| OCR Text |
Show NPS Form 10-900-a Microsoft Word 2.0 Format OMS No. 10024'{)()18 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 9 Grafton Historic District. Rockville. Washington County. UT Flooding and the Move to New Grafton On December 17, 1861 a survey was completed for the new location, and farming lots were drawn by lottery. There were more people than lots which resulted in several families leaving Grafton before the move. This shortage of suitable farm land would ultimately be a contributing factor in the demise of the town: We drew for our farm lots by lotery [sic). I got a very good lot but bro. Woodbury, a nursery man, got a very poor one, and was going to move away, but I wanted him to stay, as I knew it would help the place to have a good nursery here, so I let him have my lot and I took his. In the evening we had a dance in bro. A.H . Russell's big tent. The remarks of bro. Snow has caused a spirit of uneasyness [sic] in the minds of many, and now those who did not get lots are about moving out, in fact, I may say and that truly although I do not find a bit of fault with what bro. Snow said, yes it has drew at least one half away from the place and Rockville too, and has almost killed both places.15 History has traditionally held that the settlers decided to move the town after a rain storm and flood that started on Christmas Day of 1861 and lasted forty days and nights; however, Franklin W. Young's journal clearly stated that, while the river did rise approximately four feet on December 25th, there were seven days of fair or cloudy weather and four days of snow during the subsequent forty days. Furthermore, his diary, along with the minutes of the December 13th, 1861, ward meeting, prove that the decision to move the town was made at least a month before the "big flood." During the early hours of January 18th, 1862, the rising water carried away one of Nathan Tenney's houses and its contents and destroyed another. His wife Olive, who was nine months pregnant at the time, was washed from the house and caught in the river. All of the men were called out of bed to save her, and they carried her to Hyrum and Mercy Barney's home (possibly a wagon) where she gave birth to a boy. In celebration of the event she named the child Marvelous Flood. 16 The winter and spring of 1862 were devoted to digging the new irrigation ditch, clearing and fencing the land, and planting crops. The location and depth of the trenches was such that residents were able to get water during the wet season, but by May the river was too low to fill the ditches, and the irrigation system had to be modified. 17 Ultimately the ditch cost $5,000 and the labor of twenty-four men. 18 By summer, the ditches were sufficiently watering the corn, sugar cane, wheat and cotton that had been planted in the spring. A log schoolhouse/meeting house (demolished) measuring eighteen by twenty-six feet was dedicated in January and finished at the east end of North Street in the spring of 1862,19 with Dr. Samuel Kenner being the teacher:The schoolhouse was used for all public gatherings. It was a round log house with two windows and a door in it. The windows were very small; also were the window panes. The floor was of slate rock which was hauled and placed in the room for the floor. The benches were of the logs sawed in two; the round part holes were bored and pegs driven in for legs. 2o _x_see continuation sheet 15 Franklin Wheeler Young. Journal, 16 Ibid., January 18th, 1862. 17 Ibid., Wednesday, December 18,1861. May 19th, 1862. Annals of the Southern Utah Mission, p. 123. 19 Jenson. History of Grafton Ward, 1862. 20 Almira Tiffany Bethers. Biography of Sarah Jane York Tiffany, p. 8. 18 James Bleak. |
