A Reminiscence of Erastus Snow

A REMINISCENCE OF ERASTUS SNOW. BY GEORGE H, CROSBY, JR. One of the most remarkable instances of foresight or sound judgment that I have ever known was that by which Apostle Erastus Snow saw the future of the Latter-day Saints colonies in Arizona. Some time about 1882, in a conversation with my father, he told him just how the outcome of the Arizona colonies was going to be. Brother Snow came to our house in Leeds, Washington county, Utah, to stay over night. My father was thinking of moving with his family, south, and the two sat up late that night, talking about the country where the "Mormon" people were then settling, in Arizona. Elder Snow was overseeing the southern colonizing work out here, at that time; and, as many of our neighbors had moved away from Utah's "Dixie" into various parts of Arizona, I was interested, and sat up and listened to the conversation. Although I was a small boy then, I remember it as well as if it had been only yesterday. They began by talking about the settlements that now compose the Snowflake and St. Johns stakes, and when father asked regarding that section of Arizona, Brother Snow remarked, "The population will always be rather scattering there, for it is such a long distance between streams of water that the people cannot farm extensively. They will have to raise sheep and cattle, so not many of them can find homes there." Father wanted to know about Sunset and Brigham City, on the lower part of the Little Colorado River, where Lot Smith was then president of the Little Colorado stake. Brother Snow said, "I am in doubt about the success of those settlements. The floods are getting so bad that they wash the dams out,and the water is getting to have too much

Reminiscence of erastus snow. 45? alkali in it. Then, there is quite a lot of contention among the people, so that I am fearful that these settlements are going to break up. There is plenty of good land, but the water question is getting worse every year." My father next asked him about the Salt River Valley. Brother Snow smacked his lips more times than usual, and then he said, "That is a mighty good country, but," he said after some hesita. tion, "it is too good a country for us to get and keep; the other settlers are going to come in on the railroad so fast that we will stand in danger of being crowded out of the Salt River Valley as a people. Canals that will have to be built there will require men with lots of money, and our people are not rich enough to build them, but it is one of the best valleys in this Rocky mountain country." The conversation next turned to the settlements on the San Pedro river, in what is now Cochise county, Arizona. "These settlements are flourishing," said Apostle Snow, "at the present time, because there is a booming mining camp there, but the soil is shallow and the water is scarce, and they are not going to grow very much more than they have already grown. I would not advise you to go there, though a good many of the people are going to get good homes." "How about the settlements over on the Gila, where Brother Moody is?'' asked father. "They are having quite a bit of sickness there now," Brother Snow answered, "in all the settlements but one, but I think they will get over that when they get better drinking water. The soil is rich in that valley, the Gila river furnishes plenty of water, there are lots of mining camps to make a good market, and that is going to be the biggest stake that we have in Arizona, and the Gila Valley is going to be the center place for the Arizona 'Mormons.' George, if you want to go to Arizona and get a home, the Gila Valley is the best place that I know of for you to go to. We have been trying to get the people to settle up around St. Johns and Snowflake first, but the Gila country is the best country there is for a man with a big family like yours." This conversation happened more than twenty-five years ago, and today the St. Joseph stake, with headquarters at Thatcher, in the Gila Valley, is a stake having upwards of five thousand people, and

4.-.S IMPROVEMENT ERA. is as large in point of population as all the other stakes in Arizona, combined, while the wards on the San Pedro are stationary in population, and the Sunset and Brigham city settlements, on the lower part of the little Colorado river, have been abandoned by our people for more than twenty years. A very convincing proof either of the inspiration or the excellent judgment of Apostle Erastus Snow. Safford, Arizona.