Article and photo by Marion Vendituoli. Reprinted by permission of the Patagonia Regional Times.

Descendants of Mary Kane, who was one of the first women to vote in Arizona, gather in front of the suffrage sign at the Patagonia Museum.

Thirty people gathered at the dedication of the suffrage marker at the Patagonia Museum on May 15. After a short business meeting, Museum President German Quiroga introduced historian Mary Melcher. Melcher was the lead historian for the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail and served on the committee for the National Votes for Women Trail (NVWT), which “seeks to recognize and celebrate the enormous diversity of people and groups active in the struggle for women’s suffrage.,” according to its website.

Melcher described the struggles of early suffragists in Arizona, which culminated in an initiative to give women the vote that passed in 1912, shortly after Arizona gained statehood.

The historical marker at the Patagonia Museum, one of approximately 250 markers throughout the U.S., names two of the 23 women who voted at the site in 1915, Amalia Valenzuela and Mary Kane. In the audience at the dedication were several descendants of Mary Kane, who was born in Mexico in 1863. The women must have been able to read, according to Melcher, as a requirement for voting was the ability to read a line of the constitution in English.

“Today we honor these women,” Melcher said, noting the importance of continuing the fight for “voting rights for all”.

The 2020/2021 recipients of the Museum’s Student Docent scholarships, Brianna Young, Carolina Quiroz and Hannah Woodard.

Despite the less than ideal conditions over the past two school years, these young women worked tirelessly with our curators, Tom and Linda Shore, on a variety of projects around the school. None of them glamorous, all of them necessary and for that effort, the members of the Patagonia Museum Board thank them.

Their commitment to helping us keep the history of Eastern Santa Cruz County alive speaks well for the future of these outstanding representatives of the Lobo community.

What does it take to turn a blah beige handball wall into a work of art? A vision, a few gallons of paint and the help of some talented local artists. Voila, a few months later, the Museum can now boast that we have the spiffiest spot in town for a special photo op right outside our front doors.

The project was conceived of by our curator and approved by the board but the real work was done by the artists.  The art teacher at Patagonia Union High School led the way supported by the director of the Patagonia Creative Arts Association and a band of volunteers.

As a reminder, the Museum is open from 2 to 4 Thursdays – Saturday but the photo op in the front yard is available anytime.

Both literally and figuratively.

The literal reference is tied to the completion of the first phase of one of the big interior projects. We have new lights! The fluorescent lighting in the hallway has been replaced by the 2021 version of the lights that hung in the building back in 1914. Pretty slick, wouldn’t you agree?

The figurative reference is tied to the fact that the lights are on because our doors are open. We are once again welcoming visitors from 2 – 4 Thursdays – Saturdays. And yes, the board and the volunteers are very happy about that fact.

While the doors were closed, the curating team was hard at work creating new exhibits for the public to enjoy. Thanks to the generosity of the Brent Bowden estate, the Museum is the proud owner of the candy counter from the store that stood at the corner of 3rd and McKeown in the ’20s. Granted we haven’t stocked it with Baby Ruth bars, Chuckles or candy cigarettes, but we think it looks perfect displaying an assortment of non-edible items that were likely for sale back in the day.

There are still a number of items on the “to do” list including raising funds for those cool lights in the four exhibit rooms plus the construction of the eagerly anticipated ADA ramp but in the meantime, please stop by when you’re in the area to see what we’ve been up to.

We’re managing to stay busy. In fact, the Museum’s doors being temporarily shuttered has provided our curators with the perfect excuse to rearrange. All in the spirit of creating new “old” displays for our patrons to enjoy in the future.

Patagonia is located in mining country so we’ve added new artifacts to those exhibits that are anchored by a huge mineral display case that is on long-term loan from the Cypress Mines Corporation.

We’ve recreated a turn of the century classroom because the building the Museum is housed in was the longest in-contiguous-use elementary school in the state at the time it closed. Serving the community from 1914 – 2014 is quite impressive, don’t you agree?

Small town commercial enterprises deserve mention so we’re currently featuring a scaled-down version of A.S. Henderson’s general store, as well as some cool old surveying tools and signage from the Bob Lennon collection.

In fact, there is so much that we want to share with the public that the board approved the conversion of the classroom that had been used as a meeting room into a public display area. The curator’s plans for that space include updated exhibits featuring the trades that have made Patagonia a thriving community over the past 100+ years.

Carolina and Hannah, the hard-working young women who are the current student docents, helped us with the first new exhibit, a tribute to the medical community in Patagonia. There’s no doubt that Dr. Delmar Mock is is the most well-known and beloved medical professional having served the area for 38 years. Affectionately known as “Doc Mock”, the town named a large portion of its park system in his honor. That said, it’s interesting to note that the original doctor in town was a woman, Dr. Eva Stevens Henderson, who obtained her medical degree in 1902. The story of women in the health care field in Patagonia continued with locally born Carolina Valenzuela Montoya who was Santa Cruz County’s first public health nurse. The family healthcare clinic in town was originally named after her, another tribute to the role of professional women in the wild west.

