Closely following settlement of the ephemeral lower Little Colorado towns
came the founding of Woodruff, about 25 miles upstream from St. Joseph
and about twelve miles above the present Holbrook. It is still a
prosperous town and community, though its history has been one in which
disaster has come repeatedly through the washing away of the dam which
supplies its main canal with water from the Little Colorado and Silver
Creek.
In the locality the Mormons were antedated by Luther Martin and Felix
Scott. The section was scouted in December, 1876, by Joseph H. Richards,
Lewis P. Garden, James Thurman and Peter O. Peterson, from Allen's Camp,
and they participated in starting a ditch from the river. There appeared
to have been no indication of occupancy when, in March, 1877, Ammon M.
Tenney passed through the valley and determined it a good place for
location. In the following month, however, Cardon and two sons, and
Wm. A. Walker came upon the ground, with other families, followed, three
weeks later, by Nathan C. Tenney, father of Ammon M., with two sons, John
T. and Samuel, Hans Gulbrandsen and Charles Riggs. For about a year the
settlement was known simply as Tenney's Camp. L. H. Hatch was appointed
to take charge in February, 1878. About that time the name of Woodruff
was adopted, in honor of President Wilford Woodruff, this suggestion made
by John W. Young. The first settlement was in a rock and adobe fort,
forming a half square. There was a common dining room as, for a while,
there was adherence to the system of the United Order. It is told that
all save two of the settlers participated and there is memorandum of how
three sisters were detailed weekly for cooking, with girls as assistants.
In February, 1882, was survey of the present townsite, on which John
Reidhead built the first house. This townsite was purchased from the
Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, in May, 1889, for $8 an acre. At
first it had not been appreciated that the town had not been built upon
government land.
The history of Woodruff has in it much of disastrous incident through the
frequent breaking of the river dams. In May, 1880, the dam had to be cut
by the settlers themselves, in order to permit the water to flow down to
St. Joseph, where there was priority of appropriation. At several times,
the Church organization helped in the repair or building of the many
dams, after the settlers had spent everything they had and had reached
the point of despair. At suggestion of Jesse N. Smith in 1884, all the
brethren in the Stake were called upon to donate one day each of labor on
the Woodruff dam. Up to 1890, the dam had been washed out seven times and
even now there is trouble in its maintenance.
Of passing interest is the fact that President Wilford Woodruff, after
whom the settlement was named, was a visitor to Woodruff on at least two
occasions, in 1879, and in 1887, when an exile from Utah. He was at Moen
Copie when there came news, which later proved erroneous, that pursuers
had crossed at Lee's Ferry. Then, guided by Richard Gibbons, he rode
westward, making a stop of a few days at Fort Moroni.