Warren Marshall Johnson, Forgotten Saint

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 39, 1971, No. 1

Warren Marshall Johnson,Forgotten Saint

BY P. T. REILLY

I N THE SPRING OF 1929, Heber J. Grant, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addressed a joint session of the Arizona legislature regarding a name for the recently completed bridge across the Marble Gorge of the Colorado River. He recommended that the structure not be called the Lee's Ferry Bridge and noted that Lee occupied and operated the Ferry for a short time only, being succeeded by Warren M. Johnson, whose name might much more appropriately be applied than the name of Lee.

There was considerable justification for President Grant's statement because during the first half-century of Mormon domination of the historic river crossing Warren Johnson was the proprietor for over forty percent of the period, in contrast to Lee's span of less than six percent.

It might be said that Jacob Hamblin explored this gateway for Mormon colonization, John D. Lee settled it, and Warren Johnson made the place bloom. The names of Hamblin and Lee have touched history beyond their life spans, while Johnson was an integral component in the pioneer transportation system which has ended. And yet Johnson's green pastures, his ready hospitality, and his great faith provided material succor and spiritual courage to the pioneer colonists who ventured into the inhospitable Arizona desert across the Colorado River. He was known throughout the far-flung Mormon settlements and his name was recorded with affection in many pioneer journals. The colonization of the nineteenth century has changed and two great bridges with their attendant paved highways now bypass the one place which provided access to the river for pioneer wagons. Today Johnson has been forgotten except by his family, and his labors have been absorbed by passing time.

Warren Marshall Johnson was born July 9, 1838, at Bridgewater, New Hampshire. His branch of the Johnson family is traced from Thomas, one of three brothers who landed in the Boston area about three years after the arrival of the Mayflower. He was raised a Methodist and received his early education at Bridgewater and Boston.

Delicate and sickly, Warren frequently was under a doctor's care. He had a bad case of ulcers and nearly succumbed in the winter of 1865-66. The doctor gave him less than a year to live but said he could extend his span somewhat if he moved to a milder climate.

During the spring of 1866 two of Warren's friends yielded to the lure of gold and determined to travel overland to California and try their luck at mining. Young Johnson was asked to join them and he decided that a trip west might benefit his health. The three men left Boston on horseback early in May 1866.

Apparently they followed the Oregon Trail and late in July reached southern Idaho. Here Warren Johnson's ailment flared up, and the attack was so intense he decided to seek a doctor. Qualified medical knowledge was infrequently encountered in the West during this period and the men were advised to head for Salt Lake City.

This leg of the ride was quite an ordeal for the sick man, but he managed to reach Farmington and the home of Dr. Jonathan Smith. Unable to travel farther and not wishing to delay his companions, he urged them to continue, planning to follow when he felt better. But Johnson never reached California.

As the sick man convalesced in the home of Dr. Smith, the good simple food and devout environment did more for his ailment than the medicines prescribed. Warren and Dr. Smith's oldest daughter, Permelia Jane, were mutually attracted and it is said that when he found Mormons did not have horns he began to study their gospel. Convinced he had found the true religion, he embraced the teachings of Joseph Smith with all the fervor of one who has just made a great discovery. From this time on, life began anew. On the thirtieth of September 1866, Warren M. Johnson was baptized at Farmington by Henry Hatlis.

On July 7, 1867, he was ordained an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was sent with others to support the Muddy Mission in southern Nevada.

As colonizations went, the Muddy was one of the roughest that confronted the Mormon pioneers. Searing summer heat, sudden floods, constant wind, blowing sand, and tormenting Indians harassed these settlers as in no other place. The only building materials at hand were tule, willows, and adobe. The bottom land had to be cleared and ditches dug to bring life-giving water long distances in the traditional Mormon manner.

This was the environment confronting Warren Johnson when he arrived at St. Thomas during the late summer of 1867. Being single and comparatively well educated, his talent was recognized and he became the school teacher and a leader in the community. When the authorities of the church were presented at the concluding meeting of the Southern Mission Conference on June 5, 1870, Warren Johnson was listed as "President of Elders on the Muddy." In his spare time the man to whom the Boston doctors gave a year to live worked a small farm.

