Monthly Archives: May 1997

Iron in the forge: yesterday and today

Posted on
Reply

by Warren Miller

In early Prescott the village smithy may not have stood under a spreading Chestnut tree, but his presence was vital to all building and commerce. The blacksmith’s hand-forged iron was critically important on the frontier and in Territorial Arizona, where manufactured goods were difficult to obtain and expensive, and often unavailable at any price without the lengthy wait required for orders to travel to and goods be shipped from the manufacturing eastern states. The ability to make iron tools, implements, utensils and hardware, from wagon fittings to door latches to harness fastenings, on the spot and using available materials, aided the advance of civilization.

The 1903 Prescott City Directory gives an idea of the relative importance of blacksmithing at the turn of the century: five blacksmith shops are listed, in contrast to two plumbing shops and one electrical shop. The blacksmiths were all located within two blocks west and two blocks south of the Plaza: F.E. Andrews, at 111 So. Granite; F.G. Brecht, on the SW corner of Granite and Gurley streets; John Hartin, SE corner of Gurley and McCormick streets; Jas.Keegan, 215 S. Montezuma Street; and Williams & Leland, 223 S. Montezuma Street.

These town blacksmiths were not the only skilled iron workers in the area. Most mines employed smiths (see the accompanying photo) who were kept busy sharpening picks and hard rock drills, repairing shovels and buckets, and forging implements like candle holders and long narrow spoons for cleaning out blasting holes. Ranches and farms usually had at least one hand that knew how to forge iron, that fitted horseshoes, fashioned plows and digging tools, and repaired wagon and harness iron. And, of course, the railroads employed many smiths to keep the iron horses in good repair.

A blacksmith and his tools at an unknown mine in Yavapai county circa 1880. The ability to make iron tools, implements, utensils and hardware, from wagon fittings to door latches to harness fastenings, on the spot and using available materials aided the advance of civilization (SHM Call Number: M-366p – Reuse only by permission).

The five blacksmith shops in 1903 Prescott were all within a block or two of the Sharlot Hall Museum, where skills, trades and crafts of the past will be shown during the 24th Annual FOLK ARTS FAIR, June 7 & 8. Chino Valley farrier, Charlotte Foss, is one of several blacksmiths who will demonstrate their working style. She hot-forges horse-shoes, and is still called upon regularly to fit custom horseshoes to correct hoof or gait problems, even in this time when manufactured horseshoes come in a wide variety of sizes and weights. Other area blacksmiths, who have found a contemporary niche forging custom hardware, sculptural pieces, and fine knives, will also be on hand.

The FOLK ARTS FAIR is a community celebration of old-time arts, skills, and entertainments. It is not a craft fair sales event, but a festival dedicated to the preservation of the old ways. In addition to blacksmithing, visitors can expect to see woodcarving, china painting, tatting, quilting, sheep shearing, sheepdog demonstrations, weaving and stone knapping; to take part in candle dipping, cornhusk doll making, pottery throwing, corn grinding and sampling Dutch-oven biscuits; and to enjoy traditional fiddling, old-time songs, and folk dancing. And the best part is that it is free! Hours are 10 am to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, 1997. More information may be had by calling 445-3122.

(Warren Miller is Curator of Education at Sharlot Hall Museum.)

Published in Prescott Courier: June 1, 1997

Memorial Day, once Decoration Day, has deep roots in Prescott

Posted on
Reply

by Pat Atchison

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was then called, was first widely observed in the United States on May 30, 1868. The original intent was to honor the Union soldiers killed during the Civil War by decorating their gravesites.

Decoration Day was not mentioned in the local newspaper until May 27,1881. That brief announcement stated, “Next Monday will be Decoration Day, and it is to be generally observed in the States.” Tuesday’s edition said simply “Yesterday was Decoration Day.”

In 1885, the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization composed of Union veterans, arranged a procession and program. The procession, which consisted of various military groups; the Tenth Cavalry Band; the orator of the day; the Mayor and City Council; distinguished citizens and officers of the army in carriages; and, the general public in carriages and on foot, paraded through the city. When the procession reached the plaza, memorial services were opened by a prayer offered by the chaplain, followed by a reading of the general orders given by the Post Adjutant. The orator of the day then spoke.

