By Nancy Burgess
In a February 2025 Days Past article, Paul Fees wrote about two of Prescott’s extraordinary women, Sharlot Hall and Grace Sparkes, women who got things done. But there was a third member of the triumvirate of Prescott women who got things done: Grace Genung Chapman.  These three women were fondly called “Prescott’s Graces.”

Grace Laura Genung was the daughter of pioneer Yavapai County settlers Charles Baldwin Genung and Ida Elizabeth Smith Genung. The Genungs came to Yavapai County in 1863, before Arizona became a Territory. They settled in Peeples Valley where Charlie hunted, ranched, farmed, mined, built roads and became both a foe, and later a friend, of the Yavapai Indians. Grace was born in Peeples Valley on May 7, 1884, the youngest of the Genung’s eight children. She grew up there and made friends with the Yavapai children, who were her playmates. Her earliest civic-minded interest began in 1898 when she successfully raised $10 for the Arizona Roughrider monument fund.  

In December 1905, Grace married handsome and charming Harry Sanders Chapman. Harry was a mining engineer whose work took them to California, where their children were born. Emory (“Bill”) Genung Chapman was born in September 1906, and Helen Grace Chapman was born in February 1908. In 1911 Grace returned to Arizona with the children. By 1920 she was divorced. 

Grace, as a working mother, served in several civil positions, including School Superintendent, Deputy Clerk of the Superior Court and Justice of the Peace. In 1916 she began a long career with the Yavapai County Recorder’s Office, initially as the Deputy Recorder. In 1922 she ran against her boss and was elected the County Recorder on a 3-1 vote. Every two years, she ran for County Recorder. She was so beloved by the county voters that she held that position through many political changes and modernizations until 1954, when she retired and moved to the Arizona Pioneer's Home. 

Grace worked with Sharlot Hall and Grace Sparkes to open the Governor’s Mansion to the public in 1928 – the very beginning of what is today the Sharlot Hall Museum. Grace worked to help the Yavapai Indians obtain county pensions. Although that effort was unsuccessful, she worked with tribal leaders, Sharlot Hall, Grace Sparkes and others to secure a 75-acre reservation for the Yavapais, which in 1935 was successful. Grace volunteered at the Sharlot Hall Museum and belonged to a number of organizations where she was very active, including the Arizona Business and Professional Women’s organization.

When Sharlot Hall passed away on April 9, 1943, Grace Chapman and Grace Sparkes worked tirelessly to keep Sharlot’s museum open to the public. After a thorough cleaning and re-arranging by volunteers and the two Graces, they re-opened the museum on May 28, 1943. In 1944 they turned all of Sharlot’s collections over to the Historical Society of Prescott, which was founded in 1929.    

In 1946 the Historical Society of Prescott changed its name to the Sharlot Hall Historical Society. For the next two decades, the Sharlot Hall Museum was operated by the Board. Grace Chapman was the acting director. A new public not-for-profit organization was created to justify state support, the Prescott Historical Society. In 1964 the Prescott Historical Society became an agency of the State of Arizona.

Grace passed away on May 30, 1959. She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott.
In his book History of Arizona, Richard E. Sloan, Governor of the Territory of Arizona from 1909-1912, wrote of Grace: “She enjoys a wide acquaintance throughout Yavapai County because of the various official positions she has held, and commands the respect of all who have known her.”   

“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners 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 at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.