By Marjory J. Sente

Last week’s Days Past told of tribulations with early Prescott mail service as experienced by Margaret McCormick, wife of Governor Richard McCormick.  This week continues those experiences, including the sacking of the postal contractor for non-performance  and an insider’s look at the competition to succeed John N. Goodwin as territorial governor.

By Marjory J. Sente

One of the great annoyances for early Prescott residents was the isolation from friends and relatives “back in the states,” an isolation that was made much worse by inadequate mail service. Surviving letters written by Margaret Griffiths Hunt McCormick, the wife of Richard Cunningham McCormick—the Territory of Arizona’s first secretary and second governor— illustrate the situation and the annoyances felt.

By Allan and Cathie M. Englekirk

In February 1864, Governor Goodwin contacted President Lincoln for authority to recruit volunteer infantry to combat Apaches in the Territory.  After his request was granted, Hiram Storrs Washburn, a merchant from Patagonia, was made a Second Lieutenant (later Captain) and organized recruiting.

By Fred Veil

A name like Cotesworth Pinckney Head evokes images of the Deep South of the 19^th century.  Indeed, this Arizona pioneer did reside in Arkansas for a time during the early years of his adulthood, and was sufficiently sympathetic to the South that he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  He was, however, born and educated in the state of New York, and what possessed him to move south in the late 1850s is a story that has been lost to history.

By Mick Woodcock

What is now the state of Arizona was once a part of Mexico and the central mountain region was basically unexplored, except by a few fur-trapping parties.  It was the home of the Yavapai who lived in small bands due to the scarcity of water.  They would move from camp to camp during the year in order not to exhaust their resources.

By Mary Melcher, Ph.D.

The Sharlot Hall Museum Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden honors women living in Arizona Territory before statehood.  The diverse honorees represent nearly every ethnic culture and occupation.  While the majority married and had children, some remained single; others were divorced or widowed.  Dealing with primitive conditions during the nineteenth century, they worked hard to maintain their homes, ranches and farms while building their communities.  A number of women also worked in the political arena; others were artists, and some worked in business.

By Gretchen Hough Eastman

Last Sunday’s article discussed the women who started the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden, located on the Sharlot Hall Museum campus.  This week, four of the pioneer women’s stories are featured, representing the hundreds of women who are honored in the Rose Garden.

By Brenda Taylor

Later this month, the Sharlot Hall Museum will host a panel discussion regarding the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden and unveil its new exhibit, The Rose Garden Discovery Kiosk.  This exhibit will usher the Museum into the 21^st century using a touch screen computer that will display hundreds of Arizona women’s biographies who prepared the way for others to homestead, work and just live life in the “wild west” territory.

By Mick Woodcock

The opening of the Central Mountains of Arizona to Anglo settlement was set against the backdrop of the American Civil War.  This conflict hastened the exploration of the Territory as the need for gold to finance the war effort sent prospectors into the most inhospitable regions of the West, including Arizona above the Gila River.

By Al Bates

Editor’s Note:  An earlier version of the following was published as a Days Past article in December 2005.

Usually when we think of Christmastime in Territorial Prescott we have images of jolly families with little children warm and snugly gathered around a candle-lit tree after enjoying the fruits of their mama’s kitchen efforts.  But there was an earlier time when Prescott was barely a town and was peopled by a predominance of single men-especially when the miners came to town.