A History of Washington County

Stability and isolation - 2

102 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY "Women's Work" Agriculture was as much women's work as men's. The village sys­tem meant that the men were generally away in the fields, so the women had to manage the town lot. That meant directing the chil­dren in raising animals, gardening, and processing food. This was in addition to rug-making, spinning wool, carding cotton, sewing clothes, weaving, making soap, laundering clothes, preparing daily meals, and engaging in endless other crafts. They made lye from Cot­tonwood ashes, baking powder from alkali, starch from potatoes, yeast from hops, and dyes from various plants. The women were also largely in charge of medicating, teaching family members, and pro­moting culture. They often also were the main marketers of saleable goods-all this besides giving birth to an average of nine babies per woman, nurturing them, protecting them from diseases, and trans­mitting their religious faith and values to each one.25 For some women, living in the county and being a polygamous wife or having their husbands on Mormon missions, life was doubly difficult. One such woman, Mary Ann Hafen, maintained her house­hold and property through her own ingenuity, independence, and hard work. During the two years of her husband's absence she worked at picking and drying peaches, selling them to peddlers who in turn sold them in Salt lake City. At other times of the year she picked cotton on shares. "That cotton picking was very tiresome," she wrote, "back-breaking work but it helped to clothe my children."26 On the town lot, Mary Ann Hafen grew grapes, some of which were dried into raisins. She made jam from the California grapes and sold other varieties of grapes to peddlers who frequented the mining camps of the region. While establishing their homes, women of the county were con­scious of orderliness. Emma Hinton, wife of John Nock Hinton, along with six children lived in a 16-by-18 foot log house in Virgin. According to Lenora Atkin Meeks, Emma Hinton's home "was the epitome of cleanliness and her food preparation was immaculate." In addition to maintaining a neat and tidy house, Emma Hinton milked the family cow since her husband had never learned that skill.27 Alice Parker Isom was one example of many powerful women STABILITY AND ISOLATION 103 who had both domestic and business responsibilities. In 1885 when she was thirty-eight years old, her husband, George, died of bronchi­tis. Together they had built a successful store in Virgin and established a family of several children. The oldest, Ellen, was fifteen and the youngest, Sarah Laverna, was born two weeks after her father's death. Alice took over the store while raising her children and managing other investments. Ellen helped both at home and as a clerk in the store. Alice wrote: "After my husband's death I was appointed man­ager of the store and Ianthus Richards secretary. I had done most of the buying from the first and understood the business quite well. I did well with it both for myself and the stock holders." When an oil boom occurred in Virgin in 1907, Alice borrowed money and expanded her store to meet the sudden demand. She provided lum­ber, hay, grain, and general merchandise, which she obtained from the Mormon church-operated Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI). Then the panic of 1908 struck, and her cus­tomers fled Virgin without paying her. It required a decade of effort for her to settle her accounts.28 Medicating Illness Health and sickness, birth and death, medicating and attending the ill are also part of the Dixie story. A long line of health providers worked in a succession of buildings that preceded the current hospi­tal. Prior to that, health care was left largely to families, midwives, herb doctors, prayer, and folk wisdom. One study indicates that in Washington County in the nineteenth century, babies died at about the same rate in their first year of life as elsewhere in the nation; but they died at a greater rate for the next four years. Fifteen percent of newborns died in the first year; after five years, only 71% of boys and 72.3% of girls had survived. The author postulated that the transfer from mother's milk to local water was too much for many babies: "If they had escaped the town's diseases while they were nursing, chil­dren were attacked with double force once they were weaned. Now they had to depend on polluted water and other sources of disease, and they also relied on food that occasionally ran short."29 Desperate mothers shared folk remedies, experimented with herbs, and even sought wisdom from the Indians to spare their chil- 104 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY dren from deadly diseases.30 Despite the attempts, many children suc­cumbed to common diseases. Martha Spence Heywood, a school­teacher in Washington City, confided her anguish about her daughter to her journal. On Wednesday the 12th of March I first gave her the Lobelia in doses of tincture. It was several hours in her system without oper­ating. I gave her rhubarb to work it off which she did and passed some phlegm and at this time I discovered the hard phlegm stuck to her mouth and was more convinced that the difficulty lay in her chest. She again took a turn for the better after this first adminis­tered lobelia and my spirits again revived. She seemed easier Thursday night when I went to bed and being very much exhausted I fell into a heavy slumber and woke up by her call to me and when I had come to myself I found her in very great dis­tress with her breathing. I had some onions and I put them under her arms and oiled her well. Went after Sister Bigler that she might assist me in putting her feet in water. It was two o'clock when she came in and we bathed her feet which seemed to ease her breathing a little but until daylight she appeared to be dying but between six and seven she revived again which comforted me much....About twelve o'clock I gave her the emmetic which operated well in her system but about four o'clock she had the appearance of dying and I again gave her up. Oh, my poor heart, how it was wrung with anguish but again she revived and called "Mamma" which word once more heard made me crazy with joy which continued till she was really death struck and the only thing to desire or hope for was to have her Father come in time to see her once again and he did arrive on Tuesday, 18th, about six o'clock in the evening. She had been dying all day and the night before and when he came she stretched her little arms to him and called Papa and all that night would call to sit on Papa's lap. She died next morning about eight o'clock, being sensible to the last breath she could draw and [when she] ceased to breathe the bad smell ceased. I washed her little body myself on my lap and dressed her in her own clothes and the last sewing I did for her was to make her a pair of shoes of white cloth.31 The Latter-day Saints' religious convictions were ever challenged by the lurking specter of death. Parents were often torn by the help- STABILITY AND ISOLATION 105 less feeling of holding their tiny ones in their arms as they died. Charles Walker and his four wives were among the grieving parents whose faith was tested to its limit. They buried four children, one of them a young son who drowned by slipping into a water tank. Their last to die was an infant boy, Lowell. Charles reported, "Sat up alone with corpse all night. All was very still save the terrified moan and convulsive sob of his Mother. I thought that three draughts at the bit­ter cup would be enough for me to drink but it seems in the kindly dealings of providence I am called to drink it the fourth time; the Lord's will be done."32 These poignant accounts could be repeated a thousand times by anguished Dixie parents who tried to relieve their sick children. Home remedies were developed by the shared wisdom of the whole region and sometimes moderated the suffering. Often the attendants could do little but watch and pray. They relied much on spiritual administrations to the sick. Sometimes they had access to medical practitioners, but they could seldom do more than use