe structure). Later, they operated the stage station on the Black Canyon Road near where it was crossed by the Arizona Canal. As her parents aged, Emma took over more of the management on the stage station. She cooked for the stage passengers and provided a few amenities to women travelers. She married William McGehon, a stage driver, in Phoenix on 6 March 1881. According to his World War I draft registration, their son, Van Murray McGehon, was born in 1879 (or 1880). Another male infant, born and died in 1883, is buried next to Emma. In 1902, Emma’s health began to decline. She died 17 October 1903 at St. Joseph’s hospital of shock and blood loss following surgery to remove a tumor. She was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, Section B10, Lot 2, Grave 9. © 2019 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 31 August 2019. 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! |
