By Dr. Richard S. Beal, Jr.

It was 1879 and Romulus Adolphus Windes, just having completed his education at the Baptist Union Theological Seminary in Chicago, was faced with a problem.  His wife, Magdalene Ann, suffered terribly from asthma.  A physician advised a move to the dry climate of Arizona.  The American Baptist Home Mission Society was happy to appoint him to the town of Prescott, the capital of the Territory where gold had been discovered sixteen years before.  Windes felt it was the call of God, but how could he possibly move his wife and their two small children to such a remote place?

Had it been three years later, they could have taken an Atlantic and Pacific train across northern Arizona as far as Prescott Junction, later renamed Seligman.  However, in 1879, travel choices to the West were few.

Handy with tools, Windes solved the problem.  He converted an old, four-wheeled milk cart into a fairly comfortable conveyance.  Where he got the milk cart is not left to us.  The family set out, their cart pulled by two mules.  It would be three months before they arrived in Prescott.

What were the dangers along the way?  Brigands might try to rob them of the three fifty-dollar bills he had borrowed for getting established once they arrived in Prescott.  His wife solved that difficulty by sewing them into the hem of her skirt, where robbers would not suspect to search.

What route did they follow?  From Chicago there were traveled roads as far as Albuquerque.  From there they traveled west to Fort Defiance, where they would have taken the Beale Wagon Road to some point near present day Seligman.  Then they followed the old Buckboard Route (and soon-to-be stage route) to Prescott, coming through Walnut Creek (about 40 miles out Williamson Valley Road), a delightful oasis with oaks, cedars and willows along the stream.

Getting food along the way would have been no problem until arriving in Albuquerque, for settlements had sprung up through the Midwestern states, where they could have purchased necessities or stopped at ranch or farm houses where the people would have been happy to provide food for a preacher and family.  On leaving Albuquerque, however, ranches were miles between.  Like most travelers, Windes would have carried a shotgun to provide meat for the family.

Unfortunately, their rickety old wagon went to pieces about 50 miles outside of Prescott.  Windes set about reconstructing the wagon into a smaller, two-wheeled “Santa Fe buckboard,” so they arrived in Prescott with him astride one mule and leading the other as it drew the contrivance with his wife and two infants.

The West Prescott School, c1880, was located on Iron Springs Road where the Burger King stands today. Rev. Windes took the position as schoolmaster to supplement his income as the pastor of the Lone Star Baptist Church which met initially in the schoolhouse (Call Number# BU-S-5007).

Probably the first thing on arriving, Magdalene opened the hem of her skirt to recover the three fifty-dollar bills.  But the rigors of the journey had reduced them to pieces.  Yet, by pasting them together, they were able to recover their full value.

What did they find on coming to Prescott?  A town beautifully laid out with broad streets, but none of them paved.  The town was a beehive of activity.  Not only was the governor’s mansion here but the capitol building and a brand new two-story courthouse with a tall cupola.  There was a hotel and the newly erected Goldwater Department store.  Frame stores were along Gurley Street and so were blacksmith shops, harness shops and other kinds of businesses necessary to a frontier town.  There were two churches: a Methodist Episcopal and a Methodist Episcopal South.  The town boasted four physicians, two dentists and fourteen saloons.  Not often mentioned were the Chinese stores and dwellings on North Granite Street and the row of female boarding houses, popularly known as cribs, on South Granite Street.

When Windes began looking for Baptists as a nucleus for his work, he found Baptists “as scarce as hens’ teeth.”  Nevertheless, he was able to get six (including him and his wife!) Baptists together to start a congregation.  Never a shirker, Pastor Windes was able to start the first Baptist church in the territory.  The task was difficult, for people used to ridicule him asking, among other taunts, “Are you going to baptize people by tying a rope around them and letting them down into a well, or take them (40 miles away) to the Verde River?”  After collecting a few Baptists, the members themselves solved that problem by damming a creek, probably Granite Creek.

Because financial support from the mission society was inadequate, Windes had to get a job.  He was hired as a schoolmaster at the West Prescott School House, a school later named Miller Valley School.  He taught school during the week and preached on Sundays.  It was there the first services were held and the Lone Star Baptist Church formed in January, 1880 (now the First Baptist Church located on Marina Street).  By September 1880, the church had 15 members, enough to put up its first church building on Fleury Street where the Prescott Catholic Church now stands.  The church met at this location until July of 1885.

What kind of preacher was Windes?  He was a tireless worker and devoted to his profession.  Apart from his persistence, determination and faith, the church may not have been born.  Windes served as Lone Star Baptist Church pastor two different times: 1880-1884 and 1888-1889.

The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration.  Please contact Scott Anderson at Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives at 445-3122 for information.