Warren had some unfinished business in Farmington and returned there in 1869. On October 4 he and Permelia Jane Smith were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. The couple then returned to St. Thomas and the school teacher resumed his classes.

When the Isaac E. James survey in the summer of 1870 determined that the settlements of the Muddy were well inside Nevada, Brigham Young approved their abandonment and in February of 1871 the colonists followed the recommendation of a scouting party and moved nearly en masse to Long Valley, arriving there March 3.

Led by Bishop James Leithead the faithful flock settled at a location called "Berryville" and promptly renamed it "Glendale" after the bishop's home in his native Scotland. Warren Johnson and his bride accompanied the colonists and Warren carried on the same duties that he had performed in St. Thomas, except that he added the jobs of bookkeeper and clerk in a store owned by Joseph Asay.

Warren and Permelia had their first child, a girl whom they named Mary Evelette, on May 6, 1872. At last it appeared that they could settle down to raise a family.

One of Warren's older pupils at St. Thomas had been Samantha Nelson. Born at San Bernardino, California, in 1853, she had returned to Utah with her family when Brigham Young recalled that mission during the war scare of 1857. The Price William Nelsons had answered the call to the Muddy Mission in 1865; now they had resettled at Glendale and once more she attended school directed by her former schoolmaster.

On October 28, 1872, Warren Johnson married his pupil Samantha Nelson in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. Daniel H. Wells is said to have performed the ceremony.

The couple returned to Glendale and Johnson acquired a home for his new bride. He had forty acres of ground and soon obtained an interest in the Glendale Co-op. After the first hard year the little settlement began to thrive and the Johnsons viewed the future with optimism.

Unknown to the struggling people at Glendale, events had already taken place in the rocky wilderness about sixty-five miles to the southeast which would affect the lives of the Johnsons for three generations.

John D. Lee and two of his wives, Rachel and Emma, along with their families had settled at the mouth of the Paria during the last days of December 1871, calling the place "Lonely Dell." In carrying out President Young's policy of controlling the land by possessing the water, Lee in April 1872, had filed claims on the fine springs at House Rock and Jacob's Pools; the following month he settled Rachel at the latter place, and from that time on divided his labor between the two ranches. His efforts were exhausting, help was always short, and he literally pulled himself up by his bootstraps in two places at once. An inferior man would have been extended to prevail over the environment of either locality, much less both at the same time.

Lee needed a man cast in his own mold but it did not seem likely such a man was available. On December 23, 1872, Jacob Hamblin sent young James Jackson and a Paiute to assist with the ferryboat then nearing completion. The young man was the son of Alden A. M. Jackson of St. George; he possessed a fair education, had been on the Muddy Mission, and had voted against its abandonment. Now he was on another mission and Jacob assigned him a plot of about ten acres of sandy, less choice land than Lee's holding but adjoining it on the northwest.

June 16, 1873, was a tragic day for Lee. The Colorado was in flood and its surface was heavy with drift. The combination of a rising river and a continuing build-up of driftwood which lodged against the craft finally tore it from its moorage and sent it down the canyon. Lee had been busy at the ranch and his diary gives no indication that he had checked the condition of his ferryboat until it was too late. The loss was a major blow to the colonization effort and it undoubtedly injured him in the eyes of church authorities.

To make matters worse, Lorenzo W. Roundy informed him that a troop of soldiers was expected to arrive at the Ferry in about three days and had threatened to hang Lee and all of his children. So once again he sought an area more remote. Lee swam his horse behind the skiff and headed for the Indian farms on the Moenkopi, some seventy miles on into Arizona. On the twenty-seventh he met Jacob Hamblin at Willow Spring and it was decided that he would stay at Jacob's recently established farm at "Moweabby" (Moenave).

The rumor regarding the soldiers was a false one but it was an effective means of getting Lee away from the river crossing and deeper into Arizona. In two months he had traded his ranch at the Pools for Jacob's farm at Moenave.

