Mormon Settlements in Graham County

In the writer's possession are a number of manuscripts by Edward D. Tuttle, a man who first entered Arizona in 1862 as a member of the California Volunteers a military force which played an important role in the southwestern phase of the Civil War and subsequent campaigns against the Apaches. In 1864, he obtained a leave of absence from the military and served as a member of Arizona's first territorial legislature. After many Arizona adventures, Tuttle visited the infant village of Safford in 1876 through the urging of his friend, Joshua (Josh) Bailey, and decided to make the young community his home.

After establishing residence in Safford, Tuttle joined Bailey (father of Safford) in operating Safford's first store, developed a farm, acted as broker in many land transactions, taught school and served as justice of the peace.

In the above-mentioned manuscripts, Tuttle, a non-Mormon, records history on many subjects, some dealing with his Gila Valley Mormon friends. He writes: "In 1879, a delegation of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, came from Utah. They looked the country over and decided to occupy the unsettled part of the valley below Safford at Ash Creek. They located land claims and irri gation canals, began the erection of houses, laid out villages and, as they co-operate and help each other in every work, they soon had communities equipped with schools, churches and stores. They had plenty of labor, as more joined them later, bringing fine breeds of cattle and other stock which we did not have before. Their coming assured us of greater security from Indian raids.

"The villages of Pima (Smithville), Thatcher, Central, Matthews and Bryce were soon on the map, with many brick dwellings, instead of the adobe so characteristic of the other towns. They favored economy in county government, also prohibition was a rule in their domestic life. They purchased the flour mill built by Cottreal & Jacobs at Safford in 1877. They introduced a better system of irrigation, giving us benefit of their experience in Utah, where irrigation was first practiced in the United States.

"Arizona has been greatly benefitted as the result of that first immigration and the following ones in every way, in my opinion."

Of course Tuttle, in writing this tribute, only touched on the Graham County Mormon story. Background of events leading to Mormon settlement in Graham County had its beginning with the birth of Joseph Smith in 1805, the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830 and the organization of the church during the same year, Joseph and Hyrum Smith's martyrdom in 1844, and Brigham Young's prophetic words uttered in Utah in 1847: "This is the place!"

An extremely important part of the Mormon story, too, was the church's energetic and wide-scope colonization plan. Early as 1875 James S. Brown, a former captain in the Mormon Battalion, established the first permanent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints colony in Arizona Territory at Moencopi. Shortly, a series of L.D.S. settlements sprang up along the Little Colorado River and its tributaries; also in the Mormon Lake area and in Snowflake and Show Low.

During February, 1879, four men-William Teeples, John W. Tanner, Ben Pearce and Hyrum Weech-from the Snowflake area-laid out the Smithville (now Pima) site and on April 8 of the same year twenty-nine persons of varying ages arrived to start its settlement. Quickly, they commenced the formidable and back-breaking task of clearing land, digging canals, planting crops, building houses and performing countless other tasks. A log building served the hamlet as a church, school and general meeting place. Many of the first L.D.S. religious services conducted in the Gila Valley were held in this building under the direction of Bishop Joseph K. Rogers, who introduced the bill creating Graham County.

Most meaningful in Graham County's portion of L.D.S. history is the date of Sunday, February 25, 1883, when members of the church at St. David, Arizona, by voice, accepted Christopher Layton as president of the St. Joseph Stake of Zion (which had just been organized by the first presidency) with David P. Kimball and James H. Martineau as counselors. Official name of the new stake was "St. Joseph Stake of Zion," named in honor of the prophet Joseph Smith. The St. Joseph Stake was composed from parts of the Maricopa and Eastern Arizona Stakes and encompassed parts of two nations and three states.

As president of the newly created St. Joseph Stake, Christopher Layton visited the Gila Valley, and at a two-day meeting-Saturday and Sunday, May 12-13, 1883, held in Pima -helped organize the Pima, Thatcher, Graham and Curtis Wards.

TRADE-IN

Infinities are Dizzying, Mind-muters; Muchness Staggers. I'll trade Multitudes and Myriads, Light years and Eons, For something neighborly Close to my house, Like a desert flower To pin to my blouse.

SPENDTHRIFT

If this were the last rose in the world, Its fading... falling Would be headlined Tragedy. Come, let us get it over quickly! The petals look a little tired; There are redder roses tápping at the window.

JEWELED INTERLUDE

The fading summer's fractured prisms Splinter helter-skelter through the trees; A soft, indifferent autumn wind Stirs polychrome leaf-tapestries. Ballooning clouds and sky-blue weather; An eddy of crumpled aspen stars; Hyacinth haze blurring the mesa Early dusk lowering the shadow bars.

MORNING

Above the folded hills low brooding skies Unfurl a leaden canopy of cloud That turns to pearl. The sun awakes and pries The clinging night apart, and cleanly proud Steps forth in glory, draped in veiling mist Of gentle silver, rose, and vivid gold. Soon earth, refreshed by sleep and sunlight kissed, Responds in kind; it has a day to hold.

