A History of Garfield County

Colonizing along the Escalante and Paria Rivers

CHAPTER 7 L COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS /ands beyond the East Fork of the Sevier River, where a num­ber of Paiute Indians already resided, beckoned additional pioneers. Reports of lower elevations and a warmer climate brought the early settlers to the region. The unique physical features of the territory presented some interesting challenges to the newcomers as well as awe-inspiring vistas, however. In the vanguard were stockmen, but others soon followed, and together they created some enduring com­munities. The singular nature of the area's topography also served as a backdrop for one of the most interesting and harrowing migrations in the history of the American West, the Hole-in-the-Rock expedi­tion. Prior to permanent pioneer settlement in the area, the Kanarra Cattle Co-op had owned a ranch a few miles to the northwest of pre­sent- day Bryce Canyon at a place called Blue Fly. William S. Berry was the superintendent for the co-op. In 1874 he hired John Henry Davies to herd cattle in the Bryce area. Davies recalled how Berry and Isaac Riddle, head of the cattle co-op at Beaver, divided the country between the two companies. Riddle's outfit from Beaver ranged their 127 128 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY stock north and east of Flake Bottoms down the Sevier River, and the Kanarra co-op ranged its animals south and west, including the head­waters of the Sevier River. After Davies went to work for the co-op he spent the first few months breaking mules brought to the area from California by a trader known as "Spanish George." Berry's daughter, Louise, an expe­rienced horsewoman, helped Davies break the animals. During the next five years that Davies worked for Berry he came into contact with the Paiutes living on the Kanarra co-op range and wrote that he became "pretty well acquainted with the adult members of the tribe."1 One group of about 250 Paiutes resided south and east of Bryce Canyon. As hunter-gatherers they obtained food from small game such as rabbits and chipmunks and they had learned to trap deer in the narrow canyon near Sheep Creek. Fall months found the Indian women gathering grass seeds used to prepare a type of flour. They mixed this with water to create a dough that they formed into cakes and baked on flat rocks or wrapped on sticks and roasted over a fire. The presence of these peace-loving Paiutes living in what became the Cannonville and Tropic areas influenced early settlers in their names for such places as Indian Hollow and Squaw Flat. The white newcomers also took note that as tribal members moved about the area they left their sick and dying behind, seldom bothering to bury their dead. In the process of relocation Native American women could be observed walking single file along narrow trails carrying bundles of possessions or babies on their backs. After settling in the area, the pioneers learned some of the Paiute language and customs. Some did what they could to ease the depri­vation suffered by the Indians, which was in great part caused by the usurpation of their former lands and resources by the white new­comers. The settlers also noted periodic gatherings of the natives that some called pow-wows. One summer a large group got together at East Fork, with some of their number coming from as far away as the San Juan River region. Navajo Indians occasionally came through the area, but they were not permanent residents. Some traveled along the upper Paria River. Another of the trails they used extensively went through today's Alvey Wash and Smokey Mountain Road to Glen Canyon. The trail COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 129 took the Indians northwest to Fish Lake Mountain to hunt, trade along the way, and gather salt in the Redmond area, just n o r t h of Salina in Sevier County. Early white Escalante residents often observed these Indian movements.2 Escalante The year 1876 represented the centennial of the founding of the United States, but for the residents of Escalante that year also marks the founding of their community. The town lies near the center of Garfield County, on the south side of the Escalante River between the confluences of the Upper Valley, Main Creek, and North Creek drainages on the west, and Pine Creek, Sand Creek, and Death Hollow on the east. The area would remain relatively isolated for many years because of its inaccessibility. As mentioned earlier, the first Mormons to traverse the area, members of a territorial militia from St. George led by James Andrus, once referred to it as Potato Valley. Although some attached to this militia group returned to Panguitch to live, they did not forget the valley. One of their number, John Taylor Lay, would live out the rest of his life in the area. Jacob Hamblin had traversed portions of Escalante Valley in 1871 in his attempt to take supplies to the John Wesley Powell expedition. Powell had instructed Hamblin to follow the Dirty Devil River down to its confluence with the Colorado River, where he would meet Hamblin to pick up the provisions. But Hamblin mistook the Escalante River for the Dirty Devil, which actually lay some forty miles to the north. In 1872, as a follow-up to Powell's second expedition, Almon H. Thompson led a group that made a study of what they called the Escalante Basin in honor of the early Catholic priest-explorer of the West.3 In August 1875 Thompson encountered an exploration party, made up of James Schow, his brother Andrew, Samuel Henrie, Isaac Turnbow, and Thomas Heaps, all from Panguitch. These men had come to look over the valley after having been impressed by a report made by some explorers from Beaver who were in the area in late February.4 They were looking for a new location in which to settle, not under direction from LDS church authorities, as was the case with most southern Utah communities, but because they desired to 130 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY find a place with a warmer climate and a longer growing season. According to Thompson's diary, he advised the men to call the new settlement Escalante in honor of Father Escalante, who many erro­neously believed came through the area in 1776.5 A number of Panguitch residents decided to move to Escalante the following spring of 1876. Josiah and Alice Woodhead Barker were on their way from Salt Lake City to St. George during the fall of 1875 and heard of these plans while camped in Panguitch. Bishop Sevy talked of Potato Valley to the couple, and the warmer climate partic­ularly appealed to Josiah because he suffered from rheumatism and had lived in cold and often damp locations such as England and Cache Valley, Utah. Sevy also told the Barkers that several Panguitch residents were building a road that fall through Johns Valley over Escalante Mountain in preparation to relocate in the spring. Josiah and his son Peter decided to help. They worked alongside Alma Barney, William Henry Gates, Albert Delong, Henry Heaps, Dan Justet, and Edwin Twitchell until the winter weather of December became unbearable. In preparation for the move, a group of men had also dug irriga­tion ditches in Potato Valley from the Escalante River to take water to what would be their north fields. The following February, Barker impatiently decided to begin the move to Escalante with his family, including daughters Mary Alice and Mariah, sons Peter, James, Josiah, and William, and a friend of Mary Alice, Kate Jacobs. When the party reached John's Valley it began to snow, making it tremendously dif­ficult to travel over the mountain and make the descent into the val­ley. Mary Alice Barker, who rode in the first wagon, received the distinction of being the first white woman in the valley. Soon after the Barker family's arrival came Thomas and Susannah Goldthorpe Heaps and their family. This early encounter was likely the beginning of a romance between Peter Barker and Eleanor Heaps, which culminated in marriage the following October, the first such union in the new community. The first group to arrive included Andrew P. Schow (previously appointed by Bishop Sevy to take charge of the colony), with his wives Annie Jeppesen (also recorded as Jesperson and Jepperson) and Mary Ann Perry and Annie's four children; David and Catherine Justet Stevensen and their COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 131 , , gj* The road to Escalante about 1900. (Utah State Historical Society) three sons; Don Carlos (Carl) and Elizabeth (Betsy) Shurtz with one child;6 William and Mary Elizabeth Heaps Alvey (the daughter of Thomas) and four children; and Isaac Turnbow. Another party soon followed. It included James and Annie Hansen Schow and their five children; Morgan and Elizabeth Richards; John Taylor; Joseph H. Spencer (a half-brother to Thomas and Henry Heaps), with his wife, Jane Ellen Haslem, and four children; and Willard Heaps, the twelve-year- old son of the earlier arriving Thomas Heaps. By mid-summer additional settlers arrived, including