A History of Washington County

Settlement

SETTLEMENT L arley P. Pratt was stunned when he first saw Utah's Dixie: "A wide expanse of chaotic matter presented itself, huge hills, sandy deserts, cheerless, grassless plains, perpendicular rocks, loose barren clay, dissolving beds of sandstone."1 Pratt's two-month journey along the western base of the Wasatch Range and Wasatch Plateau with his fifty companions in the winter of 1849 had taken them to each creek south of Provo as it exited from the mountains at about the 5,000-foot level. Those streams flowed out onto benchlands which gradually descended into broad valleys, often ten miles wide and twenty miles long. The vistas were every­where inspiring, inviting settlement, farming, and grazing. The scout­ing company chose many sites for towns which later became known as Nephi, Holden, Scipio, Fillmore, Meadow, Beaver, Parowan, and Cedar City. A smaller party from the group ventured south of Cedar City. Its members reached the southern rim of the Great Basin near present-day New Harmony; they crossed the pass and there met the forebod­ing lava cliffs of the Black Ridge. Descending from 5,000 to 2,800 feet 13 14 HISTORY OF WASHINGTQ^_COUNTY down Ash Creek, they came to the Virgin River, meandering m its sandy bed. Continuing cautiously, they came to the confluence of the Virgin and the Santa Clara Creek at a place the Indians called Tonaquint. Here they visualized a small future settlement. The vista to the south was uninviting with its precipitous Virgin River Gorge and the parched Arizona Strip country. There was no foreseeable habitat for humans in this remote area, maybe to the west along the Spanish Trail to California, but not here in the parched land and blowing sand. Turning up the Santa Clara they met Indians, many of them, and found them to be hospitable and engaged in primitive agriculture in some promising fields. This was a stunning find and the group thought these red "brethren" might be settled enough to be won to the Mormon message. The Indians invited the group to return and make a home among them. The Mormons welcomed the request and agreed to return. Continuing up the Santa Clara, they came to the Old Spanish Trail where just two years before, their colleague, Jefferson Hunt, had returned from the Mormon Battalion trek to California. He had brought a wagon over that route to Salt Lake City and, most impor­tantly, had discovered iron near what later became Cedar City. Pratt's group hurried back to Salt Lake City with their report of many potential settlement sites in the southern Great Basin, as well as their story of the wild landscape just below the rim of the Basin. Much of Dixie's destiny was defined right there-the potential for Indian-white compatibility, the desert isolation, the wild topog­raphy, the warm climate in the winter, the oasis type of irrigation agriculture in fields adjacent to small streams. Clearly this was a region that should be occupied before someone else did so. It lay out­side the more habitable Great Basin and would presumably be of marginal importance. The streams would sustain only a few families to farm the fields, yet the Indians and the mild winter weather made it irresistible-at least for an outpost. Village System Parley Pratt's exploration of the area was a piece of a much larger fabric. When he and his compatriots returned to the councils in Salt SETTLEMENT 15 Lake City, their words were welcomed. Mormon leaders were search­ing for scores of new settlement sites to accommodate thousands of anticipated European and American converts. Between 1847 and 1849 they had already opened some two dozen settlements from Ogden to Provo, but their vision anticipated hundreds of additional villages where irrigation canals would "green" the dry western land­scape. The Mormon formula of cooperative labor to build those canals and erect mills for communal use would enable settlers to wrest a bare living from small, privately owned, irrigated plots of from five to thirty acres. The plan called for the faithful to live in villages wher­ever possible such villages would provide protection from the Indians as well as help to make a real community. In the villages, women and children worked gardens, promoted schooling, manufactured home goods, kept house, and raised large families while men worked the fields clustered close to the community-all part of a self-sustaining economy. It was one version of the model that had nourished European culture for centuries and would do the same in the strange, dry vast-ness of Utah. Utah was not to be a Colorado, Wyoming, or Montana; ranching and mining were not the planned Mormon mode, the for­mer because its people were more dispersed, the latter because they were congregated in what Mormon leaders considered the "wrong kind" of moral setting. Nor would 640-acre farming sections scatter the people across the land as in the American Midwest. The Mormons intended to impose their village lifestyle on the landscape instead of adapting to the terrain; their muscle and sinew would take on the desert and attempt to bend it their way. Community was para­mount; togetherness was essential. Their vision was grandiose-an inland empire of hundreds of communities and thousands of "Saints" from many nations "gather­ing" to their Zion in the mountains. To Jim Bridger and others famil­iar with the area, the Mormon scheme must have sounded as bizarre as the scores of other promotional projects being huckstered around the American West, but the Mormon vision became in great part actuality. Some 500 villages were founded in or near the Great Basin between 1847 and 1900. 16 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Brigham Young. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Washington County Daughters of Utah Pioneers) Fort Harmony The power of Parley Pratt's first exploring trip south worked on John D. Lee. A handsome dynamo, Lee had long been considered a SETTLEMENT 17 Jacob Hamblin. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Washington County Daughters of Utah Pioneers) "comer." At age thirty-eight he was already a seasoned Mormon. He had been a missionary in Tennessee, had crossed the plains after experiencing the stormy expulsion from the Mormon city of Nauvoo, 18 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Erastus Snow. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Washington County Daughters of Utah Pioneers) Illinois, and had risen to membership in the Council of Fifty, a gov­erning body in pioneer Salt Lake City. Called in 1850 to help found Parowan, the first headquarters of southern Utah Mormons, Lee was drawn farther south. Twice he led exploring groups to nearby regions. Once he essentially retraced Pratt's route. In Dixie, Lee was particularly impressed with what would later come to be called the Washington Fields, where the Virgin River meandered across a broad flood-plain. On his second trip, he went east to Long Valley, north of Kanab, where he met friendly Indians who helped the group avoid geologic obstacles and find their way to the Virgin River. He reported both trips to Brigham Young, his "adopted" father.2 In the spirit of individual initiative, Lee organized a group of SETTLEMENT 19 John D. Lee. (Utah State Historical Society) friends from the north including Elisha H. Graves, Charles Dalton, and William R. Davis to join him in establishing a colony on Ash Creek, to be called Harmony, just over the rim of the Great Basin where the water starts to flow south. It was evident to Lee that the area had an important future. The territorial legislature had already designated the area below the basin and to the Arizona border as Washington County on 20 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 3 February 1852-before any settlements had been undertaken there. In its original mapping, the county occupied a 36-mile-wide swath across the territory, which then included both present-day Utah and Nevada. Fifteen men, their families, and teams built a fort at Harmony in the spring of 1852, according to James G. Bleak's "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission."3 Indian threats during the Walker War of 1853 caused them to seek refuge in Cedar City. By 1854 they returned and built a new fort closer to the western mountains where they could control more water and till more land. This fort survived until 1862 when it was destroyed by a devastating month-long rainstorm. In Fort Harmony, John D. Lee undertook wide-ranging endeavors- farming, freighting, cattle raising, even maintaining a guest house. Enjoying the confidence of Brigham Young at the time, he was appointed local Indian agent as well as Presiding Elder of the Fort Harmony Branch of the LDS church. The Indian Mission All these factors-the Pratt and Lee explorations, the establish­ment of a base at Harmony, the receptivity of the Indians, and the need to occupy all favorable sites before someone else did-stimu­lated action at Mormon headquarters. Church leaders decided to send an Indian mission to southern Utah. This was a fulfillment of rhetoric that had accompanied Mormonism since its Missouri days, an urge to bring Indians into the church's fold as foretold by the Book of Mormon. A party of mostly young men was called to the mission at the LDS October General Conference in 1853. They prepared during the winter and twenty-one of them departed in April 1854, arriving at Harmony on 2 May. Rufus Allen, twenty-six, a friend and compan­ion of Parley P. Pratt on several explorations, was designated captain of the group.4 This reinforcement contingent helped the Harmony residents clear land and build a canal, with each of the missionaries receiving an irrigation share. Their efforts to build a base camp