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MORMON SETTLEMENT IN ARIZONA

A RECORD OF PEACEFUL CONQUEST OF THE DESERT

BY JAMES H. McCLINTOCK

ARIZONA HISTORIAN

1921







[Illustration: THOS. E. CAMPBELL Governor of Arizona]

[Illustration: COL. JAS. H. McCLINTOCK Arizona Historian]

[Illustration: "EL VADO," THE CROSSING OF THE FATHERS Gateway of the
Pioneers Into Arizona]




FOREWORD


This publication, covering a field of southwestern interest hitherto
unworked, has had material assistance from Governor Thos. E. Campbell,
himself a student of Arizona history, especially concerned in matters of
development. There has been hearty cooperation on the part of the
Historian of the Mormon Church, in Salt Lake City, and the immense
resources of his office have been offered freely and have been drawn upon
often for verification of data, especially covering the earlier periods.
There should be personal mention of the late A.H. Lund, Church Historian,
and of his assistant, Andrew Jenson, and of Church Librarian A. Wm. Lund,
who have responded cheerfully to all queries from the Author. There has
been appreciated interest in the work by Heber J. Grant, President of the
Church, and by many pioneers and their descendants.

The Mormon Church maintains a marvelous record of its Church history and
of its membership. The latter record is considered of the largest value,
carrying out the study of family genealogy that attaches so closely to
the theology of the denomination. During the fall of 1919, Andrew Jenson
of the Church Historian's office, started checking and correcting the
official data covering Arizona and New Mexico settlements. This involved
a trip that included almost every village and district of this State.
Mr. Jenson was accompanied by LeRoi C. Snow, Secretary to the Arizona
State Historian and a historical student whose heart and faithful effort
have been in the work. Many corrections were made and many additions were
secured at first hand, from pioneers of the various settlements. At least
2000 letters have had to be written by this office. The data was put into
shape and carefully compiled by Mr. Snow, whose service has been of the
largest value. As a result, in the office of the Arizona State Historian
now is an immense quantity of typewritten matter that covers most fully
the personal features of Mormon settlement and development in the
Southwest. This has had careful indexing.

Accumulation of data was begun the last few months of the lifetime of
Thomas E. Farish, who had been State Historian since Arizona's assumption
of statehood in 1912. Upon his regretted passing, in October of 1919, the
task of compilation and writing and of possible publication dropped upon
the shoulders of his successor. The latter has found the task one of most
interesting sort and hopes that the resultant book contains matter of
value to the student of history who may specialize on the Southwest. By
no means has the work been compiled with desire to make it especially
acceptable to the people of whom it particularly treats--save insomuch as
it shall cover truthfully their migrations and their work of development.
With intention, there has been omitted reference to their religious
beliefs and to the trials that, in the earlier days, attended the
attempted exercise of such beliefs.

Naturally, there has had to be condensation of the mass of data collected
by this office. Much of biographical interest has had to be omitted. To
as large an extent as possible, there has been verification from outside
sources.

Much of the material presented now is printed for the first time. This
notably is true in regard to the settlement of the Muddy, the southern
point of Nevada, which in early political times was a part of Arizona
Territory and hence comes within this work's purview. There has been
inclusion of the march of the Mormon Battalion and of the Californian,
New Mexican and Mexican settlements, as affecting the major features of
Arizona's agricultural settlement and as contributing to a more concrete
grasp of the idea that drove the Mormon pioneers far afield from the
relative comfort of their Church centers.

JAS. H. McCLINTOCK,
Arizona State Historian.

Phoenix, Arizona, May 31, 1921.




SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS


Chapter One

WILDERNESS BREAKERS--Mormon Colonization in the West; Pioneers in
Agriculture; First Farmers in Many States; The Wilderness Has Been Kept
Broken.


Chapter Two

THE MORMON BATTALION--Soldiers Who Sought No Strife; California Was the
Goal; Organization of the Battalion; Cooke Succeeds to the Command; The
March Through the Southwest; Capture of the Pueblo of Tucson;
Congratulation on Its Achievement; Mapping the Way Through Arizona;
Manufactures of the Arizona Indians; Cooke's Story of the March; Tyler's
Record of the Expedition; Henry Standage's Personal Journal; California
Towns and Soldier Experiences; Christopher Layton's Soldiering; Western
Dash of the Kearny Dragoons.


Chapter Three

THE BATTALION'S MUSTER-OUT--Heading Eastward Toward "Home"; With the
Pueblo Detachment; California Comments on the Battalion; Leaders of the
Battalion; Passing of the Battalion Membership; A Memorial of Noble
Conception; Battalion Men Who Became Arizonans.


Chapter Four

CALIFORNIA'S MORMON PILGRIMS--The Brooklyn Party at San Francisco;
Beginnings of a Great City; Brannan's Hope of Pacific Empire; Present at
the Discovery of Gold; Looking Toward Southern California; Forced From
the Southland; How Sirrine Saved the Gold.


Chapter Five

THE STATE OF DESERET--A Vast Intermountain Commonwealth; Boundary Lines
Established; Segregation of the Western Territories; Map of State of
Deseret.


Chapter Six

EARLY ROADS AND TRAVELERS--Old Spanish Trail Through Utah; Creation of
the Mormon Road; Mormon Settlement at Tubac; A Texan Settlement of the
Faith.


Chapter Seven

MISSIONARY PIONEERING--Hamblin, "Leatherstocking of the Southwest";
Aboriginal Diversions; Encounter with Federal Explorers; The Hopi and the
Welsh Legend; Indians Await Their Prophets; Navajo Killing of Geo. A.
Smith, Jr.; A Seeking of Baptism for Gain; The First Tour Around the
Grand Canyon; A Visit to the Hava-Supai Indians; Experiences with the
Redskins; Killing of Whitmore and McIntire.


Chapter Eight

HAMBLIN AMONG THE INDIANS--Visiting the Paiutes with Powell; A Great
Conference with the Navajo; An Official Record of the Council; Navajos to
Keep South of the River; Tuba's Visit to the White Men; The Sacred Stone
of the Hopi; In the Land of the Navajo; Hamblin's Greatest Experience;
The Old Scout's Later Years.


Chapter Nine

CROSSING THE MIGHTY COLORADO--Early Use of "El Vado de Los Padres";
Ferrying at the Paria Mouth; John D. Lee on the Colorado; Lee's Canyon
Residence Was Brief; Crossing the Colorado on the Ice; Crossings Below
the Grand Canyon; Settlements North of the Canyon; Arizona's First
Telegraph Station; Arizona's Northernmost Village.


Chapter Ten

ARIZONA'S PIONEER NORTHWEST--History of the Southern Nevada Point; Map of
Pah-ute County; Missionaries of the Desert; Diplomatic Dealings with the
Redskins; Near Approaches to Indian Warfare; Utilization of the Colorado
River; Steamboats on the Shallow Stream; Establishing a River Port.


Chapter Eleven

IN THE VIRGIN AND MUDDY VALLEYS--First Agriculture in Northern Arizona;
Villages of Pioneer Days; Brigham Young Makes Inspection; Nevada Assumes
Jurisdiction; The Nevada Point Abandoned; Political Organization Within
Arizona; Pah-ute's Political Vicissitudes; Later Settlement in "The
Point,"; Salt Mountains of the Virgin; Peaceful Frontier Communities.


Chapter Twelve

THE UNITED ORDER--Development of a Communal System; Not a General Church
Movement; Mormon Cooperative Stores.


Chapter Thirteen

SPREADING INTO NORTHERN ARIZONA--Failure of the First Expeditions;
Missionary Scouts in Northeastern Arizona; Foundation of Four
Settlements; Northeastern Arizona Map; Genesis of St. Joseph; Struggling
with a Treacherous River; Decline and Fall of Sunset; Village Communal
Organization; Hospitality Was of Generous Sort; Brigham City's Varied
Industries; Brief Lives of Obed and Taylor.


Chapter Fourteen

TRAVEL, MISSIONS AND INDUSTRIES--Passing of the Boston Party; At the
Naming of Flagstaff; Southern Saints Brought Smallpox; Fort Moroni, at
LeRoux Spring; Stockaded Against the Indians; Mormon Dairy and the
Mount Trumbull Mill; Where Salt Was Secured; The Mission Post of Moen
Copie; Indians Who Knew Whose Ox Was Gored; A Woolen Factory in the
Wilds; Lot Smith and His End; Moen Copie Reverts to the Indians; Woodruff
and Its Water Troubles; Holbrook Once Was Horsehead Crossing.


Chapter Fifteen

SETTLEMENT SPREADS SOUTHWARD--Snowflake and Its Naming; Joseph Fish,
Historian; Taylor, Second of the Name; Shumway's Historic Founder;
Showlow Won in a Game of "Seven-Up"; Mountain Communities; Forest Dale on
the Reservation; Tonto Basin's Early Settlement.


Chapter Sixteen

LITTLE COLORADO SETTLEMENTS--Genesis of St. Johns; Land Purchased by
Mormons; Wild Celebration of St. John's Day; Disputes Over Land Titles;
Irrigation Difficulties and Disaster; Meager Rations at Concho;
Springerville and Eagar; A Land of Beaver and Bear; Altitudinous
Agriculture at Alpine; In Western New Mexico; New Mexican Locations.


Chapter Seventeen

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS--Nature and Man Both Were Difficult; Railroad Work
Brought Bread; Burden of a Railroad Land Grant; Little Trouble with
Indians; Church Administrative Features.


Chapter Eighteen

EXTENSION TOWARD MEXICO--Dan W. Jones' Great Exploring Trip; The
Pratt-Stewart-Trejo Expedition; Start of the Lehi Community; Plat of
Lehi; Transformation Wrought at Camp Utah; Departure of the Merrill
Party; Lehi's Later Development.


Chapter Nineteen

THE PLANTING OF MESA--Transformation of a Desert Plain; Use of a
Prehistoric Canal; Moving Upon the Mesa Townsite; An Irrigation Clash
That Did Not Come; Mesa's Civic Administration; Foundation of Alma;
Highways Into the Mountains; Hayden's Ferry, Latterly Tempe; Organization
of the Maricopa Stake; A Great Temple to Rise in Mesa.


Chapter Twenty

FIRST FAMILIES OF ARIZONA--Pueblo Dwellers of Ancient Times; Map of
Prehistoric Canals; Evidences of Well-Developed Culture; Northward Trend
of the Ancient People; The Great Reavis Land Grant Fraud.


Chapter Twenty-one

NEAR THE MEXICAN BORDER--Location on the San Pedro River; Malaria
Overcomes a Community; On the Route of the Mormon Battalion; Chronicles
of a Quiet Neighborhood; Looking Toward Homes in Mexico; Arizona's First
Artesian Well; Development of a Market at Tombstone.


Chapter Twenty-two

ON THE UPPER GILA--Ancient Dwellers and Military Travelers; Early Days
Around Safford; Map of Southeastern Arizona; Mormon Location at
Smithville; A Second Party Locates at Graham; Vicissitudes of Pioneering;
Gila Community of the Faith; Considering the Lamanites; The Hostile
Chiricahuas; Murders by Indian Raiders; Outlawry Along the Gila; A Gray
Highway of Danger.


Chapter Twenty-three

CIVIC AND CHURCH FEATURES--Troublesome River Conditions; Basic Law in a
Mormon Community; Layton, Soldier and Pioneer; A New Leader on the Gila;
Church Academies of Learning.


Chapter Twenty-four

MOVEMENT INTO MEXICO--Looking Over the Land; Colonization in Chihuahua;
Prosperity in an Alien Land; Abandonment of the Mountain Colonies; Sad
Days for the Sonora Colonists; Congressional Inquiry; Repopulation of the
Mexican Colonies.


Chapter Twenty-five

MODERN DEVELOPMENT--Oases Have Grown in the Desert; Prosperity Has
Succeeded Privation.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

PLACE NAMES OF THE SOUTHWEST

CHRONOLOGY

TRAGEDIES OF THE FRONTIER

INDEX

MAP OF ARIZONA MORMON SETTLEMENT




_THE ILLUSTRATIONS_


"El Vado," Pioneer Gateway into Arizona

Mormon Battalion Officers

Battalion Members at Gold Discovery in California

Battalion Members who Returned to Arizona

Battalion Members who Returned to Arizona

Battalion Members who Returned to Arizona

The Mormon Battalion Monument

Old Spanish Pueblo of Tubac

Jacob Hamblin, "Apostle to the Lamanites"

The Church Presidents

Lieutenant Ives' Steamboat on the Colorado in 1858

Ammon M. Tenney, Pioneer Scout of the Southwest

Early Missionaries Among the Indians

Moen Copie, First Headquarters of Missionaries to the Moquis

Pipe Springs or Windsor Castle

Moccasin Springs on Road to the Paria

In the Kaibab Forest, near the Home of the Shivwits Indians

A Fredonia Street Scene

Walpi, One of the Hopi (Moqui) Villages

Warren M. Johnson's House at Paria Ferry

Crossing of the Colorado at the Paria Ferry

Brigham Young and Party at Mouth of Virgin in 1870

Baptism of the Tribe of Shivwits Indians

Founders of the Colorado River Ferries

Crossing the Colorado River at Scanlon's Ferry

Crossing the Little Colorado River with Ox Teams

Old Fort at Brigham City

Woodruff Dam, After One of the Frequent Washouts

First Permanent Dam at St. Joseph

Colorado Ferry and Ranch at the Mouth of the Paria (G.W. James)

Lee Cabin at Moen Avi (Photo by Dr. Geo. Wharton James)

Moen Copie Woolen Mill

Grand Falls on the Little Colorado

Old Fort Moroni with its Stockade

Fort Moroni in Later Years

Erastus Snow, Who Had Charge of Arizona Colonization

Anthony W. Ivins

Joseph W. McMurrin

Joseph Fish, an Arizona Historian

Joseph H. Richards of St. Joseph

St. Joseph Pioneers and Historian Andrew Jenson

Shumway and the Old Mill on Silver Creek

First Mormon School, Church and Bowery at St. Johns

David K. Udall and His First Residence at St. Johns

St. Johns in 1887

Stake Academy at St. Johns

Founders of Northern Arizona Settlements

Group of Pioneers

Presidents of Five Arizona Stakes

Old Academy at Snowflake

New Academy at Snowflake

The Desolate Road to the Colorado Ferry

Leaders of Unsuccessful Expeditions

First Party to Southern Arizona and Mexico

Second Party to Southern Arizona and Mexico

Original Lehi Locators

Founders of Mesa

Maricopa Stake Presidents

Maricopa Delegation at Pinetop Conference

The Arizona Temple at Mesa

Jonathan Heaton and His Fifteen Sons

Northern Arizona Pioneers

Teeples House, First in Pima

First Schoolhouse at Safford

Gila Normal College at Thatcher

Gila Valley Pioneers

Pioneer Women of the Gila Valley

Killed by Indians

Killed by Outlaws




SPECIAL MAPS


State of Deseret

Pah-ute County, Showing the Muddy Settlements

Northeastern Arizona, Showing Little Colorado Settlements

Lehi, Plan of Settlement

Ancient Canals of Salt River Valley

Southeastern Arizona

Arizona Mormon Settlement and Early Roads




Chapter One

Wilderness Breakers


Mormon Colonization In the West

The Author would ask earliest appreciation by the reader that this work
on "Mormon Settlement in Arizona" has been written by one entirely
outside that faith and that, in no way, has it to do with the doctrines
of a sect set aside as distinct and peculiar to itself, though it claims
fellowship with any denomination that follows the teachings of the
Nazarene. The very word "Mormon" in publications of that denomination
usually is put within quotation marks, accepted only as a nickname for
the preferred and lengthier title of "Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints." Outside the Church, the word, at least till within a
decade or so, has been one that has formed the foundation for much of
denunciation. There was somewhat of pathos in the remark to the Author by
a high Mormon official, "There never has been middle ground in literature
that affected the Mormons--it either has been written against us or for
us." From a religious standpoint, this work is on neutral ground. But,
from the standpoint of western colonization and consequent benefit to the
Nation, the Author trusts the reader will join with him in appreciation
of the wonderful work that has been done by these people. It is this
field especially that has been covered in this book.

Occasionally it will be found that the colonizers have been referred to
as "Saints." It is a shortening of the preferred title, showing a lofty
moral aspiration, at least. It would be hard to imagine wickedness
proceeding from such a designation, though the Church itself assuredly
would be the first to disclaim assumption of full saintliness within its
great membership. Still, there might be testimony from the writer that he
has lived near the Mormons, of Arizona for more than forty years and in
that time has found them law-abiding and industrious, generally of sturdy
English, Scotch, Scandinavian or Yankee stock wherein such qualities
naturally run with the blood. If there be with such people the further
influence of a religion that binds in a union of faith and in works of
the most practical sort, surely there must be accomplishment of material
and important things.


Pioneers in Agriculture

In general, the Mormon (and the word will be used without quotation
marks) always has been agricultural. The Church itself appears to have a
foundation idea that its membership shall live by, upon and through the
products of the soil. It will be found in this work that Church influence
served to turn men from even the gold fields of California to the
privations of pioneer Utah. It also will be found that the Church,
looking for extension and yet careful of the interests of its membership,
directed the expeditions that penetrated every part of the Southwest.

There was a pioneer Mormon period in Arizona, that might as well be
called the missionary period. Then came the prairie schooners that bore,
from Utah, men and women to people and redeem the arid southland valleys.
Most of this colonization was in Arizona, where the field was
comparatively open. In California there had been religious persecution
and in New Mexico the valleys very generally had been occupied for
centuries by agricultural Indians and by native peoples speaking an alien
tongue. There was extension over into northern Mexico, with consequent
travail when impotent governments crumbled. But in Arizona, in the
valleys of the Little Colorado, the Salt, the Gila and the San Pedro and
of their tributaries and at points where the white man theretofore had
failed, if he had reached them at all, the Mormons set their stakes and,
with united effort, soon cleared the land, dug ditches and placed dams
in unruly streams, all to the end that farms should smile where the
desert had reigned. It all needed imagination and vision, something that,
very properly, may be called faith. Sometimes there was failure.
Occasionally the brethren failed to live in unity. They were human. But,
at all times, back of them were the serenity and judgment and resources
of the Church and with them went the engendered confidence that all would
be well, whatever befell of finite sort. It has been said that faith
removes mountains. The faith that came with these pioneers was well
backed and carried with it brawn and industry.

"Mormon Settlement in Arizona" should not carry the idea that Arizona was
settled wholly by Mormons. Before them came the Spaniards, who went north
of the Gila only as explorers and missionaries and whose agriculture
south of that stream assuredly was not of enduring value. There were
trappers, prospectors, miners, cattlemen and farmers long before the
wagons from Utah first rolled southward, but the fact that Arizona's
agricultural development owes enormously to Mormon effort can be
appreciated in considering the establishment and development of the
fertile areas of Mesa, Lehi, the Safford-Thatcher-Franklin district,
St. David on the San Pedro, and the many settlements of northeastern
Arizona, with St. Johns and Snowflake as their headquarters.

It is a remarkable fact that Mormon immigrants made even a greater number
of agricultural settlements in Arizona than did the numerically
preponderating other peoples. However, the explanation is a simple one:
The average immigrant, coming without organization, for himself alone,
naturally gravitated to the mines--indeed, was brought to the Southwest
by the mines. There was little to attract him in the desert plains
through which ran intermittent stream flows, and he lacked the vision
that showed the desert developed into the oasis. The Mormon, however,
came usually from an agricultural environment. Rarely was he a miner.

Of later years there has been much community commingling of the Mormon
and the non-Mormon. There even has been a second immigration from Utah,
usually of people of means. The day has passed for the ox-bowed wagon and
for settlements out in the wilderness. There has been left no wilderness
in which to work magic through labor. But the Mormon influence still is
strong in agricultural Arizona and the high degree of development of
many of her localities is based upon the pioneer settlement and work that
are dealt with in the succeeding pages.


First Farmers in Many States

It is a fact little appreciated that the Mormons have been first in
agricultural colonization of nearly all the intermountain States of
today. This may have been providential, though the western movement of
the Church happened in a time of the greatest shifting of population ever
known on the continent. It preceded by about a year the discovery of gold
in California, and gold, of course, was the lodestone that drew the
greatest of west-bound migrations. The Mormons, however, were first. Not
drawn by visions of wealth, unless they looked forward to celestial
mansions, they sought, particularly, valleys wherein peace and plenty
could be secured by labor. Nearly all were farmers and it was from the
earth they designed drawing their subsistence and enough wherewith to
establish homes.

Of course, the greatest of foundations was that at Salt Lake, July 24,
1847, when Brigham Young led his Pioneers down from the canyons and
declared the land good. But there were earlier settlements.

First of the faith on the western slopes of the continent was the
settlement at San Francisco by Mormons from the ship Brooklyn. They
landed July 31, 1846, to found the first English speaking community of
the Golden State, theretofore Mexican. These Mormons established the
farming community of New Helvetia, in the San Joaquin Valley, the same
fall, while men from the Mormon Battalion, January 24, 1848, participated
in the discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort. Mormons also were pioneers in
Southern California, where, in 1851, several hundred families of the
faith settled at San Bernardino.

The first Anglo-Saxon settlement within the boundaries of the present
State of Colorado was at Pueblo, November 15, 1846, by Capt. James Brown
and about 150 Mormon men and women who had been sent back from New
Mexico, into which they had gone, a part of the Mormon Battalion that
marched on to the Pacific Coast.

The first American settlement in Nevada was one of Mormons in the Carson
Valley, at Genoa, in 1851.

In Wyoming, as early as 1854, was a Mormon settlement at Green River,
near Fort Bridger, known as Fort Supply.

In Idaho, too, preeminence is claimed by virtue of a Mormon settlement at
Fort Lemhi, on the Salmon River, in 1855, and at Franklin, in Cache
Valley, in 1860.

The earliest Spanish settlement of Arizona, within its present political
boundaries, was in the Santa Cruz Valley not far from the southern
border. There was a large ranch at Calabasas at a very early date, and at
that point Custodian Frank Pinkley of the Tumacacori mission ruins
lately discovered the remains of a sizable church. A priest had station
at San Xavier in 1701. Tubac as a presidio dates from 1752, Tumacacori
from 1754 and Tucson from 1776. These, however, were Spanish settlements,
missions or presidios. In the north, Prescott was founded in May, 1864,
and the Verde Valley was peopled in February, 1865. Earlier still were
Fort Mohave, reestablished by soldiers of the California Column in 1863,
and Fort Defiance, on the eastern border line, established in 1849. A
temporary Mormon settlement at Tubac in 1851, is elsewhere described. But
in honorable place in point of seniority are to be noted the Mormon
settlements on the Muddy and the Virgin, particularly, in the very
northwestern corner of the present Arizona and farther westward in the
southern-most point of Nevada, once a part of Arizona. In this
northwestern Arizona undoubtedly was the first permanent Anglo-Saxon
agricultural settlement in Arizona, that at Beaver Dams, now known as
Littlefield, on the Virgin, founded at least as early as the fall of
1864.


The Wilderness Has Been Kept Broken

Of the permanence and quality of the Mormon pioneering, strong testimony
is offered by F. S. Dellenbaugh in his "Breaking the Wilderness:"

"It must be acknowledged that the Mormons were wilderness breakers of
high quality. They not only broke it, but they kept it broken; and
instead of the gin mill and the gambling hell, as corner-stones of their
progress and as examples to the natives of the white men's superiority,
they planted orchards, gardens, farms, schoolhouses and peaceful homes.
There is today no part of the United States where human life is safer
than in the land of the Mormons; no place where there is less
lawlessness. A people who have accomplished so much that is good, who
have endured danger, privation and suffering, who have withstood the
obloquy of more powerful sects, have in them much that is commendable;
they deserve more than abuse; they deserve admiration."




Chapter Two

The Mormon Battalion


Soldiers Who Sought No Strife

The march of the Mormon Battalion to the Pacific sea in 1846-7 created
one of the most picturesque features of American history and one without
parallel in American military annals. There was incidental creation,
through Arizona, of the first southwestern wagon road. Fully as
remarkable as its travel was the constitution of the Battalion itself. It
was assembled hastily for an emergency that had to do with the seizure of
California from Mexico. Save for a few officers detailed from the regular
army, not a man had been a soldier, unless in the rude train-bands that
held annual muster in that stage of the Nation's progress, however
skilled certain members might have been in the handling of hunting arms.

Organization was a matter of only a few days before the column had been
put into motion toward the west. There was no drill worthy of the name.
There was establishment of companies simply as administrative units.
Discipline seems to have been very lax indeed, even if there were periods
in which severity of undue sort appears to have been made manifest by the
superior officers.

Still more remarkable, the rank and file glorified in being men of peace,
to whom strife was abhorrent. They were recruited from a people who had
been driven from a home of prosperity and who at the time were encamped
in most temporary fashion, awaiting the word of their leaders to pass on
to the promised western Land of Canaan. For a part of the way there went
with the Battalion parts of families, surely a very unmilitary
proceeding, but most of people, whom they were to join later on the shore
of the Great Salt Lake of which they knew so little. They were illy clad
and shod, were armed mainly with muskets of type even then obsolete, were
given wagon transportation from the odds and ends of a military post
equipment and thus were set forth upon their great adventure.

Formation of the Mormon Battalion came logically as a part of the
determination of the Mormon people to seek a new home in the West, for in
1846 there had come conclusion that no permanent peace could be known in
Illinois or in any of the nearby States, owing to religious prejudice.
The High Council had made announcement of the intention of the people to
move to some good valleys of the Rocky Mountains. President Jesse C.
Little of the newly created Eastern States Mission of the Church, was
instructed to visit Washington and to secure, if possible, governmental
assistance in the western migration. One suggestion was that the Mormons
be sent to construct a number of stockade posts along the overland route.
But, finally, after President Little had had several conferences with
President Polk, there came decision to accept enlistment of a Mormon
military command, for dispatch to the Pacific Coast. The final orders cut
down the enlistment from a proffered 2000 to 500 individuals.


California Was the Goal

There should be understanding at the outset that the Mormon Battalion was
a part of the volunteer soldiery of the Mexican War. At the time there
was a regular army of very small proportions, and that was being held for
the descent upon the City of Mexico, via Vera Cruz, under General Scott.
General Taylor had volunteers for the greater part of his northern army
in Mexico. Doniphan in his expedition into Chihuahua mainly had Missouri
volunteers.

In California was looming a very serious situation. Only sailors were
available to help American settlers in seizing and holding the coast
against a very active and exceptionally well-provided and intelligent
Mexican, or Spanish-speaking, opposition. Fremont and his "surveying
party" hardly had improved the situation in bringing dissension into the
American armed forces. General Kearny had been dispatched with all speed
from Fort Leavenworth westward, with a small force of dragoons, later
narrowly escaping disaster as he approached San Diego. There was
necessity for a supporting party for Kearny and for poor vision of troops
to enforce an American peace in California. To fill this breach, resort
was had to the harassed and homeless Saints.

The route was taken along the Santa Fe trail, which then, in 1846, was in
use mainly by buffalo hunters and western trading and trapping parties.
It was long before the western migration of farm seekers, and the lure of
gold yet was distant. There were unsatisfactory conditions of
administration and travel, as narrated by historians of the command,
mainly enlisted men, naturally with the viewpoint of the private soldier.
But it happens that the details agree, in general, and indicate that the
trip throughout was one of hardship and of denial. There came the loss of
a respected commander and the temporary accession of an impolitic leader.
Especially there was complaint over the mistaken zeal of an army surgeon,
who insisted upon the administration of calomel and who denied the men
resort to their own simple remedies, reinforced by expression of what
must have been a very sustaining sort of faith.

A more popular, though strict, commander was found in Santa Fe, whence
the Battalion was pushed forward again within five days, following Kearny
to the Coast. The Rockies were passed through a trackless wilderness, yet
on better lines than had been found by Kearny's horsemen. Arizona, as now
known, was entered not far from the present city of Douglas. There were
fights with wild bulls in the San Pedro valley, there was a bloodless
victory in the taking of the ancient pueblo of Tucson, there was travail
in the passage of the desert to the Gila and a brief respite in the
plenty of the Pima villages before the weary way was taken down the Gila
to the Colorado and thence across the sands of the Colorado desert, in
California, to the shores of the western ocean.

All this was done on foot. The start from Leavenworth was in the heat of
summer, August 12, 1846. Two months later Santa Fe was entered, Tucson
was passed in December and on January 27, 1847, "was caught the first and
a magnificent view of the great ocean; and by rare chance it was so calm
that it shone like a great mirror."

In detail, the following description of the march, as far as Los Angeles,
mainly is from the McClintock History of Arizona.


Organization of the Battalion

Col. Stephen W. Kearny, commanding the First Dragoon regiment, then
stationed at Fort Leavenworth, selected Capt. James Allen of the same
regiment to be commander of the new organization, with volunteer rank as
lieutenant-colonel. The orders read: "You will have the Mormons
distinctly understand that I wish to have them as volunteers for twelve
months; that they will be marched to California, receive pay and
allowances during the above time, and at its expiration they will be
discharged, and allowed to retain as their private property the guns and
accouterments furnished them at this post."

Captain Allen proceeded at once to Mount Pisgah, a Mormon camp 130 miles
east of Council Bluffs, where, on June 26, 1846, he issued a recruiting
circular in which was stated: "This gives an opportunity of sending a
portion of your young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination
of your whole people at the expense of the United States, and this
advance party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their
brethren to come after them."

July 16, 1846, five companies were mustered into the service of the
United States at Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory. The company officers had
been elected by the recruits, including Captains Jefferson Hunt, Jesse B.
Hunter, James Brown and Nelson Higgins. George P. Dykes was appointed
adjutant and William McIntyre assistant surgeon.

The march westward was started July 20, the route through St. Joseph and
Leavenworth, where were found a number of companies of Missouri
volunteers. Colonel Allen, who had secured the confidence and affection
of his soldiers, had to be left, sick, at Leavenworth, where he died
August 23.

At Leavenworth full equipment was secured, including flintlock muskets,
with a few caplock guns for sharpshooting and hunting. Pay also was
drawn, the paymaster expressing surprise over the fact that every man
could write his own name, "something that only one in three of the
Missouri volunteers could accomplish." August 12 and 14 two divisions of
the Battalion left Leavenworth.


Cooke Succeeds to the Command

The place of Colonel Allen was taken, provisionally, by First Lieut. A.
J. Smith of the First Dragoons, who proved unpopular, animus probably
starting through his military severity and the desire of the Battalion
that Captain Hunt should succeed to the command. The first division
arrived at Santa Fe October 9, and was received by Colonel Doniphan,
commander of the post, with a salute of 100 guns. Colonel Doniphan was
an old friend. He had been a lawyer and militia commander in Clay County,
Missouri, when Joseph Smith was tried by court martial at Far West in
1838 and had succeeded in changing a judgment of death passed by the mob.
On the contrary, Col. Sterling Price, the brigade commander, was
considered an active enemy of the Mormons.

At Santa Fe, Capt. P. St. George Cooke, an officer of dragoons, succeeded
to the command, as lieutenant-colonel, under appointment of General
Kearny, who already had started westward. Capt. James Brown was ordered
to take command of a party of about eighty men, together with about
two-score women and children, and with them winter at Pueblo, on the
headwaters of the Arkansas River. Fifty-five more men were sent to Pueblo
from the Rio Grande when found unable to travel.

Colonel Cooke made a rather discouraging report on the character of the
command. He said:

"It was enlisted too much by families; some were too old, some feeble,
and some too young; it was embarrassed by too many women; it was
undisciplined; it was much worn by travel on foot and marching from
Nauvoo, Illinois; clothing was very scant; there was no money to pay them
or clothing to issue; their mules were utterly broken down; the
quartermaster department was without funds and its credit bad; animals
scarce and inferior and deteriorating every hour for lack of forage. So
every preparation must be pushed--hurried."


The March Through the Southwest

After the men had sent their pay checks back to their families, the
expedition started from Santa Fe, 448 strong. It had rations for only
sixty days. The commander wrote on November 19 that he was determined to
take along his wagons, though the mules were nearly broken down at the
outset, and added a delicate criticism of Fremont's self-centered
character, "The only good mules were taken for the express for Fremont's
mail, the General's order requiring the 21 best in, Santa Fe."

Colonel Cooke soon proved an officer who would enforce discipline. He had
secured an able quartermaster in Lieut. George Stoneman, First Dragoons.
Lieutenant Smith took office as acting commissary. Three mounted dragoons
were taken along, one a trumpeter. An additional mounted company of New
Mexican volunteers, planned at Santa Fe, could not be raised.

Before the command got out of the Rio Grande Valley, the condition of the
commissary best is to be illustrated by the following extract from verses
written by Levi Hancock:

"We sometimes now lack for bread,
Are less than quarter rations fed,
And soon expect, for all of meat,
Nought less than broke-down mules to eat."

The trip over the Continental Divide was one of hardship, at places
tracks for the wagons being made by marching files of men ahead, to tramp
down ruts wherein the wheels might run. The command for 48 hours at one
time was without water. From the top of the Divide the wagons had to be
taken down by hand, with men behind with ropes, the horses driven below.

Finally a more level country was reached, December 2, at the old, ruined
ranch of San Bernardino, near the south-eastern corner of the present
Arizona. The principal interest of the trip, till the Mexican forces at
Tucson were encountered, then lay in an attack upon the marching column
by a number of wild bulls in the San Pedro Valley. It had been assumed
that Cooke would follow down the San Pedro to the Gila, but, on learning
that the better and shorter route was by way of Tucson, he determined
upon a more southerly course.


Capture of the Pueblo of Tucson

Tucson was garrisoned by about 200 Mexican soldiers, with two small brass
fieldpieces, a concentration of the garrisons of Tubac, Santa Cruz and
Fronteras. After some brief parley, the Mexican commander, Captain
Comaduron, refusing to surrender, left the village, compelling most of
its inhabitants to accompany him. No resistance whatever was made. When
the Battalion marched in, the Colonel took pains to assure the populace
that all would be treated with kindness. He sent the Mexican commander a
courteous letter for the Governor of Sonora, Don Manuel Gandara, who was
reported "disgusted and disaffected to the imbecile central government."
Little food was found for the men, but several thousand bushels of grain
had been left and were drawn upon. On December 17, the day after the
arrival of the command, the Colonel and after fifty men "passed up a
creek about five miles above Tucson toward a village (San Xavier), where
they had seen a large church from the hills they had passed over." The
Mexican commander reported that the Americans had taken advantage of him,
in that they had entered the town on Sunday, while he and his command and
most of the inhabitants were absent at San Xavier, attending mass.

The Pima villages were reached four days later. By Cooke the Indians were
called "friendly, guileless and singularly innocent and cheerful people."

In view of the prosperity of the Pima and Maricopa, Colonel Cooke
suggested that this would be a good place for the exiled Saints to
locate, and a proposal to this effect was favorably received by the
Indians. It is possible that his suggestion had something to do with the
colonizing by the Mormons of the upper part of the nearby Salt River
Valley in later years.

About January I, 1847, to lighten the load of the half-starved mules, a
barge was made by placing two wagon bodies on dry cottonwood logs and on
this 2500 pounds of provisions and corn were launched on the Gila River.
The improvised boat found too many sandbars, and most of its cargo had to
be jettisoned, lost in a time when rations had been reduced to a few
ounces a day per man. January 9 the Colorado River was reached, and the
command and its impedimenta were ferried over on the same raft
contrivance that had proven ineffective on the Gila.

Colonel Cooke, in his narrative concerning the practicability of the
route he had taken, said: "Undoubtedly the fine bottomland of the
Colorado, if not of the Gila, will soon be settled; then all difficulty
will be removed."

The Battalion had still more woe in its passage across the desert of
Southern California, where wells often had to be dug for water and where
rations were at a minimum, until Warner's ranch was reached, where each
man was given five pounds of beef a day, constituting almost the sole
article of subsistence. Tyler, the Battalion historian, insists that five
pounds is really a small allowance for a healthy laboring man, because
"when taken alone it is not nearly equal to mush and milk," and he
referred to an issuance to each of Fremont's men of ten pounds per day
of fat beef.


Congratulation on Its Achievement

At the Mission of San Diego, January 30, 1847, the proud Battalion
Commander issued the following memorable order:

"The Lieutenant-Colonel commanding congratulates the Battalion on their
safe arrival on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and the conclusion of
their march of over 2000 miles.

"History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry.
Half of it has been through a wilderness, where nothing but savages
and wild beasts are found, or deserts where, for want of water, there is
no living creature. There, with almost hopeless labor we have dug
wells, which the future traveler will enjoy. Without a guide who had
traversed them, we have ventured into trackless tablelands where
water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pick, and
ax in hand, we worked our way over mountains, which seemed to defy
aught save the wild goat, and hewed a pass through a chasm of living
rock more narrow than our wagons. To bring these first wagons to
the Pacific, we have preserved the strength of our mules by herding
them over large tracts, which you have laboriously guarded without
loss. The garrisons of four presidios of Sonora concentrated within
the walls of Tucson, gave us no pause. We drove them out with our
artillery, but our intercourse with the citizens was unmarked by a
single act of injustice. Thus, marching, half-naked and half-fed,
and living upon wild animals, we have discovered and made a road of
great value to our country.

"Arrived at the first settlements of California, after a single day's
rest, you cheerfully turned off from the route to this point of promised
repose, to enter upon a campaign and meet, as we supposed, the approach
of an enemy; and this, too, without even salt to season your
sole subsistence of fresh meat.

"Lieutenants A. J. Smith and George Stoneman of the First Dragoons have
shared and given invaluable aid in all these labors.

"Thus, volunteers, you have exhibited some high and essential
qualities of veterans. But much remains undone. Soon you will
turn your attention to the drill, to system and order, to forms also,
which are all necessary to the soldier."


Mapping the Way Through Arizona

The only map of the route of the Mormon Battalion is one made by Colonel
Cooke. Outlined on a map of Arizona, it is printed elsewhere in this
work, insofar as it affects this State. The Colonel's map is hardly
satisfactory, for only at a few points does he designate locations known
today and his topography covers only the district within his vision as
he marched.

Judging from present information of the lay of the land, it is evident
that LeRoux did not guide the Mormon Battalion on the easiest route.
Possibly this was due to the fact that it was necessary to find water for
each daily camp. The Rio Grande was left at a point 258 miles south of
Santa Fe, not far from Mesilla. Thence the journey was generally toward
the southwest, over a very rough country nearly all the way to the
historic old rancho of San Bernardino, now on the international line
about 25 miles east of the present city of Douglas. The rancho had been
abandoned long before, because of the depredating Apaches. It was stated
by Cooke that before it had been deserted, on it were 80,000 cattle,
ranging as far as the Gila to the northward. The hacienda was enclosed by
a wall, with two regular bastions, and there was a spring fifteen feet
in diameter.

The departure from San Bernardino was on December 4, 1846, the day's
march to a camp in a pass eight miles to the westward, near a rocky basin
of water and beneath a peak which Nature apparently had painted green,
yellow and brown. This camp was noted as less than twenty miles from
Fronteras, Mexico, and near a Coyotero trail into Mexico.

On the 5th was a march of fourteen miles, to a large spring. This must
have been almost south of Douglas or Agua Prieta (Blackwater).

On the 6th the Battalion cut its way twelve miles through mesquite to a
water hole in a fine grove of oak and walnut. It is suggested by Geo. H.
Kelly that this was in Anavacachi Pass, twelve miles southwest of
Douglas.

On December 8 seventeen miles were made northwest, to a dry camp, with a
view of the valley of the San Pedro. On the 9th, either ten or sixteen
miles, for the narrative is indefinite, the San Pedro was crossed and
there was camp six miles lower down on the western side. There is
notation that the river was followed for 65 miles, one of the camps being
at what was called the Canyon San Pedro, undoubtedly at The Narrows, just
above Charleston.

December 14 there was a turn westward and at a distance of nine miles was
found a direct trail to Tucson. The day's march was twenty miles,
probably terminating at about Pantano, in the Cienega Wash, though this
is only indicated by the map or description.

On the 15th was a twelve-mile march to a dry camp and on the 16th, after
a sixteen-mile march, camp was made a half mile west of the pueblo of
Tucson.

From Tucson to the Pima villages on the Gila River, a distance of about
73 miles, the way was across the desert, practically on the present line
of the Southern Pacific railroad. Sixty-two miles were covered in 51
hours. At the Gila there was junction with General Kearny's route.

From the Pima villages westward there is mention of a dry "jornada"
(journey) of about forty miles, caused by a great bend of the Gila River.
Thus is indicated that the route was by way of Estrella Pass, south of
the Sierra Estrella, on the present railroad line, and not by the
alternative route, just south of and along the river and north of the
mountains. Thereafter the marches averaged only ten miles a day, through
much sand, as far as the Colorado, which was reached January 8, 1847.

The Battalion's route across Arizona at only one point cut a spot of
future Mormon settlement. This was in the San Pedro Valley, where the
march of a couple of days was through a fertile section that was occupied
in 1878 by a community of the faith from Lehi. This community, now known
as St. David, is referred to elsewhere, at length.


Manufactures of the Arizona Indians

Colonel Cooke told that the Maricopas, near the junction of the Gila and
the Salt, had piled on their house arbors "cotton in the pod for drying."
As he passed in the latter days of the year, it is probable he saw merely
the bolls that had been left unopened after frost had come, and that this
was not the ordinary method for handling cotton. That considerable cotton
was grown is evidenced by the fact that a part of Cooke's company
purchased cotton blankets. Historian Tyler states that when he reached
Salt Lake the most material feature of his clothing equipment was a Pima
blanket, from this proceeding an inference that the Indians made cotton
goods of lasting and wearing quality. In the northern part of Arizona,
the Hopi also raised cotton and made cloth and blankets, down to the time
of the coming of the white man, with his gaudy calicoes that undoubtedly
were given prompt preference in the color-loving aboriginal eye.


Cooke's Story of the March

"The Conquest of New Mexico and California" is the title of an excellent
and entertaining volume written in 1878 by Lieut.-Col. P. St. George
Cooke, commander of the Battalion. It embraces much concerning the
political features found or developed in both Territories and deals
somewhat with the Kearny expedition and with the Doniphan campaign into
Mexico that moved from Socorro two months after the Battalion started
westward from the Rio Grande. Despite his eloquent acknowledgment of good
service in the San Diego order, he had little to say in his narrative
concerning the personnel of his command. In addition to the estimate of
the command printed on a preceding page, he wrote, "The Battalion have
never been drilled and though obedient, have little discipline; they
exhibit great heedlessness and ignorance and some obstinacy." The
ignorance undoubtedly was of military matters, for the men had rather
better than the usual schooling of the rough period. At several points
his diary gave such details as, "The men arrived completely worn down;
they staggered as they marched, as they did yesterday. A great many of
the men are wholly without shoes and use every expedient, such as rawhide
moccasins and sandals and even wrapping the feet in pieces of woolen and
cotton cloth."

It is evident that to the Colonel's West Point ideas of discipline the
conduct of his command was a source of irritation that eventually was
overcome when he found he could depend upon the individuals as well as
upon the companies. Several stories are told of his encounters in
repartee with his soldiers, in which he did not always have the upper
hand, despite his rank. Brusque in manner, he yet had a saving sense of
humor that had to be drawn upon to carry off situations that would have
been intolerable in his own command of dragoons.


Tyler's Record of the Expedition

The best of the narratives concerning the march of the Battalion is in a
book printed in 1881 by Daniel Tyler, an amplification of a remarkable
diary kept by him while a member of the organization. This book has an
exceptionally important introduction, written by John Taylor, President
of the Mormon Church, detailing at length the circumstances that led to
the western migration of his people. He is especially graphic in his
description of the riots of the summer of 1844, culminating in the
assassination of Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum at Carthage,
Illinois, on June 27th. Taylor was with the Prophet at the time and was
badly wounded. There also is an interesting introductory chapter, written
by Col. Thos. L. Kane, not a Mormon, dramatically dwelling upon the
circumstances of the exodus from Nauvoo and the later dedication there
of the beautiful temple, abandoned immediately thereafter. He wrote also
of the Mormon camps that were then working westward, describing the high
spirit and even cheerfulness in which the people were accepting exile
from a grade of civilization that had made them prefer the wilds. Colonel
Kane helped in the organization of the Battalion, in bringing influence
to bear upon the President and in carrying to Fort Leavenworth the orders
under which the then Colonel Kearny proceeded.


Henry Standage's Personal Journal

One of the treasures of the Arizona Historian's office is a copy of a
journal of about 12,000 words kept by Henry Standage, covering his
service as a member of the Mormon Battalion from July 19, 1846, to July
19, 1847. The writer in his later years was a resident of Mesa, his home
in Alma Ward. His manuscript descended to his grandsons, Orrin and
Clarence Standage.

Standage writes from the standpoint of the private soldier, with the
soldier's usual little growl over conditions that affect his comfort;
yet, throughout the narrative, there is evidence of strong integrity of
purpose, of religious feeling and of sturdiness befitting a good soldier.

There is pathos in the very start, how he departed from the Camp of
Israel, near Council Bluffs, leaving his wife and mother in tears. He had
been convinced by T. B. Platt of the necessity of obedience to the call
of the President of the United States to enlist in the federal service.
The narrative contradicts in no way the more extensive chronicle by
Tyler. There is description of troubles that early beset the
inexperienced soldiers, who appear to have been illy prepared to
withstand the inclemency of the weather. There was sage dissertation
concerning the efforts of an army surgeon to use calomel, though the men
preferred the exercise of faith. Buffalo was declared the best meat he
had ever eaten.

On November 1 satisfaction was expressed concerning substitution to the
place of Philemon C. Merrill. When the sick were sent to Pueblo, November
10, Standage fervently wrote, "This does in reality make solemn times for
us, so many divisions taking place. May the God of Heaven protect us
all."

[Illustration 1: MORMON BATTALION OFFICERS
1--P. St. George Cooke, Lieut. Col. Commanding
2--Lieut. George P. Dykes, Adjutant, succeeded by
3--Lieut. Philemon C. Merrill, Adjutant]

[Illustration 2: BATTALION MEMBERS AT GOLD DISCOVERY
Above--Henry W. Bigler, Azariah Smith
Below--Wm. J. Johnston, James S. Brown]

[Illustration: BATTALION MEMBERS WHO RETURNED TO ARIZONA
1--Sergt. Nathaniel V. Jones
2--Wm. C. McClellan
3--Sanford Porter
4--Lot Smith
5--John Hunt
6--Wilson D. Pace
7--Samuel Lewis
8--Wesley Adair
9--Lieut. James Pace
10--Christopher Layton]

San Bernardino, in Sonora, was reached December 2, being found in ruins,
"though all around us a pleasant valley with good water and grass."
Appreciation was expressed over the flavor of "a kind of root, baked,
which the Spaniards called mas kurl" (mescal). Many of the cattle had
Spanish brands on their hips, it being explained, "Indians had been so
troublesome in times past that the Spaniards had to abandon the towns and
vineyards, and cross the Cordillera Mountains, leaving their large flocks
of cattle in the valley, thus making plenty of food for the Apalchas."

In San Pedro valley were found "good horse feed and fish in abundance
(salmon trout), large herds of wild cattle and plenty of antelope and
some bear." The San Pedro River was especially noted as having "mill
privileges in abundance." Here it was that Lieutenant Stoneman,
accidentally shot himself in the hand. Two old deserted towns were
passed.

Standage tells that the Spanish soldiers had gone from Tucson when the
Battalion arrived, but that, "we were kindly treated by the people, who
brought flour, meal, tobacco and quinces to the camp for sale, and many
of them gave such things to the soldiers. We camped about a half mile
from the town. The Colonel suffered no private property to be touched,
neither was it in the heart of any man to my knowledge to do so."

Considering the strength of the Spanish garrison, Standage was led to
exclaim that, "the Lord God of Israel would save his people, inasmuch as
he knoweth the causes of our being here in the United States." Possibly
it was unfair to say that no one but the Lord knew why the soldiers were
there, and Tucson then was not in the United States.

The journey to the Gila River was a hard one, but the chronicler was
compensated by seeing "the long looked-for country of California," which
it was not. The Pimas were found very friendly, bringing food, which they
readily exchanged for such things as old shirts. Standage especially was
impressed by the eating of a watermelon, for the day was Christmas.
January 10, 1847, at the crossing of the Colorado, he was detailed to the
gathering of mesquite beans, "a kind of sweet seed that grows on a tree
resembling the honey locust, the mules and men being very fond of this.
The brethren use this in various ways, some grinding it and mixing it in
bread with the flour, others making pudding, while some roast it or eat
it raw." "January 27, at 1 o'clock, we came in sight of the ocean, the
great Pacific, which was a great sight to some, having never seen any
portion of the briny deep before."


California Towns and Soldier Experiences

At San Diego, which was reached by Standage and a small detachment
January 30, provisions were found very scarce, while prices were
exorbitant. Sugar cost 50 cents a pound, so the soldier regaled himself
with one-quarter of a pound and gathered some mustard greens to eke out
his diet. For 26 days he had eaten almost nothing but beef. He purchased
a little wheat from the Indians and ground it in a hand mill, to make
some cakes, which were a treat.

Late in April, at Los Angeles, there was a move to another camping
ground, "as the Missouri volunteers (Error, New York volunteers--Author)
had threatened to come down upon us. A few days later we were called up
at night in order to load and fix bayonets, as Colonel Cooke had sent
word that an attack might be expected from Colonel Fremont's men before
day. They had been using all possible means to prejudice the Spaniards
and Indians against us."

Los Angeles made poor impression upon the soldiers in the Battalion. The
inhabitants were called "degraded" and it was declared that there were
almost as many grog shops and gambling dens as private houses. Reference
is made to the roofs of reeds, covered with pitch from tar springs
nearby. Incidentally, these tar "springs" in a later century led to
development of the oil industry, that now is paramount in much of
California, and have been found to contain fossil remains of wonderful
sort.

The Indians were said "to do all the labor, the Mexicans generally on
horseback from morning till night. They are perhaps the greatest horsemen
in the known world and very expert with lariat and lasso, but great
gamblers."

Food assuredly was not dear, for cattle sold for $5 a head. Many cattle
were killed merely for hides and tallow and for the making of soap.

About the most entertaining section of Standage's journal is that which
chronicles his stay in Southern California, possibly because it gave him
an opportunity to do something else beside tramping. There is much detail
concerning re-enlistment, but there was general inclination to follow the
advice of Father Pettegrew, who showed "the necessity of returning to the
prophets of the Lord before going any further."

Just before the muster-out, the soldiers were given an opportunity to
witness a real Spanish bull fight, called "a scene of cruelty, savoring
strongly of barbarity and indolence, though General Pico, an old Mexican
commander, went into the ring several times on horseback and fought the
bulls with a short spear."

What with the hostility of the eastern volunteers, the downright enmity
of Fremont's company and the alien habits of the Mexican population, the
sober-minded members of the Battalion must have been compelled to keep
their own society very largely while in the pueblo of Los Angeles, or, to
give it its Spanish appellation, "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de
los Angeles de Porciuncula." Still, some of them tried to join in the
diversions of the people of the country. On one occasion, according to
Historian Eldridge, there was something of a quarrel between Captain Hunt
and Alcalde Carrillo, who had given offense by observing that the
American officer "danced like a bear." The Alcalde apologized very
courteously, saying that bears were widely known as dancers, but the
breach was not healed.


Christopher Layton's Soldiering.

Another history of the Battalion especially interesting from an Arizona
standpoint, is contained in the life of Christopher Layton, issued in
1911 and written by Layton's daughter, Mrs. Selina Layton Phillips, from
data supplied by the Patriarch. The narrative is one of the best at hand
in the way of literary preparation, though with frank statement that
President Layton himself had all too little education for the
accomplishment of such a task.

Layton was a private soldier in Company C, under Capt. James Brown. There
is nothing of especial novelty in the narrative, nor does there seem
anything of prophecy when the Battalion passed through the Valley of the
San Pedro in December, 1846, through a district to which Layton was to
return, in 1883, as leader of a Mormon colony.

Layton was one of the number that remained in California after the
discharge of the Battalion, eventually rejoining the Saints, at Salt
Lake, by way of his native land, England.

In B. H. Roberts' very interesting little work on the Mormon Battalion is
told this story of the later patriarch of the Gila settlement:

"While Colonel Cooke was overseeing the ferrying of the Battalion across
the Colorado River, Christopher Layton rode up to the river on a mule, to
let it drink. Colonel Cooke said to him, 'Young man, I want you to ride
across the river and carry a message for me to Captain Hunt.' It being
natural for the men to obey the Colonel's order, he (Layton) tried to
ride into the river, but he had gone but a few steps before his mule was
going in all over. So Brother Layton stopped. The Colonel hallooed out,
'Go on, young man; go on, young man.' But Brother Layton, on a moment's
reflection, was satisfied that, if he attempted it, both he and his mule
would stand a good chance to be drowned. The Colonel himself was
satisfied of the same. So Brother Layton turned his mule and rode off,
saying, as he came out, 'Colonel, I'll see you in hell before I will
drown myself and mule in that river.' The Colonel looked at him a moment,
and said to the bystanders, 'What is that man's name?' 'Christopher
Layton, sir.' 'Well, he is a saucy fellow.'"

That the Mormon Battalion did not always rigidly obey orders is shown in
another story detailed by Roberts:

"While the Battalion was at Santa Fe, Colonel Cooke ordered Lot Smith to
guard a Mexican corral, and, having a company of United States cavalry
camped by, he told Lot if the men came to steal the poles to bayonet
them. The men came and surrounded the corral, and while Lot was guarding
one side, they would hitch to a pole on the other and ride off with it.
When the Colonel saw the poles were gone, he asked Lot why he did not
obey orders and bayonet the thieves. Lot replied, 'If you expect me to
bayonet United States troops for taking a pole on the enemy's ground to
make a fire of, you mistake your man.' Lot expected to be punished, and
he was placed under guard; but nothing further was done about it."


Western Dash of the Kearny Dragoons

Of collateral interest is the record of the Kearny expedition. The
Colonel, raised to General at Santa Fe, left that point September 25,
1846, with 300 dragoons, under Col. E.V. Sumner. The historians of the
party were Lieut. W.H. Emory of the Corps of Topographical Engineers
(later in charge of the Boundary Survey) and Capt. A. R. Johnston, the
latter killed at San Pascual. Kearny was piloted by the noted Kit Carson,
who was turned back as he was traveling eastward with dispatches from
Fremont. The Gila route was taken, though there had to be a detour at the
box canyon above the mouth of the San Pedro. Emory and Johnston wrote
much of the friendly Pima. The former made prophecy, since sustained,
concerning the development of the Salt and other river valleys, and the
working of great copper deposits noted by him on the Gila, at Mineral
Creek. The Colorado was crossed November 24. On December 6 the small
command, weary with its march and illy provisioned, was attacked at San
Pascual by Gen. Andres Pico. Two days of fighting found the Americans in
sad plight, with eighteen killed and thirteen wounded. The enemy had been
severely handled, but still barred the way to the nearby seacoast. Guide
Kit Carson and Naval Lieutenant E.F. Beale managed to slip through to San
Diego, there to summon help. It came to the beleaguered Americans
December 10, a party of 180 well-armed sailors and marines, sent by
Commodore Stockton, falling upon the rear of the Mexican host, which
dispersed. The following day, Kearny entered San Diego, thence proceeding
northward to help in the final overthrow of Mexican authority within Alta
California.




Chapter Three

The Battalion's Muster-Out


Heading Eastward Toward "Home"

Muster-out of the Battalion was at Los Angeles, July 16, 1847, just a
year after enlistment, eight days before Brigham Young reached Great Salt
Lake. The joyous ceremonial was rather marred by the fact that the
muster-out officer was none other than Lieutenant Smith. There was an
attempt to keep the entire Battalion in the service, both Kearny and
Colonel Mason urging reenlistment. At the same time was an impolitic
speech by Colonel Stevenson of the New York Volunteers. He said: "Your
patriotism and obedience to your officers have done much toward
removing the prejudices of the Government and the community at large, and
I am satisfied that another year's service would place you on a level
with other communities." This speech hardly helped in inclining the men
toward extension of a service in which it was felt all that had been
required had been delivered. Stevenson, a politician rather than a
soldier, seemed to have a theory that the Mormons were seeking
reenlistment of a second battalion or regiment, that California might be
peopled by themselves. There was opposition to reenlistment among the
elders, especially voiced by "Father" Pettegrew and by members Hyde and
Tyler. Even promise that independent command would be given to Captain
Hunt did not prove effective. Only one company was formed of men who were
willing to remain in California for a while longer. In this new company
were Henry G. Boyle, Henry Brizzee, Lot Smith and George Steele, all
later residents of Arizona.

Most of the soldiers of the Battalion made haste in preparation to rejoin
the main body of the people of their faith. Assuredly they had little
knowledge of what was happening in the Rocky Mountains. On the 20th of
July, four days before the Mormon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, most
of the men had been organized to travel "home" after what Tyler called
"both the ancient and the modern Israelitish custom, in companies of
hundreds, fifties and tens." The leaders were Andrew Lytle and James
Pace, with Sergeants Hyde, Tyler and Reddick N. Allred as captains of
fifties.

The first intention to travel via Cajon Pass was abandoned, and the
companies took the northern route, via Sutter's Fort on the Sacramento
River, to follow Fremont's trail across the Sierras. On the Sacramento
they received the first news of their brethren since leaving Fort
Leavenworth, a year before. They learned that the Saints were settling
the Great Salt Lake Valley, and there also was news of the Brannan party
at San Francisco.

With full assent from the leaders, some of the brethren remained in the
vicinity of Sutter's Fort, where work was plenty, and probably half of
those who went on across the mountains returned on receipt of advices
that came to them at Donner Lake, at the hands of Capt. James Brown, of
the Pueblo detachment. The Church authorities instructed all who had
insufficient means to remain in California and labor and to bring their
earnings with them in the spring. Tyler, with his party, arrived in Salt
Lake Valley October 16, to find his relatives living in a fort, which had
all rooms opening into an enclosure, with port-holes for defense cut in
the outer walls.

The new company, with additional enlistment of six months, was placed
under Capt. Daniel C. Davis, who had been in command of Company E. The
company was marched to San Diego, arriving August 2. A detachment under
Lieut. Ruel Barrus garrisoned San Luis Rey. In San Diego the men appeared
to have had little military duty. They were allowed to work as mechanics,
repaired wagons, did blacksmithing and erected a bakery. They became very
popular with the townspeople, who wanted to retain them as permanent
residents. It was noted that the Mormons had conquered prejudice and had
effected a kind of industrial revolution in languid Alta California.

[Illustration: BATTALION MEMBERS WHO RETURNED TO ARIZONA

1--Samuel H. Rogers              6--Hyrum Judd
2--Henry Standage                7--Samuel Thompson
3--Edward Bunker                 8--Wm. A. Follett
4--Henry W. Brizzee              9--Schuyler Hulett
5--George Steele                10--David Pulsipher]

[Illustration: BATTALION MEMBERS WHO RETURNED TO ARIZONA

1--Rufus C. Allen
2--John Steele
3--Reuben Allred
4--Elzada Ford Allred
5--Wm. B. Maxwell
6--Henry G. Boyle
7--Zadok K. Judd]

The enlistment term expired in January, but it was March, 1848, before
the men were paid off and discharged. Most of the 78 members of the
company went northward, but one party of 22, led by Henry G. Boyle,
taking a wagon and 135 mules, started to Salt Lake by way of the Mojave
desert, reaching its destination June 5. This would appear to have been a
very important journey, the party probably being first with wagons to
travel what later became known as the Mormon road.

Following the very practical customs of their people, the members of the
Battalion picked up in California a large quantity of seeds and grains
for replanting in Utah, welcomed in establishing the marvelous
agricultural community there developed. Lieut. James Pace brought in the
club-head wheat, which proved especially suited to inter-mountain
climatic conditions. From Pueblo other members brought the Taos wheat,
which also proved valuable. Daniel Tyler brought the California pea.

Although the Author has seen little mention of it, the Battalion
membership took to Utah much valuable information concerning methods of
irrigation, gained at Pueblo, in the Rio Grande Valley and in California.
While most of the emigrants were of the farming class, their experience
had been wholly in the Mississippi Valley or farther east, where the
rains alone were depended upon to furnish the moisture necessary for
crops.


With the Pueblo Detachment

Capt. James Brown would have led his band from Pueblo as soon as the
snows had melted in the passes, but held back on receipt of information
that the main body of Saints still was on the plains. As it was, he and
his charge arrived at Salt Lake, July 29, 1847, five days after the
advent of Brigham Young. Brown remained only a few days, setting out
early in August for California, there to receive the pay of his command.
The main body had been paid off at Los Angeles, July 15. On his westward
way, Brown led a small company over the Carson route. In the Sierras,
September 6, he met the first returning detachment of Battalion soldiers.
To them he delivered letters from the First Presidency telling of the
scarcity of food in the Salt Lake Valley. Sam Brannan, leader at San
Francisco, had passed, going westward, only the day before, giving a
gloomy account of the new home of the Saints. So about half the Battalion
men turned back to Sutter's Fort, presumably with Brown. Brown returned
from Los Angeles with the pay of his men, money sorely needed.

The Pueblo detachment arrived in Salt Lake with about fifty individuals
from Mississippi added to the 150 men and women who had been separated
from the main body of the Battalion in New Mexico. Forty-six of the
Battalion men accompanied President Young when he started back, August 8,
for Winter Quarters, on the west side of the Missouri, five miles above
Omaha, to help in piloting over the plains the main body of Saints.

Captain Brown, according to a Brigham Young manuscript, was absent in
California three months and seven days, returning late in November, 1847,
bringing back with him the pay due the Pueblo contingent. Several stories
were given concerning the amount. One was that it was about $5000, mainly
in gold, and another that the amount was $10,000 in Mexican doubloons.

The Pueblo detachment had been paid last in Santa Fe in May, 1846. The
muster-out rolls were taken by Brown to Paymaster Rich of Colonel Mason's
command in California. Pay included July 29, 1847, thirteen days after
expiration of the term of enlistment.

A part of the money, apparently considered as community property, was
used early in 1848 in the purchase of a tract of land, about twenty miles
square, at the mouth of Weber Canyon. The sum of $1950, cash, was paid to
one Goodyear, who claimed to own a Mexican grant, but who afterward
proved to have only a squatter right. The present city of Ogden is on
this same tract.


California Comments on the Battalion

Very generally there has come down evidence that the men of the Battalion
were of very decent sort. Colonel Mason, commanding the California
military department, in June, 1847, made report to the Adjutant General
of the Army:

"Of the service of this Battalion, of their patience, subordination and
general good conduct you have already heard; and I take great pleasure in
adding that as a body of men they have religiously respected the rights
and feelings of these conquered people, and not a syllable of complaint
has reached my ears of a single insult offered or outrage done by a
Mormon volunteer. So high an opinion did I entertain of the Battalion and
of their especial fitness for the duties now performed by the garrisons
in this country that I made strenuous efforts to engage their services
for another year."

With reference to the Mormon Battalion, Father Engelhardt, in his
"Missions and Missionaries of California," wrote:

"It is not likely that these Mormons, independent of United States and
military regulations, would have wantonly destroyed any part of the
church property or church fixtures during their several months' stay at
San Luis Rey. Whatever some of the moral tenets held by them in those
days, the Mormons, to all appearances, were a God-fearing body, who ...
manifested some respect for the religious convictions and feelings of
other men, notably of the Catholics. It is, therefore, highly improbable
that they ... raved against ... religious emblems found in the missions
of California. On the contrary, they appear to have let everything alone,
even made repairs, and minded their own duties to their Creator, in that
they practiced their religion openly whithersoever they went...."


Leaders of the Battalion

Colonel Cooke for a while was in command of the southern half of Alta
California, incidentally coming into a part of the row created when
Fremont laid claim upon the governorship of the Territory. In this his
men were affected to a degree, for Fremont's father-in-law and patron,
Senator Benton, was believed one of the bitterest foes of the Mormon
people.

Cooke resigned as lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, effective May 13,
1847, he thus leaving the Battalion before the date of its discharge. He
accompanied General Kearny on an 83-day ride eastward, returning to Fort
Leaven worth August 22. With them was Fremont, arrested, charged with
mutiny in refusing to acknowledge the authority of Kearny in California.
He was found guilty, but a sentence of dismissal from the army was
remitted by President Polk. Fremont immediately resigned from the
service.

