On June 14, 1870 Levi Stewart, who had been called from Salt Lake County by President Brigham Young to head a group of pioneers in settling this area, brought a party with seven wagons from Pipe Spring, where they had camped temporarily, to Fort Kanab which had been built a year before by Jacob Hamblin and Indian missionaries.
Kanab Ward was organized September 11, 1870 with Elder Stewart as Bishop. Other settlers arrived, homes were built and plans made for a permanent community. A fire in the fort on December 14, took the lives of Mrs. Margery Wilkerson Stewart and five sons.
