Hide Article Text (OCR)
--I ~ f*Friday, October 16, 1970.-1't. • * ••* *t- t •ic * tScottsdale Daily Progress This Weekend■ ”•HistoryArea, 1►for/hA ■IMrs] Elsie Elliott Severance came to Scottsdale for the first time at the age of three. It wasn’t Scottsdale then though, it was the ranch i of Chaplain Winfield Scott at what is now the comer of Scottsdale and Indian School Roads. »Mrs! Severance was-, brought to tlie! Scott Ranch .in Scott’s wagon from-Tempe with her mother and; two I brother: January of 1897. In those days there were seven families ii Scottsdale, including hers anthe Scotts. . i 'Mrs! Severance,; now 76, was present: at the dedication oan addition to the first one-roo school house in Scottsdale in 1897, at Brown | and FirstAvenues.At the age of six, she was•an eye witness to Scottsdale’S first murder — die death ofJuan Enis, a Pima Indian, it the hands of “Old John,” th■ mailnian who brought the maifrom Phoenix.-•• The murder occurred at thScott Ranch when. “Old. Johr mistook Enis for Chaplain Scoand killed/him near the Scott barn. It was believed he inteded to; rob Scott. On his way back' to Phoenix, “Old John” waapprehended’ by a posse an 1 heldfor trial. ] „.-lMrsU Severance* and her brothers were witnesses durin the trial which ended in “01 John’s” life sentenc in the Florence Territorial Prison, Mrs. Severance said tht she wa afraid that he would escape an try to kill her father, so shelearned how to use. a gun'.She glso attended a partyTonto Dam in 1899.‘'After her party headed toward 'home,Government Agent . Ellis,stationed at Ft. McDowell, va tarred and feathered by.a band of drunken Apaches. When the Cavalry arrived, the last Apache troutyein Arizona came to an end.In 1902, slie witnessed an accident at the canal, near the corner of Scottsdale : and Camelback Rds., in which* the storekeeper and his wife fell , into,, the canal and nearly . lt;drowned. It was Mrs. Severance who summoned help.She graduated from Arizona State Teachers’ College (nowArizona State University) in 1931 and Redlands University in 1918. In 1934, after moving from Arizona to California,, she received her master’s degree in education from ^WhittierCollege, where she knew Richard Nixon.After that she became a« k *school, teacher in Calexico andin 1961, she founded the VictoriaMemorial Clinic in Mexicali in*memory of her only, daughter Victoria, who died that year. The clinic takes# care of needy children and provides them with meals and niedicines.J Mrs. Severance still directsthe activities of the clinic and makes her. home in Mexicali for nine, months of the year. Shealso communicates regularly with President Diaz Ordaz ofMexico and said, “He alwayssends the children his love. ”She noted that Chaplain Scottwas a genial well-read, good-natured man with a “peaches and cream complexion, deep set blue eyes and a full beard.” She remembers sitting oh his lap* and listening I to Indian stories while she tugged at his beard. Slie added that Maj.i Scott was related to the Gen. WinfieldScott who became famous in the I Mexican Campaign;When aksed if there was ! anything she missed about thej old Scottsdale, she said the \ fresh desert smell' of!• y«greasewood and * sage was { 'almost gone., IShe said she never .expected • to see Scottsdale as large or as] populated as it is; Mrs.] Severance was in. Scottsdale \ visitng an old friend, Mrs. May ] Vanderhoof Mathis, also aj Scottsdale pioneer, of 308 W.j Fifth St. on her way) to Sante! Fe, N;M. * . . j \ . jDuring the summerj she lives j in Redlands, Calif., because thejweather gets too hot in Mexicali j and travels to visit friends she j has made in the Southwest. ]
Newspaper Details
Scottsdale Progress
Scottsdale, Arizona, US
Fri, Oct 16, 1970
Page 24
Full Page
Clipped by
Familysearch
Utah, USA 06 Sep 2022
Other Publications Near Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale Progress
