St. Johns is famous for producing politicians, with most attention garnered by the prolific Udall clan. But its first celebrity politico was a woman.
Rachel Emma Allen Berry was part of the successful campaign for women's suffrage after Arizona became a state in 1912.
Frances Munds, a leader of the Arizona suffrage movement, had enlisted Mormon women from throughout the state in the campaign to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the vote. The measure passed overwhelmingly on Nov. 5, 1912.
In 1914, the first year women were eligible, Berry won a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives and Munds was elected to the Senate.
Berry served only one term, concentrating on education, road building and children's issues, according to the website of the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.
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She also tried, unsuccessfully, to ban cigars and chewing tobacco in the Legislature.
"In her day, she was the best known woman in Arizona," said her great-granddaughter Paula Long.
Her life was not easy, Long said.
Berry and her husband, William Wiley Berry, made the wagon trek from Salt Lake City to St. Johns in the winter of 1881, arriving in February 1882. They lived in the wagon and a log shed while they built the town's first brick house.
In 1905, their oldest son, Wiley, 20, was shot and killed while driving the family's sheep herd to winter pasture in the Salt River Valley, along with Juan Vigil, the 16-year-old son of sheepherder Santiago Vigil.
Two cattlemen, Zack and John Booth, were arrested for the murders and Zack Booth was hanged for the crimes.