Henry Heaps, Sr., and his wife Susannah Turner; their daughter Alice with her husband, Onizime (Lacey) Laramie; Philo and Lucy Allen; John and Jane Moody; Dan and Nellie Justet; Brigham and Tyresha Woolsey; Edward and Lydia Wilcock; Darius (Di) Shirts and wife Margaret; David B. and Lydia Catherine Adams; George Coleman with wives Jane and Maria; and Albert Delong. In addition, Edwin Twitchell came from Beaver without his wife Vesta, who complained they had moved too many times. She decided to remain where she was until she was sure her husband wanted to stay in Potato Valley. When her fruit froze in June 1876, however, she changed her mind and joined her husband in Escalante. Philo Allen earlier had been a bodyguard to the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Edwin Twitchell 132 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY and another early settler to Escalante, Lacey Laramie, originally came west as part of the 1849 gold rush to California. Mary Elizabeth Hall, who arrived that first year with her hus­band, Job, described the equipment and livestock typical of that brought by all the pioneers: All our goods were in the covered wagon. A plow was tied outside. There was a wooden crate filled with chickens, tied and resting on two poles stuck out from the back of the wagon. The boys drove the pigs, sheep, cows, and extra horses along the trail.7 The colonizers first decided to locate their community on the north side of Escalante Creek (which ran from west to east through the valley) because water was more accessible there. After only a few weeks, however, Josiah Barker suggested that the south side of the creek offered more land on which to establish the community. Even though they had already brought some of the northern area under cultivation and dug some canals, the residents decided Barker was right and moved across the creek. The town plan followed the typical Mormon farm village plat of a grid pattern with wide streets and large lots. Josiah Barker, an expe­rienced surveyor, located the North Star while situated on top of what became "Meeting House Hill" at 100 South and Center streets. The men surveyed 160 acres for the town, which included streets six rods wide (about thirty-three feet) and eighteen blocks of lots, each block containing five square acres. The blocks were subdivided into four lots of one and one-quarter acres each. The land they had begun to cultivate on the north of the creek was used to grow alfalfa. Each head of a family received twenty acres of farmland, two and one-half acres of alfalfa, and a city plot. Those practicing polygamy received two parcels.8 The men drew lots to determine their land; other land was claimed on the basis of "squatters' rights." Eventually the early arrivals as well as those who came later homesteaded addi­tional acreage in the upper Potato Valley and on what they called the South Desert. Many families adopted the practice of establishing ranches in the canyons, where they spent their summers. During the winter months they moved back to town, where their children attended school. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 133 The residents lived in willow huts and wagon boxes until they could build more permanent homes. By the first winter a few had made dugouts on the north side of the creek. A dugout was made by digging a hole about six feet deep and twelve feet square. Settlers then covered the hole with cottonwood poles placed at about a 20° angle; they then placed bundles of rushes between the poles and secured them with willows, both of which grew profusely along the creek bank. Finally they shoveled about a foot of dirt on top to help keep out the cold.9 The soil contained enough clay and lime for the walls to be firm enough to whitewash for a neater appearance. Securing lum­ber to build permanent homes had to wait until roads could be built into the canyons. That first summer the appearance of makeshift structures and pole fences indicated settlement progress in the valley. By 4 July 1876 the residents had built a bowery of poles, willows, and tree branches to use for church services and to celebrate the 100th birthday of the nation. When a flag ordered from Panguitch did not arrive in time for the celebration, the citizens used an Indian blanket to fly from their flagpole. The festivities included patriotic speeches and songs, and the settlers dampened and tramped the ground to prepare for their dance in the evening. The coming of the 24 July Pioneer Day celebration that year inspired Mary Ann Schow to sew an American flag. On this occasion, dinner was served to 140 residents and Paiute Indians. The villagers held dances on the sand near the banks of the Escalante River until they could build more suitable accommodations. The Escalante pioneers had abundant timber in the canyons around their settlement and soon began building log homes. In 1877 Henry J. White built the area's first sawmill, on North Creek.10 Residents also found a high grade of clay in Pine Creek. Carl Shurtz and Joseph Spencer used sun-dried adobes to build their first homes. But after experiments were made with the nearby clay and firing bricks in a kiln, the bricks became preferred. Two brothers, Joshua and Ephraim Hawkes, built the first brick homes in the town just before the turn of the century, and many others would follow in the next decade. Over fifty of these sturdy homes still stand today as monuments to their makers. 134 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY At first the wild, or "blue," potato, wild strawberries, choke-cherries, elderberries, gooseberries, and red currants supplemented the settlers' diets. According to Alberta Liston, wild onions also grew in the area, as did watercress and asparagus. Soon the rich, fertile soil yielded corn, wheat, and other small grains planted by the settlers, and each family also planted a vegetable garden. When the grain was ready to harvest, Brigham Woolsey and William Henry Deuel helped cradle it. They threshed the grain by flailing it upon the ground or by driving horses and oxen over it. The villagers employed Indian women to winnow the grain. The residents ground their grain into a coarse flour with hand coffee mills. Finally, in 1879, James Mclnelly, Sr., installed a gristmill just northwest of the town. At first, he could only produce whole-wheat flour, but later both he and Edward Wilcock, who built a sawmill on Corn Creek, installed sets of burrs at their mills to produce fine white flour. The settlers preserved their meat, usually venison, by "jerking" it. They did this by cutting the meat in strips, immersing it to soak in a boiling brine of saltwater, and then hanging it to dry.11 Carl Shurtz performed this task one fall as a favor to a local Indian known as Pete, who somewhat reluctantly left a doe he had killed with Shurtz. When he returned a few days later he found the venison jerky already done and preserved for the winter. He was so delighted that for several years thereafter he brought an animal to Shurtz each fall to be jerked. The soil and climate in the valley were well suited for growing molasses cane. Molasses and honey produced locally sufficed as sweetening for a community hungry for sugar. Once, after Brigham Woolsey and his sons finished processing forty barrels of molasses, a flash flood reportedly washed the product of their labors down the Escalante River, prompting wonder whether local residents consid­ered changing the river's name to the Sweetwater after that. Water played a major role in the destiny of Escalante, and, indeed, became a limiting factor in the size to which the community could grow. Irrigation came by way of a canal built the first summer of settlement. The canal was a 380-foot-long tunnel through a sand­stone ledge. It not only supplied water for crops but for culinary pur­poses during the summer months. In the winter the settlers used what they called "lizards" for transporting water, an apparatus made COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 135 A pioneer homestead in Escalante with the original cabin and later house. (Utah State Historical Society) of boards on a runner with a V-shaped front. Barrels filled with water rode upon these lizards from the creek to area homes. Later, the res­idents dug wells; but the wells produced extremely hard water with a high concentration of iron. Settlers of Escalante formed their first irrigation district on 4 June 1877 at a meeting held in the home of Andrew Schow. Some 80 percent of the citizens attended, electing Schow to be the district's president and Josiah Barker as clerk. This organization built some small dams on the Escalante Creek, but all of them eventually washed out. A more permanent and successful structure came several years later. Even before the first settlers arrived, Philo Allen, Sr., and his son Edmund had brought cattle into the area. They kept them in Main Canyon the winter before colonization began. Later, Hyrum Fowler, Llewellyn Harris and his son James, Reuban Collett, Silvester (Vet) Williams, Rob Wilson, Joe Lay, and brothers Rufus and Martin Liston all brought herds of cattle into the valley. 