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Theses and Dissertations

1954

Early History of Millard County and its Latter-Day Saint Settlers, Early History of Millard County and its Latter-Day Saint Settlers,

1851-1912 1851-1912

Ladd R. Cropper Brigham Young University - Provo

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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Cropper, Ladd R., "Early History of Millard County and its Latter-Day Saint Settlers, 1851-1912" (1954). Theses and Dissertations. 4624. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4624

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miimil DEARLY HISTORY OF MILLARD COUNTY AND ITS

LATTERDAYLATTER SAINTDAY SETTLERS

185119121851

A

1912

THESIS

PRESENTED TO THE

department OF CHURCH HISTORY

BRIGHAMBRIG YOUNGHAM university

IN PARTIAL fulfillmentOF THE requirements FOR THE DEGREEDECREE

MASTER OF ARTS

BY

LADD R CROPPER

1954

Y 14

IL

acknowledgments

the writer Is especially indebted to may G cropper

without whose aid in typing and other ways this work could

have taken longer he expresses sincere thanks and appreciation

to the thesis committee dr hugh nibley dr howard reid and

prof ivan barrett who were most helpful in answering questions

of method and procedure and who constructively criticized the

manuscript

special thanks is due loa hanson and nellie huntsman

who granted use of available materials and often assisted the

writer in locating the same in the files of the state museum atfillmore

sebrina C ekins historian for the west millard county

daughters of the utah pioneersPioneplone loanedensterstersy the writer severalwritings of early pioneers which were most helpful

A number of trips were made to scipio fillmore oak

city deseret and other of the earliest towns to personallycontact and interview the oldest settlers the writer wishes

to acknowledge the kindness helpfulness and inspiration thesepioneers gave to him in securing materials concerning the historyof millard county and the early settlers especially william

bradfield age ninety four of seipioscipio utah

tilililii

PROBLEM

the purpose of this thesis Is to describe the settle-ment of millard county by the latterdaylatter saintday pioneerspioneerpresenting problems which they confronted and the manner in

which these hardships were handled in short to give a historyand account of the settling of millard county by the mormon

pioneers

METHOD OF PROCEDURE

the writer checked every available book on the history

of millardmiliard county different ways were used in gaining inforinfcreinfareanformation pertaining to the settling of the area one of the most

interesting methods used was personal interviews with sixteen

of the oldest pioneers still living tape recordings were made

of these interviews also biographies of early leaders were

read minute books of millard and deseret stakes as well as

those of various wards in the county were checked for materials

that might be of any consequence what appeared useful was

noted

the records of biographies of early pioneers were read

and noted from the files of the state museum at fillmoreold copies of the millard county progress newspaper

and the millard county chronicle were searched for materialduring the centennial year several biographies were printed

iv

coun

sp

nioneDioneertserrs nictunepicturenicDicnie inturetune the chronicle this has

been a valuable source for material and information pioneer

journals and diaries have been read and noted periodicals

have also been very helpfulpictures were taken of most of the pioneers who were

interviewed also of several places of interest concerning early

history of the areaany mistakes that appear in this thesis are the respo-

nsibility of the writer this work does not pretend to be an

exhaustive treatment of the early history of the settlers itmerely furnishes a connected narrative of the main events

v

along with the pioncerdioneerts

sibi lity

8583

APPENDIX 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a

TABLE OF CONTENTS

pageLIST OF illustrations viivilchapter

I1 EARLY MILLARD COUNTY AREA 1

general region 1exploration 6the indians 9

II11 LATTERDAYLATTER SAINTDAY settlement 27

settlement parties and dates 27problems and hardships of early settlers 30organization of latterdaylatter saintday stakes 52

111IIIlillii ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL development 59

industries 59schools 67music 72social life 79conclusion

94

bibliography 0 v 9 e 0 0 0 0 107

vlvi

outaoutf it

LIST OF illustrations

plate page

I1 escalante monument 8

II11 fort deseret 12

III111ili gunnisonunnlsonG monument 23

IV yuba dam spillway 35

V polygamists from deseret on wayto mexico

54

VII oasis ward sunday school 1911 56

VIII A A hinckley first president ofdeseret stake

61

X 1 an early home of deseret2 early store in deseret3 westernsWestern blacksmithts shop 63

XIxio lymans sawmill oak city canyon 64

XII samuel W westernsWest freightingednisernisoutfit

70

XIV an early choir of deseret ward 75

XV first band in oak oltycity 1896 0 77

XVI william H bradfield 86

XVII john shales 9 1 0 &

88

XIX effleeffie reed moody 89

viivil

0 0 9 0 0 0 51

VI deseret ward meeting house

0 0 0 10 58

IX 1 jacob croft2 deseret supply company

xo

0 0 & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 65

XIII deseret school building 1885

0

0

0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 87

XVIII able M roper and wife 0 & 10

effie 0 IV

6.6 0

list of illustrations continued

plate page

XX delia robison91

XXII james mace

93

viliviiiviti

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 90

XXI marlemariemanie robins 0 0 0 a s

0 0 0 0 & 0 IV 0 92

XXIII martha mace 0 0 IV 0 0 0 0

CHAPTER I1

EARLY MILLARD COUNTY AREA

general region

perhaps before the early history of the county Is toldit will be well to discuss and describe the county it has a

colorful early history with many interesting and exciting

stories involving indians trials of the mormon pioneers

problems of settlement a constant fight against nature and

stories of tragedy heartaches and conflicts with eventual

happiness

millard county utah is located about one hundred and

fifty miles southwest of salt lake city in the west central part

of the state it is bounded on the north by juab county on

the west by nevada on the south by beaver county and on the

east by sevier sanpeteSan andpete juab counties it is the thirdlargest county in the state of utah with only san juan and tooelethoele

counties having a larger area

the pahvantpasvant mountains which are part of the wasatch

range form a boundary line on the east between millard and sevierfrom these mountains comes water for irrigating lands in thepahvantpasvant valley and for culinary purposes thriving towns in

this valley are scipio holden fillmore meadow flowellowellalowellFl and

kanosh between these towns lie dry farms which yearly produce

1

allualiuvial

2

thousands of bushels of grain

the sevier river enters miliardmillard county near the north-east corner and itsita waters are backed up into a large reservoirwhich furnishes water during the summer months for thousands of

acres of irrigated crops such as alfalfa corn subarsugarsuban beets

grain and vegetables in the geologic past the sevier riverwas a much larger stream which carried alluvial deposits from

the mountains and spread them over the desert finally emptying

into sevier lake which was part of lake bonneville because of

this condition the western part of the county became known as

the delta country in this delta country are several smaller

lakes clear lake blue lake and swan lake this section of

the county is noted for its excellent crops of alfalfa which is

raised for hay and lucerne seed thousands of cattle are raisedand fed there every year

the towns in the western part of the county are deltadeseret oasis hinckley lynndyllynndalLynn abrahamdyl oak oltycity sutherlandleamingtonleavingtonLea woodrowmington and garvillesugarvilleSu

the extreme western part of the county is mostly range

land where thousands of cattle and sheep graze this land runs

through cricket mountains west of sevier lake with the wah wah

mountains to the south and the antelope detroit and confusionranges in the northern part in this area also are small settle-ments of garrison burbank black rock and gandyandyQ where cattle-men a few farmers and their families live

situated in the southeast of millard county is historiccove fort which was built in the early days as a protection

battleattiegandy

pantandpa8tand

3

against indians about a mile south of deseret Is old mud fortbuilt when indian trouble was threatening the new settlement

the union pacific railroad extends north and souththrough millard county on the main line between salt lake cityand los angeles with leamingtonleavingtonLea lynndyllynndalLynnmington deltadyl oasis and

black rock on the main line and a branch line which goes to

fillmorelike other parts of utah millard county was at one time

under water and this body of water covering the state was known

as lake bonneville

flllmorefillmoretfellmore the first place settledsettlebettlebettie and the county seat

today is situated in a valley which once was the eastern shore

line of lake bonneville the sevier river in the western part

of the county is a remnant of that ancient lake this area has

deposits that remind one that it was a part of the delta of thathuge body of water

in millard county will be oundfoundaund extinct volcanoes and lava

formations which were formed long before the presence of lake

bonneville some of these inactive volcanoes are found near

fillmore one crater Is called miter crater which rises 575375 feetabove the plain which was formed centuries ago in some former

geologic period terrace crater is 1100 feet by 700 feet with

its top surface 14 acres in extent here is found an excellentplace to study the past and many scientists have come from the

united states geologicalQ survey to study and write about these

ancient craterspahvantpasvant butte is about seventeen miles from fillmorepillmore

settledand

f

Fillmonetmoretmoreg dand

4

it is about eight hundred feet high and is the tallest of allthe volcanic hills the eruption was under water thebonneville shore line is strongly marked about the sides atmid height the eruption took place while lake bonneville was

at its heightsheightheightt and beneath a body of water the sides are con-

spicuously furrowed by erosionA great portion of pahvantpasvant valley is level this is

because the soil is almost entirely deposited sediment once heldsuspended in the water of lake bonneville and when such matter

settled in areas not agitated by streams the settling process

was even and level from mountain to mountain

mount baldy and belnap peak located southeast of fill-more rise majestically 12000 feet sugarloaf mountain thegreat stone facefacetfaces marcummarjum passpasstpabspabb antelope springs wheeler ampi

theatre swazey peak tatou knobs drum mountains topas mou-

ntains and the hot plug are all evidences of the formations of

the country before it was covered with water

geologistseologistsG have spent considerable time in millardcounty hunting material about lake bonnevlllebonnevilletbonnevilleBonne fossilsvillet and

indian remains

in 1870 the wheeler survey found many excellent fossilsin 1905 charles D walcottWalcot head of the smithsonianinstitution spent the entire summer in the region 50 mileswest of delta he found 56 different species of trilobltestrilobitesmany brachiopodsbrachiopodstbrachiopodbrachiopoda andst many other fossils of ancient life

major john wesley powell who became an imminentiminent geologistand gilbert of the united states geological survey spentmuch time in millard county in preparing his excellentmonograph on lake bonneville

dr fred J pack deseret professor of geology of theuniversity of utahutahs visited antelope springs for mid andlower cambrian fossils

after this trip he expressed that he had gathered moretrilobites that day than during all the proceedingprece yearsedinseding of

50milestp

trilobites

lfrankdank

dlfdifferentierenyi

5

his lifelifilfe 1

antelope springs Is the most outstanding field forgathering fossils of the cambrian geologic era in utah

at antelope springs Is oundfoundaund the little marine creature atrilobite named agnostus averaging about half an inch inlength it is one of the very earliest forms of differenti-ated life dating back an astounding span of years into thedawn of earth history some authors ascribe to that periodof time as nearly 400 millions of years ago it far ante-dates the dinosaur 2

the smithsonianSmithssmithb institutiononlan has named several of theseimportant fossils in honor of millard county or of its citizenscitone

izenawas named beckwithiaBeckwi typethia after frank beckwith of delta who

was one of the leaders to promote interest in the fossils found

here and in the indian writings he was editor of the chronicle

until his death two years ago

besides the interesting formations of extinct volcanoes

lava formations mountains that show that at one time all thisarea was under water and fossilsfossilspfossil many evidences have been found

that tell us the story of the prehistoricprepne historic indian that made thisarea his home

evidences have been found that the pre hlstorichistortohistoric indiansindiana

were the first inhabitants of millard county these evidences

can still be found in many areas where many years ago the

indians incised petroglyphspetroglyphy on the rocks some of these areas

are scipio peak black rock and clear creek canyon justnortheast of the devils kitchen is a small but excellent

rank beckwith millard and nearby sprlngvlllespringvilletSpring utahvilletart city publishing co 1947

bibidsibid21bjd9

e

f

420

nea

sp

6

geologic faultafault1 and on this will be found prehistoricprohistoricprepropne indianhistoricrock writings

the first capitol building for the state of utah was

built at fillmorefilimore which today is a pioneer museum in thismuseum will be found many relics of the prehistoricprohistoricprepro pahvantpasvanthistoricindians who inhabited the west side of the county in large com-

munities in kanosh several dwellings of these prehistoricprohistoricprepro

indians

historicwere uncovered by the research work of the university of

utah and the smithsonian institution they found a scatteredvillage of pueblo indians had once existed here they excavated

a mound and found it contained the remains of eleven rooms in

these rooms were female figurines a possible kiva was revealed

the top entrance covers to the rooms were flat thin rocks no

doors or windows were used by that ancient tribeat black rock west of deseret has been found the graves

of indians and writings on the black lava rocks one interesting

bit of indian writing at black rock shows ancient mans divisionof water and game right of the seviensevier

exploration

the earliest exploration of millard county by the white

man of which we have any record is the missionary journey of

father escalante in his early travels and attempt to establishan overland route from santa fe new mexico to monterey cali-fornia in 1776 father escalante went down the sevier riverwhich he christened santa isabel he and his party preached thegospel to the indians on the eastern shore of seviensevier lakelako 3

3herbertgherbertherbert E bolton pageant in the wilderness salt lakeoltycity utahs state0 historical society 1950 p 1

fault 1

thecountymuni ties

tionlion

anthenthe

arom4rom

7

for the first time mention of the sevier river in millard county

is given they were traveling through utah and were in thearea of presentdaypresent levanday when they met an old indian of vener-

able appearance

he was alone in a little hut and his beard was so thickand long that he looked like one of the hermits of europehe told us about a river nearby and about some of thecountry we still had to traverse and there was more of itthan escalante had imagined they continued half a leagueand westnorthwestwest throughnorthwest some small valleys and dry hillsfor another half a league then traveling a league and ahalf they came to a river which they did not see until theywere on its very bank it was sevier river and herethey camped for the night early the next morning twentyf1twentyindians arrived in camp together with those who were hereyesterday afternoon wrapped in blankets made of the skinsof rabbits and hares they remained conversing with usvery happily until nine in the morning as docile andaffable as the predeedingpre onedeeding escalante said these peoplehave much heavier beard than the lagunas they have holesbored through the cartilage of their noses and they wearas an ornament a little polished bone of deer fowl or someother animal thrust through the hole in feature they lookmore like spainardsspalnardsSpain thanardsands like the rest of the indians hither-to known in america from whom they are different in theforegoingfore respectsgoing they speak the same language as thetimpanogotzisTimpano atgotzis this place and river of santa ysabel thistribe of bearded indians begins here miera sketched theheavily bearded utes the men wear shirts of almost kneelength and mocasinsmoccasinsmoc theyasins carry quivers made of animalskin which sheath their supply of arrows one of the indiansis holding a rabbit in his hand a net used for snaring haresand rabbits in the preparation of their rabbit nets theindians use soapweed sagebrush or hemp dogbane barkstripping the outer fibres from these plants and twistingthem into cords and ropes

escalante and his party stayed on the banks of the

sevier for a number of days the indians were very desirous of

hearing the gospel the main indian chief was one of the party

he was an attractive man of mature years but not aged he

compelled all of his tribe of people to listen very carefully to

what these white fathers had to tell them as it was instructions

4ibid

f

41bido

8

PLATE I1

monument honoringhonorine the early trail offather escalante 1776 located betweenbet oasisweenand south track millard county

9

to them in what they ought to do in order to go to heaven

when father escalante and his party were getting ready to leave

the indians begged them to return and bring other preachers to

give them more of the gospel the indians cried and lamented

when escalante and his party left and their cries were heard

as long as they could see them

they traveled southsoutheastsouth becausesoutheast the marshes and

lakes would not permit them to go south they camped near a

small hill giving the name of el cerrilloOeroen torillo the campsite

south of clearlakeClear andlake thus came to an end the experiences

of escalante as he and his men traveled through the county in177617760 5115

the indians

the early latterdaylatter saintday settlers of millard county

encountered a much different type of indian seventyfiveseventy yearsfive

later than escalante did in his travels in 1776 the indians

of pioneer settling times were often on the war path and

would not hesitate to steal from the whites or even kill some of

the pioneers

the early settlers of millard county had many thrillingexperiences with the indians stories of indian scares and

tragedies of untimely deaths of the pioneers due to misunde-

rstanding with the red man have been related to the writer and

have also been read in pioneer journals many humorous and

friendly incidents were toldthe following incident was told to the writer in a

5lmd51bid

additionaladgitional

ajames6james

10

personal interview with james mace age seventy fiveive from

deseret utahmy grandfather traded some flour to the indians for a

mare after several months went by the mare had a coltwhen the colt was weaned the indian came back to get thecolt telling my grandfather that he didt trade the coltto him but just the mare he had to give more flour to theindian in order to keep the colt thereafter each year theindian would come and claim the additional young colt andgo away each time with more flour

mrs effie moody age eighty five a pioneer of deseret

tells an interesting and humorous prank that was played on a

young indian

brother bridges a fillmore resident had passed awayit was customary in the pioneer days for people to sit upwith the dead corpse all night J C hawley and can melvillewere chosen to stay with the dead man As the night went ona young indian who was very drunk came to the door hepassed out and as he did so the two mormon brethren proceededto hatch up a prank to teach the indian a lesson theypicked up the drunken indian and laid him along the side ofthe dead man they then decided to put a pipe in his mouthwhen the young indian eventually sobberedsobb upered and realizedwhere he was he was so frightened and ran away so fast thatbrother hawley and brother melville thought it was a goodlessen to him

mrs effie moody also related interesting incidents con-

cerning indian squadssquaws who would come and wash all day long and

do house work for fifty cents a day also that they would come

into the stores and wouldnt leave until the store keepers would

give them some food A law had to be established to stop thislater practice

mrs marlemariemanie robins age ninety sevensevensbevens of scipioseipio utah

james mace personal interview by the writer deseretutah june 26 1954 age 75

mrs effie moody personal interview by the writerdeseret utah july 3 1954 age 85

t

didnttftde

hawley7and

7mrs

r

adgit ionallonallonai

lve

masthastbast

stan9ishstannish

11

related to the writer how frightened she was when she saw her

first indians in salt lake city and thought they were the ugliestpeople she had ever seen she said she thought they spoke very

funny she told how she had been treated very kindly by the

indians all her lifethe following indian story is interesting in that often

the indians would punish a member of their tribe for a wrong

committed against the white man

the christmas season of 1852 was celebrated with allnight dance picnic and so forth just before new years ondecember 29 there was some trouble with an indian namedwatershubWater whichshub became rather serious watershubtwatershubWater whoshub hadbeen employed by the king brothers to chop wood becamedissatisfieddisdib satisfied with the way he was being treated seeingmrs king bringing a pail of water from the creekcreeks watershubWaterfollowed

shubher and would have got into the house had not the

door been slammed in his face the indian quickly ran tothe window and thrust his knife through the glass charlesrobison a brother to mrs king was working in the nextroom hearing his sister scream he rushed out and tried totake the knife away from the indian in the strugglemr robison was stabbed between the ribs the indian whoopedand yelled so lustily that all the men and boys and manyindians including chief kanosh came running to see whatwas the trouble one indian toatsochetoatsochev had a sungunbun but be-fore he could shoot it byron warnerkannernarner john9 eldredge andnoah bartholomew were upon him kanosh begged the men tosettle this affair peacefully it was agreed that watershubWatershould

shubbe imprisoned until it was seen whether mr robisonsRoblrobi

woundssons

would prove fatal the indian was confined in a rudeblacksmith shop but on january 79 185318551853. he made his escapethe indians had their camp on a hill at the present site ofthird south and first west streets watershubWater hidshub behindone of the tepees under some cedar boughs but byron wernerwarnergarnerrannervannerjohn elliottEl williamllottilott king and others under the command ofcaptain standlshStandlstandistandish recaptured him this time he was chainedand guarded 0

the settlers had sent a messenger to brigham young in-forming him of the incident and asking advice on january 27

Aeast and west millard chapters of daughters of utahpioneersPioneilonellone milestonesensterst of millard by stella H day and sebrina C

ekins sprlngvlllespringvilleSpring utahville art city publishing co 1951 PP 797 9

