By Helen Rue Lawler

(This is the first part of a two-part article. This article first appeared on January 4, 1980, in the Prescott Sun. The author, Helen Rue Lawler, owns what is probably the only complete, Prescott-attributed, Wooten desk in the state. Her magnificent walnut "King" was first owned by John Fenton "Jack" Lawler, mining man, bank founder, and Prescott entrepreneur, for whom the "Lawler Block" on Cortez Street is named.) 

It was almost an act of treason. In 1876, Queen Victoria's photo appeared in a British newspaper, showing Her Majesty working at the "King of Desks," Wooton's Patented Cabinet Office Secretary. English furniture makers were already greatly miffed by the extraordinary sales of the American import and by advertising and promoting the "foreign" desk. For example, a London newspaper advertisement touted the organizational powers of Wooton's Secretary as: "Order Reigns Supreme, Confusion Avoided, Vexation Spared."

However, to the delight of the British manufacturers, not everyone thought the "King" to be so efficient. "True Briton," in the July 15, 1875 issue of England's "Furniture Gazette" wrote as follows: 

"This recently introduced article is good looking when open. To test its convenience, let us imagine a businessman in a hurry to write a note. Having found his key, he unlocks the doors and carefully opens them one at a time; he lifts the top piece and draws a chair up; he arranges the fall (writing flap) then dives into the proper recesses for the necessary material and after all this preparation, he may commence writing. Having finished, he must carry his chair away, for it is in the way of the doors, then remove his papers, as otherwise he cannot arrange the fall; he lets the top down, closes the doors one by one and locks up. Much ado this, I think, to write a note." 

There was also much ado when Prescott's first Wooton arrived in 1900. B.H. Weaver Transfer and Express Company had been notified to pick up "a desk" at the depot and deliver it to John F. Lawler's office in the newly completed Lawler Block on North Cortez Street. Weaver found three huge crates at the railway station, all marked "Wooten Desk". "There must be some mix-up," he said to the agent. Nevertheless, they loaded the heavy boxes into the dray, headed south on Cortez Street, and struggled each up the long stairs to Lawler's office. Weaver's bill read "Moving off. Furniture(sic) $2.50." 

Weaver often worked for Lawler. Two days prior, he had freighted two safes, (one of these is exhibited today at the Sharlot Hall Museum) to the Lawler Building. 

Jack and his secretary, Homer Wood, uncrated the parts, assembled the "Rotary Secretary," and then stepped back to admire Lawler's prize. Tenants and town folk came to view the tremendous desk and were awed. The Wooton was in constant use in the Lawler office for 60 years. A conversation piece then, it remains so today. 

Lawler bought the Wooton from F.M. Ayers, one of his business associates in the 1890's. Lawler saw the magnificent desk in Ayers' San Francisco office and it was love at first sight. He tried to buy it several times, and finally in 1899, made the deal. 

Helen Lawler says, "I first saw Lawler's Wooton in 1948. Intrigued with this unusual desk, I wanted to know about the ingenious man who had designed it. It was inconceivable then, that one day I would marry the late Jack Lawler's nephew, John Lawler, and become co-owner of the 'King' and all its contents. My interest in Mr. Wooton and his desks continues to this day." 

Mrs. Lawler's research found that prior to 1867, William S. Wooton lived near Terre Haute, Indiana. A member of the Honey Creek Friends Church, Wooton and his wife, Docia, were Quaker ministers. 

In 1867, Wooton became a partner in George H. Grant and Company, manufacturer of school furniture, whose line soon included a desk known as the "Richmond Rustic." Wooton patented it in 1868. In his patent application he states, "The object of my invention is a combined school desk and seat that the same may be folded up into a very small compass, for the convenience in cleaning the schoolroom and for adapting the latter as a hall in which gymnastic exercises may be practiced." Almost everyone recalls the school desk with its fold-up seat; an adaptation of Wooton's original design. 

Moving to Indianapolis, Wooton established Wooton and Company, maker of "School Furnit.(sic), Office Desks, Church Furnit.(sic)" In 1872, Wooton and Company won a $5 prize for a writing desk at the Indiana State Fair. But it wasn't until October 6, 1874, that the Quaker minister was issued patent #155,604 for his monumental "Wooten's Patent Cabinet Office Secretary." 

Sources of Wooton's design are obscure. Perhaps he combined many of the elements of other desks but on a larger scale. Unquestionably, he came up with the right item at the right time. The Wooton Desk was the epitome of the nation's post-Civil War mania for order, efficiency, and gadgetry. 

Through December 1874, Wooton's ads appeared in the Indianapolis Journal stating his, "Cabinet Office Secretary was the most complete desk for filing documents ever made." 

On March 5, 1875, the Indianapolis Journal reported: "The Wooton Desk Company will erect a factory this season with room for 150 men." By April, the Company was advertising, "Good wages and steady employment for twenty good workman, wanted immediately." In 1876, the company, now turning out 150 desks per month, moved into larger quarters. 

Advertisements appeared in local newspapers, literary magazines, and business trade journals throughout the United States and Great Britain. The unprecedented American and English sales prompted the company to establish agents in Brazil, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, China, Japan, India, Turkey and Australia. 

In 1876, Wooton's Cabinet Office Secretary and a Rotary Desk were exhibited in the Indiana Building of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. They were commended for compactness, convenience, and utility. 

A letter of testimonial in the 1875 Wooton catalog stated: "Dear Sirs - I am more than pleased with my Secretary - it is most convenient, compact, and beautiful. For more than a year past I have been looking for something that would answer a felt want by the way of a desk for my papers (which are numerous), but failed till I saw your Secretary, when with: Archimedes: I exclaimed 'Eureka.'" 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Wooton desk) Reuse only by permission.
Mrs. Helen Lawler reaches for an old ledger book out of her Wooton Patented Cabinet Office Secretary. Mrs. Lawler's husband, John William Lawler, was John (Jack) Fenton Lawler's nephew. Jack purchased the desk in 1899 and when it was delivered in 1900, three large boxes arrived at the Prescott Depot.