Dora and Alicia Ocampo Quesada Keepers of the Flame of Education
Dora Ocampo Quesada and her beloveds sister Alicia Otilia Ocampo
Quesada are fifth-generation descendents of a pioneer Mexican
family that helped establish Wickenburg, Arizona, in 1863. Their
great-great grandfather Ramón C. Valencia, who was born in Yuma
in 1853 (the year of the Gadsden Purchase), cultivated a sense
of place that drove the Valencia, Quesada, and Ocampo families
to build families, communities, and schools in Wickenburg. The
discovery of gold in 1862 and an open range ready for settlement
attracted many to Wickenburg, including José Franco Quesada, a
professional vaquero from La Paz, Baja California. A cowhand on
the Ocampo-Valencia ranch in the Arizona Territory during the
late 1890s, he married Francisca Ocampo, the daughter of Teodoro
and Mariana Ocampo, in 1918. The Ocampo Quesada family was
instrumental in establishing Wickenburg’s first public school,
the first St. Anthony Padua Catholic Church, and the first
Wickenburg tow