similar reme­dies that were available to the parents. Frontier medicine in the last half of the nineteenth century was greatly influenced by Thompsonian doctors whose herbal medicine many found more acceptable than the "bleeders" who called them­selves surgeons. Brigham Young was outspoken about his preference for the herb doctors and his criticism of the physicians who bled patients to expel the illnesses. Samuel Thompson was born in 1769 in New Hampshire. He published his remedies in a 800-page manual, Thompson's New Guide to Health; or Botanic Family Physician and sold it for twenty dollars, including a license to practice. His fame and methods spread widely even among some who had neither the book nor the license. Among those who used his methods was Willard Richards, friend and asso­ciate of Brigham Young. In the Washington County area, there were several practitioners in his tradition. James Whitmore, who was killed at Pipe Spring in 1866, was one of them. Priddy Meeks also practiced herbal medicine in Harrisburg and then later in Long Valley. Silas Higgins came to St. George in the 1860s; he and botanist Joseph E. Johnson maintained a pharmacy to produce medications from herbs. Israel Ivins was evidentiy not a Thompsonian follower, but it was said 106 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY that his family was also engaged in making pharmaceuticals which he used in St. George from 1861 on. Evidently being a doctor was not necessarily a full-time job because Ivins also doubled as a surveyor. In Toquerville the colorful John Steele advertised himself as "Dr. and surveyor"; he had associated with Priddy Meeks in Parowan from whom he learned much about cayenne pepper, lobelia, cherry stones, and steaming. Kerry William Bate described the Thompsonian phi­losophy: "A sick person needed to first have his body clensed with natural emetics, such as lobelia, and enemas. Second, lost heat should be restored through the use of cayenne pepper internally and hot pads and steam or vapor externally. Third, the residue of the canker should be carried away by doses of herbs."33 Midwives were often more available to the Latter-day Saints who were dispersed widely across the Dixie landscape. Two St. George midwives in the pioneer period were Mary Ann Hunt Nielson and Caroline Baker Rogers Hardy. Both came to Dixie with their hus­bands in the early pioneer period. Like many others, these two women had some form of midwife training before coming to Utah. Both lived to their nineties and delivered hundreds of babies during their years in southern Utah. They performed their services largely before the territorial government of Utah began licensing midwives in 1893.34 Anna Hess Milne was one of Dixie's legendary midwives. Daughter of a handcart pioneer, Anna came to Dixie with her par­ents in 1861. As a young girl, she married Bishop David Milne and later bore seven children. As polygamy prosecution increased, she determined to seek a means of supporting her family alone. She left her children with her mother and went to Salt Lake City to study nursing and obstetrics. She completed her studies and returned to St. George in 1893. Because she was a licensed nurse, her services were soon in great demand. She delivered babies and nursed the ill until her death in 1921. Her charge was five dollars initially and eventually became ten dollars, paid mostiy in produce. When Dr. Frederick Cliff and later Dr. J. T. Affleck came to St. George, she assisted them. Many of the Dixie midwives were called by ecclesiastical author­ities to serve in the birthing process, some having trained under Dr. Ellis Shipp in Salt Lake City. Hazel Bradshaw lists Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. STABILITY AND ISOLATION 107 Tuckett, Mrs. Elmer, Mrs. Church, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Kleinman, Agnes Calkins Thompson, Mary A. Harradence, Ida Seegmiller, and Nancy Louisa C. Higgins, in addition to Anna Hess Milne, as mid-wives who served in the county.35 Most midwives were called to the bedside of the woman in labor shortly before the birth, and they often were a critical factor in help­ing both the mother and baby survive the birth. Sometimes midwives served for extended periods. Mrs. William Ellis Jones of Gunlock spe­cialized in these kinds of deliveries. People from distant towns often engaged her to come and "live in" for a month when the mother was known to be having difficulty. Mrs. Jones left her husband and family to the care of an older daughter and pursued midwifery as a career to help support the family. Fairs and the Gardener's Club The Washington County Agricultural and Manufacturing Society organized die county's first fair in 1860 to promote agriculture. Some of the area communities were too recently established to have agri­cultural products displayed at this first fair. Other communities were well represented with exhibits of livestock, corn, cotton, garden veg­etables, homemade articles from county-grown cotton and wool, braided straw hats, and moccasins made from tanned deer skin.36 The fairs in the 1860s were often visited by Brigham Young, who took great interest not only in the fruit displays but especially in cloth woven from local cotton. At one of those fairs, the crops of Indian chief Tut-se-gavit took first place for corn. The fairs were held at the St. George Hall after it was finished in 1865. When the St. George LDS Tabernacle was constructed, the fair moved into its basement. Citizen committees took charge of the fairs, and the Gardener's Club was a major supporter. By the end of the century, the committees were expanded, including some thirty people.37 F. L. Daggett, presi­dent of the Washington County Fair in 1908, and his committee faced some serious challenges. Although the committee at the begin­ning of the fair lacked funds for premiums to the winner in the vari­ous categories, the people of the county said, "Let us have a fair, not to do so will be a step backward,"38 As it turned out, the number of exhibits in some of the fair departments exceeded entries from the 108 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY previous year. Such fairs continued almost annually. In addition, many local communities also promoted agriculture. These celebra­tions have continued to be very popular-one is Enterprise's Corn Fest Days another is Washington City's Cotton Days. Fruit Growing Fairs were an important event each year in part because horti­culture was highly valued. Santa Clara and Toquerville were success­ful garden communities, but they were not alone. In St. George, for example, Joseph E. Johnson, promoted a gardener's club as early as 1865. With his energy, it continued for decades, even maintaining its own headquarters building which stands today in Ancestor Square, and a wine cellar which is today part of the restored opera house in St. George. Johnson's skill in horticulture and floriculture was a real benefit to all people in the county. He cultivated trees, vines, and flowers, and operated a nursery business. He grew over 100 varieties of grapes that were well suited to the soil and climate of various parts of the county. A. K. Larson suggested that Johnson contributed more to the early fruit industry in the region than any other person.39 Johnson also organized a pomological society in St. George with branches in other communities. Its weekly meetings were open to the public and a publication, The Utah Pomologist, promoted improve­ments in horticulture and fruit growing. These two organizations remained vital into the 1880s. The industry of drying fruit for shipment to northern colonies was a major sustaining influence in Dixie. Enterprising peddlers were able to exchange dried fruit in Beaver, Iron, Juab, and Sanpete coun­ties. In Salt Lake City they traded for potatoes, flour, and even equip­ment. Similarly they freighted foodstuffs to eastern Nevada, particularly to the miners in Pioche. They also supplied garden prod­ucts to the miners in Silver Reef. This trade greatiy benefited Dixie families, who had few other export products. Another person who had beneficial influence on the agricultural development of the Southern Utah Mission was John C. Naegle, a