Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives
Department
Northern Arizona University
Box 6022
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6022
Phone: 928 523-5551
Fax: 928 523-3770
Email: special.collections@nau.edu
Biographical Note
Hosea George Greenhaw was bom July 10,1848 in Union County, Arkansas, one of nine
siblings bom to Joseph D. and Mary A. Greenhaw. The 1860 census lists his parents as
innkeepers in this cotton plantation district situated on the southem boundary of
Arkansas. Hosea's older sister, Alabama Rebecca Greenhaw, had already left home in
an 1859 marriage to Mahonn Fitzpatrick. But she much preferred to be called "Allie"
for that was the name used on this, and a subsequent, recording of her marriages.
She was bom in 1840 when her parents lived in Alabama. It would be Allie, at a later
date, who forged the link between two families that were among the first to bring
civilization to the Salt River Valley. Hosea, at age 20, left his family and the
crowded inn, and struck out for Arizona Territory in 1868.
By 1863, Allie had a daughter, named Mahone. But no husband. Whether divorce or
death, no record reveals the fate of Mahonn Fitzpatrick. But census records do
advise that by 1870 many Arkansas residents had fled the wretched conditions created
there by the War Between the States. Most went to Texas. But many of the Greenhaw
family sought a new beginning out West, and followed Hosea to the Salt River Valley.
Owing to the cotton plantation economy of his Arkansas home, farming is what Hosea
knew. About 12 miles west of present-day Phoenix Hosea homesteaded 160 acres and
purchased an additional 320. He also specialized in raising mules and horses and
prospered in that endeavor. And he was attracted to the new movement of bringing
irrigation water to Valley farmland, becoming a director of both Maricopa Canal
Company and Salt River Valley Canal Company.
In 1876, an interesting young woman, newly arrived in the Valley, caught the eye of
Hosea. She was Elizabeth Amy Barton, a college graduate and practicing
schoolteacher, who agreed to help her father and three siblings drive their band of
2,500 sheep from Anaheim, Califomia - a trek of 10 months across the desert. After
the drive, Elizabeth returned to Califomia, but Hosea followed and there they
married. Of that union were born eight children, five surviving to maturity.
Elizabeth was popular among her Arizona neighbors not only for cultural refinement
but also for her knowledge of medicine and which herbs to use in treating illness.
Her early impression of Hosea was that of a musician. Despite a scant education, he
played both piano and violin, and moreover, visitors commented on his singing voice,
fine and mellow. The Greenhaw family attained the distinction of owning either the
first or second piano in Phoenix, which arrived by ship around Cape Horn to San
Francisco, by train to Yuma and wagon to Phoenix. Eventually, the long hot summers
encouraged Hosea and family to try life in the State of Washington, but after seven
months they returned to Arizona. Later, Hosea bought a home in San Diego, Califomia
and there they spent the hotter part of each year. At age 63, on August 16,1911,
Hosea died of pneumonia at Arlington, Arizona. Elizabeth lived on until 1926. Even
earlier than Hosea's move west, another young man had also left his Illinois home in
1853 to seek a fortune in Califomia.
He was John Britt Montgomery, just 14 years old, bom January 4,1839 at Decatur,
Illinois. Possibly, dreams of finding his fortune in the California gold rush
attracted John. He made it to California, moved on to Idaho, returned again to
California, and in 1864 arrived at the mining camp of Wickenburg, Arizona to find
work at the Vulture Mine. The following year, John tried his luck at farming and put
in a crop of grain along the bank of the Hassayampa River, two miles south of
Wickenburg. But, ventures away from settlements had special risks in those years as
John later explained in his deposition concerning Indian depredation claims: "I had
two horses . . . we took them out and herded them on some grain by the Hassayampa
under some cottonwood trees. I was herding them one morning, sitting right on the
edge of a little mesa. I had a rifle and a six shooter, of course, watching them
horses; been there about an hour and a couple Indians came down the wash ... I never
seen them until they got on a trail about 40 or 50 yards. I didn't wait long. As
soon as they got straightened out, one after the other, I fired. The bullet went
through them both. One died on the side of the hill, and the other (later at Tyson's
Well)."
In his fine Spencerian script Probate Judge John T. Alsap for Maricopa County wrote
that he had "joined in legal marriage Miss Allie Fitzpatrick and Mr. John B.
