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.

[Illustration: ERASTUS SNOW. In Charge of Pioneer Arizona Colonization]

[Illustration: JOSEPH W. McMURRIN]

[Illustration: 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-class farming plot of ten acres at $110 and each second-class 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 passed 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 manuscript 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. He was the first to cross the Mississippi, February 4, 1846, in the exodus from Nauvoo, and was one of the 143 Pioneers who entered Salt Lake with Brigham Young the following summer. In December, 1879, his son, Wilson G. Shumway, accepted a call to Arizona. Most of the winter was spent at Grand Falls in a "shack" he built of cottonwood logs, roofed with sandstone slabs. In this he entertained Apostle Woodruff, who directed the chiseling of the name "Wilford Woodruff" upon a rock. Charles Shumway and N.P. Beebe bought the mill rights on Silver Creek, acquired through location the previous year by Nathan C. and Jesse Wanslee, brought machinery from the East and, within a year, started a grist mill that still is a local institution. The village of Shumway never has had more than a score of families. Charles Shumway died May 21, 1898. His record of self-sacrifice continued after his arrival in Arizona early in 1880, the first stop being at Concho. There, according to his son, Wilson G., the family for two years could have been rated as among "the poorest of poor pioneers," with a dugout for a home, this later succeeded by a log cabin of comparative luxury. For months the bread was of barley flour, the diet later having variety, changed to corn bread and molasses, with wheat flour bread as a treat on Sundays.

Showlow Won in a Game of "Seven-Up"

Showlow, one of the freak Arizona place names, applied to a creek and district, as well as to a thrifty little settlement, lies about south of Snowflake, twenty miles or more. The name antedates the Mormon settlement. The valley jointly was held by C.E. Cooley and Marion Clark, both devoted to the card game of "seven-up." At a critical period of one of their games, when about all possible property had been wagered, Clark exclaimed, "Show low and you take the ranch!" Cooley "showed low." This same property later was sold by him to W.J. Flake, for $13,000.

The Showlow section embraces the mountain communities of Showlow, Reidhead (Lone Pine), Pinedale, Linden, Juniper, Adair (which once had unhappy designation as "Fools' Hollow"), Ellsworth, Lakeside (also known as Fairview and Woodland), Pinetop and Cluff's Cienega. Cooley, in the Cienega (Sp., marsh) is the site of a large sawmill and is the terminus of a railroad from Holbrook. But the noted scout Cooley, lived elsewhere, at Showlow and at Apache Springs.

The first Mormons to come to Showlow were Alfred Cluff and David E. Adams, who were employed by Cooley in 1876. They were from Allen's Camp, almost driven away by necessity. Others soon came, including Moses and Orson Cluff, Edmund Ellsworth and Edson Whipple, a Salt Lake Pioneer. There was gradual settlement of the communities above listed, generally prior to 1880. While only one member of the faith was killed during the Indian troubles of the eighties, log and stone forts were erected in several of the villages for use in case of need.

Mountain Communities

Out in the woods, twenty miles southwest of Snowflake, is the village of Pinedale, settled in January, 1879, by Niels Mortensen and sons and Niels Peterson. The first location was at what now is called East Pinedale, also known at different times as Mortensen and Percheron. In the following winter, a small sawmill was brought in from Fort Apache and in 1882 came a larger mill, the original Mount Trumbull mill. In that year a townsite had rough survey by James Huff and in 1885 a schoolhouse was built. The brethren had much trouble with desperados, horse and cattle thieves, but peace came after the Pleasant Valley war in Tonto Basin, in which thirty of the range riders were killed.

Reidhead, also known at times as Woolf's Ranch, Lone Pine Crossing, Beaver Branch and Reidhead Crossing, is one of the deserted points of early settlement, historically important mainly in the fact that it was the home of Nathan B. Robinson, killed nearby by Apaches June 1, 1882. Fear of the Indians then drove away the other settlers and, though there was later return, in 1893 was final abandonment. Reidhead lay on Showlow Creek, ten miles above Taylor and ten miles from Cooley's ranch. It was one of the places of first white settlement in northeastern Arizona, a Mexican having had his ranch there even before Cooley came into the country. Then came one Woolf, from whom squatter rights were bought in April, 1878, by John Reidhead, then lately from Utah.

Pinetop, 35 miles south of Snowflake, dates back to March, 1888, when settled by Wm. L. Penrod and sons, including four families, all from Provo, Utah. Progress started with the transfer to Pinetop of the Mount Trumbull mill in 1890. The name is said to have been given by soldiers, the first designation having been Penrod. A notable event in local history was a joint conference in Pinetop, July 4, 1892, with representatives from all Arizona Stakes and attended by President Woodruff's counselors, Geo. Q. Cannon and Jos. F. Smith. For this special occasion was built a pavilion, the largest in Arizona, a notable undertaking for a small community. The structure was destroyed by fire a few years ago.

