PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Utah and the Arizona Strip: Ethnographic and Historical Background

Pipe Spring and Its Ownership, 1863-1909 [74]

As they carried out Brigham Young's directive, Mormon settlers moved to southern Utah and into what soon was to become Arizona Territory, created by President Abraham Lincoln on February 24, 1863. They laid out town sites, allocated fields, and constructed communal irrigation systems. Between 1863 and 1865, stock ranches were established at Short Creek, Pipe Spring, and Moccasin Spring (also known as "Sand Spring"). At about the same time, ranches were established at the present site of Kanab although these were temporarily abandoned during the height of conflict with the Navajo. [75] Thus, within a very short time period, white settlers had expropriated all perennial water sources in the Kaibab Paiute territory. These were Kanab Creek, Short Creek, Pipe Spring, and Moccasin Spring. The latter two were the only large springs in the area. [76]

The first white man to lay claim to Pipe Spring was James Montgomery Whitmore. After joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Texas, Whitmore moved with his wife, Elizabeth, and several children, a brother, and a sister to Utah in 1857. Because he had been a druggist before coming to Utah, he was known as "Doctor Whitmore." [77] Whitmore remained in Salt Lake City until the 1861 call, then moved with his family to St. George. On April 13, 1863, Whitmore received a land certificate for a 160-acre tract, which included Pipe Spring. [78] (It is notable that John D. Lee, participant in the Mountain Meadows incident referenced earlier, signed this certificate.) Upon this tract Whitmore, assisted by Robert McIntyre, established a ranch, constructed a small dugout for quarters, fenced about 11 acres for cultivation, set out about 1,000 grape vines, built corrals, and planted peach, apple, and other fruit trees. [79] While some accounts refer to McIntyre as a hired hand, a number of writers report he was related to Whitmore. [80] It seems possible that he was both related to and worked for Whitmore.

It is important to note that Whitmore's settlement at Pipe Spring coincided with Kit Carson's military campaign against the Mescalero Apache and Navajo in Arizona Territory, as referenced earlier. In 1865 Navajo raiding parties began crossing the Colorado River, raiding settlements along the Arizona Strip. In December 1865 the Navajo attacked the Utah Territorial Militia garrisoned at Kanab, forcing the settlement's abandonment. On or about January 9, 1866, a party of Indians drove off a herd of sheep from Whitmore's ranch. (According to David Chidester of Venise, Utah, Navajo, aided by some Shivwits Paiute, made the raid on Whitmore's ranch. [81] C. Leonard Heaton, long-time monument custodian, wrote that the raiders were Navajo and some Paiute who had been "kicked out of the local tribe because of their wickedness." [82] ) Whitmore and McIntyre set out to trail the raiders, leaving James Jr., Whitmore's 11-year-old son, in the dugout. [83] When the men didn't return, the boy headed on foot for William B. Maxwell's ranch in Short Creek, 25 miles west. He was intercepted by men on horseback who then informed Maxwell of the situation. Maxwell, a major in the militia, began gathering men for a search party. On January 11, 1866, word was received in St. George from Maxwell of the disappearance of Whitmore and McIntyre. Thirty-one local volunteers under the command of Col. D. D. McArthur and a second detachment from St. George of 46 men led by Capt. James Andrus arrived at Pipe Spring to search for Whitmore and McIntyre. [84] Anson P. Winsor was one of those in the search party, as was Edwin D. Woolley, Jr., both prominent in Pipe Spring's later history.

Numerous conflicting accounts relate the events surrounding the militia's January 20 discovery of the bodies of Whitmore and McIntyre and the subsequent retaliatory killings of a number of Paiute men. Some reports say that the Paiute were found to have in their possession some of Whitmore and McIntyre's property. Years later, in July 1914, James Andrus told his version of the story to photographer Charles Ellis Johnson who wrote it down. [85] According to Andrus, his troops had encountered two Indian men in the process of attempting to kill several cattle. They took the two prisoners to the militia camp and turned them over to McArthur. In return for a promise of his freedom, the older of the two Indians led them to the bodies of Whitmore and McIntyre. [86] Later, again in return for a promise of freedom, the younger Paiute led the militia to the Indian encampment where the militiamen arrested nine more Paiute men. In spite of protestations of innocence by these captives, the militiamen held them accountable for the murder of Whitmore and McIntyre and shot and killed them. Thus, according to Andrus' account, nine Paiute men were killed; other reports of the number killed range from 6 to 13. [87] There is no record of what happened to the remains of the slain Indians. The bodies of Whitmore and McIntyre were returned to St. George for burial. All business was suspended on the day of the funeral, January 23, 1866, and over 300 people attended last rites for the two men. [88]

Jacob Hamblin later learned from contact with the Indians that the Paiute men the militiamen had shot to death were innocent. [89] It is worthy of mention that the 1866 slayings of Whitmore and McIntyre and the militia's subsequent killing of Paiute men are alive in the memory of many local Latter-day Saints and Kaibab Paiute today. The controversy would resurface in 1933 when the Utah Trails and Landmarks Association affixed a commemorative marker to the fort. The current site of the Whitmore-McIntyre dugout is located about 100 feet southeast of the fort. Not long after the construction of the Pipe Spring fort, the roof of the old Whitmore-McIntyre dugout collapsed, reportedly under the weight of a cow. The dugout was used thereafter as a trash pit by residents of Pipe Spring. [90]

The slaying of Whitmore and McIntyre and subsequent retaliation by militia against the Paiute were not to be the last blood shed between whites and Indians on the Arizona Strip. On April 7, 1866, Joseph Berry, Robert Berry, and his wife Isabella were killed by Indians near Maxwell's Ranch at a spot since known as Berry Knolls, located 1.5 miles south of Short Creek (now Colorado City). It was not known if the Paiute or the Navajo were responsible. The danger to the Mormon frontier was now grave. Martial law was declared and Brigham Young urged that small frontier settlements be abandoned with residents moving to larger towns for security. No settlement, he advised, should have less than 150 well-armed men. As the theft of livestock was thought to be the Indians' primary objective, Young urged settlers to guard their animals. Practically the entire eastern line of settlements, those in the Sevier Valley, most of those along the upper middle sector of the Virgin, and all the settlements in Kane County as well as Moccasin and Pipe Spring were abandoned, not to be reoccupied until about 1870-1871. [91]

