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Eagar Ward

EAGAR WARD, St. Johns Stake, Apache Co., Arizona, consists of the Latter-day Saints residing in the so-called Round Valley. This valley is about five miles long from northeast to southwest and about seven miles wide. The surrounding mountains are covered with timber fit for building and fuel purposes, especially the lofty Mogollon and White Mountain ranges on the west and south. The town of Eagar is situated near the center of Round Valley, 25 miles south of St. Johns, the headquarters of the stake. The altitude of the valley is about 7,200 feet. Most of the soil in Round Valley is good and productive, but the valley being high up as to altitude, and close to the mountains, the climate is [p.203] somewhat cold, although the snowfall is generally very light. The Little Colorado River which runs lengthwise through the valley furnishes water for irrigation purposes. Nearly half the population in Round Valley are non-Mormons, mostly Mexicans, who as a rule live in the adjacent town of Springerville. The ward owns a substantial brick chapel with an auditorium having a seating capacity of about 55.

Mr. William Miligan, a Tennessean, a non-Mormon, is supposed to have been the first white settler on the Little Colorado River in Round Valley. He located a fort there about 1871 and engaged in farming eight years before the first L. D. S. settler came into that country. Among the first Mormon settlers in the valley were Jens N. Skousen, Peter J. Christoffersen and James L. Robertson, all of St. Joseph, Arizona, who bought a land claim of Mr. Tobin (a non-Mormon) in Round Valley in February, 1879. Other Mormon settlers arrived later the same year and bought out other non-Mormons. Bro. William J. Flake, one of the brethren, reaped 400 bushels of barley and wheat in 1879.

The saints in Round Valley were organized as the Round Valley Ward Sept. 26 1880, with Peter J. Christoffersen as Bishop. He presided until 1882 when the Round Valley Ward was divided, and the saints residing in the lower end of the valley were organized as the Omer Ward and those in the upper end of the valley as the Amity Ward. (See Amity and Omer.) These two wards existed side by side until July 4, 1886, when they were amalgamated and organized into the Union Ward with George Henry Crosby as Bishop. A townsite, named Eagar, was surveyed in 1888, on to which most of the settlers in the valley soon afterwards removed. About this time the name of the ward was changed from Union to Eagar. Bishop Crosby was succeeded in 1899 by Joseph Udall, who in 1922 was succeeded by Ashley M. Hall, who presided Dec. 31, 1930. On that date the Eagar Ward had 645 members, including 131 children. The total population of the Eagar Precinct was 562 in 1930. A number of Eagar Ward members reside outside the precinct.

Eagle Gate

EAGLE GATE stands on State Street at the intersection of that street and East South Temple Street, Salt Lake City. It was built in 1859 as an entry to Pres. Brigham Young’s private property, and rebuilt at a later date as it now stands. It is one of the landmarks in which visitors to Salt Lake City are interested. From the Eagle Gate, State Street extends southward almost without a curve to the mountains, forming the boundary between Salt Lake and Utah valleys.