Western Women: Sue Summers was integral part of the town of Florence for 40 years

On Oct. 3, 1879, Sue Summers, along with her 16-year-old daughter, June, boarded the train out of San Francisco headed for the small but thriving community of Florence, Arizona.

They expected to meet Sue’s husband, Hiram Bell Summers, when they got off the train in Casa Grande, about 30 miles from Florence and the end of the line for rail travel in the territory at the time.

Hiram had first ventured into Arizona around 1869 searching for gold and precious minerals, but all he had to show for his efforts were a few skirmishes with Apaches and an empty gold pouch. Hiram practiced law in Tucson before settling in Florence.

Born in Philadelphia on Feb. 13, 1835, the family Bible lists Sue’s birth name as Sussanah Heatherington Campbell, although she preferred the name “Sue.” At age 18, she headed to California and settled in Downieville, a bustling gold mining town that had high hopes of becoming the state capital. She taught school until marrying local storekeeper Hiram Summers in 1855. Son Harold was born in Downieville in 1858.

According to family history, after the family moved to Virginia City, Nevada, Sue and baby Harold survived a stagecoach robbery when one of the bandits took sympathy on the anxious mother and her infant.

Through the years, the family relocated between Virginia City and San Francisco. Daughter June was born in San Francisco in 1863 followed by Jessie in 1867. Jessie died in infancy. They were in Virginia City in 1875 when fire destroyed almost the entire town, including the Summers home.

Wherever they lived, Sue taught school and was often lauded for her expert teaching methods. She sometimes served as school principal.

Sue and Hiram had a rocky marriage and even divorced for several years. The divorce may have been what sent Hiram to Arizona but he was back in California in 1879, as newspaper accounts recorded his remarriage to Sue on June 7, just four months before she boarded the train to join him in Florence.

The Southern Pacific Railroad took its passengers south to Los Angeles before heading east across the California desert. Shortly after passing the town of Colton, California, about 50 miles outside of Los Angeles and in the heart of the California desert, the train encountered washed-out rails. Passengers returned to Colton to wait until it was safe to continue their journey.

On the train with Sue and her daughter were several prominent Arizonans including Sallie Davis Hayden with her 2-year-old son Carl. Young Carl would go on to become Arizona’s first U.S. congressman.

Finally arriving in Casa Grande, Sue learned that Hiram had been delayed on court business and would not arrive until the following morning.

“The (Casa Grande) station was not very inviting,” Sue recalled, “but we were hospitably cared for by the proprietors Mr. (Jere) Fryer, afterwards Sheriff of Pinal Co. and Mrs. Fryer, the former famous Pauline Cushman of the Civil War.” (See October 2015 Western Women)

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Arriving in Florence the next day, Sue described the town as “an inviting sight with the green trees bordering its avenues and the acequias or irrigation ditches flowing with water.” She delighted in the abundance of fruit trees throughout the community and planted peaches, apricots, figs and pears in her own yard.

She found “dancing the greatest pleasure of the community, impromptu affairs would be gotten up with but little notice — the music always on hand and lively messengers soon brought the little community together and the slogan would be, ‘On with the dance. Let joy be unconfined.’”

Picnics abounded and according to Sue, “(T)here were many beautiful spots on the different ranches under the foliage of the oak trees, and hardly a week passed but some such festivity was arranged.”

Not all was perfect with Florence, as Sue discovered when word reached town a band of Apaches was headed their way. Women and children were taken to the courthouse for protection. Sue was sick at the time, “confined to my bed with lumbago, but I was badly frightened — such was my willpower, that I deliberately rose from my bed and dressed preparatory to seeking the proposed refuge.”

Fortunately, it was a false alarm and Sue confessed, “I found myself a standing joke in the community on my sudden recovery to health. I enjoyed the joke myself, but the willpower I displayed on this occasion proved a good lesson to me in after years in overcoming many obstacles in life.”

Sue involved herself with Florence’s social as well as civic groups. The Sanhara Club provided literature and music, with Sue hosting these events since she owned the only piano in town.

“What troubled me in my early life in Arizona was the universal use of intoxicating liquor,” Sue complained. “Saloon and drinking stations were innumerable — located on the chief streets of Florence where women and children were obliged to pass.” She was active in the temperance movement and relieved when the number of saloons gradually subsided.

Along with other townswomen, Sue saw that the streets were cleaned, street signs erected, a library established, and the beginnings of incorporating the town.

At the time, Florence had separate schools for boys and girls but when the boys’ school collapsed (the children were on summer break), a new stone school was built that housed everyone. After Hiram died in 1895, Sue resumed her teaching career and taught the children of Florence for many years.

By 1920, she was living in Phoenix with daughter June who, by this time, was also widowed. Mother and daughter eventually relocated to California where Sue died Feb. 8, 1929, just one week shy of her 94th birthday.

Sue was an integral part of the town of Florence for over 40 years. Her presence in and contributions to the community left a lasting and valuable influence. At the age of 90, she wrote her reminiscences and remembered how grand were Arizona’s “valleys, deserts, mountains and scenic effects, and I am proud that so many years of my life have been passed in its domain.”