prosperous German farmer from Lehi. He was called to go to Dixie in the 1860s because he was an expert vintner. He, his half-brother Conrad Kleinman, and Ulrich Bryner, also a German, promoted STABILITY AND ISOLATION 109 Hurricane Peach Day about 1910. (J. L. Crawford Collection) wine making in Toquerville. Naegle became a major exporter of wine and built a marvelous home with a wine cellar which is still the pride of the town and now a national historic landmark. He instructed many people in grape raising and wine making. In the north he had been a successful horse breeder. It is said that at one time he donated 120 horses to Brigham Young. He carried on with his horse herds in southern Utah, becoming one of the few wealthy men in the area. Peddling The successful raising of fruit, especially in Santa Clara, led to a side profession-peddling. Initially, peddling was done by farmers themselves who took teams and wagons and their produce to the miners at Pioche and Silver Reef. Farmers would take their children, sometimes their children's friends, and a loaded wagon to Nevada towns and have them knock on the doors along each street saying "Melons, grapes, apples" or whatever was available. The peddler would honk a shrill horn to draw the attention of the whole neigh­borhood, who were all potential buyers. More ambitious peddling involved freighting large amounts of dried fruit to the northern Utah communities, as far as Salt Lake City. Often peddlers also included other goods such as cattle. Once motor­ized trucks became available in the early twentieth century, entrepre­neurs from Santa Clara and St. George began freighting fruit to no HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY The John Gubler family from Santa Clara, selling fruits and vegetables in 1905. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Nellie Gubler) California, where they would sell their goods and buy oranges and other California products to bring back and sell in Utah. They soon learned to include among their wares any product that could be prof­itably traded. Gradually peddling became a full-time effort-deliver­ing fruit, vegetables, cattle, and even alfalfa wherever there was a market, and bringing goods back to sell in southern Utah. Out of this door-to-door, single-family enterprise there gradually emerged the Rocky Mountain Produce Company, with its home base in Santa Clara, as well as the Milne Trucking Line of St. George. Those who raised and dried fruit in the Toquerville area had a wonderful nearby market at Silver Reef. The miners there were ready customers for the grapes, apples, peaches, apricots, vegetables, mel­ons, and wine that the Mormons delivered to the mining camp. County farmers became rather dependent on that lucrative market. Toquerville producers were not the only ones who delivered food to the miners (Leeds farmers did too), but their proximity gave them an advantage in transporting the perishable fruit. When the Silver Reef mines began to close in 1890, Toquerville farmers expanded their STABILITY AND ISOLATION 111 deliveries to Pioche, which had long been advantageously served by vegetable and fruit gardeners of Santa Clara. The trip to Pioche was a week's undertaking which was near the limit that fresh produce could tolerate. It was not unusual for many peddlers to arrive in Pioche simultaneously. Sometimes the Mormons, desperate to unload a wagonful of perishables, undercut each other in selling. This competition became the topic of discus­sion of church leaders who met at the home of Erastus Snow to devise a way to merchandise cooperatively. They organized the Dixie Cooperative Produce Company with David H. Cannon as president and with town representatives from Santa Clara and Washington. It did not take long for Bishop J. T. Willis of Toquerville to respond, expressing deep resentment at the attempt to control the trade. He made it clear that the allotment of one day a week for Toquerville farmers to sell in Pioche was unacceptable. He argued that Toquerville was adapted to very little other than fruit growing; cotton did not work, and their fields were too small for grain. They were dependent on fruit and had become experts in it. They did not feel that their competition could be justifiably limited without destroying the community of fifty families. Uncharacteristically for Mormon group ventures, this protest killed the effort at cooperation. American free enterprise won out.40 Such peddling lasted well into the mid-twentieth century. So-called "independents" were families with small acreage and a truck. They often would haul their produce to California or Las Vegas to sell for money or trade for citrus fruit. Among others, the Spencer Reber family of Santa Clara supported themselves in this manner. Beginning in March they thinned and weeded carrots and onions. All family members labored at this and other farming activities when their time allowed. In May they harvested radishes, rinsing them in the irrigation ditch. Towards the end of June the onions, carrots, and some of the row crops were ready. They planted tomatoes by late May or early June, at which time apricots and some early varieties of peaches were ready to pick. In early June the Reber family, like oth­ers in Santa Clara, loaded up their truck for the first of several trips to Las Vegas and California. By fall the tomatoes were ready to be picked as were some later varieties of peaches. Spencer Reber, Jr. recalls that II2 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY most of the thinning, weeding, and harvesting was hard work and that some of it was unpleasant. "Even the most disagreeable aspects (such as the itching and smarting caused by peach fuzz) we were able to joke and laugh about," he adds. Transportation of the harvest of fruits and vegetables to Las Vegas or California was critical to the success of the independent peddlers. Boxes and crates were carefully stacked and arranged on the trucks to ensure that the heavy loads would arrive at their destina­tion without incident. Truck loading was generally done late in the evening. Before the crack of dawn, recalls Spencer, Jr., his father would start for Las Vegas, which usually took nearly four hours of hard driving. The first test of the heavily laden trucks came with the climb over Utah Hill in the Beaver Dam Mountains. Spencer recalls one memorable incident: One time we were unsuccessful in selling all of our load. We had about 50 or 60 lugs of peaches left. It was one of those rare days when there were thunder storms moving across the desert. On our way home mid-afternoon, we came upon a line of stranded cars, a flash flood in California was running over the highway. As more cars joined the line forming behind us, people started walking up the road past our truck to see the flood. I climbed up in the back of the open stake bed truck and picked out a big red juicy peach and started to eat it. A guy asked me where I got it-that is all it took. Within a few minutes, we sold every peach we had and at considerably more money than we could have gotten in Vegas. When the peaches were all gone, Dad pulled the truck out of line onto the oncoming lane (which had no traffic because of the flood), drove up to the edge of die water, then to everyone's sur­prise, drove right across. The water just came up to the running boards, but was so muddy, the people unfamiliar with the road could't tell it was so shallow.42 Mining The Mormons initiated some mining efforts, such as the iron mines near Cedar City. They also promoted coal mining in several locations in the state and the first copper mining at Bingham Canyon near Salt Lake as well as salt and lead enterprises. Once mining for STABILITY AND ISOLATION 113 gold and silver became the preserve of Colonel Connor and his sol­diers at Fort Douglas in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young strongly advised the Latter-day Saints to avoid the mines. He did not want the faithful to take up residence in mining boom towns where the lifestyle was much different from their "Kingdom of God." He also saw in mining a boom-and-bust cycle that could draw people from agriculture, ruining farms that could not easily be reclaimed when the