Part 1 (1/2)
Mormon Settlement in Arizona.
by James H. McClintock.
FOREWORD
This publication, covering a field of southwestern interest hitherto unworked, has had material a.s.sistance 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 a.s.sistant, 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 members.h.i.+p. 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 quant.i.ty of typewritten matter that covers most fully the personal features of Mormon settlement and development in the Southwest. This has had careful indexing.
Acc.u.mulation of data was begun the last few months of the lifetime of Thomas E. Farish, who had been State Historian since Arizona's a.s.sumption of statehood in 1912. Upon his regretted pa.s.sing, 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 ma.s.s 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.
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 fellows.h.i.+p 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 t.i.tle 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 t.i.tle, showing a lofty moral aspiration, at least. It would be hard to imagine wickedness proceeding from such a designation, though the Church itself a.s.suredly would be the first to disclaim a.s.sumption of full saintliness within its great members.h.i.+p. 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 st.u.r.dy 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 members.h.i.+p 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 members.h.i.+p, 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 a.s.suredly 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.