That’s a sampling of what we’ve been up to while our doors are closed. Stay tuned for updates as our curators continue the work of making old things seem new again.

The Santa Cruz Patagonian Newspaper was first published in Patagonia on December 1912. The Patagonia Museum, the Patagonia Library and the Friends of the Patagonia Library have partnered to reformat copies of this local newspaper on electronic media. The total collection purchased from the Arizona Library State Archives includes 693 editions of this newspaper from 1915 to 1929.

Special thanks to Abbie Zeltzer, Bill Eifrig, Bob Ollerton and Murphy Musick who made this possible.

View all these editions here.

The National Votes for Women Trail and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation have honored the Patagonia Museum by sponsoring a suffrage sign marker that will be displayed on the grounds of the 1914 Grammar School. In 1915, a special election was held in Santa Cruz County and the Grammar School was the voting site for the Patagonia community. At the time there were at least 31 women registered to vote in Patagonia. The suffrage sign will honor these women and Amalia Valenzuela and Mary Kane in particular, as Hispanic women who pursued their right to vote at a time when it was unacceptable in much of the country.

The 1913 Official Register of Electors listing Mary Kane as one of six registered voters in Crittenden.

A brief ceremony to celebrate this suffrage sign marker will take place along with our annual meeting on Saturday, January 23, 2021, at 10:30 am, on the grounds of our museum facility, 100 School Street. Mary Melcher who received her Ph.D from Arizona State University in American History, will be our guest speaker. Mary is an oral historian, consultant, curator, historian, author and the driving force who made this recognition possible.

The 1870 US Census includes the military personnel at Camp Crittenden as well as the settlers around the Sonoita Creek Valley. Camp Crittenden was established in 1867 on the mesa overlooking the former Fort Buchanan site. Camp Crittenden was disbanded in 1873 but not before spawning another civilian community: the town of Crittenden. Fifty-three percent of the soldiers and settlers were foreign-born. This census reflects the population in what is now eastern Santa Cruz County.

Thanks to the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson for maintaining copies of the “Census-Territories of New Mexico and Arizona” (US Govt Print Office 1965, 312.979 U58). You can click on the links below to view the individual census records.  In general, the civilian residents are listed in alphabetical order as opposed to by location or household which is the order of the typical census document.

Click the link below to view the census data:

1870 Census in eastern Santa Cruz County

After the ratification of the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, the eastern portion of Santa Cruz County became part of the United States. In 1856 US Army Major Enoch Steen who was stationed in Santa Fe, NM was given orders to establish a military post to defend the citizens of Tucson from the Apache. Upon his arrival in the area along with Captain Richard Ewell, the two officers decided that the Tucson valley could not sustain a military post. They rode south along the Santa Cruz River with two companies of  United States Dragoons and established Camp Moore near Calabasas, at the confluence of the Santa Cruz River and Sonoita Creek.

The citizens of Tucson were disappointed when the troops left the immediate area and started a campaign to bring the troops closer home. After several months of receiving complaints at the Santa Fe Headquarters, Major Steen was ordered to locate a military post closer to Tucson. Captain Ewell chose the location for the next encampment at the headwaters of the Sonoita Creek (about 9 miles northeast from Patagonia along Highway 82). It was named Fort Buchanan in honor of the president.

The new location afforded ample forage for the horses plus it was less prone to mosquitoes than Camp Moore and was in the corridor used by the Apache to raid into Sonora. Unfortunately, according to the citizens, it was still not close enough to Tucson so they continued to complain until Fort Buchanan was abandoned by the army in 1861. (In case you are interested, Tucsonians eventually got their own Camp Lowell which became Fort Lowell in 1873.)

Following the establishment of Fort Buchanan in 1857, the Sonoita Creek Valley was soon inhabited by farmers, merchants and miners making the area eligible to participate in the 1860 Census.  In summary, the total population for Fort Buchanan and the Sonoita Creek Valley area was listed at 201. The 2 companies of dragoons at Fort Buchanan accounted for 92 soldiers, 26 of whom were born in Ireland. There were 43 civilians living at Fort Buchanan and 66 civilians along Sonoita Creek for a total of 109. Of the civilians, 57 were adult males, 26 adult females and 26 children. Of the civilian population, 47 were born in New Mexico or Mexico.

Thanks to the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson for maintaining copies of the “Census-Territories of New Mexico and Arizona” (US Govt Print Office 1965, 312.979 U58). You can click on the links below to view the individual census records.  In general, the civilian residents are listed in alphabetical order as opposed to by location or household which is the order of the typical census document.

Click the links below to view the census data:

Military Census –  First U.S. Dragoons, Companies D & G

Civilian Census

Sonoita Creek Settlement Census