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First Catholic School in the Territory
The original St. Joseph’s Academy (called the Convent School) was established in 1868 adjacent to Tucson’s old St. Augustine Cathedral. It was a thick-walled adobe building, built in the “fashion of the country’’ with earthen floors and a roof of sagebrush and cactus interfaced on pine rafters and covered with mud.
Will C. Barnes
Will Croft Barnes is best remembered for his concluding opus, “Arizona Place Names,” a book published in 1935, preceding his death a few months later. The book is still in print, which is a testament to its enduring value to both readers and scholars.
McKinley’s visit to Congress
At first glance, the portly gentleman with hands clasped behind his back might be taken for an aging schoolmaster scolding errant children at recess. But he was not an educator and the youngsters pictured here were on their best behavior. They were, after all, hobnobbing with a man named William McKinley who was president of the United States.
Escaping from the Phoenix Indian School
Anglos moving into the Arizona Territory during the late 1800s believed that the Native Americans already there should be acclimated into Anglo culture. During that time, Indian boarding schools were built and native children were removed from their homes and placed into these schools. For one Hopi, however, going to the Phoenix Indian School was a choice he made reluctantly out of respect for his[...]
Fort Defiance
Fort Defiance, established in 1851, was the first military post established in what would become the Arizona Territory, and its post office, established in 1856, provided the future territory’s first postal service.
Ariz. lawmakers may make Colt official state gun
A bill endorsed by a divided state Senate committee would give Arizona an official state firearm a�� a Colt revolver that was popular in the West in the late 1800s.
Global Influence
“It says here Aunt Susie died,” said George Smalley, reading a letter from home at the family dinner table. “Oh, who shot her?” asked his daughter Yndia. It seemed like everyone died that way in Globe in those days.
Brief rise and fall of the Arizona Cattle Company
Hidden behind buildings and a school playground along busy Highway 180 in Flagstaff is one of the few remaining historic barns in Arizona. If the walls could talk, they would tell of the ranching life in the 1880s and the quick rise and fall of its probable builders, the Arizona Cattle Company.
Arizona Governor’s Mansion
The Governor’s Mansion in Prescott was built for $6,000 and was the meeting place for the first Territorial Legislature in 1864. Today it serves as the Sharlot Hull Museum.
Stick ’Em Up… Just Kidding
George Smalley, editor of the Tucson Citizen, staged this photograph with the outlaw Billy Stiles in 1900. Smalley had sympathy for outlaws and a dislike for the local sheriff.
Arizona School of Music, 1907
According to one historian, people thought this music school would be a failure because it was built “too far from the business section of the city.”
