By Brad Courtney
Today he is known to local historians and a few Whiskey Row regulars, but in his day he was a living legend. Dan Conner “D.C.” Thorne has even been called the founder of today’s famous Palace Saloon. Is this true?
Thorne was one of the most influential figures upon early Whiskey Row history, and surely its most colorful character. With his force-of-nature personality, he was a man with a voracious lust for life around whom activity swirled. Even today, his specter looms large on Whiskey Row.
D.C.Thorne, a New Yorker, was one of thousands lured to the West after news reached the East that gold was being found in California streams. Like many, his personal result was disappointing. In 1867, he moved to Prescott. Thorne quickly invested in several nearby mines. The Central Arizona Highlands proved what California couldn’t; Thorne was soon on his way to realizing his dreams.
Thorne’s name first appeared in the Miner on January 1, 1870. The newspaper reported that he’d finished second to the future infamous Sheriff of Cochise County of Tombstone, Johnny Behan, in a pigeon-shooting contest held on Christmas day on the Plaza.
Shortly after, he journeyed east to play a more serious game. He’d boasted that he was going to “commit matrimony.” Thorne’s friends laughed because, after all, he had no one in mind with whom to do such a thing. That didn’t stop Thorne. Along the way he met a 19-year-old New Jersey girl, Mary Wilson. On February 28, they were married. By June they were having a $2000 house built on North Montezuma Street.
Thorne began seeing profits from his mining ventures in the early 1870s, which enabled him to explore other entrepreneurial endeavors. In 1874, Thorne rented the building sitting on lot 19, 118 Montezuma Street, and opened the Cabinet Saloon. He propelled the “Cabinet” to such success that it soon became the heartbeat of Whiskey Row.
By 1877, Governor John Frémont’s daughter, Lily, was able to write in her diary, “[Thorne] keeps the chief faro & gambling place in the village, but is nevertheless a good citizen.” That same year Thorne kept a mascot in the Cabinet: “Mr. D.C. Thorne has come into possession of a nice little pet in the shape of a cub bear, of the Cinnamon specie. Dan has got the trick now wherewith to keep order in his usually well-regulated establishment. Should one or more of the billigerents [sic] become hostile and try to ‘take the town’[the] young bruin will be turned loose, and if not able to command the peace, will at least be able to ‘clean out’ the crowd.”
It was these types of unique attractions and innovations that kept Thorne’s Cabinet at Whiskey Row’s forefront and as its trendsetter. Thorne was never satisfied with the status quo and was constantly reinventing his saloon. Between 1874 and 1883, it was closed for repairs and improvements at least five times.
In 1880-81, Thorne partnered with another Whiskey Row proprietor to open “The Cock Pit” on the roof of the Cabinet. By 1880, Prescott’s reputation was that it had become so law-and-order as to be almost dull. While a matter of pride for most, it caused some slight embarrassment among those possessing a rowdier frontier spirit.Thorne was one such pioneer. His remedy? The world’s oldest spectator sport: cockfighting. Although comprised of only three events over a year’s time, the enterprise was quite the sensation in “staid old Prescott.”
In 1881, a lottery for $25 was held at the Cabinet every Saturday evening. The ticket came with each person’s first drink. The source of the prize money was explained in a weekly ad: “[B]eing desirous of dividing some of the money made out of [Thorne’s] Silver Belt mine, the best in the country, the proprietor of the ‘Cabinet’ takes this method of unloading.”
Prior to this, tragedy struck the Thorne household. In 1880, sixteen days after delivering a baby girl, his beloved Mary died from complications. On July 6, 1883, Whiskey Row’s history and constitution would change forever. Fire! That unfortunately common word in Whiskey Row history. But neither it nor the energetic D. C. Thorne could be kept down.
Next week in part 2, fire brings great changes to Whiskey Row (and D. C. Thorne).
Brad Courtney is the author of Prescott’s Original Whiskey Row.
“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.sharlothallmuseum.org/library-archives/days-past. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles to dayspastshmcourier@gmail.com. Please contact SHM Library & Archives reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at dayspastshmcourier@gmail.com for information.