SVHS NEWSLETTER. Winter on the Chaparral. Sierra Vista Historical Society Newsletter

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1 Sierra Vista Historical Society Newsletter SVHS NEWSLETTER Feb rua 201 ry 1 Volu me 9 Issue 1 svhsnewsletter@cox.net Marion Margraf, editor President David Santor Vice-President Tom Shupert Treasurer Tim Doyle Secretary Theresa Mueller Winter on the Chaparral ARTICLES MUSEUM NEWS Curator Nancy Krieski brings us up to date on Museum news. Continued on Page 2 Ice creamofsales at Veterans Fourth Donation Henry F. HauserPark toys. onseethepage 2. of July, p. 3 WHAT WAS THE LAST YEAR THAT BUFFALO WERE ON THE FORT? Steve Gregory of the Fort Huachuca Museum tells us. Continued on Page 6 THE SOCIETY DEDICATES TWO MORE HISTORICAL PLAQUES The twelfth and thirteenth historical plaques are dedicated. Both of these are located on Fry Boulevard. The last buffalo on the fort. See page 6. Teen volunteers, : p. 2 e insid hine o s l A Josep re o h Sara cus--a mw of r Ma ced vie e lady n n nua mbsto To this svhsnewsletter@cox.net New historical plaque dedications. Toys, p.see 2 page 7.

New toy donation We are currently in the process of dismantling the Toys of Our Lives exhibit, which drew the largest number of visitors the museum has ever seen!

Our new exhibit will open Saturday, February 12 th with the ever popular A New Twist on Then! A Tour of Sierra Vista through Historical Plaques.

2 SVHS Newsletter Henry F. Hauser Museum Nancy Krieski, curator! PAGE 2 Curator s Corner & Wow! Another year has come and gone and we are pleased to offer visitors some exciting displays and speakers in the coming year. New toy donation We are currently in the process of dismantling the Toys of Our Lives exhibit, which drew the largest number of visitors the museum has ever seen! Some of our youth curators have come back for a few days to learn the detailed process of returning exhibit items to all those in our community who so generously loaned things to us. Our new exhibit will open Saturday, February 12 th with the ever popular A New Twist on Then! A Tour of Sierra Vista through Historical Plaques. Plaque site maps accompany this exhibit and they have a way of flying off the shelves. Visitors and locals alike are fascinated with our unique history. Please join us on February 12 th at 1:00 p.m. as our own society president and City Historian, David Santor, takes us on a journey through the streets of the West End with his presentation entitled Cruisin the Streets with the Chief, the second in the museum s Amazing Arizona speaker series. The month of March brings a unique exhibit of Father Eusebio Kino artifacts and memorabilia courtesy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Archives and Library, the Kino Heritage Society, and local historian Father Greg Adolf. This special exhibit will open Saturday afternoon, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. with an Amazing Arizona presentation given by Father Greg entitled Padre Kino Explorations in Cochise County. We hope to see you all there as we partner with exceptional organizations within the museum and library community. As always, your many efforts in supporting the museum are greatly appreciated! The Corner Cupboard How many of you knew that Henry F. Hank Hauser had a small woodworking area at his Henry Hauser pattern ledger Continued on the next page

