P. T. Reilly correspondence with George S. Tanner, 1975

Copies of typed letters from P. T. Reilly of Sun City Arizona, to George S. Tanner in Salt Lake City during 1975, continuing their conversation about research on northern Arizona, including Mormon pioneers, the Indians, and Lees Ferry. Topics include Brigham Y. Perkins, Hyrum Smith Phelps, along with commentary on current news and discussion of other scholars.

9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 January 16, 1975 Dear George, I your book is well takeno I really Your rebuttal to my comment regarding did not mean to set the prair:-ie afire· ... Just goes to show what can happen when a fool plays with matches. However, you might have misinterpreted my comment about the footnotes. You can wager your bankroll that P.T. read every one - and I will bet that Ev Cooley did also. History buffs are not average readers. You must recognize that authors of footnotes. The better vary tremendously in their presentation authors recognize the footnote problem, and printers always have.- I've read more than one review which stressed the fact that the footnotes were either at the end of each chapter or at the back of the book instead of on each page where the purists claim they belong. As I say, I read every footnote and it never occurred to me to time my search. that I did think, as I used four 1•ingers to hold the places in question, it doesn't have to be that way. But if your method kept you from going bananas and facilitated the book's progress thru the print shop (and I know it did), I am happy to use·that which you provided. The Southwest Museum Qua,];'terly, along with many scientific quarterlies, uses a neat system. They do away with footnotes completely, thus helping the printer set-up man, yet they make the reference available to those who •ant it. They list a bibliography of all references in the back and where a footnote would ordinarily occur, they put in parenthesis: (Miller:1959a134). This method satisfies both the purists and those who prefer not to have footnotes interrupt the text. I appreciate your desire to give me your book but I consider it a reference book, worthy of being quoted in historical writing, and for this reason want to contribute its cost to the Family Association. I am sure there must be some Tanners less affluent than Obert or Nathan Eldon who might be strapped'~during these times of economic stress, and if this be true you can use my check to send a book to some worthy descendant. The book has nothing to do with our friendship so please put the check in the fund and forget it. Thank you for the photo of Seth B. I age in the two photos unless you know bear out the tradition of his physical print this sometime. If you will lend more c-opies printed. I know a couple l chi:~ still agree with your wife re his something I don't. His great hands strength. If O.K. by you, I may me your negative I will have some of archives which would want one. I still maintain that literary polishing is the name of the game. Gifted writers such as Charles Po or Stegner probably put out first drafts that are better than our third drafts a.nd I admit that I work very hard in this phase~ If David E. Miller (Hole in the Rock) had polished or been more critical, he would not havemade the "dumb little mistakes" of saying that Seth B. Tanner was not a Mormon (fn.13, p.JO) or saying that wagons had to be lowered with ropes over the Buckskin Mt. road (p.19). A eye and polishing eliminate most of such errors. Few finished critical products are free of all mistakes but the writer has something to shoot at~ True that the point of diminishing returns is reched sooner ·by some writers than others but I have little doubt that you quit too soon. The great value of your book is the liberal viewpoint that is bound to throw light into dark corners. I certainly hope you do not have some angry churchmen on your back because of what you wrote. I doubt that they will carry it too high but you know better than I about this. I find it hard to believe that such views can be maintained today. - ~I - also hope that Dilworth Young does not cause Mel Smith trouble over Mel is vulnerable altho it would be nice to think my K.u.o. article. that such discrimination went out with the nineteenth century. Please keep me posted. I hope Mel held his ground and did not eave in. Did you know that J.E. Tanner of Payson was one of the 2~ persons outside of B.Y., Geo. A. Smith, and D.H. Wells to have the key to the l\'lormon telegraph cipher? I didn't until recently. I saw an obituary on 3 Jan 1975 that Lydia Call Hancock of Mesa had gone to her reward after 93 years in this vale of tears. She was born in -sunset and could be the last survivor of the children born there • 89, died JO December last. He was ...,.EAnother old timer, Thomas H. Shelley, born in Joseph City •. I doubt very much if Mo Udall has left the LDS Church or that he asked to be listed as an ex-Mormon. The Udalls have always been proud of their heritage, as well they should. be ... This could have been Buckley's farout sense of humor. However, I'd like to know the truth. I don't think there is a Mormon vote any more than there is a Labor vote. Of course l know there is extensive verbalizing in LDS Church meetings and the direction the wind blows comes from topside. Five years ago there was a strong anti-Communist breeze but the last couple of years has seen an amazing number of LDS visiting Russia as u.s. tourists and leaving a goodly amount of our exchange there. /Thanks for the suggestion but I would not think of troubling Charles Peterson with so trivial a matter. Hooper Young's birthdate is desirable but not necessary, serving mainly to date the event I mentioned as probably having taken place on the Kaibab in the mid-1890s. I am not concerned with the unfortunate lad's crime, only in its effect on his father. /Back to Mo Udall. The more he talks, He doesn't appear to have any better Boy Scout president. I really think ,, Have you seen p.72 of the Jan.20, brethren of one of the polygamist violent. the less confidence I have in him. solutions to our problems than our Stewart has more on the ball. 1975,issue splinter of Newswe~k? Seems the groups in Mex.loo are getting I saw the ASU-U of U basketball game and was impressed,with your boy Burden. I remember that you wrote him a letter of congratulations last ·or course he beat a higher rated team, U of A with a pressure year. free throw and the ASU game could have gone either way. Maybe next time around it will • ., It appears that you will not be coming south this winter. You could do worse than soak up some sunshine while the snow covers the Utah soil. Why not give the Arizona Tanners a chance to roll out the red carpet and kill the fatted calf for their kin who writes good books? Best regards, PTR cf? r 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 January JO, 1975 Dear Georges Since Tom Shelley was your brother in law, his obit will mean more to you than to me so I enclose it. I usually try to look up the families of these old timers if I find myself in the.ir home towns, and in the past this habit has uncovered some paying ledg~/s. But in this case you have it well covered previously. I'll work on the Lydia Hancock case instead. I am having additional prints of Seth B made and will return your copy neg next letter. Thanks for lending it to me. Can you date it beyond being taken in the prime of life? Should it be credited to your collection, or - ? Ordinarily, the original source is best and does not fracture tender family feelings. I make it a practice never to place anything, including photos, in any archive without denoting the source. This means much to future researchers if a question of dependability arises, so our sins of carelessness or virtues of accuracy follow us forever. What can you tell me about Amandus Frank Kuehner and his wife Lucy who were active in SLC during the late 1880s and early 1890s? Th~y Mr. Kuehner had 3 neices living in SLC a few years ago. are/were Mrs. Homer Cummings, Mrs. Frank Cummings, and Mrs. Arnold Bailey. I am rather sure that Kuehner was a contact man between the Church and reliable front men, not LDS, who agreed to hold church property in their names to·prevent fed seizure. I would make a trip to SLC to talk to one of these neices if I thought they had details. An old pioneer friend in southern Nevada is an avid listener of Garner Ted Armstrong of Radio KSL. Can you tell me anything about him and the frequency number of KSL? Perhaps I can pull him in and check out his appeal for myself. Perhaps I misinterpreted your remark about angry churchmen descending on you_. ?vlaybe it was not what you said in John Tanner but what I said in Kanab u.o. I certainly would not want you to make the dirty list on account of me. The people in HDC appear as friendly as ever to me so perhaps Dilworth Young and his fellow rednecks have not succeeded in getting an X placed on my name. My source for J.E. Tanner is Albert L. Zobell Jr. M.S. who wrote Sentinel in theEast, a biography of T.L. Kane. See pp. 207-208. The book was published by Nicholas G. Morgen Sr. in SLC. The publisher got a number of issues made upside down in relation to the title on the front cover. No doubt the J.E. Tanner is in error because on the W.W.Deme ffiamil as another possessor of the code. same page he lists The book is interesting but not very thorough. I couldn't find J.E. in either of my Tanner books so I tried the name on St.George. I think he meant Jos. Smith T. The "Church of the First Born in the Fullness of Time" (what a namet) seems to have had three brothers, Joel, Ervil, and Floren Lebaron as leaders. Ervil was expelled by his brothers and took his eight wives to set up a rival sect called ..Church of the Blood of the Lamb" and at Los Molinos in Baja. Joel was killed in a 1972 shoot-out Ervil was sent to jail. He just got out and now is sought again for the shotgun killing of two men of the original group and the wounding of a dozen more on Dec. 26, 1974. Colonia Los Molinos is on the west coast, about 100 miles south