As before noted in this work, the Mormon Church sought little in New
Mexico in the pioneering days, for little opportunity existed for
settlement in the agricultural valleys. In western New Mexico, however,
the country was more open and there was opportunity for missionary
effort. Missionaries were in the Navajo and Zuni country in very early
days and at the time of the great Mormon immigration of 1876 already
there had been Indian conversions.
In that year, by direct assignment from President Brigham Young, then at
Kanab, Lorenzo Hatch, later joined by John Maughn, settled in the Zuni
country, at Fish Springs and San Lorenzo. Thereafter, on arrival of
other missionaries, were locations at Savoia and Savoietta. It should be
explained that these names, pronounced as they stand, are rough-hewn
renditions of the Spanish words cebolla, "onion," and cebolleta, "little
onion." Nathan C. Tenney and sons were among the colonists of 1878.
In 1880 were Indian troubles that caused abandonment of the locations,
but a new start was made in 1882, when a number of families came from the
deserted Brigham City and Sunset. A new village was started, about 25
miles east of the Arizona line, at first known as Navajo, but later as
Ramah. The public square was on the ruins of an ancient Indian pueblo.
Ira Hatch came in the fall. A large degree of missionary success appears
to have been achieved among the Zuni, with 165 baptisms by Ammon M.
Tenney, but at times there was friction with Mexican residents. The land
on which the town stood later had to be bought from a cattle company,
which had secured title from the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company.
[Illustration: FOUNDERS OF NORTHERN ARIZONA TOWNS
1--Henry W. Miller 2--Wm. C. Allen
3--George Lake 4--Wm. J. Flake 5--Charles Shumway
6--Geo. H. Crosby, Sr. 7--J.V. Bushman]
[Illustration: A FEW MORE PIONEERS
1--Almeda McClellan 6--Benj. F. Johnson
2--Mrs. A.S. Gibbons 7--Martha Curtis
3--Mary Richards 8--Josephine Curtis
4--Joseph Foutz 9--Wm. N. Fife
5--Virginia Curtis 10--J.D. Fife]
Bluewater, near the Santa Fe railroad, about thirty miles northeast of
Ramah, is a Church outpost, established in 1894 by Ernst A. Trietjen and
Friehoff G. Nielson from Ramah. For a while, from 1905, it was the home
of C.R. Hakes, former president of the Maricopa Stake. Bluewater now is a
prosperous agricultural settlement, with assured stored water supply and
an excellent market available for its products.
Most southerly of the early New Mexican Church settlements was
Pleasanton, on the San Francisco River, in Williams Valley, and sixty
miles northwest of Silver City. The first settler was Geo. C. Williams,
who came in 1879. At no time was there much population. Jacob Hamblin
here spent the few last years of his life, dying August 31, 1886. His
family was the last to quit the locality, departing in 1889.