By Mona Lange McCroskey
Recently the community of Prescott community lost a very remarkable lady. Services for Martha Yount Caldwell were held at the Congregational Church, a block from where she was born in 1912, soon after Arizona attained statehood. Martha had deep roots in Prescott. Her grandfather, John Criley, was a pioneer physician who came here in the 1890s, followed by her father, Dr. Clarence E. Yount, who emigrated to Arizona as a health seeker and married Dr. Criley's daughter Clara. Dr. and Mrs. Yount established their first home on the corner of Marina and Gurley Streets next door to the Congress Hotel, where the Hassayampa Inn now stands. Martha grew up in that neighborhood where she attended Washington School and the church, went to and participated in musical presentations at the Elks Theater and the Monday Club, shared dinners with her family at the Yavapai Club, and was a regular patron at the Carnegie Library. She ventured across town to the zoo at the top of Park Avenue. She was very involved in the music programs at the old Prescott High School on Gurley Street, where she graduated in the Class of 1930.
Martha's love affair with horses began when she was a small child. She had a pony and a cart. When the family moved to 212 South Mount Vernon Street, she rode stable horses belonging to "Doc" Pardee, in Forbing Park. She learned to ride on her father's McClellan saddle. When Martha moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona she became a member of Desert Riders, an honorary riding society, with whom she rode in parades and competed in horse shows in Tucson and Phoenix. Martha came home to Prescott for the summer and worked as recreational director at the Mountain Club where she taught horsemanship and staged mounted trials and shows. She even played polo at the fairgrounds. English riding and jumping became her specialty. Martha rode roundup with Bob Perkins on an English saddle with a piggin' string through the ring. The cowboys hooted and kidded her about her "postage stamp," but she gained their respect with her expertise.
At the University of Arizona, Martha majored in education, with a minor in English. She sang in churches of many denominations with the oratorio society, and did her student teaching with the Sisters of Carandolet. Her first year of "real" teaching, 1936-37, was spent in the one-room schoolhouse in Peeples Valley, where she lived in the attached teacherage. With her small student body she produced a Christmas play, explored the surrounding countryside with picnic lunches, sledded when it snowed, and put on a profitable spring carnival. When it came time to make holiday presents there was no construction paper or plaster of Paris. Instead, Martha ordered a steer hide, borrowed tools from her brother Bob and learned to use them. She in turn taught tooling and her students, all from ranching families, made leather gifts for their families. What a year that must have been for her pupils! Martha herself described it as the "most educational year of my life," teaching, but not by the book. She also taught, and practiced, first aid and was instrumental in establishing numerous first aid stations at service stations and out-of-the-way places in Yavapai County.
Martha Yount taught until Pearl Harbor was attacked on her brother's birthday. That made her mad and she marched down to the recruiter's office to enlist. When the recruiter told her he had no place for her, she replied, "You better get something." She was inducted into the WAACs and sent to Officers' Candidate School at Ft. Des Moines. As a second lieutenant assigned to a variety of duties she served at Devens, Massachusetts; Daytona Beach, Florida; Oglethorpe, Georgia; and Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey where she met and fell in love with Millard "Skinny" Caldwell. They were married "between troop trains" and after a four-day honeymoon her new husband was sent to Europe where he was captured while flying "The Hump." Martha was scheduled to join him, but "the story and the State Department couldn't get together." Skinny died in prison camp without ever meeting his son, Martin. Martha returned to Prescott with her son and became the city's first uniformed policewoman in 1952. She tired of the mostly menial duties assigned to her, and when in 1955, Abia Judd offered her a teaching job she resigned from the police department to return to the classroom. She then taught fourth grade at Lincoln School for twenty-two years, until 1977, and is remembered fondly by her students. She delighted in seeing them in later years and watching their families grow.
Martha Caldwell Joined the Prescott Corral of Westerners International in 1968. She served as keeper of the chips, or treasurer, for years and was honored with a lifetime membership. She was active in Rainbow and Eastern Star, where she and Hazel Deming teamed up as a calling committee. Martha remarked that even though Hazel was blind, she knew more people and how to get around town better than she did! She was a proud grandmother (emphasis Martha's) who attended and supported all of the sports competitions, school activities, and dance recitals of her grandchildren. She remains a guardian angel on the sidelines of all Prescott High School athletic events and leaves a precious legacy for her son and her grandchildren. Truly, hers is a life to celebrate!
Mona McCroskey is a Research Historian at the Sharlot Hall Museum. This article was written from a 1991, oral history interview the author conducted with Martha Yount Caldwell.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (po2443p). Reuse only by permission.
"Skinny", in uniform, and Martha Caldwell with an unidentified man in 1946. Martha's remarkable life has been highlighted by twenty-two years of teaching at Lincoln School and a few years before that as a Prescott's first woman police officer. She passed away in August of this year.