Although Pipe Spring was within the new territory of Arizona, James M. Whitmore had received the land certificate for his Pipe Spring claim from Washington County, Utah Territory. The confusion was attributable to the shifting character of Utah's territorial boundaries, beginning 11 years after its creation, and to a prolonged effort by Utah officials to have the Arizona Strip returned to Utah. During its early history, Pipe Spring fell under the jurisdiction of three different counties in two different territories. From January 4, 1856, to August 1, 1864, it fell under the jurisdiction of Washington County. When Kane County was organized in 1864 Pipe Spring came under its jurisdiction where it remained until 1883. Both these counties were located in the Utah Territory. The size of its territory was reduced a number of times by the creation of the territories of Nevada and Colorado (1861), and Wyoming Territory (1868). More Utah territory was lost when the Nevada Territory's eastern boundary was moved eastward in 1864. As late as 1897, some Utah officials were still arguing to retain the Arizona Strip territory, lands that lay between the Utah border and the Grand Canyon, but to no avail. [92] Arizona's territorial boundaries were extended in 1883 to take in much of the Arizona Strip, and at that time the Pipe Spring ranch was placed under the jurisdiction of Mohave County, Arizona, where it has since remained. [93]

6. Map showing boundary changes to Utah and surrounding territories, 1850-1896
(Reprinted, by permission, Beck and Haase, Historical Atlas of the American West, copyright © 1989 by the University of Oklahoma Press).
(click on image for an enlargement in a new window - ~75K)

In 1866 Capt. James Andrus was given command of a cavalry company consisting of 62 officers and men and was instructed to examine the country along the Colorado River from the Buckskin Mountain (on the Kaibab Plateau) to the north of the Green River. The expedition left St. George on August 16, 1866, and traveled by way of Gould's Ranch, Pipe Spring, the abandoned settlement of Kanab, Skutumpah, to the Paria River, which they reached in the vicinity of the later site of Cannonville. [94] It may have been at this time (or shortly after) that a stone cabin was constructed at Pipe Spring to be used for periodic encampment by the militia (the north part of what is now known as the east cabin). On November 24, 1868, Colonel John Pearce camped at Pipe Spring with 36 men of the Utah Militia under his command. [95] By March of 1869, Erastus Snow, Bishop of Southern Utah, decided to make Pipe Spring a permanent supply base for the militia. Men were sent to plant turnips and corn where Whitmore had once raised his crops. [96] The stone cabin was repaired for use as guard quarters. In August of that year, John R. Young reported from Pipe Spring that four tons of hay had been cut on the "Moccasin spring creek," 2.5 miles north of PipeSpring. [97] Two tons of this hay were brought to Pipe Spring and a shed was built to shelter 16 horses. [98] By September 12 of that year, a decision was made to winter the militia at Kanab due to its proximity to the Colorado River. [99] The Pipe Spring supply base was soon vacated.

In April 1870 Brigham Young traveled to the site of Kanab and issued a call for it to be reoccupied. During this trip, he surveyed the Pipe Spring area and decided that the site would be a good location for some of the Church's tithed herds. For the safety of local settlers, Young also decided that a fort should be constructed at Pipe Spring. [100] He returned to Salt Lake City and appointed Anson P. Winsor to take charge of the operations, offering an annual salary of $1,200. On his return trip to consecrate the town of Kanab the following September, Young stopped at Pipe Spring to inspect the site for the new fort. Present there at the time were Major John Wesley Powell, Jacob Hamblin, and Chuarumpeak (nicknamed "Frank" by whites), Powell's Paiute guide. Powell reported that the Paiute Indians called Pipe Spring "Yellow Rock Water," after the nearby cliffs. [101] A map produced by Powell's expedition surveys of 1871-1873, however, depicts "Yellow Rock Spring" as located approximately 10 miles southwest of Pipe Spring. This leaves open the question of whether or not Pipe Spring and "Yellow Rock Water" are really the same. [102]

7. Detail from USGS survey map, John Wesley Powell's expeditions of 1871, 1872, and 1873
(Courtesy Bancroft Library, University of California).

How did the Church obtain the ranch property? Upon Whitmore's death on January 9, 1866, his widow, Elizabeth Carter Whitmore, inherited the ranch as part of her husband's estate. [103] In December 1870, Mrs. Whitmore made a verbal agreement with Brigham Young to sell the Pipe Spring ranch to the Church. [104] A record of payment to Mrs. Whitmore was not made until just over three years later, however, after the organization of the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company (Winsor Company). Church historian Andrew Jenson provides a description of the meeting held for the purpose of organizing this cooperative livestock company. [105] The meeting convened in the St. George Tithing Office on January 2, 1873. Erastus Snow was chosen its first chairman. The maximum capital stock agreed to was $500,000. The Board of Directors elected Brigham Young, Sr., president; his nephew, Joseph W. Young, vice-president; and Alexander F. MacDonald, treasurer. [106] Initial subscriptions in stock were made totaling $17,450, with the Church as primary subscriber. [107] Minutes of the meeting stated:

In addition to the 140 acres of land at Pipe Springs, purchased by the Trustee and Trust of the James M. Whitmore estate in 1870, the church has since negotiated for a one-third interest in Moccasin Springs, but which, up to the organization of the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company, has not been paid for; and therefore, will have to be paid for by that company. Some 15 acres of land have been irrigated by the one-third interest in Moccasin Springs. [108]

The reference to 140 acres is believed to be an error, one that has been repeated in other subsequent accounts. The size of Whitmore's original claim was 160 acres as verified by the land certificate. The reference to purchase of one-third water rights and irrigation of land at Moccasin Spring is important to note and will be discussed under a later section, "Moccasin Ranch and Spring." A memorandum of agreement was made on February 15, 1873, between the Winsor Company and Anson P. Winsor as follows:

