By Carol Powell

My mother-in-law, Clara Mae (Miller) Powell, was born in Prescott, Arizona in 1914 to William and Anna (Fairchild) Miller. She and her older sister, Pearl, loved to relate old family stories about their ancestors settling the Arizona territory. One family note passed down by them was simply "Aunt Florence – Madam in Holbrook, married George Laney." A madam in the family! What an interesting note!

If Clara and Pearl’s Aunt Florence really was a madam there would be a paper trail. Sure enough, a record was found that on the 9th of November, 1917, in the Superior Court of Navajo County, Florence Miller was accused of keeping a "house of ill repute by which the peace, comfort and decency of the neighborhood were habitually disturbed." Further research showed that Florence enjoyed a nip of whiskey now and then and she had perjured herself on that count in connection with the charge of disturbing the peace.

Let’s back up and take a look at her early life. Florence’s father was a German immigrant, Ludwig Mueller (Americanized – Louis Miller) who had served with the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he was actively engaged in the family business of supplying military forts with food, moving with his family to Fort Concho near San Angelo, Tom Green County, Texas. Florence was born at Fort Concho on May 18, 1878. Fort Concho was a den for desperate characters and disreputable businesses. The inhabitants were described as drunken cowboys, ex-Confederates, pimps and prostitutes. The Miller family’s livelihood depended on forts despite the conditions. When the Buffalo Soldiers left Fort Concho for the frontier in New Mexico and Arizona Territory, Louis packed up his family and went with them. For all intents and purposes, the troops had brought peace to the plains of Texas and Fort Concho would soon be abandoned.

The Millers left Texas for the Indian territories of New Mexico and Arizona working at various forts along the way. Louis paid the ultimate price with his life by actively pursuing Indians into Arizona Territory on his way to Fort Huachuca with his family. Florence was left without a father, in 1884, at the young age of 6 years. Her mother (Clara Olmstead Miller) brought the children to Prescott when her husband was killed and Florence was with her. Just how long she stayed in Prescott as a young girl is not known. It is said she lived in Arizona for 60 years in various places. She married George Laney; they never had any children.

Aside from the previously mentioned fact that she operated a house of ill repute in Navajo County in 1917, she and her husband, George, were involved in many other "capers." On February 4, 1938 the Prescott Courier reported that Florence and her husband were proven "in again, out again" repeaters for disturbing the peace. This time they were involved in a "brawl". Florence was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Mr. Laney was cited on the same charge and sentenced to pay a $50 fine or spend 50 days in jail. She was still quite a character at the age of 60! She had come back to Prescott in 1934.

Florence passed away in Prescott on April 18, 1944. Her obituary was titled: "Florence Laney, Pioneer, Dies." She is buried in Prescott’s Mountain View Cemetery. Florence had challenged the societal norm of "decent" people by her lifestyle. She was ostracized for a while by her family and lived with the Indians on a reservation. When her mother passed away, Florence’s name was not listed in the obituary

But Florence wasn’t the only family member linked to prostitution. Her sister-in-law was arrested in Prescott for "street walking." Her older half-sister, Pearl Howard, married John Fletcher Fairchild, a jailer who ran a saloon and brothel at Fort Davis, Texas in the early 1880s. He operated a saloon later in New Mexico and again at Sawyer’s Hall in Flagstaff. Florence’s older half-brother owned a saloon at Fort Concho, Texas before coming to Arizona. She had a sister, Minnie, who operated the German Beer Hall with her husband in Douglas, Arizona. Though there aren’t any records showing that these establishments dealt in prostitution, it was just the way of the frontier. In many towns, the ratio of "honest" women to men was 1 to 100, thereby encouraging the flesh trade. Until the 1890s, madams predominately ran the businesses. Gambling and prostitution were central to life in many western towns and, only later as the female population increased, reformers moved in and other civilizing influences arrived, did prostitution become less blatant and less common.

They were a colorful lot in early Arizona Territory and Prescott had its share of people just like Aunt Florence.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Photo by Kathy Krause) Reuse only by permission.

Headstone of Florence Laney, Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott.