Search for ‘Tomasina’ brings South Carolina woman to Cave Creek
by Brian DiTullio

DESERT FOOTHILLS – It was a long drive to find Tomasina, but Jodi Rodner knew it was what she had to do.

Rodner, a massage therapist and herbal clinician for people and animals, recently drove from her home in Wellford, S.C., to Cave Creek in a quest to find an ancestor.  All she had was a name, “Tomasina.”

While relaxing at Cave Creek Museum last week with her two dogs, Maggie and Taylor, Rodner spoke to The Desert Advocate about her journey, what got her on the road and how a few good feelings and some spiritual advice are leading to a permanent relocation to the area.

The story begins with Tomasina. Rodner doesn’t know her last name, only that she lived in Cave Creek in the late 1800s.

“She lived an interesting life, even though she died young,” said Rodner. “She died as a teenager. That’s all I really know.”

According to Rodner, the story she’s been told is Tomasina was a young girl who, like herself, was very interested in the natural world and herbology, and was the daughter of a medicine woman. While picking herbs along the side of a road, a man driving a wagon nodded off and the wagon careened off the road into Tomasina.

In those days horse‑drawn wagons had big steel‑rimmed wheels, and one of those wheels severed Tomasina’s leg in the crash. The wagon driver was unable to stop the bleeding, and she died from loss of blood.

While looking for some spiritual guidance recently, Rodner said Tomasina came through, and a spiritualist friend of hers, Scott Guynup, drew a picture of Tomasina. Armed with scattered bits of family history and the drawing, Rodner packed the car, loaded her dogs and hit the road.

“I felt like I needed to come here,” she said, adding the trip wasn’t without doubts and anxieties, but prayer has seen her through.

Once in Carefree, Rodner then commenced looking through archives at the Cave Creek Museum, the Heard Museum and other sources.

Cave Creek Museum Executive Director Evelyn Johnson points out there is a research library available for anyone who wishes to use it, and staff is available to assist.

“If you want to know how things got together, the library is here,” said Johnson. “It’s a resource that is available.”

Rodner’s research turned up nothing substantive, and the only clue she’s gotten of a possible last name is either “Hood” or “Houck.”

While Rodner hasn’t yet solved the mystery of Tomasina, she plans on having a lot more time to research local records and archives. She originally planned to open a herbology business in South Carolina, but fell in love with the Desert Foothills area and now plans to open a business here. And, she already has found a home she wants to buy in Carefree.

Finding the home took a little help from friends, physical and spiritual, but she found the home described to her not far from Carefree town center. And upon arrival, even more good news: not only was it for sale, but just in front of the entrance was a snake eating a lizard.

“Snakes are good omens in the spirit world,” said Rodner. “Since it was eating a lizard, that could mean prosperity as well.”

It was a long road, spiritually and geographically, from South Carolina to Carefree and Cave Creek, but Rodner said every step along the way, good and bad, was worth it.

“Everything happens for a reason,” she said.