7

1951p

sh

ersertens arrived infillmore and a conference was called between kanosh and hisbraves and the settlers it was decided that watershubWater shouldshub

receive twenty lashes to be administered by one of his own tribethe sentence was carried out before everyone and some of thewhites turned pale before the flogging was completed

before mr huntington returned to salt lake he calledanother council with the indians at which the whites strength-ened the bonds of friendship with chief kanosh and his braves

there was much unrest among the settlers because of a

number of indian depredations throughout the territory anson

call tells us

in july 1853 1I received a letter from thomas R king oneof my counselors that he wished me to return from farmingtonin consequence of the indian war which has broken out injune with walkers band in which some of the brethren hadalready been killed and much plundering done by the indiansin the southern settlements I1 prepared myself with a kegof powder and a quantity of lead and immediately returnedto fillmore found the brethren under martial orders har-vesting their grain by large companiescompaniesvcompanie carrying their gunsinto the fields with them they had a constant guard keptround about them the fort was guarded by day and nightwith close and picket guards the pahvantpasvant indians werefriendly helping harvest the grain we watched them closelyand furnished them with provisions9provisions

an

9

interesting source of early millardillardM county historycomes from the personal diary of volney kinsking father deliarobisonRob agedlsonibon eighty of fillmore told the writer that she and

mary lyman reeve went with volney king jr

warswart

12

185591853 D B huntington a famous indian interpreterinterpret

down into escalantecounty in search of his fathersfather lost diary after much patient

searching they were rewarded by locating the precious writings

in an old cellar the diary of brother king had been lost forfon

bid

kings

for

91bido

sv

ls

13

fifteen years

volney king wrote fourfoun articles taken from his fathersdiary 9 on the history of millard county it was published in

the periodical utah humanities review in 1947 the style of

writing in these articles was printed just as his pioneer

father had written iton july 21 18551853 it was decided that because of the un-

rest among the indians the state house workers should pulldullpulidown their shanties and move them into the fort and thatall the dry stock should be driven to salt lake countywhere guards could be provided byron and hostein warneryarnerwernerwennerwannerwannenwere chosen to drive the stock

on august 53 martial law was declared a triangle ofsteel was made for sounding an alarm to call the men andboys from the field the milk cows were herded together andguards placed around them at night they were all taken tothe public corral and milked while the men took turnsstanding guard

two years after this trouble with the indians chiefwalker died at meadow creek millard county the 29th ofjanuary 1855 his brother arapeeneAra becamepeene the indian leaderafter his death when they hurried chief walker it is saidthey took his remains up on the mountains side overlookingthe valley they chose a place of loose rocks and made theirexcavation by picking the loose rocks out after which theyplaced the chiefschief body along with his bows arrows and agun in the grave some horses were led in a circle aroundthe grave and shot and they were hurried with him

the first celebration of our national birthday was heldmonday july 5thath under a bowery erected for the purpose ad-joining the school house where a liberty pole was raisedjudge anson call was orator & there were toasts & speechesthe exercise concluded with a dance in the evening atearly dawn the guns commenced firing which excited theindians in hearing & they rallied all their forces somesay they sent runners clear to corn creek & just before thegathering for the programmaprogrammepro theygramme were seenbeen coming full speed& whooping their war whoop excited to highest pitch butbefore they could get into the fort they were met by armedresistance & a line of battle was formed about 100 ydsads southof the fort the white men shoulder to shoulder in battlearray & red man about 8 or 10 ft apart fronting each othernot more than five rods distance apart when the lines werefully formed & the defence were ready the chief demanded anexplanation was there to be war was the whites preparing forbattle & getting their fireirelre arms ready if not why was allthis shooting & the explanation made which was fully satis-factory when it was told them that it was commemoration of a

fouroun

f

14

great victory many battles which had been won by their greatchiefs & captains & that as americans they were only re-joicing over it and that they would like them to join themin feasting & fun to which they readily agreed & a fat oxwas given them & taken upon the public square near wherethe state house was to be built & there slaughtered &

roasted in barbaquebarraquebar stylebaque & mr indian was made to under-stand that that was one of the greatest days for americansto which they looked forward to with the greatest anticipa-tions & the indians never again became excited over 4thath ofjuly celebration in millard co the white man & the redmanmingling together in a great jolificti6njollf&ctibn after an amicableunderstanding though it came near ending in excited conflict

on saturday night the 9thath of september while mr jacobcroft mr john powell who were employed on a mill inround valley just at the mouth of the canyon that comesfrom roundvalleyRound lakevalley while sleeping mr croft dreamed thatindians came and killed him and the others laboring with himand the next morning early he left the mill and proceededhomeward to fillmore and by this timely warning escaped withhis life he ever after ascribing the lengthening of hisdays to an all wise providence over him lu

fortunately for the people who came to millard county

the pahvantpasvant indians had a good chief his name was kanosh he

was young strong and peace loving his philosophy was similarto that of brigham young it was better to live in harmony with

the whites than to try to drive them away not all of his tribebelieved as he did but he saved the pioneers many years of

trouble by his wise and peaceful leadership the story is toldthat he got his name from the indian word meaning willow

basket ft

the indian word kan for willow and oushaaousha for basketresults in the word kanoushanoushamanoushaKa or kanosh

despite the fact that kanosh was so great a man therewas tragedy in his private life he was married severaltimes his first wife julia lost her mind and indiansthinking she was possessed with evil spirits put her to deaththe second wife betsykinBets wasykin a strikingly beautiful womanbut a very jealous one and when chief kanosh came home with

volney king millard county 185118751851 utah1875 humanitiesreview 1I 26 27 384 385

and1ndians

10volney27v

10

I1saacpierce

ppap 141 546346s 450430

15

another bifwifewif mary a cherokee woman from camp floyd betsykin lured her into the wilds to hunt squirrels and cut herthroat when the tragedy was discovered the indians decreedthat betsykinBets mustykin die she begged to be allowed to starveto death which plea was granted her so within sight ofthe teepee village she lay in her own teepee with but onejug of water crying and moaning until she died

the last wife of the great chief kanosh was a littlegirl who was captured by a waring tribe from another band ofindians her clothing denoted that she belonged to awealthy family she was taken to salt lake city and offeredfor sale charles decker brotherinlawbrother toin presidentlawyoung bought her and took her into his home and she wastaught to live as the white people lived it was whilesally lived there that kanosh met and married her they weremarried in the endowment house later kanosh brought her tothe town of kanosh to live and they lived in a log housesouth of the tithing office due to her training she kepthouse as efficiently as the white women white people wereinvited to dine with them and the old chief would ask theblessing on the food it was a common thing for him tospeak in a sacrament meeting he was a sneakerspeaker at bishopcallisters funeral chief kanosh was sixtythreesixty yearsthree ofage when he passed on

kanosh town was visited every day by indians theywould carry a white flour sack and usually have it full whenthey left to go home president youngs admonition feedthem dont fight them in reference to the indians wascarried out by kanosh people

the greetgreatbreet valley was still a favorite rendezvous for thepahvantpasvant indians who pitched their wickiupswicki onups the banks ofthe river the indians were more morousnumerousnu than the whitepeople in the spring of 1865 black hawk a notorious uteindian chief and his band made a raid on the sanpete settle-ment killing several people and driving off their stockthis resulted in the black hawk war an appeal was made tothe government forfon help but the civil yarwargar was going on andthey received word to form a militia and protect themselves

the indians around deseret stole the settlers cattleand kept them in constant fear finally they organized amilitia into two companies under the leadership of benja-min H robisonRob majorlson with john hunter captain of the in-fantry and william S hawley as captain of the cavalrythomas cropper first lieutenant and adjutant they had tomuster twice a month and keep guards at all times finallythe people were told to move into a larger settlement orbuild a fort they called a mass meeting and decided tobuild a fort then they named four captains to take chargeof the building these captains were william S hawleyisaac piencepiercepieree nathan pierce and thomas cropper il11

daughters of utah pioneers milestones jf millardopa citeiteltcitacit9

e

vl itedcited

thegreat

for

ildaughters of1419

Il

har

16

old fort deseret 1865

one of the most treasured shrines of the latterdaylattersaint

day

settlers of millard county is the old mud fort locatedjust south of the town of deseret parts of the walls are stillintact and standing today as mute evidence of pioneer coopera-

tion and determined courage to stand shoulder to shoulder insolving their indian problems

the story of its construction is excitingly related in

the following account

As the captains were choosing up sides it looked asthough a disasterousdisaster indian skirmish would strike at thelittle settlement any time with an authorization orderfrom president brigham young they started to build a fortand encourage speed the captains were to be responsible fora bastion and one half of the walls the winners were to bethe recipients of a dance and supper while the losers wereto furnish the food and the entertainment captains cropperand nathan pierce were in charge of rock haulers hawleyand isaac pierce were in charge of the building of the wallsthe hawley group completed its work in nine days and thepierce group in nine and a half days part of the wallbuilt by the winners fell down so it was called a tiethe work on the fortortont commenced init the latter part of june andwas completed in july 186518650

the mud and straw mixture of which the walls were co-nstructed was made by plowing a trench turning water intoit and throwing in straw from the plentiful wheat crop thatyear it was mixed with the tromping feet of oxen menwomen and children also helped tromp the mud mixturethe walls were built on a lava rock foundation which wasmade of rocks from black rock

the inscription on the marker at the fort readserected as a defense against pahvantpasvant indians in the black

hawk war completed in 18 days by 98 men hawley and pierceforeman john radford superintendent opening celebrationjuly 25 1865 the fort was 550 feet square with bastionsat the northeast and southeast corner and portholes givinga view of each side

the walls were made of adobe mud and straw mixed bythe feet of oxen when completed they were 10 feeteetbeet high 3eetfeetreetbeet by 9 feet at the base and li feet at the top restingon a stone foundationfound tationO

deseret1865

f

ff f 1 f

ous

structed

17

elatePIATEPUTE II11I1

fort

I1

deseret built of mud and straw by thepioneers in 1865 as a defense against pasvantpahvantindians in the black hawk war it is calledfanny powell cropper daughters of the utah pioneerscamp at deseret fanny powell cropper Is thegrandmother of the writer

eleelpeie

ia18i8

after the fort was completed a willow bowery was madeand a big celebration was held on the 25th of july insidethe fort A twoyearoldtwo heiferyear wasold barbaqued for thecelebration thomas callisterCalobi andllster others came over fromfillmore to help celebrate john william dutson broughthis juvenile choir over from fillmore to sing

today most of the walls of this fort have fallen butwork is being undertakenunder totaken preserve those still thereA monument was erected on the site of old fort deseret inseptember of 1937 the marker was built of stones furnishedby the descendants of the builders of the fort in memory oftheir work it was unveiled by ann bennett stephenson andwas dedicated by E L lyman grandson of colonel thomascallister head of pahvantpasvant military districtdistri who foundedthe fort those in charge of the ceremony were mrs edabishop president of deseret daughter utah pioneer andjohn R bennett in charge of the construction 1

an indian scare

from the journal of the writers fathers uncle thomas

cropper comes a story of an indian scare which concerns the

bravery and courage of the dauntless spirit the early settlershad in the face of grave danger

the people never had to be housed in the fort but theircattle were lockedlooked in it each night and then were herdedalong the river in the day time

the closest they ever came to using the fort was duringan indian scare in the spring of 1866 edward and arthurmorgan were moving down from tooelethoele they camped in a placeknown as packs bottom

pionplon eretsett

ppap 431 432

iai2

where heavy willows and brush wereall around on the high bank with a meadow in the bottomthey went up on the bank before starting in the morning andsaw black hawk and his savage band approaching at a rapidpace the morgan men were about eight miles from deseretbut made their way there as quickly as possible fortyfive men on horse back hastelychastely returned to the scene theindians were fleeing but at the camp eight head of cattlehad been killed and sliced up and hung on the brush to drythe wagons had been ransacked and everything they could makeoff with had been taken even the wagon covers

the men returned to the settlement and prepared for anattack the indians came within two miles of the town andlocated in the row of sand hills on what was known as thefrank hinckley farm the people counciledcounci atled the meetinghouse and decided to send four men to the indian camp tooffer beef and flour and decided to send four men to the

12ibidbid

1866edward

121bid121

19

indian camp to offer beef and flour and try to persuade theindians to be peaceable nathan pierce an excellent indianinterpreter isaac pierce leigh R cropper sr andthomas cropper were sent when the men were within 100yards of their camp the indians gave a signal for them tostop or they would be fired on pierce kept shouting tothem until they were within fifty feet the indians wereseated in three rows all painted with war paint their bowsand arrows on their laps and their guns in their handsready for battle there was old chief black hawk aboutfifty ute indians some shutesdoshutesgoshutesdoGo and some pahvantpasvant andsnake indians making 72 by actual count they said theydidnt want any flour or beef they could help themselvesto all they wanted pierce told them the people wanted totalk to them that their arrows could be pulled out but themormon guns would blow a big hole right through them

finally they consented to send two indians back to thesettlement to talk things over they followed the men backone behind pierce and one behind cropper they were scaredsoaredstiff they wouldnt talktaik when they got back to deseretthey just sat and sulked about 4 am the guards reportedthe indians were moving west A group of men followed for12 miles but the indians kept going and scattering inseveral directions that ended the black hawk difficultiesin millard county

unpublished MS owned byhis daughter mary C reeve hinckley utah

talk to

13

gunnison massacre

the earliest indian story in the memory of the writerlais the tragic account of the gunnisonQ massacre this tale of a

terrible sneak attack of revengeful indians upon innocent white

explorers was told and handed down by members of the family

the detailed tragic events were written as follows by a relativeof the writer jobiahjosiah F gibbsibbsgibbs0 editor of the millard county

blade who was able to obtain first hand information about themassacre

the second account of deseret was the visit of lieutenantgunnison who came to utah under the command of captainhoward stansbury in 1853 it was a government expedition

5thomas13thomasbthomas5 cropperThomas journalJournarnaf

Q

13 joun

aq1q

20

detailed to make a survey of one of the proposed routes fora transcontinentaltrans railroadcontinental to the pacific arriving inutah by way of the green river the explorer went on to theseviersevien river and located his command while surveying notfar from deseret it was here that he and his party wereattacked by indiansindiana and killed the gunnison massacremassacre11as it was later called was one of the pathetic tragediesin early utah history

owing to the native reticence of the indiansindiansp the co-mplete facts could not be obtained for years after the trag-edy for that reason the several histories of utah givebut scant space of the pathetic incident

fortyoneforty yearsone after the massacre the editor of themillard county blade of deseret wrote a sketch and afterits publication in the newspaper the narrative was read toold corbooritsCorboorits one of the thensurvivingthen participantssurviving

who lived at the indian camp near kanosh and by him indianmareerscareersMa storyreers of the bloody deed was unhesitatinglyverified

the following information was taken from the articlewritten in 1894 by josiah F gibbs editor of the blade

the attention of the traveler on the road from deseretmillard county to nevada will likely be drawn toward acedar post that occupies an unusual position a few rodsnorth of the sevier river and a hundred feet from the eastside of a shallow lake which covers about ten acres theplace is about six miles west of deseret with no habitationwithin several miles the rough bark has been removed fromthe post otherwise there is nothing in its appearance toattract attention except its isolated position yet thespot over which that solitary post now stands sentinel ishistoric and tragicittragic isltit the burial place of a smallparty of employees of the united states who fell easy vic-tims to a band of revengefulrevengful indians

the memorable spot is situated nearly midway in thepahvantpasvant valley which stretches out in an almost unbrokenplain to the great salt lake one hundred and fifty milesdistant to the north

about two miles to the south the monotony of thedesertlikedesert plainlike is relieved by a basaltic mesa a darkvolcanic mass which rises abruptly from the level countryto a height of perhaps two hundred feetfeets the surface ofwhich was swept by waves of ancient lake bonneville untilit is nearly as smooth as the surrounding plain

dotting the valley in the vicinity are numerous shallowlakes formed by the overflow of the sevlersevierdevler river whosesinuous trail across the valley is indicated by patches ofscrub willows

at the time of the massacre the present lake was marshyground covered with flags rushes and a rank growth ofgrass which extended well out towards the higher groundthus forming an inviting but dangerous nook

the scene of the tragedy has been described to moreclearly understand why the captainwhosecaptain reputationwhose for

whi ch

11

Indianspansyanby

ol01d

shelakesthelakes

undaundw

21

courage had never been questioned and Mslisils little band ofbrave companions failed to make even a semblance of resis-tance

the story of the actual attack was told to mr gibbsby old mareen one of the surviving reds who lived in awickiup on some otherwise vacant ground southwest ofdeseret byron warner of oasis also furnished some of theinformation

in october 1853 a company of missouri emigrants enroute to california passed through fillmore and camped onmeadow creek anson V call bishop of fillmore told theemigrants some reds were also camped on the creek but thatthey were friendly

the train had hardly gone into camp whenthe pahvantpasvant war chiefhischief fatherhis maneermaneen and several othersof the band arrived at the camp of the strangers andoffered to swap buckskins for tobacco and other articles

the emigrants were suspicious of the bows and arrowscarried by the indians so they surrounded the reds and at-tempted to disarm them

the indians resisted what they regarded as an unwarrantedintrusion on their rights one of them jabbed an arrowinto the breast of one of the emigrants which so enragedthem that whipping out their revolvers they opened fireon the indiansl&idlanszndians in the melee the father of moshoquopMosho wasquopshot in the side and died the next day two other indianswere wounded but all the white men escaped injury exceptthe one who receivedrece thetved slight wound from the arrow thrust