John L. Blythe built a replacement ferryboat that fall and ferry service was restored with its launching on October 15. Lee crossed on the Blythe ferry November 6 but characteristically made no comment in his diary since he had not taken part in its construction. He was upset, however, and later addressed a letter to A. F. McDonald inquiring whether the authorities intended to disassociate him with the Ferry. In a reply dated January 28, 1874, Brigham Young and George A. Smith confirmed Lee as the intended ferryman, and he provided ferry service whenever he happened to be at the Colorado crossing during the next eight months. This was not often because until May 6 his residence was at Moenave.

Up to 1899 all ferries at this crossing were oar-driven and at least two men were required to propel the boat. Proper handling decreed that one man be experienced, and with Lee absent much of the time Jackson's presence was essential.

But on March 10 James Jackson succumbed to the effects of exposure on Buckskin Mountain, and the following day was lowered into a grave on the west edge of his land claim. This was the first burial in what ultimately became a twenty-plot cemetery. Today his resting-place is not identified with an engraved headstone but may be recognized as being near the middle of the east row and is covered with large rocks — the only one so marked.

Jackson's death caused a labor problem at Lonely Dell. Emma and her family were without male help when John D. Lee was arrested at Panguitch on November 7, 1874. The oft-repeated Lee family legend of Emma's saving herself and her children by sleeping in the camp of a Navajo band whom she thought had planned to kill them apparently alerted church officials to the danger of her isolated position, and they began to ponder the problem of a capable replacement. Until an official appointment could be made, Jacob Hamblin and his son Lyman occupied the post and tended the ferry for trade-bent natives.

Back in Glendale Warren Johnson had been appointed presiding elder and his second family was enlarged by the birth of a daughter, Elizabeth, on April 26, 1874.

Early in 1875 Warren was chosen first counselor to Bishop Howard O. Spencer of Long Valley, thus becoming the only official of this ward living outside of Orderville.

Soon thereafter, Johnson responded affirmatively to Bishop Spencer's request that he take over Lee's Ferry on a temporary basis. Taking his first wife Permelia and baby Mary to Lee's Ferry, he arrived there March 30, 1875. He took up the ten-acre land claim of James Jackson and immediately went to work on the little cabin to make it liveable, the front door and table having been used to make the deceased owner's coffin. Then he was initiated into the constant job of repairing the dam across the Paria and bringing water to the dry fields. Even a minor flood down the long tributary would wash out the flimsy structure, and without water the essential garden withered. There was much work to be done, most of it strenuous and in such quantity that by nightfall he was exhausted. In April alone he crossed fifty-two Indians, who at this time constituted the bulk of traffic since few white men had business across the river.

When Warren Johnson rode out of Boston in 1866 he departed with the spirit of adventure and the hope that a milder climate would improve his health. The comfortable, sheltered world he had known became a thing of the past, and his response to the new environment proved to be the real measure of his intelligence and true strength. The long ride had been rigorous but he had toughened progressively with each trial and hardship. A major physical crisis had been overcome in Farmington and it was there also that he took a great spiritual step. The ordeal on the Muddy and the first bleak year at Glendale required more than physical endurance; without faith and fervor to nourish their morale, survival for the colonists would have been impossible. Now Johnson faced the sternest test of all, and by any standard of measurement his response was an excellent example of human achievement.

Warren did not naturally possess the knowledge, skills, and strength for the jobs he had to perform, but he acquired them. Not only did he adapt to the harsh conditions of his new home but he thrived, and provided help and comfort to the less fortunate who passed his door.

It appears that Johnson soon agreed to take the job on a permanent basis, but there is no record to bear this out. The best indicator of the length of his first stay at the Ferry is a report made to the authorities at St. George in which Johnson stated he had crossed 522 Indians between April 1 and November l. This is clear evidence that he was on the job when George Q. Cannon read his name in the general conference at Salt Lake City on October 10, 1875. His official notification was dated the following day and it specified he was called to a life's mission at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, to act as ferryman. He also was to preach the gospel to the Lamanites and administer to them. In recognition of the fact that Johnson was already there, his residence was listed as Lee's Ferry. Interestingly, on October 9 President Brigham Young had added Johnson's name as a missionary under James S. Brown, then preparing to build a way station at Moenkopi.

Permelia was expecting another child and she wanted the birth to take place in Glendale where more help was available. Since Warren had to dispose of his holdings and settle his business there, it was expedient to return again early in November. The baby was born on December 3, 1875, and named Melinda.

