About 8 o'clock last night a messenger came in from Murphy's
ranch saying that a man named Frank Graham had died there
suddenly in the afternoon. Justice Johnstone went out with
a coroner's jury and returned this morning after midnight.
The inquest will be concluded today. The jury is inclined
to believe that death resulted from natural causes. Graham
had complained for a day or two that he did not feel well.
He was engaged in blasting rocks and early in the afternoon
he became so weak he had to seek shelter in the shade. He
and another man sat there for some time and ate a watermelon
together after which graham who was growing weaker, started
for the ranch house. He was directed to keep in the shade
and wait at the ditch crossing until someone should help
him across. His companion watched the crossing which was
in plain view but did not see Graham approach it. He went
to look for him later and found him lying on the bank of
the ditch, his feet in the water. He was dead and his
mouth was filled with the melon he had eaten. Very
little is known of Graham. He was about twenty eight
years old and had been employed at the ranch only three
days and had been troubled a great deal with asthma.
E. WILSON JOHNSTON
Arizona Republican Newspaper
ROBERT BEVERIDGE
JOHN CARLSON
July 23, 1898, Arizona Republican
Jerome: Three dead men and one injured, E.W. Walter, is
the result of a cave-in in the United Verde Mine this
morning. The accident occurred about 9 o'clock without
a moment's warning. The catastrophe is peculiar in that
the casualties all occurred above ground. The caved
space is about two hundred feet square, directly under
the company assay building and the end of the foundry
and was caused by stopping up from the 500 foot level in
a place known as the big stope.
The dead and injured men had just gone to work. All were
in the assay building, which was a substantial brick of
two stories. At the first warning of the cave in, Walter,
who was near the door, rushed out, but was struck by a
mass of falling brick and was badly bruised, but no bones
broken. Beveridge came next, but with Carlson and Johnston
was buried in the debris and was crushed and smothered to
death.
The body of Beveridge was unearthed in a few minutes.
Next came the body of Carlson and nearly two hours later,
Johnston was reached. The doctor says all were killed
outright although the workmen say they heard Johnston
calling some time after the others had been removed but
they could not reach him in time. Johnston was the
company's civil engineer and was about twenty seven and
unmarried. He was a cousin of W.A. Clark and has been
employed over four years. He came from Butte Montana and
was very popular. Beveridge, the company's assayer, was
about forty. He leaves a wife and six small children.
He also came from Butte and had been employed three
years. Carson was a smelter roustabout and had just
entered the assay building on an errand. He had been
employed only a short time. He was supposed to be
single, thought nothing is known of him.
JUDGE A.O. NOYES
Arizona Republican Newspaper
July 3, 1898
Prescott: Judge A.O. Noyes, one of the oldest settlers of
Arizona, who came here from California in the early
sixties, died last night after a protracted illness.
The first saw mill ever brought to the territory was
brought by him. He was afterwards a probate judge.
BUCKY O'NEILL
Arizona Republican Newspaper
July 4, 1898
When Bucky O'Neill went to war, those who knew him well
said that he would be killed if an opportunity to die was
presented. It was not surprising therefore when Arizonians
read an Associated Press dispatch describing a chivalrous
deed before he touched Cuban land. Two Negro troopers of
the Tenth cavalry fell overboard while passing from a
lighter to a pier in Guantanamo Bay. Death seemed
inevitable yet O'Neill plunged in after to save them.
They were crushed, but the Captain having done his best
escaped.
Nor was it surprising yesterday morning to learn of his
death amid the screaming of shells and the crash of
musketry in the forefront of the battle line before
Santiago last Friday. Of all of the Rough Riders,
the regulars and volunteers , there was none like O'Neill.
The meager dispatches gave few particulars of his death.
There was great sorrow in Phoenix yesterday.
He was a son of General O'Neill of Washington D.C. ,
for many years a departmental officer and later an
active congressional attorney. Twenty years ago O'Neill
came to Santa Fe, New Mexico as a court stenographer.
