In 1880 the household of Dr. Charles Putnam and his wife Catherine in Malborough, MA, included five adults and seven children. The adults were the couple’s eldest son Herbert (1844-1896), Herbert’s wife Julia, their daughter Lelia (1848-1919), and their youngest son, Fred Lincoln. The children were six of Herbert and Julia’s children, including their eldest son, Charles Otis. Uncle Fred and nephew Charles were only eight years apart in age and about 1912 both moved to Sonoita to homestead adjacent acreage on today’s Curly Horse Road.
Fred Lincoln Putnam (1861-1945) was 51 years old when he moved to Sonoita with his wife Carrie Augusta Hall (1865-1920) and daughter Dorothy Ingraham (1900-1984). Daughter Lelia Isabel (1888-1955) remained in Pasadena with her husband Horace B. Hall.
In Massachusetts, Fred worked on his father’s farm and as a teamster. About 1905 the family moved near Carrie’s parents in Pasadena, CA, where Fred farmed and Carrie taught piano. Fred’s arrival in Sonoita was noted by the local press: “Putnam’s brought with them considerable fine stock, and they have…thoroughbred Jersey cows which are beauties. Their Bronze turkeys and Rhode Island Red chickens are just about the finest that are to be found anywhere. Major Putnam is a man of ideas, and he will prove a factor in development of this great region. He has commenced already agitation of the subject of inauguration of a county fair to be held in this valley every year.” [The Oasis, 9/21/1912].
Fred became a noted poultry farmer in the area: “Uncle Fred Putnam, he of the stubby mustache, is shipping quantities of dressed poultry to Nogales these days.” [Nogales International, 6/15/1925].
Carrie died in 1920, a few months after their daughter Dorothy’s marriage to Lyle Sprung, son of another Curly Horse Rd. homesteader, Herman Sprung. Fred married again sometime before 1930; his second wife Anna was 29 years younger. By 1919 Lelia had followed her family to Arizona where she married Elmer Hoy; they lived near Nogales and Elmer managed the city water plant. Fred died in 1945, age 84.
Charles Otis Putnam (1869-1954), age 43, moved to Sonoita from Massachusetts with his wife Zula Babcock (1873-1924), and son Kenneth (1908-1987). In Massachusetts he was employed at a shoe store and was a competitive bicycle racer. Charles raised poultry and cattle and participated actively in the Santa Cruz County Fair for many years: “The poultry exhibit, where Charles Putnam’s work in getting together exhibits has provided one of the largest shows of any county fair in the state, occupies the entire second building on the fairgrounds.” [Arizona Daily Star, 10/20/1935]. He had grazing leases with close neighbors, such as Irvin Douglas. He also invested in oil and gas exploration and entered into a lease agreement with the Arizona Pacific Exploration Company for exploratory drilling on his property.
Zula was only 50 when she died of breast cancer in 1924; Charles never remarried. Kenneth helped on his father’s ranch and during the Great Depression worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps. He was also a lookout on Mt. Wrightson in the Santa Rita Mountains, where he worked with his cousin Dorothy’s husband, Lyle Sprung. He married Gladys Whitehouse Lewis in 1936, and they had one son, Charles Kenneth, born in 1938. By 1950 Charles Otis was living with Kenneth and his family on a ranch along Highway 82. He died in 1954, age 85.