Mormon Settlement in Arizona Part 25

Into the valleys of the Salt and of the Gila, from the north come many waterways. In none of these tributary valleys can there be failure to find evidences of the northward march of the Indians who lived in houses.

In this intermediate region, the houses usually, for protection, were placed in the cliffs. Particularly notable are the cave dwellings of the upper Verde and in Tonto Basin, near Roosevelt, and in the Sierra Anchas and near Flagstaff.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ARIZONA TEMPLE AT MESA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: JONATHAN HEATON OF MOCCASIN AND HIS FIFTEEN SONS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 1--Ira Hatch, Indian Missionary 2--Thales Haskell, Indian Missionary 3--Wm. C. Prows, Battalion Member 4--Nathan B. Robinson, killed by Indians]

Again there was debouchment upon a river valley, that of the Little Colorado. Possibly some of the tribes worked eastward into the valley of the Rio Grande. Another section, and for this there is no less evidence than that of Frank Hamilton Cushing, formed at least a part of the forefathers of the Zuni. Swinging to the northwest, the Water House and other clans formed the southern branch of the three from which the Moqui, or Hopi, people are descended. This last is history. The early Mormons remarked upon the pueblo ruins that lay near their first Little Colorado towns, above St. Joseph. These ruins are known to the Hopi as "h.o.m.olobi,"

and much is the information concerning them to be had from the historians of the present hilltop tribes.

Reports of similarity have been so many, there can be no surprise that the earlier settlers from Utah wrote home joyously, telling that proofs had been found of the northern migration so definitely outlined in their ecclesiastical writings, according to the Book of Mormon.

_The Great Reavis Land Grant Fraud_

For about ten years from 1885 all the lands of the Salt and Gila valleys of Arizona lay under a serious cloud of t.i.tle. There had been elimination of the Texas-Pacific landgrant, which unsuccessfully had been claimed by the Southern Pacific. Then came the Reavis grant, one of the most monumental of attempted swindles ever known. James Addison Reavis, a newspaper solicitor, claimed a tract 78 miles wide from a point at the junction of the Gila and Salt Rivers, eastward to beyond Silver City, N.M., on the basis of an alleged grant, of date December 20, 1748, by Fernando VI, King of Spain, to Senor Don Miguel de Peralta y Cordoba, who then was made Baron of the Colorados and granted 300 square leagues in the northern portion of the viceroyalty of New Spain. The grant was said to have been appropriated in 1757. Reavis had first claimed by virtue of a deed from one Willing, of date 1867, but there was switching later, Reavis thereafter claiming as agent for his wife, said to have been the last of the Peralta line, but in reality a half-breed Indian woman, found on an Indian reservation in northern California, and one who had no Mexican history whatever. Reavis renamed himself "Peralta-Reavis," and for a while had headquarters for his "barony" at Arizola, a short distance east of Casa Grande, where he maintained his family in state, with his children in royal purple velvet, with monogrammed coronets upon their Russian caps. He arrogated to himself ownership of all the water and the mines and sold quit-claim deeds to the land's owners. It is said that the Southern Pacific bought its right of way from him and that the Silver King and other mines similarly contributed to his exchequer. He claimed Phoenix, Mesa, Florence, Globe, Silver King, Safford and Silver City.

He planned a storage basin on Salt River and another above Florence on the Gila, and advertised that he intended to reclaim 6,000,000 acres on the Casa Grande and Maricopa plains, "thereafter returning to the Gila any surplus water." Just how accurate his figures were may be judged by the fact that government engineers have found that the waters of the Gila, above Florence, are sufficient for the irrigation of not more than 90,000 acres. He viewed things on a big scale, however. At Tonto Basin he was to build a dam 450 feet high and the water was to be taken from the river channel by means of a 44,000-foot tunnel.

Whenever one of his prospective customers failed to contribute, he often deeded the land to a third party. Some of these deeds are to be seen on the records of Maricopa County. His case had been so well prepared that many were deceived, even the lawyers who served him as counsel, including Robert G. Ingersoll. Naturally something approximating a panic for a while was known by the farmers of the valleys affected.

Meanwhile, very largely from moneys obtained as above noted, Reavis was spending royally at many points. At Madrid, Spain, he had a gorgeous establishment, whereat he even entertained the American Legation. At many points in Mexico, he scattered coin lavishly and acc.u.mulated cords of alleged original records and he even found paintings of his wife's alleged ancestors. The grant was taken into politics and was an issue in the congressional campaign of 1887.

