By Ron Williams

It is a staple of modern westerns: The Earps ride into Arizona.  Everyone wants them to be lawmen, but they claim to be retired.  Hollywood presents Virgil and Wyatt resistant to strapping on their guns in Tombstone and everywhere else.  That has made for compelling story lines, but it is far from the truth.  Both always gravitated towards law enforcement.  Being peace officers was always their core profession.

Andrew L. Moeller, a poor Pennsylvanian, moved to Arizona via the gold fields of California in 1864 with property valued at $10 (equivalent to $141 today) and dove into the saloon business, first managing and then purchasing the Quartz Rock Saloon. Within four years he acquired, for the sum of $8,500, the building at the southwest corner of Gurley and Montezuma Streets (current location of the Hotel St. Michael). It came to be known as Prescott's premier saloon, the Diana. His investments in three mines of the Big Bug District in 1871 - the Independence, the Deposit and the Dividend - made him a wealthy and influential citizen. In 1874, Moeller was elected from Yavapai County to the lower House of the 8th Territorial Legislature. The capital for the territory was at that time located in Tucson.

By Mick Woodcock

During World War I, home front war work was an important part of the effort to win the war. From the very beginning, national organizations were asked to participate in various ways.  This would trickle down to local communities such as Prescott and other towns in Arizona.

By Marie Slayton

Having worked at the Gurley Street Grill for the better part of the last six years, I am quite familiar with the folkloric history associated with the building.  However, as most people know, folklore and stories that are passed down through generations can bear little if any resemblance to history.

By Parker Anderson

Every once in a while, someone will strike up a conversation with me regarding Prescott's various reputed "haunted" sites.  I enjoy the subject, but in reality, Prescott is probably one of the least haunted cities in America.  Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are not that many purported hauntings in the Prescott area, so the same stories are told over and over again.

By Mick Woodcock

Victorians celebrated the coming of the New Year in a number of ways over the time that Victoria was queen of England, 1837 to 1901. It would seem that she was the reason that people in England and the United States gave the day any importance. The Queen was taken with the Scottish tradition of celebrating Hogmanay, which was the last day of the year. In Scotland it was celebrated by the giving of small gifts and the tradition of “First-foot” which meant that one received visitors on New Year’s Day.

(Condensed from an article written by Sharlot M. Hall, founder of Sharlot Hall Museum, that first appeared in the Prescott Courier on December 24, 1930.)

Counting miners, soldiers, pack-train owners and all, there might have been two or three hundred men in reach of Prescott that Christmas season -- that late December of 1864.  There were half a dozen families, mostly with several children; most of them arrived in October on a California-bound train and decided to try their fortune in Arizona instead of going on further west.

By Judy Stoycheff

John Stemmer had, by 1875, established a way station on what would later be known as the General Crook Trail at a location just east of Dewey along Ash Creek. He maintained a fully supplied inn, stables and corrals built of stone, a bar, store and dining room

In December of 1882, John paid the sum of $8 for Homestead Application #197 for the 160 acres where his station was located, made easier by dint of his being a military veteran. deed.

By Mick Woodcock

The war put a crimp in the Holiday celebrations in 1917.  Not only were some families missing members who were gone in direct support of the war effort, but also a number of other factors conspired to dampen yuletide spirits.

Originally written by Morris Goldwater and edited by Parker Anderson

Editor's note: On June 23, 1891, at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Aztlan Lodge in Prescott, Morris Goldwater (1852-1939) delivered a lengthy address on the history of Freemasonry in Arizona. While he spoke of many of the lodges in the Arizona Territory, the following extracts from his speech deal with the Prescott Lodge, the first in the territory.

"The first mention I can find of an effort to start a lodge is in a letter written by our lately deceased brother, Alexander G. Abell, very worshipful grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of California. It is dated July 29, 1864, and is in reply to a letter written by Brother John Howard, now mayor of our city. In order to insure its delivery, it was addressed to Fort Whipple.