A History of Beaver County

The establishment of Beaver county and its communities-1

CHAPTER 4 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY AND ITS COMMUNITIES 1856-1870 X ravelers to the Valley of the Little Salt Lake easily recognized the rich soil and plentiful water of Beaver Valley. In the early 1850s, residents of Parowan traveled to Beaver Valley to cut the native grass and haul it back for winter livestock feed. Some of the Iron Mission members were so taken with the idea of settling the Beaver Valley that for the first few years church leaders strongly discouraged what they thought would be a premature settlement effort into Beaver Valley.1 By 1855 it was clear that settlers would be moving into Beaver Valley, and on 5 January 1856 the Utah Territorial Legislature created Beaver County. Beaver County Created Unlike most other Utah counties, Beaver County was created before it was settled. Utah's first six counties were created on 31 January 1850. The Beaver area was included in the southern most county first called Little Salt Lake, but changed to Iron County before the end of 1850. The boundaries of Iron County were vague, but were partly defined as the area south of the divide between Beaver Creek 50 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 51 and the Sevier River. When Beaver County was created in 1856, its boundaries were set as "All that p o r t i o n of Utah t e r r i t o ry bounded north by Millard County; east by the Territorial line; south by an east and west line crossing the military road on the summit of the ridge dividing Little Salt Lake and upper Beaver Valley; and west by Carson County. . ."2 These b o u n d a r i e s were more clearly defined by the Utah Territorial Legislature ten years later when, on 10 J a n u a r y 1866, Beaver City was designated as t h e county seat and the boundaries were identified as "All t h a t p o r t i o n of t e r r i t o r y b o u n d e d south by Iron County, west by Nevada, n o r t h by a line r u n n i n g due east and west t h r o u g h a p o i n t two miles south from the s o u t h side of Fort Wilden on Cove Creek, and east by the range of mountains dividing Beaver and Pauvan Valleys from the valley of the Sevier . . "3 The Settlement of Beaver A month after Beaver County was created, and five years after the Iron Mission vanguard journeyed south from Salt Lake City to the Little Salt Lake Valley, a group of fifteen families prepared to leave Parowan to establish a new settlement t h i r t y miles to the n o r t h in Beaver Valley. Under the leadership of Simeon Howd they left Parowan on 5 February 1856 and arrived the next day, ready to start a permanent settlement in the valley. The original settlers included: Wilson G. Nowers, James P. Anderson, Edward W. Thompson, Ross R. Rogers, Barney Carter, John Knowles, James Low, H. S. Alexander, John M. Davis, Charles Carter, John Henderson, James Duke, Joseph Goff, Benson Lewis, Andrew Patterson, and his sixteen-year-old son Robert. The first night after leaving Parowan for Beaver Valley, Wilson Nowers recalled: the snow covered the ground that was frozen, we built a bon fire of sage brush and thawed the ground then removed the fire and dug a hole in which we cached our potatoes and other provisions, spread our blankets thereon, after covering it with dirt, and slept there for the night. Next morning we opened the cache, loaded our provisions into our wagons and again moved on for Beaver Valley.4 52 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The members of the group worked together to clear fields and raise cabins. These first primitive dwellings had cloth windows, rug doors, cobble stone fire places, and dirt roofs. When the snow finally melted after the first winter, the settlers saw fields carpeted with soft blue sagebrush. Patches of willow, grass, and native plants dotted the valley. Beaver Creek and other tree-lined streams came out of the mountains to the east and ran west through the valley. A number of channels of Beaver Creek returned to one stream in the area eventually known as Greenville. Other streams like South Creek, Devil Creek, and Indian Creek brought enough water down into the valley from the east to be diverted into irrigation canals for agricultural use by the settlers. Beaver Valley had rich range land, soil, and growing conditions for pasture grasses. The temperate climate made it particularly well suited for livestock production. It was expected that after the initial settlement by veterans of the Iron Mission, additional settlers would come from the Salt Lake Valley and other settlements to the north. The establishment of Beaver City was typical of the manner of settlement throughout Utah. After choosing a favorable location nearest the most important natural resources, a townsite was sur­veyed in a gridiron pattern as outlined in Joseph Smith's Plan for the City of Zion. The primary features of the plan included areas for reli­gious, public, and commercial uses in the center of town, surrounded by ten-acre blocks of residential land, each divided into one-acre parcels.5 Selection of these parcels was made by drawing lots. Settlers built a house, constructed outbuildings and corrals, and planted a garden on their one-acre town lot. Larger tracts of farming and graz­ing land surrounded the village and were reached on foot, wagon, or horseback. This original layout of a three-tiered, radiating land sys­tem is still apparent in Beaver today. More important to the success of the settlement than the city plan was the colonist group itself. The settling parties were designed to include a compatible group of experienced leaders and craftsmen whose combined talents in milling, carpentry, masonry, black-smithing, farming, etc., would blend in a cooperative system intent on building and sustaining a flourishing community. Enduring con­stant difficulties and slow progress at times, the overall effort proved THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 53_ successful, as is evident by the signs of accomplishment visible in the present day city. Beaver City was first surveyed and platted on 17 April 1856 by James Martineau of Parowan. Martineau's survey laid out oblong blocks with eight lots to the block-four corner lots and four inte­rior lots. When quarrels developed over the choice corner lots, the town was resurveyed by Edward W. Thompson in 1857. He laid out square blocks 396 feet long on each side with streets and side walks 100 feet wide. Thompson's new survey provided for four lots on each block-all corner lots putting the former controversy to rest. Thompson established the survey corner at the northeast corner of the present-day courthouse running east and west. The streets run­ning north and south were given number names, and the streets east and west were designated by the letters of the alphabet. Originally, the township included the east part of Greenville and part of Galeville. The new survey left at least one cabin in the middle of the street, but it was moved to a new location without great difficulty.6 Nancy K. Nowers, the first white child born in Beaver, was born in the house before it was moved. All of the city blocks were divided into four lots and included a residence, well, lumber livestock barn, chicken coop, garden plot, and fruit trees. Each of the city blocks had twenty-four hours of city ditch water and six hours of ditch water for each home. Most of the first residences were log cabins made with roughly hewn cottonwood trees. Red pine, ponderosa pine, black balsa, and white spruce timber were abundant in the local canyons. Before long Beaver homes were built of adobe bricks, native stone including black basalt and pink rock, brick, and sawed lumber. The town of Beaver was incorporated in January 1867 and John Ashworth became Beaver's first mayor. The city council issued licenses for everything from selling liquor to dancing, and created land taxes, water, poll, and dog taxes. The council also regulated the movement of cattle, horses, and hogs running the city streets; the building of local fences; grazing in town; and traffic.7 Beaver County's First Public Officials The Utah Territorial legislature appointed a full set of county 54 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY officials and the first official public meeting was held on 4 September 1856. The county court was Beaver County's first administrative body. When originally