We're finally getting close to finishing up with W. C. Cheatham! Do you remember way back in November when I posted all of those newspaper articles from his time in Duncan, Arizona? Well, back in January, while I was in the middle of all the Texas stuff, I discovered that the Arizona State Archives has copies of a historic Duncan newspaper that anyone can go in and view. So, I did. And now I have some new articles for you. But before I share them, let's do a quick review:
In my last post we finished up with W. C.'s time in Texas. We saw that he moved further and further west, mostly to relatively new towns on the frontier. We also learned that he held a wide variety of occupations in those first forty-eight (or so) years of his life.
Here is a bit of a refresher on the timeline after that:
W. C. Cheatham and his family left Buffalo Gap, Texas some time in the second half of 1899.
They ended up in Gray (Capitan), New Mexico, where they (mostly) lived until 1903.
W. C. spent his time there serving as a justice of the peace, prospecting for gold, running a general store, and partnering in a contracting/building business.
In 1903, according to the newspaper, W. C. moved with his wife and younger children to Roswell, New Mexico.
The next time we see W. C. is in 1908 on the "great register" (basically the voter registration list) living in Duncan, Arizona.Now, during the past few months, while putting together and posting the Texas information, I've been thinking back (well, back to the earlier post, but forward in W. C.'s story!) to Duncan and what we still don't know. The question of exactly when he actually arrived there has really been bugging me. (Probably it's less that I don't know, and more that I haven't been able to find anything to help me figure it out - that darned Roswell interlude!) So, since I knew I would be writing an additional post for Duncan, I headed back over to the archives last week, determined to find the evidence in the historical documents.
Guess what I found? Nothing. Nada. Gornisht. (That's Yiddish, by the way.) I looked through the great registers again and did not find anyone in the family listed on the 1904 or 1906 registers. W. C. finally shows up on the voter list in 1908 (he registered in July), and I found his name in an index to deeds for a transfer of property into his name in January of 1909. (According to the archivist, the actual deed book is still sitting around in Graham County - anyone want to take a field trip with me sometime to the archives over there?)
I had the archivist bring me out the enormous bound copy of the 1905 tax rolls (the latest year that had been sent over from Graham County - like I said, field trip anyone?), and there wasn't a Cheatham to be found anywhere in it.
Remember this article?
The Copper Era
(Clifton, Graham/Greenlee County, AZ)
25 Feb 1909
This says that W. C. was an "old time" citizen of Duncan. So they had obviously been there for quite a while by the beginning of 1909.
And look at what I just remembered I had - I found this newspaper article back in like, September of last year, but because I had it filed under A. D. Cheatham's name in my records, it hasn't been on my radar:
Abilene Daily Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
8 Mar 1905
So this confirms that the family arrived in the area sometime before March of 1905! Dee probably sent off for the new subscription shortly after they got settled (so they probably weren't there before the end of 1904).
So why the lack of evidence in the historical documents? After exhausting all my options at the archives, I thought, well, since I'm here, I might as well get an image of Dee and Lula's marriage record. So I looked through the Graham County marriage records from the end of 1904 to the middle of 1906 (both the index and the actual record book). Dee and Lula were not in the book. What was going on?
I thought and thought about it, and I came up with a theory:
They weren't actually living there in 1905 - they were actually still living in New Mexico. I was going to wait and share the evidence for this when I talk about A. D. Cheatham, but since you will never understand my theory without it, I guess I'll have to throw it out there right now.
The family history tells us that when A. D. (Dee) Cheatham and Lula got married (1905), they rented a house on the New Mexico side of the border, but that they were living on the Arizona side by 1914.
In the 1910 census, Dee and Lula were not living in Duncan, Arizona. They were living along the lower Gila River in Grant County, New Mexico. (This would be on the section of the river just on the other side of the Arizona/New Mexico border.)
The family history also tells us the story about the river flooding and Dee and Lula's marriage having to be postponed. The story assumes that this happened in Duncan, because this is where Dee and Lula supposedly met. However, since the river extends from Arizona into New Mexico, the story still stands up even if they were not in Duncan.
The absence of a marriage record in the Graham County book suggests that they might not have been married in Arizona, but on the New Mexico side of the border, in Grant County. (I just called the Grant County Clerk's office, and they will look it up for me, but only if I send in a request through the actual mail!)
