Mesa Historical Society

Abstract Born in Mesa in 1903, Rogers tells of how his family was sent by Brigham Young to colonize Arizona. His father, Isaac Higby Rogers, worked as a blacksmith and invented a new device to shoe mules. He recalls details of farming with no machinery and home life with no electricity or running water. They used wet burlap to keep milk, eggs and butter cool. Rogers' grandfather was president of the Indian mission of the Mormon church, and Rogers gives a lot of detail about the daily life of Native...

Abstract Schornick tells of her family's move to Mesa from Cherryville, Kansas, in 1909, to help her father's bronchiectasis. She recalls crops grown in those days: almonds, peaches, cantaloupe, citrus, dates. There were many ostrich farms and they ate ostrich eggs. She also talks about keeping cool by sleeping outside and wrapping water jars in wet burlap. Schornick married her husband Eugene (Gene), in 1917, and they had two children. Gene fought in World War II and retired from a career at Salt...