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MARCHING TO THE GRAVE
NEWS ITEMS ABOUT DEATH FROM PRESCOTT, ARIZONA NEWSPAPERS
1901 THRU EARLY 1909
By Kathy Block
While researching
Yavapai County history, we found an intriguing website, “100 Years Ago in Yavapai
County.” This site listed various news items from first the Arizona Daily Journal-Miner and
later the Prescott Weekly Courier,
from 1901 thru April 1909.
Some of the
stories gave a look at “marching to the grave” - dying, deaths, obituaries,
mortuary practices, and burials in these early years of Prescott's
history.
Here are some fascinating
stories, extracted and paraphrased from these accounts.
The funeral service
industry is relatively new in the United States. Until the 20th
Century, funerals were organized usually by family and neighbors, and held at
home. Burials were often on family property until communities such as Prescott
became larger and more established. At that time, cemeteries began to be used.
Funeral homes were later established to deal with logistical and practical
matters presented by a death.
Neal Du
Shane mentioned that in small towns in the mid-west, in the 1960s, mortuaries
were often on the second floor of hardware stores. Most of the Death
Certificates for the early 1900s don't list a mortuary or undertaker, as they
were copied from later records and much information was omitted. Some news
stories recorded the establishment and changes in “funeral parlors” and their
proprietors.
“Undertaker” refers to
the person who “undertook” responsibility for funeral arrangements. Many early
undertakers were furniture makers, as building coffins and caskets was a
logical extension of their business.
Before1950, there were over 700 companies making caskets in the U.S.
OVER fifty percent of the caskets were made of cloth-covered wood or cardboard.
Metal caskets began to gain favor.
They
required a more sophisticated manufacturing process that could only be provided
by larger companies and consolidation began.
Do you know the
difference between a coffin and a casket?
A COFFIN, almost always made of wood in the early days, has a hexagonal
or octagonal shape with six sides showing in a cross section, and a fitted
one-piece lid. A CASKET is rectangular with 4 sides and a split lid. Wooden coffins decayed faster than a casket,
allowing faster “skeletonization.”
One
news item from February, 1905, described a “divan couch” in which one side of
the casket dropped down and when the top was raised, it looked like a
couch!
In March, 1905, a “metallic
coffin” was shipped to Jerome to use for one of the victims of a mine
disaster, where five miners were killed by an explosion. A Prescott undertaker
needed a casket for his “professional duties” in Jerome, in May, 1905,
so one was loaded in his wagon to put on the train to Jerome.
Replica of an early coffin
Embalming originated
with the ancient Egyptians and their famous mummies. In the U.S. It began
during the Civil War when preservation of bodies of dead soldiers became
necessary for shipment home. The first mention of embalming in the news was in
March 1902. A doctor died at a mine and his body was brought to Prescott and
embalmed for shipment to his former home in Delaware. No mention of embalming appeared again until
August, 1902, when the body of a man who died of consumption was embalmed for
shipment east on a train, accompanied by his “sorrowing widow and child.” Embalming is not legally required in Arizona
unless, as in these examples, a body is shipped to another state. Sometimes if
a person died from a contagious disease, embalming was strongly recommended
before a public viewing, in the belief it would prevent spread of disease. The
Territorial Board for Embalming was created in 1909, a few months after the end
of the news items; it became the State Board in 1913, and is now the Board of Funeral Directors and
Embalmers, established in 1945, for “licensing and regulating businesses that
care for and dispose of deceased persons.”
Many of the early news
stories referred to shipping the deceased on a train to other states or
transporting coffins and caskets to and from outlying areas near Prescott. Here
are some examples: In April, 1902, a woman died in Skull Valley and a coffin
was “sent down on last night's train” for the funeral in Skull Valley. Also, in November, 1902, a casket was
sent out by the undertaker in Prescott on the morning train to Huron and the
body was brought back to Prescott on the afternoon train for burial! Finally, in April, 1903, an undertaker took a
southbound train to Fool's Gulch, bringing a coffin for the remains of a
man who died in that camp. The next day on the morning train the remains were
returned to Prescott and taken directly from the train to the Catholic Church
where the services were held. The train seemed to be the main way to transport
the remains of the deceased in coffins and caskets.
Along with notes on
transporting the deceased, there were many “flowery” obituaries, reflecting the
writing styles of the times. Some obituaries were humorous; many reflected
tragedies; a few were somewhat critical of the deceased. There were interesting tales of “last words”
while dying! Most were more personal than today's standard obituaries. A
poignant one was about a man who died in Jerome of pneumonia, in April, 1902.