Cooke, in 1857-8, led the cavalry of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston's
expedition to Utah and there is a memorandum that, when his regiment
marched through the streets of Salt Lake City, the Colonel rode with
uncovered head, "out of respect to the brave men of the Mormon Battalion
he had commanded in their march to the Pacific." In the Civil War he was
a brigadier-general, with brevet of major-general in 1865.

Lieut. A. J. Smith, whose disciplinary ideas may have been too severe for
a command that started with such small idea of discipline, nevertheless
proved a brave and skillful officer. He rose in 1864 to be major-general
of volunteers and was brevetted major-general of regulars for
distinguished service in command of the Sixteenth army corps, under
General Thomas, at the battle of Nashville.

Lieut. George Stoneman in 1854 commanded a dragoon escort for Lieut. J.
G. Parke, who laid out a railroad route across Arizona, from the Pima
villages through Tucson, much on the line of the present Southern
Pacific. He was a captain, commanding Fort Brown, Texas, at the
outbreak of the Civil War, in which he rose to the rank of major-general
of volunteers, with fame in the Virginia campaign as chief of cavalry of
the Army of the Potomac, in which he later was a division and corps
commander. In 1870 and 1871 he commanded the military department of
Arizona, during the time of the Old Fort Grant massacre, and his name is
still borne by the Stoneman Grade, above Silver King, a trail built by
him to better command the Indian-infested mountains beyond. He was
Democratic Governor of California from 1883 to 1887. A son, Geo. J.
Stoneman, for years resided in Phoenix.

Lieut. Edw. F. Beale, who helped save the Kearny expedition near San
Diego was a member of a party that had been sent from San Diego to meet
the dragoons. The following March, he and Carson carried dispatches east,
taking the Gila route. In August, 1848, again in California, he was made
the naval messenger to advise Washington of the discovery of gold in
California. In 1857 he made a remarkable survey of the 35th parallel
across Arizona, using camels, and he repeated the trip in 1859.

The camels had been brought from Syria. They carried three times a mule
load and were declared ideal for pioneer transportation uses. But Beale
was alone in their praise and the camels eventually were turned loose on
the plains. He was minister to Austria in 1878.

Both adjutants of the Mormon Battalion later became permanent residents
of Arizona. Geo. P. Dykes for years was a resident of Mesa, where he died
in 1888, at the age of 83. Philemon C. Merrill, in 1881, was one of the
custodians of the Utah stone, sent from Salt Lake, for insertion in the
Washington Monument, in Washington. He and his family constituted the
larger part of the D.W. Jones party that founded Lehi in March, 1877, and
it was he, who, soon thereafter, led in the settlement of St. David in
the San Pedro Valley, on the route of the Mormon Battalion march. He died
at San Jose, in the Gila Valley, September 15, 1904.

Pauline Weaver, the principal guide, was a Frenchman, who had been in the
Southwest at least since 1832, when he visited the Pima villages and Casa
Grande. In 1862, while trapping, he was one of the discoverers of the La
Paz gold diggings. The following year he was with the Peeples party that
found gold on Rich Hill, in central Arizona. Thereafter he was an army
scout. He died at Camp Verde in 1866.

Antoine LeRoux, the other guide named, was with the Whipple expedition
across northern Arizona in 1853. His name is borne by LeRoux Springs,
northwest of Flagstaff, and by LeRoux Wash, near Holbrook.


Passing of the Battalion Membership

No member of the Mormon Battalion now is living. The last to pass was
Harley Mowrey, private Co. C, who died in his home in Vernal, Utah,
October 21, 1920, at the age of 98. He was one of the men sent from New
Mexico to Pueblo and who arrived at Salt Lake a few days after the
Pioneers. On the way to Salt Lake he married the widow of another
Battalion member, Martha Jane Sharp, who survives, as well as seven
children, 41 grandchildren, 94 great-grandchildren and thirty of the
latest generation. Mowrey and wife were members of the San Bernardino
colony.


A Memorial of Noble Conception

On the Capitol grounds at Salt Lake soon is to arise a noble memorial of
the service of the Mormon Battalion. The legislature of Utah has voted
toward the purpose $100,000, contingent upon the contribution of a
similar sum at large. A State Monument Commission has been created,
headed by B.H. Roberts, and this organization has been extended to all
parts of Utah, Idaho and Arizona.

In the 1921 session of the Arizona Legislature was voted a contribution
to the Battalion Monument Fund of $2500 this with expression of State
pride in the achievement that meant so much to the Southwest and Pacific
Coast.

From nineteen designs submitted have been selected the plans of G. P.
Riswold. A condensed description of the monument is contained in a report
of the Commission:

"The base is in triangular form, with concave sides and rounded corners.
A bronze figure of a Battalion man is mounted upon the front corner.
Flanking him on two sides of the triangle are: cut in high relief, on the
left, the scene of the enlistment of the Battalion under the flag of the
United States of America; on the right a scene of the march, where the
men are assisting in pulling the wagons of their train up and over a
precipitous ascent, while still others are ahead, widening a cut to
permit the passage of the wagons between the out-jutting rocks. The
background is a representation of mountains of the character through
which the Battalion and its train passed on its journey to the Pacific.

"Just below the peak, in the center and in front of it, is chiseled a
beautiful head and upper part of a woman, symbolizing the 'Spirit of the
West.' She personifies the impulsive power and motive force that
sustained these Battalion men, and led them, as a vanguard of
civilization, across the trackless plains and through the difficult
defiles and passes of the mountains. The idea of the sculptor in the
'Spirit of the West' is a magnificent conception and should dominate
the whole monument.

"The bronze figure of the Battalion man is dignified, strong and
reverential. He excellently typifies that band of pioneer soldiers which
broke a way through the rugged mountains and over trackless wastes.

"Hovering over and above him, the beautiful female figure, with an air of
solicitous care, guards him in his reverie. Her face stands out in full
relief, the hair and diaphanous drapery waft back, mingling with the
clouds, while the figure fades into dim outline in the massive peaks and
mountains, seeming to pervade the air and the soil with her very soul."


Battalion Men Who Became Arizonans

Of the Battalion members, 33 are known to have become later residents of
Arizona, with addition of one of the women who had accompanied the
Battalion to Santa Fe and who had wintered at Pueblo. There is
gratification over the fact that it has been found possible to secure
photographs of nearly all the 33. Reproduction of these photographs
accompanies this chapter. When this work was begun, only about ten
Battalion members could be located as having been resident in this State.
Some of those who came back to Arizona were notable in their day, for all
of them now have made the last march of humanity.

Jas. S. Brown, who helped find gold in California, was an early Indian
missionary on the Muddy and in northeastern Arizona. Edward Bunker
founded Bunkerville, a Virgin River settlement, and later died on the San
Pedro, at St. David. Geo. P. Dykes, who was the first adjutant of the
Battalion, did service for his Church in 1849 and 1850 in Great Britain
and Denmark. Philemon C. Merrill, who succeeded Dykes as adjutant, was
one of the most prominent of the pioneers of the San Pedro and Gila
valleys. There is special mention, elsewhere, of Christopher Layton. In
the same district, at Thatcher, lived and died Lieut. James Pace. Henry
Standage was one of the first settlers of Alma Ward, near Mesa. Lot
Smith, one of the vanguard in missionary work in northeastern Arizona and
a leader in the settlement of the Little Colorado Valley, was slain by
one of the Indians to whose service he had dedicated himself. Henry W.
Brizzee was a leading pioneer of Mesa. Henry G. Boyle became the first
president of the Southern States mission of his church, and was so
impressed with the view he had of Arizona, in Battalion days, that, early
in 1877, he sent into eastern Arizona a party of Arkansas immigrants.
Adair, in southern Navajo County, was named after a Battalion member.

A complete list of Arizona Battalion members follows:

Wesley Adair, Co. C.--Showlow.
Rufus C. Allen, Co. A.--Las Vegas.
Reuben W. Allred, Co. A.--Pima.
Mrs. Elzada Ford Allred--Accompanied husband.
Henry G. Boyle, Co. C.--Pima.
Henry W. Brizzee, Co. D.--Mesa.
James S. Brown, Co. D.--Moen Copie.
Edward Bunker, Co. E.--St. David.
George P. Dykes, Co. D.--Mesa.
Wm. A. Follett, Co. E.--Near Showlow.
Schuyler Hulett, Co. A.--Phoenix.
John Hunt--Snowflake--Accompanied his father, Capt. Jefferson Hunt.
Marshall (Martial) Hunt, Co. A.--Snowflake.
Wm. J. Johnston, Co. C.--Mesa..
Nathaniel V. Jones, Co. D.--Las Vegas.
Hyrum Judd, Co. E.--Sunset and Pima.
Zadok Judd, Co. E.--Fredonia.
Christopher Layton, Co. C.--Thatcher.
Samuel Lewis, Co. C.--Thatcher.
Wm. B. Maxwell, Co. D.--Springerville.
Wm. C. McClellan, Co. E.--Sunset.
Philemon C. Merrill, Co. B.--Pima.
James Pace, Co. E.--Thatcher.
Wilson D. Pace, Co. E.--Thatcher.
Sanford Porter, Co. E.--Sunset.
Wm. C. Prous (Prows), Co. B.--Mesa.
David Pulsipher, Co. C.--Concho.
Samuel H. Rogers, Co. B.--Snowflake.
Henry Standage, Co. E.--Mesa.
George E. Steele, Co. A.--Mesa.
John Steele, Co. D.--Moen Copie.
Lot Smith, Co. E.--Sunset and Tuba.
Samuel Thompson, Co. C.--Mesa.

[Illustration: THE MORMON BATTALION MONUMENT Proposed to be erected at a
cost of $200,000 on the Utah State Capitol Grounds.]

[Illustration: OLD SPANISH TOWN OF TUBAC. Map made 1754. Where a Mormon
Colony located in the fall of 1851; 42 miles south of Tucson.]




Chapter Four

California's Mormon Pilgrims


The Brooklyn Party at San Francisco

The members of the Mormon Battalion were far from being the first of
their faith to tread the golden sands of California. Somehow, in the
divine ordering of things mundane, the Mormons generally were very near
the van of Anglo-Saxon settlement of the States west of the Rockies. Thus
it happened that on July 29, 1846, only three weeks after the American
naval occupation of the harbor, there anchored inside the Golden Gate the
good ship Brooklyn, that had brought from New York 238 passengers, mainly
Saints, the first American contribution of material size to the
population of the embarcadero of Yerba Buena, where now is the lower
business section of the stately city of San Francisco.

The Brooklyn, of 450 tons burden, had sailed from New York February 4,
1846, the date happening to be the same as that on which began the exodus
from Nauvoo westward. The voyage was an authorized expedition, counseled
by President Brigham Young and his advisers in the early winter. At one
time it was expected that thousands would take the water route to the
west shore, on their way to the Promised Land. Elder Samuel Brannan was
in charge of the first company, which mainly consisted of American farmer
folk from the eastern and middle-western States. The ship had been
chartered for $1200 a month and port charges. Fare had been set at $50
for all above fourteen years and half-fare for children above five.
Addition was made of $25 for provisions. The passengers embraced seventy
men, 68 women and about 100 children. There was a freight of farming
implements and tools, seeds, a printing press, many school books, etc.

The voyage appears to have been even a pleasant one, though with a few
notations of sickness, deaths and births and of trials that set a small
number of the passengers aside from the Church. Around Cape Horn and as
far as the Robinson Crusoe island of Juan Fernandez, off the Chilian
coast, the seas were calm. Thereafter were two storms of serious sort,
but without phase of disaster to the pilgrims. The next stop was at
Honolulu, on the Hawaiian Islands, thence the course being fair for the
Golden Gate.

When Captain Richardson dropped his anchors in the cove of Yerba Buena it
appears to have been the first time that the emigrants appreciated they
had arrived at anything save a colony of old Mexico. But when a naval
officer boarded the ship and advised the passengers they were in the
United States, "there arose a hearty cheer," though Brannan has been
quoted as hardly pleased over the sight of the Stars and Stripes.


Beginnings of a Great City

As written by Augusta Joyce Cocheron, one of the emigrants:

"They crowded upon the deck, women and children, questioning husbands and
fathers, and studied the picture before them--they would never see it
just the same again--as the foggy curtains furled towards the azure
ceiling. How it imprinted itself upon their minds! A long sandy beach
strewn with hides and skeletons of slaughtered cattle, a few scrubby
oaks, farther back low sand hills rising behind each other as a
background to a few old shanties that leaned away from the wind, an old
adobe barracks, a few donkeys plodding dejectedly along beneath towering
bundles of wood, a few loungers stretched lazily upon the beach as though
nothing could astonish them; and between the picture and the emigrants
still loomed up here and there, at the first sight more distinctly, the
black vessels--whaling ships and sloops of war--that was all, and that
was Yerba Buena, now San Francisco, the landing place for the pilgrims of
faith."

In John P. Young's "Journalism in California" is recited:

"It is not without significance that the awakening of Yerba Buena did not
occur till the advent of the printing press. From the day when Leese
built his store in 1836 till the arrival of the Mormon colony on July 31,
1846, the village retained all the peculiarities of a poverty-stricken
settlement of the Spanish-American type. From that time forward changes
began to occur indicative of advancement and it is impossible to
disassociate them from the fact that a part of the Brooklyn's cargo was a
press and a font of type, and that the 238 colonists aboard that vessel
and others who found their way to the little town, brought with them
books--more, one careful writer tells us, than could be found at the time
in all the rest of the Territory put together."

Brannan and his California Star had a part in the very naming of San
Francisco. This occurred January 30, 1847, rather hurried by discovery of
the fact that a rival settlement on the upper bay proposed to take the
name. So there was formal announcement in the Star that, from that date
forward, there would be abandonment of the name Yerba Buena, as local and
appertaining only to the cove, and adoption of the name of San Francisco.
This announcement was signed by the Alcalde, Lieut. Washington A.
Bartlett, who had been detached by Capt. J. B. Montgomery from the
man-of-war Portsmouth on September 15, 1846, and who rejoined his ship
the following February.

One of the Brooklyn's passengers in later years became a leader in the
settlement of Mesa, Arizona. He was Geo. W. Sirrine, a millwright, whose
history has been preserved by a son, Warren L. Sirrine of Mesa. The elder
Sirrine was married on the ship, of which and its voyage he left many
interesting tales, one being of a drift to the southward on beating
around Cape Horn, till icebergs loomed and the men had to be detailed to
the task of beating the rigging with clubs to rid it of ice. When danger
threatened there was resort to prayer, but work soon followed as the
passengers bore a hand with the crew.

Sirrine, who had had police experience in the East, was of large
assistance to Brannan in San Francisco, where the rougher element for a
time seized control, taking property at will and shooting down all who
might disagree with their sway. It was he who arrested Jack Powers,
leader of the outlaws, in a meeting that was being addressed by Brannan,
and who helped in the provision of evidence under which the naval
authorities eliminated over fifty of the desperados, some of them
shipping on the war vessels in port. Some of the Mormons still had a part
of their passage money unpaid and these promptly proceeded to find
employment to satisfy their debt. The pilgrims' loyalty appears to have
been of the highest. They had purchased arms in Honolulu and had had some
drill on the passage thence. At least on one occasion, they rallied in
San Francisco when alarm sounded that hostile Mexicans might attack.

According to Eldridge, historian of San Francisco:

"The landing of the Mormons more than doubled the population of Yerba
Buena. They camped for a time on the beach and the vacant lots, then some
went to the Marin forests to work as lumbermen, some were housed in the
old Mission buildings and others in Richardson's Casa Grande (big house)
on Dupont Street. They were honest and industrious people and all sought
work wherever they could find it."


Brannan's Hope of Pacific Empire

A party of twenty pioneers was sent over to the San Joaquin Valley, to
found the settlement of New Hope, or Stanislaus City, on the lower
Stanislaus River, but the greater number for a while remained on the bay,
making San Francisco, according to Bancroft, "for a time very largely a
Mormon town. All bear witness to the orderly and moral conduct of the
Saints, both on land and sea. They were honest and industrious citizens,
even if clannish and peculiar." There was some complaint against Brannan,
charged with working the Church membership for his own personal benefit.

New Hope had development that comprised a log house, a sawmill and the
cultivation of eighty acres of land. It was abandoned in the fall, after
word had been received that the main body of the Saints, traveling
overland, would settle in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Brannan
pushed with vigor his idea that the proper location would be in
California. He started eastward to present this argument and met the
western migration at Green River in July, and unsuccessfully argued with
Brigham Young, returning with the vanguard as far as Salt Lake. His
return to San Francisco was in September, on his way there being
encounter with several parties from the Mormon Battalion, to them Brannan
communicating rather gloomy ideas concerning the new site of Zion.

It is one of the many remarkable evidences of the strength of the Mormon
religious spirit that only 45 adults of the Brooklyn party, with their
children, remained in California, even after the discovery of gold. The
others made their way across the Sierra Nevadas and the deserts, to join
their people in the intermountain valley. A few were cut off from the
Church. These included Brannan, who gathered large wealth, but who died,
poor, in Mexico, in 1889.

There might be speculation over what would have been the fate of the
Mormon Church had Brannan's idea prevailed and the tide of the Nauvoo
exodus continued to California. Probably the individual pilgrims thereby
might have amassed worldly wealth. Possibly there might have been
established in the California valleys even richer Mormon settlements than
those that now dot the map of the intermountain region. But that such a
course would have been relatively disruptive of the basic plans of the
leaders there can be no doubt, and it is also without doubt that under a
condition of greater material wealth there would have been diminished
spiritual interest.

Possibly even better was the grasp upon the people shown in Utah at the
time of the passage of the California emigrants, in trains of hypnotized
groups all crazed by lust for the gold assumed to be in California for
the gathering. The Mormons sold them provisions and helped them on their
way, yet added few to their numbers.

In after years, President Lorenzo Snow, referring to the Brannan effort,
stated his belief that it would have been nothing short of disastrous to
the Church had the people gone to California before they had become
grounded in the faith. They needed just the experiences they had had in
the valley of Salt Lake, where home-making was the predominant thought
and where wealth later came on a more permanent basis.


Present at the Discovery of Gold

By a remarkable freak of fortune, about forty of the members of the
Mormon Battalion discharged at Los Angeles, were on hand at the time of
the discovery of gold in California. Divided into companies, they had
made their way northward, expecting to pass the Sierras before the
coming of snow. They found work at Sutter's Fort and nearby in the
building of a sawmill and a grist-mill and six of them (out of nine
employees) actually participated in the historic picking up of chunks of
gold from the tailrace they had dug under the direction of J. W.
Marshall. Sutter in after years wrote: "The Mormons did not leave my mill
unfinished, but they got the gold fever like everybody else." They mined
especially on what, to this day, is known as Mormon Island, on the
American River, and undoubtedly the wealth they later took across the
mountains did much toward laying a substantial foundation for the Zion
established in the wilderness.

Henry W. Bigler, of the gold discovery party, kept a careful journal of
his California experiences, a journal from which Bancroft makes many
excerpts. An odd error is in the indexing of the Bancroft volumes on
California, Henry W. Bigler being confused with John Bigler. The latter
was governor of California in 1852-55. A truckling California legislature
unsuccessfully tried to fasten his name upon Lake Tahoe. But the Mormon
pioneer turned his back upon the golden sands after only a few months of
digging, and later, for years, was connected with the Mormon temple at
St. George, Utah.

January 24, 1898, four of the six returned to San Francisco, guests of
the State of California in its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of
the discovery of gold. They were Henry W. Bigler, Jas. S. Brown, Wm. J.
Johnston and Azariah Smith. A group photograph, then taken, is reproduced
in this volume. The others of the Mormon gold discoverers, Alexander
Stephens and James Barger, had died before that date.


Looking Toward Southern California

All through the Church administration led by Brigham Young there was
evidence of well-defined intention to spread the Church influence
southward into Mexico and, possibly tracking back the steps of the
Nephites and Lamanites, to work even into South America. There seemed an
attraction in the enormous agricultural possibilities of Southern
California. The long-headed Church President, figuring the commercial and
agricultural advantages that lay in the Southwest, practically paved the
way for the connection that since has come by rail with Los Angeles. It
naturally resulted that the old Spanish trail that had been traversed by
Dominguez and Escalante in 1776 was extended on down the Virgin River
toward the southwest and soon became known as the Mormon Road. Over this
road there was much travel. It was taken by emigrants bound from the East
for California and proved the safest at all seasons of the year. It was
used by the Mormons in restocking their herds and in securing supplies
and for a while there was belief that the Colorado River could be
utilized as a means of connecting steamboat transportation with the
wagons that should haul from Callville, 350 miles from Salt Lake.

In 1851, nearly four years after the settlement at Salt Lake, President
Young made suggestion that a company be organized, of possibly a score of
families, to settle below Cajon Pass and cultivate the grape, olive,
sugar cane and cotton and to found a station on a proposed Pacific mail
route. There was expectation that the settlement later would be a
gathering place for the Saints who might come from the islands of the
Pacific, and even from Europe. The idea proved immensely popular, the
suggestion having come after a typical Salt Lake winter, and the
pilgrimage embraced about 500 individuals. President Young, at the time
of their leaving, March 24, said he "was sick at the sight of so many
Saints running to California, chiefly after the gods of this earth" and
he expressed himself unable to address them. Arrival at San Bernardino
was in June.

The Author has been fortunate in securing personal testimony from a
member of this migration, Collins R. Hakes, who later was President of
the Maricopa Stake at Mesa, and, later, head of the Bluewater settlement
in New Mexico. The hegira was led by Amasa M. Lyman and Chas. C. Rich,
prominent Mormon pioneers.

A short distance below Cajon Pass, Lyman and Rich in September purchased
the Lugo ranch of nine square leagues, including an abandoned mission.
They agreed to pay $77,500 in deferred payments, though the total sum
rose eventually to $140,000. Even at that, this must be accounted a very
reasonable price for nearly thirty square miles of land in the present
wonderful valley of San Bernardino.


Forced From the Southland

With those of the Carson Valley, the California brethren mainly returned
to Utah, late in 1857, or early in 1858, at the time of the Johnston
invasion. Mr. Hakes gave additional details. On September 11, 1857,
occurred the Mountain Meadows massacre in the southwest corner of Utah.
This outrage, by a band of outlaws, emphatically discountenanced by the
Church authorities and repugnant to Church doctrines, which denounce
useless shedding of blood, was promptly charged, on the Pacific and,
indeed, all over the Union, as something for which the Mormon
organization itself was responsible. So it happened that, in December,
1857, J. Riley Morse, of the colony, rode southward post haste from
Sacramento with the news that 200 mountain vigilantes were on their way
to run the Mormons out of California. Not wishing to fight and not
wishing to subject their families to abuse, about 400 of the San
Bernardino settlers, within a few weeks, started for southern Utah,
leaving only about twenty families. The news of this departure went to
the Californians and they returned to their homes without completing
their projected purpose. Many Church and coast references tell of the
"recall" of the San Bernardino settlers, but Hakes' story appears ample
in furnishing a reason for the departure. Many of these San Bernardino
pioneers later came into Arizona. Those who remained prospered, and many
of the families still are represented by descendants now in the
Californian city. The settlement is believed to have been the first
agricultural colony founded by persons of Anglo-Saxon descent in Southern
California.


How Sirrine Saved the Gold

Geo. W. Sirrine, later of Mesa, had an important part in the details of
the San Bernardino ranch purchase. Amasa M. Lyman and Chas. C. Rich went
to San Francisco for the money needed for the first payment. They
selected Sirrine to be their money carrier, entrusting him with $16,000,
much of it in gold, the money presumably secured through Brannan. Sirrine
took ship southward for San Pedro or Wilmington, carrying a carpenter
chest in which the money was concealed in a pair of rubber boots, which
he threw on the deck, with apparent carelessness, while his effects were
searched by a couple of very rough characters. Delivery of the money was
made without further incident of note. Sirrine helped survey the San
Bernardino townsite, built a grist mill and operated it, logged at Bear
Lake and freighted on the Mormon road. Charles Crismon, a skillful
miller, also a central Arizona pioneer, for a while was associated with
him. Crismon also built a sawmill in nearby mountains. Sirrine spent his
San Bernardino earnings, about $10,000, in attempted development of a
seam of coal on Point Loma, near San Diego, sinking a shaft 183 feet
deep. He left California in 1858, taking with him to Salt Lake a
wagonload of honey. In a biography of Charles Crismon, Jr., is found a
claim that the elder Crismon took the first bees to Utah, from San
Bernardino, in 1863. This may have added importance in view of the fact
that Utah now is known as the Beehive State.




Chapter Five

The State of Deseret


A Vast Intermountain Commonwealth

Probably unknown to a majority of Arizonans is the fact that the area of
this State once was included within the State of Deseret, the domain the
early Mormons laid out for themselves in the western wilds. The State of
Deseret was a natural sort of entity, with a governor, with courts, peace
officers and a militia. It was a great dream, yet a dream that had being
and substance for a material stretch of time. Undoubtedly its conception
was with Brigham Young, whose prophetic vision pictured the day when,
under Mormon auspices, there would be development of the entire enormous
basin of the Colorado River, with seaports on the Pacific. The name was
not based upon the word "desert." It is a Book of Mormon designation for
"honey bee."

This State of Deseret was a strictly Mormon institution, headed by the
Church authorities and with the bishops of all the wards ex-officio
magistrates. At the same time, there should be understanding that in
nowise was it antagonistic to the government of the United States. It was
a grand plan, under which there was hope that, with a population at the
time of about 15,000, there might be admission of the intermountain
region into the union of States.

The movement for the new State started with a call issued in 1849,
addressed to all citizens of that portion of California lying east of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. There was a convention in March, probably
attended by very few outside the Church, despite the broadness of the
plan. In the preamble of the constitution adopted there was recitation
that Congress had failed to provide any civil government, so necessary
for the peace, security and prosperity of society, that "all political
power is inherent in the people, and governments instituted for their
protection, security and benefit should emanate from the same."
Therefore, there was recommendation of a constitution until the Congress
should provide other government and admit the new State into the Union.
There was expression of gratitude to the Supreme Being for blessings
enjoyed and submission to the national government freely was
acknowledged.


Boundary Lines Established

Deseret was to have boundaries as follows:

Commencing at the 33d parallel of north latitude, where it crosses the
108th deg. of longitude west of Greenwich; thence running south and west
to the boundary of Mexico; thence west to and down the main channel of
the Gila River (or the northern line of Mexico), and on the northern
boundary of Lower California to the Pacific Ocean; thence along the coast
northwesterly to 118 degrees, 30 minutes of west longitude; thence north
to where said line intersects the dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains; thence north along the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains
to the dividing range of mountains that separate the waters flowing into
the Columbia from the waters running into the Great Basin; thence
easterly along the dividing range of mountains that separate said waters
flowing into the Columbia River on the north, from the waters flowing
into the Great Basin on the south, to the summit of the Wind River chain
of mountains; thence southeast and south by the dividing range of
mountains that separate the waters flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from
the waters flowing into the Gulf of California, to the place of
beginning, as set forth in a map drawn by Charles Preuss, and published
by order of the Senate of the United States in 1848.

This description needs some explanation. The point of beginning, as set
forth, was at the headwaters of the Gila River near the Mexican line,
which then, and until the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, followed down the
Gila River to the Colorado. At that time the boundary between Upper and
Lower California had been established to the point below San Diego, which
thus became included within the territory claimed. Here, naturally, there
was inclusion of practically all Southern California to a point near
Santa Barbara. Thence the line ran northward and inland to the summit of
the Sierra Nevadas, not far from Mt. Whitney. It followed the Sierra
Nevadas to the northwestward, well within the present California line, up
into northwestern Nevada, thence eastward through southern Idaho and
Wyoming to about South Pass, where the eastern line was taken up
southward, along the summit of the Rockies to the point of beginning. So,
there was general inclusion of that part of California lying east of the
Sierras, of all southern California, all Nevada and Utah, the southern
portions of Oregon and Idaho, southwestern Wyoming, western Colorado, not
reaching as far as Denver, western New Mexico and all Arizona north of
the Gila.

There can be no doubt that the region embraced, probably too large for a
State under modern conditions, at that time was as logical a division as
could have been made, considering the semi-arid climatic conditions,
natural boundaries, generally by great mountain ranges, a single
watershed, that of the Colorado River, and, in addition to all these, the
highway outlet to the Pacific Ocean, to the southwest, through a country
where the mountains broke away, along the course of the Colorado, even
then demonstrated the most feasible route from Great Salt Lake City to
the ocean.


Segregation of the Western Territories

At no time was there more than assumption by this central Salt Lake
government of authority over any part of the area of the State of
Deseret, save within the central Utah district, where the settlers, less
than two years established, were striving to carve out homes in what was
to be the nucleus of this commonwealth of wondrous proportions.

There was nothing very unusual about the constitution. It was along the
ordinary line of such documents, though the justices of the Supreme Court
at first were chosen by the Legislature. Brigham Young was the first
Governor, Willard Richards was Secretary and Heber C. Kimball Chief
Justice.

[Illustration: OUTLINE OF THE STATE OF DESERET]

The first Legislature met July 2, 1849, at Great Salt Lake City and
supported an application to Congress for the organization of a
territorial government. The boundaries of the Territory of Deseret were
somewhat changed from the original. The northern line was to be the
southern line of Oregon and to the east there was to be inclusion of
most of the present State of Colorado. Another memorial, soon thereafter,
asked admission as a full State and still another plan, later proposed,
was that Deseret and California be admitted as a single State, with power
to separate thereafter. This suggestion was not well received in
California and had short life.

September 9, 1850, President Millard Fillmore signed a bill creating the
Territory of Utah, to be bounded on the west by California, on the north
by Oregon, on the east by the summit of the Rocky Mountains and on the
south by the 37th parallel of north latitude. South of this parallel
there had been recognition of New Mexico, which included the present
Arizona. Thus was denial of the dream of an empire state that should
embrace the entire inter-mountain region.




Chapter Six

_Early Roads and Travelers_


Old Spanish Trail Through Utah

There can be little more than speculation concerning the extent of the
use of the old Spanish Trail, through southern Utah, by the Spaniards. It
is known, however, that considerable travel passed over it between Santa
Fe and the California missions and settlements. In winter there was the
disadvantage of snow in the Rockies and in summer were the aridity and
heat of the Mohave desert. In Utah was danger from the Utes and farther
westward from the Paiutes, but expeditions went well armed and exercised
incessant watchfulness.

The much more direct route across Arizona on the 35th parallel was used
by few Spaniards, though assuredly easier than that northward around the
Canyon of the Colorado River. This direct route was traversed in 1598 by
Juan de Onate, New Mexico's first Spanish governor, and, in 1776, Father
Garces went from the Colorado eastward to the Hopi villages. There was
travel over what became known as the "Road of the Bishop" from Santa Fe
to the Zuni and Hopi towns, but not beyond. Possibly the preference for
the San Juan-Virgin route lay in the fact that it had practicable river
fords.

This old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, undoubtedly was over
a succession of aboriginal highways. The first Europeans to follow it
were the Franciscan friars Escalante and Dominguez, in 1776. They took a
route running northwest from Taos, New Mexico, through the San Juan
country into Utah as far as Utah Lake, not reaching Great Salt Lake, and
thence to the southwest through the Sevier Valley to the upper waters of
the Virgin hoping to work through to California. They had an intelligent
idea concerning the extent of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and knew
there could be no crossing for several hundred miles. After traveling
down the Santa Clara and Virgin to about where the Arizona line now is,
they turned eastward again, probably because of lack of supplies and fear
of the desert. Their travel eastward was not far from the 37th parallel
on either side and their Indian guides finally led them, by way of the
mouth of the Paria, to the Ute ford of the Colorado, now known as the
Crossing of the Fathers. Thence, crossing the river November 8, 1776,
they made their way to the Hopi villages and back to the Rio Grande,
finishing one of the most notable exploring trips ever known in the west.
It is interesting to consider how, nearly a century later, the
"Pathfinder," John C. Fremont, thought himself on a new line of discovery
when he took much the same road westward through the passes of the
Rockies.

This Spanish Trail is outlined on a fur-trade map in the Bancroft
Library, covering the period from 1807 to 1843. No road is marked across
the present area of Arizona. The Spanish Trail seems to have been
considered as the western extension of the Santa Fe Trail.

The famous old traveler, Jedediah Smith, in 1826 and 1827, journeyed by
the Sevier and Virgin River route to the Colorado River, though he
appears to have made his own way, paralleling the aboriginal highway. In
August of 1827, a number of his party were killed by Mohave Indians on
the Colorado River.


Creation of the Mormon Road

The discovery of gold in California gave very great added importance to
this southern Utah route. When the Washoe passes were closed by snow,
California travel by the plains route necessarily was diverted, either
around by Oregon or southward through the Virgin River section. The
latter route appears to have been safe enough in winter, save for
occasional attacks by Indians, who were bent more upon plunder than upon
murder. Occasionally, parties sought a shorter cut to the westward and
suffered disaster in the sands of the Amargosa desert or of Death Valley.
Sometimes such men as Jacob Hamblin were detailed to act as guides, but
this seemed to be more needed with respect to dealings with the Indians
than to show the road, as the highway was a plain one through to San
Bernardino and San Gabriel. Of summers, undoubtedly the travel was
much lessened, as the goldseekers chose the much more direct and
better-watered routes passing either north or south of Lake Tahoe, by
Donner Lake and Emigrant Gap or by the Placerville grade.

The western end of the southern Utah-Nevada trail, after the
establishment of the San Bernardino colony, soon became known as the
Mormon road, a name preserved.

Mail service was known over the old Spanish or Mormon Trail, down the
Virgin and to Los Angeles, at different times between 1850 and 1861. This
service seems to have been as an alternative when the passes of the
Sierra Nevadas were closed. The best evidence at hand concerning this
route is contained within a claim made by one Chorpending, for
compensation from the United States for mules and equipment stolen by
Indians in 1854-1856. John Hunt, later of Snowflake, carried mail on the
route in 1856 and 1857. There must be assumption that stage stations were
maintained on the Muddy and at Vegas.

With the Lyman and Rich expedition, in 1851, one of the wagons bore
Apostle Parley P. Pratt who, accompanied by Rufus C. Allen, was starting
upon a mission to the southwest coast of South America. On May 13, there
was note of encampment at "a large spring, usually called Las Vegas,"
after having traveled 200 miles through worthless desert and between
mountains of naked rock.


Mormon Settlement at Tubac

To Commissioner John R. Bartlett, of the International Boundary Survey,
the Author is indebted for a memorandum covering what clearly was the
first Mormon settlement within the present confines of Arizona. It was at
the old Spanish pueblo of Tubac, in the Santa Cruz valley, about forty
miles south of Tucson. Both places then (in July, 1852), still were in
Mexico, the time being two years before perfecting the Gadsden Purchase.

Tubac, according to the Commissioner, was "a collection of dilapidated
buildings and huts, about half tenantless, and an equally ruinous
church." He called it "a God-forsaken place," but gave some interesting
history. After a century and a half of occupation, usually with a
population of about 400, it had been abandoned a year before the
Commissioner's arrival, but had been repopulated by possibly 100
individuals. There was irrigation from the Santa Cruz, but of uncertain
sort, and it was this very uncertainty that lost to Arizona a community
of settlers of industry surely rare in that locality. Bartlett's
narrative recites:

The preceding fall (of 1851), after the place has been again occupied, a
party of Mormons, in passing through on their way to California, was
induced to stop there by the representations of the Mexican comandante.
He offered them lands in the rich valley, where acequias (irrigation
ditches) were already dug, if they would remain and cultivate it;
assuring them that they would find a ready market for all the corn, wheat
and vegetables they could raise, from the troops and from passing
emigrants. The offer was so good and the prospects were so flattering
that they consented to remain. They, therefore, set to work, plowed and
sowed their lands, in which they expended all their means, anticipating
an abundant harvest. But the spring and summer came without rain: the
river dried up; their fields could not be irrigated; and their labor,
time and money was lost. They abandoned the place, and, though reduced to
the greatest extremities, succeeded in reaching Santa Isabel in
California, where we fell in with them.

The Santa Isabel meeting referred to had taken place in the previous May,
1852. Santa Isabel was an old vista of San Diego Mission, about forty
miles northeast of San Diego and on the road from that port to Fort Yuma.
In the Commissioner's party, eastbound, was the noted scout, Antoine
LeRoux, who had been one of the guides of the Mormon Battalion westward,
in 1846. Bartlett wrote:

"LeRoux had been sent to the settlement at San Bernardino, to purchase a
vehicle from newly-arrived Mormon immigrants and to return with it to
Santa Isabel. When the wagon came ... it was driven by its owner, named
Smithson. After paying him, I invited him to remain with us over night,
as he had had a fatiguing day's journey. We were very much amused during
the evening in listening to the history of our Mormon friend, who also
enlightened us with a lecture on the peculiar doctrines of his sect. He
seemed a harmless, though zealous man, ardent in his religious belief and
was, I should think, a fair specimen of his fraternity. His people had
lately purchased the extensive haciendas and buildings at San Bernardino,
covering several miles square, for $70,000, one-half of which amount
they had paid in cash. This is one of the richest agricultural districts
in the State and is said to have been a great bargain."

Bartlett's narrative, while interesting, does not inform concerning the
identity of the Mormons at Tubac. Including Smithson, doubtless they were
swallowed within the San Bernardino settlement. Just where the Tubac
settlers came from is not clear. There seems probability that they were
from one of the southern States, started directly for San Bernardino,
instead of via Salt Lake, in the same manner that an Arkansas expedition
went directly to the Little Colorado settlements in later years.

Tubac dates back to about 1752. Possibly not pertinent to the subject of
this work, yet valuable, is a map of Tubac, herewith reproduced, drawn
about 1760 by Jose de Urrutia. This map lately was found in the British
Museum at London by Godfrey Sykes, of the Desert Laboratory at Tucson.
From him receipt of a copy is acknowledged, with appreciation. The plat
includes the irrigated area below the presidio.


A Texan Settlement of the Faith

The Commissioner traveled broadly and chronicled much and the Author is
indebted to his memoirs for several items of early Mormon settlement in
the Southwest.

One of the earliest details given by Bartlett concerns his arrival,
October 14, 1850, at the village of Zodiac, in the valley of the
Piedernales River, near Fredericksburg, about seventy miles northwest of
San Antonio, Texas. Zodiac he found a village of 150 souls, headed by
Elder Wight, locally known as "Colonel," who acted as host. That the
settlement, even in such early times, was typically Mormon, is shown by
the following extract from Bartlett's diary:

"Everywhere around us in this Zodiacal settlement we saw abundant signs
of prosperity. Whatever may be their theological errors, in secular
matters they present an example of industry and thrift which the people
of the State might advantageously imitate. They have a tract of land
which they have cultivated for about three years and which has yielded
profitable crops. The well-built houses, perfect fences and tidy
dooryards give the place a homelike air such as we had not seen before in
Texas. The dinner was a regular old-fashioned New England farmer's meal,
comprising an abundance of everything, served with faultless neatness.
The entire charge for the dinner for twelve persons and corn for as many
animals was $3.... The colonel said he was the first settler in the
valley of the Piedernales and for many miles around. In his colony were
people of all trades. He told me his crop of corn this year would amount
to 7000 bushels, for which he expected to realize $1.25 a bushel."




Chapter Seven

_MISSIONARY PIONEERING_


Hamblin, "Leatherstocking of the Southwest"

In Southern Arizona the first pioneering was done by devoted Franciscans
and Jesuits, their chiefest concern the souls of the gentile Indians. In
similar wise, the pioneering of northern Arizona had its initiation in a
hope of the Mormon Church for conversion of the Indians of the canyons
and plains. In neither case was there the desired degree of success, but
each period has brought to us many stories of heroism and self-sacrifice
on the part of the missionaries. In the days when the American colonists
were shaking off the English yoke, our Southwest was having exploration
by the martyred Friar Garces. Three-quarters of a century later, the
trail that had been taken by the priest to the Hopi villages was used by
a Mormon missionary, Jacob Hamblin, sometimes called the "Leatherstocking
of the Southwest," more of a trail-blazer than a preacher, a scout of the
frontier directly commissioned under authority of his Church, serene in
his faith and confident that his footsteps were being guided from on
high.

The Author has found himself unable to write the history of northernmost
Arizona without continual mingling of the name and the personal deeds of
Jacob Hamblin. Apparently Hamblin had had no special training for the
work he was to do so well. It seemed to "merely happen" that he was in
southwestern Utah, as early as 1854, when his Church was looking toward
expansion to the southward.

Hamblin's first essay into the Arizona country was in the troublous fall
and winter of 1857, a year when he and his family were living in the
south end of Mountain Meadows, Utah. He happened to be in Salt Lake when
the famous Arkansas emigrant train passed through his district. Brigham
Young sent a messenger southward with instructions to let the wagon train
(an especially troublesome one) pass as quietly as possible, but these
instructions were not received and Hamblin learned on the way home, of
the massacre. The information came personally from John D. Lee, the
assassin-in-chief. In Hamblin's autobiography is written, "The deplorable
affair caused a sensation of horror and deep regret throughout the entire
community, by whom it was unqualifiedly condemned."

Thereafter, Hamblin and his associates rode hard after other emigrants
who were to be attacked by Indians, and found a company on the Muddy,
surrounded by Paiutes preparing to attack and destroy them. As a
compromise, the Indians were given the loose horses and cattle, which
later were recovered, and the Mormons remained with the company to assist
in its defense.


Aboriginal Diversions

Late in the autumn of 1857, a company came through on the way to
California, bringing a letter from President Young, directing Hamblin to
act as guide to California. On his way to join the train, Hamblin found a
naked man in the hands of the Paiutes, who were preparing "to have a good
time with him," that is, "they intended to take him to their camp and
torture him." He saved the man's life and secured the return of his
clothing. As the caravan neared the Muddy, news came of another Indian
attack. Hamblin rode ahead and joined the Indians. He later wrote, "I
called them together and sat down and smoked a little tobacco with them,
which I had brought along for that purpose." Apparently there was a good
deal of native diplomacy in the negotiations. There were some promises
of blankets and shirts and finally there was agreement to let the
travelers proceed.

[Illustration: JACOB HAMBLIN "Apostle to the Lamanites"]

[Illustration: CHURCH PRESIDENTS
Brigham Young--above; Lorenzo Snow--above; John Taylor--above
Wilford Woodruff--below; Joseph Smith, the Prophet--center
Heber J. Grant--below; Joseph F. Smith--below]

Incidentally, they were met by Ira Hatch and Dudley Leavitt, on their
return from a mission to the Mohave Indians. The Mohaves, careless of the
Gospel privileges afforded, held a council over the Mormon missionaries
and decided that they should die. Hatch thereupon knelt down among the
savages and "asked the Lord to soften their hearts, that they might not
shed further blood." The prayer was repeated to the Mohaves by a Paiute
interpreter. "The heart of the chief was softened" and before dawn the
next morning he set the two men afoot on the desert and directed them to
Las Vegas Springs, eighty miles distant. Their food on the journey was
mesquite bread, "made by pounding the seeds of the mesquite fruits in the
valley."

Hamblin at all times was very careful in his dealings with the Indians.
At an early date he might have killed one of them, but his gun missed
fire, a circumstance for which he later repeatedly praised the Lord.
Probably his greatest influence came through his absolute fearlessness.
He was firmly convinced that he was in the Lord's keeping and that his
time would not come till his mission had been accomplished.

Without doubt, Hamblin's course was largely sustained by a letter
received by him March 5, 1858, from President Brigham Young, in which he
prophesied that "the day of Indian redemption draws nigh," and continued,
"you should always be careful to impress upon them that they should not
infringe upon the rights of others; and our brethren should be very
careful not to infringe upon their rights, thus cultivating honor and
good principles in their midst by example, as well as precept."

In the spring of 1857, Hamblin and Dudley Leavitt, at a point 35 miles
west of Las Vegas, smelted some lead ore, Hamblin having some knowledge
of the proper processes. The lead later was left on the desert. The
wagons were needed to haul iron, remnants of old emigrant wagons that
had been abandoned on the San Bernardino road.


Encounter with Federal Explorers

In the course of his missionary endeavor, in the spring of 1858, Hamblin
took five men and went by way of Las Vegas Springs to the Colorado River,
at the foot of the Cottonwood Hills, 170 miles from the Santa Clara,
Utah, settlement. Upon this trip he had remarkable experiences. On the
river he saw a small steamer. Men with animals were making their way
upstream on the opposite side. Thales Haskell, sent to investigate,
returned next morning with information that the steamer company was of
military character and very hostile to the Mormons, that the expedition
had been sent out by the Government to examine the river and learn if a
force could not be taken through southern Utah in that direction, should
it be needed, to subjugate the Mormons. Hamblin returned to Las Vegas
Springs and thought the situation so grave that he counseled abandonment
of the Mormon settlement then being made at that point.

This record is very interesting in view of contemporary history. Without
doubt, the steamboat he saw was the little "Explorer," of the
topographical exploration of the Colorado River in the winter of 1857-8.
Commanding was Lieut. J.C. Ives of the army Topographical Corps, the
same officer who had been in the engineering section of Whipple's railway
survey along the 35th parallel. The craft was built in the east and put
together at the mouth of the river. The journey upstream was at a low
stage of water and there was continual trouble with snags and sandy
bars. Finally, when Black Canyon had been reached, the "Explorer" ran
upon a sunken rock, the boiler was torn loose, as well as the wheelhouse,
and the river voyage had to be abandoned, though Ives and two men rowed
up the stream as far as Vegas Wash.

The steamboat was floated back to Yuma, but Ives started eastward with a
pack train, guided by the Mohave chief, Iritaba, taking the same route
that had been pursued many years before by Friar Garces through the Hava
Supai and Hopi country.

It is to be regretted that Hamblin did not go on board the "Explorer,"
where no doubt he would have received cordial welcome. Even at that time,
Brigham Young undoubtedly would have been pleased to have helped in
forwarding the opening of a route to the southwestern coast by way of the
Colorado River.

Incidentally, the steamer had a trip that was valuable mainly in the
excellent mapping that was done by Ives and his engineers. Captain
Johnston and the steamer "Colorado" had been over the same stretch of
river before the "Explorer" came and had served to ferry across the
stream, about where Fort Mohave later stood, the famous camel party of
Lieutenant Beale.


The Hopi and the Welsh Legend

There was serious consideration by the Church authorities of a
declaration that the Moqui (Hopi) Indians of northern Arizona had a
dialect that at least embraced many Welsh words. President Young had
heard that a group of Welshmen, several hundred years before, had
disappeared into the western wilds, so, with his usual quick inquiry into
matters that interested him, he sent southward, led by Hamblin, in the
autumn of 1858, a linguistic expedition, also including Durias Davis and
Ammon M. Tenney. Davis was a Welshman, familiar with the language of his
native land. Tenney, then only 15, knew a number of Indian dialects, as
well as Spanish, the last learned in San Bernardino. They made diligent
investigation and found nothing whatever to sustain the assertion. Not a
word could they find that was similar in anywise to any European
language.

It happens that the Hopi tongue is a composite, mainly a Shoshonean
dialect, probably accumulated as the various clans of the present tribe
gathered in northeastern Arizona, from the cactus country to the south,
the San Juan country to the northward and the Rio Grande valley to the
eastward. But the Welsh legend was slow in dying.

This expedition of 1858, besides the two individuals noted, included
Frederick and William Hamblin, Dudley and Thomas Leavitt, Samuel Knight,
Ira Hatch, Andrew S. Gibbons (later an Arizona legislator), Benjamin
Knell and a Paiute guide, Naraguts. The journey started at Hamblin's home
in the Santa Clara settlement and was by way of the mouth of the Paria,
where a good ferry point was found, but not used, and the Crossing of the
Fathers on the Colorado, probably crossed by white men for the first time
since Spanish days. The Hopi villages were found none too soon, for the
men were very hungry. They had lost the mules that carried the
provisions. The Hopi were found hospitable and furnished food until the
runaway mules were brought in. There was some communication through the
Ute language, after failure with the language of Wales. William Hamblin,
Thomas Leavitt, Gibbons and Knell were left as missionaries and the rest
of the dozen made a difficult return journey to their homes, a part of
the way through snow.

The missionaries left with the Hopi returned the same winter. They had
not been treated quite as badly as Father Garces, but there had been a
division among the tribes, started by the priesthood. There was very good
prophecy, however, by the Indians, to the effect that the Mormons would
settle in the country to the southward and that their route of travel
would be by way of the Little Colorado.

It might be well to insert, at this point, a condensation of the Welsh
legend, though affecting, especially, the Zuni, a pueblo-dwelling tribe,
living to the eastward of the Hopi and with little ethnologic connection.
The following was written by Llewellyn Harris (himself of Welsh
extraction), who was a Mormon missionary visitor to the Zuni in January,
1878, and is reprinted without endorsement:

"They say that, before the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, the Zuni
Indians lived in Mexico. Some of them still claim to be the descendants
of Montezuma. At the time of the conquest they fled to Arizona and
settled there. They were at one time a very powerful tribe, as the ruins
all over that part of the country testify. They have always been
considered a very industrious people. The fact that they have, at one
time, been in a state of civilization far in advance of what they are at
present, is established beyond a doubt. Before the Catholic religion was
introduced to them, they worshipped the sun. At present they are nearly
all Catholics. A few of them have been baptized into our Church by
Brothers Ammon M. Tenney and R.H. Smith, and nearly all the tribe say
they are going to be baptized.

"They have a great many words in the language like the Welsh, and with
the same meaning. Their tradition says that over 300 years before the
conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, some white men landed in Mexico and
told the Indians that they had come from the regions beyond the sea to
the east. They say that from these white men came the ancient kings of
Mexico, from whom Montezuma descended.

"These white men were known to the Indians of Mexico by the name of
Cambaraga; and are still remembered so in the traditions of Zuni Indians.
In time those white people became mixed with Indians, until scarcely a
relic of them remained. A few traditions of the Mexican Indians and a few
Welsh words among the Zunis, Navajos and Moquis are all that can be found
of that people now.

"I have the history of the ancient Britons, which speaks of Prince Madoc,
who was the son of Owen Guynedd, King of Wales, having sailed from Wales
in the year 1160, with three ships. He returned in the year 1163, saying
he had found a beautiful country, across the western sea. He left Wales
again in the year 1164, with fifteen ships and 3000 men. He was never
again heard of."


Indians Await Their Prophets

President Young kept the Hopi in mind, for the following year (1859) he
sent Hamblin on a second trip to the Indians, with a company that
consisted of Marion J. Shelton, Thales Haskell, Taylor Crosby, Benjamin
Knell, Ira Hatch and John Wm. Young. They reached the Hopi villages
November 6, talked with the Indians three days and then left the work of
possible conversion on the shoulders of Shelton and Haskell, who returned
to the Santa Clara the next spring. The Indians were kind, but
unbelieving, and "could make no move until the reappearance of the three
prophets who led their fathers to that land and told them to remain on
those rocks until they should come again and tell them what to do." Both
ways of the journey were by the Ute ford.


Navajo Killing of Geo. A. Smith, Jr.

In the fall of 1860, Hamblin was directed to attempt to establish the
faith in the Hopi towns. This time, from Santa Clara, he took Geo. A.
Smith, Jr., son of an apostle of the Church, Thales Haskell, Jehiel
McConnell, Ira Hatch, Isaac Riddle, Amos G. Thornton, Francis M. Hamblin,
James Pearce and an Indian, Enos, with supplies for a year. Young Ammon
Tenney was sent back. This proved a perilous adventure. Hamblin told he
had had forebodings of evil. Failure attended an attempt to cross the
Colorado at the Paria. For two days south of the Crossing of the Fathers,
there was no water. The Navajo gathered around them and barred further
progress. There was a halt, and bartering was started for goods that had
been brought along to exchange for Indian blankets. At this point, Smith
was shot. The deed was done with his own revolver, which had been passed
to an Indian who asked to inspect it. The Indians readily admitted
responsibility, stating that it was in reprisal for the killing of three
Navajos by palefaces and they demanded two more victims before the Mormon
company would be allowed to go in peace. The situation was a difficult
one for Jacob, but he answered bravely, "I would not give a cent to live
after I had given up two men to be murdered; I would rather die like a
man than live like a dog." Jacob went out by himself and had a little
session of prayer and then the party started northward, flanked by
hostile Navajos, but accompanied by four old friendly tribesmen. Smith
was taken along on a mule, with McConnell behind to hold him on. Thus it
was that he died about sundown. His last words, when told that a stop
could not be made, were, "Oh, well, go on then; but I wish I could die in
peace." The body was wrapped in a blanket and laid in a hollow by the
side of the trail, for no stop could be made even to bury the dead.

About a week later, Santa Clara was reached by the worn and jaded party,
sustained the last few days on a diet mainly of pinon nuts.

That winter, through the snow and ice, Hamblin led another party across
the Colorado out upon the desert, to bring home the remains of their
brother in the faith. The head and the larger bones were returned for
burial at Salt Lake City. It was learned that the attacking Indians were
from Fort Defiance and on this trip it was told that the Navajo
considered their own action a grave mistake.


A Seeking of Baptism for Gain
That the Shivwits were susceptible to missionary argument was indicated
about 1862, when James H. Pearce brought from Arizona into St. George a
band of 300 Indians, believed to comprise the whole tribe. All were duly
baptized into the Church, the ceremony performed by David H. Cannon. Then
Erastus Snow distributed largess of clothing and food. Ten years later
Pearce again was with the Indians, greeted in affectionate remembrance.
But there was complaint from the Shivwits they "had not heard from the
Lord since he left." Then followed fervent suggestions from the tribesmen
that they be taken to St. George and be baptized again. They wanted more
shirts. They also wanted Pearce to write to the Lord and to tell Him the
Shivwits had been pretty good Indians.

The First Tour Around the Grand Canyon

Hamblin's adventures to the southward were far from complete. In the
autumn of 1862 President Young directed another visit to the Hopi,
recommending that the Colorado be crossed south of St. George, in the
hope of finding a more feasible route. Hamblin had had disaster the
previous spring, in which freshets had swept away his grist mill and
other improvements. Most of the houses and cultivated land of the Santa
Clara settlement had disappeared. He was given a company of twenty men,
detailed by Apostles Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow. A small boat was taken
to the river by wagon. Hamblin's chronicle does not tell just where the
crossing was made, but it is assumed that it was at the mouth of the
Grand Wash. From the river crossing there were four days of very dry
travel toward the southeast, with the San Francisco Mountains in the far
distance. There is no reference in his diary to the finding of any roads,
but it is probable that most of the journey was on aboriginal trails.
Snow was found at the foot of the San Francisco Mountains and two days
thereafter the Little Colorado was crossed and then were reached the
Hopi, who "had been going through some religious ceremonies to induce the
Great Spirit to send storms to water their country that they might raise
abundance of food the coming season." This may have been the annual
Snake Dance. The Hopi refused to send some of their chief men to Utah,
their traditions forbidding, but finally three joined after the
expedition had started. There had been left behind McConnell, Haskell,
and Hatch to labor for a season, and as hostages for the return of the
tribesmen.

This journey probably was the first that ever circled the Grand Canyon,
for return was by the Ute Crossing, where fording was difficult and
dangerous, for the water was deep and ice was running. The three Hopi
were dismayed over their violation of tradition, but were induced to go
on. Incidentally, food became so scarce that resort was had to the
killing and cooking of crows.

The Indians were taken on to Salt Lake City and were shown many things
that impressed them greatly. An unsuccessful attempt was made to learn
whether they spoke Welsh. Hamblin wrote that the Indians said, "They had
been told that their forefathers had the arts of reading, writing, making
books, etc."

[Illustration: LIEUTENANT IVES' STEAMER ON THE COLORADO IN 1858]

[Illustration: AMMON M. TENNEY Pioneer Scout of the Southwest]

Here it may be noted that the Grand Canyon was circumtoured in the fall
of 1920 by Governor and Mrs. Campbell, but under very different
circumstances. The vehicle was an automobile. Crossing of the Colorado
was at the Searchlight ferry, about forty miles downstream from old
Callville. On the first day 248 miles were covered, mainly on the old
Mormon road, to Littlefield, through the Muddy section, now being
revived. St. George and other pioneer southern Utah settlements were
passed on the way to Kanab and Fredonia. The road to the mouth of the
Paria and to Lee's Ferry appears to have been found very little less
rough than when traveled by the Mormon ox teams, and the river crossing
was attended by experiences with quicksand and other dangers, while the
pull outward on the south side was up a steep and hazardous highway.


A Visit to the Hava-Supai Indians

Hamblin had about as many trips as Sindbad the Sailor and about as many
adventures. Of course, he had to take the Hopi visitors home, and on this
errand he started from St. George on March 18, 1863, with a party of six
white men, including Gibbons, Haskell, Hatch and McConnell. They took the
western route and found a better crossing, later called Pearce's Ferry.
At this point they were overtaken by Lewis Greeley, a nephew of Horace
Greeley of the New York Tribune, who had been sent on to the river by
Erastus Snow.

A trail was taken to the left of the former route. This trail very
clearly was the main thoroughfare used by the Wallapai into Cataract
Canyon, which was so known at that time. Down the trail, into the abysmal
"voladero" of Father Garces, they traveled a day and part of another,
leading their horses most of the way. In many places they could not have
turned their animals around had they wished to do so.

Cataract Canyon, the home of the Hava-Supai, is a veritable Yosemite,
with craggy walls that rise nearly 3000 feet to the mesa above. Hamblin
especially noted the boiling from the bottom of the canyon of a
beautiful large spring, the same which today irrigates the lands of the
well-disposed Indians. These Indians gave assistance to the party and
told of an attack made a short time before by Apaches from the southeast,
who had been met in a narrow pass where several of their number had been
slain. Assuring the Hava-Supai they would send no enemies into their
secret valley, Hamblin led his party to the eastward, up the Tope-Kobe
trail to the plateau. This was reached April 7. Though along the Moqui
trail at no point were they very far from the Grand Canyon, that gorge
was not noted in Hamblin's narrative, for the brethren were not
sight-seeing. A few days later they were in the Hopi towns, to which the
three much-traveled Indians preceded them, in eagerness to see their
people again.

Only two days were spent with the Indians and on April 15, taking
Haskell, Hatch and McConnell, the party struck toward the southwest, to
find the Beale road. On the 20th, Greeley discovered a pond of clear cold
water several acres in extent in the crater of a volcanic peak. The San
Francisco peaks were passed, left to the southward, and the Beale road
was struck six miles west of LeRoux Springs, the later site of Fort
Moroni, seven miles northwest of the present Flagstaff.

The Beale road was followed until the 28th. Thence, the men suffered
thirst, for 56 hours being without water. Ten of their eighteen horses
were stolen. This, it was explained, was due to the failure of the
Hava-Supai to return Wallapai horses which the men had left in Cataract
Canyon on the outward journey. St. George was reached May 13, 1863. The
main result had been the exploration of a practicable, though difficult,
route for wagons from St. George to the Little Colorado and to the Hopi
towns.


Experiences with the Redskins

Ammon M. Tenney in Phoenix lately told the Author that the Navajo were
the only Indians who ever really fought the Mormons and the only tribe
against which the Mormons were compelled to depart from their rule
against the shedding of blood. It is not intended in this work to go into
any history of the many encounters between the Utah Mormons and the
Arizona Navajo, but there should be inclusion of a story told by Tenney
of an experience in 1865 at a point eighteen miles west of Pipe Springs
and six miles southwest of Canaan, Utah. There were three Americans from
Toquerville, the elder Tenney, the narrator, and Enoch Dodge, the last
known as one of the bravest of southern Utah pioneers. The three were
surrounded by sixteen Navajos, and, with their backs to the wall, fought
for an hour or more, finally abandoning their thirteen horses and running
for better shelter. Dodge was shot through the knee cap, a wound that
incapacitated him from the fight thereafter. The elder Tenney fell and
broke his shoulder blade and was stunned, though he was not shot.
This left the fight upon the younger Tenney, who managed to climb a
twelve-foot rocky escarpment. He reached down with his rifle and dragged
up his father and Dodge. The three opportunely found a little cave in
which they secreted themselves until reasonably rested, hearing the
Indians searching for them on the plateau above. Then, in the darkness,
they made their way fifteen miles into Duncan's Retreat on the Virgin
River in Utah. "There is one thing I will say for the Navajo," Tenney
declared with fervor. "He is a sure-enough fighting man. The sixteen of
them stood shoulder to shoulder, not taking cover, as almost any other
southwestern Indian would have done."

Apparently, on each of the visits that had been made by Hamblin to the
Hopi, he had made suggestion that the tribes leave their barren land and
move to the northward, across the Colorado, where good lands might be
allotted them, on which they might live in peace and plenty, where they
might build cities and villages the same as other people, but, according
to Hamblin's journal, "They again told us that they could not leave their
present location until the three prophets should appear again."

This was written particularly in regard to a visit made to the villages
in 1864, and in connection with a theft of horses by Navajos near Kanab.
It was found inexpedient to go into the Navajo country, as Chief
Spaneshanks, who had been relatively friendly, had been deposed by his
band and had been succeeded by a son of very different inclination.

In autumn of the same year, Anson Call, Dr. Jas. M. Whitmore, A.M. Cannon
and Hamblin and son visited Las Vegas Springs and the Colorado River,
stopping a while with the Cottonwood Island Indians and the Mohave, and
establishing Callville.


Killing of Whitmore and McIntire

January 8, 1866, Doctor Whitmore and his herder, Robert McIntire, were
killed in Arizona, four miles north of Pipe Springs by a band of Paiede
Paiutes and Navajos, that drove off horses, sheep and cattle. There was
pursuit from St. George by Col. D. D. McArthur and company.

A tale of the pursuit comes from Anthony W. Ivins, a member of the
company, then a mere boy who went out on a mule with a quilt for a
saddle. The weather was bitterly cold. The bodies were found covered with
snow, which was three feet deep. Each body had many arrow and bullet
wounds. The men had been attacked while riding the range, only McIntire
being armed. A detachment, under Captain James Andrus, found the
murderous Indians in camp and, in a short engagement, killed nine of
them.

The trail to the Hopi towns must have been well known to the Mormon scout
when in October, 1869, again he was detailed to investigate the sources
of raids on the Mormon borders. He had a fairly strong company of forty
men, including twenty Paiutes. The crossing was at the mouth of the
Paria. Apparently all that was accomplished on this trip was to learn
that the Indians intended to make still another raid on the southern
settlements. Hamblin wanted to go back by way of the Ute trail and the
Crossing of the Fathers, but was overruled by his brethren, who preferred
the Paria route. When they returned, it was to learn that the Navajos
already had raided and had driven off more than 1200 head of animals, and
that, if the Mormon company, on returning, had taken the Ute trail, the
raiders would have been met and the animals possibly recovered. The
winter was a hard one for the Mormons who watched the frontier, assisted
by friendly Paiutes. The trouble weighed heavily upon Hamblin's mind and,
in the spring of 1870, at Kanab, he offered himself to President Young
as an ambassador to the Navajo, to prevent, if possible, further shedding
of blood.




Chapter Eight

Hamblin Among the Indians


Visiting the Paiutes with Powell

It was in the summer of 1870 that Hamblin met Major J.W. Powell, who had
descended the Colorado the previous year. Powell's ideas coincided very
well with those of Hamblin. He wanted to visit the Indians and prevent
repetition of such a calamity as that in which three of his men had been
killed near Mount Trumbull, southwest of Kanab. So, in September, 1870,
there was a gathering at Mount Trumbull, with about fifteen Indians. What
followed is presented in Powell's own language:

"This evening, the Shivwits, for whom we have sent, come in, and after
supper we hold a long council. A blazing fire is built, and around this
we sit--the Indians living here, the Shivwits, Jacob Hamblin and myself.
This man, Hamblin, speaks their language well and has a great influence
over all the Indians in the region round about. He is a silent, reserved
man, and when he speaks it is in a slow, quiet way that inspires great
awe. His talk is so low that they must listen attentively to hear, and
they sit around him in deathlike silence. When he finishes a measured
sentence the chief repeats it and they all give a solemn grunt. But,
first, I fill my pipe, light it, and take a few whiffs, then pass it to
Hamblin; he smokes and gives it to the man next, and so it goes around.
When it has passed the chief, he takes out his own pipe, fills and lights
it, and passes it around after mine. I can smoke my own pipe in turn, but
when the Indian pipe comes around, I am nonplussed. It has a large stem,
which has at some time been broken, and now there is a buckskin rag wound
around it and tied with sinew, so that the end of the stem is a huge
mouthful, exceedingly repulsive. To gain time, I refill it, then engage
in very earnest conversation, and, all unawares, I pass it to my neighbor
unlighted. I tell the Indians that I wish to spend some months in their
country during the coming year and that I would like them to treat me as
a friend. I do not wish to trade; do not want their lands. Heretofore I
have found it very difficult to make the natives understand my object,
but the gravity of the Mormon missionary helps me much.

