Product Details
Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman

Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life of a New England Woman
By Martha Summerhayes

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Average customer review:
This true story by the wife of a cavalry officer in the Arizona Territory combines history, autobiography, travel and adventure.

Product Description

In 1874, when Martha Summerhayes came as a bride to Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory, she "saw not much in those first few days besides bright buttons, blue uniforms, and shining swords," but soon enough the hard facts of army life began to intrude. Remonstrating with her husband, Jack, that she had only three rooms and a kitchen instead of "a whole house," she was informed that "women are not reckoned in at all in the War Department," which also failed to appreciate that "'lieutenants' wives needed quite as much as colonels’ wives." In fact, Martha had only a short time to enjoy her new quarters, for in June her husband’s regiment was ordered to Arizona, "that dreaded and then unknown land."
 
Although Martha Summerhayes’s recollections span a quarter of a century and life at a dozen army posts, the heart of this book concerns her experiences during the 1870s in Arizona, where (as Dan L. Thrapp observes in his introduction) the harsh climate and "perennial natural inconveniences from rattlesnakes to cactus thorns and white desperadoes, all made [it] a less than desirable posting for the married man and his wife." First privately printed in 1908, Vanished Arizona was so well-received that in 1910 Mrs. Summerhayes prepared a new edition (reprinted here), which was published in 1911, the year of her death. Among "the essential primary records of the frontier-military West," the book "retains its place securely because of the narrative skill of the author, her delight in life—all life, including even, or perhaps principally, army life and people—and because it is such a joy to read.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1184200 in Books
  • Published on: 1979-04-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 341 pages

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

About the Author

In his introduction, Dan L. Thrapp describes the Apache-white frontier and sents the book in its historical and biographical context. He is the author of Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, also a Bison Book.

From AudioFile
Beecher reads the adventures of a nineteenth-century U.S. cavalry wife in the Old West with vigor and aplomb. Taking place first in Wyoming and then Arizona, this memoir describes in graphic detail the grim realities of life in Western forts; it was quite a shock for a New England Victorian lady. Beecher uses a consistent tone but varies pacing and volume when expressing Martha's fear, despair, and dismay. Braving Indian attacks; childbirth alone; and extreme heat, cold, and dirt, Martha remains upbeat, and Beecher's lilting presentation adds more charm to this oral history. Listeners will agree that it is too short. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

A rare and engaging perspective4
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.

History, adventure, travellog make for a good read4
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.

A Frank Tale of Arizona History4
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.