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Homer Martin Tate
Homer Tate was born
into a typical pioneering family in Poetry,
Texas,
on September 7th, 1884.
The family moved in 1892 to a small
settlement in Indian Territory
(now known as Graham
Oklahoma.)
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Homer Tate
Sheriff
1925 - 1926 Safford,
Graham
County
Arizona
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His family push
farther westward to Spanish Fork, Utah,
three years later in two covered wagons with
"a span of mules, a span of horses, and a
saddle horse," according to their journal.
The same mules were to carry them in 1898 on
a five-week journey to Central, Arizona.
The family grew there
to include ten children, Homer being third
from the oldest.
As a young man he
worked for a time in copper mines at Globe,
where in 1908 he married Emma Coombs.
They raised for children in the Gila Valley
after returning there to farm. Later,
he was elected sheriff of Graham County, and
operator a motel and service station in
Safford. In 1945 he moved to Phoenix
and started a unique manufacturing business
creating strange circus and carnival
"oddities" in the lath-house of which he
writes.
He is currently
engaged in religious work for his church in
Mesa Arizona.
Excerpt from Homer
Tates book Through These Eyes, a
Poetic View of Life Published in 1965
by Hormer Tate and
Robert T. Kasold
Photographs show creations modeled by Homer
Tate, a self-trained artist at Safford AZ,
including heads, mummies, Indian relics,
representations of events. Made chiefly of
paper Mache and cactus, bone, wood, and
stone.
papier mache figures at Apache
Junction AZ representing development of
state, a tourist attraction.
This excerpt from a 1940s travel magazine
gives us a window into that sense
of humor, and a rare description of the
interior of Tate's workshop and museum:
"Phoenix is still a town where free
enterprise can, as a Western saying goes,
scratch its own itch. Rugged individualism
expresses itself in strange and sometimes
awesome ways along East Van Buren Street,
one of the principal thoroughfares, where
alligator farms, cactus curio shops, junk
yards and reptile gardens crowd each other.
None has more fascination than Tate's Curio
Shop where in a single room, Homer Tate, a
pink-faced Irishman, manufactures oddities
for sideshows, carnivals, and "people who
like to scare other people out of their
wits."
On the sides of his four walls are cases of
arrowheads, two-headed calves, deer with
curly horns, skulls, pictures of freaks, and
his own handiwork represented by an
appalling assortment of shrunken heads,
mummies, Devil Boys, Fish Girls, necklaces
of hands, fingers and ears (they'll last a
lifetime and only cost twelve dollars).
Curled around the room's ceiling are
forty five feet of vertebrae ending in a
dragon-like skull. This is, according to an
attached sign, A GENUINE PSEUDO SNAKE. "Over
there,"
He says, pointing to a molting creature in
one corner, "is a bamboozle bat - a bird
that flies backwards to keep the dust out of
his eyes. And them," he adds, indicating
some dark crouched figures, "is my mummies.
They're liked as much as the real ones.
It's all baloney, of course," he concludes,
"but this stuff would have scared my father
to death."
Homer Martin Tate Died February 21, 1975 at the age
of 90
click on Image
to Learn More about his Family Tree
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Apache Junction Museum
Skull of the Rickamoracka of Death Valley
Discovered by H.M. Tate, Safford, Arizona
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Prehistoric Relics Discovered by H.M. Tate,
Safford, Arizona
Skeleton of Gigantic Prehistoric Reptile,
Colossal Cave Man Eating Snake
10,000,000 years old, 45 feet long,
Discovered by H.M. Tate, Safford, Arizona
Skull of Flesh-Eating Antelope discovered in
Bloody Gulch, Arizona, by H.M. Tate,
Safford, Arizona
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Click on
the Images Below to View
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Creations of
Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Work of Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Homer Tate
sitting among his creations.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Display of work of Homer Tate. Apache Junction,
Arizona |
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Mummies and heads, creations
of Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Homer Tate
making a papier mache head.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Shotgun wedding as imagined
by Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Heads imagined and made by
Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
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Homer Tate
working on a papier mache head. Apache Junction,
Arizona |
WPA (Work Projects
Administration)
work as visualized
by Homer Tate
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Sequence story of
the Old Apple Tree
and other work of Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Homer Tate,
self-trained artist,
looking at his model
of a hanged horse
thief. Apache Junction,
Arizona |
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Trial of an
Ozark
moon-shiner,
made by Homer Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
While Homer Tate has
never seen the
cotton South,
this is what he
imagines it to
be. Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Ballad of the
Martins and the
Coys interpreted
in papier mache
and wood
sculpture by
Homer
Tate.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
Little red
schoolhouse
modeled from
school day
memories of
Homer
Tate.
