 Robert Plumridge, 1845-1906 Gambler and Bookmaker Buried in Rosedale, Section: R-N Grave marker photo courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association Robert Plumridge was born in December 1844 in New Zealand. This would have been barely three years after the local Maori chieftains signed a treaty and New Zealand was made a British colony.
It is possible that Robert was the son of George Plumridge, born in England, and Catherine Norris, born in Ireland. The 1852 state census of California lists a boy by that name, living in the household of R. Watson and his wife Catherine. Watson, a hotel steward, might have been Robert’s stepfather. Plumridge was working as a waiter in California when the Civil War began in 1861. On September 20, 1861, he enlisted at Coloma, El Dorado County, California, for a term of three years. He mustered in at Auburn, Placer County, on October 16 and was assigned to Company F, 4th California Infantry. The regiment never saw battle; instead, its soldiers were assigned as support personnel to posts along the west coast of the United States. By September of 1862, Plumridge was working in the bake house of a military hospital. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was discharged at Fort Yuma on September 20, 1864. Fort Yuma was on the California side of the Colorado River, across from the Arizona Territory. Plumridge seems to have chosen Arizona over California, for he was recorded as voting in Prescott in 1876. In 1880, he was listed as managing a hotel in Tombstone. On November 10, 1883, Plumridge wed Isabel Acedo in Tucson, Arizona (she also appears in several records as ‘Elizabeth’). Isabel was twenty years his junior. They settled in Phoenix, where they had five children. Instead of employing his skills as a baker, Plumridge made his living in Phoenix as a gambler and bookmaker. According to his obituary, he was an ardent ‘sporting man’ and an authority on card games, horse races and boxing. Nevertheless, he had such a reputation for honesty and fair play that even those who lost their bets could not complain. He was employed for several years by the Capitol Saloon as a faro dealer, although he sometimes took time off to attend sporting events where money was likely to change hands. On September 7, 1895, Plumridge applied for an invalid pension due to respiratory problems contracted during his service. He was awarded Pension #938,379. Plumridge died on June 19, 1906, of carcinoma of the bowels. Following an Episcopal funeral service, he was buried in Rosedale, Section: R-N. Plumridge’s wife Elizabeth received widow’s pension #852,345, based on his military service. She died August 1, 1927, in Los Angeles, California. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 30 June 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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 Robert John “Robin” Icke, 1858-1905 Ostrich wrangler Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 17 (Image courtesy of Microsoft Office clip art) Robert John “Robin” Icke was born April 1858 in Attleborough, Warwickshire, England.
He married Fannie Townsend in England. However, their first child, John Henry Townsend Icke, was born April 1888 in Bathurst, Eastern Cape, South Africa, where Mr. Icke had gone to engage in ostrich farming. Ostrich feathers were in great demand for Victorian ladies’ millinery, and the huge birds were also raised for their meat. The couple’s second child, Edith Winifred Icke, was born in July 1890 in Wellington, Shropshire, England. The 1891 census of England and Wales also recorded the Ickes in Wellington, where Mr. Icke was working as a commissions agent. By about 1893, the Ickes were in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when Mr. Icke was hired by Josiah T. Harbert to manage his ostrich farm in south Phoenix. Perhaps the desert climate reminded the Ickes of South Africa, for they came to Arizona at once…and stayed. The United States federal census of 1900 records them living about three miles northwest of Phoenix. Around this time, newspaper accounts suggest that Robin Icke was of unsound mind. He was committed to the insane asylum for a brief period in September of 1900. In April 1901, Fannie Icke contracted typhoid fever. She died on April 13th. Because Mrs. Icke’s doctor had been sanguine about her chances of recovery, and because of her husband’s previous mental illness, an autopsy was ordered. It proved, however, that Mrs. Icke had indeed died of typhoid fever. Fannie Icke was buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 17. Shortly thereafter, the two Icke children--John, 13, and Edith, 10—were sent back to England to be raised by Fannie’s married sister. While the exact nature of Robert Icke’s mental illness is not known, the death of his wife and the loss of his children may well have pushed him over the edge. On March 2, 1905, he died of alcoholism in his room at the Commercial Hotel in Phoenix. He was buried next to his deceased wife in Porter Cemetery, B17. © 2022 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 15 April 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!  Grace Curns, 1877-1894 Beloved by All Buried in Porter Cemetery, east half of Block 18 (Generic image created using Bing AI) Grace was born in 1877 in Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas. She was the second child of John Wesley Curns and his wife, Frances Virginia Hulse. In 1880, John Wesley was a real estate agent.
