At the suggestion of the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, a company was organized in 1851 to purchase a tract below the Cajon Pass in the State of California. Members of the company included Amasa M. Lyman, Chas. C. Rich and Collins R. Hakes, who was later the President of the Maricopa Stake in Mesa. They purchased what was known as the Lugo Ranch, consisting of some nine square leagues, including an abandoned mission. The original purchase price was $77,500, but the price eventually climbed to $140,000. In today's money, taking into account the extreme inflation since 1851, the equivalent price of the $140,000 would be more than $3,580,000. However, the purchase price was a "good deal" considering the entire area was in the San Bernardino Valley.
One of the settlers who came that year to San Bernardino was my Great-great-grandfather, Sidney Tanner. My Great-grandfather, Henry Martin Tanner, was born the next year in San Bernardino. Many years later, I would serve in LDS Church with President Hakes' grandson, Clayton H. Hakes.
Unfortunately, for California and fortunately for Arizona, the San Bernardino pioneers were forced to leave in 1857 and 1858, because of the invasion of Utah by Johnston's Army. The Tanners, along with many of their neighbors, moved back into Utah, settling in Beaver, Utah. Although the departure from California is often characterized as a retreat due to the invasion, many of the settlers left because of threats of violence from vigilantes in California.
Next time we will follow Henry and his new bride, Eliza Ellen Parkinson, on the long and dry trail into Northern Arizona.
Source material, in part:
McClintock, James H. Mormon Settlement in Arizona; a Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert. 1921.
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