were justified as a way to raise food, which they later used to foster their Indian rela­tionships. To some it seemed a diversion, keeping them from their SETTLEMENT 21 calling to be with the Indians; however, they were reconciled to the effort when they considered Harmony a refuge to fall back on. Within two weeks of their arrival, Brigham Young and a party of 100 traveling companions visited Harmony. They had already inspected the fledgling settlements farther north, including Parowan and Cedar City. Young helped Lee choose a better site for Harmony. Young's chief concern there was the Indian mission. Thomas D. Brown recorded Brigham's revealing instructions: You are not sent to farm, to build nice houses and fence fine fields, not to help white men but to save red ones. Learn their languages and this you can do more effectively by living among them as well as by writing a list of words. Go with them where they go. Live with them, and when they rest let them live with you; feed them, clothe them, and teach them in their own language. They are our brethren; we must seek after them, commit their language [to memory], get their understanding, and when they go off in parties you go with them.5 Harmony proved to be somewhat of a contradiction. Lee was interested in erecting the fort, clearing the land, building fences, and getting in enough crops to support the colony. Winter was coming. He welcomed the Indian missionaries as laborers. He put them to work both to support themselves and to help complete the basic ele­ments of the community. He and his friends were there first and had a prime goal to promote and solidify their own efforts and assure a place for their families. The missionaries had another goal, however; their instructions were to devote themselves to the Indians. It did not take long for disharmony to arise in Harmony because of the con­flicting goals. Some became very critical of Lee's forceful leadership, feeling that he acted arbitrarily and abused his authority.6 Agriculture work and building structures at Harmony were not as crucial to them as being on the Santa Clara Creek with the Paiutes or scouting out other Indian groups beyond the Colorado River. This tension finally led to a decision at church headquarters to transfer the Indian mission to Santa Clara and appoint Jacob Hamblin as its president. The differing approaches to their task-Lee as entre­preneur and Hamblin as Indian advocate-would surface on several 22 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY future occasions. At Santa Clara the missionaries followed the Mormon pattern-building a fort, damming the river, digging canals, clearing land, planting crops, and sending for their families from the north. Some fascinating twists developed in the Santa Clara story. First was the involvement of the local Indians. The Shivwits band of the Paiutes was already involved in a rude form of farming and irriga­tion, but it was only marginally productive. Their hunger was severe; they welcomed the missionaries, who offered to teach them better farming. The missionaries urged the natives to help build the fort, the dams and canals, promising a share in future crops. The Indians were doubtful the dams would work; they knew of seasons when the Santa Clara dried up. Hamblin promised them that they would have more water if they would help build dams, a crucial statement the Indians would later remember. A second twist involved the weather. The missionaries were now well beyond the Great Basin and well below its accustomed elevations and temperatures. What the Mormons knew about survival was based on higher climes. They understood about limited water, but at Santa Clara water was even more tenuous. Furthermore, vegetation on the mountains in Dixie country was so thin that rainstorms often caused flash floods-floods that did not respect irrigation dams. Yet another twist was the crops possible. The warm climate permitted the cultivation of grapes, melons, and cotton in addition to the harvests the missionaries were used to. The scorching summer heat was so oppressive that survival was an even bigger risk in Santa Clara than it was at Fort Harmony. Nonetheless, the missionaries proceeded on the premise of perma­nence. They went north for their families and even recruited relatives and friends. That is when more Hamblins arrived, Oscar and William, as well as others who would have a major impact, including Dudley Leavitt, a Hamblin in-law. The Indians were pleased with the sight of women, a sign of permanence and peace.7 The first few years of the Indian mission in Santa Clara left a rich legacy of lore, much of which is particularly revealing about the whites' perception of the Indians. Jacob Hamblin relates in his jour­nal that shortly after their arrival an old Indian woman asked him SETTLEMENT 23 to "practice his medicine" on her if the local medicine man's magic did not work. Hamblin and William Hennefer watched the medicine man with strained respect and waited. The Indians eventually gave up, carried her outside the camp, and left her to die. Her family urged Hamblin and Hennefer to take action. They anointed her with oil and prayed according to Mormon religious practice; she became well, which astounded the Indians. This miraculous event did not overly impress Hamblin; instead he worried about the naive faith in him which this event stimulated among the Indians. He often responded to their medicine men with respect and reportedly even welcomed their incantations in his behalf one time when he was des­perately ill. A different legend is told of Chief Agarapoots. He belittled the Indians in Santa Clara and their chief Tut-se-gab-its, trying to dis­suade the Shivwits from associating with the Mormons. He occa­sionally stole a cow or rode into Santa Clara frightening the women and children. Then his son became very ill. His friends urged him to seek help from the Mormons. He refused. Jacob Hamblin, hearing of the illness, rode to Agarapoots's dwelling. The stubborn chief was inhospitable and grumpy. Hamblin chided him and told him to think of his child. The chief remained resistant. The next day the boy died. Agarapoots was furious and blamed Hamblin. Jacob con­fronted the chief and cursed him, warning that if he did not change his attitude he too would die. Only weeks later the chief did, in fact, die. The Indians were impressed; they felt the Mormons had a power they must respect. That feeling was put to the test in the spring of 1856 when the creek's waters began to dwindle. The Indians said that they had made a deal-build the dam and get more water. They were not belligerent, however. They agreed to send a man to the mountain to pray for rain and urged the Mormons to talk to their god. Hamblin reported: The following morning, at daybreak, I saw the smoke of the medicine man ascending from the side of the big mountain, as the Indian called what is known now as the Pine Valley Mountain. Being among some Indians, I went aside by myself and prayed to the God of Abraham to forgive me if I had been unwise in 24 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Many Shivwits accepted baptism at the hands of the Mormons such as David H. Cannon. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Rudger McArthur) promising the Indians water for their crops if they would plant; and that the heavens might give rain, that we might not lose the influence we had over them. The rains commenced the next day, providing sufficient water to keep the creek running. The harvest was successful. From that time they began to look upon us as having great influence with the clouds. They also believed that we could cause sickness to come upon any of them if we wished. We labored to have them under- SETTLEMENT 25 stand these things in their true light, but it was difficult on account of their ignorance and superstitions.8 A severe test of the missionaries' toleration occurred when an adopted Indian youth picked up Thales Haskell's rifle in his cabin. The gun accidentally went off; the bullet piercing the body of Haskell's seventeen-year-old bride, Maria, through the thigh and stomach. The boy ran out of the cabin and sought Hamblin, plead­ing that he did not know what the gun would do. After twenty-four hours of agonizing pain, the pregnant woman died. The settlers were devastated but knew that punishing the lad was senseless. Members of the Indian mission were accepted by the Shivwits Indians of the area. The Pieds, or Shivwits, invited Hamblin and other Mormon colonizers to settle among them. They welcomed teachings to improve their farming, and even accepted some of the teachings contained in the Book of Mormon; one of the scriptures of the LDS people. Some of the Indians willingly accepted baptism into the Mormon church, but the missionaries became despondent over the Indians' practice of selling children into slavery and fighting to the death over brides, as well as by the general rampant hunger and filth that plagued the Shivwits. Initially Hamblin concluded that the missionaries should seek out other Indian groups of a "higher cul­ture." He was particularly drawn to the Hopi, far distant across the Colorado River. Later he would gradually redefine his mission of proselyting to one of understanding, negotiating, and pacifying the Native Americans of the region. The Mountain Meadows Massacre The Mormons' work among the Indians was shaken to the core by one monumental event: the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857. Although most factors that caused it occurred outside Washington County, the actual tragedy took place within the present county boundaries. The summer of 1857 was particularly troublesome for the people of Utah. A large U.S. Army contingent under