Some of the early settlers built boweries of brush under which they rolled their covered wagons, to secure better protection from the pitiless Arizona summer sun, and with no other home for weeks. There were Indian "scares," as elsewhere told, and life was far from comfortable, with occasional crossing of the Gila at flood to secure protection at the more populous Pima. In January, 1882, was a moving back to five log houses that had been built on the Curtis townsite, but even after that was flight to Pima when word came of an Indian raid. In the fall of 1882 eight families were living in a little stockade fort that enclosed a half acre of ground, near the river. The present townsite was located May 10, 1883. Gila Communities of the Faith Thatcher, present Stake headquarters, derives its name from Apostle Moses Thatcher, who was a Christmas visitor in 1882, in company with Apostle Erastus Snow. The first settler was John M. Moody, who came with his family from Utah, arriving when Nature had warm welcome indeed, on July 4, 1881. In 1882 he was joined by the Cluff and Zufelt families and by James Pace of the Mormon Battalion, who built a stockade, and a little later by Hyrum Brinkerhoff and wife Margaret, "Aunt Maggie," who bought and occupied the Moody place. They were prominent among the Southern Utah and Muddy pioneers. The Thatcher townsite was selected by President Layton May 13, 1883, a school district being established the following month. Among the arrivals of the following year was Samuel Claridge, one of the pioneers of the Muddy section. October 19, 1885, the presidency located a new townsite about one-half mile to the southward and on higher land. Much of the old Moody ranch since the Brinkerhoff purchase has disappeared, from the encroachments of the Gila River. Bryce, across the river from Pima, dates from January, 1883, when Ebenezer Bryce, Sr., and sons commenced construction of a ditch, completed the next year. The first house was that of Ebenezer P. Bryce, occupied in December, 1884. Central, between Thatcher and Pima, took its name from the Central canal, which irrigates part of the settlement. Its first settlers were Orson and Joseph Cluff of Forest Dale, from which they came southward in the spring of 1882. The Hubbard settlement is an outgrowth of the Graham and Bryce wards and is of comparatively late occupation. It is named after Elisha F. Hubbard, Sr., the first ward bishop. The Layton settlement, named for the first stake president, is one of the most prosperous, and is the third in order of population of the St. Joseph Stake wards. The first settler was Hyrum H. Tippets, who came January 13, 1883, direct from Brigham City, Utah.