In the winter of 1873 and 1874 President Young visited Dixie, and taught the people the principles of the United Order. I received a letter from him requesting me to meet him at Rockville. I took my son Ferra, then a lad of eight years, and crossed the mountain on horseback. The snow was three feet deep on the divide, and the weather stormy. In fact, we faced a blizzard for eight hours. When we reached Rockville, the afternoon meeting was in session, the house being packed, and people standing in the aisles. President Young, having called me to the stand, and there being no room to pass, the brethren lifted me up and I walked forward from shoulder to shoulder.
The interest in the president's message was intense, and the awakening general in the south. I attended ten meetings and listened to the prophet at every one of them. How great was my joy! I felt that an era of prosperity and happiness had dawned upon the Saints. How pointed and rich were the instructions! "Give your hearts to God." "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." "The way the world does business is a sin before God." "If you are not one in temporal things, how can you be one in spiritual things?"
All these utterances, it seemed to me, pointed to the happy time when there would be no poor in Zion, and the idler should not eat the bread of the laborer. I received a written appointment, signed by Brigham Young and George A. Smith, authorizing and instructing me to visit our southeastern frontier settlements and organize them into working companies in the United Order; the object being to enable them to become self-sustaining by encouraging home production.
With Bishop Levi Stewart I visited and organized the Pahreah branch. I also organized working companies at Glendale and Mt. Carmel in Long Valley. I was sustained as president of the working companies in Kanab, while Levi Stewart was sustained as bishop of the ward. This was wrong in principle, and led to division, retarding the growth of the ward.
In the winter of 1874, four Navajos, the sons of a chief, were on a visit to the Utes. On the return trip, as they were camped one morning in a deserted house in Circle Valley, they were set upon by some stockmen, led by Mr. McCarty, and three of the Indians were killed. The fourth one was severely wounded, an ounce ball having passed clear through his body, just below the shoulder blades; yet he lived, traveled one hundred miles over mountains and deep snow, swam the Colorado river, reached his home, and told his story.
The Navajos believed the Mormons to be the perpetrators of this cruel tragedy. Two Mormon families and a few Indian missionaries were living at the Moancopy and Mawaby. Peokon, a war chief, visited these and demanded two hundred head of cattle as pay for their murdered sons, and thirty days was given in which to get the stock.
John L. Blythe and Ira Hatch dispatched the word to Bishop Stewart and me, and we telegraphed it to President Young. Upon receipt of the message, John W. Young telegraphed for me to raise a company of men and bring the families and all the missionaries to this side of the Colorado river, and leave the Navajos alone until they should learn who their friends are.
Andrew S. Gibbons of Glendale, Thomas Chamberlain of Mt. Carmel, and Frank Hamblin of Kanab, with six men each, responded promptly to the call. We reached the Moancopy two days before the time set by the Navajos to make their onslaught. I found my task a hard and delicate one. Jacob Hamblin and John L. Blythe were older and more experienced in frontier life than I. Each of them, moreover, was presiding in some capacity over that particular mission, and so they were reluctant to yield to my counsel and suggestions. I have always felt thankful to Frank Hamblin and Ira Hatch; for, by reason of the loyal manner in which they supported me, the task was accomplished without loss or accident of any kind. This was my last labor in Indian matters.
In 1876 Bishop Stewart and I were released from our positions, and L. John Nuttall of Provo was sent to preside. I was disheartened at the way things had gone, and believing that my days of usefulness at Kanab was ended, I returned to Long Valley, and associated myself with Orderville United Order. In this community I formed valued acquaintances and cherished friendships.
The people were poor, humble, and prayerful, and therefore fruitful in faith and good works. Had President Brigham Young lived, the history of that community would have been different. For the good I witnessed I have words of praise; for the faults, only charity and silence.