He was convinced he had but a short time to live, “no reasoning could overcome
this belief that his death was near.” He supposedly called his wife to his
bedside and requested that as soon as she thought “good taste would permit”,
that she marry a good man who was a total “abstainer” and that personal
appearance “was not to be taken into consideration!” The death of a young child was often mourned.
A little boy about one
year old died of “congestion of the brain” in May, 1901. He'd been
“exceptionally bright for his age”, never been sick “an hour”, and had been out
riding that afternoon. That evening he showed signs of drowsiness, finally
“lapsing into a slumber from which they could not wake him” and the next
morning he “breathed his last.” In February, 1902, a “bright little 11-year old
girl” before dying had requested that she be buried beside her mother who had
died several years ago. The father took his daughter's body to California “to
comply with his daughter's wishes.”
Occasionally, gruesome
causes of death were mentioned. In October, 1906, a brakeman was killed by
cars. His body was “a mangled mass of humanity, his legs dangling from the
waist in a sickening manner, the bones protruding and the flesh torn away.”
Other obituaries unflinchingly described suicides. In July, 1903, a 55- year-
old man, living in Wagoner, committed suicide by “blowing himself up with a
giant powder.”
Critical comments
included these: A
45-year-old man who
was buried in the Jerome Cemetery in May, 1901, had been in Arizona only a
short time and “had been on a protracted spree for several days before his
death.”
A 60- year- old janitor and
former cook had been an “industrious, good hearted man, but had a weakness for
strong drink.” This caused his death in November, 1902, “as he had been
drinking heavily for several days”. In January, 1907, a member of the
“Tenderloin district” in Jerome pulled a pistol from her skirt pocket with the
intention of “shooting in” the New Year. Instead, she shot herself in the chin,
the bullet passing thru her brain caused death seven minutes later. She'd
indulged in an “overdose of intoxicating beverages, celebrating the dying of
the year 1906.” Finally, a 50-year-old mechanic was found dead on the floor in
a building where he worked, in July, 1907. He was “strongly addicted to the use
of liquor.”
Every Saturday night he
became intoxicated and “rarely became sober enough to return to work before the
following Wednesday.”
He'd complained of
pain from a weak heart during his sprees. “In his sober times he was recognized
as a first class mechanic.”
Race was specifically
mentioned in some news items. A few were “Colored” and others were “Chinks”.
From July, 1901: “A well-known colored man,” a long time resident of Prescott
was run over by a train and instantly killed. “His body was very badly
mangled.”
At the funeral of another
colored man, who was murdered in Prescott, a trio of his male friends
“discoursed music at the grave” and many people “followed the remains to their
last home.” His death was “very much deplored” as he had “an excellent name
among all.”
Several Chinese deaths
and burials were described in elaborate detail. One, in February, 1908, stated:
“Chinaman found dead on Chink New Year.” The coroner's jury decided he died
from alcoholism. “It was whispered among the Chinese element that Charley, true
to tradition and the ways of the yellow people in the land of the dragon” had
drank himself to death, unable to pay off his obligations before the New Year.
Opium may have been mixed with the alcohol. He was a 49-year-old gardener and
familiarly known among the “white population” as “the Chink who wore glasses.”
The other from July, 1907, described “Weird Ceremony over Chinese Suicide.”
There was an elaborate ceremony in front of the “Joss house” of an aged Chinese
merchant who'd committed suicide. The rites were by the Chinese Masons and
marked by “all the Oriental splendor” similar to when “a mandarin cashes in his
checks and starts his voyage to the Great Beyond.” There were delicacies at the foot of the
coffin such as roast pig, noodles, tea, and chop sticks for use “of the
spirit”. On a carpet spread on the street beside the table, the dignitaries
from the lodge, clad in all colors of the rainbow, offered, on bended knees,
roast pig, noodles and teas to the Deity as they “chanted in their native
tongue their respective parts of the funeral ceremony.”
In spite of the seeming
racism in these news reports, a thesis by Rhonda Tintle described the history
of Chinese immigration into the Arizona territory, specifically Prescott, from
1860 to 1911. She rejects the idea that racism was responsible for the dramatic
out-migration of Chinese from Arizona after 1900. In fact, the influx of
Chinese immigrants into the mountains of Northern Arizona transformed the
regional culture. There was a thriving Chinatown in Prescott that was a “hub of
activity for Chinese and non-Chinese alike”. There was a “constant cultural
exchange between ethnic groups.”
