School (now known as Doolen Middle School) and Tucson High School.
When he graduated from Tucson High in 1956, the school had the largest
graduating class in America with one thousand students. Oral History of Duane Bingham
written by: Clay Lawrie
PROFILE OF DUANE BINGHAM
Building forts, digging caves or swimming when possible were all activities that Duane Bingham and his friends loved to do on the Rillito River when they were kids. They were not actually able to swim in the river, but many companies would dig holes to excavate gravel from the river, so when the Rillito flooded, the holes would fill up with water. When the children were not at the river they often were playing tag on Duane’s cousins’ horses. They would ride real fast to try to tag someone, which often caused them to fall off. This was all part of the fun, and one of the many unique aspects of growing up in the Binghampton community. These are some of the memories of Duane Bingham. I had the privilege to sit down with Duane on several occasions, to reflect on his life and to learn about a special history of Tucson that few people know about.
Duane Bingham was born August 1, 1938; he was the oldest of five kids.
The next oldest was his sister Janis, then his brother Barry, his brother
Roger and his youngest sister Donna. They
grew up in Binghampton, Arizona, a small farming community seven miles north of
Tucson. By the mid-sixties, Tucson had grown and Binghampton became
part of the city. The boundaries of
Binghampton were the foothills to the north and a block south of Fort. Lowell
Avenue on the south, and Swan on the east and Country club on the west end.
His father worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Duane attended Davison Elementary School, Catalina Jr. High
School (now known as Doolen Middle School) and Tucson High School.
When he graduated from Tucson High in 1956, the school had the largest
graduating class in America with one thousand students.
After graduating from Tucson High School, Duane went to the University of Arizona for two and one half years before he left college and became involved in construction. He worked in construction businesses for many years, building houses and other structures. Duane married his wife, Sharon in 1961. By the late 1970’s, Duane owned his own construction company, which he ran for over twenty years, selling it in 1990. Since 1990 Duane has sold real estate.
Duane had four children. His first-born was Michelle followed by his first son, David, and then his second daughter, Shea, and his youngest son, Burk. Duane’s four children have given him fifteen grandchildren.
Besides selling real estate and spending time with family, Duane is very involved with his church. He is a counselor to the President of one of five stakes, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A stake president, is the coordinator of eight churches serving about 3,500 people. Duane responsibility is with the youth of the stake, those ages twelve through eighteen.
Before Duane was born, the Bingham’s lived at River and Dodge; which is
now half way
up the north side of Tucson but was then well outside the Tucson city limits.
In the early 1900’s, Duane’s great great grandfather had come to
visit from the Safford area; while he was visiting he died; Duane recalled,
“Back in those days, bodies were not transported around the country. So
the family walked several hundred yards away from River and Dodge, found a spot
and said that is where we’re going to bury him.”
Duane’s grandfather, who was then eighteen, dug the grave and this was
the start of the Binghampton cemetery. Over
the years, this is where many members of the Binghampton community including
other members of Duane’s family were buried.
During the 1930’s, the foothills area was homesteaded. Duane explained that before this time, “no one wanted to live up in the foothills because they could not raise a garden.” Now that the foothills could be homesteaded, people could stake out an area, and as long as they made improvements on the land within a designated period. At one point in time a gentleman came to the church and said that the Binghampton cemetery could no longer be used as a burial site because it was part of his homestead. At this time there were several graves at this site in the foothills. So one of the church officials went up to Phoenix and complained to an official at the Bureau of Land Management, who agreed to confirm title to the church and give the other gentleman forty acres somewhere else.
For
many years, the cemetery was an informal place without, for example any records
maintained on who was buried there. Finally,
in 1964, Eli Abegg, a longtime member of the Binghampton community agreed to
become the caretaker. He fenced the area and began
keeping records of who was there. Eli did this until 1981, when he died..
Duane’s father, who was now retired from the Southern Pacific Railroad,
then became the caretaker. He did this for several years until Duane took over.
Duane has now served as the overall caretaker of the cemetery for a
number of years. He meets with family members of the deceased, digs the
graves, and maintains the landscape.
