Anecdotes of Prescott History Brought to Life From the Pages of Old Newspapers and Other Sources.
The Weekly Journal-Miner and the residents of Yavapai County were absolutely enchanted. The President of the United States, William McKinley, would be visiting the Arizona Territory, and his first step upon the young territory’s soil would be in Yavapai County!
Some Yavapai County townsites were as speculative as the mineral worth of the ground they stood on. Two towns had particularly short existences: the oil town of Heslet in Chino Valley, and what could be described as a suburb of Jerome named Oxford.
Several western towns were known for gambling: Tombstone, Deadwood, and Dodge City, for example. But if one were able to go back in time and ask the “sporting men” of the West, Prescott would be among the very best places to play. Gambling was immensely popular in the early days of Prescott. An 1884 account in the Weekly Arizona Miner proclaimed, “Faro dealers say that Prescott is the best gambling town in the West.”
Theodore Weld (TW) Otis was a prominent and well-respected Prescott pioneer who served the community as a judge, a coroner, and a postmaster. He speculated in mining, real estate, and was a retail proprietor. He was a pious, charitable Christian and a teetotaling advocate for prohibition.
The businesses on Gurley then were largely different from those today.
Its name could be confusing to modern readers. It was a large hall in the city, so the owner, George W Curtis, named it “City Hall”. However, make no mistake, Prescott’s municipal government had nothing to do with it and never used it.
