Remember Loyd?

No, he’s not a teacher at the independence school, a genealogist,  a tv personality, or the bee man.

He was a surveyor.

One of our former archivists, Monique, found Loyd in records related to group surveys in Arizona from 1913 to 1924.  What got her attention about Loyd was the way he signed his letters, “Very Respectfully, Loyd Sechrist.” She thought Sechrist might be someone special to watch for, and kept an eye out for more correspondence from him.  As she moved through, though, a telegram dated September 4, 1920 caught her eye:

“Loyd Sechrist killed by fall from cliff near Houck, Arizona, 530 P.M. yesterday.”

At this point, Monique knew that she wanted to find more out about Sechrist.  She told us, “Loyd was only 28 when he died.  Questions raced through my head.  How exactly did he die?  What about his family?  Was he married?  Did he have kids?  Where was he from?  Where was he buried?  That’s how it all started.”


As part of our ongoing efforts to help the public conduct successful research, we at the National Archives at Riverside occasionally share the research methodologies of our staff, researchers, and citizen archivists.  This post is part of a series of posts related to the research of one of our former archivists, Monique, into the life of a man named Loyd Sechrist.  Sechrist conducted surveys of Arizona immediately after statehood for the Bureau of Land Management, and records related to his life (and death) caught Monique’s curiosity.   Follow the story of Monique’s research into the history of this man here on Tumblr with the tag #Loyd Sechrist, and on our archives’ Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/nationalarchivesriverside.


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  1. gobemore reblogged this from todaysdocument and added:
    With as many articles as we see about new media, it’s important (and fun!) to remember other forms of disruptive...
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  3. kaiyves reblogged this from todaysdocument and added:
    Very cool.
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