First White
Child Born
in Lincoln County?

By Anna C. Wait, from the Lincoln Republican, June 19, 1902
My attention has several times been called to the claim set up in The Republican of April 3 that Sharlott M. Hall of Orchard Ranch, Dewey, Ariz., was the first white child born in Lincoln County. Miss Hall does not herself claim that she is. In the latter from her published in the same paper in response to an inquriy from The Republican, she simply says upon this point: Gentleman, "I was born October 27, 1870, on Prosser creek," etc. The statement that "she is the first white child," etc., appears in the comment on Miss Hall as a writer, copied from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Now comes A. Ganshird in The Republican on June 12, and tells of two children born in Lincoln County in 1868, which information is interesting as part of the pioneer history of this county, but does not settle the question of the identity of "the first white child born in Lincoln county." (I think the name of the child born southwest of the mouth of Beaver creek should be Hendrickson instead of Henderson.)
In the Lincoln Sentinel’s excellent report of the "Old Settler’s Meeting," published Oct. 12, 1901, appears the following which is correct. "The meeting was held upon what proved to be the birthday of the first white child born in Lincoln County, Mrs. Lizzie Green Parker, and appropriate greetings were sent her at her home in Clear Lake, Wash."
Mrs. Lizzie Green Parker, eldest daughter of George and Josephine Green, was born in Lincoln County, Oct. 18, 1866. She was my pupil in the first school taught in Lincoln Center in the summer of 1872 and was then nearly six years old, and was a very intelligent and good little girl.
Miss Sharlott M. Hall was also a pupil of mine in the county normal institute in the summer of 1882, and was a very promising little girl.
In 1892 I received a letter from her inquiring where she could obtain woman suffrage literature. About the same time I received a copy of the "Housekeeper’s Weekly" of the issue of Nov. 10, 1892, containing the following poem.

The Forgotten Man
Unknown to glory or to fame.
The world ne’er hears his humble name;
Unnoticed her for praise or blame,
The father-in-law.

Who was it taught my husband how
To shoe a horse and hold a plow,
And to all womankind to bow?
My father-in-law.

Who was it taught my useful lord
To drive a nail and saw a board,
And follow truth in deed and word?
My father-in-law.

Who on the dark house-cleaning days
My style and system oft would praise,
And never talk of "mother’s ways"?
My father-in-law.

Whom, more than grandma, spoils my sons,
And buys them marbles, knives and guns,
And feeds the baby frosted buns?
My father-in-law.

Who ne’er an unkind word has said
Against the wife his son has wed,
Nor wished another in her stead?
My father-in-law.

And though the world heeds not his name,
Nor yields him glory, wealth or fame,
Deep in my heart he holds a claim –
My father-in-law.
By Sharlott M. Hall


Lincoln County has many young people of both sexes scattered throughout the world of whom we old settlers feel justly proud and we are happy to number among them Sharlott M. Hall, the gifted poet of Arizona.

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