With Their Own Blood: A Saga of Southwestern Pioneers

11. New Love, New Life

ELEVEN: NEW LOVE) NEW LIFE One of the Penningtons - Larcena -did not go to Texas, after all. The Weekly Arizonan told why: "Caught at Last" Wm. Scott, Esq., of the firm of Lee and Scott of this place, after having withstood the dangers and hardships of about twelve years of frontier life, and reached a standard of prosperity which most men might envy, was last week- not killed by Apaches, as the reader may suppose, bur "on the contrary quite othelWise"- united in marriage to a most excellent lady, a daughter of the late Mr. Pennington, a lady who, individually and in connection with her family, has already figured prominently in the history of the early settlers of Ariwna.1 It is tempting to speculate how it happened- how these two long-time, trusted friends, Larcena and Fisher, finally agreed to spend the rest oftheir lives together. Fisher may have been quietly sure for a long time that as soon as he had his business going and could provide a suitable home, he would ask her to marry him. It is just as likely that he, a confirmed bachelor it seemed, would have held his peace indefinitely ifLarcena's imminent departure had not spurred him. However and whenever he finally proposed, Larcena had many things to consider before she said yes: the hardships she had 163 With Their Own Blood suffered in Arizona, the insecurity of the still-bloody frontier, the loved ones she had lost and the future separation from her remaining brothers and sisters. But facing her stood a good strong man offering love, protection, and the prospect ofa better life in rough but rapidly improving Tucson. She was now thirty-three, young enough to enjoy a happiness she had not known for many long years - the exciting, comforting warmth of a loving husband's arms. And there was Mary Ann, her daughter. The child, almost nine, would benefit from a kind stepfather like Fisher. The decision was never seriously in doubt. Larcena told her family they must go back to Texas without her. Presumably Crumpton and the six Penningtons lingered long enough to help celebrate the wedding, which took place on July 27, 1870.2 Details are lacking, but since there was no Protestant clergyman in town, it is likely to have been Justice of the Peace "Charley" Meyer who, in his heavy German accent, pronounced them man and wife. The Penningtons then rattled off in their loaded wagons, and Larcena and Mary Ann moved into Scott's new house. He had built it on Main Street beside the innovative Eagle Flour Mill which he and his partner had nearly completed.3 For Larcena it was the beginning of her happiest years. Outside Tucson the Apaches still prowled and life was hard and dangerous , but there was comparative safety and plenty in the community . The picket house on the banks of Sonoita Creek, the cramped stone cabin on the border, the dusty adobes ofCalabasas and Tubac, the fever-ridden hovel at S6pori, the isolation and grief she had known - all faded into memory as Larcena commenced a new kind of life. The whole town was excited about the mill, rapidly thrusting like a green young cornstalk above the dusty field of one-story adobes that was Tucson. Together Larcena and Fisher watched its growth. "Before another month shall have passed," reported the Weekly Arizonan on August 6th, "the voice of the steam whistle will have awakened the echoes of the adjacent mountains.,,4 The mill was in successful operation by October 29 when the Arizonan New Love) New Lifo William Fisher Scott, probably a wedding photograph taken about 1870 (Arizona Historical Society). 165 With Their Own Blood praised Lee and Scott's remarkable achievement, adding, "There are still some spirits in Arizona which know not how to yield."s Scott's partner, James Lee, and his family also lived adjacent to the mill. "Jimmie," as Lee was called, was close to Scott's age, a pleasant-looking fellow, full-bearded but rapidly getting bald. Lee had immigrated to the United States from Ireland, and had ended up in Arizona in 1856 or '57. Both men were naturalized citizens of the United States.6 Lee had been a hostler for the Butterfield Overland Mail Company, and when the company discontinued operations in Arizona he had started freighting and mining. He had married Maria Ramirez, descendant of...