of Ensenada. I remember going thru it. They claim 2000 members and a one million dollar farmland. Women said to outnumber men 5 to J. I find the belief in flying saucers to be strong among the splinter people. There is a wild one at Glendale. The Mexican Gov't insists some of the Los Molinos folk are legal Mexican citizens and own their property. I don't pass as an authority on golf but Johnny Miller surely seems to "own" the two Arizona tournaments. The Feb. 3 issue of Newsweek, pp. 44-48, has an article and cover on him. I think you would enjoy it. There have been some notable LDS athletes during the last guartercenturya Vernon Law (Pitt. Pirate pitcher), Gene Fulmer (boxer), the Olson boys, and Golden Richards (football) among others. I often think how the image of the group hero changes from age to age. Every group needs heroes and they manufacture what they need in the medium of the times. A century ago it was Jacob Hamblin cast in the role of the frontiersman. Today the hero is centered in sports. But pity the Irish; at one time they had a monopoly on boxing but now they only excell at bombing and murder. The letter from Maurice Tanner was as enthusiastic a letter as any author ever got, and it is bound to warm the cockles of your heart. I wish I had relatives such as this man. Appreciation is food to a writer. I know this guy Dalley. I visited him in Ontario in 1967 and got some fine talk. I sent him some information he wanted and got no thanks over a long time. Then came a letter from Inyokern saying he had some undefined material and wanting to know on what terms I would trade. I told him I didn't trade in the medium but would help him with good references if he told me his needs. Thus far I have given. him several items and he has given me nothing. As far as I am concerned Dalley travels a one-way street and needs to be impressed with the story of~the Two Seas. He is trying to get what he can while giving out nothing. Another Crampton. I strongly doubt that he has anything of value, altho Aunt Bessy Jensen is supposed to have had a mass of material which she was incapable of putting tosether. Evidently she inherited all of E.D. Woolley's papers, a collection that should rival that of Dave Rust. Why don't you stay on top of this and get him to give the material to HDC so the professionals can catalogue I'll bet the adverse material has already been destroyed. { it correctly. There was plenty! Crampton's pictorial Sun City for $8. It tries another rehash publisher, Rain in the valley book which sold for $17.95 is now retailing in remaindered, just as his first one did. If he of the rehash, he may have trouble finding a and snow on the rim today. Best regards, _e:r 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 February 14, 1975 Dear Georges Enclosed is your neg of Seth B with my thanks for its loan. I took half a dozen blowups. Also sending you some clips which may or may not interest you. A couple refer to other aspects o~ greed which your interesting clip from the Tribune raised. Victor Riesel reports the labor ripoffs but no one does anything about them. Nixon was especially weak at refraining from pointing the finger at big labor for excessive demands. He didn't want to alienate Meany. When we left L.A., the Retail Clerks Union had the kids who sac g eries at check out counters getting $4.50/hour, plus sick leave and other benefits which included psychiatric care. Electricians and plumbers got about $15/hour in 1971 (in Calif.), while auto mechanics in Phoenix agencies get $11.50/hour now. These wages are making do-it-yourselfers out of many people. Both California and Arizona are getting what they hadn't expected from their new governors. Their backers are shocked while their opposition is pleasantly surprised. Arizona's Castro is cutting expenses and making good appointments, which has even the conservative Republic applauding. Susie still gets the UCLAMonthly and it was cheering at Reagan's departure because he had cut the budget of the u. of Calif. Brown Sr. had given them everything they asked and the so-called liberal crowd figured Brown Jr •. would do the same. Well, Brown Jr. has reduced Reagan's budget, cut the salaries of the governor's staff by 7%, and reduced the state employees' raise from 12;:l&to 8%. Now he is an SOB. Wish we had some in Congress! In return for a favor rendered by Dale Heaps of HDC, and per his request, I gave them a list of material sources for their forthcoming acquisitions trip. A copy is enclosed for you and I suggest you check in a couple of months to see about the payoff. I didn't give them all of the items I know about but I gave them some good oneso However, they are not likely to emerge after a five-minute interview with an old journal in hand. It takes time for these things. Hope they aren't impatient. You really floored me with the background of Garner Ted Armstrong. I thought he had to be LDS and came over the church-owned station. I know nothing about him or his organization that you have not told me and am not inclined to learn more. Life is too short to become involved with such views. Now I am surprised about my friend. Thank you for the dope on the daughters of A. F. Kuehner. I'll look them up next time I am in SLC, which may be late spring. I am rather sure that Kuehner was LDS and a rather influential one at that. I'll tell you more about it next time we meet because the story is too involved to write. I'm pretty sure of my ground. I think Leonard A. was correct in his evaluation of your book. That ie practically what I said also, along with a couple of fly speckso I have read a great many family biographies, none of which equals yours. This in no way compromise8 my view that family biographies, to be truly objective, should not be written by a member of the subject family. Of course if they were written by outsiders they might not please all members of the family. Nearly half of my family would be turned off if I wrote of either line. I am involved in revising, condensing, and polishing my Lee's Ferry text. Some of the ftdngs I am eliminating just tear me up but I have A bloke starts out thinking he to be brutal to stay in one volume. can say what he wants, but he can't. My final draft of the Kanab over 8000 words but it had been cut from United Order ran a little 11,500 and still was the editor's limit. I know you caught some of the things I eliminated, but how many others did? I think the Kane visit Did you ever check HDCfor a T. L. Kane file? to Utah in the winter 1872-73 had more to do with the thrust into Arizona than any of the boys want to admit. Do you have any thoughts on this? That's about it. Our light rain probably means snow for Utah. Snowpack in our high country is only 60% of normal, and prior to this storm Phoenix had received only O.OJ inches of rain since January 1, 1975. Take care, -- P. T. Reilly P. T. Reilly sugg~stions for possible ' ' Fri l,l?tScollections t by H.D.C. CE.DARCITY, .. 1.· Mrs·. Thirza Little, 160-Wi' 200 S: Ph. 586-6)25 Mrs. Little is the daughter of James W. Watson, pioneer settler of O~derville. Mr. Watson mixed considerable philosophy and religion in his writings and his papers are very unorganized. I have seen several passages which recorded valid history of history is mixed Long Valley and I believe that considerable in with the other material. At my urging several years ago, Mrs. Little mailed the entire collection to Earl Olsoti but·~ natureo think 1-t..wa&.returned to her because of its unorgapized I think sonte good 'history c_ould be gleaned· from this mass and suggest another ~oo~. 2. Mrs. Anna Seaman, Box. 291. Seaman who ran early-day sawmill. on .Orderville. Worth'. a check.:i · J. Cedar City Mus~ (I can't find the exact Descendant of pioneer John Said to_ have some material is -said :to have s·everai ref~rences.) origlnal diaries. ESCALANTE a 1. See Patriarch Lorenzo H. Griffin and his half-brother regarding the Journal of Charles Emerson Griffin, Nauvoo to Escalante. (Previous effort by mail unsuccessful.) 2. See Nethella G. Woolsey for location of the Josephine Wood Diary for Hole in the Rock. (See Escalante Story, p~.376Mrs. Woolsey claimed Dr. David E. Miller (U of U) has 378.) this but Dr., Miller denied ito J. Tape James S. Alvey re early history MT.CARMEL: Suggest Mr. Lamb is Orderville Orderville KANAB, of the area. tape job for Edward T. Lamb (94 years old). sharp, honest, and has a keen memory. Stress United Order and early stock situation of the range. 1.0rvil Irrigation Robinson (west side, north end of town), Has Kanab Records. Book 1, Dec.14, 1881 to Feb.19, 1908 Book 2, March JO, 1908 to Nov.12, 1937 He cannot donate these but may allow H.D.C. to copy. 2. Kanab Town Office (approach west end of school from outside). a. Record of the Kanab United Order, 1875-1878. (over) A A ledg~r * 1"x8"x14", 408 pp. This is the only remaining book on the Kanab u.o. and should be companion to the other four books which I sent to Georges. Tanner several years ago. Will probably require OK from Kanab mayor or Town Council. r b. Kanab Pipe Line Records, , 1898 to LB January 192). c,. Kanab Town Minute· Books· ( ab.out 1.0) ST .JOHNS MESA'1 1 J.I ~hi n'k you tried •.· Mrs. · G. U.dali -.for old unnamed j ournai. this by.mail but received no answer). She told me she had the journal and would donate it to ~.o.c. May be merely talk. 0 Zoe Wakefield or Grac.e and Clyde 0li v.er, i643 So. Grand, Ph. 969-6742, for Journal of Brigham Young Perkins, includes 1876 migration to Arizona. 