A few days after this moshoquopMoshomosh and a band of twentyindians left meadow creek with threats of revenge on thewhites and a quarrel with chief kanosh and moved to thevicinity of the lakeslekes near deseret for the purpose asmaneer said of hunting ducks and camped six miles west ofthe place where gunnisonGunn andlsonibon his party were afterwardkilled among them were many indians whose names werefamiliar to the oldoid residents of millard county

during the year 1853 captain unnlsongunnisonG with a smallmilitary escort under command of captain R M morris whohad been exploring for a railroad route through the rockymountains went into fillmore for supplies and was warnedby mr call of probable danger with the indians being sonear the sevier lakelakethethe dead sea of millard countygunnisonunnisonannisonQ resolved to explore it and then to go on to salt3altsaitaaltlake city and establish winter quarters he had always beenfriendly with the indians and had no fear of them

on the morning of october 25th captain gunnisonunnisonG and hiseleven men started on their last and fatal mission of ex-ploration

when the party reached the upper vicinity of the lakessome of the men started shooting at the wild fowl whichfairly swarmed in that vicinity the firing was most un-fortunate as the reports of firearms reached the ears ofsam and toady two of moshoquops dusky band who werehunting ducks along the river and sloughysloughs

ploration

questionedand

quop

ploration

22

on receiving the news of the white men moshoquopMosho de-termined

quopto avenge the death of his father he called his

warriors together and planned the attackattacksatteckabout midnight they began their line of march and before

the faintest streak of dawn appeared the doomed explorerswere nearly surrounded by the wily savages who occupiedthe east north and south sides of the camp while themarsh cut off escape to the west

the sun had just arisen from behind the distant canonrange when pants a brother of moshoquopMosho stealthilyquop rosefrom his place of concealment near the edge of the swampa sharp report rang out on the crisp air and the cook felldead beside the campfirecamp thefire signal gun was followed bythe rapid firing of nearly a dozen guns intermingled by thepiercing warwhoopwar ofwhoop the savages

th rd

f s

termined

Ggunnisonunnison who was washingdown by the river sprang to his feet and pulling his sixshooter opened fire on his assailantsassailant who dodged and duckedto escape mareer said no indians were killed

the surprise was complete and the dazed officers andmen thought only of escape amid the shower of whizzingarrows which followed the emptying of the guns the men rantoward the open ground to the north and in the desperaterace for life threw aside their arms and divested themselvesof coats and everything that might impede their flightyflightflighto

two of the men escaped on horseback a third one wasthrown from his horse a short distance east of the camp buthe had the good sense to remain quiet for several hourswhile the reds were passing to and fro sheltered only bythe stunted greasewoodbreasegreasegreabe

thewoodvood

fourth man that escaped plunged into the river swamto the south bank where within the friendly shadow of thewillows he continued his flight to the camp of captainmorris near holden and told the story of the attackwhile he was talking the others that escaped came into camp

about 12 days later a burial party from fillmore co-nsisting of six white men chief kanosh and narrientnarriettNar ofrient thepahvantpasvant tribe went to the scene of the massacre the coyoteshad so mutilated the dead that nothing remained of the smallexploring party but glistening skeletons captain gunnisonwas recognized by the iron grey hair which clung to histemples

immediately after the arrival of the fillmore partykanosh sent narrientnarriettNar downrient the river in search of moshoquopMoshoand

quophis band and gave orders to come in if they could be

foundin those days not a member of the pasvantpahvant tribe dared to

disobey the intrepid chief and as mr call and his partywere rounding up the top of the common grave moshoquopMosho andquophis band came in sight across the swamp on their ponies

moshoquopMosho toldquop the partial story of the massacre andendeavored to exonerate himself by relating the circumstancesof his fathersfather death at the hands of the white menmr warner asserted that during the recital tears streamedfrom moshoquops eyes and that his appearance was a mixture

whoopof

svcareer

2523

PLATE 111IIIlii

gunnisonGunn monumentlson locatedapproximately thirteen miles westand south of hinckley on the bankof the sevier river unveilednovember 11 1927 and dedicated byL R cropper sr edwin stottsole survivor of the burial partydid the unveiling

nejrejnen

I1

14beckwith14 op92beckwith cit

24

of fiend incarnate and savage affectionthe remains of captain gunnison and william potter were

wrapped in blankets and taken to fillmore where the captainwas burledburied those of potter were sent to mantimantlmanty for intern-ment the others were burledburied at the scene of the massacre

while moshoquopsmoshoquopMoshohosho squop part in the gunnison tragedy cannotbe justified by revenge for the death of his father it issomewhat palliatedDallia byted reflecting that his nature like thatof all otherotiierosiier indians was the result of generations oftransmission of ideas and customs incident to the environ-ment of the red men according to frank beckwith editorof the millard county chronicle this account written byJ F gibbs is the best and the most accurate of the gunnisonmassacreMassacmassacredmassacrej4

on the 22nd day of august 1888 andrew jensendr john R park and david R alienallenailen of salt lake citybishop joseph S black of deseret and one or two small boysleft deseret in the afternoon to locate the place wherecaptain gunnisonunnlsonQ and his party were massacred 5535 yearsbefore we took with us the late byron warner as guidehe being the only man in millard county at that time whotook part in the burielbuniel of the murdered men in 18551853 wetook with us a large cedar poetpost which we put in the groundon the identical spot where the bodies were buried strangelyenough this post was the first monument of any kind that wasever raised by friendlybyfriendly hands to mark the grave and so wehad to rely entirely on the memory of our guide

in may of 1922 mr jens en again made a trip to deseretorganized a party of sixtyfoursixty personsfour and visited thespot we found the cedar post still intact weiffe carriedrocks and made a temporary cairn around the stump of thepost which was only protruding a few inches above the groundmr jens en then suggested that a concrete monument be placedthere marking the spot where a noble american citizen and aunited states officer perished with his comrades while inthe faithful discharge of their duties

on memorial day in 1927 a suitable monument was unveiledjobiahjosiah F ibbsgibbsG then a resident of marysvaleMarys wasvale the chiefspeaker of the day telling the narrative in forceful vividlanguage andrew jens en L D S historian gave an addressthe monument was dedicated by leigh R cropper sr andedwin stott solebole survivor of the burial party did the un-veiling

as quoted in miliardmillard DUPQS cit v 241424241

andrew

424

jensen visit to millard county recalls fateof captain gunnlsongunnisongunelsonGunn andlson party an article written may 4 1922salt lake city utah

naturelikeindianswas

gibba

jensen

jensen

jensen

15andrew15

pungerolpungerot

nun11runeowtowardice

25

turning again to the pages of jacob crofts journal

we find a most exciting story of a narrow escape by his step-

son wise cropper and a friend oliver harris from a group of

fourteen indians the incident plays up the loyalty of one

maneermaneen indian that jacob croft had befriended and had given

the redman flour when he was hungry this kind act actuallysaved the life of the two young boys wise cropper and oliverharris following is the hair raising narrative

at this time jacob croft was living in scipio and hada herd of stock at oak creek a camp ground for stock raisersralraithe

sersbersbenscroft herd was in charge of wise troppercroppercropCrog aper youth of

about I1 and another youth named oliver balshaisrals the boyswere out early and had ridden to the top of the ridge northof town from the cedars emerged fourteen redskins whogreeted the boys with warsplittingwar whoopssplitting of victory andat the same time lowering their guns on these helpless boysthirteen of the indians belonged to black hawks band andit was their intention to roundup the oak creek stock andcrossing the mountain farther to the southeast join themain band at the instant of the lowering of the guns theboys heard a welcome sound it was the harsh lutteralgutteralgutvoice

teralof indian mareercareer a member of the pahvantpasvant band which

had a permanent camp at corn creek some twelve miles south-west of fillmore although he had participated in the massa-cre of captain john W annisongunnisonunnisonQ in 18551853 indian mareercareer wasnot destitute of gratitude and loyalty to his white friendsjacob croft who owned a grist mill at fillmore had beengenerous to the redskins with donations of flour and inthose days if anything could touch the heart of a lamaniteit was flour maneer demanded a truce he explained tohis associates that wisewibedisewise cropper was a stepson of his whitefriend jacob and pleaded for the lives of the boyscareersmareers plea was refused but when he charged the indianswith towardicecowardice and asked that the boys be permitted torun the gauntlet and have 100 yards the start of the

bullets and arrows the other indians then consented eachof the boys were mounted on a speedy horse and wheeledtowards camp at the signal from mareercareer they were off likethe wind behind them rang the cheering voice of mareenmadeenwho from his great lungs came the words punsenopungero1pungeropuntero pungero which being interpreted meant run runrun at the allotted distance the rifles cracked andbullets whistled about the boys but they escaped unharmed 1016

ljacob16jacobljacobs croft journal MS in possession of amandacroft conk delta utahutahs p 8

13

runt

utah7

PunbenolgerolgerotbenotPunberogerobeno

26

jacob croft was an example of the fulfillment of

president brigham youngs prophecy saying it is better to feed

the indians than to fight them

CHAPTER II11

LATTERDAYLATTER SAINTDAY settlement

settlement parties and dates

after father escalanteescalantes visit to utah came the spanish

slave traders then the mountain men followed by the trappers

of american westward expansion

jedediahJed Sedlah smith a member of a fur trading company

passed through millard county on his way to the san abrielgabrielG mis-

sion in california others who preceded the latterdaylatter saintday

settlers were captain benjamin L E bonneville jim bridgerpeter skene ogden miles goodyear john C fremont and jeffer-son hunt

the first account we have of the mormon pioneers ex-

ploring millard county is a group headed by parley P pratthe was sent southward into southern utah by brigham young to get

a knowledge of the country its rivers and valleys on theirreturn trip brother pratt and his party were snowbound at chalk

creek and had to stay at this winter camp for a few months untilthe weather cleared A short time later the settlement of fill-more was established at this site

from the millard stake journal we find that in the

spring of 1851 brigham young leader of the latterdaylatter saintsday

with a company made an excursion throughout the territory to find

27

ap5p

chronolchronos

28

suitable places for settlements

late in october of 1851 two companies set out forfillmore one was under the direction of brigham young andthe other was under the direction of anson call the groupwith brigham young came to choose a building site for thenew state capitol and to survey the city the other groupcame to make a settlement

in the fall of 1851 governorOo brighamvernorvernonvennon had been empoweredby a resolution of the territorial legislature to appoint acommission to select a seat for the territorial governmentat pauvanpadvan pahvantpasvantPah valleyvant this act of legislature wasapproved october 4 1851 A message of gov young datedjuly 5 1852 says in accordance with a resolution of legis-lature locating the seat of government at pauvanpadvan valley andauthorizing me to appoint commissioners to select a site forthe capitol I1 complied with request by appointing orsonpratt albert carrington jesse W fox wm C stains andjoseph L robison said commission 1

president brigham young and party left for great saltlake city on a tour south for the purpose of locating theterritorial seat of government for utah prior to thisanson call and josiahjobiah call of davis county N W batholomewof weber county S P hoyte of salt lake county and a numberof incoming immigrantsimigrants from the states had been selected tomake the settlement and were on their way there with alltheir pioneer outfit for that purpose and thurs 2523 of oct1851 they left salt creek now nephi creek 60 miles to thenorth of chalk creek the last of the settlements throughwhich they had passed and now their nearest neighbor andthat day they traveled 18 miles to chicken creek springs

for ten years 184718571847 the1857 mormons had the country tothemselves except for a lively commerce on the overlandtrail routes meantime a provisional government the stateof deseret was established march 12 1949 with brighamyoung as the governor

the act which established the territorial government forutah was approved sept 99 1950

the state of deseret from 184918511849 included1851 what isutah today the state of nevada part of colorado arizonaand a small section in california oregon idaho and wyomingor in other words its boundaries embraced the great basinstates and that part of the southwest enclosed by the colorado

volney king millard county utah humanities reviewI1 19

2andrew jens en church chronology

1

141fox

9

lvolneyit

jensen

141

ang

losios

resrep then president of the united statesthe state house square was marked off first and brigham

young personally designated where the capitol building wasto be erected the same fall the first pioneer familieswere sent to colonize the community and the foundation ofthe state house was begun truman 0 angel was chosen as thearchitect

about 100loo persons were in the first group that settledin fillmore 4

an adobe fort was erected homes and a church builtwithin the fort the state house was completed as it standsin 1855 but it was the intention of the builders to add toit later in this building utahs fifth session of thelegislature convened oct 10 1855

29

river drainage system and including a pacific seaport 5

fillmore is an old town as far as the west is concernedconcerhaving

medbeen settled four years after the mormons came into

salt lake valley for this reason and because of its havingbeen utahs first state capitol it has more than its shareof historical interest

fillmore was chosen as the first state capitol becauseit waswae centrallywkis6entrally located in the beehive state

in october of 1851 the governor and legislative assemblyof the territory of utah provided for the organization ofmillard county and the city of fillmore named for mlllardmillardmallardfillmoreFillmo

it was the purpose ofbrigham young to establish in the valleys of the mountainsa commonwealth of such magnitude and with such bounteousresources that an outlet to the ocean would not only bedesirable but necessary therefore he chose this spot as anadvantageous location for the state capitol today it standson a main artery of travel to the coast a proof of hisknowledge of the lay of the country but the center ofpopulation was in the vicinity of salt lake city roads werepoor and travel difficult the distance was great and thewinters cold so the hope of making this the capitol citywas finally abandoned 3

ten years after fillmore was first settled a group of

saints were called to go settle in deseret which was locatedabout fortyfiveforty milesfive northwest of fillmore some of the saints

clevi5levl3levi edgar young the state of deseretserettberettseretiDe salt laketribune september 53 1950

pamphlet from state museum fillmore utah this isgiven to all tourists who enter the museum

5kateskate B carter heart throbs of the west salt lakecity daughters of utah pioneers 1947 I1 243244243 244

3

10i

coasta

hofe

4pamphlet

ip

30

hated to leave as the tragic incident of the gunnisonGunn massacrelsonibon

was still very vivid in their memory

in the autumn of 1859 jacob croft alexander melvilleand alexander F barron were appointed by brigham young to

investigate the feasibility of establishing a settlement on the

sevier river near sevierbevierbevien lake in pahvantpasvant valleywe find these men like the old puritans of new england

who traveled with the bible in one hand and a rifle in the

other very devout they had previously joined the latterdaylattersaint

day

church in texas and had left their homes to come to utah

they drove their cattle approximately a thousand head through

a wild and unbroken country to utahandUta thehand idea of locating in

a favorable cattle country appealed to them

problems and hardships of the settlersjacob croft and his exploring party returned fromfron des-

eret to fillmore and made a favorable report of their findings

early in 1860 upon advice of president young a companyof forty men came over to deseret and with their teams beganbuilding a dam to get the water out on the land

jacob croft was in charge of the construction work themen worked in cold january weather they made the dam outof willows rock and heavy timbers hauled over from fillmorethe rock was hauled from black rock

the next spring more people moved into deseret until by1861 there were 142 families established in the new settle-ment of deseret

jacob croft built a mill in 1863 organized a watercompany and established a school in march 1861 the churchwas organized with jacob croft sustained as the presidingelder he was succeeded in 1864 by benjamin H robison whoserved the people faithfully for 5 years then he moved backto fillmore in 1869 john lovell was made presiding elder7

6jacob croft journal MS in possession of his daughteramanda croft conk delta utah

7lbld7jbid

116

rifle

returnedfrom

6jacob

eldera

5131

the dam in the seviersevien river broke repeatedly ruiningtheir crops each year a similar disaster was reporteduntil many of the settlers became discouraged and movedaway in 1868 some went to oak city some to holden butthe majority went back to fillmore for about six yearsthe area was entirely vacated only for a few stockmen whocame to winter in the houses built by the first settlers 0

every foot of progress every inch of advancement made

in this desert country was stubbornly resisted by nature and

was overcome only by dogged perslstancepersistancepersistencepers andistance repeated effortsnot ghostffghost towns but ghost projects in this valley testifythat subduing this great pahvantpasvant valley was no easy accomplish-

ment

some of the people who left deseret didntdidt give up

seven years later they came back to build another dam to harness

the sevier river this was the second attempt to settle deseretand though there were repeated hardships these pioneer people

stayed 9

in 1874187 a company of non mormonscormons principally from thetintle mining district made preparations to build a new damacross the sevlersevierdevler river at deseret they hauled considerabletimber on to the ground and made other improvementsimprovement whichthey subsequently sold to the latterdaylatter saintday settlers

in the spring of 1875 another effort was made by gilbertwebb and others to erect a dam across the sevier river thisdam was built mostly of rocks and willowswillowstwillow the latter beingbound in bundles and sunk with large rocks until it wasraised to the surface of the water

mr croft was again put in charge of the constructionand thirty men were brought from fillmore and the work be-gan there was a tent town of men building the new damsome of them lived in the abandoned houses of the firstsettlers

while this dam was being constructed joseph S andwilliam V black who had resided at kanosh settled at des-eret and took up land where the present town of deseret now

Q

james mace personal interview deseret utahjune 26 1954 age 77

bidibid

8

9

st

st

5232

standsstandb the nonmormonsnon claimedmormons all the land lying adja-cent to the old townsite 10

the greatest problem and struggle for the saints in the

deseret area was to harness the sevier river after the dam had

gone out several times the pioneers realized the necessity of

organizing an irrigation company this would strengthen theirfight to conquer the turbulantturbulent seviensevier river

from the first minute book of the deseret irrigationcompany we find the following accountaccounts

the deseret irrigation company was organized july 29 1879with wm V black as president samuel W western nellsneilsnelis M

peterson byron warner and hyrum dewsnup trustees joshusjoshuabennett was secretary and treasurer

the new company was stocked for 6000 which paid offthe indebtedness of the webb dam it was figured that anacre share of water would water one acre of land they paid1.00100 a share for the water to raise the money

the deseret irrigation companycompan was incorporated february20 1886 with a capitol stock of 50000509000 the company tookover a number of canals drawing water from the sevier riverat different points

trouble lasted with the dam until 1909 when deseret hadtheir last flood this was when the cropper cut went outafter which there was a terrible epidemic of typhoidftyphoid feyerfevercaused by so much water under the floors of the homes

ecclesiastical authorities in mlllardmillardmallard stake who were

interested in the project called various male members in the

stake to help the pahvantpasvant pioneers prepare for the next seasonone of these pioneers described their efforts as follows

in the fall of 1859 jacob croft was detailed to go overon the seviersevien river fe& make a dam & take out the water thata large tract of land might be brotbrobno under cultivation &orange warner was suptbupt of the work & they named the placedeseret many of the langerlarger pupils attending school were

andrew jensen deseret ward

claimedilaimed

encyclopedic history ofthe church p 224

deseret irrigation company first minute book MS

in possession of E J eliason deseret utah

0

ITer

tthelarger

10

lldeseretll

loo

5533

detained to supplymentsupplementsupply thement force necessary to accomplishthe job men had to do their own cooking after laboring allday & before starting their labor in the morning

locatedlocatei

0

the work was carried on under the direction of br croftorange warner & father thos evans by some hauling brush &

willows and others rock & thus was the winter of 1850 &

60 spent by all the available force of millard cothis dam was 100 eetfeetreetbeet long 5030 feeteetbeetf wide about 10 eetfeetbeet

high and was located about one and onehalfone mileshalf abovethe town of deseret

the people of deseret had not realized how unpredictable

the seviersevien river could be its origination was in the pangulchpanguichPan

plateaugulchguichbuich

of central utah and disappeared in the desert sands

thirty miles south of deseret in what is10 called the sink of the

seviensevier u this river without any control from outside source

was a big trial to all of the communities depending upon it forwater

A late spring thaw washed away the dam in june 1861 themen and boys worked many long and hard hours and finally finished

another dam in time to save the crops when the harvest was over

the rains proved too much for the dam and it washed away again

causing much damage

this was in june 1862 and in october of the same yearwork commenced again on a new dam but when the followingspring floods came they washed out that dam the men werenow determined to make a dam that would last for all timeso the men of deseret worked all summerbummer on a new damdarnda thejnmen started work on this dam during the winter of 18654186341865418651863

this4

season the dam which had gone out of the seviensevierriver at deseret was put in the whole county engaging inthe labor the rock for the apron to it were hauled fromdry creek canyon near fillmore 40 miles in the snow andcold and mr daniel thompson one of those engaged in haulingthis rock frosted his feet some of the men engaged infreighting these rock were F M lyman D thompson lewisbrunson and many others making a number of these 80 mile

volney king millard county 185118751851 utah1875humanities review vol 1 no 4 1947 P 275273

f f2

12volney3

p

16

12

ranxanrap

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trips the common rock haul was about 6 miles and thewillows 1 t to 2 miles and with a long pull a strong pull anda pull altogether the dam at deseret was again put in andsupposed to be a good job 5

the problem of a successful dam seemed solved untilthe late winter of 188118821881 when1882 the tolling of the meeting-house bell tragicalltragically confirmed their worst fears the damwas carried away by an immense quantity of floating ice tt

the dam seventh of the sevier at deseret did indeedwash out it had lasted through one season only the cropwas almost a complete loss water in the sevier had ribenrisenristncristnso high that it had outcut around the dam found a new channeland left the dam high and dry

dampdams

trasitragicallcalicail

after nine tries and much labor and money had been putin to get a dam that would hold the deseret irrigation com-pany they tried their tenth time to make a dam that wouldhold this time they were certain they had conquered andhad the sevier river harnessed but during the 1890 thesevier cut through the narrow neck of prairie 200 feetwide which separated the two bends of the river and a newdam had to be built this dam also failed right in themiddle of the growing crops and was a great loss to thefarmers

many of the settlers blaming the company for thesemisfortunes began an action in the courts for damages andfinally forced the company into receivership the deltaland & water company which succeeded to the right and obli-gations of the bankrupt concern constructed a diversion damfour miles up the river and a connecting canal this damstuckstackstuek by 1912 the company had completed its obligationsunder the carey act and received its grant of land at acost of 150000 the delta land and water company had openedup almost 40000 acres of the sevier desertlanddesert whichland forcenturies had grown nothing but greasewood salt grass andrabbit brush A new community now the largest in the val-ley was settled and given the name of delta A subse-quent syndicate the sevier river land and water company isone of the greatest feats of hydraulic engineering in utahraised the sevier bridge dam to a height of 90 feet andenlarged the reservoir to the storage capacity of 250000acrefeetacre offeet water the completed dam is now known as theyuba always pronounced yubieYu dambie the total investmentin irrigation facilities in the pahvantpasvant is now upwards ofhalf a million dollars

the desert has been conquered and man has triumphed butthe human cost has been high first the community thenthe stake or county next the church and finally theagencies of state and federal governmentovernmentgovernmentQ were called in tomake the people rejoiorejoicerejoin and the desert blossom sciences

ibid p 379

lj13

1890s

0150pooo

e

131b1dv

aubie

35

PLATE IV

yuba dam spillway this is an unus-ual photo in as much as it was taken at atime of high water one of the very fewtimes that there has been an overflow atthe high spillway

