WEEKLY ARIZONA MINER. SUPPLEMENT.
Prescott, Arizona: Friday Evening, August 10, 1877. Folio broadsheet, 10-3/8" x 16." Four columns per page, light uniform toning. Couple of shallow chips to blank edges. Very Good.
Three of the four columns on the verso are a virtual directory of Prescott business establishments: furniture, "general merchandise," druggist, groceries, bakery, restaurant, saloon. saw mill, lumber yard, toilet articles, patent medicine, watchmaker and jeweler. J. Goldwater & Bro. were agents for Singer Sewing Machines, "for sale on the installment plan, or for rent." The Montezuma Restaurant offers a bar and billiard saloon.
The "J. Goldwater" firm was begun by brothers Michael and Josef Goldwasser, Jewish immigrants from Poland who began their business in California and Arizona during the 1850s. In 1876 they established a store in Prescott where Michael, now Goldwater, became a leading merchant and then Mayor. The family produced U.S. Senator, presidential candidate, and founder of the modern American conservative movement Barry Goldwater. The family business figures prominently in Arizona histories. See, e.g., online ARIZONA ODDITIES, article entitled, THE STORY OF J. GOLDWATER & BROS.
The first two columns on the recto print a "Letter From Dan O'Leary" from "Camp Huachua [Huachuca] Mts. July 31, 1877." "Dan O'Leary, born in Ireland about 1834, was the most famous of Arizona's guides of this period. He died at Needles, California, in 1900" [Thrapp, THE CONQUEST OF APICHERIA. page 42, note 11. U OK Press: 1867]]. His Letter reports on the expedition from Fort Whipple to establish a camp and later Fort Huachuca near the Mexican border, evaluating mining opportunities and assessing risks of trouble with the Indians. Item #37901
Price: $450.00