A History of Summit County

Mormon settlement

C H A P T E R 4 MORMON SETTLEMENT "I I n front the eye runs down the long bright red line of Echo Kanyon, and rests with astonishment upon its novel and curious fea­tures, the sublimity of its broken and jagged peaks, divided by dark abysses, and based upon huge piles of disjointed and scattered rock," observed traveler Sir Richard Burton in the summer of I860.1 This was a dreamscape. It was particularly a dreamscape to the Mormon pioneers, who, when they first entered Echo Canyon, were not short on dreams. For them, the wild canyons and rough desert Great Basin landscape, so unfamiliar and fantastic, were a geogra­phy of hope. Here, the Mormons believed, they would build noth­ing less than the Kingdom of God. Therefore, each new wonder they saw evoked poetic images and assumed heightened meaning. This was not just land; it was the setting for a great drama ready to unfold. The problem of building new communities was therefore not purely material; in a sense, the Mormons were consciously writing their own spiritual history. Their efforts would be legible upon the land. The series of communities that sprang up like winter wheat 30 MORMON SETTLEMENT 31 across the fields of Utah Territory spoke to their devotion to God, to community, and to order. These were clearly "cities upon a hill," con­scious efforts at building a new society. As is true of all communities, these Mormon villages were shaped by geography, local society, and the process of forging a community. But they were also shaped by a systematic plan that rose from the Latter-day Saints' larger spiritual purpose. Two years after the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Brigham Young began calling groups of colonists to settle in neighboring val­leys. Most of these settlements lay along the Wasatch Front, but settlement also spread out from that central spine, with towns estab­lished every ten or thirty miles in most directions. It was during the "second wave" of Mormon settlement-from the late 1850s through the 1860s-that many of the towns of Summit County were established.2 The Snyderville area had already been established as a private sawmilling center in 1853; and, by 1860, Wanship, Peoa, Cluff (Spring Hollow), Unionville (Hoytsville), Coalville, Henefer, Kamas, and Rockport had been founded in the manner typical of Mormon towns, with a regular grid of roads and town lots surrounded by outlying farming and pasture lands. In 1861, Echo and Upton were settled, followed later in the decade by Grass Creek and Oakley. Using the same strategy applied elsewhere in the territory, the county's more remote or less economically attractive areas were settled later. In the mid-1870s, Marion and Woodland were established, and the last Mormon village, Francis, was in place shortly before the turn of the century. These towns all served to build a network of services, resources, and community relationships. Land Distribution Before 1869, the Mormons claimed their property as squatters, building their homes and plowing their fields long before they legally owned the land. Mormon bishops usually played a key role in dis­tributing land, assigning acreage according to the number of family members, although some communities drew lots, leaving more to chance. The initial land allocation for families usually consisted of twenty acres; in addition, towns reserved considerable communal 32 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY Family in front of early log cabin near Coalville. (Brigham Young University, George Beard Collection) grazing and agricultural land. In Summit County, however, there wasn't an abundance of arable land, and this scarcity of land limited the growth of Coalville and nearby towns. When the Federal Land Office finally opened in Salt Lake City in 1869, church leaders encouraged members to quickly secure legal title to their property. Two federal land programs facilitated this process- the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Pre-emption Act, which required a payment of $1.25 per acre. The Mormons, who had little cash, nat­urally preferred the Homestead Act. Under provisions of the Homestead Act, settlers could gain title to as much as 160 acres if they lived on the land for a period of five years.3 The distinctive Mormon culture made this a problem, how­ever. Because Mormons believed in living in town, on small lots, it was difficult to actually live on a homestead. Some of the people in Summit County solved this problem by living in town but camping on their farm land for a few nights every six months.4 In another, more creative, approach, settlers would group together in order to file for a patent for contiguous tracts of land; they then would appoint a MORMON SETTLEMENT 33 trustee to file for the group. Eventually, the trustee would transfer title of the various tracts to the individual owners.5 The federal government continued to control land distribution for many years. The fames Bourne Rhead family claimed their land under the provisions of the Desert Land Act. When they purchased the South Fork Ranch in Chalk