"Then their chief replies: Your talk is good and we believe what you
say. We believe in Jacob, and look upon you as a father. When you are
hungry, you may have our game. You may gather our sweet fruits. We will
give you food when you come to our land. We will show you the springs and
you may drink; the water is good. We will be friends and when you come we
will be glad. We will tell the Indians who live on the other side of the
great river that we have seen Kapurats (one-armed--the Indian name for
Powell) and that he is the Indian's friend. We will tell them he is
Jacob's friend."

The Indians told that the three men had been killed in the belief they
were miners. They had come upon an Indian village, almost starved and
exhausted with fatigue, had been supplied with food and put on their way
to the settlements. On receipt of news that certain Indians had been
killed by whites, the men were followed, ambushed and slain with many
arrows. Powell observes that that night he slept in peace, "although
these murderers of my men were sleeping not 500 yards away." Hamblin
improved the time in trying to make the Indians understand the idea of
an overruling Providence and to appreciate that God was not pleased with
the shedding of blood. He admitted, "These teachings did not appear to
have much influence at the time, but afterwards they yielded much good
fruit."

Wm. R. Hawkins, cook for this first Powell expedition, died a few years
ago in Mesa, Arizona. Willis W. Bass, a noted Grand Canyon guide, lately
published an interesting booklet carrying some side lights on the Powell
explorations. In it is declared, on Hawkins' authority, that the three
men who climbed the cliffs, to meet death above, left the party after a
quarrel with Powell, the dispute starting in the latter's demand for
payment for a watch that had been ruined while in possession of one of
the trio. Powell is charged with having ordered the man to leave his
party if he would not agree to pay for the watch.


A Great Conference with the Navajo

One of the greatest of Hamblin's southern visitations was in the autumn
of 1870, when he served as a guide for Major Powell eastward, by way of
the Hopi villages and of Fort Defiance. Powell's invitation was the more
readily accepted as this appeared to be an opening for the much-desired
peace talk with the Navajo. In the expedition were Ammon M. Tenney,
Ashton Nebecker, Nathan Terry and Elijah Potter of the brethren, three of
Powell's party and a Kaibab Indian.

According to Tenney, in the previous year, the Navajo had stolen
$1,000,000 worth of cattle, horses and sheep in southern Utah, Tenney, in
a personal interview with the Author in 1920, told that the great council
then called, was tremendously dramatic. About a dozen Americans were
present, including Powell and Captain Bennett. Tenney estimated that
about 8000 Indians were on the council ground at Fort Defiance. This
number would have included the entire tribe. It was found that the
gathering was distinctly hostile. Powell and Hamblin led in the talking.
The former had no authority whatever, but gave the Indians to understand
that he was a commissioner on behalf of the whites and that serious
chastisement would come to them in a visit of troops if there should be
continuation of the evil conditions complained of by the Mormons.
Undoubtedly this talk had a strong effect upon the Indians, who in Civil
War days had been punished harshly for similar depredations upon the
pueblos of New Mexico and who may have remembered when Col. Kit Carson
descended upon the Navajo, chopped down their fruit trees, and laid waste
their farms, later most of the tribe being taken into exile in New
Mexico.

Dellenbaugh and Hamblin wrote much concerning this great council. Powell
introduced Hamblin as a representative of the Mormons, whom he highly
complimented as industrious and peaceful people. Hamblin told of the
evils of a war in which many men had been lost, including twenty or
thirty Navajos, and informed the Indians that the young men of Utah
wanted to come over to the Navajo country and kill, but "had been told to
stay at home until other means of obtaining peace had been tried and had
failed." He referred to the evils that come from the necessity of
guarding stock where neither white nor Indian could trust sheep out of
sight. He then painted the beauties of peace, in which "horses and sheep
would become fat and in which one could sleep in peace and awake and find
his property safe." Low-voiced, but clearly, the message concluded:

"What shall I tell my people, the Mormons, when I return home? That we
may live in peace, live as friends, and trade with one another? Or shall
we look for you to come prowling around our weak settlements, like wolves
in the night? I hope we may live in peace in time to come. I have now
gray hairs on my head, and from my boyhood I have been on the frontiers
doing all I could to preserve peace between white men and Indians. I
despise this killing, this shedding of blood. I hope you will stop this
and come and visit and trade with our people. We would like to hear what
you have got to say before we go home."

Barbenceta, the principal chief, slowly approached as Jacob ended and,
putting his arms around him, said, "My friend and brother, I will do all
that I can to bring about what you have advised. We will not give all our
answer now. Many of the Navajos are here. We will talk to them tonight
and will see you on your way home." The chief addressed his people from a
little eminence. The Americans understood little or nothing of what he
was saying, but it was agreed that it was a great oration. The Indians
hung upon every word and responded to every gesture and occasionally, in
unison, there would come from the crowd a harsh "Huh, Huh," in approval
of their chieftain's advice and admonition.

A number of days were spent at Fort Defiance in attempting to arrive at
an understanding with the Navajo. Hamblin wrote, "through Ammon M. Tenney
being able to converse in Spanish, we accomplished much good."

On the way home, in a Hopi village, were met Barbenceta and also a number
of chiefs who had not been at Fort Defiance. The talk was very agreeable,
the Navajos saying, "We hope that we may be able to eat at one table,
warm by one fire, smoke one pipe, and sleep in one blanket."


An Official Record of the Council

Determination of the time of the council has come to the Arizona
Historian's office, within a few days of the closing of the manuscript of
this work, the data supplied from the office of the Church Historian at
Salt Lake City. In it is a copy of a final report, dated November 5,
1870, and signed by Frank F. Bennett, Captain United States
Army, agent for the Navajo Indians at Fort Defiance. The report is as
follows:

"To Whom It May Concern:

"This is to certify that Capt. Jacob Hamblin of Kanab, Kane Co., Southern
Utah, came to this agency with Prof. John W. Powell and party on the 1st
day of November, 1870, and expressed a desire to have a talk with myself
and the principal men of the Navajo Indians in regard to depredations
which the Navajos are alleged to have committed in southern Utah.

"I immediately informed the chiefs that I wished them to talk the matter
over among themselves and meet Captain Hamblin and myself in a council at
the agency in four days. This was done and we, today, have had a long
talk. The best of feeling existed. And the chiefs and good men of the
Navajo Indians pledge themselves that no more Navajos will be allowed to
go into Utah; and that they will not, under any circumstances, allow any
more depredations to be committed by their people. That if they hear of
any party forming for the purpose of making a raid, that they will
immediately go to the place and stop them, using force if necessary. They
express themselves as extremely anxious to be on the most friendly terms
with the Mormons and that they may have a binding and lasting peace.

"I assure the people of Utah that nothing shall be left undone by me to
assist these people in their wishes and I am positive that they are in
earnest and mean what they say.

"I am confident that this visit of Captain Hamblin and the talk we have
had will be the means of accomplishing great good."

Together with this Bennett letter is one addressed by Jacob Hamblin to
Erastus Snow, dated November 21, 1870, and reciting in detail the
circumstances of the great council, concluded November 5, 1870. Most of
the debate was between Hamblin and Chief Barbenceta, with occasional
observations by Powell concerning the might of the American Nation and
the absolute necessity for cessation of thievery. Hamblin told how the
young men and the middle-aged of his people had gathered to make war upon
the Navajo, "determined to cross the river and follow the trail of the
stolen stock and lay waste the country, but our white chief, Brigham
Young, was a man of peace and stopped his people from raiding and wanted
us to ask peace. This is my business here." He told that, five years
before, the Navajos were led by three principal men of the Paiutes and at
that time seven Paiutes were killed near the place where the white man
was killed. These were not the right Indians, not the Paiutes who had
done the mischief. Barbenceta talked at great length. To a degree he
blamed the Paiutes, but could not promise that no more raids would be
made, but he told the agent he would endeavor to stop all future
depredations and would return stolen stock, if found.


Navajos to Keep South of the River

There finally was agreement that Navajos should go north of the river
only for horse trading, or upon necessary errands, and that when they did
go, they would be made safe and welcome, this additionally secure, if
they were to go first to Hamblin.

The Hopi and the Navajo, at that time, and probably for many years
before, were unfriendly. There was a tale how the Hopi had attacked 35
Navajos, disarmed them, and then had thrown them off a high cliff between
two of their towns. Hamblin went to the place indicated and found a
number of skeletons and remains of blankets and understood that the deed
had been done the year before. The Navajo had plundered the Hopi for
generations and the latter had retaliated.

Hamblin's diary gives the great Navajo council as in 1871. There also is
much confusion of dates in several records of the time. But the year
appears to be definitely established through the fact that Powell was in
Salt Lake in October and November of 1871. It is a curious fact, also,
that Powell, in his own narrative of the 1870 trip, makes no reference to
Hamblin's presence with him south of the river or even to the dramatic
circumstances of the great council, set by Hamblin and Dellenbaugh on
November 2. Powell's diary places him at Fort Defiance October 31, 1870,
and at a point near Fort Wingate November 2.


Tuba's Visit to the White Men

It was on the return from the grand council with the Navajo, in November,
1870, that Hamblin took to Utah, Tuba, a leading man of the Oraibi Hopi
and his wife, Pulaskaninki.

In Hamblin's journal is a charming little account of how Tuba crossed the
prohibited river. Tuba told Hamblin, "I have worshipped the Father of us
all in the way you believe to be right. Now I wish you would do as the
Hopi think is right before we cross." So the two knelt, Hamblin accepting
in his right hand some of the contents of Tuba's medicine bag and Tuba
prayed "for pity upon his Mormon friends, that none might drown, and for
the preservation of all the animals we had, as all were needed, and for
the preservation of food and clothing, that hunger nor cold might be
known on the trail." They arose and scattered the ingredients from the
medicine bag into the air, upon the men and into the waters of the river.
Hamblin wrote, "To me the whole ceremony seemed humble and reverential. I
feel the Father had regard for such petitions." There was added prayer by
Tuba when the expedition safely landed on the opposite shore, at the
mouth of the Paria.

Tuba had a remarkable trip. He was especially interested in the spinning
mill at Washington, for he had made blankets, and his wife, with handmill
experience, thought of labor lost when she looked at the work of a flour
mill. At St. George they saw President Young, who gave them clothing.

Tuba was taken back home to Oraibi in safety in September, 1871, and his
return was celebrated by feasting.

Of date December 24, 1870, in the files of the Deseret News is found a
telegram from George A. Smith, who was with President Brigham Young and
party in Utah's Dixie, at St. George. He wired:

"Jacob Hamblin, accompanied by Tooby, a Moqui magistrate of Oraibi
village, and wife, who are on a visit to this place to get information in
regard to agriculture and manufactures, came here lately. Tooby, being
himself a skillful spinner, examined the factory and grist mill at
Washington. Upon seeing 360 spindles in operation, he said he had no
heart to spin with his fingers any more."

On the trip southward in 1871, on which Hamblin returned Tuba and his
wife to their home, he served as guide as far as the Ute ford for a party
that was bearing provisions for the second Powell expedition. He arrived
at the ford September 25, but remained only a day, then going on to Moen
Copie, Oraibi and Fort Defiance, where he seems to have had some business
to conclude with the chiefs. In his journal is told that he divided time
at a Sunday meeting with a Methodist preacher. Returning, with three
companions and nine Navajos, Hamblin reached the Paria October 28, taken
across by the Powell party, though Powell had gone on from Ute ford to
Salt Lake, there to get his family. The expedition had reached the ford
October 6, and had dropped down the river to the Paria, where arrival was
on the 22d. Hamblin went on to Salt Lake.


The Sacred Stone of the Hopi

The trust placed in Mormon visitors to the Hopi was shown by exhibition
to them of a sacred stone. On one of the visits of Andrew S. Gibbons,
accompanied by his sons, Wm. H. and Richard, the three were guests of old
Chief Tuba in Oraibi. Tuba told, of this sacred stone and led his friends
down into an underground kiva, from which Tuba's son was despatched into
a more remote chamber. He returned bringing the stone. Apparently it was
of very fine-grained marble, about 15x18 inches in diameter and a few
inches in thickness. Its surface was entirely covered with hieroglyphic
markings, concerning which there was no attempt at translation at the
time, though there were etched upon it clouds and stars. The Indians
appeared to have no translation and only knew that it was very sacred.
Tuba said that at one time the stone incautiously was exhibited to an
army officer, who attempted to seize it, but the Indians saved the relic
and hid it more securely.

The only official record available to this office, bearing upon the
stone, is found in the preface of Ethnological Report No. 4, as follows:

Mr. G. K. Gilbert furnished some data relating to the sacred stone kept
by the Indians of the village of Oraibi, on the Moki mesas. This stone
was seen by Messrs. John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbons, and the notes
were made by Mr. Gilbert from those furnished him by Young, Few white men
have had access to this sacred record, and but few Indians have enjoyed
the privilege. The stone is a red-clouded marble, entirely different from
anything found in the region.


In the Land of the Navajo

In 1871, 1872 and 1873 Hamblin did much exploration. He located a
settlement on the Paria River, started a ranch in Rock House Valley and
laid out a practicable route from Lee's Ferry to the Little Colorado.

Actual use of the Lee's Ferry road by wagons was in the spring of 1873 by
a party headed by Lorenzo W. Roundy, who crossed the Colorado at Lee's
Ferry, passing on to Navajo Springs, seven miles beyond, and thence about
ten miles to Bitter Springs and then on to Moen Copie. The last he
described as a place "a good deal like St. George, having many springs
breaking out from the hills, land limited, partly impregnated with
salts." He passed by a Moqui village and thence on to the overland mail
route. The Little Colorado was described as "not quite the size of the
Virgin River, water a little brackish, but better than that of the
Virgin." In May of the same year, Hamblin piloted, as far as Moen Copie,
the first ten wagons of the Haight expedition that failed in an attempt
to found a settlement on the Little Colorado.

Just as the Chiricahua Apaches to the southward found good pickings in
Mexico, so the Navajo early recognized as a storehouse of good things,
for looting, the Mormon settlements along the southern border of Utah. A
degree of understanding was reached by the Mormons with the Ute. There
was more or less trouble in the earlier days with the Paiute farther
westward, this tribe haying a number of subdivisions that had to be
successively pacified by moral or forcible suasion. But it was with the
Navajo that trouble existed in the largest measure.

Hamblin was absolutely sure of the identity of the American Indians with
the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon. He regarded the Indians at all times
as brethren who had strayed from the righteous path and who might be
brought back by the exercise of piety and patience. Very much like a
Spanish friar of old, he cheerfully dedicated himself to this particular
purpose, willing to accept even martyrdom if such an end were to serve
the great purpose. Undoubtedly this attitude was the basis of his
extraordinary fortitude and of the calmness with which he faced difficult
situations. There is admission by him, however, that at one time he was
very near indeed to death, this in the winter of 1873-74. It is noted
that nearly all of Hamblin's trips in the wild lands of Arizona were at
the direction of the Church authorities, for whom he acted as trail
finder, road marker, interpreter, missionary and messenger of peace to
the aborigines.

So it happened that it was upon Hamblin that Brigham Young placed
dependence in a very serious situation that came through the killing of
three Navajos, on the east fork of the Sevier River, a considerable
distance into south-central Utah. Four Navajos had come northward to
trade with the Ute. Caught by snow, they occupied a cabin belonging
to a non-Mormon named McCarty, incidentally killing one of his calves.
McCarty, Frank Starr and a number of associates descended upon the
Indians, of whom one, badly wounded, escaped across the river, taking
tidings to his tribesmen that the murder had been by Mormons. The Indian
was not subtle enough to distinguish between sects, and so there was a
call for bloody reprisals, directed against the southern Mormon
settlements. The Indian Agent at Defiance sent an investigating party
that included J. Lorenzo Hubbell.


Hamblin's Greatest Experience

In January, 1874, Hamblin left Kanab alone, on a mission that was
intended to pacify thousands of savage Indians. Possibly since St.
Patrick invaded Erin, no bolder episode had been known in history. He was
overtaken by his son with a note from Levi Stewart, advising return, but
steadfastly kept on, declaring, "I have been appointed to a mission by
the highest authority of God on earth. My life is of small moment
compared with the lives of the Saints and the interests of the kingdom of
God. I determined to trust in the Lord and go on." At Moen Copie Wash he
was joined by J.E. Smith and brother, not Mormons, but men filled with a
spirit of adventure, for they were well informed concerning the
prospective Navajo uprising. At a point a day's ride to the eastward of
Tuba's home on Moen Copie Wash, the three arrived at a Navajo village,
from which messengers were sent out summoning a council.

The next noon, about February 1, the council started, in a lodge twenty
feet long by twelve feet wide, constructed of logs, leaning to the center
and covered with dirt. There was only one entrance. Hamblin and the
Smiths were at the farther end. Between them and the door were 24
Navajos. In the second day's council came the critical time. Hamblin knew
no Navajo and there had to be resort to a Paiute interpreter, a captive,
terrified by fear that he too might be sacrificed if his interpretation
proved unpleasant. His digest of a fierce Navajo discussion of an hour
was that the Indians had concluded all Hamblin had said concerning the
killing of the three men was a lie, that he was suspected of being a
party to the killing, and, with the exception of three of the older
Indians, all present had voted for Hamblin's death. They had
distinguished the Smiths as "Americans," but they were to witness the
torture of Hamblin and then be sent back to the Colorado on foot. The
Navajos referred especially to Hamblin's counsel that the tribe cross
the river and trade with the Mormons. Thus they had lost three good young
men, who lay on the northern land for the wolves to eat. The fourth was
produced to show his wounds and tell how he had traveled for thirteen
days, cold and hungry and without a blanket. There was suggestion that
Hamblin's death might be upon a bed of coals that smoked in the middle of
the lodge.

[Illustration: EARLY MISSIONARIES AMONG THE INDIANS

1--Andrew S. Gibbons     2--Frederick Hamblin
3--James Pearce          4--Samuel N. Adair]

[Illustration: MOEN COPIE-FIRST HEADQUARTERS OF MISSIONARIES TO THE MOQUI
INDIANS]

The Smiths tightened their grasps upon their revolvers. In a letter
written by one of them was stated:

"Had we shown a symptom of fear, we were lost; but we sat perfectly
quiet, and kept a wary eye on the foe. It was a thrilling scene. The
erect, proud, athletic form of the young chief as he stood pointing his
finger at the kneeling figure before him; the circle of crouching forms;
their dusky and painted faces animated by every passion that hatred and
ferocity could inspire, and their glittering eyes fixed with one
malignant impulse upon us; the whole partially illuminated by the
fitful gleam of the firelight (for by this time it was dark), formed a
picture not easy to be forgotten.

"Hamblin behaved with admirable coolness. Not a muscle in his face
quivered, not a feature changed as he communicated to us, in his usual
tone of voice, what we then fully believed to be the death warrant of us
all. When the interpreter ceased, he, in the same easy tone and collected
manner, commenced his reply. He reminded the Indians of his long
acquaintance with their tribe, of the many negotiations he had conducted
between his people and theirs, and his many dealings with them in years
gone by, and challenged them to prove that he had ever deceived them,
ever had spoken with a forked tongue. He drew a map of the country on the
ground, and showed them the improbability of his having been a
participant in the affray."

In the end, the three were released after a discussion in the stifling
lodge that had lasted for eleven hours, "with every nerve strained to its
utmost tension and momentarily expecting a conflict which must be to the
death."

The Indians had demanded 350 head of cattle as recompense, a settlement
that Hamblin refused to make, but which he stated he would put before the
Church authorities. Twenty-five days later, according to agreement, he
met a delegation of Indians at Moabi. Later he took Chief Hastele, a
well-disposed Navajo, and a party of Indians to the spot where the young
men had been killed, and there demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the
Indians, the falsity of the accusation that Mormons had been responsible.

In April, 1874, understanding that the missionaries south of the river
were in grave danger, a party of 35 men from Kanab and Long Valley, led
by John R. Young, was dispatched southward. At Moen Copie was found a
gathering of about forty. It appeared the reinforcement was just in time,
as a Navajo attack on the post had been planned. Hamblin persisted in
braving all danger and set out with Ammon M. Tenney and a few others for
Fort Defiance, but found it unnecessary to go beyond Oraibi.

The Utah affair, after agency investigation, was brought up again at Fort
Defiance, August 21, with Hamblin and Tenney present, and settled in a
way that left Hamblin full of thanksgiving.

In 1875, Hamblin located a road from St. George to the Colorado River, by
way of Grand Wash.


The Old Scout's Later Years

In May, 1876, Hamblin served as guide for Daniel H. Wells, Erastus Snow
and a number of other leading men of Utah on their way to visit the new
Arizona settlements. The Colorado was at flood and the passage at Lee's
Ferry, May 28, was a dangerous one. The ferryboat bow was drawn under
water by the surges and the boat swept clear of three wagons, with the
attendant men and their luggage. One man was lost, Lorenzo W. Roundy,
believed to have been taken with a cramp. His body never was found. L.
John Nuttall and Hamblin swam to safety on the same oar. Lorenzo Hatch,
Warren Johnson and another clung to a wagon from which they were taken
off by a skiff just as they were going over the rapids.

In the same year, in December, Hamblin was assigned by President Young to
lay out a wagon route from Pearce's Ferry, south of St. George, to Sunset
on the Little Colorado. The Colorado was crossed at a point five miles
above the old crossing. The animals were made to swim and the luggage was
conveyed in a hastily constructed skiff. The route was a desert one,
about on the same line as that to be used by the proposed Arizona-Utah
highway between Grand Wash and the present Santa Fe railroad station of
Antares. Returning, Hamblin went as far south as Fort Verde, where Post
Trader W.S. Head advanced, without money, provisions enough to last until
the party arrived at the Colorado, south of St. George.

An interview at St. George with President Young succeeding this trip was
the last known by Hamblin with the Church head, for the President died
the following August. In that interview, December 15, 1876, Hamblin
formally was ordained as "Apostle to the Lamanites."

In the spring of 1877, Hamblin journeyed again into Arizona by the Lee's
Ferry route to the Hopi towns, trying to find an escaping criminal. On
this trip, the Hopi implored him to pray for rain, as their crops were
dying. Possibly through his appeal to grace, rain fell very soon
thereafter, assuring the Indians a crop of corn, squashes and beans.
There was little rain elsewhere. When Hamblin returned to his own home,
he found his crops burned from drought.

The estimation in which the Indians held the old scout may have
indication in a story told lately in the Historian's office by Jacob
Hamblin Jr. It follows:

"One day my father sent me to trade a horse with an old Navajo Indian
chief. I was a little fellow and I went on horseback, leading the horse
to be traded. The old chief came out and lifted me down from my horse. I
told him my father wanted me to trade the horse for some blankets. He
brought out a number of handsome blankets, but, as my father had told me
to be sure and make a good trade, I shook my head and said I would have
to have more. He then brought out two buffalo robes and quite a number of
other blankets and finally, when I thought I had done very well, I took
the roll on my horse, and started for home. When I gave the blankets to
my father, he unrolled them, looked at them, and then began to separate
them. He put blanket after blanket into a roll and then did them up and
told me to get on my horse and take them back and tell the chief he had
sent me too many. When I got back, the old chief took them and smiled. He
said, 'I knew you would come back; I knew Jacob would not keep so
many; you know Jacob is our father, as well as your father.'"

In 1878 Hamblin moved to Arizona and was made a counselor to President
Lot Smith. He was appointed in 1879 to preside over the Saints in Round
Valley, the present Springerville, living at Fort Milligan, about one
mile west of the present Eagar.

He died of malarial fever, August 31, 1886, at Pleasanton, in Williams
Valley, New Mexico, where a settlement of Saints had been made in
October, 1882.

Hamblin's remains were removed from Pleasanton before 1889, to Alpine,
Arizona, where was erected a shaft bearing this very appropriate
inscription:

"In memory of
JACOB V. HAMBLIN,
Born April 2, 1819,
Died August 31, 1886.
Peacemaker in the Camp of the Lamanites."




Chapter Nine

Crossing the Mighty Colorado


Early Use of "El Vado de Los Padres"

The story of the Colorado is most pertinent in a work such as this, for
the river and its Grand Canyon formed a barrier that must be passed if
the southward extension of Zion were to become an accomplished fact. Much
of detail has been given elsewhere concerning the means of passage used
by the exploring, missionary and settlement expeditions that had so much
to do with Arizona's development. In this chapter there will be
elaboration only to the extent of consideration of the ferries and fords
that were used.

The highest of the possible points for the crossing of the Colorado in
Arizona, is on the very Utah line, in latitude 37. It is the famous "Vado
de los Padres," the Crossing of the Fathers, also known as the Ute ford.
The first historic reference concerning it is in the journal of the
famous Escalante-Dominguez priestly expedition of 1776. The party
returning from its trip northward as far as Utah Lake, reached the river,
at the mouth of the Paria, about November 1. The stream was found too
deep, so there was a scaling of hills to the Ute ford, which was reached
November 8.

This ford is approached from the northward by natural steps down the
precipices, traveled by horses with some difficulty. On the southern
side, egress is by way of a long canyon that has few difficulties of
passage. The ford, which is illustrated in the frontispiece of this work,
reproduced from an official drawing of the Wheeler expedition, may be
used more than half the year. In springtime the stream is deep when the
melted snows of the Rockies are drained by the spring freshet. Usually,
the Mormon expeditions southward started well after the summer season,
when the crossing could be made without particular danger.

The Ute ford could hardly be made possible for wagon transportation, so
there was early effort to find a route for a through road. As early as
November, 1858, with some such idea in view, Jacob Hamblin was at the
mouth of the Paria, 35 miles southwest of the Ute ford, but was
compelled, then and also in November, 1859, to pursue his journey on,
over the hills, to the ford.


Ferrying at the Paria Mouth

The first crossing of the river, at the mouth of the Paria, was made by a
portion of a party, headed by Hamblin, in the fall of 1860. A raft was
constructed, on which a few were taken across, but, after one animal had
been drowned and there had been apparent demonstration that the dangers
were too great, and that there was lack of a southern outlet, the party
made its way up the river to the ford.

The first successful crossing at the Paria was in March, 1864, by
Hamblin, on a raft. The following year there was a Mormon settlement at
or near the Paria mouth. August 4, 1869, the first of the Powell
expeditions reached the mouth of the Paria, this on the trip that ended
at the mouth of the Virgin.

In September, 1869, Hamblin crossed by means of a raft. That the route
had been definitely determined upon was indicated by the establishment,
January 31, 1870, of a Paria fort, with guards. In the fall of that year
President Brigham Young visited the Paria, as is shown in a letter
written by W.T. Stewart, this after the President had seen the mouth of
the Virgin and otherwise had shown his interest in a southern outlet for
Utah. In this same year, according to Dellenbaugh, Major Powell built a
rough scow, in order to reach the Moqui towns. This was the crossing in
October, when Jacob Hamblin guided Powell to the Moqui villages and Fort
Defiance.

In his expedition of 1871, Powell left the river at the Ute ford and went
to Salt Lake. A few days later, October 22, his men, with a couple of
boats, reached the Paria for a lengthy stay, surveying on the Kaibab
plateau, in the vicinity of Kanab. It was written that the boat "Emma
Dean" was hidden across the river. By that time ferry service had been
established, for on October 28, 1871, Jacob Hamblin and companions, on
their way home from the south, were rowed across.


John D. Lee on the Colorado

It is remarkable, in the march of history, how there will cling to a spot
a name that, probably, should not have been attached and that should be
forgotten. This happens to be the case with Lee's Ferry, a designation
now commonly accepted for the mouth of the Paria, though it commemorates
the Mountain Meadows massacre, through the name of the leading culprit in
that awful frontier tragedy. Yet John Doyle Lee was at the river only a
few years of all the years of the ferry's long period of use. The name
seems to have been started within that time, firmly fixed in the
chronicles of the Powell expedition, in the books of the expeditions
later and of Dellenbaugh.

John D. Lee located at the mouth of the Paria early in 1872 and named it
"Lonely Dell," by Dellenbaugh considered a most appropriate designation.
Lee built a log cabin and acquired some ferry rights that had been
possessed by the Church.

An interesting detail of the ferry is given by J. H. Beadle, in his
"Western Wilds." He told of reaching the ferry from the south June 28,
1872. The attention of a ferryman could not be attracted, so there was
use of a boat that was found hidden in the sand and brush. This was the
"Emma Dean," left by Powell. The ferryman materialized two days later,
calling himself "Major Doyle," but his real identity was developed soon
thereafter. Beadle gives about a chapter to his interview with Lee, whom
he called "a born fanatic." Beadle, who had written much against the
Church, also had given a false name, but his identity was discovered by
Mrs. Lee through clothing marks. Beadle quoted "Mrs. Doyle" as saying
that her husband had been with the Mormon Battalion. This was hardly
exact, though it does appear that Lee, October 19, 1846, was in Santa Fe
with Howard Egan, the couple returning to Council Bluffs with pay checks
the Battalion members were sending back toward the support of their
families. The two messengers had overtaken the Battalion at the Arkansas
crossing. But Beadle slept safely in Lee's house, which he left on
Independence Day, departing by way of Jacob's Pools.

July 13, another of Powell's boats was brought down the river. Just a
month later, Powell arrived at Lonely Dell from Kanab. August 17, he
started down the river again from the Paria, leaving the "Nellie Powell"
to the ferryman. This trip was of short duration, for the river was left,
finally, at Kanab Wash.

In May, 1873, came the first of the real southern Mormon migration. This
was when H. D. Haight and his party crossed the river at the Paria, on a
trip that extended only about to Grand Falls, but which was notable from
the fact that it laid out the first Mormon wagon road south of the river,
down to and along the Little Colorado.

October 15, 1873, was launched at the ferry, by John L. Blythe, a much
larger boat than had been known before, made of timber brought from a
remote point near the Utah line. That same winter Hamblin located a new
road from the Paria mouth to the San Francisco Mountains.

In June of 1874, an Indian trading post was established at the ferry and
there was erection of what was called a "strong fort."

In the fall of 1874, Lee departed from the river, this for the purpose of
securing provisions in the southern settlements of Utah. Several
travelers noted in their journals that Lee wanted nothing but provisions
in exchange for ferry tolls. It was on this trip he was captured by
United States marshals in southern Utah, thereafter to be tried,
convicted and legally executed by shooting (March 23, 1877), on the spot
where his crime had been committed.


Lee's Canyon Residence Was Brief

Much of romance is attached to Lee's residence on the Colorado. The
writer has heard many tales how Lee worked rich gold deposits nearby, how
he explored the river and its canyons and how, for a time, he was in
seclusion among the Hava-Supai Indians in the remote Cataract Canyon,
to which, there was assumption, he had brought the fruit seeds from which
sprang the Indian orchards. This would appear to be mainly assumption,
for Lee made his living by casual ferrying, and had to be on hand when
the casual traveler called for his services. Many of the old tales are
plausible, and have had acceptance in previous writings of the Author,
but it now appears that Lee's residence on the Canyon was only as above
stated. J. Lorenzo Hubbell states that Lee was at Moen Copie for a while
before going to take charge of the ferry.

In the summer of 1877, Ephriam K. Hanks was advised by President Brigham
Young to buy the ferry, but this plan fell through on the death of the
President. The ferry, later, was bought from Emma Lee by Warren M.
Johnson, as Church agent, he paying 100 cows, which were contributed by
the people of southern Utah and northern Arizona settlements, they
receiving tithing credits therefor.

About ten years ago, Lee's Ferry was visited by Miss Sharlot M. Hall,
Arizona Territorial Historian. She wrote entertainingly of her trip, by
wagon, northwest into the Arizona Strip, much of her diary published in
1912 in the Arizona Magazine. The Lee log cabin showed that some of its
logs originally had been used in some sort of raft or rude ferryboat.
There also was found in the yard a boat, said to have been one of those
of the Powell expedition. This may have been the "Nellie Powell."

Of the Lee occupancy, Miss Hall tells a little story that gives insight
into the trials of the women of the frontier:

"When Lee's wife stayed here alone, as she did much of the time, the
Navajo Indians often crossed here and they were not always friendly. A
party of them came one night and built their campfire in the yard and
Mrs. Lee understood enough of their talk to know she was in danger. Brave
woman as she was, she knew she must overawe them, and she took her little
children and went out and spread a bed near the fire in the midst of the
hostile camp and stayed there till morning. When the Navajos rode away
they called her a brave woman and said she should be safe in the future."

The first real ferryboat was that built by John L. Blythe, on October 15,
1873, a barge 20x40 feet, one that would hold two wagons, loads and
teams. It was in this boat that the Jas. S. Brown party crossed in 1875,
and a much larger migration to the Little Colorado in the spring of
1876.

In 1877, there was consideration of the use of the Paria road, as a means
for hauling freight into Arizona, at least as far as Prescott, which was
estimated by R.J. Hinton as 448 miles distant from the terminus, at that
time, of the Utah Southern Railroad. Via St. George and Grand Wash, the
haul was set at 391 miles, though the Paria route seemed to be preferred.
It should be remembered that at that time the nearest railroad was west
of Yuma, a desert journey from Prescott of about 350 miles.


Crossing the Colorado on the Ice

The Paria crossing had served as route of most of the Mormon migration
south. The ferry has been passed occasionally by river explorers,
particularly by the Stanton expedition, which reached that point on
Christmas Day, 1889, in the course of a trip down the Colorado that
extended as far as salt water. The ferryboat was not needed at one stage
of the history of Lee's Ferry. The story comes in the journals of several
members of a missionary party. Anthony W. Ivins (now a member of the
Church First Presidency) and Erastus B. Snow reached the river January
16, 1878, about the same time as did John W. Young and a number of
prospective settlers bound for the Little Colorado. The Snow narrative of
the experience follows:

"The Colorado River, the Little Colorado and all the springs and watering
places were frozen over. Many of the springs and tanks were entirely
frozen up, so that we were compelled to melt snow and ice for our teams.
We (that is J.W. Young and I), crossed our team and wagon on the ice over
the Colorado. I assure you it was quite a novelty to me, to cross such a
stream of water on ice; many other heavily loaded wagons did the same,
some with 2500 pounds on. One party did a very foolish trick, which
resulted in the loss of an ox; they attempted to cross three head of
large cattle all yoked and chained together, and one of the wheelers
stepped on a chain that was dragging behind, tripped and fell, pulling
his mate with him, thereby bringing such a heft on the ice that it broke
through, letting the whole into the water; but the ice being sufficiently
strong they could stand on it and pull them out one at a time. One got
under the ice and was drowned, the live one swimming some length of time
holding the dead one up by the yoke."

Concerning the same trip, Mr. Ivins has written the Arizona Historian
that, "the river was frozen from shore to shore, but, above and below for
a short distance, the river was open and running rapidly." Great care was
taken in crossing, the wagons with their loads usually pulled over by
hand and the horses taken over singly. Thus the ice was cracked. Mr.
Ivins recites the episode of the oxen and then tells that a herd of
cattle was taken across by throwing each animal, tying its legs and
dragging it across. One man could drag a grown cow over the smooth ice.
Mr. Ivins tells that he remained at the river several days, crossing on
the ice 32 times. On the 22d the missionaries and settlers all were at
Navajo Springs, ready to continue the journey. It is believed that the
Colorado has not been frozen over since that time.

There now is prospect that the Paria route between Utah and Arizona will
be much bettered by construction of a road that avoids Paria Creek and
attains the summit of the mesa, to the northward, within a comparatively
short distance. At a point six miles below the ferry, the County of
Coconino, with national aid, is preparing for construction of a
suspension bridge, with a 400-foot span. Upon its completion, Lee's Ferry
will pass, save for its place in history.


Crossings Below the Grand Canyon

Below Lee's Ferry comes the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, cut a full mile
deep for about 200 miles, in a winding channel, with only occasional
spots where trails are feasible to the river's edge. A suspension bridge
is being erected by the United States Forest Service below El Tovar, with
a trail northward up Bright Angel Canyon. A feasible trail exists from
the mouth of Kanab Wash to the northward. To the southward there is
possibility of approach to the river by wagon at Diamond Creek, but the
first real crossing lies immediately below the great Canyon at Grand
Wash, a point where there was ferrying, in 1862, by Hamblin and a party
who brought a boat from Kanab. Return on this expedition was via the Ute
ford. Hamblin, with Lewis Greeley, crossed again at the Grand Wash in
April, 1863, and there is record of a later trip of indefinite date, made
by him on the river from Grand Wash to Callville, in company with Crosby
and Miller. Several of the Hamblin expeditions crossed at Grand Wash in
the years thereafter, but it appears that it was not until December,
1876, that a regular ferry there was established, this by Harrison
Pearce. The place bears the name of Pearce's Ferry unto this day, though
the maps give it as "Pierce." A son of Harrison Pearce, and former
assistant in the operation of the ferry, James Pearce, was the first
settler of Taylor on Silver Creek, Arizona, where he still resides.

The next ferry was at the mouth of the Virgin, where there were boats for
crossing at necessity, including the time when President Brigham Young
and party visited the locality, in March, 1870. When the settlers on the
Muddy and the Virgin balloted upon the proposition of abandoning the
country, Daniel Bonelli and wife were the only ones who voted the
negative. When the Saints left southern Nevada, Bonelli and wife moved to
a point about six miles below the mouth of the Virgin, and there
established a ferry that still is owned by a son of the founder. This is
the same noted on government maps as Stone's Ferry, though there has been
a change of a few miles in location. About midway between the Virgin and
Grand Wash, about 1881, was established the Mike Scanlon ferry.
Downstream, early-day ferries were operated at the El Dorado canyon
crossing and on the Searchlight road, at Cottonwood Island. W.H. Hardy
ferried at Hardyville. About the later site of Fort Mohave, Capt. Geo. A.
Johnston, January 23, 1858, in a stern wheel steamer, ferried the famous
Beale camel expedition across the river.


Settlements North of the Canyon

Moccasin Springs, a few miles south of the Utah line and eighteen miles
by road southwest of Kanab, has had no large population at any time, save
that about 100 Indians were in the vicinity in 1900. The place got its
name from moccasin tracks in the sand. The site was occupied some time
before 1864 by Wm. B. Maxwell, but was vacated in 1866 on account of
Indian troubles. In the spring of 1870, Levi Stewart and others stopped
there for a while, with a considerable company, breaking land, but moved
on to found Kanab, north of the line. This same company also made some
improvements around Pipe Springs. About a year later, a company under
Lewis Allen, mainly from the Muddy, located temporarily at Pipe Springs
and Moccasin. To some extent there was a claim upon the two localities
by the United Order or certain of its members. The place for years was
mainly a missionary settlement, but it was told that "even when the
brethren would plow and plant for them, the Indians were actually too
lazy to attend to the growing crops."

That the climate of Moccasin favors growth of sturdy manhood is indicated
by the history of one of its families, that of Jonathan Heaton. At hand
is a photograph taken in 1905, of Heaton and his fifteen sons. Two of the
sons died in accidents within the past two years, but the others all grew
to manhood, and all were registered for the draft in the late war. With
the photograph is a record that, of the whole family, not one individual
has tasted tea, coffee, tobacco or liquor of any kind.


Arizona's First Telegraph Station

Pipe Springs is situate three miles south of Moccasin Springs and eight
miles south of the Utah line. It was settled as early as 1863 by Dr. Jas.
M. Whitmore, who owned the place when he was killed by the Indians
January 8, 1866. President Brigham Young purchased the claims of the
Whitmore estate and in 1870 there established headquarters of a Church
herd, in charge of Anson P. Winsor. Later was organized the Winsor Castle
Stock Growing Company, in which the Church and President Young held
controlling interest. It is notable that one of the directors was
Alexander F. Macdonald, later President of Maricopa Stake. At the spring,
late in 1870, was erected a sizable stone building, usually known as
Winsor Castle, a safe refuge from savages, or others, with portholes in
the walls. In 1879 the company had consolidation with the Canaan
Cooperative Stock Company. The name, Pipe Springs, had its origin,
according to A.W. Ivins, in a halt made there by Jacob Hamblin and
others. William Hamblin claimed he could shoot the bottom out of Dudley
Leavitt's pipe at 25 yards, without breaking the bowl. This he proceeded
to do.

Pipe Springs was a station of the Deseret Telegraph, extended in 1871
from Rockville to Kanab. While the latter points are in Utah, the
wires were strung southward around a mountainous country along the St.
George-Kanab road. This would indicate location of the first telegraph
line within Arizona, as the first in the south, a military line from Fort
Yuma to Maricopa Wells, Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson, was not built till
1873.


Arizona's Northernmost Village

Fredonia is important especially as the northernmost settlement of
Arizona, being only three miles south of the 37th parallel that divides
Utah and this State. It lies on the east bank of Kanab Creek, and is the
center of a small tract of farming land, apparently ample for the needs
of the few settlers, who have their principal support from stock raising.
The first settlement was from Kanab in the spring of 1885, by Thomas
Frain Dobson, who located his family in a log house two miles below the
present Fredonia townsite. The following year the townsite was surveyed
and there was occupation by Henry J. Hortt and a number of others.

The name was suggested by Erastus Snow, who visited the settlement in its
earliest days, naturally coming from the fact that many of the residents
were from Utah, seeking freedom from the enforcement of federal laws.

Fredonia is in Coconino County, Arizona, with county seat at Flagstaff,
145 miles distant in air line, but across the Grand Canyon. The easiest
method of communication with the county seat is by way of Utah and
Nevada, a distance of over 1000 miles.

Fredonia was described by Miss Sharlot M. Hall, as "the greenest,
cleanest, quaintest village of about thirty families, with a nice
schoolhouse and a church and a picturesque charm not often found, and
this most northerly Arizona town is almost one of the prettiest. The
fields of alfalfa and grain lie outside of the town along a level valley
and are dotted over with haystacks, showing that crops have been good."
Reference is made to the fact that some of the families were descended
from the settlers of the Muddy Valley. There had been the usual trouble
in the building of irrigating canals and the washing away of headgates by
floods that came down Kanab Creek. Miss Hall continued, "I am constantly
impressed with the courage and persistence of the Mormon colony; they
have good, comfortable houses here that have been built with the hardest
labor amidst floods and drought and all sorts of discouragement. It is
one of the most beautiful valleys I have seen in Arizona and has a fine
climate the year round; but these first settlers deserve a special place
in history by the way they have turned the wilderness into good farms and
homes."

Concerning the highway to Fredonia, Miss Hall observes, "The Mormon
colonists who traveled this road certainly had grit when they started,
and grit enough more to last the rest of their lives on the road."

For years efforts have been made by Utah to secure from Arizona the land
lying north of the Colorado River, on the ground that, topographically,
it really belongs to the northern division, and that its people are
directly connected by birth and religion with the people of Utah. As
a partial offset, they have offered that part of Utah that lies south of
the San Juan River, thus to be created a northern Arizona boundary wholly
along water courses. The suggestion, repeatedly put before Arizona
Legislatures, invariably has met with hostile reception, especially based
upon the desire to keep the whole of the Grand Canyon within Arizona.
Indeed, in later years, the great 200-mile gorge of the Colorado more
generally is referred to as the Grand Canyon of Arizona, this in order to
avoid confusion with any scenic attributes of the State of Colorado.

[Illustration: PIPE SPRINGS OR WINSOR CASTLE. The sign on the upper porch
is of the first telegraph line in Arizona, built in 1870]

[Illustration: MOCCASIN SPRINGS ON ROAD TO THE PARIA]

[Illustration: IN THE KAIBAB FOREST NEAR THE HOME OF THE SHIVWITS
INDIANS]




Chapter Ten

Arizona's Pioneer Northwest


History of the Southern Nevada Point

Assuredly within the purview of this work is the settlement of what now
is the southern point of Nevada, a part of the original area of New
Mexico and, hence, included within the Territory of Arizona when created
in 1863. This embraced the district south of latitude 37, westward to
the California line, west and north of the Colorado River. The main
stream of the district is the Virgin, with a drainage area of 11,000
square miles, Muddy River and Santa Clara Creek being its main
tributaries. It is a torrential stream, subject to sudden floods and
carrying much silt. A section of its valley in the northwestern corner of
the present Arizona, near Littlefield, is to be dammed in the near future
for the benefit of small farms that have been cultivated for many years
and for carrying out irrigation plans of much larger scope.

Especial interest attaches to this district through the fact that its
area once was embraced within the now almost forgotten Arizona County of
Pah-ute or was part of the present Arizona county of Mohave.

In the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, much information concerning the
Nevada point was found in a series of pioneer maps. Of very early
designation were old Las Vegas Springs and Beaver Dams, the latter now
known as Littlefield. South of the 37th parallel, on a map of 1873, are
found Cane Springs, Grapevine Springs and West Point, with Las Vegas
(Sp., The Meadows) and Cottonwood as stations on the Mormon road, which
divided to the westward at the last-named point.

The main road to Callville appears to have been down the Virgin for a
short distance from St. Thomas, and then to have led over the hills to
the westward. From Callville, a road connected with the main highway at
Las Vegas.

A map of California, made by W.M. Eddy in 1853, has some interesting
variations of the northwestern New Mexico nomenclature. The Muddy is set
down as El Rio Atascoso (Sp., "Boggy") and Vegas Wash as Ojo del Gaetan
(galleta grass?). Nearby was Agua Escorbada, where scurvy grass probably
was found. There also was Hernandez Spring. There was an outline of the
Potosi mining district. North of Las Vegas on a California map of 1864,
was placed the "Old Mormon Fort." Reference by the reader is asked to the
description of the Old Spanish Trail, which was followed partially by the
line of the later Mormon road.

On a late map of the section that was lost by Arizona to Nevada, today
are noted only the settlements of Bunkerville, Moapa, Logan, St. Joseph,
Mesquite, Overton and St. Thomas. There is a ferry at Rioville, at the
mouth of the Virgin, and another is at Grand Wash. The name of Las Vegas
is borne by a railroad station on the Salt Lake and Los Angeles line, a
few miles from the Springs. There are the mining camps of Pahrump, Manse,
Keystone, El Dorado and Newberry. The westernmost part of the triangle,
at an elevation of about 3000 feet, is occupied by the great Amargosa
desert, which descends abruptly on the California side into the sink of
Death Valley to below sea level. There has been no development of large
value in this strip. Its interest to Arizona is merely historical.

Today, few Arizonans know that Pah-ute County once existed as an Arizona
subdivision, or that Nevada took a part of Arizona, or that later, Nevada
was given full sixty miles expansion eastward of her boundary line, at
the expense of both Arizona and Utah. The natural boundary line in that
section between Nevada and Arizona would have been the Virgin River.

[Illustration: Map]

The information contained in this chapter has been gathered from diverse
sources, but largely from the records of the Church Historian at Salt
Lake, wherein, practically, is the only history of the Mormon settlements
of the southwestern section of what was and is known as "Utah's Dixie."

The southern Nevada point had some value in a mineral way. As early as
1857, Mormons worked the Potosi silver mines, eighteen miles southwest of
Las Vegas. Little data is at hand concerning their value. In Bancroft
is found this sober chronicle: "Believing the mines to be lead, Brigham
Young sent miners to work them, in anticipation of war with the United
States, but the product was found too hard for bullets and the mines were
abandoned."

The Congressional Act of May, 1866, giving Nevada all that part of
Arizona lying between the Colorado River and California, from about
longitude 114, took from Arizona 31,850 square miles. This followed the
extension of Nevada eastward for one degree of longitude. Annexed
was appropriation of $17,000 for surveys.


Missionaries of the Desert

In the record of the Whipple expedition of 1853-4, is found evidence of
Mormon influence already material in the Southwest. Whipple thought
highly of the agricultural possibilities of the valley of the Colorado
River, above the mouth of Bill Williams' Fork and wrote, "The Mormons
made a great mistake in not occupying the valley of the Colorado." This
Whipple expedition made a painful journey from the Colorado across the
Mohave desert and, on March 13, 1854, struck what even then was known as
the Mormon Road. The next day Whipple met a party of Mormons en route to
Salt Lake. He told them of the murder of one of his Mexican herders by
the Paiutes, but the travelers expressed no fear. They said they were at
peace with the Indians, a statement over which Whipple expressed
surprise.

About the earliest American occupation of the southern Nevada point
available in the records upon which this office has worked, appears to
have been the detail by Brigham Young in 1854 of a party of thirty young
men "to go to Las Vegas, build a fort there to protect immigrants and the
United States mail from the Indians, and to teach the latter how to raise
corn, wheat, potatoes, squash and melons."

The missionary party arrived at Las Vegas June 14, 1855. Four days later
was started construction of an adobe fort on the California, road, on an
eminence overlooking the valley. This fort, 150 feet square, had walls,
upon a stone foundation, fourteen feet high, with bastions on the
southeast and northwest corners. Gates were not procured until the
following year. Houses were built against the inside of the wall and lots
were drawn to decide just where each of the brethren should erect his
dwelling. There was a garden plot, just below, on the creek, and small
farms were provided nearby. Inside the fort was a schoolhouse, in which
meetings also were held, this indicating that families soon followed the
pioneer missionaries. It is told that "the gospel was preached and that
many Indians were converted and baptized."

One of these missionaries was Benjamin Cluff, who in later years became a
prominent member of the Gila Valley settlements in Arizona. In his
biography is found notation that the Las Vegas missionaries worked in
lead mines, assumed to have been those in the Potosi section. Some of
this lead undoubtedly went back to Utah but, happily, was not used at the
time of the 1858 invasion.

Another notable member was Wm. C. A. Smoot who died in Salt Lake City in
the spring of 1920, and who was one of the original Pioneers who reached
Salt Lake July 24, 1847. Having been the last of the first pioneer
company to enter the valley, it was quite in keeping that he was the last
of the company to leave the valley for the celestial shores.

Here there might be notation that of the venerated Salt Lake Pioneers,
the following-named later had residence in Arizona: Edmund Ellsworth,
Charles Shumway, Edson Whipple, Francis M. Pomeroy, Conrad Klineman,
Andrew S. Gibbons and Joseph Matthews.

Of the Pioneers of especial distinction, the following-named were later
visitors to Arizona: Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Geo. A. Smith,
Erastus Snow, Amasa M. Lyman and Lorenzo D. Young.

Missionaries John Steele and Wm. A. Follett were former Battalion
members.

Rufus C. Allen, who was Private No. 1 of the First Company of the Mormon
Battalion, returned from Chile to become a missionary in the Las Vegas
section and in the Virgin River country. One of Allen's daughters, Mrs.
Rachael Berry of St. Johns, represented Apache County in the House of
Representatives of Arizona's Second State Legislature, in 1915.


Diplomatic Dealings with the Redskins

With the exception of the missionaries and the travelers between Utah and
San Bernardino, the white man had little place in the southern point of
Nevada in the early days. At hand, however, is a tale of the adventures
of Ira Hatch, who was sent into the lonely, barren desert in the hope
that something of missionary value might be done with the Indians. These
Indians, Paiutes, were described as "always ready to attack the weak and
defenseless traveler, including any opportunity to prey upon the animals
of the watchful and strong." Nevertheless missionaries from southern Utah
attempted Christianization. Whatever their degree of success, and though
often in serious danger, they made the redskins understand that,
personally, they were friendly. This missionary effort, it was hoped,
would serve to make safer the through road.

Elder Hatch, in January, 1858, was sent alone into the Muddy Valley, 100
miles from the nearest settlement, Santa Clara. He was among the savages
for two weeks, camped in a broken-down wagon left by one of the Crismons.
His main trouble was in saving food from the Indians, who descended upon
him like locusts and manifested their friendliness by stealing everything
they could carry away. Hatch held the fort, however, translating and
serving as guide for travelers, and occasionally having to threaten with
his pistol redskins who menaced him with their bows and arrows.

After a fortnight, Jacob Hamblin sent him a companion, Thales Haskell,
another noted pioneer, and together the two spent the balance of the
winter in the lonely outpost. There was an interesting diversion in the
passage of Col. Thos. L. Kane, the statesman who had done so much for
the Mormon people at the time of exodus from Nauvoo and who later served
so effectively as a mediator between Deseret and the national government.
Kane, with a party, was on his way from California to Salt Lake. He had
an idea of creating a haven of refuge for beleagured travelers in a cave
about sixty miles northeast of Overton. In this cave he had placed
bottles of medicine, which he wished the Indians to understand was good
only for white men. This refuge he called the "Travelers' Home." It had
been known as "Dr. Osborn's Cave."

A number of the Indians were gathered and a treaty was concluded. At this
meeting there developed the unusual condition that Hatch had spent so
much time with the Indians that his English was very imperfect and
broken, while Colonel Kane's language was of cultured sort, unfamiliar
and almost unintelligible to Hatch. So a third person (Amasa M. Lyman)
had to interpret between Kane and Hatch and the latter then interpreted
to the Indians, the return message going the same route back to the
Colonel. Inasmuch as the treaty had been upon the basis of certain trade
articles that were to have been furnished by the Utah Indian agent, and
were not furnished, the contract was not completed. Ammon M. Tenney, a
mere lad, spent several months in Las Vegas at that time. Hatch and
Haskell returned to their homes in Utah in March, 1858.


Near Approaches to Indian Warfare

Continual trouble was known with the Indians, though, after a few years,
was written, "many of the Indians are being taught to labor and are
learning better things than to rob and murder."

When the first agricultural settlers came, they were visited by
To-ish-obe, principal chief of the Muddy Indians, and a party of other
redskins, who transmitted information that had been sent them to the
effect that President Erastus Snow had planned to poison the Muddy
and kill off all the Indians. The chief was disabused of the idea.

The same chief appears to have been decent enough. In February, 1866,
there is record how he had declared outlaws two Indians who had stolen
horses and cattle. One of these Indians, Co-quap, was taken prisoner and
was killed at St. Thomas. About the same time, Indians on the Muddy,
above Simonsville (a grist mill site), stole wheat from about thirty
acres and left for the mountains, threatening the Muddy settlers. Within
a month, 32 head of horses, mules and cattle were driven off by Indians,
from St. Joseph and Simonsville. An expedition of 25 men started after
the marauders, but failed to recapture the stock.

Andrew S. Gibbons (who had come in 1864), sought To-ish-obe on the upper
Muddy, to interpret and make peace, if possible. In June at St. Joseph
was a conference between Erastus Snow and a group of the leading Indians,
representing the Santa Clara, Muddy, Colorado and other bands, in all
seven chiefs and 64 of their men. The conference was an agreeable one and
it was felt that some good had been done.

[Illustration: A STREET IN FREDONIA]

[Illustration: WALPI-ONE OF THE HOPI (MOQUI) VILLAGES]

[Illustration: WARREN M. JOHNSON'S HOUSE AT PARIA FERRY]

[Illustration: CROSSING THE COLORADO AT THE PARIA FERRY]

There was more trouble with the Indians in February, 1868, when the
tribesmen on the upper Muddy, where a new settlement had been formed,
came to the camp in anger, with blackened faces, armed with bows and
arrows, to demand pay for grain lands that had been occupied by the
whites. Gibbons acted as peacemaker, but told, "the fact that the
brethren were all well armed appeared to pacify the Indians more than any
arguments." The farmers formed in battle line, with Helaman Pratt as
captain, Gibbons in front, interpreting.

The Indians of the region, mainly Paiutes, were a never-ending source of
irritation and of potential danger to the settlers. They had grown fields
of a few acres along the Muddy and hence resented the coming of the
settlers who might include the aboriginal farms within their holdings.
In accordance with the traditional policy of the Church, however,
conciliation was used wherever possible, though the settlers sometimes,
when goaded to the last extremity, had to exhibit firearms and make a
show of force.

In 1868, Joseph W. Young wrote, "These Indians were considered about the
worst specimens of the race. They lived almost in a state of nudity and
were among the worst thieves on the continent. But through the kind,
though determined, course pursued towards them by our brethren who have
been among them, they are greatly changed for the better, and I believe I
may safely say that they are the best workers of all the tribes. They
are, nevertheless, Indians, and much wisdom is required to get along with
them pleasantly. Brother Andrew Gibbons is worthy of honorable mention,
because of the good influence that he maintains over these rude men."

In November, 1870, the Indians were reported "very hostile and saucy."
The Chemehuevis and Mohaves were at war. A band of the former, about 100
or more, came into the Muddy Valley. In December a band of Wallapai came
for a friendly visit.


Utilization of the Colorado River

The Colorado River drains nearly all the lands of present Mormon
settlement, mainly lying betwixt the Rockies and the Sierras. The
Colorado, within the United States is reckoned as only inferior to the
Mississippi-Missouri and Columbia, with an annual flow sufficient to
supply for irrigation needs about 20,000,000 acre feet of water. It has a
drainage area of 244,000 square miles and a length of 1700 miles. It is
of torrential character, very big indeed in the late spring and early
summer and very low most of the remainder of the year. In years, not far
distant, there will be storage dams at many points, to hold back the
springtime floods from the melting of the snows of the Rockies, and from
the river's flow will be generated electric power for the turning of the
wheels of the Southwest. All this is in plans made by the League of the
Southwest, a body now headed by Governor Campbell of Arizona. But these
things are of the future, and it is the past we especially are
considering.

Several attempts were made during and prior to the Civil War to make of
the Colorado a highway through which Utah, southern Nevada and northern
Arizona might have better transportation. The scheme was not a wild one
by any means, though handicapped by the difficulties of both the maximum
and minimum flows.

Inspector General J.F. Rusling had recommended that military supplies for
the forces in Utah be brought in by way of the Colorado River.

Fort Yuma was visited late in 1854 by Lieut. N. Michler, of the
Topographical Engineers, who wrote:

"The belief is entertained and strongly advocated that the Colorado will
be the means of supplying the Mormon territory, instead of the great
extent of land transportation now used for that purpose.

"Its headquarters approach the large settlements of Utah and may one day
become the means of bearing away the products of those pioneers of the
far West. With this idea prominent in the minds of speculators, a city on
paper, bearing the name of 'Colorado City,' had already been surveyed,
the streets and blocks marked out and many of them sold. It is situated
on the east bank, opposite Fort Yuma."

From 1858 to about 1882, even after the Santa Fe railroad had reached
Needles, there was much traffic on the Colorado. Supplies went by river
to the mines, which sent downstream occasional shipments of ore. Military
supplies went by water to Fort Mohave or to Ehrenberg, the latter point a
depot for Whipple Barracks and other posts. Salt came down stream from
the Virgin River mines, for use mainly in the amalgamation processes of
the small stamp mills of the period.


Steamboats on the Shallow Stream

Traffic on the river had been established as early as December, 1852.
Capt. Geo. A. Johnston, an early steamboat pilot, ferried the Beale
party, in January, 1858, near where Fort Mohave later was established.
Johnston made several trips far up the river with the Jesup and with a
newer steamer, the Colorado. He is understood to have gone even farther
than Lieut. J. C. Ives, of the Topographical Corps, in the little steamer
Explorer. This stern-wheeler made the trip in January, 1858, and was
passed by Johnston on his way downstream. The river was at low stage and
the Explorer butted into snags and muddy banks continually. Finally there
was disaster when Black Canyon was reached, when the boat ran upon a
sunken rock. Ives rowed as far up as Vegas Wash.

In 1866, the Arizona Legislature, at Prescott, by resolution thanked
"Admiral" Robert Rogers, commander of the steamer Esmeralda, and Capt.
William Gilmore, for the successful accomplishment of the navigation of
the Colorado River to Callville, "effected by the indomitable energy of
the enterprising Pacific and Colorado Navigation Co.," a concern managed
by Thos. E. Trueworthy, an experienced steamboat man from the Sacramento
River of California. Both Arizona and Nevada Legislatures petitioned
Congress to improve the stream.

Captain Johnston later formed the Colorado Steam Navigation Company and,
more or less, controlled the river traffic for years. There were other
noted Captains, including C.V. Meeden, Isaac Polhamus, A.D. Johnson,
William Poole, S. Thorn, J.H. Godfrey and J.A. Mellen.

Captain Mellen told that sometimes schooner barges were used in the lower
canyons, where the wind was either upstream or downstream. When it was
downstream, the upward-bound craft moored until the breeze changed to
astern.

The deck hands were Cocopah or Yuma Indians, amphibious, always ready to
plunge overboard to help in lightening their craft over any of the
numerous sand bars. Mellen told of lying 52 days in one bar and of often
being held up for a week. There was no possible mapping of the river
channel, for the bars changed from week to week. Even in the earliest
times, steamboats were never molested by the Indians. They seemed in awe
of the puffing, snorting craft that threw showers of sparks from the
smokestacks. Not infrequently, a steamer had to tie up for a few days at
a point where fuel conveniently could be cut from the cottonwood or
mesquite thickets.

In June, the river is at flood, with danger always present in floating
trees and driftwood, muddy torrents coming from the melting snows of the
Rocky Mountains. In the autumn the river falls, until in places there are
mere trickles around the muddy banks. Navigation, perforce, had to be
suspended. These were the conditions under which it was proposed to make
of the Colorado the great trade artery of the inter-mountain region.

The Colorado now absolutely has lost all possibilities for commerce.
Pioneer conditions are about the same as far southward as the Laguna dam.
This structure, built to divert water for the Yuma and Imperial valleys,
absolutely bars the river channel for navigation. Above it and below it
now are only ferries and a few power boats. The great Imperial canal
system, at a point below Yuma, for much of the year drains the river
flow. Where good-sized steamers once plied from tidewater, at the head of
the Gulf of California, now, for months at a time, is only a dry sand
wash. To this extent the advance of civilization has obliterated a river
that ranks, in geography at least, among the greatest streams of the
United States.


Establishing a River Port

Callville, established on the Colorado by Anson Call in December, 1864,
for a while was the southernmost outpost of Mormon settlement. Call
himself was a pioneer of most vigorous sort. November 24,1851, he was one
of the founders of Fillmore, Millard County, 150 miles south of Salt
Lake, a settlement for a while the capital of the Territory of Utah,
created during the administration of President Millard Fillmore in 1850.
In the following year he built Call's Fort in Box Elder County, in the
extreme northern part of Utah.

In a compilation made by Andrew Jenson is found definite statement that
the settlement made by Anson Call on the Colorado was "as agent for the
Trustee in Trust (the President) of the Church in December, 1864,
according to a plan which was conceived of at that time to bring the
Church immigration from Europe to Utah via Panama, the Gulf of California
and up the river to this landing." In conjunction with this, a number of
leading merchants of Salt Lake City combined to build a warehouse on the
Colorado, with a view to bringing goods in by the river route. This
company also constituted Anson Call its agent. November 1, Call was
directed to take a suitable company, locate a road to the Colorado,
explore the river, find a suitable place for a warehouse, build it and
form a settlement at or near the landing. All these things he
accomplished. At St. George he employed Jacob Hamblin and son, Angus M.
Cannon and Dr. Jas. M. Whitmore.

The journal of travel tells of leaving the mouth of the Muddy, continuing
down the Virgin twelve miles, thence up what was named Echo Wash, twelve
miles, and thence twenty miles, generally southwestward, to the Colorado,
a mile below the narrows, above the mouth of Black Canyon, where, on
December 2, was found a black rocky point, considered a suitable spot for
the erection of a warehouse, above high-water mark. This later was named
Callville.

With the exception of a small bottom around the warehouse site, the
country was considered most barren and uninviting. Two and a half miles
down the river was the mouth of Las Vegas Wash, up which Call and party
traveled to old Fort Vegas, where a half-dozen men were found
established. In the company's journeyings, El Dorado Canyon was found
occupied by miners and there were some adventurers on Cottonwood Island,
a tract of bottom land nearby. The expedition was ferried across the
Colorado to Hardy's Landing, 337 miles above Yuma. Hardy had a rather
extensive establishment, with a store, warehouse, hotel, blacksmith shop,
carpenter shop and several dwelling houses. Possibly notable was the
launching at that time of the barge "Arizona," fifty feet long and ten
feet wide, sharp at both ends and flat-bottomed.

By river there was a visit to Fort Mohave. This, garrisoned by forty
soldiers of the California Column, was of log and willow houses, the
latter wattled and daubed with mud. There was reference by Call to the
Colorado River mosquito, described as "very large."

