MORMON COLONIZATION OF ARIZONA
"Answering the Call"
You recognize as word of God what Brigham bids you do;
To stay or go-at home, abroad, is all the same to you.
(Eliza R. Snow, "Millenial Star," 1 July 1854)
Jacob Hamblin received the first call to do missionary work in what is now Arizona at October Conference in 1853. During the late 1850s and early 1860's Hamblin visited the Navajo and Hopi Indians, attempting to preach the Gospel to them. Largely unsuccessful, these early efforts did acquaint him with the Indian people, their customs and legends, and familiarized him with the land, about which he reported to the brethren. Jacob Hamblin and Joseph Lehi Foutz, born at Haun's Mill and crossed the plains with the Saints, were missionary companions to the Indians in Arizona and remained life long friends.
The Grand Canyon, a mile deep and two hundred miles long, separated Utah from Arizona. John D. Lee talked with Hamblin about crossing the Colorado River, and on 21 December 1871, Lee and his wife Emma and four young children (a fifth would be born within a month) first crossed the Colorado River. Lee stayed and established a ferry, the use of which was the quickest way to get from Utah to Arizona and back, even though it was quite dangerous. (The first Lee ferried across the river were Navajo Indians-the Hopi had a taboo against crossing the Colorado River.)
In the early 1870's, Brigham Young commissioned Horton Haight to explore the area south of the Colorado, to see if settlements could be made. In 1873, Haight reported to Church leaders that the region was unfit for settlement. However, in October 1875, not satisfied, President Young commissioned a second expedition under the leadership of James Brown, to re-evaluate Haight's experience. Brown reported that settlements could be made.
Daniel Jones first saw the Salt River Valley, where Phoenix is now located, as a missionary on his way to Mexico. When Dan returned to Utah, he was asked by Brigham Young to select a few families and start a colony in Arizona. President Young stated: "I want the settling to stick, and not fail," and approved calling (Dan's words, with which Brigham agreed) "men with large families and small means, so that when we get there they will be too poor to come back, and we will have to stay."
Dan Jones' company was called the Lehi Company and they began to load their wagons in St. George for the trip south. President Young was personally there to oversee the outfitting. He became concerned at the number of heavy items the Saints were loading into their wagons-stoves, furniture, sewing machines, china, and other such "luxuries." Brother Brigham sent them by way of a sandy wash to Santa Clara. After traveling a few miles through the sand they soon saw the need to 'lighten up.' In addition, the Prophet knew the good people of Santa Clara had the means to buy the excess goods-this would be much better than dropping them off on the way. The Saints at Santa Clara were happy to trade their grain and dried fruit for these heavy items. Leaving behind these few reminders of their homes in Utah and Idaho must have caused these pioneers to shed tears, but the harsh realities of pioneering required such sacrifices.
Little did these Mormon pioneers realize, when they said goodby to him at Santa Clara, that they would never see Brother Brigham again in this life, as he died a few months later. These pioneers left on Saturday, 20 January 1877. It took 49 days to reach the Salt River Valley-they arrived on 6 March 1877. The settlement was first called Ft. Utah or Utahville, then Jonesville (after Dan Jones), finally Lehi, which is now part of Mesa. Arriving before the heat of summer, with large families and insufficient means to return to Utah, ensured that these pioneers would "stick it out" and make the desert "blossom as a rose."
The second group of Saints to come to the Salt River Valley was the Mesa Company. They left from Paris, in the Bear Lake region of Idaho, on 14 September 1877, picking up additional pioneers as they worked their way south through Utah. The Lamoreaux family, living in nearby Dingle, had heard about these pioneers and due to unfortunate circumstances, later they would follow.
The next group to come to the Salt River Valley was the Perkins company, most of whom had joined the Church in Ramus, Illinois. They came west in 1848 and settled in Bountiful, Utah, planted fruit trees and began to settle down for the rest of their lives. That all changed with a call from the Prophet. The Perkins group arrived in the Salt River Valley on 7 March 1878, led by Jesse Nelson Perkins.
