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!