BIG SOUTHERN CHAPTER NINETEEN

PART TWO

THE UNITED

APRIL 1894

THE UNITED

Though the Church did its best to separate itself from worldly affairs, the economic panic which swept the nation through the prior year struck Utah just as hard as it did elsewhere. Add to that Utah's burgeoning population, swollen by tens of thousands of Scandinavian and British Isle converts in addition to those Mormons still pouring in from the East and the exceptionally high birth rate—the Brethren needed more room. Just as John Griffiths had dramatically moved to sign on to build the telegraph from Fort Kearney to Salt Lake in 1861, along with 75 other Mormons and 325 Gentiles, he could move again, this time with a family. But to where?

He thought primarily of Idaho, further to its west side where the Snake River was being harnessed to irrigate the fertile but arid valleys along it. Payette, over by Boise, was building a canal system on another river. He had experience in construction, not just on the telegraph and the railroad but with the Plain City canal, so thought his expertise might be in use—as well as aid the rebuilding of his own meager empire. In May, he wrote to the Mormon Church President, Wilford Woodruff, to elicit advice and perhaps assistance: Dear Brother, he wrote, I am seeking advice on the Payette country in Idaho. I have heard there is good land and water available and the climate is more favorable than here. I am wishing to relocate my family there, perhaps, and have heard the Governor is favorable toward our people moving into the state. I do not know if these reports are true, but wherever I move I wish to be near our people. If you know of other places that might be as desirable as the Payette country seems to be and have a population mostly of Brethren, I would appreciate any recommendation.

Woodruff didn't write back but his Apostle, J. Vance Killpack, did:

President Woodruff has asked me to follow up your inquiry in regards to settlement in Idaho. We are somewhat acquainted, I believe, for I have followed in second hand manner your good works in Plain City, particularly with the irrigation system there. As a board member of the canal, you conducted business with fellow board member Lyman Skeen. Plain City not being of too considerable a size, I assume you are also with knowledge of his brother, Moroni, and the rest of the Skeen family. I speak of the Skeens for good reason for your paths, I hope, will once again cross.

President Woodruff, before your letter even reached him, had revelation of your calling, not to Payette as you inquired but to the Blackfoot area in the Eastern part of the state. The climate there, admittedly, more closely resembles that of Plain City (though being more arid) than Payette's, but the water and ground there is as good if not better than the land at Payette. Though as yet our people are few in the immediate vicinity, and though as you know, being a longtime resident in Utah, the acrimony between the Gentiles in Idaho toward us has a long history, a great LDS movement has taken place to the Lewisville area, north of Blackfoot by fifty miles, since the railroad was built in 1878. Our people have prospered and expanded southward and now boast of a ward in the Basalt area just a few miles north of Blackfoot. You would not be without a community of Saints.

The Snake River is a plentiful stream. Much of it has been tapped on both sides both upstream and down from Blackfoot and even more of it has been promised, but a goodly portion of land remains southwest of already farmed areas, eighty thousand acres by some reckonings. A feeder ditch of about fourteen miles in length could reach this tract. The Skeens have identified the best diversion for such a project and applied to the State of Idaho to build an enterprise of their own making. You may, given the nature of rumor, have heard of their proposal in the last year as it was in the newspapers.

The Church has asked the Skeens' cooperation in establishing the ditch as a refuge for our people but their response has been a selfish one. Some claimants already there who filed on land without water have reported their offer, it bordering on extortion—if the claimants will pay for building the canal, the Skeens say they will build it, and furthermore the claimant must pay for water rights and upkeep once the canal is built. Such a way runs askance of our long history of building canals as a community for the last half-century and the Church has told the Skeens the Saints will continue that tradition by building yet another. You, with your experience, are the man to bring such a project forth, as President Woodruff's revelation has foretold.

The Gentiles will view us as thieving the Skeen works, but we will always be looked at thusly by those untouched by the Lord's grace. The Skeens' intention to blackmail settlers opposes the Lord's justice and so frees us from Gentile perceptions, for the morality of rightness shall always triumph over legal folderol. The Skeens were at one time members of high standing in the Church, their father serving in the special militia of President Young which Gentiles derisively called the Destroying Angels. But they have shown an inclination toward worldliness in recent years, particularly since a brother was shot and killed while stealing a Bishop's horse. They denied his offense and blamed the Church for his death and since have fallen mostly away from the Lord. We hope they reconsider their position and fervently pray so.

The Church will support your calling, backing you with all its abilities, and upon your assent will make the further call to those in Cache Valley and the Franklin area to join you in the endeavor. The Skeen application for a canal system can be viewed at the Blackfoot Land Office, so perhaps you can take a look at what lies ahead for you, for it includes a map of the first five miles of their canal's path. This should assist you in your prayers, and I suggest you ride through the immediate land as yet unclaimed and see the promise that lies ahead for you and your brethren.

***

By late summer Griffiths had squatted on a piece of land within the proscribed area to be irrigated, his three boys, in their late teens, erecting a tent to the south and east within a mile of the Danskin canal—which had been started by the Skeens a decade before, then taken over by others when the Skeens went broke. In further correspondence with Killpack, Griffiths had gotten a surveyor's name, someone who had worked with the Church on other projects, and he agreed to work for mostly scrip and on credit until the project got its feet on the ground.

By early fall, E.N. Rose's survey was roughed in to what was called the "First Terminus", the initial section of a canal intended to reach for sixty miles to American Falls. Griffiths took his team with a plow and scraped a line in the desert running from southwest of his house northeasterly, clear to the river just above the Skeen point of diversion, thus marking the Mormon ditch's path much as a young boy would toe a line in the sand, daring others to cross. This, Griffiths and others thought, proved their right-of-way through as yet unclaimed public land. 
 The Skeens and the State of Idaho would think otherwise.

© 2025 RALPH THURSTON