By Judy Stoycheff

Mary Sandretto Coates, one of the daughters of Dominic and Catherine Sandretto, describes her father as a big man, intelligent, and with a good memory who enjoyed card games of chance. When short of cash and payments were due, it was not unheard of for him to engage in a poker game in one of the establishments on Whiskey Row. Recollections are that he frequently beat the odds and thus made the payment.

By Judy Stoycheff

(When last we left the story of the Sandretto property in northeast Prescott, we became acquainted with the history of the property prior to the Sandretto purchase and the family history of the Sandrettos.)

Dominic Sandretto purchased Section 10 in 1915, and with the assistance of Phillip Brito who had a herd of dairy cows, began a dairy and vegetable farm. Initially, they produced and sold butter (for ten cents a pound) as well as vegetables. This was not enough to support both families, so, according to Dominic's granddaughter, Catherine Miller (personal communication in 1996), Brito moved to Williamson Valley where he found "rum running" to be more profitable.

By Judy Stoycheff

(The author originally wrote this article in the late 1990s as a part of an archaeological report of an excavation done by the Yavapai Chapter of the Arizona Archeological Society in the previous two years. This is part one of a three-part series of Days Past articles on the history of Sandretto Hills.)

The 160 acres about which this history is written is the SW 1/4 of Section 10 Township 14, Range 2 West, located in Yavapai County, Arizona, five miles north of down town Prescott.

By Al Bates

In three previous articles I have shared with you some details about one of this area’s most prominent early settlers, Colonel King S. Woolsey, his political career and sudden death, the “Pinole Treaty’ battle and something about his two wives Lucia and Mary.  However, there may have been an earlier wife, and here’s what I have been able to find.

By Mona Lange McCroskey

Western women in the 19^th-century lived without much fanfare, working hard, bearing children, and caring for the sick. Usually they died as unsung heroines. It was therefore exciting to discover spidery-penciled notations in a fragile ledger kept by Laura Anna Garbarino Bolden in the possession of her granddaughter, Joan Kuhne Looney. Embellished by Joan’s recollections of her, the ledger provides a peek into Laura’s remarkable life.

By Jody Drake

Two years ago, I was doing research for a play I was writing for the Riordan State Historic Park in Flagstaff. During that research, I discovered that the Riordan Mansion was a famous example of an Arts and Crafts home. Now, at best, I had a vague understanding of Arts and Crafts architecture. Since Blue Rose Theater is producing the play, "A Table in the Forest", I thought it would be a fine time to share this tidbit of interesting side research.

By Ryan Flahive

On the 23rd of February, the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives opened a new photographic exhibit. This eclectic group of historic images is focused around the subject of early elementary schools of Prescott, and is entitled, "Good Morning Mr. Rogers: Early Prescott Schools." You might ask yourself, who is this Rogers fellow, and why is he, and not the other great pioneer teachers of Prescott, chosen for the title? In the following historical article, I would like to explain who Samuel Curtis Rogers was, and why the exhibit bears his name.

By Marjory J. Sente

The year was 1932. Prescott had a population of slightly more than 5500 (one of six cities in the state of Arizona with a population of 5 to 10 thousand people). The United States was in the depths of the Great Depression, but nothing was going to keep its citizenry from celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington (February 22, 1732), the nation's first president and the Father of Our Country. In fact, nearly 4.8 million programs were presented through out the country during the Washington Bicentennial year.

By Parker Anderson

Someone recently asked me what Prescott's historic Elks Opera House did to mark Statehood Day on February 14, 1912, when Arizona was officially admitted to the Union as the 48th state in America. 

As remarkable as it may seem today, there is no record of the Elks doing anything significant that day. In 1912, the Elks operated as a vaudeville house, hosting small-time traveling vaudeville acts and showing short movies - all movies were shorts at this time. On February 14, 1912, a vaudeville act called. . . .

By Al Bates

Love stories are supposed to be happy endings. This one from Arizona's territorial days did not.

This story begins like a romantic novel of the old West - think of Zane Gray at his most florid. First, Apache traders carry away an innocent Hispanic child. Then, after two years of privation as a captive she runs away to a militia camp and finds a home in a small mining town. Soon after this she becomes the wife of one of the most powerful men of the new territory.