The band at Fort Whipple taking a break circa 1890s. The Tenth Cavalry Band often marched and played during the Decoration Day Parades down Gurley Street (SHM Call Number: MIL-176p – Reuse only by permission).

Each year, new elements were added and the observances became increasingly elaborate. Businesses were closed during the time of the procession and the services. By the late 1890s, they were closed for the entire day. Exercises of a “patriotic nature” were held in the public schools on the day before the holiday. There were songs and recitations “all of a patriotic nature, and calculated to arouse a spirit of patriotism and love of our flag in the hearts of the young.”

Very early on Decoration Day morning, members of either the Women’s Relief Corps or the Grand Army of the Republic placed flowers on all the graves of deceased soldiers buried in the local cemeteries. By the late 1890s, these flowers were shipped by train from California.

At mid-morning, a procession formed downtown. The parade was composed of military units, the Whipple band, the fire department, veterans, school children, fraternal and civic organizations, plus carriages bearing the Mayor and City Council members.

The procession proceeded to one of the cemeteries where services were held at the gravesite of one of the deceased Civil War soldiers. A typical program included band music, a prayer by the chaplain, depositing of flowers by the G. A. R., the recitation of an appropriate poem, firing of a salute, taps, and a benediction. The procession then re-formed and returned downtown.

In the evening, an indoor service was held at the courthouse or the opera house. This program consisted of recitations, singing, a prayer, and usually several addresses. Refreshments were often served.

In 1997, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for not only the dead of all of the wars but for all of those who have died, no matter what the circumstance.

Two observances are held in Prescott. One will be held at the historic Citizens Cemetery on Sheldon Street at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, May 26, 1997. The other will be at the Prescott National Cemetery at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 30, 1997. It is hoped that you will join in remembering.

(Pat Atchison is Chairperson of the Yavapai Cemetery Association.)

Published in Prescott Courier:  May 25, 1997

Merle Allen left a legacy of success, commitment

Posted on
Reply

by Micheal Wurtz

Merle Allen, a Prescott resident of seventy-seven years, passed away on March 4, 1997. His business career, beginning in 1920, included a milk depot, a wholesale grocery business and a grocery store that grew into three stores.  Much of the Allen family history, including an oral interview, is documented at the Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives.  Within the collection is this article that appeared in the Prescott Evening Courier on June 26, 1936.

ALLEN STARTED ON SHOESTRING
Sixteen years of progress, slow but sure at first, then rapid the last few years, have marked the development of Allen’s markets in Prescott. Sixteen years ago, on September 1, 1920, a young man not yet 21 years of age came to Prescott with his bride of only a few months and a five-dollar bill in his pocket, representing his total cash assets. He opened a small store at 324 West Gurley where Book Nook is today. His business eventually moved west one lot to what is now Prescott Natural Foods and christened it “The West End Milk Depot.” The employees were Merle M. Allen, and his sister, Miss A.B. Allen.

Allen’s NuWay Market in the 1920s (SHM Call Number: BU-B-8236p – Reuse only by permission).

Today the company has 35 employees, three large, modern grocery stores, and a big feed department which serves both wholesale and retail buyers of Northern Arizona.

Allen’s Market executives and employees have been too busy to cry about the NRA (National Recovery Administration), the depression or the New Deal. They are doing the business because they buy right, because they advertise in a big way, and because they sell right, with a guarantee to please.

“We attribute the success of our business to the fact that our customer appreciates quality merchandise at fair prices, combined with friendly service,” President Allen asserted today.

“Another factor of note in the organization is economical operation. We avoid over-buying, but when we buy, we buy in large quantities for a quick turnover. This makes it possible for us to advertise ‘Retail at Wholesale Prices,’” according to R. Melvin Johnson, advertising and sales manager. “Then, too, everyone in our employ is an expert in his own line through study and experience. And it’s a loyal group of employees we have, too. They apply themselves to their tasks conscientiously. The policy has been to take the employees into our confidence. In regular business meetings, details of all departments are discussed very freely.”

Allen’s Market in the mid-1930s (SHM Call Number: PB-146-F23-I14 – Reuse only by permission).

Dinners and dinner dances are a regular feature among Allen employees. The cost is handled entirely by the company, without any expense to the employees.