Returning to Call's Landing, there were measured off forty lots, each 100
feet square, and a start was made by leaving Thomas Davids and Lyman
Hamblin, on December 18, to dig the foundation of the warehouse.

This expedition made a preliminary survey of the Muddy and declared
settlement upon the stream entirely feasible.

Wm. H. Hardy of Hardyville, or Hardy's Landing, was not at home when
Anson Call visited in December, but returned soon thereafter and, January
2, 1865, started northward with his new barge, propelled by poles and
oars and a sail. A distance of 150 miles by river was made in twelve
days. Though later some jealousy was expressed over the activities at
Callville, Hardy proffered all possible assistance and expressed belief
that from July to November steamers could ply from the mouth of the
Colorado to Call's Landing. The warehouse was built, but appears to
have been little used. Capt. Geo. A. Johnston had submitted the Church
authorities formal proposals to ship direct from New York to the mouth of
the river, in barques of about 600 tons burden, preferably arriving at
the river mouth in the fall. The cost of freight from New York to the
river mouth was set at $16 a ton, and the cost to El Dorado Canyon at
$65, but, figuring currency at 50 cents, the freight was estimated to
cost $7.16 per 100 pounds in currency.

In March, 1865, Capt. Thos. E. Trueworthy, told of opposition at Hardy's
Landing to the establishment of Callville. He had started for Call's
Landing with 100 tons of freight, including 35,000 feet of lumber, to
find that Call had returned to Utah. Trueworthy left his boat and cargo
below Callville and went on to Salt Lake. He stated the trip from the
mouth to Call's Landing would take a boat a month, there being difficulty
in passing rapids and in finding wood for fuel.

Historian B.H. Roberts states:

"There was shipment of some goods from that point, though at first there
were some disappointments and dissatisfaction among the Salt Lake
merchants who patronized the route. Two steamboats, the Esmeralda and
Nina Tilden made the trip somewhat regularly from the mouth of the
Colorado to Call's Landing, connecting with steamships plying between the
mouth of the Colorado and San Francisco. The owners of the river boats
carried a standing advertisement in the Salt Lake Telegraph, thus seeking
trade, up to December 1, 1866. Doubtless the certainty of the early
completion of the transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to
the Pacific Ocean stopped the development of this southwest route for
immigration and freight, via Utah's southern settlements and the Colorado
River."

The port of Callville had only a short life. In June, 1869, the Deseret
News printed an article that Callville then had been abandoned. This was
in connection with the escape of three horsethieves from St. George.
These men wrenched four large doors from the Callville warehouse for the
construction of a raft, upon which they committed themselves to the river
at flood time, leaving horses and impedimenta behind. Whether they
escaped has not been chronicled.

As late as 1892, the walls of the old storehouse still were standing, the
only remaining evidences of a scheme of broad ambition designed to
furnish a new supply route for a region comprising at least one-fourth of
the national expanse.

[Illustration: PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG AND PARTY AT THE MOUTH OF THE
VIRGIN, MARCH 17, 1870. Others in the party are: Amelia Young, Geo. A.
Smith, Bathsheba W. Smith, John Taylor, Erastus Snow, Minerva Snow, Jos.
W., Lorenzo D. and Brigham Young, Jr., B.S. and Albert C. Young, A.S.
Gibbons, Jno. W. Young, Nathaniel V. Jones, John Squires, Joseph Asay,
Van Ettu, Levi Stewart. Photo by C.R. Savage]

[Illustration: BAPTISM OF SEVERAL HUNDRED SHIVWITS INDIANS BY DAVID H.
CANNON AT ST. GEORGE]




Chapter Eleven

In the Virgin and Muddy Valleys


First Agriculture in Northern Arizona

There can be no doubt that the first agricultural settlement in northern
Arizona was by a Mormon party, led by Henry W. Miller, which made
location at Beaver Dams, on the north bank of the Virgin River on the
earlier Mormon road to California. On a tract of land lying six miles
below the point where the river emerges from a box canyon, land was
cleared in the fall of 1864, crops were put in "and then the enterprise
was dedicated to the Lord," according to a report by the leader at Salt
Lake. An item in the Deseret News tells that Miller was "called" in the
fall of 1863 to go to the Virgin.

Early in 1865, another report told, "affairs in the settlement are
progressing very satisfactorily. A large number of fruit trees and
grapevines have been set out. Corn, wheat and other vegetation are
growing thriftily and the settlers are very industriously prosecuting
their several useful vocations, with good prospects of success."

There was notation of some trouble because beavers were numerous and
persisted in damming irrigation ditches. In 1867 a river flood destroyed
much of the results of the colonists' labors and there was abandonment of
the location. Between 1875 and 1878 settlers began to come again and a
thriving community now is in existence at that point, known as
Littlefield. It is to benefit in large degree by plans approved by the
Arizona Water Commissioner, for damming of the canyon for storage of
water to irrigate land of the Virgin Valley toward the southwest.
Littlefield is the extreme northwestern settlement of the present Arizona
five miles south of the Utah line and three miles east of the Nevada
line.

In the same fall conference of 1864 that sent Anson Call on his
pioneering expedition, there was designation of a large number (183,
according to Christopher Layton) of missionaries, to proceed, with their
families, to the Muddy and lower Virgin, thereon to establish colonies
that might serve as stations in the great movement toward the Pacific.
Undoubtedly, full information was at hand concerning the country and its
possibilities, for the colonists began to arrive January 8, 1865, before
there could have been formulation of Call's report. Thos. S. Smith was in
charge of the migration, and after him was named St. Thomas, one of the
settlements. May 28, Andrew S. Gibbons settled at St. Thomas, sent as
Indian interpreter. Joseph Warren Foote led in a new settlement at St.
Joseph.


Villages of Pioneer Days

In what was known as the Muddy section, comprising the valleys of the
lower Virgin River and its main lower tributary, the Muddy, were seven
settlements of Mormon origin, during the time when the locality was
included in the area of Arizona. These settlements were Beaver Dams
on the Virgin, St. Thomas, on the Muddy, about two and a half miles from
its junction with the Virgin, Overton, on the same side of the Muddy
Valley, about eight miles northwest of St. Thomas, St. Joseph, which lay
on the opposite side of the stream, five miles to the northward, West
Point (now Logan), on the west bank, possibly fifteen miles west of St.
Joseph, and Mill Point and Simonsville between St. Joseph and Overton. To
these was addition of the port of Callville. Nearly westward from the
last-named point was Las Vegas Springs, distant about twenty miles, a
camping point on the road between San Bernardino and Salt Lake, and
permanent residence of missionaries. In later days were established
Junction City, otherwise Rioville, at the mouth of the Virgin,
Bunkerville on the east bank of the Virgin, three miles west of the later
Arizona line, and Mesquite, which lay east across the river.

The valley of the Virgin offered very limited opportunities for
settlement, as the stream, an alkaline one, usually ran between deep
cliffs. The Muddy, however, despite its name, was a clear stream of
slight fall, with a lower valley two miles wide, continuing, upstream,
northwesterly for eighteen miles. A number of swamps had to be drained by
the first residents. These people constructed a canal, nine miles long,
on the southwest side and were preparing to dig a similar canal on the
opposite side when there was abandonment.

St. Thomas has been described as a beautiful village, its streets
outlined by rows of tall cottonwoods that still survive. There were 85
city lots of one acre each, about the same number of vineyard lots, two
and a half acres each, and of farm lots of five acres.

St. Joseph mainly comprised a fort on a high bluff, from which the town
had been laid out on a level bench west and northward. It included a
flour mill, owned by James Leithead. In August, 1868, the fort was almost
destroyed by fire, which burned up nineteen rooms and most of their
contents, the meetinghouse and a cotton gin also being included in the
destruction. There was a stiff gale and most of the men were absent.

Every settlement along the Virgin and Muddy was organized into a communal
system, the United Order. Of this there will be found more detail in
Chapter Twelve of this work.

At St. Joseph, June 10, 1869, was organized a cooperative mercantile
institution for the Muddy settlement, with Joseph W. Young at its head,
R.J. Cutler as secretary and James Leithead as business agent.

There were the usual casualties of the desert country. In June, James
Davidson, wife and son died of thirst on the road from the Muddy
settlements to St. George, their journey delayed on the desert by the
breaking of a wagon wheel.

On a visit made by Erastus Snow and company in the summer of 1869, the
Muddy settlements subscribed heavily toward the purchase of stock in a
cotton factory at St. George, and toward extension of the Deseret
telegraph line. In the record of this company's journey it is told that
the Virgin River was crossed 37 times before arrival at St. Thomas.

The condition of the brethren late in 1870 was set forth by James
Leithead as something like destitution. He wrote that, "many are nearly
naked for want of clothing. We can sell nothing we have for money, and
the cotton, what little there is, appears to be of little help in that
direction. There are many articles we are more in need of than the cloth,
such as boots and shoes and tools of various kinds to work with."


Brigham Young Makes Inspection

President Brigham Young was a visitor to the Muddy settlements in March
of 1870. Ammon M. Tenney states that the President was disappointed, for
he found conditions unfavorable for agriculture or commercial
development. The journey southward was by way of St. George, Utah, a
point frequently visited by the Presidency. The return journey was
northward, by the desert route. In the party were John Taylor, later
President of the Church, Erastus Snow, Geo. A. Smith, Brigham Young, Jr.,
Andrew S. Gibbons and other notables. In the fall (September 10), was
authorized the founding of Kanab. From St. George the President followed
the rough road through Arizona to the Paria, personally visiting and
selecting the site of Kanab. Very opportunely, from D.K. Udall, lately
was received a photograph of the Young party (herewith reproduced), taken
March 17 on a mesa overlooking the Colorado at the mouth of the Virgin.
Here may be noted that every president of the Mormon Church, with the
exception of Joseph Smith, the founder, and Lorenzo Snow has set foot on
Arizona soil.


Nevada Assumes Jurisdiction

The beginning of the end of the early Muddy settlements came in a letter
from the Church Presidency, dated December 14, 1870, addressed to James
Leithead, in charge. It referred to the Nevada survey, placing the
settlements within the jurisdiction of that State, the onerous taxes,
license and stamp duties imposed, the isolation from the market, the high
rate at which property is assessed in Nevada, the unscrupulous character
of many officials, all as combining to render conditions upon the Muddy
matters of grave consideration, even though the country occupied might be
desirable. The settlers, it was said, had done a noble work, making and
sustaining their outposts of Zion against many difficulties, amid
exposure and toil. It was advised that the settlers petition the Nevada
Legislature for an abatement of back taxes and for a new county, but,
"if the majority of the Saints in council determine that it is better to
leave the State, whose burdens and laws are so oppressive, let it be so
done." There was suggestion that if the authorities of Lincoln County,
Nevada, chose to enforce tax collections, it might be well to forestall
the seizure of property, to remove it out of the jurisdiction of the
State.


The Nevada Point Abandoned

December 20, 1870, the people of the Muddy met with John W. Young of Salt
Lake and resolved to abandon the location and to look for new homes. The
only opposing votes were those of Daniel Bonelli and wife. Bonelli later
was a ferryman on the Colorado and his son now is a prominent resident of
Mohave County. Among those who voted to move were a number who later were
residents of the Little Colorado settlements of Arizona.

In accordance with the suggestion from Salt Lake, the Nevada Legislature
was petitioned for relief. It was told that seven years before had been
established St. Joseph and St. Thomas. Thereafter Congress had taken one
degree of longitude from Utah and Arizona and attached this land to
Nevada. Taxes had been paid in Utah and Arizona. For two years the
authorities of Lincoln County, Nevada, had attempted to assess the back
taxes. To the Nevada authorities was presented statement of a number of
facts, that $100,000 had been expended on water projects, that the
settlers had been compelled to feed the Indian population, outnumbering
their own, and that they had been so remote from markets that produce
could not be converted into cash. It was asked that a new county, that of
Las Vegas, be organized, taking in the southern point of Nevada. Attached
to the petition were 111 names of citizens of St. Joseph, Overton and St.
Thomas.

A similar petition was sent to Congress. There was detail how lumber had
to be hauled 150 miles at a cost of $200 per 1000 feet. There had been
constructed 150 dwellings. Orchards and vineyards had been planted and
500 acres of cotton fields had been cleared. In all 3000 acres were
cultivated. Nevada had imposed a tax of 3 per cent upon all taxable
property and $4 poll tax per individual, all payable in gold, something
impossible. It therefore was asked that Congress cede back to Utah and
Arizona both portions of country detached from them and attached to
Nevada.

At that time, the State gave the Muddy-Virgin settlement a population of
600. St. Joseph had 193, St. Thomas about 150, West Point 138 and Overton
119. In other settlements around, namely Spring Valley, Eagle Valley,
Rye Valley, Rose Valley, Panaca and Clover, were 658, possibly two score
of them not being of the Church. Thus was shown a gross population of
1250.

Most of the settlers on the Muddy left early in 1871, the exodus starting
February 1. On returning to Utah, very largely to Long Valley, they left
behind their homes, irrigating canals, orchards and farms. The crops,
including 8000 bushels of wheat, were left to be harvested by an
individual who failed to comply with his part of the contract and who
later tore down most of the remaining houses.


Political Organization Within Arizona

Including practically all the Mormons then resident within the new
Territory of Arizona, the first Arizona county to be created by
additional legislative enactment, following the Howell Code, was that of
Pah-ute, in December, 1865, by the first act approved in the Second
Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly. The boundaries of the county
were described as: Commencing at a point on the Colorado River known as
Roaring Rapids; thence due east to the line of 113 deg. 20 min. west
longitude; thence north along said line of longitude, to its point of
intersection with the 37th parallel of north latitude; thence west, along
said parallel of latitude, to a point where the boundary line between the
State of California and the Territory of Arizona strikes said 37th
parallel of latitude; thence southeasterly along said boundary line, to a
point due west from said Roaring Rapids; thence due east to said Roaring
Rapids and point of beginning. Callville was created the seat of justice
and the governor was authorized to appoint the necessary county officers.

The new subdivision was taken entirely from Mohave County, which retained
the southernmost part of the Nevada point. It may be noted that its
boundaries were entirely arbitrary and not natural and the greater part
of the new county's area lay in what now is Nevada. October 1, 1867, the
county seat was moved to St. Thomas. November 5, 1866, a protest was sent
in an Arizona memorial to Congress against the setting off to the State
of Nevada of that part of the Territory west of the Colorado. The grant
of this tract to Nevada under the terms of a congressional act approved
May 5, 1866, had been conditioned on similar acceptance by the
Legislature of Nevada. This was done January 18, 1867.

Without effect, the Arizona Legislature twice petitioned Congress to
rescind its action, alleging, "it is the unanimous wish of the
inhabitants of Pah-ute and Mohave Counties and indeed of all the
constituents of your memorialists that the territory in question should
remain with Arizona; for the convenient transaction of official and other
business, and on every account they greatly desire it." But Congress
proved obdurate and Nevada refused to give up the strip and the County of
Pah-ute, deprived of most of her area, finally was wiped out by the
Arizona Legislature in 1871. At one time there was claim that St. George
and a very wide strip of southern Utah really belonged to Arizona.


Pah-ute's Political Vicissitudes

In the Second Legislature, at Prescott, in 1865, at the time of the
creation of Pah-ute County, northwest Arizona, or Mohave County, was
represented in the Council by W. H. Hardy of Hardyville and in the House
by Octavius D. Gass of Callville. In the Third Legislature, which met at
Prescott, October 3, 1866, Pah-ute was represented in the Council by
Gass, who was honored by election as president of the body, in which he
also served as translator and interpreter. He was described as a very
able man, though rough of speech. He explored many miles of the lower
Grand Canyon. He was not a Mormon, but evidently was held in high esteem
by his constituents, who elected him to office in Arizona as long as they
had part in its politics. Royal J. Cutler of Mill Point represented the
county in the House of Representatives.

In the Fourth Legislature, which met at Prescott, September 4, 1867,
Gass, who had moved to Las Vegas, was returned to the Council where again
he was chosen president, and Cutler, who had moved to St. Joseph, again
was in the House. On the record of the Legislature's proceedings, Gass is
styled "ranchero" and Cutler "farmer."

Though most of the area of Pah-ute County already had been wiped out by
congressional enactment and given to Nevada, Gass again was in the
Legislature in 1868, in the fifth session, which met in Tucson, December
10. The House member was Andrew S. Gibbons of St. Thomas, a senior member
of a family that since has had much to do with the development of
northeastern Arizona. A very interesting feature in connection with this
final service in the Legislature, was the fact that Gass and Gibbons
floated down the Colorado River to Yuma and thence took conveyance to
Tucson. They were in a fourteen-foot boat that had been built at St.
Thomas by James Leithead. Gibbons' son, William H. (now resident at St.
Johns), hauled the craft to Callville, twenty miles, and there sped the
legislators.

At the outset, there was necessity for the voyageurs to pass through the
rapids of Black Canyon, an exciting experience, not unmixed with danger.
Gibbons knew something of boating and so was at the oars. Gass, seated
astern, firmly grabbed the gunwales, shut his eyes and trusted himself in
the rapids to providence and his stout companion, with at least one
fervent admonition, "For God's sake, Andy, keep her pointed down stream."
The passage was made in safety, though both men were soaked by the
dashing spray.

The start was made November 1. By day all possible progress was made, the
boat being kept in midstream and away from bushes, for fear of ambush by
Indians. At night a place for camp would be selected in a secluded spot
and a fire would be lighted only when safety seemed assured.

There was some delay in securing transportation eastward from Fort Yuma.
Indians had been active along the stage route and had just waylaid a
coach and killed its driver. Thus it came that the members from Pah-ute
were six days late in their taking seats in the territorial assembly.

At the close of the legislative session, Gibbons journeyed home on
horseback, for much of the way through districts infested by wild Indians
of several tribes, a trip of at least 500 miles. Gass went to California
before returning home. Such a return journey is not mentioned, however,
in an interesting record, furnished the Author by A.V., Richard and Wm.
H. Gibbons, sons of the pioneer.

Royal J. Cutler, on April 3, 1869, came again into official notice as
clerk of the Probate and County Court of Rio Virgen County, which had
been created out of the western part of Washington County, Utah, by the
Utah Legislature. The first session of the court was at St. Joseph, with
Joseph W. Young as magistrate. This county organization is not
understood, even under the hypothesis that Utah claimed a sixty-mile
strip of Nevada, for St. Joseph, on the Muddy, lies a considerable
distance south of the extension of the southern Utah line, the 37th
parallel.

A tax was levied of one-half of 1 per cent, this later increased to
three-quarters of 1 per cent. Direct taxes in 1869 had been received of
$156.19, and the amount transferred from Pah-ute County was $24.10, a
total of $180.29, which hardly could be considered an onerous levy or fat
treasury for the support of a political subdivision. The treasurer had on
hand $28.55 in cash, $20 in flour and $12.45 in wheat.


Later Settlement in "The Point"

Bunkerville, settled January 6, 1877, was named for Edward Bunker, a
member of the Mormon Battalion. Latterly to a degree it has become
connected with Arizona through the fact that lands in its vicinity are to
be irrigated from a reservoir to be established upon the Virgin within
Arizona. January 24, 1877, there were visitors of notable sort, Capt.
Daniel W. Jones and company, on their way to a location in the Salt River
Valley of Arizona. Bunkerville had elaborate organization under the
United Order, and it is agreed that the large amount of irrigation work
accomplished hardly could have been done under any other plan. The
organization lasted until the summer of 1879, it being found that some of
the members, "through their economy and industry were gathering and,
laying up in abundance, while others, through carelessness and bad
management, were wasting the funds of the company, each year being
increasing in debt." This was very unsatisfactory to those whose ambition
was to assure at least the necessaries of life.

The Mesquite settlement, across the Virgin from Bunkerville, was
established in 1880, but was abandoned a few years later, again to be
settled in 1895, from Utah.

There was a returning of the Saints to the Muddy Valley early in 1881,
the Patterson ranch, which included the town of Overton, being purchased
by Mrs. Elizabeth Whitmore of St. George. Among the names of the settlers
was at least one of Arizona association, that of Jesse W. Crosby. In
1892, when visited by Andrew Jenson, in the locality of the main four
settlements of the older occupation were only a score of families.


Salt Mountains of the Virgin

Arizona lost one asset of large value in the transfer of the Virgin River
section to Nevada. Therein is an enormous salt deposit, locally called
the Salt Mountain, though three such deposits are along the Virgin
between St. Thomas and the Colorado River. One of them is described as
cropping out along the foot of a high bluff of brown clay, exposed for 80
feet in height from the base of the hill, though the depth below its
surface is unknown. The salt is obtained by blasting, as it is too hard
to dig with picks. It is of excellent quality and of remarkable purity.
In early days, from this deposit was obtained the salt needed in southern
Nevada, southwestern Utah and much of Arizona, steamers carrying it down
the Colorado southward. W. H. Johnson was in early charge of the salt
mines. His widow now is resident in Mesa.


Peaceful Frontier Communities

Writing about Overton, an early historian gives details of the happiness
that comes to an individual who relies wholly upon the produce of his
land and who lives apart from what is called civilization and its evils.
He tells of the sense of comfort, security and satisfaction felt by the
brethren who own the land whereon their homes are set and are not afraid
of a little expense of bone and muscle to sustain themselves comfortably.

They dress as well or better than those in more favored circumstances,
set a plentiful table and enjoy such peace and quiet that seldom falls to
the lot of people in these troublous times. No profaning is heard; the
smoking, chewing and drinking habits are strangers to the "hope of
Israel" here; no racing of horses at breakneck speed through the streets
is endured in our peaceful little town; in fact the only complaint is,
and not without just cause, that it is rather too quiet.

Along this same line, Dellenbaugh wrote of the southern Utah settlements:

"As pioneers the Mormons were superior to any class I have ever come in
contact with, their idea being homemaking and not skimming the cream off
the country with a six-shooter and a whiskey bottle. One of the first
things the Mormon always did in establishing a new settlement was to
plant fruit, shade trees and vines and the like, so that in a very few
years there was a condition of comfort only attained by a non-Mormon
settlement after the lapse of a quarter of a century. Dancing is a
regular amusement among the Mormons and is encouraged by the authorities
as a harmless and beneficial recreation. The dances were always opened by
prayer."

In the journal of Major J.W. Powell, under date of August 30, 1869, there
is special mention of the hospitable character of the Mormons of the
Virgin River section. They had been advised by Brigham Young to look out
for the Powell expedition and Asa (Joseph Asay) and his sons continued to
watch the river, though a false report had come that the Powell
expedition was lost. They were looking for wreckage that might give some
indication of the fate of the explorers when Powell's boats appeared.
Powell was very appreciative of Asaqy's kindness and wrote
enthusiastically of the coming, next day from St. Thomas, of James
Leithead, with a wagonload of supplies that included melons.




Chapter Twelve

The United Order


Development of a Communal System

At one stage of Church development there was disposition to favor the
establishment in each village of the Saints of communal conditions,
wherein work should be done according to the ability of the individual.
Crops and the results of all industry were to be gathered at a common
center for common benefit. Something of the same sort was known among the
Shakers and other religious sects in eastern states. Thus in Utah was
founded the United Order, which, however, at no time had any direct
connection with the central Church organization.

The best development of the idea was at Brigham City, Utah, sixty miles
north of Salt Lake City, where the movement was kept along business
lines by none other than Lorenzo Snow, later President of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the officer credited with having
first put that great organization upon a business footing. He established
a communal system that proved a potent beneficial force both for the
individual and the community. The start was in 1864, with the
establishment of a mercantile business, from which there were successive
expansions to include about forty industries, such as factories at which
were made felt and straw hats, clothing, pottery, brooms and brushes,
harnesses and saddles, furniture, vehicles and tinware, while there were
three sawmills, a large woolen mill and a cotton goods mill, the last
with large attached cotton acreage, in southern Utah. There were 5000
sheep, 1000 head of stock cattle and 500 cows, supplying a model dairy
and the community meat market. The settlement was self-clothed and
self-fed. Education had especial attention and all sorts of entertainment
of meritorious character were fostered. Members of the Order labored in
their own industries, were paid good wages in scrip and participated in
the growth of general values. In 1875 the value of the products reached
$260,000.

By 1879 there had been departure from the complete unity of the United
Order plan, though eleven departments still remained intact. There had
been adverse circumstances, through which in nine months had been lost
about $53,000. The woolen mill, a model, twice had been destroyed by
fire. There had been jealousies outside the movement, through which a
profitable railroad contract had been ruined, and federal authorities had
taxed the scrip issue about $10,000 per annum. The first assessment was
paid, but later was turned back. But, with all these reverses piled upon
the people, the unity remained intact, and today, upon the foundation
laid by the United Order and its revered local leader, Brigham City is
one of the most prosperous communities of the intermountain region.

Edward Bellamy, the writer, became so much interested in what he had
heard of the United Order in Brigham City, that he made a special trip to
Utah in 1886, to study its operation. He spent three days with President
Lorenzo Snow, listening to his experiences and explanation of the
movement. As a result of this lengthy interview, Mr. Bellamy, the
following year, wrote his book, "Looking Backward."

Another example of the operation of the United Order was in Kane County,
Utah, about eighteen miles north of the Arizona line. In March, 1871,
there was re-settlement of Long Valley, where two towns, Berryville and
Winsor, had been deserted because of Indian encroachments. The new
settlers mainly came from the breaking up of the Muddy Mission
settlements in Nevada, Long Valley having been suggested by President
Brigham Young as a possible location. About 200 of the former Muddy
residents entered the valley in March, 1871, founding Glendale and Mount
Carmel. The residents of the latter, in March, 1874, organized into the
United Order. The following year, a number who wished to practice the
Order in its fullness, founded a new settlement, midway between Glendale
and Mount Carmel, and named it Orderville. This settlement still is in
existence, though the communistic plan had to be broken up about 1883,
there having arisen a spirit of competition and of individual ambition.
The plan of operation was comprehensive of many features, yet simple. The
community ate in a common dining hall, with kitchen and bakery attached.
Dwelling houses were close together and built in the form of a square.
There were work shops, offices, schoolhouse, etc., and manufactories of
lumber and woolen products.


Not a General Church Movement

There had been an idea among the adherents to the Order that they were
fulfilling a Church commandment. They were disabused by Apostle Erastus
Snow, who suggested that each occupation be taken up by small companies,
each to run a different department. There was conference with the First
Presidency, but the Church declined responsibility sought to be thrown
upon it. So there were many defections, though for years thereafter there
was incorporation, to hold the mills and machinery, lands and livestock.

The United Order by no means was general. It was limited to certain
localities and certain settlements, each of which tried to work out its
own problems in its own way, entirely without connection with any other
community of the sort. In a few instances the plan proved successful, but
usually only where there was some directing leader of integrity and
business acumen, such as at Brigham City.

[Illustration: FOUNDERS OF THE COLORADO FERRIES
1--John L. Blythe  2--Harrison Pearce
3--Daniel  Bonell  4--Anson Call]

[Illustration: Crossing the Colorado River at Scanlon's Ferry]

The United Order principle was used, with varying degrees of relative
success, in a number of northern Arizona settlements, especially in the
early camps on the lower Little Colorado, as noted elsewhere.

The Jones party, that founded Lehi, was organized for traveling and
working under the United Order, drawing from a common storehouse, but
each family, nevertheless, looked out for its own interest. The United
Order lasted until the end of Jones' control of the colony.

An attempt was made in the early part of 1880 at Mesa, to organize, under
the laws of Arizona, to carry out the principles of the United Order as
far as practicable. A corporation was formed, "The Mesa Union," by
President Alex. F. Macdonald, Geo. C. Dana, Timothy Mets, Hyrum Smith
Phelps and Chas. H. Mallory. About the only thing done by this
organization was to purchase some land, but this land later was taken by
members of the Church.


Mormon Cooperative Stores

In the economy and frugality that marked, necessarily, the early days of
the Mormon people, there naturally was resort to combination in the
purchases of supplies and in the marketing of products. When the United
Order declined, there was resort to another economic pioneer enterprise,
the cooperative store, established in many of the new communities. Each
store, to an extent, was under local Church supervision and, while open
to the trade of all, still was established primarily for the benefit of
the brethren. Under early-day conditions, the idea undoubtedly was a good
one. Mercantile profits were left within the community, divided among
many, while the "Co-op" also served as a means through which the
community produce could be handled to best advantage.

In the north, June 27, 1881, at Snowflake, with Jesse N. Smith at its
head, was organized a company that started a cooperative store at
Holbrook, taking over, largely for debt, a store that had been operated
by John W. Young at old Holbrook. In January, 1882, this establishment
was left high and dry by the moving of Holbrook station a mile and a half
west to Berardo's, or Horsehead Crossing. There was difficulty in getting
a location at the new site, so this store, in February, 1882, was moved
to Woodruff.

In January, 1881, at Snowflake was started a "Co-op" that merged into the
Arizona Cooperative Mercantile Institution. The following month, under
David K. Udall, a similar institution was opened at St. Johns, where
there was attached a flouring mill. Both at St. Johns and Snowflake were
cooperative livestock herds.

One of the most extensive enterprises of this sort was started in Mesa in
September, 1884, with Chas. I. Robson, George Passey and Oscar M. Stewart
at its head. The first stock was valued at $45, yet in 1894, the Zenos
Cooperative Mercantile & Manufacturing Institution had a paid-up capital
stock of over $25,000 and a two-story building, and had paid dividends
ranging from 10 to 50 per cent annually.

Almost every phase of communal effort now appears to have been abandoned
in Arizona Mormon business life, probably because found unnecessary in
the latter-day development in which the membership of the Church has
had so large a share.

The Author feels there should be addition of a statement that the Church
is far from acceptance of the European idea of communism, for one of its
tenets is, "Thou shalt not be idle, for he that is idle shall not eat of
the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer." Nothing of political
socialism ever was known in the United Order.




Chapter Thirteen

Spreading Into Northern Arizona


Failure of the First Expeditions

The first attempt from the north of the Mormon Church to colonize within
the present limits of Arizona failed. It was by means of an expedition
placed in charge of Horton D. Haight. A number of the colonists met March
8, 1873, in the old tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and there were
instructed by President Brigham Young. At Winsor Castle they were warned
to be friendly to but not too trustful of the Indians and not to sell
them ammunition, "for they are warring against our government." The route
was by way of Lee's Ferry, the crossing completed May 11. On the 22d was
reached the Little Colorado, the Rio de Lino (Flax River) of the
Spaniards. From the ferry to the river had been broken a new road, over a
tolerably good route. There was no green grass, and water was infrequent,
even along the Little Colorado, it being found necessary to dig wells in
the dry channel. Twenty-four miles below Black Falls there was
encampment, the road blocked by sand drifts.

On June 1 there returned to the expedition in camp an exploring party,
under Haight, that had been absent eight days and that had traveled 136
miles up the river. There was report of the trip that the country was
barren, with narrow river bottoms, with alkaline soil, water bad and
failing, with no spot found suitable in which to settle. There also
appeared to be fear of the Apache. So the expedition painfully retraced
its steps to Navajo Springs, sending ahead a dispatch to President Young,
giving a full report of conditions and making suggestion that the
settlement plan had better be abandoned. At Moen Copie on the return was
met a party of 29 missionaries, under Henry Day.

An interesting journal of the trip was written by Henry Holmes of the
vanguard. He was especially impressed with the aridity of the country. He
thought it "barren and forbidding, although doubtless the Lord had a
purpose in view when He made it so. Few of the creeks ran half a mile
from their heads. The country is rent with deep chasms, made still deeper
by vast torrents that pour down them during times of heavy rains." There
were found petrified trees. One of them was 210 feet long and another was
over five feet across the butt, this in a land where not a tree or bush
was found growing. Holmes fervently observed, "However, I do not know
whether it makes any difference whether the country is barren or
fruitful, if the Lord has a work to do in it," in this especially
referring to the Indians, among whom there could be missionary effort.
Jacob Miller acted as secretary of the expedition.

On the back track, the company all had ferried to the north bank of the
river by July 7, although there had to be improvised navigation of the
Colorado, for the ferry-boat had disappeared in the spring flood and all
that remained was a little skiff, behind which the wagon bodies were
floated over. In all, were ferried 54 wagons, 112 animals, 109 men, 6
women and a child.

This first company had been called from different parts of Utah and was
not at all homogeneous, yet traveled in peace and union. The members
assembled morning and evening for prayers, at which the blessings of the
Lord were asked upon themselves and their teams and upon the elements
that surrounded them.

President Young directed the members of the 1873 party to remain in
Arizona, but the message was not received till the river had been passed.
The following year he ordered another expedition southward. According to
a journal of Wm. H. Solomon, who was clerk of the party, departure from
Kanab was on February 6, 1874. John L. Blythe (who had remained at Moen
Copie after the 1873 trip) was in charge. With Blythe was his wife. Ira
Hatch took his family. Fifteen other individuals were included. Progress
southward was stopped at Moen Copie by reports of a Navajo uprising. Most
of the party returned to Utah after a few weeks, leaving behind Hamblin,
Hatch and Tenney.


Missionary Scouts in Northeastern Arizona

When the unsuccessful expedition turned back to Utah in the summer of
1873, there remained John L. Blythe of Salt Lake and a number of other
missionaries. They located among the Indians on the Moen Copie, where
they sowed the ground and planted trees and grapevines, also planting at
Moabi, about seven miles to the southwest. Blythe remained at Moen Copie,
alone with his family, until 1874, including the time of the Indian
trouble more particularly referred to in this volume in connection with
the work of Jacob Hamblin.

The failure of the Haight expedition in no wise daunted the Church
authorities in their determination to extend southward. In general,
reports that came concerning the Little Colorado Valley were favorable.
Finally, starting from Salt Lake October 30, 1875, was sent a scouting
expedition, headed by Jas. S. Brown, who had a dozen companions when he
crossed into Arizona. This party made headquarters at Moen Copie, where a
stone house was built for winter quarters. Brown and two others then
traveled up the Little Colorado for a considerable distance, not well
defined in his narrative, finding a fine, open country, with water
plentiful and with grass abundant, with good farming land and timber
available. The trio followed the Beale trail westward to a point
southwest of the San Francisco Mountains, where there was crossing back
to the Little Colorado. Christmas Day, before Moen Copie was reached,
the scouts were placed in serious danger by a terrific snowstorm. Brown
returned to Salt Lake with his report, January 14, 1876, after traveling
1300 miles, mainly on horseback.

Here might be stated that Brown was none other than a Mormon Battalion
member who had participated in the discovery of gold at Sutter's Fort in
California. At some time prior to coming to Arizona he had lost a leg,
shot off by hunters who had mistaken him for a bear. He should not be
confounded with Capt. James Brown of the Battalion.


Foundation of Four Settlements

The first Presidency apparently had anticipated Brown's favorable report,
for quick action was had immediately thereafter. Four companies, each of
fifty men and their families, were organized, under Lot Smith, Jesse O.
Ballenger, George Lake and Wm. C. Allen. The 200 missionaries were
"called" from many parts of Utah, but mainly from the north and around
Salt Lake. There was no formal gathering of the companies. Each member
went southward as he could, to report to his leader on the Little
Colorado. The assembling point was Kanab. Thence there was assemblage of
groups of about ten families each, without reference to companies. An
entertaining detail of this journey lately was given the Historian in
Phoenix by David E. Adams, captain of one of the Tens.

The leading teams reached Sunset Crossing on the Little Colorado March
23, 1876, the migration continuing for many weeks thereafter. Allen,
Smith and Lake continued up the river twenty miles, to a point about five
miles east of the present site of St. Joseph.

From exact data furnished by R. E. Porter of St. Joseph is learned that
Allen's company settled at the point where this march ended, establishing
Allen's Camp. There was later change to a point one mile east of the
present location, a site maintained till 1877. The name was changed
January 21,1878, to St. Joseph, after Prophet Joseph Smith.

[Illustration: NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA--The Little Colorado Country]

Lot Smith's company retraced, to establish Sunset, three miles north of
Sunset Crossing, on the north side of the river.

Lake's company established itself across the river, three miles south and
west of the present site of St. Joseph. The settlement was named Obed.

Ballenger's company located four miles southwest of Sunset Crossing, on
the south side of the river, near the site of the present Winslow.


Genesis of St. Joseph

There was quick work in the way of settlement at Allen's Camp, where the
first plowing was on March 25, 1876, by John Bushman and Nathan Cheney.
Jacob Morris immediately commenced the construction of a house. Two
days later an irrigation ditch was surveyed and on the following day John
Bushman got out the first logs for a diversion dam. April 3, Bushman
sowed the first wheat. A temporary structure was built for protection and
for storage. May 26 the name of Allen City was given the settlement, in
preference to a second suggestion, Ramah City. Early in August, 23 men,
including Allen, started back to Utah, from which a few returned with
their families.

On Allen's return southward with a number of families, the old Spanish
Trail was used, in its eastern section, via the San Juan region, with
some idea that it might be made the main thoroughfare, for thus would be
obviated the ferrying of the Colorado River, either above or below the
Canyon. But the way into Arizona through northwestern New Mexico was too
long, and the experiment was not considered successful.

In the fall, the families moved into a stockade fort, planned to be 152
feet wide and 300 feet long. Only part of this was finished. Probably
twenty or more houses were built within it.

[Illustration: CROSSING THE LITTLE COLORADO]

[Illustration: THE OLD FORT AT BRIGHAM CITY]

[Illustration: WOODRUFF DAM, AFTER ONE OF THE FREQUENT WASHOUTS]

[Illustration: THE FIRST PERMANENT DAM ON THE LITTLE COLORADO AT ST.
JOSEPH]

August 23, 1876, a postoffice was established, with John McLaws in
charge. A weekly mail service operated between Santa Fe and Prescott.

The first child in the settlement was Hannah Maria Colson, July 17, 1876.
The first death was exactly a year later, that of Clara Gray. The first
school district was established and the first school was taught during
the winter of 1877-78. Of all the lower Little Colorado settlements, this
is the only one now existent.

The present St. Joseph lies only a hundred rods from the main line of the
Santa Fe railroad system, 25 miles east of Winslow. The first Allen's
Camp, in April, 1876, was three miles east of the present site. There was
a change to the western location in June, at the suggestion of Daniel H.
Wells, who had followed for an inspection of the new settlements. Later
there was survey, nearby, of a townsite, the same that now is occupied.
Among the few remaining settlers of the Little Colorado settlements, is
Joseph Hill Richards, who writes that he was the first justice of the
peace for Yavapai County in that region and the first captain there of
territorial militia. He also was prominent in the Church organization.


Struggling with a Treacherous River

Every settlement along the Little Colorado River has known repeated
troubles in maintaining its water supply. It would be vain recapitulation
to tell just how many times each of the poor struggling communities had
to rally back on the sands of the river bed to built up anew the
structure of gravel and brush that must be depended upon, if bread were
to be secured from the land. The Little Colorado is a treacherous stream
at best, with a broad channel that wanders at will through the alluvial
country that melts like sugar or salt at the touch of water.

There are instances that stand out in this struggle for water. The first
joint dam of Allen's Camp and Obed cost the settlers $5000. It is told
that 960 day's work was done on the dam and 500 days more work on the
Allen ditch. This dam went down at the first flood, for it raised the
water about twelve feet. Then, in the spring of 1877, another dam was
built, a mile and a half upstream, and this again washed away. In 1879
the St. Joseph settlers sought the third damsite at LeRoux Wash, about
two and a half miles west of the present Holbrook. In 1881 they spent
much money and effort on a plan to make a high dam at the site of the
first construction, but this again was taken downstream by the river. In
1882, a pile dam was built across the river, and it again was spoiled by
the floods. This dam generally was in use until 1891, but had to be
repaired almost every year. In the year named, work was started upon what
was hoped to be a permanent dam, at an estimated cost of $60,000. In
1894, Andrew Jenson wrote that at least $50,000 had been lost by the
community upon its dams. Noting the fact that only fifteen families
constituted the population, he called St. Joseph "the leading community
in pain, determination and unflinching courage in dealing with the
elements around them."

St. Joseph, as early as 1894, had completed its eighth dam across the
river. Jos. W. Smith wrote of the dedication of the dam, in March of that
year. He remarked especially upon the showing of rosy-cheeked, well-clad
children, of whom the greater part of the assemblage was composed,
"showing that the people were by no means destitute, even if they had
been laboring on ditches and dams so much for the last eighteen years."

The main prayer of the exercise was brief, but characteristic: "O Lord,
we pray that this dam may stand, if it be Thy will--if not, let Thy will
be done." The invocation was effective. The dam stood, as is illustrated
within this book.


Decline and Fall of Sunset

Sunset, the lowest of the settlements, was near the present railroad
crossing of the river, below the river junction with Clear Creek. There
had been a temporary location two miles upstream. The main structure was
a stockade, twelve rods square, mainly of drift cottonwood logs. Within
were rock-built houses, a community dining hall and a well. Combination
was made with Ballenger, across the stream, in the building of a dam, two
and a half miles above the settlement.

Apparently the sandy land and the difficulty of irrigating it drove the
settlers away, until, finally, in 1885, Lot Smith's family was the only
one left upon the ground, and it departed in 1888.

Years later, Andrew Jenson found the rock walls and chimneys still
standing. "Everything is desert," he wrote, "the whole landscape looks
dreary and forbidding and the lonely graveyard on the hillside only
reminds one of the population which once was and that is no more." Only
ruin marks the place where once was headquarters of the Little Colorado
Stake of Zion. The settlement was badly placed, for floods came within a
rod of the fort and covered the wheat fields.

Lot Smith wrote in poetic vein, "This is a strange country, belonging to
a people whose lands the rivers have spoiled." Very practically, however,
he wrote of good lands and slack water supply, "though the river shows it
would be a mighty rushing torrent when the rains commence in summer, with
the appearance of being 25 miles broad, and the Indians told us that if
we are indeed to live where we are encamped, we had better fix some
scaffolding in the trees."

In August, 1878, a correspondent of the Deseret News wrote from Sunset
that for a week the rain had been pouring down almost incessantly, that
the whole bottom was covered with water, that some of the farms were
submerged and grain in shocks was flooded, that the grain of Woodruff was
entirely destroyed, the grist mill of Brigham City inundated and the
grain stacks there were deep in water, with the inhabitants using boats
and rafts to get around their farms.


Village Communal Organization

The settlements all established themselves under the United Order. Early
in 1876 one of the settlers wrote from Allen's Camp, "It is all United
Order here and no beating around the bush, for it is the intention to go
into it to the full meaning of the term." This chronicler, John L.
Blythe, April 11, 1876, again wrote, "The companies are going into the
United Order to the whole extent, giving in everything they possess,
their labor, time and talent." In August there was a report from the same
locality that "the people are living in a united system, each laboring
for the good of all the community and an excellent feeling prevails."

The communal system was given formal adoption at Allen's Camp April 28,
1877, when articles were agreed upon for a branch of the United Order.
June 5, 1877, with Wm. C. Allen presiding, there was an appraisal of
property and a separation of duties. Henry M. Tanner (who still is in St.
Joseph), was secretary, John Bushman foreman of the farm, James Walker
water master and Moses D. Steele superintendent of livestock. Niels
Nielsen was in charge of ox teams and Jos. H. Rogers in charge of horse
teams, harness and wagons. The Church historian has given in detail the
manner in which the system worked:

"From the beginning the Saints at Allen's Camp disciplined themselves
strictly according to Church rules. Every morning the Saints, at the
sound of the triangle, assembled in the schoolhouse for prayer, on which
occasion they would not only pray and sing, but sometimes brethren would
make brief remarks. The same was resorted to in the evening. They did not
all eat at the same table (a common custom followed in the other camps),
but nevertheless great union, peace and love prevailed among the people,
and none seemed to take advantage of his neighbor. Peace, harmony and
brotherly love characterized all the settlers at Allen's Camp from the
very beginning."

In August, 1878, Samuel G. Ladd wrote from the new St. Joseph, that the
United Order worked harmoniously and prosperously. In that year
manufacturing of brooms was commenced by John Bushman. Up to 1882 each
family was drawing from one common storehouse. In 1883 the Order was
dissolved at St. Joseph and the stewardship plan adopted. Each family
received its part of the divided land and a settlement of what each man
originally had put into the Order. Proforma organization of the Order was
continued until January, 1887.


Hospitality Was of Generous Sort

From Sunset Crossing Camp, G. C. Wood wrote, in April, 1876, "The
brethren built a long shanty, with a long table in it and all ate their
meals together, worked together and got along finely." In February, 1878,
President Lot Smith wrote the Deseret News in a strain that indicated
doubt concerning the efficiency of the United Order system. His letter
told:

"This mission has had a strange history so far, most who came having got
weak in the back or knees and gone home. Some, I believe, have felt
somewhat exercised about the way we are getting along, and the mode in
which we are conducting our culinary affairs. Now, I have always had a
preference for eating with my family and have striven to show that I was
willing to enlarge as often as circumstances require, and the same
feeling seemed to prevail in these settlements. We have enlarged
ourselves to the amount of forty in one day. We have noticed that most
people who pass the road are willing to stop and board with us a week or
two, notwithstanding our poor provisions and the queer style it was
served up."

In July of the same year, Lorenzo Hatch wrote from Woodruff, "At Sunset,
Brigham City and Woodruff, the settlements eat at one table, hence we
have no poor nor rich among us. The Obed camp also had gone into the
United Order in the fullest sense in May, 1876."


Brigham City's Varied Industries

Ballenger, in September, 1878, was renamed Brigham City, in honor of
President Brigham Young. Its people were found by Erastus Snow in
September, 1878, with a remarkable organization, operating in part under
the United Order system. There was a fort 200 feet square, with rocky
walls seven feet high. Inside were 36 dwelling houses, each 15x13 feet.
On the north side was the dining hall, 80x20 feet, with two rows of
tables, to seat more than 150 persons. Adjoining was a kitchen, 25x20
feet, with an annexed bakehouse. Twelve other dwelling houses were
mentioned, as well as a cellar and storehouse. Water was secured within
the enclosure from two good wells. South of the fort were corrals and
stockyards. The main industry was the farming of 274 acres, more than
one-half of it in wheat. A pottery was in charge of Brother Behrman,
reported to have been confident that he could surpass any of the
potteries in Utah for good ware. Milk was secured from 142 cows. One
family was assigned to the sawmill in the mountains. J. A. Woods taught
the first school. Jesse O. Ballenger, the first leader, was succeeded in
1878 by George Lake, who reported that, "while the people were living
together in the United Order they generally ate together at the same
table. The Saints, as a rule, were very earnest in their endeavors to
carry out the principles of the Order, but some became dissatisfied and
moved away." Discouragement became general, and in 1881 all were released
from the mission. The settlement practically was broken up, the people
scattering, though without dissension.

Some went to Forest Dale, and later to the Gila River, and some left
Arizona altogether. There was a surplus from the experiment of about
$8000, which went to the Church, after the people had drawn out their
original capital, each taking the same number of animals and the same
amount of property contributed originally. In 1882 only a couple of
families were left and an added surplus of $2200 was used by the Church
in settling the Gila country. In 1890 only the family of Sidney Wilson
remained on the old site of Brigham City. The Brigham City water-power
grist mill built in 1878, a present from the Church, was given to the
people of Woodruff, but was not used.

The abandonment of Brigham City should not be blamed to the weakness of a
communistic system. There had been frequent failures of crops and there
had come a determination to find a locality where nature would smile
more often upon the barley, so scouts were sent to the San Juan country
in Utah, the Salt River country and to the Gila. George Lake, Andrew
Anderson and George W. Skinner constituted the Gila party. Near
Smithville they bought land, a transaction elsewhere referred to.
Anderson and Skinner, in December, 1880, returned to Brigham City. At
that point a business meeting was called at once and the authorities of
the United Order approved the purchases made.

January 1, 1878, was announced a census of the settlement of the Little
Colorado country. Sunset had 136 inhabitants, Ballenger 277, Allen's Camp
76, Woodruff 50 and Moen Copie 25, a total of 564, with 115 families.


Brief Lives of Obed and Taylor

The settlement of Obed, three miles southwest of St. Joseph, directly
south of old Allen's Camp and across the river, bears date from June,
1876, having been moved a short distance from the first camp ground. At
that time was built a fort of remarkable strength, twelve rods square. In
places, the walls were ten feet high. There were bastions, with portholes
for defense, at two of the corners, and portholes were in the walls all
around. The camp at the start had 123 souls. Cottonwood logs were sawed
for lumber. The community had a schoolhouse in January, 1877, and a
denominational school was started the next month, with Phoebe McNeil as
teacher. The settlement was not a happy one. The site was malarial,
selected against Church instructions, and there were the usual troubles
in the washing away of brush and log dams. The population drifted away,
until there was abandonment in 1878.

Taylor was a small settlement on the Little Colorado, about three miles
below the present St. Joseph, and should not be confounded with the
present settlement of the same name near Snowflake. This first Taylor was
established January 22, 1878, by eight families, mainly from Panguitch
and Beaver, Utah. In the United Order they built a dining hall, a
quarter-mile back from the river and organized as a ward, with John
Kartchner at its head. But there was discouragement, not unnaturally,
when the river dam went out for the fifth time. Then, in July, 1878,
members of the settlement departed, going to the present site of
Snowflake on Silver Creek. They included a number of Arkansas immigrants.
There had been little improvement outside of the stockade and dining
hall, and for most of the time the people lived in their wagons.


[Illustration: THE COLORADO FERRY AND RANCH AT THE MOUTH OF THE PARIA
By courtesy of Dr. George Wharton James]

[Illustration: LEE CABIN AT MOEN AVI]

[Illustration: MOEN COPIE WOOLEN MILL. First and Only One in Arizona]




Chapter Fourteen

Travel, Missions and Industries


Passing of the Boston Party

Keen interest in the Southwest was excited early in 1876 by a series of
lectures delivered at New England points by Judge Samuel W. Cozzens,
author of "The Marvellous Country." There was formed the American
Colonization Company, with Cozzens as president. Two companies of men, of
about fifty individuals each, were dispatched from Boston, each man with
equipment weighing about thirty pounds. The destination was a fertile
valley in northeastern Arizona, a land that had been described
eloquently, probably after only casual observation. The end of the Santa
Fe railroad was in northern New Mexico. There the first party purchased
four wagons and a number of mules from a grading contractor, Pat Shanley,
afterward a cattleman in Gila County.

The best story at hand of the Bostonians is from one of them, Horace E.
Mann, who for years has been a prospector and miner and who now is a
resident of Phoenix. He tells that the journey westward was without
particular incident until was reached, about June 15, the actual
destination, the valley of the Little Colorado River, on the route of the
projected Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. The travelers were astonished to
find the country already taken up by a number of companies of Mormon
colonists.

In New England the Mormons were considered a blood-thirsty people, eager
to slay any Gentile who might happen along. It is not to be intimated
that the Bostonians were mollycoddles. They appear to have been above
even the average of the time, manly and stalwart enough, but the truth
is, as told by Mr. Mann, the expedition did not care either to mingle
with the Mormons or to incur danger of probable slaughter. Therefore, the
parties hurried along as fast as possible. The same view is indicated in
a recent interview with David E. Adams, of one of the Mormon settlements.
He told the Historian that he found the Bostonians suspicious and
fearful. At that time the Utah people still were living in their wagons.
They were breaking ground and were starting upon the construction of dams
in the river. The second Boston party passed June 23.

At Sunset Crossing Mann and three of his companions entered upon an
adventure assuredly novel in arid Arizona. They constructed a raft of
drift cottonwood and thought to lighten the journey by floating down the
river. It was found that the stream soon bent toward the northward,
away from the wagon trail. Sometimes there were shoals that the raft had
to be pushed over and again there were deep whirlpools, around which the
raft went merrily a dozen times before the river channel again could be
entered. The channel walls grew higher and higher until, finally, the
navigators pulled the raft ashore and resumed their journey on foot,
finding their wagon in camp at the Canyon Diablo crossing. There,
apparently considering themselves safe from massacre, was an encampment
of a week or more.


At the Naming of Flagstaff

Mann, his bunkie, George E. Loring (later express agent at Phoenix), a
Rhode Islander named Tillinghast and three others formed an advance party
westward. This party made camp at a small spring just south of San
Francisco Mountains, where Flagstaff is now. Mann remembers the place
as Volunteer Springs in Harrigan Valley. While waiting for the main party
to come up, the advance guard hunted and explored. Mann remembers
traveling up a little valley to the north and northwest to the big LeRoux
Springs, below which he found the remains of a burnt cabin and of a
stockade corral, possibly occupied in the past as a station on the
transcontinental mail route.

With reference to the naming of Flagstaff, Mr. Mann is very definite. He
says that, while waiting for the main party, this being late in June,
1876, and merely for occupation, the limbs were cut from a straight pine
tree that was growing by itself near the camp. The bark was cut away,
leaving the tree a model flagstaff and for this purpose it was used, the
flag being one owned by Tillinghast and the only one carried by the
expedition. The tree was not cut down. It was left standing upon its own
roots. This tale is rather at variance with one that has been of common
acceptance in the history of Flagstaff and the date was not the Fourth of
July, as has been believed, for Mann is sure that he arrived in Prescott
in June. The main section of the first party came a few days later, and
was on the ground for a celebration of the centennial Fourth of July that
centered around the flagstaff.

Mann also remembers that Major Maynadier, one of the leaders of the
expedition, surveyed a townsite for Flagstaff, each of the members of the
expedition being allotted a tract. The second party joined the first at
Flagstaff. Word had been received that mechanics were needed at Prescott
and in the nearby mines, with the large wages of $6 a day, and hence
there was eagerness to get along and have a share in the wealth of the
land. It remains to be stated that all the men found no difficulty in
locating themselves in and around Prescott and that no regret was felt
over the failure of the original plan.


Southern Saints Brought Smallpox

One of the few parties of Southern States Saints known for years in any
of the Stakes of Zion joined the poverty-stricken colonists on the Little
Colorado in the fall of 1877. Led by Nelson P. Beebe, it numbered about
100 individuals, coming through New Mexico by wagon, with a first stop
at Savoia. The immigrants were without means or food and there had to be
haste in sending most of them on westward, more wagons being sent from
the Little Colorado camps for their conveyance. At Allen's Camp was a
burden of sickness, mainly fever sufferers from the unfortunate Obed. To
these visitors were added seventy of the "Arkansas Saints," who came
October 4. Yet the plucky Allenites not only divided with the strangers
their scanty store of bread, but gave a dance in celebration of the
addition to the pioneers' strength. The arrivals brought with them a
new source of woe. One of their number, Thomas West, had contracted
smallpox at Albuquerque and from this case came many prostrations.


Fort Moroni, at LeRoux Spring

One of the most important watering places of northeastern Arizona is
LeRoux Spring, seven miles northwest of Flagstaff on the southwestern
slope of the San Francisco Mountains. This never-failing spring was a
welcome spot to the pioneers who traveled the rocky road along the 35th
parallel of latitude. San Francisco Spring (or Old Town Spring) at the
present Flagstaff, was much less dependable and at the time of the
construction of the Atlantic & Pacific railroad in 1881-2, water often
was hauled to Flagstaff from the larger spring, at times sold for $1 a
barrel.

The importance of this water supply appears to have been appreciated
early by the long-headed directing body of the Mormon Church. Early in
1877, under direction of John W. Young, son and one of the counselors of
Brigham Young, from the Little Colorado settlements of St. Joseph and
Sunset, was sent an expedition, that included Alma Iverson, John L.
Blythe and Jos. W. McMurrin, the last at this writing president of the
California Mission of the Church, then a boy of 18.

According to Ammon M. Tenney, this LeRoux spring was known to the people
of the Little Colorado settlements as San Francisco spring. Mr. McMurrin
personally states his remembrance that the expedition proceeded along the
Beale trail to the spring, near which was built a small log cabin,
designed to give a degree of title to the water and to the locality,
probably also to serve as a shelter for any missionary parties that might
travel the road. There is no information that it was used later for any
purpose.

The men were instructed to build a cabin at Turkey Tanks, on the road to
the Peaks, this cabin to be lined with pine needles and to be used as a
storage icehouse, Counselor Young expressing the opinion that there would
be times in the summer heat of the Little Colorado Valley when ice would
be of the greatest value. The tanks were hardly suitable for this
purpose, however, and the icehouse was not built.

Location of the LeRoux spring by the Iverson-Blythe party in 1877 appears
to have been sufficient to hold the ground till it was needed, in 1881,
by John W. Young, in connection with his railroad work. About sixty
graders and tie cutters were camped, mainly in tents, on LeRoux Prairie
or Flat, below the spring, according to Mrs. W. J. Murphy, now of
Phoenix, a resident of the Prairie for five months of 1881, her husband a
contractor on the new railroad. She remembers no cattle, though deer and
antelope were abundant.


Stockaded Against the Indians

In the early spring came reports of Indian raids to the eastward. So
Young hauled in a number of double-length ties, which he set on end,
making a stockade, within which he placed his camp, mainly of tents.
Later were brush shelters within, but the great log house, illustrated
herein, was not built until afterward. Thereafter was attached the name
of Fort Moroni, given by Young, who organized the Moroni Cattle Company.
At the time of the coming of the grade to Flagstaff, Young also had a
camp in the western end of the present Flagstaff townsite.

Fort Moroni was acquired about 1883 by the Arizona Cattle Company. The
large building was used as a mess house. The stockade ties were cut down
to fence height and eventually disappeared, used by the cowboys for fuel.

An entertaining sidelight on the settlement of what later generally was
known as Fort Valley has been thrown by Earl R. Forrest of Washington,
Penn., in early days a cowboy for the Arizona Cattle Company. He writes
that the building formed one side of a 100-foot square, with the stockade
on the other three sides. In his day, the name of the ranch was changed
to Fort Rickerson, in honor of Chas. L. Rickerson, treasurer of the
company. Capt. F.B. Bullwinkle, the manager, a former Chief of the
Chicago Fire Department, and a lover of fast stock, was killed near
Flagstaff, thrown from a stumbling horse while racing for the railroad
station. Thereafter the property passed into the possession of the
Babbitt Brothers of Flagstaff. The old building was torn down late in
1920.

In August, 1908, the first forest experiment station in the United States
was established in Fort Valley.

The great spring is used only for watering cattle, and the spring at
Flagstaff appears to have been lost in the spread of civilization.

LeRoux spring was named for Antoine LeRoux, principal guide of the famous
survey expedition of Lieut. A.W. Whipple, along the 35th parallel, in
1853. Incidentally, this is the same LeRoux who was principal guide of
the Mormon Battalion.


Mormon Dairy and the Mount Trumbull Mill

Mormon Mountain, Mormon Lake and Mormon Dairy still are known as such, 28
miles southeast of Flagstaff. The Dairy was established in September,
1878, by Lot Smith, in what then was known as Pleasant Valley, in the
pines, sixty miles west of Sunset. In that year 48 men and 41 women from
Sunset and Brigham City, were at the Dairy, caring for 115 cows and
making butter and cheese. Three good log houses had been built.

Seven miles south of Pleasant Valley (which should not be confounded with
the Tonto Basin Pleasant Valley of sanguinary repute), was the site of
the first sawmill on the Mogollon Plateau, upon which a half-dozen very
large plants now operate to furnish lumber to the entire Southwest. This
mill, probably antedated in northern Arizona only at Prescott, first was
erected, about 1870, at Mount Trumbull, in the Uinkaret Mountains of
northwestern Arizona, to cut lumber for the new temple at St. George,
Utah, fifty miles to the northward. This mill, in 1876, was given by the
Church authorities to the struggling Little Colorado River settlements.
Taken down in August by the head sawyer, Warren R. Tenney, it was hauled
into Sunset late in September and soon was re-erected by Tenney, and,
November 7, put into operation in the pine woods near Mormon Lake, about
sixty miles southwest of Sunset, soon turning out 100,000 feet of boards.
Its site was named Millville. The mill, after the decline of the first
settlements, passed into the possession of W. J. Flake. In the summer of
1882, it was transferred to Pinedale and in 1890 to Pinetop. It now is at
Lakeside, where, it is assumed, at least part of the original machinery
still is being operated. Its first work at Pinetop was to saw the timbers
for a large assembly hall, or pavilion, to be used for the only
conference ever held that included all the Arizona Stakes.

Also in the timber country are to be noted Wilford, named in honor of
President Wilford Woodruff, and Heber, named for Heber C. Kimball, small
settlements fifty miles southwest of St. Joseph, established in 1883 from
St. Joseph and other Little Colorado settlements, for stock raising and
dry farming. John Bushman is believed to have been the first Mormon
resident of the locality. Log houses were built and at Wilford was a
schoolhouse, which later was moved to St. Joseph, there used as a
dwelling. When a number of the brethren went into Mexican exile, their
holdings were "jumped" by outsiders. Wilford has been entirely vacated,
but Heber still has residents.


Where Salt Was Secured

Salt for the early settlements of northern Arizona very generally was
secured from the salt lake of the Zuni, just east of the New Mexican
line, roughly 33 miles from St. Johns. As early as 1865, Sol Barth
brought salt on pack mules from this lake to points as far westward as
Prescott. In the records of a number of the Little Colorado settlements
are found references to where the brethren visited a salt lake and came
back with as much as two tons at a load. This lake is of sacred character
to the Zuni, which, at certain times of the year send parties of priests
and warriors to the lake, 45 miles south of the tribal village. There is
elaborate ceremonial before salt is collected. Undoubtedly the lake was
known to prehistoric peoples, for salt, probably obtained at this point,
has been found in cliff ruins in southern Colorado, 200 miles from the
source of supply. The Zuni even had a special goddess, Mawe, genius of
the sacred salt lake, or "Salt Mother," to whom offerings were made at
the lake. Warren K. Follett, in 1878, told that the lake lies 300 feet
lower than the general surface of the country. The salt forms within the
water, in layers of from three to four inches thick, and is of remarkable
purity.

The Hopi secured salt from a ledge in the Grand Canyon, below the mouth
of the Little Colorado, about eighty miles northwest of their villages.
At the point of mining, sacrifices were made before shrines of a goddess
of salt and a god of war. The place has had description by Dr. Geo.
Wharton James, whose knowledge of the gorge is most comprehensive.

On the upper Verde and in Tonto Creek Valley are salt deposits, though
very impure. Upper Salt River has a small deposit of very good sodium
chloride, which was mined mainly for the mills of Globe, in the
seventies. The Verde deposit now is being mined for shipment to paper
mills of its sodium sulphate. Reference elsewhere is made to the
salt mines of the Virgin River Valley.

[Illustration: GRAND FALLS ON THE LITTLE COLORADO RIVER]

[Illustration: ORIGINAL FORT MORONI WITH ITS STOCKADE]

[Illustration: FORT MORONI IN LATER YEARS]


The Mission Post of Moen Copie

One of the most interesting early locations of the Mormon Church in
Arizona was that of Moen Copie, about 75 miles southeast of Lee's Ferry.
The name is a Hopi one, signifying "running water" or "many springs." The
soil is alkaline, but it is a place where Indians had raised crops for
generations. The presiding spirit of the locality was Tuba, the Oraibi
chief, who had been taken by Jacob Hamblin to Utah, there to learn
something of the white man's civilization.

Joseph Fish wrote that at an early date Moen Copie was selected as a
missionary post by Jacob Hamblin and Andrew S. Gibbons and that in 1871
and 1872, John L. Blythe and family were at that point.

Permanent settlement on Moen Copie Creek was made December 4, 1875, by a
party headed by Jas. S. Brown. There was establishment of winter
quarters, centering in a stone house 40x20 feet, with walls twenty inches
thick. The house was on the edge of a cliff, with two rows of log houses
forming three sides of a square.


Indians Who Knew Whose Ox Was Gored

The Author is pleased to present here a tale of Indian craft,
delightfully told him by Mrs. Elvira Martineau (Benj. S.) Johnson, who,
in 1876, accompanied her husband to Moen Copie, where he had been sent as
a missionary. July 4 the women had just prepared a holiday feast when
Indians were seen approaching. The men were summoned from the fields
below the cliff. Leading the Indians was a Navajo, Peicon, who,
addressing Brown as a brother chieftain, thrust forward his young son,
dramatically stating that the lad had killed three cows owned at the
settlement of Sunset and offering him for any punishment the whites might
see fit to inflict, even though it be death. Brown mildly suggested that
the Sunset people should be seen, but that he was sure that all they
would ask would be the value of the animals. During the protracted
argument a party of accompanying Utes came into the discussion,
threatening individuals with their bows and arrows. The Navajos were fed
and then was developed the truth. It was that the men of Sunset had
killed three Indian cattle and the wily chief had been trying to get
Brown to fix a drastic penalty upon his own people. Brown went with the
Navajos to Sunset, there to learn that the half-starved colonists had
killed three range animals, assumed to have been ownerless. The matter
then was adjusted with little trouble and to the full satisfaction of the
redskins.

