FLAGSTAFF PUBLIC LIBRARY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Orinn and Vi Compton
Interview number NAU.OH.28.54

Orinn Compton was born in Flagstaff in 1897. He was an attorney with C.B. Wilson, Sr. and his sister is Mrs. Ethel Leamon, who was interviewed at another time. Interview conducted by Kristine Prennace on September 21, 1976. Transcribed on January 24, 1996. Transcriber: Nancy Warden.

Outline of Subjects Covered in Taped Interview

Tape 1 Side 1

When and where born

Flagstaff, 1897

Parents

Charles Compton, West Virginia

Clara Peterson, Utah

Came to Flagstaff in 1895

C.B. Wilson’s stenographer

World War I service

Campbell-Francis Sheep Company

Studied law, became attorney with Wilson, Compton, and Wilson

City Attorney for 25 years

Types of cases handled by firm

Road and sidewalk conditions

East and West Flagstaff, division was Rio de Flag

Discipline at school

Social positions held by Mr. Compton

Who’s Who In Arizona

Percival Lowell described

Mortuary Business

Front Street

Sandy Donahue

Mr. Compton working at barber shop

Jim Vail

P.E. Brooks

Henry Ashurst – County Attorney

George P. Hunt – Governor of Arizona

Tape 1 Side 2

Other personalities

Zane Grey

Rex, the king of horses

Doyles

Charlotte Hall

Voting in early years

Father took ballots to Fredonia

Indians – special relationship with Compton family

Trip from Flagstaff to Phoenix in a covered wagon

Mother as a practical nurse

KRISTINE PRENNACE: This is an interview with Mr. Orinn Compton, who was born in Flagstaff in 1897. He was an attorney with C.B. Wilson, Sr., and his sister is Mrs. Ethel Leamon, who was interviewed at an earlier time. The interview is being conducted on September 21, 1976 at Mr. Compton's home located at 10726 Interior Drive, Sun City, Arizona by Kristine Prennace, representing the Flagstaff City Coconino County Public Library.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Okay, Mr. Compton, when and where were you born?

ORINN COMPTON: I was born in Flagstaff, Arizona on August 31st, 1897 at 820 West Aspen Avenue, which is at the corner of Aspen and Toltec.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh huh.

ORINN COMPTON: And I give that direction because the City Park starts just west from my old home. At the time of my birth, the house consisted of two rooms. Later my dad added to it, and its, I think to its present condition now.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Mmm, uh huh. Okay. You were actually born in the home or....?

ORINN COMPTON: Yes, in that house. (Mrs. Compton interjects that there was no hospital then).

KRISTINE PRENNACE: No hospital then. (laughs)

ORINN COMPTON: Didn't even have a doctor, we had a midwife.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Did your mother ever tell you who the midwife was?

ORINN COMPTON: No.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Now who were your parents?

ORINN COMPTON: My parents were Charles C. Compton and Clara Marguerite Peterson, her maiden name. My dad was born in West Virginia near Charleston in the year 1850. He was an only child. And when he was fourteen, fifteen years of age, he got the call to come west, and he started towards the west. I know very little of his travels or his occupations during that time, excepting that he was following the cowboys and doing the things that the cowboy naturally does. He finally, he speaks of Cleveland, Ohio and then from there he goes down into Kansas, speaks of Dodge City. He was there in the early days. Into Colorado, Denver, and then finally into Utah, southern Utah where he met and married my mother. My mother was the daughter of Mormon immigrants there. And she was born in 1862 in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. Ah, they were married in the late eighties or early nineties, I'm not sure. And in the year, 1895, my mother and father and my older sister and older brother came to Flagstaff by covered wagon. They followed practically the route of 89, highway 89. With the exception they skirted the Buckskin Mountains and Jacobs Lake on the east, down through House Rock Valley into Lees Ferry, (clock chimes), the ferry established by John D. Lee, where they crossed the Colorado on the ferry. Then made their way to Flagstaff by Tuba City and Cameron, and practically that route. And the road at that time, as I understand, did not go to the east of the mountain as it does now. But it went to the west by Little Springs, which is on the west side of mountain, and then down through Hart Prairie, Ft. Valley, and then into Flagstaff, that way.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Mmm, so it curved around.

