Mormon Settlement in Arizona Part 27

One of the early settlements of the Gila Valley is Matthews (successively Matthewsville, Fairview and Glenbar), founded in December, 1880, by Joseph Matthews and family, from Round Valley, and Wm. R. Waddill. In 1881 they built a stockade and though no local Indian depredations were known, in that year the Matthews settlers moved to Pima for better protection. A townsite was selected by the Stake President September 17, 1886, but was not occupied. A resident of note was the first district school teacher, John F. Nash, who came with his father to Arizona in 1874, first settling in Williamson Valley near Prescott. He arrived in the valley in 1881, the progress of the family toward Texas stopped on the Gila by the stealing of a band of Nash horses by "rustlers."

Vicissitudes of Pioneering

Eden, first known as Curtis, lies on the northern side of the Gila, nine miles northwest of Pima. It dates from early in 1881, when there was arrival from Brigham City, Arizona, of a party of United Order settlers, headed by Moses M. Curtis. Though other immigrants occupied holdings nearby, M.M. Curtis and Wm. R. Hawkins were the only residents of the present Eden townsite in 1881. The men first turned their attention toward the construction of a ditch from the river, this completed the following year. For a while the young community was on very short rations. At times there could be only one meal a day, that a meager one of beans, served at noon to the workers, who scarcely could summon strength for more than a half day's labor.

Some of the early settlers built boweries of brush under which they rolled their covered wagons, to secure better protection from the pitiless Arizona summer sun, and with no other home for weeks. There were Indian "scares," as elsewhere told, and life was far from comfortable, with occasional crossing of the Gila at flood to secure protection at the more populous Pima. In January, 1882, was a moving back to five log houses that had been built on the Curtis townsite, but even after that was flight to Pima when word came of an Indian raid. In the fall of 1882 eight families were living in a little stockade fort that enclosed a half acre of ground, near the river. The present townsite was located May 10, 1883.

Gila Communities of the Faith

Thatcher, present Stake headquarters, derives its name from Apostle Moses Thatcher, who was a Christmas visitor in 1882, in company with Apostle Erastus Snow. The first settler was John M. Moody, who came with his family from Utah, arriving when Nature had warm welcome indeed, on July 4, 1881. In 1882 he was joined by the Cluff and Zufelt families and by James Pace of the Mormon Battalion, who built a stockade, and a little later by Hyrum Brinkerhoff and wife Margaret, "Aunt Maggie," who bought and occupied the Moody place. They were prominent among the Southern Utah and Muddy pioneers.

The Thatcher townsite was selected by President Layton May 13, 1883, a school district being established the following month. Among the arrivals of the following year was Samuel Claridge, one of the pioneers of the Muddy section. October 19, 1885, the presidency located a new townsite about one-half mile to the southward and on higher land. Much of the old Moody ranch since the Brinkerhoff purchase has disappeared, from the encroachments of the Gila River.

Bryce, across the river from Pima, dates from January, 1883, when Ebenezer Bryce, Sr., and sons commenced construction of a ditch, completed the next year. The first house was that of Ebenezer P. Bryce, occupied in December, 1884.

Central, between Thatcher and Pima, took its name from the Central ca.n.a.l, which irrigates part of the settlement. Its first settlers were Orson and Joseph Cluff of Forest Dale, from which they came southward in the spring of 1882.

The Hubbard settlement is an outgrowth of the Graham and Bryce wards and is of comparatively late occupation. It is named after Elisha F. Hubbard, Sr., the first ward bishop.

The Layton settlement, named for the first stake president, is one of the most prosperous, and is the third in order of population of the St.

Joseph Stake wards. The first settler was Hyrum H. Tippets, who came January 13, 1883, direct from Brigham City, Utah.

The Franklin settlement, above Duncan on the Gila, is about seven miles in length, most of it in Arizona, though lapping over into New Mexico.