3 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 3 home many years ago? Well, I was one of those folks who did not, and was delighted when David Chaffin approached us with a donation of some of Mr. Hauser s wooden toys and pattern ledger for our museum! Just one more interesting tidbit to add to our collection of Hank Hauser materials. This donation came just in time to add to our toy exhibit and we thank Mr. Chaffin for donating these wonderful items to our museum. Until next time, Nancy Krieski (520) Nancy.Krieski@SierraVistaAz.gov Calendar Bookstore Event Sierra Vista Historical Society has been invited to the Singing Winds Book Store, a few miles north of Benson, on February 10, 2011 at 10:30. Richard Sheldon, author of Going Back to Bisbee, is the speaker. Mr. Sheldon has written a number of other books and is a longtime resident of Southern Arizona. Going Back to Bisbee is one of my favorite books about this area and the Singing Winds Book store is a fascinating place to visit and a great bookstore. Here are directions to Singing Wind Book Store: From I-10 in Benson turn on exit 304, Ocotillo Rd., and go 2 ¼ miles north. Then turn right onto Singing Wind Road and travel ¼ mile to the ranch house (bookstore). This will be a fun outing, an opportunity to meet Richard Sheldon, and visit a great book store. Tom Shupert Th Feb 10 10:30 a.m. Richard Sheldon at the Singing Winds Bookstore in Benson Sat Feb 12 1:00 p.m. Amazing Arizona: Cruisin the Streets with the Former Chief. David Santor, SVHS president and former Sierra Vista Chief of Police, delves into the origins of the names of our streets. Th Feb 17 1:00 p.m. SVHS Board Meeting at Oscar Yrun. All members and the public are invited. Fri Feb 18 11:00 a.m. SVHS Member Luncheon, Pueblo del Sol Country Club Hummingbird Grill, St. Andrews Drive, Sierra Vista. $15 for members and non-members. Wed Mar 2 1:00--4:00 p.m. Sierra Vista Genealogical Club meets at EBC. Call for details. Sat Mar 12 1:00 p.m. Amazing Arizona: Padre Kino: Explorations in Cochise County. Father Gregory Adolf, pastor of St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Sierra Vista, and member of the SVHS, speaks about Padre Kino s role in our area. Sat Mar 19 6:30--8:30 p.m. A Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society fundraising event. Music and desserts on offer at Willcox Community Center, 312 W. Stewart St., Willcox, AZ Tickets are $6 for SSVHS members, $8 for non-members. Proceeds help support the Toggery Museum and the Chiracahua Regional Museum. tel

at Pueblo Del Sol Country Club, St. Andrew s Drive, on Friday, February 18, 2011.

with a buffet lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m.

speak on the Arizona Centennial 2012 Project.

4 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 4 SVHS Luncheon INVITE A FRIEND! INVITE A NEIGHBOR! ALL ARE WELCOME!! Hooked rug The Sierra Vista Historical Society invites one and all to the February luncheon at Pueblo Del Sol Country Club, St. Andrew s Drive, on Friday, February 18, Doors open at 11:00 a.m. with a buffet lunch beginning at 11:30 a.m. Carrie Gustavson, Director of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, and Denise Lundin will speak on the Arizona Centennial 2012 Project. The Society will offer two treasures for auction in support of our Henry Hauser Museum Building Fund. One is an autographed, leather bound copy of Jac Hein's Early Sierra Vista: Its People and Neighbors. This book is hard to find! The other is a splendid hooked rug made by a descendent of the settlers of Texas Canyon. Luncheon cost is $15.00 and reservations are required. Contact Tom Shupert at Deadline for reservations is Wednesday, February 16 th.

