by Bob Cornett

Sharlot Mabridth Hall was born in Kansas in 1870 and came to Prescott with her parents and brother when she was twelve years old. Her life from 1870 to her death in 1943 followed many twists and turns. Before 1895, her life consisted of pigs, horses, cattle, vegetables, apples and pears at her parent’s Orchard Ranch in Dewey. With little formal schooling, she began writing simple poetry about the things she knew and loved. She wrote about her life experiences as well as life on the frontier and, in the fifteen year period after 1895, she rapidly increased her stature in literary and public recognition as a natural poet and free lance writer.

One can attribute her quickly growing fame to an unlikely mentor, Charles Fletcher Lummis of Los Angeles. He was Harvard educated, talented, eccentric, a friend of classmate Teddy Roosevelt, and a prolific writer who introduced to the public a number of other writers. He first gained fame with weekly newspaper reports as he walked 3,500 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio to Los Angles to his new job as a reporter for the L A. Times, becoming its first city editor. Capable of multitasking, he worked and wrote most every night with only a few hours of sleep.

One of his challenges was to edit and write for ‘Land of Sunshine,’ a monthly booster publication of the L. A. Chamber of Commerce. By chance, one of Sharlot’s local friends gave her a copy and suggested her poetry could fit in. Lummis rejected her first submittal but gave suggestions on how to improve her style. He accepted the revision and paid her $1.50. More manuscripts followed and were quickly accepted.

After several years, Lummis became a part owner of the publication and set about expanding the monthly to a true literary journal he renamed ‘Out West.’ He needed an opening poem for the first issue (January 1902) and two authors he had approached came up with nothing. With the deadline approaching, he asked Sharlot to do it. Almost overnight she wrote a very long poem titled "Out West." It was showcased on the first three pages along with her 15-page illustrated profile of Prescott. Copies of the poem were distributed all over the United States to boost sales of the magazine. It was a success and she became widely known. Dialect words, "cowboyese," for instance, were popular and new poems fairly flew onto paper from her head.

In 1903, Sharlot was asked to become a part-time staff member for Lummis. Though she was still needed here at the ranch, she would often ride the train between Prescott and L.A., making more than 40 contributions to the magazine. During this time, Lummis was dashing off a number of books while designing and building a very large river-stone, castle-like home called ‘El Alisal.’ With its many rooms and his penchant for entertaining, he housed and entertained writers and famous personages among whom were Jessie and Lily Fremont, John Muir, General Custer’s widow, Charles Russell, Wiley Post, Harold Lloyd, Clarence Darrow, John Philip Sousa and Sharlot Hall, among others.

Lummis is credited as the founder of the Southwest Museum in the Mt. Washington area of L. A., which today houses nearly a quarter million of mostly Indian artifacts, baskets, ceramics and art and is L.A.’s oldest museum. He was determined to preserve California missions and Indian history. Were Sharlot’s museum dreams spurred by his successes? By 1906, Sharlot was promoting conservation of our Governors Mansion in Prescott and collecting relics of Arizona history to be housed by the Monday Club. That same year, she was associate editor of ‘Out West’ while Lummis was director of the L. A. Public Library. But, this literary alliance of Sharlot and Lummis baffles one today. He had three failed marriages, was a womanizer and bonvivant, a heavy drinker and heavy cigar smoker. Adding to his eccentricities was his daily ‘uniform’ of a crumpled green corduroy jacket and vest, a red double-wrapped Navajo belt at his waist, and a sweat-stained old Stetson sombrero. This strange everyday wear even went several times to Teddy Roosevelt’s White House! All the while, Sharlot was in demand as a public speaker while publishers were courting her as a writer.

By 1908, Sharlot ended her position with ‘Out West’ when another editor, Charles Moody, took over. He was a gambler and she felt he was disloyal to Lummis. The following year she was appointed Arizona Territorial Historian, the first female territory-wide office holder. Her first book, "Cactus and Pine’ was published in 1910 and is still available today. She also contributed articles to publications such as ‘Farm and Ranch’ magazine.

In 1910, when Lummis’ second marriage was ending in divorce, his personal diaries were revealed, many notations in coded Greek. His biographer, Mark Thompson (‘The Curious Life of Charles F. Lummis’), quotes from a lawyer’s letter: "the more than 50 women with whom he allegedly engaged in illicit relations included no lewd women but many prominent and faultless ladies who consulted him as an authority in literature, history and science." Sharlot’s biographer, Margaret Maxwell, in her well researched book, ‘A Passion for Freedom’, says about Lummis: "a compulsive love life made him notorious." She adds, "But as to his relationship with Sharlot Hall, though it seems to have been one of genuine mutual affection, was almost certainly strictly platonic from first to last." Lummis wrote to Sharlot in 1910, asking her if she had ever told anyone that she once slept with a gun under her pillow, fearing that he would come into her room. We don’t have her reply to his question. Much of Sharlot’s correspondence was burned at her request upon her death in 1943.

It is to Sharlot’s long life of achievement that we pay homage every day at the complex which bears her name, "The Sharlot Hall Museum," opened by her in 1928. She was inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame in 1981.

For more stories about Charles Lummis and Sharlot Hall, see Days Past articles for August 27th and September 2nd, 2007.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1089pa-po0150pa) Reuse only by permission.

Charles Lummis seen here in his daily ‘uniform’ of a green corduroy jacket, red double-wrapped Navajo belt (complete with gun), sombrero and a cigar. Also shown, Miss Sharlot Hall, lady of ladies, whom we honor today at the museum which bears her name. Both photos early 1900s.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po153pb) Reuse only by permission.

Sharlot at her home at Orchard Ranch in Dewey, 1905.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bug536pd) Reuse only bypermission.

Sharlot opened the Governor’s Mansion as a museum in 1928, undoubtedly influenced by Lummis’ success with the Southwest Museum in L. A. and his encouragement to preserve the history of Arizona pioneers.