Mrs. Estelle Morehouse Buehman
Arizona, The Youngest State, 1913, pg 835

Mrs. Estelle Morehouse Buehman was born in Portland Michigan, 
September 28, 1846 of New York Dutch ancestry on her mother's 
side and of scotch and English on her father's.  He was Albert 
Farrand Morehouse, both of whose parents had relatives in the 
Revolutionary War at Morristown New Jersey. Her mother was 
Sarah Catherine Freeman, whose grandmother Buys was directly 
descended from the Holland Anneka Jans, who was the original 
proprietor of the old Trinity Church property in New York City 
which she leased to the trustees of that church for ninety 
years, after which time the property was to revert to her 
heirs; but with the neglect of human nature, the direct 
claim to the property was lost among the three or four 
generations of ninety years.

The subject of this sketch, though shy and reticent in 
childhood became a very ambitious student in school days, 
receiving at the age of fifteen a first grade certificate 
entitling her to teach anywhere in the state of Michigan.  
From the age of eighteen Miss Morehouse taught steadily in 
various towns of her state for a period of eight years, in 
early days passing through the old time experience of 
boarding in the houses of her pupils and being carried 
back and forth in the family sleigh in bad weather. Her 
last teaching in Michigan was in the city schools of 
Lansing but obtaining a position as a temporary clerk 
for the vacation in the state auditor general's
 office in that city, Miss Morehouse with several 
other young ladies was retained for a number of 
years, at the same salary as the male clerks, one 
thousand dollars. Then becoming in the principles 
of child culture and education along lines of 
Frederick Froebel's system, she entered upon a 
course of study and graduated from the Kindergarten 
Normal at Columbus Ohio.  Teaching a short term in 
her native town she finally decided to come west 
with her eldest brother, then visiting in Portland 
but whose residence had been on the coast for 
several years.  Globe Arizona being her first objective 
point, Miss Morehouse established herself in a 
corner lot house, suitable for school purposes 
where she built up a fine kindergarten which 
continued till hot weather; but an old friend 
from the east with whom Miss Morehouse had taught 
in St. Joseph on Lake Michigan, liking the school 
for herself, Miss Morehouse turned it over to her.  
Miss Morehouse making inquiries in Tucson, longed for 
the sight of running water there being two rivers in 
her native town in Michigan, decided to go in the 
last week of August 1881, her brother having gone 
to Tombstone.  She bade her friend goodbye and took 
passage in a donkey pack train traveling over the 
Pinal Mountains, a distance of twenty miles.  
She was set down--she couldn't stand up--at the Maricopa 
Hotel where she spent the night but took an early 
morning train for Tucson.  Engaging room and board 
in the family of E.N. Fish on Main Street, Miss 
Morehouse entered upon preparations for the opening 
of a kindergarten.

During the winter Miss Morehouse became acquainted with 
Henry Buehman, Tucson's local photographer and being 
persuaded by him to take him for a life pupil, she 
closed her school on May 23 and returned to Michigan
where she spent the summer in preparation for her 
wedding in October.  Immediately after the wedding 
Mr. and Mrs. Buehman left for Canada on their honeymoon 
and in November returned to Tucson and settled down in 
their permanent home on Convent Street.  Mrs. Buehman 
was interested in all of her husband's business matters, 
was a valuable assistant whenever he was out of town, 
taking charge of the studio and writing him daily of 
its affairs and for the last four years of his life 
she was always with him in the reception room of their 
studio over the post office.  After Mr. Buehman's
death the old Convent Street house was sold and Mrs. 
Buehman is still living at 32 Council Street where she 
is often surrounded by her sons and their families.


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