Coming to Arizona:

William Calvin Cheatham, part 3

Today we are going to explore what the census records tell us about William Calvin Cheatham's time in Arizona. We'll get started with the 1910 census:

William Calvin Cheatham U. S. Federal Census - 1910

(You can download a blank form to see the questions asked here.)

Is it just me, or can we read this one a little better than the others? Here is what we can learn from it:

W. C. was 58 in 1910, living in Duncan, Graham County, Arizona.  (Funny, the Greenlee County website says that on March 10, 1909, Graham was split into two counties, and Duncan was in the newly created Greenlee.  So I'm not sure why, a year later, the census taker wrote Graham on the form.)

W. C. was a carpenter, in the 'building' industry, and not 'working on his own account.'  (The other choices on the census were employer or employee, but I don't understand the census taker's code.  I'm guessing employee.)  

He owned his own home, which was a house, not a farm, but it does say he was listed on the farm schedule, so maybe he also had some land.  I think, if I'm reading this right, that he owned his home free and clear.

He was still married to Mary, his sons Armon D. and Elmer were no longer at home, but the other children were:
Shelton, now age 22 was farming.
Delilah, now age 20 had no occupation and was not attending school.
Leonard, now age 18 also had no occupation and was not attending school.

Here we see once again that W. C. is reporting that he is a carpenter. So I think we can be pretty confident now that, although he did spend time farming/raising cattle in Texas, he also knew how to build structures. I guess that is why he was able to build those two, two-bedroom wood-frame houses mentioned earlier! And that is pretty much the only really interesting fact that isn't already included in the family history.

(And speaking of farming, on a totally unrelated side note, do not buy this protein bar: It tastes like chocolate covered alfalfa. Lucky for me I didn't waste my money on it because they were giving them away for free.)

Aaaaand, back to W. C. You know I love my maps, so here is one showing the Arizona counties. I couldn't find one showing Duncan (go figure), but it is south of Clifton and east of Safford, along the river and right on the border with New Mexico.

Here is a survey map from 1914 showing the portion of the county around Duncan:

You can see how the town is pretty much split in half by the river and railroad line.

I absolutely could not find a good article on the history of Duncan, so here is a little bit of information for you:

The first white settlers in the Duncan area arrived in the 1880's and engaged in numerous battles with the Apache Indians.  The land is extremely fertile, so a great place to farm, but also has a lot of mineral deposits, so it was also a great place to mine. Because Duncan was a stop on the new railroad to New Mexico, it became a marketing center and shipping point for farm goods, cattle, and ore.  

I can't tell you exactly what it was like in 1910, but it did have a lot of farming and a lot of mining going on. So, I guess it was a lot like the other frontier towns W. C. had lived in during his lifetime. From reading this, we would think for sure that W. C. was farming, or even mining, but no, he was carpentering. (Yes , I know that is not a real word!) Maybe he was building houses for all those farmers and ranchers and miners coming into town.

Here is a picture taken around this time:

I really like this one, much more than the one I shared before, because it is so informal. It's almost like you can get a glimpse into their personalities and everyday lives. (By the way, I am looking for the original copy of this photo, without the names on it. If you have it, or know who does, please let me know!)

The family didn't stay in Duncan for too long. If you recall, the family history said that they arrived between 1900 and 1905, and left in 1917 or 1918. A family history compiled by Betty Accomazzo says the family arrived in Duncan in 1903, and her compilation, Laveen Centennial History, has them moving from Scottsdale to Laveen in 1918. The next census record is for 1920, so it probably won't solve that mystery, but you never know, it might have a question asking how long they lived in their current residence. Let's find out.

William Calvin Cheatham - U. S. Federal Census 1920

(You can download a blank form to see the questions asked here.)

Here we go:

W. C. was living in Laveen, Maricopa County, Arizona.

He was 67 years old, still married to Mary, and had only one of their children living with them:

     Shelton C., age 30, who was a single farmer working on his 'own account." Shelton's son, Calvin, age 8, was also living with them. (I am assuming, then, that Shelton's wife had died.)

W. C. owned his own home, but it was mortgaged.

His occupation was farming, and he employed six people.

That's what it tells us. I guess this is why everyone always just "knew" that he was a farmer. (By the way, on the same page you can find his son Armon D. with his family, and his daughter Lila with her family.)

You know, it's kinda funny how, up until about two weeks ago, whenever I thought about the first settlers in Laveen, I just sort imagined them driving their Model T's or wagons up a dusty dirt road and saying, yep this looks like a good place to farm. (Only the future farms would be a bunch of desert scrub, so their imaginary comments wouldn't make a lot of sense in my mind.) Now that I have a better picture of W. C. and his family, I can imagine it all a little differently!

So that's it for the census records. Next time we'll look at other documents and see if they can shed any new light on W. C. Cheatham.

                                                                                                                                            - Therese