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Home Special Sections Holiday

1864: PRESCOTT’S FIRST CHRISTMAS

December 3, 2018
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by Drew Desmond, Contributing Writer, Prescott Western Heritage Foundation

Winter began early in 1864, “and by the middle of December the trails were mostly snowed under and lost — all but those often traveled, which led to the placer gold mines on Lynx Creek, or to Walnut Grove and the camps on the Hassayampa. The snow lay white over the hills; the tops of the high peaks were crystal white and cold; and the pine and cedar and juniper trees were sparkling like trees on a Christmas card,” one writer of “Christmas 1864” remembered.

From a distance, one could see two welcoming American flags flying in the wind. One flag flew from a tall staff that stood on the parade ground of Fort Whipple; the other from the Governor’s Mansion.

“There were only a few dozen log houses in Prescott — along the plaza and the banks of Granite Creek.” The town’s streets only existed on the papers of Robert Groom, “who had just laid out a capital city among the forest trees of the little valley,” it was recalled in “Christmas 1864.”

“Where the plaza now lies, campfires burned under trees; tents and shelters stood haphazard; and a few wagons with dirty canvass covers … were pulled up under the best tree shelter their owners could find.”

There were roughly 200 to 300 Anglos around the Prescott area, and the few houses that did exist happily opened their doors to all who arrived.

“Through the window shutters of whip-sawed boards the light of the fireplace or candles filtered out to cheer late travelers,” The Prescott Evening Courier observed. There were no glass windows in Prescott then, not even in the Governor’s Mansion. “But there was Christmas cheer even if no windows reflected it.”

The women welcomed in everybody they could, and their home cooking was “as good a Christmas present as any man in the wilderness would ask,” the newspaper reported.

The governor welcomed guests by the dozen. His private secretary, a renowned cook, served a large dinner that featured roast venison and wild turkeys and also beef, which was a great treat even if it was a tough old work steer. There was a “jolly crowd of officials, and the military band played for the ball that night,” the paper noted.

“Little girls danced with grave and dignified officers whose tall shoulders were far above the pig-tailed heads of their little ‘pardners.’ One little girl spoke of how she carried her Christmas doll in one hand as she danced.”

Festivities at the mansion concluded with “a little service of song with Parson Reed, the first minister in Prescott, in charge,” the newspaper said. Since stores were far away, gifts were mostly homemade.

Prescott’s first Christmas was both simple and beautiful. Those early settlers displayed the kind of community they desired to raise their children in — one that was friendly, generous and patriotic.

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Prescott Living Magazine

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Prescott Living Magazine
OUT & ABOUT — Thank you to Janet Cameron, Karen Shaw, and Janet Ash for submitting these creative photos! Reader photos are published in every issue of Prescott LIVING - send in your best shots taken in the Greater Prescott area to photos@roxco.com. Selected photos will appear in print and will be posted to our social media channels. #prescott #prescottvalley #chinovalleyaz #deweyhumboldt ... See MoreSee Less

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Tickets are available at www.ycpac.com for the Kathy Mattea & Suzy Bogguss concert, which is coming up on March 2 at the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center. If you're not familiar with their musical careers, here's some background from YCPAC. . . .COUNTRY STARS COMBINE HIT SONGS AND CHEMISTRYPrescott, Arizona (2/2/2023) – Two stars, no waiting. When longtime friends and Country music artists combine their impressive set lists and their love of live performance, everybody in the audience wins. Yavapai College Performing Arts Center invites you to join Country music hitmakers Kathy Mattea & Suzy Bogguss for a rousing and memorable ‘Together at Last’ performance, Thursday night, March 2 at 7 p.m. Two country music legends, with three Grammy awards between them, bring their prodigious talents, their solo hits, and their on-stage chemistry to the stage in ‘Together at Last.’ Friends since their early days in Nashville, Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss have each carved out careers in popular music with country chart hits spanning two decades. Kathy has had more than 30 singles in Billboard Magazine’s Hot Country Songs Charts, including “Goin’ Gone,” “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” and “Come From the Heart.” She won Grammy Awards for her 1990 single “Where’ve You Been?” and her 1993 Christmas Album Good News. Bogguss found stardom with her platinum-selling album Aces, which featured four hit singles: the title track, “Someday Soon,” “Outbound Plane,” and “Letting Go.” She won the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Singer award in 1989 and the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award in 1992. Their busy solo careers allowed Kathy and Suzy few opportunities to collaborate musically, although they did perform a Grammy-nominated cover of “Teach Your Children” back in 1994. Their fans have clamored for a joint tour like this for years. And now, sporting new material developed for the tour, armed with two careers worth of stories and more hits than they can fit, Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss are together at last.Tickets for Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss start at $32. Yavapai College Performing Arts Center is located at 1100 E. Sheldon Street, in Prescott. The YCPAC Ticket Office is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Thursdays and Fridays, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For reservations or more information, please call: (928) 776.2000 or visit us online at: www.ycpac.com.. . .Be sure to pick up a free copy of Prescott NOW to see what's happening this month, or visit prescott-now.com/events for the online events calendar. ... See MoreSee Less

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