Although the prospects looked good in their new location on the Salt River, they were disappointed when they realized this was not a good place to feed loose cattle and there were difficulties with the Indians. Also, problems arose between members of the Perkins Company and the Jones company, who were attempting to live the United Order. The decision was made to scout the area on the San Pedro River, in southern Arizona, north of the silver mining town of Tombstone.
Under the leadership of Philemon Merrill, the community of St. David (named after David W. Patten, first martyred LDS Apostle) on the San Pedro River, had been founded. This part of Arizona had first been scouted out by Merrill when he was in the Mormon Battalion in 1846. (Philemon Merrill and his first wife were married by Caleb Baldwin in Nauvoo and remained family friends.) But again, there were problems, as on the 24th of July 1878, instead of celebrating, the Perkins boys, along with most of the community of St. David, were in bed with chills and fever. They had contracted malaria.
Jonathan Hoopes, Jr. and Mary Ann Baldwin's family were living near St. David by 1880 on the "Hill Ranch," having moved from Wyoming. Their 24 year old, "most eligible bachelor" son, George Arthur, fell in love with Charlotte Iris Curtis, whose parents, Joseph Nahum Curtis and Sarah Diantha Gardner, had migrated from Salem, Utah in 1877. Called by Brigham Young to move to Arizona, just before Brigham's death, Dode and Sadie Curtis, as they were known, owned a 160 acre ranch on the San Pedro River, six miles north of Tombstone. (When Tombstone is depicted during its heyday in western movies, we generally don't see the faithful Mormon farmers, like Dode and Sadie, who grew the beans and steaks the gunslingers ate-the whiskey came from Bisbee.)
Apostle Erastus Snow visited St. David and learned that the Saints who settled there wanted to return to Utah because the swampy land was infested with mosquitos, which caused disease. He counseled them that if they would remain faithful to their mission calls, the Lord would make their part of His vineyard more inhabitable. This He did in an unusual way during May 1887. Following a great earthquake, which caused the walls of the adobe school house to cave in while the Curtis children were outside at recess-none were hurt, the swamps dried up. There was no more malaria to plague the faithful Saints who "stuck it out."
Jonathan Hoopes, Jr., took his plural wife, Arthusa Elmer, to the St. George Temple during the fall of 1888 over the "Honeymoon Trail"and came back south to settle in Colonia Juarez, Mexico in 1889, to escape federal marshals looking for "Mormon Poligs." However, Jonathan had moved his family from Mexico to Thatcher on the Gila River by 1892, after which he and Arthusa had 6 more children. Here Jonathan, born in Ohio to Quaker turned Mormon parents, lived the rest of his life, died and is buried. His first wife, Mary Ann Baldwin, grand daughter of the Prophet Joseph's dear friend, Caleb Baldwin, (who was imprisoned with Joseph at Liberty Jail)also died and is buried at the Thatcher Cemetery. Mormons founded other towns along the Gila River called Eden, Smithville (later named Pima), and Hubbard.
By 1881, Jesse Hobson's son, Jesse Jr. and his sister Julia and their families had all settled in Mesa, Arizona, when Father Jesse went there to live with them after the untimely death of his wife. Jesse, a faithful missionary to England, had also served in the Utah Legislature.
Back at Lee's Ferry on the Colorado, there was news that 600 soldiers were on their way to erect a military fort at Lonely Dell, the name Emma Lee gave their home at the ferry. John Lee immediately left for Moencopi, a remote spot in Indian country, where he remained with his other wife, Rachel, for nine months, leaving Emma and her family at Lonely Dell. Emma was expecting again and Jacob Hamblin promised to bring Sister Mangum to help with the new arrival. But they did not come in time and Emma gave birth, with the assistance of her 13 year old son. When Lee tried to return to his ferry, he was arrested for practicing polygamy and did not return to Lonely Dell before his death on 23 March 1877. Emma was left alone to operate Lee's Ferry.