“Our policy of training our local boys for department head, by schooling them in every detail as delivery boys, stock men, assistant, department heads, and then managers has proven to be very satisfactory,” President Allen added.

The net profits are distributed among the employees who keep in Prescott all profits of the concern, as well as their regular wages.”

Also appearing on the same page were shorter articles of some of Allen’s employees.

SAYS ALLEN’S GROWTH DUE TO TEAM WORK
Miss A. B. Allen, secretary-treasurer for the Allen Trading company, has helped the company grow from its infancy in 1920, when she helped her brother, Merle, now president, organize what has come to be know as Allen’s Markets.

“To what do you attribute the growth of the business?” she was asked. “We have all got in and worked,” she replied. “There never has been any friction. Everyone has a certain part to play and does it. I believe real teamwork is the answer.”

ALLEN’S NO.3 STORE BUILDS UP BIG TRADE
Allen’s Market No.3, at the corner of West Gurley street and Grove avenue, the scene of Saturday night’s Allen’s sixteenth anniversary celebration finale, is situated on one of the busiest corners in the city, yet rare is the time when there is not ample parking. This store is managed by the up and coming Joe Allen who, through the years, has packed them with experience in merchandising. Surrounded by willing helpers, he has made remarkable strides for store No.3 since it became a member of Allen’s Markets January a year ago. Allen’s also delivers.

Although Merle Allen passed away, his ethics and way of doing business continue to be a factor in creating what we recognize today as Prescott’s friendly community.

(Michael Wurtz is the Sharlot Hall Museum Archivist)

Published in Prescott Courier: May 18, 1997

Allan’s Flower Shop deeply rooted in Prescott

Posted on
Reply

by Mona Lange McCroskey

In 1914, George and Addie Allan moved to Prescott for the health of their son George. They also moved their greenhouse and flower shop business from Princeton, New Jersey, to Prescott. The Allan’s purchased the old Sanders ranch in Miller Valley and built their first greenhouse at what is now 350 Whipple Street, in the area known as Allandale.

The business then moved to the corner of South Montezuma and Walker Streets, where a second greenhouse and flower shop were built. It was a large operation, with three residences, an enormous greenhouse, a boiler room housing a steam system to heat the greenhouse, packing and potting sheds, and a retail flower shop. The Allan’s grew everything for the shop, plus a surplus of carnations for wholesale. S.R. Allan, or “Dick,” remembers helping pick and pack thousands of carnations into boxes, and delivering them to the depot for shipment all over the country via railway express.

It was at the Montezuma Street residence that young George and his sweetheart, Eleanor J. Cotton of Prescott, were married amidst an indoor garden of flowers. In 1929, under the name of George Allan and Son, the family built their largest greenhouse complex on five acres of rich and fertile soil in Miller Valley. The greenhouses were built in an L-shape; all five acres were cultivated with water pumped from a spring on Miller Creek.

George and Eleanor raised their three children, George, Dickie and Patricia, at the Montezuma Street location, which, after 1929, housed only a flower shop. It was “a nice spot with cottonwood trees and a swimming hole in nearby Granite Creek,” where Dick grew up with horses and room to recycle wagon parts that were discarded as the automobile came into vogue. He could ride from the family home to the greenhouse in Miller Valley on unpaved streets.

Through the years the Allan’s had flower shops in Miller Valley, on Montezuma Street, in the Hassayampa Hotel, and in 1948, an expanded retail shop at 107 South Cortez Street, where the old Sun Drug site was remodeled and furnished with a walk-in beer box from a bar on Whiskey Row, signaling the beginning of the end for both the many drug stores and bars that were a part of the downtown Prescott scene.

George and Eleanor moved into a home at 226 South Cortez Street to be closer to the flower shop. The Western Union office in the same block was convenient for sending and receiving FTD orders, a far cry from the horse and wagon FTD deliveries made by George Allan in Princeton when the service was initiated in 1910!

The only holiday observed by the family in a timely fashion was the Fourth of July, “because people didn’t send flowers.” On other holidays, family meals were often served late at night, or even the following day. As a youth, Dick Allan delivered flowers to Prescott homes on what amounted to a regular route on Mother’s Day, Christmas, and Easter. Most families had relatives in other parts of the country, and the Allan’s business was good. Eleanor Allan received the orders and took great care in filling them. Blossoms falling short of her rigid standard for freshness could be salvaged in the alley behind the flower shop!

