By Parker Anderson

The murder trial of James Parker was one of the most notorious criminal cases in late 19th-century Prescott.  To this day, the story of Parker (no relation to the present author) is still told and retold, with varying degrees of accuracy, by old-timers and magazines devoted to Western lore.  James Parker, commonly referred to as Fleming Parker in more recent times, was born in 1865 in Visalia, California.  He had three sisters.  His mother died while he was still a child, and his father reportedly went insane a few years later.  Parker was then raised by his grandfather, who valiantly carried on the impossible task of keeping the wild young man out of trouble. 

By Anne Foster

Add one more to the list of Prescott's "World's Oldest" accomplishments.  Prescott may have held the World's Oldest Rodeo Queen contest!  Certainly, Prescott's Frontier Days was one of the first (if not the first) to include women in a rodeo event.

By Al Bates

Two men, one a Union Army General and the other a Confederate Army deserter, had critical roles in the decision to found Arizona Territory's first capital at Prescott.  The ex-rebel also started the events that lead to Prescott losing the capital permanently.

By William Bork

The "Balentine building" on the northwest corner of Montezuma and Gurley streets in downtown Prescott is currently occupied by the Christian Book Store and adjacent businesses.  However, from the mid-teens to the mid-1940s the "Owl Drugstore" perched on that corner and watched Prescott change.

By Richard Gorby

Early in 1863, the new Arizona Territory had been signed into law by President Lincoln.  By March of 1864, the territorial officers, headed by Governor John Goodwin, had arrived in the new territory and had picked this site for the first capital.  A few other young men, mostly seeking after mining wealth, were already there.  Joseph Reddeford Walker and his Walker Party had moved into the "Links" Creek area and were mining with some success.  Van C. Smith, a young adventurer from California, had built a small cabin and was accepting the stock on immigrants to graze and to care for at one dollar and fifty cents per head per month, and had been elected Recorder of the Walker Mining District.  And he spelled the name of the area "Lynx"

By Al Bates

Whipple Barracks remained headquarters of the Arizona Department during the Geronimo war, but with the removal of Geronimo and his band to Florida the most serious reason for retaining either an Arizona Department or a large garrison and depot at Prescott ceased to exist.

By Dorothy Chafin

My family was living on a ranch in the Peach Springs area at the time I was born.  Samuel Franklin Crozier and Lotti Grounds Crozier, my father and mother were both natives of Arizona.  When I was four they moved to Colorado.  My father and my uncle Bill Grounds were partners, they sold the Arizona property and bought Ora Haley's outfit consisting of a ranch on the Green River (near the Canyon of Lodore in Northwest Colorado), a ranch on the Snake River (also up in that part of Colorado) and a holding pasture in between.  The headquarters of these ranches were about 30 miles apart, so the cattle were gathered at the Green River ranch, shoved up to the Snake River ranch to add to the cattle there, and then on to summer range in California Park north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

By Anne L. Foster

Today, the sidewalks of Prescott will be crowded with corsage-pinned moms happily surrounded by grateful children and gleeful grandchildren.  Mother might receive a special meal, a mailbox full of cards, and maybe even some jewelry.  Perhaps it will be a picnic at Lynx Lake or a stroll through the Plaza's craft show.  Whatever it is, it's sure to be special and to be accompanied by a lot of hugs and kisses.  Today, Prescottonians will go all out for their moms.  It didn't used to be that way.  Prescott was slow to adopt the Mother's Day celebration. 

By Rita Wuehrmann

The untimely death of a man, Charles Bradner Rhodimer, in Missouri on a June day in 1911 set off a chain of events that resulted in my family's involvement with Prescott and Yavapai County.  My great grandfather, a saddle and harness maker, was only 33 when he succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving a cherished young wife to care for their three children.

By Mick Woodcock

"Married Sept. 27 1865, at Mr. Sheddane's church, Rahway, N. J., at quarter past four o'clock in the afternoon.  I took the five o'clock train for Washington accompanied by Johnnie Woodruff and his bride."  So begins the diary of Margaret Griffiths Hunt McCormick, wife of second territorial governor Richard C. McCormick.  While very sketchy and incomplete, it is one of only two known sources of information on Margaret's trip west, the other source is a letter written by Margaret while on her trip that has recently been donated to the Museum.