By Ken Edwards

The tragic death of Jennie Clark in late August 1884 resulting from a brawl in the Palace Saloon brought an outcry for rapid justice. The Daily Journal claimed that lynching the accused murderer, Fred Glover, was perhaps too mild a punishment.  The other two local papers had similar sentiments.

By Ken Edwards

In the wee hours of a Friday morning in late August of 1884, business was still at full throttle in the Palace Saloon on Prescott’s Whiskey Row when Fred Glover, an employee of the Sazerac Saloon on Gurley Street, got off work and walked over to the Palace for a few drinks before going home.

By Tom Collins

It was June 1875, and the Arizona Territory was in an uproar.  Why?  Because public schools were under attack.   Edmund Francis Dunne, recently appointed Chief Justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court, was urging Catholics to stop paying taxes that supported public schools.  Public schools were too secular, in his view. Administrators were holding fast to their belief that pupils should not be required to start the school day with prayer.  Dunne denounced the Common School system and condemned the action of the Territorial Legislature in defeating a bill to give the Catholic Schools a part of the money raised for Common Schools.  A staunch Catholic and believer in religious education, he proposed the abolishment of public schools.

By Jim Turner

It was late February 1851.  Royce Oatman and his family struggled to push their wagon up a steep bank along the Gila River near present day Gila Bend.  Around sunset about a dozen Yavapai men came up from the river.  They asked for meat and tobacco.  Royce gave them some bread, and told them sternly to go away.  He said he did not have enough food to feed his family.  The Yavapai backed off several paces and stood in a circle, talking.  Then all at once they rushed the Oatmans, swinging their war clubs. In a matter of minutes they killed Royce, his wife, and four of his seven children.  They hit fourteen-year-old Lorenzo on the head and threw him over a cliff.  The Yavapai spared Olive Oatman, age thirteen, and her sister Mary Ann, eight.

By Al Bates

(This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial and the founding and establishment of Prescott as the Territory’s first capital.)

After months of anticipation and speculation, the Arizona Miner of August 24, 1864, contained Governor John Goodwin’s proclamation that the Territorial Legislature would convene in Prescott on September 26.  His choice of location came as no surprise since the Miner had correctly predicted that outcome a month earlier.

By Carol A. Powell

Adapted by Carol A. Powell from the book “From Oxen to Oxide” by John Fletcher Fairchild Jr., 2013, Sedona Historical Society

One day early in the 20^th Century, young John Fletcher Fairchild Jr. was in his family home in Flagstaff when he heard chattering and laughter of other children.  Running to a window, he couldn’t believe his eyes as he viewed a small elaborate house on wheels.  It slowly and noiselessly glided by with several kids in hot pursuit.  He quickly joined the parade.

by Linda Ogo and Sandra Lynch

Many American Indians have been popularized in books, documentaries, and provocative motion pictures.  The Yavapai Indians, however, have been largely absent from such published history.  Much of this is the result of a tradition that enabled the Yavapai to survive from prehistoric times to the present—that of preserving their culture within family groups.

By Al Bates

Prescott’s Arizona Miner is rightly known as Arizona Territory’s first newspaper with its beginning at Fort Whipple in early 1864, but it was not the first newspaper in what is now Arizona. 

Let me explain. 

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

One of the resolutions unanimously adopted at the May 30 meeting at Don Manuel’s store on the banks of Granite Creek was that a mass meeting be held at Prescott on Monday, July 4, 1864, at noon to celebrate the 88^th anniversary of American Independence.

by Jay Cravath

This article is a summary of a presentation Jay Cravath will give at the Eleventh Annual Western History Symposium that will be held at the Hassayampa Inn on Saturday, August 2nd.  The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Prescott Corral of Westerners and the Sharlot Hall Museum and is open to the public free of charge.  For more details, visit the Corral’s website at www.prescottcorral.org or call Fred Veil at 928-443-5580.

An ancient set of Native American paths and the natural flow of the Gila River created a major artery through pioneer Arizona. Born from the rain and snow of the Gila wilderness, this waterway carved a channel through New Mexico and along the southern edges of our state.  Its route became known as the California Trail—the southernmost version to hold that moniker.