Sam and Walter Foster, Lula's brothers, were shown on the 1900 census as being farm laborers and living in Duncan. (Obviously the outskirts, then.) Sam was boarding with the Day family, and Walter was boarding with his step-brother in the home of another farm laborer. Both were living together in Duncan on the 1910 census. But:
This one is a bit tedious: Sam and Walter would later be partners in the ranch owned by the Day family. Obviously, Sam was already working for him in 1900, and I'm guessing that if Walter wasn't, he would be soon. The Day family ranch actually spanned both sides of the Gila River, and stretched a fair distance into New Mexico (it was 300 square miles!!!!) I read several different versions of the early history of the Day ranch online, and some of them say that the family eventually moved into quarters on the New Mexico side. It's quite reasonable that Sam and Walter ended up over there also, at least for a time, seeing as how a very large portion of the ranch was actually not in Arizona. So...it is also reasonable that Lula, since she was living with her brothers, did not actually live in Duncan when the Cheatham family arrived in the area.
Our earliest record of W. C. in Duncan (the great register) comes from 1908. W. C.'s sons, Shelton and Elmer show up in Arizona in the 1910 census, they show up on the voter list in the fall of 1910, and Elmer was granted a land patent in Duncan in 1911. (It was a 'cash sale' so he bought the land outright, which means he didn't have to live on it for a period of time before being granted ownership.) Dee does not show up on any of the available voter lists for Graham or Greenlee counties until 1913 (which just so happens to be the year after his father transferred some of his property into his son's name), and he is on the lists every single time after that. (You get where I'm going with this, right? He obviously always made sure to be on the voter lists, so why would he be missing in those first several years when we know he was already in the area, unless he wasn't actually living in Graham County?)
So perhaps the family left Roswell, New Mexico and were on their way to Duncan, and while passing all the farms along the Gila River on the way (there were farms along the whole length), they said something like, Gee this would be a good place to settle. (Okay, so that's not really very realistic. It's more likely that W. C. went ahead to scope things out and then the above scenario played out, or even that Dee moved there first and the rest of the family followed.) Maybe they all lived in Grant County, New Mexico, and W. C. finally moved into Duncan proper sometime in 1908, and was followed by two of his sons a year or two later.
(And all of this just goes to show that sometimes you have to research other family members to get to the answers you are looking for!)
If you recall (I didn't - I had to go back and check!), the earliest Graham County newspaper article that we have for W. C. was in October of 1908, which was reporting that he had been elected as a delegate to the county convention. If he was well-known enough to get elected, he had obviously been around town for some time before this. I just think that, given his track record of running for office, if he had actually been living in Graham County before, we probably would have heard something about him back then. (There are copies of that newspaper available for the years in question. Which means we probably should have seen him listed on a jury list before 1908 too, if he were an actual resident, huh?).
But what about the article calling W. C. an "old time resident" of Duncan? Well, that newspaper was actually published in Safford. So the newspaper guy probably just knew that W. C. was visiting from over in the Duncan area.
But what about the article where Dee was getting a subscription sent to Duncan? Well, I would not take that article to mean that the family actually lived in Duncan proper.
You see, the area in which we find Dee on the 1910 census was a strip of farmland along the Gila River on the New Mexico side of the border. On the census, it was just called the "Lower Gila Precinct." There are actually two "communities" closer to that area than Duncan - Franklin, AZ and Virden, NM:
On the 1910 census, Virden wasn't even named - it was just lumped in with the Lower Gila Precinct, which had 51 households comprised entirely of farmers, ranchers, and laborers. Which means there were no businesses, which means it wasn't really a town. It didn't even (still doesn't) have a post office or school (Its students go to school in Duncan!).
Franklin was named on the census, but just as a county precinct. In 1910 it had 41 households, all farmers except for one store (with an owner and two employees) and one blacksmith. No post office. (By the way, this is where W. C.'s son Elmer was living in 1910.) So, once again, you weren't going to accomplish much by heading over there.
Duncan, then, was the closest town, and the place where they had to do their shopping etc., and the closest place where they could get mail.
