Part 18 (1/2)
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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ERASTUS SNOW. In Charge of Pioneer Arizona Colonization]
[Ill.u.s.tration: JOSEPH W. McMURRIN]
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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-cla.s.s farming plot of ten acres at $110 and each second-cla.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 ma.n.u.script 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.