The Pennington family contributed heavily to the settlement of southeastern Arizona, so it seems appropriate their story be told. The Pennington family has a moving and almost implausible history: they lived during harsh times in an extremely hostile environment and possibly sacrificed more than any other single settler family in Arizona history.
Elias Green Pennington was born on a cotton plantation in Virginia, owned by his father Elias Elijah Pennington who served under George Washington at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. Elias Green Pennington left the plantation in 1831 and moved to somewhere in the Carolinas where he married Julia Ann Hood.
The couple immediately began an unrelenting western migration. Whenever they felt civilization closing in on them, they moved farther west. They passed briefly through Kentucky and then lived near Nashville, Tennessee for five years. From there they moved to Honey Grove in what was then the Republic of Texas where their youngest child Josephine was born on October 27, 1854. Josephine had seven older sisters and four older brothers.
Julia never fully recovered from giving birth to her twelfth child within a 22-year span and died shortly before Josephine’s first birthday. At the time of her death, Elias was near Keechi, Texas, not far from the Brazos River where he was scouting the possibility of moving his family there. Shortly after Julia’s death, Elias packed up the twelve children and moved them to Keechi where they lived for three years. In 1857, the family decided to join a wagon train headed for Golden, California.
After leaving Keechi, the Penningtons headed west with a small herd of cattle and three wagons pulled by teams of oxen and mules. While fording the Pecos River, several of their cattle drowned. Undeterred, the family continued to Paso del Norte and followed the Rio Grande River north to Mesilla where they turned west, passing through the San Simon, Sulphur Springs and San Pedro Valleys, and Dragoon Springs, headed toward Tucson.
In 1857, the Penningtons stopped on Sonoita Creek near Fort Buchanan. Many of their livestock had been stolen by marauding Apaches and while crossing Apache Pass, approximately 20 miles southeast of the present-day town of Willcox, Josephine’s older sister, Larcena, had become seriously ill with what is now believed to be malaria, but at the time was diagnosed as mountain fever. The Penningtons decided to leave the wagon train at Fort Buchanan so Larcena could be under the care of an army contract surgeon named Lewis Kennon.
While Larcena was recovering, the Penningtons took up residence along Sonoita Creek near the present-day town of Patagonia. They constructed a picket house from cottonwood boughs and planted crops.
The Penningtons lived and worked at Fort Buchanan for two years. The men were contracted by the U. S. Government to supply hay and the women sewed uniforms for the soldiers.
While working at Fort Buchanan, Larcena met lumberjack John Hempstead Page and immediately fell in love. They were married on December 24, 1859, when Larcena was 22 years old. Their marriage has historical significance because they were the first couple with American citizenship known to be married in Tucson.
John Page hired on as manager of William H. Kirkland’s lumber camp. Larcena was employed by Kirkland as a tutor for his ten-year-old ward, Mercedes Sais Quiroz. John lived at Kirkland’s ranch in Canoa, while Larcena remained in Tucson. Page eventually received permission to move Larcena and Mercedes to the Canoa ranch.
After Larcena had an apparent recurrence of malaria, John decided to move her to a higher elevation residence in Madera Canyon. On March 16, 1860, the camp where Larcena and Mercedes were staying was looted by a band of Apache warriors. Larcena and Mercedes were captured and kidnapped.
When they reached the present site of Helvetia, the warriors realized they were being followed and tried to step up their pace. Larcena and Mercedes had torn off pieces of their clothing and broke limbs and twigs in an attempt to leave a trail for their rescuers.
When Larcena was unable to keep up, the warriors forced her to remove her skirt, corset, and shoes and then they stabbed her in the back with a lance. The warriors repeatedly stabbed her with lances and struck her with rocks. After she became unconscious, the warriors dragged her behind a tree and left her for dead. Later, she heard her husband’s rescue party nearby but was too weak to call for help.
One of the Apache warriors wore Larcena’s shoes, and the would-be rescuers followed his tracks until they lost them on the east side of the Catalina Mountains.
After three days, Larcena, who was covered with bruises and pierced with eleven stab wounds, regained consciousness and began her incredible journey back to the lumber camp. She crawled during daylight hours and attempted to sleep at night on her hands and knees because the wounds on her back were so painful. She ate seeds and whatever other edible plants she could find. Larcena struggled for twelve days making her way back to camp where she found coffee and flour from which she made bread and ate real food for the first time in over two weeks. The next morning, she began her journey back to the lumber camp.
John was in Tucson organizing another search party when he received news Larcena had survived and returned, 16 days after her capture.
Larcena was treated in Tucson by Dr. C. B. Hughes and, over a period of several months, made a slow recovery. Mercedes was later found in a Pinal Apache Camp and returned unharmed in exchange for several Pinal Apache warriors imprisoned at Fort Buchanan.
In 1861, Larcena was pregnant with her first daughter when John was killed by Apaches. After the Civil War began, the Army was pulled from Arizona and Larcena feared the Apaches would begin more violent attacks on settlers, so she moved her family to Patagonia.
In 1867, Larcena’s 24-year-old sister Ann died from malaria and a year later her brother Jim was killed by Apaches near Tucson while guarding a load of lumber. On June 10, 1868, while working in a cornfield about 12 miles from the U.S. Army facility at Camp Crittenden, Elias and his son Green were killed by Apaches. Elias died instantly but Green suffered for eight days before succumbing to his wounds.
The remaining members of the Pennington family moved to Tucson where they lived until December 24 when they decided to move to California. Unfortunately, they’d only traveled a few miles before pneumonia overcame Larcena’s sister Ellen. They returned to Tucson where Ellen died a short time later.
Larcena and her brother Jack were the only remaining family members. Jack moved to Texas and Larcena remained in Tucson.
In 1870, Larcena married William Fisher Scott, who was a lawyer and judge. They had two children.
Larcena lived until March 31, 1913, when she passed away from natural causes. She is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery on Oracle Road in Tucson. Five additional Pennington graves rest on a lonely hilltop near Arivaca. Pennington Street in central Tucson is named after Larcena and her family. Scott Avenue is named after her second husband William.