 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!
0 Comments
 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!
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! |