THE LAST MARKS OF DAY

The sun signed her name In the west in blazing inks. The colors were aflame With reds and golds and pinks.

The night erased the signature there Until the sky lay bare Except for smudges of gray, The remnant marks of day.

ARRIVAL

The sky builds, lavender on gray, Until there can be no more height, And closes down onto the hills, Pressing out sharp wind and sudden rain.

A line of lightest blue edges up Above a ridge and silently instructs The temporary turbulence to break away: For clear air, high sky, bright day.

YOURS SINCERELY AUDIENCE IN AUSTRALIA:

Quite by accident the other evening I picked up in our local C. R. Library a copy of your magazine. I cannot do justice to the manner in which it brightened my evening and (without pretentiousness I hope) strengthened my soul.

I claim not to be parochial, while at the moment residing in the midst of inevitable parochialism, but, with the continued power of the press and radio and T.V. the tendency to regard Uncle Sam as all Philistine and no artist, a front window of riches with a back kitchen of poverty, a nest of racial strife within, a viper of warlike propensity without, is not easily revoked. However, articles and photographs like "My Southwest," by Esther Henderson, dismiss all those tragic attributes and fill the minds of those that wish to see and feel with entirely the opposite. (January issue, 1968.) Shakespeare spoke about ingratitude with potent words: "Blow Blow thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude"; therefore, although it must be almost a cliche to say "what wonderful pictures, what wonderful words" in Esther Henderson's contribution, in fear of ingratitude I must repeat the cliche, along with "Thank you, Esther Henderson."

I wonder if she realizes the poetry and ethical power in these two sentences plucked from her article: "I shifted from thinking how shall I take this picture to thinking, what does this subject say to me?" "When I became less the do-er and more the recipient, I began to hear the Voice of the Land."

These words remind me of my first contact in literature with the Grand Canyon in a book by J. B. Priestley. I read it long ago during the worst of our war days in England, when Hitler was bombing London and Coventry, when thousands of your lads were dying off Normandy. Amidst the tragedy came the words describing his (Priestley's) impressions of your Grand Canyon and the lands of Arizona: "This country is geology by day and astronomy at night. It offers a broad view of what is happening generally in the solar system, with no particular reference to man. But it has a magnificent routine. The early mornings in winter are cold, very fresh and pure. Then under burning noons, the red cardinals and the bluebirds flash among the cottonwoods, as if nature had turned outrageously symbolic. The afternoons are so much sunlight and aromatic air. But at sunset the land throws up pink summits and saw-toothed ridges of amethyst, and there are miracles of fire in the sky. Night uncovers two million more stars than you have ever seen before; and the planets are not points but globes." Thus wrote J. B. P. in murky London of your great outdoor lands.

This part of Australia has a certain similarity in its nearby Flinders Ranges. It has inspired a few poets and painters and photographers. Let us hope that the facets that create these splendid things will continue and that all the affairs of lesser interest wars, strife, hatred and so forth, will give way to the wonderful imaginative worlds of artists akin to Esther Henderson.

AUDIENCE IN ENGLAND:

May I take this opportunity of congratulating you on a wonderful magazine. It is the envy of our friends and the back numbers (a long way back, for I hoard them) are used in school where the pupils love them and in a Home for Retired Teachers (run by the Teachers' Benevolent Fund of which I have recently relinquished the chairmanship). These aged teachers have many hours of joyful, vicarious travel from your magazine. On their behalf, thank you!

OPPOSITE PAGE

"SAN CARLOS LAKE A PLACID SPRING PORTRAIT" BY DARWIN VAN CAMPEN. While Coolidge Dam on the Gila is in Gila County, the waters of San Carlos Lake, backed up by the dam, are mainly in Graham County. The lake, which was named from the small, now abandoned village of San Carlos, has been extremely low for years because of the extended drought in areas drained by the Gila, but received a good runoff during the heavy storms of last winter and is now a busy water sports and fishing center. When Coolidge Dam was built, it was feared the waters of the lake formed would cover old San Carlos, so the tribal agency, then called Rice, was named "San Carlos" in 1930. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.30 at 1/30th sec.; 90mm Super Angulon lens; bright day in May when spring wild flowers were abundant in the area; Weston Meter reading 400."FANCY DRESS IN SPRING'S WARDROBE" BY DAVID MUENCH. Last spring, because of generous rains in early and late winter, promised to result in a more-than-average spring wild flower display, and as this photograph shows the promise was kept. This photograph was taken on a sunny, bright day in March along a short side road in the Kelly Canyon area off the old Coolidge Dam road on the lower slopes of Mt. Turnbull leading to San Carlos Lake. Desert ridges, in the foreground, were clothed in an early spring display of poppies and lupine, while the green of the creosote bushes adds a touch of color to the scene. Mt. Turnbull (7,700 feet in elevation), in the Santa Teresa Mountains in Graham County, still wears patches of a winter cloak. 4x5 Linhof V camera; Ektachrome; f.100 at 1 sec.; 15" Apo Ronar Rodenstock lens; Weston Master V reading - 15 minus.

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