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 March 8, 1975 Dear Georges My labors were interrupted by making a quick trip to Kanab to attend the funeral of my old friend Jody Johnson on March J. This was the man at whose home you and I first met over the the last telephone. Jody was a former bishop and was a patriarch fourteen years of his life. His full older brother is the prophet of the group at Short Creek and he is the only member of the Johnson family who has not accepted me. There must be money in the prophet business because he is driven in a luxury automobile and he passed Jody's widow a hundred dollar bill. Now there are three of Warren Johnson's sons left. Two are at Short Creek and one at Moccasin. I did not include Jody in the list for Dale Heaps to see because he had slipped badly the past year and had made several trips to the hospital. He died with a pacemaker in hie chest. Did you happen to see his obituary in the S.L. paper? He died 27 Feb. Thank you for the three magazines put out by Garner Ted. I now have I see him very much as a better idea of what the guy is all about. our problems but having a confused you do - good at recognizing theology. Anson Call holds more interest for me than Israel Call but I will check out the Goodman gal first time I get the opportunity. It was not P.T. who sent you the Call reference. Why not have Dale Heaps look into this? While we were gone a man in a Utah car came by our house and talked briefly to a neighbor. He returned after we got back and turned out to be quite a guy. Name of Jay Redd, of Monticello. He had gotten a chuckle out of my Kanab u.o. article and gave me letters instigated by Loyd L. Young, a great great nephew of John R. who was quite upset was to Mel Smith, one an answer by Stan by my 0 bias. •• One letter Layton, and one by Glen Leonard, who agreed I had shown prejudice against John R. Evidently a xerox of the letter to .Melvin was the motivation of Dilworth Young's visit to UHS. I'll fire off a reply to the great great nephew tomorrow. I am rushing to get material Think I might have located Lee's Ferry sketches, maps, can handle the job, I will come to Arizona after April have returned by then. together for a quickie to California. another artist to complete my needs for etc. If I am convinced he end papers, get him started. Therefore I hope you Conference instead of before. We will Here is a little problem which you may be able to kick around. Last spring I was hunting a man from the Eager-Springerville area. His name is Jeff Slade,Jr. and he was active at Lee's Ferry in 1920-21. In fact, he brought a brand into the country which was purchased by I\ another man already there. Now Mormon cowboys don't go traipsing about the country as many non-Mormon cowpokes do and I suspect that Slade left because of trouble. I found one Slade who was postmaster at Eager and he inferred there was quite a story behind Slade Jr. but he wouldn't tell me much. He referred me to another This woman was totally unresponSlade who was PM at Springerville. sive, lending substance to the thought that Jeff Slade Jr. left Eager in a hell of a hurry. We checked the St.Johns newspapers with no luck. Do you know anyone around Eager who might be able to fill I think the in some objective background info on Jeff Slade Jr? Slade family hides a skeleton. This man Jay Redd has placed a number of items in HDC and you should know him. Seems to be your kind of Saint. He knows Ann Hyde, Chris Lingo Christiansen's daughter who is alive but does not know anyone. I sicked him onto Chris Lingo's journal. Jay knows her daughter very well. He also has worked with Jay Haymond of UHS. Seems that Bro Redd winters in Sun City each year and has been here since January. I didn't see any of the Utah TV re polygamy but Kanab was buzzing with it. If the producers had seen Prophet Roy Johnson rolling around·in his big car accompanied by five women, as I did, they would have blown some film. It must be snowing in Flag today. Cloudy here but warm - about 70. We saw about six inches of snow at Flag, traces on Highway 89 near Page, quite a bit on the Echo and Vermilion Cliffs, and nearly a foot trees are popping out would on the Kaibab. But the way our citrus make one think it is mid-spring. Take care P. T. Reilly 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 March 21, 1975 Dear Georges We returned from California on St. Patrick's Day and were glad to leave that rat race. Arizona never looked better. Trip was only partially successful. My total job was too much for the artist but he will do the maps. May get him to do a few sketches later. Yesterday, shortly after lunch, Dale Heaps and a companion, Dennis, blew in for a short visit. They had been going hard and had several journals, including the old Udall job which I had begun to think was imaginary. They also got a xerox of Brig Perkins but the presen.t owner would not trust them with a loan. They went together to the Genealogical Society in Mesa and Dale was crying about having to pay 15¢ per sheet for xeroxing. I looked it over and think he might not have gotten the one I had in mind. He got the Griffin journal in Escalante but received the same pitch I did about the Josephine Woods diary involving Mrs. Woolsey and David E. Miller each saying the other has it. Something fishy here. They hit Kanab late and did not make any contacts there, said they would do so later. Anyway, ·I was happy that my leads were useful to them. I can't tell you much more about Jeff Slade than I did in my last letter. He showed up in the Lee's Ferry area about 1920 and sold the A Cross brand to a man living there. The brand was not registered with the wtate and questions were raised about its legality. Eventually a supposedly reputable Mormon stockman bought a small herd carrying that brand. He moved the;cast1e·t~,Ceaan City, then stopped payment on the check. I'm mainly interested in knowing whether Jeff Slade, Jr. was honest or a crook. Also why he suddenly appeared so far from his home range. Possibly he was a draft dodger from WW1 or got into some other of kind of trouble where he grew up. Bp. Slade, who is postmaster Eager, inferred as much and a Mrs. Slade, PM of Springerville, would I suspect some kind of skeleton. In summary, not answer my query. Jeff Slade Sr. was a respected name in the Eager-Springerville wrea from pioneer days and many Slades reside there now. However, I can't find anything out about Jeff Jr., his brand, why he went farther west, or where he went after leaving Lee's Ferry.area. He was around LF for a couple of years, rode for Barz. I am sure he was raised around Eager and lived there until about 1918-19. I think many people know this but won't tell. Did you ever hear of Dewey Farr? He lives in St. Johns and was cited recently for his work in preserving eastern Arizona history and building the museum at St. Johns for the Apache County Histor. Soc. I see the brethren are having tape trouble in Provo. My sympathies are with the husband who placed the recorder under the bed. Seems to me matter for the church. Taping infidelity with a this is an internal polygamist involves the cuckolded husband's civil rights as well as those of the guilty people. Send them to Short Creek. My thanks for your prod. It has been much too long since I had called Silas Fish and I have just done so. Had a nice long conversation and found his voice strong and his mouth crinkly around the edges. However, he is blind and deaf. He has a hearing aid which he can adjust to hear sounds in the lower register. Thus he could hear me OK but can't make out the higher voices of women and children. He can't see to find things he needs but has joined some government program which provides verbal discourses for the blind. He is over 95 (born 17 Jan. 1880) and still learning about American history. Has new-found admiration for Geo. Washington and Nelson Rockefeller. I asked him about the Slade family and he knew the name but no detail. I think we both enjoyed the chat. If you g§t to Phoenix, I hope we can pay him a visit together. Silas chided me for not having joined the church. I hope you are able to come south in April and anticipate seeing you. If we can assist in any way all you have to do is state your need. You have my unlisted phone number. Best regards, __p::j P. T. Reilly P.s. I did not get to study the B.Y.Perkins biography but scanned thru it while talking to Dale. See if you can get me a xerox of the xerox. I have some firm dates which could have been there but I did not see thema received instructions in SLC, 8 March 1873; started to Arizona from Bountiful 14 April 1873; ferried Colorado on May 9; at Willow Spg June 4; started back to Utah June 25: recrossed Colorado 7 July 1873. If these dates are in the xerox, we are OK otherwise there is another record in diary form. Try to grab a look at this. 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 April 10, 1975 Dear George: Your letter and Perkins book arrived in the same mail, April 9. I was curious, so shut down and spent the rest of the day forming an opinion. As frequently happens, some mystery remains. I had figured this Perkins clan to be related to the Ute Perkins in the Muddy Valley whose descendants still live at Overton, Nevada. An early ancestor of ,B.Y. Perkins was Ute Perkins, who died in Illinois in 1844, but there don't seem to be ties to this group in Nevada. I got on the trail of the B.Y. Perkins journal while I still lived in California. A friend sent me a copy of nArizona," a Sunday supplement magazine of the Arizona Republic, for October 1, 1967, pp.44-48. The article was about Willow Springs and the H.D. Haight 1873 exploration. Enough dates were quoted to cause me to think B.Y. Perkins had kept a diary of the trip and that the two who did the magazine text and pictures, Mildred and C.R. Hooper, were his descendants. The magazine also provided the lead to Larry Oliver of Clifton, Ariz. I called at the Oliver home in Clifton last year and was told that the diary now was in Mesa, at the address which I gave to Dale Heaps. The xerox of the longhand which Dale allowed me to scan when he dropped by here last month did not appear to be what I thought it should; but after comparing the magazine excerpts with those of the book you sent, I find them to be identical and therefore conclude that B.Y. Perkins kept a rather sketchy diary which the Hoopers copied verbatim. The book you sent has value as a multi-document of the Little Colorado pioneers but it is terribly mixed up and confused. Each family has its own sub-organization, and pagination begins over with each group and retrospective account. Ther~ are excerpts from diaries