The Huffs Move West. Twice.
The family of Albert Crydler Huff (1854-1936)
Albert C Huff1 (1854-1936) was the son of Lewis Huff and Catherine Stroud, born on 11 Apr 1854 in Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio. He grew up in Hancock County, but by 1875, his rather large family had moved nearly 800 miles southwest to Elsmore Township, Allen County, Kansas.
Albert had four older brothers (plus an older half-brother), two younger brothers, and two sisters. All of them - some with spouses and children of their own - pulled up stakes and moved to the same area around either Elsmore in Allen County or Grant Township in Neosho County.
Not long after settling in Kansas, Albert married Catherine Elizabeth Butterfield (1859–1912), whose family had also moved from Ohio. Their wedding was on 1 January 1877, and a little over a year later, their son was born: Perry L Huff (1878–1911).
The marriage did not last long. By 1880, Albert and Perry were living back in Van Buren, Ohio, and Kate was listed as living in her parent's household in Elsmore as “Kate Huff, 22, widowed.” Albert sued her for divorce in the summer of 1882.
After their divorce, Kate married James H Gipple (1863–1899) on 8 Jul 1895 in Bourbon County, Kansas, and she died in Wichita on 28 Feb 1912.
A Second Family
Albert and Perry’s stay in Ohio was brief. Albert returned to Kansas and married Rosa Edith Murray (1861–1943) on 8 February 1883. By 1885, they lived in Elsmore Township, Allen County, Kansas, on a farm just south of the little town of Savonburg.
Rosa gave Albert five children before 1890: Albert Burton (1883), Bertha May (1885), Iva Edith (1886), Chester (1887), and Hannah Merle (1889). Albert’s younger brother, Martin, lived nearby with his five children. Their father, Lewis Senior, lived in Martin’s household until he died in 1901.
In time, the farms and the farmers grew and prospered.
After twenty years of life in farm country, Albert and Rosa had succeeded at rearing a family and they faced the prospect of an empty nest. Their children were growing up and marrying the children of friends and neighbors - specifically the Samples and the Mores. But the downside of having large families prosper in a small, rural town is that there isn’t much for the younger folks to do.
Perry and his wife, Pearl, along with two of his three sisters, Bertha and Iva, and their husbands, were probably the first to relocate to Glendale, a growing town founded in the Arizona Territory. Perry started a meat market on Glendale Avenue in partnership with his brother-in-law, Bertha's husband, Roy Sample. Perry’s health soon gave out, and Roy Sample’s new partner in the business was the husband of Perry and Bertha’s sister, Iva: Harry More.
I told the rest of their stories a few years ago:
Albert must have decided to follow the bulk of his family. His youngest son, Chet, left Kansas to work as a lumberman in Colorado, and the only child remaining at home was my 19-year-old great-grandmother, Hannah Merle. So Albert auctioned off his farm equipment and animals, rented out his land, and moved Rosa, Merle, and himself to Arizona.
A Second Move
Growing up, I frequently heard my Aunt Vickie refer to the Huff family’s move to Arizona, saying, “My grandmother came here as a young girl, a pioneer in a covered wagon.”
There is a romance to that image—and there is a solid chance it is an accurate statement. But it’s probably worth pointing out that making that journey in 1908 was probably a very different thing from making the journey to Kansas in 1875.2
My guess is that Albert, Rosa, and Merle probably traveled in a Murphy wagon—like the one described on the National Park Service website. Coincidentally, 1908 was the year the first Model T Ford automobiles went on sale in Kansas City.3 I have a strong hunch that Albert might have chosen one of those contraptions over a wagon if they had made their move just a year or two later. There were available railroad routes by that time, running from Kansas City, through Santa Fe, and on to Phoenix, but the fares for three people, plus freight charges, mattress rentals, and buying food probably made the covered wagon a more economical choice.
I don’t know exactly what overland routes would have been available in 1908, but I imagine the family may have followed the railways between Kansas and New Mexico. The last leg, from Albuquerque to Phoenix would have taken them through lands contested by the Apache tribes, which occasionally clashed with the U.S. Army through 1924.
I do have a bit of evidence that Albert and his family toured Arizona in automobiles. The photographs came to me when my Grandpa Bob died in 2007, and I’ve managed to scan a few. This one was taken at the roadside, probably between Glendale and Prescott. It’s hard to see faces, but Albert, holding a child, is unmistakable.
He and Rosa lived out their lives in Glendale, watching their grandchildren grow. He died in 1936, and she remained in their Glendale home until she died in 1943. They are buried in Glendale Memorial Park.
Albert Huff was my 2nd-great-grandfather - one of “My Sixteen” - and his second wife, Rosa, was my 2nd-great-grandmother.
National Park Service, “Wagons on the Emigrant Trails”
Wells, Michael, Kansas City Public Library, “Western Auto: A Sign of the Times,” Thursday, July 23, 2020.