5636

engineering and disciplined cooperation finally forcedfate to strew bliss instead of pain in the pasvantpahvantPah 1vant

james mace now seventysevenseventy andseven living in deseretremembers when he was a boy the trouble the settlers were having

with the dam As he remembered it the deseret dam was washed

out five times

brother mace remembers being in a stake conference one

sunday when a message from william reuben black was read by

brother lyman telling the people that the yuba dam up near

scipio was being threatened by high water brother lyman ex-

cused all the ablebodiedable menbodied in the congregation and they leftimmediately by daylight men with their teams kept coming

until two hundred and fiftyiftyefty men were on the job the men worked

day and night and the high water finallyinallyanally went down after thirtydays

lula cropper the writers mother who is also seventy

seven remembers the above incident very vividly she alsoremembers how the old church bell in deseret was used to sig-nal the people of deseret that there was trouble at the dam

when the men would hear it ring they would drop everything and

rush to help save it the women and children would be terrifiedto hear it ring knowing their crops were lost and all theirefforts were in vain

the mormon settlers who came to this new area were con-

verts who had just immigrated from the states and england they

leonard J arrington taming the turbulent river

foiledfoi4ed

utah humanities review 1951

ff

14leonard14leonerd

5737

were poor having had to leave their property and belongings

behind and moving to a new and strange land

they came to make new homes where they would be free to

worship as they wished without religious persecutions

the pioneers endured hardships of traveling as many of

them walked the entire distance across the plains they forded

rivers and camped on the banks in all kinds of weather

wagons carried their meager necessities of life and

sometimes before the journey was over many of the wagons broke

down and had to be left by the side of the road their food was

scarce and limited after they were settled they had to weave

their own cloth card their own wool and spin their own yarnyann in

order to make their clothing

there was always the constant fear of indians not only

while they were crossing the plains but during the early years

of settlementsettlements in both fillmore and deseret forts were builtfor their protection

the towns were new settlements and the resources of thecountry around them was unknown how they were to make a live-lihood was a major problem everything around them was new

wild and forbidding according to volney king one of the firstsettlers in fillmore

timbers and logs were brought from nearby canyons tomake log homes for the people in fillmore during this time

while homes were being built the people had to live in theirwagons

roads were soon built and corrals made for their cattle

38

according to anson calls081118 journal they built a school

house and established a school within fifteen days after theirarrival and built a fort in the shape of a triangle

mrs maria robins a ninetysevenyearoldninety pioneerevenseven whoyearyean

isoldoid

still alive today and living in seipioscipio relateslatesr some very

interesting experiences she hadhade

I1

&

was an early pioneer and had to work all the time andwork very hard but I1 was happy through it all

I1 walked across the plains and came to millard countywhen I1 was about nine in the year 1856 like many of theother saints I1 could not speak a word of english when I1 cameto utah I1 worked for a mrs rogers in fillmore whose sonstaught me to speak english

before I1 was ten I1 was carding wool and spinning yarnI1 did all kinds of housework but it never hurt me

I1 have had my prayers answered many times I1 prayedeveryday and my prayers were answered everyday in thosedays there were no doctors and the saints had to rely on thelord for help I1 never lost a child and all eight of my

children are still living todaytodayotocayo whenever they would getsick I1 would pray for themithem15

typical of the early pioneers who settled in fillmorewas joseph robisonRob wholson came with his family in 1854

they were well fitted out for the jouney with sevenwagons they had sixteen oxen four horses two cows andtwo colts grandfatherrandfatherG and benjamin drove a span of nicehorses they were well prepared for the journey and didnot have the hardships so many suffered in grandmotherswagon was a bed for the younger children a rocking chairand a stove she mixed her bread and prepared their mealsas they traveled I1 have pieces of her underskirt whereinshe had sewed 2200.00220000 the amount they received when theysold their farm they traveled a little over eighteen hun-dred miles in four months they reached salt lake city injuly and paid their tithing of all they owned then went ondown to fillmore reaching there the 17th of august in 1854

the harvest that year was scant and the saints were inneed grandmother gave away eleven quilts during the firsttwo years they were in fillmore the first seven years theroblsonsrobisonsbisonsrobisonnRoblrobiRo weresonsbons here they lived in the fort if anyone was

15mrs maria robins personal interview scipio utahjune 27 195 age 97

e

workedfor

1

1954

5

s

withnithkith

5939

ill she would take a cupful of sugar and give it to themas sugar was such a treat

benjamin H robison was called to deseret to be a pre-siding elder and his years there areane recorded as a valiantstruggle to maintain that outpost 16

another typical family to settle in both fillmore and

deseret was the john powell family

brigham young called the powell family in company with27 other families to settle in deseret millard county incompany with peter huntsman grandfather arrived in fillmoreon sunday june 6 1858

he intended to build his home in deseret but he neverdid ith the other settlers he tried to make a livingtheir but after the dam had gone out several times he de-cided to move his family to fillmore while in deseret hehelped to build the fort to protect us from the indiansthe fort was located by apostle amasa lyman and bishopcallister on the canal

the family home in fillmore was built on a lot whichblack sam

altait

resrev utah

cupfcipful

shop1shopa

an indian claimed grandfather had difficultyin trying to make the indian understand that the propertybelonged to him because he had bought it and had a deed forit for a long time he kept his teepee in the powell backyard

grandfather built a furniture shop on his lot and turnedout fine decorative furniture to sell 1

in anna J A lovellsloveis lifelif history when she lived in

deseret she suffered terrible hardships along with the other

people it was a severe struggle because of scarcity of food

good water and clothingclothingt constant fear of indians extremities

in the weather and the impossibility of harnessing the rivergeorge lovell and anna oldest sons peter and joseph anderson

by a former marriage had helped build the mud fort to protect

the community from the indians

mrs delia R robison age 80 fillmore utah anarticle about her grandfather joseph robison early pioneer ofmillard county

john powell journal MS in possession of mary damegranddaughter flllmorefillmorevFillmofellmore

teepee

7

e

s

16mrs

17john

dorherforher

40

they tried hard to establish themselves for eight yearsbut were not successfulsuccessfult so in the early fall of 18681860 johnand anna moved the movable parts of their house to oak creekthey had a span of mules named john and tom and a largecalifornia style wagon they hauled a nice fat pig alongwith their other effects in the wagon and the journey tookthem from daylight untilantil dark the way was hot and dustymore than the porker could stand it died during the firstnight leaving the family without lard and meat supply forthe winter

all the while annas husband had lived in deseret he hadtried hard to get fruit trees and berry bushes to grow butwas unsuccessful in their new home at oak creek the fruittrees grew and they dried the fruit for winter

the family soon began to raise sugar cane and make m-olasses so anna lovell made some molasses sweet cake how-ever it was difficult to bake it in the coals in the fireplace without burning most of it

about seven years after anna moved to oak city and shewas around fifty one her husband took several sacks ofcorn he had raised to fillmore and traded it for a charteroak cook stove and an 8day8 clockday this was the only stoveshe ever owned it didnt have a heating oven but it alwaysbaked well

anna lovell was the first white woman to make her homein the deseret country their home there was an adobe tworoom house with a large fire place in each room they gavethe indians flour and other foodood to get them to help clearthe land of greasewood annas husband raised broom cornand made broomsabrooms tradea he had learned in england peterannas oldest son made wooden wash boards for herhen with agrooved plane his father had brought from denmark

the only light they had at night besides the fire lightwas a bitchbitch11 or a cup of grease with a cotton rag in itlater anna secured a candle mould which she made candleswith when beef and mutton tallow was available the mouldheld 4 candles it was the only one in the community for anumber of years her children gleaned in the grain fieldseach fall dean the oldest daughter was very quick andalways had about as much as all the rest put together shewas always very efficient at spinning yarn she could spinas much as 4 skeins of yarn in a day when a carding millwas established at manti they sent their wool over there tobe carded into rolls anna sent butter along with the woolto grease it soBO that it would handle easier and wear longer

she hired her sons wife annie GC anderson to weave itinto cloth which she made into clothing for her familysister peas also wove cloth for herh6rhar these women wove twokinds of clothonecloth forone mens clothing called geans andlinsy for womens clothing

there were four colors of cloth in those days blue madefrom blue vitriol chamber blue a dye attained from wine

f

9 9

11

success fuitfultfulp

relrei ionlon

lovellplovella millard co chronicle 1947

history of pioneers

41

black from logwood red from madder roots and yellow frompeach leaves 6

mr and mrs neilsnellsnelis peter jensen from denmark were someof the pioneers of deseret they lived with a cousin ofmrs jensens for awhile after they arrived they facedsome of the hardships in deseret they couldnt speak aword of english at this time but nevertheverthenevertiene less the neighborswere very kind and friendly and soon were a great help toeach other by exchanging work with one another

when their first child was born mr jensen found it verydifficult to get work and the family was about povertystricken and both would take a job where ever there was oneto get mesmensmeb wages at that time was only 50 cents a dayand seldom would receive cash but there was a neighbor bythe name of lars hansen who would give them work when hecould pay them in molasses meat and flour and other articles

even though they suffered much hardship they often re-marked they were glad and thankful that they had come toamerica and felt that their children would receive a muchbetter education and advantages than if they had stayed indenmark they were very devoted to their religion

the hans P skeem family came to utah in 1880 from den-mark and to oasis about 18831885 where they took up land andcommenced farming which was a hard life for them as theywere people who had worked in factories all their lives

they built their first house of willows and mud it wasa one room house with a dirt floor and was built on lowground when a heavy rain came the water all ran to thislow ground which caused a lake around the house and causedeverything to float in the house the roof leaked andgrandmother skeem put the children on the bed and threw acanvas over them to keep them drydry0drye

in the fall of 1865 several molasses mills were runningchristian P beauregard made the first one constructed ofiron the ones before this time being made of wood chandlerholbrook myron isbeeprisbeebrisbeePr daniel thompson and F M lymanall operated molassesmolas millsseBbebbes the women used molasses in-stead of sugar to preserve their fruit as sugar sold atone dollar per pound and was hard to get at that the mostplentiful fruits were ground cherries and potawatami plumspeaches at this time were sixtycentssixty acents pound as the firsttrees had winter killed 2

life of anna lovellmillard county chronicle

centennial edition 1947

20eastsoeastsoleast and west millard chapters of daughters of utahpioneers milestones of millard by stella H day and sebrina C

ekins sprlngvillespringvilleSpring utahville art city publishing co 1950 p 29

V 10 wood19

9801

19

20

18li te19history19

42

women made their own soap their men would go into thecanyons and burn hard wood heaps into ashes which was brought

home and placed in bleachersleacherslea fromchers the files in the flllmorefillmorefellmoremuseum the writer found a recipe on how to make lye the only

way the pioneers had of making itthey would take 53 oior 4 bushels of ashes and put in a

box tapered like a funnel on top of this they placed alayer of straw then a layer of lime then a layer ofgreasewood ashes they would soak the ashes with waterand it would drip down through the other things and comeout of the funnel a strong lye this was used in makingtheir soap 1

wool was rather scarce but that like other articles was

made the most of the passing herds of sheep that left theirlittle locks upon the sage brush were gathered in carded into

rolls and spun into yarn the buzzing of the spinning wheel

could be heard far into the night and after the yarn was pro-

duced and placed into skeins it was colored by native dye stuffmade from the herbs and brush from the surroundings then woven

by hand looms into cloth which was made into suits for the

family all done by hand and there was no shoddiness about the

cloth for it wore like iron

in july the people of fillmore first obtained hay fromthe meadow creek and corn creek slough about 10 or 12 milesdistance from the beaverbearerbearenbeaven hay grounds on the sink of thebeaver about 5030 miles away then afterwards they went tothe olearlakeclearlakeOlearClearolean forLakeleke it was a little more than 20 miles awaythough the roads were sandy and heavy part of the way andagain they went over the mountains into round valley and upto the lake about 40 miles from fillmore for hay manyplays were given the first being the foundling of theforresforrestfordestfordes byt a dramatic association this and other asso-ciations made their own scenery from factory cloth thatcost 1.25125 per yard these were days of high pricespriaeso tea

21mrs susannah turner robison MS biography in the filesof the east and west miliardmillard chapterchapters of the daughters of theutah pioneers at fillmore utah

21

9

0

s

ciations125

4543

was floo per iblb sugar from 50 to 65 ets per ib and menwould cut a piece of tobacco the size of the dollar and givethe man the dollar and keep the size of itcrops raised were not threashthreashedthreasher but had to be done byflail and tramped out by horses it had been harvested bycradle and raked with hand rake and bound by hand and yetthe ills were not over after the flail and horses trampingwas over the wheat must be ground into flour there wereno mills within 60 or 100 miles and the stomach wouldntwait so the wheat was washed and cleaned and well dried andthen ground in coffee grinders manytimesMany havetimes I1 seen my

brother and neighbors sons running the coffee mills of anevening by turns one turned a while then the other till theevenings were worn away far into the night the corn couldbe prepared more readily by making it into homony by boilingit and putting a little lye or hard wood ashes into it totake or cause the hulls to be taken from off it and whensoaked and well cleaned from the lye it became quite palat-able but it was not the staff of life and was used rarelyand not as a regular diet after a time brother N B baldwinbrought a chopper but there was no bolt attached and thecracked wheat had to be solved so we got our hand sievesand went at that way for our bread must be procured tillbrother bartholomew in the spring of 18531855 got his mill goingit was a blessing it did go slow for one man said he couldeat the flour as fast as he mill would grind it

harvesting was done by a number of men cooperating to-gether with their labor for safety the threshing with theold whipple thresher or chaff pilerplier was done by hitching itsbelts to the water power of br batholomews grist millwhich had been erected during thesummerthe nearsummer where the firstblacksmith shop stood and where the water sect that sup-plied water for culinary purpose for the fort poured offthe hill the sect had been enlarged to give power to thegrist mill and at this place they stacked their grain andthreshed it

in the deseret area the men that worked on the dam ate a

lot of potato soup which had milk in it bread stuff was very

scarce and the early settlers had to subsist almost entirely on

fish plentiful in the seviersevien river no one went hungry at any

time as neighbors shared with one another fish were taken to

the mountain settlements and traded for fruit and vegetables

large barrels of fish were salted down for the winter fish00eingking op citelleiteltelycly

brigri bt

off

t

aj

22king O0P

ed

loo1.00100

doedoc

44

were put in a salty brine and hung out to dry fruitsquash and beef were dried for winter use for the settlersknew nothing of canning as it Is done today alfalfa greensand pig weed were cooked and eaten lumpy dick amixture of flour and water cooked was a common item offare when a beef was killed everyone had a fry and whena cheese was cut everyone had a taste

the fish were the main fare for a long time the menwould go down below the dam wade knee deep in water andpick the suckers out of the murky water and toss them on thebank the water would be practically solid with suckersparties gathered from all over the county to get a load offishish teams and wagons would pull up and the men wouldthrow them on the banks the women would clean them and putthem down in barrels well salted these salted fish werea main prop and staple of diet through the lean months tocome

the winter of l891891879187 was a hard one it was so cold thecattle froze and starved by the hundreds when springfinally came the people were in terrible circumstancesbishop joseph black went to gilbert webb who owned manycattle up the river and told him the people needed foodmr webb told him to go and kill any that were fat enoughand bring them to the people

the animals brought in were thin and all the meat couldbe used for was boiling but the people were thankful toget it11 2523

rufus pack one of the first settlers of hinckleyHinckl re-

called

eyt

hearing bishop joseph S black telling in church about

his lunches of salted fish and bread bishop black had been

working on the dam and said he was reluctant to bring out hislunch a meager one of bread and the everpresenteverpre8entever saltedpresent fish as

he was a little ashamed of such fare he soon noticed thegreater part of his fellow workmen were carrying just that kind

of a lunch maybe with some drippings for their breadmary kelly damron one of the early settlers tells this

story of the early exploration of deseretin the spring of 1892 my mothers uncle by marriage

was a conference guest at our home in deseret the wind was

25joumal23journal23 ofjournal william reuben blacks history in possessionof mrs docdoe black delta utah

timethe

f

toldhim

agroundiground1

nownoonoO

45

blowing hard sand and a gust of smoke from the kitchenstove made it difficult preparing the evening meal I1fretted about conditions and made some unpleasant remarkabout the old desert after the dinner was over mrcroft and I1 we always called him uncle croft chanced tobe alone in the room when he said child I1 want to tellyou something sit down and this is his statement

before anyone thought it possible to subsist here onthe desert I1 obeyed a call from brigham young to lead anexploring party and explore this great valley with the ideaof locating a new townsitetownsl this was in the year 1859 or1860 your grandfather alexander franklin barronsbarron williampowell fanny croppers father and byron harnerwamerwarnerhamer and I1spent several days looking over its possibilities theteam and wagon with our supplies was driven by thomasthomae cropperthen a young man but we rode horsebackhorse fromback point topoint because of the level soil rich in slit and easyaccess to the river we selected the site north and east ofblack rock ridge after discussing the situation to somelength we decided to ask gods blessing on the location ofour choice and I1 asked your grandfather A F barron tooffer the prayer he responded at first reluctentlyreluctantly butsoon with great power and fluent speech was blessing theland to the welfare of those who should come here to dwellwith the gift of prophesy these are some of the things hepredicted part of which has already been fulfilled amongother things I1 remember these most clearly and I1 know theywill come to pass

y the land would become so productive that the valleywould become known as the granery of the state Ahighway would be thrown up through the valley that wouldrun from coast to coast the farms and cultivated landwould extend from mountain side to mountain side thepopulation would become numerous streams of livingwater would come forth out of the broundground

said the elderly man donidon1dona say too much againstthis country it has been blessed and will some day answerthe prayer that was made by your grandfather

whether or not the predictions have been fulfilled any-one can attest in the year 1859 a railroad was not knownwest of st louis it did not come to utah until 1869 andfor many years it extended south only as far as york nearmona sometime in the 80s it was extended to milfordlfordifordMlwhich was for many years the termlnlusterminiusherminiustermi laternius the salt lakeand los angeles rail road later absorbed by union pacificextended its lines through millard county to the pacificcoast connecting up with the santa fe at daggett cali-fornia

As late as 1888 were but two artlslanartistantistanartlartiar wellsslanblanbian on thedesert one at J S blacks home the other at S W

westerns home it think it would be difficult to findanywhere a country where each family had a stream ofliving pure water coming out of the ground in his own

fromthe

don t

for

desertone

te

nop

46

dooryard as do the people of west millard 2

plague

the writers father leigh richmond cropper relatedthe terrible incidents of the plague of black diphtheria thatwas running rampant among the people of deseret no one would

go near the homes of the people who had this disease and som-

etimes days would go by before the people were able to bury theirdead mr cropper said he was never afraid to go into thehomes of these stricken people and help them he with a few

other men would help the people get those who had died ready

forfon burial it was an awful experience to have to bury three or

foursour out of one family

when a family had diphtheria the streets were roped off

around homes where the disease had struckclothing and furnishings were all burned there was

no antitoxin known at this time and anyone contracting thedisease seemed doomed

there was a homebrewedhome medicinebrewed made of sage vinegaralum honey etc which was called fanny powell croppersCropremedy

pertsthat the settlers felt was a

had partaken of it never contracted the diseasetypical of the death and sorrow the disease brought was

the case of the george croft family ten year old thomascroft was the first victim he was taken to fillmore forburial and his funeral was held outside that same nightthe mother letitia became ill and two days later she diedon the same day her father thomas daviesvles died with thedreaded disease

after the mothers funeral the children returned todeseret on august 11 florence became ill and died on the13th15th mary evelyn became ill that day and died on the 15thboth girls were buried at night in a heavy rain stormstorms bythe elder brothers george and jacob and a friend leighrichmond cropper 5

mary kelly damron personal writingswritingstwriting 1950 in poss-ession of mrs spencer wrightwrightt delta utah

2jacob25jacob25 croftJacob family history r MS in possession ofamanda croft conk delta utah