It is evident that Lee, now imprisoned in Salt Lake City, was comforted by the promised presence of Johnson and regarded his maturity as an improvement over the youthful James Jackson.

While Lee was advising Emma regarding the division of labor at the Ferry, Johnson was winding up his affairs at Glendale and preparing for a total move to the Paria. Only one thing delayed him — the imminent birth of Samantha's second child. This occurred on February 24, 1876. Warren Johnson departed Glendale with both his families only four days after the birth of a son, Jeremiah.

A storm front descended when the travelers were between Glendale and Kanab, and knowing that Buckskin Mountain would be heavy with snow, Johnson rented rooms for his families in the home of Zadok Knapp Judd while he went on with his load in company with some wagons of Lot Smith's colonists, then beginning to trail into Arizona. This was a wise precaution because the snow continued and double-teaming was required. Also, he would be busy with the ferry operations and would have more time to settle his families after the emigrants had crossed the river.

Permelia and Samantha remained at the Judd home most of March before a break appeared in the wagon-stream, allowing Warren's return to Kanab. Baby Jeremiah was blessed there on March 23, 1876, and a few days later the ferryman moved his wives and four children into the stone trading post at the Colorado crossing. Here he added the job of Indian trader to his duties of ferryman, farmer, stockman, laborer, and general handyman. By the first of April, Johnson had begun his life's mission at the place which was destined to make his name a household word to all who passed over the long trail to Arizona.

Travelers frequently commented about two controversial features — ferry fees and the rough road called "Lee's Backbone." Both problems originated with the establishment of the ferry and long continued to chafe emigrants.

John D. Lee had established a variable ferry fee that depended on the customer and what traffic would bear. A charge of $3.00 per wagon and 75 cents per animal had been more or less set when he crossed the first wagons of Horton D. Haight's ill-fated colonization effort on April 23, 1873. These charges were taken in supplies, although those who were short of food could pay with notions or any item of utility. Fees for Indians and Gentiles bracketed the missionary charge, with one-way native travelers paying a blanket, buckskin, or even piny on nuts. Non- Mormon prospectors paid the highest fees, usually in gold coin or greenbacks or trade in the form of hand tools and supplies. In one instance Lee ferried three prospectors and six pack animals for $8.00 in gold.

After Lee's imprisonment Johnson continued the same general policy under Emma Lee's direction except that numerous complaints resulted in Emma's cutting the price to $1.50 for ferrying a wagon and team of two animals, and 50 cents additional for each extra span. President Young stated that this was a reasonable price, but apparently it applied only to missionaries. In 1878 it was reduced to $1.00 for a wagon and team and 25 cents for extra animals.

Lee's Backbone was a rugged, barely passable means of left-bank egress which surmounted the lower formations of the Echo Monocline. The broad cove south of the crossing is surrounded by strata which follow the natural incline of the fold, and any traveler heading south had to climb the ledge, then make an abrupt descent to reach the rolling plateau and continue his course. The only alternatives were to bridge the Marble Gorge, cut a new road in the shale between the ledge and river (which would be over a mile and a half long), or blast a short quarter-mile of dugway along two hundred feet of vertical limestone. With the alternatives clearly impractical, Lee, in January of 1873, chose the ledge as the most expedient route under the circumstances. On April 4 St. George Stake President Joseph W. Young and Bishop Edward Bunker officially backed up this opinion.

The road, which dismayed strong men and struck dread in the hearts of pioneer women, was about two-and-a-half miles long. It left a flat on the left bank at its westernmost edge and ascended a narrow wash. Just before the tributary became boxed, the track took to the bare rock bank to ascend the constantly rising ledge. It crossed several drainage channels gouged wagon-deep into naked bedrock, and here drivers lightened their loads but still had to double-team. Near the crest of the ledge the road was grubbed out of a narrow shelf; the outer rut no more than a foot or two from a precipitous 500-foot plunge to the rim of the gorge. Most women and children walked here, hugging the inner rut. At the crest the track swung south, then southeast. Abruptly it cut due east to head a rock-strewn alcove, made a hairpin-180 degree turn, and descended a rocky spur sloping west. The descent of 350 feet was made in about four-tenths of a mile. In 1878 the objective Joseph Fish toiled all day to traverse the route and said it was the worst road he ever traveled. Its problems not withstanding everyone commuting between Utah and Arizona by this route was forced to use it during early years.

