Arizona Territory’s first graded public school: The Prescott Free Academy

by Sylvia Neely

A beautiful historic brick school building is clearly seen by Prescottonians traveling down East Gurley. This is Washington School, built in 1903, and Yavapai County’s oldest continuously used school and one of the oldest in the state.

Few people know that there was another beautiful brick school building on this same site. It was known as the Prescott Free Academy, and was built in 1876. It was Arizona Territory’s first graded public school.

The first school house became too small, and Governor Anson P.K. Safford saw the need to build a bigger and better school. By October 1876 the four-room brick building containing classrooms on the first floor and a large auditorium above was completed at a cost of $11,894.75. When completely furnished, the total came to more than $17,000. It was the custom that schools paid all expenses as they went, raising funds primarily by public subscription. Under a special act, Prescott issued bonds in 1877 for $7,200 to cover their remaining indebtedness on the school; this seems to have been the first of such issues in Arizona Territory.

The July 28, 1876 Prescott Journal Miner reported – "The roof timbers are all on the main building and the workmen are laying the shingles. The tower is up above the top of the second story walls from whence a steeple of wood will be put up extending from 20 to 25 feet higher; this will be the belfry as well as an ornament."

The bell for the belfry was carefully chosen by Moses H. Sherman, the new teacher and principal. Mr. Sherman had the 500 lb. Bell shipped from the East, without cost to the people here. It was cast at the Baltimore Bell Foundry of McShane and Co. The bell hung in the Washington School belfry until 1952 when it was purchased by St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, where it remains today in their belfry.

The Oct. 20, 1876 Journal Miner told, "Having just completed the finest and best school house ever built in the Territory, complete in all its appointments, well ventilated and lighted as the Rock of Gibraltar, not even a crack in the plastering, showing the foundation to be solid as if set upon adamant, the people of Prescott are justly proud of what they have done; and we, as a chronicler of events as they transpire, take especial pleasure in announcing that on Monday morning next, the fall term of Prescott Graded School will commence in the new school house, under the principalship of M. H. Sherman, assisted by his sister, Miss Lucy Sherman, late of the State of New York."

Gov. Safford persuaded the Shermans to come to Prescott. The average price paid for teachers was $100 per month. Professor Moses Sherman was recognized as a leader in education in Arizona, therefore was appointed Territorial School Superintendent by Gov. Fremont in 1879. Several teachers taught under the direction of Principal Sherman, one being Kathryn Dunning for the school year 1879-80.

In the fall of 1878, the enrollment was 163, primary, intermediate, and High School. The age ranged between six and twenty-one years.

When John C. Fremont was the fifth Territorial Governor, one of his duties was to inspect the schools, so his wife Jesse accompanied him. She talked with the students about history and was so well received she was asked to come back every Friday for the entire term.

The book, The Arizona Diary of Lily Fremont 1878-1881, edited by Mary Lee Spence, tells of Jesse’s visits to the Prescott Free Academy. Lily was John C. and Jesse Fremont’s daughter.

Friday 20th, 1879:

"Mother went up for her really last talk at the School, where most unexpectedly to her she found the desk all dressed with flowers and a pretty present – silver sugar tongs and spoon – given to her by the class and Mr. Sherman; the presentation speech made by Harry Thibodo. All the boys and girls were as tidy as could be, nearly all with blue cravats and blue ribbons as they thought that was Mother’s color and the boys each with a flower in their buttonholes and all wearing coats. The children have really enjoyed Mother’s talks; one girl today told Mother she was reading ‘Lucile’ which would have been incomprehensible to her in many parts, she said, but for Mother’s accounts of European ways to them and Mr. Sherman tells Mother that in many ways the class has improved visibly."

By 1903 the school had been outgrown, and there was a need for a larger school. Gail Gardner attended the Prescott Free Academy and tells his story in the Echoes of the Past, Vol. 2 (p. 237). He mentions that Washington School was being built while school was in session in the old building. They could watch the bricklayers and carpenters at work. He speaks of the well and the one dipper used by all. The plumbing was in the back school yard, one outhouse for the girls, one for the boys. He also mentions the white picket fence surrounding the grounds with the date 1876 inscribed on the gate. Every child remembers or "thinks" he remembers the paddle that kept the unruly boys in line. Gail said, "Discipline was maintained with no nonsense." Teachers were no doubt respected. Gail also said, "Regardless of scholastic achievement, the principal and all male teachers rated the title of ‘professor.’" Gail had a way with words, he wrote with fond memories of his school years.

This was another interesting page in Prescott’s school history and with a new year starting one hundred and twenty-two years later, there will be many more pages to unfold in the future.