136 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Except for stock raising, which also included sheep, economic enterprise was somewhat limited in the young community. Also, because of Escalante's relative isolation, its residents needed to be self-sufficient. Most families produced their own wool, which was washed, carded, spun, dyed, and knitted into garments. They made candles, soap, lye, yeast, dyes, and rennet for cheese making. What they could not or chose not to produce or manufacture themselves they generally bought from Martin Foy, who hauled supplies from Panguitch that he traded for hides and wool. Betsy Goodwin sold mostly sweets and notions from the home she shared with her hus­band, Isaac. From about 1879 to 1884 Reuben Collett maintained a store in his home. Other early merchants in Escalante included Edward Wilcock, Thomas Heaps, Josiah Barker, and Victor Bean. Local merchants and individual settlers often traded with Indians. In the fall, Navajos would cross the Colorado River and come into town to trade their blankets and rugs for horses. Beginning in 1881 the second postmaster, Robert Allen (David R. Adams being the first), had a small store in his home and used part of the space for the post office. George Coleman, Willis Thompson, Dick Wilson, and Joseph S. Barney carried the mail during early years of settlement. Local craftsmen included cabinetmaker James Mclnelly, carpen­ter Joseph Fordham, stonemason Morgan Richards, and blacksmiths Daniel Adams, Isaac Allen, and J.R. Porter. Job Pitcher Hall, despite being crippled, made and sold boots and shoes and wove baskets of creek willows. Lacey Laramie, another early shoemaker, reportedly had "a good sawed-log shop west of his home." Job Hall, along with his brother Charles, made barrels, which the settlers used for hauling water and as containers for molasses, vinegar, pickles, cider, and other liquids. Ephraim and Joshua Hawkes as well as Adelbert and Monroe Twitchell made lime and brick for the community. Those living on ranches in the canyons during the warm months made butter and cheese to trade for other commodities. They utilized the cool, clear springs in the area in the processing. One author gave a fine description of the physical arrangements and the procedures carried out in this home industry: COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 137 The Escalante Public School in 1963 when it was being used as a warehouse. (Utah State Historical Society) Most of the ranch houses were built with three separate log rooms in a line, kitchen, bedroom, and dairy. The dairy, called the entry, was usually in the middle and had only three walls. In it there would be a rock furnace on which a galvanized vat was placed to keep the milk at the right temperature. The vat would hold about 40 gallons of milk that would make a 30 to 40-pound cheese Instead of the furnace some of the women used only a stove with a large new wash tub for heating the milk. Cheese making was a painstaking process involving just the right amount of rennet, coloring, and salt, the right temperature (with no thermometer) and very careful handling of the curd to keep the precious cream from escaping.12 Usually the women took charge of this summer enterprise, helped by older sons and daughters, while the men remained in town 138 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Escalante's Main Street in 1940. (Utah State Historical Society) to look after orchards, gardens, and nearby fields. The presence of Indians in the area caused these women and children great concern, even though there were probably not more than a dozen Native Americans residing in the vicinity. Women in the community had a variety of additional money-making projects and enterprises. Mary Ann Schow, Kate Deuel, and Elizabeth Griffin wove and sold straw hats. Rachel Lay and her children earned money by weaving carpets on her hand loom from fabric strips brought to her by her customers. She earned twelve and one-half cents a yard, or about twenty-five cents per day, for her work. Louise "Luie" and Willis Thompson also engaged in rug and carpet weaving. The pioneers built their first schoolhouse of logs during 1876-77. The structure was thirty-six by eighteen feet and became the center of public functions until 1885. Jane S. Coleman and Mary Ann Schow taught the ninety pupils who attended school that first year. Andrew Schow organized the first drama company in Escalante as well as the first brass band, in which he played his cornet. Mary Ann Schow provided additional music on the organ she brought with her COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 139 The Relief Society Building in Escalante. (Utah State Historical Society) to the valley. Other local musicians included Jeremiah Stokes, Darius (Di) Shirts, and Joseph Fordham. With the exception of Edward Wilcock's success at setting broken bones and treating cases of typhoid and pneumonia (which he nor­mally did free of charge), midwives provided the only medical care in the community during the settlement years. It is estimated that Susannah Heaps delivered more than 800 babies, and it was said that whenever the children saw "Grandma" Heaps with her "little black bag" they knew a baby was on its way. Some children even believed that she kept the babies in her bag, but they could never get a look inside to confirm their suspicions. Henry Laramie, son of Alice and Lacey Laramie, was the first baby born in the valley. Etta Moody, daughter of John and Jane Moody, was the first baby girl delivered in Escalante. 140 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY The Bishop's Storehouse in Escalante. (Utah State Historical Society) Two other midwives also treated early settlers. Ann Morris Butler Rice continued to practice even though she was already sixty-one years old when she moved to Escalante. Sarah Caroline Williams Lee, the fourth wife of John D. Lee, served the residents for two or three years. In 1899-1900 Mary Alice Shurtz completed a course in obstet­rics under Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp in Salt Lake City. Her training proved invaluable, as she practiced medicine in the area for more than thirty-five years, delivering more than 600 babies in Escalante. Members of the LDS Relief Society also assisted in caring for the ill, especially when there was too much sickness for the midwives to han­dle during times of epidemics. Even before Escalante received LDS ward status the local women had a Relief Society organization, which was organized on 13 March COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 141 The Co-op Store in Escalante. (Utah State Historical Society) 1877. Mary Ann Perry Schow, a plural wife of Andrew, became presi­dent, with Susannah Heaps and Lydia C. Adams as her counselors. The minutes of the first meeting list seventy-one women as members of the new organization. In addition to the usual compassionate service per­formed by such a society, the members raised money to assist emigrat­ing Mormon converts from England and to help build a meetinghouse. They also fenced a lot for a widow at a cost of forty-two dollars.13 The first LDS Escalante ward was created on 5 August 1877. Andrew P. Schow became bishop, a position he maintained for thirty-five years. His initial counselors were Edwin Twitchell and David B. Adams; Henry White served as clerk. The Schow family recalls that a neighbor who lived across the street from the bishop owned a nice white-topped buggy. It was reported that "each Sunday morning he would drive the buggy to his childrens' homes to pick up the families and take them to church, . . . after he got all of them to church, he would go home and sleep."14 142 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Normally in these tranquil communities of Southern Utah a peace officer had little to do. Deputy Sheriff Reuben Collett, who filled this position from 1877 to 1881, encountered an exception to the norm on 30 November 1878. Late that evening, John F. Boynton rode into town from Escalante River Canyon near Calf Creek and confessed to the deputy that he had killed his partner, Washington Phipps, that morning. Collett took Joe Lay and William Deuel with him to check out Boynton's story and found Phipps's body about fifteen miles out of town. After burying him in a shallow grave, they placed heavy rocks and the dead man's boots on the mound. The killing shocked the townspeople, who had often seen the two partners (and seemingly good friends) on the numerous trips they had made to town, where they usually camped in Henry and Susannah White's yard. Boynton and Phipps ran a herd of horses east of the community and eventually decided to split up over some dif­ferences. They divided their stock and lived about a mile apart on the river. According to Boynton, that fateful morning Phipps came into his camp brandishing a club and threatening to use it. After several warnings, which Phipps did not heed, Boynton shot him, ostensibly in self-defense. After holding a hearing in Escalante, Collett turned Boynton over to the authorities in Parowan, then the county seat for the area. After a preliminary hearing in December and a trial the fol­lowing March, the court discharged the defendant and allowed him to go free. Boynton then returned to Escalante, where he concluded his business and then left the area for good. Local historian Nethella Griffin Woolsey reported that "for some people the thought of that lonely grave and the violence that produced it adds eeriness to the weird shapes in the canyon."15 Before Garfield officially became a county or Escalante had been incorporated as a town, local Mormon church leaders usually func­tioned as community leaders as well. After some trying times and in spite of its relative isolation Escalante's population grew steadily. Within six years of settlement it boasted 441 citizens. The natural beauty of its surroundings would contribute to the community's suc­cess as well as to its problems in future years. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 143 Cannonville Serving as the gateway to the intriguing Kodachrome Basin Utah State Park just across the Kane County line, Cannonville is located in the upper Paria Valley at 5,800 feet, a slightly lower elevation than that of some of its neighbors. The first group to use the area to graze livestock were part of the Kanarra Cattle Co-op. Then, in 1874, David O. Littlefield and Orley Dwight Bliss arrived to establish homes in the vicinity of where Henrieville Creek empties into the Paria River. Other settlers arrived the following year. The residents called the settlement Clifton (Cliff Town) because of its view of the Pink Cliffs and other rock formations in the locality. Ebenezer Bryce had emi­grated from Scotland to New Jersey with his parents when he was a boy of fourteen. According to one source, he decided to go west in his late teens, later becoming a member of the Mormon church. Bryce came to the Paria Valley with his wife, Mary Ann Park, and their seven sons and three daughters.16 He soon became frustrated with the sparse water supply at Clifton and moved his family upstream to Henderson Valley, calling it New Clifton. He and Daniel Goulding fenced about 200 acres of land there and dug a canal seven miles long to bring water from Pine Creek near Escalante Mountain to irrigate their land. Goulding brought fruit trees and grapevines from Pleasant Grove in Utah County. The two friends also built a road to nearby timbered areas to cut logs and firewood. The road terminated in a huge amphitheater that locals called Bryce's Canyon. Later, when the spectacular area that bore his name became a national park, some­one asked Bryce what he thought of the area where he used to ranch. "Its a hell of a place to lose a cow," he replied. The Bryce family, who had originally moved to the area because of Mary Ann's poor health, would only stay until 1880 before moving on to Arizona. The uncertain water supply made it difficult for the early settlers to survive. During July and August 1877 water came down the streambed only at night in the upper Paria Valley. The people scooped the lifegiving liquid from small pools into barrels for the next day's use; they hauled drinking water from Bryce Spring. In late 1877 the residents still at Clifton decided to relocate their townsite about 1.5 miles upstream.17 Settlers dismantled their homes (basically 144 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Ebenezer and Mary Ann Park Bryce. (Courtesy June Shakespear) ten log cabins) and their school/meetinghouse and reassembled them at the new location. They named the new community Cannonville after LDS apostle George Q. Cannon. Some have said that the town COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 145 The double log cabin built by Ebenezer Bryce in Old Clifton. The cabin has been moved to Tropic. (Utah State Historical Society) should have been called "Gunshot," because it was too small for a cannon. In addition to the Littlefield, Bliss, and Bryce families, other early arrivals included former Mormon Battalion member James L. Thompson and his sons John Orson, James Brigham, William Samuel, and Joseph; Jonathan Packer and his son Nephi; additional members of the Littlefield family (Waldo and his sons Dave, Edward, and Sam); Joseph Spencer; William J. Henderson, Sr.; George and John Ingram; John H. Dickson; Ed Clayton; Morrison Mecham; and Lacey Laramie, as well as wives and other family members of many of the above.18 Although the new townsite proved more promising than the first site, the pioneers faced obstacles over and above those normally asso­ciated with establishing settlements in virgin territory. After the drought conditions they had previously known, the water they were able to bring from the Paria River was plentiful, but soil in the upper 146 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY A view of Cannonville. (Courtesy Dorothy Leavitt) valley washed out easily. Erosion presented a constant challenge to the settlers; however, with hard work and ingenuity, the people were able to maintain their water supply. A lifelong resident described one such effort, which involved building a small dam: The irrigation diversion dam was made by cutting, dragging and placing trees across the creek and filling behind them with brush, rock and earth. The ditch was dug by horse-drawn scraper, pick and shovel and much sweat. They were short of engineering skill but they surveyed it with a carpenters level, using what sense the good Lord gave them, and they made do.19 It would be more than a decade before the residents of Cannonville would have a more dependable source of water-one coming all the way from the East Fork of the Sevier River. This project also made COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 147 possible the settlement of Tropic, located about five miles north of Cannonville. A rumored gold rush within Cannonville's first two years pre­sented residents with another challenge. Prospectors came to the region in large numbers and an early winter isolated the community and caught the gold seekers unprepared. Many of them built dugouts to live in, but they had difficulty finding sufficient food. Local LDS church leaders instituted a distribution program to which Cannonville residents contributed from their already meager stores. They also organized hunting forays and shared the game with the stranded prospectors. A proud Cannonville resident later reminisced: "By generous, careful, cooperative effort, not one life was lost from want of food; but by Spring, not one person was carrying any excess body fat either."20 Although Cannonville would always remain essentially an agri­cultural community specializing in stock raising and fruit growing, some residents established other enterprises. For instance, Joel Hills Johnson brought some mill iron to the village to construct a sawmill, as he had a few years earlier in Hillsdale. Building the first carriage track for the mill required weeks of sweat and toil. An ox team brought in the steam boiler and engine, which furnished the power required. Oxen then hauled water to the boiler in barrels. At last the residents had their sawmill. William J. Henderson saw the need for a store. He built a one-room structure of sawed logs from the mill, native stone for the foun­dation, and pine shakes he made himself for the roof. After completing his store, Henderson drove a wagon pulled by a four-horse team to Parowan for supplies; the journey over and back took eight days. Residents of Cannonville now had ready access to spices, sugar, raisins, freshly milled flour, harness and shoe leather, some basic hardware such as nails, wire, pans and knives, cloth and sewing notions, pencils and slates, and even candy and gum. With money being scarce, many residents used the barter system to obtain desired commodities. Without banks in close proximity to Cannonville, Henderson formed his own coins from a set of dies he owned. Along with his name, the inscription on the coins read, "Genl. Mdsde. Cannonville, Ut." Other southern Utah businesses such as the Hatch 148 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Mercantile, the S & C Mercantile, a n d the Southern Utah Equitable Company in Panguitch used their own scrip as well. Town historian George W. T h o m p s o n related an incident illus­t r a t i ng the wisdom and diplomacy that Henderson possessed as the town shopkeeper: One day one of the good sisters came to the store with a pound of butter. Mr. Merchant asked what she would like and she said she really didn't want anything except a small favor. She said a mouse had drowned in her cream. She got it out all right and the cream wasn't hurt a bit so she churned it but she didn't quite want to eat the butter. Would he please trade her someone else's pound of butter for it? It wouldn't matter to them for they wouldn't know the difference. While she was looking at the new cloth, he took her butter