By Worcester P. Bong

Fiorello La Guardia, Buckey O’Neill, and Barry Goldwater are among a few of the famous people who have been associated with Prescott at some point in their lives. Another lesser known yet successful Prescott resident was Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Whitcomb Bliss.
 

Born on May 17, 1888 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, he graduated as an honor student from Tufts Medical College in 1910 with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree. In 1911 he joined the Army Medical Reserve Corps as a lieutenant. In 1913 he became a commissioned medical officer and attended the Army Medical School in Washington, D.C., graduating in June 1913.
 

By Susan Cypert

Life on the frontier was hard, both physically and emotionally, and survival often depended on new settlers learning to forage off the land by hunting, fishing and gathering berries, nuts and edible bulbs. The harsh reality of feeding a family, especially during the long winter months, was a constant concern. Homesteaders and ranchers were frequently isolated and had to be largely self-sufficient, especially until the seeds they brought west with them became gardens and crops, or if they had lost their milk cow on the journey or had not brought chickens with them.

By Elizabeth Bourgault

On July 9, 1946, a Boeing B-17G “Flying Fortress” bomber, converted into a transport plane, crashed into Mount Tom in Holyoke, MA, killing all 25 on board.  Aboard were 15 U.S. Coast Guardsmen, 8 members of the Army Air Corps and two civilians, a U.S. Public Health doctor and an American Red Cross member.  Two members of the Army Air Corps were from Prescott, the pilot, Flight Officer Herman (Joe) Valdrini, Jr., 24 and Radio Operator Sgt. Daniel Roberts (Pat) Roe, 20.
 

By Judy Stoycheff

Within days of his inauguration as President of the United States in March 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his secretaries of War, Interior, Agriculture and Labor to create a program that would improve conservation of the land and provide employment for as many as a quarter of a million men.  He named it the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  During this time, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression with very high unemployment and poverty levels.

By Mick Woodcock

Arizona was nicknamed the “Baby State” for forty-seven years until Alaska’s statehood. Before that, she was a territory for forty-nine years. For the previous fifteen years, much of the area was part of the New Mexico Territory. From when it was first explored and settled by the Spanish until today, Arizona has remained sparsely populated, her topography and mineral riches both helping and hindering settlement.

By Drew Desmond

For residents of Prescott today, J.S.Acker is remembered most warmly. Due to his philanthropy, the popular annual downtown music festival held during the holiday season is named in his honor. However, while he was alive, most considered him to be a bit cranky and cantankerous.

By Parker Anderson & Darlene Wilson

Authors of Haunted Prescott

Occasionally, someone will ask about Prescott's various "haunted" sites. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are many purported Prescott area hauntings, with new ghostly stories being told all the time.
 

Perhaps Prescott’s most famous ghost is "Abby" and her cat “Noble”, who haunt room 16 of the Hotel Vendome. Abby died in 1921 and her ghost, along with her cat, began to be seen after WW II. While some workers say footsteps are heard in the room, and the bell sometimes rings for service when the room is vacant, many guests sleep in the room every year, some with experiences and some without.
 

By Mick Woodcock

While not resulting in death, the 1868 Weekly Arizona Miner noted that soldiers were having accidents resulting in injury. “Dr. Howard informs us that, a few days ago, a soldier named Gay, while going from Camp Whipple to Camp Lincoln, shot himself in the foot, accidentally, of course. He remained at Lincoln.”

By Mick Woodcock

The early days of the Arizona Territory were a time when men went about armed. As Daniel Ellis Conner, a member of the Walker Party and an original settler in Prescott, wrote in his biography, Joseph Reddeford Walker and the Arizona Adventure, the carrying of firearms was a habit. On leaving Arizona for California he wrote, “I had often thought how pleasant it would be to unbuckle my belt and throw it with its scabbards and pistols altogether into the sea….But it was a long while before I could be accustomed to being without them, and I was constantly feeling that something was wrong, without thinking what it was, but on turning my attention to it I invariably found the annoyance caused by the absence of the heavy belt, which I had become accustomed to wearing.”

By Marjory J. Sente

Traveling to the Arizona Territory in early 1864 in a two-wheeled cart pulled by oxen, fifteen-year-old Jane Oswald had no idea that a decade later she would make history. Jane, whose given name was Mary Jane Oswald, came to Prescott with her mother Elizabeth, brother George, step-father George Jackson and his son Stephen.