created, the court consisted of a probate judge and three selectmen. Judge Lorin W Babitt came to Beaver to install provisional officers until a regular election could be held. These interim officers included Wilson G. Nowers, county clerk; Orson Tyler, sheriff; Lamoni L. Babitt, constable; and James W. Huntsman, selectman. It was intended that Beaver City leaders Simeon F. Howd and Joel W. White would be appointed selectmen, but both were absent at the time of Babitt's visit. In their place, John M. Davis and Ephraim Tompkinson were sworn in to serve temporarily. In addi­tion, Ross R. Rogers was appointed notary public and county recorder; C.P. Liston, county treasurer; James P. Anderson and James Duke, fence viewers; Edward W. Thompson, surveyor; John Ashworth, assessor and collector; John M. Davis, justice of the peace; Charles Carter, supervisor of roads and streets; and James Farrer, pound keeper. The list of offices gives a clear picture of social condi­tions of the day that reflect the kinds of issues faced by governmental leaders and that established in their minds an orderly community. The Distribution of Land The distribution of land in Utah Territory was a complicated matter. Because Utah territory had not been surveyed by the federal government before settlement all land grants were tenuous. Local surveyors had surveyed and platted city lots that were distributed with certificates of survey signed by the surveyor and mayor or pro­bate judge. Technically, all land transactions were not binding until a federal land office was established in Utah Territory in 1869; all settlers were therefore legally considered squatters. Originally, the land was acquired by the United States government in the Mexican War of 1846 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. One result of the ter­ritorial constitutional convention held 2 March 1850 was a petition from the State of Deseret to the Congress of the United States for admittance as a state. The petition was ignored, and Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 on 9 September 1850 which admitted California as a state and divided the rest of the lands obtained from THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 55 Mexico into the territories of Utah and New Mexico. However, the territorial legislature was not granted authority over land, water, or timber distribution. Thus between 1847 and 1 April 1869, twenty-two years later, it was impossible in Utah to secure legal title to land through a federal land office. Because of this unsteady situation, a n d the absence of governmental supervision of the distribution of natural resources, and because the Mormon church was directing colonization efforts, the LDS church, the State of Deseret, and finally Utah Territory devel­oped their own systems. None of the three claimed more than tem­p o r a r y or emergency j u r i s d i c t i o n over t h e lands until the federal government stepped in. The territorial legislature enacted the following provision on 6 March 1852: When any conveyance, sale, or transfer shall be made of any legal claim, or right of possession of any city lot, or surveyed lands or land, part or parts thereof within this territory, the seller or ven­dor of the same shall make and execute to the vendor a full and written claim, and possession to the premises so transferred, and acknowledge the same before the county recorder where the premises are situated.8 At the time the provisions of the Pre-emption Act should have reme­died this problem. This act had been in force for six years before the Mormon pioneers entered the area and impacted land distribution t h r o u g h o u t the West. It provided for a claim of n o less t h a n forty acres nor more t h a n 160 acres after fourteen months of occupancy and that payment of $1.25 per acre for heads of families and individ­uals over twenty-one years of age. However generous this provisions appeared, it was ill-suited to the arid lands of Utah. Even the mini­mum area was far too large for the typical small subdivision favored by Utah farmers. Because of the precarious situation with the Native Americans, the residency requirement presented a particular prob­lem. The Homestead Act of 1862, which provided a 160-acre piece of land, proved to present the same difficulties for this arid mountain­ous environment. When the earliest settlers of Beaver County platted off their lots 56 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY and alloted land on the periphery of town, their principal objective was to establish an agricultural community. The fields that stretched to the west from the mountain base promised fertile soils for farm­ing and land perfect for stock grazing. The original pioneers brought with them cattle to begin herds. Soon cattle herds grazed in the Wah Wah and Pine Valley, and large numbers of cattle grazed in the area that would eventually be the center of mining activity in the county around Newhouse and Frisco. A few years after a federal land office was established in the Utah Territory in 1869, a branch office was established in Beaver. Some feared that the land office would give outsiders the opportunity to claim choice parcels of land which had been farmed by Mormon set­tlers for over a decade. According to lohn Franklin Tolton, a small group of land jumpers did move onto land that others saw as theirs. The result was violence. One of the land jumpers, John Howard, was shot dead in his newly constructed cabin. No one was charged with the murder and, as Tolton recounts the story, "The other jumpers took the hint and beat a retreat."9 Farming and Irrigation Absolutely essential to the Mormon settlement of the arid west was irrigation. Born out of necessity, irrigation worked because coop­erative work networks were established. Obviously a far too compli­cated and arduous a task for individuals to complete on their own, the group effort at irrigation once again united the Mormons in community building. In southern Utah Mormons observed that certain Indian groups irrigated land for crops. It was clear that there would be a constant need for water, that irrigation provided an efficient and achievable solution to that problem, and given their group consciousness and cooperative spirit, a community program of control of water resources seemed the ideal solution. In a way not unlike the blessing of the loaves and fishes to thousands, the benefits of the limited water resources of the Great Basin were multiplied and carefully conserved to provide for the growing community of settlers in the Mountain West. Within a decade after settlement, the inhabitants of Beaver THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 57 All members of the family participated in the harvest. (Utah State Historical Society) County organized in irrigation companies to extract and regulate water from nearby rivers and streams to insure more efficient use. The Kent's Lake Company and the M a m m o t h Canal Company, among others, serviced local areas and provided water to render the land arable for agriculture. For irrigation and culinary purposes, each city block had twenty-four h o u r s of city ditch water. Family lots h a d six h o u r s of ditch water for their gardens, lawns, flowers, and fruit trees. Water rights came along with the purchase of land after 1869. Farming r e q u i r e d long, h a r d work with p r i m i t i v e tools, and sometimes grasshoppers t h r e a t e n e d to destroy entire crops. John Franklin Tolton recalled, "We cut our grain with a cradle, raked and bound it into bundles by hand, and threshed it with a flain. This con­tinued, as well as cutting our hay with a scythe, until as late as 1875. No alfalfa hay was raised in Beaver until a later period, and our prin­cipal forage for cattle was wild, or meadow, hay, pea vines, corn-fod­der, and straw a n d chaff."10 Tolton also described the efforts to combat grasshopper invasions. "So numerous were the grass hoppers during crop growing seasons that the sun would be litterally [sic] 58 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY obscured at mid-day, so dense would be the swarm. Whole families would be found among the growing crops with willow boughs endeavoring to drive these hords into ditches where straw had been previously placed, and when so driven the straw would be set o n fire in hopes of thus getting rid of the pests."11 Children made i m p o r t a n t c o