In September, 1878, Erastus Snow visited Moen Copie, where the
inhabitants comprised nine families, with especial mention of Andrew S.
Gibbons, of the party of John W. Young and of Tuba. There had been a
prosperous season in a farming way.

This visit is notable from the fact that on the 17th, Snow and others
proceeded about two miles west of north and at Musha Springs located a
townsite, afterward named Tuba City. Tuba City was visited in 1900 by
Andrew Jenson, who found twenty families resident, with one family at the
old Moen Copie mission and three families at Moen Abi, seven miles to the
southwest.

A Woolen Factory in the Wilds

Primarily the Tuba settlement was a missionary effort, with the intention
of taking the Gospel into the very center of the Navajo and Hopi country.
Agriculture flourished a all times, with an abundant supply of water for
irrigation. But there was an attempt at industry and one which would
appear to have had the very best chance of success. The Navajo and Hopi
alike are owners of immense numbers of sheep. The wool in early days
almost entirely was utilized by the Indians in the making of blankets,
this on rude hand looms, where the product was turned out with a maximum
of labor and of time. John W. Young, elsewhere referred to in connection
with the establishment of Fort Moroni and with the building of the
Atlantic and Pacific railroad, thought he saw an opportunity to benefit
the Indians and the Church, and probably himself, so at Tuba City, in the
spring of 1879, he commenced erection of a woolen factory, with interior
dimensions 90x70 feet. The plant was finished in November, with 192
spindles in use. In the spring of 1880 was a report in the Deseret News
that the manufacture of yarns had commenced and that the machinery was
running like a charm. Looms for the cloth-making were reported on the
way. Just how labor was secured is not known, but it is probable that
Indians were utilized to as large an extent as possible. There is no
available record concerning the length of time this mill was operated. It
is understood, however, that the Indians soon lost interest in it and
failed to bring in wool. Possibly the labor supply was not ample and
possibly the distance to the Utah settlements was too great and the
journey too rough to secure profit. At any event, the factory closed
without revolutionizing the Navajo and Hopi woolen industry. In 1900 was
written that the factory "has most literally been carried away by
Indians, travelers and others." Old Chief Tuba took particular pride in
watching over the remains of the factory, but after his death the
ruination of the building was made complete. Some of the machinery was
taken to St. Johns.


Lot Smith and His End

In general the Saints at Tuba appear to have lived at peace with their
Indian neighbors, save in 1892 when Lot Smith was killed. The simple tale
of the tragedy is in a Church record that follows:

"On Monday, June 20, 1892, some Indians at Tuba City turned their sheep
into Lot Smith's pasture. Brother Smith went out to drive the sheep away,
and while thus engaged he got into a quarrel with the Indians and
commenced shooting their sheep. In retaliation the Indians commenced
firing upon Lot Smith's cows and finally directed their fire against Lot
Smith himself, shooting him through the body. Though mortally wounded, he
rode home, a distance of about two miles, and lived about six hours, when
he expired. It is stated on good authority that the Indians were very
sorry, as Smith always had been a friend to them."

The Author here might be permitted to make reference to the impression
generally held in the Southwest that Lot Smith was a "killer," a man of
violence, who died as he had lived. Close study of his record fails to
bear out this view. Undoubtedly it started in Utah after his return from
Mormon Battalion service, when he became a member of the Mormon militia
that harassed Johnston's army in the passes east of the Salt Lake Valley.
There is solemn Church assurance that not a life was taken in this foray,
though many wagons were burned in an attempt, October 3, 1857, to delay
the march of the troops. Smith (who in no wise was related to the family
of the Prophet Joseph) became a leader in the Deseret defense forces, but
there is belief that in all his life he shed no blood, unless it was in
connection with a battle with the Utes near Provo, in February, 1850. In
this fight were used brass cannon, probably those that had been bought at
Sutter's Fort by returning Mormon Battalion members. According to a
friendly biographer, "There never was a man who held the life and liberty
of man more sacred than did Lot Smith." Ten years after his death there
was re-interment of his remains at Farmington, Utah.


Moen Copie Reverts to the Indians

In 1900 Moen Copie ward embraced 21 families and about 150 souls. There
had been an extension of the Navajo reservation westward and the Indians,
though friendly, had been advised to crowd the Mormons out, on the ground
that the country in reality belonged to the aborigines. There was no
title to the land, which had not been surveyed and which was held only by
squatter rights. There had been some success in a missionary way, but
conditions arose which made it appear best that the land be vacated
to the Indians. There was much negotiation and at the end there was
payment by the government of $45,000, this divided among the whites
according to the value of their improvements and acreage.

In this wise the Mormon settlement of Tuba City was vacated in February,
1903, the inhabitants moving to other parts of Arizona and to Utah and
Idaho. A large reservation school has been established on the Wash, many
Indians there being instructed in the arts of the white man, while
government farmers are utilizing the waters of the stream and of the
springs in the cultivation of a considerable acreage. A feature of this
school is that fuel is secured, at very slight cost, from coal measures
nearby.


Woodruff and Its Water Troubles

Closely following settlement of the ephemeral lower Little Colorado towns
came the founding of Woodruff, about 25 miles upstream from St. Joseph
and about twelve miles above the present Holbrook. It is still a
prosperous town and community, though its history has been one in which
disaster has come repeatedly through the washing away of the dam which
supplies its main canal with water from the Little Colorado and Silver
Creek.

In the locality the Mormons were antedated by Luther Martin and Felix
Scott. The section was scouted in December, 1876, by Joseph H. Richards,
Lewis P. Garden, James Thurman and Peter O. Peterson, from Allen's Camp,
and they participated in starting a ditch from the river. There appeared
to have been no indication of occupancy when, in March, 1877, Ammon M.
Tenney passed through the valley and determined it a good place for
location. In the following month, however, Cardon and two sons, and
Wm. A. Walker came upon the ground, with other families, followed, three
weeks later, by Nathan C. Tenney, father of Ammon M., with two sons, John
T. and Samuel, Hans Gulbrandsen and Charles Riggs. For about a year the
settlement was known simply as Tenney's Camp. L. H. Hatch was appointed
to take charge in February, 1878. About that time the name of Woodruff
was adopted, in honor of President Wilford Woodruff, this suggestion made
by John W. Young. The first settlement was in a rock and adobe fort,
forming a half square. There was a common dining room as, for a while,
there was adherence to the system of the United Order. It is told that
all save two of the settlers participated and there is memorandum of how
three sisters were detailed weekly for cooking, with girls as assistants.

In February, 1882, was survey of the present townsite, on which John
Reidhead built the first house. This townsite was purchased from the
Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, in May, 1889, for $8 an acre. At
first it had not been appreciated that the town had not been built upon
government land.

The history of Woodruff has in it much of disastrous incident through the
frequent breaking of the river dams. In May, 1880, the dam had to be cut
by the settlers themselves, in order to permit the water to flow down to
St. Joseph, where there was priority of appropriation. At several times,
the Church organization helped in the repair or building of the many
dams, after the settlers had spent everything they had and had reached
the point of despair. At suggestion of Jesse N. Smith in 1884, all the
brethren in the Stake were called upon to donate one day each of labor on
the Woodruff dam. Up to 1890, the dam had been washed out seven times and
even now there is trouble in its maintenance.

Of passing interest is the fact that President Wilford Woodruff, after
whom the settlement was named, was a visitor to Woodruff on at least two
occasions, in 1879, and in 1887, when an exile from Utah. He was at Moen
Copie when there came news, which later proved erroneous, that pursuers
had crossed at Lee's Ferry. Then, guided by Richard Gibbons, he rode
westward, making a stop of a few days at Fort Moroni.


Holbrook Once Was Horsehead Crossing

Holbrook, on the Little Colorado, county seat of Navajo County, shipping
point on the Santa Fe railroad system for practically all of Navajo and
Apache Counties, had Mormon inception, under its present name, that of an
Atlantic and Pacific railroad locating engineer, F.A. Holbrook. The
christening is said to have been done in 1881 by John W. Young, then a
grading contractor, applied to a location two miles east of the present
townsite. Young there had a store at his headquarters. Later the railroad
authorities established the town on its present location.

The settlement, since the first coming of English-speaking folk, had been
known as Horsehead Crossing. For years before the railroad came, a
roadside station was kept at the Crossing by a Mexican, Berardo, whose
name was differently spelled by almost every traveler who wrote of him.
One of the tales is from E.C. Bunch, who came as a young member of the
Arkansas immigration in 1876, and who later became one of the leaders in
Arizona education. He tells, in referring appreciatively to Mexican
hospitality, that "Berrando's" sign, painted by an American, read, "If
you have the money, you can eat." But the owner, feeling the misery
coldheartedness might create, wrote below, "No got a money, eat anyway."
Berardo loaned the colonists some cows, whose milk was most welcome.




Chapter Fifteen

Settlement Spreads Southward


Snowflake and its Naming

Snowflake, one of the most prosperous of towns of Mormon origin, lies 28
miles almost south of Holbrook, with which it was given railroad
connection during 1919. The first settler was James Stinson who came in
1873, and who, by 1878, had taken out the waters of Silver Creek for the
irrigation of about 300 acres. In July, 1878, Stinson (later a resident
of Tempe) sold to Wm. J. Flake for $11,000, paid in livestock.

July 21, the first Mormons moved upon the Stinson place. They were Flake,
James Gale, Jesse Brady, Alexander Stewart and Thomas West, with their
families, most of them from the old Taylor settlement. Others followed
soon thereafter, including six Taylor families, headed by John Kartchner,
they taking the upper end of the valley.

Actual foundation of the town came in an incident of the most memorable
of the southwestern trips of Erastus Snow. He and his party arrived at
the Kartchner ranch September 26, 1878, the location described by L. John
Nuttall of the party as "a nice little valley." As bishop was appointed
John Hunt of Savoia, who was with the Mormon Battalion, and who remained
in the same capacity till 1910. Flake's location was considered best for
a townsite and to it was given the name it now bears, honoring the
visiting dignitary and the founder. The townsite was surveyed soon
thereafter by Samuel G. Ladd of St. Joseph, who also laid out several
ditch lines. Even before there was a town, there was a birth, that of
William Taylor Gale, son of James Gale.

[Illustration: ERASTUS SNOW. In Charge of Pioneer Arizona Colonization]

[Illustration: JOSEPH W. McMURRIN]

[Illustration: ANTHONY W. IVINS]

January 16, 1879, arrived Jesse N. Smith, president of the newly-created
Eastern Arizona Stake, appointed on recommendation of Erastus Snow. After
trying to negotiate for land at St. Johns, he returned, and he and his
company concluded to locate in Snowflake, where they took up lots not
already appropriated. The farming land went in a drawing of two parcels
each to the city lot owners, who thus became possessed of twenty acres
each. Joseph Fish headed a committee on distribution, which valued each
city lot at $30, each first-class farming plot of ten acres at $110 and
each second-class plot at $60, giving each shareholder property valued at
$200, or ten head of stock, this being at the rate that Flake paid for
the whole property. Flake took only one share.

The Mormon towns usually were of the quietest, but occasionally had
excitement brought to them. On one such occasion at Snowflake, December
8, 1892, was killed Chas. L. Flake, son of Wm. J. Flake. A message had
come from New Mexico asking detention of Will Mason, a desperado said to
have had a record of seven murders. Charles and his brother, Jas. M.,
attempted the arrest. Mason fired twice over his shoulder, the first
bullet cutting James' left ear, and then shot Charles through the neck.
Almost the same moment a bullet from James' pistol passed through the
murderer's head, followed by a second.

Of modern interest, indicative of the trend of public sentiment, is an
agreement, entered into late in 1920, by the merchants of Snowflake and
the towns to the southward, to sell no tobacco, in any form.

Snowflake was the first county-seat of Apache County, created in 1879,
the first court session held in the home of Wm. J. Flake. At the fall
election, the courthouse was moved to St. Johns. In 1880, by the vote of
Clifton, which then was within Apache County, Springerville was made the
county seat. In 1882, St. Johns finally was chosen the seat of Apache
County government.


Joseph Fish, Historian

The first consecutive history of Arizona, intended to be complete in its
narration, undoubtedly was that written by Joseph Fish, for many years
resident in or near Snowflake. Though Mr. Fish is a patriarch of the
Mormon Church, his narration of events is entirely uncolored, unless by
sympathy for the Indians. His work never had publication, a fact to be
deplored. A copy of his manuscript is in the office of the State
Historian, and another is possessed by Dr. J. A. Munk, held by him in his
library of Arizoniana in the Southwestern Museum at Garvanza, Cal.

The history has about 700 pages of typewritten matter, treating of events
down to a comparatively late date. Mr. Fish has a clear and lucid style
of narration and his work is both interesting and valuable. Though of no
large means, he gathered, at his home on the Little Colorado, about 400
books and magazines, and upon this basis and by personal interviews and
correspondence he secured the data upon which he wrote. He is a native of
Illinois, of Yankee stock, and is now in his eightieth year. He came to
Arizona in 1879 and the next year was in charge of the commissary
department for the contract of John W. Young in the building of the
Atlantic and Pacific railroad. His first historical work was done as
clerk of the Eastern Arizona Stake. In 1902 he began work on another
historical volume, "The Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains." He now is
resident in Enterprise, Utah.

Another historic character resident in the Stake was Ralph Ramsey, the
artist in wood who carved the eagle that overspreads the Eagle gate in
Salt Lake City.


Taylor, Second of the Name

Taylor, the second settlement of the name in the Mormon northeastern
occupation, lies three miles south of Snowflake (which it antedates). It
is on Silver Creek, which is spanned by a remarkable suspension bridge
that connects two sections of the town. When the first Mormon residents
came, early in 1878 the settlement was known as Bagley. Then there was to
be change to Walker, but the Postoffice Department objected, as another
Walker existed, near Prescott. The present name, honoring John Taylor,
president of the Church, was adopted in 1881, at the suggestion of Stake
President Jesse N. Smith.

The first settler was James Pearce, a noted character in southwestern
annals, son of the founder of Pearce's Ferry across the Colorado at the
mouth of Grand Wash, at the lower end of the Grand Canyon. James Pearce
was a pioneer missionary with Jacob Hamblin among the Paiutes of the
Nevada Muddy region and the Hopi and Navajo of northeastern Arizona. He
came January 23, 1878, in March joined by John H. Standiford. Other early
arrivals were Jos. C. Kay, Jesse H. and Wm. A. Walker, Lorenzo Hatch, an
early missionary to the northeastern Arizona Indians, Noah Brimhall and
Daniel Bagley. A ditch was surveyed by Major Ladd, who did most of such
work for all the settlements, but the townsite, established in 1878, on
the recommendation, in September, of Erastus Snow, was surveyed in
December by a group of interested residents, led by Jos. S. Carden, their
"chain" being a rope. The irrigation troubles of the community appear to
have been fewer than those of the Little Colorado towns, though in the
great spring flood of 1890 the dams and bridges along Silver Creek were
carried away.


Shumway's Historic Founder

Shumway, on Silver Creek, five miles above Taylor, has interest of
historical sort in the fact that it was named after an early settler
Charles Shumway, one of the most noted of the patriarchs of the Church.
He was the first to cross the Mississippi, February 4, 1846, in the
exodus from Nauvoo, and was one of the 143 Pioneers who entered Salt Lake
with Brigham Young the following summer. In December, 1879, his son,
Wilson G. Shumway, accepted a call to Arizona. Most of the winter was
spent at Grand Falls in a "shack" he built of cottonwood logs, roofed
with sandstone slabs. In this he entertained Apostle Woodruff, who
directed the chiseling of the name "Wilford Woodruff" upon a rock.
Charles Shumway and N.P. Beebe bought the mill rights on Silver Creek,
acquired through location the previous year by Nathan C. and Jesse
Wanslee, brought machinery from the East and, within a year, started a
grist mill that still is a local institution. The village of Shumway
never has had more than a score of families. Charles Shumway died May 21,
1898. His record of self-sacrifice continued after his arrival in Arizona
early in 1880, the first stop being at Concho. There, according to his
son, Wilson G., the family for two years could have been rated as among
"the poorest of poor pioneers," with a dugout for a home, this later
succeeded by a log cabin of comparative luxury. For months the bread was
of barley flour, the diet later having variety, changed to corn bread and
molasses, with wheat flour bread as a treat on Sundays.


Showlow Won in a Game of "Seven-Up"

Showlow, one of the freak Arizona place names, applied to a creek and
district, as well as to a thrifty little settlement, lies about south of
Snowflake, twenty miles or more. The name antedates the Mormon
settlement. The valley jointly was held by C.E. Cooley and Marion Clark,
both devoted to the card game of "seven-up." At a critical period of one
of their games, when about all possible property had been wagered, Clark
exclaimed, "Show low and you take the ranch!" Cooley "showed low." This
same property later was sold by him to W.J. Flake, for $13,000.

The Showlow section embraces the mountain communities of Showlow,
Reidhead (Lone Pine), Pinedale, Linden, Juniper, Adair (which once had
unhappy designation as "Fools' Hollow"), Ellsworth, Lakeside (also known
as Fairview and Woodland), Pinetop and Cluff's Cienega. Cooley, in the
Cienega (Sp., marsh) is the site of a large sawmill and is the terminus
of a railroad from Holbrook. But the noted scout Cooley, lived elsewhere,
at Showlow and at Apache Springs.

The first Mormons to come to Showlow were Alfred Cluff and David E.
Adams, who were employed by Cooley in 1876. They were from Allen's Camp,
almost driven away by necessity. Others soon came, including Moses and
Orson Cluff, Edmund Ellsworth and Edson Whipple, a Salt Lake Pioneer.
There was gradual settlement of the communities above listed, generally
prior to 1880. While only one member of the faith was killed during the
Indian troubles of the eighties, log and stone forts were erected in
several of the villages for use in case of need.


Mountain Communities

Out in the woods, twenty miles southwest of Snowflake, is the village of
Pinedale, settled in January, 1879, by Niels Mortensen and sons and Niels
Peterson. The first location was at what now is called East Pinedale,
also known at different times as Mortensen and Percheron. In the
following winter, a small sawmill was brought in from Fort Apache and in
1882 came a larger mill, the original Mount Trumbull mill. In that year a
townsite had rough survey by James Huff and in 1885 a schoolhouse was
built. The brethren had much trouble with desperados, horse and cattle
thieves, but peace came after the Pleasant Valley war in Tonto Basin, in
which thirty of the range riders were killed.

Reidhead, also known at times as Woolf's Ranch, Lone Pine Crossing,
Beaver Branch and Reidhead Crossing, is one of the deserted points of
early settlement, historically important mainly in the fact that it was
the home of Nathan B. Robinson, killed nearby by Apaches June 1, 1882.
Fear of the Indians then drove away the other settlers and, though there
was later return, in 1893 was final abandonment. Reidhead lay on Showlow
Creek, ten miles above Taylor and ten miles from Cooley's ranch. It was
one of the places of first white settlement in northeastern Arizona,
a Mexican having had his ranch there even before Cooley came into the
country. Then came one Woolf, from whom squatter rights were bought in
April, 1878, by John Reidhead, then lately from Utah.

Pinetop, 35 miles south of Snowflake, dates back to March, 1888, when
settled by Wm. L. Penrod and sons, including four families, all from
Provo, Utah. Progress started with the transfer to Pinetop of the Mount
Trumbull mill in 1890. The name is said to have been given by soldiers,
the first designation having been Penrod. A notable event in local
history was a joint conference in Pinetop, July 4, 1892, with
representatives from all Arizona Stakes and attended by President
Woodruff's counselors, Geo. Q. Cannon and Jos. F. Smith. For this special
occasion was built a pavilion, the largest in Arizona, a notable
undertaking for a small community. The structure was destroyed by fire a
few years ago.


Forest Dale on the Reservation

In the settlement of what now is southern Navajo County, the Mormon
settlers a bit overran the present line of the Apache Indian reservation,
where they located early in 1878 upon what now is known as Forest Dale
Creek, a tributary of Carrizo Creek. The country is a beautiful one, well
watered from abundant rains and well wooded, possibly a bit more favored
than the present settlements of Showlow, Pinetop and Lakeside, which lie
just north of the reservation line. There is reference in a letter of
Llewellyn Harris, in July, 1878, to the settlement of Forest Dale, but
the name is found in writings several months before. Harris and several
others refer to the Little Colorado country as being in "Aravapai"
County. This was in error. The county then was Yavapai, before the
separation of Apache County.

The valley was found by Oscar Cluff while hunting in the fall of 1877 and
soon thereafter he moved there with his family. In February there
followed his brother, Alfred Cluff, who suggested the name. The
settlement was started February 18, 1878, by Jos. H. Frisby, Merritt
Staley, Oscar Mann, Orson and Alfred Cluff, Ebenezer Thayne, David E.
Adams and a few others.

The overrunning referred to was not done blindly. Jos. H. Frisby and
Alfred Cluff went to San Carlos. There they were assured by Agent Hart
that Apache Springs and the creek referred to were not on the
reservation, and that the government would protect them if they would
settle there. It was understood that the reservation line lay about three
miles south of the settlement. This information is contained in a letter
signed by Agent Hart and addressed to Colonel Andrews, Eleventh Infantry,
commanding Fort Apache. Mr. Hart stated that he would be "glad to have
the settlers make permanent homes at Forest Dale, for the reason that the
Indians strayed so far from their own lands that it was hard to keep
track of them as conditions then were, and that the settlement of the
country would have a tendency to hold the Indians on their own lands upon
the reservation."

Lieutenant Ray was sent with a detachment of troops and the Indians at
Apache Springs were removed and the main body of the settlers, then
temporarily located on the Showlow, moved over the ridge into the new
valley.

In March, 1878, the settlers included Merritt Staley, Oscar Mann,
Ebenezer Thayne, David E. Adams, Jos. H. Frisby, Alfred Cluff, Isaac
Follett, Orson Cluff and several unmarried men. In September, Erastus
Snow found a very prosperous settlement. A ward organization was
established. The first white child, Forest Dale Adams, is now the wife of
Frank Webster, of Central, Arizona. Seven springs of good water, known as
Apache Springs, formed the headwaters of Carrizo Creek.

In 1879, Missionaries Harris and Thayne appear to have made a mistake
similar to that of the Arab who allowed the camel to thrust his nose
inside of the tent. They secured permission from the commanding officer
of creek. The missionary efforts appear to have failed, and the Indians
simply demanded everything in sight. Reports came that the locality
really was on the reservation and the white population therefore drifted
away, mainly into the Gila Valley. In December, 1879, only three families
were left, and the following year the last were gone.

In 1881 rumors drifted down the Little Colorado that Forest Dale, after
all, was not on the reservation. So William Crookston and three others
re-settled the place, some of them from the abandoned Brigham City. Then
came the Indian troubles of 1881-82. When Fort Apache was attacked, the
families consolidated at Cooley, where they built a fort. Some went north
to Snowflake and Taylor. In December, 1881, President Jesse N. Smith of
the Eastern Arizona Stake advised the Forest Dale settlers to satisfy the
Indians for their claims on the place, and received assurance from
General Carr at Fort Apache, that the locality most likely was not on the
reservation and that, in case it was not, he would be pleased to have the
Mormon settlers there. A new ward was established and William Ellsworth
and twenty more families moved in, mainly from Brigham City. In May,
1882, the Indians came again to plant corn and were wrathful to find the
whites ahead of them. An officer was sent from Fort Apache and a treaty
was made by which the Indians were given thirty acres of planted land.

June 1, 1882, Apaches killed Nathan B. Robinson at the Reidhead place and
shot Emer Plumb at Walnut Springs, during a period of general Indian
unrest. Soon thereafter, President Smith advised the settlers that they
had better look for other locations, as the ground was on the
reservation.

In December, Lieutenant Gatewood, under orders from Captain Crawford
(names afterward famous in the Geronimo campaign to the southward) came
from Fort Apache and advised the settlers they would be given until the
spring to vacate. The crops were disposed of at Fort Apache and the
spring of 1883 found Forest Dale deserted, houses, fences, corrals and
every improvement left behind. The drift of the settlers was to the Gila
Valley.

[Illustration: JOSEPH FISH. An Arizona Historian]

[Illustration: JOSEPH H. RICHARDS OF ST. JOSEPH. One of the few original
settlers who still lives on the Little Colorado]

[Illustration: A GROUP OF ST. JOSEPH PIONEERS AND HISTORIAN ANDREW
JENSON]

[Illustration: SHUMWAY AND THE OLD MILL ON SILVER CREEK]

This Forest Dale affair was made a national matter, January 24, 1916,
when a bill was introduced by Senator Ashurst of Arizona for the relief
of Alfred Cluff, Orson Cluff, Henry E. Norton, Wm. B. Ballard, Elijah
Hancock, Susan R. Saline, Oscar Mann, Celia Thayne, William Cox, Theodore
Farley, Adelaide Laxton, Clara L. Tenney, Geo. M. Adams, Charlotte Jensen
and Sophia Huff. Later additions were David E. Adams and Peter H.
McBride.

The amounts claimed by each varied from $2000 to $15,000. A similar bill
had been introduced by the Senator in a previous Congress. In his
statement to the Indian Affairs Committee, the Senator stated that the
settlements had been on unreserved and vacant Government lands and
that the reservation had been extended to cover the tract some time in
1882.

Appended were affidavits from each of the individuals claiming
compensation. All told of moving during the winter, under conditions of
great hardship, of cold and exposure and loss of property.

David E. Adams, one of the few survivors of the Forest Dale settlement,
lately advised the Author that the change in the reservation line
undeniably was at the suggestion of C.E. Cooley, a noted Indian scout,
who feared the Mormons would compete with him in supplying corn and
forage to Fort Apache.


Tonto Basin's Early Settlement

Soon after location on the Little Colorado there was exploration to the
southwest, with a view toward settlement extension. At the outset was
encountered the very serious obstruction of the great Mogollon Rim, a
precipice that averages more than 1000 feet in height for several hundred
miles. Ways through this were found, however, into Tonto Basin, a great
expanse, about 100 miles in length by 80 in width, lying south and
southwest of the Rim, bounded on the west by the Mazatzal Mountains, and
on the south and southeast by spurs of the Superstitions and Pinals. The
Basin itself contains a sizable mountain range, the Sierra Ancha.

The first exploration was made in July, 1876, by Wm. C. Allen, John
Bushman, Pleasant Bradford and Peter Hansen. Their report was
unfavorable, in considering settlement. In the fall of the following year
there was exploration by John W. Freeman, John H. Willis, Thomas Clark,
Alfred J. Randall, Willis Fuller and others. They returned a more
favorable report. In March, 1878, Willis drove stock into the upper Basin
and also took the first wagon to the East Verde Valley. He was followed
by Freeman and family and Riel Allen. Freeman located a road to the Rim,
from Pine Springs to Baker's Butte, about forty miles. Price W. Nielson
(or Nelson) settled on Rye Creek, in 1878. In the following year was
started the Pine settlement, about twenty miles north of the East Verde
settlement, with Riel Allen at its head. There is record that most of the
settlers on the East Verde moved away in 1879, mainly to Pine, and others
back to the Little Colorado. However, the Author, in September of 1889,
found a very prosperous little Mormon settlement on the East Verde,
raising alfalfa, fruit and livestock. It was called Mazatzal City and lay
within a few miles of the Natural Bridge, which is on the lower reaches
of Pine Creek before that stream joins the East Verde.

A settlement was in existence at least as late as 1889 on upper Tonto
Creek. The first resident was David Gowan, discoverer of the Natural
Bridge, he and two others taking advantage of the presence of a
beaver-built log dam, from which an irrigating canal was started. The
first of the Mormon settlers at that point, in 1883, were John and David
W. Sanders, with their families, they followed by the Adams, Bagley and
Gibson families. This location was a very lonely one, though less than
ten miles, by rocky trail, from the town of Payson. It was not well
populated, at any time, though soil, climate and water were good.

Erastus Snow in 1878 made formal visit to the Tonto settlements. He found
on Rye Creek the Price Nelson and Joseph Gibson families, less than a
mile above where the stream entered Tonto Creek. Thereafter were visited
the East Verde settlements, from which most of the men had gone to
southern Utah after their families and stock, and Pine Creek and
Strawberry Valley, where later was considerable settlement.

According to Fish, the first settlement in Tonto Basin was by Al Rose, a
Dane, in 1877, in Pleasant Valley, though he lived for only a few months
in a stockade home which he erected. Then came G.S. Sixby and J. Church
from California. There followed Ed. Rose, J.D. Tewksbury and sons, the
Graham family and James Stinson, the last from Snowflake. Sixby is
renowned as the hero of a wonderful experience in the spring of 1882,
when, his brother and an employee killed, he held the fort of his log
home against more than 100 Indians, the same band later fought and
captured by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee in the fight of the Big Dry Wash.

There was good reason for the delayed settlement of Tonto Basin, for it
was a region traversed continually by a number of Indian tribes. It was a
sort of No Man's Land, in which wandered the Mohave-Apache and the Tonto,
the Cibicu and White Mountain Apaches, not always at peace among
themselves. Several times the Pleasant and Cherry Creek Valleys were
highways for Indian raids of large dimensions. The Pleasant Valley war,
between the Tewksbury and Graham factions cost thirty lives. No Mormon
participated.

Most of the land holdings necessarily were small. The water supply is
regular in only a few places. Hence it is natural that most of the
Mormons who settled, moved on, to better agricultural conditions found
farther southward. Abandonment of all Tonto Basin settlements was
authorized at a meeting of President Woodruff with the heads of the
Arizona Stakes, held at Albuquerque August 14, 1890.




Chapter Sixteen

Little Colorado Settlements


Genesis of St. Johns

One of the most remarkable of Arizona settlements is St. Johns, 58 miles
southeast of Holbrook, its railroad station. Though its development has
been almost entirely Mormon and though it is headquarters for the St.
Johns Stake of the Church, its foundation dates back of the Mormon
occupation of the valley of the Little Colorado.

Very early in the seventies, New Mexican cattle and sheep men spread
their ranges over the mountains into the Little Colorado Valley and there
were occasional camps of the Spanish-speaking people. In 1872 a mail
carrier, John Walker, had built a cabin on the river, five miles below
the site of St. Johns. As early as 1864 the locality had been visited by
Solomon Barth, a Jewish trader, who dealt with the Indians as far
eastward as Zuni and who, on burros, packed salt from the Zuni salt lake
to the mining camps of the Prescott section. Barth, oddly enough, for a
while had been connected with the Mormons, at the age of 13, a new
arrival from Posen, East Prussia, joining his uncle in a push-cart
caravan to Salt Lake. Later he was in San Bernardino, there remaining
after the 1857 exodus, to go to La Paz, Arizona, in 1862. In 1864 he
carried mail on the route from Albuquerque to Prescott, as contractor.
In November, 1868, he was captured by Apaches, but was liberated, with
several Mexican associates, all almost naked, reaching the Zuni villages,
on foot, four days later. For food they shared the carcass of a small
dog. In 1870 he was post trader at Fort Apache, then known as Camp Ord,
in the year of its establishment. In 1873, a game of cards at El Badito
(Little Crossing), a settlement on the Little Colorado, on the St. Johns
site, determined his future terrestrial place of residence. From his
adversaries, New Mexicans, he won several thousand head of sheep and
several thousand dollars. Then he left the life of the road and settled
down.

A.F. Banta, a pioneer of Arizona pioneers, then known by his army name of
Charlie Franklin, tells that he was at Badito (Vadito) in 1876, the place
then on a mail route southward to Fort Apache and the military posts on
the Gila. In the same connection, James D. Houck, in 1874, contracted to
carry mail across the Little Colorado Valley, between Fort Wingate and
Prescott. Another mail route was from Wingate to St. Johns and Apache.

Sol Barth and his brothers, Morris and Nathan, settled at St. Johns in
the fall of 1873, with a number of New Mexican laborers. At once was
commenced construction of a dam across the Little Colorado and of ditches
and there was farming of a few hundred acres adjoining the site of the
present town. In all, Barth laid claim to 1200 acres of land, though it
proved later he had only a squatter title. With him originated the name
of St. Johns, at first San Juan, given in compliment to the first female
resident, Senora Maria San Juan Baca de Padilla. With this conspicuous
exception, all saintly names in Arizona were bestowed by either Catholic
missionaries or by Mormons.

Ammon M. Tenney, a scout of Mormondom second only to Jacob Hamblin, in
1877 at Kanab received from President Brigham Young instructions to go
into Arizona and select places for colonization. He visited many points
in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona, but his recommendation was
confined to St. Johns, Concho, sixteen miles west of St. Johns, The
Meadows, eight miles northwest, and Woodruff.

With the Tenney report in mind, in January, 1879, St. Johns was visited
by Jesse N. Smith, just arrived in Arizona to be president of the Little
Colorado Stake. But Smith was unable to make terms with Barth and his
Mexican neighbors and turned back to Snowflake.


Land Purchased by Mormons

Under instructions from the Church, Ammon M. Tenney returned to St. Johns
late in 1879 and, November 16, succeeded in effecting the purchase of the
Barth interests, including three claims at The Meadows. The purchase
price was 770 head of American cows, furnished by the Church, though 100
were loaned by W. J. Flake. The value of the livestock, estimated at
$19,000, in later years was donated by the Church toward the erection of
the St. Johns academy. Other land purchases later were made by arriving
members.

Tenney was the first head of the colony, which was started in December,
by the arrival of Jos. H. Watkins and Wm. F. James, missionaries sent
from Ogden, who came with their families. In December, Apostle Wilford
Woodruff, later President of the Church, held the first religious
meeting, this at the home of Donasiano Gurule, a New Mexican. The Church
authorities were active in their settlement plans and at a quarterly
Stake conference in Snowflake, March 27, 1880, 190 souls were reported
from the St. Johns branch.

A few days after the conference, Apostle Woodruff located a townsite one
and a half miles below the center of the present site. This location,
though surveyed and with a few houses, was abandoned the following
September, on recommendation of Apostles Erastus Snow and Francis M.
Lyman, for higher ground, west and north of the Mexican village. In the
summer of 1880 the settlement, named Salem, was given a postoffice, but
the Mormon postmaster appointed, Sixtus E. Johnson, failed to secure his
keys from a non-Mormon, E.S. Stover, incumbent at San Juan.

A notable arrival, October 9, 1890, was David K. Udall, called from Kane
County, Utah, to serve as bishop of St. Johns ward. With continuous
ecclesiastical service, he now is president of St. Johns Stake, elevated
in July, 1887.

Occupation of the new townsite started early in October, 1880, the
public square designated by President Jesse N. Smith on the 9th. Twenty
square-rod city lots were laid off in blocks 24 rods square, with streets
six rods wide. In the spring of 1881 the farming land was surveyed into
forty 40-acre blocks, these later subdivided. During the winter of 1881
was built a log schoolhouse, through private donations. The first teacher
was Mrs. Anna Romney. The first church was a "bowery" of greasewood.

That the years following hardly were ones of plenty is indicated by the
fact that in the spring of 1885 President John Taylor issued a tithing
office order for $1000 and $1187 more was collected in Utah stakes, to
aid the St. Johns settlers in the purchase of foodstuffs and seed grain.

A.F. Banta started a weekly newspaper, "The Pioneer Press," soon after
occupation of the townsite, this journal in January, 1883, bought by
Mormons and edited by M.P. Romney.


Wild Celebration of St. John's Day

There was a wild time in St. Johns on the day of the Mexican population's
patron saint, San Juan, June 24, 1882, when Nat Greer and a band of Texas
cowboys entered the Mexican town. The Greers had been unpopular with the
Mexicans since they had marked a Mexican with an ear "underslope," as
cattle are marked, this after a charge that their victim had been found
in the act of stealing a Greer colt. The fight that followed the Greer
entry had nothing at its initiation to do with the Mormon settlers.
Assaulted by the Mexican police and populace, eight of the band rode
away and four were penned into an uncompleted adobe house. Jim Vaughn of
the raiders was killed and Harris Greer was wounded. On the attacking
side was wounded Francisco Tafolla, whose son in later years was killed
while serving in the Arizona Rangers. It was declared that several
thousand shots had been fired, but there was a lull, in which the part of
peacemaker was taken up by "Father" Nathan C. Tenney, a pioneer of
Woodruff and father of Ammon M. Tenney. He walked to the house and
induced the Greers to surrender. The Sheriff, E.S. Stover, was summoned
and was in the act of taking the men to jail when a shot was fired from a
loft of the Barth house, where a number of Mexicans had established
themselves. The bullet, possibly intended for a Greer, passed through the
patriarch's head and neck, killing him instantly. The Greers were
threatened with lynching, but were saved by the sheriff's determination.
Their case was taken to Prescott and they escaped with light punishment.

[Illustration: FIRST MORMON SCHOOL, CHURCH AND BOWERY AT ST. JOHNS]

[Illustration: DAVID K. UDALL AND HIS FIRST RESIDENCE AT ST. JOHNS]

[Illustration: ST. JOHNS IN 1887. Sol Barth's House with the Tower]

[Illustration: THE STAKE ACADEMY AT ST. JOHNS]

In the fall of 1881 the community knew a summary execution of two men and
there were other deeds of disorder, but in no wise did they affect the
Mormon people, save that the lawless actions unsettled the usual peaceful
conditions.


Disputes Over Land Titles

It is not within the province of this work to deal in matters of
controversial sort, especially with those that may have affected the
religious features of the Mormon settlement but there may be mention of a
few of the difficulties that came to the people of St. Johns in their
earlier days.

The general subject of land titles in the Mormon settlements that came
within the scope of railroad land grants has been referred to on other
pages. In St. Johns there was added need for defense of the squatter
titles secured from Barth and the Mexicans, while there was assault on
the validity of the occupation of the townsite. On several occasions,
especially in March, 1884, there was attempted "jumping" of the choicest
lots and there was near approach to bloodshed, prevented only by the
pacific determination of Bishop Udall. The opposition upset a house that
had been placed upon one lot and riotous conditions prevailed for hours.
reinforcements quickly came from outlying Mormon settlements and firearms
were carried generally in self defense. A number of lawsuits had to be
defended, at large expense. There was friction with the Mexican element,
which lived compactly in the old town, just east of the Mormon
settlement, and clashes were known with a non-Mormon American element
that had political connection with the Mexicans.

About May 18, 1884, was discovered a plot to waylay and harm Apostle
Brigham Young, Jr., and Francis M. Lyman, on the road to Ramah, but a
strong escort fended off the danger. In the Stake chronicles is told that
the brethren for a time united in regular fasting and prayer, seeking
protection from their enemies.


Irrigation Difficulties and Disaster

St. Johns had its irrigation troubles, just as did every other Little
Colorado settlement, only on a larger scale. In the beginning of the
Mormon settlement, claim was made by the Mexicans upon the larger part of
the river flow. Later there was compromise on a basis of three-fifths of
the flow to the Mormons and two-fifths to the Mexicans, and in 1886 a
degree of stability was secured by formation of the St. Johns Irrigation
Company. A large dam, six miles south of St. Johns, created what was
called the Slough reservoir. However, this dam was washed out in 1903,
after years of drought. Then were several years of discouragement and of
loss of population.

Thereafter came the idea of building a larger dam at a point twelve miles
upstream, creating a reservoir to be drained through a deep cut. The plan
was approved by the Church, which appropriated $5000 toward construction.
There was formation of an irrigation company, to which was attached the
name of Apostle F.M. Lyman, who had taken a personal interest in the
improvement. A Colorado company provided one-half the necessary capital
and the community the balance, and plans were made for the reclamation of
15,000 acres upon higher land than had been irrigated before. After
expenditure of $200,000, the dam was completed and the reservoir filled.
Construction was faulty and in April, 1915, the dam was washed away, with
attendant loss of eight lives and with large damage to flooded farms
below. There was reorganization of the Lyman Company and about $200,000
more was spent, with the desired end of water storage still unreached.
Then came appeal to the State, which, through the State Loan Board,
advanced large sums, taking as security mortgages on the land and dam.
State investment in the Lyman project today approximates $800,000. The
dam now is about finished and is claimed to be a structure that will
stand all flood conditions.


Meager Rations at Concho

Concho was a Mexican village, at least a dozen years established, when
the first Mormon settlers arrived. The name probably is from the Spanish
word "concha," a shell. The settlement lies sixteen miles west of St.
Johns. There were two sections, the older, in which Spanish was spoken
and in which stock raising was the main occupation, and the Mormon
settlement, a mile up the valley, in which there was effort to exist by
agriculture on what was called a "putty" soil, with lack of sufficient
water supply. The first of the Mormons to come was Bateman H. Wilhelm,
who arrived in March, 1879. Soon thereafter Wm. J. Flake and Jesse J.
Brady purchased the main part of the valley, the former paying for his
half interest eight cows, one mule, a set of harness and a set of
blacksmith tools. Before the end of the year, about thirty Saints were
resident in the locality, some of the later arrivals being David
Pulsipher, a Mormon Battalion member, Geo. H. Killian and Chas. G.
Curtis. A townsite was roughly surveyed by brethren who laid their stakes
by the North Star. September 26, 1880, there was organization of a Church
ward and there was assumed the name of Erastus, in honor of Erastus Snow,
who then was presiding at a Snowflake conference. This name was abandoned
for that of Concho at a Church meeting held in St. Johns December 6,
1895. In later years, the Mormon residents, after building a reservoir
and expending much effort toward irrigation, generally have turned from
agriculture to stock raising.

Hunt is an agricultural settlement seventeen miles down the stream from
St. Johns and one mile below a former Mexican settlement, near San
Antonio, above which at some time subsequent to 1876 there settled an
army officer named Hunt, who left the service at Fort Apache and whose
descendants live in the county. The first Mormon settler was Thomas L.
Greer in 1879, the old Greer ranch still maintained, a mile east of the
present postoffice. Thereafter, the location was known as Greer Valley.
In 1901, D.K. Udall became a resident and in that year his wife,
appointed postmaster, was instrumental in naming the office and locality
after her father, John Hunt, of the Mormon Battalion, who had a farm in
the locality a year or so thereafter, though not actually resident.

The Meadows purchase, eight miles northwest of St. Johns, was occupied
November 28, 1879. Among the settlers was the famous Indian missionary,
Ira Hatch.

Walnut Grove, twenty miles south of St. Johns, was settled early in 1882
by Jas. W. Wilkins and son, who bought Mexican claims. There was trouble
over water priorities on the flow of the Little Colorado and the place
now has small population, much of it Spanish-speaking.


Springerville and Eagar

Valle Redondo (Round Valley), 32 miles southeast of St. Johns, was the
original name of the Springerville section. The first settler was Wm. R.
Milligan, a Tennessean, who established a fort in the valley in 1871. The
name was given in honor of Harry Springer, an Albuquerque merchant, who
had a branch store in the valley. A.F. Banta states that the first town
was across the Little Colorado from the present townsite. Banta was the
first postmaster, in Becker's store.

The first Mormons on the ground, in February, 1879, were Jens Skousen,
Peter J. Christofferson and Jas. L. Robertson, from St. Joseph. Soon
thereafter came Wm. J. Flake, with more cows available for trade, giving
forty of them to one York, for a planted grain field. Flake did not
remain. In March came John T. Eager, who located four miles south of the
present Springerville, in Water Canyon, and about the same time arrived
Jacob Hamblin, the scout missionary. The latter took up residence in the
Milligan fort and was appointed to preside over the Saints of the
vicinity, but remained only till winter.

In 1882, President Jesse N. Smith divided Round Valley into two wards,
the upper to be known as Amity and the lower as Omer. In 1888 the people
of these wards established a townsite, two miles above and south of
Springerville, which was a Spanish-speaking community. The new town, at
first known as Union, later was named Eagar, after the three Eagar
brothers.


A Land of Beaver and Bear

Nutrioso, sixteen miles southeast of Springerville, is very near the
dividing ridge of the Gila and Little Colorado watersheds. The name
is a combination of nutria (Sp., otter) and oso (Sp., bear). "Nutria"
was applied to the beaver, of which there were many. The first
English-speaking settler was Jas. G.H. Colter, a lumberman from
Wisconsin, who came to Round Valley in July, 1875, driving three wagons
from Atchison, Kansas, losing a half year's provision of food to Navajos,
as toll for crossing the reservation. He grew barley for Fort Apache,
getting $9 per 100 pounds. In 1879, at Nutrioso, he sold his farm, for
300 head of cattle, to Wm. J. Flake. The Colter family for years had its
home four miles above Springerville, at Colter, but the founder is in the
Pioneers' Home at Prescott. One of the sons, Fred, was a candidate for
Governor of Arizona in 1918.

Flake parcelled out the land to John W., J. Jas. M. and Hyrum B.
Clark, John W., J.Y., and David J. Lee, Geo. W. Adair, Albert Minerly,
Adam Greenwood, George Peck and W. W. Pace, the last a citizen of later
prominence in the Gila Valley. The grain they raised the first season,
1700 bushels, chiefly barley, was sent as a "loan" to the Little Colorado
settlers, who were very near starvation.

In 1880 was built a fort, for there was fear of Apaches, who had been
wiping out whole villages in New Mexico. There was concentration in
Nutrioso of outlying settlers, but the Indians failed to give any direct
trouble. A sawmill was started in 1881 and a schoolhouse was built the
following year. A postoffice was established in 1883.

In Lee's Valley, sixteen miles southwest of Springerville, is Greer,
established by the Saints in 1879. The first to come were Peter J.
Jensen, Lehi Smithson, James Hale, Heber Dalton and James Lee. In 1895,
was added a saw-mill, built by Ellis W. Wiltbank and John M. Black. The
name Greer was not applied till 1896. The postoffice dates from 1898.


Altitudinous Agriculture at Alpine

Alpine, in Bush Valley, near the southern edge of Apache County, four
miles from the New Mexican line, has altitude approximating 8000 feet and
has fame as probably being the highest locality in the United States
where farming is successfully prosecuted. Greer is about the same
altitude. The principal crop is oats, produced at the rate of 1000
bushels for every adult male in the community. Crop failures are unknown,
save when the grasshoppers come, as they have come in devouring clouds in
a number of years. The location is a healthful and a beautiful one, in a
valley surrounded by pines. Anderson Bush, not a Mormon, was the first
settler, in 1876. March 27, 1879, came Fred Hamblin and Abraham Winsor,
with their families. For years there were the wildest of frontier
conditions, between outlaws and Indians. the latter stole horses and
cattle, but spared Mormon lives. This was the more notable in that many
villages of Spanish-speaking people were raided by the redskins in New
Mexico. Naturally, the settlers huddled together, for better defense. In
1880 the log homes were moved into a square, forming a very effective
sort of fort, nearly a mile southeast of the present townsite. Until that
time the community had kept the name of Frisco, given because of the
nearby head-waters of the San Francisco River. In 1881 most of the
settlers moved over to Nutrioso for protection, but only for a few weeks.
Alpine is the resting place of the bones of Jacob Hamblin, most noted of
southwestern missionaries of his faith.

In 1920 the County Agricultural Agent reported that only two farmers in
the United States were growing the Moshannock potato, Frederick Hamblin
at Alpine and Wallace H. Larson at Lakeside.


In Western New Mexico

Luna, in New Mexico, twelve miles east of Alpine, Arizona, was on the
sheep range of the Luna brothers, who did not welcome the advent of the
first Mormon families, those of the Swapp brothers and Lorenzo Watson,
February 28, 1883. Two prospectors had to be bought out, to clear a
squatter's title. In the summer came "Parson" Geo. C. Williams, also a
pioneer of Pleasanton. The first name adopted was Grant, in honor of
Apostle Heber J. Grant, this later changed to Heber, as there was an
older New Mexican settlement named Grant's. But even this conflicted
with Heber, Arizona (named after Heber C. Kimball), and so the original
name endures, made official in 1895. The first house was a log fort. A
notable present resident is Frederick Hamblin, brother of Jacob and
of the same frontier type. There is local pride over how he fought,
single-handed, with a broken and unloaded rifle, the largest grizzly bear
ever known in the surrounding Mogollon Mountains. This was in November,
1888. The bear fought standing and was taller than Hamblin, a giant of a
man, two inches over six feet in height. The rifle barrel was thrust down
the bear's throat after the stock had been torn away, and upon the steel
still are shown the marks of the brute's teeth. The same teeth were
knocked out by the flailing blows of the desperate pioneer, who finally
escaped when Bruin tired of the fight. Then Hamblin discovered himself
badly hurt, one hand, especially, chewed by the bear. The animal later
was killed by a neighbor and was identified by broken teeth and wounds.


New Mexican Locations

As before noted in this work, the Mormon Church sought little in New
Mexico in the pioneering days, for little opportunity existed for
settlement in the agricultural valleys. In western New Mexico, however,
the country was more open and there was opportunity for missionary
effort. Missionaries were in the Navajo and Zuni country in very early
days and at the time of the great Mormon immigration of 1876 already
there had been Indian conversions.

In that year, by direct assignment from President Brigham Young, then at
Kanab, Lorenzo Hatch, later joined by John Maughn, settled in the Zuni
country, at Fish Springs and San Lorenzo. Thereafter, on arrival of
other missionaries, were locations at Savoia and Savoietta. It should be
explained that these names, pronounced as they stand, are rough-hewn
renditions of the Spanish words cebolla, "onion," and cebolleta, "little
onion." Nathan C. Tenney and sons were among the colonists of 1878.

In 1880 were Indian troubles that caused abandonment of the locations,
but a new start was made in 1882, when a number of families came from the
deserted Brigham City and Sunset. A new village was started, about 25
miles east of the Arizona line, at first known as Navajo, but later as
Ramah. The public square was on the ruins of an ancient Indian pueblo.
Ira Hatch came in the fall. A large degree of missionary success appears
to have been achieved among the Zuni, with 165 baptisms by Ammon M.
Tenney, but at times there was friction with Mexican residents. The land
on which the town stood later had to be bought from a cattle company,
which had secured title from the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company.

[Illustration: FOUNDERS OF NORTHERN ARIZONA TOWNS
1--Henry W. Miller                       2--Wm. C. Allen
3--George Lake          4--Wm. J. Flake  5--Charles Shumway
6--Geo. H. Crosby, Sr.                   7--J.V. Bushman]

[Illustration: A FEW MORE PIONEERS
1--Almeda McClellan     6--Benj. F. Johnson
2--Mrs. A.S. Gibbons    7--Martha Curtis
3--Mary Richards        8--Josephine Curtis
4--Joseph Foutz         9--Wm. N. Fife
5--Virginia Curtis     10--J.D. Fife]

Bluewater, near the Santa Fe railroad, about thirty miles northeast of
Ramah, is a Church outpost, established in 1894 by Ernst A. Trietjen and
Friehoff G. Nielson from Ramah. For a while, from 1905, it was the home
of C.R. Hakes, former president of the Maricopa Stake. Bluewater now is a
prosperous agricultural settlement, with assured stored water supply and
an excellent market available for its products.

Most southerly of the early New Mexican Church settlements was
Pleasanton, on the San Francisco River, in Williams Valley, and sixty
miles northwest of Silver City. The first settler was Geo. C. Williams,
who came in 1879. At no time was there much population. Jacob Hamblin
here spent the few last years of his life, dying August 31, 1886. His
family was the last to quit the locality, departing in 1889.




Chapter Seventeen

Economic Conditions


Nature and Man Both Were Difficult

To the struggle with the elements, to the difficulties that attended the
breaking of a stubborn soil and to the agricultural utilization of a
widely-varying water supply, to the burdens of drought and flood and
disease was added the intermittent hostility of stock interests that
would have stopped all farming encroachment upon the open range.
Concerning this phase of frontier life in Arizona, the following is from
the pen of B.H. Roberts:

"The settlers in the St. Johns and Snowflake Stakes have met with great
difficulties, first on account of the nature of the country itself, its
variable periods of drought, sometimes long-continued, when the parched
earth yields little on the ranges for the stock, and makes the supply of
water for irrigation purposes uncertain; then came flood periods, that
time and again destroyed reservoir dams and washed out miles of
irrigating canals. This was also the region of great cattle and sheep
companies, occupying the public domain with their herds, sometimes by
lease from the government, sometimes by mere usurpation. The cattle and
sheep companies and their employees waged fierce war upon each other for
possession of the range, and both were opposed to the incoming of the
settlers, as trespassers upon their preserves. The stock companies often
infringed upon the settlers' rights, disturbed their peace, ran off their
stock and resorted to occasional violence to discourage their settling in
the country. Being 'Mormons,' the outlaw element of the community felt
that they could trespass upon their rights with impunity, and the civil
officers gave them none too warm a welcome into the Territory. The
colonists, however, persisted in their efforts to form and maintain
settlements in the face of all these discouraging circumstances. The
fighting of the great cattle and sheep companies for possession of range
privileges is now practically ended; the building of more substantial
reservoirs is mastering the flood problems and the drought periods at the
same time, and the Saints, by the uprightness of their lives, their
industry, perseverance, and enterprise, have proven their value as
citizens in the commonwealth, until the prejudices of the past, which
gave them a cold reception on their advent into Arizona, and slight
courtesy from the older settlers, have given way to more enlightened
policies of friendship; and today peace and confidence and respect are
accorded to the Latter-day Saints of Arizona."

A view of early-day range conditions along the Little Colorado lately was
given by David E. Adams:

"When we came to Arizona in 1876, the hills and plains were covered with
high grass and the country was not cut up with ravines and gullies as it
is now. This has been brought about through over-stocking the ranges. On
the Little Colorado we could cut hay for miles and miles in every
direction. The Aztec Cattle Company brought tens of thousands of cattle
into the country, claimed every other section, overstocked the range and
fed out all the grass. Then the water, not being held back, followed the
cattle trails and cut the country up. Later, tens of thousands of cattle
died because of drought and lack of feed and disease. The river banks
were covered with dead carcasses."

Breaking the ground in Arizona was found a very serious task, even on the
plains or where Nature had provided ample rains. Where industry created
an oasis, to it ever swarmed the wild life of the surrounding hills or
deserts. Prairie dogs, rabbits and coyotes took toll from the pioneer
farmer, sometimes robbing him of the whole of the meager store of
foodstuffs so necessary to maintain his family and to secure his
residence. From 1884 to 1891 there were occasional visitations, in the
Little Colorado Valley, of grasshoppers. For several years the settlement
of Alpine was reported "devastated" and for a couple of years at Ramah
the crops were so taken by grasshoppers that the men had to go elsewhere
for work to secure sustenance for their families. St. Johns, Erastus and
Luna all suffered severely at times from insect devastation. Winters were
of unusual severity.


Railroad Work Brought Bread

Just as the Saints of Utah benefited by the construction of the Central
and Union Pacific railroads, so there was benefit in northeastern
Arizona through the work of building the Atlantic and Pacific railroad in
1880-82. John W. Young and Jesse N. Smith, joined by Ammon M. Tenney, in
the spring of 1880 took a contract for grading five miles, simply to
secure bread for the people of the Little Colorado Valley. During the
previous winter there had been a large immigration from Utah, where,
erroneously, it had been reported the Arizonans had raised good crops, so
comparatively little food was brought in. The limited crop of 1879 soon
was consumed and the spring found the settlers almost starving. Lot Smith
had loaned the people a quantity of wheat the previous season and much of
the crop was due him.

Young and Smith went as far as Pueblo, where they secured their contract
and on their return made arrangements with merchants at Albuquerque for
supplies. The first contract was for a section about 24 miles east of
Fort Wingate, N.M., and to that point in July went all the men who could
possibly leave home. The first company was from Snowflake, Jesse N. Smith
taking about forty men. Soon thereafter, flour was sent back to the
settlements and there was grateful relief. After a while, Smith drew out
of the railroad work. Tenney returned to the railroad the following year
to assist Young in filling a contract for the grading of 100 miles and
the furnishing of 50,000 ties.

The work on the railroad, while securing food in a critical period, still
caused neglect of agriculture at home, where the few men remaining,
together with the women and children, had to labor hard.


Burden of a Railroad Land Grant

The settlers on the Little Colorado appear to have had something more
than their share of land trouble. Not only were hardships in their
journeyings thither, with following privations in the breaking of the
wilderness for the use of mankind, but there came an additional and
serious blow when even title to their hard-earned lands was disputed,
apparently upon adequate legal ground. The best story at hand concerning
this feature of early life on the Little Colorado is found in the Fish
manuscript, told by one who was on the ground at the time and who
participated in the final settlement:

"In March, 1872, the General Government gave a railroad land grant of
every alternate section of land bordering the proposed Atlantic and
Pacific railroad, extending out for forty miles each side of said road,
through the public lands of the United States in the Territories of New
Mexico and Arizona. The rule was that any lands settled upon, prior to
the date of the grant, should be guaranteed to the settler, and the
railroad be indemnified with as much land as was thus taken up on an
additional grant of ten miles each side, called lieu lands, just outside
the forty-mile limits of the main grant. In the fall of 1878 and the
winter of 1879, when the settlers arrived on the ground where Snowflake
and Taylor now stand, they supposed the railroad grant would doubtless
lapse, as there was then no indication that the road would be built. They
bought the Stinson ranch, paying an enormous price for it. The Government
had not then surveyed the land and the government sections were not then
open for entry at the land office. But early in 1880 the railroad company
began building its road west from Albuquerque. In May of said year, Jesse
N. Smith, on behalf of the settlers of Snowflake, applied to the railroad
company for the railroad lands they occupied, and received the assurance
that they, the settlers, should have the first right to their land, and
the first refusal thereof, and that the price would not be raised on
account of their improvements. The railroad company even furnished blank
applications, which a number of the settlers made out and filed with the
company, which were afterwards ignored. About this time capitalists and
moneyed men, many of them foreigners, began turning their attention to
cattle raising in our Territory. Among others, a company known as the
Aztec Land and Cattle Company was organized, composed mostly of
capitalists from the east. This company bought a very large block of the
railroad lands, including Snowflake and Taylor, and all in that vicinity.
The new owners immediately served notice on the settlers that they must
buy or lease the railroad portion, the odd-numbered sections of the land
they occupied. The settlers appointed Jesse N. Smith and Joseph Fish a
committee to represent their claims, but no definite understanding could
be obtained from the local officers of the company, all such business
being referred to the central office in New York City. The railroad
company not having sold the land at Woodruff, it served a similar notice
on the settlers there, and it seemed that they would all be compelled to
abandon their improvements and move away. In this emergency, the
settlers, who were of the Mormon faith, applied to the Presidency of the
Church for relief. An estimate of the value of the improvements of the
settlers was made and the amount was found to so far exceed the probable
cost of the land that the Presidency of the Church appropriated $500 for
the expenses and sent Brigham Young, Jr., and Jesse N. Smith east to
negotiate a purchase. They started on their mission in the latter part of
February, 1889. They finally, on April 2, 1889, closed a contract in New
York City for seven full sections of land at $4.50 per acre, one-fifth of
the price being paid down, and Jesse N. Smith giving his note for the
remainder, to run four years at 6 per cent interest; one-fourth the
amount to be paid at the end of each year, and the interest to be added
and paid every half year."

While in New York they also bargained with J.A. Williamson, the railroad
land commissioner, for one section of land at Woodruff at $8 per acre,
one-half at the expiration of each year, with 6 per cent interest to be
added each half year. Payment was made for the last purchase in
Albuquerque, the contract being closed May 3, 1889. The Mormon Church
furnished much of that money for these purchases, receiving back a small
portion, as individuals were able to pay the same, and appropriating the
remainder for the benefit of schools and reservoirs in the vicinity of
said towns.


Little Trouble With Indians

It is notable that the settlers on the Little Colorado had very little
actual trouble with the Indians, with the Navajo of the north or the
Apache of the south. The Indians were frequent visitors to the
settlements and were treated with usual Mormon hospitality. There were no
depredations upon the livestock, and when the peace of the settlements
was disturbed it was by the white man and not by the red brother. During
the time of the building of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, there was
an Indian scare. This originated in the outbreak of Nockedaklinny, a
medicine man of the Coyoteros, who, August 30, 1881, was killed in the
Cibicu country, a day's travel from Fort Apache, by troops led by Col.
E.A. Carr, Fifth Cavalry. Two days later the Indians attacked Camp Apache
itself, after killing eight men on the road, and the post probably was
saved from capture by the hurried return of its commander, with his
troops. He left behind seven of his men, having been treacherously fired
upon by 23 Indian scouts, whom he had taken with him. A number of murders
were committed by the Indians in northern Tonto Basin, but the
insurrection extended no farther northward than Camp Apache. Still it
created great uneasiness within the comparatively unprotected settlements
of the river valley. June 1, 1882, was the killing of Nathan B. Robinson,
this the only Indian murder of a Mormon in this section.


Church Administrative Features

While this work in no wise seeks to carry through any records of Church
authority, it happens that the leader in each of the southwestern
migrations and settlements was a man appointed for that purpose by the
Church Presidency and the greater number of the settlers came by direct
Church "call." In the case of the Little Colorado settlements, this
"call" was not released till January, 1900, in a letter of President
Lorenzo Snow, borne to St. Johns by Apostle (now President) Heber J.
Grant. The several organizations of the northeastern districts are set
forth, with official exactness, by Historian Roberts, as follows:

"On January 27, 1878, the Latter-day Saints who had settled on the Little
Colorado, in Navajo (then Yavapai) County, under the leadership of Major
Lot Smith, by that time grouped into four settlements, were organized
into a Stake of Zion, with Lot Smith as president and Jacob Hamblin and
Lorenzo H. Hatch as counselors. Three of the settlements were organized
into wards, a bishop being appointed in each; the fourth was made a
'branch' with a presiding elder. This was the first stake organization
effected in Arizona. Before the expiration of the year, viz., 27th
December, President John Taylor directed that the settlements forming
further up the Little Colorado in Apache County, be organized into a
Stake. A line running southward from Berardo's (now Holbrook, on the
Santa Fe railroad), was to be the dividing line between the two Stakes
thus proposed. The western division was to be the Little Colorado Stake,
and the eastern division, Eastern Arizona Stake of Zion. The division of
the Stakes on these lines was not carried out at that time; the Little
Colorado continued for several years, while the Eastern Arizona Stake had
within its jurisdiction, for a number of years, the settlements on Silver
Creek, in the southeast corner of Navajo County, and also the settlement
of St. Johns near the headwaters of the Little Colorado, and other minor
settlements in Apache County. In 1887, however, the directions of
President Taylor, with reference to the division of these settlements
into two Stakes, were carried into effect. The name of the Eastern
Arizona Stake, however, was changed at the time of the reorganization,
July 23, 1887, to St. Johns Stake, David K. Udall, bishop of St. Johns,
being chosen President, with Elijah Freeman and Wm. H. Gibbons as
counselors. Later, viz., December 18, the settlements on the west side of
the line running south from Holbrook, on upper Silver Creek, Woodruff
Ward, and the fragments of settlements formerly constituting the Little
Colorado Stake, by now discontinued, were organized under the name of the
Snowflake Stake of Zion, Jesse N. Smith, formerly of the Eastern Arizona
Stake, being made President."

Here there may be notation that David K. Udall, still president at St.
Johns, is one of the very oldest in seniority in such office within the
Church. At Snowflake today the president is Samuel F. Smith, son of Jesse
N. Smith, who died in his home town June 5, 1906.

[Illustration: STAKE PRESIDENTS

1--Lot Smith, Little Colorado
3--Samuel F. Smith, Snowflake
5--Christopher Layton, St. Joseph

2--Jesse N. Smith, E. Ariz. and Snowflake
4--David K. Udall. St. Johns
6--Andrew Kimball, St. Joseph]

[Illustration: SNOWFLAKE ACADEMY. Destroyed by Fire Thanksgiving Day,
1910]

[Illustration: PRESENT SNOWFLAKE ACADEMY. Dedicated Thanksgiving Day,
1913--Cost $35,000]




Chapter Eighteen

Extension Toward Mexico


Dan W. Jones' Great Exploring Trip

The honor of leading Mormon pioneering in south-central Arizona lies with
Daniel W. Jones, a sturdy character, strong in the faith. He had been in
the Mexican war, in 1847, as a Missouri volunteer, and had remained in
Mexico till 1850. In the latter year he started for California, from
Santa Fe, and, in the Provo country of Utah, embraced Mormonism within a
settlement that had treated him kindly after he had accidentally wounded
himself. About that time he dedicated himself to life work among the
Indians, the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon. He appeared to be
successful thereafter in gaining the confidence of the red men and in
carrying out the policy so literally expressed by Brigham Young, "It is
cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them." Speaking Spanish, he
helped in translation by Meliton G. Trejo, of a part of the Book of
Mormon.

