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PAYSON ROUNDUP
FALL/WINTER 2013
The Historical
JOURNIGAN HOUSE Fine Food & Spirits 202 W. MAIN STREET (928) 474-2900
Featuring Great Food and Drink Specials Daily from Breakfast to Dinner
Julian Journigan was born in Flagstaff in 1884. His mother died when he was just eleven days old. Julian’s grandparents, John and Louisa See took him in, raising him in Strawberry and the Tonto Basin. They soon found themselves also raising their grandson Charley See, seven years younger than Julian. The two boys grew to become fast friends and later business partners. As a young man, Julian worked as a cowboy and in 1906, at age 22, he joined the Forest Service. He was stationed at Roosevelt under Superintendent Roscoe Willson, but after two years left that service to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at San Carlos. In February 1910 he married Margaret (“Madge”) Solomon and they had two children, Jack and Delsie Dee. In 1921 Julian’s cousin Charley asked him to come to Globe and help operate the mail stage between Globe and Payson. The Stage was still horse drawn and for several years the two of them hauled mail and passengers through swollen creeks and over dirt roads. In 1923 Julian secured a Cadillac car and the mail stage became mechanized. Julian and his Cadillac quickly became an institution in the Tonto and Payson Basins. He not only delivered the mail, but carried packages and passengers. Folks along the way often asked him to buy this or that for them in Globe, which he cheerfully did. One lady had him take a piece of some material she was sewing so he could buy thread to match the color. One of his nieces, local author Marguerite Noble, says that Julian also brought the local gossip with him along the route. There were no newspapers, radio, or television so people had to get their news by word of mouth. She tells that Stella Frazier, the postmistress at Roosevelt, read all the post cards and filled Julian in on what others were doing so he could pass it on.
About 1924 Journigan’s partner and cousin, Charley See gave up the mail route and Julian enlarged the route on his own. Mail routes were done by contract with the Federal government and the person who won the contract would often sublet portions of the route to others. These rural routes were called “Star Routes” because the asterisks on the contract noting sublets were called stars. Journigan won the contract for the entire route between Globe and the Verde Valley, going by way of Fossil Creek and including all stops in between. By this time mail service was daily along the extended route and required a number of subcontractors. Since he was settled into a job that seemed substantial, in 1925 Julian and his family built their house on Main Street. It’s what now is considered the front one-third of the building at 202 W. Main. From Journigan’s house on Main Street to Globe was a day’s trip in the Cadillac Stage. The party would stop for lunch at the Angler’s Inn near Roosevelt Lake. The noon meal consisted of cowboy beans, jerky, gravy, and hot biscuits. The special treat was iced tea, made with ice that had been packed in from Globe. On the return trip to Payson the climb up Ox Bow Hill often required the passengers to get out of the Cadillac and help it up the hill by placing stones behind the wheels as it crept along. In 1932 Julian lost his bid for the mail route. While the family still lived on Main Street, he went to work on the Chilson-Tremaine cattle ranches around Rye and continued his favorite sport of mining. It was in April of 1941, after a trip to his claims near the headwaters of Slate Creek, that Julian Journigan suffered a heart attack at the Sunflower Store and died. He was 57 years old and is buried in the Payson Pioneer Cemetery.