By Jackson Medel

For nearly 40 years, Sharlot Mabridth Hall lived at Orchard Ranch in Lonesome Valley. Throughout that period (1890-1927), Sharlot worked the ranch as hard as anyone. She planted and harvested crops, cared for the farm animals, took produce to market and helped care for her parents in their declining years. Despite the constant demands of a working ranch, Sharlot continued investing time and effort in her own education and passions.

Sharlot and her brother, Edward, attended schools in Dewey and Prescott while working on the ranch. During her trips to Prescott for high school, Sharlot met Judge Henry Fleury, whose stories ignited her interest in the history of the pioneers and early territorial days. Sharlot was also encouraged in her literary pursuits by her teachers, eventually publishing her first short story in 1891, after which she had a steady literary output the rest of her life.

In 1895 Sharlot met Samuel Putnam, a leader in the Freethinkers movement, who had a profound impact on her. She and Putnam developed a close relationship and  corresponded about the tenets of the Freethinkers (rationalism, the scientific method, questioning of given wisdom and of dogmatic beliefs). Over time, Sharlot began to engage deeply with public issues, education and the practice of what would today be called public humanities. She began speaking and presenting to social groups and clubs like the Monday Club, sold her writing to various publications and eventually joined the editorial team at Land of Sunshine magazine under Charles Lummis in 1901.

Sharlot traveled to Los Angeles to work at Land of Sunshine, an important if brief time in her life. She became an editor at the publication, and Lummis left for San Francisco, making plans for transforming Land of Sunshine into Out West. Lummis needed a poem to launch his new magazine and, a year after Sharlot’s Los Angeles trip, he turned to Sharlot to write one. She gladly accepted the task and wrote it over the course of an evening. Her love for the West and its shaping force on people were evident in these verses:

For men, like the grain of the cornfields, grow

Small in the huddled crowd;

And weak for the breadth of spaces where a soul

May speak aloud;

For hills like stairways to heaven, shaming the

    Level track —

Sharlot continued like this throughout her life: working the ranch, being a public historian, writing for a variety of outlets and caring for both her family and the history of Arizona. Adeline Hall, Sharlot’s mother, died in 1912, shortly after Sharlot’s stint as Territorial Historian, and Sharlot took on greater responsibilities at Orchard Ranch, including the care of her ailing father, James Hall. Between 1912 and 1927, Sharlot’s life focused on the ranch. She never ceased writing, speaking or caring about history, but her focus was on working the ranch and caring for James. In 1927 James Hall died, and Sharlot’s life changed dramatically. Shortly afterward, she sold Orchard Ranch and opened her Gubernatorial Mansion Museum in 1928.

Want to know more? On display in the West Gallery of the Sharlot Hall Museum’s Lawler Building, From the Archives: Sharlot’s Life at Orchard Ranch presents a series of images at or related to Orchard Ranch during Sharlot’s time there. Featuring 28 historic images drawn from the museum’s Research Center, the exhibit shows typical ranch work alongside scenes of everyday life at Orchard Ranch. Additionally, Margaret Maxwell’s definitive biography of Sharlot , A Passion for Freedom: The Life of Sharlot Hall, is again available in the Sharlot Hall Museum Store at the Bashford House. Current October-April museum hours are 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday and 12 pm to 4 pm on Sunday. 

“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral ofWesterners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email a archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.