By Kelly Cordes

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if certain political figures had won their elections rather than lost? This article focuses on two politicians who lost elections to Congress in 1862, John N. Goodwin of Maine and Richard C. McCormick of New York.

Only two capitals in U.S. history were created to be a capital from their beginning, Washington D.C. and Prescott, Arizona, which was carved straight from the wilderness. John Goodwin and Richard McCormick had a major hand in determining Prescott’s location.

John A. Gurley was a U.S. Congressman from Ohio (1859-1863), who ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 1862. A former minister and newspaper owner, he was appointed by President Lincoln as the first Governor of the Arizona Territory. Arizona had become a separate territory from New Mexico when President Lincoln signed a bill on February 23, 1863. Gurley had been an early advocate for this separation of Arizona from New Mexico. He died of appendicitis on Aug.19, 1863, just weeks before he was to leave for Arizona.

John N. Goodwin had been appointed by Lincoln to be Chief Justice of the new Arizona Territory. Upon Gurley’s death, Lincoln appointed Goodwin to be governor instead.  Goodwin had served one term in Congress and was defeated in 1862. A lawyer, he previously served in the Maine Senate.  He only served as governor until 1866, when he was elected by public vote to succeed Charles Poston as Arizona’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for two years, then moved to New York City to pursue business interests. Goodwin died in 1887 in Monterey, California and was buried in Augusta, Maine.

Richard C. McCormick served in Europe as a war correspondent during the Crimean War in 1854 and  wrote two books about his experiences. Three years later, he returned to New York City and worked on Wall Street. He later became the YMCA’s corresponding secretary and editor of Young Men’s Magazine for two years. In 1860 he became editor of the New York Evening Post and, at the start of the Civil War, went to the front lines as a war correspondent. In 1862 he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. That same year, he was appointed Chief Clerk for the Department of Agriculture. In 1863, having worked on Lincoln’s presidential campaign, he was appointed by Lincoln as the first Territorial Secretary of Arizona.

On May 30, 1864, a meeting was held on the banks of Granite Creek to select a name for the new capital and a commission to lay out the townsite. The name chosen, upon McCormick’s recommendation, was Prescott, named after historian William Hickling Prescott, author of The History of the Conquest of Mexico who had passed away in 1859.

McCormick succeeded Goodwin as Territorial Governor in 1866 and served as Arizona Territorial delegate to Congress from 1869 to 1875. He was later Secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1876 and worked on Rutherford B. Hayes’ presidential campaign. He served one term in Congress representing New York from 1895 to 1897 and passed away in 1901 in New York City.

Both Goodwin and McCormick (along with Gurley) lost their elections in 1862. So what would have happened to the founding of Arizona’s territorial capital if these territorial officials had won their elections and never been appointed? Prescott’s history likely would have been very different.

Kelly Cordes discusses “The Founding Fathers of Prescott” at the 21st annual Western History Symposium; Saturday, August 3, at 9:30 AM, a day-long free event conducted by the Prescott Corral of Westerners and hosted by the Phippen Museum. Visit https://prescottcorral.org/symposium/ for details.

“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.