So. I'm just saying, the lack of actual records in Graham County for the family from 1905 through 1907 points to their residence not actually being in Graham County. Of course, this is all just a technicality (assuming I find proof that I am correct), because even if their home was on the New Mexico side of the border, they were still residents of the Duncan area, and since they had to conduct all of their business in town, they were "living there" for all intents and purposes.
1910 U. S. Federal Census
Duncan, Graham County, Arizona Territory
Farmer: 80
Cattle Rancher/Stockman: 15 (this includes raising horses and goats)
Farm & Stock: 3
Cowboy: 3
Goat Herder: 4
Laborer: 13
Mining: 17 (mostly prospectors, but also a business manager and the superintendent of mines)
Miller: 1
Farmer (vineyard): 1
Postmaster/assistant: 2
Business Manager: 1
Cook: 1
Waitress: 2
Launderer: 2
Blacksmith: 3
Butcher: 3
Merchant: 5
Clerk: 10
Cashier: 1
Bookkeeper: 3
Milliner: 1
Nurse: 1
Physician: 3
Dentist: 1
Druggist: 1
Minister: 2
Painter: 1
Carpenter: 6
Barber: 1
Printer: 1
Teacher: 1
Machinist/Mechanic: 3
Bartender/Saloonist: 3
Stone Cutter: 2
Brick Mason: 1
Editor: 1
Telephone Linemen: 2
Telephone Girl: 1
Livery/Stabler: 2
Surveyor: 1
Gardener: 1
Railroad: 23 (mostly section hands)
Boarding House/Hotel: 3
Illegible: 6 (I swear two of these said 'retired capitalist'!)
Wow. So that's only 239 working people, some of which were undoubtedly still teenagers. I made a comment in my last post about how W. C. moved to smaller and smaller towns until Duncan, but it turns out that Duncan was even smaller than Capitan, New Mexico! (I had to go double check after learning my lesson last time about the folly of making assumptions!)
This was five or six years after the family arrived in the general area of Duncan. So I wondered how small the town must have been when they first got there. Well, check out what was on the 1900 census:
1900 U. S. Federal Census
Duncan, Graham County, Arizona Territory
Farmer: 42
Farm Laborer: 47
Stockraiser/Ranchman: 8
Cowboy: 20
Day Laborer: 63 (mostly Mexicans)
Railroad: 196 (This includes everything railroad related, but is mostly laborers - I guess the line was still being built.)
Miner/Mine Laborer: 11
Teamster: 6
Bridge Carpenter: 6
Engineer: 2 (These were for building the bridge, not for driving the train.)
Carpenter: 3
Plasterer: 1
Blacksmith: 4
Merchant: 6
Saloon-keeper/Bartender: 7
Lawyer: 1
Physician/Surgeon: 2
Dentist: 1
Druggist: 1
Proprietor/Boarding House Keeper: 3
Cook: 10
Restaurant Keeper: 2
Waiter/Waitress: 2
Barber: 3
Bookkeeper: 2
Peddler: 1
Gambler: 1 (I know, right?!)
Salesman: 2
Well Digger: 1
Postmaster: 1
Teacher: 3
House Girl: 1 (she worked for the Day family)
Freighter: 1
Stage Driver: 1
So that's 461 working people, but if you subtract all the people working on building the railroad, you get a much smaller number. Most of them probably moved on with the expanding rail line, since the population was cut almost in half ten years later.
So, yeah, not much going on in the area aside from farming or ranching during the time period in question.
Okay. We are almost to the new articles.
Unfortunately, Duncan didn't have its own newspaper until 1908, and all copies from the first three years have somehow been lost. So, 1911 is the first year we have access to, which is actually also the last year that W. C. lived in Duncan! So before I put those up, let's review what we know W. C. was doing from 1908 - 1910:
1908: W. C. was elected as a delegate from Duncan to the Graham County convention.
1909: He was doing a lot of stuff with the Knights of Pythias.
1910: ??? (He only showed up in the newspaper once, and it didn't really tell us anything!)
1911: W. C. was in charge of the Duncan area farming exhibit in the Graham County fair. He also ran (unsuccessfully) for state representative from Greenlee County.
1912: He moved away from Duncan, after having served as the Sunday School Superintendent in the Presbyterian church.Huh. Those newspaper articles from Graham and Greenlee counties sure seem paltry after seeing everything available from Texas.