24

for

fouroun

off

0

preventative whoever

davies

25

24marykary st

bontsontbong

chranoahrano

47

the diphtheria plague lasted for several weeks and the

death toll was very high in some families A total of five

children from the family of george croft died within one week

polygamy

the doctrine of plural marriage was practiced by some

of the church members in deseret colorful stories of the poly-

gamy practice have been handed down depicting joy sorrow

courage and hide and seek practices illustrative of the days

of the underground

it was on friday january 28 1884 that the homes in

deseret millard county were raided by the deputy marshals0looking for the polygamists there was a sharp lookout for

marshals by the saints everyone was frightened to death when

the word the marshals are coming was passed around the

brethren and sisters aided one another josiah gibbs tells in

his history of an experience he had with the marshals

when the marshals would come in they would get off thetrain at oasis at an early hour one of the women who rana hotel there would keep watch for them and when she wouldsee them she would send her small boy to deseret on hishorse to warn the saints marshal cuddebeckcuddebeckvcuddebackCudoud sargentdebeckor some other names were familiar as household words

the saints made no resistance other than to baffle themarshals and to aid each other by frequent and unexpectedinvasions of deseret marshal mount had captured all butone of the polygamists he carried a warrant for his arrestfor two years but all efforts to serve the papers hadfailed the man had received a commission from the geologi-cal survey to make a collection of fossils from the shaleand limestoneslime ofstones antelope springs thirtyfivethirty milesfive westof deseret one evening as the man was getting supper forhis son brother and himself a traveler drove down to thespring and prepared to camp the brother went down to thetravelers camp returned and in a scared voice saidmount is down there all right if he asks any questions

AncLrewpew jensen church chronology

a7r I1

ti

26

off

26andrew26Andrew

berve

aa

notmotnolnersneds homenome there was four deputy marshals and anotherman that were theretherthenethen they surrounded thehouseehouseth and knockedat the door it was just coming daylight and they wantedto come in it was just before my brother was born he wasborn in september afterafteneftereften that she was in her fortieth yearshe was sick and couldnt walk around or anything and I1had to be with her well they came in and said get thatbrat back into bed if she cant get dressed I1 shook so I1couldnt get dressed he stood in the door and told mymother to come in hatthat room but she sat in the chair in theother room and they read a subpoena and that was in may

joseph E robinsonbiLsonbitsonRo was my stepfatherstep thatfather is junehinckleys grandfather so thats how little relation I1 amto him he read thistais subpoena and I1 had to get back intobed I1 saw those fiveive men walk out of that front gate wellthey stayed around town all that day and my mother went overto that ed days store where my grandmother was living andshe went into the littleittleittielttie house next doordoorsdoondoory but in the after-noon these deputy marshals were walking around town hereand they went past there and saw my grandmother and uncle

josiah gibbs taken from lights and shadows of mormon-ism this rare book in possession of lula cropper who is aniece of jobiahjosiah gibbs

kellkeil

heryhers

mottersmotners

grandeagrandfa

48

tell him my name Is brown and that im in the employ of thegovernment mount and brown spent a very sociableevening

six months later he made another effort to get his in-tended victim failing the marshal asked the bishop whowas then under bonds to find the man and ask him to comein and gave his word not to put him under arrest justwanted to get acquainted with him in the courseourse of anhour the muchwantedmuch polygamistwanted stepped on the porch of thehotel extended his hand and smiling said how do you domr mount the marshal responded wellweils your face is fa-miliar but I1 cant place you tf

you ought to remember me replied the other you andI1 spent a very pleasant evening at antelope springs lastmarch my name is josiah gibbs two weeks later the manwas subpolnaedsubpoinaedsubpoenaed to appear before the grand jury in provohe appeared before judge judd pleaded guilty and promisedto obey the law within 10 days the manifesto was given toall the church members 27

in a personal interview with mrs delia robisonRob eightylsonibon

of fillmore utah she related a very interesting story about

her experiences as a small girl during polygamy practice in

fillmore this is her story

question asked delia robinson do you remember anyexperience as a young girl on the problems of polygamy

answer 1I was in it in may 1889 the marshals came tomy mothers

AA

c

it

1

wwa

the

s

andthey

Lsi

r

ore

27josiah27

lve

lir ts

49

joseph and my mother sitting on the front porch the deputymarshals came and there was several of us playing the organin my mothermothers s home and these marshals came to the doorand uncle joseph had gone through the house and up into an-other lot where the lucerne and weeds were quite high andthere was a boy on a horse telling the marshals where to gobut the folks in the house didnt know where I1 was but I1was out in the currant bushes and so that when he went upthere he went through our lot through the next lot and inhalf of the next block and the deputy marshals arrested himthey took him right down to the huntsman house my motherwhen she came back went over to that little old log housenext door and she was looking out of the door when theycame to get her but she wasntwasnt there

well going back to this olif andolin again he camethat night with one of those carts that has a horse in frontwith a seat that lifts up on one side and we hid her thereand she was taken to another hiding place so thats wheremy mother was carried to I1 had to stay with her that sum-mer so we had to be out of sight they loitered aroundher and went up to her mothers place and asked where shewas and she kidded them along and said maybe you willfind them down in the well she was just joshing but theydidnt find us so I1 stayed there with my mother and manytimes I1 hid under the bed

this brother andolin had to move and my mother and I1 hadto move too so they put mother in a big box they put mein another big box and threw a straw bed over us and tookus down the street in a wood rack and when we got down tothe court house I1 could see two marshals on the steps of thecourt house out through the cracks of the box I1 was hid inA young boy who was helping them move johnny partridgejumped up on the wagon and started talking to me and mymother said you quit talking to her so when we got overto the hinckley house he jumped off they backed up thewagon to the open door no porch in front and mother jumpedoff and threw her apron up over her head so they couldnttell who she was me being a girl of fourteen years oldI1 didnt have much sense I1 didnt have anything over myeyes or over my head and they lifted me out and the boywho was later my husband said you go down and tell unclebenny to keep old bolley in because I1 want to use him afterwhile he stood around and told the neighbors that he sawsome eyes in the box and they said it must have been somefruit bottles in a box andthe marshals hunted the town overand couldnt findind us and our foodood was sent over to us bythe neighbors after dark

hiding from the marshals continued from may until octo-ber pen up a girl of fourteen nowadays and see how shewould stand it As the marshals caught you they would haveyou arrested and put you in jail they wanted evidenceagainst my stepfatherstep theyfather knew mother was going to havea baby mother was very very partial to this child becauseit was a child of promise she had been administered to

f f

theywould

camfcomfortablortall e

50

J albert robinson was the child he was later a sprinterand great athlete at brigham young university it was ru-mored that mother and I1 had gone to blandsenglandglandtelandtEn but we werehiding right in fillmore all the time

my brother was born on the seventh of september and onthe twelfth of september I1 had to go to provoprove as a witnessagainst my stepfatherstep andfather mother uncle almon was on thejury and he advised me to tell the truth there weretwelve men on the jury and it wasngasn a very comfortablefeeling for a small girl I1 didnt tell them any liesthat trip cost me 11220112.20

question how many wives did your father haveanswer my stepfatherstep hadfather two wives they caught

my stepfatherstep andfather he was tried and found guilty and sentto jail 2829

joseph W black wrote in his journal that during the

practice of polygamy he had four wives like some of the other

saints in deseret he went into the underground at mexico but

later had to appear in court and was found guilty he said

I1 wish to insert that in marrying my plural wives itwas perfectly agreeable with my first wife and with allparties concerned and while I1 married from the motive oflove it was as from a sense of duty to the law of god asunderstood by us all and with the purest motive and I1 alwayshonor virtue more sacred than life

about 1885 the U S marshall commenced to make raidsupon us who had more than one wifewifbif and many of the brethrenwere arrested and sentbent to prison by the continuous nightraids on the settlements by the marshall many families werekept in constant excitement and anxiety for the safety oftheir fathers and husbands I1 was forced away from my homeon many occasions but endeavored to attend to the dutiesof my ecclesiastical office and direct my financial affairshe was bishop of the ward

I1 went to prison conscious of being guilty of no crimeand rather than break the covenentscovenants which I1 had made beforegod with them and forsake my family and those I1 loved sodearly I1 would rather bid them the last farewell and spendsoendthe rest of my life in prison

there were ten mormons from millard county sentenced atthis term of court from 50 days to 17 months 29

aqpqmrs deliadeltadelladeiladeita robinsonRobin personalsonBon interview fillmore

utah june 27 195 age 80

joseph S black journal MS in possession of hisson peter T black delta utah

v t

1

SOe

28mrs1954

29

1220122012.20

51

PLATE V

polygamists from deseret on theirway to mexico photograph taken atkanarravanarraKa ironnarra county utah

i

t

i

52

bishop black served out his term and had many variedbut interesting stories to tell when he returned to his home in

deseret he has many personal letters written to him by poly

gamists while they were serving in the pen these lettersare kept with his journal and give first hand information on

the heartaches and trials thesethesthee men went through being away

from their families and friends

organization of latterdaylatter saintday stakesmany of the pioneers began to contend one with another

during the early days in settling millard county their sinfulways were so serious that president brigham young came down from

salt lake oltycity and on september 21 1856 he held a meeting of

the saints in the old bowery and declared that he would no

longer dwell among a people filled with contention covetousness

pride and iniquity he told them unless they put away

their sins there would be a separation and the righteous would

be separated from the ungodly president young asked for a

standing vote of those who desired to obey every principle of

the gospel and the entire congregation responded this was the

beginning of a spiritual reformation that spread to all the

settlements in the territory and all of the members repented of

their wrongdoingswrong anddoings were baptizedrebaptizedre by the bishop and his

counselors

these results of brigham youngbyoungs powerful sermon paved

the way for the organizing of the first stake in millard county

millard stake journal stake house fillmore utah

e

30

30imillard

5553

on march 9 9 1859 a special conference was held in thestake house at fillmore and a millard stake of zion was or-ganized by president george A smith apostle erastus snowand joseph F smithsnith thomas callister was sustainedwassustained aspresident of the stake later in july 18771877s a specialconference was held in fillmore for the organizationreorganizationre ofthe millard stake ira N hinckley senior was set apartas president edward partridge and joseph V robison ascounselors fillmore was divided into two wards alex-ander melville was bishop of the south ward and joseph D

smith was bishop of the north ward meadow creek holdenand oak creek whitchwhijch had existed as branches were now or-ganized as wards 51

there is no record of any church organization during

the first settlement of deseret but in the second settlementa church organization was recorded

in junejun 1877 thomas callisteroalGaloai wrotellster a letter to thesaints in deseretserettsenettDe asking to meet with them the next sabbaththe meeting was held at 2 pm at george bishops placewilliam V black was called to take charge of the branchwhich was given a temporary organization

A conference was held in fillmore july 24 187718779 pre-sided over by wilford woodruff and erastus snow at thisconference deseret was organized as a ward and joseph Sblack was called to the office of bishop mahonri M

bishop and hyrum dewsnup were counselors with robert hunterward clerk A quorum of teachers consisting of W W damronjoseph damron james hogenson joshua bennett williamhunter leigh R cropper sr orlando W warner georgebishop john C webb and john mills were chosen

bishop black served the people for twenty one yearshe was a kind thoughtful and resourceful man and was in-terested in all of his loyal brethren and sister deseretoasis and hinckley belonged to the one ward A tworoomtwochurch

roomand school house was located on the south bideside of

the river where the townsite is now located people hadutter faith and knowledge that their church was worth anyeffort they used a boat to cross the river in order toattend their meetings A river bridge was later constructeddreams became a reality when a large brick church was builtabout 1887 on the north side of the river the people madebrick burned two kilns and hauled wood from the east hillsto burn the brick for the first church building lime forthe meeting house was burned at clay springs william C

moody and james hutchinson had charge of the work john Rbennett helped haul the lime rock to fillilliii the kiln also toburn the lime lumber was obtained by getting logs in oak

31ibid

shiihwhiih

p M

f

3libida

terested

54

PLATE VI

picture which was taken inside the oldchurch building which burned down in 1929in this meeting house the millard stake wasdivided into deseret and millard stakes in1912

55

creek canyon where there was a water power saw mill 232

many of the pioneersDionio stillneers remember the inspiringmillard stake and deseret stake conferences which were held inthis building several of the early apostles and prominent men

of the church were speakers at this church buildingan interesting account is given of one of the early

conferences in deseret in one of the early minute books of

deseret ward as follows

minutes of reunion of the millard stake of zion heldin deseret july 22 1902 song by the deseret ward choir11 for the strength of the hills we bless thee prayer byjoshua greenwood singing of an anthem by the deseretchoir daughters of zion an opening address of welcomewas given by alma greenwoodreenwoodG of fillmore response to thespeech of welcome by brother joseph Vv1va robison of fillmoredeseret choir sang the song hard times comegome again no morebishop C anderson made a speech of presentation and gaveto president ira H hinckley a large protraitprotractpro intrait a frameof president joseph F smith

president ira N hinckley arose and with a feeling ofoverwhelming joy and tears said that he could hardly ex-press his gratitude to the saints and officers of thisstake for the good will and esteem that waswaawab represented bythis days proceedings and that they could not have given himanything that was nearer to his heart than the picture thatwas presented to him but he said that in place of one pic-ture they had presented him with two one for each of hiswives

instrumental music was given by brother william mclealmckealand son instruments were clarinets followed by a speech bycounselor daniel thompson on the growth of millard stakeA speech by ira N hinckley jr senior member of the highcouncil of millard stake of zion

speakers in the afternoon session were lafayette hol-brook of the utah state having been the first stake clerkof millard stake prof bryant S hinckley son of presi-dent hinckley addressed the people georgeG Aeorge black gavea speech on the growth of the ward of hinckley and its or-ganization sister clara holbrook granddaughter of presi-dent hinckleyHin whoekley had filled a two year mission in englandgave some of her experiences A A hinckley another sonof president hinckley spoke of his feelings toward his fatherand gave him a great deal of credit for the manner in which

J john R bennett journal H MS in possession of hisson john bennett deseret utah

NO

32john

I1

I1

i

56

PLATE VII

oasis ward sunday school photographtaken in 1911 deseret stake

alonaion b

57

he had raised his familybrother joseph V robinson said that we had an object

lesson before us in the family of president hinckley he didnot know of any family from the days of adam that had nothad something within them that was of sorrow he had tiedthe hearts of his children and grandchildren to him he didnot know of any man that had greater cause to be thankfulthan president hinckley to see that so many sons and daught-ers honored his name

the choir sang a quartet sang and there was a clarinetselection the benediction was given by patriarch joseph D

smith in the afternoon meeting ira N hinckley was re-leased from his duty and his son lionzoalonzo A hinckley was putin as president of the millard stake 55

because of the great growth of millard and deseret they had to

divide the millard stake and create a new one on the northwestern

part A new stake called deseret stake was organized august 1111

1912 at a conference alonzo A hinckley was sustained as the

president of the new stake and joseph T finlinson was the firstcounselor orvil L thompson was sustained as president of

millard stake 34

minute book of deseret ward which also con-tains the minutes of conferences held in deseret when the stakewas millard stake this book is in possession of a resident ofdeseret who does not want his name discloseddisclose nor will he turnthe book in to the church daughters of utah pioneers are tryingto get a copy of it

5434andrew jens en church chronology p 54

fromnom

3

33first

jensen

33 First

df

Chronolochronolo PO

finst

58

PLATE VIII

A A hinckleyabinckley first stakepresident of deseret stake laterelder hinckley was made an apostleof the latterdaylatter saintday church

CHAPTER 111IIIiliECONOMIC AND CULTURAL development

industriesindusIndasmany

triebtriesof the pioneers werewene skilled in trades of indu-

stries which they had learned in the old country and out of

necessity of sustaining a livelihood these early settlers ap-

plied their knowledge and talents along the different lines of

needed clothes food and shelter foremost of these industrieswas the urgently needed grist mill one which ground flour out

of wheat

the first flour mill in fillmore was owned by noahbartholomew it was situated just east of main streetnear the center of town jacob croft built a cardingmill where the second flour mill of fillmore stood themachinery was removed and the building was occupied asthe fillmore flour mill company some of the officers of

this company were jacob croft john powell thomas callistersr james rowley ralph rowley jonathan smith was thefirst miller of this lower mill 1

this mill was situated just east of the old croft home and two

blocks east of main street you can see a part of the old

foundation as it still stands this mill supplied fillmore and

the surrounding towns with flour for many years

ast and west millard chapters of daughters of utahpioneers milestones of millard compiled by stella H day andsebrina C ekins springvilleSpring utahville art city publishingcompany 1950 p 175

9

wereskilled

least

59

60

an upper mill was organized in 1871181187 and was located atthe mouth of chalk creek 9 and was called the upper flourmills cogo this was first owned by amasa lyman father ofapostle francis M lyman the erection of the building wassupervised by vmwm lbbsgibbsabbsG who also was the first miller forabout two years

we find this pioneer miller would never take toll from

the indians he always gave the same weight in flour as the

indians brought in wheat his family persuaded him to give up

the business as he seemed to be giving most of the profits to

the nativesjacob croft built mills in scipioseipio oak city and deseret

he was very kind to the indians and found favor in their heartsthrough gifts of flour and food several of the early settlersgave credit for their lives being spared by indians to his gen-

erosity in giving much prized flour to members of their tribesjust above where jacob croft had built his mill another millwas erected by amasa lyman and his son these two mills were

known as the upper and lower mills

since the coming of the railroad there was quite an

expansion experienced by millard county as well as other

counties in utah dodd daviesdevies and thomas deardon erected the

first steam sawmill in chalk creek and the coopco storeop estab-

lished a lumber yard back of their store to handle the sale of

the lumber made at the daviesdeardondavies sawmill

after the pioneers settled in oak city they establisheda coopco storeop

peter anderson was the manager he had to run his farmtoo so his mother the early pioneer anna J A lovell

bidibid p 5434

prof its

railroa6there

3

2jbid3jbid t

deardon

61

PLATE IX

2 deseret supplyicompanycompan in this store theblade first newspaper inmillard county was publishedby josiah gibbsibbsG

1 jacob crostcroftcrofto firstpresiding elder of deserethe was a pioneerpioneersplonpion millereertchurch worker and patri-arch he died in scipioutah at the age of ninetytwo

71

serebsedesstoreststores 5

englishe4glish she clerked in the store for about12 or 15 years

62

became the principal clerk he kept the accounts in danishthen each week peter her son would put them in his ac-count book in english

the pioneers of deseret saw the coming of the railroadenhance interest in their community the depot at oasis became

a very important place with belief in better things to come

industries sprang up with surprising speed besides the flourmill owned by jacob croft there was

9 a molasses mill owned by william alldredge and georgegeorbebishop a cheese mill and creamery started by nels bishopmerchandising flourished with several pioneers doing thistype of business a furniture storestone a livery stable aprinting office hotels and millinery shops a servicegarage a picture show house an open air dance floor ablacksmith shop and a butcher shop money in its actualsense was very scarce but a medium of exchange was effectedand in the year 1877 ruben C mcbride started deseretsDefirst

seresmerchandising store in 1879 J 3 black started

another store at one time deseret boasted of four stores5the people of millard county were very fortunate in

having two newspapers the one in fillmorepillmore was the deseret news

and the one in deseret was the millard county blade

the blade was first issued in august 1892 from thepress rooms in the J F ibbsgibbsG store building

josiahjobiah F 3gibbsibbs purchased the plant from charles god-dard in january 18931895 and continued publishing at the samelocation his property as editor and manager mr gibbsibbsQ

employed an efficient compositor and proof reader onephilllpphillip corcoran from the salt lake herald who had hadwide experience on papers in new york buffalo chicago andsan francisco and under whose instruction mary kelly andbell hunt local wirlsgirls learned typesettingsetting and newsgathering these girls with bert ibbsgibbsG as devil

oak city5grace5aracebgrace C warnick journal delta utah compiled from

information in the writings of her father leigh R cropper sra native pioneer

jz1he

0 1

ress

readeroneheraldwho

type sett ingt

4history B

co-mprised the staff who with josiah ibbsgibbsQ as editor developeda medium for news and learning welcomed and needed

aside from mr ibbsgibbsG scientific articles which wereprinted each week there was local history which would have

history of annleannieanniannl lovellslovelle life

I1 4 v

63

PLATE X

1

me

n

i

1

j&

1 damron homethe oldest housestoday 1954 onerooms was used asand post office inpioneer days

one ofstandingof thea storethe early

53 samuel W westernblacksmithMack shopsmith locatedjust north on sevier riverearly deseret irrigationcompany meetings werewene heldheidin thisthib oldoid shop

i

2 an early store indeseret dewsnups

ja

64

PLATE XI

lymans saw mill oak city canyonhyrum jensen is by the horse

aftaemmaenma

5565

PLATE XII

samuel

S

W

emtenn

westerns

b

freighting

ofta

outfit taken at fish springs mine duringearly days of mining in millard countyoutfittaken

