After the floods subsided Old Grafton was abandoned and a new site was selected on the south bank on a higher bench a little farther upstream. The area was surveyed and laid off in town lots and fields. A new ditch costing $5,000 was dug within the next year. The new townsite of Rockville was similarly laid off into lots and fields during the summer of 1862, and an irrigation ditch was completed in time for use during 1863. In the meantime the settlers at Adventure continued to cultivate the land irrigated by their first ditch. At the forks of the river at Northrop, a ditch was built by James Lemon and others to irrigate a stretch of land below the junction of the two forks of the streams. At Shunesburg, the town and fields were surveyed and ditches constructed to divert the water from both Shunes Creek and the east fork of the Virgin.
The known settlers in Adventure included the following: Orson Pratt, Dr. S. A. Kenner, John C. Hall, Henry Stocks, William Ashton, and Elijah Newman. Those at Northrop included James Lemon, Isaac Behunin, and probably Joseph Black. The following went to Shunesburg, all of them having come together from San Pete Valley: Oliver DeMille, Hyrum Stevens, Alma Millett, George Petty, Hardin Whitlock and Charlie Klapper.
Whether anyone was located at Springdale at that time is debatable. E. C. Behunin says that his father, Isaac, stayed at Northrop until after the flood and then moved to Springdale where others had already located. Nevertheless, it is the impression of several early pioneers of the region that Albert Petty was the first settler of Springdale in the fall or winter of 1862-3. It is related that he took his wife to the spot he had selected beside some large springs and asked her to name it. She called it Springdale. It is probable, however, that the lower Springdale irrigation ditch was taken out early in 1862. It is also probable that Joseph Black came with the main group in 1861 despite his journal date of 1862, written in his old age.[49] His parents came in 1861 and it is almost certain that he was with them. He is credited by three different sources with being the first to explore Zion Canyon after the settlers arrived, although he says nothing about it.[50]
When Albert Petty came to Shunesburg, he brought with him the rock grinding stones for a grist mill. Not finding a suitable mill site at Shunesburg, he and his son, George, moved to the newly surveyed town of Springdale where they set up the mill that served as a public utility in grinding the coarse flour for the settlers of the upper Virgin.
The fall of 1862 saw another influx of settlers. Another general “call” for 250 men to go south was issued Sunday, October 19, and many others volunteered to go to Dixie. Charles L. Walker describes the incident in his journal:
Sunday, October 19, 1862.... Went up to the Bowery.... At the close of the meeting, 250 men were called to go to the cotton country. My name was on the list and was read off the stand.
At night I went to a meeting in the Tabernacle of those who had been called. Here I learned a principle that I shan’t forget in a while. It showed me that obedience is a great principle in Heaven and on earth. Well, here I have worked for the last seven years, through heat and cold, hunger and adverse circumstances, and at last have a home and a lot with fruit trees just beginning to bear and look pretty. Well, I must leave it and go and do the will of my Father in Heaven ... and I pray God to give me strength to accomplish that which is required of me.
Monday, October 20, to Wednesday, October 22. Not very well. Working around the home and fixing to dispose of my property.[51]
The spirit of “moving south” had been encouraged by the previous year’s migration and many had become interested, some because of friends or relatives who had preceded them, others because of crop losses or because they were seeking better places to locate. John Langston, who came to Rockville at this time, says in his journal that he had tired of having his crops eaten up by crickets at Alpine, Utah County, so tried farming at Draper. His crops in 1862 were destroyed by flooding of the Jordan River, so he volunteered and was “called” on the mission to settle Dixie.[52]
These recruits enlarged the settlements even to overcrowding. Rockville suddenly expanded by the abandonment of Adventure and the influx of new settlers to a town of nearly thirty families.[53] Shunesburg increased to fifteen or sixteen and the others in proportion.[54] The townsite and fields of early Springdale were surveyed during the fall and winter of 1862-63, and a town of some twenty families was established, with Albert Petty as presiding elder.[55]
With crowded conditions and scanty food supplies, many became discouraged and some left Dixie. Most, however, proved faithful to the “call” and remained to make the settlements permanent.
The settlements were still in a precarious state, the pioneers moving from place to place attempting to find suitable locations, some leaving and others coming, when, in 1864, a church census enumerated 765 persons (129 families), distributed along the upper Virgin River as follows: