Annie McMurtry Trott, 1859-1906
Surveyor’s Wife

Buried in IOOF Cemetery, Block 22, Lot 2, Grave 7

(Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association)

Margaret Anna McMurtry is believed to have been born on July 8, between 1856 and 1858, in White County, Illinois, to James Harrell McMurtry and Martha McMurtry neé Sharp. While the inscription on Annie’s grave marker says that she was born in 1859, her death record gives her birthyear as 1858.

The 1860 federal census found the widow McMurtry living in the household of a George W. Overton and working as a seamstress. 

Ten years later, the McMurtrys were farming in Gallatin County, Illinois, and Ann was recorded as being 13 years old.

On February 22, 1879, Annie married Franklin P. Trott, in El Dorado, Saline County, Illinois. Trott was a civil engineer. Their first child, a daughter named Nellie, was born about five months later.

The 1880 federal census recorded Annie and her baby daughter living with Martha, who was managing a boarding house in El Dorado. Franklin, a station agent for the Santa Fe Railroad, was not in the household (he was temporarily in Benton, Franklin County, Illinois), although he must have rejoined it shortly thereafter, since the Trotts had another daughter, Bessie, born in 1881.

Shortly thereafter, the Trotts, accompanied by Annie’s widowed mother, moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Franklin worked by turns as a civil engineer, county surveyor, deputy sheriff and water commissioner. As head of the zanjeros in Maricopa County, Trott was generally well-regarded. 

The Trotts had a home at 472 North 2nd Street in Phoenix and seem to have enjoyed some years of relative prosperity during the 1880s. Sadly, both of their daughters fell ill with scarlet fever in 1890. Nellie recovered, but Bessie, aged nine, died in December and was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Like so many others of the time, Annie was eventually diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. Not wanting to spend the summer in Phoenix, she traveled to Los Angeles in 1906, accompanied by her daughter Nellie. Annie died there on August 11, and her remains were returned to Phoenix for burial in the family plot.

Franklin P. Trott lived until May 2, 1936. He and his daughter Nellie are buried in the Encanto Mausoleum at Greenwood Memory Lawn in Phoenix.

© 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 14 February 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!

Norma Jackson Helm, 1863-1891
Southern Belle
 
Buried in Porter Cemetery, Block 12, Grave B

(Grave marker photo courtesy of Donna L. Carr)

​Norma Jackson was born December 1863 in Madison, Morgan County, Georgia, to newlyweds Jesse Wade Jackson and his wife, Julia Tunnell. Although Madison is near Atlanta, it escaped destruction during General Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864 because it was home to a pro-Union congressman, Joshua Hill. 
 
Surprisingly for a white Southerner, Norma’s father was a Republican. As a matter of fact, he became a personal friend of Ulysses S. Grant, who arranged an appointment in the U. S. Revenue Department for him in 1881. The Jacksons resided in Washington, D. C. until March 1887, when Jesse passed away. His body was returned for burial in the family plot at Buckhead, Georgia.
 
As her parents’ only child, the move to Washington had benefitted Norma. Raised in the genteel traditions of the Old South, she was expected to act as a gracious hostess at the tea parties and social events befitting her station in society. When she came down with consumption, she travelled to Los Angeles to visit an aunt. While there, she met Dr. Scott Helm and became engaged to him.
 
In February 1890, a Los Angeles newspaper reported, “Miss Norma Jackson, of Capitol Hill, the only child of the late Jesse W. Jackson, was married on the 12th instant, at Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, to Dr. Scott Helm, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Princeton College and Rush Medical College, [and] of Heidelberg, Germany. Miss Norma is well-known in Washington, where her grace, beauty and accomplishments won her many admirers. She was on the Pacific Slope visiting her aunt, where she was wooed, won and wed by the fortunate doctor.”
 
As the wife of Dr. Helm, the foremost surgeon in the Arizona Territory, Norma entertained frequently and became known for her charm and hospitality. Her circle of acquaintances included her half-aunt, the much-married Mary Taylor Woolsey Sullivan Fry Baxter.
 
Norma’s health took a turn for the worse late in 1890. In February 1891, the Helms celebrated their first—and last—wedding anniversary with an excursion to the Hole in the Rock near Scottsdale, where the party was serenaded by a local singer known as “Monsieur Mumm."
 
Despite Dr. Helm’s expert ministrations, Norma died on April 30, 1891, at the age of 28, and was buried in Porter Cemetery.
 
Dr. Helm did not remain a widower for long. In November, 1892, he married Miss Jane Beeler of Kentucky.
 
© 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 4 January 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!

