This is the fourth and final article in a series that highlights the owners of Patagonia
businesses that advertised in the Santa Cruz Patagonian and other local newspapers in 1918. Three businessmen are featured: William Fessler, barber; Herb McCutchan and J.W. Miller who were both involved in the lumber trade. The full text of most of the articles quoted below can be found in the Library of Congress database, Chronicling America. Images of the Santa Cruz Patagonian are available on The Patagonia Museum website: thepatagoniamuseum.org.
William Fessler’s Patagonia Barber Shop ad noted that he cut children’s hair and was also an agent for Tucson Steam Laundry (sent on Monday and returned by Saturday). Born in Wisconsin in 1862, Mr. Fessler arrived in Patagonia around 1913 from the gold mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, where he had worked as a barber. He quickly invested in local mining operations. “A deal has just been consummated whereby J.T. Scanlon and Louis Kennard have become associated with William Fessler in leasing the Harrison group of mines…Mr. Fessler, who visited the property Tuesday, returned on Wednesday with…some very nice specimens of ore, carrying good copper values.” [The Border Vidette, 11/8/1913]. In 1919 he purchased “two acres of land in the Richardson tract, adjoining the townsite…Later he will drill a well on the place and improve it for a permanent home.” [The Border Vidette, 3/1/1919]. A life-long bachelor, Fessler was retired by 1930, died in 1934, and is buried in the Patagonia Cemetery.
Herb McCutchan was born in Virginia in 1881 and by 1900, at age 19, was working in the Bisbee copper mines. He lived and worked in Bisbee until about 1912 when he moved to Patagonia. “Herb McCutchan returned last Saturday from Bisbee, where he purchased additional fixtures for his Patagonia Smoke House.” [The Border Vidette, 3/20/1915]. His mining skills proved useful as he had “the contract for doing the excavation work for the new 100 ton oil flotation mill at the Three R” [The Border Vidette, 9/23/1916]. By the 1920 census he is married with a stepdaughter and two sons, and owner of the Patagonia Wood Yard. He also owned the Patagonia Pool Hall during this time, and undertook “the most, if not the most difficult road construction in the county.” [The Border Vidette, 5/7/1921] In the 1930 census his occupation is that of mine foreman, and by the 1940 census he is a road foreman in Harshaw. By 1951 he had returned to Bisbee, where he died in 1956.
J.W. (Jesse Wallace) Miller was born in Kentucky in 1884. In 1910 he was a soldier in the coastal artillery stationed at Port Townsend, WA. His arrival in Patagonia around 1915 did not go unnoticed—he was reputed to be “the tallest, best natured man in Patagonia.” [The Border Vidette, 7/10/1915]. He was one of the founding members of the Patagonia Commercial Club, and by 1920 is married with a young son, and is the manager of the Patagonia Lumber Yard. That same year he commented on Patagonia’s prospects: “Candidly speaking, the town is not all I had hoped it would be at this time, but when I compare present conditions with conditions that existed five years ago when I first came here, I feel that there is no just cause for complaint. We will eventually have a large town but I think that our progress in that direction would be much more rapid if all of our citizens would practice a little closer cooperation.” [The Border Vidette, 4/24/1920]. Apparently, Patagonia’s development was insufficient, for by 1925 J.W. and family have moved to California to first manage a lumber yard in San Diego, and then work as a lumber yard accountant in Pasadena.