Elias Green Pennington Sr (1809 - 1869)

Born 16 Apr 1809 in South Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Jun 1869 at age 60 in Sonoita Creek, Pima, Arizona, USA

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Biography

Son of Elijah Pennington and Rebecca Stinchcomb.

Spouse of Julia Ann Hood. They had 12 children.

In June of 1869 Elias Green Pennington Sr and his son Elias Green Pennington Jr were killed by Apaches while working on their farm about fourteen miles south of Fort Crittenden.

Elias Sr was plowing, with his rifle slung to his plow handles, while Elias Jr was repairing an irrigating ditch some distance away. Just after Elias Sr had turned his back on his land, the Apache Indians in ambush shot him down from behind.

Elias Jr might have escaped, but not knowing his father was dead, remained to fight off the Apaches. He was mortally hurt, but finally reached the ranch house where he remained until rescued by cavalry from the fort, to which the alarm had been carried meantime.

Elias Jr and his father's body, were brought to the Fort, where eight days later the young man died. Both were buried in the same cemetery near Fort Buchanan, Arizona.

Mr. Sidney R. DeLong, then quartermaster of the Fort, read the burial service over them.

Source: The Penningtons, Pioneers Of Early Arizona: A Historical Sketch (1919) by: Robert Humphrey Forbes

The Pennington Stone House, Santa Cruz

The stone house was home to the Pennington’s on the Santa Cruz River from about 1858 to 1866. (Tucson named Pennington Street for this family.) Many of the Penningtons died at the hands of Apaches and Mexican bandits. The story of Larcena Pennington’s ordeal at the hands of the Apache appeared in the May 2016 "True West". The house is probably the oldest surviving structure in Arizona built by Anglos.

Pennington named for early family in territory

David Leighton For The Arizona Daily Star -Nov 13, 2012

Pennington Street is named for an early family that made its permanent home in what is today Arizona.

Elias G. Pennington and Julia Hood married in 1832 and left the Carolinas for Tennessee, later moving to Texas.

Julia died in 1852 in Texas, leaving behind 12 children - eight girls and four boys.

In 1857, Pennington and his children joined a wagon train headed for California. When they reached Fort Buchanan near present-day Sonoita, one daughter, Larcena, fell ill, and the family was forced to drop out of the train.

For the next two years, they lived near the fort, and they grew hay for the military.

In 1858, Larcena Pennington wed John H. Page in Tucson. A year later, the Penningtons lived in Calabasas, and in 1860 they lived in a stone house two miles north of the border.

That same year, Larcena was kidnapped by a small band of Apaches, who after spearing her and knocking her unconscious with a rock left her for dead. After about 14 days of near-starvation and incredible pain, she found her way back to camp.

In 1861, Page was ambushed and killed. Larcena remarried a decade later to William F. Scott, a leading citizen in Tucson.

In 1863 the family was in Tucson; in 1864, it was in Tubac. In both places family members hauled logs from the mountains and whipsawed them, selling the lumber to the military. The Sopori Ranch was their home in 1867 and '68. Between 1868 and 1869, Elias and his two sons - Jim and Green - were killed by Apaches.

What was left of the family, mostly women and children, moved to Tucson and stayed for some years. Jack, the only remaining brother, took his unmarried sisters back to Texas.

Pennington Street, on the south side of the old presidio wall, was originally called Calle del Arroyo and was used by Elias Pennington as a saw pit.

Historical note: Information obtained from a local man indicates the graves in the Ft. Buchanan cemetery were opened and the remains were removed. It is unknown if the grave site of Elias Pennington was found, and if it was found, it's unknown where his remains were taken. Historical artifacts have been found at the site.

Additional information has been provided by findagrave volunteer # 46796420: He was buried (1) Soldiers Point near Ft. Buchanan, A.T. (2) moved to National Cemetery in the Presidio, San Francisco in 1892, and reburied in an unmarked or perhaps mass grave.

Memorials

The Pennington Footbridge in Pima county, Arizona, is a memorial to Elias Sr.

The Sopori Ranch Cemetery, also in Pima county, has a memorial to Elias and Elias Jr (known to his family as Green), and Laura Ellen Pennington-Barnett. It reads:

In Memoriam

Elias G Pennington

Green Pennington

Killed on the Sonoita 1869

Ellen Pennington Barnett

Died at Tucson

1869

There are many other unknown persons buried there, with a memorial that reads: “Tread softly here. These stoney mounds shelter the bones of Arizona's oldest pioneers.”

Sources

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXLK-KRP : 4 March 2021), E G Pennington, Fannin, Texas, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

E G Pennington Male 40 South Carolina

J A Pennington Female 34 North Carolina

Jas Pennington Male 17 Tennessee

L E Pennington Female 15 Tennessee

S Pennington Female 13 Tennessee

C M Pennington Female 11 Tennessee

Jno P Pennington Male 10 Texas

A R Pennington Female 8 Texas

M D Pennington Female 6 Texas

A G Pennington Female 4 Texas

E G Pennington Male 2 Texas

Wm H Pennington Male 0 Texas

E Ceosley Male 19 Tennessee

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4Z6-GVZ : 18 February 2021), Eli G Pennington, 1860.

Eli G Pennington Male 52 South Carolina

Jas Pennington Male 27 Tennessee

Laura E Pennington Female 25 Tennessee

Ann B Pennington Female 17 Texas

Margt D Pennington Female 15 Texas

Amanda J Pennington Female 14 Texas

Eli G Pennington Male 12 Texas

Wm H Pennington Male 10 Texas

Mary F Pennington Female 8 Texas

Sarah J E Pennington Female 5 Texas

Thos Smilh Male 29 Ireland

• National Registry - Historical Places

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84836396/elias-green-pennington : accessed 28 December 2021), memorial page for Elias Green Pennington Sr. (16 Apr 1809–10 Jun 1869), Find A Grave: Memorial #84836396, citing San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, USA ; Maintained by C. Fahey (contributor 46827298) .

• "Arizona Deaths, 1870-1951," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLVL-3VZ : 6 April 2020), Elias Pennington in entry for Larcena A Scott, 1913; citing Tucson, Pima, Arizona, reference , Department of Library and Archives, Phoenix, Arizona; FHL microfilm 2,114,407. Death of a child

• "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3HT-TTT : 20 February 2021), Elias Green Pennington in entry for Sarah Josephine E Garden, 30 Oct 1935; citing certificate number 45292, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,116,626. Death of a child

• The Penningtons Pioneers of Early Arizona; a Historical Sketch

• Pennington Stone House and the Ruby Loop

• Pennington named for early family in territory

• The Stone House

• Sopori Pioneers pay site

• "With Their Own Blood" by Virginia Culin Roberts

• Review of Pennington Footbridge, Tucson

See also:

• Arizona, Territorial Census Records, 1864-1882

• Arizona and New Mexico Territories Census, Late 1800s