In the record of the Whipple expedition of 1853-4, is found evidence of
Mormon influence already material in the Southwest. Whipple thought
highly of the agricultural possibilities of the valley of the Colorado
River, above the mouth of Bill Williams' Fork and wrote, "The Mormons
made a great mistake in not occupying the valley of the Colorado." This
Whipple expedition made a painful journey from the Colorado across the
Mohave desert and, on March 13, 1854, struck what even then was known as
the Mormon Road. The next day Whipple met a party of Mormons en route to
Salt Lake. He told them of the murder of one of his Mexican herders by
the Paiutes, but the travelers expressed no fear. They said they were at
peace with the Indians, a statement over which Whipple expressed
surprise.
About the earliest American occupation of the southern Nevada point
available in the records upon which this office has worked, appears to
have been the detail by Brigham Young in 1854 of a party of thirty young
men "to go to Las Vegas, build a fort there to protect immigrants and the
United States mail from the Indians, and to teach the latter how to raise
corn, wheat, potatoes, squash and melons."
The missionary party arrived at Las Vegas June 14, 1855. Four days later
was started construction of an adobe fort on the California, road, on an
eminence overlooking the valley. This fort, 150 feet square, had walls,
upon a stone foundation, fourteen feet high, with bastions on the
southeast and northwest corners. Gates were not procured until the
following year. Houses were built against the inside of the wall and lots
were drawn to decide just where each of the brethren should erect his
dwelling. There was a garden plot, just below, on the creek, and small
farms were provided nearby. Inside the fort was a schoolhouse, in which
meetings also were held, this indicating that families soon followed the
pioneer missionaries. It is told that "the gospel was preached and that
many Indians were converted and baptized."
One of these missionaries was Benjamin Cluff, who in later years became a
prominent member of the Gila Valley settlements in Arizona. In his
biography is found notation that the Las Vegas missionaries worked in
lead mines, assumed to have been those in the Potosi section. Some of
this lead undoubtedly went back to Utah but, happily, was not used at the
time of the 1858 invasion.
Another notable member was Wm. C. A. Smoot who died in Salt Lake City in
the spring of 1920, and who was one of the original Pioneers who reached
Salt Lake July 24, 1847. Having been the last of the first pioneer
company to enter the valley, it was quite in keeping that he was the last
of the company to leave the valley for the celestial shores.
Here there might be notation that of the venerated Salt Lake Pioneers,
the following-named later had residence in Arizona: Edmund Ellsworth,
Charles Shumway, Edson Whipple, Francis M. Pomeroy, Conrad Klineman,
Andrew S. Gibbons and Joseph Matthews.
Of the Pioneers of especial distinction, the following-named were later
visitors to Arizona: Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Geo. A. Smith,
Erastus Snow, Amasa M. Lyman and Lorenzo D. Young.
Missionaries John Steele and Wm. A. Follett were former Battalion
members.
Rufus C. Allen, who was Private No. 1 of the First Company of the Mormon
Battalion, returned from Chile to become a missionary in the Las Vegas
section and in the Virgin River country. One of Allen's daughters, Mrs.
Rachael Berry of St. Johns, represented Apache County in the House of
Representatives of Arizona's Second State Legislature, in 1915.