About 1898 there was establishment of the United States Court of Private Land Claims, especially for adjudication of many such claims in the Southwest. Reavis' elaborately prepared case tumbled almost from the day it was brought into court. Government agents found bribery, corruption and fraud all along his trail. He had interpolated pages in old record books and had even changed and rewritten royal doc.u.ments, including one on which the grant was based. Some of his "ancient" doc.u.ments were found to have been executed on very modern milled paper. On one of them appeared the water mark of a Wisconsin paper mill. Others had type that had been invented only a few years before. The claim was unanimously rejected by the land court and on the same day Reavis was arrested on five indictments for conspiracy. He was convicted in January, 1895, and sentenced to six years in the penitentiary. After serving his sentence, he made a brief confession, telling that he had been "playing a game which to win meant greater wealth than that of Gould or Vanderbilt."

The district covered by his claim today has property valued at at least one billion dollars.

When Mesa first was settled, every alternate section was called "railroad land." claimed by the Southern Pacific, under virtue of the old Tom Scott-Texas & Pacific land grant. Early in the eighties, this claim vanished, it being decided that the Southern Pacific had no right to the grant.

Chapter Twenty-one

Near the Mexican Border

Location on the San Pedro River

Much historical value attaches to the settlement of the Saints upon the San Pedro River, even though prosperity there has not yet come in as large a degree as has been known elsewhere within the State. It is not improbable that within the next few years an advance in material riches will be known in large degree, through water storage, saving both water and the cutting away of lands through flood, and that permanent diversion works will save the heart-breaking tasks of frequent rebuilding of the temporary dams heretofore washed out in almost every freshet.

Elsewhere has been told the story of the Daniel W. Jones party that settled at Lehi and of the dissension that followed objections on the part of the majority to the rulings of the stout old elder, whose mind especially dwelt upon the welfare of red-skinned brethren.

There had been general authorization to the Jones-Merrill expedition to go as far southward as it wished. Under this, though not till there had been consultation with the Church Presidency, the greater number of the Lehi settlers left Salt River early in August, 1877. There was expectation that they were to settle on the headwaters of the Gila or on the San Pedro. There must have been a deal of faith within the company, for the departure from camp was with provisions only enough to last two days and there was appreciation that much wild country would need to be pa.s.sed. But there was loan of the wages of A.O. Williams, a member of the party who had been employed by C.T. Hayden at Tempe, and with this money added provisions were secured.

Necessarily, the journey was indirect. At Tucson employment was offered for men and teams by Thomas Gardner, who owned a sawmill in the Santa Rita Mountains. Much of the money thus earned was saved, for the party lived under the rules of the United Order, and very economically. So, in the fall, with the large joint capital of $400 in cash, added to teams and wagons and to industry and health, there was fresh start, from the Santa Ritas, for the San Pedro, 45 miles distant. The river was reached November 29, 1877.

These first settlers comprised Philemon C., Dudley T., Thomas, Seth and Orrin D. Merrill, George E. Steele, Joseph McRae and A.O. Williams. All but Williams and O.D. Merrill had families.

Ground was broken at a point on the west side of the river, on land that had been visited and located October 14, by P.C. Merrill on an exploring trip. The first camp was about a half mile south of the present St. David and soon was given permanency by the erection of a small stone fort of eight rooms. That winter, for the common interest, was planting of 75 acres of wheat and barley, irrigated from springs and realizing very well.

Malaria Overcomes a Community

As was usual in early settlement of Arizona valleys, malarial fever appeared very soon. At one time, in the fall of 1878, nearly all the settlers were prostrated with the malady, probably carried by mosquitoes from stagnant water. That year also it was soberly told that fever and ague even spread to the domestic animals. At times, the sick had to wait on the sick and there was none to greet Apostle Erastus Snow when he made visitation October 6, 1878. His first address was to an a.s.sembly of 38 individuals, of whom many had been carried to the meeting on their beds.

It is chronicled by Elder McRae that, "notwithstanding these conditions, the Apostle blessed the place, prophesying that the day would come when the San Pedro Valley would be settled from one end to the other with Saints and that we had experienced the worst of our sickness. When he left, all felt better in body and in spirit." It was a decidedly hot season. "Vegetation grew so rank that a horseman mounted on a tall horse could hardly be seen at a distance of a quarter of a mile. Hay could be cut a stone's throw from our door."

The first death was on October 2, 1878, of the same A.O. Williams whose money had brought the people to the new land.

Possibly the settlement needed the mental and spiritual encouragement of Apostle Snow, for more than a year had pa.s.sed of hardships and of labor, and, including the Lehi experience, there had been no recompense, unless it might have been in the way of mental and moral discipline.

The early malaria of the Arizona valleys nearly all has disappeared, with the draining of swampy places, the eradication of beaver dams and mosquitoes and the knowledge of better living conditions. Elsewhere has been told of the abandonment of Obed and other early Little Colorado settlements, because of chills and fever. Something of the same sort was known on the upper Gila, from 1882 to 1890, around Pima, Curtis and Bryce. In this same upper Gila Valley, Fort Goodwin had to be abandoned on account of malarial conditions. The same is true of old Fort Grant, across the divide, on the lower San Pedro. The upper Verde, the Santa Cruz and nearly all similar valleys knew malaria at the time of settlement.

