By Sharlot M. Hall

(The following is from the pen of Sharlot M. Hall, historian, writer, and curator of Sharlot Hall Museum. Its value rests upon the fact that she is the only living writer who can tell, from first-hand knowledge, the more intimate details of the history of Arizona's first 'Gubnatorial Mansion.)

"On February 24th, 1863, President Lincoln signed a bill creating the Territory of Arizona and later appointed a set of territorial officers. The most important change made in this list was caused by the death of Governor John Gurley only a short time before the party was ready to start for Arizona. John N. Goodwin was appointed Governor and continued the preparations which Governor Gurley had made for the long trip. 

The party started from Cincinnati, Ohio, traveling by way of the Ohio River, the Mississippi and the Missouri until they finally reached Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on the bank of the Missouri River. Here they were given traveling wagons and government freight transports and also a convoy of troops for protection on the march. They were about three months on the trip and marched from military post to post, sending back the troops that had previously been their guard. After reaching New Mexico there were no roads over which they could enter Arizona, except the outline of the survey made by Lieutenant Beale in the 1850s. From New Mexico they were accompanied by New Mexico volunteer soldiers and followed the route now used by the Santa Fe Railroad for the most part. From where Flagstaff now stands they turned southward into the region which was known to be occupied by some groups of placer gold miners from California, who exploring the country in hopes of finding a new placer region which might prove as rich as northern California. General Carleton, who was the Commander of the military division of the southwest, had in the previous November sent a small body of troops into the northern part of Arizona to learn what they could of these explorations. 

President Lincoln had left the new Governor free to select a location for his first capital, but is was generally decided to locate somewhere in this mining region, which had previously been unexplored. General Carleton felt that somewhere in what is now Yavapai County would be the logical location for the first capitol. The Governor and his party stopped at a very large spring in Chino Valley, where the New Mexico soldiers had been in camp during the winter and from here he sent out scouts in various directions to learn of the country. The miners were mostly on Lynx Creek in the little mountain park where Prescott now stands. 

One of the most interesting memories was recorded by Charles Genung, who came to Arizona from San Francisco a few weeks before the Governor arrived and who, coming up from Walnut Grove and crossing in search of food supplies to the Governor's encampment, watched the party coming across to their location in Prescott. The tall grass of Lonesome Valley half hid the traveling wagons and riders on horseback and as they wound down through the pines and encamped on what is now the Plaza, they were the first white men, except Pauline Weaver and his trappers, to make permanent camp in the region, for the California miners had traveled about as their prospecting made necessary. 

The Governor brought with him a very large flag which had been given to Governor Gurley and which had lain across Governor Gurley's coffin at his funeral in Cincinnati. A tall pine tree had been brought down from the mountains to the location of the camp in Chino Valley and this was brought over to Prescott and set up on the Plaza. The big flag floating in the wind was to guide the miners who were trying to find the party of the new Governor. 

Settlers had joined the Governor's party in Colorado where a mining boom had proven of little value and most of the wagons stopped on the Plaza. The soldiers with their outfits and supplies stopped still further out, where Whipple Hospital now stands. The Governor, however, was better pleased with the western bank of Granite Creek and selected a little jutting hilltop. To this he had his one outfit taken, it being necessary to cut his way through the thick willows on Granite Creek. Here he encamped under the trees where Captain Pauline Weaver had had his little summer camp for several years and as soon as the pine forest could be explored, the outing of logs begun for the building of the new Capitol. At this time there were no openings or roadways, so the logs had to be dragged in by log chains and, for the most part, dragged by yokes of oxen or teams of mules. Some of the logs in the old building still show the marks of these log chains around them. The Arizona Miner in early June of 1864 carried a request for a bid for the construction of the building. It was granted to a group of men which included John Raible, Dan Hatz and Van C. Smith, and just after the 4th of July celebration in 1864, the work began. It went somewhat slowly because tools were not especially plentiful and were loaned from one group to another. When the Governor's home was ready for the roof it was found that the money allotted for the building had given out and Secretary McCormick had to stretch his authority a little and appropriate a larger fund for the purchase of shakes, which were split in the forest within a short distance of where the building now stands. The building was roofed and ready so that they could move in at the end of September when the first legislature was about to meet. 

There was no means of cutting lumber except by hand with the whipsaws and so flooring was not considered, but enough lumber was whipsawed to make a ceiling, leaving a low loft overhead. This loft was reached by a ladder and a trap door and became the sleeping room of guests in Prescott, and especially of members of the first Legislature. 

When the legislature began its first session at the end of September, 1864, the building which had been started for a capitol was not yet completed. It had not been chinked and there were no window, shutters or doors. Storms came early and rain and snow beat in so that soon the members of the legislature moved over to the Governor's big comfortable front room and there many sessions of the legislature were held. 

The home of the Governor was the largest house in Prescott and the life of the entire community centered there. The military commander lived there with the Governor for more than a year and around the fireplace in the big room were discussed the campaigns against the Indians and the means to be taken for the protection of the little community. Here came the miners when any discoveries were made or when gold was to be shipped to the coast or when new prospecting trips were to be outfitted and protected. There the social life of the little town centered and the Thanksgiving and Christmas festivals were held, and to these everyone in the entire community was welcome. The first year, there was no Christmas tree, but there was a feast which lasted as long as anyone came in to sit down to the table and by the second Christmas there was a tree. 

Since there were no women in the family it was found convenient to keep one half of the house for the Governor's office, this being the room on the right hand side, and around this fireplace were discussed all of the events which went to the building of the new Territory. When the capitol was moved to Tucson in 1867, the old house was left in the care of the private secretary of the first governor, Henry Fleury. No titles had been obtained to land because at this time there was no surveying of land in Arizona, but Secretary McCormick and Governor Goodwin had made an entry in the Land Office of New Mexico, which was the nearest, for an entire section of land. However, in later years Judge Fleury obtained title to only about a half section and later part of this became the town site of West Prescott. Even when the capitol was removed to Tucson, the big log house remained the center for the life of the community. Judge Fleury was for many years Justice of the Peace, at times Probate Judge, and court was held in the rooms which had been the Governor's office, and here discussions of the life of the community continued. Visiting lawyers were entertained beside the old fireplace and when the capital returned to Prescott in 1877, though the old house was no longer used as the Governor's home or as his office; it was the informal capitol of Arizona. Mr. Fleury moved in with the first governor at the end of September, 1864, and spent only three nights out from under the roof of this house, where he died in September of 1895. After his death the house passed into other ownership, until finally Joe Daughtery of Prescott bought the old building and the land surrounding it. 

It is to Tony Johns that we owe the permanent preservation of the first capitol of Arizona. After a visit to England, which renewed Mr. Johns' appreciation of the historical objects in the little village where he was born, he returned to Prescott with the feeling that this house in which the life of Arizona had its beginning should be preserved. It was through his efforts that the legislature made the appropriation which purchased the building with the intention that it should be used as a museum and permanently preserved. It was not so easy to realize the purpose of the appropriation and the building was unoccupied for several years, until Sharlot Hall, who had the largest private collection in the state, was made free by the death of her parents to consider the use of the old capitol. Miss Hall moved her own collection there and at her own expense began the restoration of the building. It was her wish that everything she had collected, and that which might be added to her collection, should remain in this building and never be taken away from Prescott. It was not her intention to make a museum, in the ordinary sense, but rather to gather and preserve everything obtainable which related to the early life of Arizona. Not so much the Indian relics of prehistoric times, but those things connected with the actual settlers of the region, and everything which had been made and used by the white settlers of Arizona. This purpose has been continued, addition has been made to the collection from time to time, sometimes by loan or gift; a library based upon Miss Hall's personal collection has been enlarged from time to time, and the work of safeguarding objects of historical value connected with the founding of Arizona has been continued. The museum has been open to visitors at all times, especially to schools and school children. 

Through the Federal Relief Projects a second building has been secured, a fireproof building of stone, with a vault for the security of valuable objects and room for further display, which was not possible in the older building. Work is still in progress and the collection is being sorted, labeled and catalogued. The historical objects themselves will, for the most part, remain in the older building, where these things from the old homes and cattle ranges seem peculiarly at home. Books, manuscripts, pictures and all burnable objects will be placed in the stone house. The grounds are being developed in harmony with the original idea, not landscaped but kept in accord with earlier days. The old logs which were built into the first little log building that stood on the site of Prescott, have been moved from the original location and are being replaced on the ground exactly as they stood for so many years. A special mining exhibit is being planned, as well as an exhibit which will include both early mining machinery and the farming machinery used often and made on the early ranches. This little museum is entirely of and for Arizona, and has no ambition to obtain relics from outside the State, although there are many interesting things that were brought by early settlers coming from elsewhere. It is open the year round and visitors are always welcome." 

 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po0168.3pc)
Reuse only by permission.
Sharlot Hall in front of the Governor's Mansion, c. 1930