ORINN COMPTON: And ah soon after they arrived in Flagstaff, my brother Ted was born, Frank F. And he was born in a little house at Old Town Springs, where the original town was. And that house later burned. And then in 1897, I came along. And then later, Ethel came along. And she is now Ethel Leamon and still resides in Flagstaff. My brother, Bill, married, Flora Jensen(?) who is now of Flagstaff and is reputed to be the oldest native born person there. And Will died two or three years ago. Then my brother, Ted, married a girl by the name of Margaret Curry, and Ted just recently become (sic) deceased. And Margaret is, now lives in Cottonwood, Arizona. That's about my personal history there, I mean my family history.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh huh, that's good. Okay. Now for schooling, where did you attend school?

ORINN COMPTON: I attended the Emerson School, which I started there in 1906. Emerson School since that time has been renovated and isn't the same as it is now. But it's the same location. Then I attended, I attended eight grades there. And then I attended the NAU, which was then Northern Arizona Normal School. And I graduated from there in 1916 in a business course, not the teachers. Then I, in 1916, I went to work for C.B. Wilson, who's a very prominent attorney there, as his stenographer. And at the same time I took a post graduate course at the Normal School. Then the war came along, and I enlisted. Went to France and spent over a year there. Then came back to Flagstaff. And when I first came back, I decided I was going to be an outdoor boy, not an office boy, so I went to work for Campbell-Francis Sheep Company, which was a big outfit at that time. And my brother, Will, was the range manager. I stayed with Campbell-Francis until the spring of 1920, when I quit that job, and then went back to C.B. Wilson. I studied law under C.B. Wilson, with an aid of a correspondence course from the Blackstone Institute from Denver. I passed the bar, state bar of Arizona, in 1927. A little personal item there, there was forty of us took the examination, and ten of us passed. And I was the high man of the ten. So I'm quite proud of that. Then I went back and went to work with C.B. I was with him until the day of death. And then after his death, well I was in the firm, we had a firm, Wilson Compton and Wilson; the other Wilson was Charles Wilson, who now practices law in Flagstaff, his son. And I guess, we just dissolved that firm about 1971, I think it was, '72. In the meantime, 1922, I met Vi, and, I think she came there in 1921. And, ah, we courted each other, or she courted me. And we were married in 1922 in Los Angeles. (Mrs. Compton is heard in the background). Then we came back, and we went back to work for Mr. Wilson. And that's when I studied for the bar, after I married her.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Well, what was your maiden name?

VI COMPTON: Nay, N A Y.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Okay.

VI COMPTON: My parents lived in Flagstaff for about a year. And my brother was with the J.C. Penney Company there at that time. And, ah, he's now retired in Wynnette(?), Missouri. And he was with J.C. Penney Company then until his retirement.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Okay, and you had children?

ORINN COMPTON: We had one child, a daughter, Virginia Lee(?), born in 1924. She was with us about thirty years.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, uh huh. Okay...

