Vanished Arizona -

In 1874, when Martha Dunham Summerhayes came as a bride from the coast of Nantucket to Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory, she learned the hard facts of army life at Forts Whipple, McDowell, Apache, Yuma, Lowell and a summer in Ehrenberg, all in Arizona and other forts in California, Nevada, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and New Mexico where Santa Fe was her favorite. She longs for the sea at Nantucket while scorching in the heat of Arizona. One of her adventures occurs when her lieutenant husband fears an Indian attack and he suggests that his loving wife, who is armed with a revolver, shoot herself and the baby if anything happens to him. Jane Merrifield-Beecher, actress, director and choreographer from Tucson, AZ performs this abridged adventure in three hours. Further reading...

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"This cavalry wife's charming memoir is a good look at Old West Arizona." Arizona Daily Star

"Vanished Arizona has won a secure place among the essential primary records of the frontier-military West, a status it is unlikely to lose. This is because it is a good-humored and very personal narrative of the perils, real or imagined, that a young army wife endured in following a beloved husband to his numerous postings." Dan L. Thrapp, author of Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography

"It makes you realize how hard life was back then and how lucky we are to be living at this time. Society is so much more advanced. It held our attention and made us feel better." Two Listeners from the Tucson Assoc. for the Blind and Visually Impaired

"This abridged audiobook edition, so effectively narrated by Jane Merrifield-Beecher concentrates on her army life in at least seven forts in Arizona as Vanished Arizona relates twenty five years of army life in three hours of engaging and fascinating anecdotes. Also highly recommended is the Beverly's, Ltd. audiobook production Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters From the Western Trails, 1850." Midwest Book Review

"It was a wonderfully descriptive tape that stirs up emotions of joy and terror. It's also fascinating to hear about their adventures in the different territories. It's amazing how they coped with life on the move and the hardships they endured." Staff Habilitation Specialist - Tucson Assoc. for the Blind and Visually Impaired

FROM VANISHED ARIZONA LEARN

· The army’s way of designating housing for their men
· Where the many forts are in Arizona
· How Ehrenberg was so desolate
· Why Martha Summerhayes envied the Mexicans
· Why and how they slept outdoors
· What kind of primitive homes they lived in
· Different ways they traveled in the 1870’s around the country
· How heat affects you with no relief for months

About Vanished Arizona...

Martha Summerhayes may have been considered a wimp in the deserts of Arizona having come from an upper middle class family on Nantucket Island. However the love for her soldier husband, her education and travels to Germany and her sense of humor got her through many harrowing experiences. Like many New England women of that time, she knew how to make quince jelly and floating islands but not how to boil an egg.

Stationed in all the Arizona Forts at one time in the 1870's, her stories tell of hardship, the harsh climate, but also her delight in all life.She admired her all but naked Cocopah servant, Charley who she said "appealed to her aesthetic sense in every way." She appreciated "the supple muscles of his clean cut thighs. "

Martha and husband, Jack, played tricks on the officers and their wives when they came to visit. There was a sulfur well nearby and husband Jack pumped the water to the house and into a tub in which to bathe. The water was thick and inky black. The smell was something else. After trying it once, Martha wouldn't touch it again. But when officers wives visited, she talked them into trying it. The ladies never forgot the sulfur bath nor the "naked Indian" who waited on them.

Martha's husband, Jack, retired a major in 1900 and in 1904 was advanced to Lieutenant Colonel. The Summerhayes are buried at Arlington Cemetery. They died within two months of each other.

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This is the second in the series, "Living Voices of the Past," of diaries of the 1800's. University of Nebraska Press is the source for Vanished Arizona.

Audio Copyright 1999 and audio rights reserved by Beverly's, Ltd.
11723 N. LaTonya Dr., Tucson, AZ 85737

Recorded at Allusion Studios in Tucson.