Christopher Layton was a rough diamond, almost illiterate, yet possessed
of much energy and a keen, practical judgment that served him and his
people well through the course of a long life. He was an Englishman, born
in Bedfordshire, March 8, 1821. His first practical experience was at 7
years of age, when he kept crows from the wheatfields for the large
salary of 56 cents a week, boarding himself. In 1843 he crossed the
ocean. Elsewhere is noted his experience with the Mormon Battalion.
Following discharge, for a few years he lived in California, finally
taking ship from San Francisco back to Liverpool, where he arrived in
March, 1850. On the same ship's return, James Pennell led 250 converts to
America, landing at New Orleans proceeding by river to St. Louis, and
then Utah.
In September, 1852, Layton first saw Salt Lake, arriving at the head of
an expedition of 52 wagons, including the first threshing outfit in Utah.
In 1856 he was in the Carson Valley of Nevada, where he proceeded toward
the very notable undertaking of building a wagon road across the Sierra
Nevadas to Hangtown, early Placerville. With the rest of the Utah Saints,
he was recalled to Salt Lake in the fall of 1857.
Layton arrived at St. David February 24, 1883. In May he organized wards
on the Gila, at Pima, Thatcher, Graham and Curtis, under Jos. K. Rogers,
John M. Moody, Jorgen Jorgensen and Moses Curtis. In March of the next
year, he organized Layton branch near Safford.
President Layton's own story of his advent in the Gila Valley includes:
"The Saints were wanting to settle close together, so I bought a 600-acre
tract of land of a syndicate living in Tucson. Then I bought out the
squatters' rights and improvements by taking quit-claim deeds of them.
Thus I was in a position to help the Saints to get homes. In July I
bought 320 acres of Peter Anderson (adjoining the other tract) and laid
it out in a townsite which we named Thatcher. I built a three-roomed
adobe house in Thatcher ward (it being the second house built on the
townsite) and we moved into it. I gave a lot for a schoolhouse and the
few Saints who were settling here then built an adobe building on it. The
mesquite was so thick that when we tried to go any place we were very
fortunate if we did not get lost. I gave the Seventies a lot, but they
never made any use of it; also gave the bishop a lot for tithing
purposes. The Academy was afterward built on it."
Layton, aided by his many sons, was active in business, as well as in the
faith, operating stores, a flour mill, an ice factory and a number of
stage lines, one of which stretched all the way from Bowie Station
through the Gila Valley, to Globe, and, through the Tonto Basin, to Pine
and Fort Verde, the longest stage mail line in the Southwest at the time.
The transfer of headquarters of St. Joseph Stake appears to have been
determined upon very soon after the arrival of Layton at St. David. One
of his counselors, David P. Kimball, visited Smithville March 10, 1883,
and in May Layton himself was on the ground, visiting Smithville (Pima)
and Safford. There was approval of the new settlement of Curtis on May 10
and on the 13th was location of the townsite of Thatcher.
At this time there appears to have been determination to move
headquarters of the Stake from St. David to Smithville, where the first
formal quarterly conference of the Stake was held June 3. No record can
be found of this transfer nor of the subsequent change to Thatcher.