Mattie Elizabeth (Durbin) Scott was born on June 30, 1894, in Prescott, Yavapai Co., Arizona to Ida Sarah (Densmore) and William Waters Durbin in the home built by her father at 136 North McCormick Street, Prescott, Arizona.

Mattie was the youngest of six girls: Jessie Grace (Durbin) Powers (1881); Florence B. (Durbin) Kennedy (1883); Iva D. (Durbin) Ranney (1884); Helen Ann (Durbin) Reynolds (1888); and Alice E. (Durbin) Stewart (1890). She had two brothers, both of whom died in infancy: Francis J. Durbin (1887); and Elmer Durbin (1893). Mattie was raised and educated in Prescott, Arizona.

Jessie Grace (Durbin) Powers was born on November 15, 1881, in Prescott, Arizona to Ida (Densmore), of Wisconsin and William W. Durbin of St. Clairsville, Ohio. Jessie came from a family of six girls and two boys. Her siblings were Florence B. Anderson Kennedy, born February 26, 1883; Iva D. Ranney, born September 28, 1884; Francis J., born February 16, 1887; Helen Ann Williams Reynolds, born March 30, 1888; Alice Elaine White Stewart, born July 2, 1890; Elmer Henry, born May 16, 1893; and Mattie Elizabeth Scott, born June 30, 1894.

Theola L. (Linn) Morgan was born March 25, 1885, on a prairie farm in North Bend,  Dodge County, Nebraska, the daughter of a Dr. William Isaiah and Margaret “Maggie” Jane McClatchey Linn. After losing her mother at the age of two, she learned family values from an uncle and aunt, Robert B. and Hattie M. Sloss, on a farm on the Nebraska prairie.

Emily Ann Saunders (alternate spelling Sanders) Young was born on December 16, 1844, in London, England, the daughter of Charles Saunders. She came to America on a sailing vessel in 1848.  In February 1863 at Sabrecka, Nebraska, she married Dewitt Clinton Young, who had been a government scout on the Oregon Trail. They moved to San Bernardino County, California, before they joined a wagon train and traveled to Willows Ranch in Williamson Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, in 1878.  

Mabel attended school in Prescott, residing with Captain and Mrs. Bucky O’Neill during her high school days.  Mabel was teaching school in Santa Maria, California, during the winter of 1898 but returned to Peeples Valley to nurse her sister, Louise, who was seriously ill with pneumonia.

Ida Elizabeth Hester (Smith) Genung was born on October 7, 1848 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is the  daughter of Emily Laverne (Wright) and Dr. William Isaac Smith. She accompanied her father over the old Mormon Trail to California in a wagon train.

Ida went to school in California in the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and had private tutoring at the Smith Ranch. She lived on the old stage route in Banning, California, where notables crossed back and forth between the territories.

Mona (Denson) Lange, daughter of Albert M. Denson and Lucille A. (Singletary) Denson Yopp, was born on October 14, 1907, in Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona Territory. Albert and Lucy were both from the great state of Texas. Mona had one brother, Albert Jr.  Mona was "Miss Smoki" in 1929, in Prescott.  That same year, she graduated from Tempe Normal School.  Mona taught English as a second language to Hispanic children in Avondale, Arizona.

Mary Elizabeth (Chastain) Cordes was born on September 3, 1888 in Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia, the daughter of William E. and Eugenie (Smith) Chastain. When the 1900 census was enumerated Mary was listed in the household of her grandparents, Sterling and Lizzie Chastine[sic—spelling on census], in Fork, Hall County, Georgia.

Laura A. (Hopper) Wall Cochran was born on August 6, 1892 in Fort Stanton, Lincoln County, New Mexico, the daughter of Robert Monroe and Elizabeth (Russell) Hopper.  She grew up at Camp Verde, Arizona Territory where her father conducted a mercantile business. She graduated from Northern Arizona Teachers College in Flagstaff and took a course at Lamson’s Business College in Phoenix before teaching.

By Brad Courtney

It was called "a dastardly deed.” The work of a demon. It was human emotion gone terribly wrong, and at that time considered the greatest atrocity in Prescott’s 32-year history.