The first Presidency apparently had anticipated Brown's favorable report,
for quick action was had immediately thereafter. Four companies, each of
fifty men and their families, were organized, under Lot Smith, Jesse O.
Ballenger, George Lake and Wm. C. Allen. The 200 missionaries were
"called" from many parts of Utah, but mainly from the north and around
Salt Lake. There was no formal gathering of the companies. Each member
went southward as he could, to report to his leader on the Little
Colorado. The assembling point was Kanab. Thence there was assemblage of
groups of about ten families each, without reference to companies. An
entertaining detail of this journey lately was given the Historian in
Phoenix by David E. Adams, captain of one of the Tens.
The leading teams reached Sunset Crossing on the Little Colorado March
23, 1876, the migration continuing for many weeks thereafter. Allen,
Smith and Lake continued up the river twenty miles, to a point about five
miles east of the present site of St. Joseph.
From exact data furnished by R. E. Porter of St. Joseph is learned that
Allen's company settled at the point where this march ended, establishing
Allen's Camp. There was later change to a point one mile east of the
present location, a site maintained till 1877. The name was changed
January 21,1878, to St. Joseph, after Prophet Joseph Smith.
[Illustration: NORTHEASTERN ARIZONA--The Little Colorado Country]
Lot Smith's company retraced, to establish Sunset, three miles north of
Sunset Crossing, on the north side of the river.
Lake's company established itself across the river, three miles south and
west of the present site of St. Joseph. The settlement was named Obed.
Ballenger's company located four miles southwest of Sunset Crossing, on
the south side of the river, near the site of the present Winslow.