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Show 244 ued to work on the corral, and some repaired the ditch where the bank was too low. Such was the scene for the next several days. A bowery for public meetings was also erected. In a crude fashion, Meadow Valley began to take on the appearance of civilization. Sunday was an eventful day for the weary Meadow Valley pioneers. The men were awakened at 3 A.M. by an express rider from the settlements. Twitchell had returned carrying the mail, although he did not wait to receive Brigham Young's reply as he had been earlier instructed. During the afternoon the ditch was completed in an all-out effort, and Sunday services were held for the first time since beginning their desert odyssey. There was much to be thankful for. Not a man had been lost. The Lord had provided for their needs, and it now appeared the ditch was a success after all. Perhaps the settlement would survive. Monday, June 7* s a w the explorers-turned-farmers commence the sowing of their crops. Tbe first seeds planted by the Southern Exploring Company were sown on the precise location of present-day Panaca. Within two days the men had sown forty acres. There was also a small Indian farm about two miles from camp. Two acres had been planted in a little cove where Dame found "corn stalks that the Indians had raised last year, that would measure about ten feet.'"^ The hard work completed, and their goal of getting the seeds into the ground realized, Dame decided it was time for a reorganization. In the evening he announced his intention of leaving the valley on Wednesday the 9th, and he called on eight of the men to accompany him to establish a new, direct route to Parowan. Ross R. Rogers, Nephi Johnson, Samuel Hamilton, Martin Taylor, Don Carlos Shirts, John Osburn, John Lewis, and John Couch received the assignment, tertineau was conspicuously absent from this party; his services were undoubtedly required in Meadow Valley, but it was J. Ward Christian, the captain of the first ten from Beaver, to whom the responsibility of the mission had temporarily fallen. |
