Show sanjuan san juan utah by albert R lyman 15 the coura courageux geus nien men and women who made their stand at montezuma fot for the first white settlement m ent in the hitherto wild region of the aiutes deserve more notice and more credit than has ever Y yet ct been given them that their place was to be utterly obliterated by an ir fury and its few people scattered in places far away is no reason they should not be kindly remembered and their sacrifices made an inseparable feature of the history of san juan james davis and harrison H harriman made a tremendous personal offering for the sake of san juan and moved quietly and un away rich in thrilling experiences and indel lible memories but having lost all that they brought with them to the country and having gained in it nothing of temporal value in answer to a call received from the president of the church in december 1878 thes two men with their wives an 1 their eight children started from cedar city with the scout company on the of april 1879 they were headed for what was perhaps the most perilous and the most unknown region to which any mormon colony was ever called in the wild west mrs davis had been in poor health a long time and she was expecting with the coming of summer to face again the fearsome ordeal of motherhood accordia according to the records she sat up on the high spring seat and drove a team all day during weary weeks while they moved slowly farther and farther into the mountains and rocks of a howling wilderness der ness at the hopi I lop village of moen copy arizona it was decided to have the women and children wait until the country was explored ahead so the two families stayed there the better part of two months living in their wagons while the men found such work as they could the loose stock of the company were also left till the country aoud be explored and a destination selected it was about the first of july that some of the scouts among them kemem jones returned rom the faraway far away place where they had found the strange wanderer peter shirts and where they had decided to begin a settlement it took two weeks for this little company with its slow amov ing wagons and loose cattle to reach their destination in the bie wilderness two weeks which were made long and heavy with beai and suspense they encounters the big navajo who challenged their to cross the reservation with wagons wagon this had forbidden the scouts to water their animals at the by his camp and had compelled them to dig a well when he made as if he would attack them one of their dogs flew at him and bit him and then he got and ax ar ard d stopped only when one of the raised a shove and another raised a shotgun shot gun they had plenty of trouble getting the tangle straightened out and now when this wagn company compan y be began bean an following their former trail to two months later he was there to hinder again even though he failed to st stop OP them he could inflate his sava savage ge ego by terrifying the women and children he kicked dirt in their food sitting on tho fi fire I 1 re he snatched their knives and thrust the edges of them against the rocks and he made motions with th knives across his throat threat indicating what he intended to do with them before moring when his expected friends arrived when he went to hurry his trends frends a kind old navaho came to them urging them to hitch up at once and drive as fast as they could he stayed with them a long time urging them to hurry even when their teams were panting and covered with lather at length he said they were safe and could move slowly then he told them he knew because they had once befriended him when he went among the set clements tle ments |