n t r i b u t i o n s in doing chores and working on farms. Both sons and daughters in the families drove the cows to and from the pastures. Many of these children helped with the milk­ing. At this time the milking was done by hand. The children also fed the calves, chickens, and pigs. They also cut or helped cut the wood for the kitchen cook stove and the heating stove. Oh yes, the wood had to be packed to the wood box near the back door of the house. You can probably guess who did this. Some family children did have one or more riding poinies, but most children walked every where they went. A lot of the boys went bare footed in the summer months, and boy did those gravel and dirt roads get hot.12 A woman's life was largely subscribed by the conditions of her home. James Horace Skinner wrote about t h e varieties of work required of a woman in the production of clothes for her family. "The wool after being carded with h a n d cards, was spun with the old fash­ioned spinning wheel, and that was h a n d work for the women, after being spun, next came the weaving, that too was by hand. Then mak­ing u p all done by hand, n o sewing machines, after a while some par­ties built a carding machine that took a lot of h a n d labor off of the women." He continued to describe her other work, saying it is diffi­cult to imagine what all women had to go through on a daily basis. "With baking on a open fire place with bake skillet and frying pan. No carpets, or rugs on the floor, n o stoves and few conveniences to cook or work with, and I may say less to wear, with poor and uncom­fortable houses to live in, not enough in many cases to keep the wet or cold out, even many lacked enough bedclothes to keep t h em from suffering from the cold."13 The Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre The first real threat to the new settlement in Beaver Valley came from far away in Washington, D.C. The decision by President James THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 59_ Buchanan to send a federal army to Utah to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor and to put down an alleged Mormon rebellion was made in the spring of 1857, a little more than two years after the first residents arrived in Beaver Valley. The approach of the federal army was met with resistance and plans to abandon outlying settle­ments, look for other areas into which Mormons could move, and, if necessary, undertake another exodus to relocate the Latter-day Saints to a place where they could practice their religion unhindered by non-Mormons and the federal government. The outside threat also suggested the need to strengthen Mormon alliances with native Indians and to reconsider their treatment of non-Mormon emigrant parties passing through the territory en route to California. As a result of the force of public opinion, limited actual knowl­edge of the situation, and his own bias against the Mormon church, President James Buchanan, elected in November 1856, appointed Alfred Cumming of Georgia the new governor of Utah territory. In addition, he appointed William S. Harney leader of a military force that would accompany the new governor to Utah. Secretary of War John B. Floyd, himself bitterly anti-Mormon, believed a show of mil­itary force would strengthen the federal presence in Utah and insure that there would be no trouble over the appointment. On 28 May 1857 Floyd order 2,500 troops gathered at Fort Leavenworth "to march then to Utah as soon as assembled." After Harney was reas­signed to Kansas, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was appointed commander of the force. Mormons were aware of the impending crisis and quickly pre­pared for war. They received piecemeal news of the organization of the troops that filtered in informally from travelers through the area. On 24 July 1857, in the midst of a Pioneer Day celebration held in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Porter Rockwell, Abraham Owen Smoot, and Judson Stoddard, returning from a trip to the East, brought the alarming news that an army was moving toward Mormon territory. Although southern Utah was not in the line of march of Johnston's army, Mormon settlers recognized the severity of the situ­ation and made preparations accordingly. In August 1857 George A. Smith made speeches in Nephi, Fillmore, Parowan, Cedar City, and Pinto, calling upon settlers to take care of their provisions and be pre- 60 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY pared to move into the mountains where they would carry out a guerilla war against the federal troops. Smith delivered orders to local militia leaders and found southern Utah settlers ready to defend their homes and resist the federal invasion. Indian chiefs were escorted to Salt Lake City by Jacob Hamblin to meet with Brigham Young to strengthen the Mormon-Indian alliance and to discuss the treatment of emigrants passing through the territory. One California-bound emigrant party making its way through southern Utah during the chaotic weeks of August 1857 was the Fancher Party. The party of 100 to 150 persons arrived in Salt Lake City on 10 August three weeks after the announcement that federal troops were enroute to Utah. Where earlier parties had taken the Salt Lake Cutoff north to its junction with the California Trail at City of the Rocks, the Fancher Party was probably the first to take the south­ern route in 1857. Expecting to purchase supplies and trade their trail-worn animals for fresh animals as had previous California-bound groups since the gold rush days of 1849, the Baker-Fancher Party headed south through Utah on the heels of George A. Smith, his admonition to guard their provisions still fresh in mind of the Utah Mormons. Reports and rumors of hostility and misconduct on the part of the emigrant party preceded their trek south. Late in August the company passed through Beaver about noon and continued south ward for about a mile to a meadow where they set up camp. Local Indians were incensed at the travelers, and Beaver settlers felt threatened by their presence. Indians shot at one of the men as he walked through the sagebrush hunting rabbits. The man was not injured, but in meeting with the Indians, Beaver residents were told that the emigrant party had poisoned a mule and a spring near Nephi which made the Indians sick. The citizens of Beaver tried to placate the Indians, offering them a beef and and urging them not to harm the emigrants because of the numerous women and children in the party. With considerable concern about the Indians, a delega­tion from the immigrant party returned to Beaver. William B. Ashworth recalled: They were told what had been done to dissuade the Indians from making further trouble, but that all their efforts had been to no THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 6J_ avail. The bishop then advised the emigrants to protect themselves as best they could, as the town would not help them on account of all the women and children whose safety depended on the friend­liness of the Indians. He urged the men not to come up into the town, as that would jeopardize, not only themselves but the peo­ple of Beaver.14 The next day most of the party continued on south toward Cedar City where they were also refused provisions and assistance. During the first week of September, they reached Mountain Meadows, thirty-five miles southwest of Cedar City. After resting a few days in prepa­r a t i o n for t h e arduous trek across t h e desert, t h e emigrants were attacked by Indians and militia men disguised as Indians on 7 September. After a four-day siege which left t h em with little water and ammunition, the emigrants surrendered with the understanding they would be taken back to Cedar City. About a mile and a half from their camp, they were massacred by Indians and militia men and only seventeen small children survived. Fate intervened to prevent a tragedy similar to that at Mountain Meadows from occurring in Beaver County. Philo T. Farnsworth, who was a captain in the militia in 1857, reported: When the Arkansas Company [Fancher Party] passed through Beaver I was in Salt Lake City and returned as the company that followed them was going through. This company had trouble and divided and its Captain Duke with a portion were left [at] camp just below Beaver and a portion were left back in Indian Creek about six miles. After I got home that evening an Indian . . . came