of Jesse Nelson/ Perkins (B.Y's father)i Reub~ Josiah Perkins, his brother, with B.Y.P's diary. B.Y. Perkins says that he had a dream on 22 Oct 1872 (first anniversary of his grandfather's death) while he was living in Bountiful, in which his grandfather handed him pen, ink, and paper and told him to write. (Church authorities were advocating the writing of journals at that time, so BYP might have done some subconscious rationalizing and made some kind of irregular entries). Anyway, his journal begins from this time and from the number of dates he uses, I think he must have written something._ (Vol.1, No.2, p.9) However, the B.Y.Perkins Family Record which says that he began to keep a diary on 22 Oct 1872 is dated 15 Jan 1925, Taylor, Arizona. (Vol.1, No.2, p.2). The blend point between Family Record and diary,cannot be determined. The diary runs one page past JO Aug 1875, when they leave Bountiful for Ariz0na. It stops on the Sevier River and says, "To be continued ... The diary of Reuben Josiah Perkins begins on 21 April 1875 and has entries fairly evenly spaced but not consecutively. It runs to 15 July 1875 and then picks up on 14 Sept t87S. This diary and Vol.1 No.2 both end on 4 Nov 1875. Vol.1 No.J resumes with sporatio entries by Reuben J. Perkins, 29 May 1876, to 17 Feb 1878. A major missing section falls between 16 Nov 1877 from Johnson, Utah to within 13 miles to 15 Jan 1878, when they traveled of the first approach to the Little Colorado. Reuben's account ends 17 Feb 1878 and they continue with B.Y.Perkins Family Records - general account but including some dates. BYP says they laid over at Sunset and spent 1 Jan 1879 with Lot Smith. Frihoff Nielson was in Utah at the time so I could not confirm this. Also missed some other confirmations at Sunset. BYP's account ends on 28 May 1881, Vol.1, No.J, p.20. BYP Family Record continues on Vol.1, No.4, p.7 with Gen. Conf. at SLC 8 Oct 1879, and ends with return from St. George before Christmas 1882, p.14. Note says end of diary. Other volumes carry on with diary excerpts, old letters, etc. It is very mixed up but there is value at various placeso From the standpoint of history, the diary entries of each man should have been kept together. I doubt that the xerox copy which Dale obtained was written It is more likely that he dictated it in 1925. The writing -too good for the average pioneer. A daughter probably wrote in 19)7. So much for that. I'll hang on to it until I see I am show prior stay trails, I'll by B.Y.Perkins. is very good it. BYP died you. slated to meet my map-making artist at Lee's Ferry April 18 and to him my needs the next two or three days. If you come to Phoenix to that you could ride up with us on Thursday the 17th. We will at Cliff Dwellers. We will be walking the old roads, climbing the etc. It could be too strenuous for you but you are welcome. have to spend a day in Flag on our return, possibly Monday the 21st. Don't trouble yourself time I am near Eager. about the Jeff Slade deal, I can solve it next I see where they just nailed eight members of a wife-swapping group of park the Church of the First Born. They were holed up in a Yuma trailer and were having a fine time until one of the wives blew the whistle from Montana. Also see where a nest of polygamists at Glen Canyon City is fighting the BLM. One gal said her husband had too many wives for her to count. What a dumdum! Your revelationsabout how narrow and reprehensible some of the faithful are shock me. I'd like to take a look at the bloke responsible for planting a spy in your classes. I bet he wore a plug hat •. Thank you for the clip re the bones found near Cardenas Creek in Grand Canyon. Our paper noted that some bones were found but has run nothing I departed Lee• s Ferry four days after Loper was drowned. There since.. is quite a story behind this. The bones could belong to Roundy, who was 57 when he was drowned, or be those of four or five others. Davis Quigley's body was found 144 miles below where he went under. My unlisted phone number is 977-5965. or after the 22nd. Hope to see you prior Take care, PTR to April 17 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Arizi 85351 May 3, 1975 Dear George, Your guess re the Perkins journal was a bullseye, so bother with what Heaps obtained. I see no reason to to you regarding statements I made in my last letter and conside~ the so-called journal to be recollections overrate the value and I in 1925. BYP's descendants they even understand it. no need to modify the this\iocument di~tated doubt that I met my artist on schedule at Lee's Ferry on April 17 and walked him all over the place for two days. Went up the Lee's Backbone road, the Johnson cutoff, and returned via the Emett dugway. Next day I took them up the Faria to the Sand Trail - wher& Escalante went in 1776 - along the Echo rim to descend the Spencer Trail. Plus several short trips to places that Crampton and Rusho would love to know about. I learned that I am getting too old to hike with men in their early JOs and think I may lose a big toenail or two. I took along an altimeter and traversing compass and took some bearings that I have long needed. We eyeballed the distances. Residents at the Ferry are talking about -ttwo things. Big to-do about the Escalante trail restoration and a book by Crampton-Rusho on Lee's Ferry which is due soon. No one there seems to know where Escalante ascended the Echo Cliffs and the ranger got rather excited when I told him. I am rather sure that I am the only one to trace the Escalante route over the Buckskin Mt. to the crossing of Navajo Creek, but I can see the feather merchants rushing hither and '"discovering" all sorts of things. Bolton made several errors in delineating the Spaniard's route in this area. He had a romantic side that his admirers tend to overlook. We spent ( enclosed one side a couple of nights in Flag on our return and I picked up the item as one of interest to you. It has Seth's signature on at the bottom. I have xerox of letters,, Ballenger to BY, 2 June 1876; 13 July 1876; 7 Sept 1876; and Ballenger to J.T. and the Twelve, 24 Dec 1877. These are courtesy of friend Saint Georgeo In hiking the Lee's Backbone road I noted a .!1fil! inscription regarding the passing of the Hyrum Smith Phelps Company on 4 Dec 1878. This inscription mis not there in past years because I have cased the route veCT thoroughly. A Phelps descendant was a previous owner of the ranch. I know this man and judge that he chiseled the carving in the last couple of years. It appears to be freshly cut. The point is, to cut the exact date of ascent implies the existence of a journal. Do you know if one by H.S. Phelps, or by a member, possibly the clerk, of his company? This item could be very important. You probably know that Phelps was the first company to settle Mesa. If HDC has no record of this journal, I think I can round it up - but the man I know is not much of a correspondent. He lives on the east coast. t You deserve some ego-pampering. Just see that it does not go to your head. I know that you have the character to take family loyalty and admiration in stride but you have much to be proud of from a standpoint of pure objectivity. At first I tended to compare your vein. work with something that Charles P. might have done in a similar Naturally the organization and wwiting by us common mortals will suffer because Charles is unusually gifted in natural ability. Your words tend to grow in meaning and I now realize that I should have evaluated your text independently of possible contemporaries. Truth is, no one has ever written a family portrait as you have and I am coming to appreciate the fine line you trod that would not alienate fundamentalist types and still get your message across. The congratulatory letters you have received are deserved and a fitting reward to your labor. Appreciation of effort is what makes it all w~orthwhi le. A few restaurants in Phoenix have a no smoking section and the trend seems to be spreadingo Nothing can spoil a time out for me more than to have some inconsiderate slob violate my civil right by forcing me to breathe his second hand smoke. I don't allow it in my home. I enjoy most Mormon homes because there is no smoking but I have a couple of LDS friends who chain smoke and it bothers me greatly. would go into the lavatory and lock John James, former UHS Librarian the door for his smokeso Glad your trip south is set and hope that not all of your time is devoted to family so that we can get our heads togethero I know that you will not lack offered quarters but add ours to the pack when you decide how to allocate your limited time. Hope we can visi.t with Silas Fish while you are here. I know it would brighten his day and he doesn't have many left. Best regards, P. T. Reilly P.S. I was most interested in Mrs. Farr's opinion of Juanita. I agree with your viewpoint over her's but at the same time Juanita does some strange things. I have proof that she has given _mebum steers or yet I would outright false information on a couple of occasions, hesitate to charge that she did this deliberately. I rather think she is more self-centered than most people realize, and not very efficient I do think it is ridiculous probably due to spreading herself too thin. to charge her with selling original material to anyone. She very probably material to the Hun-cington if she tnough1; 1·t would would give controversial be unavailable in a Utah archive. The Huntington and Yale libraries have been scapegoats for Mormon historians for years for merely acquiring LDS material, and you and I both know of criticism being directed at ~ood Saints who have cooperated with archives outside of Utah. Of course youvknow that feel t~at most Mormon material belongs in Utah, yet there are certain items which would benefit history if they were not buried in Utah. 