CHAPTER XIII.

MORE SETTLEMENTS.

IMMIGRATION IMPEDED BY INDIAN TROUBLES AND OTHER DIFFICULTIES-C. E. COOLEY, A. F. BANTA AND HENRY W. DODD HUNT LOST MINE-BIOGRAPHY OF C. E. COOLEY-BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY W. DODD-TOWN OF ST. JOHNS LOCATED BIOGRAPHY OF SOL. BARTH -LOCATION IN ROUND VALLEY BY WILLIAM R. MILLIGAN-STARTING OF SPRINGERVILLE— LOCATION AND NAMING OF SHOW LowFIRST LOCATION OF HOLBROOK-LOCATION ON SILVER CREEK, Now SNOWFLAKE - BIOG RAPHY OF JAMES STINSON-BIOGRAPHY OF DANIEL H. MING-INTERVIEW WITH J. LORENZO HUBBELL FIGHTS WITH OUTLAWS AND RUSTLERS REMINISCENCES BY PROF. E. C. BUNCH-BRINGING IN OF FIRST SAW LOG ADVENT OF MORMONS-GROWTH OF CATTLE INDUSTRY-"BRIEFS"-OUTLAWS.

Until after the subjugation of the Indians by General Crook, little progress was made in the settled portions around Prescott and other places. During 1870 and 1871, some settlements were started in what is now Maricopa County. The northeastern part of the Territory had been crossed and explored several times, but it was still practically a wilderness. There were no mines found to create an interest in this section. The land was not of a superior quality, and except in a few localities water was scarce, and some of it was of a very bad quality, especially

that of the little Colorado River, so this section, taking it all together, attracted neither the pleasure seeker nor those who were looking for homes. Indian troubles and other difficulties impeded immigration, which came in but slowly. A few, however, were penetrating the unoccupied places in the northwest, making feeble efforts to establish homes, while a few were looking for mines. On July 12th, 1869, C. E. Cooley, A. F. Banta, and Henry W. Dodd, left the Zuni Villages with a small party of Indians to hunt a gold mine known as the "Doc Thorn Story." Cooley was born in Virginia on the 2nd day of April, 1836. In 1856 he came West, landing at Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1858 he went to Colorado, and clerked in the first store opened in that State. In 1869 he came to Arizona on a mining expedition, and soon after he settled at Apache, where he married an Apache woman. He was prominent as a scout, and served under General Crook with marked distinction. He first settled at Show Low, but later moved to a place inside the reservation, twenty-two miles north of Apache, where he died in 1917.

Henry W. Dodd was born in Ohio February 7th, 1839. He served in the Civil War from the year 1861 to 1864, came to Arizona in 1869, and later served as guide and scout for the Government. In 1886 he was thrown from a horse, and died soon after.

A. F. Banta is still living, and his biography will be found in a succeeding volume.

In the year 1870 a man by the name of John Walker, who was employed to carry the express between Forts Wingate and Apache (the latter

post having just been occupied by troops), built a cabin at the crossing of the Little Colorado about five miles below where St. Johns is now located. The following year a few Mexicans gathered around this place, and built some temporary huts, and in the spring of 1872 they located the town of St. Johns. Solomon Barth and a few others came in shortly before the town was started. For several years it made but little progress, and like most of these frontier places, had its proportion of renegades, both American and Mexican.

Solomon Barth was a native of Prussia, born in 1842. In 1855 he came to America and drifted from the Eastern States to California. In 1860 he came to La Paz on the Colorado River, and from there went to Weaverville, and in 1863 he was at Granite Creek. He engaged in mail contracts and merchandising, the latter business being carried on in New Mexico, and, in 1873, he moved to St. Johns, where he conducted his business very successfully. He is still living in St. Johns.

In the Fall of 1870 William R. Milligan left Fort Craig with a trainload of corn for the military post which had been established at Apache. His wagons were drawn by oxen. His route was by the Tularosa, New Mexico, and Round Valley, Arizona, to Fort Apache. After delivering his corn he returned, stopping at Round Valley where he put up a log house. This was the first improvement made in the valley. He did this to hold his claim on the place, and this was the first train of wagons to pass through this part of the country. In the fall of 1871 he made

This time he had fif

another trip with corn. teen wagons, and among others who were with him was Marion Clark. Owing to the lateness of the season and other causes, a part of the corn was left at the house that had been built the year before. They expected to return soon for it; this was in January. On returning Milligan brought in a complete outfit for farming. He brought with him Anthony Long and Joe McCullough as partners in the enterprise. Some corn and a little barley were put in, the plowing being commenced about the fifteenth of April. Marion Clark planted some on what was later the Julius Becker farm. This may be said to be the starting of the town now known as Springerville.

During the spring Milligan and Clark made a trip on horseback to Camp Verde to see about disposing of the corn which Milligan had left, and to put in bids on hay and wood contracts for Fort Apache. In June the corn was sent over to Camp Verde. The price they received for it was not made public. At Apache Milligan received ten dollars a hundred for Indian colored corn, and twelve and a half dollars for American.

The winter of 1871-72 was a remarkably mild one, it being more like summer than winter. There was no snow or rain in the valley until about the first of April, when there was a slight fall of snow which only lay on the ground for two or three days. The following summer was exceedingly dry. In July the river in the valley dried up so that the fish died in places. There was no rain until about the middle of

August, when the first rain came, and this turned off with a freeze that killed the corn which was just in roasting ears. A small patch of barley, however, that Milligan had put in did well. The loss of the corn crop had a discouraging effect on some. Clark abandoned the enterprise, and McCullough drew out from his partnership with Milligan, and took Clark's place. "Tony" Long drew out and went to Fort Apache to work.

The starting of this place was unlike most other places in Arizona. The hostile Indians never moistened its soil with the blood of its inhabitants. The murderous Apache allowed the settlers to prosecute their labors in comparative peace. The White Mountain Apaches were never as hostile as those in the south and west. It is stated that the first year in the valley the settlers saw bear, deer, antelope, and turkeys almost daily, and that mountain sheep were found in the mountains. Milligan made a permanent location here, and others coming in, some from St. Johns, made the place stronger, so it soon became the center for this region. In the early days of the place all supplies were obtained from Socorro, New Mexico.

C. E. Cooley left his companions on the Salt River, in 1869, where he had, as before stated, gone on one of his mining expeditions, an account of which will be given later. He drifted back to the newly established post, Fort Apache. Here, as before stated, he married an Apache woman (in fact, he married two sisters), and took up a place on White River, some eight miles above the post. In 1872 when the corn was killed by early frosts in Round Valley (the