A few days later, a number of the missionaries under Allen, pushed on to the south among the Virgin River Indians.[37] On June 5, they descended Ash Creek and encountered a group of Indians near the present site of Toquerville. They made friends with the Indian Chief Toquer (meaning black, probably from the lava rocks) and bargained with him to send a runner to the neighboring Indians to arrange for a meeting with them. They moved on next day and met the other Indians at the present site of the old Washington Fields on the south side of the river.
These Indians were in a surly mood and had hidden their squaws and papooses; hence the Mormons were doubtful of their reception. However, one of them hunted up a hidden papoose and gave him a small pocket mirror which the child showed to the squaws. The trinket so pleased them that they all came out of hiding and quickly made friends with the whites.
The missionaries proceeded thence to the Santa Clara River by way of a trail north of the present site of St. George. Here they made friends with the Indians and laid the foundation for the establishment of a mission. The remainder returned to headquarters at Harmony, but Jacob Hamblin and William Henefer remained for some time on the Santa Clara working with the Indians and visiting others farther upstream. They did not reach Harmony until July.
On June 21, 1854, a party of six under the leadership of David Lewis went west from Harmony to Mountain Meadows, down the Santa Clara and thence back over the mountains. On the trip, they preached to the Indians and baptized one hundred and nineteen into the Mormon Church, advising them thereafter not to steal or fight, but to learn Mormon ways of living. Two Indians were sent as messengers to the Muddy River Indians in Nevada, “To tell them we would come among them if they wanted us.”[38]
The settlers at Harmony found a better location a few miles farther upstream on Ash Creek and during the summer of 1854 moved thither, calling it New Harmony. They built a fort there that fall. The missionaries in the Virgin and Santa Clara valleys found their remoteness inconvenient; accordingly a settlement was made on the Santa Clara where they could live among the Indians, and on December 1, Jacob Hamblin, Thales Haskell, Ira Hatch, Samuel Knight and A. P. Hardy established the nucleus of a permanent colony. Two weeks later Rufus Allen and Hyrum Burgess left Harmony for Tonaquint on the Santa Clara near its junction with the Virgin River where they built three log cabins. The missionaries helped the Indians construct substantial dams and ditches for diverting irrigation water. The first dam across the Santa Clara Creek, built in 1855, was a feat which aroused much enthusiasm among the Indians, five hundred of whom gathered to watch its completion. When the dam (100 feet long and 14 feet high) was finished and the water began to rise and run out, half on one side for the Indians and half on the other for the whites, a great shout of exultation went up from the dusky spectators.
The hard labor and poor nourishment which Jacob Hamblin had endured brought on a spell of sickness. To procure medicines and proper food for him, Gus Hardy went to Parowan. While there, Mrs. Nancy Anderson, a southerner, asked him about the mission of the Santa Clara and learned of the long, warm growing season. Believing that the climate might be suitable for cotton, she gave him a quart of cotton seed which she had brought with her from her old home. The missionaries planted the seed on the Santa Clara and raised a crop during the summer of 1855. This cotton was carded, spun, and woven into cloth by the women at the mission. Some of this cloth was sent to Salt Lake City and aroused no little interest there. Samples of the cloth even found their way into England and were said to compare favorably with cotton grown elsewhere. This was the beginning of cotton culture there, which finally led to the fuller settlement of the “Utah Dixie” along the Virgin River, much as the iron industry had led to the development of Iron County. Moreover, like the iron industry, it answered a temporary need by supplying clothing when it was impracticable to import cotton.[39]
A sad mishap occurred at the mission late in 1855, when a young Indian living at the home of Thales Haskell, while examining a gun, accidentally shot the missionary’s young wife, Maria Woodbury Haskell. The death, naturally, cast a pall of gloom over the mission.[40]
The missionaries continued their work with the Indians and gained some ascendency over them. This served a useful purpose during the next few years in deterring or preventing Indian thievery and attacks on travelers on the Mormon trail along the upper part of the Santa Clara. Jules Remy, about to leave the Santa Clara on his way to the Pacific coast (November 10, 1855) says: “There was a log hut there made by the Mormon missionaries, who occasionally come to this place to teach the natives farming.” Here a band of Indians crowded around Remy’s camp, causing some alarm. Thinking to impress the Indians, Remy’s party indulged in a little target practice and revealed some expert markmanship. The Indians, not to be outdone, gathered in a line to shoot at a target about a hundred yards distant. At a signal from the chief, the arrows were released in unison and flew to the mark. Remy noticed that even the youngsters were able to hit small birds flying close at hand. The Indians were not intent on injury, but merely on theft, and hoped by their numbers to distract the attention of the whites while they pilfered the camp. The Frenchman, however, proved a match for them.[41]
Another cotton crop matured in 1856. During that year there were further accessions to the missionary colony and a rock fort was built. Though the Indians as a whole were friendly enough, there was always danger lurking and the fort was at least a symbol of safety.
In the spring of 1857, twenty-eight families (160 persons), mostly converts from the South and experienced cotton farmers, were called to go to the Virgin River to undertake cotton culture on a larger scale. They were enthused with the prospect of a warm climate where cotton could be grown and fondly referred to the Virgin Valley as “Utah’s Dixie.” They arrived May 5, 1857, at the present site of Washington and immediately set to work diverting water for irrigation, clearing land, plowing and planting. Hopes of good crops were doomed, however, for the cotton was almost a complete failure. Some became discouraged with the location and scattered, a few families locating at Tonaquint on the Santa Clara just above its junction with the Virgin.[42]