Mormon Settlement in Arizona A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert

The Mormons of Arizona today are not to be considered in the same manner as have been their forebears. The older generation came in pilgrimages, wholly within the faith, sent to...

The march of the Mormon Battalion to the Pacific sea in 1846-7 created one of the most picturesque features of American history and one without parallel in American military ann...

It was in the summer of 1870 that Hamblin met Major J.W. Powell, who had descended the Colorado the previous year. Powell's ideas coincided very well with those of Hamblin. He w...

Keen interest in the Southwest was excited early in 1876 by a series of lectures delivered at New England points by Judge Samuel W. Cozzens, author of "The Marvellous Country."...

In Southern Arizona the first pioneering was done by devoted Franciscans and Jesuits, their chiefest concern the souls of the gentile Indians. In similar wise, the pioneering of...

Assuredly within the purview of this work is the settlement of what now is the southern point of Nevada, a part of the original area of New Mexico and, hence, included within th...

The honor of leading Mormon pioneering in south-central Arizona lies with Daniel W. Jones, a sturdy character, strong in the faith. He had been in the Mexican war, in 1847, as a...

Though by no means with exclusive population of the faith, Mesa, sixteen miles east of Phoenix and in the Salt River Valley, today includes the largest organization of the Saint...

One of the most remarkable of Arizona settlements is St. Johns, 58 miles southeast of Holbrook, its railroad station. Though its development has been almost entirely Mormon and...

The first attempt from the north of the Mormon Church to colonize within the present limits of Arizona failed. It was by means of an expedition placed in charge of Horton D. Hai...

The story of the Colorado is most pertinent in a work such as this, for the river and its Grand Canyon formed a barrier that must be passed if the southward extension of Zion we...

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 settl...

Muster-out of the Battalion was at Los Angeles, July 16, 1847, just a year after enlistment, eight days before Brigham Young reached Great Salt Lake. The joyous ceremonial was r...

At St. Joseph, June 10, 1869, was organized a cooperative mercantile institution for the Muddy settlement, with Joseph W. Young at its head, R.J. Cutler as secretary and James L...

The Mormon settlement of Mexico, as elsewhere told, was a cherished plan of Brigham Young, who saw to the southward a land wherein his Church, its doctrines and influence could...

The members of the Mormon Battalion were far from being the first of their faith to tread the golden sands of California. Somehow, in the divine ordering of things mundane, the...

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 els...

In the memory of Americans still living, the Gila River through the Safford region, was a relatively narrow stream, over which in places a stone could be tossed. There were occa...

To the struggle with the elements, to the difficulties that attended the breaking of a stubborn soil and to the agricultural utilization of a widely-varying water supply, to the...

There can be little more than speculation concerning the extent of the use of the old Spanish Trail, through southern Utah, by the Spaniards. It is known, however, that consider...

In considering the development features of the settlement of central Arizona, the Author feels it might be interesting to note that the immigrants saw in the Salt River Valley m...

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...

At one stage of Church development there was disposition to favor the establishment in each village of the Saints of communal conditions, wherein work should be done according t...

Probably unknown to a majority of Arizonans is the fact that the area of this State once was included within the State of Deseret, the domain the early Mormons laid out for them...

Possibly as representative a region as is known in the settlement area of the Mormon people lies for about 25 miles along the Gila River in eastern Arizona, in Graham County, an...

There can be no doubt that the first agricultural settlement in northern Arizona was by a Mormon party, led by Henry W. Miller, which made location at Beaver Dams, on the north...

TRAVEL, MISSIONS AND INDUSTRIES--Passing of the Boston Party; At the Naming of Flagstaff; Southern Saints Brought Smallpox; Fort Moroni, at LeRoux Spring; Stockaded Against the...

THE MORMON BATTALION--Soldiers Who Sought No Strife; California Was the Goal; Organization of the Battalion; Cooke Succeeds to the Command; The March Through the Southwest; Capt...

MISSIONARY PIONEERING--Hamblin, "Leatherstocking of the Southwest"; Aboriginal Diversions; Encounter with Federal Explorers; The Hopi and the Welsh Legend; Indians Await Their P...

HAMBLIN AMONG THE INDIANS--Visiting the Paiutes with Powell; A Great Conference with the Navajo; An Official Record of the Council; Navajos to Keep South of the River; Tuba's Vi...

ON THE UPPER GILA--Ancient Dwellers and Military Travelers; Early Days Around Safford; Map of Southeastern Arizona; Mormon Location at Smithville; A Second Party Locates at Grah...

SPREADING INTO NORTHERN ARIZONA--Failure of the First Expeditions; Missionary Scouts in Northeastern Arizona; Foundation of Four Settlements; Northeastern Arizona Map; Genesis o...

THE PLANTING OF MESA--Transformation of a Desert Plain; Use of a Prehistoric Canal; Moving Upon the Mesa Townsite; An Irrigation Clash That Did Not Come; Mesa's Civic Administra...

CROSSING THE MIGHTY COLORADO--Early Use of "El Vado de Los Padres"; Ferrying at the Paria Mouth; John D. Lee on the Colorado; Lee's Canyon Residence Was Brief; Crossing the Colo...

LITTLE COLORADO SETTLEMENTS--Genesis of St. Johns; Land Purchased by Mormons; Wild Celebration of St. John's Day; Disputes Over Land Titles; Irrigation Difficulties and Disaster...

IN THE VIRGIN AND MUDDY VALLEYS--First Agriculture in Northern Arizona; Villages of Pioneer Days; Brigham Young Makes Inspection; Nevada Assumes Jurisdiction; The Nevada Point A...

ARIZONA'S PIONEER NORTHWEST--History of the Southern Nevada Point; Map of Pah-ute County; Missionaries of the Desert; Diplomatic Dealings with the Redskins; Near Approaches to I...

NEAR THE MEXICAN BORDER--Location on the San Pedro River; Malaria Overcomes a Community; On the Route of the Mormon Battalion; Chronicles of a Quiet Neighborhood; Looking Toward...

CALIFORNIA'S MORMON PILGRIMS--The Brooklyn Party at San Francisco; Beginnings of a Great City; Brannan's Hope of Pacific Empire; Present at the Discovery of Gold; Looking Toward...

SETTLEMENT SPREADS SOUTHWARD--Snowflake and Its Naming; Joseph Fish, Historian; Taylor, Second of the Name; Shumway's Historic Founder; Showlow Won in a Game of "Seven-Up"; Moun...

THE BATTALION'S MUSTER-OUT--Heading Eastward Toward "Home"; With the Pueblo Detachment; California Comments on the Battalion; Leaders of the Battalion; Passing of the Battalion...

EXTENSION TOWARD MEXICO--Dan W. Jones' Great Exploring Trip; The Pratt-Stewart-Trejo Expedition; Start of the Lehi Community; Plat of Lehi; Transformation Wrought at Camp Utah;...

MOVEMENT INTO MEXICO--Looking Over the Land; Colonization in Chihuahua; Prosperity in an Alien Land; Abandonment of the Mountain Colonies; Sad Days for the Sonora Colonists; Con...