Louise Cora Clough Dunn, 1840-1896
Miner’s Wife
 
Buried in City Loosley Cemetery, Section 11, Grave 7

(Photo courtesy of her descendants)

​Louise Cora Clough was born in Maine around 1840. When she was a young girl, she appears to have been known as Caroline. The family eventually moved to Douglas County, Kansas, where her father, the Rev. Mace Richard Clough, was a Methodist circuit preacher and farmer. Judging from the birthplaces of their children, the move took place between 1850 and 1857. At the time, Douglas County was at the epicenter of “Bleeding Kansas," with settlements sharply divided between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions. 
 
Louise married William B. Walling on November 22, 1857, in Lawrence, Kansas. Like herself, Walling was a New Englander, born January 31, 1835, in Vermont. Walling seems to have been in the lumber industry, so it was only natural that, around 1859, the couple would leave treeless, windswept Kansas for the mining towns of Colorado. 
 
The Wallings settled near Central City, Colorado, where William built a sawmill. Over the following years, he and Louise had several children: an unnamed child who died at birth around 1858, Frederick A. (1859-1946), Herbert Benjamin (1864-1947), Edward (~1867-), Addie (~1868-), May (1870-1953), and Elmer Ellsworth (1871-1965).
 
After a dispute with his business partner which culminated in a shooting in self-defense, Walling moved his sawmill to Caribou, Colorado, and branched out into cattle-raising and real estate sales. He constructed a small steamboat and, on the Fourth of July, 1872, launched it at a popular amusement park built on a small lake south of Central City. Residents appreciated the novelty and lined up to buy tickets for excursions.
 
But all was not well with the Walling marriage. They divorced on June 16, 1875, and Louise married John Casper Dunn in Denver just thirteen days later, on June 29, 1875.
 
Dunn was a miner and a Union veteran of the Civil War. The year 1880 found the Dunns living in Denver, where Louise’s youngest child, Elmer Ellsworth, had adopted the Dunn surname. None of Louise’s other children, who had continued to use the Walling surname, were in the household. 
 
The Dunns may have moved to Phoenix, Arizona, after Louise developed pulmonary tuberculosis. The family was living near Five Points when she died quite suddenly on September 9, 1896. She had reportedly eaten a hearty supper and was washing dishes afterward when stricken with a hemorrhage from which she died a few minutes later.
 
Louise was buried in Loosley Cemetery, Section 11, Grave 7.
 
© 2022 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 16 November 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!

Sophia Augusta Wall Ames, 1861-1892
Baptist Minister’s Wife

Buried in Masons Cemetery, Block 9, Lot 3, Grave 5

(Grave marker photo courtesy of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.)

Sophia Augusta Wall was born on June 24, 1861, in De Ruyter, Madison County, New York. Her parents were William Frederick Wall and Mary Jane Coon, farmers. 

On June 22, 1886, she married a divinity student, John Fremont Ames, in a double ceremony with her sister Zella, who married Fred Hendee. The newlyweds honeymooned at Niagara Falls, after which John accepted a call to work as an assistant pastor in Genoa, New York. The Ameses’ first child, Francis, was born there on April 19, 1887. Ames was ordained to the Baptist ministry on December 9, 1887. He then decided to study theology at Rochester Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in June 1890. 

Having indicated that he wanted to serve a congregation that really needed him, even though it couldn’t afford to pay him a salary commensurate with his education, Ames accepted a call to a church in Madison, South Dakota.  While in South Dakota, the Ameses had a little daughter, Mary Lorena, born on August 2, 1891. Unfortunately, Sophie developed an intractable cough and was shortly diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In hopes of improving Sophie’s health, the family moved in 1892 to Milton, Tennessee, where they rented a house from relatives. However, Tennessee did not suit them. The rainy weather aggravated Sophie’s cough, and John disliked the racial segregation which forbade him to preach to whites and blacks at the same gathering. Ames was then offered the pastorate of a Baptist Church in Phoenix. It seemed an attractive offer as the dry climate of Arizona was said to be salubrious for invalids. So the Ameses moved once more.

On July 31, 1892, Reverend Ames was in his buggy on his way to church in downtown Phoenix when he overtook and passed a steam threshing engine. When the driver blew his whistle twice, the unexpected noise so frightened the reverend’s horse that it took off in a mad run. As the buggy careened around a corner, Dr. Ames either tried to jump or was thrown from the buggy. He suffered head trauma and his left leg was broken. He was carried into Frakes’ Livery, where Drs. Hughes and Dameron stabilized him. However, they were not optimistic about his chances for recovery. Since Sophie herself was too ill and distraught to nurse her husband, Rev. Ames was attended by others. He died on August 12, almost two weeks after his accident.

Already an invalid, Sophie was prostrated by her husband’s death. She could not bear light or sound; throughout the hot summer evenings she sat on the porch with a wet cloth over her face. Though cared for by her sister-in-law, Fannie Card Wall, Sophia declared in October 1892 she was ready to join her husband. She lingered until November before passing away. The Ameses were buried in the Masons Cemetery.

The orphaned Ames children were raised by George and Fannie Wall in Woodbury County, Iowa.

© 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 4 February 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!