mines came to their inevitable bust. Silver Reef in Washington County was a case in point. According to Paul Dean Proctor and Morris Shirts, it was a Mormon, John Kemple, who originally discovered mineral riches in the Silver Reef area.43 He arrived at Harrisburg in 1866 with prospecting equipment and lived there off and on until 1871, spending a good part of that time in Nevada. Conventional wisdom at the time said that silver could not be found in sandstone, but Kemple, a seasoned prospector, noticed coloring in the sandstone that convinced him to challenge that long-held view. He did not pursue the possibility immediately; in fact, he went back and forth to Nevada before filing his first claim at Harrisburg in 1871. He included many of the local residents of the town as well as St. George leaders E. G. Woolley, Richard I. Bendey, James Andrews, and Erastus Snow, in his Union Mining District, as he called his organization; but he did not begin mining at that time. He returned to Harrisburg in 1874 and reorganized his company as the Harrisburg Mining District, filed under the new federal mining law of 1872. Mormons claimed most of the land that later became Silver Reef, but they couldn't hold on to it. Once silver was assayed in ore from Silver Reef, the secret could not be contained. Miners in Pioche heard the rumor and bullied their way to the site. Others filed claims, including Mormons, but they were soon jump-filed or outsmarted by outsiders. Mormons John Ferris and Elijah Thomas, for example, found ore that seemed promising but lost control of the ore in the assaying process. Once the possibility of a find was known, the rush was on. The Walker Brothers, merchants in Salt Lake City, sent William Tecumseh Barbee to Silver Reef in June 1875. A seasoned miner in the Ophir mining area in eastern Tooele County of northwestern Utah, he was soon convinced of the significance of the unlikely find. 114 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Barbee then publicized the discovery in the Salt Lake Tribune which set off a genuine rush. It soon became clear that Barbee intended to build a city, sell lots, establish merchandising, and become wealthy from the incoming fortune seekers. He laid out a proposed "Bonanza City," but most miners felt his lots were too expensive, so they lived in tents and huts instead. Barbee nonetheless became wealthy from his mining claims. Much of the ore taken from Silver Reef was freighted to Pioche, Nevada, for smelting-a fact which also advertised the Silver Reef finds. By the end of 1876, a thousand people were living in the newly christened city of Silver Reef. A fair number were former residents of Pioche. The town soon developed the atmosphere of a mining boom town with saloons, dance halls, grocery stores, restaurants, Masonic and Oddfellows halls, banks, telegraph office, barber shop, Chinese laundries, boarding houses, homes, and a Catholic church and hos­pital. 44 The economic impact of Silver Reef and silver mining on the county was fortuitous. Several important Mormon church construc­tion projects in St. George were coming to an end, resulting in sur­plus labor even as buildings at Silver Reef were needed. Employment opportunities paying hard currency to construction workers were welcomed. Local teamsters also found work, hauling dismantied sil­ver mills from Pioche and Bullionville, Nevada, to Silver Reef. A number of mills including the Steel Arrastra, a crushing mill; the Dupaix and Spicer; the Buckeye or Pioneer; the Leeds; the Christy; the Barbee and Walker; and the Stormont Mill were constructed at the newly organized Harrisburg Mining District. These mills and mines created a tremendous appetite for lumber. The Pine Valley mills supplied much of the lumber for the mills, mines, and commu­nity at Silver Reef. Mount Trumbull on the Arizona Strip also pro­vided lumber for the growing community. Teamsters from Parowan and Cedar City hauled lumber from the sawmills in Iron County, infusing real money into that county as well. During the height of activity at the mining district from 1877 to 1888, the Barbee and Walker Mine, the Leeds, Leeds Number 2, McNally, Nichols, Newton, South, and other mines produced thou­sands of dollars worth of silver. It is estimated that from 1875 to STABILITY AND ISOLATION 115 1910, when the last efforts were made to extract silver from the sand­stone, some $7.9 million worth of silver had been mined from the district.45 One did not have to be in the employ of the mines or in resi­dence in the wide-open town to reap benefits. The peddling skills that the Mormons had developed to deliver foodstuffs and lumber to Pioche were most useful, and it was much easier to deliver to nearby Silver Reef. Leeds, with a population of 280, and Harrisburg, with fifty-one residents, were much smaller than Silver Reef with its pop­ulation of 1,046, but they thrived as suppliers of foodstuffs. Nearby Toquerville, with 371 people, joined in with fervor. The proximity of these towns did not stop other enterprising peddlers from Washington, St. George, and Santa Clara from marketing their pro­duce at the Reef for cash. The rise of Silver Reef was a major challenge to the isolation of Dixie. In fact, there was some real concern among Mormon leaders that mining would do to Dixie what it had done to Salt Lake City- wrest exclusive political and economic control from the Latter-day Saints. When the very first rumors of a strike began to circulate, local leaders spoke out. Charles Walker reflected their attitude in his diary: There is at this time considerable excitement among some of the Brethren concerning silver mines and some are foolishly neglect­ing their legitimate business and are hunting all over the hills and mountains endeavoring to find precious metals, contrary to the counsel of those over them in the holy Priesthood.46 Relations with the gentiles at Silver Reef were cautious. One well-known exception was a friendship that developed between John Menzies Macfarlane of St. George and Reverend Lawrence Scanlan, the Catholic priest in Silver Reef. Macfarlane was a surveyor (also a musician and a judge) and was often employed in Silver Reef. He lived at the same boarding house as the Catholic priest. The two con­versed at length and became respectful of each other. In one conver­sation they discovered a mutual problem. Father Scanlan wanted to celebrate high mass with a choir for his congregation. His church, St. John's, was unfinished and he had no choir. Macfarlane proposed that the mass be held in the St. George LDS Tabernacle where he was the 116 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY choir director of a thirty-voice ensemble. Scanlan was hesitant. Macfarlane explored the idea and won over Erastus Snow and stake president John D. T. McAllister. Arrangements were agreed upon. The choir took two weeks to learn the mass in Latin from a piece of music provided by the priest. On 25 May 1879 the memorable event occurred. Many Catholics traveled to St. George for the service, but at least as many in the con­gregation were curious Mormons. Father Scanlan is reported to have started by saying, "I think you are wrong and you think I am wrong, but this should not prevent us from treating each other with due con­sideration and respect."47 The cultural distance between Silver Reef and St. George gave rise to several interesting relationships. A favorite area folktale describes how Mormons infiltrated the town. Federal agents pursuing Mormon polygamists thought Silver Reef was a safe haven in a sea of Mormons. Wilma Beal reported: Because Silver Reef was mainly a non-Mormon town, federal officers worked from there in conducting raids on the Mormon polygamists. These raids were called "Polyg hunts" and proved very unsuccessful because of a fortunate arrangement between the telegraph operator at Silver Reef and the one in St. George, both Mormons. The marshals traveled mostly at night so they could not be seen. They would send word to Mr. Huston [a store operator] they would arrive at his stables at a certain hour and would like to get a fresh team quickly to take them to St. George or some other town in Dixie. A very innocent sounding message would be