SYLVESTER MCCLINTOCK
Arizona Republican Newspaper
November 1903
Sylvester McClintock, aged 82 years is dead. Mr. McClintock
was the father of Frank McClintock of this city and was
committed to the asylum a short time ago. He formerly lived
in the mountains on Pinto Creek in Gila County and was
engaged in raising horses. He had been rather peculiar for
a long time and insisted on living alone at his camp, where
he had few conveniences and little protection from the
weather. He was stricken with paralysis last spring and
in April was brought to Phoenix where he lived with his
son till he became a menace to the safety of himself and
others and it became necessary to place him in the asylum.
The funeral was held yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock and
interment was at the Crosscut cemetery.
EMMA MCGEHON
October 18, 1903
Mrs. Emma McGehon died yesterday morning at the sisters
hospital after a long illness. She had been an invalid
for a year or more but the immediate cause of her death
was the shock succeeding an operation for the removal of
a tumor a few days ago.
Mrs. McGehon was about thirty seven years old and had been
a resident of this valley since girlhood, coming here about
twenty five years ago from Santa Cruz, Cal., with her
parents and sisters. Though she had lived elsewhere
temporarily this has always been her home and in the
earlier days she was well known by everyone. Her mother
and father, Mrs. and Mrs. Van Beecham were best known for
years as the keepers of the stage station on the Black
canyon road near where it is now crossed by the Arizona canal.
Others remember the Beecham family as the hosts of one of
the early day hotels, an adobe structure known as the
Swilling Hotel.
As Mr. and Mrs. Beecham advanced in years their daughter
Emma, became in reality the keeper of the station, the
table and the friend of all who traveled that way in the
early days. She was finally married to a stage driver by
the name of William McGehon by whom she has one son, Van
McGehon who survives. He is now in the employ of the
Southern Pacific Railroad company at Tucson and will
probably arrive here this morning. Mr. and Mrs. Beecham
have been dead for some years and the other surviving
relatives of Mrs. McGehon are Mrs. Charles Slankard of
this city, Mrs. Della Kellerman of California and a
niece and nephew. Mrs. Kellerman has been notified
and will be here in time for the funeral.
The Beecham family came originally from Virginia, residing
some years in California, before moving to Arizona.
Though never a wealthy family, in Arizona, they were well
to do and possessed all those virtues characteristic of
the frontier necessary for the favors of those who had
was the apparent necessary of those who had not.
Though the stage line has given way to the railroad and
the automobile there will remain in the minds of all who
experienced the hardships of those early days a profound
respect for those who struggled with them and who shared
their little with those who had less.
GEORGE MCGRATH
Arizona Republican Newspaper
September 5, 1903
Thomas McGrath, conductor on the S.F. P & P Railroad will
leave on this morning's train for St. Albans, Vermont on one
of the saddest of missions, the second of almost identical
nature within a few months. He will escort back for interment
at the family home, the body of his brother, George McGrath,
who was killed Wednesday in the wreck at Ramsgate, details of
which were printed yesterday. The body was brought to Phoenix
yesterday and prepared for shipment this morning.
It is probably that the death of no young man in this community
was ever more regretted by those who knew him and he had rather
a wide acquaintance though, his permanent residence here was
short. He was a man of most excellent character, a hard
worker and very sociable and agreeable, though not addicted
to the many bad habits of most young men noted for their
companionable nature. When he first came west about three
years ago he was for a time employed in the Hotel Adams
Pharmacy, where he made many friends and during that time
he was a member of the best baseball team that Phoenix
ever had, though it was an organization of a short life.
After a few months here he went to railroading since when
he has been here but little of the time.
HUGH MCKENZIE
Arizona Republican Newspaper
December 6, 1903
According to the Tucson Star three continents have been
searched for some trace of Hugh McKenzie, a brilliant young
mining man from Australia who mysteriously disappeared about
ten months ago, and relatives now believe he was cremated in
a Southern Pacific wreck which occurred near here on January
28th, last.