VI COMPTON: She was killed in an automobile accident in 1954, I believe it was.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, okay. Well, let me see. Let's talk a little bit more about your job as an attorney, because I don't have many attorneys (laughs) listed.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, I was City attorney from 1927 to 1960. I served under, I think, fifteen or sixteen different mayors. That, I was never interested in politics, and this is the most political I've ever been. And I was City attorney for more than twenty-five years. Our practice in the law office was mostly corporation, probate, and some personal injury. We did not handle criminal cases so I do not have any of those to relate. However, in the City attorney, we had only misdemeanors and so forth, which I prosecuted. Our judges in those days were quite colorful characters. We had one judge, Frank Harrison, who was a very brilliant lawyer, and he was elected to the judgeship. And then he began to drink. And you couldn't depend on him in the later years. One instance is, well, then we had another judge in Holbrook, by the name of Phil Sawyer. It was the same calibre as Judge Harrison. We had a case in the Holbrook Superior Court. And we went down, and by the way took Judge Harrison with us to Holbrook, because he had been called by Judge Sawyer to try this particular case. Well when we got down to Holbrook, before court convened, the two judges decided they'd go down on the corner and have a pick up before they went into this trial. So, by the time they got back, they were arguing. Judge Harrison says, "I came down here to try this case, and I'm gonna' try it." Judge Sawyer says, "I know I called you down here to try this case, but you're too drunk, so I'm gonna' try it." (laughs). And as an upshot of it, they decided finally, well we'll both try it. So they were both going to try it. And, ah, so the attorneys got together and saw the situation. They said, well we'd better settle this case. Which we did. (All laugh.)

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Without even involving them, huh.

VI COMPTON: There were lots of incidences about Judge Harrison. Just really funny, but, you know, it takes time to go into them.

ORINN COMPTON: Oh yeah, but I...

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah, he was quite a character.

VI COMPTON: Oh, he was a character. And Judge Jones, he was a character, too, wasn't he Orinn?

ORINN COMPTON: Oh yes, that's right. He was a character.

VI COMPTON: He was earlier. I didn't know him; I knew his family, but. Well, they used to talk about Judge Jones. And he would cry, you know, when he was a lawyer. He'd get up and argue, and he'd talk about the American flag and cry. And just all to get a verdict. But I guess he was quite a lawyer, at that, wasn't he.

ORINN COMPTON: Oh yes.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Now ah, well Frank Gold lived just down the street from you...

ORINN COMPTON: Oh yes.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Then, when you were growing up.

ORINN COMPTON: Frank Gold, I guess he's still living. He's ninety, ninety-six, I guess now.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah, he's ninety-eight now.

ORINN COMPTON: Is he?

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh huh.

ORINN COMPTON: Well he was born in '79.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Okay.

ORINN COMPTON: I think.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah, I don't know. I thought he was way up there.

VI COMPTON: Does Lawrence still live there in that house?

KRISTINE PRENNACE: No, he lives, I'm not sure where he is living, but he is not living there. They have their housekeeper who takes care of Mr. Gold. But ah, now, when did he come to Flagstaff? Do you remember much about...?

ORINN COMPTON: Well he came in about 1914 or 15, I think. Maybe a little earlier. C.B. Wilson went to Flagstaff from Glendale, Arizona in 1911. And he was, I think he was the first County Attorney of the state after the statehood. And then Frank Gold, he first went to Williams, Arizona. And then he ran for County Attorney, probably in about '14-'15 and was elected. And then moved to Flagstaff.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Mmmm.

ORINN COMPTON: So he's been there for years and years. And as I understand, he was, came out here from Kansas, a victim of tuberculosis. Came out here to die, and he hasn't died yet.

VI COMPTON: No, he's ornery. Remembers all the old wooden sidewalks and no pavement at all, and mud yea deep, you know. Course it’s horse and buggy days, too, you know.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah.

ORINN COMPTON: Well my father, at one time, was the street superintendent in Flagstaff, and, of course, no pavement, and pine trees right in the middle of the street. But they did have wooden walks, sidewalks. And to plow those in the winter, he made a wooden "v" plow with one horse and drug the sidewalks, and also plowed the street. Of course we didn't have any automobiles in those days so horses and buggies and wagons could get through anyway.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah.

