Mormon Settlement in Arizona Part 15

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 gra.s.s, 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 b.u.t.t, 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 h.o.m.ogeneous, yet traveled in peace and union. The members a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sed.

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 gra.s.s 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 partic.i.p.ated 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sembling point was Kanab. Thence there was a.s.semblage 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, establis.h.i.+ng 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CROSSING THE LITTLE COLORADO]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OLD FORT AT BRIGHAM CITY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOODRUFF DAM, AFTER ONE OF THE FREQUENT WASHOUTS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 const.i.tuted 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 a.s.semblage was composed, "showing that the people were by no means dest.i.tute, 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 rus.h.i.+ng 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."