By Richard Gorby
There are two major reasons for most ventures into the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives: a search for family history and/or a search for certain aspects of Prescott history.
For the family historian, genealogical indexes are kept on special shelves. These include marriage, death and burial records, hospital deaths, funeral records, census records, city directories, telephone directories, probate and wills, school yearbooks and many other source materials.
For both family and Prescott history, the first step might be to search the newspapers. In a town of from six hundred to a little more than a thousand citizens during the late 1800's, almost everything that happened would appear in the Arizona Weekly Miner or Courier. The Sharlot Hall Museum Archives has almost all of the local newspapers starting with the March 4, 1864, edition.
Much of the information related in the newspapers has been catalogued. When searching for information on a specific person, the Archives card index system will lead you to the source. For example, the card index for a Mr. Seed will look like this: "Seed, E. S. Appointed local agent for C. & A. Stage Co. See: Weekly Miner, Feb. 18, 1976, Pg, 3-c.1".
Requesting the appropriate microfilm copy of the newspaper and scrolling the edition for the year, date, page and column mentioned, one finds:
"Appointment. E. S. Seed, lately from California, has been appointed local agent of the C. and A. Stage Co. for Prescott, in place of F. J. Starke, who has hitherto acted in that capacity. Mr. Seed is a competent young man of good habits, and we feel sure will give satisfaction both to his employers and the patrons of the line"
After the genealogical indexes and the newspapers as a source of Prescott history, there are countless letters, photos, maps and other records to be searched through in the archives. This is mostly what the archives has, unpublished materials. However, if someone is seeking published accounts of our area's history there are many fine books also available.
The following are some of the books that can be found in the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives as well as most libraries in the county and in some bookstores that give a really good overview to our history:
Prescott, a Pictorial History, by Melissa Ruffner, 1981, and reprinted many times since then. The forward by Barry Goldwater states: "This book shows a tremendous amount of research and never in all the reading of history that I've done have I seen so much put in one place by one author." With over 300 photos the book covers the periods, The Early Days, 1862 to 1912; Growing Years, 1912 to 1960; and Today and Tomorrow, from 1960 to 1997, in the updated, fifth reprint of this insightful book. This is the most comprehensive history book on our town and a fine starting point for anyone doing history.
Echoes of the Past, Tales of Old Yavapai in Arizona. Vol. 1, 1955, by the Yavapai Cow Belles. This book is a collection of 22 sketches and articles dealing with varied phases and personalities of Yavapai County history mostly in the sense that the county's history is immersed in the cattle industry. Members of the Cow Belles, the woman's auxiliary to the Yavapai Cattle Growers Association, wrote most of them. The writing is not always polished and professional, but it rings as clear and inviting as the dinner gong at the ranch house. Included are: "Prescott's Big Fire," "A Teacher of 1906," "The Pioneer Doctor," "The Cowboys of Old" and many more stories.
Echoes of the Past, Tales of Old Yavapai in Arizona. Vol. 2, 1964, by the Yavapai Cow Belles. This follow-up to the 1955, publication contains a varied collection of 29 tales of Old Yavapai during the past 100 years. The 20 different authors are themselves pioneers or their descendents. George Babbitt, Jr. of Phoenix comments on the book: "The direct or very close association of the contributors of these articles with individual pioneers and original source materials brings depth, authenticity and new facets to the knowledge of our early West." Some of the stories are: "The Miller Story," "A Century of Medicine," "Jerome," "Ghost City in the Sky," "Early Days in Groom Creek," "Old Whiskey Row" and "Life in a Small Hotel."
Meeting the Four O'Clock Train and Other Stories, by Dixon Fagerberg, Jr. 1983. Included are boyhood recollections of Prescott from 1909 to 1927. Eleven articles about the town give details of the neighborhood, downtown, work and play, grammar and high school, 'The Group' and more. Like Dewey Born's book below, this is one of the best published accounts of day-to-day life in early 20th century Prescott.
Stories of Early Prescott, by Dewey E. Born, 1997. This anthology contains 14 stories of events in and around early Prescott, such as, "Growing Up in Prescott," "Prescott's Forgotten Man," "The Big Snows," and many more primary and secondary accounts as remember by the author's father and the author himself. Born was raised in Prescott and is the 4th generation of a pioneer family that arrived in 1893.
The Many Lives of the Lynx, A Century of Mining on Lynx Creek between 1863 and 1963, by Alvina N. Potter, 1965. This text includes the journey and activities of the Walker Party who entered Arizona in 1863, and discovered Lynx Creek. It also includes many other factual items about the area. The author uses old journals, diaries and letters to recreate the settlement and early life of the mining towns of Walker and Poland in the Bradshaw Mountains southeast of Prescott.
The Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway, by John W. Sayre, 1990. The growth of the mining industry in Arizona and the desire for faster and less expensive means for transporting heavy mining equipment and ore resulted in the construction of several railroads in the territory, the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway being one of them. The author comments, "the railway played a vital role in transforming the Arizona Territory from an area rich in natural resources and raw beauty to one rich in social awareness, economic base and quality of life." Railroad history of our area, like mining or ranching, is usually such a big part of our history that this book has good coverage.
It is important to note that these are just a selection of readings that one can find on our area's history that are general in nature. There is no doubt that many that should have been included on this list have been left off. For example, Pauline Henson's Founding a Wilderness Capital is basically the resource for early Prescott history, but its scope is limited to the first few years of Prescott's history. Edmund Wells' Argonaut Tales is another book that, although a tome in our history, is not really focused enough on Yavapai County.
Richard Gorby is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum Archives. Some of these books are available at the Museum's store or at used bookstores.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (st106p). Reuse only by permission.
If you are new to Prescott and want to know "the history of this town" there are some good books that are a fine start. Later on, when you are ready to learn more, come down to the Sharlot Hall Museum's Archives.