Sharlot M. Hall and 'The Hassayamper's Evening'
by Parker AndersonAdmirers of the life and work of our museum's founder, Sharlot M. Hall, contend that a key event in her life was her participation in an entertainment event called "The Hassayamper's Evening". It was there, it is widely believed, that she made her first public call to preserve the old Governor's Mansion (then decrepit), as well as to start a museum to preserve Yavapai County history.
Sharlot Hall was an active member of the Monday Club, and there came a time when she persuaded them that it would be a good idea to start a fund to preserve the area's history and construct a museum. The big question was, how to begin? In the days before television and radio, live entertainment was immensely popular everywhere in the world. So, the Monday Club decided the best way to begin fundraising for a museum was to put on a show.
Sharlot took over the task of putting the show together, while the Monday Club secured the Elks Opera House for the evening of January 15, 1907 (not 1908, as has been erroneously stated in later accounts). The show would be called, "A Hassayamper's Evening".
When the curtain went up in the Elks Opera House on January 15, 1907, the show began with Mrs. B.H. Smith performing a piano composition of her own entitled "Apache War Dance." Then, Mrs. T.W. Otis introduced Sharlot, who gave a long speech on the value of historic preservation, and the purpose of the evening's entertainment.
"There still stands one rare monument of those early days, " spoke Miss Hall from the Elks stage, "the old Governor's House on the little knoll just above Granite Creek. It is a priceless relic and should be preserved to the future. In it, the first government was carried on; it was the center of social life; to it the young bride of Governor (Richard) McCormick came, and there she died, less than a year later, and now laid to rest under the pines in the yard. The red rose which she planted still lives in another yard, saved from destruction by one of Prescott's pioneer women, the late Mrs. Margaret Ehle."
Sharlot continued, "Many mementos of the past are still hidden in the olden homes, cherished by the few remaining pioneers, but destined to be scattered and lost as death breaks the circle of those who care. It is to permanently preserve these relics and objects of the past that the Monday Club is now working. The 'Hassayamper's Evening' begins a fund which ought to grow and blossom like the prophet's gourd, for its object is patriotic enough to inspire every citizen of Prescott with pride. It is to provide a suitable building, which, while making a home and meeting place for the Club, shall also safely and adequately house a museum of relics relating to the early days of Prescott and the surrounding country."
Miss Hall continued to speak, and when she was finished, she read aloud her poem, "The West." Mrs. B.H. Smith then returned to the piano to play a medley of supposed Indian songs, including "Prayer to Wakonda", "Ripe Corn Dance", "Scalp Dance" and "The Thunder God and the Rainbow."
Sharlot then rose and read aloud her poem, "Two Bits," about Charles King's fabled horse at Fort Whipple. Then the stage was set to look like an old campfire setting on the Santa Fe Trail, while Mrs. A.W. McCash and Milton Tregellis got up and sang harmony on the old songs, "Lily Dale", and "Cowboy's Sweet Bye and Bye,"
Sharlot Hall then read aloud her short story, "O'Dulin's Duff", which had previously been published in the newspapers of San Francisco. Mrs. B.H. Smith then returned to the piano with another round of Indian melodies, including "Music of the Calumet", "Warrior's Dance", "Warrior's Last Word" and "Song of Sorrow."
Sharlot then read three more of her poems, "The Ivory Crucifix", "The Mass of Mangas" and "The Eagle of Sacramento", and then an old time country dance was recreated on stage to comic effect with John Summers and fiddler J.C. Stephens. "My Old Kentucky Home" was sung as part of the dance sequence, and Sharlot read her poem, "The Trail of Death."
An unidentified quartet then sang "The Days of Forty Nine", and the Hassayamper's Evening concluded with Sharlot Hall reading her poem, "Arizona."
It was a fine evening of entertainment at the Elks Theater, but in historical retrospect, a few things should be noted. The Monday Club failed in its quest to start a museum, and Sharlot's dream of beginning such an edifice as well as saving the Governor's Mansion would not come to fruition for another 20 years. This was also the only time that Sharlot M. Hall is known to have performed on the stage of the Elks Opera House. In her lifetime, she undoubtedly attended events and movies there, but there are no records that she ever returned to the Elks stage (although she did give permission for others to read her poems at later variety shows at the Elks).
(Parker Anderson is the Official Historian of the Elks Opera House, and an active member of Sharlot Hall Museum's Blue Rose Theater.)
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Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb26a1p41) Reuse only by permission.
Governor's residence in Arizona, Prescott, c.1890. "The Hassayamper's Evening" was Sharlot Hall's first fund-raising effort to save the governor's mansion.