sent to a St. George furniture store where the telegraph office was located. The message would read "Send two chairs." This meant that officers were in Silver Reef preparing for a raid. St. George would warn neighboring towns and by the time the "Polyg hunters" reached the Mormon towns, the polygamists would be far away.48 Silver Reef was not the only mining location in Washington County, but it was the only significant mining town. Prospectors roamed over much of the county and adjacent territory. The discov­eries of copper ore in several locations were the most productive finds. Ninety miles south of St. George in Mohave County, Arizona, STABILITY AND ISOLATION 117 copper was mined successfully at the Grand Gulch Mine beginning in 1878. Dixie men worked there, as they also did at the Apex Mine west of St. George starting in 1890. The ever active Woolley, Lund and Judd firm gained control of the Apex Mine and built a smelter in St. George on Diagonal Street. The United Order The coming of "outside" influences such as mining stimulated much thought in Brigham Young's mind. He had plenty of warning about the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in Utah and was concerned that it would secularize the Mormon kingdom. His reflex was to support the coming of the railroad, but he wanted to limit its secularizing influence. When the nation-wide panic of 1873 came, he and others could see the negative impact of being dependent on imports. It seemed like a good time to reinforce the concept of isola­tion, of being self-sufficient. As he traveled to southern Utah for the winter Brigham Young consulted with colony leaders. Many encouraged him in his exploratory questions. He was impressed with the success of the cooperative activities of Lorenzo Snow and the Latter-day Saints in Brigham City, especially their ability to weather the 1873 panic. He harkened back to the communal economic ideas of the early Mormon church in Kirtland, Ohio. He chose St. George as the place to launch the so-called United Order.49 On 17 February 1874 Brigham Young, with support from Erastus Snow, John W. Young, and George A. Smith, organized the United Order of St. George. They took great care in writing the incorporat­ing document because it was the first of many that would be based upon it. Three hundred families signed the Articles of Agreement which became a prototype for many united orders throughout the territory. The order was essentially a communitarian system: partici­pants contributed their possessions and labor to the general order, receiving in return from its holdings what they needed to live on. The 1878 Record of Incorporation for Washington gives a realis­tic picture of the situation. It lists the personal property (not land) of each participating family including wagons, animals, and farm equipment and their dollar value: 118 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY John W. Freeman Neils Sorensen John E. Pace G. W. G. Averett Aaron Nelson John P. Chidester Henry Harriman $224.51 200.00 100.00 211.95 100.00 100.00 100.32 A. R. Whitehead Robert F. Goold Peter Neilsen Chapman Duncan W. L. Jolley John W. Smith James Hodges $251.40 100.00 325.00 100.25 100.00 135.00 79.0050 From the beginning, the project was undertaken with more enthusiasm from the top than the bottom although idealism existed on all levels-there was genuine support for utopianism in Mormonism. The concept appealed to many, but even in that first meeting, the vote was not unanimous. The Saints probably most accepted the idea of stability that the order projected. Most enjoyed the idea of independence from the nation's economy; they were proud of their homespun and their agriculture, but making the plan work was hard from the very first day. Orson Huntsman's diary from Hebron and Enterprise presents a view from the remote villages: This order of things caused much talk and excitement among the people, some meeting it with joy and some with sorrows, some approving of it, some disapproving of i t . . .. Sometimes I thought that I should like this order of things very well and at other times thought I should not like it very well, and in some things the United Order was better and in some it was not as good. We had been in the habit of plowing a little land here 8c there for wheat, corn and potatoes but this spring the best pieces of land adapted for wheat. All hands go to work, plant all the land in one field that would do for wheat was planted, and the same was done with corn and potatoes, large patches of land was planted in a day, so that our crops all had the same chance to grow and all came off at the same time There seems to be a spirit of fault finding and of speculation growing among the people through the whole land of Zion. Those that had little authority and those that had put a little more means into the order than some others had done wanted it to stay in there, they seem to think a laboring man could live without any­thing, while they themselves think because they put in means to STABILITY AND ISOLATION 119 the order they could have plenty and do nothing. The Lord has said, "the laborer is worthy of his hire." There seemed to be so much fault finding, I think through jealousy, on the part of the Bishop and a few others against Bro. Terry. He worked along, stood it as long as he could, until the sec­ond day of July then resigned as supt. and drew out of the United Order entirely and had nothing more to do with it.... Sept 15 As I have said, I went to the bishop to see if he could do anything for me, as I and my family were getting quite destitute for clothing. My Indian moccasins were about gone, but he said, as he had said many times, that he could not help me, so I told him I was about through with the United Order, also, and I had never seen a time in my life that I could not get a little something for my family to live on, and that I would try it again. This month or the close of this year about ends the United Order with most of the settlements of Zion. A very few towns or branches of the church work in the order for several years. But for Hebron and some others, it proved to be about ten months of experience and disunion.51 The Hebron story was similar to other experiences throughout Dixie. Exhortations and idealism for the united orders did not weather more than a year. Harmony or Conflict? The isolation of the area Latter-day Saints in their remote corner of the world meant that they were generally left to themselves to resolve conflicts as they arose. The cooperative nature of their highly organized society promoted a general harmony, but sometimes the very closeness and small numbers created difficulties. Since author­ity was an accepted principle throughout the county, one would expect that harmony was implemented through leadership. And it was. Considerable effort was expended to resolve disagreements and prevent open conflict. Many institutions were devoted to that end- families, ward congregations, town governments, canal companies. The records of the Hebron LDS Ward give a good example of how one Mormon village in the county maintained harmony and smoothed out conflicts which may have occurred in business deal­ings, water use, and land disagreements. At a meeting of the ward 120 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY held in October 1872, J. Pulsipher reported on "some misunder­standings with Bro. Terry and others in matters of business which was investigated til dark when a better understanding was arrived at."52 What does this record tell us? First, it is clear that fellow mem­bers (ward teachers) were assigned to visit all the members regularly. Second, they reported what they found to the bishop. In this case they found some ill feelings on the part of Terry. His concerns dealt with secular matters rather than religious ones, but the teachers felt compelled to urge harmony on that topic as well. This reflects the lack of separation between the secular and the sacred among the Latter-day Saints as well as their desire for community harmony. Terry, now bishop, spoke in a priesthood meeting on 2 March 1878 of his trip north and his concern. There he had heard of a mem­ber of the church "going to Law" with