There was a wild time in St. Johns on the day of the Mexican population's patron saint, San Juan, June 24, 1882, when Nat Greer and a band of Texas cowboys entered the Mexican town. The Greers had been unpopular with the Mexicans since they had marked a Mexican with an ear "underslope," as cattle are marked, this after a charge that their victim had been found in the act of stealing a Greer colt. The fight that followed the Greer entry had nothing at its initiation to do with the Mormon settlers. Assaulted by the Mexican police and populace, eight of the band rode away and four were penned into an uncompleted adobe house. Jim Vaughn of the raiders was killed and Harris Greer was wounded. On the attacking side was wounded Francisco Tafolla, whose son in later years was killed while serving in the Arizona Rangers. It was declared that several thousand shots had been fired, but there was a lull, in which the part of peacemaker was taken up by "Father" Nathan C. Tenney, a pioneer of Woodruff and father of Ammon M. Tenney. He walked to the house and induced the Greers to surrender. The Sheriff, E.S. Stover, was summoned and was in the act of taking the men to jail when a shot was fired from a loft of the Barth house, where a number of Mexicans had established themselves. The bullet, possibly intended for a Greer, passed through the patriarch's head and neck, killing him instantly. The Greers were threatened with lynching, but were saved by the sheriff's determination. Their case was taken to Prescott and they escaped with light punishment. [Illustration: FIRST MORMON SCHOOL, CHURCH AND BOWERY AT ST. JOHNS] [Illustration: DAVID K. UDALL AND HIS FIRST RESIDENCE AT ST. JOHNS] [Illustration: ST. JOHNS IN 1887. Sol Barth's House with the Tower] [Illustration: THE STAKE ACADEMY AT ST. JOHNS] In the fall of 1881 the community knew a summary execution of two men and there were other deeds of disorder, but in no wise did they affect the Mormon people, save that the lawless actions unsettled the usual peaceful conditions. Disputes Over Land Titles It is not within the province of this work to deal in matters of controversial sort, especially with those that may have affected the religious features of the Mormon settlement but there may be mention of a few of the difficulties that came to the people of St. Johns in their earlier days.