After Lee's execution on March 23, 1877, Emma remained at the ranch in the mouth of Paria Canyon. Through her late husband she held squatter's rights to the farmland and the ferrysite, although the church owned the boats. Warren Johnson remained the responsible power behind all phases of the operation. He lived with both of his families in the fort-trading post, and when Gentiles appeared the diminutive Samantha was passed off as Permelia's oldest daughter. This subterfuge worked until Samantha began to show her pregnancy in the spring of 1878 and Johnson moved her inside the canyon where she would be less conspicuous. There on the banks of Paria Creek on August 3, 1878, was born Frank Tilton Johnson, Samantha's third child and the first white baby, not a Lee, to be born at Lee's Ferry.

Completion of the St. George Temple in April 1877 increased traffic between Arizona and Utah, with many Saints able for the first time to perform their temple work. Solemnizing marriages drew the faithful to St. George in such numbers that the Mormon Road became known as the "Honeymoon Trail." During this period the Lee's Backbone section of the track was castigated as never before, and the protests were not unheeded. A sufficient number of church leaders had traveled the road to know that criticism was valid and when Erastus Snow, Ira N. Hinckley, L. John Nuttall, and Jesse N. Smith visited the Little Colorado settlements in the fall of 1878 the situation received a careful examination.

These authorities decided that a revision was feasible and they selected a location where a quarter-mile long dugway could be built with minimum effort, also a new downstream crossing which could be used eight or nine months of the year. Neither was ideal; the dugway would be steep, narrow, and expensive since blasting would have to be done, while the crossing was at the foot of the long rapid and would not be useable in high water. However, the new crossing's prospects were enhanced by a strong eddy below the fan from the right-bank tributary wash which offered a slight upstream current for about half the width of the river.

Warren Johnson applied for the establishment of a post office at Lee's Ferry and the request was granted on April 23, 1879. The oath was administered and Johnson's bonds signed by Frihoff G. Nielson, justice of the peace at the northeast Arizona town of Sunset.

Since her husband's death Emma Lee had grown increasingly desirous of leaving Lonely Dell. On May 16, 1879, she sold her interest to John Taylor, trustee for the church, through agent John W. Young. Warren Johnson was one of the witnesses and affixed his name to the deed. It is significant that Emma sold all of the property except the ten acres claimed by Johnson, which was the old Jackson land claim.

John W. Young placed the ferry under the nominal responsibility of Joseph L. Foutz, to be assisted by Warren M. Johnson. Foutz was an 1877 settler at Moenkopi and was there more often than at the Ferry. On November 30 Erastus Snow placed Warren Johnson in complete charge, as he had been acting in that capacity since Emma's departure.

Snow made the major decisions affecting the Ferry, while Howard O. Spencer and James Leithead of Long Valley aided on lesser matters. When Kanab Stake had been organized on April 8, 1877, Spencer was chosen first counselor to President L. John Nuttall and he directed the brethren at the Ferry during Nuttall's frequent absences.

Feed was short at Lonely Dell in the summer of 1880, so Johnson built a trail up the steep slope to tap virgin range west of the ranch. There was fairly adequate grazing on the sand dunes rising above the bench, also a running spring of good water. But the drive was long and Johnson's work began before daylight and ended after dark. He was never through and rarely had time to clear and level more land for lucerne. Clearly he had to have help if the ranch were to thrive and travelers be provided with ferry service.

Twenty-one-year-old David Brinkerhoff had become Warren's brother-in-law in October 1876 when he married Samantha's younger sister, Lydia Ann Nelson. As he was energetic, dependable, a good farmer, and adaptable, he appeared to Johnson as being theman he needed. Consequently, Warren began a campaign to persuade David to join him at the Colorado crossing. Leithead and Spencer lent the weight of their prestige to his arguments, and Brinkerhoff succumbed to the persuasion in the spring of 1881, sold his farm in Glendale, and moved his family to Lee's Ferry. By this time each of Warren's wives had four children, and David's wife and three children raised the permanent population to six adults and eleven children.

