The first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to enter what is now Arizona were remnants of the Mormon Battalion, who arrived in the Valley of the Tucson Basin on December 17, 1847, prepared for battle, but the Mexican garrison refused to surrender and departed with most of the population as the Stars and Stripes were raised over the ancient Indian village. This march pioneered a route through southern Arizona and inspired many, including Pvt. Erastas Bingham, to return with his wife and sons. They homesteaded and cleared land of mesquite, creosote, cats claw, rattlers, Gila monsters, lizards, and tarantulas, and used teams, plows, picks, and shovels to build reservoirs and irrigation systems, calling their community Binghampton. Children walked or rode on horseback or in buggies to school at Nephi Bingham's home, and later in a one-room building south of the Rillito River at Fort Lowell and Maple Boulevard. In 1905 Alexander Davidson donated land for the Davidson School, Charles Bayless furnished materials, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated labor, and the school was used for cultural and church events. Settler families including Bingham, Farr, Young, Webb, Williams, and Hurst were soon followed by Mormon colonists fleeing Mexico, among them Langford, Bluth, Done, Ray, Johnson, Hardy, Nelson, Stock, Evans, Terrel, Jesperson, James, Price, Cordon, Butler, Huish, Naegle, Heder, Chlarson, and others, adding to the bustling Mormon farm village. The Binghampton Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on May 22, 1910, and Binghampton was gradually absorbed by Tucson's growth, leaving the pioneer cemetery, a few adobe homes, and the chapel built in 1927, still used by ward members from the Tucson Arizona Stake.