He came to Phoenix in 1880, in the garb of a Catholic
priest and there was a story that he had lately performed
clerical duties in the City of Mexico. About 1885
O'Neill went to Prescott and three years later he was
elected sheriff on the republican ticket. Captain
O'Neill leaves a wife at Prescott.
Dr. ROLAND LEE ROSSON
Arizona Republican Newspaper
June 21, 1898
The may friends in this city of the late Dr. R.L. Rosson
will be pleased to learn that the inquisition into the
circumstances of his death entirely removes the suspicion
of suicide raised by agents of companies in which he was
heavily insured. The Los Angeles Times says:
"We, the jury find that Dr. Roland Lee Rosson came to his
death on May 12, 1898 from gastro enteritis." The
verdict contains more than the mere fact of the
announcement. It means that the family of Dr. Rosson
will have smooth sailing in the recovery of $34,000
insurance money and the evidence before the coroner's
jury yesterday tends to show that it was not death by
suicide or foul play as was asserted at the time.
On May 14, Coroner Campbell was notified that Dr. R.L.
Rosson living at No. 612 Flower Street had died suddenly
after securing $34000 in insurance from several fraternal
orders, all within the past year. A demand for an
investigation was made on the coroner, who impaneled a
jury, viewed the remains, held and autopsy and
delivered the stomach and intestines to Dr. Bullard,
professor of chemistry of the college of medicine,
University of California.
Yesterday, Mrs. Rosson was examined but outside of giving
a history of the number of times the doctor was ill and
confined to his bed nothing of importance was brought out.
HENRY SMITH
Arizona Republican Newspaper
July 29, 1898
Henry Smith, an old man of sixty, died suddenly late
yesterday afternoon on a porch at the Arizona house.
He had been complaining the evening before of heat and
he continued his complaint yesterday. He lay for sometime
in the sun and then got up and lay on the porch. When he
was next noticed he was dead. Justice Johnstone was
informed and a coroner's jury was impaneled. After
viewing the body and questioning those who had noticed
Smith last when he was alive, decided that death was
the result of prostration by heat. Very little is
known of him except that he came here overland a few
days ago from Prescott. The only thing found in his
pockets was a letter addressed to him at Chaparral last
February. It was written by Attorney H.D. Ross of
Prescott. It evidently related to pension matters.
It stated that the writer had had a letter from the
war department concerning Smith's case but was unable
to do anything for the reason that his statements
regarding his age, date of enlistment and discharge
were inaccurate. The purpose of the application to
the war department seems to have been to obtain a
certificate of discharge. It was also stated that
there was a Henry Smith, a member of Company H,
Forty First regiment of Missouri infantry.
CHRISTIAN AGNER
April 11, 1903,
Arizona Republican
Christian Agner, a farmer living near the city lay dying at
the Sister's Hospital last night with hardly a hope that
he would live until morning, the result of injuries
sustained in being thrown from a horse the night before.
Mr. Agner had been in town and started home late at night.
Near the corner of Jefferson Street and California Avenue
the horse appears to have stumbled but just how the
accident happened will never be known. Some time after
midnight the riderless horse reached home and a son of
the wounded man trailed it back to the place where Mr.
Agner still lay in the road unconscious. The young man
went back home and getting the assistance of a neighbor,
A. Weller, he returned with a wagon with mattresses.
The wounded man was lifted into it and taken to the
office of Dr. Stroud. He was bleeding from both ears
and was unconscious. He never recovered consciousness
for an instant. At the beginning the physician did not
believe there was a chance for his recovery nor at any
time in the afternoon it did not seem that he could live
for an hour. He was still alive at midnight.The place
where the accident occurred is not very far from the
place of the encounter in the morning of the day before
of J.D. Houck with the two Mexicans in which one of them,
Padilla was killed. Mr. Agner has been a resident of the
valley for several years.
