Joe
And ,why Alkire to been obligated to write in his business letters or the other about Waltz ? If he was at home and told about Waltz to his wife and after to a good friend or even to the saloon bar , was this a subject to be written on paper ? Maybe the Waltz's subject was not so important for all the people/businessmen of that time . Maybe would be important for Alkire if he would been a LDM hunter .
Hello Marius,
The RJ Allen account in his 1960's book, the Frank Alkire papers and the whole story has been blown far out of proportion in past years. So much misinformation has been posted it's hard to get a handle on the actual events.
Here is something that might help you understand the history and the events a little better.
The story of Julia Thomas “selling tickets” to spend a few minutes with Jacob Waltz the night he died, and members of the Alkire family being present is not a new story. It has been around for at least 60 years and probably much longer.
Robert Joseph Allen wrote a version of the account, including Alkire in his published book in the 1960’s. Frank Alkire and the entire Alkire family were alive and living in Phoenix and Pomona, Ca. while Allen was researching and writing his book. If any of the Alkire’s would have had any comments or concerns about the account they would have surely voiced them at that time, or in the years following. However, the Alkire family has never questioned or denied Allen’s account.
Does that mean the Alkire account in RJ Allen’s book is historically factual? Of course it doesn’t, it merely means Allen related a story he was given the way he heard it. In that context it is a true accounting of the way RJ Allen heard the story.
I have never believed the story as Allen wrote it, was a factual account. I do believe however there were bits and pieces of truth in the accounting.
Frank Alkire donated a portion of his (Frank Tomlin Alkire Collection) to Edith Kitt at the Arizona Historical Society (AHS). That collection is free to anyone who desires to read through it. But the collection stops in early 1950’s. Frank Alkire lived for another decade and continued to write and add to his collection and the years 1953-1963 have yet to be donated to the AHS. I believe the rest of Alkire’s collection will be donated sometime in the future as Alma Alkire who was the custodian of the Alkire family recently passed away.
RJ Allen had to get the account he wrote about from somewhere. He either got the account directly from Alkire or from an earlier printing of the account. The Arizona Gleam published a somewhat similar account in the 1930’s.
Here is a partial list of authors and writers who have listed Frank Alkire as a source for Lost Dutchman related stories and accounts they wrote about either in the pages of their books or in their personal papers;
RJ Allen, S.Ely, CF Higham, B. Barnard, M. Rose, O. Arnold, RE Lee, JT Climenson, R. Blair WI Lively.
It is a fact that Frank Alkire was a source of LDM stories and accounts during his lifetime as at least several authors quoted or mentioned him in their work and personal papers. But the curious thing is that in the FT Alkire collection at the AHS there is no mention whatsoever of any LDM story, account or tale.
What could be the reason for the discrepancy?
One reason and the more obvious one would be his collection at AZH stops at 1953 and anything he may have collected concerning the LDM is still with the family.
But the most compelling reason is the stigma in earlier years attached to anyone who even showed the slightest inclination to believing in the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine Legend.
Frank Alkire was a very prominent citizen who had been on the Board of the Salt River Valley Water Users Association, he was a Director of the Valley Bank, ran a Dry Goods, Grocery and Land Sales business in Phoenix and Maricopa County. When he donated the things to the AHS in 1953 he was still on the Board of the Valley Bank and the Board of Directors of St. Joseph’s Hospital. At one time Alkire expressed desire to run for Phoenix city council.
Alkire’s omission of LDM material in his earlier donation to AHS is most probably due (in my opinion) to him not wanting this stigma attached to him. None of us today can imagine, or take seriously enough what that stigma meant or was like to those who lived in that era. Even today there is still a certain stigma attached to LDM belief.
Just because there is no mention of LDM stories in the FT Alkire collection at the AHS does not mean FT Alkire never wrote, collected or told accounts of the LDM. It merely means there is nothing in the collection ending with 1953. Anything beyond that is an erroneous assumption.
As I said previously, I do not believe the RJ Allen story as it is written. And I never believed the account as it appears in the TE Glover book, Golden Dreams. Nor do I believe the accounts as written in the H. Corbin book, Bible on Jacob Waltz and the LDM. But I do believe there are some bits and pieces of those accounts which are true.
Matthew