Montgomery on November 1, 1876." Thirteen-year-old daughter, Mahone, accompanied the
bride. Alabama "Allie" Greenhaw Fitzpatrick, as well as her mother Mary, and several
other Greenhaw children had all left Arkansas for Arizona. By this marriage. Judge
Alsap joined two families, each destined to play important roles in developing the
Salt River Valley. But that such joining should occur at all is remarkable since the
vicious War Between the States was not long past. For Alabama's family supported the
South, and John's allegiance to the North reasonably might be inferred since his
home was Abraham Lincoln's own state of Illinois.
But John seemed to be more interested in the pitch Jack Swilling was making in
Wickenburg about starting a ditch company to divert water for farming from the Salt
River. Swilling was able to raise $400 from the mining community, formed the ditch
venture, and within a year opened a ditch over a mile long on the north side of the
river. John Montgomery came to the Salt River Valley to farm on that land, and is
regarded as the first "outsider" to reach the Valley after Swilling's ditch project.
Of course, the ancient Hohokam people were first, but both John and Hosea Greenhaw
were among the earliest of white settlers to bring water to the land. Besides
farming, John also developed his real estate. In 1885 he subdivided most of the 160
acres acquired from Darrell Duppa, the English remittance man who conferred the name
"Phoenix" on the new settlement. The Montgomery Addition occupies the area generally
southwest of Central Avenue and Harrison Street in Phoenix.
Although a Republican in a thoroughly Democratic community, John was so popular that
he won the 1891 race for sheriff of Maricopa County. Those duties involved him in
the final episode of the Graham-Tewksbury Feud. He arrested John Rhodes, the
Tewksbury relative charged with the murder in Tempe of Tom Graham, the last survivor
of the Graham clan. It was the second day of the trial, and at the time no one
thought it particularly odd that Tom's widow, Annie, insisted on sitting inside the
railing. Dressed all in black and clutching her handbag, the 26-year-old widow
quietly followed the interrogation of Rhodes. But, suddenly, she burst from the
bench, dashed to Rhodes, shoved her husband's .45 caliber single action revolver
against his chest and pulled the trigger. Silence. The gun failed to fire! The
falling hammer had caught on part of the bag in which she hid Tom's gun, keeping it
from striking the cartridge. Sheriff Montgomery and his deputy rushed Annie before
she tried again. Bystanders said the grieving widow's strength was so great in her
hysterics that both officers had much difficulty in wresting the revolver from her.
Still struggling, the widow implored them: "But he killed my husband! Oh, God! Let
me kill him!"
Alabama "Allie" Montgomery died May 3,1903, at age 63, the same age reached by Hosea.
Following the loss of Allie, John raised cattle over a large range extending some 25
miles along the Gila River below its confluence with the Hassayampa. At age 77, on
the Christmas Eve of 1916, at the home of his daughter at Palo Verde, Arizona, John
Britt Montgomery died of bronchial pneumonia.
In life, the Greenhaw and Montgomery families together pioneered the settlement of
the Salt River Valley; in death, their remains lie together still in plots adjacent
in the Greenwood Cemetery of Phoenix.
Scope and Content
This collection contains photographs of the Greenhaw family and scenery around
northern Arizona (Stoneman Lake, Montezuma Well, El Tovar Camp Grounds, Leupp Indian
School and Trading Post, Greenhaw Ranch, Mormon Lake, Meteor Crater, Grand View
Hotel (Grand Canyon), Flagstaff Sawmill, Petrified Forest).
No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
Conditions Governing Use
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner
of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her
transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify
and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its
officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person
asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.
Digital versions of parts of this collection are available online herehere.
NAU.PH.98.68.1: Photographer unknown, 1919. Mary Greenhaw
looking over Grand Canyon., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.2: Photographer unknown, 1919. Mary Greenhaw and
Vita Bauerlein, 6/22, [two women sitting on man-made wall at Grand
Canyon.], Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 12x6.5.
NAU.PH.98.68.3: Photographer unknown, 1919. Mary Greenhaw in
Petrified Forest, 6/24/19., Petrified Forest National Park (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 6.5x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.4: Photographer unknown, 1919. Vita Bauerlein in
Petrified Forest., Petrified Forest National Park (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.5: Photographer unknown, 1919. Miriam and Clinton
in Petrified Forest, 6/24/19., Petrified Forest National Park (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 6.5x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.7: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Mr. Back, owner
of Montezuma Well, Vita Bauerlein and Mary Greenhaw., location unknown.
Black-and-White Photograph, 12x5.
NAU.PH.98.68.8: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Miriam drinking
from Montezuma Spring., Montezuma Spring (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.9: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Paul, Jr.
playing in Montezuma Spring, Dad with him., Montezuma Spring (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.10: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Wild larkspur
and Paul, Jr. at Cherry Creek., Cherry Creek (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.11: Photographer unknown, 1918. Elizabeth A.