In presence of President Brigham Young, Vice-President Joseph W. Young and Secretary Alexander F. MacDonald, at St. George. A. P. Winsor proposes to do the work of herding at the ranches of the company, also the farming and fencing connected therewith at Winsor Castle and Moccasin Spring and the dairy work at the ranches for $3,500 per annum. Anson P. Winsor to pay all board and expenses. [109]

Winsor was to receive $1,000 salary; the other $2,500 was to pay four hired men and one woman. (Winsor received $1,200 salary per year from May 1870 until January 1873. Under the new arrangement, his salary was reduced.) At the preliminary meeting it was recorded, "Mrs. Whitmore to be offered $1,000 in capital stock in the company if she will accept it, for ranch and improvements." [110] Accept it she did, for a January 1, 1874, entry in Winsor Company's Ledger B recorded that she was paid $1,000 in Winsor Company stock. Another Ledger B entry indicated a cash payment to Mrs. Whitmore of $366.64. The latter is believed to be for interest owed resulting from the three-year delay of payment. In exchange, Mrs. Whitmore provided the company with a bill of sale. [111] No legal record of the transfer of title from Whitmore to the Church has ever been located and may have never been executed, given the political tenor of the times.

James M. Whitmore's death left Elizabeth Carter Whitmore with nine children under the age of 12 to raise. After her husband's death, she managed the family farm, raising grapes, apples, and peaches. [112] She became a very influential person in St. George, holding and exchanging a great deal of property. [113] In September 1869 she purchased the home of Jacob Hamblin in Santa Clara. Then she and a "Mrs. McIntyre," whom she had previously been living with, moved to the Santa Clara home. [114] (Mrs. McIntyre may have been the widow of Robert McIntyre. If so, the fact that the widows of Whitmore and McIntyre were living together after the men's deaths lends credence to sources which say the two men were kin. The exact relationship of the two men and two women has yet to be documented.) In 1883 Mrs. Whitmore moved to Salt Lake City where she lived until her death on November 24, 1892.

Anson P. Winsor was one of the Latter-day Saints who responded to the call of 1861. Born August 19, 1818, in Ellicotville, New York, he was baptized into the Church in 1842. As a member of the faithful group gathered in Nauvoo, Illinois, he had acted as one of Joseph Smith's bodyguards. He emigrated from the Midwest to Utah in 1852 with his wife, Emeline Zenatta Brower, and a growing family, and soon located in Provo. (The couple eventually had nine children.) There in 1855, he took in plural marriage a second wife, Mary Nielsen, a Danish immigrant. Winsor's role in the Utah War (1857-1858) has already been mentioned. During the period of heightened conflict with Indians (late 1865-1869), Winsor served as colonel in the Third Regiment of the Utah Territorial Militia under General Erastus Snow. He is reported to have participated in several battles with Indians. [115]

In response to Brigham Young's call to colonize southern Utah, Winsor moved his families in 1861 from Provo to Grafton on the Virgin River, and was appointed its bishop in 1863. Grafton, along with Kanab and other settlements, was abandoned in 1866 during the period of Navajo raids. Winsor was living in Rockville when he was appointed in April 1870 to collect and oversee the Church's ranch of tithing cattle at Pipe Spring. [116] His role as ranch superintendent began that May. [117] Soon after, he sent his 15-year-old son, Anson Jr., to the site to plant a garden prior to the family's arrival. No documentation has yet identified the location of this early garden, but it is reasonable to assume it was the same land previously cultivated by Whitmore and the militia. Because of the lay of the land, the garden would most likely have been located south of the fort where it could be irrigated by gravity flow from the springs. The boy lived in the old Whitmore-McIntyre dugout during this period.

Joseph W. Young, president of the Stake of Zion in St. George and a nephew of Brigham Young, was charged with overseeing the construction of the fort. [118] Young wrote a letter on October 16, 1870, from his home in St. George to President Horace S. Eldredge in England describing his appointment and noting,

This work will keep me out most of the winter, but it is a very necessary work, and I am willing to do my part in it. This Pipe Spring and Kanab country is right between us and the Navajos, and it is the best country for stock raising that I ever saw if it can be made safe against the raids of these marauding Indians. I start out tomorrow with a small company to commence the work. [119]

Presumably, Young and his party left the following day and soon began the preliminary work of laying out the fort. John R. Young, brother to Joseph W. Young, brought his two wives, Albina and Tamar, and their children from Washington, Utah, to Pipe Spring in 1870 so that he could assist his brother with construction of the fort. John R. Young reported that his wife Tamar (born Tamar J. Black) assisted Joseph Young in drawing up the plans for the fort. Construction of the fort began that fall. [120]

It is not known exactly when the rest of the Winsor family arrived, but it was some time prior to Joseph W. Young's arrival. The one-room stone building constructed a few years earlier by the militia was modified in 1870 through the addition of another room to the south, the two rooms separated by an open bay. The Winsors lived in this building, now known as the east cabin. Anson P. Winsor's son, Walter, later reported that Joseph W. Young was also mayor of St. George, thus did not spend all of this time at Pipe Spring. [121] When he was at Pipe Spring, he reportedly shared the Winsors' cabin. In 1870 a second two-room stone cabin was erected west of the fort site to house workers (now referred to as the west cabin or bunkhouse).

Blocks of sandstone for the construction of the fort walls were quarried from the sandstone cliff immediately west of the fort site. The partially worked stones were placed on a forked log called a "rock lizard" and dragged by an ox down a trail cut or worn into the face of the cliff. This contraption has also been called a "stone-boat," thus the trail has been referred to as both the "stone-boat trail" and the "quarry trail." The proximity of this trail to the fort is shown in figure 9.

