Chapter VIII: Foreword (8)

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.

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]

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."

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."

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.

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