Tough times, wild nights for early Maricopa cotton farmers

Bertha Anderson Easley and her husband, Jay Easley came to Maricopa in 1947. Several members of her husband’s family were already living in Maricopa and working for E. K. Porter who lived East of Maricopa on Porter Road. In addition, her brother-in-law, Rufus Cooper, a long time Maricopa resident, worked for E.K. Porter. 

Bertha was born in Seamore, Texas in 1922 where she spent her childhood living in tents and following the oilrigs. Her father, Dee Anderson, worked as a driller for an oil company. 

However, this did not prepare her for life in a small farming community in the middle of the Arizona desert.  Bertha, well into her 80s, shares her memories of those early days of living in Maricopa and working as a cotton contractor for farmers. Her sister-in-law, Ruth Easley, also provides a glimpse of what Maricopa was like during its early farming days. 
 
 “We moved to Maricopa after the war in 1947 when my husband came home from the service.  My first impression of Maricopa was I thought it was a hellhole. All the roads were fine dirt and gravel. There was two bars, one store, a post office in the train depot, and a small school.  We lived on Porter Ranch and Jay worked for the Porter family.

“The businesses in Maricopa consisted of a couple of bars, one store, a post office located in the train depot, and one gas station located on one street (Maricopa Highway). Family members included Leland (wife Ruth) Easley, Richard Easley and Rufus (wife Rene Easley) Cooper working with us in the area.

“I did a lot of fieldwork in Maricopa and ran lunch wagons for cotton pickers. Later, I was a waitress in a restaurant. I was a floor lady at Booth Packing. My mother-in-law, Ollie Easley was like a mother and was very good to me….always there to help me and give advice. I would rather have worked in an office if given a choice.

“During cotton-picking season, we went to Oklahoma and hauled out people to pick the cotton. If they stayed till it was all picked, we took them back. Some stayed. 

“We lived in a cabin and one boxcar. I went once a week to Phoenix to get groceries. When we fed the cotton pickers, my mother-in-law and I ran a lunch wagon for lunch. We had stew or beans. In addition, at night we fixed some dinners for the pickers.  We ate meat, potatoes and vegetables, and for dessert we had cake or cookies. We had no refrigerator, just an icebox.  Nor did we have indoor toilets or showers…just outside toilets and bathtubs. I picked some cotton, but not much. I helped cook and served.  We paid in cash to the pickers. 

“While in Maricopa, we had flash floods that washed our roads out. We couldn’t get out unless we walked through water…which we did. Sometimes, Mr. Porter would take us through the water on a tractor to get our groceries at Casa Grande, or we would walk to Maricopa along the railroad tracks. We would take the kids wagon to bring back ice and whatever else we needed until the water went down. 

“There was nothing there (in Maricopa) but cotton fields and desert land. There were a lot of rattlesnakes. We killed a lot of them in the cotton fields. After the cotton was picked, my husband, Jay, worked on the farm getting it ready to plant and pick for the next year. I chopped the cotton and cut the weeds out during this time. We had no TV or phones…just a radio.  It was a hard life. We worked from sun up till sun down. Sometimes, we weighed the cotton by flashlight. We cooked with wood and had wood stoves.

“One funny thing that happened to me was when Ruth Easley (sister-in-law) and I took a wagon and went to town for supplies. We bought food and a bottle of wine. On the way home, we drink the wine. There was a flash flood and our wagon turned over. The food was floating down the creek and we ran through the water to retrieve it. We laughed all the way home. We didn’t have many laughs in those days, but this was funny.” Today, Bertha lives with her daughter in Idaho and still likes a sip of wine or two and has a great appreciation and love for her family.”

Ruth Easley

Ruth Easley, who was married to Jay’s brother, Leland, also shared her memories of living in Maricopa in the late 1940s and 1950s. 

According to Ruth “My family and my husband’s family were part of the “dust bowl” migration to California in the 1930s. I met George Leland Easley in Modesto California and married him June 29, 1947.

“In 1949, we moved to Maricopa, Arizona joining other Easley family members on a cotton ranch belonging to E.K. Porter. The ranch was located a short distance out of Maricopa, on the road to Casa Grande. The Easley family worked in the cotton fields planting and hoeing the crop.

“Around harvest time, the men of the family drove to Oklahoma City and picked up people who were in need of work (some of them street people). The cotton pickers lived in an assortment of cabins on the Porter Ranch. The Easley family operated a lunch wagon, taking it to the field to feed the pickers. We ran a small store in the camp, selling snack foods and drinks.

“On weekends, the camp could get pretty rowdy. There would be gambling, drinking and fighting. My niece, Bobbie Honeycutt Stewart reminded me of an incident where my husband suffered an injury to his hand, when he attempted to break up a fight and was cut by a knife.  Just one more Saturday night on the farm.

“We lived there for a year or more and then we moved farther on towards Casa Grande, on a small ranch owned by Bruce Wing and Jack Wright. My husband worked as a farm hand there and ran a harvesting crew. 

“We had one son Leland J. Easley born Sept. 28, 1948 before we moved to Maricopa, and one daughter Carolyn Easley born in Casa Grande on Aug. 23, 1951.

“I remember there was a post office, two grocery stores; hotel and restaurant combined in Maricopa. There were two bars, one service station, some Southern Pacific railroad houses along the railroad tracks. Possibly some others, I’ve forgotten.

“Shortly after the birth of Carolyn, we moved into Maricopa and ran a bar – more wild weekends.  (Wonder Bar built by Jack Burkett, an early Maricopa pioneer). There were lots of dances and parties at the bar during the 1920s-1930s. Today the La Roca is located where the Wonder Bar stood in the 1930-40s.

“We moved back to California for a few years, and then returned to Maricopa approximately in 1956. My husband worked repairing farm equipment at the O.S. Stapley dealership. 
 
“The town had grown some, added another bar called Headquarters, another service station and more housing. Our two older children went to school in Maricopa for a couple of years. We left there in 1958 and moved to Keyes, California.” 

Today, Ruth Easley enjoys her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and misses her extended Easley family, but not the hard work that consumed so much of her time and energy in a small desert farming community in the middle of Arizona.  

 Photo courtesy of Patricia Brock