Forest Dale on the Reservation

In the settlement of what now is southern Navajo County, the Mormon settlers a bit overran the present line of the Apache Indian reservation, where they located early in 1878 upon what now is known as Forest Dale Creek, a tributary of Carrizo Creek. The country is a beautiful one, well watered from abundant rains and well wooded, possibly a bit more favored than the present settlements of Showlow, Pinetop and Lakeside, which lie just north of the reservation line. There is reference in a letter of Llewellyn Harris, in July, 1878, to the settlement of Forest Dale, but the name is found in writings several months before. Harris and several others refer to the Little Colorado country as being in "Aravapai" County. This was in error. The county then was Yavapai, before the separation of Apache County.

The valley was found by Oscar Cluff while hunting in the fall of 1877 and soon thereafter he moved there with his family. In February there followed his brother, Alfred Cluff, who suggested the name. The settlement was started February 18, 1878, by Jos. H. Frisby, Merritt Staley, Oscar Mann, Orson and Alfred Cluff, Ebenezer Thayne, David E. Adams and a few others.

The overrunning referred to was not done blindly. Jos. H. Frisby and Alfred Cluff went to San Carlos. There they were assured by Agent Hart that Apache Springs and the creek referred to were not on the reservation, and that the government would protect them if they would settle there. It was understood that the reservation line lay about three miles south of the settlement. This information is contained in a letter signed by Agent Hart and addressed to Colonel Andrews, Eleventh Infantry, commanding Fort Apache. Mr. Hart stated that he would be "glad to have the settlers make permanent homes at Forest Dale, for the reason that the Indians strayed so far from their own lands that it was hard to keep track of them as conditions then were, and that the settlement of the country would have a tendency to hold the Indians on their own lands upon the reservation."

Lieutenant Ray was sent with a detachment of troops and the Indians at Apache Springs were removed and the main body of the settlers, then temporarily located on the Showlow, moved over the ridge into the new valley.

In March, 1878, the settlers included Merritt Staley, Oscar Mann,
Ebenezer Thayne, David E. Adams, Jos. H. Frisby, Alfred Cluff, Isaac
Follett, Orson Cluff and several unmarried men. In September, Erastus
Snow found a very prosperous settlement. A ward organization was
established. The first white child, Forest Dale Adams, is now the wife of
Frank Webster, of Central, Arizona. Seven springs of good water, known as
Apache Springs, formed the headwaters of Carrizo Creek.

In 1879, Missionaries Harris and Thayne appear to have made a mistake similar to that of the Arab who allowed the camel to thrust his nose inside of the tent. They secured permission from the commanding officer of creek. The missionary efforts appear to have failed, and the Indians simply demanded everything in sight. Reports came that the locality really was on the reservation and the white population therefore drifted away, mainly into the Gila Valley. In December, 1879, only three families were left, and the following year the last were gone.

In 1881 rumors drifted down the Little Colorado that Forest Dale, after all, was not on the reservation. So William Crookston and three others re-settled the place, some of them from the abandoned Brigham City. Then came the Indian troubles of 1881-82. When Fort Apache was attacked, the families consolidated at Cooley, where they built a fort. Some went north to Snowflake and Taylor. In December, 1881, President Jesse N. Smith of the Eastern Arizona Stake advised the Forest Dale settlers to satisfy the Indians for their claims on the place, and received assurance from General Carr at Fort Apache, that the locality most likely was not on the reservation and that, in case it was not, he would be pleased to have the Mormon settlers there. A new ward was established and William Ellsworth and twenty more families moved in, mainly from Brigham City. In May, 1882, the Indians came again to plant corn and were wrathful to find the whites ahead of them. An officer was sent from Fort Apache and a treaty was made by which the Indians were given thirty acres of planted land.

June 1, 1882, Apaches killed Nathan B. Robinson at the Reidhead place and shot Emer Plumb at Walnut Springs, during a period of general Indian unrest. Soon thereafter, President Smith advised the settlers that they had better look for other locations, as the ground was on the reservation.

In December, Lieutenant Gatewood, under orders from Captain Crawford (names afterward famous in the Geronimo campaign to the southward) came from Fort Apache and advised the settlers they would be given until the spring to vacate. The crops were disposed of at Fort Apache and the spring of 1883 found Forest Dale deserted, houses, fences, corrals and every improvement left behind. The drift of the settlers was to the Gila Valley.

[Illustration: JOSEPH FISH. An Arizona Historian]

[Illustration: JOSEPH H. RICHARDS OF ST. JOSEPH. One of the few original settlers who still lives on the Little Colorado]

[Illustration: A GROUP OF ST. JOSEPH PIONEERS AND HISTORIAN ANDREW
JENSON]

[Illustration: SHUMWAY AND THE OLD MILL ON SILVER CREEK]

This Forest Dale affair was made a national matter, January 24, 1916, when a bill was introduced by Senator Ashurst of Arizona for the relief of Alfred Cluff, Orson Cluff, Henry E. Norton, Wm. B. Ballard, Elijah Hancock, Susan R. Saline, Oscar Mann, Celia Thayne, William Cox, Theodore Farley, Adelaide Laxton, Clara L. Tenney, Geo. M. Adams, Charlotte Jensen and Sophia Huff. Later additions were David E. Adams and Peter H. McBride.

