The first Mormon settlement in what would become the St. Joseph Stake began on the San Pedro River near the Mexican border in 1877, the settlers having come from the new Mormon settlement of Lehi on the Salt River. Two years later other Mormons came from the Little Colorado drainage over the mountains to the Gila River Valley. They established as their first village Smithville (later Pima).283
Only a few non-Mormons already lived in the Gila Valley—a cluster of Mexican farmers at Pueblo Viejo in the upper, eastern end of the valley, a few Anglo farmers in the center of the valley around Safford, and Solomonville, where Isador E. Solomon hired Mexicans to make charcoal from mesquite wood for sale to the smelter at Clifton.
In 1883, Church leaders organized the St. Joseph Stake, including the St. David Ward (396 members taken from the Maricopa Stake) as headquarters and four wards (825 members) in the Gila Valley.284 St. David was some distance from the Gila Valley and had too little water to support much growth, so the center of gravity shifted quickly to the Gila Valley. In 1887 the stake president, Christopher Layton, left St. David and moved to the Gila Valley, where he purchased land and laid out the platted town of Thatcher. Layton had brought substantial capital to the valley, and the community flourished with his enterprises like a flour mill and an ice plant. By the time the Kimballs arrived in 1898, Thatcher also had a creamery, mill, blacksmith shop, school, church, stores, and a saloon.
In the Gila Valley the irrigable land ran a few miles wide and, in the part settled by Mormons, perhaps fifty miles long. As many as twenty canals ultimately drew water from the river.285 Originally, some malarial lagoons existed along the river, but they disappeared as the land was cleared and cultivated.286 Although surrounded by desert, sometimes in the spring the view was simply spectacular. E. G. Curtis wrote that “the country is found entirely covered with poppies, one of the most beautiful sights I ever expect to see. The grass was high and when the wind would blow it down in great waves, you could see great bunches of antelope.”287 Gracefully symmetrical, Mount Graham seemed to watch over the area.
By 1897, Layton was old and ill, and the First Presidency called Andrew Kimball to replace him. The stake had been growing for two decades so that, although there was still only one ward on the San Pedro River, there were ten on the Gila River. During the twenty-six years of Andrew’s presidency, the stake would expand as far as Globe to the west, Bisbee to the south, and El Paso to the east, a huge area, reduced in 1910 by transferring five southern units to the California Mission.
The main crop in the early days was alfalfa hay, with substantial amounts of wheat, barley, oats, corn, and sugar cane. (Cotton became a major crop only later.) The area also included important livestock interests. The 1899 tax rolls for Graham County listed 57,000 cattle, 3,700 horses, 3,900 goats, and a few hundred sheep, hogs, and mules.