Col. Albert Sidney Johnston was on its way to put down what government officials called "the Mormon rebellion." Everyone in the territory began preparing for war. Many of the Mormons in Utah had experienced 26 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY persecution for their faith before coming to Utah; they feared that the approaching army would become another mob, legalized by the fed­eral government. They agreed not to run again and prepared to defend their homes, towns, and religious kingdom. Into this emotionally charged atmosphere came the Fancher/ Baker wagon train, heading to California quite unaware of the loom­ing political confrontation. This caravan with its large number of horses, oxen, cattle, and people passed through Utah in August, hav­ing difficulty all along the way. Much of the trouble grew out of the belligerent attitude of the Mormons and their steady refusal to sell supplies to the immigrants, but some of it must be attributed to the conduct of the travelers themselves. They decided to take the south­ern route, despite warnings of potential Indian difficulties. The relationship between Mormons and immigrants deterio­rated as the party journeyed through Utah Territory. Insults were exchanged and accusations made. Indians became involved, and trouble intensified as the group continued south. Some of the trav­elers reportedly openly boasted of participation in earlier conflicts with Mormons in Missouri and even claimed a part in the killing of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. It is also possible that they threat­ened to return to Utah and remove Brigham Young, although these threats remain a point of controversy.9 In Beaver the group was cautioned not to stop for fear of what might happen. In Parowan the company was not allowed to pass through town, but was forced to break a new road around it. Evidence suggests that friction in Cedar City resulted from the refusal of the town's people to sell provisions to the immigrants. Conflict came to a head as the immigrants moved on to the Mountain Meadows. Mountain Meadows was a regular resting point on the Old Spanish Trail. Sitting on the divide between the Great Basin and the Virgin River drainage, the mile-long meadow was a lush grassland that allowed passing trains the opportunity to rest and feed their ani­mals before crossing the difficult Mohave Desert. While the Baker/Fancher train was there, they were attacked on 11 September 1857 by Indians and whites. A few days later, abandoning their weapons according to instructions from the Mormons and proceed­ing under a flag of truce, about 120 men, women, and children were SETTLEMENT 27 murdered. Only eighteen small children were spared and later returned to relatives in Arkansas. The decision to attack was taken by local leaders. What possibly could have provoked God-fearing Christians to this extreme is a nightmarish question. Perhaps it was revenge for treatment they had received in Missouri and Illinois, perhaps it was hysterical fear of the army that was on its way west, perhaps it was pressure from the Indians who had allied with them to fight the com­ing war, perhaps it was seen as a battle within that war, perhaps it was even the possibility of getting booty the immigrants were carrying. Most likely it was a combination of these and other reasons. It is difficult to reconstruct with any degree of accuracy all the conditions. Various contributing factors and many different person­alities all played a part: fervor generated by the eloquence of LDS apostle George A. Smith against the oncoming army, rehearsals of past sufferings and indignities, the imagined threat of being driven from their homes again, and repeated vows to avenge their martyred prophet had all kept fires smoldering in even the calmest hearts. It would take little to fan them into flames. The massacre's tragic impact rippled in several directions, ruin­ing the reputations of many residents in southern Utah, raising sus­picions throughout the region and outrage in the nation, to say nothing of destroying the lives and property of the Fancher party.10 The massacre also affected the Indians. It rewarded those Indians who promoted raiding as a lifestyle instead of farming, in direct opposition to the southern Utah Indian missionaries who urged the natives to farm and to abandon looting. It was claimed that the mas­sacre at Mountain Meadows was so rewarding to the looters that it "pulled the rug out from under the mission." Thereafter the mission­aries at Santa Clara focused more on Indians in the Four Corners region to the east. Jacob Hamblin eventually moved to Kanab and many of the other missionaries scattered, leaving Santa Clara to a new group of pioneers, the Swiss settlers of 1861. Beyond the Indian Mission Once the outposts at Fort Harmony and Santa Clara had sur­vived in the difficult land, other colonies were thinkable. In fairly 28 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY rapid succession, between 1854 and 1858, new outposts were attempted, each clinging to a stream that watered a small meadow, enabling oasis-like agriculture in the desert. Most of the new settlers were also responding to a "call" from Brigham Young to go to what was called the Cotton Mission. After they reached Fort Harmony and passed through the Black Ridge barrier, several choices opened on the vast desert panorama before them. They could settle directly on the Virgin River or they could seek byways along several tributaries. They could also establish enclaves on the upper Santa Clara. The resulting pattern looked something like a big twig with berries on its branches. The stem was the lower Virgin near Tonaquint. The first (left-hand) branch was the Santa Clara River with a small chain of villages: Santa Clara (1854), Pine Valley (1855), and Gunlock (1857). The main branch turned right, and settlers chose Washington (1857). Then above the Hurricane Fault they built Virgin (1858), Grafton (1859), Rockville (1861), and Springdale (1862). Tributaries Quail Creek, Ash Creek, North Creek, and the East Fork flowed into the Virgin from the north or east and provided the settlers with opportunities to build on the streams that provided riverbottom or bench lands often to one hundred acres which could be irrigated and divided among several families. Washington In the spring of 1857, Mormon church leaders in Salt Lake City finally acted on the encouraging advice of John D. Lee to send people south to raise semi tropical crops in the open fields beside the Virgin River, next to the mesas covered by volcanic rocks. Two parties departed, one led by Samuel Adair leaving Payson on 3 March and another by Robert Covington from Salt Lake City in early April. Both groups faced their hardest traveling after they left Fort Harmony. The volcanic rock of the Black Ridge was a formidable obstacle followed by sandy stretches that exhausted their draft animals. Even traveling the last three miles challenged them as they rounded Grapevine Pass at the black mesa and could finally see their destination. Their new home was to be called Washington, as determined in advance by Brigham Young and his counselors. Its location was also fixed-the benchland overlooking the Washington fields. The town SETTLEMENT 29 was located near several fine springs which have favored the commu­nity above others in Dixie. The fields likewise provided a lush expanse of farmland. Washington appeared to have advantages over other communities, but this did not prove to be so. Those broad fields were formed by ancient floods; and modern floods would haunt Washington-not the town but its irrigation projects. And the springs created marshes. There insects would spread malaria. So the Washington Saints were spared little; their plight, fighting malaria and rebuilding washed-out dams, would equal, if not surpass, the tests their neighbors encountered. The possibility of raising cotton was a strong incentive for estab­lishing Washington City. Successful attempts at Tonaquint and Santa Clara just a few seasons before held out the feasibility of a major cot­ton industry; and the warm climate seemed to ensure it. The drive for self-sufficiency was a constant theme of Brigham Young, and cot­ton would add greatly to such economic independence for the whole of Mormondom. John D. Lee continually extolled cotton raising as a purpose, so many of those called to the Adair expedition were from the southern states, people who had had experience raising cotton.11 Toquerville Another alternative for settlement was to halt shortly below the Black Ridge on Ash Creek. Chief Toquer and a band of friendly Paiutes were settled there. They had invited Mormon explorers to come back to live. The chief was persistent, reissuing the request on a visit to Cedar City. In the spring of 1858, Isaac C. Haight, who presided in Cedar City, called Joshua T. Willis from Fort Harmony to lead a settlement on Ash Creek. The families of Wesley Willis, Josiah Reeves, John M. Higbee, Samuel Pollock, and a Mr. Brown were asked to accompany him. Charles Stapley, returning from San Bernardino, California, soon joined them. The group was well received by Chief Toquer and began imme­diately to set out fields and start farming in the warm climate. They soon were raising squash, melons, grapes, figs, sweet potatoes, cotton, and alfalfa. Toquerville, as the village has since been known, has con­tinued to this day despite its limited acreage. It still retains much of its pioneer character, particularly some wonderful old stone homes. 