Its first Mormon settler was Thomas J. Nations, in 1895. He joined, with others of the brethren, in taking out a ca.n.a.l. Thomas A. McGrath is understood to have been the first settler of the locality. The name was given in 1898, at the time of the visit of Apostles John Henry Smith and John W. Taylor, and is in honor of Franklin D. Richards, an apostle of the Church, who in no wise had been a.s.sociated with Arizona affairs. In the same vicinity, wholly in New Mexico, is the settlement of Virden, mainly populated by refugees from Mexico. In these upper Gila communities the Mormons have created a veritable garden, where careless cultivation had been known.

Graham County was created by the Arizona Legislature in the spring of 1881, the settlement south of the Gila theretofore having been in Pima County. The first county seat was Safford, but county government was transferred to Solomonville by an act of the Legislature in 1883. In 1915, after the setting off of Greenlee County, the court-house went back to Safford.

Considering the Lamanites

In the entertaining flood of reminiscence that comes from almost any of the devout pioneers, there often is found expression of abiding belief of personal protection extended by Omnipotence. Possibly, save in the development of character by trials and by tribulation, the average pioneer of the faith, from a present viewpoint, would appear to have been little favored, yet thankful devotion ever was present.

One story that indicated celestial intervention in time of danger, has been told by Orson Cluff. He and several brothers and their families were on the road south from Forest Dale to the Gila, and had camped at a point twenty miles south of Fort Apache. In the morning there was the usual prayer, from which the company arose, refreshed in spirit, for another hard day's journey. A short time later, an Indian told how he was a member of a band of redskins that lay in ambush about the Mormon camp that very morning. The work of ma.s.sacre was about to begin when the intended victims were seen to drop upon their knees and to lift their hands aloft in supplication. The startled Indians were overcome by some mysterious power and stole away. Possibly they feared that potent "medicine" was being made against them, but the Cluffs are sure that the Holy Spirit had descended to save them for further earthly experience.

The Gila Valley saw much of Indian rapine in its earlier days. The section considered in this chapter lies just east of the San Carlos Apache reservation and is flanked on the northward by the White Mountain reservation. When the California Column, under General Carleton, was established in Arizona in 1863, after beating the Confederates back beyond the Rio Grande, it was found necessary to establish military stations in that locality. Camp Goodwin, named after the first Governor of the Territory, was at the lower end of the valley. A number of years after its abandonment, there was established, five miles to the eastward, Camp Thomas, maintained until after the final subjugation of the hostile Indians. Thomas was a veritable guard post for the Mormon settlers. To the southwest was Camp Grant, in the northern extension of the Sulphur Springs Valley, this post a successor to old Camp Grant, which was at the mouth of Aravaipa Creek, at the junction of that stream with the San Pedro River. To the northward was Fort Apache and to the southward Fort Bowie.

The Hostile Chiricahuas

The native Pinaleno Indians of the San Carlos region, while inclined toward spasmodic outbreaks, were not as hostile as their western neighbors, the Mohave and Yuma Apaches. A very dangerous element was added when, in 1876, under direction of the army, Agent John P. Clum moved to San Carlos 325 Indians of the Chiricahua-Apache strain from a reservation in southeastern Arizona. Within a few years, 4500 Indians were concentrated at San Carlos. The Chiricahuas, unsettled and forever yearning to get back to the scene of their marauding along the emigrant road to the southward and in Mexico, constantly were slipping away from the reservation by individuals and by bands, and their highway usually was up the river. In the early eighties the settlers along the Gila lived forever in terror of the savage foe. The military was efficient.

Hardriding troopers would dash forth from one or all of the guardian posts whenever danger threatened, and to these same troops undoubtedly is due the fact that general ma.s.sacres were not known in and around the Gila Valley towns.