Creek in September of 1885, Rhead recorded the transaction in his diary: "The Robinsons had not as yet proved up on their claim, and they relinquished their homestead and desert entry claims to us. We in turn made similar entries on the same tract of 240 acres."6 Coalville The settlement pattern of Coalville was typical of Summit County's Mormon towns. The townsite was chosen by an observant freighter named William H. Smith. During the fall of 1858, Smith discovered matured wheat that had grown unattended at the Chalk Creek campground, forty-five miles northeast of Salt Lake City. Apparently, immigrants traveling through Echo Canyon and across Chalk Creek had accidentally dropped wheat, which, left to its own, had flourished. To Smith, the wheat was a sufficiently propitious sign; here was a place with great promise for settlement. He returned to his home in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City and enticed three of his friends and their families with promises of fertile land and beau­tiful scenery. The next April, each of the men-Leonard Phillips, Andrew Williams, Alanson Norton, and Smith-moved up with their families to claim sizeable acreage. They were joined in lune by Henry B. Wilde, loseph Stallings, and Thomas B. Franklin and their fami­lies. Within months, lohn and Fred Wilde, loel Lewis, Daniel H. Wells, Bryant Stringham, Stephen Taylor, Fred Birch, Andrew lohnston, lohn Spriggs, and Howard Livingston had all claimed land in the area.7 These original settlers were farmers intent on creating a small Mormon town at this isolated spot at the base of the mountains. Some had been called to move to Summit County; others came of their own initiative. Interestingly, a large number of this first group had been born in the British Isles; in 1870, the census reported that 43.9 percent of Coalville residents had emigrated from there. 34 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY The LDS church extended its control over the fledgling settle­ment by creating a branch of the church and appointing William H. Wilde branch president. As president, he performed duties beyond tending to the spiritual welfare of his flock. He oversaw the distribu­tion of land and the organization of a system of agriculture. In times of need, Wilde distributed food from the bishop's storehouse that had been established to provide supplies both for local families and for new settlers arriving from the eastern United States and Europe. The storehouse was an apt symbol for the cooperative spirit of the town, which showed itself in many ways. Soon after they arrived with a wagon train in 1868, the Thomas Beard family received from friends and neighbors enough food and flour to enable them to survive through their first season.8 From these simple beginnings, Coalville (or Chalk Creek, as it was then known) became the county's first large town and its county seat. In its early establishment, the settlers followed a pattern which would be repeated in other county towns. First, during the initial period of survival, the pioneers built a community fort; dug a crude diversion canal to provide water for homes, crops, and livestock; and built a makeshift meetinghouse for worship and public meetings. Secondly, settlers built substantial individual homes and improved the original canal system during the next stage of community build­ing. They also built a larger, more substantial, and impressive meetinghouse. During the third stage, settlers built rock or frame houses as well as more permanent school and public buildings.9 Chalk Creek's first generation survived briefly in tents and dugouts; but within the first year many had built log cabins. Some families doubled up, sharing living quarters until they could build their own. Thomas Beard and his wife and two children, for instance, shared their two-room log house with Thomas's two brothers and two sisters-a setup that no doubt challenged their hospitality. Life wasn't easy. The settlers endured harsh winters, with frigid air coming from nearby canyons. Temperatures frequently dropped below freez­ing even in lune, damaging or destroying crops altogether.10 The Weber River froze so hard in the winter months that wagons could safely cross it rather than make the eight-mile trip to Hoytsville, where the only bridge in the area was located. MORMON SETTLEMENT 3J5 In the early 1860s, I.D. Huffeker & Company and Samuel J. Sudbury & Company built sawmills in the area. The construction industry employed many in Coalville as the town grew and residents erected churches, schools, business buildings, and mining structures. A pottery, a blacksmith shop, and a wheelwright shop were estab­lished in the 1860s. In the early 1870s, R.H. Porter built a water-pow­ered gristmill, later operated by Thomas "limmie the Miller" Welch until near the end of the century. The settlers were, of course, encroaching on the territory of var­ious indigenous tribes. Mormon relations with the Native Americans were complicated by Book of Mormon theology; also, Mormons saw native peoples as potential converts and attempted in some instances to "civilize" them with