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it with dirt. One room was used as a store, the other as a living room. The survey of the town of Prescott was started from that old log cabin, and the surveyors lived in the house in the following May when they surveyed the town. Yeserea, in the meantime, having sold his goods and returned to New Mexico. Judge Howard occupied this house a little later, and called it "Fort Misery." In it was held the first court convened in Prescott.

At this time Capt. Joe Walker and some of his party were living just across the South Granite Street bridge, in a log corral, with two sides covered and the center left open for a fireplace; this corral was just outside the present townsite.

The next store started was in a small log cabin on Granite Street, where California Jackson lived when he died. Herman Menassee was the proprietor. He was murdered by a Mexican at his store in Wickenburg some years later. About the same time Barnett and Barth started another store on Montezuma Street, about where the Scopel Building now stands, and partly in front of the Arizona Miner office. This was the first building erected in the new townsite after the survey. The building was of hewn logs, about twelve by eighteen, and was built by Steve Richardson for Secretary McCormick, to be used as a printing office, and in it was installed the plant which the Governor and Secretary had brought across the plains with them.

On Monday evening, May 30th, 1864, the citizens around Granite Creek met at the store of Don Manuel Yeserea, and the dimensions and boundaries of the town were agreed upon, and

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the name of Prescott adopted by resolution in honor of the historian. R. W. Groom and Van C. Smith laid out the town, Groom being something of a civil engineer. In the absence of other instruments they used a frying pan. Van C. Smith, Judge Hezekiah Brooks and R. W. Groom were the commissioners for the sale of town lots. The historian, Joseph Fish, in his manuscript, says the first house erected within what was afterwards the townsite was "Old Fort Misery." By July 4th, 1864, two hundred and thirty-two lots had been sold in Prescott at public sale, and over $12,000 was realized from such sale. R. C. McCormick paid the highest price for any individual lot, $245.00, upon which was erected the printing office of the Arizona Miner.

One of the first men to locate in Prescott was Joseph Ehle. His family consisted of his wife, one son and five daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Ehle were married in 1841 in Iowa, from whence they emigrated to Oregon, thence to Denver, and on July 28th, 1864, they arrived in Prescott, where they located permanently. Mrs Margaret Ehle was born in Ohio on October 14th, 1817, and died in Prescott on November 4th, 1905. She was survived by her husband, who died a few years afterward at the advanced age of 99 years. Mr. Ehle drove in several hundred head of cattle, which the Indians confiscated. Accounts of his death and funeral are as follows:

"DIES JUST SHORT OF THE CENTURY MARK.

"Joseph Ehle was Oldest Mason in World in Point of Age and Membership.

"Telegrams from Los Angeles yesterday brought the sad news of the death of Joseph

Ehle, the pioneer of all pioneer residents of Arizona, who passed away from old age on Tuesday.

"Had he lived until next March, he would have reached the goal of one hundred years. Of remarkable vitality, this aged man attracted the admiration and the attention of the many, so well was it known throughout the nation that his long race on earth had been attended with a distinction few if any had ever attained, in fraternal circles. He was reputed to be the oldest living Mason in the world, in point of membership as well as age. It is stated by authoritative sources that he had been a Mason since 1838, joining a lodge in the state of Iowa, seventy-four years ago.

"Aside from this feature of his citizenship, the deceased was a man of that sterling integrity and patriotic zeal that brought to his side friends by the score, and to his memory the tribute of his upright dealings with his fellow-men will be a beautiful chapter to close his earthly career. About three years ago his health began to decline, and he was taken by his daughter to a lower elevation on the coast. One faculty after another failed, when the wonderful machinery of a once vigorous frame gave way, and the inevitable followed.

"The deceased arrived in Prescott early in 1864, with his late wife and several children, many of whom survive, among them being his son, John Ehle, who still makes Prescott his home. From the beginning he identified himself with building up the country and to his credit he erected the first substantial home in the then wilderness, and which until a few years ago was situated on the southwest corner of Good

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