By Pat Atchison

The words Memorial Day bring forth thoughts of loved ones, friends, patriotism, wars, cemeteries, long weekends, families, ceremonies. . . . The list goes on and on. 

Memorial Day, or as it was originally known, "Decoration Day," was formally proclaimed by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War) in 1868. His order proclaimed that, "The 30th of May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet in the land.

By Sylvia Neely and Terry Munderloh

Many happy birthdays occurred at 128 South Mt. Vernon Street when maternity facilities were virtually nonexistent in Prescott after the Sisters of Mercy Hospital was destroyed by fire in 1940.

When Father Alfred Quetu Came to Prescott in 1889 he appealed to the Sisters of Mercy in Phoenix to open a hospital in Prescott. The Sisters came in 1893 using a small house near the church for a hospital and in 1896 Frank Murphy sold to the Mercy Hospital Corporation five lots on Grove Avenue for $750.00.

By Ken Edwards

(This is the second art of a two-part article regarding the history of early automobiles in Yavapai County)

By April 1904, just a year after the first cars arrived in Yavapai County, many of the wealthier residents had made purchases of these new vehicles. On Friday, April 22 of that year, four cars set out from Prescott on a journey to Tucson, which they expected to reach in three days. An automobile tournament was to be held there the following week.

By Parker Anderson

For a number of decades scores of western movies, pulp magazine writers, and even some respected historians have expounded the idea of "frontier justice," intimating that law and order in the old Southwest was swift, sure and often unfair. We have been historically fed this so often that nearly everyone accepts it as fact.

I beg to differ. I don't pretend to speak for other areas of the West, but pioneer Arizonans were a high-toned people who fashioned a set of high-toned laws to live by.

By Jay Eby

Alexander Oswald Brodie III, like most Prescottonians of his day, and most of us, was not a native of Arizona. However, he was "a thorough Westerner" Arizonan.  Brodie was born November 13, 1849, in the family mansion near Edwards, New York to Joseph and Margaret (Brown) making him the heir of a long line of royal Scots.

By Terry Munderloh

Long before the Spanish occupation of what would one day become Arizona and the arrival of Euro-American explorers and settlers to the western frontier, a unique aboriginal population lived in present-day Yavapai County. Ruins of many of the structures built by these Amerinds dot the hilltops throughout our surrounding countryside.

By William "Bill" Peck

In 1887, Morris Darnell built a store and bar which probably had rooms for rent upstairs across the railroad tracks abut 500 feet south of the depot in Hillside. Finding he was on the wrong side of the tracks and had built in a mud hole, he somehow moved the rather cumbersome building in about 1900 to its present site where it serves as the Hillside Store, a cooperative affair run by our town's retired women.

By Parker Anderson

The first legal hanging in Prescott's history is not remembered as an extraordinary affair. The people involved are not as colorful and legendary even though the event has been written about a number of times. In one of Arizona's beleaguered Mexican settlements just outside of Camp Verde, violence erupted at. . . .

By Kathryn Reisdorfer

The Irish, who had not been well received in the East, were more accepted and far more successful in mining areas of the American West. In Prescott, Frank Murphy (b. 1855 - d. 1917), who had his hand in mining, contributed tremendously to the local community.  Another Murphy Beatrice lived in Butte, Montana, which like Prescott was a major mining hub. Although she was not Frank's relative, she was also Irish. She was full of exuberance and appreciation for life, and, luckily for us, she kept a diary.

By Kathryn Reisdorfer

The Chinese have been in the news in Prescott lately, and, just as in the past, they seem to be annoying some people. As a researcher, I am very interested in understanding the complex historical source of that annoyance. Now, of course, the concern is primarily an economic one-the archaeological dig looking for Chinese artifacts is delaying the construction of a public parking lot in downtown Prescott.