lessons in theology and farming. Although always tenuous at best, relations between the two groups deteriorated as each new wave of settlers further threatened the native way of life. The Native Americans saw their land being swallowed up by white settlers, their sources of food disappearing, and the world as they knew it being changed. Each tribe reacted in its own way. The Shoshoni, semi-transient residents of Utah, remained peaceful. As the Shoshoni traveled through Echo Canyon each year to hunt buffalo on the Wyoming plains, the settlers along the Weber River often came in contact with Chief Washakie and his band of 3,000 people. Tribe members camped along the river near settlers' homes, but relations remained friendly.11 The Utes, however, followed Black Hawk's call to resist the whites' continued encroachment on traditional hunting grounds.12 During the Black Hawk War of 1865 to 1872, Brigham Young advised all Mormon settlements to build forts and move their homes and farm animals inside the forts for protection. So, in 1865, Bishop Wilde sent out a call for all the area's families to come together to live in a fort built on the hill above Chalk Creek. Each day, herd boys about twelve years old brought the cattle out to graze in the fields surrounding the fort, while boys and girls alike watched for Indians riding on the horizon. After the peace negotiations, Coalville was no longer under the threat of attack, and the only Indians seen locally were poverty-stricken women and children begging for food. This is not to say that 36 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY the cultures were at ease with each other. As late as 1894, warnings were published about Indians in town. In one instance, the newspa­per warned of a "vicious-looking old Navaho" seen on the street.13 Perhaps the threat of attack by Indians provided a sense of unity that motivated the settlers of Chalk Creek to organize more formally as a town. More likely, though, the community had reached an obvi­ous transition point. Coal had been discovered nearby and the Mormon church had opened several mines. The little community thus had seen some growth and prosperity and perhaps a vision of its future as a town. With at least some vision in mind, a committee was chosen to survey and designate town lots and to prepare a docu­ment of incorporation. In 1866, the inhabitants incorporated and, focusing on the area's most obvious resource, changed their town's name from Chalk Creek to Coalville. At the same time, more than 600 men voted for the town's first mayor and town council. Although the mayor and council officially replaced the LDS church ward bishopric as town leaders,14 the line between ecclesiasti­cal and secular leadership remained fuzzy. The first elected group included William Wallace Cluff, mayor; with H.B. Clemens, Ira Hinckley, and lohn Staley, selectmen. Creighton S. Hawkins was appointed treasurer; John Boyden, recorder, assessor, and collector; Alma Eldredge, sheriff; and John White, street supervisor. To the aver­age resident, the change didn't make much difference. Most of the population were Mormons who believed in supporting their leaders in whatever capacity they performed. A decade after settlement, both city and county governments were up and running, providing civic services and regulating trade, community relations, and land distribution. Coalville was on its way to developing reliable water systems, a more diversified economy, and stratified society. Several civic improvements gradually brought the town into the twentieth century. In February 1896, for instance, the council appropriated funds for a boardwalk on Main Street. A city sprinkling wagon purchased in 1900 kept dusty roads under control; then, in 1910, the city installed paved sidewalks. Electricity, powered by a steam plant, arrived in 1905, eight years after the first telephones connected the area mines with the home base and Coalville with the world outside. MORMON SETTLEMENT 37 The W. W. Cluff home in Coalville. Cluff was the first mayor of Coalville and the first president of the L.D.S Summit Stake. (Summit County Historical Society) At first, Coalville schoolchildren attended school in private homes. Early settlers Sarah Wilde (wife of Henry B. Wilde) and Mary Jane Asper (wife of Elias Asper) taught their own children and chil­dren from neighboring farms in their homes. Pupils paid one dollar per month for their education.15 In 1860, the community erected its first log schoolhouse, which doubled as a meetinghouse, with Emmy Wilde (wife of William Wilde) as the first teacher. A more permanent rock schoolhouse replaced this modest log building in 1865. Under Mormon church president Wilford Woodruff, the Summit LDS Stake established a private school in 1892, the Summit Stake Academy. Initially housed on the second floor of the Coalville Co-op, the I. C. Academy provided quality high school education for young men and women, as well as religious, spiritual and moral instruction. Here, a student could obtain three years of high school (called nor- 38 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY mal school at the time) for a fee of ten dollars. Out-of-town students boarded in the school itself for $2.50. Early teachers included Valate Elbert, Nora Young, Randall I. Jones, and a Miss Hestler. The Echo War Just a decade after the settlement of Utah Territory, the federal government sought to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor and put in his place a quorum of civic officials to replace the Mormon hierarchy in local politics. This was clearly an effort to rein in the increasingly autonomous theocratic government; it also reflected increased national awareness of the Mormon practice of plural marriage, one of the "twin relics of barbarism" identified by the newly organized Republican party. For these and other reasons, President James Buchanan, elected in 1856, decided to appoint a new governor and believed the Mormons would resist his efforts to do so. Reports had filtered back to Washington in the 1850s about the religious fervor of the Latter-day Saints. Identified by historians as the "Reformation" of 1856-57, this religious movement was marked by rededication to the work of the Lord and heightened rhetoric about the imminent punishment of outsiders. Letters came from Indian agents, Utah Surveyor General David H. Burr, former United States mail contractor W.F.M. McGraw, and territorial supreme court jus­tices George P. Stiles and William W. Drummond, who individually attested to the Mormons' refusal to cooperate in the execution of the law. Their accusations included a variety of grievances centering on the dominance of Mormon power in politics, in the court system, and in economics. No single individual played a more critical role in the intensified conflict between the Mormons and the federal gov­ernment than did Drummond; neither did anyone work harder to put down Brigham Young's administration. National emotion on the issue of Mormon Utah was typified in a comment in Harper's Weekly of 25 April 1857: "The matter has, in fact, passed beyond the line of argument, and it is time at once for the Government of the United States to interpose. We do not call for fire or slaughter. No Highland clan sort of operation, no Glencoe massacre. But, at whatever cost, the United States must declare and vindicate its supremacy." Western newspapers seemed united in their MORMON SETTLEMENT 39 hatred of the Mormons, largely because of Drummond's negative reports. Mormon territory was described by one as a "festering mass of corruption."16 Brigham Young reacted to this criticism with equally heated words. "The North, the South, the East, the West, the Politicians, the Priests, the Editors, and the hireling scribblers all take up the cry for blood! blood! blood! Exterminate the Mormons, that is sweep them from the Earth, go to their mountain home, lay waste their cities, destroy their crops, drive off their stock, raze their dwellings to the ground, cause an innocent people to flee for safety and then return and gloat over the misery we have caused."17 As a result of the force of public opinion and limited actual knowledge of the situation, President Buchanan appointed Alfred Cumming of Georgia the new governor of Utah Territory. In addi­tion, Buchanan appointed General William S. Harney leader of a mil­itary force that would accompany the new governor to Utah. Secretary of War John B. Floyd, who was bitterly anti-Mormon, believed a show of military force would strengthen the federal pres­ence in Utah and ensure that there would be no trouble over the appointment. On 28 May 1857, Floyd ordered 2,500 troops gathered at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to prepare to march to Utah. After Harney was reassigned, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was appointed commander of the force. Originally, the operation was intended to be secret. However, a message from an informant made the Mormons aware of the impending crisis; they quickly prepared for war. Furthermore, the Mormons received piecemeal news about troop movements from travelers in the area. On 24 July 1857, in the midst of a Pioneer Day celebration marking the tenth anniversary of the Mormons' entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, Porter Rockwell, Abraham Owen Smoot, and Judson Stoddard, returning from a trip to the East, brought alarming news: an army of 2,500 federal troops was somewhere between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Laramie, moving toward Mormon territory.18 The next Sunday in the Mormon Tabernacle, Brigham Young told the audience of Buchanan's decision and the church's reaction to it: 40 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY lames Buchanan has ordered this Expedition to appease the wrath of the angry hounds who are howling around him. But woe, woe to that man who comes here unlawfully to interfere with me and this people. . . . According to their version, I am guilty of the death of every man, woman, and child that had died between the Missouri River and the California gold mines; and they are com­ing here to chastise me. The idea makes me laugh; and when do you think they will get a chance? Catching