another member. He urged that any differences be handled without going to courts of law. A few weeks later Bishop Terry asked D. M. Tyler to report on his atten­dance at stake conference in St. George. Tyler detailed a sermon by local stake president John D. T. McAllister about settling difficulties and stressing that backbiting "should not be countenanced among Latter-day Saints."53 One obvious instrument of conflict resolution was municipal government. St. George City was the most highly organized of those in the county, and a perusal of the city council records shows that die community was immediately and extensively organized almost as soon as the settlers arrived. A city council was elected with Angus M. Cannon as mayor and treasurer, Orson Pratt, Jr., W. E. Dodge, and Jacob Gates as councilors, and Easton Kelsey and Benjamin F. Pendleton as aldermen. This membership changed rather often, but Mayor Cannon remained as a stable force for his full term. Other city officers included James G. Bleak, recorder; William Fawcett, water master; Hosea Stout, city attorney; John Pymm, cemetery sexton; John Oakley, auditor; Albert Tyler, pound keeper; Stephen R. Wells, streets supervisor; Israel Ivins, city surveyor; D. H. Cannon, tax col­lector; and Daniel D. McArthur and later Ute Perkins, town marshal. All were expected to submit quarterly reports to the council. When they failed to do so, they were summoned to the next meeting. The city council functioned by means of a formal procedure as STABILITY AND ISOLATION 121 though its members had long been familiar with Robert's Rules of Order and established civic government. As proposals came to them, they delegated them to subcommittees made up of council members, who investigated the matters and reported back within a few days with a proposed resolution, which was usually adopted. The council devoted much of its time to allocating water and land, promoting street improvements, regulating the production and sale of liquor, trying to get people to accept appointments to labor in the service of the city, and authorizing expenditures. Some comments in the city record capture the role the city fathers set for themselves. The 17 May 1862 entry reads: "The mayor suggested that measures be adopted to prevent the rapid riding of horses in the streets of the city; and also to prevent swearing. Referred to the committee on the care and disposition of stock." This issue proved to be a sticky one; there was not much enthusiasm for having the city government be disciplinarian instead of families. Three weeks later (7 June 1862) the record states: "Councilor Gates from the Committee on the Control and disposition of Stock stated that the Committee deemed it best to leave the matter in the hands of the Bishops. The matter was discussed, Prest. Snow and Bp Gardner tak­ing part in the discussion of the question. It was referred back to the committee." Though most of the actions of the city council were devoted to building an infrastructure such as roads, ditches, cemetery, and plant­ing shade trees, many of their activities were focused on resolving dif­ferences and disciplining infractions. For example, there was a major disagreement about controlling the water in the Santa Clara River. When St. George City was incorporated by the territorial legislature, it was given control over the Santa Clara River. Prior to that 1861 date, there were already people living in communities along the river-from Pine Valley at the source, southwestward to Gunlock and then Santa Clara farther south, and finally to Tonaquint at the junc­tion with the Virgin River. The citizens of these communities were of the opinion that they had priority in the use of the water. This super-imposition of a large population at St. George with a well-organized council government was a major threat to the earlier settlers, and much of the St. George Council time was devoted to hearings with 122 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY residents along the Santa Clara. The issue was a continuing one, with Santa Clara residents feeling they were being slighted. Another focus of the council could be said to have aimed at pre­venting conflict. This was the matter of "Spiritous alcohol." The council decided at its inception to control the manufacture and sale of whiskey which became a city monopoly. The city record includes reports on manufacture and sales of liquor, with responsibility shift­ing among several people. For example, Hosea Stout reported that he sold fifty-six gallons of whiskey during a four-month period-about a half-gallon a day. One visible dimension of the system of authority was Mormon church leadership. From top to bottom there were authority figures. At the top in Washington County were apostles Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow. Both refrained from direct political activity in the county, yet they coordinated the secular and the sacred. Neither of them was elected as a city or county official; however, they often attended the city council meetings and on occasion the council referred matters to them to be settled. For example, on 1 May 1865 Judge James D. McCullough asked the city council to designate a piece of land for a courthouse. The council took the request under advisement. On 20 May the council appointed Alderman Daniel D. McArthur and Councilor Jacob Gates to meet with Apostle Erastus Snow about such a site as well as one for a city hall. On 1 July a coun­cilman reported that they were not yet ready to report, but on 19 August he announced that a site for the courthouse had been selected on the southeast corner of the block where it stands today.54 Evidentiy what we would call long range planning was in the hands of the ecclesiastical leader. Life at the top was not always harmonious. It is clear that Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow occasionally disagreed. Both were two strong personalities. Pratt was the senior, yet Snow seemed to take the ini­tiative. This appeared early as the 1861 company reached the bottom of the Black Ridge. Pratt was not enthusiastic about the site Brigham Young had selected for St. George between the two lava-covered mesas. He likely knew of the sickness of the people in nearby Washington and argued for going to higher ground, up the Virgin River toward Rockville where the air and water would be healthier. STABILITY AND ISOLATION 123 Snow insisted on settling the site announced by Brigham Young. Pratt left the company and went on to Rockville where he lived for a few months. Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow soon resolved their differences and Pratt moved to St. George. There he built one of the finest homes in the city and participated in civic and religious activities; however, he remained for only three years before accepting a mission call to Europe. Evidently he encouraged church president Young to issue that call. Some have felt that Orson Pratt was more comfortable as a missionary than as a pioneer. The middle-level leaders were also influential and visible, partic­ularly the bishops. Most communities had a bishop selected by Erastus Snow and sustained by the ward members. The apostle fre­quently invited members of the local congregation to nominate or advise in the selection process. Generally the bishops were very responsible and were clearly respected. They were lay leaders, serving mainly without remuneration and were expected to support them­selves and their families while being models for their brethren. Their tasks were both spiritual and temporal, presiding over the religious meetings of their congregation (ward) as well as being deeply involved in helping the poor, arbitrating disputes, collecting tithes, enlisting volunteer labor for the many projects of pioneering, and especially being the local agent of the stake president and apostles, and even the church president who often sent heavy assignments the bishop's way. It was not uncommon for a local bishop to serve a decade or more in this demanding calling. Problems sometimes arose when "outsiders" settled among the Latter-day Saints. Utah society was structured so that bishop's courts handled matters. One tale is told of a young man who