Arizona republican., 1911-06-16
GATHERING
 MATERIAL Miss SharIot Hall Has Planned for Summer PROSPECTING FOR HISTORY Two Months Tour in South and East to Be Followed by Travels in North and West Splendid Cooper ation.
PROSPECTING FOR HISTORY

Miss Sharlot Hall. territorial his
 torian. is one of the busiest people
 in Arizona, so busy in truth that her
 occasional vacations from office rOu-
 tine instead of being given over to
 care-free pastimes, are transformed
 into periods of more excessive work
 than usual This is not because of
 an yofficial demand upon her activ-
 ities but because she is deeply in
 terested in her work and has elected
 to make it her pleasure as well a her
 duty. She hopes some day to write his
 tory of Arizona and # she is ever per
 mitted to do so it is a certainty it
 will be well worth reading; will con
 tain a vast amount of information
 that even the survivors of the piOn-
 cer days never knew about, or if
 they did has long ago passed from
 their memories
 The curious may say that they had
 supposed that Miss Hall is already
 writing a history of Arizona. but she
 is not: she is only gathering the data for it. which with it's systemat-
 ic and orderly filing. is the most la
 
 adopted a plan of note taking and card filing that makes possible a ready reference to any particular fact or period she may wish when later Illuminating facts bearing on the same subject are secured. Moreover her note taking is not a mere tabu- lation of suggestive words by which her own memory can be refreshed, but they are elaborated sufficiently to be useful to another, should death or other eNigency prevent her con sumation of the work. She appreci- ated ir the beginning that it was not the undertaking of a day or a year and she seeks to make the history. when 1t does appear. both compre- hensive and reliable.
 To achieve the latter result she is making a diligent effort to personally interview just as many of the sur vivors of other days as she can and gather the material with which they are familiar. at first hand. running down conflicting statements made from memory by those she interviews | tt is not her purpose to pick out a few old timers" well known for their ! volubility and love of story telling. l but to talk to these and all others | she can find, then add to these stories | well authenticated facts secured of | present day folk. as they have learn | ed them from their elders, CT as they | have records to show. Nor are her investigations confined to easily ac- cessible points along the well trav- eled road between the past and pres ent to use a metaphor. or the well | traveled highways of the present, to speak literally. She has gone al ready into many of the out-ofthe- way places and her plans if they ma ture. will carry her into both the by-ways of history and the bypaths of the present, geographically speak ing.
 Miss Hall has just returned from a tour of nearly two months through southern and eastern Arizona and has plans for a great deGl more trav- cling during the present year. She is elated with the manner Of her reception wherever she has gone and is proud of the way almost everybody she calls upon responds to her ques tioning. helps her in her work, and volunteers in providing her with data she needs but had never heard of. This is nearly always true of the surviving pioneers who rightly feel that in the historian they have a friend fully appreciative of the val ue of their life work in the building of a state, even though their par ticipation was modest and at the time without special purpose. And through, the historian alone will due credit be given to many who have gone down to their graves un honored and unsung.
 There is also a constant joy in the interest taken in the work of , the historian by those of the present day. not only the men and women of z but even by the school child S ren. Wherever she travels Miss H.ill , makes it a point if possible to visit s the schools and talk to the children f particularly in remote sections where the children are largely the off lt spring of the few men and women I who made the history of Arizona in c their localities a quarter of a cen i tury ago, when settlers were few and f far between The children know f nothing of this history personally { but they are fired with interest when i Miss Hall tells them nf her work , and from the most unexpected places. V come back historical sketches from T the family circle. or information that l. leads to their unearthing. Il
 Another feature of her talk to the q schools that gives Miss Hall great r pleasure, is the appreciation of so Ii many of the children of a little per sonal interest exhibited in them and f their resOurcefulness in making ac- | most useful to her A i single incident of many recited by |