According to Merrill, on March 26, 1879, the sick and sorry settlers went into the Huachuca Mountains to summer, but, "the wind blew so much that we moved back to the river, near where Hereford now is, rented some land and put in some crops." This location is just about where the members of the Mormon Battalion, in 1846, had their memorable fight with the wild bulls. A Merrill report, rendered March 16, 1881, was far from hopeful and asked that the writer be relieved of his responsibilities.

On the Route of the Mormon Battalion

This office has been unable to find any reference connecting Merrill's later experiences in the San Pedro Valley with the time when he was an officer of the Mormon Battalion, though it can be imagined that his later a.s.sociates had the benefit of many reminiscences of that period of the march just prior to the taking of Tucson.

The San Pedro Valley is a historic locality. Down it pa.s.sed Friar Marco de Niza, in 1539, and the Coronado expedition of the following year. The waters of the stream were a joyous sight to the Mormon Battalion, when it pa.s.sed that way during the Mexican War. The country then had been occupied to some extent by Spaniards or Mexicans, who had established large ranches, with many cattle, from which they had been driven by the Apaches, years before the Battalion came. The country once had been the ranging ground of the friendly Sobaipuri Indians, but they too had been driven away by the hillmen and had established a village on the Santa Cruz, near their kinsmen, the Papago, almost on the site where Tucson was founded as a Spanish presidio in 1776.

The river, when the Merrill party came, was found usually in a deep gully, in places twenty feet below the surface of the silty ground.

Naturally, difficulty has attended the attempts to dam the stream.

Chronicles of a Quiet Neighborhood

St. David was named by Alexander F. Macdonald in honor of David W.

Patten, a martyr of the Church, who died at the hands of the same mob that killed Joseph Smith. Its first mail was received at Tres Alamos, sixteen miles down the river. A postoffice was established in 1882, Joseph McRae in charge. When the Southern Pacific came through, Benson was established, nine miles to the northward. Tombstone lies sixteen miles to the southeast.

In May, 1880, the present St. David townsite was laid out. John Smith Merrill built the first house. The following year an adobe schoolhouse was built, this used for public gatherings until shaken down by an earthquake, May 3, 1887, happily while the children were at recess. Much damage was done in the town.

The settlement had little or no trouble with Indians, though for nine years Apache bands scouted and murdered in the nearby mountains and committed depredations within the San Pedro Valley, both to the northward and southward.

Early in 1879 John Campbell, a new member, from Texas, built a sawmill, in the Huachuca Mountains, that furnished a diversity of industry, from it much lumber being shipped to Tombstone.

Macdonald was a southern extension of the St. David community on the San Pedro, established in 1882 by Henry J. Horne, Jonathan Hoopes and others, and named in honor of Alexander F. Macdonald, then president of the Maricopa Stake. It was of slow growth, owing to claims upon the lands as const.i.tuting a part of the San Juan de las Boquillas y Nogales grant, later rejected. In 1913, nine miles west of St. David, was established the community of Miramonte.

Looking Toward Homes in Mexico

While the Saints were establishing themselves upon the San Pedro and Gila, the Church authorities by no means had lost sight of the primary object of the southern migration. January 4, 1883, Apostle Moses Thatcher, with Elders D. P. Kimball, Teeples, Fuller, Curtis, Trejo and Martineau, left St. David for an exploring trip into Mexico.

September 13, 1884, another party left St. David to explore the country lying south of the line, along the Babispe River, returning October 7, by way of the San Bernardino ranch, though without finding any locations considered favorable.

In November, 1884, Apostles Brigham Young, Jr., and Heber J. Grant, with a company from St. Joseph Stake, with thirty wagons, went into Sonora, where they were given a hearty welcome by the Yaqui Indians, who expressed hope of a settlement among them.

St. David was the scene of one of the most notable councils of the Church, held in January, 1885, and presided over by none other than President John Taylor, who left Salt Lake City, January 3, and whose party at St. David included also Apostles Joseph F. Smith, Erastus Snow, Brigham Young, Jr., Moses Thatcher and Francis M. Lyman, with other dignitaries of the Church. At St. David were met Jesse N. Smith, Christopher Layton, Alex. F. Macdonald and Lot Smith, presidents of the four Stakes of Arizona. The discussion at this conference appeared to have been mainly upon the Church prosecution, then in full sway, a matter not included within the purview of this work. There was determination to extend the Church settlements farther to the southward. According to Orson F. Whitney: