b'SKULL VALLEYS EARLIEST SETTLERSBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerJ OSEPH EHLE AND HIS WIFE MARGARET pulled their wagon into Prescott from Colorado via Santa Fe in mid-July 1864. It had been a difficult trip. When they left Colorado in March they had 100 dairy cows with them. Ehle planned to start a dairy in Prescott. Dairy cows didnt take to the rigors of the trail well and Ehle had only three cows Sharlot Hall Museumleft when he arrived in Prescott.NOT MUCH OF A MILK MARKET SON GUARDS TOWN HERD INDUSTRIOUS, DETERMINEDThe plan to start a dairy was abandonedJohn Henry, after arriving in Prescott with hisThat John Henry was one of Yavapai Countysimmediately. Even if the cows survived the trip, thereparents at age 23, stood guard against Indian most industrious early settlers was undisputed by just was not much of a market for milk. Prescott inraiders over a bunch of cattle owned by Prescottsthose who knew him. He attributed it to being1864 consisted of but 14 huts and shacks put up byfew citizens. The cattle were corralled where thefrom good stock.the towns earliest settlers. Prescott courthouse now stands. Tall pines were everywhere in the town site, which had been carvedHis father, Joseph, left home when he was only ten The Ehles firstborn, John Henry Ehle, was 24 out of the forest by the first settlers. John shot a deeryears old and drifted into Canada. There he learned when the family arrived in the wilderness capital where the Elks Theatre stands, about a half blockthe occupation of millwright. Joseph had been born of Arizona Territory. Joseph and John put up a east of the plaza. in New York state in 1814. After his adventures in five-room log cabin that first year and ventured intoCanada that began in 1824, he moved to Iowa in the Bradshaws to locate the Thud and New YorkA GOOD CORN CROPFOR APACHES 1841 where he met and married Margaret Williams.mining lodes. By 1869, Joseph and John Henry had the farm in Skull Valley well established and a sizeable corn cropGOLD RUSH TO SAWDUSTTHE FIRST CAT AND CHICKENS eared out. Indians raided the corn field and relievedSeeking gold, Joseph left his wife with relatives in Margaret Ehle had brought several chickens withthe Ehles of some 3000 lbs. of corn, worth 8 centsIowa and set out for California in 1851. There he her in the move from Colorado. They survived thea pound on the market then. That was $2400 worthfound that building a sawmill was a better way to trip far better than the dairy cows and she soon wasof corn as Ehles saw it. As the Indians saw it, it wasmake a living than seeking gold. Later, he moved selling eggs for $2.50 a dozen. The chickens were notNovember and they needed food for their familiesnorth to Oregon and started another sawmill, which for sale at any price. for the coming winter. he operated for three years. In 1859 he returned to Iowa and in 1860 left with his wife and children Another productive member of the Ehle family wasBRANCHING OUT for Colorado. When he arrived in the settlement Margarets yellow house cat. Both the chickens andBy the following year, John Henry had establishedof Prescott with his family four years later, he had the cat were the first in Prescott and attracted muchanother farm in Miller Valley just outside of theturned 50. Another sawmill operation did not appeal attention from the handful of settlers in the town.small Prescott settlement. He still had the Millerto him at this age and with his son, took up farming Later, when other house cats immigrated to Prescott,Valley farm in the fall of 1875 when Apachesin Skull Valley.Mrs. Ehle started breeding them. Lonely minersrelieved him of a horse and a mule.living in rodent-infested shacks in the mountainsThe father and son team made a definite mark on would buy the kittens as fast as they could beJoseph and Margaret were spending most of theirearly Prescott, where farms were badly needed to produced, reportedly paying Margaret $25 in goldtime in Prescott by then with John Henry runningsupply the ever-increasing number of miners in the for each kitten. The Ehle log cabin at the southwestthe farms in Skull Valley and Miller Valley. Johnarea with foodand eggs at $2.50 a dozen.corner of Goodwin and Marina Streets was finishedHenry became justice of the peace in Skull Valley in time for winter that first year and proved to be anin 1877-78 and again some 15 years later in 1891UP THUMB BUTTE AT 73enterprising place with Mrs. Ehles sideline egg andand 1892. He also served a year as Skull ValleyJohn Henry made the news in Prescott in 1916 kitten businesses. postmaster from January 1878 to February 1879. during WWI when, at the age of 73, he decided to set out from Prescott with a flag and metal staff PIONEERING IN SKULL VALLEY WALNUT GROVE AND TEAMING and climb Thumb Butte. He made the hike without When 1865 came, Ehle moved his family to SkullThe next year, John Henry turned 38 and hadexertion and wedged the metal staff that was 25 ft. Valley where he farmed and opened the firsttaken up teaming to take advantage of the lucrativelong in a crevice in a boulder. The flag hoisted, John government road station on the stage and wagonopportunity of freighting goods to and from aHenry took time to show those accompanying him road that went from Prescott to La Paz on thegrowing Prescott and the surrounding mines. Johnwhere the Indian attacks occurred 50 years earlier Colorado River. There were other settlers in Skullmoved to Walnut Grove for a year in 1882 to explorein the town, taking advantage of the lofty birds Valley then and Apaches were far more numerousopportunities there but returned to Skull Valleyview Thumb Butte gave him of what had been a tiny in the lush valley than were settlers. The Ehles hadin 1883. John leased a Skull Valley farm from Burtsettlement of 14 huts when he arrived.barely established themselves in the valley whenCrouch and kept a way station on the stage and Apaches made off with four of John Henrys horses,wagon route through the valley as well as expandingHe then admitted that in the half a century since he valued at nearly $600. his farming and stock raising operations. had settled there, it was the first time he had been up Thumb Butte, adding I ought to be ashamed of myself as a Hassayamper to admit that. 44 October 2022'