Greenhaw, grandmother, and Paul, Jr., grandson, 1918., location unknown.
Black-and-White Photograph, 11x8.
NAU.PH.98.68.13: Photographer unknown, ca. 1910. Stella
Greenhaw. [Standing in front of ranch house.], Arizona. Black-and-White
Photograph, 9x8.
NAU.PH.98.68.14: Photographer unknown, ca. 1910. Mrs. Stella
Greenhaw and Mrs. Maggie West., location unknown. Picture Postcard,
11x7.
NAU.PH.98.68.15: Photographer unknown, ca. 1915. [Portrait: two
young girls in matching dresses in a chair.], location unknown.
Black-and-White Photograph, 14x9.
NAU.PH.98.68.16: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Cherry Creek,
[group gathered for picture.], Cherry Creek (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 12x7.
NAU.PH.98.68.17: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Storekeeper and
family at Leupp Indian School., Leupp (Ariz.) /// Navajo Indian
Reservation. Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.18: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Indian boys at
Leupp Indian School., Leupp (Ariz.) /// Navajo Indian Reservation.
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.19: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. [Man and young
woman with horses.], location unknown. Black-and-White Photograph,
8x7.5.
NAU.PH.98.68.20: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. [Girl on
horse.], location unknown. Black-and-White Photograph, 8x10.
NAU.PH.98.68.21: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. [Woman on horse
with another woman standing in front of horse.], location unknown.
Black-and-White Photograph, 8x10.
NAU.PH.98.68.22: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Forest Ranger
at El Tovar Camp Grounds., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.23: Photographer unknown, 1916. [Three girls in a
horse-drawn carriage] Oct. 9, 1916., location unknown. Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.24: Photographer unknown, 1919. Ice Caves; [eight
people in group.], Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.25: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Camp at El
Tovar Camp Grounds., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.26: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Montezuma Well
Camp Ground., Montezuma Well (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.27: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Camp 6 miles
from Cordez., Cordes (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.28: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Washing dishes
on Agua Fria River at Canyon City., Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.29: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Camp at
Stoneman's Lake., Stoneman Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.30: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Stop for
lunch-Canyon City., Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.31: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Almost
home-1000 miles., Arizona. Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.32: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Fishing in
Stoneman's Lake., Stoneman Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.33: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Petrified
Forest, Petrified Forest National Park (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.34: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Sigellaria
Forest- showing Petrified trees and a view of the Painted Desert in
background., Petrified Forest National Park (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.36: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Sunset
Mountain., Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.37: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Sunset Meadow
near Winslow., Winslow (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.38: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Meteoric Crater
bet. Winslow and Flagstaff., Meteor Crater (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.39: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Rock formation
on way to Winslow, 6/24., Winslow (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.40: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Desert scene
between Flagstaff and Winslow., location unknown. Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.41: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Lava Beds near
Sunset Peak on route to Canyon., Sunset Peak (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.42: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Lava beds.,
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.43: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. The Canyon
taken from Grand View., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.44: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. View from
Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 12x7.
NAU.PH.98.68.45: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. View of Grand
Canyon., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.46: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Thors Hammer
from Hammer Point., Grand Canyon (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
12x7.
NAU.PH.98.68.47: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. View of
Montezuma Well., Montezuma Well (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.48: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. View of
Montezuma Well, cliff dwellings on opposite side., Montezuma Well
(Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.49: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Montezuma
Well., Montezuma Well (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.50: Photographer unknown, 1919. View of Montezuma
Well, 6/17/19., Montezuma Well (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph,
7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.51: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Verde River.,
Verde River (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.52: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. St. Mary's
Lake. [?Lake Mary.], Arizona. Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.53: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Mormon Lake.,
Mormon Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.54: Photographer unknown, 1919. Mormon Lake,
6/19/19., Mormon Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.55: Photographer unknown, 1919. Stoneman's Lake,
6/19/19., Stoneman Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.56: Photographer unknown, ca. 1919. Stoneman's
Lake., Stoneman Lake (Ariz.). Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.57: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Prehistoric
dwellings near Flagstaff., Walnut Canyon National Monument (Ariz.).
Black-and-White Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.58: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Prehistoric
dwellings near Flagstaff., Flagstaff (Ariz.). Black-and-White
Photograph, 7x12.
NAU.PH.98.68.59: Photographer unknown, ca. 1920. Greenhaw Ranch
showing CB potter in the rear. Can't decipher the others. Sent Sept. 1,
1944 by CB Potter Cambridge, Wis., Arizona. Black-and-White Photograph,
8x12.