Annie Laura Aiken was born in Marfa, Texas, November 11, 1897. Her parents, Marion and Josie Peter (Cagle) Aiken, moved their family to Jerome Junction, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, when she was a young girl. Her mother died when Annie was a child, leaving Marion to raise her and her six siblings. Annie spent time with her aunt, Laura Johnston, in Jerome Junction. Her father went to work on the Perkins Ranch, three miles away.

Kathryn "Kate" Alice (Dunning) Adams was born on September 23, 1846, to Andrew and Abbie (Ransom) Dunning in Plattesburg, New York. Kate was a graduate of the Normal School at Oswego, New York. She joined the westward movement in 1877 at the age of thirty-one and travelled to Santa Paula, California. In December 1879, she came to Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, which she described as “the wilds of Arizona” to become a schoolteacher at the Prescott Free Academy.

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”.