Category Archives: Arizona Territory

Arizona Territory Prescott

First Independence Day in Prescott

July 4, 2011 – 9:50 am

In my novel, A Dream Unfolding, I included a scene of the first Independence Day celebration in Prescott on July 4, 1864.  Even though the town was just over a month old, three hundred people or more attended the festivities.  Though I took some liberty in my book to have a few women (less than 10) in attendance, there was no record of any women attending the first celebration.

The day included a parade of the cavalry from Fort Whipple.  The military performed several drills and exercises showing off their skill.  In addition, Governor John Goodwin and Secretary of Territory Richard McCormick spoke.

As detailed in my book, George Barnard hosted a huge meal to celebrate the grand opening of his new hotel, the Juniper House.  Items on the menu included fried liver, venison and beef steaks, mutton stew, barbecued beef, pot pies, and more.  Tea, coffee, and milk were also served with the meal.  One of the local saloons also provided whiskey.

Some sources stated that the earliest celebrations in the town also included competitions among miners and ranchers.  Rock picking and lassoing were favorites.

As the town grew, so did the celebration.  Horse racing started two years later in 1866 when ranchers began bringing their fastest horses from their ranches to compete.  Also, after the first few years, firemen started hose competitions.

Over time, the Fourth of July celebrations turned into the modern day Rodeo in Prescott.  It is cited as being the oldest rodeo in Arizona, though Payson argues that its first rodeo was a few years earlier.

So, whether in modern times or during the Civil War era, residents of Prescott have long demonstrated their patriotism with fun-filled Independence Day celebrations that reflect the town’s population of the time.

 

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Arizona Territory Prescott

Communication in the Arizona Territory

June 15, 2011 – 8:05 pm

In my Prescott Pioneers Series, my characters complain about the poor communication and lack of correspondence from family members.  The slow and sporadic mail service in the town’s earliest days was fairly typical for the remote areas in the West at the time.  Prior to the town’s formation in May 1864, settlers had little hope of communicating with the outside world other than sending mail with military couriers.  Since couriers had to ride across miles of Indian controlled land, many never made it to their destination.

In the summer of 1864, things began to change.  At the end of June, Duke & Company’s Pony Express established a mail route from Prescott to Mohave and on to California.  They ran on the 1st and 16th of each month between Los Angeles and Mohave, then only monthly to Fort Whipple just outside of Prescott.

July brought another express route:  The Pioneer Express (also called The Pioneer Pony Express).  This line ran from Prescott to La Paz twice per month.  It was run by two men, Robertson and Parish.  In Prescott, they delivered mail to the Juniper House, the major hotel in the town.  They also had offices in Lynx Creek and Weaverville.  At La Paz, Chris Muir’s saloon served as an office.  By the end of September, just two months after opening, the express closed.

Then, in February 1865, a gentleman by the name of James Grant started a semi-monthly run between Prescott and La Paz.  The La Paz Express & Saddle Train ran mail out of Barnette & Barth’s store in Prescott and at the Quartermaster’s office in Fort Whipple on Thursday evenings.  Once in La Paz, mail was again picked up at Chris Muir’s saloon.  The La Paz run back to Prescott left on Wednesdays.

While many of these lines used individual horse riders to deliver the mail, for speed, some included the mail on the stage line.  The typical stage could cover 4 to 5 miles per hour, versus the 10 miles per hour the lone riders covered, thus taking twice as long to cover the distance.

Other express lines started and stopped throughout the fall of 1864 and spring of 1865, mostly due to the rough conditions.  Water supplies were limited.  Sometimes a rider would reach a watering hole, only to find the well dry.  Attacks from Indians and robbers were a great concern.  Many express riders lost their lives to these threats.

All of these fun facts led me to incorporate the life of an express rider into the series, starting with the introduction of a new character in “A Heart Renewed.”  His story continues on in the third book in the series, “A Life Restored,” scheduled to be released in the fall of 2011.

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Arizona Territory Women in the West

Pioneer Women’s Fashion

June 10, 2011 – 7:10 pm

I recently had the opportunity to attend a fashion show of vintage clothing.  This picture shows what the typical woman would have worn in the West in the 1860’s.

pioneer-dress

There are many versatile features to this outfit.  The collar at the top was detachable as were the ivory colored lower sleeves.  This allowed the women to swap out a dirty collar or sleeves for fresh ones without having to wash the entire dress.  The detachable pagoda sleeves offered another benefit—a cool option in the heat.

The dress is actually two pieces.  The top would be more what we call a blouse today, though they did not call it that.  The second piece was the matching skirt.

One of the most interesting things I learned was that the aprons were not tied.  Long apron ties came along at a later period.  Instead, the apron was pinned to the dress.  The straight pins were placed upside down to prevent catching or slipping.

The bonnet shown in this picture is an everyday outdoor bonnet.  Our homestead woman would have worn this to work in the garden.

The material used for the dress, sleeves, collar, and apron was cotton.  The small pattern on the dress is an example of the calico often mentioned during the time period.

For a trip to town, she would have removed the apron, perhaps changed out the collar to something with more lace, and exchanged the bonnet for a dressier one of satin and lace.  She would have carried a matching parasol and her reticule (their version of a purse) probably would have been hand crocheted.

The pioneer woman’s clothing would have been a little more subdued than the large hoop skirts worn during the Civil War by women in the South and East.  The hoop skirts weren’t practical for frontier living.

