"White Dove of the Valley"

               Tucked away behind a cluster of trees along 67^th Avenue, just south of Olive, lies “The Dove of the Valley,” an unusual and architecturally interesting white house built in Glendale, Arizona, about 65 years ago.  During the last four years, I was vaguely aware of its existence as I have passed by the area numerous times; but it wasn’t until recently that I pursued my interest while going on a “photo shoots” with my fifteen-year-old daughter.

                A few days ago when we were in the area, with camera in hand, we came across the contractor who is in the process of renovating the home.  After asking for permission from the “Jill of all Trades” to complete a photo shoot assignment, to which she pleasantly agreed, we got into a discussion with her and she shared a little information about the house and its last owner.  My curiosity got the best of me as I spent the next few days quenching my thirst by researching what I think is one of Glendale’s hidden, and not widely known, unofficial historical landmarks.

                So here is the story behind the house—whose name “The Dove of the Valley” was derived from a plaque on the front of the house—and the McGill family who lived there.  The last owner was Rodrick G. McGill, who died in December 2010, just a couple of months prior to our move into the neighborhood a few blocks to the northwest.

                The forerunner of the Arizona McGill family was Zachary Taylor McGill who was born on February 16, 1849, in Graysville, Hamilton County, Tennessee,[i]  son of Nancy Pearson and David McGill.  Zachary’s father died when he was about a year old, Zachary being the youngest of five children.  By 1880, Zachary was farming in Pleasant Valley, Pawnee County, Kansas with his wife of four years, Laura Belle Chittim[ii] who was born on April 10, 1858, in Missouri.[iii]  Their oldest two children, Laura Gertrude, born in 1877 in Missouri, and Lester, born in about 1879 were listed in the census with them as well as Zachary’s widowed mother, Nancy.

  During the next decade, four more children were born to Laura and Zachary.  Their third child was born in 1882 and died the same year, then followed Guy Taylor born on December 21, 1883, and Edith Maria in 1886, all of whom were born in Kansas.  After a move to the Pacific Northwest, Nancy Ruberta  “Ruby” was born in Lincoln County, Washington, in 1889.  In the 1890’s, two more children were born to complete the family,  Ralph in 1893, who died at the age of two months, and Hattie Belle, born in 1894, after their move to Oklahoma,  the last of the eight children.[iv] [v]

                During the next few years, the McGills returned to the Pacific Northwest, this time to Santa Clara County in northern California.  In the 1908 City Directory, Zachary was listed as a farmer and his son Guy as an “orchardist.” [vi] The following year Guy married Jane Florence Shields, daughter of Walter and Mary Shields, born in Missouri in June 1886.[vii]   Their first son, Ralph, was born a couple of years later, about 1912, in California.

Zachary and Guy and their families moved to the Phoenix area, both purchasing neighboring lots on November 25, 1912. [viii]   The legal description for both transactions was a bit puzzling without the Section, Range, or Township listed but perhaps their addresses listed in  the 1913 Phoenix City Directory solves the mystery,  when 438 11^th North became the home for Guy and Florence while 430 11^th North was the home of  Zachary and Laura.  Their residences on 11^th North were short-lived; by 1915, Zachary and Laura were living at 1626 West Washington and Guy had moved about four miles west of Glendale when his second son, Clyde was born.[ix] This, I believe, is the present-day property located at 67^th Avenue, south of Olive, but at that time it was outside of the City of Glendale limits and was classified as RFD 2 or R2 for mailing address purposes.

                Five years after his arrival in Arizona, Guy’s father, Zachary, passed away on January 18, 1918, pleurisy as the cause of death. [x] His wife Laura remarried in 1922 to Thomas Allen Williams, [xi]  to whom she was married for about five years before his death in February 1927.  A year later, Laura married, a third time, Harvey O. Carpenter in Vigo, Indiana.[xii]  That marriage was also short-lived with Laura’s passing in 1932, when she was buried beside her first husband Zachary in the Greenwood Memorial Cemetery.[xiii]  

 Other McGill survivors included all six of Zachary’s and Laura’s adult children, although the obituary mentions only five.  With a little more digging, I discovered that Zachary’s oldest son Lester had been living in Oklahoma in the state mental hospital since at least 1910. [xiv]  Of his four surviving daughters, the younger two lived in Phoenix, the middle daughter in Los Angeles, and the oldest in Oklahoma. Guy McGill, at the time of his father’s death, was living in Glendale with a rural address of RFD 2, [xv] most likely living on the same property mentioned in the 1915 birth announcement of his son Clyde in the Arizona Republican newspaper article mentioned previously.

   It appears that Guy lived on this Glendale property until his death on February 10, 1957. [xvi] Because the 1920, 1930, and 1940 census records do not list addresses, I had to rely on warranty deeds recorded in the 1940’s where land was deeded from Guy and Florence to their son Rodrick, who was born on August 1, 1924, two years prior to their fourth and last son Walter in 1926.Rodrick Guy McGill attended Glendale High School at which time this picture was taken during his senior year.  His future wife, June Collins, a fellow classmate, was also pictured in the yearbook.   June was born on February 22, 1924 and died November 18, 2013.[xvii]  By the time Rodrick had enlisted in World War II, in 1944, they had married. [xviii] Rodrick and June had a family of five during the next twenty years—four boys, Laurence, David, Brian, and Lyle-- and one daughter, Robyn, before they divorced in 1966.[xix]

             In 1949, a few years following the war, Rodrick was deeded land from his parents; and, at the same time, “The Dove of the Valley” home was built, with 2400 square feet, an upper level and a basement, and three balconies along with some acreage.[xx]  It was probably considered quite a large home during that time.  Sometime after his father’s death in 1957, the rural Glendale address became part of the Glendale city limits and was changed to 8778 North 67^th Avenue.  Rodrick continued to live there for the next 45 years, retiring as an aerospace technician, before his death the day after Christmas in 2010. [xxi]

Rodrick McGill

June Collins

                Although the McGill home had been in the family for almost 100 years, unfortunately, it was sold in May 2014, to a foreigner who lives several blocks from the property.  This little treasure of Glendale history was a fun discovery--even though the McGill family were just ordinary people—and it symbolizes a connection between the present with its surroundings of “cookie cutter” apartment complexes and housing developments and the past with its history of the McGill family, early farmers  and citizens of our town Glendale.

               

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[i]Obituary and Death Certificate of Zachary Taylor McGill

[ii] 1880 Census of Pleasant Valley, Pawn

ee, Kansas

[iii]www.findagrave.com

[iv]1889 Washington State and Territorial Censuses, 1857-1892

[v] 1900 Census of Sumner Woods County, Oklahoma

[vi] 1908 City Directory Los Gatos, California City Directory

[vii] 1900 Census of Fields Creek/Honey Creek, Henry, Missouri

[viii] Arizona Republican, Phoenix, Arizona, 1890-1930, dated 29 Nov 1912, p. 11 

[ix] Arizona Republican, Phoenix, Arizona, 1890-1930, dated 8 Feb 1915

[x] Death Certificate of Zachary Taylor McGill

[xi] Arizona Marriages, 1865-1949

[xii] Indiana Marriages, 1811-1959

[xiii] www.findagrave.com

[xiv] 1910 Census of Supply, Woodward, Oklahoma

[xv] World War I Registration Record

[xvi] Death Certificate of Guy Taylor McGill

[xvii](Social Security Death Index

[xviii]World War II Enlistment Record   

[xix] Court Record, dated 17 May 1968

[xx] Court Record, Section 36, Township 3, North Range 1).

[xxi] Death Certificate of Rodrick McGill.