Mr. and Mrs. George Gebby

     Mary L. Sanburn was born in Knoxville, Illinois, on February 6, 1881. Her mother, Mary H. Sanburn (McCracken), died in childbirth or shortly thereafter.

Young Mary L. Sanburn

     Mary’s father, Francis Sanburn, died in 1899 when Mary was 18 years old. At that time, she was attending school while living with her grandmother, Sarah Baldwin McCracken, and her three aunts, Bessie, Eliza, and Sara McCracken, according to the Knox County census of 1900.

Sarah Baldwin McCracken, Sara McCracken (Butt), and Bessie McCracken

     Mary Sanburn’s daughter, Margaret Hulpke, noted in her family photo album that Mary and her aunts Bessie, Eliza, and Sara “came out west” about 1901, when Mary was probably 20 years old. They had a house built in Arizona near central Phoenix on Adams Street—then called Capitol Addition. Mary likely began her missionary vocation at that time in the area of the Fort McDowell reservation.

Fort McDowell Arizona 1913

     In 1905, Mary was the subject of a story in The Arizona Republican, a Maricopa County newspaper. It tells of a time when Mary went missing on horseback during a group outing. It was presumed at first that she had fallen in with some of the local Indians, stirring panic among the group. As the article dramatically presents it, “Miss McCracken, the aunt of the girl, was almost prostrated.” The group spent an entire evening trying to find her. It turned out she had arrived at Fort McDowell ahead of the rest and had no idea she was considered “lost.”

A telling piece of information from the article says that Mary was “a frequent visitor of all the nearby reservations and, it is said, knows all the Indians of the Salt River reservation by name as she knows most of the several hundred girls at the Indian School.” In the comment section of this blog, I will include the text of the articles relating to this and other stories.

     George H. Gebby was born in Logan County, Ohio, on January 18, 1878 to Jeremiah and Margaret Dow. He had two older brothers, Orra and Elmer. Some details of his home life are documented by his mother in her diary, published in a book called Farm Wife by Iowa State University Press. It is not known when George left Ohio for Arizona. The warmer climate might have been an incentive, as an entry in Farm Wife indicated a bout of respiratory illness when he was a young boy.

     In Arizona, George became a missionary to the Indians at the Fort McDowell reservation and ran an Indian trading post, among other things.

Upper Left photo,  Jeremiah and Margaret Dow with George in the middle flanked by his brothers Elmer and Orra. The photo on the top right is identified as George. Probably taken before leaving to Arizona. The lower photo is of Margaret Dow.

     On May 12, 1908, Mary and George were wed. Together, they toured Arizona between 1908 and 1917 as a missionary family, traveling by wagon and by car. During those nine years, Mary and George had two children: Margaret Gebby (Hulpke) in 1909, when Mary was 28, and Francis Gebby in 1913, when Mary was 32.

Mary and George with unidentified companion with wagon, then with car. Young Margaret Gebby (Hulpke) and Francis Gebby behind the wheel.

Life in Early Arizona

     The couple engaged in missionary work in and around Fort McDowell. The fort was a U.S. Army post between 1865 and 1890. On September 15, 1903, an Executive Order combined Yavapai, Apache, and Mojave people under the heading of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation -essentially a reservation for the descendants of all three tribes.

     A few buildings from the decommissioned fort remained, along with a church building that still stands today. George served as a Deputy Special Officer there during the 1910s. This was not a law-enforcement position; rather, it was an Indian Service role connected to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. While serving in that capacity, and in connection with the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, George wrote an article for The American Indian and Missions called “Apache Indians and the Tulapai.”

     Mary and George were the subject of another newspaper story in 1915 about their car. Mary was 34 at the time. Apparently, their wagoneering days were over. A new Model T would have cost between $390 and $420. They had converted the car into what might pass for an early “RV.” The article will be included in the comment section.

     Mary was a musician and was part of what appears to be a women’s choral group. She also performed as a violinist for a women’s group in Phoenix. Her granddaughter Margie Bankston (Hulpke) recalled that Mary played the violin during church services for many years.

    George received a grant to help some of the young local Indian men learn the art of beekeeping, ostensibly to help them start and run a sustainable business selling honey. He was also contacted by out-of-state Indian basket collectors, as it was a trend in those days for wealthy collectors to seek out Indian baskets for their private museums. There is no record of George engaging with them, but a few baskets from George and Mary’s personal belongings have survived as family heirlooms.

     In 1917, George was granted property as part of the Homestead Act of 1862. It consisted of 160 acres north of Phoenix. (The location of that property can still be found today on Google Maps and is identified as ‘Gebby Place”.)

     On March 18, 1919, George Gebby died of complications related to flu and tuberculosis, according to the death certificate. The 1918–1919 Spanish flu pandemic in Arizona was a devastating, multi-wave event that killed nearly 1% of the state’s population. Following a deadly autumn 1918 wave, a third intense wave hit in January 1919, causing massive shutdowns, mask mandates, and high mortality rates, especially among young adults, before finally receding,(source NIH National Library of Medicine). Mary would have been 38. Margaret was 10, and Francis was 6.

     After George’s death, Mary continued to live in Phoenix, Arizona. After her children married and relocated, she began making annual trips to California. The following is a recollection of Mary’s grand daughter, Margie Bankston (Hulpke):

"Both of my parents were from Christian families. My mother's mother was from a "prominent" family in Illinois. She went to Arizona as a young lady to be a missionary to the Indians. There she met a Christian man who ran an Indian trading post. They were married and had two children.Her husband died during a flu epidemic in the early 1900's. My grandmother never remarried but continued to live in Phoenix most of the rest of her life. She visited us every year in California, driving her '36 Ford by herself both ways. Near the end of her life she stayed with my parents in Riverside CA. She died at their home. I remember her sitting on the front row at church near the piano, playing her violin every Sunday. She never spent much money. She bought herself a $3.99 cotton dress every year or so at a place in North Hollywood called Mode 'O' Day. In Arizona she had two date palms which she pollinated herself. She sent us dates or date candy for Christmas”.

     To gain more insight into what visiting with Grandma Gebby might have been like, here is a little memory from her grandson John:  "John Francis Hulpke born 1939 when Mary S Gebby was a perennial visitor. I remember her driving that "36 Ford back and forth, California Arizona, around 1950 maybe. Frankly she had a funny quirk while driving. She was constantly putting pressure on the accelerator then letting off, sort of coasting, then hitting the gas again. Maybe she thought it would save gas? It made me wish she had cruise control, but of course there was no such thing until maybe half a century later"

     Mary was a member of the first class to graduate from the Arizona (Phoenix) Bible Institute, probably in 1945. That same year, the college relocated to California and later to Oregon.

     Eventually Mary re-located to Riverside California and resided with her daughter Margaret and son in law John Hulpke. She passed May 1st 1962 at the age of 81.

     When time permits, I will add extra material and photos to the comment section following this blog post. Please feel free to add or make corrections concerning the Gebbys in the comment section below.