By Worcester P. Bong

In 1894 Prescott Electric Company provided the first electrical service for Prescott using steam-generated power. By the early 1900s, as central Arizona communities and the mining industry expanded, the reliability of electrical service became increasingly important. This occurred with the construction of the Childs-Irving hydroelectric power plants on Fossil Creek.
 

Oral History
Interviewee:  Gussie (Green) Wood (b. 05/10/1894 – d. 05/01/1996)
Interviewer:  Cecelia Clack
Audio Number:  113B (Side 2) & 115
Duration:  00:31:21 & 00:18:45
Date:  February 9, 1978 & March 9, 1978
Acquisition Number:  ACC# 2021.043
Topics Discussed:  Green & Wood Family History, Arrival in Arizona, Schooling & Phoenix Union High School and Sheep Ranching.
NOTE:  Audio# 113B (Side2) - Abuptly stops mid-sentence - End of Audio.

By Mick Woodcock

Whether Gustav Barth, Jr. actually had nine lives we don’t know. However, during his time in Prescott as a railroad man, he experienced several accidents that indicated he was in a dangerous occupation, constantly exposed to situations that could cut his life short or alter it drastically.

Prescott’s newspaper, the Arizona Weekly Journal-Miner, noted in its February 7, 1894 issue that, “Gus Barth, a railroad man from Santa Fe, New Mexico, arrived here yesterday, for a visit to his sister, Mrs. W. S. Goldsworthy. He may remain here permanently.” Mrs. Goldsworthy’s husband was the local ticket agent for the new railroad being built through central Arizona - the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix.

By Jenny Pederson

Sharlot Mabridth Hall was a woman of many accomplishments, eventually becoming an historian, advocate and writer. Much of her inspiration came from the surrounding landscape and her experiences as a ranch woman. Born on the Kansas prairie in 1870, she and her family arrived in the Prescott area in 1882. After an attempt at cattle ranching, Sharlot’s father James tried his hand at mining. However, by 1890, Sharlot’s family permanently settled on a patch of ranch land in Lonesome Valley about 15 miles southeast of Prescott. That land was named Orchard Ranch, and it would remain Sharlot’s home until 1927. An announcement dated August 6, 1890, in the Journal-Miner mentions that the completed Hall house “will be one of the finest and most substantial in that section of country.”
 

By Bob Baker

As soldiers, miners and others flooded the newly discovered gold fields in the central Arizona Territory, the food supply, particularly of meat, became stressed as local wildlife disappeared. Beef in particular was very desirable and expensive. In December 1863, the U.S. Army brought 500 beef cattle and 700 working cattle with them when they established Fort Whipple at Del Rio Springs, sparking the cattle ranching industry in Northern Arizona.

Early ranchers in Lonesome Valley (which now encompasses Chino Valley, Prescott Valley and Dewey-Humboldt) grazed their cattle throughout the valley on open range. The cattle roamed freely, intermixing without regard to ownership. The roundup (or rodeo in Spanish) enabled the cattle ranchers to systematically gather and segregate their cattle from those of other ranchers using the same open range.

Oral History
Interviewee:  Jack Orr, Jr. (b. 06/14/1938 – d. xx/xx/xxxx)
Interviewer:  William "Bill" Neely
Audio Number:  1622
Duration: 00:12:50
Date:  April 24, 2016
Topics Discussed:  Jack talks about his involvement with moving the indigent graves into the Yavapai County Cemetery mass grave to make room for the Prescott High School football field located on Ruth Street.

Oral History
Interviewee:  Debra Jean Matthews (b. 06/19/1952 – d. 09/19/2020)
Interviewer:  Sylvia Neely
Audio Number:  1623
Duration: 00:59:01
Date:  July 6, 2016
Topics Discussed: Debra Matthews discusses her experiences as an antiques dealer and experiences regarding her hair art collections and as a Human Hair Art Specialist.  Debra participated in many Sharlot Hall Museum Folk Arts Fair as a human hair art demonstrator. 

By Mick Woodcock

Last week we learned about the August 16, 1898 explosion of the boiler of the Number 2 engine owned by the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway that killed two men and injured two others. Parts of the locomotive were thrown into town, the largest piece of which was the outside of the boiler and steam chest.

The other large piece of machinery sent airborne was an air pump. According to the newspaper, “The air-pump which landed in the middle of Cortez street, bounded about forty or fifty feet from where it struck, like a rubber ball, lighting in close proximity to a woman who was just crossing the street. Occupants of A. J. Head’s residence were badly frightened by the shrieking, singing noise of the pump as it passed over the house.”

Oral History
Interviewee:  Verle York (b. 09/25/33 - xx/xx/xxxx)
Interviewer:  Sylvia Neely
Audio Number:  1620
Duration:  00:59:53
Date:  November 17, 2015 
Topics Discussed:  Verde Valley, family history

Oral History
Interviewee:  Nancy (Cox) Kirkpatrick Wright  (b. 05/08/1926)
Interviewer:   Christy Hastings 
Audio Number:  1626 
Duration:  00:51:27  
Date:  March 20, 2017  
Topics Discussed:  Origins, education, library work, career, asociation with Margaret Maxwell