behind the counter and changed wrappers on it with another pound he had in stock, then, when she was ready to leave he gave her own butter back. Like she said, she didn't know the dif­ference so she was happy.21 Local r e s i d e n t s o b t a i n e d some special items from Native Americans-particularly Navajos. South of Cannonville, following t h e Paria River t o t h e C o l o r a d o River, was Lees Ferry, t h e only crossing of t h e Colorado for miles. As a result, many Navajos fol­lowed a well-worn trail between Utah and Arizona territories that led t h em t h r o u g h t h e c o m m u n i t y of C a n n o n v i l l e . They liked to trade at t h e local store a n d brought their mats, rugs, a n d blankets- all beautifully woven from fibers of yucca, cane straw, a n d wool. They often b r o u g h t m u s t a n g p o n i e s t h a t t h e y caught f r om wild herds a n d t h e n broke a n d t r a i n e d for purposes of trade. Residents of Cannonville a n d t h e Native Americans usually got along quite well a n d the white settlers became accustomed to the frequent pres­ence of t h e Indians. One local woman in particular did not view Indians as a threat. Nine Indians rode u p to Matilda Willis Thompson's home one day while she was k n e a d i n g bread. Her frightened children r a n to the house to hide b e h i n d their mother's skirts. Forcing their way through the door, t h e Indians demanded food. She said t h e y would have to wait u n t i l she finished b a k i n g t h e b r e a d , b u t one eager i n t r u d er reached for a handful of dough. Matilda quickly grabbed a knife and COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 149 brought it down, just missing the man's arm; she told him that if he tried that again she'd cut off his hand. She demanded that he and his friends go outside and wait. Amid the laughs and jeers of his com­panions, the offending Indian retreated to wait outdoors as he was told. Matilda finally brought out two freshly baked loaves and some meat for her uninvited guests and watched as they ate it with plea­sure. From then on the Indians showed great respect for this frontier woman and would even leave some venison at her door when they happened to be passing by.22 When area residents could build more permanent homes, most of them used native stone for basements, cellars, and foundations, similar to that used by William Henderson for the general store. They mixed sand and lime for their mortar. By burning the plentiful lime­stone in adobe kilns the settlers had a ready supply of lime for the mixture. Juniper wood from the hills supplied ample fuel to fire the kilns. During the early years these pioneers usually made their own nails, either from hard wire or from square metal bar stock about one-eighth inch square. They heated the metal in a fire, cut it to the desired length, and then hammered it on an anvil to create a head on one end and a point on the other. Cooling the metal in cold water completed the process. They also used wooden pegs and dowels to hold building members together. As was typical of all pioneers, the key to survival in Cannonville was self-sufficiency. Settlers made most of their commodities, includ­ing furniture, mattresses, candles, soap, and medicines. Of necessity, they also created their own entertainment. For instance, box-lunch auctions preceded many of the dances; the lunches were made by the girls and bid on by the boys. The funds generated usually went toward a civic improvement project. As George Thompson wrote, "Who brought which box was supposed to be a secret but somehow there seemed to be a means of understanding among the young folks so the right couples got paired together." When it was time to start dancing, George and William Dutton, Joe Fletcher, and Will Ingram, all fine musicians, furnished the music. Between them they could play the violin (fiddle), guitar, harmonica, drum, piano, and horn. Nephi and Maiben Johnson called the dances. In addition to dances, the settlers amused themselves with horse 150 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY racing, horse-shoe pitching, and marbles. Even in winter they could usually find a bare, sunny spot on the south side of Henderson's store where they would have a satisfying game of marbles. Some members of the community looked for alternative recreation and found it at John Seaton's still, located downriver in one of the canyons where Seaton had made a dugout. Locally grown hops, bar­ley, corn, and rye became the ingredients for his brew, and he drew customers from a wide area because of the quality of his product. Even those who did not normally imbibe called upon Seaton for "medicinal" needs. As with most southern Utah settlements, Clifton and later Cannonville relied on the LDS church for early community leader­ship. Clifton became a branch of the Panguitch Ward in 1876, with Jonathan T. Packer as branch president. The following year, Cannonville Ward was organized, and Packer served as its first bishop. Packer's term was relatively short considering the times. Ira B. Elmer succeeded him, serving from 1880 to 1884. As the commu­nities of Henrieville, Georgetown (located just over the border in Kane County), and later Tropic developed, these towns became branches of the Cannonville Ward until their populations increased sufficiently to establish their own LDS wards.23 A woman in such frontier communities required great stamina. When Drusilla Johnson married William J. Henderson and set up housekeeping in Cannonville, summer days dictated that she rise very early each morning to milk the cows and prepare breakfast. She then accompanied her husband to the fields to plant corn, potatoes, or whatever else was necessary. Eleven o'clock found her back at home to prepare the midday meal, following which she again returned to help William. At night she stayed home to catch up on household duties. Udell Jolley notes that his aunt often took in other children to live with her own offspring when their mothers died until other arrangements were made, a common occurrence in other early Mormon settlements as well.24 Life in Cannonville was not easy for Drusilla or for any of her neighbors. The people mustered the energy to do what had to be done and still had a little left over to enjoy what­ever diversion presented itself. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 151 A scene near Henrieville in 1907. (Utah State Historical Society) Henrieville Another Paria Valley community, Henrieville, also received fam­ilies relocating after they abandoned nearby towns like Clifton and an even earlier settlement named Wooden Shoe. The name Wooden Shoe is believed to come from the first white settlers in the area, who were from Holland and wore wooden shoes.25 Early arrivals in the upper valley began to divert much of the creek water for irrigation, and, as a result, during an extremely dry spell from 1875 through 1877, little water reached the community of Clifton, contributing to its demise. While some of the Clifton settlers relocated to Cannonville, taking along their log cabin dwellings and schoolhouse, others located between what would become known as the Henrieville Wash and Henrieville Creek northeast of Clifton. They named their town for James Henrie, who presided over the Panguitch LDS Stake, of which this settlement became a part. Like other settlers who had first arrived in the northern Paria Valley, they hastily built dugout homes in the area. Those in 152 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Early members of the Henrieville Relief Society. (Courtesy Teora Willis) Henrieville were made by digging into the side of a hill to create three sides of the dwelling. The fronts of the structures were made of hewn logs, and each included a door and small windows. Logs or boards were put across the top and then covered with brush and dirt to form a roof. Inside they built fireplaces, which were used not only to pro­vide warmth and light but also for cooking purposes. Pioneers also constructed covered bins to store grain and other foodstuffs. These doubled as children's beds, on which they piled their quilts and bed­ding. Primitive though they were, the dugouts provided a measure of comfort and protection from the elements. In just such a dwelling the first baby born in Henrieville arrived on 5 July 1880 to Edwin and Sarah Francis Littlefield. Although the townsite was not surveyed until 1883, Henrieville residents began to build conventional homes and lay out town streets in 1878. Brothers Dave, Edwin, Sam, and Sid Littlefield; the James and Joseph Ingram families; and the Thompson brothers-Brig, Jim, and Jack-together with their families, all helped establish the town. James Thompson and Dave and Louisa Littlefield completed the first homes in the community. By 1884 Daniel Goulding had moved to Henrieville with his two plural wives, Elizabeth and Fanny Pratten, COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 153 The Savage Ranch near Henrieville. (Utah State Historical Society) who were