 SUBSCRIBE TO DAYS PAST The Sharlot Hall Museum Archives department edits the weekly "Days Past" column for the local newspaper, providing an opportunity to share the rich history of Yavapai County and its surrounding region. |
Marcus Aurelius Smith: Arizona's first Senator 1912 June 30, 2009 
Marcus Aurelius Smith is a name that's not on the tip of everybody's tongue but it should be remembered here in Arizona. Why should his name be familiar to us since he was born and educated in Kentucky and worked as a lawyer in San Francisco? Marcus was born in January, 1851, near Cynthiana, Kentucky. As a young man he aspired to study the classics in college. While there, he realized a calling in the field of law and switched from Transylvania University to Kentucky University in Lexington where he graduated with a law degree. He went to work briefly as the prosecuting attorney for the city of Lexington. He followed a relative to San Francisco where he practiced law from 1879 to 1881 when he moved to the land of silver and sun - The Arizona Territory. He set up practice in Tombstone which had great need of his particular skills. The general lack of law-abiding by any number of local residents as well as those just passing through gave the town a reputation for lawlessness. In 1882 he became Tombstone's prosecuting attorney. He also continued his reputation as a card-player, especially of the Faro Bank game which he had learned in San Francisco alongside people like Mark Twain. more Tom Mix: the early cowboy years June 27, 2009 
"King of the Cowboys" - not Gene Autry, Roy Rogers or John Wayne, but Tom Mix bore this epithet during his movie career. As cowboy superstar of the silent screen, he was the matinee idol of many cowboy wannabe youngsters in the 1920s. Mix was the clean-cut hero of over 300 short and feature length westerns. But before he became a cowboy star he was a real-life cowboy and a lot of other things besides.
moreWalnut Creek CCC Camp: Part II June 17, 2009 
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created by an act of Congress in 1933 soon after the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The U.S.Forest Service was one of the first agencies to step forward and request the services of the program enrollees. According to "The New Deal in Arizona," the Forest Service had projects in four interrelated categories: resource protection, resource development, improvement of infrastructure and recreational development. One of several CCC camps in the Prescott area was located at Walnut Creek, about 44 miles out Williamson Valley Road, northwest of Prescott. Correspondence with Ralph Zartman, a 1940 CCC 'boy' from Pennsylvania and local Jay Eby, retired forester for the Forest Service, has given much insight into the activities of the local corps.
moreWalnut Creek CCC Camp: Part I June 09, 2009 
(In response to the depression that hung over the nation in the early 1930s, newly-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt created many programs designed to put Americans back to work. One of those programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was designed to bring together the nation's young men and the land in an effort to save them both. From FDR's inauguration on March 4, 1933 to the induction of the first CCC enrollee was only 37 days! It was open to men between the ages of 18 and 25 (changed in 1937 to 17-28), unmarried, unemployed and physically sound. Young men flocked to enroll for the six-month stint (which could be renewed 3 times). They were paid $22-45 per month, with a requirement that most be sent back to family. They lived in camps, wore uniforms and lived in a military style discipline. Enrollees included all races with a total of 3½ million serving in every state as well as Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in several thousand camps until its abolishment in July 1942. The CCC worked on improving millions of acres of federal and state lands: building parks, new roads, wells and reservoirs, waterways, fire towers, trails, fencing, telephone lines, fighting fires, planting billions of trees and much more. There were 28 camps in Arizona with several in the Prescott area.)
moreArizona Pioneers' Home history dates back a century June 06, 2009 
As a newcomer to Prescott, I was curious about that big brick building on the top of the hill just a short distance southwest of the plaza. I thought at first it might be a hospital. It wasn't long before I learned that it was a state run home for the elderly, commissioned by an act of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona on March 10, 1909. The Arizona Pioneers' Home was ready for occupancy on February 1, 1911. In those first years only miners were admitted, with a capacity for 40 men. It was soon realized that there were many hard working Arizonans who also deserved a soft place to land in their declining years, so a wing was built in 1916 to house 20 women. more Mine explosion: two-fold tragedy for one family May 29, 2009 
Fred Haas (aka Johann Friedrick Haas) and Minnie Miller were married on January 15, 1896. Prescott's Sheriff George C. Ruffner signed their marriage certificate as a witness. They were model citizens, living first in Prescott, then Jerome and finally, the Bisbee/Douglas area. But accidents or tragedy can reduce model citizens to degradation. This is the story of Fred and Minnie. Minnie Maud Miller Haas may not have desired to own and operate her own business but she wasn't given much choice. 1905 was another bad year for mine explosions, with 13 in the U.S. alone, claiming 300 lives and injuring many others. That year, a mine explosion left her husband, Fred, blind with responsibility to support them falling on her shoulders. Minnie opened a cafe in Douglas, Arizona, served the public and created enough profit that they would not have to depend upon others. She cooked, pushed brooms, washed dishes, waited tables, and did whatever it took. The cafe she opened offered the miners and city merchants delicious food at affordable prices and she gave them the best service so they would want to return many times. This was a first for many women in the early 1900s, as a 'woman's place' was in the home in those days. more The Memorial Day service of 1909 May 23, 2009 
The solemnity of honoring our deceased military veterans on Memorial Day has been weakened a bit in recent years by weekend parties to mark the beginning of summer. However, there was indeed a time when entire communities banded together to pay tribute to our brave soldiers. Prescott was one of them. Back in those days, living war veterans in Prescott, assisted by Prescott citizens, would gather on May 30th (this was before the Memorial Day holiday was moved, in 1971, to the last Monday in May) in front of the Knights of Pythias Hall which still stands on Cortez Street. They would then march somberly to Citizens Cemetery to hold a memorial service. more The Miller family and The Spanish Flu of 1918 May 16, 2009 
In 1918 children would skip rope to the rhyme: I had a little bird, Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza. When the Spanish flu began to cut its deadly path across the country in 1918 it did it with such efficiency that some believed sinister forces to be at work. In March of 1918 an Army private at Fort Riley, Kansas reported to the camp hospital complaining of a sore throat, fever and a headache. As the day advanced more soldiers became sick. The U.S. was at war, which provided a convenient target upon which to heap suspicion. Had the Germans used germ warfare? more History of the Rotary Clubs of Prescott May 09, 2009 
(Ed. Note: Rotary International is an organization of service clubs located world wide. The first club was formed in Chicago by attorney Paul P. Harris on February 23, 1905, meeting with three business friends and choosing the name Rotary because they rotated club meetings to each member's office. By 1910, the clubs were nationwide and, in 1922, because branches had been formed in six continents, the name was changed to Rotary International. By 1925, Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members. Today, there are more than 32,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members world-wide.)
moreBlue Rose Theater celebrates 15 years on May 6, 2009 April 24, 2009 
Jody Drake originally organized a theater troupe by the name of "Cold Turkey" and performed western plays and skits at the Riata Pass Steakhouse in Dewey. The name of the theater was changed when she picked up a rose-shaped pine cone that had dropped into a bucket of blue paint. Blue Rose Theater, under her direction, formed a partnership with the Sharlot Hall Museum in 1994. Jody has authored 26 of the original scripts performed by the theater. The Blue Rose Theater has produced 6 royalty productions and 33 guest and music presentations, including an historical recreation of the first production to be held at the new Elks Opera House over one hundred years ago. There have been performances for two governors, many state conferences and the Honorable Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner (retired).
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