ORINN COMPTON: We used to help him repair the sidewalks, because they had these cracks in there, and people'd drop their nickels and dimes down through there. As dad repaired them, why we'd take inventory of what's under there, and pick up the pennies and the nickels, or whatever happened to be there. In the early days, our milk supply was all from some cows owned by the different people. In the early days, my brother and I, we ran the town herds, which it sold(?) every morning in the summertime, of course. And we would drive them up on Observatory Hill, right past the home of Percival Lowell, whom I knew very well as a boy. He used to, the trail to the observatory started right there at Aspen Avenue, the end of Aspen, wound up at the end on the hill. And Dr. Lowell, who walked to town most of the time, and he'd stop and visit with me as a kid all the time. I knew him very well. Another prominent citizen that I knew very well was Henry F. Ashurst, who lived only two or three blocks down the street from us. And he married a lady by the name of "Reno", who was the weather bureau attendant (ED: clock chimes and makes hearing difficult) there for years and years and years. They had a big tower on that, just catty corner across from Federated Church. And in our neighborhood, a lot of the old timers lived: Peter Michelbach family, the Heckathorns, the Hoffmans, the Greggs, the Hochderffers, who was the author of that "who's old Flagstaff"(?), and the Heisers. Mrs. Heiser was one-eyed person, and they called her "Cussy Heiser", and she was a rough and tough old girl, too. When we, us poor kids'd go over there, she'd give us a chicken feet. We'd take them home, and mother'd make a stew out of them. (All laugh.) She was big-hearted, but she was rough and tough. And, as I say, Henry Ashurst and Jesse L. Boyce, was another prominent citizen there. He was treasurer, I think of the county, and then later was the state treasurer, or state auditor.

VI COMPTON: And Dorothy Warnock's parents lived near you, there.

ORINN COMPTON: Yes. The Hydes. Dorothy Warnock's parents, the Hydes and the Hitts(?). All I know, there were just worlds of them that I don't remember now. And, there was Ed Whipple, Flora Jenson or Compton family lived near. They were all on the west end. The dividing line between the east and west, there was generally the old Rio de Flag.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, that was east Flagstaff then?

ORINN COMPTON: Yes. And when I was a kid, that was the line. When we were out playing Blind Man's Bluff, and hide the ______ and all that, that was the limit. If we got by that and Dad found it out, we were in trouble. And in those days, as far as school and school relations were concerned, if I ever got a spanking in school, and Dad found out about it, I got another spanking at home. That's when the parents cooperated with the teachers. And I'll tell you, I didn't tell them when I got in trouble in school. 'Cause I knew what was going to happen (laughs). And in my civil life, the civic part, I'm the Past Master of the Mason Lodge, Past Noble Grand of the Oddfellows Lodge, past president of the Flagstaff Rotary Club, past president of the Flagstaff Country Club, past Commander of the VFW.

VI COMPTON: Past president of the State Bar.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, yes, and later I was in, 1948, I was president of the State Bar of Arizona.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Wow.

ORINN COMPTON: That's my highest office, as far as I know. Then I was chairman of the Red Cross for three years during the war. I served on the, as government appeal agent on the, ah, Selective Service Board for oh ten, fifteen years. What else, I've been several other things...

VI COMPTON: We're(?) ex everything.

ORINN COMPTON: I'm an "ex". Let's see. Well that's the main...

KRISTINE PRENNACE: You've got the main ones.

ORINN COMPTON: That's all outlined in WHO'S WHO, here.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh!

ORINN COMPTON: Have you ever seen that?

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh uh.

ORINN COMPTON: That was put out in 1951, '52.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh.

ORINN COMPTON: There's the, oh yes, I was Rent Control, then, attorney, too, and ah, during the war. And ah...

VI COMPTON: All of these were without remuneration, incidentally.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, sure. That's changed a little bit now on some of them, huh.

VI COMPTON: Quite a few.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah.

ORINN COMPTON: Well I see here that it states I'm a democrat, which is true.

VI COMPTON: I beg your pardon, but I think he's a "pinto".

ORINN COMPTON: And I'm a Methodist. You might be interested in that book. I mean that getting one, there's lots of the old timers there.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh yes. We might have it somewhere in the library. I just haven't ever, I didn't even know it was in existence(?). Okay, let's see, we talked about some of the people, Percival Lowell, can you describe him at all to me?