sisters. Goulding built a home for each of them side by side on the south side of town. He became the town's first mayor. William Patterson (Pat) Willis also came with two wives, Almeda Roundy and Mary E. Merril, as did James Smith, with his wives Mary Susan and Elizabeth. Elizabeth did home nursing, and townspeople relied on her in times of sickness and childbirth. Both Pat Willis and Jim Smith came as stockmen; so too did Elige and Billy Moore; Sampson Chynoweth and his two sons; William Sears Riggs and his sons; brothers Moroni, Neil, and Ebenezer Savage; Bill Bryce (son of Ebenezer); Jim Pace; and William Jasper Henderson. Henrieville was at first a part of the Cannonville LDS organiza­tion; it became a branch of that ward, with James Brigham Thompson as presiding elder. Elizabeth Goulding was the local Relief Society president. In 1887 the Henrieville Mormon residents organized into their own ward and Daniel Goulding became the bishop, holding that position until his death in 1905. The congrega­tion met in a building they constructed for multiple use-church, community center, and local schoolhouse. Residents began building 154 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Field sports ground at Pine Lake where Henrieville residents often held their Fourth of July Celebrations. (Courtesy Teora Willis) this structure in 1881. Local men hauled logs from nearby canyons for the lumber: The logs were hewn to the square using a broad axe. A narrow pit was dug about seven feet deep and the logs were laid across the pit. Then using a long saw with handles on both ends (whipsaw), the logs were split in half. One man stood on the top of the log and pulled the saw up while a man in the pit pulled the saw down.26 The builders used these split logs for the walls. Men brought the rest of the lumber for the floor and ceiling and some of the shingles for the roof from a sawmill at Mammoth Creek, some fifty miles away. John Thompson and a companion made additional shingles by hand using a drurvin knife and fres-a slow and exacting work. They com­p l e t e d c o n s t r u c t i o n on the b u i l d i n g by Christmas 1881. Fanny Pratten Goulding, the bishop's wife, became the first teacher in this one-room schoolhouse. The children used slates and slate pencils, as did the students in most rural communities at the time. Years later, a second r o om was added so the children could be divided into two groups according to age and grade. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 155 Young women in Henrieville during the 1890s. (Courtesy Teora Willis) Hanging in the belfry of the school was the bell that one resident characterized as the "heart beat of the town." At 8:30 A.M. the janitor rang the bell, indicating that school would begin in one-half hour. At 9:00 A.M. the bell pealed again, announcing that school had begun for the day. It sang out twice more to signal the start and finish of lunch hour. A popular Halloween prank was to climb to the belfry and tie the clapper in the bell so that it would not sound.27 The 24 July (Pioneer Day) celebrations were also held in this multipurpose building. At one of the first of these, the barefoot boys picked up large slivers in their feet during the afternoon children's dance. Since their feet were well callused, the slivers did not pose much of a problem; after pulling them out, the boys kept on dancing. Most of the girls, however, reportedly wore rawhide moc­casins using an Indian pattern. One local Native American, called "Moccasin Bill," taught the young women how to make them. When sufficient hides were not available, old denim sufficed for making the upper parts of the moccasins.28 Local establishments included a post office and blacksmith shop, but Henrieville residents had to travel to Parowan for "store-bought" items until stores in surrounding communities were established. The 156 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY post office started serving the community in 1883, and William Thompson became the first postmaster. For a period of about two years-between 1888 and 1890-local mail service was discontinued. When it was reestablished, Melissa Ingram had the job of postmas­ter. Her husband, Joseph, did much of the repair work for farmers in his blacksmith shop. An enterprising man, Ingram also made shoes in addition to farming. Agriculture became the mainstay of all citizens of the commu­nity. They cultivated gardens, planted shade and fruit trees, and kept chickens, pigs, milk cows, and sheep. Some raised and bred livestock for a living. Women washed and carded wool for their family's cloth­ing, and for quilts, rugs, and straw mattress covers. One problem that plagued local residents, as it did those in Cannonville, was control­ling water, since their soil easily eroded away. Flood waters periodi­cally came down the creek and washed out the dam, posing a constant challenge to local citizens. Despite the adversity and chal­lenges, the industrious people carved out a pleasant community that sustained a limited though stable population. Additional Settlements, Both Short-lived and Enduring Individuals who played prominent roles in Garfield County events came from the community of Georgetown, a village and asso­ciated farms located over the border in Kane County. Like Cannonville, the colony was named for George Q. Cannon, the LDS general authority in charge of the area. Because its residents were ini­tially part of the Cannonville LDS Ward and later one of its branches, they were effectively a part of the social and economic life in this most southern portion of Garfield County. Several descendants of Joel Hills Johnson of Hillsdale and Cannonville relocated to this community. They served in leadership positions in both the Cannonville Ward and the Georgetown Branch. By the turn of the century, however, drought conditions forced most Georgetown settlers to leave. Another short-lived community in the upper Paria Valley was Losee, also known as Loseeville. Daniel Goulding, formerly of Clifton, sold his property to Isaac Losee and Orville Cox in 1886. A few other settlers arrived in the area-enough to justify a post office. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 157 When the settlement became a part of the Cannonville LDS Ward, a Sunday School was organized for the residents, with Ephraim Collett as superintendent and Losee as presiding teacher. By the mid-1890s, however, most of the town's occupants had moved away.29 Two other enduring communities, Tropic and Boulder, joined the ranks of Garfield County towns. However, their settlement took place at a later time and will be treated in another chapter. Hole-in-the-Rock In the annals of western history there are numerous accounts of individuals who mixed poor decisions with inordinate capacities for courage, fortitude, or just plain pluck. When one adds the attributes of faith and devotion to a cause, there was no better collective example than the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers. Their saga has been told and retold by historians, descendants, and local writers, but no matter how often it is heard, listeners are awed by the experience. This is an adventure in which the dramatic topography of southern Utah and the early residents of Garfield County both played major roles; and thus it is fitting that it be included in this history. In late December 1878 at a stake conference in Parowan the call went out for several men and their families to travel to southeastern Utah to establish a colony, later known as the San Juan Mission.30 The reasons for this migration included securing the region for Mormon colonization before others could do so and cultivating better relations with the Indians of the area. At this conference and a later one held in Cedar City the following March, local church leaders named those assigned to the mission and later made calls on an individual basis to others. In addition, many chose to become involved in the venture after church authorities issued a blanket invitation to anyone who wished to join the expedition. Still others, who had no intention of settling along the San Juan River, went with this group on their way to Colorado, Arizona, or other locations. As Bishop C.J. Arthur stated in a meeting held in Cedar City on 2 January 1879, no one was com­pelled to go. Instead, he "required all to use their agency as to whether they went or not, but advised all who were called to go with a cheer­ful heart."31 Not everyone called went with the first group, but the vast 158 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY majority of participants came from several locations in southern Utah. An advance or exploring party left Paragonah on 14 April 1879. It consisted of twenty-six men, two women-Elizabeth Hobbs Harriman and Mary Elizabeth Fretwell Davis-and eight children. Some of these people would stay once they reached their destination; the others would return to report on the route taken. Silas S. Smith of Paragonah led the expedition, and Robert Bullock and Kumen Jones of Cedar City