Josephine “Josie” Catarina (Hegglin) Surrett was born on March 18, 1891, in Menzingen, Canton Zug, Switzerland, the daughter of Josef and Josefa Roth Hegglin. Her family was prominent in the Swiss Canton Zug, but Josie, lured by tales of the American West that were widely read in Europe, longed for adventure away from the staid traditions of her Swiss homeland. She received a letter from a friend, Paula Schrade, who, with her German husband Louis, had just purchased the White House Hotel in Mayer, Arizona Territory. Paula offered Josie a job at the hotel.

Alice Elaine (Durbin) White Stewart, daughter of William Waters and Ida Sarah (Densmore) Durbin, was born on July 2, 1890, in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. Her mother passed away in 1900. She and her five sisters grew up in the house that her father built on McCormick Street, and they attended school in Prescott. Her father was a carpenter at Fort Whipple.

Grace Marian Sparkes was born in Lead, South Dakota, on January 21, 1893, the daughter of Thomas J. and Mary Ann (Martin) Sparkes. After living briefly in Alaska, the family came to Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, in 1907. Grace graduated from St. Joseph's Academy in 1910 and later from Lamson Business College in Phoenix.

Josephine (Stombs) Blackburn Shupp was born on February 20, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Harriet Stombs. In 1867, she married Cornelius Emmett Blackburn in Petaluma, California, and they had four children: Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Edward, Amanda F. “Minnie” (Mrs. Andy) Weishaar and Ida May (Mrs. George) McIlrath.

Laura (Steinbrook) Wilson Shearer, daughter of Mahala Dawson (Riggins) and Andrew Steinbrook, was born May 2, 1870, on her parents’ homestead at Walnut Creek, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. Mahala and Andrew came to Arizona from Kansas via an oxen team and wagon in 1864. They traveled with a party of pioneers who later settled in Miller Valley. Mahala and Andrew were married en route.

Dora Dean (Davis) Graves Roy Sharp was born on October 4, 1898, in Hackberry, Mohave County, Arizona Territory. She was the daughter of May Imus (Young) and George Davis, a native of Missouri. She attended public school in Kingman, Arizona Territory, and a Catholic school in San Diego, California. On November 15, 1915, at the age of seventeen, Dora married Samuel M. Graves, a cattleman, at her parents' DW Ranch, located at the foot of the Hualapai Mountains of northwest Arizona.

Elizabeth (Heckert) Shanberger was born October 8, 1818, in the Duchy of Hesse, Germany. She married John Shanberger, a native of Baden, Germany, on August 18, 1839, in Pulaski County, Arkansas.

Prior to the Civil War, they owned and operated a prosperous plantation at Mamelle, Arkansas, in the area which is now part of North Little Rock. During the conflict, they were forced to abandon their holdings and seek refuge in Texas on the banks of the Brazos River.

Elizabeth Jane (Wells) Scholey, the daughter of Sara Elizabeth (Johnson) and David O. Wells, was born in White Oaks, New Mexico, on June 25, 1884. She traveled to the Arizona Territory with her family in 1888, a three-month journey in a covered wagon. In June, they arrived at the Willard Ranch in the Verde Valley, Yavapai County, where her older sister, Ila, was nursed back to health from typhoid fever that she contracted on the way. 

Edith Marie (Foster) Scholey, daughter of Agnes Winterholer and Arthur A. Foster, was born on August 23, 1908, in Jerome, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory. She graduated from Prescott High School in 1926 and attended the University of Arizona. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1930 with a major in mathematics and a minor in geology, specializing in the geology of northern Arizona.   A petite woman, Edith was the first woman to be on the university rifle team.

Leonita, “Nita” (Gilardi) Savoini, daughter of Eliseo and Margherita (Mariani) Gilardi, was born in Bre, Lugano, Switzerland, on October 30, 1905. Both parents were of Italian descent. 

Nita’s father prospected in the Arizona Territory as a young man and then returned to Switzerland, where he met Nita’s mother.  After Eliseo and Margherita married, Eliseo left his wife and baby Leonita to return to Arizona.