Barbara Anne Smith McClendon passed away. This is the full obituary where you can share condolences and memories. Published in the Greenville Herald Banner on 2023-12-11.
True West Magazine
Most of the African Americans migrating to Arizona came from the southern states and their work experience was agriculture. In 1860 there were only 21 Blacks in Arizona and ten years later there was still only 26. Here are some more numbers that you may already have, 1880, 155; 1890, 1,357; 1900, 1,848; 1910, 2,009.
Most worked at jobs they had learned in the South, cooks, barbers, laborers, drivers, maids, table waiters and porters. Before long they branched out as cowboys, soldiers, merchants, gold prospectors, stagecoach drivers and musicians. Because of the shortage of women many, like pioneer Anglos, married Mexican women.
Bill Neal, a former Army scout, eventually hauled freight and passengers in the Tucson. In 1895, he and his young wife, Ann opened the Mountain View Hotel at Oracle in the Catalina Mountains. He ran thousands of head of cattle. There were Black gold prospectors, Ben McClendon, was the most famous of them. The Lost Ben McClendon Mine is