and James B. Decker and George B. Hobbs of Parowan acted as advance scouts. John C. Duncan assisted the scouts at times. The party took a southern route and crossed the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry. They went as far south as Moenkopi, Arizona, before heading northeast. In July they ended their journey on the banks of the San Juan River. There they established a settlement at what they called Montezuma, some miles north and west of the Four Corners point in present San Juan County. Their journey had been difficult. The group determined that the route they took would be impracticable because of hostile Indians and an inadequate water supply for the larger party coming later in the year. Harvey Dunton and the Harriman and Davis families chose to remain in the San Juan Valley. Most of the rest of the company left on 19 August 1879 to return to Iron County. For the return trip, how­ever, they chose to investigate a northern route. They traveled by way of present-day Moab and Castledale, following the Old Spanish Trail much of the way, down Salina Canyon to the Sevier Valley, through Bear Valley, arriving back in Paragonah by mid-September. Upon completion of the trek, the men had made a circuit of about 1,000 miles and helped complete several hundred miles of roads as they went. Still, they were not convinced that they had located a satisfac­tory route to the San Juan settlement. The northern route they thought was too long-more than 450 miles-and the goal was to reach the San Juan River in time to get crops planted so they could later be harvested before winter. Due east of Parowan and almost in a straight line to the San Juan settlements only 200 miles away lay the community of Escalante. Surely, reasoned those heading for Montezuma, they should be able COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 159 to establish a road by this route that would get them to their destina­tion much faster. Three men from Escalante played a role in the decision to choose this short-cut: Charles Hall, Andrew P. Schow, and Reuben Collett. All three had explored extensively the terrain east and south of their settlement. Hall is generally acknowledged as having been the first to discover the narrow cleft in the 2,000-foot cliff above the Colorado River which came to be called Hole-in-the-Rock. Schow and Collett, however, probably exerted greater influence in the decision the migrants made to choose this route. They had actually descended to the river, crossed it in a makeshift boat, and explored a few miles east-but, unfortunately, not far enough to recognize what treacher­ous country the migrants would eventually encounter. In addition, Schow and Collett were friends of Silas Smith, who took charge of the colonization effort. The company traveled across difficult territory southeast of Escalante, with the Straight Cliffs and Fifty Mile Mountain on their right and the Escalante River drainage to their left. By late November 1879, 250 men, women, and children, with eighty wagons and over a thousand head of cattle, had gathered in camps between forty and fifty miles from Escalante. They were poised and ready to make the 1,200-foot descent down to the Colorado River and on to the San Juan but expressed dismay at what they found. After hearing the reports of two additional exploration parties, and influenced by the fact that heavy snows already blocked any retreat over Escalante Mountain to the west, the leaders made the decision to go on with what has been characterized by some as "the most foolhardy trip ever undertaken by man."32 As Samuel Rowley wrote in classic understate­ment, "Before we left our homes we were told that the country had been explored, and that the road was feasible. But now we found that someone had been mistaken."33 Remarkably, however, once they made the decision to push on, everyone pulled together to accom­plish their task with a minimum of dissension and complaint. The men of the company divided into three road-building crews, after having already established the thoroughfare some fifteen miles from Fifty-Mile Spring to the edge of the gorge. The first party worked at the head of the Hole-in-the-Rock to establish a wagon 160 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY Looking through the Hole-in-the-Rock to the Colorado River below. (Utah State Historical Society) road down the sandstone cliffs; the second group extended the road from the cliffs to the Colorado River; the third crew crossed the Colorado and built a road up the east bank cliffs. In the meantime, Charles Hall and his sons, John and Reed, felled and cut to measure the logs needed for a raff to ferry the wagons across. They hauled the logs sixty-five miles from Escalante and lowered them down the cliff COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 161 face through Hole-in-the-Rock. They then put together their prefab­ricated raft by the side of the river. Without question, the first crew had the most difficult task. Although many in this group distinguished themselves and proved invaluable in constructing this difficult route, Benjamin Perkins was especially noted for his engineering skill and ingenuity. Lamont Crabtree, a Hole-in-the-Rock historian, described the feat: Construction consisted of cutting away a 40-foot drop-off at the top of the crevice, moving huge boulders, leveling high spots, fill­ing depressions, and widening crevice walls. To avoid the steep grades near the bottom of the Hole-in-the-Rock, the pioneers tacked their road onto the face of the north wall of the crevice. The tacked-on road was supported by oak stakes secured into holes drilled into the crevice wall at two-foot intervals.34 In addition to isolation and the usual challenges of winter, the workers had little blasting powder. By 25 January 1880, after six weeks of labor, all three crews had finished their projects. By now the lead­ership of the enterprise had fallen upon Platte D. Lyman, who had been Silas Smith's assistant. Smith was constantly going back and forth between the wagon train and the settlements trying to get sup­plies sent, enlist volunteer help for road building, and gain financing from the Mormon church and the territorial legislature for creating a passable route for others to use later. The migrants came well provisioned for two months of travel­ing, but their odyssey would extend to six. While the men worked, others in the camps faced additional challenges. Herds had to be con­stantly moved to find new forage. Supplies had to be secured and sent on to the road builders. Additional food had to be brought in as the travelers' supplies started to run out. The migrants also needed to find or build protection from the cold and snow. Until the mill water froze, Escalante residents did what they could to supply flour, beans, corn, and other produce to the expedi­tion members. Elizabeth M. Decker wrote on 19 January 1880, "We have just sent our last five dollars to Escalante to get some pork and Molasses."35 Some of the pioneers complained that the townspeople took advantage of their situation and raised their prices considerably, 162 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY even claiming that the villagers held a meeting prior to the arrival of the wagon trains to plan this strategy. But, in defense of the Escalante residents, their town was a mere three years old; the residents only had the food they raised themselves and what they had freighted in, which came at considerable cost to them due to their isolated locale.36 Also, the migrants wanted to buy most of their meat from local farm­ers, since the herd they brought with them was intended for the nucleus of future herds once they reached the San Juan area. Despite these complaints, many residents of Escalante and Panguitch came to the aid of the pioneers on numerous occasions throughout their journey. One of the migrants' coping strategies was to hold dances at what they called Dance Hall Rock, located near the Forty-Mile Spring camp, where the huge sandstone rock forms a large amphitheater with a reasonably smooth surface. Fiddlers in the company supplied the music, as the women, children, and those men who could be spared from their labors danced and tried to forget their deprivations and the awesome challenges that lay ahead. The pioneers also held regular religious services most Sundays and on Thursday evenings throughout the trek to the San Juan. The extended length of the ordeal posed a particular hardship on expectant mothers. Three babies were born before the emigrants reached their destination. Little is known about the first of these babies to arrive-even the names of its parents are not known. The baby was born at or near Escalante and was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. Upon hearing of this tragedy, Escalante resident Mary Alice Barker Shurtz, who was also expecting her first child, took butter, eggs, and bacon to the grieving mother to trade for the layette she had so lovingly sewn for her child.37 Mary Shurtz would know a similar grief, as