In 1874 when Martha Dunham Summerhayes came as a bride from the coast of Nantucket to Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory, she learned the hard facts of army life at Forts Whipple, McDowell, Apache, Yuma, Lowell and a summer in Ehrenberg, all in Arizona. She also spent time in other parts of the country where Santa Fe was her favorite. Her enthralling story told by actress Jane Merrifield-Beecher, gives episodes of traveling the Colorado River, using the red river water for bathing, rearing a baby in the isolation of the forts without the amenities she was use to in Nantucket and surviving the desert heat. This is three hours abridged.
Vanished Arizona
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
I'm pleased to inform you that VANISHED ARIZONA is featured in the October issue of our library newsletter "Reviewer's Bookwatch." This review also appears in the September issue of our book, "Internet Bookwatch." It has been posted on internet discussion groups.......has forwarded for inclusion in Gale Research Company's "Book Review Index"; and has been posted to the internet bookstores Amazon.com; ReadersNdex; Book Stacks Unlimited; and BookWire. I look forward to your next title. -- The Midwest Book Review
When will you have other titles released? I find that I have a friend in the narrator and don't want her to stop. -- A customer, G. Shouse
When will you have other titles released? I find that I have a friend in the narrator and don't want her to stop. -- A customer, G. Shouse
About the Author
Beverly Van Horn is married, has three grown children and eight grandchildren. She was a journalist 30 years, having founded two weekly newspapers in Colorado; started an Indian gallery and boutique in Colorado and Tucson, which she sold after 14 years; and is now now producing womens diaries of the 1800's on audio cassettes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A rare and engaging perspective,
By "echodell" (Colorado Springs, Co) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman (Paperback)
This type of narrative is a relative rarity in the history of the American border, and Arizona in particular. This is not only a woman's perspective but the views and memories of an army wife. The only comparable books that come to mind are the trilogy of Cavalry life by Libbie Custer. Mrs. Custer's books are more polished but more suspect as the information is filtered by her desire to glorify her husband. Mrs. Summerhayes account does not have this weakness and she is more concerned with how the events affect her children and herself. Her description of the Arizona landscape and conditions of Army life stays with you. In particular the sequence in which she is being transported through hostile territory when she is possibly in more danger from her husband than the Indians. This book adds much to the history of the Southwest and is justifiably considered a classic.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History, adventure, travellog make for a good read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman (Paperback)
This is the story of a Nantucket woman who marries a cavalry officer and moves with him to various Army forts in the late 19th century. A very personal story of Army life in Indian country, raising children in very trying conditions, a travelog and adventure story. The tales of getting back and forth between Nantucket and Arizona is worth the reading alone.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Frank Tale of Arizona History,
By
This review is from: Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman (Paperback)
In the late nineteenth century, Martha Summerhayes and her young lieutenant husband take up residence in the dusty army forts of Arizona. Vanished Arizona is a collection of memories of those days. Along the way, the reader meets a variety of characters such as a nearly-naked Indian cook and a "dentist" who accidentally extracts the wrong tooth.
We learn of treacherous travel in which mule carts overturn and people drown while crossing rivers. In one harrowing adventure, young Martha is advised by her husband to shoot herself and her baby son in preference to being captured by Indians. What I love about this book is the guileless storytelling that seems unblemished by political correctness. She does not varnish the truth as she sees it, nor does she attempt to make her life in dusty Arizona attractive; she offers an honest appraisal of the rather brutal trials of an army wife in that era. At times you'll love Martha Summerhayes for her courage, and at times you'll wish she didn't whine quite so much. I recommend this book to anyone interested in frontier America and the brave people who settled the land.
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