Weekly Phoenix herald., 1883-07-19
the present site of Tempe. Here they started in with & wili. and soon
 nr.niinLod osror f ,n h,ind rcd dnl>

lars worth of work. But finding that 1t became necessary to cut I solid rock, and not having the means wherewith to accomplish such task. this place was abandon ( ed and new head was started fiv, miles lower down the river, at the very spot where John Y. T. smith had located his hay camp.
 Here the work proved mora suc- cessful, for in six. months from the time of starting several miles of the canal had been completed, sud the end of the year 1863 saw maRy crops harvested, and many new ranches being taken up. The tide of immi- gratioa began flowing at once into the valley, with steadily increas ing stream Many families journey ing with their own teams from Texas, Missouri and Arkansas, with Cali 1 fornia se an objective point, hsariAg of this fertile valley, turned aside and maie their homes here. Among the very first of these was MT. C. Il Gray, now one of tue weslthiest ranchers la the valley. His family is the only one that settled here in those early days and still remains, though there are others here who settled shortly afterwards. Mrs. C. H. Gray is consequently the first American lady who came to the Salt River valley to make home
 It was on the 18th day of August in the year 1868. when Mir C. Il. Gray pitched his tent on the quarter section which Ia now known as Lum Gray's ranch. This is mile east
 of the eastern boundary line of the
 city of Phenix. and since first taken up, has produced many rich crops of
 barley, wheat, grapes. figs, peache-,
 apricots and all the fruits grown in
 the temperate and semi-tropic zones 1 Mir. Gray had been travelling from
 Arkansas, through Texas, New Mex
 ico d Arizona, intend rg to settle
 in Califorria. On ac.nunt of sick
 ress in his family. who accompanied
 him, he was forced to make halt at
 Maricopa Wells, an owe land stage } station few miles south of the Gila river and twenty miles south of Salt , river.
 While stopping h ere he heard many reports of the new farming sectior, and took trip across tue . country to see it. RI,Iing over the desert intervening between the Gila and Salt rivers, he cam ped towards evening on the identical snot on which bis house now stands. The river was flowing within one quarter of a mile, and as far as the eye conio reach the country was covered witt 8 iuxuriant growth of grass standir two feet in height, dotted here anc
 there, with sn cccasional mesquite tree as if for ornament. and look'ns
 to hls eyes, long accustomed to the barren deserts of New Mexico and Eastern Arizona, like 2 veritab'e paradise. He brought his family al once from Maricopa Wells, ani took : I'D a section. Then he commenced rustling with the ditch company tc get water on his land.
 That year (186S) was T exception l al one in ;he history of Salt Rive | Valley, for there was more rainfal
 turing the spring and summer thar
 has flllen since during th0ss
 m uths. Indeed. there were several 2 Iorn raised H.ilious irriga,
 ! ll1ll! md everywhere tlie vegetation
 was unusually luxuriart,
 Mir. Gray's place WAS nearly four
 miles below the then se!tiement,and
 in connection with his reighbors,
 the 5 arar brothers, who preceded him ia ari ival by about two months,
 also Ua,e wo''d (si1ce k filed by In
 diaus near IcDJwe ID and J. Am
 merman, c'Punp Handle JOhn') he
 took out what is known as th'
 ..Dutch Ditch" This is branch oi l. the ori sinal Swilling Ditch. and
 leaves the latter at a point nearly one mile above VaIl's mill, branch. ing of U the south aac carry inl water upon those ranches which iie
 contiguous to the river. Tn:
 "Dutch Ditch " or southern branc!
 If .he Salt River Valley Canal,
 passes along the southern boundary
 of Phenix and en.is on the ranch O.
 John B. Mo ,tgomery, while the main sireim of the canal
 running almost parallel with
 and half mile to the north of the
 former, bounds Phoenix on tne nortt : and furnishes It's inhabitants witl , watcr, sending a rippling stream through every street, so that ins tead of the usual gutter seen in ea-tern cities, there is 8 running rlvulet be tween the sidewalks and the Toad
 ys.
 During the summer of 1868, few crops of c"rn were raised by Irriga ton, also four or five acres of blrley
 on sawyer's ranch. Perhaps sawyt :,
 will be better known to old iinaui- g iants as "Frenchy," as tbis was hi E sobriquet in those days.
 } Dennis, Mowry and Murphy be . came residents In the year 1869, a.st ! n,u1v .+I,ors vvhose rames are n,v