Even the ferryboats which escaped mishap had a rather short life span as the soft, unpainted pine absorbed moisture and became waterlogged after two or three years. The need for a new ferry was apparent before Emma Lee sold out and several discussions had taken place between Snow, Nuttall, and Leithead as to size and improved design. These men understood the economics of moving large loads, but unfortunately knew little about the Colorado River. Moreover they failed to consult the ferryman who would propel the craft with 12-foot sweeps across the sometimes strong current. The officials finally settled on a boat 14 by 40 feet, along with an embryonic plan of hanging a manila rope across the river to prevent downstream drift. Timbers were freighted from John Seaman's sawmill at Upper Kanab, while Bishop Leithead was sent to the crossing in the fall of 1881 to supervise the work.

Construction dragged along until December. After launching it was apparent that the boat was too large and clumsy to be used except at the lowest water, and even then only when there was no wind. Obviously with such a large craft rope could not be substituted for a cable, and it was never hung. Consequently, the new boat received little use, forcing Johnson to make most of his crossings with the skiff.

Late that summer the long-delayed plan to install a lower ferry, which would eliminate the difficult pull over the Lee's Backbone road, finally bore fruit and Erastus Snow sent quarryman Archibald McNeil to construct a dugway at the place which had been chosen in 1878. The job was completed in December and the unwieldy craft was run down the river and put in operation at the new site.

Within three months the tricky current-change had torn the sweep from Johnson's grasp, breaking his left arm at the wrist. The accident incapacitated him for the hard physical work at both river and ranch, and the full burden now fell on David Brinkerhoff. Under these circumstances Warren thought it would be wise to take care of a matter which had been on his mind for a number of years — a visit to his parental home in New England. He credited his present health and well-being to his acceptance of the gospel of Joseph Smith and felt obligated to make similar benefits available to his family and friends. He had corresponded with B. F. Cummings regarding his genealogy and he also desired to make some personal research in this field.

Erastus Snow granted him permission to make the trip provided the Ferry was left under the responsibility of David Brinkerhoff. This arrangement was agreeable and Warren departed Lee's Ferry April 12, 1882.

Johnson returned to Salt Lake City from his mission in the East in time to attend the October conference and spent ten days with church authorities discussing his mission and plans for the Ferry. He rejoined his families November 7.

The results of Warren's past labors were in evidence when he returned, as there were five tons of tithing hay on hand. Even so it was planned to increase the planting of lucerne, and after preparing all unused land near the cabins they began clearing a large flat up the canyon. This was the beginning of the Upper Ranch, but the task was large and was not completed for several years. David had rooted a large number of grape cuttings and these made a nice vineyard when they were transplanted in the spring. More fruit trees were obtained to expand the orchard in both variety and quantity.

To overcome the chief objections to the Lee's Backbone road, Johnson laid out a bypass of the roughest part and began construction in March of 1885. By mid-May it had become too warm for pick and shovel work but he had a good start and his revision would eliminate nearly the entire first mile of the old road where double-teaming was required. This Johnson cut-off was not completed for wagon use until 1888.

Meanwhile Warren had convinced the authorities of the practicality of a single-wagon ferryboat for the upper crossing; it was constructed and ready for use when the high water of 1888 arrived.

As an outgrowth of difficulties between Lot Smith and A. L. Farnsworth, plus the fact that the bishop of Tuba City Ward and some of his polygamous brethren were moving to Mexico, David Brinkerhoff left the Ferry to become bishop at Tuba City early in 1886. His departure was a heavy loss to his brother-in-law, and his replacements, while good men, rarely remained more than a few months.

Warren's families were very close and he longed to gather them under one roof. This desire saw a measure of fulfillment in July of 1886 when he and his hired hands began hauling foundation rocks for a twostory house. He purchased a load of lumber from Seaman's sawmill and engaged a carpenter, William James Frazier McAllister of Kanab. Mc­ Allister came to the Ferry that fall after completing some water troughs for the VT Cattle Company in House Rock Valley. He worked until he ran out of lumber, but got the house framed, the siding and roof on, and the doors and windows fitted. He promised to return when additional lumber arrived.

