By John P. Langellier, Ph.D.

John Charles Frémont’s first view of the world occurred on January 21, 1813 in Savannah, Georgia.  He was the son of a young Southern belle married to a man far her senior, and who was not John’s father.  In fact, his father was a tutor for the young unhappily married woman. Their liaison would result in John’s birth out of wedlock. This fact proved a serious social handicap at that time, and made for a difficult upbringing.  His quick mind, however, aided him albeit he was less than a model student.

By Parker Anderson

(This article was originally published in the Prescott Courier on February 20, 2005)

Last week, we learned how the Prescott Elks Lodge #330 raised funds to construct the Elks Building with an added opera house.  This week the story continues.

By Parker Anderson

(This articles was originally published in the Prescott Courier on February 20, 2005)

Many long-term Prescottonians have fond memories of movies and events in the auditorium, and it has played an important role in local entertainment throughout its history. Those familiar with its history know that it has been rocky at times, but the Elks Theater has proven itself to be a survivor, and it is still with us when many other theater of its age around the country have long closed their doors and/or met with the wrecking ball.

By Shirley Turner Summers

(This is part one of a two-part article.)

The Dunbar Weekly noted Governor W.P. Hunt, Arizona's first governor, who won election for seven terms, as "one who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor, who can lose without squealing and win without bragging, who is considerate of women and children and old people, who is too sensible to loaf, who takes his share of the world's goods and lets others have theirs, is, indeed, a true gentleman!"

By Shirley Turner Summers

(Last week, former Governor George W. P. Hunt persuaded the commanding officer to grant the author's father forty-eight hours of leave from Camp Funston to see his mother, Mary Elizabeth Turner Calder, who had met and traveled to the Kansas camp on the same train with the former Governor.) 

She was indebted to the governor for this favor, so wrote the poem, "A Rippling Rhyme," about meeting him on the train, and when she got to Virginia, sent it to him in Phoenix with a letter of gratitude.

By Al Bates

Usually when we think of Christmastime in Territorial Prescott we have images of jolly families with little children warm and snugly gathered around a candle-lit tree after enjoying the fruits of their mama's kitchen efforts. But there was an earlier time when Prescott was barely a town and was peopled by a predominance of single men-especially when the miners came to town.

By Dr. Ted Finkelston

(Our tale from last week left off as Jacob "Jake" Theobald, a Prescott youth drafted into the military to fight in the Great War, was finishing his training in the South of France, ready to take his orders to move to the front line.)

Without really telling his mother his unit had moved to the front, Jake wrote in early August, "Bob's big change is in spirits his like the rest of us getting a bit hard at times, but this life in the trenches will make anyone feel that way at times. We are not dry for a week eat & sleep in mud two feet deep but the Hun will pay for it and before very long."

By Dr. Ted Finkelston

On the morning of April 27, 1918, the Selective Service Board of Yavapai County met in the county courthouse and chose forty-seven young men to be drafted into the United States Army. The "Draft" had been enacted by Congress and signed by President Wilson a year earlier to choose men "upon the principle of universal liability to service."

The Selective Service Act of 1917 required all men twenty-one to thirty years of age to register for the Draft (later in August, 1918 that was expanded to all men 18 to 45). Ultimately 2.8 million Americans were called up, and about two million were sent to Europe, where approximately 1.4 million saw action.

By Ryan Flahive

On any given Sunday, these pages of the Prescott Courier are full of yarns about 'the good ol' days' of Yavapai County. Ranching reminiscences, school memoirs, church memories, mining histories and other topics pertaining to the Prescott area pervade our Sunday paper with a column we like to call 'Days Past'. But where do these histories come from? Personal memories? Oral tales?

By Jay Eby

The First Congregational Church building, at Gurley and Alarcon Streets, is a part of the East Prescott Historic District. This building, an example of Romanesque Revival architecture in Prescott, was constructed in 1904, dedicated on October 15, 1905, and nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.