The Arizona diary of Lily Frémont, 1878-1881

by Lily Frémont

Well traveled and gently reared, Elizabeth (Lily) Benton Fremont found herself heading for the rough-and-tumble West when her father, John C. Fremont, was named governor of Arizona Territory. In his shadow and that of her grandfather, U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, her life on the frontier would have gone largely unremarked but for one thing: Lily kept a diary. Here, in rich detail, her day-by-day narrative and the editor's annotations bring to life Arizona's territorial capital of Prescott more than one hundred years ago. Lily gives us firsthand accounts of the operation of territorial government, of pressure from Anglo settlers to dispossess Pima Indians from their land, and of efforts by the governor and the army to deal with Indian scares. Here also, underlying her words, are insights into the dynamics of a close-knit Victorian family, shaping the life of an intelligent, educated single woman. As unofficial secretary for her father, Lily was well placed to observe and record an a