CHAPTER VIII. EARLY DAYS OF PRESCOTT. GOVERNOR GOODWIN-HIS BROAD AND LIBERAL POLICIES PRESCOTT SELECTED AS CAPITAL— SELECTION OF TOWNSITE AND SALE OF LOTSFIRST HOUSE-BEAR PEN-FIRST HOTEL AND RESTAURANT-FIRST STORE-FIRST SALOON -FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL FIRST DAY SCHOOL-FIRST COURT-FIRST LEGISLATURE -FIRST ELECTION-FIRST PUBLIC BUILDING: "GUBERNATORIAL MANSION"-DESCRIPTION OF ARIZONA BY J. Ross BROWNE-JOSEPH EHLE, PIONEER-LOUNT PARTY-EARLY SETTLERS FIRST BOARDING-HOUSE-DESCRIPTION OF PRESCOTT BY GENERAL RUSLING. John N. Goodwin, Arizona's first Governor, was born in South Berwick, Maine, fitted for college at the Berwick Academy, entered Dartmouth College in 1840, and was graduated in 1844. He studied law in the office of John Hubbard, and commenced the practice of his profession in his native town in 1849, in which he was successful. In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate of Maine, and in 1855 was appointed Special Commissioner to revise the laws of Maine, and in 1860 was elected to Congress. In March following the passing of the Act creating the Territory of Arizona, Mr. Goodwin was created Chief Justice for this Territory, but, following the death of Governor Gurley, President Lincoln, on the 20th of August, 1863, appointed Mr. Goodwin to the place made vacant by the death of Mr. Gurley. Mr. Goodwin served in this capacity until 1865, when he was elected Delegate to Congress to represent Arizona, and went to Washington, never returning to Arizona. Probably no better choice could have been made for Governor of the new Territory. The position of Governor at that time was surrounded with many difficulties. There was a mixed population in Arizona; probably the greater portion of the native Americans were Southern sympathizers, and, had harsh measures been pursued, it would have been easy to have stirred up an embryo rebellion, instead of which the Governor was a peacemaker. He united all factions in the support of his administration, with the ultimate purpose of redeeming the territory from savage dominion. He was industrious, democratic in all his views and a typical Westerner, as far as his habits were concerned, for he was in no sense a Puritan or hide bound in his views. He enjoyed a toddy, liked a game of draw, and was pleasant, affable and courteous to everyone. Upon the arrival of the Governor's party at Fort Whipple, then located in the Chino Valley, he began at once to make a personal tour of the Territory, with a view to a permanent location of the Capital. He visited La Paz and all the settlements along the Colorado River, and from there went to Tucson and other settlements in the South, and finally selected Prescott as the site for the Capital. While at Tucson he incorporated the town by proclamation, and appointed William S. Oury, of Virginia, who had served under Sam Huston at the Battle of San Jacinto, whose brother had served in the Confederate Congress as a Delegate from Arizona, and who himself was a strong sympathizer with the South, as mayor of Tucson. The ravages of the Apaches continued without cessation and with increased violence after the withdrawal of the California Column into what is now New Mexico. Governor Goodwin appointed King Woolsey as Colonel of the militia of the territory, with the title of LieutenantColonel, whose expeditions will be noted in a future chapter. Woolsey was a Southerner, and when the Albert Sidney Johnson party passed through Arizona in 1861, en route to the Confederacy, Woolsey joined the party, but was taken down with smallpox at Tucson, and for this reason was left behind. John T. Alsap, a Kentuckian, was appointed the First Treasurer of the Territory. These things I mention to show that Goodwin, in the selection of his men paid no attention to what their feelings might be in the struggle then going on; all he asked, and that he received, was loyalty to the new Territory and to the government which he established, and never was such confidence betrayed. Prescott was selected as the capital, because it was in the center of the country in which the placers had been discovered which were then being worked, and to which locality had been attracted a population from both the East and the West, of adventurous Americans. The name was given in honor of the great American historian, by Secretary McCormick. The town itself was in the heart of the Indian country, but a more picturesque spot for a future city could not have been selected. For a number of years it was unsafe to venture any considerable distance from the town, unless in sufficient numbers to repel the attacks of the Apaches. He who did otherwise, did so at his peril. Lying always in ambush and picking off their victims, and driving off the animals belonging to the white settlers, escaping through their knowledge of the country from their pursuers, the Indians were always ready to seize upon any advantage an unguarded moment might afford. Sometimes guards were posted nightly throughout the town, and men slept upon their arms, expecting Indian attacks at any moment. The town itself escaped such a calamity, but not so with her citizens whose business. affairs called them beyond the limits of safety. In this period of doubt and uncertainty, with a gloomy future ahead of the town, within the town itself optimism prevailed, and every settler was doing his best in his particular line to oil the wheels of progress, moving steadily and firmly along the line of improvement, and seeing in the distance a great prosperity awaiting them. When harrassed with difficulties they would firmly take their stand prepared to retain any advantage already gained, holding always to the merited prestige which their city had attained, never for a moment retrograding, but always advancing, even though at a plodding gait, until the Indians were finally quieted and permanent safety assured. The following is taken from an historical address delivered before the Prescott Library Association, Feb. 27, 1877, by the Hon. E. W. Wells: "Upon the arrival of the corps of Federal Civil Officers early in the year 1864, they found they had been preceded, by some months, by |