I hope you enjoyed this closer look at the type of clothing Hannah and Betty would have worn in Prescott Pioneers 1: A Dream Unfolding.

 

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Arizona Territory Santa Fe Trail

Governor Goodwin’s Expedition

June 7, 2011 – 3:25 pm


While the Arizona Territory formed in February, 1863, it was not until December 29, 1863, that the governor was inaugurated into office on the territory’s soil.  The journey from the east took many months of planning and several more months of travel.

In my book, A Dream Unfolding, my fictional characters, Drew and Hannah Anderson, arrive at Fort Larned in Kansas.  Their wagon train stops and waits for the governor’s arrival.  From that point in the journey forward, the Andersons travel with the governor’s party all the way to their final destination.  The route the wagon train took was accurate, inspired by letters written by Jonathan Richmond, one of the men in the governor’s expedition.

From Fort Larned, Kansas, the group traveled west to Fort Lyon in Colorado, following the Santa Fe Trail.  Once in Colorado, the group turned south making brief stops in Picketware, Trinidad, and Raton.  Once inside the New Mexico Territory, they stopped at Fort Union before heading on to Santa Fe.  From Santa Fe, the expedition traveled through Albuquerque and Laguna before camping at Fort Wingate, the last western fort before the vastly desolate Arizona Territory.  Traveling on Pishon’s road, the group headed almost due west along the 35th parallel.  Stopping in the San Francisco Mountains (near present day Flagstaff), the party was delayed two weeks due to a blizzard.  Once leaving the San Francisco Mountains, they headed south towards Fort Whipple, arriving on January 22, 1864.

The journey was long.  The governor’s party left Cincinnati, Ohio, in late August, 1863.  For five months the group traveled the great distance to their new home, often stopping for a week or two at the major forts.  Accompanied by the military and part of a large group of nearly 55 wagons, the group stayed safe through the journey.  The encountered many strange sights, such as a fandango dance in Santa Fe, and the native dances of the peaceful Laguna Indians.

For an account of some of the more colorful things they experienced along the way, pick up a copy of my book, A Dream Unfolding, now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, and more.

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Arizona Territory Writing

A Modern Zane Grey?

May 30, 2011 – 1:25 pm

I recently had the opportunity to visit the replica of Zane Grey’s cabin in Payson, Arizona.  While learning more about the famous author of the 1920’s, I learned that Zane Grey and I have several things in common.

He was born and raised in Zanesville, Ohio, a town founded by his great-grandfather.  He and his wife also lived in Pennsylvania for a number of years.  Then he spent ten years or so traveling to and writing about Arizona.

So what’s my connection to these facts?  While I was not born in Ohio or Pennsylvania, I was raised in both states.  I lived near St. Clairsville, Ohio for a number of years, which is not too terribly far away from Zanesville.  For the past fourteen years, I’ve made Arizona my home, traveling all over the state.

Many of Zane’s books are written about The West and thirteen or so are set in Arizona.  My Prescott Pioneers series is set in Prescott, Arizona, during the birth of the territory and would definitely fit into a western genre.

One of my favorite similarities, though, has little to do with where Zane or I have lived.  I love this picture of his writing chair from his cabin in Arizona.  It looks very similar to my favorite writing chair, a recliner in my office, where I can often be found burning up the keys on my laptop.

Who knows?  Maybe one day I’ll be as famous?

 

If you have never read any of Zane Grey’s work, I would encourage you to do so.  He’s a master of weaving an interesting tale with magnificent descriptions of the landscape.  He throws in some romance, too, appealing to a wide variety of readers.

 

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Arizona Territory

Travel Then & Now

April 17, 2011 – 11:25 am

As I was sitting in Denver International Airport this week waiting for my flight back home from a business trip, I was struck by the complete disconnect we in this modern era have with those homesteaders who built the West.

I traveled from Phoenix to Denver in less than two hours by airplane.  The hardest part of my trip was waiting forever at the airport.  To pass the time, I checked sales reports from iPhone to see how my newest book, A Heart Renewed, was doing since its release last weekend.  When I finished that quick task, I pulled out my Kindle and read the next several chapters of a Christian Romance novel while snacking on my fast food sandwich and slurping my iced tea.

How can anyone, like me, with every modern convenience available, ever begin to understand what it was really like to travel from place to place in the 1860’s?

covered_wagonFirst, the mode of transportation is something completely foreign to us—the ox drawn covered wagon (like the one pictured above).  What filled this wagon?  Well, with no fast food places at their finger tips, no drive thru service, they had to pack all the food they needed for the entire trip.  Clothes, pots, pans, water barrels, medicines, and anything else needed to survive in their final destination had to be brought with them.

There were no houses or hotels waiting at the end of their months-long journey.  If they wanted a feather bed, they had to make it when they got there, if there were even geese available to supply the feathers.  In many cases, husk mattresses were made from corn husks of local crops.  They had to build their houses from whatever materials were available.  In some cases, they looked little better than this picture of a mud and stick shack.

The pioneers that settled the West adapted to whatever situation they found themselves in.  Certainly, many longed for the simple conveniences of the home they left.  But, the journey was so long and so dangerous, going back wasn’t really an option.  They made do with what they had to survive.

So, as I sit here now, back in the comfort of my own home pounding out words on my computer keyboard, I’m reminded that even my toughest day or my worst travel story pales in comparison to those who founded the city and state that I live in.

 

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