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Inducted in 2021​

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Born in Sonora of Yaqui descent, Lucia was taken in the Apache slave trade as a child. She escaped at age 10 in 1864, but was captured and forced into sexual servitude  by “King” Samuel Woolsey, a wealthy businessman and politician, who had helped pass the Howell Code in the Territorial Legislature. Under this code, "minor Indians" could be indentured without parental consent. Woolsey installed Lucia at his Agua Fria ranch located just  above the Gila River near Hyder, AZ. In February 1867, Lucia gave birth to a baby girl named Clara. In 1869, Lucia bore Woolsey a second child, a girl they named Johanna Conception Woolsey. On May 27, 1871, four weeks before his and Lucia's only son was to be born, Woolsey married Mary Taylor at the Agua Fria ranch. Woolsey  never considered Lucia's three children as his legal children or heirs to his estate.

 

Following the marriage, Woolsey evicted Lucia and took custody of their daughters. Lucia fought for her children by securing legal representation, no small feat for a non-citizen at the time, and filing a suit of habeas corpus for their custody through a Yuma proxy. Because they were so young, the judge approved Woolsey's application to make the girls his indentured servants in return for support until they reached a “suitable age.”  When Clara was 13 and Johanna was 10, they were taken away from Lucia and placed under the care of the Catholic Church, further taxing the relationship between mother and daughters.

 

In 1879, almost fifteen years after he had abducted Lucia and just six months after he had taken her daughters from her, the Colonel suddenly died of apparent heart trouble. The girls remained at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church near Yuma, but Lucia once again fought for them. Woolsey’s death constituted a forfeit of a $1,000 bond he had signed in 1871 that required him to provide for the girl’s sustenance while they were in his custody. The existence of the bond money helped Lucia find lawyers willing to assist her. She sued and was granted custody. She then took further legal action in an attempt to secure an inheritance for her children, but she was not successful. The $1,000 payment was made under the provision that  “no acknowledgement of the legitimacy of any children” was intended.

 

In 1880 when the census came to her door, the Yaqui woman claimed Mexican ethnicity for herself and her children, ensuring that none of them would be bound by discrimination under the Howell Code. They would be listed as white on the census.  Lucia claimed she was a widow.  The Martinez family looked remarkably ordinary on paper.