8. An ox dragged building stone on a "rock lizard" down the quarry trail
(Pipe Spring National Monument)

9. The quarry trail followed along the cliff face to the fort's construction site
(Pipe Spring National Monument)

Lumber for the fort came from a sawmill at Mt. Trumbull (located 60 miles from Pipe Spring in the Uinkaret Mountains of the Uinkaret Plateau), and lime was brought from a deposit located eight miles to the southwest near Cedar Ridge. [122] While the fort was originally planned to be 152 feet by 66 feet, Young reduced it to approximately 68 by 44 feet, most probably because threats from Navajo to nearby settlements were no longer a problem after the November 5, 1870, treaty of Fort Defiance. [123] (As mentioned earlier, word of the treaty did not reach Pipe Spring until December, several months after construction activities began on the fort.) Once the possibility of Indian attacks was over, the fort's defensive function was rendered obsolete. Although reduced in size, it still retained its defensive design.

The Pipe Spring fort was completed by April 1872 except for interior work that continued for several years. [124] The completed structure consisted of two sandstone block buildings, each two-stories, that faced each other across a courtyard. Heavy wooden gates, which opened outward, enclosed both ends of the courtyard. Wood shingles covered the fort's roof. For defensive purposes, none of the buildings' exterior walls were constructed with windows but instead were supplied with gun ports.

The north building (or "upper house") of the fort abuts a hillside that historically yielded the site's primary source of spring water. The spring water flowed by gravity southward, beneath the floor of the north building's west room, then through a stone-lined trough across the courtyard, and into the west room of the south building (the "lower house"). The main function of the cattle ranch at Pipe Spring was to produce cheese, butter, beef, and hides for Mormon workers building the St. George Temple, which was under construction 1871-1877. Sheep were also kept at Pipe Spring during this period, providing a source of wool and lamb for the St. George workers. In addition to cooling the dairy room, the water that issued from the spring behind the fort was used for culinary purposes, crop irrigation, and stock watering. [125] Reports detailing the fort's construction, physical appearance, and history as the Church's cattle ranch are described in other sources, and will not be repeated here. [126]

During fort construction, a telegraph line was being constructed from Rockville, Utah, to Kanab, Utah. The organization of the Deseret Telegraph Company dates back to 1861, when the transcontinental telegraph reached Salt Lake City. Church leaders immediately planned to build a line for the settlements from north to south but the Civil War temporarily prevented them from acquiring the necessary wire, insulators, and equipment. During the winter of 1865-1866, the Latter-day Saints subscribed money and contributed teams and teamsters to form a train to transport these supplies from the Missouri Valley. A Church-run school for telegraphy was set up in Salt Lake City, the company was incorporated by the territorial assembly, and construction began on the telegraph line with men's labor credited as a Church tithe. Troubles with Indians during 1865-1870 hastened the line's construction. It reached St. George on January 15, 1867. Pipe Spring was chosen to be a station of the Deseret Telegraph Company, making it the earliest telegraph station in Arizona. The first message was sent from there on December 15, 1871. The telegraph line reached Kanab on Christmas Day, 1871. Eliza Luella ("Ella") Stewart was the first operator at Pipe Spring; she was also was the first operator in Kanab where the office was set up in the home of her father, Bishop Levi Stewart. The arrival of the telegraph line in southern Utah and the Arizona Strip enabled settlers there to communicate with Salt Lake City and thus with the rest of the world. It helped to end the terrible isolation that was characteristic of remote settlements and kept those in Salt Lake City informed of distant developments. By 1880 the telegraph line was about 1,000 miles; 1,200 miles of wire were strung over thousands of rough poles, and there were 68 offices or stations. In 1900 the company was sold to eastern interests. [127]

Major John W. Powell obtained supplies for his Grand Canyon expedition at Pipe Spring in 1871 and 1872. Anson P. Winsor's son, L. M. Winsor, reported that it was during these visits that Powell christened the new fort, "Winsor Castle." Prior to that time he said it was called "Fort Arizona." [128] L. M. Winsor also recalled the family had a vegetable garden planted with tomatoes, corn, potatoes, squash, and pumpkin. In addition, the family kept a vineyard and a variety of fruit trees (peaches, apples, and two varieties of plums) and planted black currants. [129]

The fort at Pipe Spring never came under Indian attack. Relations with the nearby Kaibab Paiute had long been friendly, and the peace negotiated by Hamblin and Powell with the Navajo while the fort was under construction eventually ended the raiding of white settlements. Few references to the Winsors' relationship with the Kaibab Paiute at Pipe Spring have been found so the following quotation is particularly useful. L. M. Winsor reported that his father, Anson P. Winsor, "...spent much time with the Paiute Indians who taught him many things. He acquired a love for these Indians that remained through life, and he always had some of them near or working for and with him." [130] While there had once been occasional Navajo raids in the area, the local Paiute were friendly to the family, the son recalled. In addition to a huge herd of cattle, the Pipe Spring ranch had a band of sheep. John R. Young's son, Silas, remembered that an Indian tended the sheep. [131]

After the signing of the November 5, 1870, treaty, the Navajo became frequent visitors and traders in Mormon settlements. Their raiding of Southern Paiute camps, however, continued. According to Stoffle et al., as threats of Navajo attacks on Mormon settlements gradually waned, the Latter-day Saints broke earlier mutual protection treaties with the Paiute. A significant decline in interactions between Euroamericans and the Paiute characterized the three following decades. Southern Paiute north of the Colorado River sought refuge with other peoples, such as the Hualapai and Havasupai, or moved to more isolated places like the lower Kanab Creek area, and to hidden places along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. [132]

A number of Kaibab Paiute cast their lot with the white settlements of Kanab, Fredonia, and Moccasin where they eked out a marginal existence by relying on occasional handouts of food and on limited opportunities for employment doing menial jobs. At least until 1900, payment was usually made in the form of produce or locally produced goods. Even menial jobs were not secure, however. As thousands of poor, land-hungry Church converts from Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia continued to immigrate to the newly colonized areas, many of the unskilled tasks once performed by Indians were turned over to the immigrants. [133]

Anson Perry Winsor continued overseeing the Church's cattle at Pipe Spring until he was called to St. George in the fall of 1876 to labor there as an ordinance worker in the Temple. [134] After Winsor's departure, his son Walter was in charge at Pipe Spring until the arrival of Charles Pulsipher. [135] Pulsipher was elected superintendent of the Winsor Company's herd on January 3, 1877, moving to Pipe Spring from Hebron, Utah, where he had supervised another Church herd. [136] The size of the Pipe Spring herd in mid-1877 was 2,097. Pulsipher lived at the fort with the second and third of his three wives, Sariah and Julia, and children. [137]