Non-Chinese people encouraged and supported Chinese residents, flouting
prevailing conventions of anti-Chinese racism. Chinese owned land and
businesses, and participated fully in cultural and social activities before and
after the Exclusionary Acts of the 1880s. Supposedly, “the citizens of 19th
century Prescott were fascinated by the Chinese and their culture.”
After a person's death,
news items often outlined the financial aspects of an estate. For example, in
April, 1902, “the Workmen had just paid the widow $2,000, the full amount
carried on the life of her husband. The promptness with which fraternal orders
are meeting their obligations here is recommending them to those who desire
insurance.” The premiums were favorably compared to those of “old line
companies.”
In July, 1902, the estate of
a well-known sheep man, who'd died in Phoenix two years before, “had been
whittled down from $37,000 to $14,000 by litigation and various expenses.”
“Potter's Field” at Citizen's Cemetery
Most of the readable stones are from 1900.
The “Marching to the
Grave” of the people described in the obituaries was often to the Citizen's
Cemetery in Prescott. This large, historic cemetery was founded in early June,
1864, with the burial of Colorado legislator John Woods. It was established on public land and known
by various names. The name “Citizen's Cemetery” first appeared in print in
January, 1872. The U.S. deeded the land to Virginia Kock in 1876. After her
death, it was purchased by two men and their wives. Then, on October 13, 1884,
the land was transferred to Yavapai County.
Burial lots were leased for 99 years at a cost of $2.50. The burials
continued until 1933. The closure of the cemetery to burials was because a
local funeral home complained to the county that every time they dug they came
upon rotting wood and bones. (Remember the wooden coffins.) Then, only people
who had already reserved space were buried. There are at least 2,500 people
buried here, with about 600 markers, and many unknown or unmarked burials. Wide
spectrums of individuals who settled and developed the Prescott area during the
late 19th and early 20th century are buried here. The
first news article, in January, 1901, mentioned burial in Citizen's Cemetery. Poor
people were often interred in the “Potter's Field” and more well-to-do were
given elaborate monuments over their graves.
Elaborate monument for Sarah E. Taylor, Wife of John E.
Taylor
June 29, 1904. Age 66
Some of the news items
specifically mentioned friends taking up a collection for burials of people
without funds.
An old prospector died in
the hospital from injuries received in an explosion on Big Bug Creek that
fractured his skull. His friends at Poland raised “a subscription to give him a
decent burial” in June, 1903.
An
“unknown Mexican” boy killed in Crown King in April, 1904, by “a Negro” was
buried as “a county poor” because his father, who supposedly lived in San
Antonio, Texas, hadn't been located. Finally, a man buried in September, 1904,
had died of TB in the county hospital. When his relatives were contacted, they
answered “they were too poor to defray the expense of bringing him home, so he
was interred at the expense of the county.”
A final pair of news
articles tell an interesting story. The first, from September, 1905, says,
“DEMENTED BRIDE FINDS RELIEF IN DEATH: Sad Ending of Romance of Pretty Italian
Girl.”
The girl had traveled 10,000
miles from Italy to marry a saloon keeper in Poland, Arizona. After a marriage
of only a few weeks, she was declared insane and sent to Phoenix to be
“confined to a madhouse” and “suffered only a short time.” While her husband,
who was also Italian, buried his wife, his saloon in Poland was
burglarized.
Thieves had broken into the
cellar and carried away “all of his reserve stock of liquors and cigars.” The
Death Certificate said that she'd died of “acute mania” in the Asylum and was
buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Phoenix.
In summary, many news
items about people who died in the Prescott area from 1901 thru early 1909 give
a glimpse of a time when transportation was largely by train, and members of a
small community seemed to genuinely care about the deceased. A final news item,
from October, 1902, about the death of a 12 -year-old boy, shows the concern.
The boy, who died from” malignant typhoid fever,” was of “robust physique and
an intelligent and bright boy” until his illness. His sudden death “cast a
gloom over the public school which he attended.” His classroom was dismissed
“in order to permit the pupils to attend the funeral.”
All
Photographs courtesy Ed and Kathy Block.
American Pioneer Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
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website may be used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit or gain.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer & Cemetery
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