her child only lived twenty-two days. The other two babies were Lena Deseret Decker, born at Fifty-Mile Camp on 3 January 1880 to James Bean and Anna Maria Mickelsen Decker, and John Rio Larson, born on Grey Mesa, east of the Colorado River, on 21 February 1880 to Mons and Olivia Ekelund Larson of Santaquin. On 26 January 1880 the descent of the wagons began through Hole-in-the-Rock. By locking the hind wheels and attaching long ropes or chains to the rear axle, several men could pull back on the COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 163 Dance Hall Rock-near Forty Mile Spring southeast of Escalante where members of the Hole-in-the Rock Expedition gathered in late 1879. (Utah State Historical Society) wagons to slow their downward progress. With one man driving each team, the wagons arrived safely at the bottom of the cliffs. The women and children walked down the perilously slippery trail. One of the more heroic incidents of this operation involved the Joseph Stanford Smith family. Smith served as one of the road fore­men and had seen little of his family for weeks. He remained in the gorge to help ferry the wagons across the 300-foot-wide river to where they could climb up the dugway on the opposite bank. When word came that all the wagons that had been camping near the top were down, Smith looked for his own family but could not see them. He hurriedly climbed to the top and found his wife and three small children alone. He was understandably furious that no one had helped his family while he was helping others. His wife, Arabella "Belle" Coombs Smith, felt confident that she and her husband could get their wagon down alone. After checking all of their equipment, they settled their children on a folded quilt above the crevice. Their little boy, three-year-old Elroy, held his baby 164 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY brother, George Abraham, between his legs, while their five-year-old sister, Ada Olivia, sat in front of them. Their mother kissed each one and told them not to move, not even to stand. She advised Ada to say a prayer. After their father assured them that he would shortly return to walk them down, the couple began their descent. They tied one of their horses to the rear of the wagon to help hold the wagon back. Belle stood behind the horse and held him with another rope. The first lurch pulled the horse down to his haunches, but Belle held on and pulled back with all her strength, realizing that the weight of the horse would help slow the progress of the wagon. On the way down, she tripped and was thrown from side to side against cliff and boulders and dragged over jagged rocks that tore at her clothes and flesh, but finally they reached the bottom. When Stanford Smith got down from the wagon, he saw that his wife and horse were bruised and battered. Blood ran from Belle's leg; she and the horse literally had been dragged down the cliff. But the look on Belle's face warned her husband that-at that moment at least-she would not abide his sympathy. She hurried him back up the trail to rescue the children. He found them just as their mother had left them, the baby having fallen asleep in his brother's arms. Once reunited, the family headed out of the canyon toward the river just as a party of men came to aid them. With great effort, Smith managed to conceal his anger as the men assisted the family across the river.38 After climbing from the banks of the Colorado River, the wagon train had another ten weeks of travel over some of the most rugged terrain in the country. Winter weather continued to plague them as well, but they finally arrived on the banks of the San Juan River, about fifteen miles from Montezuma, in early April. Many of the group, refusing to go farther, stayed there and founded the community of Bluff. Others continued on to the already established settlement. A trip that was to have taken from six weeks to two months had taken six months. In retrospect, they would have been wise to have taken the northern route. Miraculously, however, everyone arrived safely; there were no fatal accidents and relatively few losses to their horses and other stock. Certainly if this had been a test of their faith, devo­tion, and obedience, they had acquitted themselves admirably. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 165 ENDNOTES 1. See "Among My Memories-diary of John Henry Davies 1860-1947," in Davies Family History 1831-1947, compiled by Reta Davies (Ogden, UT: Davies, 1982), copy in possession of Marilyn Jackson, Escalante. 2. Information from Marilyn Jackson, Escalante. 3. Ida Chidester and Eleanor Bruhn, Golden Nuggets of Pioneer Days: A History of Garfield County, 92, says that the Thompson survey met a group of Mormons, Alma Barney, Orley Dwight Bliss, Edward Banker, and Smith Thurston in Potato Valley. Neither Thompson nor those with him, how­ever, mention an encounter with these or any other men in 1872. The authors thank Jerry C. Roundy of Escalante for drawing this to our atten­tion. Chidister and Bruhn also refer to Orley Dwight Bliss as Arlo D. Bliss. One of Bliss's plural wives was Harriet Josephine Lee, a daughter of John D. Lee and Martha Elizabeth Berry. 4. Nethella Griffin Woolsey, The Escalante Story: 1875-1964 (Springville, UT: Art City Publishing Co., 1964), 26-27. Much of the infor­mation regarding the early settlement of Escalante was taken from Woolsey's book. 5. Marilyn Jackson, "The Unraveling of a 'Shurtz Tale' and an Epoch of Escalante Excitement," manuscript, 1992, 21, copy of manuscript in pos­session of the authors. Woolsey also quotes from Thompson's diary entry; see Woolsey, Escalante Story, 24-25, 28. For information on the Dominguez-Escalante expedition see Chapter Three. 6. According to Marilyn Jackson of Escalante, a descendant of Don Carlos Shurtz, the family surname was really spelled "Shirts" by everyone except Don Carlos (Carl) and his progeny. Their ancestor came from either Switzerland or Germany and the ancestral name was believed to be "Scherz." In Escalante, all those surnamed "Shurtz" or "Shirts" are related. 7. As quoted in Woolsey, Escalante Story, 55-56, 87. 8. According to a brief biography on Andrew P. Schow, he and Edmond Davis were the only settlers in Escalante with two wives, and nei­ther of the second wives had children. Woolsey, however, wrote that George Coleman came with two wives. See Marilyn Jackson, "Notes on Andrew P. Schow," 2, and Woolsey, Escalante Story, 46. 9. Quoted by Helen Bailey Schow in Jackson, "Shurtz Tale," 27. 10. Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 94. 11. Woolsey, Escalante Story, 57. 12. Ibid., 110. 13. Ibid., 239. 166 HISTORY OF GARFIELD COUNTY 14. See Jackson, "Notes on Andrew P. Schow." 15. Woolsey, Escalante Story, 411. 16. Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 289. 17. Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedia History of the Church oflesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941), 147. 18. Chidester and Bruhn, Golden Nuggets, 117. 19. George W. Thompson, "Cannonville History," manuscript, 1994, 3, copy in possession of authors. Unless otherwise noted, most of the his­torical background on this community comes from Thompson's work. 20. Ibid., 5. 21. Ibid., 8. 22. Ibid., 13. 23. Jenson, Encyclopedia History of the Church, 114. 24. Udell Jolley, "Life Sketch of Lydia Drusilla Johnson Henderson," in "Seth Johnson Family History," James A. Ott, compiler, 1947. 25. Much of the information concerning the settlement of Henrieville is taken from a history written by Zella Willis, a long-time resident of that community; the original is in the possession of Teora Willis of Henrieville. See also Van Cott, Utah Place Names, 402. 26. See "History of the Henrieville School," in possession of Nancy Twitchell, and Van Dorn Smith, "History of Henrieville School," original in possession of Teora Willis. 27. Ibid. 28. Diana Johnson, "The First White Men Come to Henrieville," 2-3, copy in possession of Teora Willis. 29. Jenson, Encyclopedia History of the Church, 147. 30. David E. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1959), 10. 31. Ibid., 12. 32. Marilyn Jackson, "Notes on Andrew P. Schow." 33. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock, 54-55. 34. Lamont Crabtree, "Hole-in-the-Rock," in Utah History Encyclopedia, ed. by Allan Kent Powell (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994), 258. 35. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock, 76. 36. Helen Bailey Schow, "Sagebrush Mary," 5, manuscript, copy obtained by authors from Marilyn Jackson. COLONIZING ALONG THE ESCALANTE AND PARIA RIVERS 167 37. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock, 48-49; and Schow, "Sagebrush Mary," 3-4. 38. Raymond S. Jones, "Last Wagon Through the Hole-in-the-Rock," Desert Magazine (1954): 22-25. Although the Smith wagon was the last of those camped near the cliff, other wagons at Fifty-mile and Forty-mile camps had not yet arrived at the cliff. See Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock, 118 n. 22.