Elzy John Pike (1895 - 1977)

Born 9 Nov 1895 in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona

Ancestors

Husband of Mildred Pauline (Smith) Ralston — married 23 Oct 1913 (to before 1932) in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona

Husband of Iola Alice Lange — married 9 Nov 1931 in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona

Descendants

Died 17 Feb 1977 at age 81 in Wickenburg, Yavapai, Arizona

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Biography

The following excerpt from the biography of Elzy John Pike was printed in 1978 in the Arizona National Livestock Show, Ranch Histories, Volume I, compiled by Betty Accomazzo: Elzy was born November 9, 1895 on the Cartwright hometead in Phoenix. He received his early schooling at Central School and Monroe School. In 1916, at the age of 21, Elzy homesteaded the entire townsite of Yarnell. At that time he worked the road crew which constructed the highway with only one piece of power equipment up Yarnell hill. Besides homesteading the townsite of Yarnell Hill, Elzy worked for several ranches and mines in the country, including the Yarnell Mine. In 1940 he purchased the P Bar Ranch on Slate Creek. In 1944 he bought the ranch on the Hassayampa River in Walnut Grove and established the Walnut Grove Hereford Ranch which he sold in 1960 when he returned to Yarnell.

The Mountaintop News on February 28, 1977 published the following article: With the burial of Elzy Pike on Feb. 22 at Genung Memorial Park, another chapter closed on the early history of Yarnell. Pioneer Pike Born Nov. 9, 1895, to John and Annie Pike, in Phoenix, Elzy was known throughout southern an central Arizona as a pioneering cattleman. In 1914. at the age of 19, he homesteaded the territory which encompassed what was later known as Yarnell, including Glen Ilah. During the depression years he worked in the old Yarnell Mine and helped with the constructon of the highway up Yarnell Hill. In 1940, he bought the P-Bar Ranch which ran from the old Top o' the Pines south of Prescott throught the Broom Creek region to about seven miles east of the present TK-Bar Ranch. The area was know as the Lange Allotment. In 1944, Elzy sold this property and bought the S.A.D. Jackson Ranch which he ran until his returned to Yarnell to retire in 1960. Elzy Pike died at the age of 81, early Friday morning, Feb. 18, at the Wickenbourg Hospital, leaving his widow, Lytia, his sons, Leo, James, Richard and Robert, several grandchildren and three brothers. In an article written after an interview with Elzy last April, Tom Sheehan, reporter for Mountain Top News, referred to him as a "gentle-mannered, humane man" and it (is) as such that his many friends, his family and his neighbors will remember him.

Sources

• Death certificate