Out Arizona way where a Prescott museum is named in her honor and a newly published biography is just off the University of Arizona press, Sharlot Hall is thought to have been the first white child born in Lincoln County, Kansas, in the year 1870.

Here, however, folks are of the unanimous opinion that the first white child born in the county was Lizzie, born to George and Josephine Green. The year was 1866.

The late Dorothe Tarrence Homan’s book, "Lincoln – That County in Kansas," published in December 1979, states:

"George Green and his wife Josephine, known as "Jody," came from Massachusetts and arrived Feb. 1, 1866. Jody, 16 or 17 years of age when they arrived, could ride and shoot like a cowboy. Many stories were told of her courage and quick wit when danger threatened. Their daughter, Lizzie, born Oct. 18, 1866, was the first white child born in the county."

This information has long been accepted as fact by local historians. Hereabouts it is believed that the earliest Hall, a Dr. H.M., arrived in Lincoln in 1884.

Nevertheless, it’s an interesting article, clipped from the Aug. 12, 1982, Williams (Arizona) News and mailed to The Sentinel publisher, that tells about Sharlot Hall.

"She was called both heroine and harlot. She was a woman born ahead of her time; and even as she approached old age, tongues of her neighbors were still wagging over the unorthodox ways in which she chose to live her life," it reads.

"Born in 1870 to a sensitive, intelligent mother and a surly, uneducated father, Sharlot Hall vowed early on that her own life would be devoted to personal achievement rather than to a husband. Later, as Arizona came of age and moved toward statehood, the young journalist sensed that history was in the making and began a lifelong campaing to preserve the territory’s pioneer heritage.

"Her fight to win the post of Arizona territorial historian blazed a trail for other women to gain state office, and her crowning achievement was the restoration of the Territorial Governor’s Mansion, now part of the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.

"Along the way she took part in the shaping of Arizona history, Hall’s own life was shaped by the influences of free thought and Christian Science and by the many writers, artists and politicians with whom she came into contact."

A friendly letter of inquiry is on its way to the Sharlot Hall biographer. Until an answer is received speculation continues: Was Sharlott Hall born in another Lincoln County in another state? Was she indeed a native of this county who was simply mistaken in her belief that she was the first white child born here? Did a native daughter go on west to "make a dent" in the history of the Grand Canyon State?

Bill and Diana Sowers, Lincoln County Coordinators
Tracee Hamilton, Lincoln County Coordinator