The Commissioner traveled broadly and chronicled much and the Author is
indebted to his memoirs for several items of early Mormon settlement in
the Southwest.
One of the earliest details given by Bartlett concerns his arrival,
October 14, 1850, at the village of Zodiac, in the valley of the
Piedernales River, near Fredericksburg, about seventy miles northwest of
San Antonio, Texas. Zodiac he found a village of 150 souls, headed by
Elder Wight, locally known as "Colonel," who acted as host. That the
settlement, even in such early times, was typically Mormon, is shown by
the following extract from Bartlett's diary:
"Everywhere around us in this Zodiacal settlement we saw abundant signs
of prosperity. Whatever may be their theological errors, in secular
matters they present an example of industry and thrift which the people
of the State might advantageously imitate. They have a tract of land
which they have cultivated for about three years and which has yielded
profitable crops. The well-built houses, perfect fences and tidy
dooryards give the place a homelike air such as we had not seen before in
Texas. The dinner was a regular old-fashioned New England farmer's meal,
comprising an abundance of everything, served with faultless neatness.
The entire charge for the dinner for twelve persons and corn for as many
animals was $3.... The colonel said he was the first settler in the
valley of the Piedernales and for many miles around. In his colony were
people of all trades. He told me his crop of corn this year would amount
to 7000 bushels, for which he expected to realize $1.25 a bushel."