moved to Washington City from Silver Reef. His lack of social skills was evi­dently considerable and parents urged young women to avoid his attention. In this case the parents' admonitions were warranted because he was able to attract a young lady's affections and soon made her pregnant. Bishop Covington called the young man in for counsel and made it clear that he would be expected to marry the young lady. The youth showed no inclination to do so or to listen to the bishop. The bishop called him before a bishop's court and had the 124 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY same result. The dashing youth saw no reason to recognize the eccle­siastical court. Covington then sought counsel of Apostle Erastus Snow. The presiding leader asked the bishop to reconvene the court. The young man reappeared but still with a confident air of being beyond authority. Snow sat in the back of the room quietiy listening to the proceedings until Covington called on him. He went forward, looked the young man squarely in the eye and asked him if he was sorry for his action. The youth responded no differentiy than he had to the bishop, giving an air that he felt in command of the situation. Snow is reported to have said without agitation, "Young man, if one of these men here doesn't kill you, I will have to do it myself." The youth reportedly left the county within the evening.55 There were sometimes people who had disagreements with their bishops and on rare occasions the majority clashed with their local ecclesiastical leader. In Gunlock, for example, the members were not happy with their bishop, J. S. Huntsman. Numerous criticisms were levied against him, particularly that he did not give his calling enough attention. Erastus Snow met with the Gunlock Latter-day Saints and all agreed to be more patient with each other. That lasted only a short time, however; eventually the bishop decided to leave town rather than face the continuing rejection.56 A contrasting tale involved a clash between the Swiss Mormons in Santa Clara and neighboring cattlemen. The Swiss were expert growers of vegetables and fruits. They became increasingly angry with the freewheeling cattlemen who could not keep their stock from invading the Swiss gardens. The conflicting lifestyles provided con­tinuing clashes. Add to that the ethnic slurs that were often directed at the Swiss immigrants and soon Erastus Snow had a full-sized con­flict on his hands. Snow called young Edward Bunker from Toquerville to be the bishop in Santa Clara. Bunker quickly came to a solution of having the community fence the Swiss lands with the rancher's help, something they could not have done alone. For the majority in Santa Clara this settled the matter, but at least one Swiss Saint became increasingly disillusioned. Heinrich Hug, a German-speaking Swiss, had joined the church in the 1850s in his home canton, Zurich. In 1858 he immigrated to Utah and was called in the 1861 mission group to southern Utah. He was part of the STABILITY AND ISOLATION 125 eighty-five member Swiss company that settled in Santa Clara. For a decade Hug struggled, sacrificed, and held ranks with his fellow resi­dents. His journal and especially his poetry portray his inner ten­sions. Hug became increasingly disenchanted with the authoritarian nature of the church leadership in Dixie. He was discouraged with the climate and the difficult challenges for making a living, but he also chafed at the discrimination the Swiss experienced. He had been a man of trust and leadership in the church in Switzerland, a real pil­lar. In southern Utah the Swiss seemed not to be valued; none were called to leadership positions. Hug felt that the Swiss took these insults as placid followers. The conflict over water rights between Santa Clara and St. George particularly irritated him, seeming to be the final cause of his complete break with the faith. His poetry became strident, his dreams crushed. In 1879 Hug, his wife, and chil­dren left Utah and moved to Oregon, severing their ties with Mormonism.57 Not all conflicts were resolved amicably. There were many frustrations about water. For example, a group of St. George farmers agreed to close several acres to irrigation in the west fields in order to divert the water to more promising fields on the east side of town. The closure was to prevent spreading the water too thin on all sides. A difficult situation arose in the Harrisburg/ Leeds area. Harrisburg's water supply was always tenuous. Some sea­sons the creek flow was too low to meet minimal needs. Whether this was the only cause or not, the people in Harrisburg fell into argu­ments. Priddy Meeks felt he was under personal attack and left the town, moving to Orderville. Several other families moved north four miles to Leeds, but there the disputes resurfaced. A similar problem arose in Hebron over the rights to Shoal Creek water. Proposals by a group of citizens to build a reservoir were crit­icized by other Hebron residents, including the bishop. The reservoir nevertheless was completed through the heroic devotion of a few determined crusaders. Finally, an arbitration involving the stake pres­idency resolved the water claims resulting from diversion of the water with the dam. A combination of drought and other discouragements eventually convinced most residents of Hebron to move to Enterprise. An earthquake in November 1902 confirmed their deci­sion to move by ruining most of the brick homes in Hebron. 126 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Washington County at Statehood The isolation that kept Dixie away from the mainstream and wealth would dominate Washington County for nearly a century. The Arizona Strip and Virgin River Gorge were southern barriers to travel into the county. The Black Ridge made travel very difficult from the north. The gorge of the Colorado River and the Colorado Plateau guarded the east. The Utah Hill challenged travel to the west. The population of the county would remain isolated but fairly stable, growing slowly. The values that helped settlers achieve stability would be cherished and would enable the region to mesh gradually with the larger American society. In 1892 historian Andrew Jenson visited southern Utah, inspect­ing each LDS ward. He held meetings with each congregation and collected historical documents for the Mormon church archives in Salt Lake City. The Deseret Weekly included Jenson's summary of his seven-week journey in Washington County, describing each commu­nity and giving a church census. Jenson reported that there were 4,658 Latter-day Saints in the St. George Stake, which included all of Washington County, the Arizona Strip, and part of Lincoln County, Nevada (Panaca and Pioche). Statistics were given for each of the twenty-one wards and several branches. Non-members were not included, so the Protestant mis­sionaries, the few remaining miners in Silver Reef, and the consider­able number in Pioche did not appear in his data. Similarly with Indians; many were baptized members of the church and were included, but those who were not members were not counted. Jenson noted that several towns including Washington had declined in population and that Silver Reef had nearly disappeared. The dam being constructed above Washington was the big hope for both Washington and St. George. The destruction of farmlands from floods was the plight of many towns, causing some people to seek opportunities elsewhere, he said. Jenson concluded that life in Dixie was still a challenge, but he shared the expectation of the local resi­dents that they were eventually going to win the battle for a stable water supply-a vision that would soon be fulfilled by the comple- STABILITY AND ISOLATION 127 tion of the Washington Dam, the Enterprise Reservoir, and the La Verkin and Hurricane canals, all within a dozen years of his writing.58 As with towns throughout he rest of the territory, Dixie commu­nities were poised for statehood in January 1896. The Union of 11 January 1896 reported the celebration of 6 January. The people of the territory celebrated in their usual manner-meetings in the morn­ing and dances thereafter. Speakers in the tabernacle included Ashby Snow, Daniel D. McArthur, D. H. Cannon, and Reverend G. M. Hardy of the Presbyterian church. James G. Bleak prayed with gratitude for the long-awaited statehood and John G. McQuarrie read the state­hood proclamation from the president of the United States. Martha Keat gave a recitation as did Francis Higgins. A song composed for the occasion by Charles Lowell Walker, "The Star of Utah," and other music was performed by the St. George Tabernacle Choir directed by Joseph W. McAllister. The local brass, martial, and string bands per­formed and bells rang at the tabernacle and the Presbyterian church. In the afternoon there were dances, first for the children under ten years of age, then for those from ten to sixteen. In the evening every­one was invited to dances in two locations. All were joyous that admission to the Union had at last been accomplished. ENDNOTES 1. Diary of Charles Lowell Walkerl: 349. 