By Ray Carlson

According to the newspaper, 1876 was a good year for Prescott.  There were “about two hundred” attractive new buildings including the impressive school. Stores and saloons were busy, and prostitutes and robbers who followed wealth were plentiful.  

For many Americans today, the name “Baylor” brings to mind a major college in Texas known for sports and scholarship. Founded in 1845, it’s the oldest university in Texas and one of the oldest in the west, named for Judge Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor. In Arizona, the name Baylor is remembered because of Judge Baylor’s nephew, John R. Baylor, who created the Confederate Territory of Arizona in August 1861, setting off a chain reaction leading to the establishment of the United States’ Territory of Arizona.

By Barbara Patton

On a hot July day in 1864, a group of settlers rolled into the frontier town of Prescott.  The wagon train in the company of soldiers bound for Fort Whipple and under the leadership of Joseph Ehle had traveled down from Denver through Indian country.  Three of the wagons carried the household goods of the Ehle family, and Mrs. Margaret Ehle and their five daughters rode in a repurposed hearse.

Cynthia Maria (Miller) Sanders was born on December 28, 1858 in Princeville, Peoria County, Illinois to Jane Maria (Reeves) and Jacob Leroy Miller. Her father was a freighter and left the family for long periods. Jacob and Sam, his brother, were part of the Walker Party, which prospected in Yavapai County, Arizona Territory in 1863.

By Cindy Gresser

The year was 1935.  At the Fair Grounds there was a giant pile of stone and debris that would make excellent base fill for roadways and foundations around the growing City of Prescott.

By Mick Woodcock

The hydraulic method of mining was developed in California in 1853 to better exploit gold-bearing gravel deposits. It used a canvas hose with a metal nozzle to direct a high-pressure stream of water to erode dirt along rivers and stream beds. The resulting slurry, gold-bearing mud and water, was then directed through a sluice box where the gold settled out and the rest was deposited at the edge of the river.

Margaret Ann Bridget (Donahue) Fitzgerald was born on September 17, 1860 in Phoenicia, Ulster County, New York. She was the daughter of Irish-born parents John Donahue and Bridget (Mahoney) Donahue. On June 4, 1882, she married Patrick James Fitzgerald in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which was under construction at the time of their marriage. Margaret spent her life as a housewife and mother, giving birth to ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood.

By Brad Courtney

Daniel Connor “D. C.” Thorne may have been early Whiskey Row’s most influential figure, and its most colorful. He was a story himself, and stories swirled around him. Thorne founded the Cabinet Saloon in 1874, which became the heartbeat of pre-1900 Whiskey Row.

By Kylin Cummings

Since the beginning, railroads have used a variety of signaling systems to communicate in rail yards and along the railroad line. 

Mary Etta (Jones) Gibson, daughter of Levi Cashes and Lida Ann (Turner) Jones, was born in Skull Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, on August 16, 1894. Her father was a teamster who hauled sand and gravel by wagon to help build the Yavapai County courthouse, in addition to doing some farming and ranching. When the 1900 census was enumerated the family had moved and was living on S. Granite St. in Prescott.