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Show CHAPTER 17: Roads, Bridges and Ferry S e r v i c e - - - - - - - - - - 279 ~~~:"~;~~!I,"~:,,~ . 1!1,. .""i.~ "" );:i!g Figurtt 343. A Wagon Similar /0 /he ~ Malind4 Adams Usttd. flour one time. I was seated in the back of the wagon when I noticed someone coming out of Weber Canyon. At the time George (my son) and I were passing through Uintah on our way to the Mountain Road. We pressed forward. whipping our oxen so we could reach the forks of the road ahead of the approaching traveler. who was walking. It proved to be just the person we suspected it to be. Old Limpy. a lame Indian who terrified women and children when they were unguarded . Lashing the animals. George succeeded in leaving Old Limpy behind for a little while. but when we were going up a long. steep. sandy hill. the Indian overtook us. Each time he tried to climb on the wagon I cracked his knuckJes with the handle of the whip. When we reached the summit of the hill. George lashed the oxen with his whip and they loped away to home and safety. leaving Old Limpy far behind in the roll.ing hills. brush. and sage. Brick-making Operations. In the 1870's Samuel Ward set up kilns on the Mountain Road. and for almost forty years he and his son Robert supplied bricks as a building material to the settlers in South Weber. Many of the homes and buildings in the valley were made of brick from that kiln, attesting to the quality of the material the Wards put into them. t\! "st of the rusty -red ·brick ho mes or huildings. such as Joseph Ray's old chicken coop (the former South Weher Amusement Hall). had some of the handmade Figurtt 344. AbandofU:d Bridgtt al Moum of Wttba Canyon . Sam Ward-bricks in them. And the first LDS Church in South Weber was constructed of brick from the Sam Ward Kiln. After maintenance of the Mountain Road was taken over by the state. a portion of that route in the South Weber area was changed to go straight down over the slope in front of the John Hill home. the Harbertson home. behind present-day Zito's Cafe, and thence across the steel bridge which now sits abandoned at the mouth of Weber Canyon. In 1920 there wasn't a bridge across the Weber River at South Weber. Those who wanted to cross had to ford the river. And don't think people crossed in comfort when they were in a car either. In those days during inclement weather though there were several cars in South Weber. automobiles were almost useless . In fact when it snowed. the cars were put on blocks and stored for the winter. People braved the river on horse-back or in horse-drawn wagons, and there were those few brave souls who swam or waded. Because there was onJy one dam (an earthen structure at East Canyon) on the Weber River to hold the waters in check. the river overflowed its banks every spring. causing considerable damage as it went, not to speak of the fright that arose in the hearts and SOUTH WEBER HISTORY |