to me and told me the Indians intended to attack the company that was back on Mill Creek. I went to the captain of the company and told him of the intended attack and urged him to go back and bring the rest of the company and protect them. About 9 o'clock that evening he [sent] the Captain to me and said his Company were so demoralized he could do nothing with them. I then got out ten men and finally five of his men joined them and I sent them under command of R.R. Rogers and before [they] had got to their camp the Indians had attempted to drive off their cattle and one of the guards had shot an Indian. My men helped them to hitch up and the company started for town. . . . About 2 o'clock in the 62 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY morning some Indians came to me and wanted me to join them and get revenge. I told them to send their chief and I tried to pacify him. . . . when I was eating breakfast I heard shots and rushing out I saw that Capt. Duke, Turner, 8c Collins who had just passed my house and Turner and Collins were both wounded. I spoke to the Indians and ran between them and the men. . . . Later I got the Indians out of town and sent to Parowan for ten men to escort them on their way.15 One of the travelers, George Powers, who was part of a small group of only three wagons, reported, "We laid by at Beaver several days, as the Bishop told us it was dangerous for so small a company as ours to go on."16 These acts of assistance and aid were overshadowed by the events that occurred at Mountain Meadows, and the tragedy would haunt southern Utah for decades. John D. Lee was the only man arrested in connection with the massacre. Captured in 1875, more than a quarter century after the event, Lee was tried and convicted at Beaver. On 15 September 1857, Brigham Young declared that a state of military emergency existed and that the militia would resist any inva­sion of Utah. Under his direction, Porter Rockwell, Lot Smith, Robert Burton, and others led several hundred members of the Nauvoo Legion to hideouts along the route through Echo Canyon, preparing to engage in guerilla warfare to prevent the soldiers to travel through to the Salt Lake Valley. The principal battles of the "Utah War" were little more than cre­ating havoc for soldiers as they prepared for the advance of the army. Soldiers burned three supply trains, interrupted military communi­cations, and attempted to divert the attention of the military advance parties from accomplishing their mission. Overall there were no deaths from military action. Although reportedly one infantryman "died of fright" after a nocturnal raid on the army's livestock herd. This limited action in Echo canyon did dissuade the troops from traveling through. Instead they wintered at Fort Bridger in perilous conditions. Thus, according to one historian, "a combination of bungling on the part of the Buchanan administration, vacillating military leader- THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 63_ ship, hit-and-run raids, and inclement weather stopped the Utah Expedition a hundred miles short of its destination."17 Brigham Young's strategy at this point changed and focused instead on removal of his people. Through the intervention of Thomas Kane, longtime friend to the Mormons, Alfred Cumming came peacefully into the valley and assumed his position as governor. Regardless, the Mormons abandoned all settlements to the north and moved south as a body, leaving behind homes and a large amount of property to avoid confrontation with the troops. They stayed for a while in temporary shelters or with friends in Utah County and in counties as far south as Beaver. On 7 June a peace commission arrived from Washington with a proclamation of amnesty dated 6 April. As a result the army moved untroubled through the valley to the southwest, setting up camp in Cedar Valley. The army post was eventually named Camp Floyd after Secretary of War Floyd who had played a prominent role in stirring up the trouble in the first place. San Bernardino Saints One of the settlements abandoned during the Utah War was San Bernardino, California, and a number of families moved to Beaver County, including Francis M. Lyman, Marcus L. Shephard, Sidney Tanner, Horace A. Skinner, Alphonzo M. Farnsworth, Jonathan and Alma Crosby, John W. Christian, John P. Carter, Addison Pratt, John Hunt, E .C. Mathews, Thomas Parkinson, James Henry Rollins, Henry Gale, William Moyes, William Flake, Charles Nickerson, Philip Baker, Ephraim Twitchell, William Hawkins, James Henry Rollins, and others. These were part of some fifty-five families that left San Bernardino in November and December 1857, abandoning farms, businesses, and homes. When John Franklin Tolton's family first came to Beaver, they stayed for a brief time in the Tithing Office Building.18 Another refugee, James Horace Skinner, described his feelings upon coming to Beaver in a reminiscence written later in his life. When they came, Beaver had only been settled for two years. They had spent much of the previous few years already traveling great distances, building homes, and struggling to survive. Nevertheless, life in this new place provided new and demanding challenges. 64 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY I've arrived in time to share in the trials and hardships of making a home in a desert waste. . . . What with providing something to keep life in the body-and clothes to cover our persons, to build­ing a shelter to protect us from the cold winter storms, and the summer heat, building roads, grubbing sage brush, making ditches, guarding against Indians attacks, herding our stock we were kept pretty busy.19 The experiences related by Horace Skinner also applied to those who settled Beaver County's other communities, including Greenville, Minersville, and Adamsville. Greenville Greenville, located five miles southwest of Beaver, was explored and settled by pioneers from Parowan and Cedar City. Well-watered native pasture was the attraction, and as early as 1857 ranchers were cutting grass and hauling it home to feed live stock in the winter. In 1860 William and Samuel Edwards, William Richards, and David Miller decided to stay. They moved in four log houses from Beaver and made a small encampment beneath a cluster of trees along a creek. Several other families joined the settlement in 1861-62, includ­ing: Robert Easton, Morgan Jenkins, Benjamin Kelly, Robert Hickens, Lewis Davis, Thomas G. Reese, James Whittaker, Watkin Reese, Orris Clapp Murdock, Philo Carter, David Williams, Bessir Stredder, David Reese, Joseph Huntington, James H. Blackner, Benjamin Arthur, Alfred Heslington, Joseph Morris, David Griffith, Samuel Kershaw, Charley Booth, Robert Edwards, William Barton, Samuel Maunsey, and Thomas Butler. As members of the group claimed plots of ground and built their homes, the orientation continued to be toward the water. Realizing the soil was alkaline and unfit for extensive farming, the settlers built homes, began small farms, and for the most part began stock raising. Many of them built log homes, but quickly the group joined to make adobe bricks for construction. As was true of other small towns feeding off Beaver, business and industry were slow to come to Greenville. Because nearby mercantile institutions offered all the goods and services one could need, settlers here traveled to Beaver rather than start new businesses of their own. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 65_ Instead, their economic base depended on farming, dairying, and livestock. Farmers traded the produce from their gardens with the soldiers at Fort Cameron or freighted them to Salt Lake City or to Pioche, Nevada. William Barton moved to Greenville in 1865 from Beaver. A miller by trade, Barton believed the warm water in Devil's Creek would make it possible for him to operate a mill year round. Farmers came from as far south as St. George to have Barton mill their grist. Jack of all trades, Barton was a particular friend to the Native Americans, conversing easily in their native tongue and also upon occasion was known to pull their teeth. Ruth Reese and Jane Richards were midwives who delivered countless numbers of local babies. In 1872 the LDS Greenville Ward was organized as a separate ward of Beaver Stake. And like Beaver, Greenville had its own choir, school, and other organizations designed to imitate the cultural life offered by Salt Lake City. Samuel Edwards served as the first bishop between 1860 and 1872, handling the distribution of land, and water rights, as well as his ecclesiastical duties. The Greenville Ward had its own choir with twenty members conducted by James Whittaker, George Eyre, and Robert Brown. Their first log church building was used as a school, as well, until about 1906, when the town replaced it with a rock structure. The Women's Relief Society was organized in 1878, and its meetings were held in a log house on the east bank of Dry Creek. In 1898 the organization purchased a better building and initiated a grain storage project. In 1901 the Relief Society built a pink rock building with donated rock, sand, lime, gravel, and other building supplies, donated labor from the men in the town, and quilts and other products donated by the women for sale to raise much needed cash. A postal road was built by the county from Beaver to Greenville in the late 1870s. Minersville Not all exploration efforts were aimed at discovering agricultural sites. Brigham Young had a keen interest in commercial and indus­trial development and agressively sought to locate the materials and human resources needed to create support technologies. Thus he sent out scouts to find coal, oil, iron ore, lime, and practical precious min- 66 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY erals. Lead was in great demand in 1858 because of the arrival of Johnston's Army that year and the concern that Mormons may still need to defend themselves. The lead could also be used for hunting. In the fall of 1858, Jesse N. Smith, Isaac Grundy, William Barton and Tarelton Lewis discovered a rich lode of ore in what became the Rollens Mine (later the Lincoln Mine). After examining ore speci­mens, President Young "called" Smith, Grundy and others to return to the Mineral Range, open a mine, and build a support settlement nearby. They located two and one half miles northwest of the present Minersville. Eventually it proved most efficient to haul the ore to a small smelting furnace on the Beaver River in what is now Minersville. This location proved superior because water was more plentiful.20 In 1859 the first settlers lived in dugouts and covered wagons. From these primitive habitations, they began to farm and raise stock sufficient to sustain Utah's first permanent mining-based commu­nity. In 1859 Minersville was surveyed and laid out, and a mining company was organized with Isaac Grundy president. Although there was brief discussion about calling the settlement Grundyville, it was called Minersville which bespoke its unique position as a church-set­tled town devoted to mining. Besides the mines themselves, the peo­ple built a smelter called the Grundy-Barton Smelter, on the south side of the Beaver River. The smelter's furnace, constructed in 1859, was the first lead furnace west of the Rocky Mountains. Flood water destroyed the smelter in 1861. A stamp mill, blacksmith shop, saloons, and boarding houses spoke to the mining character of the town. Lead for bullets and small amounts of silver and gold were mined locally. Before the settlement of Minersville, Mormon church leaders, particularly Brigham Young, avoided mining projects, fearing the infiltration of mining interests. Apostle Erastus Snow's attitude typi­fied that of church leaders: "We have all the time prayed that the Lord would shut up the mines. It is better for us to live in peace and good order, and to raise wheat, corn, potatoes and fruit, than to suffer the evils of a mining life, and do no more than make a living at last."21 Nevertheless, Young also preached that the Lord would provide a way for their material needs to be satisfied. If Mormon Utah was truly to THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 67 be a self-sufficient empire, it would need some source of mineral wealth. He said in 1849, "When the saints shall have preached the gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up the way for a supply of gold to the perfect satisfaction of his peo­ple; until then, let t h em not be overanxious for the treasures of the earth are in the Lord's storehouse, and he will open the doors thereof when and where he pleases."22 This opened u p the way for an experi­ment like Minersville, a Mormon town dedicated to the extraction of wealth from the earth. Isaac Grundy's correspondence with Young provides an interest­ing glimpse into the town's development. A letter of 24 August 1859 suggests the key issues settlers faced. According to your instructions I proceeded to select and orga­nize a company of ten men for the purpose of working the mines in this vicinity. We are located about sixteen miles down the stream from Beaver Settlement the mines are about four miles North of us in the edge of the mountains. We have prospected several leads and raised between six and eight thousand lbs. of lead ore. I think when the ore is in smelting order it will yield about sixty-eight percent lead. We intend now to put up a temporary furnace and send up to your city between [6]00 and 1000 lbs. between this time and Conference.23 Grundy described their living conditions, and called for more min­ers to help develop the industry. He clearly expected Brigham Young to respond favorably to his plea for help. For t h e first few years after the Lincoln Mine opened, miners hauled the ore to a smelter located on the Beaver River where the lead was melted into bricks to be fashioned into bullets.24 The temporary nature of t h e initial shelters reflected the capricious fortunes of min­ing. Simple dugouts a n d wooden shacks h o u s e d the first wave of miners in the area. According to local legend, Brigham Young, traveling through the area, stopped his buggy and pointed across the desert to the distance between Minersville and Milford saying that one day they would be j o i n e d together by c o n t i n u o u s farms. "Produce raised from these 68 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY farms," he said, "would help feed the world."25 Irrigating the land for farming was a particular problem here, for Minersville shared one-eleventh of the water rights with Lower Beaver from the Beaver River. Early settler Jesse N. Smith recorded in his journal: Sun., March 7, 1859: Brother Grundy and myself mounted at 2 o'clock A.M. and rode down to the "farm." A. Lyman called all par­ties together and advised that the water claims be settled without dispute, then went to Salt Lake City. It was finally decided that the mining settlement at the cottonwoods should be entitled to one-eleventh of the water of the creek for irrigation purposes, an article to that effect was written out and signed by Bishop Farnsworth on behalf of the farmers and I. Grundy on behalf of the Mining Co. Carried surveyors' claim about seven miles to connect the two sur­veys. 26 The Minersville Reservoir and Irrigation Company organized in 1889, and water came into town to be used for farming and culinary purposes. Soon more permanent structures were built along the sides of the valley. Minersville was unique in that it was a Mormon village dedicated to the extraction of ore from the mines with a number of farmers living in the area as well. Because of this, church, school, and merchandising played a different role in the life of the community. More families lived in this mining town than in most, and a sense of community pervaded that was different from the transitory atmos­phere of most b o om mining towns. The Minersville Irrigation Company was the first incorporated water company using the water of the Beaver River. Fields of wheat and hay, cattle and sheep grazing on the slopes of nearby hills, expressed that this was a place with a diverse economic base-farm­ers and miners working for the good of the community. Isaac Grundy served as Minersville's first LDS bishop until 1860 when James H e n r y Rollins replaced him. Meetings were held in homes until 1860 when they built their first adobe church building, eighteen by twenty feet. Bishop Rollins doubled as the town ecclesi­astical leader and post master, running the post office from his home until 1891. Many of Minersville's businesses were service industries-black- THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 69_ smiths, dry goods stores, mills, and boarding houses. Minersville Precinct had 446 inhabitants in 1870, 525 in 1900, and 815 in 1930. It was undoubtedly the success of this early