Often the Author finds in the ma.n.u.scripts of personal experiences that have been acc.u.mulated by the score in his office, a note indicating the conditions under which the land was settled. There have been attempts in other parts of this work to make clear the fact that the Mormons always tried to be friendly with the Indians and suffered without protest treatment from the aborigines that would have led to the shedding of blood by others. One interesting little item of this sort is in a record contributed by Mrs. W.R. Teeples. She found the Indians on the Gila Hirer in 1879 were friendly, possibly too much so. She wrote, "When I was cooking pancakes over the fire in our camp, the Indians would sit around watching, and they would grab the cakes out of the pan before they were done, so I had to cover the pancakes up to keep them for ourselves."

Mrs. J.N. Stratton wrote of the same period:

"Besides the fear of getting out of food was the greater fear of the Indians. They were on the San Carlos reservation and were supposed to be peaceful, but bands often went out on the warpath and spread terror throughout the country, so the people never knew what to expect from them. The mesquite and sage brush were so thick where Safford's streets and houses are now, that one could only see a little distance, and it was no uncommon occurrence for an Indian to slip out from behind the brush and come walking in at the cabin door, or put his face up against the window and peer in, if the door happened to be closed. One settler who had two doors had her husband nail one up so that when the Indians did come to call on them, she could stand in the other door and keep them from coming in. The mothers never let their children get out of their sight, for fear they would be stolen."

I.E. Solomon and his family had many experiences with the Indians, and in several cases narrowly escaped death. A number of Solomon's employees were killed in the open country toward Clifton.

An interesting chronicle is from Mrs. Elizabeth Hanks Curtis, who came with her family in April, 1881. Incidentally, she is a descendant of the Hanks family, tracing relations.h.i.+p to Abraham Lincoln. A mile above Eden they built a log fort. In September this had to be abandoned, word brought by a friendly Indian of the coming of a large band of Indians and of imminent danger. Will Ransom from Pima provided a raft to cross the river upon and the settlers concentrated at Pima. The settlers were driven into Pima again in April of the following year, after huddling for days in Moses Curtis' cabin. Protection came from Fort Thomas.

Murders by Indian Raiders

July 19, 1882, Jacob S. Ferrin of Pima was killed under circ.u.mstances of treachery. A freighting camp, of which he was a member, was entered by a number of Apaches, led by "Dutchy," escaped from custody at San Carlos.

Pretending amity, they seized the teamsters' guns and fired upon their hosts. Ferrin was shot down, one man was wounded and the others escaped.

On the morning of December 1, 1885, Lorenzo and Seth Wright were killed by Indians who had been combing the valley for horses. The Wrights had started, with members of a posse, from Layton, and were joined at Solomonville by Sheriff Stevens and two other men, after there had been recovered a number of the stolen horses, for the pursuers rode harder and faster than the fleeing thieves. There had been a.s.sumption that the thieves were Mexicans and so there was an element of recklessness in the pursuit that would have been missing had the truth been known, that they were Apaches. The four leading men of the posse were ambushed by the redskins, who had halted by the roadside. Seth Wright was shot from his horse. His brother immediately dismounted and opened fire upon the Indians. Lorenzo's right arm was broken by a bullet, and then, while he was running, he was shot in the back.

This same band had killed a man and a boy at Black Rock and a herdsman at Bear Springs Flat.

May 23, 1886, Frank Thurston of Pima, while starting a lime kiln, six miles from the town, was surprised by eight Apaches and killed. This band pa.s.sed by the Curtis settlement, driving off a number of horses.

Concerning the Indian situation, James H. Martineau, on June 1, 1886, wrote that the Apaches then were riding in many small bands, but were kept on the move constantly by the vigorous measures of General Miles, and he a.s.sumes that the Apache question would have been settled had his predecessor, General Crook, been less dilatory. The writer expressed his conclusion that in military skill, strategy and ability the Indians far excelled their opponents, and details that fifty or sixty Apaches the year before had killed more than 75 white settlers, all the while pursued by seventeen companies of United States troops, without losing a single Indian.

