Oral history of Ida Ione Pomeroy Johnson, 1979 April 23, 2006 March

A member of the prominent Pomeroy family, Johnson was born in Mesa in 1896, at Robson and Second Ave. Her father was the first Mormon Bishop of Mesa, and one of her distant cousins served as Mesa's mayor in the 1970s. Johnson's father was also a rancher and a dairyman. She recalls driving a wagon to town with her sister to deliver eggs and milk to the local stores. She describes downtown Mesa with its dusty, and sometimes muddy, streets and mentions a few local business including Everybody's drugstore Stapley's hardware store, and the Toggery dry goods store. Johnson gives a timeline of Mesa's population growth from 722 people in 1900 to 140,000 in 1979. She also discusses the role of the Mormons in settling and developing Mesa.