30 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY The spring that attracted the Indians and the earliest settlers still pro­vides culinary water for the town as well as for its larger neighbor Hurricane. Gunlock Some settlements were outgrowths of the initial ones. The land was limited at Santa Clara and the young, newly arrived settlers were capable of ranging widely in search of forage and timber. Jacob Hamblin's brother William, nicknamed "Gunlock," soon found a location not unlike Santa Clara just a few miles up river, directly on the Old Spanish Trail. There in a narrow valley were small openings beside the Santa Clara Creek where crops could be planted. William Hamblin moved his family there, and his relatives Dudley and Jeremiah Leavitt and Isaac Riddle joined him. Being upriver was a comfortable feeling, but the settlers would soon find themselves vulnerable to floods. Another threat was Indians who stole their cattle. The town, called Gunlock after its col­orful founder, is an example of the individual enterprise of young families seeking land wherever they could stake their homes rather than being in a planned Mormon colony. The Leavitt and Riddle families moved there from Santa Clara, and the Holt and Hunt fam­ilies later migrated from Hebron. Pine Valley Pine Valley is another example of a spillover settlement. Folktales claim that Isaac Riddle and William Hamblin were herding church cattle about fifteen miles north of Santa Clara in the summer of 1855. Isaac lost a cow and went in pursuit. Following up the Santa Clara River, the cow's trail eventually brought Riddle to a most beautiful and secluded, lush valley. "There stretching before me was the most beautiful sight I had ever beheld on God's green earth," he said.12 The valley floor was blanketed with thick grass, growing as high as a horse's knee; on the valley's side hills were heavy growths of pine, and quaking aspen were found on both sides of the creek. Riddle found his lost cow, peacefully grazing in the virgin meadow. As he rode after her, the heavy morning dew from the tall grass soaked his stirrups. News of the find spread quickly, especially the availability of tim- SETTLEMENT 31 ber there. Robert Richey, Lorenzo Roundy, and Jehu Blackburn built a sawmill in Pine Valley in 1855. Charles Dalton asked the Washington County Court for timber and water rights in Pine Valley in September 1856. The probate court, presided over by John D. Lee, was the main civic authority at the time and took jurisdiction in legalizing land allotments. Milling continued for several years, but the initial gardening that accompanied it soon turned into real agricul­ture. The ample water was a great advantage even though it was off­set by a short growing season. Pine Valley came to be a town of nearly 300 people as well as a favorite place to visit. Southern Utahns have always found Pine Valley's cool summer temperatures a relief. The area was especially valued in early times as a place for expectant mothers to escape from the summer heat while awaiting delivery. Hebron The search for water and land drew people still farther north. In 1856 Jacob Hamblin established a ranch at Mountain Meadows. Others took up ranching and settled near the Meadows. At Erastus Snow's urging, they came together and built a fort at what was called Hamblin. Richard Gibbons, Edwin R. Westover, Jacob Truman, and Simpson Emmett were among the first there. A later group who went in the direction of Mountain Meadows was led by John and Charles Pulsipher. They were herding Mormon church stock in 1862. After grazing their animals on what they called Shoal Creek, they decided it would be a good place to locate their families. Nearby Paiute Indians encouraged them, so a community arose, focusing on ranching instead of farming, since the high alti­tude of 5,400 feet would limit agricultural efforts. One other differ­ence was that their stream flowed north into the Great Basin rather than south to the Santa Clara-Virgin system. In 1868 Erastus Snow organized the seventy-five people who lived there into an ecclesiasti­cal congregation with Dudley Leavitt as president. Snow called the town Hebron, after the biblical place. Virgin On the eastern side of the county a similar process occurred. With Toquerville serving as the mother colony, enterprising folks 32 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY began searching for additional arable land. The Virgin River, issuing from a narrow canyon in the Hurricane Fault, presented a tantaliz­ing challenge although the 500-foot-high fault scarp discouraged exploration. In September 1858 young Nephi Johnson, on orders from Brigham Young and with a Paiute guide, went up over the fault; he continued to the east fork of the river to the future site of Shunesburg and beyond. Back at Cedar City he reported that there were two sites suitable for settlement. He was attracted to one area in particular where the river describes a huge semicircle and is joined by North Creek. This became the site of Virgin City, which was first called Pocketville (from the Paiute word "pock-ich," meaning a cove or circular area). Johnson, along with a small group of men, built a passable road over the Hurricane Fault; by 20 September 1858, wag­ons were being driven over the fault below Toquerville to the Virgin River on the route known as "Johnson's Twist."13 The settlers knew that the Indians referred to the place as "Pockitch" but decided to call their community Virgin City to emphasize its favorable location near the river. The word "city" was added to help avoid confusion with the name of the river. Though this effort was mainly one of individual initiative, the settlers were Mormons, and they followed the regular pattern of laying out the town in square blocks, damming the river, building canals with coop­erative effort, and erecting a community building to serve as church and school-most of this before starting their own homes. John Nock Hinton, like many of his compatriots, built a home by digging a hole in a sidehill and lining it with rocks. He used Cot­tonwood timbers and branches for a roof, which he covered with mud. On one side he built a fireplace.14 Farming was the lifeblood of the community, so the dam was crucial to everyone, but being flimsy structures of trees and bush, the small reservoirs had to be constantly rebuilt as floods were frequent, threatening the farms and making life along the Virgin River tenuous at best. Grafton In 1859 Virgin City gave forth an offspring: Grafton. Nathan Tenney led a group six miles upriver from Virgin to a broad valley SETTLEMENT 33 The small Mormon town of Grafton near the Virgin River. (National Park Service photo, J. L. Crawford Collection) beside the river. There their experience was similar to that in Virgin: a flood literally washed the town away, requiring its relocation, and Indian troubles also plagued the settlers. Despite the uncertainty, the town achieved a degree of prosperity, even becoming county seat of Kane County for a time. As the river ate away at the available farm­land, people began moving to other communities that offered more opportunities and better accessibility, Grafton being on the wrong side of the river. Final abandonment occurred in the early 1930s. Some buildings, fruit trees, and the cemetery still exist. The site is a favorite spot for ghost-town buffs, and it has also been used by movie producers as a filming location for western movies. Rockville Another five miles up the Virgin River is the site of present-day Rockville. In November 1862 John Langston and William R. Crawford built the first two homes there. The year before, five fami- 34 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY lies led by Philip Klingonsmith had settled in Adventure just below Rockville. The floods that destroyed Grafton weren't quite as devas­tating to Adventure; however, subsequent flooding convinced the res­idents to move to higher ground which they had surveyed when the Crawford and Langston families arrived. The earliest settlers included the families of Edward Frodsham, William Scroggins, John C. Hall, George Staples, Albert Huber, Edward Huber, Thomas Hall, James McFate, Jacob Terry, Samuel Kenner, Henry Jennings, W. H. Carpenter, Hyrum Strong, Henry Stocks, Moroni Stocks, William Ashton, Daniel Q. Dennett, Thomas Flanigan, James Green, a Mr. Newman, and a Mr. Coon, in addition to Crawford and Langston. Late in 1861, Mormon church leader Orson Pratt, instead of going to St. George, led a group up the Virgin River and after confer­ring with Nephi Johnson at Virgin, continued beyond Grafton. He evidently spent some time at Adventure before taking several fami­lies farther up the river to a location where the two branches of the river meet, a place which was to become known as Northrop. Here three families stayed. Others went three miles up the east fork where they established Shunesburg at the second site Nephi Johnson had picked. Springdale/Shunesburg Those who stopped at Northrop were James Lemmon, Isaac Behunin, and probably William Black. After the January flood, Behunin and Black moved farther up the north fork, thus becoming Springdale's first residents. Albert Petty who had first gone to Shunesburg went to Springdale in the fall of 1862 and settled near a large spring which is said to have inspired his wife to give the place its name. Other early settlers in Springdale were George Petty, Robert Brown, Newman Brown, Hardin Whitlock, Hyrum Morris, C. G. Averett, a Mr. Powell, a Mr. Davis, a Mr. Norton, and Joseph Millett and their families. Floods, malaria, and hunger continued to plague the settlers, with Indians being only a limited problem until the Blackhawk War of 1866, at which time residents of outlying towns were ordered to "fort up" in larger towns. Shunesburg and Springdale residents moved to Rockville for the duration of the Indian menace-all except Albert Petty who refused SETTLEMENT 35 to