| Show I A GOOD ENDORSEMENT The People of Tempe Think Well of Mormons TEMPE May 10 lS90 Editor Gazette Wo hear much these days about the Mormons Mor-mons and their habits industry etct but not many people erstand them The writer was noro when the Mesa Mormons Mor-mons arrived at their now beautiful surroundings roundinps The handful of Mormon emigrants who located the Mesa as the site of a colony had a keen insight into the future The little band consisted of about nine families and a few camp followers After pitching their tents on the river bottom and mak C ing an inventory of their worlds goods which was comprised chiefly of a few head of stock they went to work with a thorough thor-ough appreciation of the adage that labor conquors nil things Doctor Jones an old timer and civil engineer surveyed the route of their proposed canal This done the work of cutting it through rock cement ce-ment and soft earth for a distance of nin I miles commenced in dead earnest in the 1 month of February ISiS The total force that mustered on the canal for the first few months never went above twelve men yet in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles laboring under the midday blaze of a tropical sun without the shadow of a shade with insufficient food at times for men or beasts that handful hand-ful of wanderers in search of a permanent abiding place kept on day by day working out tho problem of turning a barren desert into a vast orchard and vineyard To a wealthy company such an undertaking under-taking would be but a trine in the annals of its transactions but to those twelve hardy sons of toil who musteredon that February day on the banks of the Salt river to dig and delve for many a weary day and month it was an undertaking on their part fraught withthe weal or woe of their future destinies Plu k and perseverance perse-verance however triumphed over all obstacles ob-stacles and the final result of nine mQnths labor was the proud satisfaction of seeing water flowing over our present towh site The flow of water was then but a mere trickle to what we have now and what with breakages and rat holes it required I two or three shares of water the first two years of settlement to irrigate a five acre I patch in a week Taking this into consideration consid-eration and the fact that with the exception t excep-tion of a few teams left after their long and i weary task as well as the little band being financially down to bed rock it is no cause for surprise that but little progress was I made iu improving and cultivating their holdings during the first three years of settlement set-tlement I Soon however welltodo settlers began I to arrive and with the usual generosity so proverbial among Mormons of aiding one another combined with whatthe younger members of the family could bring in by freighting the elders managed to start little lit-tle patches of fruit trees and grape vines which have since and now are being rapidly rap-idly developed into immense orchards and vineyards and which before many more seasons roll by will be proof positive of the Mesa being the best fruitgrowing portion por-tion of North America It will be seen from the above that the Mesa was almost at a standstill during its first three years of colonization with a canal that required continual repairs a broken exchequer and without a permanent leader such as they had been used to in the bills and valleys of Utah it is surprising indeed that they did not disperse family by family until they had scattered far and wide over the coast The early teachings of the founders of their creedfrugality sobriety industry and patiencecame in right here to their aid and with a grit worthy of the cause the colonization of the desert and the spread of their creedthey kept on right manfully in improving and enlarging their canal until they have now one that is capable cap-able of irrigating 35000 acres of land The results of the labors of these pioneers pio-neers can now be daily seen in the grain and hay fields in our orchards loaded down I with fruit of every description in our vineyards vine-yards bearing five tb eight tons of luscious grapes tnthe acre in our bees producing our honey in our sorghum mills turning out our syrup in our strawberry beds yielding adlibatum and on every ranchers I ranch-ers table fat looking spuds of his own I I raising and at this season of the year neat cottages on every hand fronted by mazy I walks and flower beds scenting the air for rods with a fragrant perfume t until one I imagines he is in some lairy land instead of quietly smoking his cigarette under his own cool fig tree MARK Phoenix Gazette |