Young McKenzie was the heir to an immense fortune left by an
uncle in Aberdeen Scotland and when last seen in Los Angeles
he was on his way to England to claim his fortune and able
to accept a commission in the British Army in South Africa.
His relatives are persons of wealth and prominence in Australia
and Scotland and they are doing everything possible to solve
the mystery of his strange disappearance, though they are
now almost certain that he was burned to death in the
railroad wreck referred to.
Members of McKenzie's family were completely baffled by his
disappearance. The last letter he wrote his father in
Melbourne, Australia, was written from the Natick Hotel in
Los Angeles, January 26, 1903. The young man expressed
great happiness at the prospects he had in the English Army
to say nothing of the estate which he expected to inherit
upon arriving in Scotland. The letter concluded "I am off
for England tomorrow morning by the way of New Orleans."
All efforts of the family to get trace of the young man
after the date of this letter have been unsuccessful, the
strange case was turned over to C. White Mortimer, the
British vice-consul here. It was found that McKenzie
after coming to the United States worked for a time in
the Reward Mine at Chloride Arizona and then went to Los
Angles, staying at the Natick House during the latter
part of January. At that hotel it is claimed that he
left for New Orleans on the Southern Pacific, January
27th taking the same train that was wrecked at Esmond
the following day. Southern Pacific officers have
investigated the matter fully and say there is not a
record of such as person as Hugh McKenzie on the
ill-fated train. The missing man wore considerable
valuable jewelry and neither his body nor personal
effects were found.
Notwithstanding this, the relatives of the young man are
certain he was one of the victims that was burned beyond
recognition in the wreckage but in the absence of definite
proof of his death they are unable to probate his valuable
estate in Scotland. McKenzie is described as being five
feet seven inches in height, 28 years old, finely educated,
brown hair, slight curly brown mustache and weighs about
147 pounds. He had two gold filled teeth in front.
Baby Marro
October 30, 1903
A fourteen months old child by the name of Miguel Marro,
who parents reside in the southern part of the city, died
the night before. The father bought a coffin, took it home
and preparation for the burial were well under way when word
was brought to Dr. Plath, the health officer of the intended
interment. He is supposed to know all about the deaths and
he had never heard of this one.
He went to see about it and learned that the child had had
no doctor. The parents did know of any other cause of death
except the fact that it had ceased to live. It was found at
the inquest that the child had been sickly almost from birth,
that it had been unable to take food and since it had reached
the teething period it had grown worse. From the parents and
neighbors description of the ailments, it was concluded that
the cause of death was malnutrition. The burial was allowed
to proceed.
Apolonio Mendez
Arizona Republican Newspaper
August 28, 1905
Apolonio Mendez, a section hand on the S.F.P. & P. was
struck by a train and killed about 100 yards north of the
Yuma Road sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning.
The train which struck him might have been the freight
which arrived late on Saturday night, the incoming passenger,
or either of the outgoing trains in the morning. The body
was not found until shortly before ten o'clock. It appears
that Mendez had gone to sleep on the track, probably with
his head on a tie too close to the rail. He had not been
run over. His skull on the left side was crushed.
The sheriff's office was informed and Deputy Cunningham
went out. He said that the man was lying on the road bed
at the side of the track, doubled up, the head partly
hanging over the grade which is about four feet high at
that point. He thought the man breathed three or four
times after his arrival. He moved him and heard a
gurgling in the throat and after that there was no
breathing.
The officer returned to town and informed Justice Burnett
who ordered the body brought in and an inquest was begun.
It will be concluded this morning.
It was at first thought that the man was a Japanese. He
had a heavy shock of short black hair and a short black
mustache but he was later identified at Merryman and
Moore's by Eugenio Montenegro, a section hand here.
He said he had seen Mendez on Saturday night and he was
under the influence of liquor.
Mendez was little more than thirty years old. He came here
three years ago from El Paso.