5 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 5 Tombstone 1881: A Sampling of Rogues--A Glorification of Thugs Josephine Sarah Marcus by Ed Riggs Besides the prospectors and miners who came to Tombstone to search out wealth in the form of silver ore, others arrived to search out alternate ways to strike it rich. This is one of a series of articles about those who came to Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Some were rogues, some were thugs, some were not. You get to decide in which category they belong. Josephine Sarah Marcus was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1861 to Prussian-Jewish immigrants Sophie and Hyman (Henry) Marcus (or Maroux, according to the 1870 census entries). When she was seven years old, the family, including older brother Nathan and younger sister Henrietta, moved to San Francisco, where her father was a baker. In the 1880 census for San Francisco, Josephine is living at home, but her movements in the years between two census records are not clear. In one account, Josephine claims to have left home in 1879, traveled with a theatrical company, and met John Behan while traveling by stage to Prescott, Arizona. Behan was part of a posse tracking Apaches who had been raiding in western Arizona. The other account has her meeting Behan in San Josephine Sarah Marcus photo C. S. Fly Francisco, running away from home at 14 to follow him to Prescott, where Sadie Jo, a 15-yearold prostitute is named as a corespondent in the 1875 divorce between Victoria Behan and John Behan. By late 1880 or early 1881, Josephine is in Tombstone, either living with Behan and claiming to be his wife; living at the home of an attorney, but caring for Behan s young son Albert; or working as a prostitute while involved with Behan. Regardless of which version, or combination thereof, is true, she did develop a close relationship with Albert which endured until her death. Her relationship with Behan, whatever it was, appears to have come to an abrupt halt when she and Albert returned early from a trip to California for medical assistance for Albert s hearing problems. Arriving late in the evening, they walked in on Behan sharing his bed with a young woman. Wyatt Earp and some of his brothers were already in Tombstone when both Josephine and Behan had arrived. Wyatt was living with Mattie Blaylock, a working girl from his Illinois and Kansas pimping days, in an apparent common-law marriage. When Wyatt and Josephine (he always called her Sadie ) began their relationship is not Continued on the next page

6 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 6 certain, but Mattie was still living with Wyatt when the gunfight occurred, later when Virgil Earp was ambushed and crippled, and even later when Morgan Earp was murdered. Mattie traveled to California with Virgil and the rest of the surviving family members and never saw Wyatt again. (She returned to Arizona and worked with and for Big Nose Kate, Doc Holliday s former girlfriend and Globe, Arizona madam, before ending as a used-up prostitute in a used-up mining camp. Mattie committed suicide in 1888.) After Tombstone, Josephine and Wyatt met again in California, and they lived together, traveling throughout the west, while Wyatt tried various schemes to make money. Mining ventures, saloon keeping, gambling, and con games were among their ventures. They were supposedly married, either in Arizona after Mattie died, or years later on board Lucky Baldwin s yacht outside the three-mile limit, but no documentation for either has ever been found. By the 1920s, Josephine and Wyatt were living quietly in Los Angeles, where they made friends with early Western movie stars. Here also the legends were created, mainly by Wyatt and his biographers, but also by Josephine, who glossed over a lot of her early activities. Wyatt died in 1929, and Josephine in They are buried in a Jewish cemetery in Colma, California, near her parents and brother. The Last Buffalo on Ft. Huachuca A young American buffalo (Bison bison) named "Bill" was on post at Ft. Huachuca as a mascot for the 92d Infantry Division-- The Buffalo Division--from about May 1943 to early 1944, when the Division left the fort. In May 1949, during the fort's first closure, the Arizona Fish and Game Department brought in bison--114 bulls and cows--to begin a herd. By early 1954, when the post reopened for the second and final time as the Army Electronic Proving Ground, the number had grown to around 450. These animals, now divided into 3 herds, interfered with the missions of the Proving Ground and the military use of the rangeland, with too many man vs. beast and machine vs. beast encounters. To remedy the situation, the buffalo were either relocated to a herd in northern Arizona, donated to the Governor of the state of Sonora, Mexico for their herd, or eradicated in a special hunt. According to the Huachuca Herald newspaper, June 8, 1956 (page 3), the last known buffalo had been shot and removed, ending the special hunt. by Steve Gregory Museum Technician Fort Huachuca Museum Book Review

