(SWJA)
Julia Frank-Zeckendorf
Julia Frank was born in Hanover, Germany in 1840. She immigrated to the United States as a young child with her family to New York. At the age of eighteen years, she married William Zeckendorf. He was also originally from Germany and arrived in the United States at the age of fourteen years old to work with his older brothers. The Zeckendorf family business started in New Mexico and then moved to Arizona.
The wedding of Julia and William took place in New York City and the young couple spent their honeymoon on the second transcontinental train trip of the Union Pacific. The train crossed the plains and mountains before arriving in Oakland, California. From Oakland, the couple sailed across the San Francisco Bay and then onward to San Diego, California. The morning they were departing San Diego, Julia had the shock of seeing her handsome new husband for the first time in his western outfit. He came to breakfast wearing a pistol on each hip, criss-crossed bandoleers of ammunition across his chest, and a rifle in hand.
Julia and William finally left for their new home in Tucson. The Zeckendorf's had four children in Tucson. They were: Hilda, Birdie, and Arthur William.
The Zeckendorf's were a very popular couple socially and attended the local Jewish festivities. Julia entertained elegantly in their home for the Jewish community. The Zeckendorfs moved back to New York City later in their lives. When word reached Tucson of their deaths, it shocked the community who remembered this pioneering family for not only merchandising, mining, cattle raising and farming. As the twentieth century arrived, the Zeckendorf name became a memory in the historical records of Arizona and New Mexico.
In New York City the next two generations of Zeckendorfs built a real estate empire. Julia and William's grandson, William II, made a lasting memory for the family name internationally. He was instrumental in putting together the land parcel that John D. Rockerfeller donated to the United Nations for its headquarters in New York City.
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