Growing cotton in the desert
By the mid-1850s, the reality of the American Civil War hung over the United States. Brigham Young asked Indian Missionaries living in southern Utah to discover if cotton could be grown there. In 1857, the Samuel Adair and Robert Covington Companies were called to settle southern Utah and to grow cotton. Nearly 40 families, mostly with cotton growing experience (from Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee), arrived in Washington Utah in April of 1857.
During the Church’s General Conference in October 1861, President Young announced the calling of 309 families to relocate to the Virgin River Basin to bolster the cotton growing efforts. Edward Bunker Sr and his families were among those called. Three Pulsipher brothers, John, Charles, and William, with their families were among those called.
The Virgin River Basin became known as the Dixie Cotton Mission and this south part of the territory was nicknamed Utah’s Dixie.
Robert Covington reported, “The harsh environment, the intense heat of summer, the continual toil, and the ravages of malaria . . . led some of the settlers to desert the place at the end of the first season.” In the fall of 1858, it was reported “that of approximately 400 acres planted to cotton only 130 acres could be counted a success”. Cultivation of cotton and food crops depended on irrigation, which was a collective activity. There were regular food shortages, including “the ‘starving time’ when many people were reduced to eating pigweed, alfalfa, and carrot top greens in lieu of a more substantial diet”
Brigham Young was convinced that the saints could make cotton work in the southern part of Utah Territory. He pleaded with those working in this inhospitable place to lengthen their stride. In October 1862 Young called 200 additional families to relocate to the Cotton Mission with the hopes to make successfully growing cotton a reality.
A short time prior to the arrival of the 309 families, 26 Swiss families, had been guided to Santa Clara by Daniel Bonellli. They had been assigned by Brigham Young to grow warm climate crops, including grape vineyards. Each of these 26 families had been allocated home lots and garden plots on the southeast portion of Santa Clara.
When the Swiss families settled their plots of ground On Christmas Day, the rains began and didn’t cease until the end of January. A devasting flood roared through the colony, destroying the effects of their labor, and driving them all to higher ground. They lost nearly everything.
The first months after the floods would have meant starvation for the Swiss families were it not for the help that came from the Indian missionary families who shared food from their own meager store of supplies.
During the early 1860s tensions began to arise between the Swiss immigrant families and the Southern Utah Indian Missionaries. Language and cultural differences created misunderstandings between both groups. The Swiss sought well-kept gardens and homes. The more established missionaries had eked out a living for several years in the inhospitable desert climate and tended to be less refined in their manner of living and allowed their livestock to roam freely. These clashing cultures caused conflict between the settlers.
In the fall of 1862, Edward Bunker Sr. was called to move his family from Toquerville to Santa Clara to serve as bishop of the local Latter-day Saint ward. Bunker worked to settle differences between the Swiss immigrants and the missionaries and in time he was able to help smooth over tensions between the two groups.
Bunker served as bishop in Santa Clara for 12 years. During that time, he helped the blended community become more unified.
While cotton was produced and processed off and on for approximately 50 years, it proved to be a financially unprofitable effort.