ONCE UPON A FRONTIER CHRISTMAS

LETTERS FROM A RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION CAMP CHRISTMAS 1881

AURA MURPHY FOUND HERSELF A LONG WAY from her Illinois home on Christmas, 1881. Aubrey Valley in northwestern Arizona was a wilderness about to be conquered by the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad (later the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway). Laura improvised to come up with a fine Christmas for her family and 33 railroad construction workers. Her husband, W.J. Murphy, had contracted to build roadbed in advance of the laying of the rails. To join him, Laura and their three children had taken a train from Illinois to Albuquerque, New Mexico. From there, they rode nearly 500 miles westward in a wagon without springs, sitting atop sacks of rolled barley. The barley was feed for the mules W.J. used to power the crude earth-moving scrapers of the time. Fortunately for us, Laura wrote detailed letters toher relatives back home. Her grandson, Merwin Murphy, has made copies of those letters available. Of the camp in Aubrey Valley Laura wrote, "Our family tent or headquarters is 16 by 18. We have one quarter of this space curtained off for bedroom. Our bed is very wide and set across poles set in [tree] crotches driven into the ground. In this bed Father, Mother and three little ones sleep: Ralph, Laila and Loise." At the time they left Illinois, Ralph was five, Laila, two and a half, and Loise, 15 months. W.J. was 42 and Laura was 36. "On the opposite side we curtained a 3 by 6 space for pantry. In the front end of the tent we have a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and the rest of the house. The floor, which is Mother Earth, is covered with Arizona brussells [a kind of carpeting] which in Eastern vernacular would be called gunnysacks sewed together.

RAILROAD CAMP

"We have a No. 7 [wood] cook stove, 'Mozart,' which is musical with snapping red cedar and singing tea kettle. In our primitive way of life we are happy and contented as long as it is to W.J.'s interest to play gypsy."

In fact the gypsy days were almost over. The Murphys soon settled in Phoenix, where W.J. became a prominent builder and land developer. He built the Arizona Canal, a 40-mile-long conduit that opened thousands of acres of the Salt River Valley to farming. The Victorian home he built for Laura still stands on north Central Avenue in Phoenix in a district W.J. developed and called Orangewood. At one time, W.J. planted ash trees along both sides of Central through the district. W.J. and his son, Ralph, built Ingleside, the first of many winter resorts in the Phoenix area.

But back to 1881. Laura's letter went on to describe the rest of the tent city, plus an open-air blacksmith shop shaded by boughs of cedar. Water had to be hauled from Peach Springs, 15 miles to the west. This was a continuing problem for W.J. because en route the mules and oxen pulling the water wagons drank much of what they were transporting.

In December Laura wrote, "The weather is charming, like Illinois September weather. Just now two Indians rode by finely equipped on good ponies." She noted that the older Indian was chief of the Supai tribe, well-dressed and wearing a straw hat adorned with a few feathers. He had "a good repeating rifle, gauntlet gloves, buckskin leggings with silver buttons."

Right after Christmas, Laura wrote, "We (ABOVE) W.J. Murphy moved his family to Phoenix after his railroad days and became a leading builder and land developer.

are passing through the Holyday [a spelling peculiar to the times] week. Bright, warm, sunshiny days. We drink the air as an elixir. Never before have we enjoyed these anniversaries in such mild weather.

"Last Sunday was Christmas. We celebrated in a manner not in accord with our personal feelings, and what pleasure was extracted came from the fact that it is better to give than receive. We gave the men, 33 in number, a grand Christmas dinner: roasted meats, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, two large milk pans full of pudding, pies, cheese and gooseberry sauce. Parenthetically, Laura gave her recipe for the pudding: "Made of a layer of steamed sweet cake, then a layer of cooked raisins and so on, filled in with a dressing made of water and vinegar thickened with corn starch and flavored with lemon with a thin consistency, a delightful dish." She also wrote that she flavored apple pies with raisins and lemon in imitation of mince pie.

Her letter continued, "And as they left the table each was offered a cigar. This sumptuous repast had the effect designed, that of making the men so comfortable that not any of them went to the saloon a mile away where we were afraid some would celebrate. Mr. M. [W.J.] pronounced it a fine success which in great measure helped me to overcome the fatigue resulting from preparing the 14 pies, 20 loaves of bread, and 2 big pans of pudding, which fatigue manifested itself in a slight numb spell. "Christmas Eve W.J. and I tried to please the children with a Christmas tree, although in this desolate land we were put to our wits end to find something to adorn it. However, we had a fine red cedar tree for the foundation which itself made a good display."

They trimmed the tree with short candles set in reflectors of lead foil. "Santa Claus could only find for each one of the children a bag filled with maple sugar, raisins and cookies. Also there were, for Loise, a little old woman and a coyote in cookie material; for Laila, an old woman and a horse; for Ralph, an old man and a burro in the same material. The Murphys also managed to come up with homemade cotton dolls for the girls and a mouth harp for Ralph."

"Santa thought W.J. needed a button for his suspenders which by way of a little fun was put in a large bag for him. Father called off the names, and, not finding mine at the close, he screamed, 'Mrs. Murphy!' and with that gave me a smacking kiss which set the children in a roar of laughter.

"The little ones were more joyous over the fact of having a tree and were as happy with the simple gifts as though the affair had cost many dollars."