The printing done, a missionary party was started southward September 10,
1875, from Nephi, Utah, its members being, besides Jones, J.Z. Stewart,
Helaman Pratt, Wiley C. Jones, a son of the leader, R.H. Smith, Ammon M.
Tenney and A.W. Ivins. The journey was on horseback, by way of Lee's
Ferry and the Hopi Indian villages and thence to the southwest. At Pine
Springs, in the Mogollons, were met Dr. J.W. Wharton and W.F. McNulty,
who told them something of Phoenix and the Salt River Valley and who
advised settlement in the upper valley.

Jones' personal story of his impressions of the future metropolis of the
State and of the Salt River Valley possibly should be given in his own
language:

"We were much surprised on entering Salt River Valley. We had traveled
through deserts and mountains (with the exception of the Little Colorado
Valley, a place which we did not particularly admire) for a long ways.
Now there opened before us a sight truly lovely. A fertile looking soil
and miles of level plain. In the distance the green cotton wood trees;
and, what made the country look more real, was the thrifty little
settlement of Phoenix, with its streets planted with shade trees for
miles. Strange as it may seem, at the time we started, in September,
1875, the valley of Salt River was not known even to Brigham Young.

"Our animals were beginning to fail, as they had lived on grass since
leaving Kanab. We bought corn at 4 cents a pound and commenced feeding
them a little. Although Salt River Valley is naturally fertile, owing to
the dryness of the climate, there is no grass except a little coarse
stuff called 'sacaton.'

"We camped on the north side of the river. On making inquiry, we learned
that Tempe, or Hayden's Mill, seven miles further up the river, would be
a better place to stop for a few days than Phoenix. C.T. Hayden, being
one of the oldest and most enterprising settlers of the country, had
built a grist mill, started ranches, opened a store, blacksmith shop,
wagon shop, etc.

"On arriving at Hayden's place, we found the owner an agreeable,
intelligent gentleman, who was much interested in the settlement and
development of the country, he being a pioneer in reality, having
been for many years in the west, and could sympathize with the Mormon
people in settling the deserts. He gave us much true and useful
information about the country and natives. Here we traded off some of our
pack mules and surplus provisions. We had already traded for a light
spring wagon, finding that the country before could be traveled with
wagons. We remained here a few days, camping at the ranch of Mr.
Winchester Miller. His barley was up several inches high, but he allowed
us to turn our animals into his fields and treated us in a kind,
hospitable manner. The friendly acquaintance made at this time has always
been kept up. Mr. Miller was an energetic man, and manifested a great
desire to have the Mormons come there and settle. He had already noticed
the place where the Jonesville ditch is now located. He told me about it,
saying it was the best ditch site on the river. What he said has proved
true. We wrote to President Young, describing the country."

The party tried some proselyting among the Pimas and Papagos. At Tucson
they met Governor Safford who offered welcome to Mormon colonists. Sonora
was in the throes of revolution, so they passed on to El Paso, on the way
talking to a camp of Apaches, given permission by the agent, Thos. T.
Jeffords. The San Pedro Valley was looked over for possible settlement.

In January, 1876, the party passed the international line at Paso del
Norte. Jones claimed this to have been the first missionary expedition
that ever entered Mexico. The party found it a good land and started back
in May with a rather favorable impression of the country for future
settlement. Return was by way of Bowie, Camp Grant and the Little
Colorado. At Allen's Camp were met Daniel H. Wells, Brigham Young, Jr.,
and Erastus Snow, with whom return to Utah was made. President Young was
met late in June, at Kanab, there expressing appreciation of the
determination that had brought Jones through every difficulty in the ten
months of journeying.


The Pratt-Stewart-Trejo Expedition

Of notable interest is the fact that certain members of the Jones
expedition were so deeply interested in what they saw that they made
request for immediate return. So, October 18, 1876, there started
southward, from Salt Lake, at the direction of the Church Presidency,
another expedition, in character missionary, rather than for exploration.
It embraced Helaman Pratt, Jas. Z. Stewart, Isaac J. Stewart, Louis Garff
and George Terry. Meliton G. Trejo joined at Richfield. Phoenix was
reached December 23, there being found several families of the Church who
had come the previous year. The day the missionaries arrived happened to
be exactly thirty years after the date on which the Mormon Battalion
passed the Pima villages on the Gila River, just south of Phoenix. The
members of the party worked all over southern Arizona, especially among
the Mexicans and Indians.

In February of 1877 headquarters were at Tubac. In April, after a Mexican
trip, a letter was received from President Brigham Young asking that
Sonora be explored as a country for possible settlement. Later in May the
Stewarts started eastward, in continuing danger from hostile Apaches
after they had crossed the San Pedro. On the road, while the missionaries
were passing, a mail rider was killed. At Camp Bowie the Apaches were
found beleaguering the post. East of that point the Stewarts had to
replace a wagon tire just as they were passing a point of Apache ambush.
Return to Utah was in December, 1877. It was concluded that border
settlements better had wait on Indian pacification.

Trejo was a remarkable character. He was of aristocratic Castilian birth
and had been an officer in the Spanish army in the Philippines. It would
appear that he became interested in the Mormon doctrine, which, in some
manner, had reached that far around the earth, and that he resigned
his commission and straightway went to Utah. There his knowledge of
Spanish, backed by good general schooling, made him valuable as a
translator, though his English was learned in the Jones family. His later
work was in Arizona and Mexico, as a missionary, his home in 1878 moved
to Saint David on the San Pedro, where he died a few years ago. He was a
fluent writer and sent many interesting letters to the Deseret News. In
January, 1878, he wrote from Hayden's Ferry:

"We are now between the Salt and Gila Rivers, on a very extensive rich
plain, covered with trees and small brush, watered in some places by
means of canals from the two rivers named. The river dams and canals are
very easy made, on account of the solid bottoms of the rivers and pure
farming clay of the plain. In fact, the people who are now living here
find it very easy to get good farms in one or two years without much hard
labor. They unite as we do in making canals. The climate is one of the
most delightful in the world and until a few years ago, one of the most
healthy too, but lately the people have been troubled with fevers, which
nobody seems to know the cause. The water is good and the sky is clear,
there being no stagnant pools; the ground is dry and the winds blow
freely in every direction. I don't believe these fevers are naturally in
the country, but are caused by the people not taking proper care of
themselves."

An interesting letter has been found, dated at Tubac, March 4, 1877,
addressed to President Brigham Young and written by Elder Jas. Z.
Stewart. It told that the country is "better than the north part of the
Territory, from the fact that the land is as good, if not better, the
water is good and regular and the climate more pleasant." He referred
to the ruins of whole towns, to the rich mines, to the abundance of game
and to the drawback of Apache raids. He described the southern Arizona
Mexicans as "all very poor, having no cows, horses, houses nor lands and
but very little to live on. Though they live for days on parched corn,
they are willing to divide their last meal with a stranger. They are
industrious, but ignorant, it being seldom you can find one who can
write."


Start of the Lehi Community

The reports from the south gave ample encouragement to expansion ideas
within the First Presidency. So, after due deliberation, was organized
another Jones expedition for the settlement of the land.

As letters of the time are read and instructions found, it becomes the
more evident that President Brigham Young and his counselors had in view
a great plan of occupation of the intermountain valleys, reaching down
into Mexico, or beyond. It was a time when the Church was growing
very rapidly and when new lands were needed for converts who were
streaming in from Europe or from the eastern States. Logically, the
expansion would be southward, though there was disadvantage of very
serious sort in the breaking of continuity of settlement by the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado River and by the deserts that had to be passed to
reach the fertile valleys of the southland.

When the second Jones party started, according to an official account,
"President Young sat with a large map of America before him, while saying
that the company of missionaries called were to push ahead as far as
possible toward the Yaqui country in Mexico, which would finally be the
objective point; but if they could not reach that country they might
locate on the San Pedro or Salt River in southern Arizona."

[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF LEHI]

In either case there would be a station on the road, or a stepping stone
to those who later would go on to the far south. President Young also
said to the brethren on that occasion that if they would do what was
right and be guided by the spirit of inspiration, they would know the
country as they passed through, and would know where to locate, the same
as did the Pioneers when they first reached the valley of the Great Salt
Lake.

The pioneering expedition was organized in St. George, in southwestern
Utah. In the party were 83 individuals, the family heads being Jones,
Philemon C. Merrill, Dudley J. Merrill, Thomas Merrill, Adelbert Merrill,
Henry C. Rogers, George Steele, Thomas Biggs, Ross R. Rogers, John D.
Brady, Joseph McRae, Isaac Turley and Austin O. Williams.

Start was made January 17, 1877. The way was through Beaver Dams to the
mouth of the Virgin. That profiteering was not unknown in those early
days is shown by the fact that the expedition, at Stone's Ferry on the
Colorado, had to pay ferriage of $10 per wagon. Much of this cost was
borne by Joseph McRae, who turned over one wagon, some horses and a
little money to the ferryman.

To the southward was found a road, well-traveled in those days, that led
from the Fort Mohave ferry to Prescott. But Prescott, then the capital,
was left to one side and a direct route was taken from Chino Valley,
through Peeples Valley and Wickenburg, to Phoenix. At the latter point
there was agreement that the travelers had about reached the limit of
their resources and of the strength of their horses. There was
remembrance of the valley section of which Winchester Miller had told. So
determination to stop was reached in a council of the leaders. There was
fear, apparently well grounded, that claim jumpers would cause trouble if
the destination of the party became known. On this account, departure
from Phoenix was not by way of Hayden's Ferry, but by the McDowell road,
as far as Maryville, an abandoned military subpost and station on Salt
River, at the Maricopa Wells-McDowell road ford. Here the river was
crossed, and the weary immigrants were at their journey's end. The day
was March 6, 1877. The camp was at the site of the canal head, the
settlement later placed a few miles below.

Henry C. Rogers took charge of the construction of the ditch, started the
day after arrival. Ross R. Rogers was the engineer. His only instruments
were a straight edge and a spirit level. This still is known as the Utah
ditch. Its first cost was $4500. There was the planting of a nursery by
George Steele, the trees kept alive by hauling water to them. Jones wrote
to Salt Lake that Salt River was at least four times as big as the Provo
and had to be tapped through deep cuts, as the channel was "too expensive
to dam."

Sunday, May 20, 1877, Jones baptized his first Indians in Salt River,
four of the "Lamanites" being immersed. In July, 1877, Fort Utah was
located as a place of protection. It was built upon the cross line of
four quarter-sections of land, enclosed with an adobe wall, and with a
well, on the inside, 25 feet deep. The families lived there while the men
went out to work.

President Young soon wrote Jones in a vein indicating that the stop on
Salt River was considered merely a camp on the way still farther
southward, saying:

"We should also like to know what your intentions are with regard to
settling the region for which you originally started. We do not deem it
prudent for you to break up your present location, but, possibly next
fall, you will find it consistent to continue your journey with a portion
of those who are now with you, while others will come and occupy the
places vacated by you. We do not, however, wish you to get the idea from
the above remarks that we desire to hurry you away from where you are
now, or to enforce a settlement in the district to which you refer, until
it is safe to do so and free from the dangers of Indian difficulties; but
we regard it as one of the spots where the Saints will, sooner or later,
gather to build up Zion, and we feel the sooner the better."

[Illustration: ON THE DESOLATE SANDY ROAD TO THE COLORADO CROSSING]

[Illustration: LEADERS OF UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITIONS
1--Horton D. Haight            2--Jacob Miller
3--Daniel H. Wells             4--Lorenzo W. Roundy]

[Illustration: THE FIRST EXPEDITION INTO MEXICO
Wiley C. Jones, A. W. Ivins
Heleman Pratt, D. W. Jones, Jas. Z. Stewart]

[Illustration: THE SECOND PARTY SENT TO MEXICO
1--Jas. Z. Stewart  2--Meliton O. Trejo
3--George Terry  4--Isaac J. Stewart  5--Heleman Pratt]


Transformation Wrought at Camp Utah

The newcomers found pioneering conditions very harsh indeed, for it is a
full man's task to clear away mesquite and brush and to dig a deep canal.
Joseph A. McRae made special reference to the heat, to which the Utah
settlers were unaccustomed. He wrote, "as summer advanced, I often
saturated my clothing with water before starting to hoe a row of corn
forty rods long, and before reaching the end my clothes were entirely
dry." But there was raised an abundance of corn, sugar cane, melons and
vegetables, and, in spite of the heat, the health of the people was
excellent.

Concerning the early Jonesville, a correspondent of the Prescott Miner
wrote:

"The work done by these people is simply astounding, and the alacrity and
vim with which they go at it is decidedly in favor of cooperation or
communism. Irrespective of capital invested, all share equally in the
returns. The main canal is two and a half miles long, eight feet deep,
and eight feet wide. Two miles of small ditch are completed and four more
are required. Their diagram of the settlement, as it is to be, represents
a mile square enclosed by an adobe wall about seven feet high. In the
center is a square, or plaza, around which are buildings fronting
outward. The middle of the plaza represents the back yards, in which
eleven families, or eighty-five persons are to commingle. They are
intelligent, and all Americans."

The settlers, with their missionary turn of mind, were pleased to find
the Indians of southern Arizona friendly and even inclined to be helpful.
One chief offered to loan the settlers seed corn and wheat. The Indians
gathered around to listen to whatever discourse the Saints should offer,
the latter, at the same time energetically wielding shovels on a canal
that "simply had" to be built in a given time.

An appreciated feature was that Salt River abounded in fish,
supplementing very acceptably the plain diet on which the pioneers had
been subsisting. Possibly it was as well that the Saints had rules
against the use of table luxuries. One pioneer of the Lehi settlement
told how his family had lived for weeks almost entirely upon wheat,
which had been ground in a coffee mill and then cooked into mush, to be
eaten with milk. "We thought ourselves mighty fortunate to have the
milk," he said.

Soon after the settlement of Camp Utah, Jones' methods of administration
excited keen opposition among the brethren. There was special objection
to his plan that the settlement should receive Indians on a footing of
equality, this being defended as a method that assuredly would tend
toward the conversion of the Lamanites speedily and effectively.

Jones was fair in his statement of the matter, and hence special interest
attaches to his own story of the earliest days of the settlement:

"We commenced on the ditch March 7, 1877. All hands worked with a will.
Part of the company moved down on to lands located for settlements. Most
of the able-bodied men formed a working camp near the head of the ditch,
where a deep cut had to be made.

"We hired considerable help when we could procure it, for such pay as we
could command, as scrub ponies, 'Hayden scrip,' etc. Among those employed
were a number of Indians, Pimas, Maricopas, Pagagos, Yumas, Yaquis and
one or two Apache-Mohaves. The most of them were good workers.

"Some of the Indians expressed a desire to come and settle with us. This
was the most interesting part of the mission to me, and I naturally
supposed that all the company felt the same spirit, but I soon found my
mistake, for, on making this desire of the Indians known to the company,
many objected, some saying that they did not want their families brought
into association with these dirty Indians. So little interest was
manifested by the company that I made the mistake of jumping at the
conclusion that I would have to go ahead whether I was backed up or not.
I learned afterward that if I had been more patient and faithful, I would
have had more help, but at the time I acted according to the best light I
had and determined to stick to the Indians.

"This spirit manifested to the company showing a preference to the
natives, naturally created a prejudice against me. Soon dissatisfaction
commenced to show. The result was that most of the company left and went
on to the San Pedro, in southern Arizona, led by P.C. Merrill. After this
move, there being but four families left, and one of these soon leaving,
our little colony was quite weak."


Departure of the Merrill Party

It was a sad blow to the settlement when the Merrill company departed, in
August, 1877, leaving only the Jones, Biggs, Rogers and Turley families.
Nearly all the teams available went with the Merrills, thus delaying
completion of the canal, which at that time had reached the settlement.
The fort also was left in an incomplete state. The few left behind mainly
were employed by Chas. T. Hayden of Tempe, who was described as, "so very
kind to the brethren and their families, giving them work and furnishing
them with means in advance, on credit, so that they might subsist."

A very interesting item in a letter written by Jones is:

"This country is so productive and easy of cultivation, but,
notwithstanding, this colony was too poor at seed time to buy a common
plow. From present prospects, we hope to be able to save up and have
enough for seed and plow the coming season. You speak of the ancient
Egyptians using a crooked stick for plowing; if you will call down here
soon, we can show you some 300 acres of good wheat patch plowed by our
colony with a crooked stick plow, without so much as a ram's horn point."

Probably Jones included a part of the holdings of his Indian wards in
this demonstration of primeval agriculture. For years following the
advent of the white man, the Pima Indians habitually plowed by means of a
crooked mesquite stick, connected by a rope to a pole, tied firmly across
the horns of a couple of oxen.

Whatever the dissension between Jones and the other pioneers, he appeared
at all times to have been popular with his Indian wards. This is
evidenced by the fact that to the north of Lehi is a thriving Pima-Papago
Mormon settlement, known as Papago ward. Dan P. Jones followed his father
in its administration. A few years ago it had a population of 590
Indians, mainly Pimas, and of four white families, headed by Geo. F.
Tiffany, with an Indian counselor, Incarnacion Valenzuela. This counselor
has been described by Historian Jenson as "one of the most intelligent
Indians I have ever met. He speaks Spanish fluently, as well as the
Papago and Pima language; he also understands English, but does not like
to speak it." Henry C. Rogers also was a successful Indian missionary.
Tiffany's son now is in charge of the Lehi Indians.

Besides the Indians directly belonging to the ward, is a record of 1500
baptized Mormon Indians, mainly Papago, in the desert region to the
southward, as far as the Mexican line.

Sunday schools and meetings are held in the Papago ward schoolhouse,
built a few years ago. The Indians farm and raise stock; some of them
live in good houses and all are learning the habits and ways of their
neighbors, who have been their friends from the beginning.

Jones was charged by the people of Phoenix and Tempe with protection of
Indians who had trespassed upon crops. He was warned by the Indian agent
at Sacaton that he must cease his proselyting, a warning he calmly
ignored. He seemed to have had assistance generally from the military
authorities at Camp McDowell, about fifteen miles northward, for a time
commanded by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee, Sixth Cavalry. Trouble was known with
Pima Indians, who lived across the river, where they had been placed a
few years before by Tempe settlers, as a possible buffer against Apache
raids. This reservation's extension cost Lehi several sections of land.

Altogether, Jones' life in the Salt River Valley was not an easy one.
Finally he joined a community in northern Tonto Basin, where his wife and
youngest child were killed by accident. After that he moved to Tempe.
Thereafter he went to Mexico, where he had mining experience. In the
winter of 1884, he helped Erastus Snow and Samuel H. Hill to cross the
border at El Paso. His latter days mainly were spent in Utah and
California. Early in 1915 he returned to Arizona. His death occurred
April 20 of that year, at the Mesa home of a son. His life work is well
set out in a book written by himself and published in 1890. The
descendants of the sturdy old pioneer are many in southern Arizona and
numbers of them have occupied responsible office with credit. A son, Dan.
P. Jones of Mesa, is a member of the current Legislature. Other sons and
grandsons have been prominent especially in educational work.


Lehi's Later Development

Lehi now is a thriving settlement in bottom lands along Salt River, where
growth necessarily is limited. Its school-house is about three miles
north of Mesa, which has made by far the greater growth. First known as
Camp Utah, or Utahville, for years it was called Jonesville, but finally
the postoffice name of Lehi, suggested by Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., has
firmly attached.

The first Mormon marriage in the Salt River Valley was at Lehi, that of
Daniel P. Jones and Mary E. Merrill, August 26, 1877. The first birth was
of their son. The first permanent separate house, of adobe, at Lehi, was
built by Thomas Biggs, in the spring of 1878. There was a public school
as early as 1878, taught by Miss Zula Pomeroy. In 1880 an adobe
schoolhouse was built at a cost of $142, the ground donated by Henry C.
Rogers, with David Kimball its main supporter. The following year was
built a much better schoolhouse.

The settlement has a townsite of six blocks, each 26 rods square, with
streets four rods wide, surveyed in November, 1880, by Henry C. Rogers.

Lehi was badly damaged February 19, 1891, when Salt River reached a
height never known before or since. The stream flooded the lower parts of
Phoenix and inundated a large part of the farming land at Lehi. A second
flood, a few days later, was three feet higher than the first. Five Lehi
Indians were drowned and several hundred of them lost their possessions.




Chapter Nineteen

The Planting of Mesa


Transformation of a Desert Plain

Though by no means with exclusive population of the faith, Mesa, sixteen
miles east of Phoenix and in the Salt River Valley, today includes the
largest organization of the Saints within Arizona and is the center of
one of the most prosperous Stakes of the Church. It is beautifully
located on a broad tableland, from which its Spanish name is derived, and
is the center of one of the richest of farming communities. In general,
the soil is of the best, without alkali, and its products cover almost
anything that can be grown in the temperate or semi-tropic zones.

At all times since its settlement, Mesa has prospered, but its prosperity
has been especially notable since the development, a few years ago, of
the Pima long-staple cotton. Nearly every landowner, and Mesa is a
settlement of landowners, has prospered through this industry, though
it has been affected by the post-war depression. The region is one of
comfortable, spacious homes and of well-tilled farms, with less acreage
to each holding than known elsewhere in the valley.

Mesa is second only to Phoenix in size and importance within Maricopa
County. There are fine business blocks and all evidences of mercantile
activity. The farming area is being extended immensely. The community was
one of the first to enter the association that secured storage of water
at Roosevelt. Thereafter, to the southward came extension of the farming
area by means of pumping, this continuing nearly to the Gila River, out
upon the Pima reservation. Now there is further extension eastward, and
the great plain that stretches as far as Florence is being settled by
population very generally tributary to Mesa. It would be idle to
speculate upon the future of the city, but its tributary farming country
is fully as great as that which surrounds Phoenix.

Mesa was founded by Latter-day Saints from Bear Lake County, Idaho, and
Salt Lake County, Utah. The former left Paris, Idaho, September 14, 1877,
were joined at Salt Lake City by the others and traveled the entire
distance by wagon, using the Lee's Ferry route, and coming over the
forested country to Camp Verde.

The immigrants included, with their families, Chas. I. Robson, Charles
Crismon (of the San Bernardino colony) of Salt Lake, Geo. W. Sirrine (of
the Brooklyn ship party), Francis M. Pomeroy (a '47 pioneer), John H.
Pomeroy, Warren L. Sirrine, Elijah Pomeroy, Parley P. Sirrine, all of
Paris, Idaho, Wm. M. Newell, Wm. M. Schwartz, Job H. Smith, Jesse D.
Hobson and J.H. Blair of Salt Lake. Altogether were 83 individuals.

The valley of the Verde proved a pleasant one, after the cold and
hardship known on the plateau, though Christmas was spent in a snowstorm.
Both humanity and the horses needed rest. So camp was made at Beaver
Head, a few miles from the river, while a scouting party went farther
to spy out the land. This party, which went by wagon, included Robson, F.
M. Pomeroy, Charles Crismon and G.W. Sirrine.

The scouts, within a few days, had covered about 125 miles that lay
between Beaver Head and Camp Utah. Their New Year dinner was taken with
Jones, who extended them all welcome. It was proposed that the newcomers
settle upon land adjoining that of the first party, but there was a
likelihood of crowding in the relatively narrow river valley, and there
were attractive possibilities lying along the remains of an ancient canal
shown them by Jones.

[Illustration: ORIGINAL LEHI LOCATORS
1--Daniel W. Jones
2--Philemon C. Merrill
3--Thomas Biggs
4--Henry C. Rogers]

[Illustration: FOUNDERS OF MESA: Charles Crismon, Francis M. Pomeroy,
George W. Sirrine]

Legal appropriation of the head of this old water way was made and
Crismon was left behind, with a couple of the Camp Utah men as helpers,
to start work on the new irrigation project. Incidentally, Crismon made
location of land near the heading and thus separated his interests from
those of the main party. Later, he started a water-power grist mill on
the Grand canal, east of Phoenix. He had rights to a large share in the
canal, as well as to lands on the mesa. These he later sold.

Robson, Pomeroy and Sirrine returned to the Verde Valley, to pilot the
rested travelers southward. The journey was by way of the rocky Black
Canyon road, with difficulty encountered in descending the steep Arastra
Creek pass. Fording Salt River at Hayden's Ferry, Camp Utah was reached
February 14, 1878. The journey had been a slow one, for cattle had to be
driven.

A few days were spent at Camp Utah and then the new arrivals moved
upstream five miles, where tents were pitched on a pleasant flat, a
couple of miles below the canal heading. There had been conclusion to
settle upon the tableland to the southwest. Pomeroy and Sirrine made a
rough, though sufficient, survey with straight-edge and spirit level,
along what then was named the "Montezuma Canal," eleven miles to a point
where a townsite was selected.


Use of a Prehistoric Canal

Nothing short of Providential was considered the finding of the canal,
dug by a prehistoric people into the edge of the mesa, which it gradually
surmounted. This canal, in all probability, had been cut more than 1000
years before. It could be traced from the river for twenty miles,
maintaining an even gradient, possibly as good as could have been laid
out with a modern level, and with a number of laterals that spread over a
country about as extensively cultivated as at present. A lateral served
the Lehi section and other ditches conducted water to the southwest, past
the famous ancient city of Los Muertos (later explored by Frank H.
Cushing) and then around the southeastern foothills of the Salt River
Mountains to points not far distant from the Gila River. The main canal
cut through the tableland for two miles, with a top width of even fifty
feet and a depth of twelve feet, chopped out in places, with stone axes,
through a difficult formation of hardpan, "caliche." The old canal was
cleaned out for the necessities of the pioneers, at a cost of about
$48,000, including the head, and afterward was enlarged. At the time,
there was an estimate that its utilization saved at least $20,000 in cost
of excavation. There were 123 miles of these ancient canals.

This canal undertaking was a tremendous one, especially in consideration
of the fact that for the first five months the Mesa settlers available
for work were only eighteen able-bodied men and boys. The brethren were
hardly strong enough in man power to have dug the canal had it not been
for the old channel. A small stream was led to the townsite in October,
1878, and in the same month building construction was begun. An early
settler wrote:

"We were about nine months in getting a small stream of water out at an
expense of $43,000 in money and labor, so that we could plant gardens and
set out some fruit trees. A man was allowed $1.50 and a man and team $3
per day for labor. Our ditch ran through some formation that would slack
up like lime; and as whole sections of it would slide, it kept us busy
nearly all the time the following year enlarging and repairing the canal.
Our labors only lessened as our numbers increased, and the banks became
more solid, so that today (1894) we have a good canal carrying about 7000
inches of water."

It would appear that a tremendous amount of optimism, energy and
self-reliance lay in the leaders of the small community, in digging
through the bank of a stubborn cliff, in throwing a rude dam across a
great flood stream and in planting their homes far out on a plain that
bore little evidence of agricultural possibilities, beyond a growth of
creosote bush, the Larrea Mexicana. There were easier places where
settlements might have been made, at Lehi or Tempe, or upon the smaller
streams, but there must have been a vision rather broader than that of
the original immigrant, a vision that later has merged into reality far
larger and richer than had been the dream.

Within this prosperity are included hundreds of Mormon pioneers and their
children. It often is said that the development of a country is by the
"breaking" of from three to four sets of immigrants. It is not true of
Mesa, for there the original settlers and their stock generally still
hold to the land.


Moving Upon the Mesa Townsite

The honor of erection of the first home upon the mesa lies with the
Pomeroy family, though it was hardly considered as a house. Logs and
timbers were hauled from the abandoned Maryville, an outpost of Fort
McDowell, at the river crossing northeast of Fort Utah. It was erected
Mexican fashion, the roof supported on stout poles, and then mudded walls
were built up on arrowweed latticing. This Pomeroy residence later was
used as the first meetinghouse, as the first schoolhouse and as the first
dance hall, though its floor was of packed earth. It might be added that
there were many dances, for the settlers were a lighthearted lot. Most of
the settlers re-erected their tents, each family upon the lot that had
been assigned.

The first families on the mesa were those of John H. Pomeroy, Theodore
Sirrine and Chas. H. Mallory. The Mallory and Sirrine homes quickly were
started. Mallory's, the first adobe, was torn down early in 1921.

By the end of November, 1878, all the families had moved from the river
camp upon the new townsite.

Early arrivals included a strong party from Montpelier, Bear Lake County,
Idaho, the family heads John Hibbert, Hyrum S. Phelps, Charles C. Dana,
John T. Lesueur, William Lesueur, John Davis, Geo. C. Dana and Charles
Warner. Others, with their families, were Charles Crismon, Jr., Joseph
Cain and William Brim from the Salt Lake section. Nearly all of the
settlers who came in the earlier days to Mesa were fairly well-to-do,
considered in a frontier way, and were people of education. Soon, by
intelligence and industry, they made the desert bloom. Canals were
extended all over the mesa. In 1879 was gathered the first crop of
cereals and vegetables and that spring were planted many fruit trees,
which grew wonderfully well in the rich, light soil.


An Irrigation Clash That Did Not Come

The summer of 1879 was one of the dryest ever recorded. Though less than
20,000 acres were cultivated in the entire valley, the crops around
Phoenix suffered for lack of water. Salt River was a dry sand expanse for
five miles below the Mesa, Utah and Tempe canal headings. The Mormon
water appropriation was blamed for this. So in Phoenix was organized an
armed expedition of at least twenty farmers, who rode eastward, prepared
to fight for their irrigation priority rights. But there was no battle.
Instead, they were met in all mildness by Jones and others, who agreed
that priority rights should prevail. There was inspection of the two
Mormon ditches, in which less than 1000 miners' inches were flowing and
then was agreement that the two canal headgates should be closed for
three days, to see what effect this action would have on the lower water
supply. But the added water merely was wasted. The sand expanse drank it
up and the lower ditches were not benefited. There was no more trouble
over water rights. Indeed, this is the only recorded approach to a clash
known between the Mormon settlers and their neighbors.


Mesa's Civic Administration

In May, 1878, T.C. Sirrine located in his own name the section of land
upon which Mesa City now stands, thereafter deeding it to Trustees C.I.
Robson, G.W. Sirrine and F.M. Pomeroy, who named it and who platted it
into blocks of ten acres each, with eight lots, and with streets 130 feet
wide, the survey being made by A.M. Jones. Each settler for each share
worked out in the Mesa canal, received four lots, or five acres. Two
plazas were provided.

For many years there was a general feeling that the streets of Mesa were
entirely too wide, though it had been laid out in loving remembrance of
Salt Lake City, and the question of ever paving (or even of crossing on a
hot summer day) was serious. It appears from latter-day development that
the old-timers builded wisely, for probably Mesa is alone in all of
Arizona in having plenty of room for the parking of automobiles. The main
streets have been paved at large expense. In several has been left very
attractive center parking, for either grass or standing machines.

Mesa was incorporated July 15, 1883. The first election chose A.F.
Macdonald as Mayor, E. Pomeroy, G.W. Sirrine, W. Passey and A.F. Stewart
as Councilmen, C. I. Robson as Recorder, J.H. Carter as Treasurer, H.C.
Longmore as Assessor, W. Richins as Marshal, and H.S. Phelps as
Poundkeeper. All were members of the faith, for others were very few in
Mesa at that time.

Growth was slow for a number of years, for in a city census, taken
January 4, 1894, there was found population of only 648, with an
assessment valuation of $106,000. The 1920 census found 3036.

Mail at first was received at Hayden's Ferry. Soon thereafter was
petition for a postoffice. The federal authorities refused the name of
"Mesa" on the ground that it might be confused with Mesaville, a small
office in Final County. So, in honor of their friend at the Ferry, there
was acceptance of the name Hayden. Though the Ferry had the postoffice
name of Tempe, there ensued much mixture of mail matter. In 1887, there
followed a change in the postoffice name to Zenos, after a prophet of the
Book of Mormon. In the order of things, Mesaville passed away and then
the settlement quickly availed itself of the privilege opened, to restore
the commonly accepted designation of Mesa.


Foundation of Alma

Alma is a prosperous western extension of Mesa, of which it is a fourth
ward. The locality at first, and even unto this day, has borne the local
name of Stringtown, for the houses are set along a beautiful country
road, cottonwood-bordered for miles. The first settlers of the locality
were Henry Standage (a veteran of the Mormon Battalion), Hyrum W. Pugh,
Chauncey F. Rogers and Wm. N. Standage, with their families. These
settlers constituted a party from Lewiston and Richmond, Cache County,
Utah, and arrived at Mesa, January 19, 1880. In that same month they
started work on an extension of the Mesa canal, soon thereafter aided by
neighbors, who arrived early in 1881. There were good crops. Early in
1882 houses were erected.


Highways Into the Mountains

In 1880, the Mesa authorities took steps to provide a better highway to
Globe, this with the active cooperation of their friend, Chas. T. Hayden.
Globe was a rich market for agricultural products, yet could be reached
only by way of Florence and the Cane Springs and Pioneer road, over
the summit of the Pinal Mountains, or by way of the almost impassable
Reno Mountain road from McDowell into Tonto Basin, a road that was ridden
in pain, but philosophically, by the members of the Erastus Snow party
that passed in 1878. The idea of 1880 was to get through the Pinal
Mountains, near Silver King. A new part of this route now is being taken
by a State road that starts at Superior, cutting a shelf along the canyon
side of Queen Creek, to establish the shortest possible road between Mesa
and Globe. The first adequate highway ever had from Mesa eastward was the
Roosevelt road, later known as the Apache Trail, built in 1905 by the
Reclamation Service, to connect the valley with Roosevelt, which lies at
the southern point of Tonto Basin.


Hayden's Ferry, Latterly Tempe

Tempe, eight miles east of Phoenix on Salt River, was first known as
Hayden's Ferry. Its founder was Chas. Trumbull Hayden, a pioneer merchant
who early saw the possibilities of development within the Salt River
Valley and who built a flour mill that still is known by his name.
Arizona's Congressman, Carl Hayden, is a son of the pioneer merchant,
miller and ferryman. The name of Tempe (from a valley of ancient Greece)
is credited to Darrell Duppa, a cultured Englishman, who is also
understood to have named Phoenix. It was applied to Hayden's Ferry and
also to a Mexican settlement, something over a half-mile distant, locally
known as San Pablo.

Hayden welcomed the advent of the Mormons, led to the country by Daniel
W. Jones in 1877, and befriended those who followed, thus materially
assisting in the upbuilding of the Lehi and Mesa settlements.

Tempe, as a Mormon settlement, started July 23, 1882, in the purchase by
Benjamin Franklin Johnson, Jos. E. Johnson and relatives, from Hayden, of
eighty acres of land that lay between the ferry and the Mexican town. For
this tract there was paid $3000. The Johnson party left Spring Lake,
Utah, in April and traveled via Lee's Ferry. There was survey of the
property into lots and blocks, and the Johnsons at once started upon the
building of homes. There was included also a small cooperative store. The
foundation was laid for a meeting house, but religious services usually
were held in a bowery or in the district schoolhouse that had been built
before the Saints came.

In the fall of 1882 there arrived a number of families, most of them
Johnsons or relatives. When the Maricopa Stake was organized December 10,
1882, David T. LeBaron was presiding at Tempe. June 15, 1884, Tempe was
organized as a ward, successively headed by Samuel Openshaw and Jas. F.
Johnson.

In August, 1887, most of Tempe's Mormon residents moved to Nephi, west of
Mesa, mainly upon land acquired by Benj. F. Johnson, the settlement
popularly known as Johnsonville. The departure hinged upon the building
of a branch railroad of the Southern Pacific from Maricopa, through
Tempe, to Phoenix. An offer was made by a newly-organized corporation for
the land that had been taken by the Johnsons, who sold on terms then
considered advantageous. Upon this land now is located a large part of
the prosperous town of Tempe, within which is a considerable scattering
of Mormon families, though without local organization.

Patriarch B.F. Johnson died in Mesa, November 18, 1905, at the age of 87.
At that time it was told that his descendants and those married into the
family numbered 1500, probably constituting the largest family within the
Church membership.


Organization of the Maricopa Stake

The Church history of Mesa started October 14, 1878, when Apostle Erastus
Snow, on his memorable trip through the Southwest, at Fort Utah,
appointed a late arrival, Jesse N. Perkins, as presiding elder and H.C.
Rogers and G.W. Sirrine as counselors. Perkins died of smallpox in
northeastern Arizona. In 1880, President John Taylor at St. George, Utah,
appointed Alexander F. Macdonald to preside over the new stake. He
arrived and took office in February of that year. Macdonald was a sturdy,
lengthy Scotchman, a preacher of the rough and ready sort and of
tremendous effectiveness, converted in Perth, in June, 1846, and a Salt
Lake arrival by ox team in 1854. In 1882, on permanent organization of
the Stake, Chas. I. Robson succeeded Sirrine as counselor. Robson
December 4, 1887, succeeded to the presidency, with H.C. Rogers and
Collins R. Hakes as counselors, Macdonald taking up leadership in the
northern Mexican Stakes, pioneering work of difficulty for which he was
especially well suited. In December, 1884, he headed an expedition and
surveying party into Chihuahua, Mexico, looking for settlement locations,
and secured large landed interests. He became ill at El Paso, on his way
back to his home at Colonia Juarez. He died at Colonia Dublan, thirty
miles short of his destination, March 21, 1903.

[Illustration: MARICOPA STAKE PRESIDENTS
1--Alexander F. Macdonald     3--Collins R. Hakes
               2--Chas. I. Robson
4--Jno. T. Lesueur        5--Jas. W. Lesueur]

[Illustration: MARICOPA DELEGATION AT PINETOP CONFERENCE OF THE FOUR
ARIZONA STAKES, JULY, 1892]

Chas. I. Robson served as President to the day of his death, February 24,
1894. He was of English ancestry, born February 20, 1837, in
Northumberland. He was specially distinguished in the early days of Utah
through his success in starting the first paper factory known in western
America. As a boy, he had worked in a paper factory in England. In 1870,
he was warden of the Utah penitentiary.

May 10, 1894, Collins R. Hakes (of the San Bernardino colony) succeeded
to the presidency of Maricopa Stake, with Henry C. Rogers and Jas. F.
Johnson as counselors. At that time were five organized wards, with 2446
souls, including 1219 Indians in the Papago ward, and to the southward
toward Mexico. Mesa then was credited with 648 people of the faith, Lehi
200, Alma 282 and Nephi 104.

In 1905, President Hakes transferred his activities to the development of
a new colony of his people at Bluewater, N.M., near Fort Wingate. His
death was in Mesa, August 27, 1916.

To the Maricopa Stake Presidency, November 26, 1905, succeeded Jno. T.
Lesueur, transferred from St. Johns, where, from Mesa, he settled in
1880. He is still a resident of Mesa. He resigned as president in 1912,
the position taken, on March 10 of that year, by his son, Jas. W.
Lesueur, who still is in office.

December 20, 1898, first was occupied the Stake tabernacle, 75x45 feet in
size, built of brick and costing $11,000. At its dedication were Apostle
Brigham Young, Jr., and a number of other Church dignitaries.

For more than a year plans have been in the making for erection at Mesa
of a great temple of the Church, to cost about $500,000. It is to be the
ninth of such structures. The others, in the order of their dedication,
are (or were): at Kirtland, Ohio, of date 1836; at Nauvoo, Illinois,
1846; at St. George, Logan, Manti and Salt Lake, Utah, and at Laie,
Hawaiian Islands. Another is being built at Cardston, Alberta, Canada.
The Kirtland edifice was abandoned. That at Nauvoo was wrecked by
incendiaries in 1848. The great Temple at Salt Lake, its site located by
Brigham Young four days after his arrival, in July, 1847, was forty years
in building and its dedication was not till 1893.

Merely in the way of explanation, it may be noted that a Mormon temple is
not a house of public worship. It is, as was the Temple of Solomon, more
of a sanctuary, a place wherein ecclesiastical ordinances may have
administration. It has many lecture rooms, wherein to be seated the
classes under instruction, and there is provision of places for the
performance of the ordinances of baptism, marriage, confirmation, etc.

Especially important are considered the baptism and blessings
(endowments) bestowed vicariously on the living for the benefit of the
dead. There also is added solemnity in a temple marriage, for it is for
eternity and not merely for time. Due to this is the unusual activity of
the Church members in genealogical research. It is believed that the
Mormon Church is the only denomination that marries for eternity, this
marriage also binding in the eternal family relation the children of the
contracting individuals.

The temple administration is separate from that of the Stake in which it
may be situated and its doors, after dedication, are closed save to its
officers and to those who come to receive its benefits. In the past years
these ordinances have been received outside of Arizona, at large expense
for travel from this State. Naturally, there has been a wish for location
of a temple more readily to be reached by the devout.

The temple idea in Arizona appears to date back to an assurance given
about 1870 in St. George by Brigham Young. A prediction was made by Jesse
N. Smith about 1882, to the effect that a temple, at some future day,
would be reared on the site of Pima in Graham County. The first donation
toward such an end was recorded January 24, 1887, in the name of Mrs.
Helena Roseberry, a poor widow of Pima, who gave $5 toward the building
of a temple in Arizona, handing the money to Apostle Moses Thatcher. This
widow's mite ever since has been held by the Church in Salt Lake.
Possibly it has drawn good interest, for through the Church Presidency
has come a donation of $200,000 to assure the end the widow had wished
for.

Another "nest egg," the first contribution received directly for the Mesa
edifice, came from another widow, Mrs. Amanda Hastings of Mesa, who, on
behalf of herself and children, three years ago, gave the Stake
presidency $15.

The new temple, of which there is reproduction herewith of an artist's
sketch, is to rise in the eastern part of Mesa upon a tract of forty
acres, which is to be a veritable park, its edges occupied by homes. The
architects are Don C. Young and Ramm Hansen of Salt Lake. The temple
will rise 66 feet, showing as a vast monument upon a foundation base that
will be 180x195 feet. This base will contain the offices and preparation
rooms. While the structure will be sightly from all sides, on its north
will be a great entrance. Between the dividing staircase will be a
corridor entry to the baptismal room. The staircase, joined at the second
story, will stretch 100 feet in a great flight, its landings successively
taking the initiates to the higher planes of instruction. In this
respect, the plan is said by Church authorities to be the best of any
temple of the faith. The rooms will be ample in size for instruction
of classes of over 100.

The building of the Mesa temple was the primary subject at all meetings
of congregations of the faith on September 12, 1920, and from voluntary
donations on that day there was added to the temple fund $112,000.




Chapter Twenty

First Families of Arizona


Pueblo Dwellers of Ancient Times

In considering the development features of the settlement of central
Arizona, the Author feels it might be interesting to note that the
immigrants saw in the Salt River Valley many evidences of the truth of
the Book of Mormon, covering the passage northward of the Nephites of
old. There was found a broad valley that had lain untouched for a
thousand years, unoccupied by Indian or Spaniard till Jack Swilling and
his miners dug the first canal on the north side of the river a few years
before the coming of the Saints to Jonesville. The valley had lain
between the red-skinned agriculturists of the Gila and the Apache
Ishmaelites of the hills. There had been no intrusion of Spanish or
Mexican grants. The ground had been preserved for utilization of the
highest sort by American intelligence.

Yet this same intelligence found much to admire in the works of the
people who had passed on. From the river had been taken out great canals
of good gradient, and it was clear that they had been dug by a people of
homely thrift and of skill in the tilling of the soil. There still were
to be seen piles of earth that marked where at least seven great communal
houses had formed nuclei for a numerous people. These were served by 123
miles of canals.

These people were not Aztec. According to accepted tradition, the Aztecs
passed southward along the western coast, reaching Culiacan, in
northwestern Mexico, about 700 A.D., and there named themselves the
Mextli. The ancient people of the Salt River Valley probably had moved,
or were moving, about that same time. They appear to have been of
Toltecan stock and undoubtedly came from the southward, from a land where
was known the building of houses and wherein had been established
religious cults of notable completeness and assuredly of tenacious hold.
Just why they left the Salt River Valley is as incomprehensible as why
they entered it, and how long they stayed is purely a matter of
conjecture. Probably occupation of the valley was not simultaneous.
Probably the leaving was by families or clans, extending over a period of
many years. Probably they left on the ending of a cycle of peace, on the
coming to the Southwest of the first of the Apache, or of similar
marauders, who preyed upon the peaceful dwellers of the plains. That they
were people of peace cannot be doubted, people who in the end had to
defend their towns, yet sought no aggression.

[Illustration: ANCIENT CALALS COVERING 123 MILES, AND PUEBLOS OF SALT
RIVER VALLEY. Surveyed by Herbert R. Patrick]


Evidences of Well-Developed Culture

Possibly a great epidemic, of the sort known to have swept Mexico before
the coming of the Spaniard, gravely cut down the numbers of the ancient
valley settlers. Near every communal castle is to be found a cemetery,
filled with burial urns, their tops usually less than a foot below the
surface. These urns (ollas) are filled with calcined human bones. By them
are to be found the broken pottery, of which the spirits were to
accompany the late lamented on their journey to the happy hunting
grounds. These dishes once contained food, intended for the spirit
travelers' nourishment. When there was a child, ofttimes now is found
the clay image of a dog, for a dog always knows the way home. The dog is
believed to have been the only domestic animal of the time.

In some cases, in the greater houses, walled into crypts that might have
served as family lounging places, have been found the skeletons of those
who were of esoteric standing, considered able, by the force of will, to
separate spirit from body. In other cases the cleansing and
disintegrating effects of fire secured the necessary separation of the
spirit from the body.

With these mortuary evidences also are found domestic implements, stone
clubs, arrow points and, particularly valuable, prayer sticks and
religious implements that clearly show the archaeologist a connection
with the pueblo-dwelling peoples who still live, under similar communal
conditions, to the northward.


Northward Trend of the Ancient People

That these ancient peoples went north there can be no doubt. North of the
valley, nearly fifty miles, on the Verde, is a great stone ruin and
beyond it are cavate dwellings of remarkable sort. In Tonto Creek Valley,
a dozen miles north of the Roosevelt dam, is an immense ruin built of
gypsum blocks. To the eastward, Casa Grande, most famed of all Arizona
prehistoric remains, still stands, iron-roofed by a careful government,
probably of a later time of abandonment, but still a ruin when first seen
by Father Eusebio Kino in 1694. All the way up the Gila, and with a
notable southern stem through the Mimbres Valley, are found these same
evidences of ancient occupation. Chichilticalli, "the Red House,"
mentioned by Marco de Niza and by Coronado's historians in 1539-40, lay
somewhere near where another group of Mormons again reclaimed the desert
soil by irrigation in the upper Gila Valley. Ruins extended from Pueblo
Viejo ("Old Town"), above Solomonville, down to San Carlos.

Into the valleys of the Salt and of the Gila, from the north come many
waterways. In none of these tributary valleys can there be failure to
find evidences of the northward march of the Indians who lived in houses.
In this intermediate region, the houses usually, for protection, were
placed in the cliffs. Particularly notable are the cave dwellings of the
upper Verde and in Tonto Basin, near Roosevelt, and in the Sierra Anchas
and near Flagstaff.

[Illustration: THE ARIZONA TEMPLE AT MESA]

[Illustration: JONATHAN HEATON OF MOCCASIN AND HIS FIFTEEN SONS]

[Illustration: 1--Ira Hatch, Indian Missionary
2--Thales Haskell, Indian Missionary
3--Wm. C. Prows, Battalion Member
4--Nathan B. Robinson, killed by Indians]

Again there was debouchment upon a river valley, that of the Little
Colorado. Possibly some of the tribes worked eastward into the valley of
the Rio Grande. Another section, and for this there is no less evidence
than that of Frank Hamilton Cushing, formed at least a part of the
forefathers of the Zuni. Swinging to the northwest, the Water House and
other clans formed the southern branch of the three from which the Moqui,
or Hopi, people are descended. This last is history. The early Mormons
remarked upon the pueblo ruins that lay near their first Little Colorado
towns, above St. Joseph. These ruins are known to the Hopi as "Homolobi,"
and much is the information concerning them to be had from the historians
of the present hilltop tribes.

Reports of similarity have been so many, there can be no surprise that
the earlier settlers from Utah wrote home joyously, telling that proofs
had been found of the northern migration so definitely outlined in their
ecclesiastical writings, according to the Book of Mormon.


_The Great Reavis Land Grant Fraud_

For about ten years from 1885 all the lands of the Salt and Gila valleys
of Arizona lay under a serious cloud of title. There had been elimination
of the Texas-Pacific landgrant, which unsuccessfully had been claimed by
the Southern Pacific. Then came the Reavis grant, one of the most
monumental of attempted swindles ever known. James Addison Reavis, a
newspaper solicitor, claimed a tract 78 miles wide from a point at the
junction of the Gila and Salt Rivers, eastward to beyond Silver City,
N.M., on the basis of an alleged grant, of date December 20, 1748, by
Fernando VI, King of Spain, to Senor Don Miguel de Peralta y Cordoba, who
then was made Baron of the Colorados and granted 300 square leagues in
the northern portion of the viceroyalty of New Spain. The grant was said
to have been appropriated in 1757. Reavis had first claimed by virtue of
a deed from one Willing, of date 1867, but there was switching later,
Reavis thereafter claiming as agent for his wife, said to have been the
last of the Peralta line, but in reality a half-breed Indian woman, found
on an Indian reservation in northern California, and one who had no
Mexican history whatever. Reavis renamed himself "Peralta-Reavis," and
for a while had headquarters for his "barony" at Arizola, a short
distance east of Casa Grande, where he maintained his family in state,
with his children in royal purple velvet, with monogrammed coronets upon
their Russian caps. He arrogated to himself ownership of all the water
and the mines and sold quit-claim deeds to the land's owners. It is said
that the Southern Pacific bought its right of way from him and that the
Silver King and other mines similarly contributed to his exchequer. He
claimed Phoenix, Mesa, Florence, Globe, Silver King, Safford and Silver
City.

He planned a storage basin on Salt River and another above Florence on
the Gila, and advertised that he intended to reclaim 6,000,000 acres on
the Casa Grande and Maricopa plains, "thereafter returning to the Gila
any surplus water." Just how accurate his figures were may be judged by
the fact that government engineers have found that the waters of the
Gila, above Florence, are sufficient for the irrigation of not more than
90,000 acres. He viewed things on a big scale, however. At Tonto Basin
he was to build a dam 450 feet high and the water was to be taken from
the river channel by means of a 44,000-foot tunnel.

Whenever one of his prospective customers failed to contribute, he often
deeded the land to a third party. Some of these deeds are to be seen on
the records of Maricopa County. His case had been so well prepared that
many were deceived, even the lawyers who served him as counsel, including
Robert G. Ingersoll. Naturally something approximating a panic for a
while was known by the farmers of the valleys affected.

Meanwhile, very largely from moneys obtained as above noted, Reavis was
spending royally at many points. At Madrid, Spain, he had a gorgeous
establishment, whereat he even entertained the American Legation. At many
points in Mexico, he scattered coin lavishly and accumulated cords of
alleged original records and he even found paintings of his wife's
alleged ancestors. The grant was taken into politics and was an issue in
the congressional campaign of 1887.

About 1898 there was establishment of the United States Court of Private
Land Claims, especially for adjudication of many such claims in the
Southwest. Reavis' elaborately prepared case tumbled almost from the day
it was brought into court. Government agents found bribery, corruption
and fraud all along his trail. He had interpolated pages in old record
books and had even changed and rewritten royal documents, including one
on which the grant was based. Some of his "ancient" documents were found
to have been executed on very modern milled paper. On one of them
appeared the water mark of a Wisconsin paper mill. Others had type that
had been invented only a few years before. The claim was unanimously
rejected by the land court and on the same day Reavis was arrested on
five indictments for conspiracy. He was convicted in January, 1895, and
sentenced to six years in the penitentiary. After serving his sentence,
he made a brief confession, telling that he had been "playing a game
which to win meant greater wealth than that of Gould or Vanderbilt."
The district covered by his claim today has property valued at at least
one billion dollars.

When Mesa first was settled, every alternate section was called "railroad
land." claimed by the Southern Pacific, under virtue of the old Tom
Scott-Texas & Pacific land grant. Early in the eighties, this claim
vanished, it being decided that the Southern Pacific had no right to the
grant.




Chapter Twenty-one

Near the Mexican Border


Location on the San Pedro River

Much historical value attaches to the settlement of the Saints upon the
San Pedro River, even though prosperity there has not yet come in as
large a degree as has been known elsewhere within the State. It is not
improbable that within the next few years an advance in material riches
will be known in large degree, through water storage, saving both water
and the cutting away of lands through flood, and that permanent diversion
works will save the heart-breaking tasks of frequent rebuilding of the
temporary dams heretofore washed out in almost every freshet.

Elsewhere has been told the story of the Daniel W. Jones party that
settled at Lehi and of the dissension that followed objections on the
part of the majority to the rulings of the stout old elder, whose mind
especially dwelt upon the welfare of red-skinned brethren.

There had been general authorization to the Jones-Merrill expedition to
go as far southward as it wished. Under this, though not till there had
been consultation with the Church Presidency, the greater number of the
Lehi settlers left Salt River early in August, 1877. There was
expectation that they were to settle on the headwaters of the Gila or on
the San Pedro. There must have been a deal of faith within the company,
for the departure from camp was with provisions only enough to last two
days and there was appreciation that much wild country would need to be
passed. But there was loan of the wages of A.O. Williams, a member of
the party who had been employed by C.T. Hayden at Tempe, and with this
money added provisions were secured.

Necessarily, the journey was indirect. At Tucson employment was offered
for men and teams by Thomas Gardner, who owned a sawmill in the Santa
Rita Mountains. Much of the money thus earned was saved, for the party
lived under the rules of the United Order, and very economically. So, in
the fall, with the large joint capital of $400 in cash, added to teams
and wagons and to industry and health, there was fresh start, from the
Santa Ritas, for the San Pedro, 45 miles distant. The river was reached
November 29, 1877.

These first settlers comprised Philemon C., Dudley T., Thomas, Seth and
Orrin D. Merrill, George E. Steele, Joseph McRae and A.O. Williams. All
but Williams and O.D. Merrill had families.

Ground was broken at a point on the west side of the river, on land that
had been visited and located October 14, by P.C. Merrill on an exploring
trip. The first camp was about a half mile south of the present St. David
and soon was given permanency by the erection of a small stone fort of
eight rooms. That winter, for the common interest, was planting of 75
acres of wheat and barley, irrigated from springs and realizing very
well.


Malaria Overcomes a Community

As was usual in early settlement of Arizona valleys, malarial fever
appeared very soon. At one time, in the fall of 1878, nearly all the
settlers were prostrated with the malady, probably carried by mosquitoes
from stagnant water. That year also it was soberly told that fever and
ague even spread to the domestic animals. At times, the sick had to wait
on the sick and there was none to greet Apostle Erastus Snow when he made
visitation October 6, 1878. His first address was to an assembly of 38
individuals, of whom many had been carried to the meeting on their beds.
It is chronicled by Elder McRae that, "notwithstanding these conditions,
the Apostle blessed the place, prophesying that the day would come when
the San Pedro Valley would be settled from one end to the other with
Saints and that we had experienced the worst of our sickness. When he
left, all felt better in body and in spirit." It was a decidedly hot
season. "Vegetation grew so rank that a horseman mounted on a tall horse
could hardly be seen at a distance of a quarter of a mile. Hay could be
cut a stone's throw from our door."

The first death was on October 2, 1878, of the same A.O. Williams whose
money had brought the people to the new land.

Possibly the settlement needed the mental and spiritual encouragement of
Apostle Snow, for more than a year had passed of hardships and of labor,
and, including the Lehi experience, there had been no recompense, unless
it might have been in the way of mental and moral discipline.

The early malaria of the Arizona valleys nearly all has disappeared, with
the draining of swampy places, the eradication of beaver dams and
mosquitoes and the knowledge of better living conditions. Elsewhere has
been told of the abandonment of Obed and other early Little Colorado
settlements, because of chills and fever. Something of the same sort was
known on the upper Gila, from 1882 to 1890, around Pima, Curtis and
Bryce. In this same upper Gila Valley, Fort Goodwin had to be abandoned
on account of malarial conditions. The same is true of old Fort Grant,
across the divide, on the lower San Pedro. The upper Verde, the Santa
Cruz and nearly all similar valleys knew malaria at the time of
settlement.

According to Merrill, on March 26, 1879, the sick and sorry settlers went
into the Huachuca Mountains to summer, but, "the wind blew so much that
we moved back to the river, near where Hereford now is, rented some land
and put in some crops." This location is just about where the members of
the Mormon Battalion, in 1846, had their memorable fight with the wild
bulls. A Merrill report, rendered March 16, 1881, was far from hopeful
and asked that the writer be relieved of his responsibilities.


On the Route of the Mormon Battalion

This office has been unable to find any reference connecting Merrill's
later experiences in the San Pedro Valley with the time when he was an
officer of the Mormon Battalion, though it can be imagined that his later
associates had the benefit of many reminiscences of that period of the
march just prior to the taking of Tucson.

The San Pedro Valley is a historic locality. Down it passed Friar Marco
de Niza, in 1539, and the Coronado expedition of the following year. The
waters of the stream were a joyous sight to the Mormon Battalion, when it
passed that way during the Mexican War. The country then had been
occupied to some extent by Spaniards or Mexicans, who had established
large ranches, with many cattle, from which they had been driven by the
Apaches, years before the Battalion came. The country once had been the
ranging ground of the friendly Sobaipuri Indians, but they too had been
driven away by the hillmen and had established a village on the Santa
Cruz, near their kinsmen, the Papago, almost on the site where Tucson was
founded as a Spanish presidio in 1776.

The river, when the Merrill party came, was found usually in a deep
gully, in places twenty feet below the surface of the silty ground.
Naturally, difficulty has attended the attempts to dam the stream.


Chronicles of a Quiet Neighborhood

St. David was named by Alexander F. Macdonald in honor of David W.
Patten, a martyr of the Church, who died at the hands of the same mob
that killed Joseph Smith. Its first mail was received at Tres Alamos,
sixteen miles down the river. A postoffice was established in 1882,
Joseph McRae in charge. When the Southern Pacific came through, Benson
was established, nine miles to the northward. Tombstone lies sixteen
miles to the southeast.

In May, 1880, the present St. David townsite was laid out. John Smith
Merrill built the first house. The following year an adobe schoolhouse
was built, this used for public gatherings until shaken down by an
earthquake, May 3, 1887, happily while the children were at recess. Much
damage was done in the town.

The settlement had little or no trouble with Indians, though for nine
years Apache bands scouted and murdered in the nearby mountains and
committed depredations within the San Pedro Valley, both to the northward
and southward.

Early in 1879 John Campbell, a new member, from Texas, built a sawmill,
in the Huachuca Mountains, that furnished a diversity of industry, from
it much lumber being shipped to Tombstone.

Macdonald was a southern extension of the St. David community on the San
Pedro, established in 1882 by Henry J. Horne, Jonathan Hoopes and others,
and named in honor of Alexander F. Macdonald, then president of the
Maricopa Stake. It was of slow growth, owing to claims upon the lands as
constituting a part of the San Juan de las Boquillas y Nogales grant,
later rejected. In 1913, nine miles west of St. David, was established
the community of Miramonte.


Looking Toward Homes in Mexico

While the Saints were establishing themselves upon the San Pedro and
Gila, the Church authorities by no means had lost sight of the primary
object of the southern migration. January 4, 1883, Apostle Moses
Thatcher, with Elders D. P. Kimball, Teeples, Fuller, Curtis, Trejo and
Martineau, left St. David for an exploring trip into Mexico.

September 13, 1884, another party left St. David to explore the country
lying south of the line, along the Babispe River, returning October 7, by
way of the San Bernardino ranch, though without finding any locations
considered favorable.

In November, 1884, Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and Heber J. Grant, with
a company from St. Joseph Stake, with thirty wagons, went into Sonora,
where they were given a hearty welcome by the Yaqui Indians, who
expressed hope of a settlement among them.

St. David was the scene of one of the most notable councils of the
Church, held in January, 1885, and presided over by none other than
President John Taylor, who left Salt Lake City, January 3, and whose
party at St. David included also Apostles Joseph F. Smith, Erastus Snow,
Brigham Young, Jr., Moses Thatcher and Francis M. Lyman, with other
dignitaries of the Church. At St. David were met Jesse N. Smith,
Christopher Layton, Alex. F. Macdonald and Lot Smith, presidents of the
four Stakes of Arizona. The discussion at this conference appeared to
have been mainly upon the Church prosecution, then in full sway, a matter
not included within the purview of this work. There was determination to
extend the Church settlements farther to the southward. According to
Orson F. Whitney:

"In order to provide a place of refuge for such as were being hunted and
hounded, President Taylor sent parties into Mexico to arrange for the
purchase of land in that country, upon which the fugitive Saints might
settle. One of the first sites selected for this purpose was just across
the line in the State of Sonora. Elder Christopher Layton made choice of
this locality. Other lands were secured in the State of Chihuahua.
President Taylor and his party called upon Governor Torres at Hermosillo,
the capital of Sonora, and were received by that official with marked
courtesy."

Historian Whitney states that the Taylor party then went westward by way
of the Salt River Valley settlements to the Pacific Coast. And this
office has a record to the effect that, in January, President Taylor
visited also the settlements of the Little Colorado section and counseled
concerning the disposition of several of the early towns of that
locality.

Of Arizona interest is the fact that for two and a half years thereafter,
the President of the Mormon Church was in exile, till the date of his
death, July 25, 1887, in Kaysville, Utah. Much of the intervening time
was spent in Arizona and a part of it in Mexico, in the settlements that
had been established as places of refuge. His declining months, however,
were spent in Utah, even entire communities guarding well the secret of
the presence of their spiritual head.


Arizona's First Artesian Well

Possibly the first artesian well known in Arizona was developed in the
St. David settlement. In 1885 a bounty of $1500 was offered for the
development of artesian water. The reward was claimed by the McRae
brothers, who developed a flow of about thirty gallons a minute, but who
failed to receive any reward. Five years ago, J.S. Merrill of St. David
reported that within the San Pedro Valley were about 200 flowing wells,
furnishing from five to 150 gallons a minute. The deepest valley well was
about 600 feet. At that time about 2000 acres were irrigated by the St.
David canal and by the wells, sustaining a population of about 600 souls.


Development of a Market at Tombstone

It happened on the San Pedro, just as in many other places, that the
Mormons were just a little ahead of some great development. September 3,
1877, at Tucson, Ed. Schieffelin recorded the first of his mining claims
in Tombstone District, which then lay in Pima County.

Schieffelin's first discovery was several miles from the later site of
Tombstone and about four miles from the San Pedro. Later, with Dick Gird
and Al Schieffelin, the original discoverer located the lower group of
mines in the camp of Tombstone, then established. A number of other
settlements sprang up, including the nearby Richmond, Watervale and the
mill towns of Charleston and Contention City, both on the San Pedro,
where water could be secured.

Several miles west of Tombstone, just where Ed Schieffelin camped at the
time of the discovery of his Tombstone claim, is a large monument of
cemented rock, under which lie his remains, brought back from the
Northwest for interment in the land he loved. His death was on May 12,
1897.

The Tombstone Gold & Silver Milling & Mining Company, of which former
Gov. A.P.K. Safford was president, in 1880 owned the original group of
Schieffelin claims, of which the Tough Nut was the main property. A stamp
mill was built on the San Pedro and a contract entered into with the
Mormons to build a dam and ditch, from which it was hoped to secure
motive power. Concerning this job, estimated to cost $6000, Merrill later
wrote that the contractors found themselves fined $300 for six days'
overtime on completion of the job. Joseph McRae's record tells that, in
1879, some of the brethren went up the river, twenty miles above St.
David, and put in a rip-rap dam and a mile and a half of ditch at
Charleston for the Boston Mining Company. This may have been the Boston &
Arizona Smelting & Reduction Company, a Massachusetts corporation which
had a twenty-stamp mill and a roasting furnace on the San Pedro, between
Charleston and Contention, ten miles from Tombstone. This job returned
$6000 in cash.

