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Mesa - Arizona - History |
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Soldiers from Fort
McDowell used a ferry to cross the Salt River when they needed to travel to the
south. Maryville was settled in 1865 at the site of this ferry, west of what is
presently Val Vista Road. Maryville had a post office, blacksmith shop, general
store, hotel and an amateur drama troupe. The town was abandoned, however,
before the Lehi settlers came Meanwhile, Mormons
were settling Utah in order to escape persecution in the Midwest. The migration
was partially subsidized by men who joined the U.S. Army during the Mexican War
(1846-47) to donate their pay to the church. Because all except the officers
were Latter Day Saints, the unit was called the Mormon Battalion. The soldiers
created a wagon trail through Southern Arizona during their journey to San
Diego. Their experience in Arizona made it possible for them to inform the
church leaders that the Indians were friendly and that the land was very
suitable for agriculture. The completion of the transcontinental railroad in
1869 in Utah increased pressure for expansion beyond Utah, as easier
transportation augmented Utah’s population and reduced the amount of
available arable land. Consequently, Mormon Church officials asked Daniel
Webster Jones to lead a group to settle in Arizona. Jones had already been on a
mission to the Indians in the Valley; in 1875-76 he and others also had explored
parts of Arizona and Mexico. Jones agreed to lead the colony, but requested
families that had many children and were poor, so they would not be able to
resettle elsewhere easily. The Jones, Turley, Rogers, Steele, Biggs, McRae,
Williams, and Merrill families gathered at St. George, Utah, traveled in wagons
for three months, and arrived in Lehi , in March of 1877. The Mesa Public
Library has most of the local newspapers on microfilm from mid 1893, with the
exception of the years 1901-1914, which were lost in a fire at the newspaper
office. (If anyone knows where these issues are, please ask them to contact the
Mesa Room at Mesa Public Library at 480-644-3730.) The library paid for the
indexing of all issues of the Tribune microfilm held by the library covering the
years 1893 to 1921. Dr.
A. J. Chandler, who later started the city bearing his name south of Mesa,
enlarged the Mesa Canal with heavy machinery in 1895. Dr. Chandler also built
the first office complex in Mesa, on the northwest corner of Main and Macdonald,
using the first evaporative air cooling system in Arizona. Moreover, he started
an electric power plant. The City of Mesa purchased the utility company in 1917,
becoming one of the few cities in Arizona to own utilities. Utility earnings
enabled Mesa to pay for capital expenditures without bonds until the 1960s. It
also provided the shared funds that allowed construction and service projects to
be implemented during the Works Progress Administration during the Depression.
Some of the improvements were paved streets, sidewalks and curbs in the Town
Center, the first hospital not converted from a residence, a recreation
department and park facilities, and a modern city hall/library with expanded
library hours The Tohono
O’odham (Pima) Indians, possible descendents of the Hohokam, were in the
Valley long before the Mormons arrived. Earlier mention was made of their
friendship with Daniel Webster Jones. Anna Moore Shaw has written A Pima Past, which describes the culture and social life of the
Tohono O’odham. The first African-American family, the McPhersons, arrived
in 1905. Dr. James Livingston, a Black veterinarian came before 1910; other
African-Americans who arrived before 1920 were the Kemp, Moore, Hall, McKelvy
and Ferguson families. Chinese and Japanese immigrants were farmers and business
owners in Mesa, mostly arriving about 1910. Willie Wong, the mayor of Mesa from
1992-1996 and the first Asian-American mayor of a major city, is the descendent
of such a family. The Lees, Yees and Homs were other Chinese families here near
the turn of the century. Early Japanese included the Ikeda, Ishikawa, and
Okazaki, Horiba, Sugino and Nishida families. Hispanics were in the area at
least by the early 1890’s; the Aros, Candelaria, Castro, Garcia, Rivera
and Mendoza |
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Missionaries
and explorers, including Coronado, Father Kino, and Marcos de Niza, came to
Arizona (though not present day Mesa) during the 1500’s and 1600’s.
A less known explorer was Esteban , a Black slave, who searched for the city of
gold. Apache Indians, east of our area, drove the Spanish away in the
1700’s. U.S. Army troops fought the Apaches in the late 1800’s,
opening the way for white settlement. Kit Carson and other explorers came
through the Salt River Valley during the early part of the 19th
century.
The
route they took forced them to leave heavy equipment, such as stoves, sewing
machines and plows, along the way. The Lehi residents lived the United Order:
that is, they shared the supplies and food raised. Their first building was a
brush shed used as a school, church, and meeting place. In July 1877, they built
Fort Utah with adobe bricks. A replica of this structure is in front of the Mesa
Historical Museum, nearby its original location at Lehi and Horne Roads. When
Jones invited Tohono O’odham
