John T. Alsap came to Arizona a few months before the organization of the Territory, and settled in what is now the city of Prescott. He was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1832. He was graduated in 1854 from the New York College of Medicine as a bachelor of law and physician, in which year he crossed the plains, and for some years thereafter practiced medicine to some extent in California in conjunction with mining and prospecting.
Upon his arrival in Arizona he took up mining and prospecting in the vicinity of Prescott. The Apache Indians being troublesome the following winter, he accompanied King Woolsey on an expedition against the tribe as surgeon of the command. He was appointed the first Territorial Treasurer of Arizona, and served during the administration of Governor McCormick. In 1868 he was elected to the Legislature as the representative from Yavapai County. In 1869 in company with his wife’s brother, W. L. Osborn, he settled in the Salt River Valley, about a mile northeast from Phoenix, and thereafter was intimately connected with the development of this section.
He was elected to the legislature in 1870, and aided in the organization of Maricopa County. The same year he was Probate Judge of the new county. His term in the Assembly expired in 1872. He was admitted to the practice of the law in Arizona in 1871, and afterwards served as District Attorney of Maricopa County, after which he served again in the Legislature.
In 1886 he was nominated for County Treasurer of Maricopa County, but died in September of that year prior to the election. In the intervals of his public duties, he was actively engaged in the practice of law, and won an enviable reputation as a member of the bar. He was a member of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and was prominent in Masonic circles, being a past officer in the Commandery and its representative in the Grand Lodge of the Territory. He was a strict Methodist in religion and in politics a Democrat. He was twice married, his first wife being Louisa A. Osborn, a daughter of John Preston Osborn, one of the pioneers of Prescott, and his second wife being Anna D. Murray. Some of his descendants are yet living in the Salt River Valley.