is always before hang­ing. 19 Two months later, Young wrote in his personal journal: "Fixed my determination not to let any troops enter this territory, . . . and make every preparation to give the U.S. a Sound Drubbing. I do not feel to be imposed u p o n any more."20 Effective organizers for colonization, the Mormons proved they were just as effective at planning for war. Young h a d already orga­nized troops to defend the t e r r i t o ry against attack by Indians. The Mormon military organization, the Nauvoo Legion, began gathering weapons and a m m u n i t i o n , d e t e r m i n e d to create a blockade that would keep the soldiers out. More t h a n 5,000 new recruits enlisted in the Legion. Some towns already had local militias; virtually all soon did. Without uniforms or equipment for battle, they pulled together the guns and ammunition they used for hunting food and what extra clothing t h e y could gather, looking like frontier troops ready for whatever conflicts would ensue. They stockpiled food and prepared it for transportation. They built fortifications. An arsenal in Salt Lake City became the gathering place for a m m u n i t i o n and supplies. A reporter for the San Francisco Herald wrote: "I visited the arsenal, found they had a fair display of artillery. I also visited their public and private workshops, saw t h em casting cannon-shot, and manufactur­ing grape and canister in great abundance, some fifty men making Colt's dragoon-size revolvers."21 On 15 September 1857, Brigham Young declared a state of mili­tary emergency and vowed that the militia would resist any invasion of Utah. His defensive strategy centered on the Echo Canyon entrance into Mormon territory, particularly the heights overlooking the canyon road. Under his direction, Porter Rockwell, Lot Smith, Robert Burton, and others led more than one hundred members of MORMON SETTLEMENT 41 the Nauvoo Legion to hideouts along the route through the canyon, preparing to prevent the soldiers from traveling through to the Salt Lake Valley. Their instructions were as follows: On ascertaining the locality or route of the troops, proceed at once to annoy them in every possible way. Use every exertion to stam­pede their animals, and set fire to their trains. Burn the whole country before them and on their flanks. Keep them from sleeping by night surprise. Blockade the road by falling trees, or destroying the fords when you can. Watch for opportunities to set fire to the grass on their windward, so as, if possible, to envelop their trains. Leave no grass before them that can be burned. . . . Take no life, but destroy their trains, and stampede or drive their animals, at every opportunity.22 Brigham Young told the legionnaires to bring "crow bars, picks, and spades for the purpose of loosening up rocks from the tops of cliffs that may be hurled down to good effect when the signal is given for the same."23 He directed t h em to rouse grazing herds to stampede, d i s t u r b the soldiers' sleep, a n d steal guns left u n a t t e n d e d . Other instructions were almost comical in their creativity. "Find someone with a loud, powerful voice who could go to the camp," he said, and "upon the first opportunity, at about dusk of a still evening, approach within hailing distance on the windward side, and on a point or rise of g r o u n d if any, a n d shout s o m e t h i n g as follows: A t t e n t i o n the camp' (to be repeated, perhaps, once or twice, till a t t e n t i o n is attracted) 'all who wish to fight the Mormons had better stay where they are; and all who do not wish to fight are advised to make for Salt Lake City at every opportunity, where they will be well treated, fur­nished with employment and p e r m i t t e d to proceed to California when they please.' "24 As it t u r n e d out, the principal battles of the "Utah War" amounted to little more than Mormon raiders creating havoc for sol­diers as t h e y p r e p a r e d for t h e advance of t h e army. The Nauvoo Legion burned three supply trains, interrupted military communica­tions, and attempted to divert the attention of the military advance parties from accomplishing their mission. Overall, t h e r e were no deaths from military action, although one infantryman reportedly 42 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY Remnants of fortifications built during the Utah War (1857-58) are still vis­ible high above Interstate 80 in Echo Canyon. (Mike Richins) "died of fright" after a nocturnal raid on the army's livestock herd. However, limited action in Echo Canyon did dissuade the federal troops from traveling through the passage. They wintered instead at Fort Bridger in perilous conditions. Thus, according to one historian, "a combination of bungling on the part of the Buchanan adminis­tration, vacillating military leadership, hit-and-run raids, and inclement weather stopped the Utah Expedition a hundred miles short of its destination."25 During the winter hiatus, cooler heads prevailed, negotiations were opened between the Mormons and government officials, and an agreement was reached whereby federal troops would be allowed to peacefully enter the territory and establish a camp away from the pri­mary towns. Cumming and other officials would be installed, replac­ing Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders in various federal offices. In lune 1858 lohnston's Army (as the federal troops were pop­ularly known) moved untroubled through the Salt Lake Valley, con­tinuing southwest to a site in Cedar Valley. As one historian wrote: "With one broad sweep of its military fist, the federal government ended forever the Saints' dream of implanting a millenial society on MORMON SETTLEMENT 43 the fringe of the frontier."26 The army post was eventually named Camp Floyd after the secretary of war who had played a prominent role in stirring up the trouble in the first place. Today, high above the coast-to-coast interstate highway that now runs through Echo Canyon, perceptive visitors can still find remnants of the rock fortifications built by the Nauvoo Legion 140 years ago. Economic Development During the late 1860s, several of Coalville's young married men earned extra money by meeting groups of travelers at the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad in Echo and offering their services as teamsters. As the men returned from Salt Lake City, goods from the "states" filtered back into town. Charles E. Griffin, for example, pre­sented his wife with a new coal stove. Marinda Eldredge received a new stove, a looking glass, new dress patterns, and fancy collars-all of which made her stay in the harsh mountain environment more bearable.27 But as the gentile influence, with its alluring material goods, grew in Utah, Brigham Young feared that his flock would abandon their communal ideals and move toward a more individualistic and capi­talistic economic society. Particularly, he foresaw that the transcon­tinental railroad would weaken the Mormon hold on the territory. Therefore, in 1868, he gathered together a group of civic and busi­ness leaders to form a community-owned merchandising organiza­tion. The venture, christened Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI), would be dedicated to the support of home manufacturing and the sale of goods at reasonable prices. Although the mother store in Salt Lake City never became a cooperative itself, it spawned a regionwide system of local cooperatives owned and oper­ated by the people. As part of this ZCMI system, the Coalville Co-op was organized in 1868. As was true of most co-ops in the church sys­tem, the Coalville Co-op eventually came under private ownership when local farmers and private investors bought up the shares and formed their own organization.28 In a related effort to maintain the unity and economic stability of the church, President Young encouraged the organization of United Orders, intended to foster self-sufficiency, home industry, and 44 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY The Coalville Co-op in the early 1900s. The engine at left is hauling coal from the Chalk Creek mines. (Summit County Historical Society) united communitarian living. These United Orders, as Young set them forth, were the most current version of the early Mormon con­cept of consecration and stewardship. The Cluff Ward organized the Coalville United Order on 31 May 1874.29 However, the spirit of individual enterprise inevitably prevailed. The railroad was a large reason for this. Ironically, it was Young who had secured for church members the contract to grade, tunnel, and build the bridge masonry from the head of Echo Canyon to the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Thousands of Mormon men, many from Summit County, earned real pay for their work on the tracks. At completion, the railroad stimulated the development of local industries such as cattle ranching, mining, and the production of goods. When the railroad came to Echo Canyon, Coalville had a total population of 619. In 1880, the town had grown by 47 percent, to 911. During the next ten years it grew to 1,166 people; and, by 1910, the Coalville area had 1,445 inhabitants. While it certainly hadn't become an urban area, the character of Coalville's population MORMON SETTLEMENT 45 '-*"* •«, • r ... -• , j ^ ^ ^ ^ J U H l jBjEL; PrS ryyyyyyyy0y^%yyyy^:y^: 1 • ::• , ' . / E M M r/ . i .. 'v*;v;^*';'---#}&'V "fe.-iiVi..:..'-. . A « P:?yyy,y:\ : Coalville, looking south, about 1915. (Brigham Young University, George Beard collection) changed during these decades. Increased numbers of non-farmers lived in town, offering a new variety of goods and services to the local population.30 The census of 1870 listed a handful of occupations, including miner, laborer, teamster, schoolteacher, shoemaker, carpenter, store clerk, blacksmith, and sheepherder. By 1900, this list had grown to include attorney, barber, carpenter, druggist, engine fireman, jeweler, mason, merchant, miller, mine superintendent, minister, postmaster, salesman, saloon keeper, section foreman, sheriff, wagonmaker, woodworking machinist, and coach wheelwright. For women, work throughout the nineteenth century was clearly gender-defined and included traditional female pursuits like