Although the business has now passed into the ownership of another old Prescott family, it is fitting that its original name has been retained.

(Mona Lange McCroskey is one of the oral historians at Sharlot Hall Museum. This account is based on an oral history interview with S.R.”Dick” Allan on November 21, 1996, available in the SHM Archives.)

Photo not available

Mata Dexter was a pioneer educator in Prescott

Posted on
Reply

by Sylvia Neely

In light of the recent closing of Mata Dexter School the Sharlot Hall Museum felt it is appropriate to reiterate who Dexter was and what she meant to the community of Prescott.

In his book, Meeting The Four O’clock Train, Dixon Fagerburg, Jr., recalls his first-grade-teacher, Mata Dexter:

“Some people might remember Miss Dexter as a sedate, polite, cultured dove of a little woman. That was her enviable image in the adult community where those who knew her well called her Mata, undoubtedly with affection. Well, in that first-grade classroom that teacher was a veritable hawk, not a dove. . . .

“It was drill, drill, drill, day after strenuous day. We were not lured into it. We were forcefully buried in it. There was no fooling around. But when the year’s ordeal was over, I think it’s fair to say that we were well-grounded in the rudiments of the English language, to the everlasting credit of our inimitable first-grade teacher, Miss Mata Dexter.”

Mata was born in 1872 in New Albrion, New York. By the time she was seventeen years old she was teaching in Pennsylvania. This popular young lady went on to accept a position in Kentucky, where she stayed for four years. After these brief years of experience, Miss Dexter had the courage and independence to set out by herself for the West. She arrived in Prescott in 1905 to accept a teaching job for eighty dollars a month for a ten-month period. She told her new friends that her family thought she was going to the ends of the earth when she told them of her decision.

In 1905, Prescott was still a young frontier town. Washington School on Gurley Street was the only elementary school, having been built in 1903. Mata taught at Washington School all but one of her thirty-eight years in the teaching profession. In 1910, she became supervisor as well as being the first-grade teacher. She continually upgraded her teaching skills by attending sessions of summer school in various universities. She served as principal at Lincoln School in 1931. In 1932, Miss Dexter became principal of Washington School, a post she held until her retirement in 1943.

Recollections of early teaching conditions are reminiscent of many present conditions. Miss Dexter recalled that, while she taught only first grade, she often had as many as fifty students in her classes. At times, it was necessary to run two sessions of classes to accommodate the fast-growing school population of Prescott.

On March 11, 1949, the Messenger headlines announced, “New School Honors Name of Mata Dexter, Pioneer Teacher.” The Prescott board of trustees voted to name the new elementary school in North Prescott the Mata Dexter School. The decision was made, according to Don R. Sheldon, school superintendent, because of the high regard in which Miss Dexter is held and because of her long years of service to the schools and to the community.

In May of 1949, the Prescott board of trustees named the new elementary school the Mata Dexter School. An open house was held for the whole community at which Miss Dexter was the honored guest (SHM Call Number: PB-142-F10-I2 – Reuse only by permission).

“Miss Dexter expressed herself as pleased and very proud that this honor has been conferred upon her. She looks upon Prescott and Prescott schools with real affection, and said that her reward is the thought that she may have had something to do with shaping the lives of many fine Prescott men and women.”

An open house was held for the whole community in May 1949, at which Miss Dexter was the honored guest. She presented a portrait of herself to the new school.

School was not Mata’s whole life. She was very much involved in Prescott’s social life. She was active in PTA; Arizona State Teachers Association; Arizona State School Administrators; Eta Chapter; Delta Kappa Gamma; Business and Professional Women’s Club; Monday Club; and the Yavapai Republican Women’s Club. She was also known to have fun in her leisure time with picnics, square dancing, and horseback riding.

Mata Dexter died on June 28, 1962. She is a Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden honoree at Sharlot Hall Museum. Many of her former students fondly remember her as their favorite teacher.

(Sylvia Neely is a Sharlot Hall Museum volunteer.)

Mata Dexter presented a portrait of herself to the new school (SHM Call Number PO-2402p – Reuse only by permission).