Arizona Pioneer Historical Society meeting room on Camp Street in Tucson, circa 1903.

Do not believe everything you read in print; even if it appears on the official letterhead of a venerable institution such as the Arizona Historical Society. Until recently, the masthead of that organization read, “Founded by Arizona pioneers in 1884.”
People often say that they are upset with “revisionist history” and wish historians would stick to the traditional history published in books decades ago. The problem is, researchers are constantly digging up “new old information” that requires setting the record straight. When it comes to research, quite often, more will be revealed.
Several months ago, the Arizona Historical Society Board of Directors Governance Committee began an in-depth study of all documents pertaining to the beginnings of the organization. In the course of this project, AHS researchers uncovered some history-changing correspondence between an Arizona Historical Society Archivist Rose Byrne and her counterpart at the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.
On March 27, 1997, Byrne wrote to Michael J. Wurtz at Sharlot Hall: “I am enclosing photocopies of some intriguing documents… The letterhead is for the “Arizona Historical Society, incorporated 1864, Prescott, Arizona… All I have heard or read said that the state historical society was founded in Tucson in 1884.” Ironically, she sent these questions to the Sharlot Hall Museum on AHS letterhead, with the masthead phrase, “founded by Arizona pioneers in 1884.”
Byrne received a reply from Assistant Archivist Anne Foster at Sharlot Hall a few weeks later. Enclosed were copies of handwritten documents and period newspaper articles that make it clear that the first Arizona Historical Society was created by an act of the First Territorial Legislature on Nov. 7, 1864.
To confuse matters even more, several other signed documents show that a second group was incorporated on Jan. 1, 1866, calling themselves “The Arizona Pioneer and Historical Society.” Another hand-written document provided by Foster from the same folder states, “whereas the Arizona Historical Society proposes to dissolve their organization and to contribute to the Arizona Pioneer and Historical Society all books, charts, maps, and other effects belonging to the said Society.”
The same document stated that all members of the “Arizona Historical Society” be submitted as members to the Arizona Pioneer and Historical Society without the usual initiation fee. There are no documents that explain why this reorganization took place, but the mention of members and artifacts indicates that the first organization was an active group and not just an empty charter.
One may wonder if these first two organizations were made up solely of Prescott pioneers. Perhaps that is why Col. Charles Debrille Poston, self-proclaimed “Father of Arizona,” issued a call to all interested to form a society of pioneers in Tucson 20 years after the first one received its charter. However, an 1866 roster of members shows that many members of the Arizona Pioneer and Historical Society were from Tucson, as well as Yuma. Familiar names include Augustus Brichta, Tucson’s first public school teacher, William S. Oury, who came to Tucson in the 1850s, Henry Ehrenberg of Colorado River mining fame, and Poston himself.
A Prescott newspaper article from 1866 notes the society was formed the same month as the Nov. 7, 1864 act, and the official seal featured “a representation of Casas Grandes on the Gila, the best preserved ruin in Arizona, with the sun rising, and the motto, Only a Shadow Remains.” The article mentioned members representing Pima, Yuma and Mohave counties, as well as Paiute County, which was ceded to Nevada the same year.
Even though archivists at both the Arizona Historical Society and the Sharlot Hall Museum were aware of this active organization dating from 1864, it was not until 2001 that the Arizona Historical Society publications began using the earlier date, and the letterhead did not reflect the earlier date until even more recently.
This is a good example of how history continues to change as more is revealed. Historians are trained to question all information, to follow up with original sources and not believe everything they read in print. Good advice for all of us, even when all the experts seem to agree.
Jim Turner. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society