By Mona Lange McCroskey

Lillie Murphy Cook was born in a house on the corner of McCormick and Gurley Streets, where the Bashford House now stands, on April 24, 1897. At the time of her interview, in 1994, she was living just up the hill at the Arizona Pioneers' Home. Her little brothers, Lee and Lloyd Murphy, then also in their nineties, were there at the same time. In the intervening ninety-seven years, Lillie had grown up and lived in Prescott (she always said "Pres-cott") and remembered life as it was in the early twentieth century.

She was the child of a typical ranching family, so her address changed year-to-year as they rented a place for her mother to live in town in order to send the children to school. When she started to Washington School, she was living with her grandparents, the Allreds, on their ranch at the foot of Thumb Butte. They had a peach orchard where the old Fry's Market once stood on Thumb Butte Road; her grandfather won prizes for the delicious fruit, which was shipped as far away as Missouri. Lillie and her brothers walked across town on Gurley Street to school, crossing the old wooden bridge at Granite Creek. One time, Dr. Roper's wife got stuck in the middle of that bridge in her new car and the school children went underneath the bridge and thought it was a lot of fun that she was stalled up there! The Murphys had only a horse and buggy and later, a surrey. 

For a while Lillie and her family lived on Mt. Vernon Street, when you were allowed keep a cow at home, for milk. (Imagine a cow on Mt. Vernon Street today!) The Murphys' cow used to run away and go down almost to Ft. Whipple. She never forgot that when the kids would have to go after the cow they had to pass a house where there was a little dog, and he was bound to bite her. She had scars on her legs from that dog biting her! 

Lillie's history is especially significant because of her personal recollections of many Prescott landmarks: 

For a while, the Henry Lee Murphy family lived two or three miles out of town on what became White Spar Road. When the Whiskey Row blaze started in 1900, Lillie's father, Henry, went to town to help put it out. She stood on the hillside with her mother and her siblings and watched the fire burn. Later, their own home burned and they lost everything they had, even the money her mother had in a little tin can on the shelf. When they lived there, they had to travel through the covered wooden bridge over Granite Creek at the end of Montezuma Street. 

Buckey O'Neill and Henry Murphy were great friends. O'Neill tried to enlist Henry to go to the Spanish American War with him, but because of his large family, Henry didn't go. O'Neill had breakfast at the Murphys' home the morning before he left Prescott. He was killed in the battle of San Juan Hill. Later, Lillie watched as her father helped bring in the stone for the Buckey O'Neill monument on the plaza. It was skidded in on a sled pulled by horses and rolled into place. 

At one time Henry Lee and Cynthia Murphy had a ranch in Mint Valley. They raised Angora goats, as had her grandparents, and always had a few head of cattle. There was a big demand for mohair between World Wars I and II, and Angora goat raising became Yavapai County's largest industry. 

The Fourth of July celebration in Prescott was a must. Everybody hitched up their teams and brought a camp outfit into town; they camped around the rodeo arena. Lillie's brother, Lee, was an excellent bronc-rider. And they never missed the circus when it came to town! 

Lillie and her girlfriend used to save all their nickels to ride on the streetcar, which ran from Gurley and Park on the west end of town to Fort Whipple on the east. "Meeting the Four O'clock Train" was a tradition; families went to the depot when it came in. Lillie's first train ride with her family was when they got to ride to Ash Fork. They picnicked there and rode the train back. And that was the treat of their lives! 

During the 1918 flu epidemic, Lillie was working for Dr. Sult in Clarkdale. There was no real hospital, but they turned a building into a makeshift hospital. They never lost a patient in the hospital; she thought maybe it was because Dr. Sult would not let his patients have one drop of liquor. But sometimes when he got the flu patients up and going they would go up to Jerome and get drunk and die! 

When Lillie was in the seventh grade, her class went to the plaza to plant the Statehood Tree in 1912. She remembered watching and thinking that the little three-foot sapling was beautiful. 

Lillie's eyes lit up when she talked about dancing. She said she used to "rather dance than to eat." She learned to dance at age seven, and danced with her father a lot. She knew all the popular dances. Her first memories of dancing were in the Groom Creek Schoolhouse; later, while living in Camp Verde she danced at Clear Creek. One of the highlights of the evening was always the midnight supper. Sometimes the country people would have a picnic, and horse races. All the farmers would bring out their best teams and show off. And then, when nighttime came, they had a lunch and a dance later on. Lillie lamented, "People don't know what fun or a good time is anymore." 

After her husband died in the late 1930s, Lillie acquired a little house on Willow Street, where she lived with her mother and raised her son. It was a special house to her because, as a teenager, her youth group sponsor in the Methodist Church a few blocks away had owned it. She used to let the young people go there for parties and to pull taffy and string popcorn for Christmas decorations. So Lillie had many happy days in that house and was glad to have it as her own. She still owned the home in 1994 and hoped to return to live there again. 

Hume's Bakery was a South Cortez Street landmark, with its oval window full of pastries and the house specialty, butter crust bread. Lillie Cook worked there for more than thirteen years, so long that a lot of people were of the opinion she owned the place. She, of course, knew all the customers and enjoyed observing people. Her most fun was with the Indians who came in mostly for leftovers at half price. They were always laughing and having the biggest time. 

Lillie Murphy Cook was 101 years old when she passed away on June 8, 1998. Listening to her voice now transports one back into a time when Prescott was a much quieter, smaller place, when fewer people called it their hometown. This small piece of the jigsaw puzzle of our cultural history is a treasure now preserved on tape and in type. 

(Mona Lange McCroskey is a local research historian who has conducted many interviews for Sharlot Hall Museum.) 

 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb146f26i9)
Reuse only by permission.
Lillie Murphy Cook, c.1917.