GOLDWATERS: MERCHANTS SINCE 1862

GOLDWATERS

The Goldwaters have been merchants in this state since 1862. Michael Gold-water, who came to Arizona in the 50's, started the first Goldwater store at Ehrenberg. Baron and Morris Goldwater developed the stores at Prescott and Phoenix. Baron Goldwater's sons, Barry and Bob, are carrying on the Goldwater tradition in Arizona merchandising today.

MERCHANTS SINCE 1862

In THE colorful and romantic story of Arizona in the pages of history individuals stand out. The evolution of a wilderness into a great western empire was the result of the work of many people, who had faith in the future, and who dedicated their lives to laborious endeavor and effort toward the creation of a greater state.

The Goldwater family have contributed -and are contributing their share to Arizona's progress. Goldwaters Merchants since 1862.

Merchants since 1862! What an epic of activity that phrase conjures!... since 1862! The lawlessness of Civil War days! The Indian conflicts! The beginning of the territory! The age of desperadoes! The coming of law and order! The age of the great wagon trains rumbling along from the east to Califor-nia! The beginning of the empire! The rancher! The homesteader! The prospec-tor and miner! The beginning of towns which later became cities! The march of civilization into the last frontier and the old west! . . . since 1862! History has been written and in that epoch of history, Arizona has grown and prospered and has become a great state.

Envision, too, if you will, the saga of service contained in the phrase "merchants since 1862." Calico and gingham for the ladies of the 60's, rough boots and silk hats also for the fron-tiersman of the 70's., an Easter bonnet for some blithe belle of the 80's, laven-

Their

Their and old lace, and the fancy frills of the mauve decade for the girls of the 90's . . . merchandising service that followed the fashions of the world to the present-day shop of elegance and good taste with proud announcements appearing in the slick interior of Vogue. Paris and Fifth avenue, you know, follow swiftly the tide of empire west.

Just a few years after a wise and sharp trading congress saw fit to purchase this land that we now call Arizona from the Mexicans, and just about the time that the southern half of the United States was getting ready to fight those Yankees, the Goldwater family gave up California and moved East across the Colorado river.

Having lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles since coming to this country from England many years before, Michael Goldwater was quick to see the possibilities of what was to become Arizona. He established himself and family in the then thriving town of La Paz and settled down to the busy life of a freighter. Freighting in those days was, of course, done by mule team and if there was a particular hurry, a team of horses. Michael Goldwater had lucrative contracts with the army posts in Arizona and in addition supplied the intermediate stopping places with provisions on his various trips throughout what was then our state.

Being interested in making the most out of his work the thought soon struck him that La Paz, because of its location, was not such a good place to unload freight from the side wheelers that delivered it to him via the Colorado river. La Paz was located somewhat back from the normal river channel and unloading freight necessitated carrying it distances varying from a few hundred yards to a mile or more before finally loading it on the wagons. The Colorado, then as now, was very contrary in its selection of channels and one couldn't depend on just where the muddy river would run from day to day. But Mike, as he was called, knew of a place just six miles down stream where the river ran between two steep banks and which would make unloading freight a very easy thing. He had this location surveyed and established himself there. Later he called it Ehrenberg in honor of a friend, Herman Ehrenberg, who was killed on the road between Los Angeles and La Paz. This was about 1861 and soon the population of La Paz moved down stream with Michael Goldwater and Ehrenberg became a prosperous little town. It was not long before the need of a store sprang up and it was Mr. Goldwater who, in 1862, established the first general store in Ehrenberg. This store building became the town hall, the post office and general meeting place of the community. In its walls were planned the first modern road system in the state. There the first telegraph was planned. There expeditions into the sparsely settled interior of Arizona were started. There in those adobe walls was started a business that, for seventyseven years, has continued the same principles laid down by its founder. Thus was founded the firm of Goldwaters. When Henry Wickenburg discovered gold in the Vulture mountains near the Hassayampa, he needed men who understood the operation of a stamp mill. It was Michael Goldwater and his brother Joseph who responded to this demand and they ran the first stamp mill on that property.

Wickenburg sold his property and the Goldwater brothers continued to operate the mill for the new owners. They, however, were not the most scrupulous of men and after a while the new owners sold the mine and left without paying the two brothers for their work. Now, ninety thousand dollars was a lot of money in those days, just as it is now, and the brothers Goldwater were determined to get what was coming to them. They therefore started to work the mine for themselves. New owners arrived but the brothers worked on, taking the proceeds of the day for themselves. They kept this up for thirty days, taking three thousand dollars a day from the mine and then gave it to the new owners.

Goldwater's downtown store in Phoenix today is as modern as the twentieth century, chic, high-class.