By a unanimous vote of stockholders present at a meeting held January 1, 1879, the property of the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company was transferred to the Canaan Cooperative Cattle Company (Canaan Company) of St. George, headed by Erastus Snow, president of the St. George Stake. Brigham Young, who was its primary shareholder until his death in 1877, founded the Canaan Company in 1870. It was probably the largest of the southern Utah cooperatives, operating dairies, farms, meat markets, and hiring agents to represent it. The company's main ranch headquarters was at Canaan Spring, in a cove at the base of the Vermilion Cliffs a few miles west of Short Creek. [138] Soon after the merger between the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company and the Canaan Company, Pipe Spring's dairy cattle were transferred to Canaan's dairy ranch at Upper Kanab. Pipe Spring ranch operations then concentrated on the production of beef cattle.

Drought in 1879 and over-grazed range land reduced the Pipe Spring herd. On November 15, 1879, the Canaan Company returned the Pipe Springs property to the Church, or rather, to the Trustee in Trust, President John Taylor. At their next meeting on December 17, 1879, the Company directors approved paying the Trustee in Trust rent for the Pipe Spring ranch from July 1 through December 31, 1879. In late 1879, the Company's Chairman Erastus Snow and President Taylor agreed that annual rent in 1880 for the Pipe Spring ranch would be $250.

The transfer of Pipe Spring to the Canaan Company, then back to President Taylor, may seem curious, but in context of the events of the time, it can be better understood. At the personal orders of Brigham Young, the Pipe Spring fort had been constructed by a work mission of the Church and subsequently used as a tithing ranch. President Young held controlling stock of the Winsor Castle Stock Growing Company as Trustee in Trust for the Church. [139] The legal process to settle Young's estate, begun after his death (which took place on August 29, 1877), was not completed until some time in 1879. [140]

According to Leonard Arrington, the giant share of Church properties in Young's name was eventually turned over to his successor, John Taylor. It is probable that Pipe Spring wasn't immediately transferred to Taylor's control pending the outcome of the settlement of Young's estate. In any event, President Taylor continued the policy of secretly holding certain Church business properties in the names of individual trustees, presumably to prevent federal officials from knowing the actual extent of Church holdings. In early 1879, Canaan Company Superintendent James Andrus was appointed to take charge of the Winsor Castle herd but resigned later that year. Pulsipher stayed on at Pipe Spring into the winter of 1879-1880. [141] On December 17, 1879, the company hired James S. Emett to oversee the Andrus Spring, Short Creek, and Pipe Spring ranches. Census records indicate Emett lived in Kanab. He was released from his position the following year, and soon after the company notified Church President Taylor it would not renew its lease.

By 1880 the Church's policy in managing the Pipe Spring ranch was to lease it to interested cattlemen who would use it as an investment and care for the Church cattle herd. After the Canaan Company's lease expired (some time in 1880), the ranch was vacant until late 1881 or early 1882 when it was leased to Kanab resident Joseph Gurnsey Brown, who lived there with his wife Harriet. [142] In 1885, shortly before the Brown family left Pipe Spring, they received a visitor, a Frenchman named Albert Tissandier, who stopped both en route to and on return from Kanab. On the first visit, Tissandier drew a sketch of the fort and its setting, the oldest known picture of the site, and presented it to a Kanab family. [143]

10. Albert Tissandier and his drawing of Pipe Spring, 1885
(Pipe Spring National Monument, neg. 5013).

The Browns left Pipe Spring in 1885, moving back to Kanab. Either just before or at the time of their departure, the Church turned management of the ranch and herds over to the United Order of Orderville (described later). Erastus Snow's son-in-law, Edwin D. Woolley, Jr., was placed in charge of the Pipe Spring herd in late 1885. [144] Woolley, president of Kanab Stake, maintained a home and family in Kanab while moving his plural wife, Florence (or "Flora," daughter of Erastus Snow), and their three children to the Pipe Spring ranch in the spring of 1886. [145] A series of caretakers was hired to oversee ranch operations, among them were George Hicks, Loren Little, and Squire Hepworth. [146] During Woolley's management, John M. McFarlane, U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor for Arizona, made a private survey by metes and bounds of the Pipe Spring ranch on December 3-4, 1886. [147] The plat of survey showed that the property, with all its improvements, contained 40 acres. [148]

Prior to this time, a number of federal laws had been passed that would directly impact activities at Moccasin and Pipe Spring. In 1862, Congress passed an act prohibiting polygamy, disincorporated the Church, and prohibited it from owning more than $50,000 worth of property other than that used directly and exclusively for devotional purposes. Although the law was generally considered unconstitutional, the Church attempted a kind of surface compliance with it by permitting only one civil marriage, calling the others "sealings," and placing properties acquired by the Church in the hands of Brigham Young as trustee in trust. After Young died, Church business properties continued to be secretly held in the names of individual trustees.

Crucial weaknesses in the early legislation targeting Latter-day Saints led to the passage in 1882 of the Edmunds Act. The Edmunds Act set in motion a process for reordering the political climate in Utah, and it also had a profound impact on territorial life through criminal prosecutions. The number of deputized federal marshals in the territory increased 300 percent, given the primary responsibility of tracking down polygamists. [149] This law put "teeth" into the 1862 law by enacting heavy penalties for the practice of polygamy, defining cohabitation with a polygamous wife as a misdemeanor, disenfranchising polygamists, and barring them from serving on juries or holding public office. The Edmunds Act also attempted to eliminate the Church as a power in Utah by vesting the territory's political machinery in federal non-Mormon appointive officers. Until 1885, there was widespread belief this law was unconstitutional, so federal officials moved slowly in bringing indictments under it. On March 3, 1885, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Edmunds Act by denying the appeal of convicted polygamist Rudger Clawson. Territorial officials then commenced the systematic and intensive prosecution of Church leaders in Utah and elsewhere, known as the "Raid." [150]

