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Show Vi Ll.age s ; and then went southwestward to the oeni.x area. After a little ml sai.ona: y effort among the Pimas and -t.he Paja goes, welcomed by Governor Safford. ey pr-oceeded to Tucson; and were They looked er te Santa Cruz and San Pedro valleys with "an eye for sett lement"; and then nt to El Paso, and in the vicinity entered Nexico. T!1ey seem to have been Ferry; visited Lee's the Hopi Teir return pleased with prospects for Mormon settlement all t he way. via Bowi,e , Camp Grant, and the Little Colorado country. At Allen's 6arnp ey mete Dant.e'l. H. Wells, Er-ast.us Snow, Briham Young, Jr. of Normon official m;- and late in June, lB76m they met President ·Brigham Young at Kanab. 11 s . . . party with the journey that t.hey reqUested to return. rmd.ss i.on Accordingly, a party of 6 men under Church direction, left Lt Lake City October 18, 1876---the 6th man of the party being Meliton G. Trejo, :a.sttlian, of course proficient in Spanish and a translator of the Book of Hor'I:1e 1 into that language, who joined tl1e other 5 men at Nephi, Utah. party ar red at Phoenix December 23, 1876, where they met several familiesof members of come to the country the Chllrch who apparently had preceding year. (If t:-tis be ie these earliest emi.zrant.s apparently from U't ah r-at.her than from the Southern So well peeased were· cf the , , rt e s as were to t he Little Co Lor-ado settlements t.he next yea.r, were few months befor-e permanent "emi.gr-ant.s" were settled in the emia:nts te Phoenix area 1 some a country, ot.her than missionary families .t Le Colorado in the loen Coppy region had been in te Little Colordo drainage for sometime.' Of course these earliest lilies in Phoeni.x may have been consd.der ed "mi s sf.one ry f'ami.Ll.es" also. ) This second expedition was missionary in c'iaract.er-, although exploration, Lookgng '1':1€ party worked rar-d settlement, was,also done. mostly among l-iexicans and In a st, sout.hern two of them, apparently in Arizona.. lmo Then ms per-haps t.hr-oughout Church leaders to from wi.t.h instructions .ordance. explore Sonora, Mexico \'1 th a i, 'W of future 1.1ormon. settlement, went eastward, per-haps with the Lnt.ent.Lon of go.. to El Paso as the earlier exped.i.t.Lcn had clone. They found the Apaches ho s .e--.-Bowie was under siege, and farther east it was necessary to replace a. wagon near them. 'e' "\11,1. th an Lndt.an amh.la1 ' I . x The return to Salt Lake' decided best to await better conditfons City was in Apaches among ember, 187'7.; was in Henco •. Revolution in further (There 'explorations doing Sonora, in 1876, but n t,e first expedition had intended exploring the country early and it was t.he 'ore. .. not done . so. , manent Settlement Since t·!1e o llon Houn+ ains anj Chnrch the Salt on " River Leader-s considered prospects good /8r sett Lemerrt south of since Church membership was increasing rapidly in 'Utah the be Zion" f'r-om t he Eastern States and from Eur-ope, maKing permanent settlement in soubher-n Ariz; Tit>eetj. 111en, all with families, set out Januarv 17, 1877---4 Merrill families, and 1 each Steele, Biggs, Br-ady, bcRae, Turley, and \'iilliams. ozer-s , (Isaac Tur se of many converts so "coining immediate steps in the matter k to of own home from 1883 onward). group later moved to old St. Joseph---mv P. Jones led tese emirants, as he ad the earlier explorers. eir route was via Stone Ferry of the Colorado, just r e j pw the mort h of the gin. Fr-om there t,ey went southward to the t.hen well trove lled road from the 4j ave Cr0ssing of the Colorado to Prescott; but turned off that road in Chino ley, passing some distnce west of Prescott, throueh Peeples Valley, and on to ')f' t'1is end then up the Salt River to what later bdc ame "Lehi,", was up t.he north side of the Salt River to t.he filtnre at.i on o " t'heir irrigation diversion dam. Here they crossed the Salt River March 6, 1877---a little ret;s than a year after the sett le made encampment, t of Allen's Camp (Lat-er St. Joseph) my own town on the Little Colorado. was as JmXe on t!1e south side of the Salt River, of te first kenbur-z ir r-out.e place ed ced and encampment above, a Phoenix; from Phoenix at t,!1e head of their canal---V1e fel-l miles downstream; but evi.dent Ly Li.t.t L« on the wa l.at.er ettl€mnt sa.nee hl.f!h floods rl.ver, , |