ORINN COMPTON: Oh, well Percival Lowell was a tall, slender, white-haired, handsome man. He used a cane. Not because he was disabled, because he liked to. I think it helped him on the hill.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, uh huh.

ORINN COMPTON: And ah, well he was a scholarly gentleman, I'll tell you. He was a fine person. And he walked that hill, oh daily. Of course he didn't live there all the time.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh. Did he ...

ORINN COMPTON: He was, Massachusetts. And then he would come out here.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, I see.

ORINN COMPTON: But ah, I was around, very young when they were, well just after they built that observatory. I lived down under the hill, too. My dad helped with the founding(?) of that telescope and so forth and so on. He and Ed Whipple. Ed Whipple, by the way, as you know, was our mortician for years. And my brother Bill was with him for years and years, and then succeeded him in the mortician's job. And then, he was succeeded by his nephew, Glenn Compton. And then Glenn sold out to what's now the, I don't know, what is Flagstaff's undertaking? It's up on the hill there.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh huh. Oh yeah, right. Just above the hospital there. Ah, let me see, do you remember, I'm thinking of saloons and Front Street area, Sandy Donohue's?

ORINN COMPTON: Yes, I knew Sandy Donohue, and he was the most kindly man you ever saw. He was a rounder, but he used to patronize the barbershop where I shined shoes and was orderly, and he'd come in to take his Saturday night bath, and I would wash his back for him. (Laughter). And he often tipped me a five dollar gold piece, and I'll tell you I got rich.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Wow. Yeah at that time, that was a lot of money.

ORINN COMPTON: (An aside to his wife asking for more water) Gimme a little water, will you, honey? I don't know why my mouth's dry, but it is. A little water, please.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Okay, let me see, there's someone else, what about J.P. Vail? Do you remember him at all?

ORINN COMPTON: Jim Vail? Yes, I knew Vail, he's, ah, the Vail block, that's the saloon on the corner there. Well it's on the west side of Agassiz, no what's that street?

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, yeah there's Agassiz.

ORINN COMPTON: Is that, no Agassiz's down, San Francisco.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: San Francisco.

ORINN COMPTON: And he, I knew him, and I knew a fellow name of F.E. Brooks, who was in the saloon business there. And he later, during prohibition, why he moved and started a general store up in the west end of Flagstaff. Henry Ashurst was County Attorney when I was a youngster. I used to go down to the courthouse and play on the courthouse lawn. And Henry Ashurst was there, and I knew him quite well, and I knew him just on the street, because I passed his house every day.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Uh huh. Now Mrs. Leamon said that, you know, that Front Street was absolutely forbidden territory.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, that was out of bounds for the ladies, not only the kids but the ladies, because of the many saloons, and then the ladies from the south side of the track came over there, too. So that was taboo.

VI COMPTON: And George P. Hunt, you know he was the governor of Arizona for how many years?

ORINN COMPTON: Well, I don’t know.

VI COMPTON: Anyway, he used to come up to Flagstaff and sit on, we called it "Old Spit and Chew Corner", San Francisco and Front Street. You know, the saloon that was there. Sit on this corner with the old boys, and he could spit further than any of them. And we have a picture of him that I took...

END TAPE 1, SIDE 1, BEGIN TAPE 1, SIDE 2

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, what about Zane Grey, now Mrs. Leamon thought maybe you'd remember him.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, ah, yes, I knew of him. I don't think I ever met him personally. I was too young then. But, another character there is Rex the King of Horses. Have you heard about him? He was owned by Lee Doyle, and he was the famous movie horse. And he was stabled right there in Flagstaff. And Lee Doyle, an old timer there, owned this horse. And rented him out to the movies. And also, there were numerous movies made in the Flagstaff area with this horse.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: What's the difference between Al Doyle and Lee Doyle?

ORINN COMPTON: Al Doyle is the father.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh.

