Books with title Vanished Arizona

The stalwart men of the Prussian army, the Lancers, the Dragoons, the Hussars, the clank of their sabres on the pavements, their brilliant uniforms, all made an impression upon my romantic mind, and I listened eagerly, in the quiet evenings, to tales of Hanover under King George, to stories of battles lost, and the entry of the Prussians into the old Residenz-stadt; the flight of the King, and the sorrow and chagrin which prevailed. For I was living in the family of General Weste, the former stadt-commandant of Hanover, who had served fifty years in the army and had accompanied King George on his exit from the city. He was a gallant veteran, with the rank of General-Lieutenant, ausser Dienst. A charming and dignified man, accepting philosophically the fact that Hanover had become Prussian, but loyal in his heart to his King and to old Hanover; pretending great wrath when, on the King’s birthday, he found yellow and white sand strewn before his door, but unable to conceal the joyful gleam in his eye when he spoke of it. The General’s wife was the daughter of a burgomaster and had been brought up in a neighboring town. She was a dear, kind soul. The house-keeping was simple, but stately and precise, as befitted the rank of this officer. The General was addressed by the servants as Excellenz and his wife as Frau Excellenz. A charming unmarried daughter lived at home, making, with myself, a family of four. Life was spent quietly, and every evening, after our coffee (served in the living-room in winter, and in the garden in summer), Frau Generalin would amuse me with descriptions of life in her old home, and of how girls were brought up in her day; how industry was esteemed by her mother the greatest virtue, and idleness was punished as the most beguiling sin. She was never allowed, she said, to read, even on Sunday, without her knitting-work in her hands; and she would often sigh, and say to me, in German (for dear Frau Generalin spoke no other tongue), "Ach, Martha, you American girls are so differently brought up"; and I would say, "But, Frau Generalin, which way do you think is the better?" She would then look puzzled, shrug her shoulders, and often say, "Ach! times are different I suppose, but my ideas can never change."

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The appendix to this, the second edition of my book, will tell something of the kind manner in which the first edition was received by my friends and the public at large. But as several people had expressed a wish that I should tell more of my army experiences I have gone carefully over the entire book, adding some detail and a few incidents which had come to my mind later.

Martha Summerhayes (1844-1911), was a Nantucket, Massachusetts native who later on in life immigrated to Arizona. A well travelled and educated woman, Summerhayes spent two years, from 1871 to 1873, studying literature in Germany. Accommodations at Cooley's ranch were not up to the standards that Martha Summerhayes had grown used to, as a member of a rich family back in Massachusetts. She also found the fact that Cooley had two wives to be quite shocking, and she complained publicly about those two matters in particular. Her complaints were published in 1908 in an autobiography named Vanished Arizona. After her autobiography was published, Martha Summerhayes became a celebrity, receiving fan mail from hundreds of people, specially military men and students that valued her view of military life.

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. She also spent time in other parts of the country where Santa Fe was her favorite. Her enthralling story told by actress Jane Merrifield-Beecher, gives episodes of traveling the Colorado River, using the red river water for bathing, rearing a baby in the isolation of the forts without the amenities she was use to in Nantucket and surviving the desert heat. This is three hours abridged.

This is a reproduction of the original artefact. Generally these books are created from careful scans of the original. This allows us to preserve the book accurately and present it in the way the author intended. Since the original versions are generally quite old, there may occasionally be certain imperfections within these reproductions. We're happy to make these classics available again for future generations to enjoy!