Pearl Viola (Satathite) Ethridge, daughter of William Jackson and Lillian Belle Satathite, was born in Glendale, Maricopa County, Arizona Territory, on February 8, 1912. Her parents, both Texas natives, had moved to Glendale from Socorro County, New Mexico. After Pearl’s birth, the family moved to Thompson Valley, which is in Yava, Yavapai County. They stayed there until William bought a place approximately two miles south of Kirkland.
Pearl and her three brothers walked from their home to the one-room elementary school in Kirkland. Later her parents bought a place in Thompson Valley, their last move. Pearl had a million dollars worth of memories growing up with three brothers and doing the things they did: climbing trees, wading in the creek, and looking for birds' nests. When the children got older, they were taught to work together, doing whatever needed to be done. Pearl learned to ride bareback with her brothers and helped with the cattle branding.
Pearl attended Yava High School for two years and Prescott High School for the last two years, staying in Prescott with Grace Chapman, the county recorder. On January 5, 1934, she married rancher Wallace Henderson at Socorro, New Mexico, but the couple soon parted, and Pearl moved back home. On November 20, 1934, her only son, William Satathite, was born in Prescott.
During the 1930s, a proud moment in Pearl’s life occurred when a neighbor came to the family home asking for help with his roundup. Pearl’s brothers were gone at the time, so she agreed to help. They rode up in the granite hills and lower in the canyons for several weeks. Pearl was paid just what any man would have made plus her horse feed. The neighbor told her dad that she had as much or even more “cow sense” as some of the men he hired.
In the late 1930s, Pearl married Frank Ethridge, a surface foreman at the Bagdad Mine. Their first house in Bagdad was a little tent house with a tin roof and canvas flaps on the side, but after a while they were able to move into a real house.
Pearl was president of the Bagdad PTA for two terms, active on the social committee that planned entertainment for the mining camp and instrumental in getting the Union Sunday School started. She also worked at the Bagdad General Store. In addition, Pearl was active in the Baptist Church, both in Yava and Prescott, and was a member of the Yavapai Cowbelles, of which her mother was a charter member.
During elections in 1952, 1954, and 1956, Pearl was asked to help out in the County Recorder’s Office. Then Pearl accepted a permanent job as a deputy recorder and moved to Prescott. She worked in the County Recorder’s Office until her retirement in 1974. Pearl died January 5, 2006 and is buried at Heritage Memorial Park in Dewey, Arizona.
On June 14, 2003, the Sharlot Hall Museum Rose Garden Committee had the privilege of honoring Pearl as the first living woman to be inducted into the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden. Her mother, Lillian Belle (Welty) Satathite, is also commemorated in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden. Sharlot Hall Museum Archives has a Pearl Satathite Ethridge Photograph Collection.
Donor: Yavapai Cowbelles, May 2003
Photo Located: Oral History Vertical File - Ethridge, Pearl
Updated: 11/4/2015; D. Sue Kissel