ORINN COMPTON: And he's, he's very old timer there. He came from Prescott, oh I don't know, '76,'78. I mean quite early. He brought cattle in there. Then he finally became a guide for famous people. Jimmy Swinnerton and all those people, that he guided. And he also took Charlotte Hall when she made her trip into the Arizona Strip in 1911. He drove the team of horses and wagon that took them all through that trip.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Wow.

ORINN COMPTON: And that was 1911, I think. An incident, the earliest that my father, in 1907, I believe it was, he was selected by the Board of Supervisors to take the ballots for the election up to Fredonia, which had to go by team and wagon. And that was about a, well a hundred, two hundred mile trip there. So Dad and my mother and my brother Ted started out with those ballots for that election. But I guess they got a late start, because they didn't get there until after the election. But the citizens up there, very few of them, were very resourceful so they fixed their own ballots, and had their own election. But any way, Dad left the ballots there, and because he'd been snowed in, he was snowed in, there was three foot of snow, and he couldn't come back. So he went on to Richfield, Utah, where my mother was born, and they stayed there all winter, then came back in the spring, picked up the ballots and came on into Flagstaff. So, there were at least four or five months before they got the official vote out there. And that was by team and wagon, too. That was 1907, I think.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Now, your mother was one of the few, or maybe the only Mormon person in town.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, she was, we didn't have a Mormon Church there for years. I think, perhaps the first Mormon Church was out there at the college. They started in connection with the college, I think. So Mother, not having a Mormon Church there, she raised us children as, in the Methodist Church. And ah she was very active in the Methodist Church herself, Women's Society and so forth and so on. But she never gave up her Mormon religion. And then when the Mormon Church came there, she also involved herself with the Mormon ladies in the Relief Society and what not. And when she died, she was ninety years old when she died, we had we had a Methodist minister and a Mormon bishop to preach her service. And the funeral was up at that little place at the college. I've forgotten what they call it.

VI COMPTON: They call it, it's kind of a chapel, but it was the Mormon, it was mostly for the college students. But by then, by the time Orrin's mother passed away, I think that was about 1954, wasn't it, when your mother died?

ORINN COMPTON: 1953, I think.

VI COMPTON: '53? Anyway there were lots of Mormon people there then. So she was active in both churches.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, when I first arrived in Flagstaff, my early days, the ethnic groups were the whites and the Mexicans. We had maybe two or three families of the black people.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Mmm.

ORINN COMPTON: And the black people didn't come there until the Cady Lumber Company bought out the southwest, now it's the Southwest Lumber Company. They bought that company out in McNary. Then they brought all those black people from McNary there.

VI COMPTON: From Louisiana.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, McNary, Louisiana. Out to McNary, Arizona. Brought trainloads of them. And then they also bought the mill at Flagstaff. And so then they brought part of the personnel up there. And that's what started the Flagstaff black population.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Was there, oh, go ahead...

ORINN COMPTON: Go ahead.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, I was just wondering if there was much resentment in Flagstaff over the influx of blacks.

ORINN COMPTON: Oh, there was a little hollering. But, no, we didn't know what it was to be prejudiced, because we didn't have any that we knew, the negro family. We had two or three negro families. I went to school with them. We didn't have any segregation. We just didn't know. We weren't prejudiced against negroes. But, sure, some of the people were. But as a whole, there was no resentment.

VI COMPTON: Was there a little school over on the southside that was colored?

ORINN COMPTON: Yeah, well that was after the Cady people came in there. And then they had a little colored...

VI COMPTON: Colored schoolhouse over there. It may still be there, but I don't know.

ORINN COMPTON: No, they closed that years ago.

VI COMPTON: They may have had some Spanish. But I think one thing that's sort of interesting about Orinn's parents was their friendship with the Indians. Orinn's, ah, the Indians would come to town, and the big fireplace in the living room of that house, the Indians sit around cross legged around the fire, and Mother Compton would feed them. And they, it just seems like, they'd bring fruit from out on, out Tuba City. You can tell them more about that, but I thought it was a very interesting highlight.