Grace’s older brother, John Frank, had been born in 1871, and a younger brother, Edison Speed Curns, was born in 1879. Edison died at the age of seven and was buried in Winfield, Kansas. The Curns family moved to Phoenix sometime between 1887 and April 1893. Though newcomers, they evidently moved in the best circles and were considered relatively cultured. The Curnses were members of the Presbyterian Church whose pastor, Rev. Preston McKinney, they had previously known in Kansas. As a member of the Phoenix High School class of 1895, Grace belonged to the Ionian Literary Society and Philomathean (musical) Society. Both societies often performed at community events. In August 1894, she joined several others in a trip to the Mogollons to escape the summer heat. Grace fell ill early in November and died on November 21, 1894, of cerebritis or a swelling of the brain resulting in severe headaches and seizures. It is often found in persons with lupus, although it may also have been caused by a bacterial infection. Her obituary describes her as a dutiful daughter, kind sister, affectionate friend and a young lady of high intellect and industry. Schoolmates draped her desk in black and covered it with flowers. At the Presbyterian church, a thirty-six string harp with one broken string symbolized the loss of a favorite Sunday School student. Rev. Preston McKinney conducted the funeral service, after which the remains were borne to Porter Cemetery. Grace’s coffin was deposited upon a carpet of flowers that lined the grave in the east half of Block 18. A few years after Grace’s death, Mr. and Mrs. Curns moved to Willow Creek in Yavapai County. The federal census of 1900 records Mr. Curns as a farmer. Grace’s surviving brother was a bookkeeper. © 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!  Mary Hackney, about 1871-1892 Too Lonely to Go On Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown (Generic image creating using Bing AI) Mary was born in Missouri about 1871, the oldest child of Newton Hackney and Elizabeth Silver. Her parents were living in North Fork Township, Jasper County, Missouri, where her father worked as a nurseryman.
Prior to 1880, Mary’s parents moved to Leadville, Colorado, so her father could work as a miner in the silver boomtown. By 1885, Mary had three siblings: Hattie, Martin and Fred. Mary’s family moved again and, in 1890, the family was homesteading 10 miles south of Mesa (the area is located near Pecos and Cooper Roads in Chandler, Arizona today). Newton Hackney hoped to return to farming, but he was not familiar with desert conditions. He planted 15,000 grape plants, but the crop failed miserably because of a lack of available water. He attempted a crop of alfalfa, but that too failed. To support his family and hold on his land, Newton went to Globe to seek work in the mines there. Neighbors in rural Maricopa County were few and far between. Mary’s sister Hattie had married Prentice Phillips in 1891 and moved into Phoenix, so Mary went to Phoenix occasionally to visit Hattie and attend meetings of the Independent Order of Good Templars. IOGT was a fraternal temperance organization that admitted women. Early in October, Mary’s father had a series of disturbing dreams. For three consecutive nights, he had a presentiment of danger to one of his family members. In one dream, he saw his wife dressed in mourning. Concerned, he hurried home from Globe but found everyone at a neighbors’ house…all seemed fine. The next day, October 5, 1892, Newton and his wife left to visit a neighbor a mile from their house. Mary remained at home. Her parents returned later in the day to find Mary in severe pain. She told them she had taken poison. It turned out to be strychnine. Speculation was that Mary had put the poison in a bowl of bread and milk that was on a table nearby. Mary had complained of loneliness and not having any close friends nearby, but no one guessed she was so despondent as to commit suicide. She did have friends in Phoenix and generally seemed in good spirits. Nevertheless, her father’s premonition had come true. Mary’s body was taken to Phoenix and her funeral service held at her sister Hattie’s home. She was buried in the City/Loosley cemetery. © 2020 by Patricia Gault. Last revised 3 May 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!  Ethel M. Kent, 1884-1901 Twice Unlucky Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 18, Lot 3, Grave 2 (Grave marker photo courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) Ethel M. Kent was born August 1884 in Socorro County, New Mexico. Her parents were Alexander John Kent and Abigail Dudley. She had two older sisters and a brother. Alexander Kent was a quartz miner, and the family moved to Phoenix sometime after Ethel’s birth.