mining venture that encouraged the exploration of other potential mines, leading to the founding of Milford in 1880 and other mining towns now long aban­doned. Adamsville In the spring of 1862 David B. Adams and several others settled on the right bank of the Beaver River about nine miles west of Beaver. Among the ranks of the first settlers of Adamsville were: David B. and Lydia Catherine Adams; Thomas and Ann Hougten Gunn; Joseph H. and Mary Ann Richards, Joseph Watkin and Jane Williams Reese; John Walters and Mary Jones Walters; James Simpkins and family; A.G. Wilson; Margaret Griffity; David and Margaret Pearce; John G. Jones; Sarah Griffith Jones; Joseph H. and Mayme Smith Armstrong; David C. and Nellie Adams; Evan J. and Catherine Griffiths Jones; David and Elizabeth Grimshaw Reese; Samuel Johnson; William U. Stewart; John and Mary J. Stewart Limb; John and Kate Evans; John F. Johns and wife. Their numbers were soon increased by settlers who joined them from Iron, Garfield, and Sevier counties, and included James Simpkins, J. Baker, Joseph H. Joseph, Thomas Gunn, A.J. Wilson, J. Harris, Charles Willden, Joseph Armstrong, D.D. Reese, J. Tattersall, H. Tattersall, Thomas Richards, D.C. Adams, W. Holgate, and W. Hall. The new populace immediately began to farm, raise stock, and build houses. Some ran sheep and cattle near the Wildcat Ranch, oth­ers farmed the land, securing water from the Beaver River through irrigation canals. The terrain nearby was difficult, and there was lim­ited water in Wildcat Creek for irrigation, making settlement diffi­cult, although there was abundant timber for construction. Prospectors equipped by Ebenezar Gillies for their prospecting, roamed through the nearby hills. Named Adamsville in honor of its leading founder, the town was surveyed in 1867 and a substantial stone meetinghouse was erected in 1868. The next year David B. Adams became the bishop of the Beaver Third Ward, which included Adamsville and Greenville, and 70 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY school was also held in the meetinghouse. In a creative use of space, desks were built around the periphery of the church's central cham­ber with seats made of split planks. Usually about forty students attended the school. It remained open until about 1920 when stu­dents were transported to school in Beaver. North Creek, Rock Ford, Manderfield, and Pine Creek Focusing first on areas near Beaver, the land on North Creek, north of town, was soon sought after due to its abundant water. As early as 1858, the lands and waters of its two creeks were obtained by influential men such as LDS apostles George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman, as well as Dr. John Christian, and Messrs. Holyoke and Baldwin. Among the early settlers of the North Creek area were Alexander ("Scotty") Boyter, known for his fine masonry work on many of the county's impressive stone buildings. Other venturesome settlers explored similar creeks and streams. A ranch was located on the upper heads of South Creek by John P. Lee, while enterprising Marcus A. Sheperd established what became the Merchant Farm at the head of North Creek. Ephraim Twitchell settled on Indian Creek, and Henry Ceale put down roots on Dry Creek, three miles north of Beaver . The water from the confluence of two creeks irrigated approxi­mately 3,000 acres of land under the North Creek Irrigation Company and the West Side Irrigation Company. Besides agriculture, two sawmills were located in Harris Canyon and a shingle mill nearby. Population was dispersed throughout the valley, and no phys­ical center existed to the settlement. Nevertheless, in 1893 a school with thirty students opened with Edward Tolton as the first teacher. The North Creek Branch of the LDS Beaver Stake had Henry Green as presiding elder. In 1863 Sergeant Nathaniel V. Jones, an officer in the Mormon Battalion of Life Guards of the Nauvoo Legion, settled at Rock Ford. Here he built some structures which served as headquarters from which he searched for iron and coal at the request of Brigham Young. Evenutally, the hamlet of Meanderfield developed in the Indian area. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, several families moved in the Pine Creek range where a small settlement was established. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 71 The Pine Creek settlement was surrounded by thick pine groves along the ridges and valley hills. In the 1860s eight families settled Pine Creek including those of David Levi, George Williams, Jacob Littlebow, and Cunningham Mathews. These families provided milk, butter, and cheese to travelers from the East. Eventually Pine Creek became a mail stop where postal workers would change horses. The Bradshaws, Collis Huntington, Barcloughs, David Levi, and Cunningham Mathews ran cattle. Jacob Littlebow built a one-room house and store, and George Williams built and ran a large corral. Cove Fort Charles William Wilden and his wife and seven children settled Cove Valley in 1860. There they built two houses and a dugout. He homesteaded 160 acres and was soon joined by the Charles Wilden family. Brigham Young sent Ira Hinckley to this valley to build a fort which would provide protection from local Native Americans and serve as a supply station for travelers moving south. In 1867 workers from Fillmore and Beaver helped build the 100 foot square fort. Cove Fort was built out of indigenous black rock and lime mortar and was fourteen feet high. The north and south interior walls had six rooms on each side. A courtyard provided a space for community activity. Strategically located roughly half way between Beaver and Fillmore, the fort provided protection and provisions for locals, trav­elers, and tourists. The fort complex, carefully restored in the early 1990s by the LDS church, was built next to an even earlier fort, the log Fort Willden established in 1861. The Willden family, fearing harm from the Indians, evacuated their crude log pole and log cabin enclosure not long after completing it. Early County Government Beaver County's selectmen first met in their homes or in the schoolhouse until spring 1867 when they began meeting in a room in the LDS Tithing Office Building. They met regularly and enacted regulations to protect the rights and privileges of the citizens of the county. Minutes of their meetings suggest the various issues con­fronting pioneers of the area. They granted a petition for the right to erect a saw mill and grist mill northeast of the city plot, and the use of 72 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY the water of North Creek and Beaver Creek to propel the machinery. They gave the right to cattlemen to graze their herds on public land and established a $25 bounty for wolfskins. In 1867 the county court directed a cattle drive and placed the county sheriff in charge. The sheriff was apparently authorized to prohibit anyone from branding or ear marking stock in the public coral during the drive. Brands reflected the owners residency-east Beaver cattle were branded with a B, Minersville with an M, and stray pounds were also established by the sheriff. Licenses for both the manufacture and distribution of liquor came under the jurisdiction of the selectmen. The early selectmen had proven themselves as effective organiz­ers. Most had helped settle numerous towns, had served in bish­oprics, and had proven they could work well with others. Beaver was run, therefore, by two selectmen and one designated as judge. Together they acted as a county court and selected other county offi­cers. Obviously, a selectman designated as "judge" wasn't a court judge as traditionally understood, although the group attempted to proceed in an orderly manner and, according to some assumptions about what was appropriate and, therefore, legal. At the first of each meet­ing, the minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved; if both selectmen (a quorum) could not be present, they rescheduled the meeting. Judges rotated frequently, more often than selectmen. Each county officer chosen by the judge and selectmen had to fur­nish a bond supported by approved security, sometimes several hun­dred dollars. These three men were in charge of virtually all official county business, which included water, forests, roads, animal grazing, grist mills, lumber mills, and regulating the production and selling of liquor. The county assumed the responsibility for the poor, handi­capped, and disabled. Selectmen passed taxes and directed the trea­surer to receive wheat, oats, barley, and corn for payment of taxes. Regulations establishing election procedures and qualifications for candidates were established, as were rates of compensation for all elected officials. In 1860 they appointed Philo Farnsworth superin­tendent of schools. Two years later they divided Beaver County roads into four districts and appointed a road supervisor for each district. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 73 Selectmen passed an appropriation for a bridge across the Beaver River in 1861, this was typical of their sense of responsibility for roads, bridges, and regulating the use of water-clearly the key issues dealt with routinely by the selectmen. In 1862 Orin Twitchell and Company petitioned the court for the rights to build a toll road through North Creek Canyon. The selectmen decided instead that they would hold a special election to raise $525 in tax funds to build the road. They recommended that it be paid in wheat at $1.50 per bushel. The road was located in Road District No. 1. In 1875 James R. Lindsay, D.P. Whedon, and others petitioned the court to build a highway from Minersville through Shauntie to Florida, a small min­ing town located in the San Francisco Mining District west of Milford. In 1869 precincts were established and presiding officers appointed for Adamsville, with lames Simpkins as magistrate; Pine Creek, William Dotson, justice of the peace; and Indian Creek (Manderfield), Willis Coplan, justice of the peace. The selectmen des­ignated brands to distinguish stock belonging to individuals in vari­ous precincts. The court created Greenville Precinct in 1865 and designated it as School District No. 2, Beaver as District No. 1, and Minersville as District No. 3. Milford Precinct was established in 1876, with William H. Lighthall as justice of the peace. During the first decade after settlement, Beaver City and Beaver County jockeyed for control over local resources. From the first, Beaver City controlled water that came from the Beaver River and the head water from the upper parts of the Tushar Mountains. Also the city collected taxes on water from the east part of the valley. All land grants were arranged by the city council and deeds issued by the mayor who met in a room in the county court house. Town lots sold from between $10 and $70. Further, the city council arranged for irri­gation ditches to bring water to lots in the city out of the Beaver City Canal. After the land was surveyed into sixteen ten-acre lots, the city council awarded plots by casting lots. The settlers immediately planted a few acres of land, drawing water from nearby streams. This original area was soon known as the "Old Field." Early in May 1856 the settlers built a dam east of town to divert water for irrigation. Those who planned on using water for irrigation helped build the 74 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY canals that brought it out of the canyons. James Horace Skinner worked on the first canals coming down out of Beaver Canyon. He remembered, "All this work was done free. We furnished our own tools, and food, and bedding, the food we cooked on the camp fire, our bed was two or three quilts laid on the hard ground, and 2 or 3 to cover us. No tents to protect us from the rain or cold. If it rained or snowed we had to take it as it came, many nights I have lain in wet bedding, shivering with cold."27 The mill race was also constructed by community cooperative effort and was completed in 1857. By 1857 more than a hundred settlers lived in Beaver. In the center of Plat A, they built a log meetinghouse in the block set aside as the public square. The lumber for the structure was processed at Edward Thompson's sawmill and hauled to the lot by the town's men. Thompson, himself a carpenter, directed the construction. James Horace Skinner worked on the building, as did all workers, without any pay. "I labored on the building," he later wrote, "from hauling the lumber out of the canion [sic] untill the completion of the building, even making benches and desks, all of this without one dollar of rec-ompence in any shape or form. I helped build the central school house, the Rock house, the Park building meeting house, all on the same terms."28 Indian Relations When Mormons began settlement of the Great Basin, they believed they were acting in fullfillment of scripture. Building the kingdom of God imbued their efforts with a sense of justification, like the American ideology of Manifest Destiny. Because Mormons believed the American Indians were the descendants of Book of Mormon peoples, they sympathized with the Native Americans. But, as was true throughout the frontier, it was perhaps inevitable that the Indians would resist the encroachment of Mormon settlement onto their lands. Their opposition endangered the continued existence of Mormons in this new environment "a thousand miles from nowhere." Here, in Utah territory, Mormon pioneers acted like many of their predecessors in other locations. On the frontier they occu­pied the land, they confronted the resistance of the Indians to their THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 75_ occupation, and asked for the federal government's assistance in the removal of the Indians to reservations.29 This culture clash was part of the American settlement of the West, which meant the acquisition of traditional Native American lands. Mormon policy was often occupation without compensation to the owners. Acting in Young's absence, Heber C. Kimball advised the Mormons against paying the Indians for their land: "If the Shoshone should be thus considered, the Utes and other tribes would claim pay also. The land belongs to our Father in Heaven and we calculate to plow it and plant it and no man shall have the power to sell his inheritance for he cannot remove it. It belongs to the Lord."30 This was justified because of their inten­tion to convert the Indians to their religion and their way of life. Most of these Indians were nomadic, seed-gathering peoples. Many groups, especially the Goshutes, Piutes, and Shoshone, con­stantly traveled from place to place foraging for food. Relations between Mormons and Native Americans remained fairly calm through the winter of 1852-53. But military action began against Chief Walker in Central Utah and against Jim Bridger and the moun­tain men in the Green River country who were allying with the Indians there. Brigham Young had taken a personal interest in Walker and the other Ute chiefs and had in fact baptized a number of them. In June 1851 Indian chiefs Walker, Sowette, Arrapine, and Unhwitch were ordained elders in the LDS church. Nevertheless, Young was acutely aware that the priesthood had not turned the Indians into allies. Walker and the others were disturbed by the continued advancement of Mormons into tribal lands. That Young was con­scious of this growing tension is evident the following in dictation to his scribe on 18 May 1853: "I shall live a long while before I can believe that an Indian is my friend when it would be to his advantage to be my enemy."31 Two months later the pressure broke and the Walker War began. Over the next nine months Walker led his band on the warpath eventually killing twelve white men and causing an estimated $2 million in property losses. An equivalent number of Indians lost their lives. Fear over war with the Indians spread through Mormon territory like a prairie fire. Although the United States Congress appropriated $53,512 for territorial losses, none of the personal losses were compensated. The 76 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY war was entirely over by the end of October, and a formal peace treaty signed in May 1854 at Chicken Creek (south of present day Nephi) by Young and Walker. Walker died a year later and was buried at Meadow Creek. Since the 1850s the Mormon church had run four Indian farms in conjunction with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the territorial government. These were closed in 1865 with the official removal of the Indians to the Uintah Reservation despite the objections of Chief Black Hawk and others.32 The resulting confrontation between the Native Americans and white settlers resulted in at least seventy deaths and considerable property loss. In fact, Utah territorial officials esti­mated