By Bob Ross

My grandparents, Frank and Viola Baldwin, the second generation of our family in Arizona and Yavapai County, lived in Prescott for a while after their marriage in 1896. Viola was the next to youngest daughter of Harrison and Marina Reeves who arrived in Prescott by covered wagon with their five daughters in 1876.

In 1903, Frank and Viola and their two young daughters moved to the railroad town of Jerome Junction just east of present day Chino Valley where Frank was yardmaster for the United Verde & Pacific narrow-gauge railroad. From 1895 to 1920, this busy depot town served as the transfer point for supplies and passengers from the standard-gauge Santa Fe Railroad main line to the winding, precariously perched narrow-gauge railroad over Woodchute Mountain to the booming copper mining town of Jerome. When the railroad was extended to Clarkdale in 1920, Jerome Junction became a ghost town and, in 1923, the activities of the former town were absorbed by Chino Valley. Located at the crossroads of Perkinsville Road and Jerome Junction Road, about 1.4 miles east of Route 89 in Chino Valley, all that remains are foundations and railroad equipment and the old railroad bed (or part of it) is now part of the Chino Valley Peavine Trail.

The ride from Jerome Junction to Jerome on the train was a harrowing experience. Getting into the town of Jerome was even worse! After arriving at the Jerome depot a mile above town there was a jarring, hair-raising ride in a horse-drawn hack down the steep mountain dirt road to Main Street. Many of the new school teachers were ready to take their suitcases and walk back up the hill, board the train and never return! Going down the hill at breakneck speed behind two horses, the driver, Boney Hughes, got a kick out of telling his passengers, "Don’t worry, the breaks hold most of the time." A day-trip to Jerome is especially interesting if you go to the Gold King Mine/Ghost Town of Haynes (one mile behind the Fire Station in Jerome) and see what an old mining town really looked like back in the late 1800s. The narrow-gauge railroad bed from Jerome Junction can still be seen high above the ghost town. Ask Don at the ghost town to point it out to you. The Jerome station was even higher, above the open mine.

My mother, Grace Baldwin, graduated from Prescott High School with the Class of 1917, which included the well-known Prescott names of Bob Flinn, Charles Dewey Born, Mary Cromwell, Blanche Foster, John Hazeltine and Rachel Redden. Bob Flinn would drive Grace around town in his dad’s automobile, sightseeing. Others at this time, Prescott’s "Poet Lariat," Gail Gardner, asked Grace and Anna Lou Richards to read a poem he had written titled’ "The Sierry Petes" and tell him what they thought of it. The girls told Gail they liked the way he described the handling of wild cattle from his own personal experiences. Several years later, the poem was set to music and under the title of "Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail," it became a favorite cowboy song at dude ranches around the evening camp fires and on the radio.

After a time as secretary in the law office of Perry Ling, son of former Prescott mayor Reece Ling, our third generation family member, my mother Grace Baldwin, became secretary to Jerome’s School Superintendent, Mr. J. 0. Mullen. In the 1980s, I learned that Mr. Mullen had been an Arizona Rough Rider in 1898, serving with Col. Leonard Wood, Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Maj. Alexander Brodie, Capt. James McClintock and Capt. Buckey O’Neill. I ask my mother if J. O. had ever mentioned anything about his experiences as a Rough Rider when she worked for him. I was ready for a rare, first-hand account. But, the only thing he had ever told her was that Teddy Roosevelt invited the Rough Riders to visit him at his home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY after the conflict in Cuba was over. In his front hall, J. O. slipped on a throw-rug and landed flat on his back, unhurt, but embarrassed. In 1902, J. O. Mullen served as an Arizona Ranger under Capt. Tom Rynning, also a former Rough Rider.

Next week in Part 3, my mother Grace marries in 1923 and begins a family in the mining town of Jerome, our 4th generation in Yavapai County.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb041f5i8) Reuse only by permission.
Jerome Junction Depot and yard, 1900, just 1.4 miles east of Chino Valley along Perkinsville Road. The old railroad bed is still visible today but the tracks have been removed. This busy depot town served as the transfer point for supplies and passengers from the standard-gauge Santa Fe Railroad main line to the winding, precariously perched narrow-gauge railroad over Woodchute Mountain to the booming copper mining town of Jerome.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb169f16i16) Reuse only by permission.
Prescott High School, 1915.My mother was a sophomore at this time and is most likely somewhere on this photo!

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(citn169pal) Reuse only by permission.
From 1895-1920, when the train from Jerome Junction arrived at the Jerome station high above the mine, the passengers were loaded onto a horse drawn wagon driven by Boney Hughes for a hair-raising ride a mile down the hill to Main Street. He got a kick out of telling his passengers, “The brakes hold most of the time."