7takenstaken

66filled volumes and was to have been given to the utahhistorical society this material the author regrettedwas burned as rubbish t some of his activities for thebetterment of west millard while editor of the bladefollows organization of the first chamber of commerce inmillard co at deseret weekly lectures of geology andanthropology health and religion

the millard county blade did not long survive the panicin 18951893 it was sold to fillmore interests in 1895 theold hand press ancient type and other equipmentequi wentwgntwantDment tomake the beginning of the millard county progress 6

an old newspaper clipping found in a pile of pioneer

reliesrelicsneliesnelles in the tithing office in hinckley yielded the following

information

the first newspaper to be printed in millard county wasthe deseret news many old timers will recall this factbut many of its readers today probably do not know it wasever printed anywhere but in salt lake city

the deseret news plant and equipment were moved tofillmore in 1858 and its printing was all done there frommay 5 t september 1 inclusive of that year it appearedevery wednesday and was mailed regularly to itsis subscriberswho were located in salt lake though it B supporters werefound in every part of the territory that was settled atthat time

the second newspaper to be printed in millard countywas the blade published at deseret in 1892 two yearslater the millard county progress came off the press infillmore with its first issue thursday january 5 1894the equipment was set up in the southeast room of the statehouse the motto was unity proqressprogress and prosperity thisnewspaper was edited by J P jacobson the owners of thepress at this time were george C viele alma greenwoodjoseph S giles T 0 callister christian andersonjames A melville D R stevens george W nixon andanthony paxton who each contributed 50 toward buying aprinting press the equipment cost 500 and consisted of

7a hand press job press and sufficient amount of type

mary kelly damron material furnished to her daughtermrs norma wright delta utah 1950 mrs damron worked inthe first newspaper office

taken from an old newspaper clipping of deseret newsdecember 15 1906 only a small part of this newspaper wassalvaged as most had been eaten away by rodents it is inpossession of sebrina C ekins

toregularltto

050consisted7

i

gmary

8johnajohn

67

in john powelspowells journal we find that0 he was a wood turner he built a furniture shop onhis lot and turned out fine decorative furniture to sellhe did quite well with this until after the coming of therailroad when furniture was shipped in there are a numberof his pieces still in existence and some in use there isa cupboard in the old state house museum the children ofthe community loved to pause in the doorway of his shop andwatch him use his lathe to turn out arms and legs for chairsand tables and fancy head boards for beds chairs cup-boards and tables he might give a child a rolling pin ortoy wooden dishes or toy furniture A child who came tothe shop with his parents never went home empty handed 0

he had learned this trade in england and it was a real help to

the pioneers in fillmore and deseret

it can be truthfully said the latterdaylatter saintday pioneer

settlers of millard county were industrious cooperative and

applied their godgivengod talentsgiven and skills to the buildingupbuildingup and

expansion of the area

schools

though the pioneers had many hardships and trials they

did not neglect their education soon after settling they were

building school houses the school rooms were made of cotton-wood logs with a large fireplace a dirt roof and no floorthe benches were split logs with no backs on them

when brigham young academy graduated alma and joshuagreenwood they came to fillmore to teach school

on november 2 1885 alma started an academy backed bythe church this was the first advanced school where older

john powell journal H rewritten loaned to thewriter by mary dame past president of the daughters of theutah pioneers fillmore utah

9deliadelladeila robison personal interview fillmore utahage 80

after

0

9

gdella

68

students could go on with their education the millardstake academy was held in the court house the tithinghouse and later in the state house alma greenwood hisbrother joshuaoshua and miss lexlelexie curtis were the firstteachersteacher

the writers father L R cropper told in his history

that in

9 0 1865 the people of deseret realizing the importance ofschools asked fanny powell wife of john powell to teachthe boys and girls at first she taught in the varioushomes and then later in a little building down by the oldfort she wasngasn too happy about the run down condition ofthe building so one week she sought the help of anotherwoman and together they whitewashed the entire buildinginside and out one teacher taught all the grades thefoundation of one of the early school houses has been foundon the E J ellasoneliason farm south of the fort A few readersslates and pencils were all the school equipment they hadin 1875 schools were held in several different homes lateran adobe school house was built and was located on what isknown as the corner t it was on the south end of landerwarners land which is now owned by blaine cropper in 1877a school house was built on the corner where the schoen-berger school house stood until two years ago 194919491 eachfamily was assessed so much per family in labor adobieswere made and dried in the sun the district furnishedmoney for lumber and shingles were hauled by team from oakcity canyon and flllmorefillmorefellmore around 1880 an addition to thisbuilding was built many of their church meetings erewereene heldin this building and all of their entertainments 11

one of the early teachers was effleeffie ried moody who iseightyfiveeighty yearsfive of age and is living in deseret utah in a

personal interview with the writer she saidI1 went to school in fillmore in 1885 A little later I1

moved to deseret with my parents and taught school in des-eret being one of the early school teachers in 1888

I1 traveled to school from my home in a two wheel cartdrawn byabym horsehorbe I1 was not only the teacher but the jani-tor as well A fireplace was used to heat the school roomthere were no blackboards as we have today but I1 made one byusing one yard of black calico cloth tacked to the wall I1

millard chapters D U P milestones of millardaillard opcit p 55

litakenurakenkraken from the writings and history of the writersfather leigh richmond cropper

s io

wasnt

ly

by a

10

meimel

69

taught the three Rsrisrib and it was all study and no recrearecceation12

in an interview with another pioneer william bradfielda ninetyfourninety yearfour old resident of scipio he related to the

writerI1 only went to school in fillmore a few weeks in my life

my mother was a widow and couldntcouldnt afford to send me so allI1 learned I1 had to learn by myself I1 couldnt stand tosee my mother working so hard so I1 quit our biggest con-cern was to get something to eat in those days and bethankful for it I1 was never blessed with an education

in 1885 a church academy was established at fillmoreknown as millard stake academy with 80 students in atten-dance on august 24 1885 a board of directors was electedthis academy had been talked of since 1878188187 when karl Gmaeser visited fillmore and the other settlements in theinterests of education it was the first academy in zionand was conducted in the upstairs room of the old countycourt house also in the tithing office which is now usedas the telephone office and in the state house 14

school was always called to order by prayer the child-ren then wrote on their slates for ten minutes next was

reading class beginning with the fifth grade primer and ending

with the first grade primer arithmetic was the next subject

in order and the last in the morning wabwasvab grammar mrs effieried moody one of the teachers tells how they stayed with thisprocedure and in the afternoon the class schedule was spelling

matches history and geography contests prizes were given to

the student who stayed longest at the head of the class

effle ried moody personal interview deseret utahjune 26 1954 age 85

william bradfleldpersonal interview seipioscipio utahjune 26 1954 age 94

14millardtlllardtallard14 chaptersMillard D U P milestones of millard opcit 9 p 45

tion 12

13

isl4ow

44n

longestat

12effiet

13william bradfbraafleids personalv

450

longestat

13

an

70

PLATE XIII

deseret school building 1885 thisbuilding was also used as the latterdaylattersaint

daymeeting house the picture is of

a group of primary youngsters

15deliadeiladelia

71

delia robison a living pioneer resident of fillmoresays

alma greenwood was my first teacher the school washeld in the old court house which has since been torn downin the early millard academy of 1865 we learned strict obe-dience from the teachers I1 went to school there with yourfather leigh richmond cropper I1 was one of the youngeststudents in school at this time we could only attend twodances at the academy in ten weeks and one dance somewhereelse

oliff andolin a brother of willard andolin led thesinging at the millard academy alonzo hinckley and frankolson were on the debate team they debated which in-fluenced man the mostmoneymost ormoney women

emily crane was also one of our early school teacherswe would have spelling bees which were great fun all thestudents in the class would read in concert in the readingclasses we would also reciterecitmecit tables in concert this wasin the old rock school house 1

in 1889 in a scattered vicinity northwest of deseret

there were enough people to start their own school they held

their first school in the benjamin W scott house located a mile

southbouth of the present elementary school this populated vicinity

later became hinckley named for their stake president alonzo A

hinckley

the writers father leigh richmond cropper jr remem-

bers the first school house in hinckley and it was referred to

as the old mud temple mary bishop later webb was the firstschool teacher she lived with the petersonsPeterleterpeten inBonssons their dugout

during that first winter

education was stressed by the pioneers and they did allthey could to give their children the best education that could

be given at this time

della robison personal interview fillmore utahjune 26 195 age 80

15

1954

fluenced

I1 was only sixteen years old and I1 was veryfrightened I1 got through it all right and played manytimes after that

brother beeston would copy music in salt lake city frombrother stevenssstevenssstevSlovslev musicenss also brother carelesscarelebbs thiswould be but one line for the sopransopranos one line for tenorone line for babebasebassbabbbabs and alto these copies would be passedout to his choir members for rehearsals

the choir would sing one single sentence phrase beforethe sacrament brother beeston would call this sentence

CarecaneleBBs

72

music

singing has been one of the joyous and worshipful ac-

tivities of the mormon people since the establishment of thechurch more than one hundred years ago the leaders of the church

realized the unifying force of community singing and encouraged

it because doctrines ideals and aims of the people could be

imparted through this medium as well as through preaching the

congregation sang in their religious meetings and social gath-

erings small groups congregated in homes and entertained them-

selves with sacred hymns and nonreligiousnon religious songs

music has had an inspirational effect in building faithand joy in the lives of the early pioneers of millard county

this has carried over into the lives of the sons and daughters

of the early settlersone of the most outstanding latterdaylatter saintday choirs in

the early history of millard county was directed by william

beeston delia robison aged eighty who lives in fillmore

said of this outstanding musician

william beeston was called by president brigham youngin 1865 to take over all the music activities in fillmorebrother beeston was born in england and came to utah in1861 he was a fine musician and everyone loved him

brother beeston called me out of the audience one dayto play the organ accompaniment to the song big daughterof zion

mus I1 c

forbass

tivities

OB

16deliadeiladelia

serviBervisenvi cesecesoeese

7573

we could never 8 singing a song in church until it had been prac-ticed for at least three months he was very strict in rehearsalsyhearsalshearhearsheans butalsyalssaisssaissals we all loved him and loved to sing for him 6

each time that delia robison would relate incidents inthe life of william beeston to the writerswriter her face would shine

with admiration in joyous memories

some outstanding material 6nan beestons life and hismusic in millard county has come from the writings of mary lyman

reeves as told to her by beestonbeestons daughter eliza beeston

bartholomew

when he william beeston was called by presidentbrigham young to go out into the sticks to pioneerplonpionpton heeert knewhe would not be paid for his servicesberviceso besides his familyand his education brother beeston had two additional es-sentials one was a tuning fork and the other was aresoluteandresolute unflinchable will to do his job

he picked out his choir members not so much for theirvocal efficiency as their possibility of becoming efficientwith his tuning fork he taught them to strike the exactpitch without sliding or slurring in 1868 william beestonwas the only organist he was leaderleaders conductor managerpresident enlistment committee janitor for the choirpractices finance committee promoter and the executivehead As soon as he could teach different members of thechoir to do these different jobs it was shifted from hisshoulders to theirs

about the middle of the eighties lilly king was calledto be the organist later when the choir needed anotherorganist they called delia robison in to help

mr beeston was never late to the choir practices andexpected the same from his members thursday night of eachweek was the time set aside for choir practice and wasobserved as such for over forty years there were no pavedsidewalks or graded street crossings and they would walkthrough slush and mud in spring and through deep snows inwinter to get to practice nothing except a reasonableexcuse justified one in remaining away some of the membersof this choir served for over forty years they sang atchurch every sunday at all funerals on patriotic programsprogramsprogramssand in fact all special occasions and many times were calledto other towns to sing they received an invitation to sing

della robison personal interview pillmorefillmore utah

sentibentiaisalsrisreeoreBo lute

r16

ith

mubicsicsie

and

probrambsgramss

MB146

written as told to her by his daughter eliza beeston bartholomewin possession of deliadeltadelladeila robison

74

at the dedication of the salt lake temple april 6 1893they contributed richly to the artistic and cultural phaseof life in the wilderness

william beeston talked the same language that other mus-icians of utah talked he knew them all he was welcomedinto the homes and circles of such as george carelessebenezer beesley joseph J daynes joseph ballantyne evanstephens and others they would often loan to him theirown compositions to take home to copy william beestondied february 5 1917 but his memory remains

the other most remarkable choir leader was samuel W

western of deseret ward who later became the patriarch of des-

eret stake brother western was truly a great musician and

possessed the patience and love necessary to be a spiritual and

inspired chorister the writer was given a patriarchal blessingby brother western just prior to fulfilling a latterdaylatter saintday

mission he was very feeble at that time 195419341954 and had to be

helped around his memory was keen and clear and he enjoyed

talking of his past musical experiences

recently in a personal interview with the writerbrother westerns wife alice hutchinson western aged eighty

eight related the following storybishop black prayed for a man to be sent to lead the

choinchoircholn and brother western was an answer to that prayer I1can remember when my husband traded a team of mules for anestey organ to marcellus webb of fillmore brother westernwould load the organ in a wagon and haul it to church forthe meetings then he would haul it back home again so hecould practice on it he sent for a book on how to playthe organ and taught himself many times he would get upin the middle of the night and practice on the organ

one time at a conference after the choir sang brotherrudger clawson said to my husband brother western if youdied now it would be in a blaze of glory your choir musicIs so beautifulbeautifult the meeting house is full of lovely in-fluence john W taylor said the choir was the best choir

mary lyman reeve william beestons choir

59 17

choirand

for

gloryyourfluencet

17mary

cho inandirand

beautifultfuit

des

75

PLATE XIV

an early choir of deseret wardsamuel W western was the choir leader of thisgroup for fifty years brother western tradeda team of mules to marcellus webb for theorgan

76

south of salt lake cityI1 sang soprano in my husbandshusband choir and these are the

members who also sang in his choir isabelle bennett marybishop the writers grandmother joshua bennett benja-min scott mr and mrs james hutchinson joseph S blackmahonrlmahonrimahonra M bishop miss western nellie bishop maurinekelly ann western fannie scottlandscottpand sarah A westernthe accompanist was emily black

this early chorus sang at all the church meetings stake

conferences funerals and patriotic programs brother western

led the choir for over fifty yearsmrs lula bishop cropper age seventysevenseventy andsevenbeven the

writerswriterlswriter mother has often told of how brother western would

give his choir members a peppermint to aid their singing abilitythe choir members loved him for this and would sing with great

feelings and sincere expression mrs cropper sang alto in thischoir

james mace said of brother western brother sam west-

ern kept a record of each of his choir members he sang soprano

tenor alto and bass he would often play his own accompaniment

and sing at the top of his voice while conducting you could

hear him from a far distanceevents concerning early instrumental music and pioneer

musicians is just as colorful as the choirs one of the most

interesting pioneers still alive that played in early orchestrasis johnny shales age seventy five who resides in fillmore

mr shales lives in an old shack about one block eastl1 Q

alice western personal interview deseret utahjune 27 1954 age 88

19james mace personal interview deseret utah june 261954 age 75

s B

scott18pandand

19

18

ls

rand

77

PLATE XV

this is an early picture of the firstband in oak city taken approximately in1896 frank whitehead from hinckley wasthe instructor first row left to rightharry roper jeff finlinson jens andersonjoseph talbot and thomas talbottaltootTaltrltriboottoot

woodtboodt

ahnthn

78

of the main streetstreetsstreete As one approaches the house his attentionIs drawn to a high pile of empty beer cans the fact thatjohnny is an alcoholic accounts for the run down condition of

his surroundings and dirty personal appearance however allthis isJB overlooked when this old musician begins his story of

his beloved instruments yes his beloved instrumentsinstrument because

he has personally made over 100 fine musical instruments from

old discarded furniture part of johnnys early story is as

followsyes I1 played in early pioneer orchestras we made

up our own way of playing by ear he went into his shackand brought out a very peculiar looking guitar this isthe one I1 havent been able to part with in the neck ofthis here guitar is thirtytwothirty piecestwo of different coloredwood if I1 would put it in a tub of water for twentyminutes it would come apart yes I1 played in the old dayswith jim baldwin ed brunson and bill payne bill was ourmanager we would play for the dances sometimes thedances would get a bit rough and the marshal would come inand restore order with his six shooter I1 made all thosebanjos and guitars with the tools that my dad used inhelping build the old state house museum here in fillmoreill

I1moremone

was sure scared at the first dance I1 played thefiddle in deseret it was to a kids party they all likedit and I1 was then invited to play in the regular dancesin pettyspottyspettylspettyes hall 20

located in the state museum at fillmore are a number of

instruments of the early pioneers dan olsons violin is one

of these treasures also the first organ used in the choir re-

hearsals of millard stake the visitor is struck with awe and

reverence as he walks slowly down the hallway which is bedecked

with the pictures of the great latterdaylatter saintday settlers of thearea upstairs are located some of the pianos of the early

times

johnny shales personal interview fillmore utahjuly 5 1954 age 75

20johnny

hearsals

st

20

iii

2lmariemarleelmarie

mariemarle

79

some of the other early instruments were the flute cor-

net violin the stark looked like a spanish guitar only ithad a longer neck baritone horn drums banjo mandolin accor-

dian harmonica and a fifethe pioneers of millard county have imparted a rich

musical heritage down to the present day generation it is a

challenge which we sincerely hope will not go unanswered

social lifemany hardships and trials were forgotten as the early

latterdaylatter saintday settlers relaxed played danced and courted

in pioneer style of social life and recreation it is a thrilli-ng experience to learn of their unusual ways of entertainmenteven before the school houses or chapels were erected the

saints would get together on picnics or dances in someones

home

marherner ie robins age ninetysevenninety andseven the oldest livingpioneer of millard county said

