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| From Harpers Weekly, Dec. 1870 |
“The mountains back of Prescott contain many wild turkeys,” the Weekly Arizona Miner crowed just after Thanksgiving. However, by the time Christmas came, they must have scurried away. The price for a “good-sized” wild Christmas turkey cost a whopping $12 (or nearly $300 in today’s money). Despite this, the feature that best defined Christmas in 1870 was the numerous Christmas dinners that were held. On Christmas Day, “at nearly every home there was a Christmas dinner,” the paper explained. “At many places there was a Christmas tree, laden with gifts for the dear ones.”
For a few years previously, one Mrs. Turner took charge of planning a Christmas gift tree for Prescott, but she moved away earlier that year. The newspaper urged the ladies of the town to take over. “The custom is a good one,” the paper wrote. Unfortunately, a city tree did not appear this year.
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| Old Courthouse 1870 |
A Christmas Eve ball was announced to take place in Dr. Moeller’s Saloon. “No pains will be spared to make this the ball of the season,” the paper told. The Prescott Quadrille Band was to perform. Tickets were $12 each (nearly $300 in today’s money!) with supper included.
The snow started falling on Christmas Eve, making it one of the rare white Christmases in Prescott.
In retrospect, the ball was described as “one of the most pleasant parties [the editor of the paper] ever attended. The large gathering of elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen, their dignified and courteous bearing, would have done credit to an Eastern city,” the paper wrote, and “the sumptuous supper…was a culinary triumph.”
Soldiers at Ft. Whipple “had a jolly Christmas dinner on Christmas Day,” the paper reported. “We are told that the mess rooms of the companies were very tastefully decorated. The defenders of our country know how to appreciate anything of that kind, after the hardships they have undergone.”
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| Gurley St. Circa 1870 |
The newspaper publicly thanked those who brought them gifts for Christmas. From the new owners of the Washington Saloon, “an excellent bottle of cocktails” was gladly received. Perhaps it was used to wash down the “mammoth cake, from the eating house of Dan Hatz, next door to our office,” the paper continued. “Upon cutting the cake, it was found to be as good as it looked, and all hands…ate to Hatz’s health and prosperity.”
However, as the city celebrated its seventh Christmas, brotherly love and sobriety did not exist everywhere. “A few scrimmages took place on Christmas, but as they were confined principally to fisticuffs, there was not the interest manifested in them that there usually is in such pleasant episodes; they were too insipid.”
Yet, when all was considered, the paper determined: “Never before in the history of our little city did the community appear so thoroughly determined to enjoy itself…”
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner, 1870:
12/3 Pg. 3, Cols. 1 & 5.
12/24 Pg. 3, Col. 2.
12/31 Pg. 3, Cols. 1, 2, & 3.
