35 St. Joseph Stake Operations

The process of organization and reorganization never ended. The St. Joseph Stake regularly added new wards and branches in the Gila Valley. In the mining towns Andrew created a Bisbee Ward in 1904, and Douglas and Globe wards in 1906.

In 1907 the troubled St. David Ward needed a new bishop. Two likely candidates had both indicated their unwillingness to serve. Andrew sent his nephew Crozier Kimball, age twenty-seven, a letter indicating he was being called as bishop. Crozier had responded that he could not serve because of his youth and inexperience. He believed the fractious people would not sustain him any better than previous bishops. The Stake Presidency and high council considered his letter and agreed that he should be relieved of the calling. However, Crozier had a notion that his uncle was still considering him, so he went on an extended trip in expectation that a new bishop would be in place soon, but he found upon his return that the stake presidency had not yet acted. So he left for another week, but when he returned the ward was still not organized.

The stake presidency had a separate building across the street from the Kimball home for its work.

On his way home Crozier met Andrew. As they talked Andrew stood with his foot on the wagon wheel and said,

Crozier, the Stake Presidency and the High Council have taken into consideration your letter and had decided to relieve you from holding the position of Bishop. But last night your father [David Patten Kimball, brother to Andrew and counselor in the stake presidency until his death twenty-four years earlier,] visited me and he said: “Andrew, you have done something that you had no right to do.” “What is that?” I asked. “Because Crozier wrote you a foolish letter, you took the responsibility—you and your Counselors and the High Council—of releasing him from this call. Crozier’s name had been sent to the First Presidency and also been passed upon by the Presidency of your stake and the High Council to be the Bishop of the ward, and you had no right to release him. Now I want my son to have that experience, because it is his heritage to be a Bishop of this Church.” Crozier became the bishop.⁵⁶⁷

Andrew’s counselor John Nash was released to take a mission to Australia.⁵⁶⁸ Near the end of his mission Elder Nash wrote Andrew that he did not wish to return to Thatcher if he was not wanted. He had felt humiliated when released, believing erroneously that Andrew had arranged the mission call as a tactful way to get rid of him. In response Andrew arranged for the release of his first counselor, William D. Johnson, who was in ill health and wished to move to California anyway, making way for the reinstatement of John Nash as his counselor.

Measurable Religion

Andrew had reemphasized the Word of Wisdom as an expectation of Church leaders. By 1905, 90 percent of ward and stake officers kept the Word of Wisdom; 75 percent of the stake members kept it.⁵⁶⁹

Especially after Church President Lorenzo Snow’s emphasis on tithing as a principle upon which the fundamental welfare of the Church depends, Andrew spoke often on that issue.

Sacrament meeting attendance the St. John Stake in 1918 was 22 percent, in 1919 it was 22 percent; in 1920 it was 38 percent; in 1921 it was 23 percent. These figures fell within the Church mainstream. In response to the temptations of Sunday baseball, the stake sponsored a half-holiday on Fridays (or Saturdays) for rest, recreation, and sport.⁵⁷⁰

Meetinghouses and Temple

In 1900, Church leaders purchased Robinson Hall for the use of the Thatcher Ward, but in 1902 that hall burned after a tinner had been doing some soldering in the building,⁵⁷¹ and a bucket brigade could not save it. The ward temporarily rented Allred Hall on Main Street and then moved into the academy building, newly enlarged to serve the dual purpose. The ward quickly began to erect a separate new chapel.⁵⁷²

The Church bought Robinson Hall for Church uses.