leave. Petty was the only original Springdale name to be recorded when the town reemerged in 1868. Several of the new settlers moved from Shunesburg as that town continued to lose land to the hungry river. The new Springdale was located on higher ground; a new ditch was built, bringing more land under irrigation, and it was reported that malaria ceased to be a problem. Shunesburg existed until after the turn of the century, its history being closely linked with that of Rockville, although it had its own ecclesiastical organization for three decades. Oliver DeMille and oth­ers settled there in 1862 after buying the land from the Indians. At its height (1880) there were eighty-two people in the town. Besides the DeMille rock house, which was one of the finest in its day, and a cemetery, only two or three rock chimneys remain. Today the place is held privately and has become a large commercial apple orchard. Harrisburg/Leeds If one line of settlements follows the Santa Clara River north and the other line of communities follows the Virgin River northeast, what about the land between? That is where the main road developed from Harmony down the Black Ridge and then on to Washington. Two communities developed at the base of the Black Ridge: Harrisburg and Leeds. Moses Harris returned from San Bernardino, California, when that colony's members were called back to Utah in 1857 during the so-called "Utah War." He located on the Virgin River above Washington. Later settlers moved a few miles north to the junction of Quail and Cottonwood creeks. They retained the name "Harrisburg" for their settlement in honor of Moses Harris. By 1864 some sixteen families lived there, but soon it was perceived that both land and water were insufficient. Gradually the people moved three miles north to Leeds. Harrisburg became a ghost town after the 1890s, its sandstone ruins still noticeable from the 1-15 freeway. Recently, as the site of a mobile home park, it has come back to life with zest. Leeds became a significant community even though its farmland, like Gunlock's, was limited to a narrow passageway between low mountains. One hundred and twenty acres were surveyed and the 36 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY water of Quail Creek was diverted there in 1867. This took water from Harrisburg but the residents there were given land in Leeds in return for their water share in Harrisburg. Some people resisted, but gradually most moved to Leeds, making it a more stable place. Leeds became a favorite resting spot for wagon freighters and then experienced a real boom when mining developed at Silver Reef. The products of Leeds's farms found a ready market among the min­ers. When the mines quit producing in the mid-1890s, the people of Leeds dismantled many buildings in Silver Reef and moved them to their village, including the Catholic church building, which they transformed into an opera house. It hosted both local talent and touring performers. The Dixie story to this point proceeded quite naturally. Small groups of Mormons were called to open the new territory, and although they struggled against enormous odds-drought, heat, floods; nonetheless, many of them ranged throughout the area in search of land to establish permanent homes. They found small iso­lated meadows near streams and began to till the soil and turn the water onto their very small patches. Through intensive labor, they raised enough for a scant living as they continued to envision build­ing their Kingdom of God. Often they sent for relatives and friends to join them. Additional Mormons from the north were encouraged by church leaders to go to the Southern Utah Mission. The popula­tion of the Virgin River area by 1860 was about 700 people, all of them struggling for a marginal existence. Sacrifice was no surprise to them. They had a great sense of history; they knew when they came south that they were pioneers. That meant survival was not assured. St. George On 6 October 1861, at the semi-annual general conference of the Mormon church, something dramatic occurred. Brigham Young called 300 families to go to southern Utah to establish the new com­munity of St. George, named after his counselor, George A. Smith.15 Smith was nominally in charge of the southern Utah colonies, and President Young asked him to select the people to be called to Dixie. Smith was also known as the "potato saint" for his generosity in giv­ing potatoes from his farm to help people avoid scurvy. Perhaps those SETTLEMENT 37 two facts led Brigham Young to put the words "Saint" and "George" together. The 1861 company doubled the population of Dixie. It departed for the south in November, led by two Mormon apostles, Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow. Two members of the Seventies Quorum leader­ship of the church were also included, Henry Harriman and Jacob Gates. This high-profile action signaled a change for southern Utah. Clearly things had happened in the leading councils in Salt Lake City, discussions that were substantially different from the motives that had led to the colonies of Harmony and Santa Clara. Some issues were quite obvious. First was the Utah War. When President James Buchanan ordered an army of U.S. infantry to march to Utah and install a new territorial governor in 1857, the Mormons responded with preparations for war. One aspect of those plans was to call many settlers of the most distant colonies back to the center. Leaders quickly realized that San Bernardino, California, and Las Vegas and Carson City, Nevada, were too far-flung to be defended. Those sites were abandoned, and many of their residents returned to Utah. That, in effect, left the southern flank open. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, the only real battle in the Utah War, illustrated the vulner­ability of the region. Once the wider conflict was avoided, Brigham Young began thinking about the need for a new southern bastion. Also in Young's mind was the challenge of bringing European converts to Zion. Many schemes were discussed. The railroad had not yet reached Utah, and no one knew if it would be a hostile or friendly incursion if it came. The wagon-train system across the Great Plains was hard on immigrants, many dying along the way. It did not seem like a permanent solution. A sea route was an appealing possibility. One that might conceivably develop was navigation up the Colorado River. Young followed such possibilities keenly. Certainly it would be important to have a southern entryway somewhere near Call's Landing, the northernmost point where boats could penetrate, just below the confluence of the Virgin and Colorado rivers. The Dixie Mission was the closest community to Call's Landing. Another explanation for the call of 300 families was cotton. John D. Lee had consistently kept up his plea for reinforcements in southern Utah. He was fascinated with the idea of raising cotton on a 38 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY large scale near Tonaquint or Washington. The outbreak of the Civil War in America seemed to coincide with the proposal to raise cotton extensively in Utah's Dixie. Mormon self-sufficiency would be greatly enhanced if cotton could be produced in Utah. Just like the similar hope of smelting iron near Cedar City, cotton would be a boon to all Mormons in the Great Basin. By 1861 cotton raising had become suc­cessful. Saints in Washington had grown the plants, woven the cot­ton, displayed it in a local fair, and sent samples to Salt Lake City. This complex interaction of economic, demographic, and reli­gious elements came together, convincing Brigham Young and other church leaders to launch a high-profile settlement project in the south. A most interesting element of this plan was that they did not send the 300 families to Washington or Santa Clara or any other existing settlement. Young had been on the scene. In May 1861 he vis­ited Tonaquint, at the confluence of the Virgin and the Santa Clara, where about a dozen families were living. From there he gazed north to the broad vista with snow-capped Pine Mountain rising to 10,000 feet in the background and the two black mesas stretching south, protecting a large alluvial fan between them. He was deeply moved and prophesied, "There will yet be built, between those volcanic ridges, a city, with spires, towers and steeples, with hornes containing many inhabitants."16 The saga of the settlement of St. George has been told in every medium-murals, books, pageants, sermons, movies, bedtime sto­ries. It is the stuff of which legends are made. The 300 families did not likely suffer any more than the 700 people who preceded them to Dixie; in fact they were much in their debt for trails, friendships with Indians, exploration of the area, and information about struggles with the Virgin River. Nonetheless, the St. George story is pioneering in epic proportions. It is about building a Mormon regional capital in the south. If for no other reason, this was an unusual community in that it was the object of so much planning. It became the support of many other settlements, such as those on the Muddy River in Nevada, a chain of communities on the Little Colorado River in Arizona, and even several colonies in Mexico. For two decades Erastus Snow presided from St. George, traveling throughout these southern communities, exerting his remarkable pioneering leader- SETTLEMENT 39 ship. St. George served as the headquarters for the whole southern strategy of the Mormons, as evidenced by the presence of church apostles there and eventually the establishment in the city of a winter residence for Brigham Young. Of the 300 families called to St. George, 245 were listed in the census taken in the city in 1862. Whether some never