By Vicky Kaye

(This is the first part of a two-part article regarding bringing home Pauline Weaver's remains.)

The people of Prescott who know the history of Pauline Weaver may remember him for many things. He was a scout and trapper considered to be the first Anglo-American to make his home in the Prescott area. He was also the guide for the Peeple's expedition that discovered gold in the Rich Hill area near Yarnell. He traveled the West from the 1830's until his death at Camp Verde, then known as Fort Lincoln, on June 21, 1867. There is a story that persists claiming when the Walker Party first came through the Prescott area in the early 1860's, they found Weaver already camped along the banks of Granite Creek, a place he had been familiar with for over 20 years. Sharlot M. Hall, an official Arizona Territory historian, gave Weaver the title of "First Citizen of Prescott."

Pauline Weaver has been honored with Arizona place names throughout the state. There is the town of Weaver (now a ghost town), Weaver Mountain, Weaver Peak, Weaver Pass, and the most famous of all, Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Mountains which has figured prominently in the Lost Dutchman legends. However, Weaver was only "honored" in Prescott with a street name. And that street no longer exists today. 

Many people living in Prescott today have no idea who he was, or what role he played in the settling of Prescott. One of his major contributions was as an interpreter to local Indian tribes. No doubt his mother, who was a Cherokee from Tennessee, gave him the substantial background he used to accomplish this. His calming demeanor with Indians throughout the West was legendary. Because of this he was also known as a peacemaker, helping to settle many disputes in the Prescott area. The region has honored him in a unique way. In the late 1920's, long after Weaver died, the citizen's of Prescott brought him home in a show of love and respect. Though he had passed away many years before, Weaver's adventures did not come to a halt until October 27, 1929. 

When Weaver died at Camp Verde/Ft. Lincoln in 1867 at the age of 67, he was buried in the cemetery at that location. His obituary at the time stated the cause as "congestive chills," but this was thought to have been cause by pneumonia or possible complications of malaria. He was given a soldiers funeral with full military honors, as he was working for the Army as a scout. For the next 25 years he rested in peace, but by 1892 the fort was abandoned. 

On April 10, 1890 the U.S. Army ordered Camp Verde to be decommissioned. The last detachment left the camp on April 25, 1891. A year after that, J. H. Lee of the American Ranch near Granite Mountain was awarded the contract of moving the remains of military personnel located at abandoned forts in Central Arizona to the San Francisco National Cemetery. He removed the remains of Pauline Weaver as well as the others at Camp Verde in June of 1892. 

Many citizens in the Arizona Territory felt this was a travesty, but were unable to do anything about it. Several important pioneers were being removed from Arizona soil. The commander of the 11th Infantry at Ft. Whipple denounced the moving of Weaver stating, "It was a great mistake in the territory to ever have allowed the remains of Pauline Weaver to have been removed from Arizona." Weaver's remains would rest in the rolling grassy hills overlooking the waters of the Pacific Ocean for more than three decades before returning to the mountains of the Southwest. 

Alpheus H. Favour, a Prescott lawyer and Arizona State legislator of the 1920's, was stirred to actions after reading an account of Weaver's life in a book entitled Argonaut Tales written by Judge Edmund W. Wells. In his youth Judge Wells served in the quartermaster corps at Ft. Whipple and had known Weaver when Weaver was attached to that fort as a scout before going to Camp Verde. In his later years, Judge Wells became acquainted with Alpheus Favour, and helped Favour in his efforts to bring Weaver's remains to Prescott. Like Wells, Favour was also an author and wrote a classic biography on another of Arizona's famous mountain men, Bill Williams. 

Favour believed, as did others such as Sharlot M. Hall, that Weaver's remains should be brought home to rest on Arizona soil. What better place than close to the banks of Granite Creek where he had camped so often many years before? This was now possible. Hall had recently acquired the grounds of the Old Governor's Mansion to restore into a museum, a spot that Weaver himself is said to have camped on. The stage was set to complete the return. 

Next week, bringing Weaver back to Arizona. 

(Vicky Kaye is a member of the Prescott Corral of Westerners and the Sharlot Hall Museum. She also volunteers at the Museum) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (mil162pacropped). Reuse only by permission.
Pauline (or Paulino) Weaver died in 1867 only a few years after he had first "settled" Prescott. He was buried where he died in Camp Verde, but when the camp was closed in 1890, his remains were moved to San Francisco. In the late 1920s there was a movement to bring him back to Arizona.