(Sylvia Neely is a Sharlot Hall Museum volunteer and researcher since 1973. Her main interest is in school history of Prescott.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bus5026pb). Reuse only by permission.

1: The Prescott Free Academy, which sat where Washington School is now, was built in 1876 with a belfry. The bell is now at the St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish on Marina Street.

The 1902 class from Prescott Free Academy was one of the last before Washington School replaced it. Prescott’s famous Gail Gardner remembers watching the workers from his school house window.

By Mary Woodhouse

The world had hardly been introduced to aviation in 1924. Charles Lindbergh was three years away from making his historic trans-Atlantic flight. But the board of directors of the Yavapai County Chamber of Commerce could see what flying machines would mean to the remote community of Prescott.

In 1924, the group negotiated a lease with the Fain family for a plot of land where today’s Prescott Municipal Airport stands. On Aug. 26, 1928 (71 years ago this week), the airport was dedicated to the memory of Ernest A. Love, a Prescott pilot killed in action during World War I.

In 1969, a group of citizens considered changing the name of the airport to honor Max Conrad. Gail Gardner wrote to The Courier that although Mr. Conrad was a "fine citizen," the airport should remain in memory of Love.

"Ernest A. Love, a Prescott boy, a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force was killed in aerial combat in World War I and it is for him that our airport is named."

Of course, there was no U.S. Air Force in World War I. It didn’t become an autonomous military branch until 1947. There is some question as to which branch Love actually served in but in World War I most pilots were part of the U.S. Signal Corps.

Gardner continues describing the dedication ceremony in his letter:

"There wasn’t a building of any description on the airport, the County Engineer had bladed out the long runway and the short East and West runway and we, of the Chamber of Commerce Committee, had taken a sack of lime and marked out by hand a 100 foot circle where these runways intersected, then we went up and down both runways with shovels leveling the mounds and filling up the holes made by the hundreds of prairie dogs that infested the field. We got a long metal pipe, a motorcycle hub and installed a wind sock, we bought a great coil of 1 inch rope, and gathered up all of the old Model T Ford axles in town, this in anticipation of tying down the host of military aircraft we had invited to the dedication. We erected a speaker’s platform, built a couple of very primitive comfort stations quite far away and our airport was in business."

Photographs of that day show that the speaker’s platform was actually two flatbed trucks backed end to end and decorated with a dozen or so flags. The stiff summer winds from behind the speaker’s stand meant speakers were dodging flags while they spoke.

The Chamber Committee responsible for the airport included Gardner, Steve Spear, George Hill, Joe Eichbaum and the Standard Oil dealer, according to Gardner’s letter. A copper plaque dedicating the airport to Love had been built by John Hennessey and the committee built a stand for it out of cement and colorful rocks. It eventually disappeared from the airport, rocks and all.

"Some eighteen or twenty planes flew in from March Field, Riverside, California with some notable pilots at the controls," Gardner continued. "Scenic Airways of Grand Canyon sent their Ford tri-motor."

Governor George W.P. Hunt "made a speech about the great future of aviation in Arizona, also adding a political note here and there."

Over the years, the airport has remained a vital, if sometimes invisible, asset to the community. Thousands of pilots from around the world have learned to fly from its runways through both the prestigious Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and private flight schools. Many of Arizona’s most active and skilled general aviation pilots have called Prescott home and today, corporations looking for easy access to an airport are considering building at Prescott Municipal Airport.

(Mary E. Woodhouse is a freelance writer in Prescott)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb149f9i9). Reuse only by permission.

At the dedication of Ernest A. Love Field in 1928 two flatbed trucks were backed up to each other and decorated with flags and banners to serve as a stage. The airport has served Prescott for 71 years for commerce and training.

by Ruby Schmieder

Before the Mountain Club existed there was the heat of Phoenix B.C. (Before Cooling) . It had a population of about 40,000 most of them suffering through the summer heat. The more affluent mothers fled with the children to the California seacoast hoping to protect the small children from the (sometime fatal) summer complaints. However, it was never a desirable situation to separate families for the summer. Thus there was a need to correct this unhealthy exodus.

Two men saw the advantage of keeping the families intact and near enough for the fathers to join the family on the weekends. These two men were Milton Smith, who had the vision, and Eban Lane who had done well in Phoenix real estate. After excitedly discussing the possibilities they formed a partnership. The next step was to find a nearby and easily accessible location to build a summer resort with all the amenities unknown in the mid twenties. Action was swift after this decision, so they engaged the services of a pilot to take them all over Arizona looking for a high altitude forested area which could be purchased. They found exactly what they were looking for; a large area densely covered with virgin ponderosa pine. The Fry Ranch south of Prescott had 600 acres. They bought it and added 200 acres more to make 800 acres and called it the Hassayampa Mountain Club. All this was located only one mile from the center of Prescott. Thus, the building of this Arizona resort began with a crude survey of the rocky terrain, an almost impossible task that resulted in many errors. The aim was to build only summer cabins which could be closed in the fall when families returned to Phoenix.

