Andrew’s concern for community welfare extended to the water needs of the Saints. In a desert environment like the Gila Valley, farming requires irrigation and that necessitates construction of dams and canals. By the time Andrew arrived in 1898, a dozen canals drew water from the Gila River, and he soon became president of three of the canal associations. But there were still perhaps fifty thousand acres of fertile land above the existing canals.325
In 1885, thirteen years before Andrew arrived, William B. Fonda had organized The Enterprise Canal Company and hired German engineer C. K. Betz to assess the feasibility of a high canal, running from “The Narrows” of the Gila River (nine miles above Solomonville) to Cottonwood Wash, below Pima. A survey showed there could be a three-foot drop per mile, sufficient for the project.326 Construction of the Enterprise Canal (also called the Big Ditch or the High Line Canal) had barely begun under Betz’s supervision when brothers Lorenzo and Seth Wright and others in the area were murdered by Indians. A fearful Betz left and never returned. A proposal to use convict labor in exchange for the territory’s receiving part ownership in the canal failed. Opposition came from men who controlled existing canals, particularly the Montezuma and the San Jose canals.327 Work resumed in April 1896 and continued to October 1897, when, after $10,000 worth of labor had been expended on five miles of canal, an engineering mistake in establishing the grade was discovered and the work stopped again.
When Andrew arrived in 1898, Fonda persuaded him that building the canal was still feasible if the Church would take over leadership. Fonda resigned from the presidency of the canal company on June 4 and Andrew took his place. Creating the canal was made a subject of consideration at the next stake conference and the three thousand members in ten wards in the valley voted to take on the project.328 They projected a canal thirty-six miles long, twenty-five feet wide at the bottom, and four feet deep. They expected that only a little blasting would be required, with the rest of the course soil that could be plowed and moved by scrapers. Construction was set to begin on October 24, 1898.
Andrew involved himself in the project deeply from the beginning. He personally subscribed to $500 worth of stock and persuaded the manager of Arizona Copper to invest $500.329 In April 1898 the canal surveyor, Logan, disappeared with all the field notes and maps of the survey, so the survey had to be repeated. When E. R. Stafford, the engineer and county surveyor, made a new survey in June 1898 Andrew assisted as a flagman on the survey crew. He was appointed superintendent of construction330 at a monthly pay of $25 cash and $75 in stock. He also served as bookkeeper for the project and showed up on site personally, with team and scraper. In the first six months of construction he was present at the site about sixty days.331
The people found the project to be much more difficult than they had expected. Some had speculated that the canal might take two years with maximum effort, or perhaps five years if support proved grudging.332 In fact, despite Andrew’s preaching, coaxing, and pleading there often were only a few men at work. Discouragement set in. Larger land owners, who already had canals and water, not only offered no support, but erected obstacles, including litigation, because they feared the new canal might somehow compromise their claim to water rights.333
From the beginning Church leaders determined not to borrow money for the project. Church President Lorenzo Snow approved the plan to build the canal as a Church-sponsored effort,334 but only if it could be built with volunteer labor rather than with hired workers and large indebtedness. He said, “We do not recall a single [instance] where our leading men have largely involved themselves to accomplish public enterprises but what they have lived to wish they had not done so.”335 Cash for things like blasting powder was scarce, although by Andrew’s personal salesmanship they did sell some stock for cash.
Andrew was confident enough of ultimate success that he filed a homestead claim on land that would have value only when the canal carried water. Others had their doubts. His brother J. Golden Kimball wrote: “I admire your pluck and trust you have not erred in your judgment. The boys in Canada were exuberant and full of hope, in their canal building, [expecting] that when the final results came in they would be doing well. They were disappointed.”336
Golden’s letters always had a humorous cast. For example, he thought Kimballs should not be encouraged to gather in the Gila Valley. “They thrive better, one in a city and two in a county.” Golden also wrote, “We have no process whereby we can saw the top of a man’s head off and give him a new set of brains.” Another time he penned, “[About some stake presidents] I would enjoy hitting them where the chicken got the ax, but being a preacher of righteousness have to turn the other cheek.”337 Andrew commented, “Golden always writes me a good kind letter and I always try to reciprocate. I love to hear from him.”338
On October 24, 1898, the day announced for commencement of work on the canal, only Andrew and the surveyor-engineer, Mr. E. R. Stafford, showed up. On the 25th, 26th, and 27th no one came. On November 9 some men and teams finally came and worked. From then until Christmas, substantial contingents of workers plowed, blasted, and scraped. Blasting by inexperienced workers resulted in some close calls. For example one man’s foot was hurt by a flying rock. The largest number present at one time was 75 men and 65 teams. In December at stake conference Elder Abraham O. Woodruff encouraged the men to give greater support to the project. By virtue of his Church leadership position he called every man in the stake who lived in the Gila Valley on a ten-day mission to work on the canal.339 Committees appointed in each ward worked to organize the labor. The bishops submitted lists of men they believed should be physically able to work on the canal.340 A substantial increase in workers and teams resulted from these measures.
When the last men returned home for Christmas on December 23, Andrew had given out receipts to 165 men for their labor and teams.341
By the end of 1898 practically every Church member in Gila Valley had subscribed for at least one share of stock at par $25.342 Men received credit at $3 per day’s labor toward purchase of stock.343
A formal notice went out to five hundred men right after Christmas Day: “Dear Brother:—In accordance with the call made upon us at our recent Quarterly Conference we are obliged to remind you that your name is among those called to fill a ten day’s mission on the Enterprise Canal. . . . We trust you will not weary in well doing until the canal is completed, whether you have land under the canal or not.” The notice asked men to come on January 3, 1899, or as soon thereafter as possible.344
Andrew worked at the canal camp fifteen days in January, five in February, three in March, and twelve in April. In May he recorded, “Completed our work on canal for the time.”345 At this point there was not enough hay or grain available for the horses,346 and farmers needed to attend to their own farms. They had finished a mile of canal and had almost finished the floodgate and the head gate, but that was far less than they had hoped to accomplish. Andrew inquired about obtaining a dredge that could float in the canal and excavate faster than with hand tools,347 but nothing came of that proposal.
In May, Andrew announced that work would resume in the fall, with a goal of completing ten miles of canal for the fall-winter season.348 In November 1899 a group of outside investors proposed taking over the Enterprise Canal venture, but because of the unwarranted optimism of Andrew and the canal board the offer was turned down.349 Work went on sporadically. He noted even as late as March 1900 that a “small gang” was at work.350 Andrew must have been disappointed at the diminishing willingness to support the canal project, but he did not express that feeling publicly. Failure of the project was an opportunity lost for the people of Gila Valley, but Andrew wrongly assessed the ability or willingness of the Mormon colony to meet the challenge of such a large community effort.351 In later years he received credit for a valiant but failed effort.
The railroad project suffered from suspicion that Andrew, a newcomer, was acting out of self-interest, rather than community interest. The Enterprise Canal had suffered not only from the people’s lack of vision what cooperative efforts could achieve, but also from apathy and from the active opposition of larger landowners who feared that in the future they might be disadvantaged in competition with distribution of irrigation water through the existing canals.352
The newspaper in 1914 offered a generous explanation for the failure of the canal project, “A series of excessive dry years followed and financial conditions of the farmers made it absolutely impossible for them to continue operations, but at no time has the enterprise been abandoned or given up.”353
