By Allan Englekirk and Cathie Englekirk

Historians, in chronicling Arizona’s eventful past, have tended to overlook the significant contributions of Mexican-heritage citizens of Prescott in the early 20th century.  A review of local newspapers of the period reveals that Mexican-Americans served their community and their country with greater devotion than most people know.  The pages of the Prescott Evening Courier of the 1930s and 1940s demonstrate convincingly that those citizens participated fully in the entire spectrum of community life, and in World War II numerous soldiers of Mexican heritage put their lives on the line as part of our national legacy of sacrifice.

By Jay W. Eby

By 1900 the Prescott Free Academy (Days Past, 29 Aug 1999) had proven to be too small for Prescott’s growing population, and the Board of the School District enlisted David Kilpatrick to design a larger and more modern building which came to be known as the Washington School.  (Kilpatrick also designed Prescott National Bank and the Hotel St. Michael.)

By Ray Carlson

In March 1871, the Weekly Arizona Miner noted: “Rev. Mr. (Alexander) Gilmore, Chaplain at Fort Whipple, is about to commence instructing the youth of Prescott, some encouragement having already been given him for the carrying out of the laudable object.”  During Prescott’s first five years, at least eight people opened private schools in homes, but none of these schools lasted more than six months.  Sam Rogers built a school and taught for eighteen months, but Rogers, as a father of six, could not survive financially on the fees parents paid. Gilmore in contrast had no family and had housing and financial support from the Army.

By Brad Courtney

In July 1868, Albert Noyes, a transplanted New Englander, began circulating a rumor throughout Prescott. Noyes was the co-owner and operator of the four-year-old town’s first sawmill, the Quartz Mountain Sawmill, and he promised that he was going to build a house of business the likes of which early Prescottonians had never seen.

By Mick Woodcock

As more and more Anglo miners and settlers moved to Arizona, conflict with the local inhabitants was generally inevitable. This constant state of warfare with the various tribal groups caused the Army to send Lieutenant Colonel (later promoted to Brigadier General) George Crook to be commander of the newly created Military Department of Arizona in 1871.

By Mick Woodcock

When Anglos first came to the Prescott area, initial contact with the indigenous people was peaceful enough, but as more miners arrived who shot the Yavapai’s main food supply, the mule deer, things became tense. With an invasion of their homeland and assaults on their families, they fought back in the only way they could. Raids on small groups of men, freight teams and isolated ranches accelerated until no one felt safe, anywhere.

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.