By Stan Brown

As we approach the 100th anniversary of Arizona’s statehood, we are discovering stories of little known events from our state’s beginnings. One of these is about the first woman to be elected to our State House of Representatives and the tragic event that motivated her.

She was born Rachel Emma Allen on March 11, 1859 in Ogden, Utah. She married William Berry in 1879 and they left Utah in late 1881 with a group of other Mormons and settled in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona Territory. Mr. Berry became a leading rancher in St. Johns with cattle, sheep and horses brought from Utah. Rachel was the mother of seven children.

When it became known that Arizona would soon become a state, a Constitutional Convention was called in 1910 and women’s suffrage was one of the hotly debated issues. Rachel was at the heart of that movement. She joined Francis Munds and others pressing to include the right of women to vote in the new constitution. Their cause was defeated, but they did win a constitutional clause that allowed for an initiative to be raised by the public. In February 1912, when Arizona became the 48th state, these women immediately began an initiative movement to amend the constitution. That fall, in the new state’s first election, the amendment was passed and women were given the right to vote as well as hold public office in Arizona – eight years before universal sufferage occurred in the United States.

In the fall election of 1914, Rachel was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives representing Apache County – the first woman to be elected to a State Legislature in the U. S. In that same election, Francis Munds of Prescott won a seat in the Arizona State Senate while throughout the state five women were elected to county offices.

During Rachel’s one term in the legislature, she successfully advocated for the state flag we have today. Being a certified teacher and deeply concerned to have an influence for the welfare of children in the new state, she fought for bills concerning education and child welfare, serving on the Educational Committee. She chaired the Committee on Good Roads. She did lose one battle, though, and that was her attempt to banish cigars and chewing tobacco in the legislative chambers!

Rachel Berry had been driven in her concern for the welfare of children by a family tragedy in the winter of 1903. Her eldest son, Wiley, was a 20-year-old student at Brigham Young University. On a break from school, he was helping to drive the family sheep herd down to winter pasture. He was joined by the hired sheepherder, Santiago Vigil, and his 16-year-old son, Juan.

In those days, tension between the sheep men and the cattle men ran high. Each fall and spring, thousands of sheep were driven across the cattle grazing lands of central Arizona between the Colorado Plateau and the Salt River Valley. With no fences, these huge sheep migrations were considered by cattle ranchers to be an intrusion, even though the grazing areas were nearly all government land. The cattlemen were obligated to tolerate the sheep as long as they passed on through and did not deviate from their traditional routes. It was easy for the flocks to wander off the sheep trail and it was common for the cattlemen to harass the shepherds, shooting up their camps.

Wiley and the Vigils were camped a few miles southeast of Gisela, along Tonto Creek. Early in the morning on December 22nd, Santiago left Juan and Wiley at camp to eat their breakfast while he drove the sheep to a nearby canyon to graze. Brothers Zach and John Booth, local cattle and goat ranchers, rode up to the herd with their rifles across their knees, demanding Santiago to leave the canyon with the herd. "This is my range and I want to keep the grass for my own animals."

Santiago explained that they were not his sheep and they would have to talk to the boss, Wiley, and they would find him back at the camp. The Booth brothers asked where their camp was located, said no more and headed for the camp. About 20 minutes later, Santiago heard the shots. He ran toward the camp and, from a distance, saw the Booth brothers riding off. When he arrived at the camp, he found both boys dead. Wiley had no gun on or near him and even had food still in his mouth. Santiago moved his son’s body, covered it with a canvas and rode quickly to another sheep camp a few miles away for help. That herder, J. H. McCleve, sent one of his men to Payson to file a criminal complaint against the Booth brothers while others went back to the camp to take care of the bodies of the two boys.

Next week you’ll find out what happened to the Booth brothers and to Wiley’s mother, Rachel Berry, and how it influenced her to seek public office.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Courtesy of the Arizona State Archives) Reuse only by permission.

Rachel Berry, c.1884. The murder of her son Wiley in 1903 prompted her to seek public office to work to protect children.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(public domain) Reuse only bypermission.

The AZ State Flag, adopted on February 17, 1917 despite then Gov. Campbell’s refusal to sign the bill. Rachel Berry was instrumental in its adoption. The flag was designed in 1910 by Col. Charles Harris who was captain of the Arizona Rifle Team. Arizona was the only "state" participating in the yearly National Rifle Match in Ohio at that time that did not have a flag. Col. Harris worked with then representative Carl Hayden to have a flag made (by Hayden’s wife) to carry to the Ohio match in 1911. In the legislature beginning in 1912, there were numerous dissenting votes to adopt this original design and it took five more years to finalize.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Apache County) Reuse only bypermission.

Rachel Berry represented Apache County beginning in 1915 for one term of the Arizona State Legislature. At that time she had lived in the county for 33 years and knew the needs of the county well. Apache County was created out of Yavapai County (one of the four original Arizona counties) on February 24, 1879. In 1879 it was inhabited by the Navajo and Apache tribes, along with a few cattlemen and sheepherders. When Navajo and Graham Counties were formed in the late 1800s, Apache went from 21,000 sq. miles to present day 11,000 sq. miles.