came, or came and went back, or came to St. George and then moved to another Dixie community is not clear. Nonetheless, the portion that actually arrived in St. George was high, an indication of the cause's impor­tance. Certainly all of those who moved to Washington County knew that their life in Dixie would be considerably harder than it would had they remained in the north. Another reason the St. George story has received so much atten­tion is that it was well recorded. James G. Bleak was appointed to keep a journal. He kept numerous notes and for four decades was the community's clerk for almost everything-church, government, business. Later in life he brought these documents together and pro­duced a magnificent manuscript which all other writers on the sub­ject consult. Other individuals kept journals, some of which have been published, including the masterpiece by John D. Lee. Another jewel is by Charles Lowell Walker. He gives a loyal account from the view of a follower instead of a leader. He tells that he was getting a good start in the Salt Lake Valley before his call to help settle St. George and continues, "This was the hardes[t] trial I ever had and had it not been for the gospel and those that were placed over me I should never moved a foot to go on such a trip, but then I came here not to do my will but the will of those that are over me, and I know it will all be right if I do right."17 From these and other records, we learn that on arriving, Erastus Snow set up several committees: one to propose a site for the town, one to set up canal plans to bring water to the fields that would sup­port the community, another to search for timber, and finally a coun­cil to receive the reports and guide the future of the city. There was no suggestion that St. George was then a democracy. The presence of a resident apostle of the church made it clear who was in charge, but, although Erastus Snow could be very firm, his method of using authority was to involve the people in the decisions. Perhaps that is 40 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY one reason his stature continued to grow over the next two decades while he presided over the ecclesiastical affairs of southern Utah as well as the Mormon colonies in Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico. His name and Dixie were intimately intertwined throughout the whole pioneer period. His colleague, Orson Pratt, remained in the area only three years before going on a mission to Europe. During his time in St. George the experience was somewhat like that in early Fort Harmony-the presence of two powerful leaders in the same place did not turn out well. Pratt was a great missionary; building com­munities was not as central for him as were theology, proselytizing, and contemplating the great ideas of science. He is one of Mormonism's greatest figures, but not because of his St. George expe­rience. On the other hand, Erastus Snow is hardly remembered else­where than southern Utah, where he is revered. His was the tedious task of pleading with people to stay at the thankless challenge of liv­ing in the region of excessive heat and devastating floods. He articu­lated the vision of maintaining the kingdom's outer edges where no one wanted to be. It was a refiner's fire, and it took his compassion to help people want to stay in Dixie.18 Swiss Colony Among those drawn to Dixie by the "big call" of 1861 was a group of Swiss immigrants. Daniel Bonneli was their leader and Santa Clara was designated as their destination, partly because the town was thought to be an excellent spot to raise grapes that the Swiss knew how to cultivate. In contrast to others called to the Cotton Mission, the Swiss immigrants had barely arrived in Utah and had not yet acquired the means for their trip south. Only a few even had wagons. Church leaders arranged to freight them to Santa Clara by asking each community in turn to deliver them to the next town. When they eventually arrived in St. George, church members there delivered them to Santa Clara, where they left them with their meager possessions. The group had no wagons to live in like most first-time settlers did, nor did they have food supplies to tide them over to the next harvest. Erastus Snow and George A. Smith previously had made arrangements with the earlier settlers of Santa Clara to relinquish SETTLEMENT 41 some of their claims to land so that the Swiss could have farms. Nellie McArthur Gubler described the arrangements: A survey of the new townsite was made early in December by Israel Ivins and on the twenty-second the old settlers and newly arrived Swiss met on the site which was dedicated by Elder Daniel Bonneli. Lots and vineyards were laid off and the settlers given their plots of ground in the following manner:-After the lots had been platted, corresponding numbers were written on slips of paper and placed in a hat. Brother Bonneli drew the numbers from the hat and allotted them to the various families. Three different pieces were given to each family-first a piece of ground in town big enough for a home and garden (6 by 12 rods); next a piece a little farther away to be used for vineyards and farming (1 acre); third a piece still farther away (out past the black rocks to the east) to be used for farming (vineyard lots). By this method each received equally. The South Fields, or that across to the south, was left for the Indians. As soon as this was done, people began to move away from the Fort onto their new claims. Everyone went immediately to work and soon all sorts of shelters sprang up among the dry, dead sunflowers and the gray rabbit brush.19 From this inauspicious beginning, the Swiss worked tenaciously in an environment alien to them, producing a permanent community and a progeny that has influenced southern Utah most impressively. Pioneering Pioneering was an everpresent, exacting lifestyle. Generally it meant turning the first soil, building the first structures, creating anew the fundamental institutions of Anglo-American society in a land that had not hosted European civilization before. It required muscle and sinew, spirit and character. It meant facing survival risks daily. It was a great equalizer because all were subject to the same dangers and discouragements. There was no aristocracy when it came to disease, flood, and scorching heat. Yet the feeling of accomplish­ment was shared by all; common folk as well as their leaders knew that their important mission would not be a brief assignment. The harsh Dixie landscape was unrelenting; it yielded itself grudgingly to these newcomers who tried to impose settled life upon 42 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY its sand and stone. Native Americans who had preceded the Mormons by a millennium or two in this spot had demanded less of the land, imposing fewer people for shorter seasons, impacting the land little, gleaning instead of grazing, picking instead of plowing, drinking water instead of diverting it. The Anglo-European Mormons brought a different mindset. The land must yield to their hands, sustain permanent villages, give of its clay, stone, and timber to fashion public structures and permanent family dwellings. The newcomers would change the course of streams and open the surface of the land to intensive planting of wheat, cotton, corn, lucerne, grapes, and varieties of fruit trees. The land balked at this change. It did not quickly yield to the determination of the newcomers. It fought back with drought. It responded to overgrazing with flooding. The interface was not nat­ural, and both the land and the people sustained injury. That conflict continues to this day. The Mormons came convinced that the Lord had sent them and that the land should yield to them. They knew it would not do so spontaneously, for this was the "lone and dreary world," not the Garden of Eden. If their friends were making the desert "blossom like a rose" in the Great Basin, it was partly because those people were not really in a true desert. The pioneers in what geologists call the Basin and Range Province, along the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, could see the deserts to the west, but they saw them from well-watered benchlands that received thunderstorms and snowstorms as clouds dropped their moisture before passing eastward over the Rocky Mountains. Those who came to the Dixie Mission knew that life would be marginal in Washington County because this was real desert, a land of red sand and merciless summer heat. For many, pioneering was an interruption of the life they had just begun to enjoy in the north. It was an assignment, one people agreed to, but certainly under some pressure and a lot of expectation. It required soul-searching for some, and quite a few chose not to accept their call. Robert Gardner said that when he went into the office at church headquarters in Salt Lake City after being called to the Dixie Mission, George A. Smith told him he could take his name off the list if he wished.20 Gardner did not feel that one should tamper with such SETTLEMENT 43 calls, but there were some who hired others to fill their assignment. John Bennion, for example, equipped William Ellis Jones to take his place; however, Jones was anxious to go and initiated the idea. Others dallied in coming. Some actually volunteered, often friends and fam­ily of those assigned who, after arriving, returned north for rein­forcements. Once its members accepted the call, the 1861 company soon departed. The trek through the string of colonies south of Provo went fairly fast, often reinforced by visits with and hospitality from friends who had taken up land in emerging communities along the route- from Payson to Harmony. The 300 families of the company left