ORINN COMPTON: Well, my father, my father used to trade out at Tuba City, I mean he made several trips out there, and I made one or two. It would take us about three or four days to get to Tuba City. And then load up with whatever they had to send back. And then take three or four days to come back to Flagstaff. And he was very friendly with the Indian people. And I mean those Indians, but when they rode that river they'd see us coming. They'd be down there, and they'd go in with their horses and ferret out a trail so we wouldn't get in the quick sand. And then help us across the river. And, then of course, when they came to Flagstaff, they thought they'd done us a favor, and they ought to have a little favor so they'd come in. They never said a word. They'd just come in and sit down, and grunt and sit around the fireplace. Mother knew what they wanted. She'd cook them up a pot of mush, or potatoes, or whatever, something to eat, and then bring it in to them. And they would feed, and sit there for a little while, and get up and off they'd go. Just friendly as they could be, but they couldn't talk English.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Yeah, uh huh.

ORINN COMPTON: We couldn't talk Navajo, either. Then another one, on the wagons, my father, and I, and my brother, Ted, made a trip from Flagstaff to Phoenix in a covered wagon. That was in 1911, I think. We followed almost parallel the present I-17. We went down through Munds Park and, what's the name of that golf course in Pine...?

VI COMPTON: Montezuma, oh Pinewood.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Pinewood.

ORINN COMPTON: Pinewood, Pinewood, that's Munds Park. And then went down through, over Rattlesnake Hill, which is close to the hill going down into Verde, and into Montezuma Well, and then over to Camp Verde, up Copper Canyon, and into Mayer and Bumble Bee, or to Cordes and Bumble Bee and down to New River, Black Canyon City, and right on down to... It took us seven or eight days, I think, to make that trip. In route, between Montezuma Well and Camp Verde, we broke down a wheel, we had a "flat tire". (All laugh). Dad hailed the first wagon passed, and loaded the wheel on the wagon, and they went in to Camp Verde, and had it fixed. And the next day, he thumbed a ride out to the wagon and brought the wheel back, and we put it on, and we were on our way. But that was it. And they were having an automobile race from Prescott to Phoenix when we were at New River, and all the old Cases and Stanley Steamers and all the rest of them passed us. So when we got to Phoenix, they had put these, all these cars on display, so we had a chance to see automobiles, a lot of them.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh. That was one of your first contacts with automobiles, then?

ORINN COMPTON: Uh huh. By the way, I went to, I was in the sixth or seventh grade, I guess, sixth grade, and I went to school where the San Carlos Hotel down in Phoenix stands. And in those days, Washington Street was the main street, and Seventh Avenue was way out, and there was some on Central, but it didn't go very far. The schools were up there. And when we first came in that, 1911, there were still irrigation ditches in the street.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Oh, my goodness. Okay, let me see ah, oh, now your mother was a practical nurse, wasn't she? Or...?

ORINN COMPTON: Oh, well she's, what do you call them?

VI COMPTON: Oh, I don't know.

ORINN COMPTON: Mid-wife.

VI COMPTON: She wasn't really a mid-wife.

ORINN COMPTON: Well she wasn't that, well she took care of Mrs. _______.

VI COMPTON: Helped people.

KRISTINE PRENNACE: Mmm. She was a ....

ORINN COMPTON: Oh yes.

VI COMPTON: She was quite a humanitarian. And she knew how to take care of a woman who was having a child, there's no doubt about that. But I don't believe they called her a "mid-wife", she wasn't on call.

ORINN COMPTON: No, well, she nursed many, many people. Well, it's mutual, because we didn't have any doctors or nurses, and we had to take care of each other.

VI COMPTON: I think that Orinn's mother, ah, was so good to every one, and they always had extra kids in house, extra people living in; somebody coming and stay for a few years or a year or a month. But I don't believe they ever knew who was going to be there next. Isn't that right, Orinn?

ORINN COMPTON: That’s right.

TAPE ENDS