[Arizona, Mining] Archive of Prescott, Arizona Pioneer George Hartmann, dated 1874-1964

Prescott, Arizona, 1964. Very Good. [Arizona, Mining] Archive of Prescott, Arizona Pioneer George Hartmann, dated 1874-1964.

Archive of 26 family papers, photographs, deeds, etc. dated 1874-1964. Items in this archive include Hartmann's certificate of membership to the Knights Templar Order of the Red Cross, Prescott, Arizona Territory, signed by F.G. Brecht as Eminent Commander and S.E. Bright as Recorder, January 7, 1898; an 1878 manuscript letter from Levi Bashford & Co. to George Hartmann offering George a job to come back and work for them for higher wages, with envelope addressed to Mr. George Hartmann, with a note stating "care of Carey & Gessingers freighters on the road to Ehrenburg A.T. Driver will please hand this to them when they meet them on the road"; a notary document, signed by Hartmann, stating that he served in the First Regiment Militia in the Territory of Arizona, but "as Captain William O'Neill lost his like in action at the storming of San Juan Hill in 1898... and the business portion of Prescott was destroyed by fire in the year 1900, all traces of the whereabouts of Company F First Regiment of Militia of the Territory of Arizona records and roster are presumably lost and destroyed"; and several photos of Hartmann's friend, Prescott Mayor William "Buckey" O'Neill, who was killed in action at the Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish Civil War. One photograph of O'Neill has been painted on and expanded with watercolor; this was used for the cover of the 1907 first edition of Hartmann's book Wooed by a Sphinx of Aztlan, which was dedicated to the memory of O'Neill.

Other materials include several deeds for property transfers to and from George Hartman; miscellaneous papers and photographs of Hartmann's daughters; and six leaves of typed manuscript revisions of Chapter 5 of Hartmann's book "Tales of Aztlan", signed by Hartmann and dated 1918.

Henry George August Hartmann (1852-1934) was one of Prescott's early businessmen and pioneers. He immigrated to the United States from Germany as a child, and made his way to Prescott, Arizona Territory when he was twelve years old. Hartmann arrived on horseback, in charge of an ox train loaded with flour. Businessman Levi Bashford bought all the flour at eight cents a pound, then sold it for three times the price, and later offered Hartmann a job in Prescott. This archive contains the letter from Bashford to Hartmann offering him a job.

Though George Hartmann had originally planned to travel on to Los Angeles, he stayed in Prescott, first working as a clerk for Bashford, then as a house painter, and later opening the Zelida silver mine and becoming a mining engineer. A good friend of Prescott Mayor William "Buckey" O'Neill, George Hartmann wrote and published a book in 1907 dedicated to the late O'Neill. He also went to an art school in San Francisco; the painted photo of O'Neill in this archive is signed G.H.

George Hartmann had a wife, Ottilia, and two children, Henrietta and Caroline. Overall a very good archive of one of Arizona's early pioneers, a businessman known for being "honest, upright, gentle, kind, unselfish and thoughtful of others. He was a true personality.".