Most of the Johnson children had never been away from Lee's Ferry and their only touch with the outside world came from travelers. They beheld a Negro for the first time when wagons belonging to a Mr. Clevenger arrived early in May 1886. Clevenger's wrangler was John A. Johnson, a black man.

Some time later a traveler arrived from the south with a camel, and the wondrous beast remained a subject of conversation for many days among the awed children.

When Apostle Wilford Woodruff was faced with renouncing polygamy or seizure by federal officers, he announced, "As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will not desert my wives and children and disobey the commandments of God for the sake of accomodating the public clamor of a nation steeped in sin and ripened for the damnation of hell!" He then went into the "underground" and traveled surreptitiously to out-of-the-way places. In the spring of 1879 he had paused at Lee's Ferry on his way to the Little Colorado settlements and had been impressed with the intense, earnest man who kept the Ferry and labored for Zion in this isolated location. In 1882 the acquaintance had ripened in Salt Lake City, and subsequently the men exchanged letters in regard to the crossing.

After 1887 John Taylor was dead and Woodruff was president of the church. Following the presentation of the Manifesto on October 6, 1890, the church president remembered the quiet Saint at the Ferry and advised him to separate his two families, preferably keeping one in Utah and the other in Arizona.

In November of 1890 Johnson made inquiry of L. John Nuttall — now in permanent residence in Salt Lake City — as to the availability of his Kanab house and lots. After a series of offers and counteroffers Nuttall on January 16, 1891, finally accepted Johnson's bid of $350.00 for his Kanab property.

Samantha now had nine children, seven of whom had been born at Lee's Ferry. She departed on April 27, 1891, with twelve-year-old Frank driving her wagon and Almon Draper handling the other. Jerry remained behind to work with his father. In a few days disaster — in the form of diphtheria — struck the Ferry. Warren Johnson's own words tell the story:

Lee's Ferry Ariz July 29/1891

President Wilford Woodruff Dear Brother

It has occurred to me that you ought to know how affairs are going at this place, which is my excuse for intruding on your time, which I know is fully occupied with other affairs.

Last spring I divided my family, according to your counsel, a portion of them moving to Kanab for the purpose of schooling my children. In May 1891 a family residing in Tuba City, came here from Richfield Utah, where they had spent the winter visiting friends. At Panguitch they buried a child, and without disinfecting the wagon or themselves, not even stopping to wash the dead child's clothes, they came to our house, and remained overnight, mingling with my little children, and the consequence was in 4 days my oldest boy of my first wife, was taken violently ill with fever and sore throat.

We knew nothing of the nature of the disease, but had faith in God, as we were here on a very hard mission, and had tried as hard as we knew how to obey the word of Wisdom, and attend to the other duties of our religion, such as paying tything, family prayers &c &c, that our children would be spared. But alass, in 4y 2 days he choked to death in my arms. Two more were taken down with the disease and we fasted and prayed as much as we thought it wisdom as we had many duties to perform here. We fasted some 24 hours and once I fasted 40 hours, but all of no avail for both my little girls died also. About a week after their death my fifteen year old daughter Melinda was stricken down and we did all we could for her but she followed the others, and three of my dear girls and one boy has been taken from us, and the end is not yet. My oldest girl 19 years old is now prostrate with the disease, and we are fasting and praying in her behalf today. We have become better acquainted with the nature of the disease, than at first, and we are strongly in the hopes she will recover, as two already have, that came down with it. I would ask for your faith and prayers in our behalf however. What have we done that the Lord has left us, and what can we do to gain his favor again.

Yours in the gospel Warren M. Johnson

Warren constructed the coffins and his wife made the burial clothes for the first three children, but friends arrived from Kanab to help with Melinda. All four children were buried in the same row, south of the James Jackson grave.

Samantha never returned to the Ferry, and at Kanab on September 9, 1895, she gave birth to her tenth and last child, a girl whom they named Elnora.

In the late fall of 1895 it was decided that Warren Johnson's mission had ended and that the remnants of his first family should also have the opportunity for schooling and church activity. Accordingly Warren rode to Kanab to arrange for a property exchange. Land surveys had not been made in this part of the country and property transfers were guided by church authorities.

