William C. Allen: Founder and Head of Joseph City, Arizona (1876)

William Coleman Allen was called in the winter of 1876 to help start settlements along the Little Colorado River in Arizona. He led the William C. Allen Company, which founded Joseph City, Arizona, arriving in March 1876; he served as the head of the settlement and remained there until August 1884. Under his leadership, Joseph City was organized into the United Order in May 1877, with the Saints consecrating their properties and laboring together to build dams, ditches, a gristmill, and homes in a harsh desert country. His company included families such as the Shelleys, McLaws, and Daniel Handley McAllister, who recorded the day-to-day work of carving a settlement from the high-desert frontier. Joseph City became one of the enduring Latter-day Saint colonies of northern Arizona.