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85J51 May 19, 1975 Dear Georges Your nephew, Wallace T. telephoned me re the change in your plans. It is always difficult to get that many people together, but especially so for graduation week. The dog days will be settling in soon so I imagine your visit will be postponed until fallo It almost hit 100 degrees last week but it cooled off to the low 80s for the weekendo Expect it to warm gradually from now on. I was most interested in the LDS Archives clippingo Davis Bitton and I discussed this program and I suggested that John L. Blythe be included. He asked me to submit an outline and a few sample pages but I have not done so as yet due to other prior work. Eventually I would like to do Blythe's biography and hope that it could be done under the church program. Let's not let this Phelps MS die on the vine. If his great grandson had the exact day the company went over the Lee Hill, it could only have come from a jour.nal. Freight rates between Flag and Tuba held at one cent a pound well past the turn of the century. I wo~ld say that Seth was in Flag on other business and merely brought the school supplies along on his return trip. I have the record which shows th.at John Tanner frei~hted 1650 7? miles from Flag to Willow Spg for ~16.50, pounds approximately while another freighter picked up the same load at Willow Spg and charged $215.00 for the oOmiles to Lee's Ferryo The second man was a rascal. Did you know !'retl Randall very well? (Harvey's brother?) I just intervfewed two brothers whose father grew up on the Little Colorado near Diablo Canyon. The father's name was Anderson but he was not LDS. Anderson was born in 1874,.and as a boy would ride with Fred R. as the pair rode behind Lot Smith, other Mormons, and Anderson Sr. as they gathered cattle. During one such ride a discussion on polygamy made Fred aware for the first time that Anderson was not LDS,and he called Anderson had a high out to the men ahead, "Hey, Paw, he's a Gentileo" regards for Lot Smith and aided him to escape the Feds on a couple of 0ccasions. He has seen Lot take a wagon spoke and clean out a hogan. Enclosing a clip re a local Saint. He is a vast improvement predecessor and I think we could use him in Washingtono Take care, P. T. Reilly over his 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 May 29, 1975 Dear Georges I know relatively little about the LDS settlement of So. Arizona and accepted Phelps's grandson's word that this company was the first to settle Mesa. MoClintock is my only source of information and this appears to be where you got your list. Agreed that the Phelps Co. arrived ten months after the first group. I did not This man make an issue of this when I wrote to the Phelps grandson. Sy cooked pinto beans is S. Reeseman Fryer, now living in Georgia. for Susie and me in the L.F. ranch house in October 1969 and at that time knew very little of the Phelps migration. I figured that John Hibbert or Charles C. Dana were most likely to have kept a journal but I found no listing for them at HDO, UHS, BYU. Apparantly this journal is still out. You put your finger on one of the weaknesses of our democratic society. True, there are men of ability waiting to be elected but few will enter the field of razzmatazz to do so. Therefore they go unused while the guys with the big mouths and fewer principles fight for public office. Yes, your Tanner books have been most helpful Tanners at Tuba. in unraveling the various I don't think our late spring is due to Divine punishment nearly as much as it is possible that the Russians have figured out a way to control the weather via the jet streams. I'm apprehensive about our Boy Scout president dabbling in detente with those rascals. I'd just as soon pick a kid'out of Sunday School to shoot craps with the ghetto. Early in June we expect to leave for the Northwest and B.C. Have some historical material to pick up, some family to see in the Seattle area (my late father's brother and sister), and some pleasure in goofing off. Will try to be home prior to July 4 and hope to be here when you come south,. May spend a day in SLC and will call you if I May visit UHQ do, but do not plan work in the archives this time. briefly to let them know I'm still alive. George Ellsworth a good review. gave Dean Jessee's book - BY's Letters Think I'll pick up a copy in SLC. Best regards,. P. T. Reilly to His Sons - 23, 1975 July Dear Georges It was good to hear from you. I lament the long gap and failure to make contact. This trip was different. We usually try to bag as many birds as possible but we de.parted from the established pattern and devoted this one purely to a couple of old friends and the last two members of my father's family. I did not do a stick of research for history per se. I met a cousin, the first in 49 years. We had a terrific time, were away almost a month and traveled over 4000 miles. We rolled thru SLC both wa~son a Sunday and each time were sighted in on far-off targets. I did try for one collection in Seattle but the family had other plans and I came away empty handed. A graceful exit may result in an acquisition at a later dateo Glad you met with John Irwin at NAU and eyeballed the library and special collections. Parking should not have been a problem when you were there but it is as bad as U of U during term sessions. Evidently your time was so short here that you would have been·, pressed to see me had I been home. Perhaps you can fly down in the fall or winter next timeo Congratulations on your Golden Anniversary. Death ended my parents' marriage after 62 years, while Susie and I have 12 years to go to reach that golden milestone. We expect to reach it, tho. Mrs. Omer Smith called me from Mesa on July 17 and talked for 40 minutes. She is very sharp and I was impressed. Seems to be our kind of peopleo I marveled that such a well informed person would come out of a little place such as Central. She said she wanted to talk to me some more. She insists that Tom Brookbank wrote a diary while he was in Tuba. I doubt it but what do you think? She is not hot for filling the archives prior to going to press. I think she knows more than I do about Lot and is objective in her views. I only gave her one new thought. Now I'd like to meet her husband. It is amazing how with John Tanner. getting back into accomplished much that Crampton and If I can facilitate in. you move on to Joseph City after the fine job Wish I could do as well. I'm having a rough my rut which I prefer to call a groove. Have in the last couple of months. Heard at Lee's Rushe expect to have their book out any day. your next visit to the Valley you did time not Ferry of the Sun, count me Best regards, P. T. Reilly 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 August 2, 1975 Dear George: Agree with you completely that the pursuit of history causes one to cross paths with some delightful people. That is how I met you. Too bad that the gamut has to run from the Grant Gils to the Mrs. Omers but perhaps some of those on the low side of center I. can be rescued for the cause of objectivityo This Derryfield Smith could fall into this category. The trouble with any book that Crampton that it reinforces legend and perpetuates for the facts and is content to skim the The edge off f6r more intense proberso in the past and is likely to remain long haven't seen anything until Russia takes is likely to produce is hearsay. He rarely digs cream, which takes the problem has been with us in the future. (But we over.) The pulp you want is FRONTIERTIMES, V.48, N.2 March 1974. "My Wonderful Country," by Joe Lee, submitted by Gladwell Richardson. Published by Western Publications Inc., P.O. Box JJJ8, Edgecliff Terrace, Austin, Texas, 78764 It is about as long an article as they ever run: pp. 6-15, 29, 33-35, 38, 48-51, 54-56, 58-60, 62, 64. I think you know that Joe Lee wrote nothing down but gave his story orally to Toney Richardson along with his photo collection, on the promise that Richardson was going to write Joe's biography. Joe~ sister, Ada Lee Humphrey Johnson told me that Richardson stole everything her brother had under this pretense. Richardson is very unreliable and would not hesitate to fill in his own version in any ggps if it made a good story. A person must know a great deal to use anything from this man's pen. However, if one is f:6rtified with such knowledge he can obtain some good material from Joe Lee/Richardson~ If Derryfiled N. Smith refrains from editing the guts out of the Bushman Diaries, tell him to put me down for a sale. St.George gave me a xerox of Bushman's writings from Jan. 1, 1876, to Dec.Jl,1879, and I'd like to obtain the whole ball of wax. Amasa Jay Redd and his wife drove down from Monticello on July 27 and spent a couple of nights with us. They returned home the morning of the 29th with his Cadillac full of grapes. They had a great time on the Grape Festival here and gleaned along with the po' folk and millionaires alike. I showed him your John Tanner book an.d now he has to have one because he is related to Amasa Lyman. I gave him your address and expect him to write you. Hope you have a spare for such purposes. You should know Jay; he is a terrific guy. He seemed anxious to meet you. He is a plus by any standard. Take care P. T. Reilly 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 August 27, 1975 Dear Georges This the Sam and the the Bro The But seems to be clipping day. Thought you might be interested in Chino Valley burro war between your relative Stan Tanner and Steiger. Also, the polygamist Alex Joseph has been in the news makes no bones about his ideas on marriage. What a change from 1880s! Some of those old boys who used up a lot of energy dodging Feds must be kicking their coffins loose. One difference is that Joseph appears to have more than his share of animal magnetism. gals are either very happy with him or else putting on a good act. things have changed. Nobody cares now. Possibly you know of the death of Harvey Randall. caught up with him ten years ago. Wish I could have Incest is always messy and nineteenth century pioneers were least qualified to deal with it. Bushman must have been awfully sure that the man was guilty and seems to have gotten some "kicks"out of going after him. Too bad that a more Christian-like man· was not bishop