On December 12 Stake President E. D. Woolley took Warren Johnson to inspect a ranch west of Fredonia which was comparable in value to the one at Lee's Ferry. The property met with Johnson's approval and on the way home they stopped for a load of hay. When they were about a half-mile south of the state line the rack tipped, throwing both men to the ground. Woolley landed on his feet but Johnson came down heavily on the base of his spine. This unfortunate accident marked the beginning of a decline in the fortunes of the Johnson family. Warren's back never healed. For the rest of his life he was paralyzed from the hips down.

President Woolley went to Salt Lake City and placed Johnson's case before the First Presidency on February 5, 1896. An appropriation of $100.00 was made for the injured ferryman, and President Woodruff suggested continued aid. He was taken to Salt Lake City for examination on July 12 but his physical condition was regarded as being too poor to risk an operation. In view of his long and faithful service at the Ferry he was made a ward of the church.

Until it became definite that he would remain an invalid, Johnson had postponed making a deal for the Ferry. His twenty-year-old son Jerry attended to the ranch and boats, assisted by Al Huntington and Alex Swapp. Finally on November 8, 1896, Warren and Permelia Johnson sold their interests for $6,500 to Wilford Woodruff, trustee for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The deed conveyed about thirty-two acres of lucerne; six acres of orchards, vineyards, and garden; and one and a half miles of ditch. Dee Woolley had recommended James S. Emett to succeed the injured ferryman, and Johnson acquired Emett's promising Cottonwood Ranch in the complex deal.

Even though he was bedridden, Warren still made the decisions for his families. It is difficult to believe that a man of his judgment, knowing he was crippled for life, would choose to pioneer in the rugged northland, but in January of 1900 he decided to sell all Johnson holdings and migrate to Canada. On May 1 he left Kanab in the bed of a wagon driven by Permelia, while Frank, Samantha, and her four youngest children remained to sell the property and come along later.

After a layover in Salt Lake City and consultation with church authorities, their objective was changed to the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. They arrived at Camp Shoshone late in July, and in September Apostle Abraham Woodruff directed the drawing of land by lot.

Jerry completed a one-room log cabin in November and the entire family moved in for protection from the sub-zero temperatures.

Early in 1901 Frank began to dispose of the property at giveaway prices. There was little money in the country and exchange was made for stock, wagons, and food. On July 17 the last of the Johnsons with three wagons left Kanab, driving about a hundred head of cattle. Following a hard trip they arrived at Byron, Wyoming, on September 7.

Warren traded part of his stock for a ranch thirty-five miles away near the confluence of the Graybull and Bighorn rivers. The settlement became known as Coburn (now Graybull) and Johnson was presiding elder. On December 17, 1901, he received the appointment of postmaster.

The winter of 1901-2 was severe, even for that country, and most of the Johnson cattle failed to survive. It was no less harsh for humans, and they narrowly escaped starvation.

Warren Johnson's health began to fail and after several weeks of intense agony he died at the ranch on March 10, 1902. He was buried at Coburn but in later years reinterred at Byron.

Despite his long contribution in maintaining the key link on the emigrant trail into Arizona, the name of Warren M. Johnson was the last of the Mormon proprietors of the Ferry to be commemorated on the region's topography — small recognition for the man who did so much for so many during the Mormon settlement of Arizona. 36

"On the 19th [1878] we drove ten miles which brought us to the Colorado River a little below the mouth of the Paria. The next day we went a little above the mouth of the Paria and spent the day in crossing the river. This was what has been known as the Lee ferry. John D. Lee having come to this place when it was first established and lived here for some time to get away from the Marshals. At the time of our crossing Warren Johnson resided here and tended the ferry. He was a good careful hand and did all that he could to assist and accommodate the emigrants, the boat however, was not a very good one and leaked quite bad. One wagon and team Was taken across at a time. The fare of $1 for a wagon and 25^ a head for horses. This was half fare, or what was termed missionary rates. The river at the ferry was 240 feet wide and in the center was quite deep. In later years the ferry was moved some distance up the river and the boat was run on a cable." (John H. Krenkel, ed., The Life and Times of Joseph Fish, Mormon Pioneer [Danville, Illinois, 1970], 184.)

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