From the Back Cover --

Close your eyes and imagine Prescott as it was in yesteryear - a railroad town teeming with flour mill workers, cowboys, farmers, saloons, churches, hotels, banks, a livery stable, small houses with apartments to let, a telephone company, drug store, hardware and butcher shops, dirt streets, boardwalks, lanterns, surreys and horses. Before the turn of the century, population was at its peak - possibly 1,100, say townsmen who remember hearing about those prosperous days.

 Prescott's bustling main street was struck by a huge fire in 1918. With a spirit of optimism, some of the businesses and the Odd Fellows Hall were rebuilt in 1919.

. When the flour mill burned in 1922, it had a more disastrous effect. The mill's 35 to 40 workers and their families packed up their belongings and left, taking others with them. The boom town had bust, but was not completely broken.

 "Dancing with Mules" by Prescott native Linda Flathers Parsley weaves a true tale of Prescott's founding, its pioneers and its early years. It reaches beyond the town to tell the stories of the early day families who farmed the fertile lands that circle Prescott and stretch for miles beyond the town. It tells of the small railroad communities that popped up along the rail lines that fingered through the farmlands, and of the cemeteries where the valiant founding area families were laid to rest.

 It's a one-of-a kind book - the first extensive book to be written about this 119-year-old village and its environs.

 -Nadine Munns Gerkey, former news-feature writer for The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, and currently the publisher and editor of The Prescott Eagle.

 This is a book a whole lot of families are going to enjoy and make a part of their personal library, or I miss my bet.

 And I'll make another bet: "Dancing with Mules" will be an important contribution to the history of Walla Walla County and of the Pacific Northwest.

 -Vance Orchard, former Roving Reporter for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and currently for The Waitsburg Times.

About the Author:

In 1901, W. D. Lyman, a Whitman College professor for over 30 years, wrote a collection of biographies and information about old Walla Walla County. This was updated in 1918 with two volumes. One hundred years after Lyman's first book, "Dancing with Mules" focuses on the people and places in the smaller geographical area of Northern Walla Walla County. It is a rich and unique history which will interest all history buffs.

-Mary Grant Tompkins, Prescott native and former Prescott School Superintendent