As was usual in early settlement of Arizona valleys, malarial fever
appeared very soon. At one time, in the fall of 1878, nearly all the
settlers were prostrated with the malady, probably carried by mosquitoes
from stagnant water. That year also it was soberly told that fever and
ague even spread to the domestic animals. At times, the sick had to wait
on the sick and there was none to greet Apostle Erastus Snow when he made
visitation October 6, 1878. His first address was to an assembly of 38
individuals, of whom many had been carried to the meeting on their beds.
It is chronicled by Elder McRae that, "notwithstanding these conditions,
the Apostle blessed the place, prophesying that the day would come when
the San Pedro Valley would be settled from one end to the other with
Saints and that we had experienced the worst of our sickness. When he
left, all felt better in body and in spirit." It was a decidedly hot
season. "Vegetation grew so rank that a horseman mounted on a tall horse
could hardly be seen at a distance of a quarter of a mile. Hay could be
cut a stone's throw from our door."
The first death was on October 2, 1878, of the same A.O. Williams whose
money had brought the people to the new land.
Possibly the settlement needed the mental and spiritual encouragement of
Apostle Snow, for more than a year had passed of hardships and of labor,
and, including the Lehi experience, there had been no recompense, unless
it might have been in the way of mental and moral discipline.
The early malaria of the Arizona valleys nearly all has disappeared, with
the draining of swampy places, the eradication of beaver dams and
mosquitoes and the knowledge of better living conditions. Elsewhere has
been told of the abandonment of Obed and other early Little Colorado
settlements, because of chills and fever. Something of the same sort was
known on the upper Gila, from 1882 to 1890, around Pima, Curtis and
Bryce. In this same upper Gila Valley, Fort Goodwin had to be abandoned
on account of malarial conditions. The same is true of old Fort Grant,
across the divide, on the lower San Pedro. The upper Verde, the Santa
Cruz and nearly all similar valleys knew malaria at the time of
settlement.
According to Merrill, on March 26, 1879, the sick and sorry settlers went
into the Huachuca Mountains to summer, but, "the wind blew so much that
we moved back to the river, near where Hereford now is, rented some land
and put in some crops." This location is just about where the members of
the Mormon Battalion, in 1846, had their memorable fight with the wild
bulls. A Merrill report, rendered March 16, 1881, was far from hopeful
and asked that the writer be relieved of his responsibilities.