Mormon Settlement in Arizona / A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert

by James H. McClintock

Considering the Lamanites

In the entertaining flood of reminiscence that comes from almost any of the devout pioneers, there often is found expression of abiding belief of personal protection extended by Omnipotence. Possibly, save in the development of character by trials and by tribulation, the average pioneer of the faith, from a present viewpoint, would appear to have been little favored, yet thankful devotion ever was present.

One story that indicated celestial intervention in time of danger, has been told by Orson Cluff. He and several brothers and their families were on the road south from Forest Dale to the Gila, and had camped at a point twenty miles south of Fort Apache. In the morning there was the usual prayer, from which the company arose, refreshed in spirit, for another hard day's journey. A short time later, an Indian told how he was a member of a band of redskins that lay in ambush about the Mormon camp that very morning. The work of massacre was about to begin when the intended victims were seen to drop upon their knees and to lift their hands aloft in supplication. The startled Indians were overcome by some mysterious power and stole away. Possibly they feared that potent "medicine" was being made against them, but the Cluffs are sure that the Holy Spirit had descended to save them for further earthly experience.

The Gila Valley saw much of Indian rapine in its earlier days. The section considered in this chapter lies just east of the San Carlos Apache reservation and is flanked on the northward by the White Mountain reservation. When the California Column, under General Carleton, was established in Arizona in 1863, after beating the Confederates back beyond the Rio Grande, it was found necessary to establish military stations in that locality. Camp Goodwin, named after the first Governor of the Territory, was at the lower end of the valley. A number of years after its abandonment, there was established, five miles to the eastward, Camp Thomas, maintained until after the final subjugation of the hostile Indians. Thomas was a veritable guard post for the Mormon settlers. To the southwest was Camp Grant, in the northern extension of the Sulphur Springs Valley, this post a successor to old Camp Grant, which was at the mouth of Aravaipa Creek, at the junction of that stream with the San Pedro River. To the northward was Fort Apache and to the southward Fort Bowie.

The Hostile Chiricahuas

The native Pinaleno Indians of the San Carlos region, while inclined toward spasmodic outbreaks, were not as hostile as their western neighbors, the Mohave and Yuma Apaches. A very dangerous element was added when, in 1876, under direction of the army, Agent John P. Clum moved to San Carlos 325 Indians of the Chiricahua-Apache strain from a reservation in southeastern Arizona. Within a few years, 4500 Indians were concentrated at San Carlos. The Chiricahuas, unsettled and forever yearning to get back to the scene of their marauding along the emigrant road to the southward and in Mexico, constantly were slipping away from the reservation by individuals and by bands, and their highway usually was up the river. In the early eighties the settlers along the Gila lived forever in terror of the savage foe. The military was efficient. Hardriding troopers would dash forth from one or all of the guardian posts whenever danger threatened, and to these same troops undoubtedly is due the fact that general massacres were not known in and around the Gila Valley towns.

Often the Author finds in the manuscripts of personal experiences that have been accumulated by the score in his office, a note indicating the conditions under which the land was settled. There have been attempts in other parts of this work to make clear the fact that the Mormons always tried to be friendly with the Indians and suffered without protest treatment from the aborigines that would have led to the shedding of blood by others. One interesting little item of this sort is in a record contributed by Mrs. W.R. Teeples. She found the Indians on the Gila Hirer in 1879 were friendly, possibly too much so. She wrote, "When I was cooking pancakes over the fire in our camp, the Indians would sit around watching, and they would grab the cakes out of the pan before they were done, so I had to cover the pancakes up to keep them for ourselves."

Mrs. J.N. Stratton wrote of the same period:

"Besides the fear of getting out of food was the greater fear of the Indians. They were on the San Carlos reservation and were supposed to be peaceful, but bands often went out on the warpath and spread terror throughout the country, so the people never knew what to expect from them. The mesquite and sage brush were so thick where Safford's streets and houses are now, that one could only see a little distance, and it was no uncommon occurrence for an Indian to slip out from behind the brush and come walking in at the cabin door, or put his face up against the window and peer in, if the door happened to be closed. One settler who had two doors had her husband nail one up so that when the Indians did come to call on them, she could stand in the other door and keep them from coming in. The mothers never let their children get out of their sight, for fear they would be stolen."

I.E. Solomon and his family had many experiences with the Indians, and in several cases narrowly escaped death. A number of Solomon's employees were killed in the open country toward Clifton.