By Bradley G. Courtney
Prescott’s Great Fire of 1900 was the pivotal point in the town’s history. Harry Brisley, a pharmacist who owned two downtown drug stores that would burn to the ground, was an eyewitness to most, if not all, of the Great Fire. He wrote of an incident that transpired during the earliest stages of the fiery nightmare.
By Bob Baker
Hoomothya was a Kewevkapaya (Southeastern Yavapai) Indian child captured by the US Army 5th Cavalry before the Battle of Salt River Cave (Skeleton Cave Massacre). He witnessed the massacre and saw the bodies of his family members. Capt. James Burns, who led the attack, took responsibility for Hoomothya, renaming him Mike Burns.
By Marjory J. Sente
Jessica E. McDaniel Hunter was born about 1877 to Andersen and Katherine McDaniel in Texas. Little is known about her until 1913 when ads for Madame Hunter’s business began appearing in the Prescott Weekly Journal Miner. Madame Hunter advertised herself as a beauty specialist and chiropodist (one who treats hands and feet), and a seller of bath salts. Her parlor, located at the Congress Hotel, was reachable by phone at 313. Not a doctor, she had “two diplomas from Chicago institutions for the practice of drugless treatment,” according to the November 8, 1919, Phoenix Tribune. The newspaper, a member of the National Negro Press Association, kept Arizona’s African-American community informed on local and national news.
By Brenda Taylor
As the early pioneers established settlements, and towns began dotting the deserts and forests of the Southwest, a specialized group of frontiersmen began arriving in these newly formed places. These were not your ordinary pioneers; they were part artist, part technician and part chemist, documenting the landscapes, contemporary Native American cultures and prehistoric ruins, miners and mines, shipping and freighting industries, businesses, townspeople and the population springing up around them. Some established photographic studios in burgeoning communities, and others were itinerant photographers who wandered through the deserts and woodlands documenting a fast-changing territory.
By Worcester P. Bong
Last week’s article outlined the visits to Prescott by Fiorello and Marie LaGuardia in April 1935 and September 1938. Grand celebrations were held during each visit. They were greeted by Prescott’s dignitaries and former Fiorello classmates.
On September 20, 1947, at 64, Fiorello died from pancreatic cancer. His passing prompted the Sharlot Hall Museum to have a memorial exhibit at the Old Governor’s Mansion. The October 1, 1947 edition of the Prescott Evening Courier noted the exhibit included several photographs and a worn set of cowboy boots that Fiorello wore when living in Prescott.
By Worcester P. Bong
Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia was born in the Bronx on December 11, 1882. As a child, his middle name was changed to Henry, the English form of Enrico. Fiorello, affectionately known as “Little Flower” (“Fiore” in Italian means “flower”) moved with his family to Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 1890. In 1892 they moved to Fort Whipple in Prescott. His father, Achille, was the U.S. Army bandmaster at both forts. Fiorello attended Prescott’s public elementary and high schools and played cornet in his father’s orchestra. For health reasons, his father was discharged in 1898. The family then moved to his mother's hometown of Trieste, Italy. Fiorello often expressed fond memories of growing up in Prescott. His upbringing here ultimately led to naming the bridge over Granite Creek on North Montezuma Street after him.
By Nancy Burgess
The Prescott High School ( PHS) Class of 1922 wanted to present the City of Prescott with a special “parting shot.” When the idea of a letter “P” came up, senior Harold Block suggested the site on the West flank of Badger Mountain. Somehow, it all came together. The seniors picked a spot and marked out a “P.” The boys of the Class of ’22 carried buckets of lime whitewash up the mountain, a long, steep hike. There were no subdivisions or roads and only game trails to follow. They camped out at a stream at the base of the mountain (Government Creek) and every day the girls of the Class of ’22 brought food for the hard working boys. According to Harold Weiland, P.H.S Class of ’22 who was interviewed about the project many years later, at the upper left-hand point of the “P” is a huge boulder. Cut into that boulder is the date 4-14-22, the day the project was completed. Once the “P” was finished, the Class of ‘22 had a picnic above the “P” and had an after-dark ceremony to name the letter “Twenty-Two.” They “stumbled down the mountain in the dark, pleased as punch” with their accomplishment.
By Nancy Burgess
This is a true story about an automobile – a 1913 Studebaker SA25 “machine” and the people who took it on an approximately 1,000 mile tour of Arizona in 1913.
“An Arizona Auto Adventure: Clarence Boynton’s 1913 Travelogue” is the story of the excitement, sights, experiences, trials and tribulations of a road trip in the early days of automobile travel in a place and time when the “Wild West” of Arizona was still in evidence.
By Bob Baker
Around 9:00 P.M on Friday, February 12, 1875, gunshots rang out on Montezuma Street (Whiskey Row) in Prescott, Arizona Territory. The gunfight resulted in the death of Jim Carroll and the wounding of John Evans, both employees of the California and Arizona Stage Line.
On February 15, 1875, the Arizona Weekly Miner reported the verbatim testimony of William Reid to the coroner’s jury on February 13. Reid, a stage driver, witnessed the gunfight between John W. Evans, the Station Agent, and Jim Carroll, a stage driver, in front of the California & Arizona Stage Line office on February 12.
By Parker Anderson
On October 15, 1962, the cornerstone for the new city hall building was laid. U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater spoke at the ceremony, which was attended by most of Prescott’s city officials, as well as Sam Steiger, then a State Senator. The ceremony was marred by the boycott of State Senator David Palmer, a Democrat, who denounced the gathering as “a political hack type presentation of the Republican party.”
