Ida Elizabeth Hester Smith was 4 years old when her family headed from Iowa to California in 1852.
As they neared San Bernardino, they came across Arizona explorer, prospector, and trapper Paulino Weaver, wracked with fever and suffering from rheumatism. Ida’s father, a doctor, cured Weaver of his ills. In gratitude, Weaver gave the Smiths part of his California land grant to start their spread.
Weaver taught young Ida the intricacies of smoking and swearing, much to her parents’ consternation. She also learned to shoot, rope and ride under Weaver’s tutelage, as well as how to communicate with her Spanish-speaking neighbors.
An assortment of travelers stopped at the Smith’s California ranch. One who returned often was Charles Baldwin Genung, frontiersman, miner, horse trader, and rambling man.
Ida and Charley married in California on February 16, 1869, before heading into Arizona Territory.
As wedding gifts, Ida’s brother gave her a dog named Pete and two Colt .45 pistols. Her parents gave the newlyweds a cow named Mott and a mule team to pull their wagon across the desert.
Only days on the trail, Charley was kicked by one of the mules. Unable to drive the wagon with a bum leg, Ida drove the mules most of the 350-mile trip, which she said consisted of “ … three weeks of camping out at night and cooking on a campfire and packing the wagon and harnessing up the teams and jolting along over rough roads through sand and dust.”
As soon as the Genungs arrived at the Montgomery Mine near Wickenburg, Ida prepared a sumptuous meal for the crowd that came to greet them. Unfortunately, Mott the cow gobbled up the entire feast — including six of Ida’s pies — before anyone had a bite.
Ida learned how to pan for gold along the Hassayampa River, amassing enough bullion to buy her husband a new pair of boots before Apache raids forced the couple to relocate to Walnut Grove, about 12 miles south of the Montgomery Mine. They raised corn, but only enough to feed Charley’s distillery.
By 1870, the Genungs were ranching in Peeples Valley, just west of Walnut Grove. When Ida discovered she was pregnant, Charley borrowed enough money from Henry Wickenburg, owner of the Vulture Mine and founder of the town that bears his name, to take Ida back to her parents’ ranch in California. There, she gave birth to Frank Marsh Genung.
As her family grew, Ida worried about her children acquiring a proper education since the sparse population of Peeples Valley did not warrant a schoolhouse. In 1879, the family moved into Wickenburg so the children could attend school.
They stayed with Henry Wickenburg for a while, with Ida cooking and running the household while Henry worked nearby placer mines. Henry grew so fond of Ida and the children that he supposedly signed a deed for Ida to acquire 80 acres of his land, but the deed was never recorded.
In February 1890, with a ranch hand at the reins, Ida headed down the road toward Phoenix with her 6-year-old daughter Grace tucked in beside her. For three days, rain had been pouring into the Hassayampa River; the roads were muddy and slick. The Walnut Grove Dam, which lay just above the town of Wickenburg, creaked and moaned against the deluge of water pressing against its boulders.
Ida watched water swell down the riverbed as buggy and horses plowed into the surging water, miraculously making it to safety on the other side.
The ranch hand suggested they spend the night at the stage station before continuing their journey but Ida had a premonition and insisted they move on.
Shortly after their departure, the Walnut Grove Dam lost its battle against the raging waters and a 40-foot wall of water roared down the riverbed like a runaway train, destroying the stage station and killing about 100 people in its path.
Through the years, the Genung ranch welcomed travelers from all walks of life. The Apache Kid, known for his murderous deeds throughout the territory, was said to have visited. Allie Earp, wife of Tombstone lawman Virgil Earp, was a close friend.
But the one person Ida could have done without was the woman who took her husband to the far corners of Arizona.
In 1906, Charley wanted to retrace the journey he first took when he came to Arizona in 1863. Territorial historian Sharlot Hall agreed to accompany him, relishing the idea of seeing parts of Arizona she had not yet explored. Ida was furious that her husband would travel with a single woman without a proper escort, plus leaving her alone to manage the ranch and children.
And although Charley and Sharlot never had a romantic relationship, Ida at first refused to let Charley back in the house when he returned.
Charley died in 1916.
During her lifetime, Ida survived Indian attacks and watched her house go up in flames on more than one occasion. She bore eight children and took care of the homestead while her nomadic husband roamed the land.
When Kate Cory, photographer and artist of the Hopi people, wanted to paint Ida’s picture, Ida agreed only if she could peel potatoes and darn socks while posing. She refused to sit still. The painting, “Pioneer Mother,” hangs in Prescott’s Sharlot Hall Museum.
Ida died on November 11, 1933, one of Arizona’s true pioneering spirits.
