With the Tenney report in mind, in January, 1879, St. Johns was visited
by Jesse N. Smith, just arrived in Arizona to be president of the Little
Colorado Stake. But Smith was unable to make terms with Barth and his
Mexican neighbors and turned back to Snowflake.
Land Purchased by Mormons
Under instructions from the Church, Ammon M. Tenney returned to St. Johns late in 1879 and, November 16, succeeded in effecting the purchase of the Barth interests, including three claims at The Meadows. The purchase price was 770 head of American cows, furnished by the Church, though 100 were loaned by W. J. Flake. The value of the livestock, estimated at $19,000, in later years was donated by the Church toward the erection of the St. Johns academy. Other land purchases later were made by arriving members.
Tenney was the first head of the colony, which was started in December, by the arrival of Jos. H. Watkins and Wm. F. James, missionaries sent from Ogden, who came with their families. In December, Apostle Wilford Woodruff, later President of the Church, held the first religious meeting, this at the home of Donasiano Gurule, a New Mexican. The Church authorities were active in their settlement plans and at a quarterly Stake conference in Snowflake, March 27, 1880, 190 souls were reported from the St. Johns branch.
A few days after the conference, Apostle Woodruff located a townsite one and a half miles below the center of the present site. This location, though surveyed and with a few houses, was abandoned the following September, on recommendation of Apostles Erastus Snow and Francis M. Lyman, for higher ground, west and north of the Mexican village. In the summer of 1880 the settlement, named Salem, was given a postoffice, but the Mormon postmaster appointed, Sixtus E. Johnson, failed to secure his keys from a non-Mormon, E.S. Stover, incumbent at San Juan.
A notable arrival, October 9, 1890, was David K. Udall, called from Kane County, Utah, to serve as bishop of St. Johns ward. With continuous ecclesiastical service, he now is president of St. Johns Stake, elevated in July, 1887.
Occupation of the new townsite started early in October, 1880, the public square designated by President Jesse N. Smith on the 9th. Twenty square-rod city lots were laid off in blocks 24 rods square, with streets six rods wide. In the spring of 1881 the farming land was surveyed into forty 40-acre blocks, these later subdivided. During the winter of 1881 was built a log schoolhouse, through private donations. The first teacher was Mrs. Anna Romney. The first church was a "bowery" of greasewood.
That the years following hardly were ones of plenty is indicated by the fact that in the spring of 1885 President John Taylor issued a tithing office order for $1000 and $1187 more was collected in Utah stakes, to aid the St. Johns settlers in the purchase of foodstuffs and seed grain.
A.F. Banta started a weekly newspaper, "The Pioneer Press," soon after occupation of the townsite, this journal in January, 1883, bought by Mormons and edited by M.P. Romney.
Wild Celebration of St. John's Day