Description

The three brothers are pictured from left to right: George Heisler, William “Bill” Heisler and Frank Heisler.

George T. Heisler was born December 25, 1864, in Minnersville, Pennsylvania. He arrived in Prescott, Arizona in 1881. In 1885, he was worked at the Wilson lumber and sawmill when he was thrown into a pile of sawdust due to an equipment explosion. He was the only one of seven employees to survive the explosion when the mill blew up. As a result of the explosion he suffered ongoing physical and mental problems the rest of his life. At the time of his death, he was night officer in the Prescott police force. In 1891, he married Dorothy “Dollie” Krenning (b. April 5, 1871 in Illinois – d. August 21, 1954 in Prescott). They had three daughters: Helen (Heisler) Henry, Katherine “Katie” (Heisler) Hartung and Carrol (or Carol) “Carrie” Ann (Heisler) Tipton (b. December 12, 1892, Arizona Territory – d. April 15, 1953 in Prescott). Dollie and Luci May Roberts, operated Roberts & Heisler Millinery and Ladies Ready-to-Wear on Gurley Street. Dollie is represented in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.  Unfortunately, the physical pain and mental instabilities got the best of George and he ended up committing suicide by gun shot on February 22, 1913 in Prescott.

William “Bill” A. Heisler came to Prescott with Colonel Rogers, publisher of the Weekly Courier newspaper. Bill married Mary Anna Suben in Prescott on December 10, 1884.  Bill was a successful gold miner and went into the butcher shop business, being associated with the California Meat Market in 1882, according to Arizona Miner, April 7, 1882. They had three children, William Grant Heisler born September 23, 1885 in Prescott, Arizona and a child named Fioyie (Floy Mabel) who died February 24, 1897 at eighteen (18) months old.  Mary died January 31, 1899 from consumption. At the time of her death she was survived by Bill and their three children.  There is no information regarding their third child. However, Grant remained single and became a machinist for the State of Colorado.  Grant died March 16, 1956 in Prescott, Arizona.

Frank H. Heisler was born February 25, 1855 in Minersville, Pennsylvania.  He came to Prescott in 1880 to join his brother Bill. In the early days, Frank and George helped produced the Weekly Courier newspaper on a hand press. He also as a butcher in Bill’s meat store and worked in a bottling works before joining the Prescott police force. After the 1900 Great Fire, he was appointed deputy sheriff to guard the downtown plaza, as all the downtown businesses were force to “set up shop” on the city Plaza after the fire. In 1910, he was appointed Prescott’s Police Chief to replace Stephen Prince who died in office. Frank was then re-elected twice in this position. He was a member of the Prescott Elks Lodge and Odd Fellows Lodge. Both his brothers pre-deceased him. He was survived by three sisters: Marie (Heisler) Graff of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Minerva (Heisler) Zimmerman of Pueblo, Colorado and Kate (Heisler) Hopstone of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Frank died April 9, 1946 at the home of his niece, Helen Henry in Prescott.