In the settlement of what now is southern Navajo County, the Mormon
settlers a bit overran the present line of the Apache Indian reservation,
where they located early in 1878 upon what now is known as Forest Dale
Creek, a tributary of Carrizo Creek. The country is a beautiful one, well
watered from abundant rains and well wooded, possibly a bit more favored
than the present settlements of Showlow, Pinetop and Lakeside, which lie
just north of the reservation line. There is reference in a letter of
Llewellyn Harris, in July, 1878, to the settlement of Forest Dale, but
the name is found in writings several months before. Harris and several
others refer to the Little Colorado country as being in "Aravapai"
County. This was in error. The county then was Yavapai, before the
separation of Apache County.
The valley was found by Oscar Cluff while hunting in the fall of 1877 and
soon thereafter he moved there with his family. In February there
followed his brother, Alfred Cluff, who suggested the name. The
settlement was started February 18, 1878, by Jos. H. Frisby, Merritt
Staley, Oscar Mann, Orson and Alfred Cluff, Ebenezer Thayne, David E.
Adams and a few others.
The overrunning referred to was not done blindly. Jos. H. Frisby and
Alfred Cluff went to San Carlos. There they were assured by Agent Hart
that Apache Springs and the creek referred to were not on the
reservation, and that the government would protect them if they would
settle there. It was understood that the reservation line lay about three
miles south of the settlement. This information is contained in a letter
signed by Agent Hart and addressed to Colonel Andrews, Eleventh Infantry,
commanding Fort Apache. Mr. Hart stated that he would be "glad to have
the settlers make permanent homes at Forest Dale, for the reason that the
Indians strayed so far from their own lands that it was hard to keep
track of them as conditions then were, and that the settlement of the
country would have a tendency to hold the Indians on their own lands upon
the reservation."
Lieutenant Ray was sent with a detachment of troops and the Indians at
Apache Springs were removed and the main body of the settlers, then
temporarily located on the Showlow, moved over the ridge into the new
valley.
In March, 1878, the settlers included Merritt Staley, Oscar Mann,
Ebenezer Thayne, David E. Adams, Jos. H. Frisby, Alfred Cluff, Isaac
Follett, Orson Cluff and several unmarried men. In September, Erastus
Snow found a very prosperous settlement. A ward organization was
established. The first white child, Forest Dale Adams, is now the wife of
Frank Webster, of Central, Arizona. Seven springs of good water, known as
Apache Springs, formed the headwaters of Carrizo Creek.
In 1879, Missionaries Harris and Thayne appear to have made a mistake
similar to that of the Arab who allowed the camel to thrust his nose
inside of the tent. They secured permission from the commanding officer
of creek. The missionary efforts appear to have failed, and the Indians
simply demanded everything in sight. Reports came that the locality
really was on the reservation and the white population therefore drifted
away, mainly into the Gila Valley. In December, 1879, only three families
were left, and the following year the last were gone.
In 1881 rumors drifted down the Little Colorado that Forest Dale, after
all, was not on the reservation. So William Crookston and three others
re-settled the place, some of them from the abandoned Brigham City. Then
came the Indian troubles of 1881-82. When Fort Apache was attacked, the
families consolidated at Cooley, where they built a fort. Some went north
to Snowflake and Taylor. In December, 1881, President Jesse N. Smith of
the Eastern Arizona Stake advised the Forest Dale settlers to satisfy the
Indians for their claims on the place, and received assurance from
General Carr at Fort Apache, that the locality most likely was not on the
reservation and that, in case it was not, he would be pleased to have the
Mormon settlers there. A new ward was established and William Ellsworth
and twenty more families moved in, mainly from Brigham City. In May,
1882, the Indians came again to plant corn and were wrathful to find the
whites ahead of them. An officer was sent from Fort Apache and a treaty
was made by which the Indians were given thirty acres of planted land.
June 1, 1882, Apaches killed Nathan B. Robinson at the Reidhead place and
shot Emer Plumb at Walnut Springs, during a period of general Indian
unrest. Soon thereafter, President Smith advised the settlers that they
had better look for other locations, as the ground was on the
reservation.
In December, Lieutenant Gatewood, under orders from Captain Crawford
(names afterward famous in the Geronimo campaign to the southward) came
from Fort Apache and advised the settlers they would be given until the
spring to vacate. The crops were disposed of at Fort Apache and the
spring of 1883 found Forest Dale deserted, houses, fences, corrals and
every improvement left behind. The drift of the settlers was to the Gila
Valley.
[Illustration: JOSEPH FISH. An Arizona Historian]
[Illustration: JOSEPH H. RICHARDS OF ST. JOSEPH. One of the few original
settlers who still lives on the Little Colorado]
[Illustration: A GROUP OF ST. JOSEPH PIONEERS AND HISTORIAN ANDREW
JENSON]
[Illustration: SHUMWAY AND THE OLD MILL ON SILVER CREEK]
This Forest Dale affair was made a national matter, January 24, 1916,
when a bill was introduced by Senator Ashurst of Arizona for the relief
of Alfred Cluff, Orson Cluff, Henry E. Norton, Wm. B. Ballard, Elijah
Hancock, Susan R. Saline, Oscar Mann, Celia Thayne, William Cox, Theodore
Farley, Adelaide Laxton, Clara L. Tenney, Geo. M. Adams, Charlotte Jensen
and Sophia Huff. Later additions were David E. Adams and Peter H.
McBride.
The amounts claimed by each varied from $2000 to $15,000. A similar bill
had been introduced by the Senator in a previous Congress. In his
statement to the Indian Affairs Committee, the Senator stated that the
settlements had been on unreserved and vacant Government lands and
that the reservation had been extended to cover the tract some time in
1882.
Appended were affidavits from each of the individuals claiming
compensation. All told of moving during the winter, under conditions of
great hardship, of cold and exposure and loss of property.
David E. Adams, one of the few survivors of the Forest Dale settlement,
lately advised the Author that the change in the reservation line
undeniably was at the suggestion of C.E. Cooley, a noted Indian scout,
who feared the Mormons would compete with him in supplying corn and
forage to Fort Apache.