In 1900, when Ethel was sixteen years old, she was stricken with some kind of neurological disorder (possible seizures) resulting from pressure on the brain. Her doctors feared that it might be a brain tumor and decided to relieve the pressure by removing a 2-inch section of her skull, a procedure known as "trepanning." The delicate surgery was performed on July 20th by Dr. J. W. Thomas, assisted by three other physicians. For days thereafter, Ethel lay in a coma, and traffic outside her home was rerouted so that she could have absolute quiet. To everyone’s amazement, she made a full recovery and was once again able to resume normal activities, the hole in her skull covered by a silver plate. Frontier towns such as Phoenix had many saloons, where men frequently overindulged in strong drink. Like many young ladies of the time, Ethel belonged to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U)., which advocated abstinence from alcohol. A year later, Ethel’s health was still a cause for concern, and she was unable to tolerate the summer heat in Phoenix. For that reason, the family sought relief in July, 1901, by going on a camping trip to Mr. Kent’s mining site in Yavapai County. A young man at the campsite, Bert Ohmerty, had carelessly left his loaded hunting rifle propped up against a rock. Apparently, Ethel stumbled against it and it discharged, blowing away half of her foot. The nearest medical help being in Congress, Arizona, she was bundled into a wagon for the three-hour journey. However, the incessant jolting, pain and loss of blood proved to be too much, and Ethel expired the next morning. Her body was returned to Phoenix for burial in Masons Cemetery. Bert Ohmerty, the man whose gun had injured Ethel, was plagued by guilt over her death. He committed suicide just a week later. ©2020 by Debe Branning. Last revised 26 January 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!  Josephine Buck, about 1875-1902 Sent to the Asylum Buried in IOOF Cemetery, Block 21, Lot 2, northeast corner of the southwest quadrant (Stock image courtesy of Broderbund Clip Art) Josephine Buck was born around 1875, probably in Neosho County, Kansas. She was one of at least nine children of Asahel Buck and his wife Mary Ann Hutchings. The Buck family had been in New York state since Colonial times. Asahel himself was a lawyer, educated in Albany, New York.
By 1880, the Buck family was living in Sedan, Chautauqua, Kansas. Christmas Eve, 1890, found them in Phoenix, where 15-year-old Josephine and her older sister Irene entertained friends with music and dancing at the Buck home on East Van Buren Street. In 1892, Asahel Buck, now known as Andrew, was practicing law from his office in the Cotton Building. Son William Hamilton Buck was a pressman for the Daily Herald newspaper, and daughter Irene Buck was a music teacher. Daughter Evaluna was married to Charles M. Rupp, carpenter. Josephine seems to have had a normal childhood. She was a member of the IOOF’s Rebekah Lodge, and her family certainly enjoyed a certain social standing in the city. However, it appears that around 1892, she began to manifest mental problems, possibly schizophrenia, which tends to become apparent during a patient’s late adolescence. Initially, she was cared for at home but, in April 1894, shortly after her sister Irene’s marriage to George Simms, Josephine became a patient at the insane asylum in Phoenix. Released from the asylum in early August, 1897, Josephine was scheduled to be conveyed to a private sanitarium in California. However, she got hold of a revolver and threatened to kill her mother with it. When the sheriff arrived to remove her from the family residence, she became violent and had to be physically restrained. She was recommitted to the asylum by order of a judge on August 31st. She was still a patient in the Arizona Insane Asylum in 1900, where she probably contracted the tuberculosis that caused her demise. Josephine Buck succumbed on June 23, 1902, at her family’s home on 4th Street and Polk. She was buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Block 21, Lot 2, northeast corner of the southwest quadrant. © 2022 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 22 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!  L. D. Davis, about 1847-1899 "Little Yankee Devil" Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown. (Generic image created using Bing AI) L. D. Davis was born about 1847, possibly in New York state. Although his mother was originally from Maine, she married a Kentuckian and raised her son in the Bluegrass state.
When the Civil War broke out, the Davis family split along sectional lines. Davis's mother returned to Maine while his father joined the Confederacy. Having been raised in Kentucky, young Davis's sympathies lay with the South although, in speech and manner, he appeared to be thoroughly Northern. This made him invaluable to the Confederacy as a scout and spy. Davis too joined the Confederate army and served under General John Hunt Morgan, where he earned his soubriquet, "the Little Yankee Devil". At fifteen or sixteen, not only was he a fresh-faced youth, he may also have been small in stature. He could infiltrate Union camps, hire on to care for the officers’ horses, and pass unnoticed while gathering information about troop movements. He was with Morgan on the latter's ill-fated 1863 raid into Indiana and Ohio and, by his account, was the only Rebel soldier to avoid capture. After the war, L. D. continued to do what he did best—work with horses. He was much sought after by the racing set as a horse trainer and driver. Acquaintances described him as being of a quiet disposition, not speaking much about his background or family. In recent years, researchers have tried without success to pin down his identity; General Morgan’s command included several L. Davises about whom little is known. His name might have been L. R., Lewis, or Luther. L. D. is believed to have moved to Phoenix around 1895, possibly for his health. The November 15, 1895, issue of the Arizona Republican newspaper shows a man by that name registered as a guest at the Commercial Hotel. Thereafter, Davis found employment locally as a horse trainer. Davis died of tuberculosis on August 27, 1899, in his lodgings at 229 North Center Street. Since he had no known family, his funeral was a quiet affair. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown. Note: the term "Little Yankee Devil" usually refers to Johnny Clem, a Union drummer boy at the Battle of Shiloh and Chickamauga. However, it could have been applied to Davis as well. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 22 May 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!  Dr. Alfred A. H. Graham, about 1824-1895 Physician and Civil War Veteran Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 43, Space H (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association) Alfred Hamilton Graham was born about 1824 in Beattie’s Ford, Lincoln County, North Carolina, to John Davidson Graham and his first wife, Ann Elizabeth Connor.