housekeeper, seamstress, laundress, milliner, nurse, and schoolteacher. Most of Coalville's women did not work outside their household, and they listed their status as "at home." As the local economy diversified and the community pursued its goal of self-sufficiency, a greater variety of goods and services gradu­ally became available. In 1880, a gristmill started operations on Chalk 46 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY A view of Main Street storefronts in Coalville in the early 1900s. By the turn of the century, Coalville had a variety of businesses, including a newpaper. (Summit County Historical Society) Creek. Ann Cluff opened a hotel in 1885 to house local miners and travelers. By 1892, J.H. Ball was running the Coalville House; it was advertised as having "first class accommodations" and "good stabling attached." l o h n Boyden opened a drugstore in 1892 in which he sold, among other things, drugs, medicines, toilet articles, and stationery. That same year, the town's first newspaper, the Coalville Times, issued its first edition. The Coalville C o - o p and Summit F u r n i t u r e and Mercantile Company, the town's premier merchandising institutions, offered an increasing assortment of i m p o r t e d goods for sale. And they also offered "taxi" service so t h a t women living o n outlying farms could come into town for a day's shopping. This proved to be a boon to business, as isolated farm wives were brought into the life of the community. In 1905, a second blacksmith shop opened; it would later become t h e local a u t o m o b i l e and farm implement sales agency. Jacob Huffman built a sawmill in Echo Canyon.3 1 Soon Samuel Gentry opened yet another blacksmith shop and John Allgood established a MORMON SETTLEMENT 47 A sign on a Coalville storefront advertising a play at North Summit High School, about 1915. (Brigham Young University, George Beard collection) photograph gallery. Several other smaller stores lined Coalville's Main Street, including Wilkins & Deming Meat Market, the Ball and Draper saloon, Morby Brothers Lumber, C.A. Carlander's shoe shop, and Mrs. J.E. Stewart's bakery.32 Local mining stimulated Coalville's economy as well. In many ways, Coalville became a supply station of services and goods for the area's coal mines. Of course, Coalville also produced hundreds of workers for the mines. Merchants benefited from those miners' demands for housing, food, clothing, and other services. Everyone felt the impact of the mines.33 The Mormon church's coal mines at Coalville were of more than local importance. As fuel was a rare and much-needed commodity in Salt Lake City, the delivery of coal to the territorial capital became one of Brigham Young's major concerns during the last twenty years of his life. Although the Coalville coal was not of superior quality, it was far better than no fuel at all, and it had the advantage of coming from church-owned mines at a good price. Twice, Young launched 48 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY expensive campaigns aimed at getting the coal to Salt Lake City via church-built railroads. Both attempts failed. The Mormon church so greatly valued the area mines that it tried to transfer t h em to private ownership to prevent t h em from being confiscated by the federal government after the Edmunds-Tucker Act passed in 1887.34 However, the church also failed in this effort; the mines were not returned to the church until after Utah became a state in 1896. In about 1905, the church finally gave u p on the mines and sold off its mineral claims. In a d d i t i o n to the church mines, several privately owned coal mines operated in the county during the late nineteenth century. The first mines were located in Allen's Hollow, Spring Hollow, and Dexter's Hollow, along with those u p Chalk Creek and Grass Creek. The 1870 territorial census for Coalville lists five coal mines of vari­ous sizes and quality. The J. Spriggs mine, with " 1 horse, 1 car, powder and fuzes," produced 1,000 tons of coal worth $3,000. The Wasatch Coal Mining Company and J. Roberson's mine each received only $2,500 for 1,000 tons of coal, while the larger Crismon and Mayfield operation made $4,500 on its 2,000 tons. J. Johnson had the smallest mine and was paid $1,250 for his 500 tons of coal. As was t r u e in many mining sectors in Utah, Coalville experi­enced serious and widespread economic depression far earlier than the rest of the country. Markets for mining and agricultural products fell off during the 1920s, and during this time the population in and around Coalville dropped by one third. Life in Coalville had never been extravagant, but with the 1920s a period of relative prosperity gave way to hard times that would last until World War II. ENDNOTES 1. Sir Richard Burton, The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California (Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1990), 184. 2. A good reference for this period is Leonard I. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968). 