By Mona Lange McCroskey

Olaf Andrew (O.A.) and Louis Edward (L.E.) Hesla, sons of a Norwegian immigrant in Iowa, arrived in Prescott by different means, but their business endured for fifty years. Young Olaf contracted "consumption" (tuberculosis) in Chicago and came to Tucson in 1897 seeking relief. His condition worsened and in less than a week he was sent on the train to Phoenix, not expected to live. When Olaf didn't improve within a few days he was sent on to Prescott, where he became one of its earliest health seekers. He always claimed that he began to feel better as soon as the train got to Iron Springs, and he lived to be eighty-nine.

In Prescott O.A. Hesla, a trained watchmaker went to work for the George H. Cook Jewelry Company. In 1907 he and his brother purchased Cook's stores in Prescott, Phoenix, and Tucson. The Heslas divested themselves of the Phoenix and Tucson stores to concentrate on Prescott, then the hub of the Arizona mining industry. It was also close to Jerome, the "billion-dollar copper camp." Miners brought gold nuggets which Olaf fashioned into scarf pins, watch chain ornaments, and women's jewelry. He recalled that one of the principal items of sale was diamonds. "Prescott was a pretty wild town in those days, gambling flourished, and the gamblers liked diamonds and fine jewelry." He had vivid memories of the 1900 Prescott fire, when he supervised the packing and removal of the store's stock to the plaza. After the building burned, clocks, diamonds, and silverware were sold from a temporary structure across the street. 

In 1899 Louis Edward Hesla came from California to join his elder brother in the business. The brothers became active socialites in Prescott. They traveled by horse and buggy or wagon to Crown King and other remote places to parties and dances, dressed to the nines. In Prescott they hosted card parties and attended activities at the Yavapai Club. In 1906 Louis Hesla returned to Pasadena for a time. He married Lula Estelle Hardin and returned to Prescott in 1911. Their son Louis was born in Prescott in 1914, followed by daughter Mary. In 1918 Louis and his family were living in the Monday Club building on Marina Street during the construction of their home at 126 North Pleasant Street when L.E. became a victim of the flu epidemic. Because he went out in the ankle-deep snow to check on the progress of his new home, Dr. Looney told Lula Hesla that her husband "ought to die." But he survived; the Heslas were of strong Norwegian stock. 

The O.A. Hesla Company was on Gurley Street across from the plaza, flanked on one side by Garrett's barbershop with its seven black barbers, and on the other side by Arthur Robinson's cigar store. Prescott old timers will remember the wonderful tall clock with Roman numerals that stood on a pedestal on the sidewalk in front of Heslas' store. It has now been moved to the south side of the plaza (in front of what used to be The Satisfied Mind Bookstore) and placed in the Registry of Historic Places. Another large clock inside the store aided the Heslas in their watch inspection work for the Santa Fe Railroad, whose requirements were very rigid. 

Santa Fe railroaders were required to have their watches inspected every two weeks, and to accommodate those who couldn't come to the store L.E. Hesla rode both freight and passenger trains off the Santa Fe main line, and on the main line between Winslow and Needles. He carried a watch that kept time within a couple or three seconds a week, and he would check the workers' watches and see how long it had been since the last cleaning. If they were due to be cleaned Hesla would give the men a loaner watch. 

The O.A. Hesla Company ordered jewelry from drummers who carried large sample cases. But their business was far more than a jewelry store. They carried fine china, ordered from a catalog. The Helsas were also optometrists who dispensed glasses, a common practice in jewelry stores at that time. About half of the store building from Gurley Street to the alley was a mezzanine, reached by a flight of stairs. That was the record and phonograph department. When radios became popular and were added, Harold DeWitt was hired to work as a radio technician. Louis Hesla, Jr. worked in the record and phonograph department in the summers in the late 1920s. Girls came, chose records for him to play, and turned the mezzanine into a dance floor. They would then leave without making a purchase, but with dozens of records to be reshelved. Louis, Sr. admonished him to "leave those girls alone. Their mom comes in and buys enough jewelry. You just . . . go ahead and play the records." 

O.A. Hesla and Company remained in business until 1944. Olaf passed away in Prescott in 1957 after a sojourn of fifty-nine years, followed by his brother Louis in 1958. 

(Mona McCroskey is the Museum's oral historian. This is one of a series, "Chasing the Cure," about families who were brought to Prescott by respiratory problems.) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (bui134p). Reuse only by permission.
Probably Olaf and Louis Hesla at their jewelry store (where the Plaza Cafe on Gurley street is today) in about 1907. The shop was flanked on one side by Garrett's barbershop and Arthur Robinson's cigar store and the wonderful tall clock with Roman numerals stood on a pedestal on the sidewalk in front of it.