MOLLIE MONROE
November 21, 1902

Mollie Monroe died yesterday in the Arizona hospital 
for the Insane.  Way back in the days when Arizona had 
no such institution for the care of the unfortunates on 
the 18th of May 1877 she was adjudged insane at Prescott 
and was sent to the asylum at Stockton, Cal.  She was in 
fact one of the first people ever placed in any instition 
of that character from Arizona for the first patient sent 
to the Stockton asylum from this territory was Wesley 
Ricketts who was sent there May 12, 1876, and sent back 
when the Arizona institution was completed. He is now a 
very old man and an inmate of the asylum.

Mollie Monroe after her first confinement recovered 
sufficiently to be released but was returned to the 
territorial hospital January 14, 1887.

With the passing of Mollie Monroe ends the career of 
one of the historical and in many ways picturesque 
characters of the southwest. Her birthplace could not 
be learned definitely yesterday but it is said she 
originally came from Mississippi and at her death 
she was well along toward eighty years old.  She 
was a wonderfully well preserved woman in all 
respects except her mental weakness and till very 
recent years loved to join in the dances given for 
the patients at the asylum.  It is said she was 
active as a girl and derived real pleasure from 
the diversion.  She is also remembered many former 
acquaintances and greeted them cheerily when they 
called to see her or other unfortunates confined 
there.  She is said to have been in her early life 
a remarkably handsome woman and that her affairs of 
the heart in days now forgotten have been the 
foundation of jealousies that laid more than one 
man in his coffin through the deadly work of knife 
or bullet.  Even in her old age she had a bright and 
winsome eye and unusual good nature for one so 
desperately afflicted.

Mollie Monroe whose previous names have not been learned, 
came to Arizona in the very early pioneer days, dressed 
as a man, riding the range with cowboys or consorting
with the miners in the gold diggings.  Though not of 
unblemished character she followed business pursuits 
and her sins were those of a reckless abandon for legal 
proprieties in the matter of martial affairs.  When she 
tired of one husband she could find another and society 
in those days did not demand an appeal to the divorce 
courts when affection grew fickle or the services of a 
minister when new interests were to be united.

Mollie lived the greater part of the time in Yavapai 
County, Prescott then being the center of civilization 
in the southwest and her visits to that city were always 
events of some public interest.  She was open hearted, 
liberal almost to a fault and loved children.  Whenever 
she came to town about the first thing she did was to 
buy large quantities of candy and provide every child 
she met with a supply that made them think Christmas 
had come again.  She nearly always wore men's clothes 
more for the reason that they were easier to ride in 
than anything else and was in this respect probably 
Arizona's first "new" woman.

The incident with which her name will perhaps be longest 
connected was the discovery of the Castle Creek Hot 
Springs in which she is entitled to at least half the 
honors.  Sometime before she had become the wife of 
George Monroe either regularly or by mutual arrangement 
which in those days would probably have held good in 
law and who name she has since borne.  Together they 
were riding the range bent on prospecting or rounding 
up cattle, when they found the Castle Creek Hot Springs 
and located them.  It may be a novel and possibly a 
pleasing thought to the many ladies of wealth and 
refinement who have since visited that beautiful 
resort to know that its discovery was made by a 
woman, even though like most pioneers she was fond 
of tobacco and good whiskey.  In her later life, 
she was, of course, by the necessity of her 
surroundings, denied excesses in these luxuries 
so called. Now that her book has been finished, 
the veil of charity will hide her faults while 
those who knew her will cherish alone, her many 
virtues.

George Monroe, with whom she was probably longer 
associated than any other person during her life in 
Arizona died six or eight years ago in Wickenburg. 
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