William P. Jones Collection

The William P. Jones collection is a small series letters dating from 1860 to 1867. He was born to Porter Jones and Elizabeth Jenkins Pendleton in 1837, and was listed in the Arizona census of 1864. As a young man, Jones traveled first to Virginia, California, then to Aurora, Nevada Territory, and finally to the Hassayampa, Arizona Territory, where he worked in the mining industry. The letters home to his family in the east detail Jones' travels, work, and day-to-day existence. Jones' letters to his family end in 1864, and are picked up in 1866 by J.T. Alsap (a member of the Masons with William P. Jones), informing Mr. and Mrs. Porter Jones that their son was killed in a conflict with local Native Americans. Jones passed away at the age of 27, and is buried in plot 56 at the Masonic Cemetery in Prescott.

The collection was donated to the Sharlot Hall Museum by Joyce Sackett, who also generously provided the attached transcripts of the letters.