Joseph Lehi Foutz, who had served as Sevier County (Utah) Sheriff, had 3 wives and 30 children, crossed the Colorado River during late fall of 1877 at Lee's Ferry with his wagons on solid ice, which has never happened again. He stayed to help Sister Emma operate the Ferry, then moved his family seventeen miles south to Moencopi, where the Foutz families resided for a long time. Warren M. Johnson was called by the brethren to operate Lee's Ferry and Emma moved to Holbrook, where she practiced midwifery.
Price Williams Nelson, who crossed the plains as a teenager and married Lydia Ann Lake at the old fort at Ogden in 1850, migrated with his family to San Bernardino, California by 1856. Because of threatening war in Utah, Brigham Young called all the Saints back to Utah for a while. Price and his family traveled north on the Mohave Desert in their covered wagons and had settled in Payson, Utah by 1859. Price was later called by the brethren to assist Warren Johnson at Lee's Ferry, where he moved his family. Price's daughter, Samantha, married Warren Johnson.
In 1876, four companies were called to go to Northeastern Arizona to settle. Before leaving for their lifelong mission call, forty couples were married. These companies were led by Lot Smith, Jesse O. Ballinger, George Lake (brother of Lydia Ann Lake), and William C. Allen. Smith's camp on the Little Colorado was called Sunset, Ballinger's was called Ballinger's Camp, Lake's camp was called Obed, and Allen's camp was called Allen City. Later in 1878 the Little Colorado Stake was organized. Lot Smith was called as Stake President and George Lake was called as a bishop.
The brethren in Salt Lake City did not forget about their Arizona pioneers and came to visit them, as well as check on missionary work among the Indians. Apostles Anthony W. Ivans and Erastus B. Snow came in 1878, about the same time as John W. Young, a son and counselor to Brigham Young. Wilford Woodruff crossed the Colorado at Lee's Ferry in 1879 to hide from federal marshals in Arizona. (Buffalo Bill Cody also crossed the river at Lee's Ferry in 1892 and Zane Grey crossed in 1907 with Mormon guides. His first western novel, "The Heritage of the Desert," features a location reminiscent of the river at Lee's Ferry.)
While camped alone in a remote shepherd's tent near present day Flagstaff, Wilford Woodruff received a revelation, which the brethren voted prior to the April conference of 1880 was the "mind and will of the Lord."
More pioneers, men with large families (including plural wives) and small means, came and established lasting Mormon communities along the Little Colorado River, in addition to those on the Salt, San Pedro and Gila Rivers. These towns in Northeastern Arizona are now called Joseph City, Holbrook, Snowflake, Taylor, St. Johns, Springerville and Eagar.
After working and living at Lee's Ferry, Price Williams Nelson and Lydia Ann Lake's family was residing at Obed, where her brother was the bishop, on 4 Oct 1876 when a son was born. By 1879 they had moved to Moencopi, where two grandsons died and making a living was difficult. The Nelson families were friends with Chief Tuba, a Hopi from nearby Oraibi, the longest continuously inhabited Indian village in the United States.
During 1877, the St. George Temple was dedicated. Chief Tuba attended the dedication and was baptized. He and his wife were the first Indians to receive their endowment and be sealed. The faithful Latter-day Saints in Arizona wanted to have their families sealed, so they made the trip to St. George, crossing at Lee's Ferry. The first wedding party crossed the Ferry in the fall of 1881, but so many came later that the road was dubbed "The Honeymoon Trail." A trip from Snowflake to St. George over the Honeymoon Trail took 27 days. Sometimes the trips had to be taken in secret, because the brethren were taking plural wives and had to be on the lookout for federal marshals. But generally their descendants could echo what the daughter of one traveler reported: "She always told us what a wonderful trip it was."