In order to attract well-to-do families the developers included a golf course, a swimming pool, tennis courts, playground, stables for horses, a club house and next to that a small dwelling for the social director called the "Howdy House".

Although common today, Smith and Lane initiated a novel way of selling the lots to prospective buyers. First they engaged a bus to bring prospective buyers through Wickenburg, up the steep narrow Yarnell hill and across White Spar Road to Prescott. (3 hours) Then the developers would lunch with the customers on the playground and salesmen escorted buyers over the area. The lots were small but so was the price — $300 to $450. Some lots were traded for services or for material to build the Club House ("Howdy House"), leveling the playground, and legal work. Water was obtained from the City of Prescott (population 8,000 in 1930) with an awkward agreement that was later changed.

In the early years of the Hassayampa Mountain Club roads and streets were not named, there was only one way to identify locations and that was by the number according to when they were built. For instance the first built house was #1. Perhaps the second house was two miles away but would still be called #2. Since this system was very confusing all mail was delivered to the Howdy House.

By l93l a great number had built their summer homes with 1′ X 12′s and furnished with them with the bare necessities — usually furniture recycled from their Phoenix homes. On the other hand some built much finer and larger homes, most of them remain today with little or no remodeling. The smaller cabins have gone through many stages of enlarging and improving.

In l937 the club was in serious danger of falling to pieces until a group of Phoenix business men took on the task of reorganizing the and incorporating of the club as non-profit and renaming it just the Mountain Club instead of the Hassayampa Mountain Club. A volunteer board and needed committees were selected to rule under the by-laws set up. These by-laws have been basically maintained with a board of directors elected every year at the annual member meeting in July. In the years since l945 the club has run smoothly with only minor problems along the way which have been settled with patience and good will.

There has been critical factors which changed the picture of the club from an exclusive resort to a residential area. For example, water pipes had to be buried, streets had to be named, and addresses were assigned for postal service. With those changes residents of Prescott began to see the desirability of living among the pines with lots of open spaces.

Just look at it now-there are about 385 dwellings, some are new and some are remodeled cabins.

I look on with amazement for when we bought our cabin in l944 there were less than a hundred homes. Now, our daughter owns it and many third generation residents have taken over from their grandparents. There must be something magical about the Mountain Club.

(Ruby Schmieder is the author of three books including Prescott’s Unique Mountain Club.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb145f7i10). Reuse only by permission.

When the Hassayampa Mountain Club first started in the early 1930s, there was a Prescott sales office on Copper Basin Road for customers who were residents of Phoenix trying to escape the Summer heat. The name was later changed to The Mountain Club. The Mountain Club offered many amenities such as a swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts, a playground, horse stables and a club house. These were all available to keep the wives and children (who stayed at home) of the Phoenix businessmen entertained.

by Linda Ludington

The current owner of the historic V7 Ranch, Betty Wells, is an energetic woman who is full of friendly good will and good stories about six generations of her family who have made Chino Valley their home. You would not think that this demure Western woman had been named Rancher of the Year by the Kiwanis Club or had been a rodeo-winning team roper or had introduced the Team Penning event to the Prescott Rodeo. You would not expect to find that, at the age of seventy-five, she still works cattle on young horses she trains herself, fixes fences and brands on the range, but all of these are true of Betty Wells.

Here is a short history of Betty’s V7 Ranch, one of Arizona’s oldest. James Baker arrived in Chino Valley in 1864 to serve as a doctor at Camp Clark. He traded a horse and saddle to a squatter for some land along the Verde River, registered the Seventy-Six brand, and started the Verde Ranch. Shortly after, he acquired a financial partner, James Campbell, who invested in the ranch but continued to live in Prescott.

Baker brought seventy Hereford cattle from California to his Verde Ranch in 1866. The next year he drove a larger herd of Mexican cattle from the Pecos River in Texas. Sheep, goats and horses were added to his livestock. By 1882 the Prescott Miner could accurately describe Baker’s as the largest cattle and horse outfit in northern Arizona, but because of a severe drought-which ruined many cattle ranches in Arizona-and burdensome financial problems, the ranch was foundering in the late 1890s.