Over the past two years he has mapped the cemetery to scale and
put all of the records of the people buried there into a computer
database.
Duane told me that growing up in Binghampton was a very positive experience. He said that everyone felt safe, never locking their doors. Kids could wander around at night without danger. Everyone in the community knew each other. The majority of the people who lived in Binghampton were Mormons, which Duane considers very positive. Many community events revolved around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Binghampton Ward at that time, just as they do today. The Church sponsored Boy Scout troops as well as other youth activities. These activities included overnights, located where Craycroft meets the river, a location that is now a busy city intersection. At this time there were huge cottonwood trees which the children climbed and slept under. At Christmas time, Duane and friends would go back to these same cottonwood trees, climb up them and collect mistletoe. They would take the mistletoe and sell it in front of the local grocery store.
The
church also put on lots of drama productions.
There were Friday night dances at the church; sometimes indoors,
otherwise, they were held outside on the basketball court.
The
church also has a swimming pool; when it was hot, members of the community would
stay there all the time, because air conditioning was not yet generally
available. Not everyone in the
Binghampton community was Mormon, but they were always welcome at the church and
all church activities.
A typical day for Duane when he was growing up was one like many American youths who grew up in rural areas experienced: he had to make his own fun. When he was not in school, he often played with friends down by the river, building forts. Often he just wandered around the community with friends. They all went around to each other’s houses and they did all the church activities. “There was almost no paid entertainment,” Duane said. All the movie theaters were seven miles away in downtown Tucson. When Duane got older he was able to go to the drive-in movie theater in Tucson.
As he got older, Duane held several odd jobs. One of his first jobs was with a family who raised German Shepherds; Duane would help with the basic needs of the dogs. Duane and his brothers worked on and off for the family for many years. Jobs for the kids were very random, Duane recalls, “people in the community would hire the kids when they needed help building a structure or fixing something.” Kids who had cars often would find jobs in Tucson. As for the adults, many of them worked at Shamrock Dairy or at the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Binghampton is very special to Duane for several reasons. For one, it was his family who founded this community in 1899. In 1910 Binghampton became the first official Mormon Church community in Tucson. Today there are around 17,500 members of the Mormon Church in Tucson, many of whom still live in general Binghampton area.
Until the age of six, Duane and his family rented various houses around the Binghampton community. At the age of six, Duane and his family purchased their first home, located at Dodge and Kliendale Rd, a north central location of Tucson. The house sat on an acre of land and was built by one of Duane’s father’s relatives.
I asked Duane how Tucson has changed. Duane described how it has spread out. When he was a kid, there were seven miles of open desert south of Binghampton before Tucson Started. Speedway Boulevard was the most northern street of Tucson; after that it was all open desert. Binghampton was its own little village. “Clear up until the mid-sixties all the buses heading north had marked on them Binghampton,” Duane stated. He also said that Tucson is no longer a farming community. There were almost no houses in the foothills when Duane was a child, because people wanted to live in an area where they could grow a garden. All of the houses in Binghampton had canals dug around them so they could water their gardens. The residents grew everything from corn to watermelon to onions. Today none of this exists anymore as all of the area around Binghampton has been built up for miles and is now incorporated into Tucson.
I asked Duane what Tucson means to him. He believes it is still a good place to live, because Tucson does not have a lot of freeways and that has kept it from becoming a big city. He is concerned that if the city does grow that it will lose its traditional values.
Duane Bingham is a very special person to know. Duane has shown me how much of a Mormon presence there is in Tucson and around the world. Through interviewing and getting to know Duane I got to see that the Mormon community is very close and loving. He has also shown me how much Tucson has changed in recent years. Only fifty years ago much of Tucson was a farming community. What is developed land today, used to be open desert. The Rillito River was a place where children loved to play. Today the Rillito has multiple bridges running over it; with thousands of cars pass over them everyday. In many spots, on the edge of the riverbank, one can see town homes, businesses, and the back end of strip malls. Duane also taught me about the almost forgotten community of Binghampton. This was a neighborhood that was swallowed by a city. Duane has taught me that although Tucson has changed, it is important to remember the traditional values of Tucson. By remembering we can continue to make Tucson a wonderful place.