John A. Rockfellow was born in New York on Jan 30,1858. His interest in the west was sparked by a visit to his family home in Rochester by Major William Powell, the famous explorer who first charted the Colorado River. Shortly after his graduation from the University of Rochester in 1879 he headed west with a school boy friend, Bill Hartt, and was soon prospecting for gold in the interior of Arizona. He remained an Arizonan for the rest of his life, and became one of the most widely known and respected citizens of the territory as a miner, ranchman and cattleman, pioneer educator and civil engineer. He died at the age of 89 at the home of his son Philip in Los Angeles, 1947. Mr. Rockfellow's career touched nearly every facet of early Arizona life; his story is the story of the opening of the southwest, of the defeat of the Apache, and the area's progress to modern civilization. It is the "Log of an Arizona Trail Blazer". (Arizona Silhouettes Tucson, Arizona/ Dr. Frank C. Lockwood).
John A. Rockfellow was born in New York on Jan 30,1858. His interest in the west was sparked by a visit to his family home in Rochester by Major William Powell, the famous explorer who first charted the Colorado River. Shortly after his graduation from the University of Rochester in 1879 he headed west with a school boy friend, Bill Hartt, and was soon prospecting for gold in the interior of Arizona. He remained an Arizonan for the rest of his life, and became one of the most widely known and respected citizens of the territory as a miner, ranchman and cattleman, pioneer educator and civil engineer. He died at the age of 89 at the home of his son Philip in Los Angeles, 1947. Mr. Rockfellow's career touched nearly every facet of early Arizona life; his story is the story of the opening of the southwest, of the defeat of the Apache, and the area's progress to modern civilization. It is the "Log of an Arizona Trail Blazer". (Arizona Silhouettes Tucson, Arizona/ Dr. Frank C. Lockwood).
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Memory of Flora McNair & John A. Rockfellow, Beloved Arizona Pioneers