I1 loved to dance for dancing was the most enjoyableand popular forms of social life we had in those earlydays 21

able M roper age eighty six of oak city in a personal

interview related the following totb the writer on recreationour early social life consisted of dancing ball games

horsehonse pulling contests horse races picnics skating sleighriding swimming fishing and horse back riding

george finlinson and myself were the y callers at thedances the young couples were only allowed two waltzesduring the evening as president brigham young had said theydanced too close together nearly all of our early dancingwas square dancing

marie robins personal interview seipiosciplot utah age 97

porlar2

nets

biesieble and the square dance sometimeswe were allowed to waltz

some of the members of the dance orchestra were albertpetty and his wife josephine thomas mcfiddlemcplddleFiddlefiddiemckiddleMc and billiemccloud albert petty would call a letter to his wife andshe would chord on the organ while he fiddled the letterhe would call would indicate the key in which she was tochord

one night shortly after the girls began to powder theirfaces albert petty came to the dance with flour all overhis face we thought that to be quite a stunt 2523

sometimes the young people would go to cropper lane and

swing in the high trees alice western stated they didt thinkthis was breaking the sabbath day

abel roper personal interview oak city utah age 86

effie ried moody personal interview deseret utahage 85effle23effie

didndian t

80

at firstirstarst there was no charge at our dances but laterdance tickets were bought with potatoes squashysquash a gallonof molasses fence posts or anything people could use oreat many times the orchestra members were paid with theproduce paid as tickets because money was so scarce 2

it seems strange and humorous to us today in regards to

the habits and social life of the early mormon pioneers stillif we but stop and consider there are really many things which

are done in a like manner of the early settlers such as girlshanging around a central place to get a date with the boys

effleeffie ried moody said

in the early days the young girls would hang around theold town well so the boys would ask them for a date grand-ma ried was in charge of about forty girls and they wouldoften go to the dances in groups the girls would do theirhair in a bob on top of their head cut their bangs andput flaxseed on their hair to make it stay put it seemsto make as much sense as our present day hair styles of theyounger set willow hoops were placed in the dressesand several petticoats had to be worn wire bustles stuckout so far in back that you could almost put a baby on them

burlap moccaslnedmoccasined feet and even barefeetbare werefeet seen whilewe danced the minuet or the quadrille my favorite dance wasthe polka other dances which we danced were the shottishshottlshschottishShotlancers

tishtrollie hoppslehoppsieheppsieHoppsHopp le

f

2 he

indi cate

22abel

81

when the sport of ashingfishingishing was going full swing extra

fish were caught for the special purpose of getting harness oilbenjamin hancock robison relates the method used in obtaining

harness oil when& we had extra fish we would place them in

the hot sun and the fat would run out of them we would then

use the oil from the fishish to oil our harnesses 224

buggies were not common in the early days of millardcounty so the pioneers would use lumber box wagons filled withyoung people in traveling to dances and parties the fourthof july and the twentyfourthtwenty offourth july were outstanding events

in the lives of the saintsthe writers father leigh richmond cropper jr used

to tell us of an interesting experience hishib father and uncle

had in learning and teaching a new dance leigh richmond crop-

per 3rar and wise cropper his brother went to salt lake cityto school while they were there they learned a new dance

upon their return to fillmore everyone was anxious to have

them demonstrate this dance the next public dance was held in

the upper story of the old state building wise and leigh each

chose a graceful partner the floor was cleared of dancers in

order that the crowd could watch the demonstration dan olsensorchestra played the blue danube waltz and the first waltz

ever danced in mlllardmillardmallard county was expertly danced it was the

first time a boy had ever been allowed to take a girl in hisarms while dancing as square dances were the only dances per

PA24benjamin hancock robison journal MS at statemuseum fillmore utah

f

f

traveilng

wllwilwitliamlliamllamilaml

I1think the dances in the old state house are most vivid inmy memory

blackboards in front of the & R huntsman store andthe card in can melvilles barbershop were the means ofadvertising the big events coal oil lamps on the wallswere lighted early in the evening and in winter wood fireswere built in two big stoves

we had to start dressing about six oclock our high-top shoes had to be laced so carefully then we lighted thelamp and put the curling irons in to heat we crimpedand curled and wound our long hair in a bob then fancyhairpins or side combs flowers or ribbons were arranged tothe bestbeat advantage after our head and feet were dressedwe felt that we were practically ready we laced upud ourcorsets a little tighter put on our starched petticoatsand lastly our dresses we used very little makeupmake andupwe were ready to go

the dances began at eightthirtyeight pmthirty we mounted thatlong flight of stairs on the north and the first one wesaw on entering was william P payne who was the dancemanager for years

the musicians were already there tuning up when jumbaldwin drew his bow across his fiddle jum aycockmaycockVl tootedhis cornet johnny shales plunked on the banjo and edbrunson struck G chord on the organ our fun began

mr payne would call numbers from one to twentyfivetwentytake

fivepartners for a waltz

wilamallam

82

miffed by the church up to this time before the evening was

over everyone in the hall had tried the new waltzmrs rhoda ashman melville wrote of her memories of the

pioneer dances

of all the memories I1 have of the good old days

then over the waves wasplayed numbers from twentyfivetwenty tofive fifty take partnersfor a waltz and then we thrilled to the music of dollyxrayorayonaygray to

&

on the stage in one corner was a tin bucket of waterwith a dipper from which we quenched our thirst A coupleof halfgrown boys would earn a dance ticket carrying waterduring the evening from joe paynes well across the streetindividual drinking cups were unknown but so was trenchmouth

after the dance if it were summer we would go withour beaux over in town to a little iceteelee cream parlor run bymaggie melville kelly A bouquet of flowers and a largedish of oyster crackers were in the middle of the table webought fivecentfive dishescent of ice cream and ate tencentsten worthcentsof crackers

those were the good old days some of us no doubthave attended some pretty swell dances since but I1 venture

11

half grown

T

8583

to say that none of us have attended any like those in theold state house 25

part of the recreation at this time in fillmore was

plays among those who aided in the promotion of dramatics were

miiMilestop oryo0110oryaolzy

tat2

wouldbewouldve

john kelly john cooper mrs orson tylertylen albershales and adellaadeliaadeila robtsonrobison lyman when the adobe meetinghouse was finished plays were held in this building whichwas a great improvement over the old school house in thefort in 1865661865 clarence66 merrill tells us he directed atroupe in fillmore who put on plays in the state housethey built a stage and made their own scenery of factorythat cost 1.20120 a yard his wife bathsheba made costumesand helped design the scenery they went in debt 65000f65000to begin with but paid all their debts with the proceedsof the first twelve nights of playing the plays rangedfrom high tragedy to low comedy 26

the pioneers made their own enjoyment and pleasure and

it was shared by everyone their secret of social life was

participationthough they had none of the luxuries of life it did

not stop them from making the most of what they had and thor-oughly enjoying it how very fitting it would be if we could

erect a monument to each of these individuals who contributed to

the meaning of the word pioneer

conclusion

looking ahead many people of this area feel that the

future is in agriculture with the development of reclamation

projects a new source of water will find its way into the aridvastness of millardmiliard county there are many acres of potentiallyproductiveproductiveland and awaiting that muchneededmuch waterneeded on these acres

all types of crops may be grown thousands of acres of orchards

25mlllard25millard25 DUPMillard milestonesmilestop of illardmillard op cit p 102

ibid t p 95

1 orson

L

2695e

650 00

product iveland

120

84

may be planted to take over production of muchneededmuch fruitsneeded of

this state and for markets on the coast grain and hay could

be produced in abundance to be used as forage and feed forcountless thousands of cheep cattle and hogs that may be fed

here to produce a meat supply so badly needed in the west

hundreds of pump wells are being drilled or contemplated

which will bring new and additional acres of highly productive

lands under cultivationthere are still thousands of acres that will have been

planted to the new grass species that have been found now or

will be found in the future these acres could produce lushpastures where today only sage and shad scale grow

two super continental highwayshighway six and ninety one ex-

tend through the county and provide desired transportation

routes for farm produceproducprodoc to good markets these highways bring

in a great deal of tourist trade

there will be at least three new cities spring up in

which thousands of prosperous farm families will make theirheadquarters and where new business places schools and churches

will be developed furthermore the towns and cities that are

already in millard county will grow in importance and population

another large airport may be built where big cargo

planes can load and unload planes could be used in the move-

ment of perishable farm produce

some of these statements may sound like a fantasticdream in some respects yet every statement is definitely within

the realm of possibility especially if advancement in the next

e

so

85

one hundred years is as great as the past one hundred years

have been

the following few pages are pictures ofsome of the oldest living pioneers of millardcounty who were personally interviewed by thewriter

86

PLATE XVI

william bradfield ageninety four an early resi-dent of scipio who walkedacross the plains he hashad many experiences of pio-neer hardships brotherbradfield has a keen memoryand a great sense of humor

early

sn00.00

87

PLATE XVII

john shales age seventysix fillmore early fiddlerand guitar player for danceshe has made over one hundredmusical instruments from oldfurniture he used his fath-er s tools in making themwhich his father had used inhelping to build the statecapitol building in fillmore

erts

88

PLATE XVIII

able M roper and his wife mrroper was bornbomboa in 1868 just two hund-red yards from the old mud fort belowthe town of deseret he Is eightysixeightyyears

sixold and his wife is eighty they

have lived nearly all their life in oakoltycity moving there from deseret as aresult of the dam being washed away

89

PLATE XIX

effie reed moody ageeighty six early residentand one of the first schoolteachers of deseret mrsmoody was born in fillmore in1868

i

i

sonssong ageeighty daughter of albertroblsonrobisonroalsonRob playedlsonibon the organfor the early choir in fill-more sister robison spentmonths of her girlhood daysin the polygamy underground

90

PLATE XX

delia RobRobirobisonlsonison

she was one of the firststudents of the mi nardhardacademy

millard

91

PLATE XXI

mariemarlekarlekarie robins oldestliving resident of millardcounty age ninety sevenmrs robins walked acrossthe plains at the age ofnine her memory is excel-lent concerning her earlypioneer experiences but notso good on recent years

92

PLATE XXII

james mace seventyfive moved to deseret in1891 brother mace Is afarmer at the present timein early days of millardcounty he was a freighter

9593

PLATE XXIII

martha mace age seventyeight came to deseret when shewas three years old1879oldoid 1879wife

I1

of jjames mace

1 9i

i

i

ihadahad

rar4 WILLIAM H BRADFIELD

AGE NINETY FOURfourtfoury PERSONAL INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITER

IN SCIPIO UTAH

question what Is your name

answer my name well I1 hate to tell you but itwas william H and how I1 hated that H on the re williamhenry bradfield and after I1 got bigger I1 cut that henryout all I1 could you know then I1 got to running the mailand when I1 had to sign my name I1 cut out everything I1 couldbecause I1 never had no chance to go to school

question how old are you

answer how old am I1 well im forty nine youcan put it either way you want to I1 am 49 or 94 nowjust the way I1 look I1 might look just like a kid but anywayI1 am ninety four

question I1 believe I1 can tell why you have stayedso young because you have such a sharp memory and sense ofhumor you were telling about wise and thomas cropper

answer you know I1 thought the world of wise cropperbecause I1 hired to them to cook for seven men out on therange when they were gathering cattleoattiecattlescatties and I1 thought wisewas as nice a man as I1 ever worked for in my life georgecropper was kind of a little relationship but george wasa different man sometimes I1 just had a wagon and thecooking material in the wagon and I1 had to camp whereverthey could get to the cattle sometimes the wind would beblowing so hard up against the sand banks and george wouldcome along and say havent you got anything I1 could eatand id say I1 tell you george I1 have some bread

APPENDIX A MILLARD COUNTY PIONEERPIOLIEE

but I1couldnt make no coffee and couldnt fry no meat the panwould be full of sand we had plenty of bread and meatbacon and cheese hed jaw a little but when wise camealong he would say thats all right billy aint no mancould cook a day like this almost blow the wagon overyou know then wise would talk to me well thats allright you just hook up your team and pull over on theisland in below deseret and let old george go home fordinner well that tickled me you know

some of the people would come to camp on the islandwhere we camped of course I1 had to go just about wherethe cattle could make to you know we stopped and got all

94

there

toi

youngbecause

coffee meatthe

answerl

tol

1.1

I1 used towork there for my board and clothes you know about that apair of overalls and I1 was bare footed no shoes didntneed no shoes I1 kind of went through fillmore you knowand just any way in the world just to get through many atime I1 went out with the boys and the horses just to getsomething to eat see my father died before we ever leftengland and left my mother with four that wasnt able totake care of theirselves and I1 happened to be the youngestone in the bunch

questionquestionoquestions how old were you when you came to utah

answer well I1 was between nine and ten years old

question you probably walked across the plainsanswer yes I1 walked every step that a kid could

walk now ill tell you youre old enough maybe theladlesladiesledies wouldnt have an idea but there was nine of us tothe one wagon just a common wagon box joe rogers offillmore was the man that had the team and there was nineof us in that wagon when it would blow or anything youwould have to cuddle up together we couldnt lay downno place to layley down and some nights when the indians gotclose near the rooky Mountainmountains captain murdock of beaverwas the captain and he would have them pull all the wagonsaround in a circle and then put the horses and the cattlecattiecattiin that corral then he wanted every man to leave theharness on the horses and hitch up and drive a mile or twono fires would not allow no fires made nor no candles inthe wagons and you know I1 was nine years old but it was

I1

hadeanhavean

95

the beds out of the wagon and all the cooking utensilsyou know cooking for seven of them and there was nothingmuch to do fry meat and cook the eggs and make coffeecoffeey thatwas the main thing my gosh it was a fright to camp outyou know sometimes I1 wouldnt see anyone until dark whenthey would come to camp at night I1 would fix the supperand do the dishes and go to bed and get up just at daylightand the way they would go again

question do you remember some of the pioneer exper-iences here in scipio or fillmore

answeranbwer well when I1 come into fillmore as I1 told youover there to the old peoples party they wanted me to givea history of myself I1 says well now brethren if I1started and told you when I1 came into fillmore bare footedboy and I1 says I1 have worked here in fillmore when I1 got soI1 could work for a half gallon of molasses a day and whenI1 would play with the boys you know some mothers would comeout and saybayeby are you boys hungry now and fix a slice ofbread and molasses and of course billy was there and hegot a slice and wherever I1 got a slice of bread and molassesit was mighty good and accepted illitllliliiii tell you

f ix

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footedno shoesiI

e

Quest loneionotonool01

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serious I1 thoughtthoughts and sometimes when we all got up inthe wagon you would have an idea we had our bedding andcooking outfit allaliail we had we didnt have much to cookand we would have to get along that way and then alongabout daylight we would all get out and walk just as faras we could my poor mother many a time when it was so hotwhen we were camped for noon not only her alone but manyan old sister would go and sit down again the wagon andput their backs again the wheel you know they were tiredout walking all the time

question let me ask you about music of the earlyernlyarea for this paper I1 am writing for my thesis at brighamyoung university have you had any experience singing inchoirs

answer they never done as much singing across theplains as they done on the ocean when we were on theocean and it was sunday the young folks would generallyget up on the deck on top and play bammergarnergamesbames and some of themwould sing and some of them would talk a little and have apretty nice time until it got pretty serioussenious

question do you remember in the early days offillmore did you do any singing in the early choirs

answer I1 have got a book here that was printedthrough the early days I1 had a brotherinlawbrother thatin sanglawin the chstrch63brch6tr and I1 had a brother that sang in the choirin old deseret

question under sam western

answer under sam western yes my wife sang underhim too

question what was your brothers name that sang inthe ch6iroh6irchairohair in deseret

answer tom bradfield and john mills that was thebrother in law john dewsnup led the choir quite a longtime there in deseret and john goulteroulterG

question did they have any instruments any pianoorgan or fiddles

answer well they had a little old bass organ youknow thats all we ever danced under was one fiddle youknow when they would have a dance of course theyd haveto go and pay for the ticket and you couldnt go and dancelike you do now you had to dance with your partner andtake her off the floor and give somebody else a chancenow they go to a dance and if you are my partner I1 dancewith you all through the dance that dont give nobody else

outfitall

for

theearly

D

9.9

howkownow maybe it waswab a funny story but I1 went out with-out a pair of pants on and the water was so deep and frommy place if it hadnt been for willows you couldnt tellwhere to go and I1 had a dobe house that I1 had bought therewelldellkellkeilseilseii during the night I1 hooked up the team and pulled upto the wagon and put my wife and two children two littleboys in the wagon and we pulled up to brother blacksit was two in the night wellweliweilweils in the morning after we gotup and tried to go down to the home to get a few duds outof the front room I1 mired one of my horses right by thedoor I1 went to get our chickens and what little we had

there and we lost all that we had there and then of courseit was so bad that I1 came to scipio to work thats how I1got to scipio

I1 went to fillmore and maybe you have heared of deardonand davis were running a mill up in the cantoncarbonearboneardoneancan theyronwanted me to go and log I1 had a pretty good team wellwhen I1 got to inquiring about it I1 had to wait until theysawed some lumber then take the lumber down in town andget sale before I1 could get anything to eat my gosh I1cant eat lumber and ive got my wife and two children

I1 says we are flooded out and we have got to get out ofhere

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a chance we used to have to break our neck to get a girlim going to dance with so and so then you have to run

if you get her because im going to dance with her andthey away we would go that was in fillmore in the oldstate house then of course the music you have now a daysyou have got to have the best of muslmusicmusi to dance wecouldnt dance the troleyhopsletroleyhopsietroley orhopsie all them dances withjust a fiddle they wouldnt go

question in your conferences when the church offi-cials came down from salt lake city do you remember as ayoung man in the early days of instances regarding havingyour prayers answered and faithpromotingfaith experiencespromoting ifyou would like to maybe mention one or two of those whenyou were young

answer when I1 was living in deseret that is whenpanguitch lake broke we got word in deseret to look outbelow and my neighbor and me we were living close togetherwe had been working two or three days building a dyke rightalong the river so finally this night came and the doorwas facing east and I1 happened to be looking out and wewere afraid of the water and I1 said to my wife my dear

then I1 hearedbeaned about a place over here some people downbelow was running a farm and they needed help so I1hitched up my team and came over here

question over to scipioanswer yebyesyese and then I1 went down in the bottom

they were living down below and I1 went down and saw them

ei7 1

c

offi

hap ened

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and they needed a man and theyd give me two bushel ofwheat a day and what potatoes we needed and a place for myhorses if I1 would stay with them until the harvest time wasdone and I1 thought I1 was just in heaven so I1 pulled inthere and we stayed there well I1 worked until threshingwas over and then I1 rented a little place down below hereand I1 tried to haul potatoes from here and grain and every-thing that I1 could haul to deseret to help make a living

then I1 got me a set of logs from a man here I1 borrowedthem and put up a little room over here and went up in thehills and cut some posts and splitspilt them and laid them ontop of a ridge and then I1 mixed up some mud and strawplastered on the top of them and put a pole up each sideone down to the bottom to hold the stuff there and afterI1 got plenty of mud and straw on there then I1 put dry dirton blesblessbiessbies your soul we moved into that little cabin withno floor for all winter long and a quilt up to the doorwe didnt have a window we borrowed an old half of awindow sash from some man here and thats the way we hadto get along

question will you relate your experience comingover on the ocean

answer when we were on the ocean I1 should judgewe were on the ocean about two weeks well anyway theycouldnt anchor so you can tell it was pretty deep theyhad the rollers on each side they let the anchor down onboth sides and they couldnt strike a thing to help every-body was ordered down below and the wind blowed and youcan tell how the ship would be agoing with the wind allowingablowingand we had to hang on for dear life buckets and pans wouldgo from one side to the other and about nine I1 had aholdabholdof my mothers left hand and my sister was on the otherside we were standing right maybe here there was a gang-way therthere I1 can see it you know and then the captainour captain of the saints name was mcgaul that was hisname and the captain of the ship came along and unlockedthe door and came down the steps and my mother and me andmy sister was standing here and the captain was standingjust about like there and he come down them steps and hedidnt call him brother or nothing about it and he saysbeysbatby

macmae if you believe theres a god you better pray to himfor tt he says I1 have give the ship up it is in thehands of the sailors and I1 can do no more and its up toyou ti

and he had one of those rubbersyourubbers knowyou how they wereand the water was just running off of him well he turnedand went up those steps and locked the door and we couldntget out even if the water was coming in had us all lockedin and the captain of the saints went around and rightagain our bunksjustbunks ajust good step to where our bunks wasand he said to my mother well mother we are going tohave prayer right by your bunk and they knelt down and

s

esaintsname

nameand

maemac

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he prayed and my mother prayed and he went around thedeck of that floor and then came back and went down belowthere was another tier below you know he went down thereand we stood there until finally he came back and we couldtell the water was getting better that Is the ship didtdidntgo so bad so he says well mother youypuapu can go and laydown now so after a little bit we went over to the bunksand we layedbayed down and in the morning you never saw such asight in your life when we were allowed to go up therewas the sails and the mast and something of the riggingbroke and the sun come out and the steam began to come upoff the floor and illlii tell you if ever there was a crowdthat was sick and it wasntwast only us kids that was cryingof course we knowedknowel we was going to be drowned but motherwas like every other mother the lord isntist going tohave us drowned but we was just satisfied we were goingto the bottom

but anyway in the morning when he would allow us togo up when we got some of the things straightened aroundyou never saw such a ruined thing it was all broken topieces but the main mast you know it took them all daylong and raised one big sail up and all the quarter salissailsbailsbalissalibthat ran out was broken off and laying down in the shipshipla

then it took up after over this sidesidevbidesadev took ten days togo from new york to laramie city on the trail that was asfar as the train went they dumped our dunnage out thereon the ground and then the indians they would come up andwanted to trade for papoose you know and my sister wasthere and they wanted to trade my mother a gun and twohorses maybe so trade two horses trade mule maybe sogun for your papoose wanted my mother to give her up youknow and like the captain said be just as good to themas you could be but I1 never saw as homely faces on anindian in my life after we got this far as there was onthem indians when they came down to camp of course theyjust came as all naked all they had was a britchcloutbritchall

cloutthey had was a piece of rawhide in the horseshorsed mouth

no ropes or anything just that sinew and with a bow andarrow that was the main fighting material they had butwe got along inefinelne of course we had to walk all we could

question you walked from laramie wyoming into saltlake

answer right into salt lake cityquestion do you ever remember seeing brigham young

answer yes when he canecameeane to fillmore he came in acovered wagon just a whitetappedwhite toppedtapped buggy with little mulesand it was a conference time and I1 was like other boys I1didnt like to go to meeting but mother said I1 would likeyou to go with me today brother it is conference ft andI1 went and brigham young stood up and told the people the

aroundthe

f

horsestrade11

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0n

conferenee

conferencearence

seesseeybeeyI1 says you stop until that comes by I1 says

here is the carriage

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condition things was in then what to do and all and hesays I1 want to tell you that you will never see the timethat the latterdaylatter saintsday wontwonftvontwonet have something to do witha little but he said if the other nations will come inon you and that is what will cause the trouble so ofcourse it is like he said in them days there was no trainthis side of lanLarlaramielaramieamleamie city and some of you brothers andsisters I can see his finger going I1 was one of thebrothers and I1 didnt think I1 would be here today buthe says some of you brothers and sisters will live to seethe day you will see a locomotive puffing in fillmore