to provide a degree of compassion and better counsel. I would agree with your views on the matter. Jay Redd probably had his interest aroused by scanning your table of contents. He is aware of the attitude of Albert R. Lyman and does not accept the faith of the faithful as these brethren seem to think they are-obligated to do. I think you will enjoy knowing Jay. He is a good LDS. Earthquakes and fires destroyed San Francisco in 1906 but police and firemen did the job in 1975, doing their best to send the Bay City down the same dreary road that the dity of New York traveled. I feel about Mayor Alioto the way you do about Jack Anderson. Bring back the Vigilantes! Now the Berkeley firemen are strikingo Of course if government officials showed more fiscal responsibility in their own salaries, they would serve as better examples for big labor. Congress could discourage these big increases by readjusting the tax bases. This would curb inflation, too. But Congress has no guts and most members are afraid of Big Labor and Big Industry. We are the only ones they don't £ear. I heard some startling figures on Mexico: illegal Mexican aliens are flooding So. Calif. and Arizona, taking local jobs for lower wages and getting welfare. The California prisons all have power struggles between black and brown inmates and the Mexicans now are more powerful than the blacks. White inmates have formed Aryan Brotherhood but can't compete with the rival groups. Meanwhile, over half of the Mexican population is under 17 years of age and the population explosion of this predominantly Catholic country is enormous. The U.S. is unable to shut off the outflow. The Mexican Barrios in L.A. than the black ghettos in Watts and are gaining more every day. They are electing more political figures could control So. Cal. politics in another decade or are larger political power every year and two. Yes, I can see George teaching a class on the meaning of the Holy Ghost but I would wager that the more fundamentalist-thinking members of the.class received the surprise of their lives. I would also wager that not all of the upper echelon would approve of George's interpretation oftthe H.G. I will hope that no one smuggles a pocket tape recorder into class. Once Big Brother becomes aware of a liberal thinker, he just might set him up - especially if the logic were persuasiveo Be careful. I wish you had access to an un-Christianized old-school Navajo to tell your class what he understands by the Holy Ghost. They might be surprised. On the other hand, don't waste your time discussing this subject with a practicing Catholic. Better still, don't discuss dogma at all with said Catholic. I see where Rusho and Crampton were elected to study the Arizona portion of the Dominguez-Escalante trail. Your faithful colleague has had this nailed down between Pipe Spg and Navajo Creek for over a decade. but boondoggles are the order of the day and they came up with a couple of number one boys. Having a rough time with my writing, with organization the major problem. A bloke can condense only so far and then has to decide what to leave out, how loose to keep it. But I'll stay with it and whip it eventually. It ought to begin cooling off here soon. We have been opening the house at night. Temperatures fall to 70-75, and a couple of nights dropped to mid-60s. We like that air. Our highest electric bill was last month, $51.77. This is about $10 above lasy year's high. Keep a pluggin' 9202 Raintree Druve Sun City, Ariz. 85351 September 16, 1975 Dear Georgea No one to my knowledge ever accused the Tanners of lacking courag~ and you certainly lived up to the tradition by electing to eat in a Glen Canyon City restaurant. Did you know that our late friend Ray Taylor put this place on the map? Did you stop there by design or convenience? Man, you could have done better. The word that presecution of polygamists is a because no one feels outraged at his flouting Joseph had not wheeled and dealed in big time he would be in no trouble. The news boys are of polygamy in an attempt to interest readers bringing two or three wives with him to Peoria no-no must be out his wives. If Bro assets such as choppers, playing up thec15ngle and Joseph oblig@s by court. It just never entered my mind that Stan Tanner did not belong to your clan. I tried to look him up in the John Tanner Family book you gave me but the section which would have carried him is missing. I wasn't aware that there was any stigma attached to owning burros. There wasn't 2000 years ago, but then I don't keep up with all the changing mores. There is much more at stake here than a few burros, which is why the congressman elected to become involved. This guy Steiger is something else - possibly a John Birch reincarnation of Sen. Joe McCarthy. Support for Tanner is quite large because many people hate Steiger's guts. This bilingual crap belongs on the same ash heap with school busing. If Mexicans want to keep the Spanish tongue they should remain in Mexico. How come the Indians of Mexico didn't go back to their tribal dialects? We have to admit that the Spaniards consolidated about 80 percent of Mexico's diverse languag~s in one - Spanish. Had the Indians protested then they would have been shoto When I go to Mexico I expect to speak the language of that country, and I do. I have caught a couple of Mexicans who made do with my halting Spanish but who turned out later to speak English as wellj as I do. They like to make the Gringo come to them. The peabrains in our judicial system are the rascals wan have to get, not the': minority leaders who can sa:a s soft touch and are smart enough to take advantage of ito Of course there is the possibility that the Mexicans are using other means to re-take the Southwest. Their main opposition in California right now is the black faction, not the white. Watch out for Alaska if they start doing the same for Russian minorities there. Looks to me like we peaked after WWII and our ride down the tube is becoming steeper and faster every year since. Congress can't do anything except vote raises and spend money. Did you ever see anything as ineffective as their work on an energy program? We need a man like Brigham Young or Teddy Roosevelt for president. None of the above has much connection with Mormon history but I'm not out of the field. Just mailed an article to Stan Layton on the historic use of Faria River but have no idea how they will receive it. Nothing has ever been done on this subject. We are running up to Escalante at the end of the montl'hand will see some old timers there and en route. Will hit Hurricane and St.Georgg on our way home. Will try to cheer up my pal Karl Larson who is awfully lonesome after his ivathanina died. Talked to Silas Fish the other day. He is very alert and spry fhr one born in January 1880. Has had an operation f·Or cataracts and is having a struggle learning to use his new glasses. The depth of field is so short. His voice is still crinkly around the edges when he chuckles. I told him I'm riding herd on him for you as well as me. Your description of large tomatoes makes my mouth water. Wish we could do that here. Perhaps I could if I tried the plants under shade. Bp. Joseph Alvey of Escalante died at 92 without getting the tape job he deserved. In interviewed him once and took notes. Very worthwhile. Sorry to see Utah U's Ticky Burden go the hardship route. He could have helped the team but I doubt that he will be successful in the big time play-for-pay gamg. He does not impress me as being fast, enough. I let a good one get away from me. Ten years ago I located the Sharlot Hall diary in a safe at Prescott and the files were so unorganized that I thought it was safe. Crampton found it and published it with it is exactly what I his usual lack of comprehension. Publishing should have done. But he did it and more power to him, even tho I could have done bettero Do you think Crampton and David E. Miller friends or better described as rivals? (Hole in the Rock) are close Take care. P. T. Reilly 92~2 Raintree Drive Sun City, .Ariz. 85351 October 17, 1975 Dear George: In past years I have sought a certain individual in Glen Canyon City(?) and have talked to various people in prowling the dusty streets. My impression is that it is a God-forsaken place and I can understand how some of the old Saints felt about the new settlements on the Little Colorado in 1876. I'd class G.C.C. lower than whale manure in the bottom of the ocean. Having seen many practicing polygamists in their homes in southern Utah and on the Strip,. I doubt that I could generate enough interest to look in on Bro. Joseph and his Hippie clan especially in G.C. City. There is all the difference in the world between this miserable place and Short Creek. Ray Taylor had nothing to do with the present makeup of the place. He merely finagled the property rights for the subdivision after Glen Dam was started. He cashed in and got out. He was smart. We had quite a discussion re his promotion. If Ray had not died before he was due, he might have become involved in another promotion in the Henry Mts, off the road to BullFrog. A 90 year old apostate, Arth Chaffin of Teasdale, has this setup and I tied Ray into it. Glad to hear Elna ts OK. She is a fine person and I only wish there were more like her. Old Jacob Miller had good stuff in him. Yes, I noted that Killebrew had reached the end of his playing trail. I keep up with the careers of LDS athletes. My old favorite was Vernon Law of the Pittsburgh Pirates. A couple of brothers were good middleweight boxers a few years back, one becoming champ. The Olson brothers and Golden Richards of Dallas Cowboys are the main LDS footballers at present. I enjoyed your clips, especially the Reston article. I must have missed this in our paper because I usually read him. Agree fullyo Professional athletes aren't going to ask for less money. Owners are nuts to pay (if they do) these fantastic salaries. Most owners use their teams for tax writeoffs for other businesses and have upped their prices to the point where many fans stay away. I do. I'd think