By Marjory J. Sente
Hearing the words “Sharlot Hall,” one usually thinks ”museum,” because it is the most visible legacy of Sharlot M. Hall, who leased the Old Governor’s Mansion in 1927 and went on to establish a museum to house “Indian and historical objects and a library of Arizoniana”. Sharlot, however, has another enduring legacy, her poetry.
Composing poems at a young age, Sharlot admitted that, while attending a school near what is now Dewey, she spent her days composing verses rather than studying. Writing poems to please her mother, Adeline Hall, Sharlot dedicated the second edition of Cactus and Pine: Songs of the Southwest, published in 1924, to her. In it she noted the first edition of Cactus and Pine, published in late 1911, was hurriedly printed so her mother could enjoy it before she died. Mrs. Hall died on August 24, 1912.
Dr. Charles Franklin Parker was an admirer of Sharlot’s poetry. His daughter, Kitty Jo Parker Nelson, was six when Sharlot Hall died in 1943, but she remembers going with her father to visit Sharlot at her apartment at the south end of the Sharlot Hall Building and sitting by the fireplace while Sharlot and Franklin visited.
Likely they talked about Sharlot’s poetry. First published in 1941, Dr Parker’s book, Peace Unto You, included several of Sharlot’s poems. He acknowledged Sharlot by writing, “… to Miss Sharlot M. Hall, my friend and a true interpreter of Arizona. I am indebted beyond my ability to repay. Her willingness for me to use her poems in addition to her untiring efforts in finding suitable verse have greatly enriched these pages.”
In “Out of the West of Long Ago,” published in the January 1943 Arizona Highways, he wrote, “Within the poetry of Sharlot Hall one, who examines it carefully, will find some of the very finest of America. Her poems have received wide acclaim; being included in many anthologies and collections; arranged and given musical settings; published in outstanding American and British journals; and cherished by those who love the West.”
Prior to her passing on April 9, 1943, Sharlot told Funeral Director Lester Ruffner that she didn’t want a funeral, but her friends thought otherwise. Conducting the service in the Governor’s Mansion, Dr. Parker read three of Sharlot’s poems that exemplified her views on life and death: “The End of the Trail,” “A Litany for Every Day,” and “Cash In.” He said Sharlot’s life “reaches into the past, spans the present and finds its touchstone in the future.” He called Sharlot “the taproot of Arizona history.”
Calling Sharlot “Arizona’s Poet Laureate,” Governor Sidney P. Osborn gave the eulogy, stating, “Courageous, gentle, kindly and true, Sharlot Hall had the heart of the pioneer and the soul of a poet. Her mission in life was to record in song and story the heroism and the deeds of the lives of our pioneer citizens and in that she did a tremendous service for all of us, because as long as time endures, because she has recorded those lives and those actions, we will ever have them before us to give us courage and to light the way.”
Sharlot was planning more books when she died. Poems of A Ranch Woman was posthumously compiled by Josephine Mackenzie, and published in 1953. The same year, Etta Oliver directed ceremonies at the museum marking Poetry Day and honoring Sharlot, who had died ten years prior.
On May 2nd at 1:30 pm, the Sharlot Hall Museum will dedicate a statue of Sharlot Mabridth Hall, sculpted by local sculptor Heather Johnson Beary, and funded by former museum staff member George Fuller. The statue will celebrate Hall’s enduring legacy as a poet, storyteller, and historian.
“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.