J.M. Smith who came here for his health more than a year ago, died
early yesterday morning, the immediate cause being heart trouble.
The dead man was 41 years of age and is survived by a wife and
three children who joined him here a year ago.
While in the valley he had been interested in the cattle business
and was associated with Jack Gibson. Before coming to Phoenix
he was a partner in the J.P. Smith Shoe Company and it was his
failing health which caused him to dissolve the partnership.
The remains will be placed in a vault today but will be taken
to Bloomington, Illinois, the former home of the dead man, when
Mrs. Smith's interests in Phoenix are arranged. Funeral services
will be held at the Sixth Avenue Hotel at 2 o'clock this
afternoon.
April 27, 1899
A number of persons were present at the funeral services of J.M.
Smith which were held at the Sixth Avenue Hotel yesterday
afternoon. The dead man died early Tuesday morning. His general
disposition during lifetime made for him many friends and besides
the sympathy extended by the Masonic and Elk Lodges of which he
was a member, there are many persons with whom he had come in
contact in his stay at Phoenix who mourn his loss.
He is survived by a wife and three children. His remains are at
the parlors of Davis and Company, but they will be sent to his
former home at Bloomington, Illinois on Friday for interment.
CAPTAIN SIMPSON
July 3, 1899
Captain Simpson, a veteran of the Civil War died at Fort Whipple
at an early hour this morning. He was fifty seven years of age
having been born and raised in a little town near Bridgeport,
Conn., and enlisted as a volunteer at the time of the war,
throughout which he served with distinction after which he went
into the regular service and served in most of the western
states and territories west of the Rockies at one time being
placed in command of the old camp, Dale Creek.
Recently he was quartermaster here at Fort Whipple, having been
here for about three years past. He was also a popular man and
soldier and had a splendid war record, being retired on full
captain's pay. Since his last coming to this part of the country,
he had been in poor health, the indirect cause of his demise
being the result of exposure during the Civil War, but the more
immediate cause being stomach and liver trouble.
He was a man who made many friends, having numerous prepossessing
and endearing qualities. He leaves a wife but no children. It is
not known at the present time whether he will be buried here or
taken to Washington for interment.
W.H. SOUDERS
March 29 ,1899
W.H. Souders, aged 40 died yesterday monring. He wlil be buried
this afternoon at 3 o'clock. The funeral will take place from
Bradley's Funeral Parlors.
LAURA SPANGLER
April 1, 1899
Assistant County Treasurer John G. Spangler last night received
a telegram announcing the death of his sister, Laura Spangler
from his former home in Van Wert Ohio. The deceased was aged
eighteen and the cause of death was typhoid fever. Mr. and
Mrs. Spangler will start to Van Wert tonight by way of the
Santa Fe.
RUBY PEARL STEELE
July 15, 1899
Ruby Pearl, the baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Steele of
336 East Adams Street, died yesterday afternoon of cholera.
The funeral will take place at 4 o'clock this afternoon from
the First Baptist Church.
JOHN STEPHENS
DENNIS HAYDEN
June 8, 1899
John Stephens and Dennis Hayden, inmates of the county hospital,
died on Tuesday and their remains were buried yesterday.
ROBERT STEPHENS
July 1, 1899
J.a. Wilbourn, the colored steward of the Maricopa Club was nearer
death last night than ever he was before. Robert Stephens lies
somewhere in the brush south of the park and another companion
Otto, is at the hospital suffering from grievous wounds inflicted
by unknown assassins.
About eight o'clock Wilburn, Otto and Stephens were walking along
Jefferson Street south of the park when three men suddenly rose
from the brush and commanded them to stop. At almost the same
instant they fired. Wilbourn and his companions turned and
ran. A second volley was fired and Stephens fell forward,
exclaiming " I'm shot" and as he fell his hand struck Wilbourn's
back. Otto was also wounded but made his way out of range of the
shots. Wilbourn ran on wildly and arrived breathless and white,
his clothes torn by wire fences and brambles at the residence of
James Shott on East Adams Street. He lay exhausted by fatigue and
fright and Mr. Shott came to town to notify the officers
of the bloody crime. The word spread and all the officers of the
sheriff's office, the police force , the merchant patrol and some
three hundred other citizens in private life went out on foot,
on bicycles , on horses, in cabs, in street cars and would
have gone in automobiles if there had been any in Phoenix,
to rescue the body of Stephens and hold an inquest on it.
E.W. STEWART
March 7, 1899
The estate of E.W. Stewart was finally settled in probate court
yesterday. This is different from any case that had ever been
recorded in the court, in as much as it has never been shown
that the decedent was dead.
Stewart came here from Peoria, Ill. several years ago and
entered a tract of eighty acres northwest of the city. He also
entered a similar tract in the name of his father, a wealthy
and eminent Illinois physician. About five years ago young
Stewart disappeared and since then nobody has been found who
ever saw him dead or alive. He had been to Phoenix one day
and left for his home. He stopped at the Bartlett Ranch near
Peoria. He went away and when he did not appear at his home,
inquiry was made for him.
He was traced westerly from the Bartlett Ranch across the
Agua Fria. He was riding toward the White Tank Mountains.
The trailers came upon a windswept tract in which the trail
was lost and could not be recovered. A diligent search was
made in the desert and mountains for his bones. His father
came out and continued the hunting making a personal inquiry
of almost every man in an area of several hundred miles.
The only theory regarding his disappearance, was insanity,
of which he had never been suspected though several persons
remembered, what they might never have thought of if he had
not disappeared. He had acted strangely a day or two before
his departure. Inquiry was therefore made at asylums in
various parts of the country in the hope that he had found
refuge in one of them. At last it was assumed that he was
dead and at length he was declared dead in law and his estate
began to be administered upon.
MRS. CAROLINE STITES
May 21, 1899
The following from the Louisville Evening Journal describes the
death of Mrs. Caroline Meriwether Stites, a former resident of
Phoenix and the late mother of Richard H. Barker, late citizen
member of the Board of Control:
Mrs. Caroline Meriwether Stites died yesterday afternoon at
3 o'clock at her home on Daisy Lane near Eastern Park after a
lingering illness.
Mrs. Stites maiden name was Caroline M. Sharp. She was the
daughter of Dr. Maxwell S. Sharp who was at one time one of
the Christian County's most successful practitioners and farms.
When quite young she married Mr. Barker. Three sons were born
to them: Judge Henry S. Barker, judge of the criminal division
of the Jefferson Circuit Court; Richard H. Barker, who was
yesterday appointed a Deputy in the County Commissioner's
Office and Maxwell W. Barker, a Louisville attorney.
After the death of Mr. Barker, Mrs. Barker married Judge
Henry J. Stites. Mrs. Stites was Judge of the Court of Appeals
from 1854 to 1862 and Judge of the Common Pleas Court for twenty
five or thirty years. He died in 1891.
The funeral will take place from the residence tomorrow at
10 o'clock. The remains will be interred in Cave Hill Cemetery.
RILEY STRAIT
June 25, 1899
Yesterday afternoon at 1 o'clock Riley Strait passed away at
800 South Second Avenue at the advanced age of seventy seven.
Mr. Strait came to Arizona a year ago in ill health from New
York. The wife of Mr. Strait died but a few weeks ago in
Iowa. A.L. Strait of Phoenix is a son of the deceased and
another son, James L. resides in Iowa. A daughter, Mrs.
Charles Wyatt lives in pope Joy Iowa. The funeral will
take place today at 9 o'clock.