1

well we camped out with the horses up in the hills inthe grass lots of the old fellows that knowedknowel brigham youngknowedknowel a fellow gave him a pretty tough name for making sucha speech to have a railroad coming into fillmore neverbe in the world you will live to see that engine puffingin fillmore and furthermore you will ride in carriages thatwill go without horses but I1 cant see just how they willgo and these birds you will see birds pflyingaflying you canttell just how they will go

but I1 havhave lived to see all of that after I1 wasmarried my daughter lived in holden she married one ofthe badger boys burtonbunton badger and he bought a bunch ofcattle and they were down to flowellowellalowellFl and he wanted me togo down with him and look at them I1 went down and as wewere going along I1 said hold on burton there comes alocomotive thats what brigham young saidysaidsald and I1 was oneof them brethren that was going to see that locomotive

now andhe had a car seebee and we were riding

in this carriage and he said you will be riding in acarriage that will go without horses well we had thatcar there and was going down to look at the cattle therewas both of the things he said had come to pass in my memoryand like I1 tell them today why there aint enough onearth to make me believe I1 didndian t hear brigham young saythem words you know

my memory has been oh I1 think I1 have said I1 believeI1 have got the best memory in the world I1 remember whenmy father died when I1 wasbetweenwas sixbetween and seven years oldand we lived in a place they called newberry but how weever got from newberry to a place they called eastleighEast I1leighdont know but I1 can mark out right things in that new-berry where I1 was born then we moved father was themain sawyer in the lumber yard and then they moved fromthere to eastleighEast thatleigh was sixty miles from london thatis where we lived when we came to this country how we evergot there I1 dont know

questionquestions do you remember who the stake president waswhen brigham young came and made that wonderful prophecy

answer thomas callisteroalCaloai thellsterlister old gentleman he was

1

birdsyou

boysburton

ffiys

I1 said brother thank you butI1 dont know what there is for me to do I1 thought theonly thing that I1 could do was to go and visit the sick

I1 never was blessed with an education my mother gotme to go to school one term and she took and paid the payin washing and there was no wash boards in them days andat last I1 told her no schooling for me ill just go throughmy life without an education for my poor old mother cominginto this country and working the way she did to make aliving I1 wasnt agoing to have her pay for my schoolingso I1 never got no education only what little I1 picked up

interview ended with a request that he sing a songand he responded by singing alice ben bolt

101

as nice a man as you ever saw I1 remember him as I1 wouldbrigham young

question do you remember any of the names of theearly people who played in the orchestras

answer dan olsen was the main fiddler of fillmorehe played forfon a long time and had his own family there hehad dances

question would the pioneers ever dance on sundaydid they ever break the sabbath day

answer they didnt have no sunday work thats onething I1 can say imvm pretty good in is sunday work saturdayI1 got my hoe and my shovel and like the old nigger I1 put

cmem up so they wouldnt get rusty I1 never use them onsunday

question maybe that is why the lord has blessedyou so and you have lived so long and have such a wonderfulmemory

answer I1 never liked to work on sunday and an-other thing I1 loved my neighbors one man said the otherday to me do you really love your neighbor I1 certain-ly do you know after I1 was left alone for eight yearsthere wasnt hardly a week but that I1 would stay in a placeI1 would just go from one settlement to another whereverthere was sickness I1 went and visited them sick peopleand when I1 left salt lake out of the hospital there was onebrother there promised me I1 would come home and there waslots for me to do well

0

for

josjob ephine

APPENDIX B FIRST CHOIR MEMBERS

the following are the names of the first choir members

under the direction of william beeston choir leader in fill-more utah the list was obtained in a personal interview with

delia robison age eighty of fillmore utahann ashmanmary paynemaggie trimblephoebe henryella reesenellie hinckleydelia robisoneva 01son greenwoodfrances thompson kellymary ann caricarl ingelizabeth carling gileseliza beebbees ton bartholomewlouie giles framptonnellie holbrookedith robison andersonannie carlingelizabeth partridgemary hawley rayjosephine greenwoodmelissa russell olsenemma payne sibleyemma trimblemay cooper stevensruby callisterCalli raysteraterhattie carling critchley

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olson

carlingbeeston

lubPugmiresmines

APPENDIX GC celebrating THE twentyfourthTWENTY

OF

FOURTH

JULY

one of the most interesting events for the pioneers

was the fourth of july and the twentyfourthtwenty offourth july thefollowing is a program that was given in fillmore thursday

july twentythirdtwenty andthird twenty fourth probably before 1875

the year was not given

A fine liberty pole ninety feet long spliced andframed by mr wm ibbsgibbsG was raised in the center of thepublic square at fillmore amid hearty cheers and music bythe brass band the starsstartstansstant and stripes of our national flagwas raised july 24th the following program both pre-liminary and actual was the order of the day

ist A salute of twentyonetwenty gunsone and hoisting of nation-al colors at sunrise by captain joseph pugmirespugmirecompany of infantry and amid music by danielolsens brass band

2ndand citizens and schools met at city hall and at 950930AM in the following order under the directionof the marshall of the day R A mcbride

1 music by dan olsens band2 president thomas callisteroaiCaloal andllsterlister orator

of the day andrew henry53 members of zions camp pioneers and members

of mormon battalianbattakianBat4

taliancommittee of arrangements

5 relief society officers6 ward choir7 fathers and mothers in israel8 12 young men representing the strength of

israel9 12 young ladies dressed in white represent-

ing the beauty of zion10 juvenile choir in charge of john dutson11 sunday school in care of teachers12 citizens and friends13 procession march to state house 950930 AM14 house called to order by marshall of the

davday15 music by brass band

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lvolneyolneyainey humaniahumanim

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16 singing by choir17 prayer by chaplin reuben mcbride18 singing by juvenile choir19 oration by A henry orator of the day20 music by brass band21 song by john kelley and lizzie henry22 speech by thos callister2523 music by brass band24 patriotic song by john dutsondutsodotso and

juvenile choir25 reminessencesreminessencebRemin ofessences mormon battalianbattakianBat bytalian

M J shelton26 music by brass band27 singing by trio the anchor is weighed

by john cooper caroline dutson andannie carlingCarll

28ng

regular and volunteer toasts29 singing by choir5030 benediction by chaplin 1

oiney king millard county 185118751851187591851 187518759 utah human-ities review 1I 389589

n

I1

puthimeuthim

APPENDIX D DAN OLSONS VIOLIN

when dan arrived in fillmore one sunny day in junethe first thing that the fellers said was dan give us a tunebeneath his arm there rested his cherished violinthat had filled the saints with gladness as they had never beenand when the gathered hokelshekels heard him strike a cord in G

then tickle on the keyboard strains from cross the seayou should have seen their faces they did lots more than grinAs they heard the music poppin from that blessed violinhis hair was dark and wavy face pale and eyes of bluehe had won a charming maiden with that fiddle well he knewnow he charmed the populace their plaudits did he winAs he tore off yards of music from that good old violinthey gathered at the old state house and danced from night till

dawnnever seemed to tire as the tunes propelled them onand when they policedfoliced homeward with smiles from eyes to chintheir voices echoed melodies from that entrancing violinthe lure of his music caught the ear of brigham youngand set his legs to flying like any son of a gunmany an aged codger with rheumatics and goutwould carry on so frantic1ly theyd holler put him outwith ringing trills and quavers hilarious with dinhe banged away mid tumult on that dog connedgonned violinhe wouldnt stop for nothinbothin not even wine or ginif he thot he was neglectneglectinneglection that old faithful violinon summer sabbath evenings his heart was soft in prayerhe frowned upon loud laughter no one was lowedblowed to swearAs twilight gently sheenedsheenen the town and a crescent moon shone inhis muted tough unsnapped the box of that sacred violinAs tho a guiding spirit had cast a magic wantthe strains were set a floating with the family evening songcathline mavournin ave marie

beautiful blue danube the old pine treestrains the night elfsalfs call for as they whisper on the windvibrated with a softened touch from that dear old violinin the summer when the garden and the farm were green and goldhe would do what he called farmin as was wont in days of oldthen twas hook up nedgedbed and bally to a wagon and a rackgoG ao joltin down the roadway as the buckskin whip hed crackfirst twas mow a little clover then hed shovel out a ditchagain decided it was better to a shovelashovel plow to hitch

105

in

oteroenoier

onsont and go blowinplowin thru the cornthen switch off to loadinloadin1loadingleadin fodder for the cattle in the barn

he would do a lot of thinkinthinkintthinkieththin ininkinkintkinf this dreary country lifedo the things the prophet told him ceptincaptin take another wifesometimes he paid his tithin

earahearav

106

old ned his boon companioncompani

when the bishop gave the rapwent to meetinmeetin1meetins of a sunday to enjoy a little naphe would sometimes tell the children when his heart with joy

was fullabout a man who fiddled the immortal ole bull

when I1 listened to his music feelinbeelin like a manakinI1 thot well this is heaven I1 under oles violinin the old historic state house dan played just one dance morehe felt lifes powers waning his trials would soon be oerbut the spirit rested on him as the glamor reached his earseansand he played with mighty ferverfervor while smiling thru his tearsevery heart was beating high with joy it didndian t seem the samethe clear inspiring tones rang out that brot forth loud acclaimA rich bequest he left us when he passed this world of sinthat partner in the muse of life that long loved violin

edmund T olsoni

inlin historical files of west millard chapter daughtersof the utah pioneers delta utah

t

smilin

14

milemlle

gibbsogibbson

bibliography

books

bancroft hubert howe historyibtory of utah 15401887154018511540 18871851 sanfrancisco the history company 1890

beckwith frank millard and nearby sprlngvlllespringville utah artcity publishing company 19521932

bolton herbert E pageant3geantP in the wilderness salt lake cityutah state historical society 1950

this is the story of the escalante expedition to theinterior basin 17761775 including the diary and itinerary offather escalante translated and annotated

cameron marguerite this is the place caldwell idahocaxton printers 19391959

carter kate B heart throbs of the west vol I1 salt lakecity daughters of utah pioneersPioneer 1947

east and west millard chapters of daughters of utah pioneersmilestones of millard compiled by stella day and sebrinasebrine C

ekins sprlngvlllespringvilleSpring utahville art city publishing company1951

gibbs josiah lights and shadows of mormonism salt lake citysalt lake tribune publishing company 1909

hunter milton reed utah in her western settingsettine salt lakecity deseret news press 19431945

widtsoeWidt johnsoe andreas how the desert was tamed salt lakecity deseret book company 1947

newspapers articles and reports

blade 1894 from the files of these newspapers by the editorjosiah F Q ibbs this was the first and only newspaperever published in deseret utah

deseret news A small article written saturday december 1519061906

107

H

nea Springville

stones

sj

gibbs

aithaltsaltsait

ochisofhis

108

millard county chronicle centennial edition delta utah1947 written by the editor frank beckwith on the historyof the early pioneers

state museum A pamphlet given to each visitor at the fill-more state museum fillmore utah 1954

utah humanities review taming the turbulent sevier by leon-ard J arrington

utah humanities review an article by volney king in which hecopied the exact words and style of his fatherfathers journalvol 1I 4

visit to millard county by andrew jensen may 4 1922alt lake city utah this recalls the fate of captain

gunnisongunnisonG and partyyoung levi edgar the state of deseret salt lake tribune

septemberSep 3tembertomber 1950

unpublished materialblack joseph S history of deseret contributed to daughters

of utah pioneers by peter T black whose father joseph Sblack the first bishop of deseret kept a written weeklyaccount of happenings

cropper leigh richmond history of his life he is thewriters father

deseret irrigation company the first minute book of thecompany furnished by E J eliason of deseret utah

deseret stake historical records in a vault at deltaseminary delta utah

deseret ward first minute book contains minutes of con-ferences held in deseret when the stake was millard stakefor the entire county this book is in the possessionof a resident at deseret he will not turn the book in tothe church and does not wish his name disclosed

millard stake journal this is in the stakestare house fillmoreutah

reeve mary lyman life of william beeston as told bybeestonbeestons daughter eliza beeston bartholomew in possessionof delia robisonRob fillmorelsonison utah he was an early musician

robison adellaadeliaadeila R early pioneer history A speech given ata DUP progreprogramprogra july 279 1952

bees ton

M tultuiV y

ferences

dui

marmany kellkeilkeli

nannikarni ck

109

rogers sadie history of fillmore in D U P files atmuseum in fillmore utah

wards of deseret stake minute books in a vault at the deltaseminary delta utah

journals

bennett john R A journal of joshua bennebennettbennettt and his sonjohn R bennett deseret utah

black joseph S A journal of his life in millard county hewas the first bishop of deseret in possession of his sonpeter T black delta utah

black filliamwilliamli reuben early pioneer of deseret in possessionof his daughter in law amanda croft conk delta utah

croft jacob an early pioneer and first presiding elder ofdeseret in possession of his daughter amanda croft conkdelta utah

cropper thomas A son of leigh richmond cropper sr one ofthe early pioneers of deseret in possession of hisdaughter mary C reeves hinckley utah

damron marymany keilykelly she worked in the first newspaper in des-eret she helped set the type for josiah ibbsgibbsG for hisnewspaper in possession of her daughter mrs norma D

bright delta utahpowell john early pioneer in millard county this in the

possession of his granddaughter mrs mary dame fillmoreutah

warnick graceG Crace age 75 daughter of leigh richmond croppersr an early pioneer of fillmore and deseret

personal interviews

bradfield william H age 94 scipio utah A mormon pioneerwho walked across the plains as a young boy

croppercropperycroppersCroporop lulapery bishop age 78 hinckley utah daughter ofearly pioneer mahonri bishop of deseret she is thewriters mother

dame mary age 76 fillmore utah past president of eastchapter of DUP at fillmore utah

hanson loa black age about 65 she is past president ofDUP and tourist guide at state museum at fillmore utah

jos eph

ttl

110

huntsman alonzo age 70 fillmore utah past superinten-dent of millard county schools

huntsman nellie M age 70 fillmorevillmore utah wife of alonzohuntsman and is a tourist guide at state museum fillmoreutah

mace james age 76 deseret utah son of early pioneers ofdeseret interviewed june 26 195419540

mace martha el laslabiab on age 78 nifewifesife of james mace and also adaughter of early pioneers in millard county

moody effie ried age 85 deseret utah early schoolteacher of deseret utah

moody normamorma age 60 deseret utah daughter of effie moody

robins maria age 97 scipio utah an early pioneer offillmore utah walked across the plains when 9 years ofacreageabe

robison deliadeltadelladeiladeita R age 80 fillmore utah early pioneer ofmillard county told the writer of her life and of benja-min H robison her grandfather one of the first settlersin millard county

roper able age 86 oakocak city utah A sonbon of early pioneersof millard county

roper mrs able age 80 oak city utah A daughter ofearly pioneers of deseret and oak city

shales johnny age 76 fillmore utah musician and builderof musical instruments

western alice age 88 deseret utah wife of early choirleader and stake patriarch samuel W western

eliason

0

EARLY HISTORY OF MILLARD COUNTY AND ITS

LATTERDAYLATTER SAINTDAY SETTLERS

185119121851

ABSTRACT

1912

OF

A THESIS

PRESENTED TO THE

department OF CHURCH HISTORY

BRIGHAM YOUNG university

IN PARTIAL fulfillmentOF THE requirements FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF ARTS

BY

LADD R CROPPER

1954

EARLY HISTORY OF MILLARD COUNTY AND ITS

LATTERDAYLATTER SAINTDAY SETTLERS

millard county utah is located one hundred and fiftymiles south of salt lake city in the west central part of the

state the county is bounded on the north by juab county on

the west by nevada on the south by beaver county and on theeast by sevier sanpeteSan andpete juab counties

there are interesting formations of extinct volcanoes

fossils can be found and well marked evidences of an ancient

lake named bonnevilleA short account of the early explorer father escalante

is given in the thesis this tells of his travels in millardcounty in the year 1776

an account of the gunnisonunnisonG massacre is related which

is a story of government surveyors being killed by a group of

indians also a group of interesting pioneer experiences isincluded

some of the early communities are fillmore deseretoak city holden and scipio

one of the most colorful pioneer settlers was jacob

croft the writers great grandfather this courageous man

helped in settling both east and westidestkesthest millard county he was

the first presiding elder of deseret and in his later years was

made a patriarch

1

fifty

2

some of the other early pioneers who were outstanding

in millard county history are anson call thomas callisterira N hinckley srsrw j joseph S black john powell and leighrichmond cropper sr3rar

the problems and hardships of the settlers in millardelliardcounty are faith promoting reminders of the intense and coura-

geous endeavors of the pioneers in conquering the desert in

the personal interviews with the oldest living pioneers the

writer was often filled with deep respect for the saints and an

inner conviction that the lord had really protected and blessed

them A number of these hardships and how they were met are

related within the thesisthe first stake president of millard stake was thomas

callister and alonzo A hinckley was the first president of

deseret stakein the development of economic and cultural things the

early settlers of the county seemed to excell progress along

these fields was joyous to the pioneers

there were many talented and skilled workers in indu-stries such as milling carpentry masonry merchandising and

freighting As the necessity arose for solving the seemingly

impossible burden of settlement problems the pioneers answered

the challenge with repeated displays of determination and faithto accomplish the tasks before them an example of this iswritten in the account of harnessing the sevier river

agriculture is the main means of making a livelihoodthe land is both irrigated and dry farmed with some of the major

53

crops listed as hay eraingraingraintfraint sugar beets and alfalfa seed

livestock raising flourishesthe experiences of the first school teachers of millard

county are extremely unusual and interesting as is the historyof the first schools in the area descriptions of the firstschool roomsuchroom assuch a calico black cloth for a blackboard and a

log for the students to sit upon certainly build our apprecia-

tion for the presentdaypresent schoolday teacher and modern facilitiesof our schools

pioneer experiences dealing with music are included in

the study concerning the first choristers and choirs also the

early musicians that played their home made instruments in the

orchestras and bands one of the pioneers who was interviewed

on this activity told of his experiences of making over one

hundred home made musical instruments most of these early mus-

icians played by ear

the settlers of millard county were nobnol differentnctdifferent in theirsocial life and recreation from other mormon pioneers they

enjoyed each others company to the utmost in dances parties of

various kinds and in many instances just plain making up theirown recreation and social events the secret of their intense

and happy social life is undoubtedly participation by all not

just looking on as so many of us do today

the pioneers of one hundred years ago are a great source

of inspiration to us in the study of millard county early

history is found another rather romantic chapter of zion

deadingspreadingreadingsD her branches