Arizona republican., 1921-04-04
By BISHOP J. w. ATWOOD

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 Arizona, which receives it's eupho- nious pame not from the arid zone, but from an ancient mining camp in the far southeast, signifying few springs" is geologically the oldest part sofAthe American continent with the exception of Labrador. The tray eler of today realizes this as he looks into the mighty chasm of the Grand Canyon or stands amid the prostrate and bejeweled trees of the Petrified Forest. He finds here also the oldest and newest civilization in America. spanish adVenturers came here from Mexico in the sixteenth century be- fore the English settled at Yorktown and Plymouth. The old Mexican city of Tucson in southern Arizona shares with Santa Fe and Saint Augustine the claims of being the oldest city within the limits of the United States. The first traces of Christianity in what is now Arizona are disclosed in the noble mission building of San Xavier,l rising from a majestic Span ish cathedral from the surrounding wilderness of the Arizona desert, seven miles outside of the city Of Tucson. Here we see the beginning of, that brave and chivalric attempt of the Mexican monks long years before we became a nation to set up in the untraversed desert. the stand ard of the cross and to convert to the faith of the crucified and risen Christ the Indians of the southwestern land.
 Years came and went and Arizona was stili unclaimed by the white man. After the Mexican war and through the Gadsden purchase a few years later in 1853 of the southern portion, it became a part Of the United States Organized as territory in 1863, the youngest of our commenwealths achieved statehood only in 1911.
 Our own church took cognizarce of the existence of this far r-away land when in 1860 Bishop Talbot after wards bishop of Indiana. was elected bishop of the northwest. He was styled "bishop of all the outdoors. He never visited Arizona
 Tn 1869 the Rev. Dr. Whitaker was elected bishop of Nevada and Ari- zona, and some time later in the early '7Os he made his first and only visit to this part of his Jurisdiction. Noth- ing was accomplished during the dec ade of the '70s except the occasional visits of clergymen from California.
 Arizona was detached from Neva- da and joined to New Mexico in 1874, when the Rev. William A. Adams was elected bishop of the jurisdiction. He never visited Arizona, but con- fined his labors teb New Mexico, re-
 
 erable bishop of Easton.
 Arizona came for a brief period under the Jurisdiction of the bishop of Colorado. He called a primary convention of New Mexico and Ari- zona which met in Albuquerque in 1880. There was no clergyman if Arizona and no laymen attended the convention.
 In 1880 Dr. Dunlop was elected bishop of New Mexico and Arizona then the largest missionary jurisdic- tior of the country. Even after the separation, these two missionary dis tricts are territorially the two largest within the limits of the United States There was not a single clergyman in Arizona and no church building when Bishop Dunlop assumed charge. His 1abors during his episcopate of eight years were largely confined to New Mexict.
 In 1882 Endicott Peabody, now headmaster of Groton school, and al that time a fellow student with the present bishop of Arizona in the Cambridge Theological seminary, re- ceived a letter telling of the fearfu moral conditions in the recently opened up mining camp at Tomb stone rrHe felt impelled to give III his studies temporarily and he cam, to Arizona to become the first set. tied missionary in the district. A