Cedar City with the encouragement of all along the way; however, soon the Black Ridge imposed its terrors on the ox teams. The company could not follow the streambed because of huge boulders, so they had to drive over lava beds, carving a road as they went. They named one section "Peter's Leap" for Peter Shirts, who proposed to leap from one lava ledge to another. The company had to ease their wagons over the dangerous site by attaching ropes and holding them to brake each wagon's descent. Once they had descended to the area now called Anderson's Ranch, they met the next challenge, a stretch of deep, red sand, extending almost to Leeds. The oxen were quickly exhausted trying to pull each wagon through the sands as the wheels sank into the soft surface. By the time the pioneers reached the Virgin River, all were apprehensive. Their response to anxiety was action, particularly group action. Pioneering did not leave much time for reflection; it was a life of action. The lives of both men and women, even of children, were domi­nated by work-work to clear land, work to divert water, work to build shelters, work to raise food, work to survive. In a classic under­statement, Robert Gardner opened his personal memoir with the comment that nothing of much importance had transpired in his life, just hard work and a willingness to meet it and live in peace with his neighbors-these were the essential features of his life. It is fitting that he so described his life even though he was part of the decision­making core of the community. That did not relieve him from hard physical labor. William Ellis Jones, who was very much at the other end of the 44 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY social spectrum, presents another example of hard work. He never acquired more than five acres of land and, as a school teacher, he had to make frequent moves. Schools met only four or five months a year, leaving him without an income the rest of the time. He made adobes on building sites wherever he could find someone who could afford to hire him. His wife hired out as a midwife for difficult cases in which she at times had to live-in for a month at a time. Their chil­dren tended orchards. Jones was always poor but maintained an amazing attitude. For example he wrote: I burnt the bricks for Brother Gardner early in September my Son Hyrum brought the team up on Tuesday Sept. 8th I came home with him next day. In August last my wife was suddenly deprived of her hearing and it is with difficulty that we make her hear any thing that we say I find difficult to get things necessary for my family on account of money being so scarce and no sale for the things we raise here. Dried peaches are only worth three and a quarter cents a pound, dried grapes no sale in the stores, grain and beans no sale but we make exchanges with our neighbors and in this way manage to live, but notwithstanding the times are hard I feel very thankful that we are as well off as we are we have enough to eat and are not suffering much for clothing but still we are needy and no way at present to get the things we need but I know the Lord will open the way as he has always done.21 Building dams to divert water from the Virgin or Santa Clara rivers was a constant battle. The first dam on the Virgin, located southeast of Washington on the north side of Shinobkiab Mountain, was washed away several times. Church leaders frequently found the settlers discouraged, many threatening to leave the difficult land.22 In contrast to irrigation in the Great Basin, the challenge of diverting water onto the land in Washington County demanded a dif­ferent technology. Streams often had no set bed. The shifting sands seldom provided a firm footing to attach posts and brush to turn the water. Most serious of all were flash floods. The mountains had very little vegetation. Therefore, when summer thunderstorms occurred, and they did so regularly, the waters gushed off the hills and swelled the otherwise placid streams, which then roared suddenly, multiply­ing the flow as much as tenfold. Boulders, brush, and trees, labori- SETTLEMENT 45 ously set in the streams to hold back the waters, were spun out of the flood's path like flipping coins. Weeks of communal labor would dis­appear in minutes. Often the roaring rivers would not only destroy the dams but carry away farmland as they carved out new paths in the sandy flood plains. Lizzie Ballard Isom described the floods she saw as a young girl: We witnessed many awful floods in the river. One I so well remember was so thick with dirt and logs that it moved so slowly that a person could have run across in front of it. Timber and dirt together made it look like the side of a log house. Father took a can and dipped some of what was supposed to be water and poured it on a log and it was so thick that it hardly reached the ground. All floods were not the same. One day another flood came and was running so swift with everything imaginable in it. There was a cow that had been caught in its path along with bee hives, all kinds of farm equipment, field and garden produce. Men tried to catch the cow by the horns with a lasso but the swift water filled with trees prevented her from getting near enough so they could get the rope on her and she went down. The floods came so many times and claimed so much of the land that the people became discouraged and abandoned Grafton.23 Stories of the floods are legion. The flood of 1861-62 was likely the most devastating. The rains began on Christmas Day 1861, barely a month after the St. George colonists arrived. For forty days and nights the rains continued at least part of each day. Floods occurred over the whole county. In Santa Clara the fort was washed away. With miraculous fortune no lives were lost although Jacob Hamblin was twice pulled from the rushing waters with ropes as he labored to res­cue others. At Fort Harmony disaster struck; the fort there caved in, killing two of John D. and Sarah Caroline Lee's children-George A. and Margaret Ann. As a result of this flooding, several towns had to be relocated to higher ground, Harmony, Santa Clara, Washington, Grafton, Virgin, and Rockville (Adventure) among them. At least one citizen carried the remembrance of the flood with him for life. On 8 January the flood waters were rising in Grafton. The Nathan Tenney family was living in their wagon box and Nathan's wife was in labor. Tenney's neighbors helped him haul the 46 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY dwelling to higher ground with the expectant mother inside. She was delivered of a healthy boy whom they named Marvelous Flood Tenney, "Marv" for short. Irrigation water was not the only water challenge. Domestic water was also the cause of much labor, often for children. Ether Wood described how, as a young boy, he provided "dip water" for his family: Our water system was a fifty-gallon barrel on a sled made from two cottonwood logs, with a chain and single tree on one end to hook the horses to. I would go to the river, dip the barrel full with a bucket; coming back, we had a rocky hill to climb, which made the horse work to pull it. I would have to stop and let him rest several times. In the summer the river would get quite muddy and my mother would put milk in the water to settle the mud. When I went after another barrel of water, I would have to take the barrel off from the sled and rinse out the mud....There was also the rinse tub to fill, then I had to empty the tubs when she was through. Wash days was the days I dreaded most, for I had to haul all the water in buckets to a copper boiler on the fire, where she boiled the clothes, then to the scrubbing tub, where she scrubbed them on a board.24 Floods caused the relocation of villages after they had consumed the assiduous labor of the residents for a few seasons. That was not the only hazard to cause a move. In 1865 and 1866 Indian wars upset the whole region. Though in the long run they ended without great loss of life, Brigham Young felt that it was urgent for the Latter-day Saints in outlying settlements to move to the larger towns for the duration of the conflict. The following letter from Erastus Snow to the Saints living on the upper Virgin River captures their plight and his method of guiding them: We have, in council, considered your condition and thought it best to recommend Rockville as the point of concentration, unless the majority should prefer another place lower down the river. Let every one, therefore, go to without delay to carry into effect the instructions received, as fast as circumstances permit, without unnecessary waste, or destruction. Secure the growing crops, pre­serve the orchards and vineyards as best you can, and clear the SETTLEMENT 47 canyons above Rockville of stock, so as to keep that range for win­ter. 25 Heat and wind were other aspects of living in the desert that were terribly discouraging, particularly to women who were attempting to keep a home in something approaching the domestic style to which they were accustomed. The following account describes the problems caused by weather in Atkinville: A more forbidding place to build homes would be difficult to find, but it was necessary to avoid the mosquitoes of the fields and pastures. The summer sun beat relentlessly down upon the whole scene. There was no vegetation around the house, except two small tamarix trees by the front porch and small flower gardens watered by hand, for which May was chiefly responsible. She planted and tended them and kept them alive by carrying water from the bar­rels in buckets. Winds often blew through the gap and poured gray, sandy dust over everything. It left a layer of grit on the milk in the cellar, on the cream in the jar for