2. Andrew Karl Larson, J Was Called to Dixie, 638. 3. James G. Bleak, "Annals of the Southern Utah Mission," Book A, 178. 4. The census figures were taken from the official U.S. Census records of 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The census of 1890 is not available. These were made available on microfilm at the LDS Family History Center in St. George. Print copies were also consulted at the Salt Lake City Public Library, main branch. 5. W. Paul Reeve, "Hurricane, Utah Community Building, 1906-1920. A People's View," paper delivered at the Mormon History Association in Park City, April 1994. See also Reeve, "A Little Oasis in the Desert: Hurricane, Utah, 1860-1920." Utah Historical Quarterly 62 (Summer 1994): 222-45. 6. Two fine books give insight into these communities. Charles Peterson analyzed the story of those who moved to the Little Colorado River 128 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY settlements-St. Johns, Snowflake, Brigham City, St. Joseph, Holbrook, Woodruff, Taylor, Springville, and Sunset-in the 1880s. His book Take Up Your Mission (Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, 1973) focuses on Snowflake. Jennifer Moulton Hansen has published the letters of her grand­mother who grew up in St. George, married Miles Park Romney there, then followed him as his third wife to the Little Colorado and later to the Mexican colonies before returning to Dixie after his death. Her letters give a classic example of the tie to Dixie and an "inside" view of a polygamous marriage; see Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, Plural Wife (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992). 7. Deseret News 1866 vol. 16,246. Also Reeve, "Hurricane," 8. 8. Reeve, "Hurricane," 8-9. 9. Dean L. May, Lee L. Bean, and Mark H. Skolnick, "The Stability Ratio: An Index of Community Cohesiveness in Nineteenth Century Mormon Towns," in Generations and Change: Genealogical Perspectives in Social History, ed. Robert M. Taylor, Jr., and Ralph J. Crandall (Macon, GA.: Mercer University Press, 1986). See also Dean May, Three Frontiers: Family, Land and Society in the American West 1850-1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994). This study compares a Mormon village (Alpine, Utah), with an Idaho and an Oregon frontier town. 10. Larry Logue estimated a higher percentage of those practicing polygamy, 34 percent, in St. George by corroborating the census records with family group sheets in genealogical records, verifying names of deceased polygamous partners and other details. See A Sermon in the Desert (Urbana: Illinois University Press, 1988), 49. 11. Bleak, "Annals," I 84, 92, 95. 12. Lawrence L. Linford, "Establishing and Maintaining Land Owner­ship in Utah Prior to 1869," Utah Historical Quarterly 42 (Spring 1974): 126-43. See also Allan G. Bogue, "An Agricultural Empire" in The Oxford History of the American West, ed. Clyde Milner II, Carol O'Connor, and Martha Sandweiss (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 293. 13. Linford, "Establishing and Maintaining," 137. 14. Lawrence B. Lee, "Homesteading in Zion." Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (January 1960): 28-38. 15. Walker, Diary, I: 323, 325. 16. Larson, The Red Hills of November, 82-84. 17. Larson, J Was Called to Dixie, 244. 18. Annie Atkin Tanner, "My Shining Valley, St. George, Utah 1891-1972," unpublished manuscript, Dixie College Archives. 19. Levi Savage, Journal 1887-1903, Dixie College Archives. STABILITY AND ISOLATION 129 20. Bleak, "Annals," Book A, 269. The settlements temporarily aban­doned were Grafton, Gunlock, Duncan's Retreat, Dalton, Mountain Dell, Schunesburg, Northrop, Springdale, Clover Valley, and Long Valley. 21. Walker, Diary I: 275. 22. Ibid., I, 324. An earlier account of such negotiations appears in Bleak's "Annals," 248, describing a peace meeting of sixty-seven Indian chiefs and forty-four of their followers at St. Joseph on the Muddy River. 23. Ibid., 406. 24. Louise Leavitt Engstrom, "Island in the Stream: Anderson's Ranch 1884-1984," unpublished manuscript, Dixie College Archives. 25. Larry Logue, Sermon In the Desert: Belief and Behavior in Early St. George (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. 72ff. See also A. K. Hafen, Devoted Empire Builders (St. George: privately published, 1969). 26. Mary Ann Hafen, Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860 (Denver: privately published, 1980), 61-62, 79-80. 27. Leonora Atkin Meeks, "John Nock Hinton: The Reconstructed Life of an English Born Mormon Convert of Virgin City, Utah," Masters thesis, Brigham Young University, 1987, 94. 28. "Memories of Alice Parker Isom and George Isom, 1838-1923," unpublished manuscript, Dixie College Archives. 29. Logue, Sermon, 97. 30. Wesley Larson, "Indian and Pioneer Medicine in Utah Territory: 1847-1900," unpublished manuscript, Dixie College Archives. 31. Martha Spence Heywood, Nor By Bread Alone, The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850-56, ed. Juanita Brooks, (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1978), 116. 32. Walker, Diary, I, 466. 33. Kerry William Bate, "John Steele: Medicine Man, Magician, Mormon Patriarch," Utah Historical Quarterly 62 (Winter 1994) 74-75. See also Bart Anderson, "A Look Back-Old Time Medicine," The Daily Spectrum, 28 August 1983. 34. Vicky Schreiter, "Early Midwives of Southern Utah," Gregerson Collection, 1982, Dixie College Archives. 35. Hazel Bradshaw, "St. George," in Under the Dixie Sun, 304. 36. Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 330. See also John D. Lee, "Writings of John D. Lee," Agriculture File, Dixie College Archives. 37. Larson, J Was Called to Dixie, 329-33. 38. Washington County News, 14 September 1908. 39. Larson, J Was Called to Dixie, 336. 130 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 40. Ibid., 264-65. 41. "Spencer J. Reber History (Part 1) 1927-1977," Dixie College Archives, 21-27. 42. Ibid. 43. Paul Dean Proctor and Morris A. Shirts, Silver, Sinners and Saints, A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah (n.p., Paulmar, 1991), 27-29. 44. Wilma C. Beal, My Story of Silver Reef (1987), 7-17. 45. Paul Dean Proctor, Geology of the Silver Reef/Harrisburg Mining District (Bulletin 44 Utah Geological and Mineralogical Survey 1953), 70-77. 46. Walker, Diary, I: 330. 47. Proctor and Shirts, Si7ver, Sinners and Saints, 90. 48. Beal, My Story, 12-13. 49. Leonard Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 326-29. 50. Probate Court of Washington County, A. R. Whitehead, Clerk. 77. The typed copy is on pp. 96-98 and puts the date 1874. 51. Orson Huntsman, Diary, vol. I: 80-87. 52. Hebron [Ward] Record, 1,4; copy in possession of Heber Jones. 53. Ibid., II, 127. 54. "Record of Minutes of City Council of City of St. George," 1862 - 1872, Dixie College Archives. 55. Andrew Karl Larson, Erastus Snow (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1971), 561-62. See also Nels Anderson, Desert Saints (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942), 339. 56. William Ellis Jones, Journal, 48, Dixie College Archives. 57. Douglas F. Tobler, "Heinrich Hug and Jacob Tobler: From Switzerland to Santa Clara, 1854-1880," Dialogue26 (Winter 1993): 104-28. 58. Andrew Jenson, "In Southern Utah," Deseret Weekly (Salt Lake City), 16 July 1892.