3. Although the Homestead Act was the law most useful to Mormon MORMON SETTLEMENT 49 settlers, the Timber Culture Act, the Federal Townsite Law of 1867, and the Desert Land Act were sometimes employed to obtain title to land. 4. Lawrence B. Lee, "The Homestead Act: Vision and Reality," Utah Historical Quarterly 30 (Summer 1962): 228. 5. George W. Rollins, "Land Policies of the United States as Applied to Utah to 1910," Utah Historical Quarterly 20 (July 1952): 244. 6. James Bourne Rhead, Journal, 27 September 1885, LDS Church Archives. 7. Coalville, Utah, Centennial Souvenir, 1859-1959, (Coalville: Coalville Literary Club, 1959), 4. See Sarah P. Frazier, untitled Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP) report, n.d., DUP State Office, Salt Lake City; Margaret A. Lee, untitled Daughters of Utah Pioneers report, n.d., DUP Coalville Camp. 8. Coalville, Utah, Centennial Souvenir, 4. Although there were plenty of fruits and vegetables grown locally, flour had to be shipped in from Salt Lake City where it was milled. J. Kenneth Davies, George Beard, Mormon Pioneer Artist with a Camera (Provo: J. Kenneth Davies, 1975), 23. 9. Leonard J. Arrington and Melvin A. Larkin, "The Logan Tabernacle and Temple," Utah Historical Quarterly 41 (Summer 1973): 302. 10. "Climatological Summary for Coalville, Utah Station. No. 20-42, Means and Extremes for Period, 1931-1960," U.S. Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau. No data was available for the early period of Coalville, but it is assumed the climate was similar in extremes of tempera­ture. 11. Utah, A Guide to the State, American Guide Series, WPA Writers Project (New York: Hastings House, 1941), 38; Brigham D. Madsen, Chief Pocatello (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986), 10-11. 12. R. Warren Metcalf, "A Reappraisal of Utah's Black Hawk War" (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1989), 2, 146, 155. 13. Coalville Times, 12 October 1894; 25 October 1895. 14. Centennial Souvenir, 15. 15. Ibid., 27. 16. George W. Brown, ed., Herald of Freedom, 4 luly 1857. 17. Brigham Young to George Taylor and others, 29 lune 1857, Brigham Young Papers, LDS Church Archives. 18. T.B.H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1873), 352. 19. fournal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London, 1854-86; reprint, Salt Lake City, 1967), 5:77-78; Deseret News, 29 luly 1857. 50 HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY 20. Quoted in Leonard Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 254. 21. New York Times, 15 December 1857. 22. These orders were found on Major Joseph Taylor when he was cap­tured by government troops. See R.B. Marcy, Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border (New York, 1866), 270-71. 23. Brigham Young to John Sharp, 28 September 1857, Nauvoo Legion Letterbook, 115, LDS Church Archives. 24. Brigham Young to Daniel H. Wells, lohn Taylor, and George A. Smith, 17 October 1857, Nauvoo Legion Letterbook, 137-40. 25. Richard Poll et al., eds. Utah's History (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), 168. 26. Donald R. Moorman and Gene A. Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992), 4. 27. Margaret Marinda Merrill Eldredge, "My Life and History, a Remembrance, 1926," 171, typescript, LDS Church Archives. 28. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 338; Davies, Mormon Pioneer Artist, 3; Dorothy Beard Blanpied, "The Coalville Co-op," Daughters of the Utah Pioneers report, DUP Utah Office; Leonard ]. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building the City of God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), 8, 132, 171, 320. The anti-polygamy crusade of the federal government sapped the united orders of badly needed leadership and expertise before they could become fully established. 29. Arrington, Fox, and May, Building the City of God, 414. 30. The data for this census study is taken from the federal censuses for 1870, 1880, and 1900. Also see the Ninth U.S. Census, Volume I (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior, 1890), 404; 1900 Census Reports, Volume I, (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Census, 1900), 392; Population by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions, 1890, 1900, 1910, (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Census), 531; Fourteenth Census of the United States, Volume 1, 644. 31. Bernett Blonquist Smith, "History of Summit Stake Tabernacle," (1966), page 3, copy at Utah State Historical Society Library. Jacob Huffman had a sawmill in Echo Canyon which furnished part of the lumber for the tabernacle. 32. Margaret C. Rhead, "Life in Early Coalville," Daughters of Utah Pioneers report dictated February 1956, DUP Utah State Office, 5; Utah Gazetteer, 1892-93 (Salt Lake City: Stenhouse 8c Company, 1892), 53. 33. Leonard I. Arrington, "Abundance from the Earth: The Beginnings of Commercial Mining in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 31 (Summer 1963): 218-19. MORMON SETTLEMENT 51 34. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 362. The Edmunds-Tucker Act, aimed at punishing and eliminating polygamy, authorized confiscation of Mormon church property.