Do we have anything else that tells us about W. C.'s time in Duncan before 1911? Actually, we do!
First, remember that transfer of property I mentioned above? Here is the page from the index:
(There he is, 13 lines up from the bottom.) I found this in the state archives, and as I mentioned before, the actual deed book is not there, so guess what I did? I called the Graham County Recorder's office, and the lady there was kind enough to look it up for me. (Woohoo!)
What I found out is that, on January 23, 1909 a warranty deed was recorded, showing that W. C. had purchased lots 18 and 19 in block 6 of the Burtcher & Tipton's subdivision in section 19 of Township 08 South, in the town of Duncan.
Now, on a side note, I would like to warn you all about the dangers of relying too closely on transcripted records. When Greenlee County was formed out of the eastern portion of Graham, the records for that area were transcribed and placed in the Greenlee County Recorder's office. Check out Greenlee's index:
W. C. Cheatham, Greenlee County Index to Deeds (transcribed)
Obviously, the book and page number are different, because they apparently squeezed a lot more records into each (bigger?) book. But look at the date. The transcription says January 22, not 23rd like the original document. When I first saw this, I was like, did he purchase different lots in two different transactions, resulting in two different deeds? Then I remembered that his probate records (found in this post) said he still owned lots in Duncan when he died. So I went back to check those. Hmmmm. Different lots in a different block in the same subdivision. Could this explain the discrepancy in the records? But why then are they not both present in the indexes?
Of course I got on the phone again, this time to the Greenlee County Recorder's office, where that lady was also kind enough to look up the record in the actual deed book for me. The transcribed version of the actual deed said exactly what the original one did. Which meant that the index had a transcription error. (So never trust transcription to be completely correct!)
(As for those other two lots in the probate records, if I remember correctly, the index available - the one not just sitting over in Greenlee county - only had listings through 1910. Which suggests that W. C. bought those lots in 1911, the year before he left Duncan.)
So, back to the lots. You know me, I love to know exactly where these things are, so here are some maps:
Funny thing, you can't see section 19 on here, so I had to go check a modern map. Section 19 is just to the right (east) of section 24 (I have no idea why they are numbered so strangely!). Do you see the railroad tracks running diagonally across the middle?
For some reason I absolutely could not find a survey/plat map of the actual entire town of Duncan, but I'm guessing that this subdivision is relatively close to the original downtown area, since it was formed out of the original block 4 (I saw this on a different map), is right by the railroad tracks, and is bordered by 2nd Avenue.
Anyway, now we know where W. C. (presumably) lived, but what was he doing? The 1910 census says that he was a carpenter, but that he was "not working on his own account." (Remember, I also didn't understand the marks the census taker put for employer/employee.) Well, take a look at this:
This came from the Arizona Business Directory, 1909-1910, which I found on the Arizona State Archives website. And here is just a different way the listing was provided in the same book:
So we see that W. C. wasn't just a carpenter, but that he had a business partnership with a Mr. Bailey. (I guess this explains the confused description on the census!)
Guess what? It's finally time for the articles! Let's see if any of them shed more light on W. C.'s life in Duncan.
Most of the articles come from the Duncan Arizonian newspaper. I got these from on microfilm at the Arizona State Archives, and they are all from 1911. There are a few articles, starting in 1909, from miscellaneous newspapers, which I found online from a subscription service. None of these will have links over in the sidebar, and most of them will not have a full-page view available. (It is way too time-consuming to copy those as well from the microfilm!)
1909
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Cochise County, AZ)
6 Mar 1909
For some reason I didn't copy the beginning of this, I think because it was a bunch of random stuff smooshed together. This is just telling us a bit more detailed version of what we've already seen about W. C. starting up a Knights of Pythias chapter in Duncan. (I love the way he told the reporter that "a flattering list of names has already been secured" for the new lodge - so gentlemanly!)
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Cochise County, AZ)
27 Mar 1909
Just more about the new Knights of Pythias lodge. It's funny how a town as far away as Bisbee would have such an extensive article about this - I guess it was a slow news week over there! Also, I love the way this article says that W. C. was a member of the Capitan lodge in New Mexico - having articles from different places corroborating each other is always a great thing when conducting research!
