6. Descriptions of the Collections


Mormons arrived in Arizona in 1877 and, like the Native Americans before them, saw their relationship
with the land and agriculture as a spiritual quest. Agriculture represented the Mormon values of hard
work, order, cooperation and companionship. The first Mormon missions were located around the
Colorado Plateau. In order to survive in a harsh desert environment, characterized by isolation and
drudgery, settlers adopted a cooperative lifestyle. Labor, food, and property were shared. Isolation was
difficult because the communities consisted mostly of the young and the poor. Though cooperation was
a theme reflected in the literature of the community, the community was not without hierarchy. A board
of directors distributed work tasks, albeit often unevenly. Mormon settlements saw both rebellion and
desertion, and successful farming was often just a vision.

Away from the Colorado Plateau, Mormon settlements were more successful. In northeastern Arizona,
Mormon farming and society thrived. Families like the Udalls and the Flakes prospered, but many other
Mormon pioneers wandered without ever finding their oasis on the desert. Mormon farming successes
also brought problems, especially as Mormons bought and successfully farmed land around Mesa,
Arizona. They became social and political targets in a landscape radically changing because of railroads,
immigration, and the Mexican wars. An effort to legally disempower the Mormons began in 1885 with
the passing of a state law forcing Mormons to take a loyalty oath against polygamy. For many years,
Mormons would remain targets of politicians and newspaper editors.

The University of Arizona Library has vast documentation of Mormon settlements in Arizona. In
addition to published resources such as Mormon Settlement In Arizona (1921) by James H. McClintock,
Arizona's official historian from 1919-1928, the collections include the primary research resources such
as the papers of David King Udall and Eliza Luella Stewart (grandparents of Congressman Morris K.
Udall) and the autobiography and diary of James Pace (a Mormon frontier settler). The papers of
Congressman Morris K. Udall also provide insight into Mormon settlements in the state.

In the late 19th century the railroads inextricably changed Arizona landscape and society. The railroads
blurred the lines between the frontier west and urban east. Prior to the railroads, cattle played a small part
in Arizona's agricultural life. In the late 1860s, however, ranchers and the railroading entrepreneurs
became one. This was the result of a Congressional act that gave the Atlantic and Pacific Railway the land
for the track they laid. This meant that influential interests could purchase large tracts of land in the
railroad corridors. As this squeezed the Anglo and Mexican farmers and ranchers, it made room for
cattle conglomerates in Arizona. The literature of the day reflects the conflicts that arose and festered
between independent farmers and ranchers who were forced out by the conglomerates. The boom in
cattle did not last long. Drought and over-stocking brought disease and death to thousands of cattle, and
the destruction of rangeland. New products had to supplement cattle for the business interests, now fully
entrenched in the Arizona landscape.

Copper and cotton took the place of cattle. The expansion of copper mining occurred in the 1870s.
Powerful corporations and ambitious tycoons bustled in the expansion of mining. Between 1872 and
1921, 870 million pounds of copper was mined in Clifton, the oldest copper town in Arizona. The
railroads had a profound effect on the production of copper. With the excavation of more and more
cooper veins, copper companies realized that they needed to get into the railway business in order to
deliver copper to market. Rail companies and copper mines struggled over who owned and laid tracks,
while agricultural land diminished even more.

The railroads brought new immigrants into Arizona, among them the Chinese, beginning in 1878. The
harshness of the sun-scorched desert was the reason given for using Chinese to lay railroad tracks.
Chinese workers, hired for a dollar a day, laid a mile of track per day. When the railroads moved on, the
Chinese stayed and built small but successful farming communities along the river beds of southern and
eastern Arizona. They also worked in Arizona's new boom business: mining. In the first half of the 20th