Hohokam Indians

The history of Mesa dates back two thousand years to the Hohokam Indians. he Hohokam, whose name means the Departed Ones, built the original canal system that spread over 125 miles and is still used today. Why did the Hohokam leave? Several reasons have been advanced:

Hostile Indians drove them away. The water table became too high without pumps, so the salts and minerals were not able to leach through the soil, preventing the crops from growing. There was an extensive drought. Without dams, the water could not be stored. The land became overpopulated and could not sustain the number of people who moved here. Explorers and Apaches Next came the 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 (also called Estevan or Estevanico), 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.

Mormon Settlement

Lehi

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 (just north of Mesa) in March of 1877. 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 (Pima Indians) to live with them, it became a contributing factor that caused half of the colony to leave. Those who left had brought more of the livestock, which they took with them to St. David, near Mexico. The Lehi group that was left was especially small and poor; it had a difficult time surviving.

First Mesa Company

The First Mesa Company, comprised of 85 members, left Utah and Idaho in September 1877. The company leaders, some of whom were polygamous, were Crismon, Pomeroy, Sirrine, and Robson. They took a different route from Jones, crossing the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry, where there is a steep cliff across the river. The leaders of the Mesa Company reached Utahville, as Lehi or Jonesville was then called, in January of 1878; the rest of the company came in February. Daniel Webster Jones invited the group to stay, but they decided to move up to the mesa. They marked off land and immediately began work clearing the original Hohokam canals; water entered the canals in April. On July 17 1878, Theodore Sirrine went to Florence to register Section 22, now called the Town Center: the square mile from Mesa Drive to Country Club and University to Broadway. There is some confusion about early names for Mesa because the Post Office used different ones, however, the town itself was always called Mesa City. Postal authorities considered the name Mesa unacceptable at first, as it was thought it would be confused with Mesaville on the San Pedro River. The first Post Office name was Hayden’s Ferry (not to be confused with Tempe), operated by Fannie Macdonald in 1881. In 1886, the Post Office name was changed to Zenos. In 1889, the Post Office Department finally allowed the name Mesa City.

A flood in Lehi in 1891 destroyed Fort Utah and carried away acres of valuable farmland in low-lying areas. Because Lehi was prone to flooding, had a more limited land area and fewer irrigation ditches, Mesa outgrew Lehi. When the railroad was placed in Mesa about 1895, the growth pattern accelerated. Lehi became part of Mesa in 1970, but it has maintained its independent, more rural character.

Other Early Mormon Pioneers

The Second Mesa Company, which came from Idaho in 1879, included the Phelps, Hibbert, Dana, and LeSueur (pronounced Le Sweer) families. In 1880 the Rogers, Standage, and Pew families came. Because the best land had been taken, the 1880 pioneers established Stringtown, along what is now Alma School Road. The Standage Farm became the University of Arizona experimental farm on Main Street between Alma School and Dobson. The property stood undeveloped until the late 1990’s when a Wal-Mart Shopping Center and the East Valley Institute of Technology were built on the site.

Early Settlement

After shelters were built and crops prepared, the Mesa settlers built a school. Zulu Pomeroy taught the first classes there in 1879. Five years after the founding, in 1883, the 300 residents incorporated Mesa City and chose Alexander F. Macdonald as the first mayor. Early buildings included a pesthouse adobe structure to control smallpox, a city hall, and saloons. The Mesa Free Press newspaper began in 1892; it has run continuously since then under various names, currently The East Valley Tribune.

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.

Diversity in Mesa’s Early History

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 (Police officers and Chief) families were residents.