7 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 7 Amazing Arizona! Highly recommended is the Amazing Arizona lecture series sponsored by Sierra Vista Parks and Leisure and hosted by the Hauser Museum. The most recent presentation was by Dr. Eric J. Kaldahl, Chief Curator of the Amerind Foundation, on the subject, Southern Arizona Archaeology. The fascinating archaeology of our area ranges from the Clovis Culture of about 11,000 years ago through the arrival of agriculture beginning about 3,500 years ago, to the current dominance of European culture beginning with the Coronado expedition 471 years ago. Two More Historical Plaques Former SV Mayor Bob Strain, SVHS President Dave Santor, and Dick Brooks. During the last 10,000 years the archaeological record indicates repeated change and adaptation by humans to a dynamic environment. When the Clovis people first arrived our area was cooler and wetter than it later became. The mammoths that seem to have been the favored game of Clovis hunters disappeared in a suddenly drier climate, and with their extinction Clovis culture ends, as shown by our local Clovis site, Murray Springs (located in Sierra Vista just off Moson Road). The following culture, the Archaic, was an adaption to a more arid environment much as seen today. With the arrival of corn agriculture from central Mexico by about On December 17, 2010 the Society dedicated another historical plaque. This one stands at the intersection of Fab Avenue and Fry Boulevard. It marks the place where Dick Brooks opened a barbershop in the 1950s. For six years Mr. Brooks had a barber shop on Ft. Huachuca, but relocated next door to present-day Al s Barbershop on west Fry 3,500 years ago, the ancestors of some modern Native American groups can be recognized. By 1,000 years ago our area was a frontier between two of the most important cultural traditions of the Southwest: The Hohokam to the west and the Mogollon to the east. About 800 years ago, Puebloan culture from the north added to our prehistoric record. The next Amazing Arizona lecture will be presented by David A. Santor, addressing the naming of some Sierra Vista streets. Cruisin the Streets with the Former Chief: Local street Name Origins, February 12. Be there. Charles R. Morrison Boulevard for two years. When the donut shop next to that address expanded, he had to move, too--and did so in one weekend, made possible because the plumbing switched from being on the south wall to the north wall of the new address. However, the western sun was too intense for his customers, so he moved to where Sorry Gulch is now for

Brooks, Mayor Strain, mayor-elect Mueller, Santor, Shupert and many other SVHS members were there for the dedication. The 13th Plaque On Friday, February 4, 2011 SVHS dedicated its 13th plaque.

The bowling alley had twelve lanes and was connected to the lounge and restaurant. There was a food pass-through window from the restaurant to the bowling alley.

8 SVHS Newsletter! PAGE 8 two years, then relocated in the shopping center east of Al s Barber Shop, where he remained until retirement. Mr. Brooks has been active in community affairs all along, and was a primary motivator for the SV Christmas parade. Mr. Brooks, Mayor Strain, mayor-elect Mueller, Santor, Shupert and many other SVHS members were there for the dedication. The 13th Plaque On Friday, February 4, 2011 SVHS dedicated its 13th plaque. This one commemorates the El Coronado Bowling Lanes, Coffee Shop, Lounge, and Restaurant that was on west Fry Boulevard. The bowling alley had twelve lanes and was connected to the lounge and restaurant. There was a food pass-through window from the restaurant to the bowling alley. The establishment was popular for all ages and stayed busy throughout the entire day. Early managers, the Maroneys, relate that the business s safe was stolen several times. With each theft the safe was dragged to the railroad track area behind the bowling alley where the would-be thieves tried unsuccessfully to open it. Upon discovering the break-in the following day, the Maroneys would drag the safe back inside. The bowling alley closed in 1980 and moved to Wilcox Drive. The lounge and restaurant were removed in 1981 to provide a parking area for the new business which now occupies the former bowling alley. Tom Shupert did the research for this plaque, and David Santor did the research for Dick Brooks s barbershop. If you would like to research one, let us know--we ll support your efforts in every way. EL CORONADO BOWLING LANES SVHS President Dave Santor, the Maroney family, and SVHS Vice-President Tom Shupert at the plaque dedication February 4, 2011.

ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 949 East Second Street Library & Archives Tucson, AZ (520)

ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 949 East Second Street Library & Archives Tucson, AZ 85719 (520) 617-1157 ahsref@azhs.gov DESCRIPTION MS 0231 DUFFEN, WILLIAM A. Papers, 1877-1961 Collection consists of five