What can you find in the area of North Pantano Road and East Speedway? A lot of houses, restaurants, a grocery store and several other businesses.
What could you have found in that area 100 years ago?
You probably would have seen a lot of desert and very little human activity. That was the case until Jerome P. Martin Sr. โ โJerryโ to most Tucsonans later on โ bought 640 acres in 1919 at 26 cents per acre and began homesteading the area, farming.
Martin bought the land shortly after his return from the Great War.
He arrived in Tucson in 1906 when his father, Phil Martin Sr., brought his family here. Jerry Martin was one of 11 children.
His family celebrated the homesteadโs 100th anniversary Dec. 28, gathering at the original ranch house to reconnect, tell stories and share photos.
The ranch house now sits on about five acres and is kept up by Jerry Martin Sr.โs grandson Chuck Martin, who owns it now. He made the highest bid when the family was deciding who should keep the house.
The house grew over the years as it needed to accommodate a larger family. What was once the back door is now the front entrance after changes to the neighborhood around it necessitated changes in access.
The former back entrance is now the front of the 100-year-old Martin family home, which has been expanded over the years to accommodate more offspring.
Short ramps now lead from room to room as additions were made at slightly different levels over the years.
In what was once the backyard, an outdoor fireplace built by Anna Adams, mother of Martinโs wife Alice, is a favorite place for the family to gather for photos and conversation.
All but about 160 acres of the original homestead was sold during the Depression in the 1930s; the rest dwindled to the current acreage since Jerry Martin Sr.โs death.
Jerome P. Martin Sr. was a man with a colorful history worthy of a novel. According to his obituary in the Arizona Daily Star on June 23, 1956, he started working in the railroad business as an office boy, then joined Southern Pacific as a call boy and fireman.
He enlisted in the Navy at age 18 and served during World War I. After returning home he bought his land and also ran his own service station, in addition to building apartments on East Ninth Street with one of his brothers.
He married Alice OโReilly in 1920, in Tombstone, and brought her to Tucson.
Jerome P. Martin Sr. and his wife, Alice.
He was a Pima County sheriffโs deputy in the 1930s and then the first marshal of South Tucson.
He then was elected as a representative for the Arizona Legislature.
He enlisted in the Seabees and served with distinction in World War II in the Pacific.
In 1946, he was elected Pima County sheriff and re-elected two years later. In a bit of a scandal, he was convicted of bribery in 1951 and served about 16 months of a two-to-five year prison term.
When Jerry Martin Sr. was released from prison in 1953, his family welcomed him home. Seated at left is Alice Martin, Jerry Sr.โs wife, holding Kathy. Standing at left is Aliceโs mother, Anna Adams. Jerry Martin Sr. is seated holding his grandson, Chuck. Beside him is granddaughter Patty, Tom Martinโs wife, Joyce, and Tom himself. Jerry Martin Jr. stands at right with his wife, Joanne, seated on the wall holding Debbie.
After his release in 1953, Martin lived on his land and farmed cotton. He died June 21, 1956, at age 57.
Those who gathered at the family home in 2019 were the children of Jerry Martin Sr.โs two sons, the late Jerome P. โJerryโ Martin Jr. and the late Thomas โTomโ Martin, both of whom also served in World War II.
The family matriarch is now Joyce Peter Broom Martin, Tomโs widow and Chuckโs mother, who is fondly called โAunt Pete.โ She now lives in the San Diego area with relatives and came to the reunion with her daughter Mary Furler.
Joyce Martin told of knowing her future husband from a young age. She learned after their marriage that he had decided she would be his wife when they were still children.
Jerry Martin Jr. and his wife, Joanne, both deceased, had four daughters, three of whom made it to the gathering. They are Patty Kirchner, Kathy Whittleton and Deb Thompson. Missing was the youngest, Janet Park.
Debby Thompson, left, and her sister Patty Kirchner, talk about the Martin familyโs 100 year-old home, at a reunion the anniversary homestead in Tucson, Ariz., on Dec. 28, 2019.
Many of Jerry Martin Sr. and Aliceโs great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren were there as well.
Kathy Whittleton told of growing up on the homestead in a one-bedroom house near the ranch house the family was now gathered in. Her parents often slept outside, a common occurrence in Tucson summers before air conditioning.
That house is no more, but the memories remain of days long gone.
