Arizona

Arizona was inhabited by Native American peoples for centuries before the first European explorer came through the region in 1539; Spanish missionaries were later founded in the 1690s. However, it was not until the end of the Mexican-American War of 1847 when the region was ceded to the United States, gaining statehood in 1912. The population of Arizona is currently 6.5 million, with 60 percent of the population being European Americans.

There is much documentation to show that of the early settlers, mothers had to be resourceful to keep their family together. One of these families who settled in Arizona in the early years was that of Ellen (or Nellie) Cashman. Following the death of her father, her mother brought her and her sister from Ireland to the United States, settled in San Francisco, and looked after the two girls herself. Nellie managed to track down some missing troopers lost in the desert and brought them food, making herself a local hero. Years later, her sister's husband and then her own sister died, leaving her to look after their five children in the “Wild West” township of Tombstone—made famous by Wyatt Earp's gunfight at the O.K. Corral. In 1899, the year after Nellie Cashman left Arizona to search for gold in the Yukon, the territory passed a law to make education compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 16.