I had a hole in my head if I paid 8 bucks to watch a bunch of 7 foot goons dunk a basketball. Salt Lake City would be better off if the Utah Stars moved to Glen Canyon City - or any other place which would play turkey for them. Wilt Chamberlain, Zelmo Beatty, Joe Namath et al will have to get it from someone beside me. John Wooden is quite a guy to have controlled Kook Walton over four years. Portland ought to run that big baby out of town instead of bidding for him. Enclosing a copy of a letter which I wrote to the Ariz. Republic. They gave it good exposure, in the middle of the page, right over one from John Rhodes. Possibly you are familiar with the problem. In case you aren't, the Navajo Tribe is trying to wangle HouseRock Valley and most of Paria Plateau in a land swap with the BLM. If you have been over of shacks, Hiway 89 lately you undoubtedly noticed the proliferation wrecked cars, and lean-to bead booths along the road. The Navvies let their sheep graze close to the shoulder in hopes that some neck-craning tourist will hit one. If some stranger falls into the trap he will find that some inbred cross between a goat and a jackrabbit has blossomed into a pure blood Merino worth 200 bucks. And the Navajo police are there to see that the poor Indian is not cheated. They drive their sheep across the hiway hoping one will get hit. Several of my friends in Kanab and Fredonia have written letters of protest and I'm trying to help them. The Wahweap people gmt CBS (KOOLTV,Phoenix) to come to the old Parker ~lace and film Bob Vaughn. We surely don't need the Vermilion Cliffs to be despoiled by the creeping Navajo ghetto of shacks, junked cars, and bead shelters. Navajos are close to grabbing political control control of Apache County and the people around St.Johns are worried. The Navajo birth rate is very high and federal services help to it rise. Snoop around Page and you will see what I mean. A letter the S.L.Tribune from St.George might help keep hogans and wrecked autos from defacing HouseRock Springs (Historical site). met No, I never :s11xt Mark Leone but you mentioned him at length. I had the feeling that you folks were going a bit overboard on him, possibly due to the magic of the name Princeton. You gave me the impression that there was much he did not understand and would likely never learn about Mormon history and background. But the academic syndrome is sparked by guys such as Crampton and Leone, and their desire to publish prevails over any tendency toward depth, understanding, or fairness. I would let Leone know that his articles fell short of measuring up to what you expected of him as well as placing you out on a limb. I'll make a point of reading it next time I have a chance. Have you heard of the BYU Survival classes? We ran into a couple of groups of them in the back country. Also that far-out Deer Creek branch of Antioch College (Ohio). This is really far out. Have much more to tell you but will save it for next timeo Best regards, _p:r P. T. Reilly 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 November 6, 1975 Dear George: I have enjoyed greatly and aonc~r fully with the clippings you have enclosed in your recent letters. They hit right to.the heart of many'of our troubleso Victor Riesel had a good one today about how the N.Y. unions are compounding the city's problems. Glad you approved of the letter to the Republic and will be interested in any response. The Navvies are becoming quite a political factor in their area. They swung the last gubernatorial election for Castro who campaigned on the reservation while his opponent did not. They are in the process of taking over Apache County. Their MVDexaminers will give a driving license to any Indian whether he can pass the test or not. This does not lower the Indian fatality list. Any company doing business in Indian country has to practice reverse discrimination and payrolls are loaded with red bodies who don't know what they are doing. Naturally all Indians don't try to get their sheep hit by autos, but a surprising percentage do. Of course many animals are killed by carelessness or drunks, many of them Indians. People living in the area can verify this. Many young militants discourage the older squaws from weaving. Price increases have worked against this advice but a woman doesn't get much per hour even if she sells a rug for a couple of hundred bucks. Twenty five years ago I could buy good double saddle blankets for $J.OO and the weaver came out with less than ten cents per hour. This did not include anything but the weaving. If shearing, washing, dying, carding, and spinning were included, the wage would drop to less than one cent per hour. Roadside jewelry sold from a leanto does not help native crafts. Outside of juniper beads, the jewelry is junk stuff, machine made, much of it from Japan, Taiwan, or Korea. I could tolerate the leanto if they sold Navajo wares designed and made by Navajos. But this huckstering of junk jewelry merely extends native exploitation and child labor. Most Whites buy from sympathy and the Indian does not keep most of the profit. The Indian habit of junking their old autos in their front yards not only desecrates the land but makes slobs of the people who live with the foreign junk piles. The trouble is that the true friends of the Indians are not trusted any more than their obvious enemies, merely because they are white. We have to ignore this and do what we can for them anyway. This is closer to true Christianity than the do-gooders who demonstrate with their mouths instead of with their money. While our overall record is marred by many black spots, we still have treated them better any other subjected minority in history. Have you kept track Native Claims Court's record of payments? Gosh, maybe Charles P. insights closer to W.W. than we thought. than of the received from Mark Leone make him Isn't an insight a kind of revelation? Sorry about your sister passing but she appears to have lived a full life. I saved her obituary in the Republic for you and enclose it, along with a couple of other clips. Today's paper had quite a writeup who died yesterday. I regret that I never took re w. Earl Merrill, the time to meet him. Have you ever Got a kick out of the "Solemn Assembly" you enclosed. read the remarks Pres. Lorenzo Snow made to the Saints in Sto George? I guess that pressing for back tithing was badly needed at the turn of the century and that L.s. was the man for the job. He was the man who made the Brigham City Co-op go, the model for the United Order. Many Saints will deny that talk of returning to Jackson County remained as late as 1899. You may want to get Moenkggs Sequent Occupance, Landscape Change, and the View of the Environment in an Oasis on the Western Navajo Reservation, Arizona. This is a dissertation by John Quenton Ressler, Univ. of Oregon, 1970. It can be obtained from Xerox University JOO No. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. The xerox Microfilms, copy cost me $11.60; the hardback is a little moreo All of the pictures did not print well in the xerox copy. I had an exchange with Ressler when he was doing his research out of Mus. No. Armz. He covers Tuba City, Moenave, and the entire area. Plenty of maps. Ressler has a few errors but covers the Mormon era very W'flll. In fact, this is the best thing to date and I recommend it to you and hope you can pass my recommendation along to Jay Haymond of U.H.S. Ressler is a good researcher and much more accurate on the various peoples and their cultures than anyone else who has written on the area. The references are extensive although weak in Mormon material. However, he includes some others that I did not know abouto What do you think old Port would say if he knew that a Tucson Supper Club carries his name? The enclosed coupon was in the Westerner Club Quarterly, put out by Western Savings & Loan, which is owned by the Driggs family. Junius Driggs was just made president of the Arizona Temple. We let them use some of our money, hence our receipt of the magazine. If you get the Ressler book, note p. 251. 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City, Ariz. 85351 December 2, 1975 Dear George 1 Our local paper tells us that the BLMand the Navajo Tribe are continuing negotiations for purchase of the Marble Canyon area of the Strip. It would be a shame if the old Paiute and Mormon waterhole at House Rock Spg fell into Navajo hands. At present we don't see the area littered with wrecked autos. I don't often disagree with you but I do about your views on Navajo rugs. Good rug weav/ing is scarce and the trader now grabs more of the purchase price than the weaver does. This Navajo art should be encouraged and the profit go to the weaver instead of the trader. If they find a way to do this, more weavers will learn and the women will earn much more than they ever could with modern swwing piece-work. There should be a Navajo's woman's lib movement started. Now the women earn money which is turned over to the men who spend it on booze. You probably remember the Fairchild plant at Shiprock, N.M. which was siezed by the AIM militants last March. Fairchild pulled out, throwing 400 Navajos out of work and the plant has been empty since then. The Tribe owns the building. Late in November the Tribe signed a 5-year contract with Southern Utah Indistries, a maker of shirts. This is essentially what you proposed for the Levi Strauss Co. It will put the 400 Navajos back to work, so those people have lost nine months and are nearly back where they were. Of course there is a need for more projects of this type, not sub-marginal grazing landso It is interesting how the Navajos handled the AIM takeover. President McDonald went there immediately and met with local leaders. He asked if they wanted Navajo police to move in and evict the AIM people who were patrolling the roof and key points with automatic rifles. The local council said no, to let them handle it and the AIM people would leave and there would be no bloodshed. This is the way it turned out but the militants did about $20,000 worth of