In 1898 Marion Alexander Perkins left Texas because a state law prevented his homesteading more than eight sections of land. This man who detested fences came to Arizona, where he struck a deal to buy the Verde Ranch. On July 5, 1898, M.A. Perkins, his family, and several neighbors commenced a journey to move their 1400 head of cattle to the new property on the Verde River. Although delayed by a dispute with Baker over open-range grazing and water rights, the sale was finally consummated and the Perkins family arrived with their herd in November 1900.

Texan Jim Nunn rode point on Perkins’ cattle drive. He returned to Texas, but in 1915 his nephew Austin Nunn (named for his great-uncle, Stephen F. Austin) arrived in Arizona to work for Perkins. Wanting to establish his own ranch, Austin Nunn purchased three grazing sections from Perkins as well as the V7 brand-which had come from Texas with the Perkins-and some livestock. When Austin Nunn married Annie Jaggard in 1928, they took a homestead ten miles northeast of Chino Valley. Their V7 Ranch was made up of the grazing sections bought from Perkins, national forest allotments, and the Nunn homestead. Austin and Annie Nunn ran the V7 Ranch until they retired in 1952, when it was sold to Bill and Betty Wells. The Wells still live in the Nunns’ 1929 house in a small valley surrounded by pinon- and juniper-covered hills.

Betty’s husband, Bill, grew up on a farm near Phoenix and later farmed in Chino Valley. Betty’s Chino Valley roots go deep: her father, Claud Aiken, came to the area from Marfa, Texas, with his parents when he was twelve years old. At sixteen he hired on with the Perkins family as camp cook and chuck wagon driver, and worked roundups that stretched from Ash Fork to Point of Rocks (Granite Dells). The entire region was open range-fences were used only around ranch buildings and garden plots. In 1920 Claud Aiken married Hazel Swiger, the daughter and granddaughter of Chino Valley homesteaders. Betty is the younger of their two daughters.

Betty’s happy childhood memories include summer adventures with cousins, her mother’s marathon home-canning sessions, and all-night dances-everyone, of every age, danced, Betty’s mother played piano, and a feast of sandwiches and cakes appeared at midnight. Dancing continued till dawn-a tradition that dated from pre-automobile days when it was impossible for folks to go home in the middle of the night.

Betty’s favorite place has always been the horse corral. She began riding when she was so little she had to climb up the horse’s front leg to mount! Her special pet, "Bouncer," was a congenial donkey who allowed the children to ride her and sometimes harness her to a small cart, but who would not cross a stream! More than once Betty was pitched unceremoniously over Bouncer’s head into the creek.

Betty learned cowboy skills easily-Claud Aiken called her his best wrangler. At eighteen Betty tried her hand at rodeo, teaming with Charlie Matli for steer-roping at the 1942 Prescott Rodeo. She didn’t have much success roping head, so Charlie taught her to rope heel during breaks in the event. Their team beat all others the last two days of the rodeo. Betty still enjoys Team Penning, an event which she introduced to the Prescott Rodeo in 1988. Betty laughs that, "Even though it has absolutely nothing to do with ranching, it’s a lot of fun."

When Betty married Bill Wells in 1946, they decided that Betty would continue to ranch and Bill would farm. The success of this arrangement was recognized later when Bill was named Prescott Kiwanis "Farmer of the Year," and Betty became the first woman to be named "Rancher of the Year." After fifty years of ranching, she asserts that-even though the modern horse-trailer and cattle truck have made their work a little easier-Bill and Betty wrangle their V7 cattle in much the same way James Baker’s cowboys did on the open range 140 years ago.

Join us at the Sharlot Hall Museum this coming weekend for the 12th annual Cowboy Poets Gathering. Included in the sessions this year is a program with Betty Wells on Saturday Afternoon at 1:00 pm at the Museum Center. For information about the Evening Shows at the Elks Theater or the free programs on Friday or Saturday at the Museum call 445-3122 or visit our website at www.sharlot.org.

(Linda Ludington is a docent at the Sharlot Hall Museum.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (Well’s collection item 22). Reuse only by permission.

Betty sits on a donkey in this 1924 photograph of her with her father Claud Aiken. Betty Wells’ ranch, the V7, goes back to 1864 in Chino Valley and Wells will tell some fine stories this weekend at the Museum about growing up ranching and going to rodeos.

by Al Bates

History is not just about dates or events, it is the story of people and how they affected events and how events affected them. This, then, is an attempt to tell of Fort Whipple’s colorful past by combining dates and events with stories of people who passed through its gates.

This is a salute to the people of Fort Whipple. Some of them left their names as city streets or county roads, or creeks or other landmarks. Some of them are still quite famous and others are almost entirely forgotten. Some of them spent years at Whipple and others were just passing through.

