Maricopa: Where do I start? (1952)

Gerald and Eva Williams came to Maricopa in the early 1950s at a time when there were no paved roads, few stores and no churches with two babies and a third on the way. 

Williams farmed out on SR238 next to the railroad tracks and lived in a little one-room pump house with no electricity or water. Eva gives a rare insight into what it was like to be a part of Maricopa in 1952. (Harry Brock remembers that Eva’s mother was a Harvey Girl who lived and worked in northern Arizona when she was young.) Eva Williams, an artist, wrote the following words before she passed away in circa 2000: 

“The main road into Maricopa had been the main line for passenger trains from Tucson into Phoenix. It was rough and dusty.

“We had bought 360 acres west…. three miles from Maricopa on the Mobile Road, now called SR238 just across the road from the railroad (tracks) south—a one-room garage and an irrigation pump. There was no electricity, no trees or anything green . . . but cotton. We put a large water tank on a tower, so had one line of water to the house for the small sink. We had propane for the cook stove and refrigerator.

“I had two babies in diapers; heating water in a number three tub and washing on a rub board. I remember going to the pump, wetting bath towels to keep the babies cool for their naps. I also remember the first white shirt I ironed with the flat irons. I had the fire too high, and I will always remember the black smear across the front of that shirt.

“The evenings we ate by lamp light. Gerald had to haul the cotton into Chandler to the gin; no gins at that time around Maricopa. On one of the many trips the kids and I went with him….we stayed the night with Grandpa and Grandma Williams.

“Bill and Flip Storie lived across the field from us, and Steve, their oldest, picked that night to break his last (baby) bottle. Flip sent Bill down to borrow one of Nellie’s. Since we weren’t home, no lamp was on. Bill got his flashlight and searched until he found one in the sink, so, they got some sleep that night.

“In the early part of 1952, I graduated from the rub board to a metal square tub Maytag washer with a Brigg-Stratton motor on the bottom…also, from the flat irons to a little blue gas iron and an Aladdin lamp that lit up the whole garage. 

“(On) July 31st I went into labor with Teresa. It had been raining hard that day, and the road was very slick with water running in the washes. The back end of the pickup was too light, so to keep it from fish-tailing us off the road and into the ditch, Gerald got onto the back bumper, and I drove us out to the Maricopa Road. Teresa was born a little before midnight at the little Casa Grande Hospital.

“In those days there were very few farmers that had cement irrigation ditches. Most were dirt, like ours. Gerald had started the pump to pre water. The ditch ran just behind the house, and, as I watched the water slowly fill the ditch, a thousand mice came out of the holes in the ditch, and I think every one (of) them headed for the house. 

“Since there was just the one room, we got rid of them in no time. We packed up and went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a night and day…. after setting a bomb off in the house. When we came back, the mice were gone….thank goodness!

“Gerald moved two little cotton cabins next to the garage, then cut one window out and made a doorway, and we had two bedrooms. With the irrigation pump and the sound of the freight trains at night, it was hard at first to get any sleep. We got so used to the sounds that, if the pump shut down, it would wake us up. A few times a train would be going by, and Gerald pulled me from the bed, yelling for me to get off of the tracks. 

“Maricopa, at the time, had two grocery stores, the Mercantile and a small one where the NAPA Parts store is. The post office was a little room in the back of the hotel (Maricopa Hotel-south side of tracks). There were two gas stations: one by Woods Court and one east on the Casa Grande Highway. I think at that time there were two bars and no churches.

“Gerald sold the farm, and we moved away for a short time. When we moved back, Gerald went to work for Bogle Farms. They were putting cotton fields in from the desert about eight miles southwest of Maricopa.

“Johnny and Betty Daugherty had moved from California and opened the D & H Market.  The four of us started the Church of Christ, meeting in our homes. The land where the church is today was donated with the understanding we would build a church…the first for Maricopa.

“I used to look from my kitchen window and see nothing but cotton fields and the mountains. The cotton fields are almost gone, now mostly houses. Maricopa has come from a small farming village to a growing community of new and busy people. 

Submitted photo

Maricopa Historical Society cordially invites all of Maricopa’s citizens to write, or give a video-taped interview of their stories, impressions and memories of coming to Maricopa whether it was ninety years ago or yesterday for future generations.  For more information email Patricia Brock:  [email protected]

Editor’s note:  Maricopa factoids are a regular feature on InMaricopa.com. They are provided by the Maricopa Historical Society, a branch of the Friends of the Maricopa Public Library. Most information comes from “Reflections of a Desert Town” by author and historical society chairperson Patricia Brock. 

Gift Cards are available for Brock’s the new book: “Images of America: Maricopa” along with a short story of Maricopa. Contact Brock at 480-821-0604 or [email protected] to purchase a gift card or to reserve a copy of the book.