Family Histories:

THE WESTFALL FAMILY

A brief history of the Westfall Family in Florence by James L. Westfall, Jr.

My grandfather, George F. Westfall, first came to Florence in 1872. After a short time he went to the Yuma area and drove freight wagons from Yuma to Phoenix. He came back to Florence in 1875 and was engaged in mining. He was foreman of the old Ramert mine when he met and married my grandmother, Maria Conception Yepes. They raised six children, all born in Florence. They were Frank, who died from a rattlesnake bite when he was 16 years old, Sarah, Mollie, Mabel, my dad, James, and Alfred, who was killed in France during World War II. My grandmother was born in Ures, Mexico. I don’t know when she came to Florence.

Sara had six children, all born in Florence. Mollie had eleven children, one born in Florence, the others born in Superior. Mabel had four children, all born in Florence. James, my dad, had five children, all born in Florence.

My dad once told me, when I was a young boy, that he helped haul water on burros from the Gila River to the Church, when they were building the present-day Church. He was probably seven or eight years old at the time.

There are nineteen descendants of George F. Westfall now living in Florence

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