PEOPLE OF THE MANSION

First Territorial Governor John Goodwin from Maine Served from August, 1863 to April, 1866. Goodwin made frequent trips around the territory leaving Secretary McCormick as Acting Governor. In September, 1865, Goodwin was elected Territorial Delegate to Congress and left permanently. In 1866, Territorial Secretary Richard McCormick from New York became Arizona's second territorial governor. Like most frontier people of his time Second Territorial Governor Richard McCormick believed that Indians should be concentrated on reservations. He promoted mining as the basis for the Territory's economy and invested in several mines. In November, 1867, the Territorial Capital moved to Tucson, and McCormick went with it. The next spring he was elected Arizona's Territorial Delegate to Congress and served through 1873. On September 27, 1865, Territorial Secretary Richard McCormick married Margaret Hunt of Rahway, New Jersey. The couple sailed from New York City to California. Three weeks later, after crossing the Mojave Road, the McCormicks arrived in Prescott. Governor Goodwin had gone to serve in Congress, so McCormick was Acting Governor. The next April he was appointed Territorial Governor. Henry Fleury came to Arizona in 1864 as private secretary to Governor Goodwin. He occupied the Governor's Mansion from 1867 until his death in 1895. As a girl, Sharlot Hall listened to Fleury's stories of the Governor's Mansion, which undoubtedly influenced her to found a museum here. When Fleury died, the building passed to the Congregational Church, then on to Joseph Dougherty. He divided the building into rental apartments and a commercial laundry. In 1917, the State of Arizona bought it for $7,000, and the City of Prescott agreed to maintain the historic structure. In 1927, Sharlot Hall moved her collections into the Governor's Mansion and opened it as a museum. Even before 1900, Sharlot Hall realized that as Arizona's pioneers died their possessions and stories were being lost. She also deplored the widespread looting of Arizona's prehistoric ruins for "Indian relics." To save what she could, Sharlot collected both Native American and pioneer material. Her collections were the beginning of this museum.