Rose Garden PhotographsEmma Marie (Stewart) Elliott Hazard was born June 9, 1892, in Paola, Miami County, Kansas, the daughter of Annie Marie (Bradbury) and Ivy Vandervort Stewart. In 1893 her parents brought her to Tempe, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory. Emma attended Kyrene and Tempe elementary schools and graduated in 1912 from Tempe Normal School. She often went by her middle name Marie.

On April 10, 1913, Emma married Reginald Carson Elliott (1887-1922), a homesteader and farmer. The Elliotts had two daughters who survived childhood: Helen Louise (Elliott) Painter Polingo, born January 21, 1918, and Hazel Marie (Elliott) Owens, born January 2, 1920.  Another daughter, Florence Maude Elliot, was born March 16, 1915 and died January 12, 1917. The Elliott family homesteaded one hundred and twenty acres of land near the southeast corner of Elliot and Kyrene Roads in Tempe. (Elliot Road in Tempe is spelled with only one “T,” but genealogical records for the Elliott family spell the name with two “T”s).

In 1922 Emma divorced Reginald. Emma and her daughters continued to run the ranch and expanded its size.  The farmland was valuable because two canals bisected it.  In 1930, she married a widower, Harry Allen Hazard (1883-1971), who was a contractor and builder. They continued to live in the Elliott House at 110 S. Maple in Tempe until 1940.

Besides being a mother and homemaker, Emma taught school at Tonto Basin (now under Lake Roosevelt). She was active in the Kyrene Parent Teachers Association, a member and deaconess of the Baptist Church, the first woman school board member of the Kyrene School District, and a charter member of the Tempe Women's Club.  In addition to being part of an early pioneer family, she played an active role in her community.

Emma died on June 5, 1978, and is buried at Double Butte Cemetery in Tempe.

Donor: Jean Hall, December 1998
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box H, F-Hazard, Emma (Stewart)
Updated: 11/9/2015, Gretchen Hough Eastman