The mines brought a relative degree of prosperity to the San Pedro
settlement, furnishing a ready and profitable market for agricultural
products, but especially calling upon all transportation facilities that
could be afforded. Teams were busy hauling from the terminus of the
railroad at Tucson and at Benson, until, in October, 1882, there was
completion of the New Mexico and Arizona railroad, then a Santa Fe
corporation, from Benson to Nogales, much of the way through the San
Pedro Valley, past St. David and the milling towns. The mines paid $30 a
cord for fuel wood and even $40 a ton for hay.

Lean days descended upon the community, however, in the early summer of
1886, when the great pumps of the Grand Central mine were stopped by
fire. The following year Tombstone practically was abandoned and the
market it had afforded was lost. Not till 1901 did the camp revive. It
closed again in June, 1903, by the drowning of the pumps. Latterly the
old mines, consolidated, have been worked to some extent by the
Phelps-Dodge Corporation, but again have been closed, early in April,
1921.




Chapter Twenty-two

On the Upper Gila


Ancient Dwellers and Military Travelers

Possibly as representative a region as is known in the settlement area of
the Mormon people lies for about 25 miles along the Gila River in eastern
Arizona, in Graham County, and within St. Joseph Stake. Over a dozen
communities are contained within this section and all are distinctly
Mormon in settlement and local operation, save Solomonville, at the upper
end, and Safford, the county seat and principal town. Most of the land is
owned by the Saints, who control, as well, a dozen small canals. Within
the Stake have been included Mormon settlements of the San Pedro Valley
and those upon the upper Gila, in Greenlee County, extending over into
New Mexico and El Paso.

The settlement of the Graham County section of the Gila Valley did not
start with the Mormons. Far from it. In the upper end of the cultivated
region is one of the most notable groups of ruins in the Southwest. This
group, since the coming of the Spaniard, appears to have borne
the name of Pueblo Viejo (Sp., "Old Town"). Somewhere farther down the
stream is assumed to have been "Chichilticalli," the "red house"
mentioned in the chronicles of Marco de Niza and the Coronado expedition.

The valley was traversed, from east to west, by Gen. S.W. Kearny, on his
way, with a dragoon escort, in 1846, to take California from the
Mexicans, this command, from the Pima villages westward, forming the
advance guard for the Mormon Battalion. Much interesting data of the Gila
Valley trip was written by Lieutenant Emory, who later was chief of the
Boundary Survey. It is notable that in 1846 Mount Graham already was
known by that name.


Early Days Around Safford

A few Mexicans were in the valley as early as 1871, farming in the
vicinity of Pueblo Viejo, immediately below which later arose the town of
Solomonville. In 1872 was the first Anglo-Saxon settlement, a group of
farmers coming from Gila Bend, upon the Gila River, where they had
attempted farming and had failed because the wandering river had washed
away their dams and headgates. These farmers, financed in Tucson for the
building of the Montezuma canal, settled in the vicinity of Safford,
where about that time, was established a townsite, named in honor of Gov.
A.P.K. Safford who, from Tucson, then was making a tour of that part of
Arizona Territory.

One of the very earliest valley residents was D.W. Wickersham, who wrote
the Author lately, covering his early experiences. To later serve as the
first teacher, he arrived in Safford the summer of 1876, there finding
Joshua E. Bailey and Hiram Kennedy, who had come from Gila Bend. Bailey
he considers the founder of Safford and believes it was he who named the
settlement. Both Bailey and Kennedy came with California troops during
the Civil War. The former died in Michigan and Kennedy was murdered in
Safford in 1877. Others of the early settlers were Wm. A. Gillespie, John
Glasby, John Conley, A.F. Perigo, Edw. E. Tuttle and E.T. Ijams.

In 1876 appeared Isador E. Solomon, who for many years occupied a leading
position. He came primarily to burn charcoal for the rude adobe furnaces
that had been erected by the Lesynzskys to smelt the free ores of the
famous Longfellow mine in Chase Creek Canyon, a few miles above Clifton.
For charcoal Solomon found abundant material in an almost unbroken
mesquite forest that stretched for many miles along the river. Solomon
purchased a road house and small store that had been established near
Pueblo Viejo by one Munson, and the place soon became a trading post for
a large extent of country, its importance increasing with the development
of the great mining region around Globe. I.E. Solomon still is living,
an honored resident of Tucson, his children prominent in the business
affairs of the State. Solomonville was so named, in 1878, by none other
than Bill Kirkland, who raised the American flag in Tucson in 1856 and
who, for a while, carried mail from Fort Thomas to Clifton.

[Illustration: SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA. The Salt, San Pedro and Gila Valleys
and Routes of travel]

Apostle Erastus Snow appears to have been the first of the Mormon faith
to cross this Gila Valley region. His party arrived on the San Pedro
River, October 6, 1878. The most easterly point reached in the Gila
Valley was at old Camp Goodwin, not far from the present railroad station
of Fort Thomas and at the extreme western or lower end of the present
farmed area. It would require a separate volume to follow Apostle Erastus
Snow on his journeyings through the Southwest, where he appears to have
served as a veritable inspector-general for his Church.

On the 1878 trip, L. John Nuttall of Snow's company, writes of passing
into the Gila Valley through a rocky canyon, "a terrible place, almost
impassable, the dread of all who travel this way." The same road is very
little better to this day.

At one point was passed a ridge known as Postoffice Hill, where was found
the grave of a white man, killed several years before by Apaches. Every
time an Apache passed, he put a rock on the grave mound, at that time
about twenty feet square at the base and four feet high. The travelers
added another rock, on the principle of, "When in Rome, do as the Romans
do."

Mormon Location at Smithville

The Mormon settlement of the Gila Valley was one of the few made without
particular and direct instruction from the general Church authorities. It
was caused, primarily, by trouble over the land tenure at Forest Dale, in
the mountains to the northward, where settlers, at first permitted, even
encouraged by the reservation authorities, finally were advised that they
were on Indian land and would have to move. The first question before the
colonists immediately became where they should find a new abiding place.
All of them had come from the northward, seeking a better location than
afforded along the Little Colorado River or in the mountain settlements.
So there was determination to see what could be found in the way of
farming land on the Gila, to the southward.

[Illustration: THE TEEPLES HOME, FIRST HOUSE IN PIMA]

[Illustration: THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE AT SAFFORD]

[Illustration: GILA NORMAL COLLEGE AT THATCHER]
In February, 1879, an expedition started over the hills to view the
valley of the Gila. It included W.R. Teeples, John Wm. Tanner, Ben Pierce
and Hyrum Weech. The last-named told that the party looked over the
country and finally selected a location for a town. He wrote, "We
traveled from one end of the valley to the other on both sides of the
river, looking for the best place to take out a ditch, because we had
very little means and could not go to large expense. This (near the
location of Smithville, later known as Pima) seemed to be about the
easiest place on the river to take out water, so we decided on making
the location here."

The Smithville ditch was on the basis of prior location by Gillespie and
was extended to cover the Mormon land in 1880. Somewhat higher was the
Central ditch, which had been built several years before as far down as
the later site of Thatcher and which was extended above Pima in 1882.

Somewhat of a Samaritan was found on the ground in one Markham, from
Oregon, from whom were hired a team and wagon and who refused to take any
pay. With a pocket compass, Smithville was laid out. The settlement could
not be scattered, because Indians and outlaws threatened. Foundations
were laid on sixteen corners, each under the name of one of the families
expected to come from the north.

The pioneer party then made close investigation of the valley, traveling
up the Gila into New Mexico, and viewed the country around Clifton and
along the Blue and Black Rivers. The whole trip took about a month.

The report was, "that the country looked good for stock raising and
farming." On March 16, at Moses Cluff's camp, the proposed migration was
approved by Stake President Jesse N. Smith, who appointed Jos. K. Rogers
to lead it. In the first company were Rogers, Teeples, Weech, Henry D.
Dall, William Thompson and the families of all except Weech and Dall. To
these were added John and Thomas Sessions and Earlton Haws, making 28 in
all. Arrival was on April 8, 1879. The Cluffs (three families) came very
soon after the first party. In a later migration came Samuel Curtis,
Heber Reed, Edgar Sessions and William Asay.

E.G. Curtis, one of the earliest of the settlers, told that in passing
Fort Thomas in March, "the country is found entirely covered with
poppies, one of the most beautiful sights I ever expect to see. The grass
was high and when the wind would blow it down in great waves, you could
see great bunches of antelope."


A Second Party Locates at Graham

In the Church history of Graham Ward is found additional data concerning
the early Gila Valley settlement. It is told that, "the settlers of
Brigham City on the Little Colorado, getting discouraged because of
frequent failures of crops and poor prospects, sent explorers out to look
for new locations. Two went to the San Juan country in Utah, two to the
Salt River Valley and three, George Lake, Andrew Anderson and George
Skinner, to the Gila River." The journey was via Fort Apache, the arrival
at Smithville being in the latter part of November, 1880. At the Graham
settlement there was purchase of a water ditch and a quit-claim deed to
four quarter-sections of land that had been farmed by non-Mormons. The
record recites, "it was merely a rustlers' ranch, possessed by
horsethieves and speculators who had a small house on it, for which the
brethren paid about $1800, in cows valued at $35 per head."

Lake remained in the valley. Anderson and Skinner returned in December to
Brigham City, where the authorities of the United Order accepted the
purchase. Anderson and Skinner started again for the Gila, accompanied by
their families, by Moses M. Curtis and William Hawkins and their families
and a number of unmarried men, taking with them seed grain, farming
implements, cows, sheep and other animals. Transportation was by ox
teams. Christmas Day was spent at St. Joseph on the Little Colorado and
New Year at Showlow, arrival on the Gila being in January. Lake, in the
meantime, had been joined by Jorgen Jorgensen and Jerome J. Adams, the
two who had been sent to the Salt River Valley.

The new arrivals at once set at work, clearing their lands and putting in
grain, raising good crops. The manual labor, of the hardest sort, was
performed under the conditions of the United Order and on a diet
principally of bread and beans. The sheep band was turned over to the
Church, as profits of the Order, and the wheat and other products were
divided according to the number of families and the number of persons. A
stockade fort was built, but the homes for months consisted of sheds or
tents and even of the wagons. In 1884, on the newly-surveyed townsite of
Graham, was built a meeting house, called the "factory house," with
mesquite posts and dirt roof and with walls only of heavy unbleached
muslin, which appears to have been called "factory."

One of the early settlements of the Gila Valley is Matthews (successively
Matthewsville, Fairview and Glenbar), founded in December, 1880, by
Joseph Matthews and family, from Round Valley, and Wm. R. Waddill. In
1881 they built a stockade and though no local Indian depredations were
known, in that year the Matthews settlers moved to Pima for better
protection. A townsite was selected by the Stake President September 17,
1886, but was not occupied. A resident of note was the first district
school teacher, John F. Nash, who came with his father to Arizona in
1874, first settling in Williamson Valley near Prescott. He arrived in
the valley in 1881, the progress of the family toward Texas stopped on
the Gila by the stealing of a band of Nash horses by "rustlers."


Vicissitudes of Pioneering

Eden, first known as Curtis, lies on the northern side of the Gila, nine
miles northwest of Pima. It dates from early in 1881, when there was
arrival from Brigham City, Arizona, of a party of United Order settlers,
headed by Moses M. Curtis. Though other immigrants occupied holdings
nearby, M.M. Curtis and Wm. R. Hawkins were the only residents of the
present Eden townsite in 1881. The men first turned their attention
toward the construction of a ditch from the river, this completed the
following year. For a while the young community was on very short
rations. At times there could be only one meal a day, that a meager one
of beans, served at noon to the workers, who scarcely could summon
strength for more than a half day's labor.

Some of the early settlers built boweries of brush under which they
rolled their covered wagons, to secure better protection from the
pitiless Arizona summer sun, and with no other home for weeks. There were
Indian "scares," as elsewhere told, and life was far from comfortable,
with occasional crossing of the Gila at flood to secure protection at the
more populous Pima. In January, 1882, was a moving back to five log
houses that had been built on the Curtis townsite, but even after that
was flight to Pima when word came of an Indian raid. In the fall of 1882
eight families were living in a little stockade fort that enclosed a half
acre of ground, near the river. The present townsite was located May 10,
1883.


Gila Communities of the Faith

Thatcher, present Stake headquarters, derives its name from Apostle Moses
Thatcher, who was a Christmas visitor in 1882, in company with Apostle
Erastus Snow. The first settler was John M. Moody, who came with his
family from Utah, arriving when Nature had warm welcome indeed, on July
4, 1881. In 1882 he was joined by the Cluff and Zufelt families and by
James Pace of the Mormon Battalion, who built a stockade, and a little
later by Hyrum Brinkerhoff and wife Margaret, "Aunt Maggie," who bought
and occupied the Moody place. They were prominent among the Southern Utah
and Muddy pioneers.

The Thatcher townsite was selected by President Layton May 13, 1883, a
school district being established the following month. Among the arrivals
of the following year was Samuel Claridge, one of the pioneers of the
Muddy section. October 19, 1885, the presidency located a new townsite
about one-half mile to the southward and on higher land. Much of the old
Moody ranch since the Brinkerhoff purchase has disappeared, from the
encroachments of the Gila River.

Bryce, across the river from Pima, dates from January, 1883, when
Ebenezer Bryce, Sr., and sons commenced construction of a ditch,
completed the next year. The first house was that of Ebenezer P. Bryce,
occupied in December, 1884.

Central, between Thatcher and Pima, took its name from the Central canal,
which irrigates part of the settlement. Its first settlers were Orson and
Joseph Cluff of Forest Dale, from which they came southward in the spring
of 1882.

The Hubbard settlement is an outgrowth of the Graham and Bryce wards and
is of comparatively late occupation. It is named after Elisha F. Hubbard,
Sr., the first ward bishop.

The Layton settlement, named for the first stake president, is one of the
most prosperous, and is the third in order of population of the St.
Joseph Stake wards. The first settler was Hyrum H. Tippets, who came
January 13, 1883, direct from Brigham City, Utah.

The Franklin settlement, above Duncan on the Gila, is about seven miles
in length, most of it in Arizona, though lapping over into New Mexico.
Its first Mormon settler was Thomas J. Nations, in 1895. He joined, with
others of the brethren, in taking out a canal. Thomas A. McGrath is
understood to have been the first settler of the locality. The name was
given in 1898, at the time of the visit of Apostles John Henry Smith and
John W. Taylor, and is in honor of Franklin D. Richards, an apostle of
the Church, who in no wise had been associated with Arizona affairs. In
the same vicinity, wholly in New Mexico, is the settlement of Virden,
mainly populated by refugees from Mexico. In these upper Gila communities
the Mormons have created a veritable garden, where careless cultivation
had been known.

Graham County was created by the Arizona Legislature in the spring of
1881, the settlement south of the Gila theretofore having been in Pima
County. The first county seat was Safford, but county government was
transferred to Solomonville by an act of the Legislature in 1883. In
1915, after the setting off of Greenlee County, the court-house went back
to Safford.


Considering the Lamanites

In the entertaining flood of reminiscence that comes from almost any of
the devout pioneers, there often is found expression of abiding belief of
personal protection extended by Omnipotence. Possibly, save in the
development of character by trials and by tribulation, the average
pioneer of the faith, from a present viewpoint, would appear to have been
little favored, yet thankful devotion ever was present.

One story that indicated celestial intervention in time of danger, has
been told by Orson Cluff. He and several brothers and their families were
on the road south from Forest Dale to the Gila, and had camped at a point
twenty miles south of Fort Apache. In the morning there was the usual
prayer, from which the company arose, refreshed in spirit, for another
hard day's journey. A short time later, an Indian told how he was a
member of a band of redskins that lay in ambush about the Mormon camp
that very morning. The work of massacre was about to begin when the
intended victims were seen to drop upon their knees and to lift their
hands aloft in supplication. The startled Indians were overcome by some
mysterious power and stole away. Possibly they feared that potent
"medicine" was being made against them, but the Cluffs are sure that
the Holy Spirit had descended to save them for further earthly
experience.

The Gila Valley saw much of Indian rapine in its earlier days. The
section considered in this chapter lies just east of the San Carlos
Apache reservation and is flanked on the northward by the White Mountain
reservation. When the California Column, under General Carleton, was
established in Arizona in 1863, after beating the Confederates back
beyond the Rio Grande, it was found necessary to establish military
stations in that locality. Camp Goodwin, named after the first Governor
of the Territory, was at the lower end of the valley. A number of years
after its abandonment, there was established, five miles to the eastward,
Camp Thomas, maintained until after the final subjugation of the hostile
Indians. Thomas was a veritable guard post for the Mormon settlers. To
the southwest was Camp Grant, in the northern extension of the Sulphur
Springs Valley, this post a successor to old Camp Grant, which was at the
mouth of Aravaipa Creek, at the junction of that stream with the San
Pedro River. To the northward was Fort Apache and to the southward Fort
Bowie.


The Hostile Chiricahuas

The native Pinaleno Indians of the San Carlos region, while inclined
toward spasmodic outbreaks, were not as hostile as their western
neighbors, the Mohave and Yuma Apaches. A very dangerous element was
added when, in 1876, under direction of the army, Agent John P. Clum
moved to San Carlos 325 Indians of the Chiricahua-Apache strain from a
reservation in southeastern Arizona. Within a few years, 4500 Indians
were concentrated at San Carlos. The Chiricahuas, unsettled and forever
yearning to get back to the scene of their marauding along the emigrant
road to the southward and in Mexico, constantly were slipping away from
the reservation by individuals and by bands, and their highway usually
was up the river. In the early eighties the settlers along the Gila lived
forever in terror of the savage foe. The military was efficient.
Hardriding troopers would dash forth from one or all of the guardian
posts whenever danger threatened, and to these same troops undoubtedly is
due the fact that general massacres were not known in and around the Gila
Valley towns.

Often the Author finds in the manuscripts of personal experiences that
have been accumulated by the score in his office, a note indicating the
conditions under which the land was settled. There have been attempts in
other parts of this work to make clear the fact that the Mormons always
tried to be friendly with the Indians and suffered without protest
treatment from the aborigines that would have led to the shedding of
blood by others. One interesting little item of this sort is in a record
contributed by Mrs. W.R. Teeples. She found the Indians on the Gila Hirer
in 1879 were friendly, possibly too much so. She wrote, "When I was
cooking pancakes over the fire in our camp, the Indians would sit around
watching, and they would grab the cakes out of the pan before they were
done, so I had to cover the pancakes up to keep them for ourselves."

Mrs. J.N. Stratton wrote of the same period:

"Besides the fear of getting out of food was the greater fear of the
Indians. They were on the San Carlos reservation and were supposed to be
peaceful, but bands often went out on the warpath and spread terror
throughout the country, so the people never knew what to expect from
them. The mesquite and sage brush were so thick where Safford's streets
and houses are now, that one could only see a little distance, and it was
no uncommon occurrence for an Indian to slip out from behind the brush
and come walking in at the cabin door, or put his face up against the
window and peer in, if the door happened to be closed. One settler who
had two doors had her husband nail one up so that when the Indians did
come to call on them, she could stand in the other door and keep them
from coming in. The mothers never let their children get out of their
sight, for fear they would be stolen."

I.E. Solomon and his family had many experiences with the Indians, and in
several cases narrowly escaped death. A number of Solomon's employees
were killed in the open country toward Clifton.

An interesting chronicle is from Mrs. Elizabeth Hanks Curtis, who came
with her family in April, 1881. Incidentally, she is a descendant of the
Hanks family, tracing relationship to Abraham Lincoln. A mile above Eden
they built a log fort. In September this had to be abandoned, word
brought by a friendly Indian of the coming of a large band of Indians and
of imminent danger. Will Ransom from Pima provided a raft to cross the
river upon and the settlers concentrated at Pima. The settlers were
driven into Pima again in April of the following year, after huddling for
days in Moses Curtis' cabin. Protection came from Fort Thomas.


Murders by Indian Raiders

July 19, 1882, Jacob S. Ferrin of Pima was killed under circumstances of
treachery. A freighting camp, of which he was a member, was entered by a
number of Apaches, led by "Dutchy," escaped from custody at San Carlos.
Pretending amity, they seized the teamsters' guns and fired upon their
hosts. Ferrin was shot down, one man was wounded and the others escaped.

On the morning of December 1, 1885, Lorenzo and Seth Wright were killed
by Indians who had been combing the valley for horses. The Wrights had
started, with members of a posse, from Layton, and were joined at
Solomonville by Sheriff Stevens and two other men, after there had
been recovered a number of the stolen horses, for the pursuers rode
harder and faster than the fleeing thieves. There had been assumption
that the thieves were Mexicans and so there was an element of
recklessness in the pursuit that would have been missing had the truth
been known, that they were Apaches. The four leading men of the posse
were ambushed by the redskins, who had halted by the roadside. Seth
Wright was shot from his horse. His brother immediately dismounted and
opened fire upon the Indians. Lorenzo's right arm was broken by a bullet,
and then, while he was running, he was shot in the back.

This same band had killed a man and a boy at Black Rock and a herdsman at
Bear Springs Flat.

May 23, 1886, Frank Thurston of Pima, while starting a lime kiln, six
miles from the town, was surprised by eight Apaches and killed. This band
passed by the Curtis settlement, driving off a number of horses.

Concerning the Indian situation, James H. Martineau, on June 1, 1886,
wrote that the Apaches then were riding in many small bands, but were
kept on the move constantly by the vigorous measures of General Miles,
and he assumes that the Apache question would have been settled had his
predecessor, General Crook, been less dilatory. The writer expressed his
conclusion that in military skill, strategy and ability the Indians far
excelled their opponents, and details that fifty or sixty Apaches the
year before had killed more than 75 white settlers, all the while pursued
by seventeen companies of United States troops, without losing a single
Indian.


Outlawry Along the Gila

The Mormons of the Gila Valley maintained most amicable relations with
their neighbors, but occasionally had to participate in some of the
ordinary frontier episodes. James R. Welker, an arrival in Safford in
1883, tells that, "The cowboys had things about their own way for a few
years. They would ride right into a town, go straight to the saloon and
commence shooting the place up. They were expert with the pistol too. I
have seen some very wonderful shots among those cowboys. They did not do
much killing around here, but they were pretty wild and did about as they
pleased." W.T. Barney wrote, "The rustlers gave us quite a bit of
trouble, perhaps even more than the Indians."

The peaceful Saints in the Gila Valley undoubtedly found much that was
foreign to their habits of life. A tale of the frolicsome cowboy is told
by Isaac P. Robinson of Thatcher, who was in Safford in 1884:

"There were but very few houses in Safford then. About the only business
house was the Glasby building, which had a saloon and also a store. The
cowboys had things about their own way. They would come into the store
and take possession. Mr. Glasby would go out and leave it to them. They
would shoot up the store, help themselves to what they wanted, pay for
everything they had taken, shoot up the town and go on. But I don't want
to see any more of it. You haven't the remotest idea what a lot of
trouble they made. This was the main route from the north into Mexico and
the principal rendezvous for a lot of those rough characters."

In the way of outlawry, the valley had unwelcome notoriety, when from its
rougher element was constituted a band which, May 11, 1889, ambushed
Paymaster J.W. Wham of the United States army, on the road between
Fort Grant and Fort Thomas, and stole about $28,000 in gold and silver,
intended for the pay of the troops at the latter post. An escort of
eleven colored infantrymen, led by a sergeant, apparently deserted by the
Major, fought well, but was driven away after five of the soldiers had
been wounded. Thirteen bandits were understood to have been implicated.
Eight individuals were arrested. There was trial at Tucson, where Wham
and the soldiers were notably poor witnesses and where the defendants
were acquitted.


A Gray Highway of Danger

Just as the Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado providentially were
given assistance by the building of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad,
just so the struggling pioneers on the Gila found benefit in the opening
of the silver and copper mines at Globe. Freight teams were in demand for
hauling coke and supplies from the railroad at Willcox and Bowie and for
hauling back from the mines the copper bullion. Much of this freighting
was done with great teams of mules and horses, veritable caravans, owned
by firms such as Tully & Ochoa or M.G. Samaniego of Tucson, but enough
was left for the two and four-horse teams of the Mormons, who thus were
enabled from the hauling of a few tons of coke to provide provisions for
their families and implements for the tilling of their fields.

The road from the railroad to Globe ofttimes was a gray highway of
danger. After leaving the Gila towns, it led through the length of the
Apache Indian reservation. Usually the teams went in sort of military
order. The larger "outfits" had strict rules for defense, each driver
with his pistol and rifle and each "swamper" similarly armed. Every night
the wagons were drawn into a circle, within which the horses were
corralled or tied to the wagon poles, where they were fed. Pickets were
kept out and care was incessant day and night.

But, sometimes, a freighter, eager to earn extra pay for a quick trip, or
wishing to drive ahead of the cloud of dust that enveloped each large
convoy, would push along by himself. Possibly the next day, the train
would come to the embers of what had been wagons and their contents.
Nearby would be the bodies of the tortured and murdered teamsters. So the
careful ones united, remaining at the railroad until at least a score of
wagons had accumulated, and then made their way northward, relatively
safe through united vigilance.

In 1899 the Gila Valley, Globe & Northern railroad was completed from
Bowie, through the Gila Valley towns, to Globe, a distance of 124 miles,
though the loss to the freighters was more than balanced by the general
good to the community of bettered transportation facilities. Right-of-way
through the reservation was accorded by the Indians after a diplomatic
distribution to them by a railroad agent of $8000, all in silver coin.




Chapter Twenty-three

Civic and Church Features


Troublesome River Conditions

In the memory of Americans still living, the Gila River through the
Safford region, was a relatively narrow stream, over which in places a
stone could be tossed. There were occasional lagoons, some of them
created by beaver dams--picturesque, but breeding places for mosquitoes
and sources of malaria. Camp Goodwin was abandoned because of malarial
conditions in 1869-70, troops being transferred to the new post of Camp
Ord (Apache).

The river situation of later years has been very different indeed from
that known to the pioneers. The lagoons drained and the underbrush, grass
and trees cut away, the river floods have had full sweep and, as a
result, there has been tremendous loss in the washing away of the lower
lying land. The farms have been pushed back toward the mesas. Now under
consideration is a comprehensive irrigation system that will cost several
millions of dollars, with a great concrete diversion dam above
Solomonville and with two head canals that economically will serve both
sides of the river.

But in the early days the colonists did what they could, not what
economically was advisable. They did not have such trouble as was known
along the Little Colorado and their water supply was much larger and
somewhat more regular. They took out little canals at different points,
with headworks that were easily replaced when washed away.

For a few years around 1910, there appeared a prospect that the Gila
Valley farms would have to be abandoned unless something could be
done to stop the flow of tailings from the concentrating mills of the
Clifton-Morenci country, on the San Francisco River, a tributary of the
Gila. The finely pulverized rock was brought down in the irrigation water
and spread out upon the fields in a thick layer, almost impervious to the
growth of vegetation. Mit Simms, then a farmer near Safford, tells that
the dried tailings upon his farm spread out in a smooth sheet, that could
be broken like glass, with a blow from a hammer. The mining companies
refused to heed demand to impound their tailings flow, and so the matter
was taken into the courts. Decisions uniformly were with the settlers,
the matter finally being disposed of in their favor in the United States
Supreme Court. Then the companies, using the tailings material for the
making of dams, created great tailings reservoirs in the hills near their
plants, and filled up valley after valley with the rejected material.
Incidentally, they spent in this work enormous sums, believed to have
been sufficient to have bought all the farms of the Gila Valley, at the
price put upon them ten years ago. This expended money, however, may yet
be returned, for plans have been set afoot for leaching copper treasure
out of the tailings banks.

Artesian water was struck in the Gila Valley in 1887, according to John
A. Lee, understood to have been the first well borer in the artesian
district, within which are the present towns of Algodon (otherwise
Lebanon) and Artesia. The first water was struck at a depth of 330 feet
and better flows were secured with deeper borings down to 1000 feet.

The first few years of the Gila Valley settlement, every alternate
section was assumed to be the property of the Texas Pacific Railroad
Company, a land grant claimed by the Southern Pacific. This claim was
decided against by the United States authorities early in 1885, and the
lands thus were thrown open to entry by the settlers. Pima was on
railroad land and filing of its townsite formally was accomplished by
Mayor W.W. Crockett.


Basic Law in a Mormon Community

Interest attaches to the Church commission, dated February 20, 1883,
received by Christopher Layton on his appointment as head of the San
Pedro and Gila Valley settlers. It was signed by John Taylor and Jos. F.
Smith of the First Presidency and contains instructions and admonitions
that might well have served as a basic law of any God-fearing community.

President Layton was instructed to see that the settlers did not scatter
themselves promiscuously throughout the land, that surveys be made for
townsites, that the people settle in these localities, with facilities
for public schools and meeting houses, and that due provision be made to
protect the settlers against depredations of the lawless and unprincipled
combinations of brigands and other hostile marauders.

A notably interesting paragraph recites, "You will understand that our
object in the organization of the Stake of St. Joseph is to introduce the
Gospel into the Mexican nation, or that part of it which lies contiguous
to your present settlement, and also, when prudence shall dictate and
proper arrangements are entered into, that a settlement may commence to
be made in that country."

It was recommended, in forming cities either in Arizona or Mexico, "care
should be had to place them in proper localities, convenient to land and
water, with careful examination of the sanitary conditions. It is the
general opinion that it is more healthy and salubrious on the plateaus or
mesas than on the low land, the latter of which in your district of
country are more or less subject to malarial diseases, which ought,
always, when practicable, to be avoided."

The streets should be wide and commodious, with public squares for
church, county, school and ornamental purposes.

[Illustration: GILA VALLEY PIONEERS
1--Wm. R. Teeples  2--John M. Moody
3--Jos. K. Rogers   4--Ebenezer Pryce  5--Hyrum Brinkerhoff
6--Samuel H. Claridge  7--Frank N. Tyler]

[Illustration: PIONEER WOMEN OF THE GILA VALLEY
1--Elizabeth Hanks Curtis                   2--Mrs. W.R. Teeples
3--Elizabeth Moody 4--Margaret Brinkerhoff  5--Elizabeth Layton
6--Josephine Wall Rogers                    7--Rebecca Claridge]

School and church affairs should be kept separate. There was warning
against favoritism in the allotment of town lands and a recommendation
that the principles of the United Order be approached, without the
placing of the communities under rigid rules.

Another interesting paragraph recites, "The order of Zion when carried
out, will be that all men should act in the interest of and for the
welfare of Zion, and individualism, private speculation and covetousness
will be avoided, and that all act in the interest of all and for the
welfare of the whole community. We may not, at present, be able to carry
out these ideas in full, but without any special formality or rule, we
may be approaching these principles as fast as circumstances will admit
of it. We profess to be acting and operating for God, and for His
Kingdom, and we are desirous that our acts should be in consonance with
our professions."

In the selection of elders, care was enjoined that all such persons
should be honorable, free from any pernicious or degrading habits, "for
if men cannot control themselves, they are not fit to be rulers or
leaders in the Kingdom of God."

There was special injunction that the Lamanites, the Indians, be treated
with all consideration and shown that the Mormons do not teach one thing
and practice another. The Indians should be taught to be "friendly with
the government of the United States or Mexico and to live at peace with
one another, to be chaste, sober and honest and subject to the law of
God."

Tithing of one-tenth was stipulated as in the interest of the people. The
new leader was advised that, "God has placed you as a watchman on the
walls of Zion and He will hold you accountable for your acts," and he was
directed to see that the laws of God were carried out in his community,
irrespective of persons or families.


Layton Soldier and Pioneer

Christopher Layton was a rough diamond, almost illiterate, yet possessed
of much energy and a keen, practical judgment that served him and his
people well through the course of a long life. He was an Englishman, born
in Bedfordshire, March 8, 1821. His first practical experience was at 7
years of age, when he kept crows from the wheatfields for the large
salary of 56 cents a week, boarding himself. In 1843 he crossed the
ocean. Elsewhere is noted his experience with the Mormon Battalion.
Following discharge, for a few years he lived in California, finally
taking ship from San Francisco back to Liverpool, where he arrived in
March, 1850. On the same ship's return, James Pennell led 250 converts to
America, landing at New Orleans proceeding by river to St. Louis, and
then Utah.

In September, 1852, Layton first saw Salt Lake, arriving at the head of
an expedition of 52 wagons, including the first threshing outfit in Utah.
In 1856 he was in the Carson Valley of Nevada, where he proceeded toward
the very notable undertaking of building a wagon road across the Sierra
Nevadas to Hangtown, early Placerville. With the rest of the Utah Saints,
he was recalled to Salt Lake in the fall of 1857.

Layton arrived at St. David February 24, 1883. In May he organized wards
on the Gila, at Pima, Thatcher, Graham and Curtis, under Jos. K. Rogers,
John M. Moody, Jorgen Jorgensen and Moses Curtis. In March of the next
year, he organized Layton branch near Safford.

President Layton's own story of his advent in the Gila Valley includes:

"The Saints were wanting to settle close together, so I bought a 600-acre
tract of land of a syndicate living in Tucson. Then I bought out the
squatters' rights and improvements by taking quit-claim deeds of them.
Thus I was in a position to help the Saints to get homes. In July I
bought 320 acres of Peter Anderson (adjoining the other tract) and laid
it out in a townsite which we named Thatcher. I built a three-roomed
adobe house in Thatcher ward (it being the second house built on the
townsite) and we moved into it. I gave a lot for a schoolhouse and the
few Saints who were settling here then built an adobe building on it. The
mesquite was so thick that when we tried to go any place we were very
fortunate if we did not get lost. I gave the Seventies a lot, but they
never made any use of it; also gave the bishop a lot for tithing
purposes. The Academy was afterward built on it."

Layton, aided by his many sons, was active in business, as well as in the
faith, operating stores, a flour mill, an ice factory and a number of
stage lines, one of which stretched all the way from Bowie Station
through the Gila Valley, to Globe, and, through the Tonto Basin, to Pine
and Fort Verde, the longest stage mail line in the Southwest at the time.

The transfer of headquarters of St. Joseph Stake appears to have been
determined upon very soon after the arrival of Layton at St. David. One
of his counselors, David P. Kimball, visited Smithville March 10, 1883,
and in May Layton himself was on the ground, visiting Smithville (Pima)
and Safford. There was approval of the new settlement of Curtis on May 10
and on the 13th was location of the townsite of Thatcher.

At this time there appears to have been determination to move
headquarters of the Stake from St. David to Smithville, where the first
formal quarterly conference of the Stake was held June 3. No record can
be found of this transfer nor of the subsequent change to Thatcher.


A New Leader on the Gila

In 1897 President Layton's health declined and on January 27, 1898, he
was released from his spiritual office, to which was appointed Andrew
Kimball, this with a letter from President Wilford Woodruff, expressing
the highest appreciation of Layton's labors. Christopher Layton left
Arizona June 13, 1898, for his old home in Kaysville, Utah, where he died
August 7. At a reunion, about six years ago, of the Layton descendants
and their families, were present 594 individuals.

Andrew Kimball, successor to the presidency of St. Joseph Stake, had
formal installation January 30, 1898, at the hands of Apostles John Henry
Smith and John W. Taylor, at the same time there being general
reorganization of the Church subdivision. President Kimball, who still
most actively is in office, is a son of the noted Apostle Heber C.
Kimball, First Counselor to President Brigham Young. President Kimball
from the very first showed keen enthusiasm in the work of upbuilding his
community. In October of the year of his installation he returned to
Utah, like the spies returned from the land of Canaan, bringing equally
large stories of the fertility of the new land. Instead of bearing a huge
bunch of grapes, he had to take with him photographs, in order to secure
reception of his stories of corn that was sixteen feet tall, Johnson
grass eight feet high, a sweet potato that weighed 36 pounds, of peaches
too big to go into the mouth of a preserving jar, sunflower stalks that
were used for fence poles, weeds that had to be cut with an ax and sugar
cane that grew four years from one planting. On the strength of his
enthusiasm, very material additions were made to the population of the
Gila Valley, and the President even yet keeps busy in missionary work,
not only of his Church, but work calculated to assist in the upbuilding
of the Southwest along irrigated agricultural lines.


Church Academies of Learning

Every Mormon community gives especial attention to its schools, for
education in the regard of the people follows closely after their
consideration of spiritual affairs. The normal schools of the State
always have had a very large percentage of the youth of the faith,
training to be teachers.

Three of the four Arizona Stakes maintain academies, wherein the
curriculum also carries religious instruction. The largest of the three
Church schools, at Thatcher, lately was renamed the Gila Normal College.
It was established in January, 1891, under instruction that had been
received over two years before from the general Church Board of
Education. Its first sessions were in the meetinghouse at Central, with
Joy Dunion as principal. The second year's work was at Thatcher, where
the old adobe meetinghouse was occupied. Thereafter a tithing house was
used and was expanded for the growing necessities of the school, which
has been in continuous operation ever since, with the exception of two
years following 1896, when the finances of the Stake were at low ebb. The
academy was revived on assumption of Andrew Kimball to the Stake
Presidency, under Principal Emil Maeser, he a son of one of Utah's most
noted educators. Andrew C. Peterson has been in charge of the school most
of the time since 1906. In 1909 was occupied a new building, erected and
furnished at a cost of about $35,000. Leland H. Creer now is principal.

At St. Johns the St. Johns Stake Academy was founded January 14, 1889,
with John W. Brown as its first principal. The present building was
dedicated December 16, 1900. Howard Blazzard now is in active charge,
while Stake President David K. Udall, first president of the Academy's
Board, still occupies the same position, after 27 years of service.

The Snowflake Stake Academy was founded, with E.M. Webb in charge, only a
week later than that of St. Johns. The two institutions for many years
were the only means provided for local education, beyond the grammar
grades. At Snowflake industrial and agricultural courses are given
prominence in the curriculum. Thanksgiving Day, 1910, fire destroyed the
large school building, which was replaced by a more modern structure,
that cost $35,000 and that was dedicated Thanksgiving Day, 1913. For
years the school was directed by Joseph Peterson.

At Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert are maintained seminaries, mainly for
advanced instruction in Church doctrine.




Chapter Twenty-four

Movement Into Mexico


Looking Over the Land

The Mormon settlement of Mexico, as elsewhere told, was a cherished plan
of Brigham Young, who saw to the southward a land wherein his Church, its
doctrines and influence could find room for expansion. He died while
the southern migration started by him still was far short of a Mexican
destination, though that country had been explored to an extent by
several missionary parties.

The first Mormons to enter Mexico were the soldiers of the Mormon
Battalion who, in 1846, passed south of the Gila in Mexican territory,
and then entered the present Mexico by a swing of the column southward
from the San Bernardino ranch around to the valley of the San Pedro.
The D.W. Jones party was the first missionary expedition into Mexico,
crossing the Rio Grande at Paso del Norte, the present Juarez, January 7,
1876. The Pratt-Stewart party, including Meliton G. Trejo, was in
northern Mexico early in '77, and small missionary parties followed
thereafter from time to time.

November 15, 1879, Apostle Moses Thatcher was in Mexico City with J.Z.
Stewart and Trejo, there founding the first organization of the Church
within the Republic.

Decided impetus was given the southward movement when it became evident
that the national prosecution against plural marriage was to be pushed to
the extreme. January 4, 1883, with the idea of finding an asylum for the
Saints in Mexico, Apostle Thatcher traveled from St. David on the San
Pedro, to the southeast as far as Corralitos, where some arrangement was
made for lands. In the following September, another party from St. David
explored the country along the Babispe River. Still more important,
November 2, 1884, Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and Heber J. Grant
investigated the Yaqui River section of Sonora, this with three companies
of prospective settlers from the Salt River, Gila and San Pedro Valleys,
together with some additions from Salt Lake.

In January, 1885, migration was under personal charge of President John
Taylor, who, after a notable conference at St. David, as noted in the
history of that section, led a party southward into Sonora and held a
satisfactory conference with Governor Torres, yet made no settlement. In
the same month, however, notation has been found that Alexander F.
Macdonald was at Corralitos, Chihuahua, from Mesa. A few parties were in
that locality in February, 1885, one expedition of seventy having come
from Arizona, under Captain Noble. Something of a setback was known when,
on April 9, 1885, the Governor of Chihuahua ordered departure of all
Mormon settlers within his State. Apostles Young and Thatcher, May 18,
visited the City of Mexico and secured from the federal government
permission for the immigrants to remain.


Colonization in Chihuahua

It was in 1886 that the main Mormon exodus traveled across the border.
The way had been prepared by the organization of a Colorado corporation,
the Mexican Colonization & Agricultural Company, this under the
management of Anthony W. Ivins, a northern Arizona pioneer. This company
had been granted the usual colonists' privileges, including the
introduction, without duty, of livestock, agricultural implements and
household effects, but had no special concessions. It was given the usual
exemption from taxation for ten years. Through this company, land was
acquired at Colonia Juarez and Colonia Diaz, by purchase from Ignacio
Gomez del Campo and others. Payment was made with money that had been
donated in Utah and from Church funds.

Colonies were established, in which were consolidated the Mormons already
south of the line and the newcomers. Diaz was on the Janos River, near
the Mexican town of Ascension, and Colonia Juarez was 75 miles upstream
on a branch of the Janos river, the Piedras Verdes. At the former place
about 100,000 acres were acquired and at the latter 25,000. A prior
settlement at Corralitos had been established in the fall of 1884. Juarez
had the first meeting-house, built January 31, 1886, but the town had to
be moved two miles, in January, 1887, on discovery that the site was
outside of the lands that had been purchased.

Largely from data secured from Mr. Ivins is found much of detail
concerning northern Mexican settlement. One important step was the
acquirement in 1886, of 100,000 acres of Mexican government timber land
in the Sierra Madre Mountains, near Colonia Juarez, and on this tract was
established Colonia Pacheco, wherein the main industry was lumbering.
Then two other mountain tracts were acquired, of 6000 acres each, upon
which were established Colonia Garcia and Colonia Chuichupa, sixteen
miles to the southwest of Colonia Juarez. In 1889 was established Colonia
Dublan, upon a 60,000-acre tract that was most valuable of all,
considered agriculturally. Naturally this became the strongest of all the
settlements of the colonist company.

There had been exploration, however, to the westward, in the State of
Sonora, and in 1896, a tract of 110,000 acres was acquired on the Babispe
River. There was established Colonia Oaxaca. The land was mainly valuable
for grazing, but some good farming land was along the river. Twenty-five
miles below Oaxaca, three years later was acquired a tract of 25,000
acres, whereon Colonia Morelos was established, to be the center of an
agricultural section, with attached grazing land.


Prosperity in an Alien Land

As colonization generally was directed from a central agency, each of the
colonies had somewhat the same method of establishment and of operation,
this founded upon the experience of the people in Utah and Arizona. There
would be laid out a townsite, near which would be small tracts of garden
land, and farther away larger tracts of agricultural and grazing land,
sold to the colonists at cost with ample time for payment, title
remaining in the company until all the purchase price had been paid. In
each colony one of the very first public works was erection of a
schoolhouse, used as a house of worship and for public hall, as well.
Graduates from the colony grammar schools could be sent to an academy at
Colonia Juarez, where four years' high school work was given. Skilled
teachers were secured wherever possible. Instruction was free, both to
the children of the colonists and to the Mexicans. Wherever sufficient
school maintenance could not be provided, the deficiency was made up by
the Church.

In each colony the rough homes of adobe or rock later were replaced by
houses of lumber or brick, until, it is told, these Mexican towns were
among the best built known in the Southwest.

Agriculture was notably successful. There were fine orchards, vegetables
were abundant and good crops of grain and potatoes were known. The best
breeds of cattle and horses were imported and improved agricultural
machinery was brought in. Hundreds of miles of roads were constructed by
the colonists, turned over to the government without cost, and taxation
was cheerfully paid on the same basis as known by neighboring Mexican
settlements.

Wherever water could be developed were well-surveyed ditches, heading on
the Casas Grandes, Janos and Babispe Rivers and their tributaries,
though, without reservoirs, there often was shortage of water. Water
power was used for the operation of grist and lumber mills and even for
electric lighting. By 1912 there were five lumber and shingle mills,
three grist mills, three tanneries, a shoe factory and other
manufacturing industries and there was added a telephone system, reaching
all Chihuahua colonies.

In general, relations with the Mexican government and with the
neighboring Mexicans appear to have been cordial. Possibly the best
instance of this lies in an anecdote concerning the visit to the
Chihuahua State Fair of President Porfirio Diaz. There he saw a
remarkable exhibit of industry and frugality presented by the Mormon
colonies, including saddles and harness, fruit, fresh and preserved,
and examples of the work of the schools. Then it was the General
fervently exclaimed, "What could I not do with my beloved Mexico if I
only had more citizens and settlers like the Mormons."

The colonists took no part in the politics of the country. Only a few
became Mexican citizens. Junius S. Romney stated that in each settlement
pride was taken in maintaining the best ideals of American government.
Occasionally there was irritation, mainly founded upon the difference
between the American and Mexican judicial systems. According to Ammon M.
Tenney, in all the years of Mormon occupation, not a single colonist was
convicted of a crime of any sort whatever. In 1912 the colonists numbered
4225.


Abandonment of the Mountain Colonies

At the break-up of the Diaz government, May 25, 1911, fear and disorder
succeeded peaceful conditions that had been known in the mountain
settlements. Sections of Chihuahua were dominated by Villa, Salazar,
Lopez, Gomez and other revolutionary leaders. A volume might be written
upon the experiences of the colonists on the eastern side of the
mountains. There would appear to have been little prejudice against them
and little actual antagonism, but they had amassed a wealth that was
needed by the revolutionary forces, and there were recurring demands
upon them for horses, wagons, supplies, ammunition and finally for all
weapons. Patience and diplomacy were needed in the largest degree in the
conferences with the Mexican military leaders. Soon it was evident,
however, that nothing remained but flight to the United States. July 29,
1912, most of the settlers were hurried aboard a train, almost without
time in which to change their clothing. The stores and public buildings
were closed. The colonists were huddled, with small personal property,
into boxcars or cattle cars and hauled from Colonia Dublan to El Paso.
There, there was immediate assistance by the City of El Paso and the
United States government, soon reinforced by friends and relatives in
Arizona and Utah. At one time 1500 Mormon refugees were encamped in El
Paso.

A. W. Ivins tells:

"As soon as the colonists were gone, a campaign of looting and
destruction was commenced by the Mexican revolutionist and local Mexicans
near the colonies. The stores were broken into and looted of hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. Private homes were treated in
the same manner. Livestock was appropriated, until almost every available
thing was carried away or destroyed. There was little wanton destruction
of property except at Colonia Diaz, where the better part of the
residences and public buildings was burned. The homes and farm buildings
were not destroyed."

Some of the colonists returned as soon as a degree of safety was assured,
to check up the property remaining and to plan for the eventual return of
their people. But again there had to be an exodus, this late in December,
1915. At that time it is told that Villa was only a few miles away,
preparing to march upon the Mormon settlements, with all orders given to
that end. But in the morning the plans were changed, apparently by
celestial intervention, and he marched his men in another direction, into
the Galiana Valley.

On one of the flights, after all but the most vigorous of the men had
departed, there came peremptory demand for surrender of all arms and
ammunition. Some guns were surrendered, but the best had been deposited
at a mountain rendezvous. To that point the men hurried and, well-armed
and well-mounted, made their way by mountain trails to the border,
avoiding conflict with Mexican bands that sought to bar the way.


Sad Days for the Sonora Colonists

In 1905 was known a disastrous flood, which at Oaxaca swept away forty
brick houses, though without loss of life. At Morelos a number of houses
were swept away and about 1000 acres of choice farming land was rendered
worthless. Then Morelos and Oaxaca colonists in the Batepito Valley,
nine miles north of Morelos, founded Colonia San Jose, with new canals,
in addition to those of the Babispe. In 1912, Colonia Morelos had in
granary over 50,000 bushels of wheat, while the orchards, gardens and
alfalfa fields had produced an abundance. These Sonora colonists had 4000
acres of cultivated and fenced lands.

A flour mill was operated, succeeding one that had been destroyed by fire
of incendiary origin. The Morelos canal had cost $12,000. Many local
industries had been established, a good schoolhouse was in each
settlement and no saloons were tolerated. In general, there was good
treatment from the national Mexican government, though "local authorities
had demands called very oppressive and overbearing."

War came to the western colonies in November, 1911, on the arrival of a
band of seventy men under Isidro Escobosa, repulsed at El Tigre and
fleeing to Morelos, followed by federal cavalry, who are reported to have
been at least as destructive as the bandits. Thereafter was continuous
grief for the colonists. In June, 1500 federals were quartered on the
streets and in the school buildings at Morelos, with open depredations
upon the settlers' personal property, and scandalous conditions from
which no appeal was effective. There then was demand for wagons and
teamsters to accompany the federals. The settlers sent their horses into
secret places in the mountains and thus saved most of them. Much the same
conditions were known at Oaxaca.

When it became evident that Mexican conditions were unendurable, the sick
and the older people were sent into the United States. August 30, 1912,
following news that the rebel Salazar, was marching into Sonora, a large
number of women and children were sent northward. Sixty wagons
constituted the expedition, carrying 450 people. The journey was through
a rough country, in which there was one fatal accident, and in the rainy
season, with attendant hardship. At Douglas was cordial reception, with
assistance by the United States and by citizens. September 3, still more
of the women and children went northward, leaving about 25 men in the
colonies, as guards.

Occasional parties kept up connection between the border and the colonies
for some time thereafter. A few of the expeditions were captured by the
Mexicans and robbed.

The colonies had been entirely abandoned for some time when a Mormon
party from Douglas returned on a scouting trip. According to a chronicler
of the period:

"On arriving at the colonies they found that every house had been looted
and everything of value taken, sewing machines and furniture ruthlessly
smashed up and lying around as debris, while house organs, which were to
be found in nearly every Mormon home, were heaps of kindling wood. The
carcasses of dead animals lay about the streets, doors and windows were
smashed in, stores gutted and the contents strewn everywhere about, while
here and there a cash register or some other modern appliance gave
evidence of the hand of prejudice-destroying ignorance."

In October, Consul Dye of Douglas made a formal inspection.

Some of the colonists returned when conditions apparently had bettered,
and there is at hand a record of what may be considered to have been the
final abandonment. In the first days of May, 1914, at Douglas, 92
Americans from the three Sonora colonies, arrived in 21 wagons, being the
last of the colonists. They practically had been ordered out, after
having been notified by the American Secretary of State that the
protection of their country would not be extended to them. Most of their
property was left behind, at the mercy of the Mexican authorities.


Congressional Inquiry

In September, 1912, at El Paso, was an investigation under the terms of a
Senate resolution, which sought to find whether the Mexican troubles had
been incited by American citizens or corporations. Senator Smith of
Michigan was chairman of the committee. At the hearings there was
repeated inquiry apparently seeking to demonstrate that the Standard Oil
Company, to a degree, was responsible for the Madera revolution. There
also was considerable inquiry, apparently hostile, seeking to define
ulterior reasons why the Mormons should have chosen Mexico as an abiding
place. The investigation covered all parts of Mexico where American
interests had suffered, and only incidentally touched the Mormon
settlements. There was ample evidence to the effect that the Mormons
retained their American citizenship and American customs, that they had
lived in amity with the former stable Mexican government, that any
troubles they may have had were not due to any actions of their own, but
to the desire for loot on the part of the roaming national and
revolutionary soldiery and that their departure was forced and necessary.
No especial definition seems to have been given to the exact amount of
the loss suffered, but there was agreement that the damage done to these
American citizens was very large. At the outbreak of the revolution,
according to evidence presented, guarantees had been received by the
Mormons from both of the major Mexican factions, but, when these
guarantees were referred to, General Salazar sententiously observed,
"They are but words."


Repopulation of the Mexican Colonies

A few valiant souls returned to the colonies and remained as best they
could, forming nuclei for others who have drifted back from time to time,
though neither their going nor coming was under direct Church
instruction.

Early in 1920, President J.C. Bentley of the Juarez Stake told of the
revival of the Mexican missions, and in the latter part of the same year,
A.W. Ivins, returning from the Chihuahua colonies, told that 779
colonists were found, approximately one-fifth of the total number of
refugees. To a degree their property had been maintained and their
orchards kept alive by the few who had remained over the troublous
period. The academy at Colonia Juarez had been running some time, with
100 students. He told of the great work of reconstruction that would have
to be done, in restoration of fences and homes, and expressed confidence
that all now would be well under the more stable government that has been
provided in the southern republic.

There was restoration of order in Mexico in 1920 and assumption of an
apparently stable political government under President Alvaro Obregon, a
Sonora citizen, with whom is associated P. Elias Calles, who had somewhat
to do with the Morelos-Oaxaca troubles. Assurances have been given that
protection will be extended to all immigrants, the Mormon land titles
have been accepted and a fresh movement southward has been started across
the border. But there are many, possibly a half of those who fled, who
will not return. They have established themselves, mainly in Arizona,
under conditions they do not care to leave. So, it is probable, further
extension southward of the Church plans of agricultural settlement will
be a task that will lie upon the shoulders of a younger generation.




Chapter Twenty-five

Modern Development


Oases Have Grown in the Desert

The Mormons of Arizona today are not to be considered in the same manner
as have been their forebears. The older generation came in pilgrimages,
wholly within the faith, sent to break the wilderness for generations to
come. These pioneers must be considered in connection with their faith,
for through that faith and its supporting Church were they sent on their
southward journeyings. Thus it happens that "Mormon settlement" was
something apart and distinctive in the general development of Arizona and
of the other southwestern sections into which Mormon influences were
taken. It has not been sought in this work even to infer that Mormons in
anywise had loftier aspirations than were possessed by any other pioneer
people of religious and law-abiding sort. However, there must be
statement that the Mormons were alone in their idea of extension in
concrete agricultural communities. Such communities were founded on
well-developed ideals, that had nothing in common with the usual frontier
spirit. They contained no drinking places or disorderly resorts and in
them rarely were breaches of the peace. Without argument, this could have
been accomplished by any other religious organization. Something of the
sort has been done by other churches elsewhere in America. But in the
Southwest such work of development on a basis of religion was done only
by the Mormons.

There was need for the sustaining power of Celestial Grace upon the
average desert homestead, where the fervent sun lighted an expanse of dry
and unpromising land. The task of reclamation in the earlier days would
have been beyond the ability and resources of any colonists not welded
into some sort of mutual organization. This welding had been accomplished
among the Mormons even before the wagon trains started southward.
Thereafter all that was needed was industry, as directed by American
intelligence.


Prosperity Has Succeeded Privation

Today the Mormon population of Arizona does not exceed 25,000, within a
total population of over 300,000. The relative percentage of strength,
however, is larger than the figures indicate, this due, somewhat, to the
fact that the trend of Mormon progress still is by way of cultivation of
the soil. Of a verity, a family head upon a farm, productive and
independent, is of larger value to the community and of more importance
therein than is the average city dweller.

The immigrant from Utah who came between 1876 and 1886 no longer has the
old ox-bowed wagon. His travel nowadays is by automobile. His log or
adobe hut has been replaced by a handsome modern home. His children have
had education and have been reared in comfort that never knew lack of
food. Most of the Mormon settlements no longer are exclusively Mormon.
There has come a time when immigration, by rail, has surrounded and
enveloped the foundations established by the pioneers.

To the newer generation this work is addressed especially, though its
dedication, of right, is to the men and women who broke the trails and
whose vision of the future has been proven true. Many of the pioneers
remain and share with their children in the benefits of the civilization
that here they helped to plant. The desert wilderness has been broken and
in its stead oases are expanding, oases filled with a population proud of
its Americanism, prosperous through varied industry and blessed with
consideration for the rights of the neighbor.




BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bancroft, Hubert Howe,
  History of Arizona and New Mexico,
  History of Nevada,
  History of California: San Francisco, 1889.
Bartlett, John R.,
  Personal Narrative: Appleton, 1854.
Beadle, S.H.,
  Western Wilds: Jones Bros., Cincinnati, 1878.
Church Chronology,
  Deseret News, Salt Lake.
Church Historian's Office,
  Mss. data of Arizona Stakes and Wards.
Cooke, Col. P. St. George,
  Conquest of New Mexico and California: Putnam's Sons, New York, 1878.
Dellenbaugh, F.S.,
  Breaking the Wilderness: Putnam's Sons, 1908.
  The Romance of the Colorado River: 1909.
  A Canyon Voyage, New York, 1908.
Donaldson, Thomas,
  Moqui Pueblo Indians: Census Bureau, 1893.
Englehardt, Rev. Zephyrin,
  Missions of California: 4 vols., Barry Co., San Francisco, 1905-15.
Farish, Thos. E.,
  History of Arizona: 8 vols., Filmer Co., San Francisco, 1915-18.
Fish, Joseph,
  Mss. History of Arizona.
Gregory, Herbert,
  The Navajo Country: Interior Dept., 1916.
Hamblin, Jacob,
  Personal Narrative, by Little: Deseret News, 1909.
Hinton, R.J.,
  Handbook to Arizona: Payot-Upham, San Francisco, 1878.
Hodge, F.W.,
  Handbook of the American Indians: Bureau of American Ethnology.
James, Dr. Geo. Wharton,
  In and Around the Grand Canyon: Little-Brown Co., Boston, 1900.
Jenson, Andrew,
  Biographical Encyclopedia: 3 vols. Deseret News, 1900, 1910, 1920.
Jones, D.W.,
  Forty Years Among the Indians: Salt Lake, 1890.
Layton, Christopher,
  Autobiography (Mrs. Selina L. Phillips, John Q. Cannon): Deseret News,
1911.
McClintock, Jas. H.,
  History of Arizona: 2 vols., Clarke Co., Chicago, 1916.
Munk, Dr. J.A.,
  Arizona Sketches: Grafton Press, N.Y., 1905
Powell, J.W.,
  Canyons of the Colorado: Flood-Vincent, Meadville, Penn., 1895.
Roberts, B.H.,
  History of the Mormon Church: Salt Lake.
Standage, Henry,
  Mss. Story of Mormon Battalion.
Twitchell, Ralph W.,
  Leading facts of New Mexican History: Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, IA.,
1911.
Tyler, Daniel,
  Mormon Battalion: Salt Lake, 1881.
Whitney, Orson F.,
  History of Utah: 3 vols., Geo. Q. Cannon Co., Salt Lake, 1892.




