Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona
Wednesday, January 30, 1974

E. Cartwright, Pioneer In Arizona, Is Dead At 96

Elmer E. Cartwright, 96 believed to have been Arizona's oldest surviving native, died Sunday of injuries suffered in a two-car accident at 59 avenue and Grand in Glendale.

Mr. Cartwright, of 5801 W. McDowell, was on his way home from church in a car driven by a daughter when the accident occurred.

Mr. Cartwright, a former cattleman and rancher, was born at 19th Avenue and Thomas Road, now the site of West Phoenix High School. He later lived with his parents on a homestead at 51st Avenue and Thomas.

Mr. Cartwright was a charter pupil in the first grade when the Cartwright School, named for his father, R.G. Cartwright opened in 1884. He was one of 14 children.

He began his cattle ranching career at the Cartwright Ranch at Seven Springs, started by his father and brother, Manford, in 1884. A $5 gold piece he won for a spelling achievement launched him into the cattle business.

"I was on my fourth reader in the Cartwright School," he once recalled, "and I used the prize money to buy two heifers. One I kept at home and the other I sent to the Cartwright cattle range in the Cave Creek area"

He started riding herd at age 11.

Mr. Cartwright and his late wife, Docia, moved in 1907 to their ranch at 59th Avenue and McDowell Road. He farmed and ran a dairy for about 40 years and doubled as a cowboy in the fall and spring roundups at the Cartwright Seven Springs ranch.

Once while riding the range, Mr. Cartwright came upon a man's skeleton. That night, as he bedded down and looked up into the heavens, his thoughts returned to the man "who once was some mother's baby." He wrote a poem about that and other happenings on the range.

Mr. Cartwright was a charter member of the Church of Christ at 60th Avenue and LaMar in glendale. He drove the first nail and helped construct the church. It was his custom to attend the church three times a week.

In his retirement years, Mr. Cartwright enjoyed wood carving. Two years ago at the Arizona State Fair he was awared a first place award for his peach seed carvings and a special blue ribbon award for a chair he carved out of wood from a tree in his yard.

At the Arizona Pioneers Reunion last April, Mr. Cartwright and his sister, the late Annie Pike, who was 104, were the oldest pioneers attending. He remained keen and alert to the last.

A story about the pioneer in the Arizona Republic last August was entered in the Congressional Record. Asked about the changes in his lifetime, he quipped them that he had seen them all.

Obit: Courtesy of Judy Wight Branson.