Elizabeth "Bess" Christina (Bargmann, alternate spelling Bargeman) Hesser Thorne Albertson was born on September 6, 1856, in Holland. Bess was the oldest of the Bargmann children. She moved with her family to Walnut Grove, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, in the early 1870s. Bess helped drive livestock, cared for the younger siblings and became her father's mainstay after her mother's death. Bess's sister, Millie, married Samuel Boblett, Sharlot Hall's cousin. Bess married her first husband, William G. Hesser, on July 16, 1876, in Yavapai County, at the residence of Honorable L. A. Stevens, on Willow Creek. She obtained a divorce from William on August 8, 1883 because he was habitually intemperate and treated her in an extremely cruel manner. Bess married Del Thorne on January 1, 1884, a rancher. He provided the livestock for the first Prescott rodeo. Del adopted her son, George. It appears there was some trouble with her second husband, perhaps a divorce proceeding. In December 1891 the Weekly Journal Miner carried a notice of the District Court: “Elizabeth Thorne vs D. W. Thorne, Case moved on calendar.” On July 2, 1898, she married Edward M. Albertson at Lynx Creek, Yavapai County. When the 1900 census was taken June 2, 1900, Elizabeth was enumerated at “4 mile house gulch” very near Sharlot Hall and her parents in Yavapai County. Elizabeth was living alone, although she stated that she had been married for four years and was the mother of two children with only one child still living. Elizabeth became the owner of the Bar Circle A Ranch at Lynx Creek and lived in Arizona more than sixty years. The Prescott Evening Courier dated September 3, 1906, ran an item, “There was a dance and house warming at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Albertson, Lynx Creek, last Thursday.” In 1910 the family was still living at Lynx Creek. At that time, Elizabeth’s grandson, Howard R. Thorne, was living with them. By 1903, Elizabeth was residing with her grandson Charles M. Thorne and family in Los Angeles, California. Ten years later she was living in Oro Grande, San Bernardino, California. Elizabeth made the Riverside Daily Press newspaper November 15, 1938, which reported: “An 82-year-old woman fought Indians in the early days of the West, held a decision yesterday over a 35-year-old intruder who broke into her house at Adelanto on the Mohave Desert…She bit him on the hand almost severing a finger, and pummeled him so severely he fled.” According to an article in the Prescott Evening Courier dated August 5, 1947, “Mrs. E. C. Albertson, 90, former Yavapai County resident, who died Feb. 13, 1947, at San Bernardino, California, made provisions before her death to leave a valuable collection of early day teapots to the Sharlot Hall Museum.” Donor: Emma Andres Photo Located: PB-151, F-3,I-8 - Albertson Collection Updated: 5/28/2015, D. Sue Kissel
