Holbrook, on the Little Colorado, county seat of Navajo County, shipping
point on the Santa Fe railroad system for practically all of Navajo and
Apache Counties, had Mormon inception, under its present name, that of an
Atlantic and Pacific railroad locating engineer, F.A. Holbrook. The
christening is said to have been done in 1881 by John W. Young, then a
grading contractor, applied to a location two miles east of the present
townsite. Young there had a store at his headquarters. Later the railroad
authorities established the town on its present location.
The settlement, since the first coming of English-speaking folk, had been
known as Horsehead Crossing. For years before the railroad came, a
roadside station was kept at the Crossing by a Mexican, Berardo, whose
name was differently spelled by almost every traveler who wrote of him.
One of the tales is from E.C. Bunch, who came as a young member of the
Arkansas immigration in 1876, and who later became one of the leaders in
Arizona education. He tells, in referring appreciatively to Mexican
hospitality, that "Berrando's" sign, painted by an American, read, "If
you have the money, you can eat." But the owner, feeling the misery
coldheartedness might create, wrote below, "No got a money, eat anyway."
Berardo loaned the colonists some cows, whose milk was most welcome.