In 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Act, or "Anti-Polygamy Act," amended the 1862 law, putting even greater pressure on Latter-day Saints. This law was designed to destroy the temporal power of the Church. Among its provisions was the dissolution of the Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Attorney General was directed to institute proceedings to forfeit and escheat all property, both real and personal, of the dissolved Church corporation held in violation of the 1862 limit of $50,000. It also called for the dissolution of the Perpetual Emigrating Company, the abolition of female suffrage in Utah, and the disinheritance of children of plural marriages. [151] Moreover, it empowered the court to compel the production of books, records, papers, and documents relating to properties held by the Church's president. [152]

Between 1884 and 1893, there were 1,004 convictions for unlawful cohabitation and another 31 for polygamy under the Edmunds Act. [153] As polygamous marriage was difficult to establish in the courts, most often the charge made was that of unlawful cohabitation. Under the Edmunds Act, cohabitation with a polygamous wife was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $300 or by six months imprisonment, or both. The period from 1885 to 1890 was marked by intensive "polyg hunts" for "cohabs." Many Church leaders went into hiding (or hid their plural wives and children) to escape prosecution. (Church President John Taylor died while in hiding on July 25, 1887. His last public appearance was in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle on February 1, 1885.) Just as the 1858 federal takeover of Church government functions had spurred southern colonization, the struggle over polygamy served also as catalyst for further expansion of Mormon settlements.

Edwin Dilworth ("Dee") Woolley, Jr., was one of the polygamists who sequestered his wife Flora and their children across the state line in the remote Pipe Spring fort. [154] Federal agents sought plural wives as witnesses in those days. If the plural wife could not be located, it was nearly impossible for the federal deputies (referred to as "Deps" by the locals) to prove cohabitation. Nine other plural wives and their children are reported to have taken refuge at Pipe Spring at various times during the raiding period. (They were never all there at the same time.) Their names were Josephine Snow Tanner and Georgie Snow Thatcher (sisters to Flora Snow Woolley), Lynda J. (or T.) Marriger, sisters Ellen C. and Ann C. Chamberlain, Caroline Woolley, Emma Carroll Seegmiller, Mrs. Bringhurst and Mrs. Sangford of Toquerville. The husbands of the two Toquerville wives were serving time in the penitentiary. The Chamberlain sisters were the wives of Thomas Chamberlain, president of the United Order in Orderville. [155] Chamberlain was one of those arrested, convicted, fined, and sentenced to prison for violation of anti-polygamy laws. [156]

A significant number of changes were made to the Pipe Spring fort and landscape during Flora Woolley's five-year stay there. The fort alterations (principally the cutting of window and door openings and the removal of the large wooden gates on the east and west end of the courtyard) are described in detail in Park Service Historian A. Berle Clemensen's historic resource study. [157] The changes were made in order to let more air and light into the buildings and to minimize its fortress-like feeling. [158] Flora Woolley reportedly wanted these alterations to make the place feel less like a prison. [159] Of her move to Pipe Springs Flora once said, "...I went to prison to keep my husband out." [160] (In 1959 the fort was restored to its original appearance through filling in the openings made during the Woolley period. See Part IX.) Another change made during this period was that, at Flora Woolley's request, brick extensions were added to the upper building chimneys to improve the chimney's draw and to keep flying red ants from nesting in them. [161] Landscape changes made during the Woolley period included the planting of cottonwood, elm, willow, and ailanthus trees near the fort and changes to the ponds located just south of the fort. The ponds were there prior to the arrival of the Woolleys, but during their tenancy the ponds were enlarged, the banks built up, and stonework was constructed around them. They were used as a reservoir for water to irrigate the Woolleys' orchard, garden, alfalfa, and currants. [162] In 1890 there were about 1,400 head of cattle in the Pipe Spring herd. During this period, cattle drank from a large watering hole and troughs located about 200 yards west of the fort. [163]

11. Pipe Spring fort, April 27, 1891. The man wearing a white hat is Edwin D. Woolley, Jr.
(Photograph by J. J. Booth, Pipe Spring National Monument , neg. 29).

According to Flora Woolley, eight women gave birth to nine children (three girls and six boys) while at Pipe Spring during the raiding years, thus earning it the popular name, "Woolley's lambing ground." [164] Another source confirms that eight wives gave birth at Pipe Spring, one bearing twins. [165] Another humorous nickname applied to Pipe Spring during these years was "Adamless Eden," as men put themselves in legal jeopardy if caught by federal deputies while visiting wives there. Pregnant plural wives in particular appear to have been a threat to their husbands' freedom during this period, since one couldn't explain one's "delicate condition" and deny a plural marriage at the same time. This might explain the unusually large number of women who gave birth at Pipe Spring over a relatively short span of time.

These women were not totally isolated from the outside world for a telephone was installed in the fort in 1888. It was located on the doorframe in the west room of the north building. Dilworth Woolley recalled the first time it was used:

The telephone bell tinkled. Mother in much excitement, took down the receiver and called, 'Yes, yes, yes' and talked into the mouthpiece. I do not remember what else she said. There were many persons in the room but I do not recall who they were. There were some Indians looking on. After much excited talk back and forth over the line, Father called old Frank Indian to come to the phone. He put the receiver to his ear with manifestations of fear in every move — listened a second or two, dropped the receiver, shook his head and mumbled something in Indian, and departed quickly. But his reaction caused an explosion of laughter among the audience. [166]

Dilworth Woolley reported in 1938 that the first message sent over the telephone from Kanab to the Pipe Springs ranch was a musical number played by the Kanab Marshal Band. [167]

Fredonia also served as a refuge for plural wives during these years. The town lies on the east bank of Kanab Creek. The first settler in that area, Thomas Frain Dobson, brought his family from Kanab in the spring of 1885. The town site was surveyed in 1886. The name was suggested by Erastus Snow, wrote Arizona historian James H. McClintock, "naturally coming from the fact that many of the residents were from Utah, seeking freedom from the enforcement of federal laws." [168]

