Arizona republican., 1921-04-13
SOME INCIDENTS OF A2,O20 MILE WAGON !. TRIP INTO ARIZONA

R. H. Windes of Tempe has writ ten for The Republican the follow ing interesting account of his first trip into Arizona and of the incidents which occurred on that occasion
 The first wek in August, 1879, in little two mule wagon with my wife and two little children I crossed the Arizona line at point 200 miles east Of Prescott, near a point at which a pole was subsequently erect ed to mark the. Arizona New Mexico line. We were a weather beaten out fit having come all the way from Chicago, 2,020 miles by wagon road, via Fort Scott, Wichita. Fort Dodge, Las Animas. Trinidad and Santa Fe.
 We left the railroad at Las Vegas and plunged out into the western wilderness to go nearly a thousand miles through a lonely country in habited by scattered Mexicans and Indians, with very few white people to be seen. The highest point I touched was the spot designated as the continental divide, or the summit of the Rockies. where I sat down and wrote a letter back home.
 At a way station near the Arizona line I remember an expression of my faith when 1 told man that a rail- road would pass right through here some day. He turned suddenly and gazed at me while and said: What for-to haul away these rocks?''
 I wish I could know how near that | spot the road passed in a short three years after. Nobody had prophesied l 1t In my hearing but l just naturally | thought so in reflecting upon Amer ican push and enterprise. They used 1 to laugh at me at Prescott when l would prophecy the coming of the l iron horse" up Granite creek, up l through Fort Whipple, into town 1 That optimistic spirit is with me yet and I find myself laying out great fu i lures for our great country that few can hope for in our lifetime.
 l Another keen memory I have is l the breakdown I had 13 miles east of Camp Verde, then a military post 1 three miles above Beaver Head. on l the way up Mogollon mountains. was out of water and I straddled a mule and with large jug I worried my way bareback to Beaver Head and near night got back with the 1 precious fluid. At my camp I found
 the carcass of a large rattlesnake l that Mrs. Windes had killed while
 was gone. Our oldest child was | sound asleep in the shade of a jun !. iper tree when my wife discovered i two feet of the baby's head. Thai nervy woman slipped to the foot oi | the blankets and easily drew the N child several feet away, took from
 our wagon a little Savage Blue | Jacket and blew the rattler into
 eternity.
 The break in the wagon could b. mended only by my carrying the | whole axle on my shoulder while
 astride a mule to Camp Verde, where the nearest blacksmith shop was To- cated. This I did. The blacksmith h
 however, repaired it in such man
 ner that I was forced to supplement
 his work by flattening the straps un-
 til I could use it. Then I drove abou
 half a mile and suddenly a whee
 came down. Being nearly famisheC for water, l took out the mules anC
 made for Beaver Head wells. WheI
 I arrived there I found my throat S, dry that I could not speak.
 Another episode I remember oc
 cured while I was well on my lonl
 and lonesome ride with the axle
 While ojgging along with the axle or
 my shoulder the mule stumbled ant } seemed to fall about 30 yards, finall,
 coming to a stop on top of my leg
 The mule laid there until he came |,
 the belief that he was fully rested when he arose and found that ha' } luckily sustained no broken bones. The modes of travel then and tn , cost of freighting in the early day
 made prices for commodities high as very little produce was raised
 along the ordinary routes. Irrigat
 ing was very limited and the mod
 very primitive. Horses, mules. oxel , and burros were the only means o l travel and freighting, and it some
 times took thee or four weeks to ge
 a load of freight from Maricopa, tn , nearest railroad point. to Prescott. distance of t30 miles. Eggs wer ! $50 a dozen, and other things il proportion. One merchant charge' . woman 75 cents for a sewing ma
 chine needle and justified himsel
 by the high freight rates"
 As I was the first Baptist mis p sionary to enter the territory. I hay
 a keen recollection of the building O the First Baptist church in Prescott
 The congregation numbered fiv p members, including myself and m 2 wife. Three years afterward tn
 first Baptist church in Phoenix wa
 erected.