Daily Arizona Silver Belt
(Globe, Gila County, AZ)
18 July 1909
See what I meant about articles saying W. C. had been called for jury duty? In my earlier post on Duncan, there was an article showing that W. C. had served during a special session of the district court just a month and a half earlier!
The Abilene Reporter
Abilene, Taylor County, TX
23 Jan 1910
So, this article is actually about W. C.'s wife, Mary, and her sister, who also lived in Duncan. I'm guessing the two took the train, since it sounds like they went all on their own. (Well, that and the fact that Abilene was about 650 miles away by train, which is like a 26 day trip by horse!)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
12 Apr 1911
This little ad ran in every single edition of the paper for the entire year of 1911. (Notice that this came from the actual newspaper in the town of Duncan. The first edition available in the state archives is April 5, 1911.)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
26 Apr 1911
This article has nothing to do with W. C. Cheatham, other than to give us some perspective on what was going on in the world during his lifetime (remember the Jack the Ripper article?). Duncan is in southern Arizona, and a lot of the residents there had parents who were born in Spanish Mexico. This article is about the 80 year old Mexican dictator, who would be ousted from power the following month during the Mexican Revolution.
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Cochise County, AZ)
28 Apr 1911
This article is about the Presbytery of Southern Arizona meeting to conduct business, which included the election of representatives to attend the national synod the following month. W. C. is actually mentioned twice in this article, even though I only put one red star (oops!). At the bottom of the left-hand column, it tells us that he was chosen as an alternate commissioner.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
17 May 1911
So, this is just the local take on W. C. going to the convention. And here he is in the Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1911):
This is from the very beginning of the minutes, where it is showing everyone in attendance on the first day of the synod, which was May 18th.
This part is showing business conducted on the last day of the synod, May 27th. I have absolutely no idea what the little numbers after everyone's name are. I looked all over through the book (you can view it in its entirety by clicking on the link above, and then clicking on the photo of the title page) and didn't find anything explaining it. I did glean these interesting facts, however: the synod lasted ten days, and the commissioners (the representatives of each synod in attendance) were paid an allowance of $2 per day for entertainment (about $52 today), with a total expenditure of some $17,000 (that's a whopping $450,000 in today's money), the Presbyterian Church had $1,080,853.79 in its principle fund (which is equivalent to $28.5 million today!! - Holy Moly!!!), and that they were really, really serious about the Temperance movement. (So W. C. most likely didn't ever drink!)
The Abilene Daily Reporter
Abilene, Taylor County, TX
18 May 1911
W. C.'s wife accompanied him on his trip to New Jersey as far as Texas, where she stayed to visit with her family until he returned. The article above says they left Duncan on the 12th, which was a Friday, and this says they arrived in Abilene on Monday, so that's three to four days on a train!
The Abilene Daily Reporter
Abilene, Taylor County, TX
31 May 1911
Funny that it would take three to four days to get from Duncan to Abilene, but only two days for the leg between Abilene and New Jersey (which is more than twice the distance of the first leg - that doesn't sound right!). The article above said W. C. would be staying to visit for eight to ten days after he came back from the synod, which means that the whole trip would have taken an entire month!
And here's something interesting - this says that the family moved to Duncan from Buffalo Gap eleven years before. Well, it would have had to have been eleven and some months, since W. C. was already a justice of the peace in Capitan at the end of January 1900. Also, which is much more intriguing, this says that they went straight from Texas to Duncan, Arizona. With no mention of the time in New Mexico. (I'll talk about this a bit in my very last post for W. C.)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
21 Jun 1911
This shows W. C. holding office in the Duncan Knights of Pythias lodge. All of the titles are just shown as initials, which is really weird unless there were so many members that most of the people reading the paper would know what they stood for. Me, well, I had to spend 15 minutes searching online to find out what "M. Ex." stood for. I finally found a copy of The Knights of Pythias Complete Manual and Textbook. W. C.'s office was called the Master of Exchequer, which is like a treasurer, even though there was also a Master of Finance (the latter took the money from the members and the former paid out the expenses of the lodge). See?