MORMON SETTLEMENT PLACE NAMES

(Capital letters indicate present settlement names)
See map of Arizona

ADAIR, Fools Hollow--2 1/2 m. w. of Showlow
ALGODON, Lebanon--7 m. se. of Thatcher
ALMA, Stringtown--about 1 m. w. of Mesa
Allen City, Allen Camp, Cumorah, ST. JOSEPH--Little Colorado settlement
ALPINE, Frisco, Bush Valley--60 m. se. of St. Johns
Apache Springs--at Forest Dale
Apache Springs--sw. of Pinetop, Cooley's last ranch
Amity and Omer, Union, EAGAR--upper Round Valley
Arivaipa Canyon--western route Gila Valley to San Pedro
ARTESIA--in Gila Valley, about 18 m. se. of Thatcher
ASHURST, Redlands, Cork--about 15 m. nw. of Thatcher

Badger Creek--on Mormon wagon road 10 m. w. of Lee's Ferry
Bagley, Walker, TAYLOR--3 m. s. of Snowflake
Ballenger, Brigham City--was Little Colorado town
Beaver Dams, LITTLEFIELD, Millersburg--nw. corner of State
Beaver Ranch, Woolf Ranch, Lone Pine Crossing, Reidhead--12 m. s. of
  Snowflake
Berardo, Horsehead Crossing, HOLBROOK--on Little Colorado
Binghampton--6 m. n. of Tucson; near Ft. Lowell
Bisbee--in se. Arizona, near Mexican border
Bitter Springs--on Mormon road, 18 m. s. of Lee's Ferry
Black Falls--on Little Colorado, 56 m. s. of Moen Copie
BLUEWATER--in New Mexico on rr. 107 m. w. of Albuquerque
Bonelli's, STONE'S FERRY--near mouth of Virgin r.
Brigham City, Ballenger--was Little Colorado r. settlement
Buckskin Mountains--between Kanab and Colorado r.
BUNKERVILLE--Muddy settlement, 45 m. sw. of St. George
Burke Tanks--On road Pleasant Valley to Grand Falls
BRYCE--in Gila Valley, 2 m. n. of Pima
Bush Valley, Frisco, ALPINE--60 m. se. of St. Johns

CALLVILLE, Call's Landing--16 m. w. of mouth of Virgin r.
CEDAR RIDGE--on Mormon road, 33 m. s. of Lee's Ferry
Cedar Ridge--10 m. ne. of Pleasant Valley
Cedar Springs--Barney & Norton Double "N" ranch, 30 m. sw. of Thatcher
CENTRAL--3 m. w. of Thatcher, in Gila Valley
CHANDLER--8 m. s. of Mesa
Clark's Ranch--Just off Ft. Apache road, near Showlow
Clay Springs--Snowflake Stake
Cluffs Cienega--6 m. e. of Pinetop, embraces new town of Cooley
COLTER--17 m. se. of Springerville
Columbine--near top of Mt. Graham, Graham Co.
COOLEY--at lumber camp near Pinetop, rr. terminus
Cooley's ranch--At Showlow--C.E. Cooley's first ranch
Cooley's ranch--where C.E. Cooley died, sw. of Pinetop
Cumorah, Allen's Camp, ST. JOSEPH--Little Colorado settlement
CONCHO, Erastus--about half way between Snowflake and St. Johns
Cork, Redlands, ASHURST--15 m. nw. of Thatcher
Crossing of the Fathers, Vado de los Padres, El Vado, Ute Crossing,
  Ute Ford--Colorado river crossing just n. of Utah line
Curtis, EDEN--about 15 m. nw. of Thatcher, in Gila Valley

DOUGLAS--near Mexican border, se. Arizona

EAGAR, Round Valley--2 m. s. of Springerville
Eagle Valley--upper end of Muddy Valley
Eastern Arizona Stake--1878. Included wards e. of Holbrook in ne. Arizona
East Pinedale, PINEDALE--15 m. sw. of Snowflake
East Verde--Mazatzal City--was near Payson, in n. Tonto Basin
EDEN, Curtis--about 15 m. nw. of Thatcher in Gila Valley
Ellsworth--was 1-3/4 m. s. of Showlow
Emery--w. of Fort Thomas in Gila Valley
Enterprise--was near San Jose, 15 m. e. of Thatcher
Erastus, CONCHO--about half way between Snowflake and St. Johns
Eureka Springs--in Arivaipa Valley about 25 m. sw. of Thatcher

Fairview, LAKESIDE, Woodland--about 30 m. s. of Snowflake
Fairview, Matthews, GLENBAR--10 m. nw. of Thatcher in Gila Valley
Fools Hollow, ADAIR--in ravine 2-1/2 m. w. of Showlow
Forest Dale--8 m. sw. of Showlow
FORT DEFIANCE--near N.M. line 30 m. n. of Santa Fe rr.
Fort Milligan--was 1 m. w. of present Eagar
Fort Moroni, Fort Rickerson--7 m. nw. of Flagstaff in LeRoux Flat
Fort Thomas--in Gila Valley, 22 m. nw. of Thatcher
Fort Utah, Utahville, Jonesville, LEHI--3 m. ne. of Mesa
FRANKLIN--near N.M. line 50 m. e. of Thatcher
FREDONIA, Hardscrabble--3 m. s. of Utah line, 8 m. s. of Kanab
Frisco, ALPINE, Bush Valley--near N.M. line 60 m. se. of St. Johns

Gila Valley--in Graham Co., in se. Arizona
GILBERT--6 m. se. of Mesa
GLENBAR, Fairview, Matthews--10 m. w. of Thatcher in Gila Valley
GLOBE--80 m. nw. of Thatcher
GRAHAM--across the Gila river n. of Thatcher
Grand Falls--on Little Colorado, 5 m. below ford and 47 m. below Winslow
Grand Wash--leads s. of St. George into Colorado r.
Grant, Heber, LUNA--across N.M. line, 40 m. se. of Springerville
GREER--15 m. sw. of Eagar

HARDYVILLE--landing on Colorado, about 90 m. s. of Callville Hayden,
  Zenos, Mesaville, MESA--Headquarters of Maricopa Stake, 16 m. e. of
  Phoenix
HAYDEN--35 m. s. of Globe
Hayden's Ferry, San Pablo, TEMPE--9 m. e. of Phoenix
Heber, Grant, LUNA--across N. M. line, 40 m. se. of Springerville
HEBER--near Wilford, 50 m. sw. of Holbrook
HEREFORD--on San Pedro, 33 m. s. of St. David
HOLBROOK, Horsehead Crossing, Berardo--on Little Colorado
Horsehead Crossing, Berardo, HOLBROOK--on Little Colorado
House Rock Springs--on Mormon road, 38 m. sw. of Lee's Ferry
HUBBARD--6 m. nw. of Thatcher
HUNT--on Little Colorado, 17 m. nw. of St. Johns

Jacob's Pools--on Mormon road, 27 m. sw. of Lee's Ferry
JOHNSON'S--on Mormon road, 14 m. ne. of Kanab, n. of Utah line
Johnsonville, Nephi--was successor of Tempe ward, 3 m. w. of Mesa
Jonesville, Utahville, Ft. Utah, LEHI--3 m. ne. of Mesa
Joppa--in Snowflake Stake
Junction (City), RIOVILLE--at junction of Muddy r. with Virgin r.
Juniper, LINDEN--8 m. w. of Showlow

KANAB--just n. of Utah line, about 65 m. e. of St. George

LAKESIDE, Fairview, Woodland--ward 30 m. s. of Snowflake
LAVEEN--on Salt River, 12 m. sw. of Phoenix
LAYTON--3 m. e. of Thatcher
Lebanon, ALGODON--in cotton district, 7 m. se. of Thatcher
Lee Valley--15 m. sw. of Eagar
LEE'S FERRY, Lonely Dell--on Colorado r., 18 m. s. of Utah line
LEHI, Jonesville, Utahville, Ft. Utah--ward 3 m. ne. of Mesa
LeRoux Springs and Flat--about 7 m. nw. of Flagstaff, location of Ft.
  Moroni
Limestone Tanks--on Mormon road, 27 m. s. of Lee's Ferry
LINDEN, Juniper--8 m. w. of Showlow
Little Colorado Stake--first Arizona Stake, embraced Little Colorado
  settlements
LITTLEFIELD, Beaver Dams, Millersburg--on Virgin r., 3 m. e. of Nevada
  line
LOGAN, West Point--s. of Muddy r., 15 m. w. of St. Joseph
Lonely Dell, LEE'S FERRY--crossing on Colorado r., 18 m. s. of Utah line
Lone Pine, Beaver ranch, Woolf ranch, Reidhead--12 m. s. of Snowflake
LUNA (Valley), Grant, Heber--across N.M. line, 40 m. se. of Springerville

Macdonald--on San Pedro, 5 m. s. of St. David
MARICOPA STAKE--Headquarters at Mesa
Matthews, Fairview, GLENBAR--10 m. nw. of Thatcher in Gila Valley
Mazatzal City--in Tonto Basin, on East Verde r.
McClellan Tanks--on Mormon road, about 35 m. s. of Lee's Ferry
Meadows--on Little Colorado r., 8 m. nw. of St. Johns
MESA, Hayden, Zenos, Mesaville--Maricopa Stake Headquarters, 16 m. e. of
  Phoenix
MESQUITE--on n. side of Virgin r., 1 m. w. of Nevada line
MIAMI--6 m. w. of Globe, 86 m. nw. of Thatcher
Milligan Fort--was 1 m. w. of present Eagar
Millersburg, Beaver Dams, LITTLEFIELD--on Virgin r., nw. corner of
  Arizona
Millville--was on Mogollon plateau, 35 m. s. of Flagstaff
Mill Point--6 m. nw. of St. Thomas on Muddy r.
Miramonte--9 m. w. of Benson
Moaby, Moa Ave, Moen Abi, Moanabby--7 m. sw. of Tuba, 60 m. s. of Lee's
  Ferry
MOCCASIN SPRINGS--3 m. n. of Pipe Springs
MOEN COPIE--was mission headquarters, 2 m. s. of Tuba
Mohave Spring--in Moen Copie wash, s. of Tuba
Mormon Dairy--near Mormon Lake, belonged to Sunset and Brigham City
Mormon Lake--about 28 m. se. of Flagstaff, 50 m. w. of Sunset
Mormon Road--west extension of Spanish Trail, St. George to Los Angeles
Mormon Road--wagon road from Lee's Ferry to Little Colorado r.
Mormon Range--at head of Muddy Valley, now se. Nevada
Mormon Flat--on Apache Trail, Phoenix to Globe, 20 m. ne. of Mesa
Mormon Fort--n. of Las Vegas, in Nevada
Mortensen, Percheron, East Pinedale--Just e. of Pinedale settlement
Mt. Carmel, Winsor--United Order ward in Long Valley n. of Kanab, Utah
Mt. Trumbull--in Uinkarat Mnts., 30 m. w. of mouth of Kanab Wash
Mt. Turnbull--37 m. nw. of Thatcher
Muddy, river and valley, in present Nevada, near nw. corner of Arizona
Musha Springs--just s. of Tuba, townsite of Tuba City, n. of Moen Copie

Navajo, Savoia, RAMAH--in N. M., 22 m. n. of Zuni, 80 m. ne. of St. Johns
Navajo Spring--on Mormon road, 8 m. s. of Lee's Ferry
Navajo Wells--16 m. e. of Kanab, in Utah, foot of Buckskin mts.
Nephi, Johnsonville--was successor of Tempe ward, 3 m. w. of Mesa
NUTRIOSO--17 m. se. of Springerville

Obed--was on Little Colorado r., 3 m. sw., across river, from St. Joseph
Omer and Amity, Union, EAGAR--in lower Round Valley, Apache Co.
OVERTON, Patterson's Ranch--8 m. nw. of St. Thomas, Nevada
ORAIBI--Indian village, about 40 m. se. of Moen Copie
Orderville--was United Order ward in Long Valley, n. of Kanab, in Utah

PAPAGO--Indian ward on both sides of Salt r., just nw. of Mesa.
Paria River--enters Colorado r. from n., just above Lee's Ferry
Patterson's Ranch, OVERTON--8 m. nw. of St. Thomas, Nevada
PAYSON--in upper Tonto Basin, 75 m. w. of Showlow
Peach Springs--10 m. ne. of station of same name on Santa Fe, 58 m. w. of
  Ash Fork
Pearce's Ferry--Colorado r. crossing at mouth of Grand Wash
Penrod, PINETOP--12 m. se. of Showlow
Percheron, Mortensen, PINEDALE--15 1/2 m. w. of Showlow
PHOENIX--Capital of Arizona, in Salt River Valley
PIMA, Smithville--in Gila Valley, 6 m. nw. of Thatcher
PINE--on Pine Creek, Tonto Basin, 70 m. w. of n. of Roosevelt dam
PINEDALE, Percheron, Mortensen--15-1/2 m. w. of Showlow
Pine Springs--near Pine Creek in Tonto Basin
PINETOP, Penrod--12 m. se. of Showlow
PIPE SPRINGS, Winsor Castle--on Mormon road, 20 m. sw. of Kanab
PLEASANTON--in Williams Valley, N. M., 36 m. s. of Luna Valley
PLEASANT VALLEY--location of sawmill and dairy, 25 m. se. of Flagstaff
POMERENE--4 m. n. and e. of Benson

RAMAH, Navajo, Savoia--in N. M., 80 m. ne. of St. Johns
RAY--25 m. sw. of Globe
Redlands, ASHURST, Cork--about 15 m. nw. of Thatcher
REIDHEAD, Beaver Ranch, Woolf Crossing, Lone Pine Crossing--10 m. s. of
  Taylor
RICHVILLE, Walnut Grove, 18 m. s. of St. Johns
RIOVILLE, Junction (City)--junction of Muddy r. with Virgin r.
Round Valley, EAGAR--35 m. s. of St. Johns

ST. JOHNS, Salem--St. Johns Stake hdqrs., 60 m. se. of Holbrook
ST. JOHNS STAKE--Embraces eastern Arizona, n. of Graham Co.
ST. DAVID--on San Pedro r., 7 m. se. of Benson in se. Arizona
ST. JOSEPH--5 m. n. of Overton, n. side of Muddy r., now in Nevada
ST. JOSEPH, Allen Camp, Cumorah--on Little Colorado r., 10 m. w. of
  Holbrook
ST. JOSEPH STAKE--embraces se. Arizona, hdqrs. at Thatcher
ST. THOMAS--w. side of Muddy, 1-3/4 m. above junction with Virgin r.
SAFFORD--3 m. e. of Thatcher
Salem, ST. JOHNS--St. Johns Stake hdqrs., 60 m. se. of Holbrook
Salt Lake--33 m. e. of St. Johns; is in New Mexico
Salt Mountains--Salt deposits on Virgin r., below St. Thomas
San Francisco Mountains--n. of Flagstaff
SAN BERNARDINO, Cal.--about 50 m. e. of Los Angeles
San Bernardino Ranch--in extreme se. comer of Arizona
San Pablo, Hayden's Ferry, TEMPE--9 m. e. of Phoenix
San Pedro--river and valley in se. Arizona
Savoia, Navajo, RAMAH--Savoia was 6 m. e. of present Ramah
SHOWLOW--22 m. s. of Snowflake
SHUMWAY--ward on Silver creek, 7 m. s. of Snowflake
Simonsville--was mill location, 6 m. nw. of St. Thomas
Smithville, PIMA--6 m. nw. of Thatcher, once St. Joseph Stake hdqrs.
SNOWFLAKE--Snowflake Stake hdqrs., 30 m. s. of Holbrook
SNOWFLAKE STAKE--embraces practically Navajo County
Soap Creek (Springs)--on Mormon road, 16 m. sw. of Lee's Ferry
SOLOMONVILLE--e. end of Gila Valley
SPRINGERVILLE--35 m. se. of St. Johns
Stinson Valley--former name of valley in which Snowflake is located
STONE'S FERRY, Bonelli's--Colorado r. crossing, w. of mouth of Virgin r.
Strawberry Valley--in n. Tonto Basin
Sulphur Springs Valley--in se. Arizona
Sunset, Sunset Crossing--Little Colorado r. settlement, 25 m. w. of St.
  Joseph
Sunset Sawmill--was 7 m. s. of Mormon Dairy
Surprise Valley--10 m. nw. of Hunt, along Surprise Creek, 27 m. nw. of
  St. Johns
Surprise Valley--near mouth of Kanab Canyon

Taylor--was settlement across Colorado r., 3 m. w. of St. Joseph
TAYLOR, Bagley, Walker--on Silver Creek, 3 m. s. of Snowflake
TEMPE, San Pablo, Hayden's Ferry--9 m. e. of Phoenix
Tenney's Camp, WOODRUFF--on Little Colorado r., 12 m. ne. of Holbrook
THATCHER--St. Joseph Stake hdqrs., in Gila Valley
Tonto Basin--in central Arizona
TUBA (CITY)--on Mormon road, 60 m. se. of Lee's Ferry
TUBAC--on Santa Cruz r., 42 m. s. of Tucson
Turkey Tanks--about 10 m. ne. of Flagstaff

Union, Omer, Amity, EAGAR--ward embraced Round Valley settlements
Utahville, Fort Utah, LEHI, Jonesville--3 m. ne. of Mesa
Ute Ford, Vado de los Padres, CROSSING OF THE FATHERS--on Colorado r.,
  just n. of Arizona line

Vermilion Cliffs--w. of Colorado r., extending into both Arizona and Utah
VERNON--ward includes Concho and Hunt branches
VIRDEN--just over New Mexico line on Gila r., 8 m. ne. of Franklin

Walker, Bagley, TAYLOR--on Silver Creek, 3 m. s. of Snowflake
Walnut Grove, RICHVILLE--18 m. s. of St. Johns on Little Colorado r.
West Point, LOGAN--s. of Muddy r., 15 m. w. of St. Joseph, Nevada
Whitewater--22 m. e. of Tombstone.
Wilford--6 m. sw. of Heber, 56 m. sw. of Holbrook
Williams Valley--in New Mexico, 36 m. s. of Luna Valley
Willow Springs--on Mormon road, 7 m. nw. of Tuba
Winsor, Mt. Carmel--was United Order ward in Long Valley n. of Kanab
Winsor Castle, PIPE SPRINGS--on Mormon road, 20 m. sw. of Kanab
WOODRUFF, Tenney's Camp--ward on Little Colorado r., 12 m. se. of
  Holbrook
Woolf Crossing, ranch, Beaver ranch, Lone Pine, Reidhead--10 m. s. of
  Taylor
Woodland, Fairview, LAKESIDE--3 m. nw. of Pinetop

Zenos, Hayden, Mesaville, MESA--16 m. e. of Phoenix




CHRONOLOGY OF LEADING EVENTS

1846--Feb. 4, Chas. Shumway first to cross Mississippi in exodus from
Nauvoo; Feb. 4, "Brooklyn" sailed from New York, with 235 L. D. S.; July
29, arr. San Francisco; July 20, Mormon Battalion left Council Bluffs;
Aug. 1, arr. Ft. Leavenworth; 12, left Leavenworth; 23. Col. Allen died;
Oct. 9, 1st detachment at Santa Fe; 13, Cooke in command; Sept. 16,
families sent to Pueblo; Oct. 19, left Sant Fe; Nov. 21, turned to west;
28, at summit Rockies; Dec. 18, at Tucson; 22, arr. Pima villages.

1847--Jan. 8, Battalion at mouth of Gila; 10, crossed Colorado r.; 29,
arr. near San Diego; July 16, discharged; 24, Pres. Young and Utah
pioneers reached Salt Lake Valley.

1848--Jan. 24, gold discovered at Sutter's Fort, Cal.

1851--June, Lyman and Rich and about 500 from Utah located San
Bernardino, Cal.; fall, Mormons located at Tubac.

1853--First missionaries in Las Vegas district.

1855--May 10, 30 missionaries left Salt Lake for Las Vegas.

1857--Ira Hatch and Dudley Leavitt among Paiutes; Hamblin sees Ives
steamer "Explorer;" Sept. 11, Mountain Meadows massacre.

1858--Jan., Ira Hatch sent to Muddy; Feb., Col. Kane treaty with Paiutes;
San Bernardino vacated; spring, Hamblin to Colorado r.; first trip across
Colorado r.

1859--Oct., Hamblin to Hopi.

1860--Oct., Hamblin to Hopi; Nov. 2, Geo. A. Smith, Jr., killed by
Indians near Tuba.

1862--Nov., Hamblin to Hopi.

1863--Feb. 24, Arizona Territory organized from New Mexico; Mar. 18.
Hamblin to Hopi; Pipe Springs located by Dr. J. M. Whitmore.

1864--Mar., Hamblin party parleys with Navajos; Moccasin Springs settled;
United Order established in Brigham City. Utah, by Lorenzo Snow; Oct.,
Anson Call directed to establish Colorado r. port, Beaver Dams settled by
Henry W. Miller; Dec. 2. Call party at site of Call's landing; 18, work
begun at Call's Landing.

1865--Jan. 8, first settlers at St. Thomas on Muddy r., settlement of St.
Joseph on Muddy r.; settlement on Paria Creek; Dec., Muddy section
organized as Pah-ute County, Arizona.

1866--Jan. 8, Whitmore and McIntire killed by Indians near Pipe Springs;
June 4, conference with Indians on Muddy r.; Moccasin vacated through
Indian troubles; Nov., steamer "Esmeralda" on upper Colorado r.

1867--Jan. 18, Pah-ute county claimed by Nevada; spring, floods caused
abandonment of Beaver Dams; Oct. 1, county seat of Pah-ute moved from
Callville to St. Thomas.

1868--Feb. 10, trouble with Paiutes on Muddy r.; August 18, destructive
fire at St. Joseph; Nov. 1, Andrew S. Gibbons and O.D. Gass started from
Callville to Ft. Yuma by boat.

1869--Feb. 8, Junction City (Rioville) established; Feb. 15, Utah
organized Rio Virgen County, including Muddy settlements; May 29, Powell
started first trip down Canyon; June 12, Davidson family died of thirst
on desert near Muddy r.; June 16, Callville abandoned; August, 3 of
Powell's men killed by Indians; 29, Powell ended trip below Canyon; Oct.,
Hamblin at Hopi.

1870--Mar., Brigham Young party visited Muddy settlements; June 14,
settlement on Kanab Creek; Sept., Hamblin to Mt. Trumbull with J.W.
Powell; Nov. 5, Hamblin peace talk with Navajos at Ft. Defiance; took
Chief Tuba to Utah; Dec., determination to abandon Muddy settlements.

1871--Spring, abandonment Muddy district; Pah-ute County abolished by
Arizona Territory; Aug., Hamblin, with Powell, on second Colorado r.
trip; Moccasin Springs re-settled; Moen Copie made mission post;

1872--John D. Lee located at mouth of Paria; June 28, J.H. Beadle at
Lee's Ferry.

1873--Mar. 8, Brigham Young instructed Arizona colonists in Salt Lake;
spring, L.W. Roundy and Hamblin at Moen Copie; May 1, H.D. Haight party
left Utah for Little Colorado Valley; May 22, Haight party on Little
Colorado r.; June 30, Haight party turned back.

1874--Jan., Hamblin to Hopi to prevent war; Aug., Hamblin to Ft. Defiance
on peace mission.

1875--Feb. 20, Orderville established; Sept. 16, D.W. Jones exploration
party left Salt Lake; Oct. 27, Jones party crossed Colorado r.; 30, Jas.
S. Brown exploring party left Salt Lake; Dec. 4, Brown party at Moen
Copie; 14, Jones party at Tucson.

1876--Jan., Jones party in Mexico; Feb. 3, Little Colorado settlers left
Salt Lake; Mar. 23, advance company at Sunset; 24-31, locations of Allen
City, Obed, Sunset, Ballenger; 28, work commenced on St. Joseph dam;
Apr., location of Tenney's (Woodruff) Camp, on Little Colorado r.; 17,
United Order established on Little Colorado r.; Daniel H. Wells and party
on Little Colorado r.; May, Boston party passed Little Colorado
settlements; June 24, L.W. Roundy drowned in Colorado r.; 27, Obed moved
to new location; June, D.W. Jones party returns to Utah; first L.D.S.
settlers on Showlow Creek; July 17, exploration of Tonto Basin; 17, first
child born in Allen City; 19, Allen City dam washed away; Aug., Lorenzo
H. Hatch located at Savoia; Oct. 18, Pratt-Stewart part left Utah for
Arizona; Nov. 7, Mt. Trumbull sawmill re-established near Mormon Lake;
Dec. 23, Pratt party reached Phoenix; Dec., Harrison Pearce established
ferry at mouth of Grand Wash; Hamblin located new route to Sunset, via
Grand Wash.

1877--Jan. 6, Jones settlement party organized at St. George by Brigham
Young, Bunkerville located, first L.D.S. school in Arizona, at Obed; 17,
Jones party left St. George; Mar. 6, arr. Salt River, founded Lehi; Mar.
23, J.D. Lee executed; May 20, first Indian baptism on Salt r.; Aug.,
Merrill company left Lehi; 29, death of Brigham Young, Hamblin at Hopi;
Sept. 14, start of Idaho-Salt Lake party that founded Mesa; 14, Merrill
company on San Pedro r.; Nov. 12, Arkansas L.D.S. arr. on Little Colorado
r.; 29, Merrill party location on San Pedro r.

1878--Jan., C.I. Robson and others selected Mesa location; 20, Colorado
r. frozen over at Lee's Ferry; 22, location of Taylor on Little Colorado
r.; 23, James Pearce first L.D.S. settler on Silver Creek; 27, Little
Colorado Stake organized, name of Ballenger changed to Brigham City, name
of Allen changed to St. Joseph; Feb. 5, Robson party at Fort Utah; 9,
naming of Woodruff; 18, settlers at Forest Dale; May 15, first L.D.S.
locations in Tonto Basin; July 21, Flake and Kartchner moved the site of
Snowflake; Sept.-Dec., Erastus Snow and party travel in Arizona; Sept.
27, Erastus Snow party located and named Snowflake, selected Jesse N.
Smith as President Eastern Arizona Stake; Oct. 26, first settlers on Mesa
townsite; Dec., re-settlement of Beaver Dams.

1879--Jan. 16, arr. at Snowflake of Jesse N. Smith; Feb., L.D.S.
explorers at Smithville on Gila r.; Mar., L.D.S. settlement in Concho;
Apr. 8, Showlow company located at Smithville; Completion of J. W. Young
woolen factory at Moen Copie; settlement at Shumway; first session of
court in Apache County; Nov. 16, purchase of Barth claims at St. Johns.

1880--Mar. 29, St. Johns townsite selected by Wilford Woodruff; Sept. 19,
re-location of St. Johns townsite; Sept. 26, naming of Alpine; fall,
re-settlement of Overton; Oct. 6, arr. at St. Johns of D. K. Udall; Nov.,
land at Graham on Gila r. bought by Brigham City settlers; Dec.,
settlement of Matthews on Gila r.

1881--Jan., location at Graham; Mar., settlement at Curtis (Eden),
trouble with Indians; location of Holbrook; name of Smithville changed to
Pima.

1882--Jan. 28, re-location of Holbrook townsite; June 1, N.B. Robinson
killed by Indians, Indian troubles in mountain settlements; June 24, N.
C. Tenney killed at St. Johns; July, establishment of first paper in
Apache County; July 19, L.D.S. settlement at Tempe; Dec. 10, Maricopa
Stake organized; Dec. 25, naming of Thatcher.

1883--Jan. 4, location party in Mexico from St. David; 13, settlement
of Layton; Feb. 25, establishment of St. Joseph Stake at St. David;
spring, Forest Dale abandoned; Aug. 25, Wilford and Heber organized;
Nov., naming of Lehi.

1884--Mar., land jumping in St. Johns; Nov., Young and Grant party visit
Yaqui Indian country.

1885--Feb. 9, departure of first L.D.S. Mexican colony; Nov.-Dec., Indian
depredations in Gila Valley; Dec. I, killing of Lorenzo and Seth Wright
on Gila r.; Wilford abandoned.

1886--Feb. 9, Andrew S. Gibbons died at St. Johns; Aug. 31, death of
Jacob Hamblin at Pleasanton; Sept. 8, Isaac C. Haight died at Thatcher.

1887--Jan. 24, first donation to Arizona temple; May 3, earthquake at St.
David; Fredonia settled; July 24, St. Johns Stake organized; Dec. 4, C.I.
Robson president of Maricopa Stake; Dec.18, Snowflake Stake organized.

1889--Jan. 14, St. Johns Stake Academy established; 21, Snowflake Academy
established; Apr. 2, Brigham Young Jr., and Jesse N. Smith purchased
Little Colorado Valley lands in New York; May 11, Wham robbery, near Ft.
Grant.

1890--Feb., Great floods on Little Colorado r. and Silver Creek.

1891--Feb., large damage done by Salt r. floods.

1892--June 20, Lot Smith killed by Indians near Tuba City; July 3-4,
general conference of Arizona Stakes at Pinetop; Dec. 8, Chas. L. Flake
killed at Snowflake.

1893--Feb. 19, artesian flow struck at St. David.

1894--Feb. 24, C.I. Robson died at Mesa; May 10, C.R. Hakes president of
Maricopa Stake.

1898--Jan. 29, St. Joseph Stake reorganized under Andrew Kimball; May 21,
death of Chas. Shumway; Sept. I, St. Joseph Stake Academy opened at
Thatcher.

1903--Feb., Tuba settlers sell to Indian Bureau.

1904--Sept. 15, death of P.C. Merrill.

1905--May I, breaking of St. Johns reservoir.

1906--June 5, death of Jesse N. Smith.




TRAGEDIES OF THE FRONTIER

It is notable that few were the Mormons who have met untimely death by
violence in the Southwest. It is believed that the following brief record
is, very nearly, complete:

George A. Smith, Jr.--Nov. 2, 1860. Killed by Navajos near Tuba City.

Dr. J.M. Whitmore and Robert McIntire--Jan. 8, 1866. Killed by Navajos
near Pipe Springs.

Elijah Averett--Jan. 1866. Killed by Navajos near Paria Creek.
Averett had been with the Capt. James Andrus expedition after the
Whitmore-McIntire murderers and had been sent back, with a companion,
with dispatches from about the Crossing of the Fathers. He was killed on
this return journey and his companion wounded.

Joseph Berry, Robert Berry and the latter's wife, Isabella--April 2,
1866. Killed by Paiutes at Cedar Knoll near Short Creek, west of
Pipe Springs. The three were in a wagon and had attempted to escape
by running their horses across country, but the Indians cut them off.
They fought for their lives and one dead Indian was found near their
bodies. In the woman's body was a circle of arrows.

Joseph Davidson, wife and son--June 12, 1869. Perished of thirst on
Southern Nevada desert, in Muddy Valley section.

Lorenzo W. Roundy--May 24, 1876. Drowned in Colorado River.

Nathan B. Robinson--June 1, 1882. Killed by Apaches near Reidhead.

Nathan C. Tenney--June 24, 1882. Unintentionally shot by Mexicans in
course of riot at St. Johns.

Jacob S. Ferrin--July 19, 1882. Killed by Apaches 12 miles east of San
Carlos.

Mrs. W.N. Fife--Sept. 11, 1884. Murdered at her home in the Sulphur
Springs Valley. She had given a Mexican dinner and was rewarded by a shot
in the back. A 13-year-old daughter was saved by the timely arrival of a
Mexican employee. The murderer, only known as Jesus, was captured the
following day by a posse of settlers and, after full determination of
guilt, was hanged to a tree. The murderer's skull now is in possession of
Dr. Ezra Rich of Ogden, Utah.

Lorenzo and Seth Wright--Dec. 1, 1885. Ambushed by Apaches in Gila
Valley.

Frank Thurston--May 23, 1886. Killed by Apaches six miles west of Pima.

Lot Smith--June 20, 1892. Killed by Navajos near Tuba.

Chas. L. Flake--Dec. 8, 1892. Killed by fugitive criminal at Snowflake.

Horatio Merrill and 14-year-old daughter, Eliza--Dec. 3, 1895. Killed by
Apaches at Ash Springs, 30 miles east of Pima. This crime has been
charged to the infamous Apache Kid.

Isaac Benj. Jones--May 12, 1897. Killed at El Dorado Canyon, near the
Colorado River. While freighting ore to a mill, he was ambushed and shot
from his wagon by a Paiute, Avote, who murdered several other whites
before being run down and killed by Indians on Cottonwood Island, where
he had taken refuge.

John Bleak--Jan. 26, 1899. Killed by Mexicans, near Hackberry, Mohave
County. The body was found with many knife thrusts, with indications of a
desperate resistance of two assailants.

Frank Lesueur and Augustus Andrew Gibbons--Mar. 27, 1900. Killed by
outlaws near Navajo, eastern Apache County. They had been deserted by six
Mexican members of a posse trailing American cattle thieves, who were
fleeing northward from near St. Johns, and were ambushed in a mountain
canyon. Lesueur was killed instantly by a shot in the forehead and
Gibbons, already shot through the body, was killed by a shot in the head
at very short range. The murderers were not apprehended.

Wm. T. Maxwell--1901. Killed by outlaws near Nutrioso. He was the son of
a Mormon Battalion member.

Wm. W. Berry--Dec. 22, 1903. Murdered in Tonto Basin. John and Zach
Booth, goat owners, were arrested for the crime. The latter was hanged
and the former released after disagreement of the jury. The crime also
embraced the murder of a 16-year-old boy, Juan Vigil, son of a herder.
Berry at the time was in charge of a band of sheep.

Hyrum Smith Peterson--Nov. 12, 1913. Killed near Mesa. Peterson, city
marshal, was shot down by thieves whom he was trying to arrest.

Frank McBride and Martin Kempton--Feb. 10, 1918. Killed 60 miles west of
Pima. McBride was sheriff of Graham County and Kempton was deputy. The
two sought arrest of the Powers brothers and Sisson, draft evaders, who
were in a cabin in the Galiuro Mountains. With them was killed another
deputy, Kane Wootan. In a following special session of the Legislature,
the families of the three were given $17,500, to be invested for their
benefit.


[Illustration: KILLED BY INDIANS
1--Geo. A. Smith, Jr.                      2--Dr. Jas. M. Whitmore
3--Seth Wright        4--Jacob Ferrin      5--Eliza Merrill
6--Diana Davis Fife                        7--Lorenzo Wright]

[Illustration: KILLED BY OUTLAWS
1--Nathan C. Tenney     2--Chas. L. Flake        3--Frank Lesueur
4--Augustus Andrew Gibbons     5--Wm. Wiley Berry
6--Hyrum S. Peterson    7--R. Franklin McBride   8--Martin Kempton]




INDEX

See Chronology, Mormon Settlement Place Names

A

Adair
  Named for early resident
Adair, Samuel N.
  Photo.
Adair, Wesley
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Agriculture
  Mormon pioneers in,
  first in N. Ariz.
Allen, Lt.-Col. Jas.
  Commander Battalion,
  died
Allen, Rufus C.
  Battalion member,
  to S. America,
  in Las Vegas section
Allen, W.C.
  Heads L. Colorado party,
  photo.
Alma
  Est.
Allred, Mrs. R.W.
  With husband on Battalion march,
  photo.
Allred, Reuben W.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Alpine
  Burial place of Jacob Hamblin,
  est.
Ancient Races
  Canal at Mesa,
  in Arizona,
  canals of,
  in Gila Valley
Andrus, Capt. Jas.
  Led party against Indians
Apaches
  Encroachments on Forest Dale,
  attack on Col. Carr's command,
  attack on Camp Apache,
  experiences with in Gila Valley,
  Chiricahua outbreaks,
  murders in Gila Valley
Arkansas Immigrants
  At Taylor,
  on L. Colorado
Artesian Water
  At St. David,
  wells in Gila Valley
Asay, Joseph
  Aids Powell exp.
Atlantic & Pacific R.R.
  Land grant

B

Ballenger, Jesse O.
  Heads L. Colorado settlement
Ballenger's Camp (Brigham City)
  Est.
Banta, A.F.
  Arizona pioneer
Barbenceta
  Navajo Chief
Barrus, Lt. Ruel
  Battalion officer at San Luis Rey
Barth, Sol
  On L. Colorado
Bartlett, John R.
  At Tubac,
  in Texas
Bass, Willis W.
  Grand Canyon guide
Beadle, J.H.
  Visit to Lonely Dell and J. D. Lee
Beale, E.F.
  At San Pascual,
  camel survey, carried dispatches east,
  advised Washington of discovery of gold
Beaver Dams--Early occupation,
  settlement
Beebe, Nelson P.--Leader of Arkansas party
Bees--First in Utah
Bellamy, Edward--Study of United Order
Bennett, Capt. Frank F.--In great Navajo council
Berardo--At Horsehead Crossing
Berry, Mrs. Rachael--State legislator
Berry, Wm. Wiley--Killed by outlaws, photo.
Bibliography
Biggs, Thos.--Lehi settler,
  photo.
Bigler, Henry W.--At gold discovery,
  photo.
Bluewater N. M--Settlement
Blythe, John L.--Launched boat at Lee's Ferry,
  at Moen Copie,
  at Le Roux Spring,
  photo.
Bonelli, Daniel--Early ferryman,
  photo.
Boston Party--In L. Cotorado Valley
Boyle, Henry G.--Battalion member,
  outlined Mormon road,
  first president S. States Mission,
  photo.
Brannan, Samuel--Head of "Brooklyn" exp.,
  Wyoming conference with Brigham Young,
  died in Mexico
Brigham City, Ariz.--Est.,
  naming,
  abandonment,
  photo. of old fort
Brigham City, Utah--Experiences in United Order
Brinkerhoff, Hyrum--Muddy r. and Gila v. pioneer,
  photo.
Brinkerhoff, Margaret--Muddy r. and Gila v. pioneer,
  photo.
Brizzee, H. W.--Battalion member,
  in Arizona,
  photo.
"Brooklyn"--Mormon immigrant ship
Brown, Capt. Jas.--Led at Pueblo, Colo.,
  battalion officer,
  arr. Salt Lake, to Cal. for pay
Brown, Jas. S.--On Muddy r.,
  at Cal. gold discovery,
  head of 1875 scouting party,
  battalion member,
  photo.
Bryce--Est.
Bryce, Ebenezer--Early Gila settler,
  photo.
Bushman, John V.--N. E. Ariz, settler,
  photo.

C

Call, Anson--Founded Callville,
  photo.
Callville--Port on Colorado r.,
  est.,
  abandonment,
  county seat of Pah-ute Co.
Camels--Brought by Beale survey
Campbell, Gov. T. E.--Assistance in work,
  circumtoured Grand Canyon,
  Prest. League of the Southwest
Cannon, Angus M.--At Callville,
  on Colorado r.
Cannon, David H.--Baptism of Shivwits at St. George,
  photo.
Carson, Kit--Guide of Kearny exp.,
  carried dispatches east,
  campaign against Navajo
Carson Valley, Nev.--Settled by Mormons
Casa Grande--Ancient ruin
Cataract Canyon--Home of Hava-supai,
  entered by Hamblin,
  by Garces,
  by Ives
Central--Est.
Chemehuevis Indians--War band in Muddy r. district
Chronology
Chuichupa, Colonia--Mexican settlement
Claridge, Rebecca--Photo
Claridge, Samuel H.--Muddy and Gila r. pioneer, photo.
Cluff, Benjamin--At Las Vegas
Coal--Dug at San Diego by G. W. Sirrine
Cocheron, Augusta Joyce--Description of Yerba Buena
Cocopah Indians--Colorado r. deck hands
Colorado City--Est. on site of Yuma
Colorado River
  Reached by Battalion,
  watershed embraced within State of Deseret,
  ferries of,
  frozen over,
  transportation,
  efforts to utilize water and power, drainage area, flow, water storage,
navigation, watershed now barred for navigation
Colter, J. G. H--At Round Valley
Concho
  Hard living conditions,
  est.,
  naming
Cooke, Lt.-Col. P. St. George
  Commander Mormon Battalion,
  congratulatory order,
  story of march,
  left Santa Fe,
  crossed Colorado r.,
  led Johnston's cavalry to Utah, resignation,
  photo.
Cooley, C. E.--Won Showlow in card game, sold
Cooperative Stores--Est. in many communities
Co-quap--Paiute killed at St. Thomas
Cotton--Raised by Maricopas,
  Pima long-staple
Crismon, Chas.--At San Bernardino,
  took first bees to Utah,
  at founding of Mesa,
  photo.
Crosby, Geo. H. Sr.--Photo.
Crosby, Jesse W.--In re-settlement of Muddy
Crosby, Taylor--At Hopi
Crossing of the Fathers--Passed by Escalante and Dominguez,
  Hamblin's was first crossing by white men since Spanish days,
  early use of,
  photo.
Curtis--Est.
Curtis, Elizabeth Hanks--Photo., in Gila Valley
Curtis, Josephine--Photo., in Gila Valley
Curtis, Martha--Photo., in Gila Valley
Curtis, Moses M.
  Gila Valley pioneer,
  at Eden
Curtis, Virginia--Photo., in Gila Valley
Cushing, Frank H.--Southwestern ethnologist
Cutler, R. J.
  Muddy settler,
  Rep. Pah-ute Co. in Ariz. 3d and 4th legislatures,
  clerk Rio Virgen Co.

D
Davidson, Jas.--Death of family of thirst
Davis, Capt. Daniel C.--Battalion officer
Davis, Durias--Visit to Hopi
Day, Henry--In charge at Moen Copie
Defiance, Fort
  Est.,
  great council with Navajo,
  settlement by Hamblin of Indian troubles
Dellenbaugh, F. S.
  Estimate of Mormon settlements,
  wrote of Navajo council
Deseret
  State of,
  map,
  origin of name,
  boundaries,
  organization, legislature
Diaz, Colonia--Mexican settlement
Dixie, Utah's--Brigham Young in,
  ref. to
Dobson, Thos. F.--First settler at Fredonia
Dodge, Enoch--Fight with Navajos
Dominguez and Escalante--On Spanish Trail
Dublan, Colonia--Mexican settlement
Dykes, Geo. P.--Battalion officer,
  photo.,
  death

E

Eagar--Est.
Earthquake--At St. David
Eastern Arizona Stake--Est.
Eden--Est.
Ehrenberg--Military depot
El Dorado Canyon--At Cottonwood Island
Ellsworth, Edmund--Salt Lake Pioneer
Emory, W. H.--With Kearny exp.
Engelhardt, Father Z.--Estimate of Battalion members
Escalante-Dominguez--On Spanish Trail,
  at Crossing of the Fathers
"Explorer"--Ives' steamboat on Colorado r.,
  photo.

F

Farish, Thos. E.--Former Arizona Historian
Ferrin, Jacob S.--Killed by Apaches,
  photo.
Fife, Diana Davis--Killed by Indians,
  photo.
Fife, J. D.--Sulphur Springs Valley pioneer,
  photo.
Fife, Wm. N.--Sulphur Springs Valley pioneer,
  photo.
Fish, Joseph--Early historian,
  photo.
Flagstaff--Naming of
Flake, Chas. L.--Killed by outlaw,
  photo.
Flake, Wm. J.--Land purchases at Snowflake,
  at Showlow,
  at Concho,
  at Springerville,
  at Nutrioso,
  photo.
Follett, Wm. A.--Battalion member,
  to Arizona,
  photo.
Foote, Jos. Warren--At St. Joseph, Nevada
Forest Dale--Est.,
  Indian encroachments,
  abandonment,
  claims for damages
Foreword
Foutz, Joseph--Photo.
Franklin--Est.
Fredonia--Visited by Gov. Campbell,
  est.,
  naming,
  description of,
  view
Fremont, John C.--Dissension in American forces,
  arrest and trial,
  on Spanish Trail

G

Garces, Father Francisco--Early Spanish priest,
  at Hopi
Garcia, Colonia--Mexican settlement
Gass, Octavius D.--Represented Mohave Co. in 2d legislature
  and Pah-ute Co. in 3d and 4th Legislatures,
  in 5th Legislature,
  floated down Colorado r.
Genoa--First American settlement in Nevada
Gibbons, Andrew S.--Investigated Welsh legend,
  took Hopi visitors home,
  shown sacred stone of Hopi,
  Salt Lake Pioneer,
  interpreter on Muddy,
  trip down Colorado r.,
  in Ariz. Legislature from Pah-ute Co.,
  photo.
Gibbons, Mrs. A. S--Photo.
Gibbons, Augustus A.--Killed by Indians,
  photo.
Gibbons, Richard--At Hopi village
Gibbons, Wm. H.--At Hopi village
Gila River--Barge made by Battalion,
  route of Battalion,
  land erosion,
  trouble with mill tailings
Gold--Battalion party present at discovery
Goodwin, Camp--In Gila Valley,
  abandonment
Graham--Est.
Graham County--Est.
Grand Canyon--Visited by Escalante-Dominguez,
  circumtoured by Hamblin,
  by Gov. Campbell,
  expl. by Powell,
  to be bridged
Grand Falls--Haight party at,
  view
Grand Wash--Ferry site,
  crossed by Hamblin
Grant--Early name of Luna
Grant Camp--Old and new, south of Gila
Grant, Heber J.--Church President in, photo.,
  visit to St. Johns
  Mexican trips
Greeley, Lewis--With 1863 Hamblin party
Greer--Est.


H

Haight, Horton D.--Crossed river at Paria,
  first attempt at Arizona colonization,
  photo.
Hakes, Collins R.--At San Bernardino,
  President Maricopa Stake, at Bluewater, death,
  photo.
Hall, Miss S. M.--Description of Lee's Ferry,
  of Fredonia
Hamblin, Frederick--At Hopi,
  at Alpine,
  fight with bear,
  photo.
Hamblin, Jacob--Frontier guide,
  missionary to Indians, entry in Muddy section,
  Mountain Meadows massacre, saves wagon trains, photo.,
  at Las Vegas lead mines, encounter with Ives party,
  at Colorado r.,
  trips to Hopi,
  took Hopi visitors home,
  with Powell at Shivwits council,
  guide for Powell, council with Navajo,
  error in date of great Navajo council,
  took provisions to second Powell exp., visited Fort Defiance,
  1871-2-3 trips,
  ambassador to Navajo, in danger of death,
  located Grand Wash road, wagon route to Sunset, guide for D. H. Wells
  1876 party, ordained Apostle to the Lamanites,
  moved to Arizona, death, monument inscription,
  first Colorado r. crossing at Ute ford, 1858, crossed at Paria on raft,
  located road to San Francisco mountains,
  in 1862 crossed river at Ute ford, in 1863 crossed at Grand Wash
Hamblin, Wm.--At Hopi,
  at naming of Pipe Springs
Hancock, Levi--Battalion poet
Hardy's Landing--Visited by Call,
  Callville visited by Hardy
Harris, Llewellyn--Welsh legend
Haskell, Thales--Investigated steamer on Colorado r.,
  at Hopi,
  left Hopi,
  in Muddy district,
  with Paiutes,
  photo.
Hatch, Ira--With Paiutes,
  with Hopi,
  at Meadows,
  photo.
Hatch, Lorenzo--Escape from drowning,
  at Taylor
Hava-supai Indians--See Cataract Canyon
Hawkins, Wm. R.--With Powell exp.
Hayden, C. T.--Visited by Jones party,
  assistance to settlers,
  est. Hayden's Ferry
Head, W. S.--Post trader at Verde
Heaton, Jonathan--Resident of Moccasin,
  photo, with sons
Heber--In Mogollons,
  in New Mexico
Holbrook--Naming
Holmes, Henry--Description of L. Colorado valley
Hopi--Visited by Father Garces,
  by Escalante,
  by Jacob Hamblin,
  Welsh legend, composite language,
  snake dance, tribesmen taken to Salt Lake,
  threw Navajos from cliff,
  Tuba taken to Utah,
  sacred stone,
  southern origin
Hortt, Henry J.--Fredonia settler
Hubbard--Est.
Hubbell, J. L.--Investigated Utah Indian troubles
Hulett, Schuyler--Battalion member,
  photo.
Hunt--Est.
Hunt, Capt. Jefferson--Battalion officer
Hunt, John--Battalion member,
  Mormon road mail carrier,
  at Snowflake,
  photo.
Hunt, Marshall--Battalion member
Hunter, Capt. Jesse B.--Battalion officer

I

Idaho--Agricultural settlement
Index--To book
Irritaba--Mohave chief
Iverson, Alma--At LeRoux Spring
Ives, J. C.--Colorado r. exploration
Ivins, Anthony W.--Indian warfare,
  crossed Colorado r. on the ice,
  agent for Mexican lands,
  photo.

J

Jenson, Andrew--Assistant Church Historian,
  data on Callville,
  in Muddy Valley,
  in L. Colorado Valley,
  at Tuba City,
  photo.
Johnson, B. F.--At Tempe,
  at Nephi, death,
  photo.
Johnson, Warren M.--Escape from drowning,
  photo, of Lee's Ferry home
Johnson, W. H.--In charge of Virgin salt mines
Johnston, Capt. A. R.--Killed at San Pascual
Johnston, Gen. A. S.--Exp. to Utah
Johnston, Capt. Geo. A.--Ferried Beale camel exp. across river,
  offered to handle Salt Lake freight
Johnston, W.J.--Batt. member,
  gold disc.,
  photo.
Jones, D.W.--First exp. to Mexico,
  foundation of Lehi,
  death,
  photos.
Jones, Nathaniel V.--Battalion member,
  photo.
Jonesville--See Lehi
Jones, Wiley C.--With Jones party,
  photo.
Juarez, Colonia--Mexican settlement
Judd, Hyrum--Battalion member,
  photo.
Judd, Zadok K.--Battalion member,
  photo.
Junction City--On Colorado r.

K

Kaibab Plateau--Visited by Powell,
  view
Kanab--Passed in 1920 by Gov. Campbell,
  Powell exploration at,
  est.
Kane, Col. Thos. L.--Introduction to Tyler history,
  conference with Paiutes
Kapurats--Paiute name for Maj. Powell
Kearny, Gen. S.W.--In command California invasion
Kempton, Martin--Killed by outlaws,
  photo.
Kimball, Andrew--Prest. St. Joseph Stake,
  photo.
Kimball, Heber C.--Chief Justice of Deseret
Klineman, Conrad--Salt Lake Pioneer

L

Laguna Dam--Bars Colorado navigation
Lake, George--Leader on L. Colorado,
  to Gila Valley,
  photo.
Land Grants--Atlantic & Pacific,
  Reavis fraud,
  Texas-Pacific claim
Las Vegas, Nev.--Visited by P.P. Pratt,
  station on Mormon road,
  detail of missionaries,
  visited by Call
Las Vegas County--Creation asked
"Latter-day Saints"--Designation of
Layton--Est.
Layton, Christ.--Battalion member,
  instructions to,
  biography,
  photo.
Layton, Elizabeth--Photo.
Lead mines--In Nevada
League of the Southwest--Water storage plans
Leavitt, Dudley--Smelted lead ore in Nevada,
  at Hopi,
  at naming of Pipe Springs
LeBaron, David T.--Tempe settler
Lee, John D.--Location on Paria,
  messenger for Battalion,
  residence on Canyon,
  capture, in Utah, execution,
  experience of wife with Indians,
  photo, of home at Moen Avi
Lee's Ferry--Visited by Gov. Campbell,
  passage of Roundy party,
  early crossings by Hamblin,
  Powell at,
  John D. Lee's residence at,
  ferry bought by Church,
  description of,
  river frozen,
  Stanton exp., main route into Arizona
Lehi--Map,
  est.,
  floods,
  arr. of Mesa party
Leithead, Jas.
  In charge of Muddy settlements,
  built boat,
  supplied Powell exp.
Lemhi, Fort
  Early settlement in Idaho
LeRoux, Antoine
  Guide to Battalion,
  Arizona places named for,
  guide for Bartlett party
LeRoux Springs
  History
Lesueur, Frank
  Killed by outlaws,
  photo.
Lesueur, Jas. W.
  President Maricopa Stake,
  photo.
Lesueur, John T.
  President Maricopa Stake,
  photo.
Lewis, Samuel
  Battalion member,
  photo.
List of Illustrations
Little Colorado River
  Irrigation difficulties,
  floods,
  view of crossing
Little Colorado Stake
  Org.
Little Colorado Valley
  Haight exp.,
  settlement,
  Arizona experiences,
  drought
Littlefield
  Northwestern Arizona settlement,
  visited by Gov. Campbell
Lonely Dell
  Lee's name for mouth of Paria
Los Angeles
  Battalion experiences,
  Standage's description of,
  name,
  muster-out of Battalion
Los Muertos
  Ancient city
Luna
  Est.
Lund, A.H.
  Church Historian
Lund, A. Wm.
  Church Librarian
Lyman, Amasa M.
  San Bernardino experiences,
  in Arizona,
  with Col. Kane on Muddy r.
Lyman, Francis M.
  Exp. near St. Johns,
  at St. David

M

Macdonald
  Est.
Macdonald, A.F.
  Director of cattle company at Pipe Springs,
  President Maricopa Stake,
  transfer to Mexico,
  death,
  named St. David,
  in Mexico,
  photo.
Malaria
  At Obed,
  on San Pedro and Gila
Maps
  State of Deseret,
  Pah-ute County,
  Northeastern Arizona,
  Plat of Lehi,
  Prehistoric canals,
  Southeastern Arizona,
  Arizona and Roads
Maricopa Indians
Maricopa Stake
  Org.
Matthews
  Est.
Maxwell, Wm. B.
  Battalion member,
  at Moccasin Springs,
  photo.
Mazatzal City
  Tonto Basin settlement
McBride, R. Franklin
  Killed by outlaws,
  photo.
McClellan, Almeda
  Photo.
McClellan, Wm. C.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
McIntire, Robert
  Killed by Indians
McIntyre, Wm.
  Battalion surgeon
McConnell, Jehiel
  At Hopi,
McMurrin, Jos. W.
  At LeRoux Spring,
  photo.
Meadows
  Purchase,
  occupied
Meeden, C.V.
  Early Colorado r. pilot
Merrill, Eliza
  Killed by Indians,
  photo.
Merrill, Philemon C.
  Adjutant Battalion,
  custodian of Utah stone, pioneer on San Pedro,
  photos.,
  in Lehi party,
  separation from Jones,
  est. of St. David
Mesa
  Org. of "The Mesa Union",
  est.,
  canal digging,
  building of first house,
  civic est., naming
Mesquite
  Settlement on Virgin
Mexico
  Jones party trip,
  exploration for settlement,
  exploration,
  est. of colonies,
  flight from,
  repopulation
Mill Point
  Est. on Muddy r.
Miller, Henry W.
  At Beaver Dams,
  photo.
Miller, Jacob
  Sec'y to Haight exp.,
  photo.
Milligan, Fort
  Est.
Moabi
  Near Moen Copie
Moccasin Springs
  Occupation of,
  view
Moen Copie
  Visited by Hamblin,
  Blythe location,
  mission post, Indian experiences,
  land bought by government,
  view
Mohave County
  Embraced Nevada point
Mohave, Fort
  Est.
Moody, Elizabeth
  Photo.
Moody, John M.
  First settler of Thatcher,
  photo.
Morelos, Colonia
  Sonora settlement
Mormon Battalion
  Reason for formation,
  muster at Council Bluffs,
  at San Bernardino ranch,
  arr. Tucson,
  arr. Pima villages,
  left San Bernardino,
  experiences,
  muster-out,
  gold discovery
Mormon Battalion Monument
  Arizona contributes,
  photo.
Mormon Dairy
  Est.
Mormon Road
  Broken by Boyle party,
  early travel,
  mail service,
  stations on
Moroni, Fort
  Est.,
  use by John W. Young,
  named Fort Rickerson,
  photos.
Mountain Meadows
  Massacre,
  Hamblin resident in
Mount Trumbull
  Powell and Hamblin at Indian council,
  sawmill
Mowrey, Harley
  Last Battalion survivor
Muddy Valley
  Settlement,
  population,
  Arizona Legislature protested separation,
  return of settlers
Munk, Dr. J. A.
  Library of Arizoniana

N

Naraguts
  Paiute guide
Navajo Indians
  Fight near Pipe Springs,
  stole stock in Utah, great council with Powell and Hamblin,
  captured by Hopi, agreement to remain south of river,
  killing of three tribesmen in Utah
Nephi
  Est.
Nevada
  First American settlement by Mormons,
  jurisdiction over Muddy district,
  old mapping,
  Muddy abandoned,
  protest against separation from Arizona
New Hope
  Early California colony
Northeastern Arizona
  Map
Nutrioso
  Est.
Nuttall, L. John
  Exper. in crossing Colorado r.

O

Oaxaca, Colonia
  Sonora settlement
Obed
  Est.
  abandonment
Ogden
  Site bought with Battalion pay
Onate, Juan de
  First New Mexican governor
Orderville
  United Order settlement
Osborn's Cave
  In Muddy section
Overton
  Muddy settlement

P

Pace, Lt. Jas.
  Photo.,
  Battalion officer,
  brought wheat to Utah,
  at Thatcher
Pace, Wilson D.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Pace, W. W.
  At Nutrioso
Pacheco, Colonia
  Mexican settlement
Pah-ute
  Early Arizona county,
  map,
  created by Arizona Legislature,
  boundaries,
  county seat,
  abandoned by Arizona,
  representation in Legislature
Paiutes
  Danger from,
  missionary efforts,
  threatened Muddy settlers
Paria
  Visited by Escalante exp.,
  settlement near mouth,
  photo.,
  view of ranch and ferry
Parke, Lt. A. J.
  Survey party
Patrick, H. R.
  Map of ancient canals
Pearce, Harrison
  Photo.
Pearce, James
  At Hopi,
  brought Indians to be baptized,
  at Taylor,
  photo.
Pearce's Ferry
  Crossed by Hamblin,
  at Grand Wash
Perkins, Jesse N.
  Head of Mesa colony
Peterson, Hyrum S.
  Killed by outlaws,
  photo.
Pettegrew, "Father" David
  Advice to Battalion
Phoenix
  Visited by Jones party,
  by Pratt-Trejo exp.,
  by Lehi settlers
Pima
  Est.
Pima Indians
  Visited by Battalion
Pinedale
  Est.
Pinetop
  Est.
  Church conference,
  view
Pipe Springs
  Settlement and naming,
  first telegraph office in Arizona,
  view
Place Names of the Southwest
Pleasanton, N. M
  Settlement,
  death of Hamblin
Pleasant Valley
  War
Polhamus, Isaac
  Early Colorado r. pilot
Pomeroy, Francis M.
  Salt Lake Pioneer,
  at founding of Mesa,
  photo.
Population
  Latter-day Saints in Arizona
Porter, Sanford
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Powell, Maj. J. W.
  Visited Paiutes,
  met Hamblin,
  in council with Navajo,
  first exp. reached mouth of Paria,
  to Moqui towns,
  to Salt Lake,
  explorations from Paria,
  at Kanab Wash,
  Mormon assistance at end of first voyage
Pratt, Helaman
  Capt. of Muddy militia 109, in second southern exp.,
  photos.
Prescott
  Founded
Prows, Wm. C.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Pueblo
  First Anglo-Saxon settlement in Colorado,
  Company ordered to winter at,
  Battalion sick sent to,
  departure of detachment
Pulsipher, David
  Battalion member,
  photo.

R

Railroads
  Construction northern Arizona,
  Atlantic & Pacific grant,
  construction through Gila Valley
Ramah, N.M.
  Settlement
Ramsey, Ralph
  Utah artist,
  moved to Ariz.
Reidhead
  Est.
Reidhead, John
  Woodruff settler
Richards, Joseph H.
  L. Colorado settler,
  photos.
Richards, Mary
  Photos.
Rioville
  At mouth of Virgin
Roberts, B. H.
  Story of Battalion,
  Utah historian
Robinson, Nathan B.
  Killed by Apaches,
  photo.
Robson, Chas. I.
  At founding of Mesa,
  President Maricopa Stake,
  death,
  photo.
Rogers, Henry C.
  In Lehi party,
  Church officer,
  photo.
Rogers, J.K.
  Leader in Gila settlement,
  photo.
Rogers, Josephine Wall
  Photo.
Rogers, Samuel H.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Roundy, Lorenzo W.
  Led party across Colorado r.,
  drowned,
  photo.
Rusling, Gen. J.F.
  Recommended use of Colorado r. as waterway

S

Safford
  Est.,
  outlawry,
  first school house photo.
Safford, Gov. A. P. K.
  At Tombstone,
  on Gila
Salt
  From Virgin r. mines,
  description of deposit,
  Zuni salt lake,
  Hopi source of supply,
  central Arizona deposits
Salt Lake Pioneers
  Later Arizonans
Salt River Valley
  Visited by Jones party,
  Trejo description
San Bernardino (Cal.)
  Settlement,
  est.,
  abandonment,
  Bartlett account of purchase
San Bernardino Ranch
  Reached by Battalion,
  Standage reference
San Diego
  On route of Battalion,
  Standage reference to,
  arr. Kearny exp.,
  post of Battalion company,
  Battalion experiences
San Francisco
  Arr. "Brooklyn" party
San Jose, Colonia
  Sonora settlement
San Pedro Valley
  Battalion march,
  Standage description,
  settlement
Santa Cruz Valley
  Earliest Spanish settlement
Santa Fe
  On Battalion route
San Xavier
  Early mission in southern Arizona
Savoia (N.M.)
  Est.
Savoietta (N.M.)
  Est.
Scanlon's Ferry
  View
Schools
  Gila Normal College,
  Thatcher,
  photo.,
  St. Johns Academy, St. Johns,
  photo.,
  Snowflake Academy,
  photos, (old and new),
  Academy at Colonia Juarez
Shivwits Indians
  Whole tribe baptized,
  in council with Powell and Hamblin,
  photo.
Showlow
  Won in a card game,
  settlement
Shumway
  Est.
  view
Shumway, Chas.
  Salt Lake Pioneer,
  leader in Nauvoo exodus,
  resident of Shumway, death,
  photo.
Simonsville
  Muddy settlement
Sirrine, Geo. W.
  Brooklyn pioneer,
  at San Bernardino, carried gold payment,
  developed coal,
  at founding of Mesa,
  Church officer,
  photo.
Skinner, G.W.
  Gila River pioneer
Smallpox
  Brought to L. Colorado
Smith, Lt. A.J.
  Battalion officer,
  army record
Smith, Azariah
  Gold discoverer,
  photo.
Smith, Geo. A.
  Account of Tuba's visit,
  in Arizona,
  on the Muddy
Smith, Geo. A. Jr.
  Killed by Navajos,
  photo.
Smith, J.E.
  With Hamblin to Navajo
Smith, Jedediah
  Early trapper
Smith, Jesse N.
  Location at Snowflake,
  President of Eastern Arizona and Snowflake Stakes,
  railroad contracts,
  photo.
Smith, Joseph
  Assassination of,
  photo.
Smith, Joseph F.
  At St. David,
  photo.
Smith, Lot
  Battalion member,
  remained in California,
  head of Sunset party,
  killed by Indians,
  President of L. Colorado Stake,
  photos.
Smith, Samuel F.
  President Snowflake Stake,
  photo.
Smith, Thos. S.
  In charge of first Muddy migration
Smithville
  Est.
Smoot, W.C.A.
  Salt Lake and Las Vegas Pioneer
Snow, Erastus
  Visited Arizona settlements,
  named Fredonia,
  conference with Paiutes,
  promoted cotton factory at St. George,
  selected site of Snowflake,
  photo.
Snow, Erastus B.
  Description of ice bridge at Lee's Ferry
Snow, LeRoi C.
  Assistance in this work
Snow, Lorenzo
  Reference to Brannan,
  founded United Order at Brigham City, Utah,
  photo.
Snowflake
  Cooperative store,
  est., naming, early experiences,
  photos, of Academy
Snowflake Stake
  Est.
Solomon, I.E.
  In Gila Valley
Solomon, W.H.
  Clerk of 1874 Blythe exp.
Southeastern Arizona
  Map
Spaneshanks
  Navajo Chief
Spanish Trail
  Route of,
  map,
  use of eastern end
Springerville
  Est.
Standage, Henry
  Journal of Battalion march,
  Battalion experiences,
  settler at Alma,
  photo.
Stanislaus City
  Early California colony
Stanton Expedition
  Down Colorado r.
Steele, Geo.
  Battalion member,
  photo.
Steele, John
  Battalion member,
  in Arizona,
  photo.
Stephens, Alexander
  Gold discoverer
Stewart, Isaac J.
  Photo.
Stewart, Jas. Z.
  In southern Arizona,
  photos.
Stewart, Levi
  At Moccasin Springs
Stoneman, Lt. Geo.
  Battalion quartermaster,
  recognition of service,
  record of
Stone's Ferry
  On Colorado r.
St. David
  Est.
St. George
  Cotton factory,
  claimed by Arizona
St. Johns
  Made county seat of Apache Co.,
  est.,
  Barth ownership,
  sold to Mormons,
  townsite est.,
  first newspaper,
  street battle,
  killing of Nathan C. Tenney,
  land title dispute,
  irrigation difficulties,
  state aids dam construction,
  grasshopper plague,
  photo. first school,
  photo. Stake Academy,
  early view
St. Johns Stake
  Est.
St. Joseph (Nev.)
  Mormon settlement,
  damaged by fire
St. Joseph (Ariz.)
  Formerly Allen's Camp,
  naming,
  est.,
  view of dam,
  photo. of pioneer group
St. Joseph Stake
  Creation,
St. Thomas (Nev.)
  Est.
Summary of Subjects
Sunset
  Est.
  abandonment
Sutter's Fort
  Gold disc.
  Batt. members at

T

Taylor
  On L. Colorado
  est.
  abandoned
Taylor
  On Silver Creek,
  est.
Taylor, President John
  Introduction to Tyler's Battalion history,
  directed est. of Arizona Stakes,
  visited Arizona,
  death,
  Mexican trip,
  photo.
Teeples, Wm. R.
  Photo.
  photo, of home
Teeples, Mrs. W.R.
  Frontier experiences,
  photo.
Telegraph
  First in Arizona
Tempe
  Johnson party arr.,
  removal to Nephi
Temple
  Arizona,
  at Mesa,
  other Temples of the Church,
  photo.
Tenney, Ammon M.
  First visit to Hopi,
  fight with Navajos,
  in Powell party,
  account of great council with Indians,
  with Hamblin to Oraibi,
  at Las Vegas,
  on site of Woodruff,
  purchase of St. Johns,
  at Zuni,
  railroad contracts,
  with first Jones exp.
  photo.
Tenney, Nathan C.
  Fight with Navajos,
  killed at St. Johns,
  photo.
Terry, George
  In second Mexican exp.,
  photo.
Thatcher, Moses
  In Mexico
Thatcher
  Est.
  photo, normal college
Thomas, Camp
  In Gila Valley
Thompson, Samuel
  Battalion member
  photo.
Thurston, Frank
  Killed by Apaches
To-ish-obe
  Paiute Chief
Tombstone
  Mining history
Tonto Basin
  Settlement
  abandonment authorized
Tragedies of the Frontier
  List of Latter-day Saints killed by Indians or outlaws
Trejo, M. G.
  Spanish missionary
  photo.
Trueworthy, Thos. E.
  Early Colorado r. pilot
  steamboat trip up Colorado r.
Trumbull, Mount
  Indian council
  sawmill to Arizona
Tuba
  Oraibi chief, with Hamblin to Utah
  shows sacred stone
  returns to Oraibi
  at Tuba City
Tuba City
  Est.
  woolen factory
  killing of Lot Smith
  sold to government
Tubac
  Map
  Mormon colony
  visited by second Mexican exp.
Tucson
  Settlement
  taking of by Battalion
  Standage reference
Tumacacori
  Est. of mission
Tyler, Daniel
  Battalion history
Tyler, Frank N.
  Photo.

U

Udall, D. K.
  Arr. at St. Johns
  President St. Johns Stake
  photo, first home
  photo.
United Order
  Est. in Muddy settlements
  development
  not a general Church movement
  in Lehi
  on L. Colorado r.
  at Woodruff
Utah
  Creation of Territory
  seeks land north of Colorado r.
Utah, Camp
  See Lehi
Utahville
  See Lehi
Ute Ford
  See Crossing of the Fathers

V

Vado de los Padres
  See Crossing of the Fathers
Virden
  Est.
Virgin River
  Settlements on

W

Wallapai Indians
  Visited Muddy Valley
Walnut Grove
  Settled
Walpi
  Hopi village, view
Weaver, Pauline
  Principal guide to Battalion, gold discoveries, death
Wells, Daniel H.
  Visited Arizona settlements
  on L. Colorado r.
  photo.
Welsh
  Legend of the Hopi
West Point
  Muddy settlement
Wham robbery
  Near Gila settlements
Whipple
  Expedition
Whitmore, Dr. Jas. M.
  At founding of Callville, killed by Indians,
  at Pipe Springs,
  with Anson Call on Colorado r.,
  photo.
Wilford
  Mountain settlement
Winsor, A. P.
  At Pipe Springs
Winsor Castle
  Pipe Springs,
  photo.
Woodruff
  Est.,
  irrigation,
  view
Woodruff, Wilford
  In Arizona,
  in northeastern Arizona,
  photo.
Woods, J. A.
  Early teacher
Woolen Factory
  At Tuba City,
  photo.
Wright Brothers
  Killed by Apaches,
  photos.
Wyoming
  First Mormon settlement

Y

Yerba Buena
  Early Spanish name of San Francisco
Young, Brigham
  Arr. Salt Lake,
  authorized "Brooklyn" exp.,
  extended Church influence southward, San Bernardino colonization,
  conception of Deseret, first governor of Deseret,
  photo,
  sent party to investigate Welsh legend,
  sent Hamblin to Indians,
  death,
  ordained Hamblin as Apostle to the Lamanites,
  bought Whitmore estate,
  detailed missionaries to Las Vegas,
  visit in 1870 to Muddy section and Paria,
  directed first L. Colorado exp,
  order for Blythe 1874 exp,
  photo, with party,
  received report of Jones party,
  directed exploration of Sonora,
  plans for Mexican settlement,
  Arizona Temple idea
Young, John R.
  Sent to rescue missionaries
Young, John W.
  Led party of southern settlers,
  at Holbrook,
  directed occupation of LeRoux Spring,
  Tuba City woolen factory,
  railroad contracts
Young, John Wm.
  At Hopi
Young, Joseph W.
  Estimate of Paiutes
Yuma Indians
  Colorado r. deck hands

Z

Zodiac
  Settlement in Texas
Zuni Indians
  Welsh legend