The problem of plural wives and their children was only one of the concerns of Church leaders, however. Protecting its property from federal escheatment under the Edmunds-Tucker Act was also of utmost importance. [169] Most of the 3,000 head of livestock on Church ranches at Star Valley, Wyoming; Oxford, Idaho; and Pipe Springs, Arizona, was sold to Mormon capitalists and semipublic livestock associations. [170] Immediately following President Taylor's death on July 25, 1887, a suit was filed on July 30, 1887, by the U.S. Attorney General against the Church and the Perpetual Emigrating Company. The Edmunds-Tucker Act abolished the legal position of the Trustee in Trust, and thus another device had to be invented to protect the Church's assets. On August 22, 1887, under New York state law, one of Brigham Young's sons, John W. Young, formed a holding company, the Kaibab Land and Cattle Company. [171] This company took under its umbrella the Pipe Spring ranch, grazing herds at House Rock Valley, Kaibab, and the Arizona Strip, and controlled all the assets of the Canaan Cooperative Stock Company. [172]

Through the Kaibab Land and Cattle Company, the Church continued to indirectly run the Pipe Spring ranch. Daniel Seegmiller, like Edwin D. Woolley, was married to one of Erastus Snow's daughters, Artimesia, with whom he lived in Kanab. His plural wife, Emma Seegmiller (born Emma Isabelle Carroll), lived at Pipe Spring during the raiding years. Daniel Seegmiller was put in charge of the Church's herd of horses at House Rock Valley. Seegmiller was later fired from his position for unscrupulous dealings and was replaced by his foreman, Ed Lamb. [173] Seegmiller played a significant role in confusing the ownership history of Pipe Spring when in 1888 he filed ownership rights to the Pipe Spring property with Valentine scrip. [174]

The use of Valentine scrip as a means of buying land originated from April 5, 1872, legislation (17 Stat. 649; "An Act for the Relief of Thomas B. Valentine"). By this act, the federal government bought out a Spanish land grant in California in exchange for scrip worth an equal amount of "...unoccupied and unappropriated public lands of the United States, not mineral, and in tracts not less than the subdivisions provided for in the United States land laws, and if unsurveyed when taken, to conform, when surveyed, to the general system of United States land surveys." [175] The scrip came to be known as "Valentine scrip" and was bought and sold throughout the West. One such certificate came into the hands of Daniel Seegmiller. [176] On May 3, 1888, in Prescott, Arizona, Seegmiller filed application on a tract of unsurveyed land described by metes and bounds and courses and distances in the 1886 McFarlane survey (referenced earlier) by using this Valentine scrip.

After researching the history of Pipe Spring ownership in 1969, National Park Service Area Manager Raymond Geerdes concluded that Daniel Seegmiller had attempted, for reasons of self-interest, to lay claim to the Pipe Spring tract, even while he knew it was Church property. [177] Geerdes asserted that Seegmiller's attempt to legally gain title was unsuccessful, but that he still profited by selling the "bogus" claim to Benjamin F. Saunders on July 23, 1895, for $2,500. [178] The Mohave County Recorder recorded the quitclaim deed from Seegmiller at the request of Saunders on December 5, 1895. Seegmiller's sale of the scrip lent the appearance of authenticity to his claim for years thereafter. Saunders, who would also pay the Canaan Cooperative Stock Company for the property, may have simply purchased the Valentine scrip to avoid any future potential disputes over his legal ownership of Pipe Spring.

Ninety years later, questions still arose about the Valentine scrip. A letter to A. D. Findlay of Kanab (grandson of the A. D. Findlay who once owned Pipe Spring) from Attorney Ken Chamberlain of Richfield, Utah, dated June 19, 1985, offers additional information on the Valentine scrip:

Under the Code 17 Stat. 696 (the Act of April 5, 1872) 'Valentine Scrip' was issued as a 'lieu selection or scrip right or bounty right which was permitted on unsurveyed lands as the equivalent of a homestead entry with a maximum of 160 acres.

The scrip was issued in about the same manner as an unpatented mining claim and it was redeemable up until about 1955 but was redeemable as early as 1905 by exchanging it for an application for a homestead or desert land entry.All scrip that had not been converted to a homestead patent became null and void in 1970. [179]

Between 1895 and 1909, when Jonathan Heaton purchased the Pipe Spring ranch, Seegmiller's Valentine scrip got passed from one buyer to the next. It would later create a huge headache for one of Jonathan's sons, Charles Carroll Heaton, when he attempted to prove legal ownership of Pipe Spring.

After President Taylor's death in July 1887, Wilford Woodruff became head of the Church. On September 25, 1890, President Woodruff issued the "Official Declaration" (also referred to as the "Manifesto") which proclaimed the end of polygamy among Latter-day Saints. The following summer Flora Woolley left the Pipe Spring fort and moved to Kanab. [180] After Woodruff issued his declaration withdrawing official Church sanction of polygamy, "polyg hunts" by deputy marshals became less frequent and judges showed more leniency in dealing with "cohabs" brought before the courts, sometimes fining them only six cents and dismissing the case if they professed to accept Woodruff 's "Manifesto." In January 1893 President Benjamin Harrison signed into effect a limited, carefully worded amnesty proclamation for people convicted under anti-polygamy laws. In 1894 President Grover Cleveland granted them complete amnesty, thereby restoring their voting rights and other privileges. In October 1893 an act was passed in Congress authorizing the return of escheated property to the Church. Personal property was returned to the First Presidency in January 1894. Church real estate was returned in June 1896. [181] Utah became the nation's 45th state on January 4, 1896.