churning, on the dishes in the cupboard, and over all the furniture. There was sand in the water buckets, the drinking dipper, the milk pails and pans set out to sun; on floors and window sills. It filled one's eyes and ears and gritted between one's teeth. Was it any wonder that my mother, who went to Atkinville as a bride, exclaimed during one of these windy onslaughts in sheer desperation "Nothing tries my faith so much as one of these sand storms; I feel like apostatizing."26 Though the Latter-day Saints in Washington County were strug­gling against nearly superhuman odds, they were not alone in the struggle for survival; but at times they felt alone. Other groups that commanded attention were the immigrant trains that came each summer across the plains to Utah. Brigham Young regularly requisi­tioned wagons, food, and drivers from the existing communities to go to Nebraska and assist the Mormons who were struggling to get to Utah. Those who traveled to help had to be gone between four and six months. Erastus Snow felt rather put upon to raise volunteers from among the Saints in Dixie for this task, since he believed that conditions there were considerably tougher than elsewhere; nonethe­less, the southern Saints complied. In 1864 Snow's patience was 48 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY stretched, however, and he could not help but write a questioning let­ter to the Presiding Bishop on the matter. People came to Dixie out of religious duty; personal gain could have been achieved better elsewhere. Once colonies were planted, the original pioneers recruited friends and family to join them. The nat­ural elements conspired against them, especially the sparse water and the scorching heat. The ranks were constantly thinned by disease, death, and departures. The vision of building a "Kingdom of God" was reiterated regularly by leaders and tested by personal conviction. In contrast to the individual enterprise that was common in the settlement of much of California and Oregon and other parts of the West, Mormons settled in groups with clear local leadership linked to the central church. Cooperative use of water, organized assign­ments of land, and homes established in villages were key elements of the Mormon pattern. Brigham Young hoped to occupy every source of water in the region with self-sustaining communities that would host a continuing flow of immigrants. The Dixie effort was marginal, yet there was some water there and leaders felt an urgency to control the southern access to the Great Basin. About forty such communities were attempted in Dixie; twenty of them continue to exist. This area includes Washington County and adjacent areas-the Arizona Strip, and Bunkerville, Mesquite, and for a time, the Muddy River settlements in Nevada. The Dixie villages were not Utopian communes. Despite their extensive cooperation, southern Utahns were private citizens with individual interests and holdings. They cleared their own land (which later became theirs even though at first they were squatters). In lieu of land deeds that would have to wait until U.S. government land offices were opened a decade later, the families drew lots and received a local surveyor's certificate as evidence of their holdings. Thus fairness ruled. Families then arranged for temporary shelter, either in a com­munal fort or on village lots-in dugouts, wagon boxes, reed lean-tos, or tents. To sustain their families, they established trades, farmed, herded cattle, or worked as employees for each other. They either raised their own food or bartered for it. Children worked beside their parents. Hunger, combat against the elements (especially heat and drought), the search for water and its application to uneven land, the SETTLEMENT 49 danger of disease (especially malaria)-all these were no respecters of persons. Each day was a struggle for survival for both leaders and followers. Like others who tried to build an empire, the Dixie enterprise required sustained leadership and devoted followers. Though there was occasional conflict, even some gnawing feuds, the settlers gener­ally shared the vision of bringing civilization to the desert. Their muscle, creativity, and devotion sustained the effort which their lead­ers had articulated. The results produced a communal spirit that is still intact today-modified but clearly recognizable. ENDNOTES 1. Juanita Brooks, "The Southern Indian Mission," in Under the Dixie Sun, ed. Hazel Bradshaw (Washington County Chapter Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1950), 23. 2. Adult adoption was an early Mormon practice wherein a person (such as John D. Lee) requested a respected figure like Brigham Young to adopt him into his eternal, not earthly, family. 3. James G. Bleak, "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission" (typescript at Dixie College Library), 16. 4. In the party were Hyrum Burgess, 17; Ira Hatch, 18; Benjamin Knell, 19; Thales Haskell, 20; Amos G. Thornton, 21; Samuel Knight, 21; Augustus P. Hardy, 23; William Henefer, 30; Lorenzo Roundy, 34; Jacob Hamblin, 35; David Lewis, 40; Elnathan Eldridge, 42; Thomas D. Brown (scribe), 46; Robert M. Dickson, 46; and Robert Richey, 47. See Brooks, "The Southern Indian Mission," 25. 5. Juanita Brooks, ed., Diary of Thomas D. Brown, Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, ed. Juanita Brooks (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1972), 29-30. 6. Ibid., 117-18. 7. By 1858 Santa Clara hosted Jacob Hamblin; his wife, Rachel Judd Hamblin; and their children; Oscar Hamblin and his family; Isaac Riddle and family; Richard Robinson and family; Prime T. Colemen and family; Samuel Knight and his family; Dudley Leavitt and his wives; sisters Mary and Maria Huntsman; Zadok Judd and his wife, daughter, son, and Indian boy (Lamoni); Robert Richey and family; Thales Haskell; Thomas Eckles; Lemuel Leavitt; Jeremiah Leavitt; Wier Leavitt; Andrew S. Gibbons; Frederick Hamblin; Ira Hatch; Augustus P. Hardy; and Francis (Alsen) Hamblin. 50 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 8. Jesse A. Little, Jacob Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1881), 39-40. 9. Larry Coates, "The Fancher/Baker Train from Salt Lake City to Mountain Meadows," unpublished manuscript, 8-11, located in Dixie College Archives. 10. See Juanita Brooks, John D. Lee, Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat (Glendale, CA: Howe, 1962). See also Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950). 11. Bleak, " Annals of the Southern Utah Mission," 34. The heads of families listed by Bleak include: Robert D. Covington; James B. Reagan; Harrison Pearce; William R. Slade; Joseph Smith; John W. Freeman; William H. Crawford; Umpsted Rencher; James D. McCullough; George Hawley; William Hawley; John Hawley; Balus Sprouse; John Couch, Sr.; John Couch, Jr.; Alfred Johnson; Samuel Adair; John Adair; Thomas Adair; Oscar Tyler; George Spencer; J. Holden; James Richey; John Mangum; William Mangum; James B. Wilkins; Joseph Adair; Joseph Hatfield; William Dammeron; Preston Thomas; William Fream; Sims B. Matheny; Stephen Duggins; William Duggins; William J. Young; Enoch Dodge; John Price; and Robert Lloyd. Later research by Harold Cahoon of the Washington City Historical Society has added the following names to the original settler list: George W. Adair, Newton L. N. Adair, John W. Clark, Thomas W. Smith, James Nichols Mathews, Gabriel R. Coley, and John D. Lee. 12. Bessie Snow and Elizabeth Snow Beckstrom, "A History of Pine Valley," in Under the Dixie Sun, 178-79. 13. Angus M. Woodbury, A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (privately published, 1950), 148. Assisting in the building of the road was Nephi's brother Seth, Darius and Carl Shurtz, Anthony Stratton, James Bey, Andrew J. Workman, William Haslam, and Samuel Bradshaw. Nephi Johnson invited families from Cedar City and Fort Harmony to join them in the settlement of the upper lands. Those who responded included Joel Hills Johnson, Nephi's father; his brother Sixtus; Hugh Hilton and two sons; William A. Bebe; Moses Clawson; Charles P. Bark; Simon Anderson; Thomas Banson; Samuel B. Hardy; Augustus P. Hardy; and someone named Capson. 14. Lenora Atkin Meeks, "John Nock Hinton: The Reconstructed Life of an English Born Mormon Convert of Virgin City, Utah," (Masters the­sis, Brigham Young University, 1987), 83. 15. B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1930) Vol. V, p. 123,15. There are people who feel the name "St. George" had other origins, but the docu­mentary evidence supports the story as found in Bleak's "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission," 77. SETTLEMENT 51 16. Bleak, "Annals," 75. 17. Andrew Karl Larson, ed., Diary of Charles Lowell Walker (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1980), I: 240^1. 18. Nels Anderson, Desert Saints (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942, rev. 1966), 230. This book describes the relationship between Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow. 19. Nellie McArthur Gubler, "History of Santa Clara, Washington County," in Under the Dixie Sun, 162. 20. "Memoir of Robert Gardner," Dixie College Archives, 38. 21. "Journal of William Ellis Jones," Dixie College Archives, 42. 22. Andrew Karl Larson, The Red Hills of November (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1957), 77. 23. Janice Force De Mille, Portraits of the Hurricane Pioneers (St. George: Homestead Publishers, 1976), 142. 24. Ibid., 267. 25. History of James Monroe Ballard: 15, as cited in James T. Jones, "Old Grafton," Dixie College Archives. 26. Grace Atkin Woodbury and Angus Munn Woodbury, The Story of Atkinville (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1957), 13.