By Jay W. Eby
The Territory of Arizona became a fact when President A. Lincoln signed the bill on February 24, 1863, yet the newly appointed governor and other territorial officers would spend Christmas that year still in New Mexico traveling to the new territory. But a most distinguished guest, nonetheless, celebrated Christmas in the area that would become Prescott.
The year of our Lord 1863 had been an important year here in Central Arizona. The region was not new to men of conquest or seekers of wealth. The ancient-ones had settled here, traded and farmed across the face of our land, and gone away. Those Native Americans that we called Apache and Yavapai had moved in and adapted to the climate, its fluctuations, and the plants and animals that provided their livelihood. Bold Spanish Conquistadors, with the help of the native peoples, had traversed these mountains, streams and valleys. American trappers Ewing Young, Kit Carson, and Paulino Weaver may have roamed these hills. In the wake of the Mexican War, Americans had moved across Arizona both to the north and south of our fair lands, but it was the discovery of gold that opened this area to civilization.
It did not take long for men from east and west, north and south to flock in to seek the wealth that the streams and mountains offered. Most brought pans, sieves, picks and shovels but not axes, saws, hammers, or enough food, or their women. As winter approached they constructed some semblance of shelters with fireplaces for heat and cooking. Many were half dugouts with wood, log, or rock sides; using any thing that was available and constructed with the tools that were common to their enterprise.
Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy of the diocese that included both New Mexico and Arizona left Santa Fe the 27th of October 1863 on a planned trip to San Francisco to meet two new recruits for his mission in the new Santa Fe Diocese that included Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. His company included a fellow priest from Albuquerque, Father J. M. Coudert, two servants, and three teamsters. The Bishop and his party had met up with the soldiers at Ft. Wingate before visiting Zuni Pueblo, recruiting an extra wagon as they crossed the Little Colorado River. After the arduous crossing of Hell Canyon, and believing that they could not return by that route, the Right Reverend sold his wagons and then continued their trip using pack animals.
Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy of the Santa Fe Diocese (Photo Courtesy of Author).
The snow hung heavy on the pinion and juniper trees that surrounded the tiny cabin which the night before had served as the resting place for the Bishop and his seven friends. They had come with Major Edward B. Willis and soldiers of the 1st California Volunteer Infantry to the camp that would become Fort Whipple and then pushed through the deep snow to the head of Granite Creek to visit some miners before continuing their trip to Los Angeles. Snow had continued to fall and had covered them during the night as it sifted through the cracks and between the boards that their host had retrieved from packing boxes to side and roof his ‘cabin’. It had been a cold and snowy December and a very cold Christmas Eve.But this was Christmas Day and celebrate they would.
Snow was still falling as the Bishop laid out his things on the log that served as his altar for celebration of Christmas Mass. Father Coudert assisted as best he could as about two-dozen miners in their best and warmest clothing knelt shivering in the midst of the small gathering in front of the tiny cabin. Several times during the celebration the challis had to be taken to the fire to thaw so that they could continue.
After Christmas in Prescott the Bishop left his Mass vessels and vestments with Don Manuel Irrizarri and he and his party continued their trip through Ft. Mojave and San Bernardino, to Los Angeles. Traveling back through La Paz on the return to Santa Fe they stopped in Weaver, AT, where the Bishop sent Father Coudert to Walker’s camp to retrieve his vestments. They then continued south to spend Holy Week in Tucson before returning to Santa Fe.
(Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact SHM Library & Archives Reference Desk at 928-445-3122 Ext. 14 or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.)