By Mick Woodcock
"What's in a name?," asked Shakespeare's Romeo. Twentieth century people ask a version of that when they visit Sharlot Hall Museum's Fort Misery. "Why is it called that?" they query. This brings out a fairly long response from the Musuem docent relating the history of one of its owners and his hospitality. Along with this is the fact that the building has nothing to do with military history at all. The truth about Fort Misery's name makes an interesting anecdote involving another the of the Museum's buildings, the Governor's Mansion.
Sharlot Hall explained how Fort Misery got its name in a March 23, 1934 Journal Miner article. "Howard offered what he could of hospitality, Miss Hall explained, but being an easy-going individual he did not begin to compete with Judge Fleury's well-ordered household in the governor's mansion, where the judge himself cooked up meals whose fame spread through the territory. Hence the barristers termed the little cabin by contrasts, Fort Misery." Whether that was true or not is a matter of conjecture, but it appears to have been a name that was given early and one that hung on.
When the building got its name, it was literally a miserable place to live in if we may judge by a July 18, 1868 article in the Arizona Miner. "Adieu to Fort Misery. - This is what, we suppose, Judge Howard said, when he, the other day, abandoned his castle, spiked its guns, and retreated to town. Dear old Fort Misery! despised, abandoned, and almost caved in, as you now are, your grim walls will still stand upright..." It is not difficult to imagine this as true considering the origin of the structure.
It was built in the winter of 1863-64 by Manuel Yrissari, a merchant from New Mexico who had brought the first supplies in to sell to the local miners. It was hastily constructed from local Ponderosa pine logs. It had a flat pine pole roof covered with a thick layer of dirt to keep out the winter snow and rain. As a temporary shelter, it was the hub of the small community. When the Governor's Party arrived in early 1864, it was pressed into service as a Protestant church and the court room for the first term of court in the Territory.
When Yrissari had sold his stock of goods, the building passed into the hands of Mary Decrow Ramos. She turned it into a boarding house and it is possible that Judge Howard was one of her boarders. That is a logical explanation for his acquisition of the two room cabin when Mary and Cornelius Ramos moved to Lynx Creek.
Log buildings were originally intended to be temporary structures. One might imagine that little maintenance would have been done on Fort Misery by Yrissari, Ramos or Howard. Mud daubing would have fallen out in great pieces. The dirt roof would no doubt have turned to mud a number of times before it washed away or fell through the poles. No wonder the Judge abandoned it in the summer of 1868.
The amazing thing in all of this is Judge Howard's attachment for this humble dwelling. A man of no small means, he was listed in the 1864 special census as having a net worth of one thousand dollars. He could have had more than a log cabin had he chosen. Instead, he had Fort Misery dismantled and moved to a lot he owned on south Montezuma Street. There it was reassembled and given a shingle roof.
All of his cooking was done in its stone fireplace. His law practice was conducted in the same room that he lived in. He was an unpretentious individual in what historians have referred to as "The Gilded Age." He was elected to the territorial legislature, appointed as territorial Fish Commissioner for a time and served seven years as Prescott's mayor in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
The only thing that could get Judge Howard out of Fort Misery was a woman. He wed Miss Flora Darby on March 14, 1892 at the Hotel Burke in Prescott. The Judge was seventy-two years of age; his bride, twenty-eight years his junior. They were showered with lavish gifts and the town went on a holiday.
A poem appeared in the newspaper four days later featuring the marriage and Fort Misery:
Fort Misery has only one master now -
The wedding bells have been rung;
Gone for aye are the good old times
And the happy songs once sung,
With so light, care-free a heart,
Will never be sung again,
For burdens soon will be weighing him down -
Ah! things were different then.
Soon it will be, 'Hush! now don't make a noise,
For baby is sleeping so sweet:'
Or, 'Dear, it is very muddy outside,
Are you sure you cleaned your feet?'
How often he'll sigh for Fort Misery then,
And wish he had never so foolish been,
For now he must always be in at ten -
Ah, things were different then!
Gone are John and Flora Howard, but Fort Misery lives on. Rescued from demolition in 1934 by Sharlot Hall and moved to the Museum grounds, it was saved for posterity. Restored this year with the aid of a grant from Arizona State Parks Heritage fund, it may once again be enjoyed as the State's oldest log cabin.
Join us at Sharlot Hall Museum for the dedication of the new interpretive exhibit in Ft. Misery. This will take place Saturday, September 13, 1997 during our Mexican Independence Day celebration from 10am until 3pm.
Mick Woodcock is the Curator and Registrar at Sharlot Hall Museum.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (bub8333pa). Reuse only by permission.
Judge Howard, pictured fourth from left, and his wife are visited by the Robinson family in this 1893 photo. Fort Misery on the Sharlot Hall Museum grounds has recently been renovated and is now open to visitors.