Outlawry Along the Gila

The Mormons of the Gila Valley maintained most amicable relations with their neighbors, but occasionally had to partic.i.p.ate in some of the ordinary frontier episodes. James R. Welker, an arrival in Safford in 1883, tells that, "The cowboys had things about their own way for a few years. They would ride right into a town, go straight to the saloon and commence shooting the place up. They were expert with the pistol too. I have seen some very wonderful shots among those cowboys. They did not do much killing around here, but they were pretty wild and did about as they pleased." W.T. Barney wrote, "The rustlers gave us quite a bit of trouble, perhaps even more than the Indians."

The peaceful Saints in the Gila Valley undoubtedly found much that was foreign to their habits of life. A tale of the frolicsome cowboy is told by Isaac P. Robinson of Thatcher, who was in Safford in 1884:

"There were but very few houses in Safford then. About the only business house was the Glasby building, which had a saloon and also a store. The cowboys had things about their own way. They would come into the store and take possession. Mr. Glasby would go out and leave it to them. They would shoot up the store, help themselves to what they wanted, pay for everything they had taken, shoot up the town and go on. But I don't want to see any more of it. You haven't the remotest idea what a lot of trouble they made. This was the main route from the north into Mexico and the princ.i.p.al rendezvous for a lot of those rough characters."

In the way of outlawry, the valley had unwelcome notoriety, when from its rougher element was const.i.tuted a band which, May 11, 1889, ambushed Paymaster J.W. Wham of the United States army, on the road between Fort Grant and Fort Thomas, and stole about $28,000 in gold and silver, intended for the pay of the troops at the latter post. An escort of eleven colored infantrymen, led by a sergeant, apparently deserted by the Major, fought well, but was driven away after five of the soldiers had been wounded. Thirteen bandits were understood to have been implicated.

Eight individuals were arrested. There was trial at Tucson, where Wham and the soldiers were notably poor witnesses and where the defendants were acquitted.

A Gray Highway of Danger

Just as the Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado providentially were given a.s.sistance by the building of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, just so the struggling pioneers on the Gila found benefit in the opening of the silver and copper mines at Globe. Freight teams were in demand for hauling c.o.ke and supplies from the railroad at Willc.o.x and Bowie and for hauling back from the mines the copper bullion. Much of this freighting was done with great teams of mules and horses, veritable caravans, owned by firms such as Tully & Ochoa or M.G. Samaniego of Tucson, but enough was left for the two and four-horse teams of the Mormons, who thus were enabled from the hauling of a few tons of c.o.ke to provide provisions for their families and implements for the tilling of their fields.

The road from the railroad to Globe ofttimes was a gray highway of danger. After leaving the Gila towns, it led through the length of the Apache Indian reservation. Usually the teams went in sort of military order. The larger "outfits" had strict rules for defense, each driver with his pistol and rifle and each "swamper" similarly armed. Every night the wagons were drawn into a circle, within which the horses were corralled or tied to the wagon poles, where they were fed. Pickets were kept out and care was incessant day and night.

But, sometimes, a freighter, eager to earn extra pay for a quick trip, or wis.h.i.+ng to drive ahead of the cloud of dust that enveloped each large convoy, would push along by himself. Possibly the next day, the train would come to the embers of what had been wagons and their contents.

Nearby would be the bodies of the tortured and murdered teamsters. So the careful ones united, remaining at the railroad until at least a score of wagons had acc.u.mulated, and then made their way northward, relatively safe through united vigilance.

In 1899 the Gila Valley, Globe & Northern railroad was completed from Bowie, through the Gila Valley towns, to Globe, a distance of 124 miles, though the loss to the freighters was more than balanced by the general good to the community of bettered transportation facilities. Right-of-way through the reservation was accorded by the Indians after a diplomatic distribution to them by a railroad agent of $8000, all in silver coin.

Chapter Twenty-three

Civic and Church Features