Editing St. Johns, Arizona (section)

== History ==

The location was originally called '''Tsézhin Deezʼáhí''' in Navajo, a reference to its rock formations.<ref name="nav"/> The site of a useful crossing of the [[Little Colorado River]], it was later called '''El Vadito''' (Spanish for "the little crossing") by Spaniards as they first explored the area. Starting in 1864, a trader named Solomon Barth began crossing the area as he moved salt from a salt lake in [[Zuni people|Zuni]] territory to [[Prescott, Arizona]]. In a poker game in 1873 Barth earned enough money to purchase cattle and enough land in St. Johns to start a ranch with his brothers Nathan and Morris. He changed the name from El Vadito to '''San Juan'''. There is some controversy as to whether this was in honor of the first woman resident, Maria San Juan Baca de Padilla, or of the feast of San Juan. William&nbsp;R. Milligan arrived in 1866, followed by Frank Walker in 1870. By 1872 a Spanish-American agricultural community had developed. A stone cabin was erected by Juan Sedilla in 1874. Solomon Barth sold out to Mormon [[Ammon&nbsp;M. Tenney]] in 1875 or 1879. A [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] community named Salem and led by [[David King Udall]] was established just north of the town under the direction of [[Wilford Woodruff]] on March 29, 1880, and then moved to higher ground by [[Erastus Snow]] on September 19 of the same year.<ref name="Granger1960">{{cite book|author=Byrd H. Granger|title=Arizona Place Names|url=https://archive.org/details/arizonaplacename00barn|url-access=registration|access-date=December 8, 2011|year=1960|publisher=University of Arizona Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/arizonaplacename00barn/page/21 21]}}</ref><ref>[[Andrew Jenson|Andrew Jensen]]. ''Encyclopedic History of the Church''. p. 732</ref><ref>[http://pioneermonuments.org/early-settlers-salemaz/ teax of monument in St. Johns about Salem] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313032153/http://pioneermonuments.org/early-settlers-salemaz/ |date=March 13, 2012 }}</ref>

St. Johns has been the county seat for almost all of Apache County's history. When the county was created on February 24, 1879, [[Snowflake, Arizona|Snowflake]] was designated the county seat.<ref name="county">[http://www.co.apache.az.us/ Official website] of [[Apache County, Arizona]]</ref>  After the first election in fall 1879, [[county government]] was set up in St. Johns, though it was moved again in 1880, to [[Springerville, Arizona|Springerville]]; in 1882 St. Johns again became the county seat, and it has remained so ever since.<ref name="Granger1960 page18">{{cite book|author=Byrd H. Granger|title=Arizona Place Names|url=https://archive.org/details/arizonaplacename00barn|url-access=registration|access-date=December 6, 2011|year=1960|publisher=University of Arizona Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/arizonaplacename00barn/page/18 18]}}</ref><ref name="county"/>