Statewide County AZ Archives Obituaries.....McGehon, Emma 1903
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
D. Joshua Taylor http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00006.html#0001358 and Elizabeth Burns  July 17, 2005, 12:43 pm

Arizona Republican-October 18, 1903
EMMA MCGEHON
October 18, 1903

Mrs. Emma McGehon died yesterday morning at the sisters 
hospital after a long illness.  She had been an invalid 
for a year or more but the immediate cause of her death 
was the shock succeeding an operation for the removal of 
a tumor a few days ago.

Mrs. McGehon was about thirty seven years old and had been 
a resident of this valley since girlhood, coming here about 
twenty five years ago from Santa Cruz, Cal., with her 
parents and sisters.  Though she had lived elsewhere 
temporarily this has always been her home and in the 
earlier days she was well known by everyone.  Her mother 
and father, Mrs. and Mrs. Van Beecham were best known for 
years as the keepers of the stage station on the Black 
canyon road near where it is now crossed by the Arizona canal.

Others remember the Beecham family as the hosts of one of 
the early day hotels, an adobe structure known as the 
Swilling Hotel.

As Mr. and Mrs. Beecham advanced in years their daughter 
Emma, became in reality the keeper of the station, the 
table and the friend of all who traveled that way in the 
early days.  She was finally married to a stage driver by 
the name of William McGehon by whom she has one son, Van 
McGehon who  survives.  He is now in the employ of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad company at Tucson and will 
probably arrive here this morning.  Mr. and Mrs. Beecham 
have been dead for some years and the other surviving 
relatives of Mrs. McGehon are Mrs. Charles Slankard of 
this city, Mrs. Della Kellerman of California and a 
niece and nephew.  Mrs. Kellerman has been notified 
and will be here in time for the funeral.

The Beecham family came originally from Virginia, residing 
some years in California, before moving to Arizona.  
Though never a wealthy family, in Arizona, they were well 
to do and possessed all those virtues characteristic of 
the frontier necessary for the favors of those who had 
was the apparent necessary of those who had not.

Though the stage line has given way to the railroad and 
the automobile there will remain in the minds of all who 
experienced the hardships of those early days a profound 
respect for those who struggled with them and who shared 
their little with those who had less.

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