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