By Mona Lange McCroskey

An important part of Yavapai County's agricultural history came to Prescott with the arrival of Swiss immigrant John William Bianconi. He arrived in Prescott in 1880 at age eighteen at the urging of a friend who said there was a job for him in the United States. He pulled in via stagecoach with fifty cents in his pocket, unable to speak a word of English.

Bianconi settled in Skull Valley, but he was soon able to purchase what became the Matli Ranch in Williamson Valley. He had a dairy herd that produced fine cream, which he made into butter and hauled into town in a wagon. In October 1908, Bianconi purchased the Clough property at Granite Dells, located at the "Y" of Highways 89 and 89A (now the Kieckhefer Stables). He met and married Nora Garbarino in Prescott, and they had four children: Jim, William T. "Bill", Elmer, and Kathryn. In the early 1920s, John and William Bianconi and other local men, including the Payne family, built the first Highway 89 through the rocks at Granite Dells to the Bianconi property. 

John Bianconi planted peach trees on his property, which at one time numbered at least three thousand. There were also a few apple, pear, and apricot trees, but the main crop was peaches. His operation grew to become the biggest peach orchard in Arizona. Bianconi was appointed Yavapai County Fair commissioner in charge of agricultural and horticultural exhibits, and he served in that capacity until 1923, when he returned to Switzerland for a visit. He became very sick on the ship during his Atlantic crossing, and he decided not to return to the United States. John transferred ownership of the orchard to his sons and remained in Switzerland, where he married a second time and had two more children. 

Later William Bianconi bought out his brothers' interests in the orchard. Jim did not like hoeing weeds and picking peaches, so he left the ranch and went to work for Safeway. Elmer died in Williamson Valley in 1929 in what was determined by a coroner's jury to be a suicide, but William was always firmly convinced that his brother had been a murder victim. Kathryn married and moved to California. William inherited his father's job as fair commissioner and represented the county for twenty-seven years. 

Coincidentally, William Bianconi was born in Prescott on September 16, 1900. He married Carrie Welch, who born in Alabama on the exact same day, September 16, 1900. Her father was a dairyman in Chino Valley. Carrie and Bill probably met at a dance at the Log Cabin, a popular meeting place run by a Mr. Browning. They married in 1925 and made their home at the orchard, where they stayed until 1941. Their children are still in the area: Bill Jr. in Dewey and Betty in Prescott. 

Bill Bianconi and Betty Bianconi Billingsley, third-generation Arizonans, remember that growing up at the peach orchard was lots of work. There was a small band of sheep, which were run on the ditch banks to keep the weeds down. They had to be herded to The Garden of the Gods, where they grazed all day along Willow Creek, and then herded home again. There was hay to be hauled. Bill Jr. was allergic to hay, so he rubbed his eyes to make them redder; and then he could return to the house without working. Betty recalls that picking up fallen peaches was a daily job. Carrie Bianconi milked the cow. 

Bill and Betty rode a bus six miles to Washington School. It seated twelve to sixteen pupils, including Sherman Payne, the Garbrick girls, and the Holmes and Evans children, all of whom lived in the Granite Dells area. They played seasonal tops and marbles, jump rope and jacks, and roller-skated on the sidewalk in front of the school. Bill was quarterback on the football team in the sixth grade. They played Miller Valley and Lincoln School teams. Junior high school was across the street on Gurley Street. 

There was not always a peach crop because of the tendency of fruit trees in the Prescott area to bloom early and freeze. But if William had one good crop every three years he could still make money. The peaches were hand picked, placed in buckets cushioned by leaves to prevent bruising, and loaded onto an old flatbed Essex truck. Then they were hauled across the road to the packing shed where they were carefully packed in lugs. The Bianconis kept one hired man year round. During peach season Mrs. Bianconi drove to town to find workers at the employment office, or she would go around the plaza and hire bench sitters to pick peaches. They were paid a dollar a day and dinner, which she prepared. Then she would haul them back to town for the night because there was no place for them to sleep at the ranch. Carrie Bianconi also canned hundreds of jars of peaches each year, to feed the workers and for the family. 

The peaches were sold locally at Pay N Take It, Piggly Wiggly, Plotz and Lantz Markets, Allens Markets, and the Westside Grocery. They were sold at the ranch, too. People came from all over the state to buy fruit, which always won top prizes at county and state fairs. The Bianconis won so many ribbons that the women made shirts of them for the family. Also, William hauled a load of fruit to Phoenix about twice a week to the Safeway warehouse. From there they were shipped by rail to markets in the East. There was no I-17; he drove down the old White Spar road. With the early and late crops, the season lasted a couple of months in the summer. After peach season the trees were hand pruned by William Bianconi and his hired hand. In addition, Bianconi had a twenty-acre apple orchard at Fair Oaks, from which he took apples to Phoenix for sale in the fall. 

Another business at the ranch was "the best bass lake in town," which stored water for the orchard. Fishermen from Prescott paid a dollar a day to angle for a limit of ten fish in the private lake, stocked by the Bianconis. When the old buildings were torn down at Fort Whipple, Bianconi wisely bought large tiles for three cents apiece and recycled them into the sturdy old two-story house that still stands on the property. 

In 1936, Willow Creek Dam was built to impound water from Granite Creek. William Bianconi initiated a court action and was able to retain four and a half acre-feet of water per year from Willow Creek to continue irrigating his orchard. However, in 1939 a disease known as peach mosaic attacked the trees. They were dying and the peaches had little red bumps on them, like measles. They were not salable. The U.S. Department of Agricultural decided to take the orchard out to prevent the spread of the disease. WPA workers cut the wood up into fire sized pieces and stacked it in Bianconi's yard. Without means of making a living on the ranch, William Bianconi went to work for the Arizona Highway Department in Prescott and drove back and forth to the ranch every day. In 1941 he sold the orchard to Harvey Cory and moved his family into Prescott. 

Besides his work in the orchard and later for the Arizona State Highway Department, William Bianconi found time to play hardball for the Sam Hill Hardware team and engage in foot, bicycle, and car races, with Gilbert Rees as his mechanic. He was an avid hunter. The Bianconi family, now down to five generations, carries on a rich heritage in Yavapai County. 

(Mona McCroskey is the oral historian for Sharlot Hall Museum. This article was written from interviews and conversations with Bill Bianconi and Betty Bianconi Billingsley.) 


Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Bianconi) Reuse only by permission.
The Bianconi family won so many ribbons for their fine peaches that the women made shirts of them for the family as shown here on William. The family came to the land just north of Granite Dells in 1908 and started planting peaches, which were sold at Prescott stores and sought throughout the state.