Safford,
Arizona. Mr.
Tate is a
self-trained
artist working
in papier mache
and such
indigenous
materials as
cactus, bone,
wood and stone |
Heads,
mummies and
Indian
relics. The
heads and
mummies were
made by
Homer
Tate and
the mummies
were so
realistic
that
curators of
museums must
examine them
closely to
determine
their
artificiality.
Indian
relics are
genuine.
Apache Junction,
Arizona |
All references to Apache Junction being the location of Homer Tate's Shop were provide by: Shad Kvetko
|
Homer Tate |
Homer Working on one of His
Creatures |
Autograph With Kindest Thots Homer M. Tate |
Homer Tate |
Homer Tate in His Shop |
Click Image Below to
Read
Click Image Below to View
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Images
Homer
Tate
Sheriff
1925 - 1926 Safford,
Graham
County
Arizona
A pache
Junction Museum submitted by Vada
The Frasher Foto Postcard Collection -
1936
Burton Frasher Sr. 1888-1955
B3742 - Skull of the
Rickamoracka
B3735 -
Prehistoric Relics
Discovered
B3737 -
Skeleton of Gigantic
Prehistoric Reptile
B3751 -
Skull of Flesh-Eating
Antelope
Repository - Pomona Public Library
1940 May.
Lee, Russell, 1903-
photographer. (b&w film negs)
HT1 Creations of
Homer Tate.
Safford, Arizona LC-USF34- 036430-D
HT2 Work of
Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona LC-USF34-
036418-D
HT3 Homer Tate sitting
among his creations. Safford, Arizona
LC-USF34- 036481-D
HT4 Display of work
of Homer Tate. Safford,
Arizona LC-USF34- 036420-D
HT5 Mummies and
heads, creations of Homer Tate.
Safford, Arizona LC-USF34- 036507-D
HT6
Homer Tate making a
papier mache head. Safford, Arizona
LC-USF34- 036495-D
HT7
Shotgun wedding as imagined by Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona LC-USF34-
036480-D
HT8 Heads imagined
and made by Homer Tate.
Safford, Arizona LC-USF34- 036419-D
HT9
Homer Tate working on
a papier mache head. Safford, Arizona
LC-USF34- 036479-D
HT-10 WPA (Work Projects Administration)
work as visualized by Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona LC-USF34-
036417-D
HT-11 Sequence story of the Old Apple
Tree and other work of Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona LC-USF34-
036431-D
HT-12 Homer Tate,
self-trained artist, looking at his
model of a hanged horse thief. Safford,
Arizona LC-USF34- 036447-D
HT-13 Trial of an Ozark moonshiner,
made by Homer Tate.
Safford, Arizona LC-USF34- 036432-D)
HT-14 While
Homer Tate has
never seen the cotton South, this is
what he imagines it to be. Safford,
Arizona LC-USF34- 036433-D
HT-15 Ballad of the Martins and the Coys
interpreted in papier mache and wood
sculpture by Homer Tate.
Safford, Arizona LC-USF34- 036429-D
HT-16 Little red schoolhouse modeled
from schoolday memories of Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona. Mr. Tate is a self-trained artist
working in papier mache and such
indigenous materials as cactus, bone,
wood and stone LC-USF34- 036416-D
HT-17 Heads, mummies and Indian relics.
The heads and mummies were made by Homer Tate and the mummies
were so realistic that curators of
museums must examine them closely to
determine their artificiality. Indian
relics are genuine. Safford, Arizona
LC-USF34- 036470-D
Library of Congress
HTC1
Homer Tate in his later years,
HTC2
Homer working on one of his creatures
HTC3
Autograph from Homer Tate
HTC4
Homer Tate
HTC5
Homer in His Shop
Images
from Though These Eyes a book of poetry
by Homer Tate
,
a Poetic View of Life Published in
1965
Some of
the texts
provide by:
Shad
Kvetko
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For more information
please
contact
us here.
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