Shumway, on Silver Creek, five miles above Taylor, has interest of
historical sort in the fact that it was named after an early settler
Charles Shumway, one of the most noted of the patriarchs of the Church.
He was the first to cross the Mississippi, February 4, 1846, in the
exodus from Nauvoo, and was one of the 143 Pioneers who entered Salt Lake
with Brigham Young the following summer. In December, 1879, his son,
Wilson G. Shumway, accepted a call to Arizona. Most of the winter was
spent at Grand Falls in a "shack" he built of cottonwood logs, roofed
with sandstone slabs. In this he entertained Apostle Woodruff, who
directed the chiseling of the name "Wilford Woodruff" upon a rock.
Charles Shumway and N.P. Beebe bought the mill rights on Silver Creek,
acquired through location the previous year by Nathan C. and Jesse
Wanslee, brought machinery from the East and, within a year, started a
grist mill that still is a local institution. The village of Shumway
never has had more than a score of families. Charles Shumway died May 21,
1898. His record of self-sacrifice continued after his arrival in Arizona
early in 1880, the first stop being at Concho. There, according to his
son, Wilson G., the family for two years could have been rated as among
"the poorest of poor pioneers," with a dugout for a home, this later
succeeded by a log cabin of comparative luxury. For months the bread was
of barley flour, the diet later having variety, changed to corn bread and
molasses, with wheat flour bread as a treat on Sundays.