The bishop of the St. David Ward reported: “Yesterday, while holding meeting a wind came up and sag[g]ed our meeting house about one foot to the east. I closed meeting and . . . we desided with your approval we would try to get enough money to brace our building. It is realy dangerous.”⁵⁷³

There were other memorable storms.⁵⁷⁴ In 1904 the newspaper reported that hailstones half the size of walnuts bombarded the town for more than forty minutes. Seventy-four windows in the academy shattered, and all but two on the west side of the meetinghouse broke. The storm pounded vegetation, knocked down or damaged fruit, injured chickens, killed hundreds of birds, and drove horses frantic with welts. Several people who could not get to shelter had markable bruises. Rain gutters clogged, so water backed up through roofs, and some roofs needed reshingling.⁵⁷⁵

Thatcher chapel and St. Joseph stake center.

In 1920 the stake undertook to raise $4 per person, about $25,000 total, for construction of a temple in Mesa, Arizona. Five men served on the executive building committee, among them Andrew. He wrote the First Presidency in 1922 urging that the temple be of modest size, because of the difficult financial circumstances of members in Arizona.⁵⁷⁶ Construction finished in 1927, three years after Andrew’s death.

Since it wasn’t always practical in this era for couples to travel to a temple to get married, they were sometimes sealed by apostles who came to stake conference and the children born to such couples were still considered to be “born in the covenant,”⁵⁷⁷ but the couples received instruction that when it became practicable to do so, they should go to a temple and be sealed again.⁵⁷⁸ Instructions from George F. Richards, president of the Salt Lake Temple, reminded local leaders that the temple garments to wrists, ankles, and neck should not be altered.⁵⁷⁹

Meetings

Each ward held a yearly conference, attended by stake and auxiliary leaders. To hold conference in St. David, two carriages took Andrew and the other stake leaders on a trip of 110 miles, taking two days each way, camping on the way.⁵⁸⁰ In 1920 the stake stretched 342 miles from El Paso, Texas, to Miami, Arizona, with over six thousand members in nineteen wards and branches.⁵⁸¹

When travel shifted from horse and buggy to automobile, a different set of problems arose. On a 1920 visit to Franklin Ward, sixty miles east of Thatcher, Andrew’s car had tire trouble and got to Duncan only by riding on the rims. There he left his car and hired another, but halfway from Duncan to Franklin that car broke down, too, and Andrew had to send for someone in Franklin to come rescue him.⁵⁸²

The Bryce Ward historical record gives a glimpse of Church life at the local level in many of the wards in the Gila Valley. The importance attached to ward teachers is indicated by the fact that in reorganizing the ward, four ward teachers were selected right after the bishopric.⁵⁸³ In the hot Arizona climate Andrew encouraged the ward to plant a grove of trees for summer shade,⁵⁸⁴ and he proposed that on hot days meetings should be shortened.⁵⁸⁵ While talks covered a wide range of topics, in the six months between February and July 1908, tithing and the Word of Wisdom received special emphasis. The very frequent consecration of oil for priesthood administrations suggests a high level of illness.⁵⁸⁶ Since there was no water source in the meetinghouse, when the assigned person one time forgot to bring water and another time forgot to bring bread, the meeting simply omitted the sacrament ordinance.⁵⁸⁷ The ward clerk presented a set of small sacrament glasses as a gift to the ward.⁵⁸⁸ Women sometimes served as ward clerks.⁵⁸⁹

The Kimballs entertained the high council and clerks and their wives often, as seen here in 1911.

High Council

The high council had monthly assignments to visit the wards, as did a corps of home missionaries. The high council normally met on the first and third Sundays, with a prayer circle on the first Sunday, but this varied.⁵⁹⁰ They also met with some frequency on a social basis. Among the high councilors was Edward C. Eyring, who had been forced out of Mexico in 1912. His daughter Camilla married Andrew’s son Spencer in 1916.⁵⁹¹

Andrew’s newly married son Spencer served him for several years as stake clerk.

The high council considered many issues besides those of Church administration. For example, in June 1898 they talked about amusements, round dancing, town organization, saloons, the cemetery, and the Enterprise Canal.⁵⁹² At other times they discussed boys’ drinking, putting in hitching posts for chapels, not mixing with Gentiles for entertainments, and obeying the Word of Wisdom.⁵⁹³