The amounts claimed by each varied from $2000 to $15,000. A similar bill had been introduced by the Senator in a previous Congress. In his statement to the Indian Affairs Committee, the Senator stated that the settlements had been on unreserved and vacant Government lands and that the reservation had been extended to cover the tract some time in 1882.

Appended were affidavits from each of the individuals claiming compensation. All told of moving during the winter, under conditions of great hardship, of cold and exposure and loss of property.

David E. Adams, one of the few survivors of the Forest Dale settlement, lately advised the Author that the change in the reservation line undeniably was at the suggestion of C.E. Cooley, a noted Indian scout, who feared the Mormons would compete with him in supplying corn and forage to Fort Apache.

Tonto Basin's Early Settlement

Soon after location on the Little Colorado there was exploration to the southwest, with a view toward settlement extension. At the outset was encountered the very serious obstruction of the great Mogollon Rim, a precipice that averages more than 1000 feet in height for several hundred miles. Ways through this were found, however, into Tonto Basin, a great expanse, about 100 miles in length by 80 in width, lying south and southwest of the Rim, bounded on the west by the Mazatzal Mountains, and on the south and southeast by spurs of the Superstitions and Pinals. The Basin itself contains a sizable mountain range, the Sierra Ancha.

The first exploration was made in July, 1876, by Wm. C. Allen, John Bushman, Pleasant Bradford and Peter Hansen. Their report was unfavorable, in considering settlement. In the fall of the following year there was exploration by John W. Freeman, John H. Willis, Thomas Clark, Alfred J. Randall, Willis Fuller and others. They returned a more favorable report. In March, 1878, Willis drove stock into the upper Basin and also took the first wagon to the East Verde Valley. He was followed by Freeman and family and Riel Allen. Freeman located a road to the Rim, from Pine Springs to Baker's Butte, about forty miles. Price W. Nielson (or Nelson) settled on Rye Creek, in 1878. In the following year was started the Pine settlement, about twenty miles north of the East Verde settlement, with Riel Allen at its head. There is record that most of the settlers on the East Verde moved away in 1879, mainly to Pine, and others back to the Little Colorado. However, the Author, in September of 1889, found a very prosperous little Mormon settlement on the East Verde, raising alfalfa, fruit and livestock. It was called Mazatzal City and lay within a few miles of the Natural Bridge, which is on the lower reaches of Pine Creek before that stream joins the East Verde.

A settlement was in existence at least as late as 1889 on upper Tonto Creek. The first resident was David Gowan, discoverer of the Natural Bridge, he and two others taking advantage of the presence of a beaver-built log dam, from which an irrigating canal was started. The first of the Mormon settlers at that point, in 1883, were John and David W. Sanders, with their families, they followed by the Adams, Bagley and Gibson families. This location was a very lonely one, though less than ten miles, by rocky trail, from the town of Payson. It was not well populated, at any time, though soil, climate and water were good.

Erastus Snow in 1878 made formal visit to the Tonto settlements. He found on Rye Creek the Price Nelson and Joseph Gibson families, less than a mile above where the stream entered Tonto Creek. Thereafter were visited the East Verde settlements, from which most of the men had gone to southern Utah after their families and stock, and Pine Creek and Strawberry Valley, where later was considerable settlement.

According to Fish, the first settlement in Tonto Basin was by Al Rose, a Dane, in 1877, in Pleasant Valley, though he lived for only a few months in a stockade home which he erected. Then came G.S. Sixby and J. Church from California. There followed Ed. Rose, J.D. Tewksbury and sons, the Graham family and James Stinson, the last from Snowflake. Sixby is renowned as the hero of a wonderful experience in the spring of 1882, when, his brother and an employee killed, he held the fort of his log home against more than 100 Indians, the same band later fought and captured by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee in the fight of the Big Dry Wash.

There was good reason for the delayed settlement of Tonto Basin, for it was a region traversed continually by a number of Indian tribes. It was a sort of No Man's Land, in which wandered the Mohave-Apache and the Tonto, the Cibicu and White Mountain Apaches, not always at peace among themselves. Several times the Pleasant and Cherry Creek Valleys were highways for Indian raids of large dimensions. The Pleasant Valley war, between the Tewksbury and Graham factions cost thirty lives. No Mormon participated.

Most of the land holdings necessarily were small. The water supply is regular in only a few places. Hence it is natural that most of the Mormons who settled, moved on, to better agricultural conditions found farther southward. Abandonment of all Tonto Basin settlements was authorized at a meeting of President Woodruff with the heads of the Arizona Stakes, held at Albuquerque August 14, 1890.