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Show 10 THE CHASE MILl. 1852 thirteen years of age drove this wagon across the plains to Salt Lake Valley. The Isaac Chase family traveled west to Winter Quarters. In the spring of 1847 they left with the Jedediah M. Grant company. When they came t() the Missouri River, it was a dark, muddy river and, in fact, so wide they didn't know the depth of it. A council was. held as to what they should do. While Louisa sat in the wagon awaiting the decision, she heard a rushing noise and, on looking back, saw a large herd of wild cattle. When they came to the wagon they parted, some going on one side, some on the other, and rushed into the river. This frightened the oxen Louisa was driving to such an extent that they too rushed forward into the river with the herd but stopped Phoebe Ogden Chase safely on the other side. 'iVhen the others had gained the opposite bank they hurried to her. In a quivering voice she said, "They might just as well have killed me as to scare me to death." The company arrived in Salt Lake Valley on September 20, 1847 and camped on Pioneer Square. Later they built a cabin there. When the pioneers first came to Utah, the head of each family received a city lot near town and a five acre tract of farming land farther out. The five acre lots were in a section south of the city called the "Big Field." Isaac Chase's city allotment was on the comer directly east of where the old Salt Lake Theatre once stood. In due course of time and events, he built a small adobe house there. His fiye-acre section in the Big Field had a spring of clear water on the northwest comer. Having had in mind the building of a mill, and thinking of this as a prospective millpond, he bought the adjoining fifteen acres, thereby making a twenty acre farm. Later he acquired adjoining lands to the amount of one hundred acres. This became known in early days as the Chase Farm. While excavating for the millpond, Isaac Chase heard his pick chip against something which sounded like metal. On stooping down he picked up an ancient coin, which upon being cleaned, showed peculiar markings. The coin was about the size of a quarter .and was unearthed at about twenty feet. It is now in the possession |