By 1895 the Church was free to openly sell properties that had proven unprofitable. In mid-1895 the Church sold the Pipe Spring property to Benjamin F. Saunders. Saunders was a rancher who dealt in both sheep and cattle and had ties to southern Utah and northern Arizona dating from about 1883 until his death in 1909. [182] Saunders also had interests in Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, and other parts of the west. [183] Although he was a "gentile," he reportedly got along quite well with the Latter-day Saints. [184] Saunders had wanted to buy the Pipe Spring ranch for years. In the January 22, 1883, meeting minutes of the Canaan Cooperative Stock Company, Chairman Erastus Snow told the directors, "B. F. Saunders desires to buy stock and if the circumstances were right favorable, to buy into the Company." (According to one source, the company had some 4,200 cattle in 1883. [185]) While the Board refused to sell Saunders capital stock in the Company, it agreed to sell him 500 head of grazing stock. [186] Saunders bought the cattle and in addition offered to buy Parashont Ranch, located between Mt. Trumbull and the Grand Canyon. [187] After conferring with Church officials in Salt Lake City, Snow wired instructions to Company directors to sell this ranch to Saunders. Later, in 1899, Saunders also acquired all the property of Kaibab Land and Cattle Company, comprising its House Rock and Kaibab operations. [188]

Records from 1883 until 1895 for the Canaan Cooperative Stock Company have not been located. [189] At its last meeting on October 1, 1895, held in Salt Lake City, a record was made for the sale of all the Canaan Company's remaining assets to B. F. Saunders, including Pipe Spring ranch. [190] Saunders paid $10 a head for all cattle and horses born before 1895. All improvements - buildings, corrals, watering troughs, etc. - were included in the bargain. One researcher speculated that this is the reason no legal transfer of recorded property took place, for this method of transfer (selling the cattle and "throwing in" all the improvements) saved the Church from revealing its lengthy ownership of Pipe Spring. [191] Further proof that the Church still owned Pipe Spring at the time of this sale is a telegram dated June 7, 1895:

To President Woodruff
Sale of Pipe Springs to Cattle Syndicate [B. F. Saunders] means serious loss to the people of our stake; if it must be sold the people of the stake wish to buy. See letter by the people.

E. D. Woolley [192]

Why the Church chose to sell the ranch to Saunders instead of honoring the request of Kanab Stake may never be known. In any event, while Saunders acquired Pipe Spring, no official or legal record of conveyance from the Church to Saunders has ever been found. The sale to Saunders officially ended Church ties to the Pipe Spring property.

Saunders held the property only briefly, however. On December 2, 1895, he sold Pipe Spring to David Dunn Bulloch of Salt Lake City and Lehi W. Jones of Cedar City, Utah, for $3,250. [193] Excerpts from a letter Bulloch wrote to his wife Sarah Ann in Salt Lake City included a description of the ranch:

...I think it is the finest ranch I ever seen for livestock, and it is a very pretty place. There is about $5,000 worth of improvement on the place. There is [sic] two large buildings, one a two-story with five rooms in, and a number of small buildings, a hay field, and all kinds of apricot and plum trees, a fish pond, I think the fish are carp. There is a number of corals [sic], the best I ever seen on a ranch. So I bought it, and I think I got a bargain. I paid thirty-two hundred and fifty dollars.... I have let the Jones boys have a half interest. [194]

On May 24, 1897, Bulloch and Jones formed the Pipe Springs Cattle Company. [195] Heber Monair was ranch foreman for Bulloch and Jones from 1895 to 1897 and lived in the upper building of the fort during those years. Monair visited the fort with his wife in 1946 and, characteristically, Custodian Leonard Heaton plied him for historical information. During his time at Pipe Spring, Monair recalled, the stock watered in troughs west of the fort ponds. He also told Heaton that he traded some wine to Jonathan Heaton for a barrel full of carp to put in the fort ponds. [196]

At a meeting of the Pipe Springs Cattle Company on January 19, 1901, a resolution was passed to sell the property to A. D. Findlay. On January 23, 1901, the Pipe Springs Cattle Company entered into a contract with Findlay whereby the Company agreed to deliver 1,200 head of cattle from the Pipe Spring and Bull Rush ranches to Findlay, with principal deliveries to be made during the spring and fall roundups of 1901, and final delivery to be made prior to December 15, 1902. Findlay was to pay $22.50 per head of cattle. [197] He was also to pay $20,000 in cash, thereafter having the option of completing payment by delivering his herd of sheep (known as the "Heart herd") numbering about 3,000 and valued at $2.25 per head. [198] Also in the contract were provisions for the sale and transfer of the Pipe Springs and Bull Rush ranch properties. The Pipe Spring ranch deed was to be conveyed on October 15, 1901, for $4,000. (The price for the Bull Rush ranch was to be the actual cost to the Company and date of deed transferal to take place on October 15, 1901, "or as soon thereafter as title...is perfected." The Company had yet to secure the title.) The quitclaim deed for Pipe Spring was not executed until November 3, 1902. The Pipe Spring purchase was to include lumber, fencing, hay machinery, and the stove and furniture in use at the ranch. [199] The total price for the livestock from both ranches and the Pipe Spring tract would have totaled $31,000.

The ranch was actually sold by Bulloch and Jones to Findlay on October 8, 1901 (a week earlier than stated in the above contract). On November 12, 1902, Findlay also purchased 100 head of cattle for $1,100 from John R. Findlay. On April 13, 1907, Findlay formed the Pipe Springs Land & Live Stock Company. During Findlay's ownership, as well as that of Bulloch and Jones, caretakers and cowhands lived at the fort. Between 1902 and 1907, a long underground tunnel was constructed into a rocky hill to reach a water source. This water source was called tunnel spring. Hint Silar of Alton, Utah, built it. Silar told Edna Heaton in 1934 that the purpose of the tunnel was to get beneath the main body of the spring and transport the water by pipeline five miles southwest to the Indian Knolls and make a cattle ranch there. Findlay sold the ranch, however, before the project could be completed. [200]

Findlay sold the ranch to Jonathan Heaton and Sons, a copartnership, on January 2, 1909, with Findlay carrying the mortgage. [201] (Heaton's seven sons were William, Israel, Ira, Junius, Jonathan Jr., Charles, and Fred.) The amount promised in payment was $59,563.13, payable one year later, with interest. In return, Jonathan Heaton and Sons were to receive the Pipe Spring ranch "with all improvements, water rights and appurtenances," as well as a parcel of land known as the "Findlay Lower Reservoir" along with its improvements, water rights, privileges, and appurtenances. [202] The sale also included the transfer of 4,400 head of range cattle. The Heaton period of ownership will be covered in a later section.