The Mormons of Arizona today are not to be considered in the same manner
as have been their forebears. The older generation came in pilgrimages,
wholly within the faith, sent to break the wilderness for generations to
come. These pioneers must be considered in connection with their faith,
for through that faith and its supporting Church were they sent on their
southward journeyings. Thus it happens that "Mormon settlement" was
something apart and distinctive in the general development of Arizona and
of the other southwestern sections into which Mormon influences were
taken. It has not been sought in this work even to infer that Mormons in
anywise had loftier aspirations than were possessed by any other pioneer
people of religious and law-abiding sort. However, there must be
statement that the Mormons were alone in their idea of extension in
concrete agricultural communities. Such communities were founded on
well-developed ideals, that had nothing in common with the usual frontier
spirit. They contained no drinking places or disorderly resorts and in
them rarely were breaches of the peace. Without argument, this could have
been accomplished by any other religious organization. Something of the
sort has been done by other churches elsewhere in America. But in the
Southwest such work of development on a basis of religion was done only
by the Mormons.
There was need for the sustaining power of Celestial Grace upon the
average desert homestead, where the fervent sun lighted an expanse of dry
and unpromising land. The task of reclamation in the earlier days would
have been beyond the ability and resources of any colonists not welded
into some sort of mutual organization. This welding had been accomplished
among the Mormons even before the wagon trains started southward.
Thereafter all that was needed was industry, as directed by American
intelligence.