By Brenda Taylor

“Bail out!” yelled the pilot to his flight crew.  “One engine is lost to fire and the others have conked out, bail out – NOW!”  At this order, the bomb bay doors dropped open and three of the crewmen jumped into the moonless night.  Surprisingly, before the co-pilot and radioman could jump, the pilot was able to bring the windmilling propellers to life and the bomber limped away to make an emergency landing at the Kingman Army Air Field.

By Mick Woodcock

What follows are excerpts from articles about Christmas in Prescott from selected years during the 1870s.  We hope this will give you an idea of what our predecessors thought of the holiday and how they observed it.

By Al Bates

When Arizona’s third territorial governor, Anson P. K. Safford, arrived at the Territorial Capital of Tucson in July 1869 he was met both by an enthusiastic citizenry and by a legal firestorm that threatened extended chaos in the territory.  The eventual solution would include giving the new governor temporary dictatorial powers.

By Al Bates

The portability of Arizona Territory’s seat of government—Prescott to Tucson to Prescott to Phoenix—earned it the nickname of “Capital on Wheels.”

By Al Bates

This article ends the Days Past sesquicentennial series covering Arizona Territory’s earliest two years from a Prescott perspective.

The first Arizona Territorial Legislature adjourned on November 10, 1864, leaving behind a solid record of accomplishment headed by adoption of the Howell Code, a comprehensive set of laws for the territory.  A major part of that effort was establishment of the territory’s original four counties and providing for their administration.

By Elisabeth Ruffner

Among the myriad counties created in the United States over the earliest years of this democratic republic, Yavapai County in the Arizona Territory was the largest ever devised.  Of the original 65,000 square miles designated when Arizona Territory was organized, other entirely new counties were later carved out.

By Brad Courtney

Part one of this article told of the rise of Prescott’s first effective lawman, night-watchman William Jennings.  His downfall would be more rapid than his ascension.

By Brad Courtney

Prescott has its share of legendary lawmen.  Its first lawman of note was most likely William Jennings, a transplanted Englishman who was not a marshal, sheriff, or chief of police, but a night-watchman.  A case can indeed be made for Jennings’s induction into Prescott’s “legends club”.

By Mary Melcher, Ph.D.

During the 19^th century, a woman’s death in childbirth occurred about 65 times more often than in the late twentieth century, according to historian Judith Leavitt.  In the rural West and Arizona Territory, giving birth was especially hazardous due to a lack of competent attendants, long distances between ranches, farms and towns, as well as poor roads.  Women relied on a variety of people to help them through this potential ordeal, including midwives, doctors, neighbors, relatives and even their husbands, who were called into service when others were not available.

By Jan MacKell Collins copyrighted 2014

By 1931, the boom-bust-boom town of Jerome had seen its fair share of shady ladies. These “enterprising” women rode the carnal rollercoaster of the city’s economy as miners came and went. There was plenty of violence within Jerome’s red light district even then, and Sammie Dean’s murder has remained an especially intriguing and tragic story.