Thatcher, present Stake headquarters, derives its name from Apostle Moses
Thatcher, who was a Christmas visitor in 1882, in company with Apostle
Erastus Snow. The first settler was John M. Moody, who came with his
family from Utah, arriving when Nature had warm welcome indeed, on July
4, 1881. In 1882 he was joined by the Cluff and Zufelt families and by
James Pace of the Mormon Battalion, who built a stockade, and a little
later by Hyrum Brinkerhoff and wife Margaret, "Aunt Maggie," who bought
and occupied the Moody place. They were prominent among the Southern Utah
and Muddy pioneers.
The Thatcher townsite was selected by President Layton May 13, 1883, a
school district being established the following month. Among the arrivals
of the following year was Samuel Claridge, one of the pioneers of the
Muddy section. October 19, 1885, the presidency located a new townsite
about one-half mile to the southward and on higher land. Much of the old
Moody ranch since the Brinkerhoff purchase has disappeared, from the
encroachments of the Gila River.
Bryce, across the river from Pima, dates from January, 1883, when
Ebenezer Bryce, Sr., and sons commenced construction of a ditch,
completed the next year. The first house was that of Ebenezer P. Bryce,
occupied in December, 1884.
Central, between Thatcher and Pima, took its name from the Central canal,
which irrigates part of the settlement. Its first settlers were Orson and
Joseph Cluff of Forest Dale, from which they came southward in the spring
of 1882.
The Hubbard settlement is an outgrowth of the Graham and Bryce wards and
is of comparatively late occupation. It is named after Elisha F. Hubbard,
Sr., the first ward bishop.
The Layton settlement, named for the first stake president, is one of the
most prosperous, and is the third in order of population of the St.
Joseph Stake wards. The first settler was Hyrum H. Tippets, who came
January 13, 1883, direct from Brigham City, Utah.
The Franklin settlement, above Duncan on the Gila, is about seven miles
in length, most of it in Arizona, though lapping over into New Mexico.
Its first Mormon settler was Thomas J. Nations, in 1895. He joined, with
others of the brethren, in taking out a canal. Thomas A. McGrath is
understood to have been the first settler of the locality. The name was
given in 1898, at the time of the visit of Apostles John Henry Smith and
John W. Taylor, and is in honor of Franklin D. Richards, an apostle of
the Church, who in no wise had been associated with Arizona affairs. In
the same vicinity, wholly in New Mexico, is the settlement of Virden,
mainly populated by refugees from Mexico. In these upper Gila communities
the Mormons have created a veritable garden, where careless cultivation
had been known.
Graham County was created by the Arizona Legislature in the spring of
1881, the settlement south of the Gila theretofore having been in Pima
County. The first county seat was Safford, but county government was
transferred to Solomonville by an act of the Legislature in 1883. In
1915, after the setting off of Greenlee County, the court-house went back
to Safford.