Journal of Elijah Charles Clapp
Settlement of the San Luis Valley, Colorado
The first action taken to settle the San Luis Valley came
in August 1878. At the Quarterly Conference of the Sanpete Stake, held
August 17th and 18th at Manti, Utah, Apostle Erastus Snow told the members
that the presiding brethren were attempting to carry out the program started
by President Brigham Young to establish settlements outside of Utah. Hans
Jensen of Manti was appointed to lead the group as bishop. Those called to
assist were John H. Hougaard, Manti; Soren Christian Bertlesen, Fountain
Free, and John Allen and two sons of Richfield. On September 3, 1878, a
total of 18 persons left Manti for the San Luis Valley. On October 6,1878,
they arrived at the home of Laurence M. Peterson in Los Carritos, Colorado.
(A map follows showing the route.)
Three days prior to the arrival of the saints from Utah, a group of southern
saints arrived from Pueblo. They had left Pueblo October by train and
traveled as far as Alamosa, now the new terminus of the Denver and Rio
Grande Railroad, located 22 miles north of Los Cerritos. These saints
consisted of the families of Milton H. Evans, Samuel S. Sellers, William A.
Jones, Thomas Chandler, and Hugh L. Sellers. They now had sufficient members
to start a formal church group.
The harvest that year was meager and many meals consisted of ground wheat
and Mexican beans.' Bishop Jensen wrote President John Taylor and told him
of the conditions. In response to his letter President Taylor sent 43
dollars. With this money they purchased flour and divided it among the
saints. Additional assistance came from their Mexican neighbors whose
kindness and generosity merited high praise and gratitude from the saints.
One wealthy Mexican land owner loaned them twenty-two cows to use for milk,
butter, and cheese.
MANASSA
At a meeting held on Sunday, February 1879, it was decided to locate a
townsite to be named Manassa. From this "hub-colony" it was anticipated
that other settlements would later be established. After the town site had
been selected, the committee applied to the Colorado State Land Board for
the purchase of two sections (1,280 acres) of land. The town was to be
located on the west section and the east to be divided into farming lots
which could be purchased by the saints.
Another group of saints, totaling about 50 persons, from Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, and Virginia arrived in March 1879. Included in the number of
saints arriving from Virginia were Mr. and Mrs. John Dempsey, the parents
of the future boxing champion, who, as the "Manassa Mauler", would bring a
degree of national prominence to the small town of his birth.
EPHRAIM
With the influx of the saints from the south and more from Utah, it was
decided to form a new settlement 3 ½ miles northeast of Manassa. The name
chosen for this town was Ephraim. It will be noted that the names of these
two townsites not only were of biblical origin, but duplicated the names of
Sanpete County towns from which most of the Utah saints had come. The
actual settlement of Ephraim began in the fall of 1880.
In April 1881 work began on the Ephraim canal, which tapped the Conejos
River at a point almost due east of Ephraim and was completed in May.
Following the completion of the canal a small crop of grain and vegetables
was planted and a fair harvest was realized. A small school house was
constructed in 1882 and served as school and church.
RICHFIELD
In 1881 the settlers were given permission to start another townsite.
The name they chose was Richfield and the area was directly east of La Jara,
about six miles north of Manassa. The site had previously been overlooked
because it appeared the land was to high to tap water from the Conejos
River. Brother Thorn W. Peterson, however, using a spirit-level, determined
that a ditch could be constructed which would bring water to the town.
Non-Mormons in the area ridiculed the idea that irrigation was possible,
saying that "Mormons thought they could make water run up hill". The saints
were undaunted and began work on the ditch in 1881, tapping the Conejos
River at the same place as the Ephraim canal and running a northwest course.
It was completed in April 1882. In 1883 a log metting house was completed
and they were organized into a branch of the Manassa Ward with Thorn W.
Peterson as Presiding Elder.
SANFORD
During a visit to the valley by President John Taylor in 1885, he and others
of his party pointed out the area which was highly suitable as a townsite.
The site was located approximately two and one half miles directly north of
Ephraim. By this time it was becoming evident that the location of Ephraim
was completely unsuitable as a townsite, and the new location at Sanford had
the advantage of being on higher land while still being accessible to
irrigation from the waters of the Conejos River. Richfield, too, even
after having been moved once, proved decidedly less than ideal as a townsite.
After consulting with local church leaders, President Taylor recommended
that the families located at Ephraim and Richfield remove themselves to the
new site at Sanford. The name chosen honored Silas Sanford Smith, the first
president of the San Luis Stake.
Within a matter of weeks the townsite of Sanford was surveyed and during
the fall and winter of 1885 three houses were constructed on the new site.
With families arriving from Richfield and Ephraim, Sanford eventually
assumed proportions even larger than those of Manassa, measuring one mile
east and west by one and a half miles north and south. In 1886 Albion
Haggard was appointed Presiding Elder. The same year a log meeting house
from Ephraim was brought and attached to the west end of the Sanford meeting
house, thus doubling its capacity. Also by April of that year the
population had increased to warrant the establishment of a ward. Soren C.
Bertlesen was set apart as bishop. By August of that year statistics showed
140 families located at Sanford with a total population of 654. The
majority of the people were of Scandinavian extraction having moved to
Sanford from Utah.
EASTDALE
Active settlement began in 1890. This townsite differed from the others in
the valley in that it was nearly 25 miles from the other settlements and
across the unbridged Rio Grande River. As usual the first order of business
was an irrigation ditch. A reservoir was constructed a mile or so northeast
of the townsite. It was felt that the Costilla Creek, which ran along the
north edge of the settlement, would not have sufficient water for the summer
months. The saints at Eastdale purchased two thousand acres of land at
$4.00 an acre from the United States Freehold Land and Emigration Company,
which had gained control over part of the original Sangre de Cristo land
grant. The townsite of Eastdale was surveyed in 1890, but no houses were
built until 1891. The townsite contained 100 acres surveyed into twelve
blocks, four lots to a block, with three tiers of four blocks each running
east and west. By the summer of 1891 there were 86 saints in the settlement. Simeon Dunn was set apart as Presiding Elder of the branch of the Sanford Ward. This same year a 60 foot well was dug on the property of Christian Jensen near the center of the town. For several years this served the community for culinary purposes and watering stock. (Elijah Clapp and his son Joseph did much of the work of digging the well and Elijah made the bricks for curbing it. Elijah also helped make the reservoir and dug a lot of the canal.) Harvests, which for the first 3 years had increased, suffered a set back in 1893, when a severe drought caused a crop failure. Water from the reservoir could not overcome the effects of the drought.
Lack of water was the most persistent problem for the saints and one which
was complicated by conflicts over water rights with the company from which
they had purchased the land. This conflict was finally settled by the
courts in favor of the land company forcing the saints to abandon the
settlement shortly after the turn of the century. In 1900 there were 16
families in Eastdale totaling 122 people.
Most of the above information came from "Mormon Colonization of the San
Luis Valley" by Judd Flower.