Visiting Simon Novinger in 1884, near Phoenix, Arizona


With the help of my top history adventurer, who prefers to remain anonymous, I'm really enjoying the images in the 1884 book "History of Arizona Territory". And today I thought that it would be fun to time-travel and visit Simon Novinger.

This residence was on the 160 acres owned by Mr. Novinger, which is where 19th Avenue between Harrison and Buckeye is now. The technical name for that area is Section 12 Township 1 North Range 2 East or T1NR2E. Here's a map from 1904:



There really weren't any roads that far out of town back then, but you can see that Novinger's place was along the Salt River Valley Canal, often called Swilling's Ditch, so it would have been easy to get to - just follow the canal, which also went past Phoenix (or what we would call downtown Phoenix today). In our imaginary journey, we'll start from Center (Central Avenue) and go west along Van Buren, traveling along Swilling's Ditch. It's a healthy walk, but we're young and strong, and it's a beautiful day!


I'll tell you what I know about Simon Novinger. He was born in 1832, so in 1884 he's 52 years old. He's done well financially, which you can tell by looking at his house, and came to Phoenix right after Hancock laid it out. So I think it's safe to describe him as a leading citizen. Here's a photo of him which I found online at Find-a-Grave:


He died in 1904, which was still early enough to get into the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, which is at Jefferson and 15th Avenue, if you want to go and pay your respects. My plan is to do so, with a little bit of help from another history adventuring friend. The section is called Porter.


But let's get back to our visit in 1884. This is quite a place! Those mountains back there are the Estrellas, we're looking southwest.


I'll go up and knock on the door. I hope Mr. Novinger is in! Maybe you can go fetch some water from the well. "Hello, Mr. Novinger! I hope you don't mind if we visit you!"




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