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- from "Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden" (sharlot.org) by Mona Lange McCroskey, 2008
ULRIKA JOHANN RUDSTROM FITZMAURICE
Ulrika Rudstrom was born in Lulea, Sweden, on March 7, 1875. In 1896 she immigrated to Seattle to live with her sister and her family, and in 1899 she accompanied them to the Klondike, Yukon Territory. There she met Garrett Sarafield Fitzmaurice from Seattle, and married him in Dawson City on January 19, 1902. They subsequently lived in Dawson City and Fairbanks, where Mr. Fitzmaurice was engaged in mining. Ulrika and Garrett came to Prescott on Christmas Eve, 1907, to visit her father-in-law, Martin Fitzmaurice, who was here as a health seeker. They stayed to make Arizona their home; they lived in the Barlow-Massicks "castle" on Lynx Creek, which was part of a mining claim. Mr. Fitzmaurice leased his property and lived off the royalties until the 1930s when the Roosevelt administration froze the gold price. Ulrika became the mistress of the 1998 Victorian mansion. On the first floor were a large living room with three sides of glass windows with an outside veranda; a dining room with a huge fireplace; and a kitchen with a wood stove with an incinerator, cook top, and baking and warming ovens. A hole in the thick, stone wall served as a cooler. Two stairways led to the paneled second floor, which had a bathroom and four bedrooms. There was lots of carved, decorative wood. Mrs. Fitzmaurice liked lavender and peach, and a lot of the house was painted in those colors. Years later, her son and his wife changed the color scheme. Above the second floor was a widow's walk, from which Ulrika had a great view of the surrounding countryside. In the summertime she could sit downstairs on the veranda, watch lightning flashes, and listen to the coyotes howling. One daughter was born to the Fitzmaurices in 1903, Myrtle. Myrtle married Mr. Schanefelt, a mining engineer hired by Garrett Fitzmaurice to build the Lynx Creek dam. They had a son, Robert. In 1929 Myrtle had acute appendicitis, and because the road from the ranch to Prescott was in poor condition and took a long time to negotiate, she died without receiving medical care. Her husband died soon thereafter; it fell to Ulrika and Garrett to raise their grandson, Robert. They owned a home at 319 Alarcon in Prescott, where Ulrika stayed while Robert attended Washington School. Ulrika Fitzmaurice died in Prescott on November 1, 1949. She is buried in Mountain View Cemetery. She was praised in The Prescott Courier: Mrs. Fitzmaurice was a woman of high ideals and great strength of character. She was widely read and took great interest in world affairs. While her life centered in her home and in her grandson?s career, she found time to make a wide circle of friends and was ever ready to help anyone needing her kindly services. She was an active member of the Monday Club until her health failed.
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1875 - 1949 (74 years)