Edith Almeta (Johns) Trengove was born July 1, 1872, in Lake Linden, Houghton County, Michigan. She was the youngest of five children. She was the daughter of Maria (Rogers) and Alfred Raymond Johns. When she registered to vote in Yavapai County in 1924, she was five feet four inches and weighed 150 pounds.

She married Samuel Reed Trengove on November 10, 1897, in Lake Linden. Samuel accepted a position with a gold mine in Mullen, Shoshone County, Idaho where their first child, Alfred Kenyon, was born on October 22, 1898.   In 1905, Sam accepted a position as Superintendent of the mining at the Blue Bell Mine and Iron King Mine near Mayer, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory.  A second child, Roger Reed, was born in 1906 in Prescott.

The couple moved to Globe in 1914, then to Los Angeles, California, where Sam started a company that manufactured musical instruments and continued his post-graduate work in mining engineering. They returned to Prescott in 1921. In 1922, Sam, with two friends, purchased the Crystal Ice and Fuel Company which was in receivership, and was originally located on the banks of Miller Creek. They sold ice until the turn of the century when the machinery became available to bottle soda. Sam died on May 18, 1932, in Prescott. In the 1940s, under the leadership of Sam’s son Kenyon, the name was changed to Crystal Ice and Coca-Cola Company.

Edith was an accomplished musician and for fifty years was the organist for the First Congregational Church in Prescott, where she was also the President of the Fellowship. She was always active in religious work. She was a member of the Eastern Star and the Monday Club. As a member of the Monday Club, she played at the Thirteenth Annual Arizona Federation of Women’s Clubs program in Prescott.

Edith died September 7, 1949 and was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott.

According to her obituary in the Prescott Evening Courier dated September 8, 1949, “After the death of her husband, she aided her son Kenyon, in running the Crystal Ice Company. Through her careful guidance and farsightedness, the business broadened in scope, new quarters being erected on Granite Street, and the ice plant was sold.”

“When my father left us,” Kenyon said, “I was somewhat confused with what fell upon me. Without the counsel and help of my mother, I might not have met the obstacles that arose with calmness and success.”

Donor: Kenyon Trengove
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box T, F-Trengove, Edith
Updated: 2/04/2016, Gretchen Hough Eastman