Ann Elizabeth died in 1836 after bearing fourteen children. John Davidson Graham remarried but died in 1847. The federal census of 1850 shows Alfred living with his step-mother, Jane Elizabeth Johnston Graham, and three half-siblings. In 1853, Graham enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania. Two years later, he received his medical degree. From 1856 to 1857, he was an assistant surgeon at Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia. It is not known exactly when or why Graham came to be in Texas. However, by 1860 he was accompanying George Wythe Baylor’s Rangers as a field surgeon while the Rangers patrolled the western frontier of Texas to protect settlers from the Comanches. Graham was in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, when he married Mary Louise Mason on March 20, 1861. Their first son, Charles, was born in February of the following year. On March 15, 1862, Graham joined the Confederate Army, enlisting in Company F, 18th Texas Cavalry (Darnell’s Regiment) as ‘acting surgeon’. His unit was already fighting in the eastern United States as part of the Army of Tennessee when Vicksburg fell in July, 1863. As the war ground on, recordkeeping in the Confederate Army became rather spotty. No discharge papers for Graham have been found; however, owing to the fact that Graham’s wife gave birth to a daughter, Mary, on May 31, 1864, it seems likely that Graham was back home in Texas by September, 1863. The Grahams had two more sons in 1865 and 1868. After the War, Graham resumed his medical practice and also purchased land in Williamson County. An amateur archaeologist, he excavated and identified some cretaceous-period fossils and sent them to his alma mater in 1874. He is also said to have written and published a number of accounts and articles about his Civil War experiences. By 1880, Graham and his wife had also added three more children—Maggie, Mary Louise, and James—to the family. Graham continued to practice medicine in Bagdad and Lampasas, Texas, until about 1890. Graham was in Phoenix when he died of pneumonia on May 3, 1895. He may have come here in 1894 for his health. There is some disagreement over whether he died of consumption, pneumonia, heart failure, or all three. He was buried in Porter Cemetery under the auspices of the Odd Fellows, the Masons, and the Ex-Confederate Association. Graham’s widow Mary was still living in Houston, Texas in 1919. She died in Williamson County in September, 1923. A Graham family photo from 1881 is in the archives of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 21 May 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!  William Lindsey George, 1832-1897 Farmer and Contractor Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 41, space B (Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.) William Lindsey George was born April 29, 1832, in Shelby County, Kentucky, to James Whitefield George and Frances Booker, who were farmers. The Georges had a total of eleven children.
Shelby County was not far from Louisville and the Ohio River. Many of Kentucky’s agricultural products were floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on flatboats to New Orleans. So, after faraway Texas became a state, the Georges moved there, settling in Guadalupe around 1854. William married Eliza LeGette in about 1858 and they soon had an infant son, James. The federal census of 1860 records the family farming in New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas. William’s parents and younger siblings lived on a ranch not far away. After the outbreak of the Civil War, William waited until March 26, 1862, when he enlisted in Seguin, Texas. He was assigned to Company K, 8th Texas Infantry, CSA, later under the command of Colonel Ireland. The 8th Texas Infantry served in East Texas throughout the war, so William was able to visit his family occasionally. His wife Eliza gave birth to son Henry in September, 1862, and to William Jr. in March 1864. At the end of the war, William was discharged with the rank of captain. Big events were taking place on the Great Plains as the Transcontinental Railroad pushed westward. By 1870, the entire George family had moved to Kansas City, where they worked as cattle traders. William even became (briefly) the president of a Kansas City bank. In 1886, the Georges moved to Arizona, where William ran a freighting business and became involved in building railroads, canals and reservoirs. He was one of the contractors who built the Gila Bend canal and the Agua Fria reservoir. As a prominent businessman, William maintained a keen interest in local politics and was several times asked to run for office. In 1888, he yielded to voters’ entreaties but bowed out rather than stoop to the kind of unethical behavior needed to get elected. Thereafter, he was elected to the County Board of Supervisors strictly on his merits. In August 1897, William experienced a couple of angina attacks. Although the attacks passed, his doctor advised him to send for his wife, who was in California. She arrived in Phoenix just five hours before William died early on the morning of August 20th. The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. W. E. Vaughan of the Methodist Episcopal church. A modest man, William had previously requested that there be no empty eulogies, but his friends and business associates attested to his honesty and moral uprightness. He was buried near his brother James Benjamin in Porter Cemetery, Block 41, space B. © 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 13 May 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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