The Horace Russell and Lydia Ann Hobson family, along with the Jacob Brewer and Sabra Ann Fillet family had moved together from Utah's Dixie (St. George area) to Arizona and settled in at Snowflake Camp, later named Pinedale, by 1880. They made shingles from the pine trees which grew there. It was while living here that their children Henry, who was 23 and Hattie, who was almost 15, met at a barn dance. They were married in 1887in Snowflake and then ten years later, when Henry was called on a mission to Indian Territory in Kansas, the little family traveled over the Honeymoon Trail to St. George be sealed. Jacob Brewer and his brother Charles then, in covered wagons, moved their families down the Black River to the Gila River at Thatcher, arriving on 1 January 1900, before founding Lebanon, south of Safford, later that year. Hattie and Henry Russell's family (without Henry, who was on his mission) followed.
During the decade following the St. George Temple dedication and death of Brigham Young, missionaries continued to travel to and through Moencopi and the Hopi lands. The Navajos had ceased to be the great threat they had been before and a few of the northern Arizona settlements became fairly successful. Efforts were made to improve the small settlement at Moencopi, where nine Mormon families lived, including the Price Williams Nelson, Edmond Nelson and Jacob Foutz families. In September 1878, Apostle Erastus Snow visited Moencopi and laid out a townsite two miles north, which he called Tuba City after their friend, Chief Tuba.
Price Williams Nelson moved from Moencopi to the Tonto Basin, near Payson, in Gila County Arizona, but because of "range wars" between the cattle and sheep men, as well as with Indians, he moved his family to Old Mexico, where he spent the rest of his life.
Price Willliams' son, Edmond, after marrying Mary Caroline Brinkerhoff in Utah in 1874, and trying to live the United Order there, was called to do missionary work in Arizona. They lived for a while at Moencopi, where two sons died, then settled in Obed on the Little Colorado. A sawmill, used to make lumber for the St. George Temple, was to be sent to Northeastern Arizona. Edmond was called by his Church leaders to go bring it from Utah, over Lee's Ferry, which was a very dangerous assignment. The boilers weighed 8,700 pounds and were hauled by two yokes of oxen. The trip took six weeks, and it rained the whole time.
Edmond wanted to permanently settle at Snowflake, but was called by President Woodruff to settle St. Johns, where he served on the high council for 35 years under President David K. Udall. During April, 1888, Ed and Mary took an 18 year old woman, Margaret Foutz, daughter of Joseph Lehi Foutz and Caroline Amanda Child, over the Honeymoon Trail to St. George to become a second wife. Back in St. Johns, Edmond passed off Maggie as Mary's sister, while he entertained federal marshals in his home. He also kept corn bread and sorghum molasses for the Indians, who stopped by frequently. Edmond was then called on a full-time mission to the Southern States. Mary Caroline died, leaving five young children for Margaret to raise. On his return, Ed moved his family to Springerville, where his daughter, Ida Amanda, was working at Becker's Mercantile when she met the dashing Fred Russell. To escape the harsh winters of Idaho, after his feet were frozen while deer hunting and had to be sawed off at the ankles, Archibald Lamoreaux and his bride Lydia Crockett, moved their little family by covered wagon down the Utah-Colorado border. They passed through the Mormon settlements on the Little Colorado and then down into the GilaValley, where Lydia's sister, Delia Curtis, lived. They arrived with their family, including infant Nora Estelle, in 1894-the same year that George Arthur Hoopes and Charlotte Iris Curtis moved to Thatcher from St. David with their two year old son, Grover. After Grover and Nora both served full-time missions, they married and began their family.
All of the ancestors of Grover Lamro Hoopes and Margaret Elaine Russell were Arizonans before the turn of the century, some 12 years before it became the 48th state in the Union.
Material for this history was taken from "Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History, Arizona,"published in 1989 by the BYU Department of Church History & Doctrine, from journals and other histories of the ancestors of Lamro & Elaine Hoopes. Names of direct ancestors (parents, grand-parents, great-grand-parents, etc.) are printed in italics. JLH, Ft. Mohave, Jun 1999.