photo courtesy of Annie’s g-granddaughter, Barbara Ohlwiler
Grandma Annie Phelan had a boarding house in Kingman, I think around 1900, have never been able to find anything out about location etc. My mother said it was called the Phelan House. I think I have the date pretty close as I know my mother’s parents lived in Kingman when they were first married then she was born in Williams in 1902. Uncle Jim had a slaughter house and butcher shop in Kingman, there is still a canyon named Slaughter House Canyon where his slaughter house was located and the building he had his shop in is still in Kingman and in good condition. The house Uncle John lived in was across from the court house, I think he ran the business for Uncle Jim. (I know Ed worked for him in Williams, I have a copy of an old newspaper with an add and also a mention of my mother’s birth.) When I was probably in my 30’s the house was auctioned off and moved. It was a two story house, painted white and was right next to the Bonelli House that I believe is a little museum now. One of Uncle John’s daughters died as a child and was buried in Kingman but that cemetery was destroyed and turned into a football field, have no idea what happened to the graves etc. Amy Neal, who was a member of an old family there, told me that all the pallbearers were children and she was one of them.
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Annie had breast cancer … I heard the adults talk about it several times while I was growing up. As you know Annie and Daniel lived in Williams, AZ in the early 1900s. While several people were traveling in a wagon it became stuck in the mud so all but the driver got out to push. All at once the wagon came free and Annie fell hitting a breast really hard on one of the iron wheels. Later she developed cancer in that breast and went to California for treatment, I’m not sure where but most of the family who lived in CA were in the LA area. The treatment was so harsh it blinded her and from that time on all she wanted was to return to her beloved Williams. This happened but she died on the train in Seligman, AZ and finished the trip in a wagon (ironic?) where she was buried in the beautiful little forested cemetery.
by Annie’s g-granddaughter, Barbara Ohlwiler
(information courtesy of Richard Oyler)
According to another g-grandnephew Jim Grivich – Annie used to regale the family with tales of how she met Wyatt Earp in the wild west!
Keeper of the Family 