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!