And now that I have this book, I noticed in the article above that when the lodge was established in Duncan, W. C. was installed in the office of "C. C." which stands for Chancellor Commander, and is basically the guy in charge, which I guess is only fair since he was the one who got the lodge started there in the first place.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
28 Jun 1911
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
19 Jul 1911
Okay, so this is weird, because only one month earlier it said that W. C. was elected to the position of Master of Exchequer (as a hold-over, which I think means he already held that office before the election), but here it says he is Deputy Grand Chancellor. I went back and looked at the Knights of Pythias manual again, and it explains (on pages 208-216 if you want to take a look) that a group of five or more lodges can get together and petition the Supreme Lodge to organize a Grand Lodge. So that means that W. C. held one position in the local Duncan lodge, and another position in the Grand Lodge. Here is a description of Deputy Grand Chancellor:
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
20 Sep 1911
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
18 Oct 1911
First, during 1911, W. C. was a clerk in F. F. Billingsley's store. Billingsley was the first large-scale merchant in Duncan. He had a dry goods store, which according to a 1913 advertisement sold "general merchandise, hay and grain, farm machinery and miner's supplies."
Second, it reports that W. C. came to Arizona "eight or nine years ago." That's a pretty vague assessment of time, considering it was within the past ten years, so the accuracy just feels a bit iffy to me, but if we take it at face value, that would put the family arriving in 1902 or 1903. Since we know for a fact (from newspaper articles) that he was still in New Mexico in the first half of 1903, that year would be the earliest he could have arrived in Arizona. I have a 1911 article for A. D. Cheatham saying he had been farming in the area for seven years (without being wishy-washy on the time frame), which would be 1904, so either he came later than his father, or W. C. was stretching the years a bit for the sake of his campaign!
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
18 Oct 1911
This one is just showing W. C. as a candidate.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
8 Nov 1911
I tried looking for a report about this in the Arizona Republican newspaper, but didn't have any luck. There were just random mentions of knights from Tempe attending and stuff like that.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
15 Nov 1911
Huh. That was like two trips in one week's time for W. C.! Train fare must have been pretty affordable! I looked back at my previous Duncan post because there was an article in it about special train rates to Phoenix for the fair - in 1909 the rate was $9.30 ($256 today - so comparable to a plane ticket, and NOT super cheap if the whole family is going!), and the trip could be made in a day (Duncan is about 200 miles from Phoenix, and passenger trains traveled 20 mph back then). I'll bet W. C. didn't have to pay his own fair for the K of P thing - the lodge probably footed the bill.
1912
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
3 Jan 1912
We saw an article in my earlier post dated January 5th, saying that W. C. had sold a house and lot to someone. Here we see him selling his farm to his oldest son, who would remain in Duncan for several more years. (Remember on the 1910 census it indicated that W. C. was listed on the farm schedule - this would mean that he already had farmland by 1910, even though I didn't find any record of it in the index to deeds. Maybe it was over there on the New Mexico side of the border?)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
3 Jan 1912
This is just the local announcement of the farewell social that we've already read about.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
17 Jan 1912
From the way this article is worded, I would say that Elmer and Shelton had already settled in Phoenix some time before this. Maybe when W. C. went to the fair back in November they convinced him to move down to Phoenix. (He obviously hadn't been planning to move yet in October since he was running for office.)
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
17 Jan 1912
I think it's funny that they called a special convention so that W. C. could install the new officers before he left, instead of just letting his successor do it. The previous year, new officers were installed in June, so either they were elected to six month terms (I'm sure that handy K of P manual would tell us) or they were installed awfully early! There are some familiar names on this list - Vaughn, who ran against W. C. for state representative and returned from the fair on the train with him, and Billingsley, in whose store W. C. was working.
Duncan Arizonian
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
(Duncan, Greenlee County, AZ)
17 Jan 1912
Okay, so this one makes it sound like his sons were barely moving there with him. Maybe they had just gone ahead to get everything set up and then came back to help with the move. It also sounds like maybe Mary and Delila would be making the trip by train, instead of by wagon (with the household goods?) with W. C. and the boys.
And that, obviously, is the end of W. C.'s time in Duncan. I don't think we learned much that was completely new, but we did add in some more specific details.
My next post is going to cover W. C.'s years in Laveen, but it will probably be about three weeks until I get it up (this is my busiest month of the year, plus I'll need to take another trip to the archives to finish copying newspaper articles.) See you then!
- Therese