damage and Fairchil~ left. The Navajos clearly practice local autonomy in preference to a strong central authority. We could learn from them. Yes, I noted Ticky Burden's recent high scoring spree and I was surprised. I only saw him once, when an ASU-U of U game was televised. I was impr-essed with his shooting eye but not his speed. I saw Hollins take the ball away which Ticky was dribbling and Burden didn't even try to get it back so I figured he might be a loafer as well as not to fast. Professional players have to be total players today. There are simply too many who are skilled all around for any particular player to be a specialist. Sorry that the Utah Stars folded but the high priced stars t;<Q~santa Claus to last forever. The huge salaries must be controlled or the fans will stop paying high prices to see the same old crap. Next time I am in Tucson I will look up the Porter Rockwell joint. If it is not too much of a tourist trap on one hand or a booze joint on the other, I may even try their vittles. I'll inquire re the motivation for the name. - 2 - The Pres. of the Twelve put on quite rundamentalists eat that stuff up. a show at St. George. The What do you know about the Peregrine Smith Press? It has to be tied to Hdgts. because Davis Bitton is touted in the writeups and they were scheduled to publish the series Davis was sponsoring. About the first of September I got a dodger from P.S. Press offering reduced prices for their publications, most of which I knew were not yet off the -press. On Sept. 10 Karl Larson received a letter from Mrs. Smith saying they were broke and out of business. They were in the midst of publishing Karl's Walker Diaries and he'd had no return of materials for Vol. 2 by Sept. 15. The last play for advance sales has to be regarded as being made with no intent of completing the sale. I note in UESnNewsletter V25 N4 that several people besides you gave donations to the library. Julius Woolley Dalley and Mrs. Raymond W. Taylor were among the donors. Wonder what they gave? Your pal Grant Gill Smith also was listed. Another one was John Palmer. A man by this name is important to Lee's Ferry history. A widower, his home is in Cannonville, but after a heart attack he went to live with a son who is Washington County Attorney in St. George. John doesn't fancy the climate there so went to live with another son in Ogden. Can you find out for me if the donor was .m:i John Palmer? Donor might be a son of the Cedar City man, Utah historian of the post pioneer to 1930s era. In case you aren't familiar with the Tales of the Mojave Road series, I recommend them. The Mojave Road up to the forks was the same as: the Spanish Trail, Fremont Trail, California Road, Mormon Road. In The Battle a~ Camp Cady and Carleton's Pah-Ute Campaigns the author discusses the murder of apostate Thomas s. Williams and J. Jackman on March 18, 1860. He discusses objectively the widespread belief that the murders were either instigated by Mormons or by Mormons disguised as Indians. Undoubtedly a holdover of MMM. The author relates that a surprising number of LDS attempted to establish ranches along the Mojave River on the road to SLC. These books all belong in Utah archives. I enclose a list. Also enclose some clips re people you might have known and an unusual LDS athlete and one about our third oldest oil company (Ogden 1875) which I had not known about. I agree fully with the clip you sent re the low literacy in the U.S. Our teachers are getting more money than ever before but doing the poorest jobs ever. ~any of our schools are processing mills which turn out graduates of which a large percentage cannot read or write words. I attribute this to ~amily breakdown more than 3- or 4-letter and inability of urban society to adapt to technological advances. We need statesmen with principles, not money-grabbing politicians. Our government is staffed with unemployed lawyers who can do nothing but Fceo~ nfl!"-· ~{\QUQTS '\JFOVIC StMC10l..S, rip us off. OJE:'·A·eG-- N<J\lv ?>u F'Fb-~('N&. I know what you mean by the faithful's Most of them really mean it. trust in the Second Coming. - 3 I was very impressed with Lowry Nelson's letter to the editor and he couldn't have said it better. Neither could I. He must be quite a guy. His Mormon Village is a classic on the subject but he must have lost all his brownie points by his liberal attitude. Would that we had more LDS such as St.George and Lowry Nelson. Hope they don't make it tough on him, especially in a place such as Provo. Have you considered getting the U of A to publish your Little book? They were anxious to obtain mss a couple of years ago. quite a verbal sales pitch. We didn't realize how nice Sun City began to flock here for the winter. Colorado I got is in the summer until the Snowbirds Just too damn many peoplel See where Juanita's "little monograph on Emma Lee for the USHQ" turned out to be a book. I have sent to Logan for it. I'm anxious to see if mre·· acknowledged the help I provided, even tho I did not give her every thing she wanted. Best regards, P. T. Reilly 9202 Raintree Drive Sun City. Ariz. 85351 December 17, 1975 Dear Georges I am firing right back at you because we want to wish you a happy holiday season. We are discontinuing the use of cards, and for the choice few will write a letter which means more than a card with a printed message and name. The rascals in Arizona began pushing the commercial phase of Christmas before Thanksgiving arrived. If Jesus did return and think of driving the money changers from the temple, He would throw up at the shoddy circus the commercial coyotes have made out of His birthday. And what a job He would havel So, in lieu of printed card, we wish you good health and the joy of gathering your family around you in a warm home. May you have time for reflection on the true meaning of Christmas as you dodge the commercial pitches. OK, I will call your nephew but will wait until after the holidays. This will allow me to prepare a logical pitch for you and a reason calling him. for This Porter Rockwell outfit has to be under one owner and I'll bet he lives in SLC and learned of old Port thru Schindler's book. I think the name is catchy rather than significant. Somehow I fear the two restaurants are not doing •e~1well. I hear that many restaurants are going out of business due to high operating costs. High volume and marginal quality keep some of them going. It is difficult for a couple to get by for less than ten bucks for dinner (plus tip) these days, which explains why McDonalds sells so many hamburgers and french fries. Agree with little Christina Fischer's complaint. Since not prevent the problem, the father failed to solve it. scheduling did You may be right about no church backing for the P.S. Press but it came into being shortly after Davis Bitton told me that the church was going to publish a series on early leaders. I suggested a prospect and he asked me to submit an outline and sample chapter. Who was scheduled to publis~ the series he referred to? You may not want to waste your time on Juanita's book on Emma Lee. It is not up to the standard of MMM,in fact is far below it. It is a folksy little batch of traditional yarns, poorly in~rpreted. Thf.e is much ficticious conversation such as Paul Bailey co Jved in his cob Hamblin book. She has no table of contents (yet sh 'fias chapters , no preface, foreword, index, bibliography, footnotes. More disturbing is the fact that she extends the theme of the three Nephites so prevalent among the fundamentalist folk. She even has the ghost of Roundy appearing to Bill Lee to direct htm to the location of his {Roundy's) body. Bill Lee is made something of a hero in the rescue operation, a strange role for a 16 year old boy among a party of church leaders. I think Juanita is over the hill and that she diminishes her name among knowledgeable people by publishing such crap. The only people besides some Lees who would accept her folksy yarns are the faithful who are advised not to accept her as a good LDS. I fully agree that it would be good - and badly needed - if some manufacturer gave added employment to Navajos. Not all women are capable of weaving rugs. I just hope that the Navvies keep gaod weavers coming and that these receive the benefit of their labor·~instead of the middleman trader. The women who can't weave might be taught to operate sewing machines. If a trader gets wind that a tourist is attempting to buy rugs directly from the weaver, all hell breaks loose with Navajo police called in, etc. The present setup is pretty rotten. Why don't you talk to Melvin Smith about the BLM sale of historic sites such as House Rock Spg to the Navajos? He could generate more pressure than a single citizen's letter to a Congressman. The Relief Soc. gals in Escalante, Kanab, etc. make and sell beautiful quilts for $150. Most of these are sold to non-LDS. The main transfer of quilts among LDS, in my experience, is for gifts. The chief benefit of quilting bees is for the gals to meet and work in a Mormon atmosphere, and any monetary benefit is incidental. We have to agree that such activity is much better than sitting on one's butt and watching TV all day or attending afternoon bridge parties to smoke and drink booze. Quilting keeps Mormon women among other Mp~mon women, an objective of the church today as it was a hundred years ago. Casebier, the author of Tales of the Mojave Road, is a good researcher. He indicates that the Saints armed the Paiutes between St. George and Las Vegas and tried to form an alliance with the Mohaves to stop an expected invasion via the Colorado River in 1857-58. A few of us have known this previously. Had I lived in SW Utah at that time, I would probably have done the same. Outside of MMM,the Mormon use of natives as the Battle Axe of the Lord has not been publicized. No doubt the church prefers to keep it that way. I know that Erastus Snow did. I hope you do publish the journal of Mary Jane Mount and will plug the project any way I can. Is it long enough or will you have to augment it with other material? Have a good Christmas! PTR