First Image: Second Image: Third Image: Some of the people of Fort Whipple are remembered among early Prescott street names: Carleton, Willis, Walker, McCormick and Goodwin. Others who left their names behind as local landmarks include: Weaver, Groom, Glassford, and Benson. There are names in the Fort Whipple story that are, or were, instantly recognizable; and there’s a whiskey-soaked rascal called Sugar Foot Jack who rests somewhere in unmourned oblivion.

Because of the importance of the Fort to Prescott’s economic and social life there was scarcely an early resident of Prescott whose life was not affected in some way. So the story of Fort Whipple is not just of the military men and their dependents; it also includes many of Prescott’s pioneers in a variety of ways.

The first name in our story is that of Whipple itself. Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple came to southern Arizona in 1849 to help survey the new border between the United States. and Mexico. He returned in 1853 as the leader of an 8-month topographical reconnaissance to determine the suitability of a 35th parallel transcontinental train route–roughly the route of today’s Interstate 40. Whipple crossed upper Chino Valley and named it "Valle de China" because of its rich grama grass, known to Mexicans as "de China." He also named Sitgreaves Peak and Mt. Kendrick. Whipple had a hand in starting the search for gold in this area; his report mentioned a legendary 16th century Spanish gold mine that modern prospectors still seek. Brigadier General Whipple died from wounds suffered at the Civil War’s Second Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

The year 1863 was an important one in the history of central Arizona, too. First, President Lincoln signed the Organic Act that separated Arizona Territory from New Mexico Territory. Then the first wave of gold seekers from California arrived in the form of the Walker and Weaver parties. The circuitous route of the Walker party raised the suspicions of General James H. Carleton, commander of Union forces in the southwest. They had first gone across northern Arizona to Colorado. Then they went through New Mexico and the Chiricahua Apache strongholds to Tucson, a known hotbed of Confederate sympathizers. Finally they traveled up the Hassayampa River and discovered gold near today’s Prescott.

Carleton ordered an exploratory party to investigate. Robert Groom helped to guide the Army party from New Mexico to Central Arizona via the Whipple route rather than the longer route through Tucson. (Groom had been in custody as a suspected Confederate sympathizer after he appeared in New Mexico looking to join up with the Walker party.) In 1864 he laid out the

original Prescott town site and later the Wickenburg town site. When the first Army party arrived in the area, they encountered among others Pauline Weaver, Joseph R. Walker, Abraham Peeples and Henry Wickenburg.

After the exploratory party reported back, General Carleton decided to establish a permanent military outpost in Chino Valley to keep an eye on the miners. This would cover his army’s rear and, even more importantly, keep any gold from Confederate hands. It also would provide protection for Governor Goodwin and the other Territorial officials who were on their way from the East. General Carleton named the new outpost in honor of the recently deceased Whipple.

The Military party numbered about 180 officers and men, with transport consisting of pack mules and ox-drawn wagons tended by civilian teamsters and drovers. They were joined by a number of merchants with goods to sell at the new diggings. The goods included 500 head of beef and 1500 head of sheep, many of them destined to be "appropriated" by the resident Native Americans. Major Edward B. Willis led the expedition and became the first Fort Whipple post commander. Capt. Henry M. Benson, for whom the town of Benson, Arizona, is named, commanded one of the two companies of the 1st California Volunteer Infantry that were part of this first group.

And that brings us to the rascal called Sugar-Foot Jack, one of the civilian teamsters for the Fort Whipple founding party. During the trip Jack is said to have learned that there was whiskey in one of the wagons, so he led other teamsters in a search for barrels they could drain. They bored holes in the bottom of the loaded wagons but never hit a single whiskey barrel. They did however tap into several sauerkraut barrels, getting faces full of brine and spoiling the kraut. Jack went on to become a particularly merciless Indian fighter who was loathed by his contemporaries for his cruelties. He is believed to have died in a border-town knife fight.

The first Fort Whipple was established near Del Rio Springs, some 20 miles north of Prescott, on December 23, 1863. It was too far from the gold panning operations on Lynx Creek and too far from timber for construction. Its days were numbered as the government planned to move southward to a spot near a butte on Granite Creek.

(Al Bates, an independent researcher and is a past sheriff of the Prescott Corral of Westerners, will follow up occasionally with more history of Fort Whipple)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(po1929pb). Reuse only by permission.

Fort Whipple’s namesake, Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple, crossed Northern Arizona in 1853-4 to determine the suitability of a railroad route. This section of map which shows Black Mountain (Granite Mountain) was drawn from his expedition.