While this work in no wise seeks to carry through any records of Church
authority, it happens that the leader in each of the southwestern
migrations and settlements was a man appointed for that purpose by the
Church Presidency and the greater number of the settlers came by direct
Church "call." In the case of the Little Colorado settlements, this
"call" was not released till January, 1900, in a letter of President
Lorenzo Snow, borne to St. Johns by Apostle (now President) Heber J.
Grant. The several organizations of the northeastern districts are set
forth, with official exactness, by Historian Roberts, as follows:
"On January 27, 1878, the Latter-day Saints who had settled on the Little
Colorado, in Navajo (then Yavapai) County, under the leadership of Major
Lot Smith, by that time grouped into four settlements, were organized
into a Stake of Zion, with Lot Smith as president and Jacob Hamblin and
Lorenzo H. Hatch as counselors. Three of the settlements were organized
into wards, a bishop being appointed in each; the fourth was made a
'branch' with a presiding elder. This was the first stake organization
effected in Arizona. Before the expiration of the year, viz., 27th
December, President John Taylor directed that the settlements forming
further up the Little Colorado in Apache County, be organized into a
Stake. A line running southward from Berardo's (now Holbrook, on the
Santa Fe railroad), was to be the dividing line between the two Stakes
thus proposed. The western division was to be the Little Colorado Stake,
and the eastern division, Eastern Arizona Stake of Zion. The division of
the Stakes on these lines was not carried out at that time; the Little
Colorado continued for several years, while the Eastern Arizona Stake had
within its jurisdiction, for a number of years, the settlements on Silver
Creek, in the southeast corner of Navajo County, and also the settlement
of St. Johns near the headwaters of the Little Colorado, and other minor
settlements in Apache County. In 1887, however, the directions of
President Taylor, with reference to the division of these settlements
into two Stakes, were carried into effect. The name of the Eastern
Arizona Stake, however, was changed at the time of the reorganization,
July 23, 1887, to St. Johns Stake, David K. Udall, bishop of St. Johns,
being chosen President, with Elijah Freeman and Wm. H. Gibbons as
counselors. Later, viz., December 18, the settlements on the west side of
the line running south from Holbrook, on upper Silver Creek, Woodruff
Ward, and the fragments of settlements formerly constituting the Little
Colorado Stake, by now discontinued, were organized under the name of the
Snowflake Stake of Zion, Jesse N. Smith, formerly of the Eastern Arizona
Stake, being made President."
Here there may be notation that David K. Udall, still president at St.
Johns, is one of the very oldest in seniority in such office within the
Church. At Snowflake today the president is Samuel F. Smith, son of Jesse
N. Smith, who died in his home town June 5, 1906.
[Illustration: STAKE PRESIDENTS
1--Lot Smith, Little Colorado
3--Samuel F. Smith, Snowflake
5--Christopher Layton, St. Joseph
2--Jesse N. Smith, E. Ariz. and Snowflake
4--David K. Udall. St. Johns
6--Andrew Kimball, St. Joseph]
[Illustration: SNOWFLAKE ACADEMY. Destroyed by Fire Thanksgiving Day,
1910]
[Illustration: PRESENT SNOWFLAKE ACADEMY. Dedicated Thanksgiving Day,
1913--Cost $35,000]