the cost of the war at $1,121,037 for military action alone. During the height of conflict, settlers abandoned their homes and towns in Wasatch, Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, Iron, Kane, and Washington counties.33 When the Indians raided James Horace Skinner's and other's stock and stole a number of horses belonging to the Tanner family, "they also took some 10 or 15 head of horn stock, mostly work oxen and cows. A company of some 21 or 23 men was soon collected and took the trail in persuit [sic], we followed them as far as what is now known as Fish Lake." They knew they were close behind them because they found meat cooking on an open fire. Regardless, they were forced to turn back because of their lack of provisions, despite the fact that they "had men in our party that would fight that had been tired, and were some of the best shoots in this part of the coun­try, as for me, I guess I would have run if I could if I hadn't been too scared to run."34 The settlers' homes in Beaver County were attacked sporadically during the 1860s. On 23 September 1866, Paiute Indians attacked John P. Lee's ranch on South Creek. They burned the house and wounded a ranch worker named Joseph Lillywhite. The Lee children left the house during the fire and walked eight miles to Beaver for help. When they arrived in Beaver, the "Beaver Minutemen" were shingling the church tabernacle. This attack may be the cause of the temporary removal of Adamsville settlers to Greenville in 1866.35 The next September the same Paiutes raided Beaver itself and drove off 200 head of horses and cattle. Regardless of the number of THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 1J_ attacks and skirmishes, eventually some measure of compromise was reached between the Beaver settlers and the local Native Americans. An important consequence of the Black Hawk War was the aban­donment of Circleville in June 1866. When Circleville settlers requested help, Beaver men and teams crossed the mountains and assisted a number of families to flee to the safety of Beaver. Edward Tolton, William J. Allred, Hyrum and Roan Fowler, Elijah Hoopes, John and Henry Bryant, and Fred Clark were among those Circleville settlers who took up residence in Beaver. Other Circleville settlers returned to Ephraim in Sanpete County from which most had come. Beaver residents did their best to accommodate the Circleville settlers but the first years were difficult. John Franklin Tolton, who was four and a half years old when his family left Circleville, recalled: On our arrival, there being no hay or pasturage available, we were obliged to turn our oxen and cows upon the public domain which resulted in our losing them, all through Indian depredation. Picture if you can, a family of eleven souls, living in such quarters with all their earthly possessions, consisting of an old wagon, and wagon box, no food nor shelter, no clothing except what covered our bodies, and with scarcely sufficient bedding to protect us from the coming of winter. During the two years following, we moved from one home to another, where charity invited us, by which time father had secured a lot and dug a cellar for our protection.36 Territorial Militia Throughout the nineteenth century, rural Utah local militias offered the principal means of defense. Under Lieutenant-General Daniel H. Wells, Utah Territory's militia included all able-bodied men over the age of fourteen and under the age of seventy-five. The Beaver Militia was part of the Iron County Military District under the com­mand of Colonel William H. Dame. Originally, Joseph Betensen was the captain of the Beaver County Militia. Troops were mustered at least once a year for three or four days. Beyond that they were told to keep guard night and day so that "houses, stables, corrals, pastures, and ranges may not be robbed; nor men, women, nor children carried off in the night time, nor the day 78 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY time, and none but the sufferers know of it until it is too late to help it."37 Militia men were supposed to be ready to come to arms at a moment's notice upon demand. To insure that this was possible, each unit was to have sufficient horses, equipment, and weapons. According to Daniel H. Wells, "Let every arrangement be quietly but perfectly made and not wait till wanted and then have to hunt up bullet molds, saddles, wagon-hammers, linch pins, harnesses, or any­thing else, but be 'minute men,' in fact, and let all these arrangements be made immediately upon the recipt of this letter-make due report to me of the condition of things in your district, the number of men you can rely on and their equipment, ammunition, etc."38 Wells advised Beaver's militia to maintain watches at points along the trail between Iron and Beaver counties and to maintain Fort Sanford (near Circleville). During the Indian conflicts in the 1860s, Beaver men helped guard Fort Sanford, along with men from Panguitch, Circleville, Cedar City, and Parowan, usually for periods of two weeks. James Skinner recalled, "For several years we kept this up, we- the cavalry-quartered from Pine Creek on the north to Fremont on the south, day after day, sunshine or storm we were out, two to 4 or often as many as 10, at a time, watching for Indians to keep them as much as possible from raiding and steeling [sic] our stock and per­haps killing some of our people."39 The militia came together for exercises twice a year and for spe­cial three to four day training periods. Each man had to furnish his own horse, saddle, gun, pistol and ammunition and to be ready to muster at a moment's notice. William Booth Ashworth remembered organizing into a militia to prepare for defense of the county. He con­sidered them lucky that a former soldier, Dan Martin, had settled nearby. "He was capable and a very agreeable officer. We got together every Saturday afternoon, dressed in our uniforms-blue trousers, with a red stripe down the outside of each leg (and by the way, [he says] my mother carded the wool, spun the yarn, dyed it, and had it woven on a hand loom, and made my trousers.) We had our saddles, bridle spurs, fire arms, colts, pistol and springfield rifle and sabres."40 James H. Skinner recalled, "Our company even went so far as to get uniforms and armed ourselves with sabers. . . . We needed a drill THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 79_ master, there was one Dan Martin, but he had no horse, saddle or bri­dle, we took the matter and bought him a complete outfit and mad[e] him a present of it. In return he put us through our paces." The long hours of drill were, on occasion, spiced with levity. Skinner recalled one incident while the militia was drilling. " . . . the order came to draw sabers and charge. One man by the name of Nelson had a horse that was kind of slow or lazy, to hurry him up a little he hit him a whack across the rump, the blow broke his saber having about a foot in his hand, if that wasn't a funny scene, him charging a foe with about a foot of broke saber . . . how we did laugh when we came to rest."41 Ecclesiastical Affairs The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized the Beaver Branch on 8 February 1856 with Simeon Howd as president. Howd homesteaded 280 acres of land along the Beaver River. His land included seven forty-acres pieces. Three sections ran north-south from just above the South Fork of the Beaver River, south to Birch Creek Lake, then west four sections (or one mile) almost to the Left Hand Fork of Cane Canyon. Howd ran cattle on this land. Howd proved ineffective in dealing with a lack of unity among the original settlers, and Philo T. Farnsworth was called by Brigham Young to move to Beaver to become bishop of the Beaver Ward in December 1856. Bishop Farnsworth directed the construction of a church building to accommodate a hundred members which was completed in 1858. Located in the center of Plat A, the church was the literal center of town. Farnsworth was not sucessful in dealing with the factions and, in the view of Brigham Young, to properly han­dle church affairs in Beaver. As a consequence, President Young appointed John R. Murdock of Lehi to become the new bishop of Beaver in 1864. "It gave me a severe shock," Murdock wrote, "when, upon invitation, I entered the office of President Young and was informed that he wanted me to be the Bishop of Beaver."42 Murdock quickly organized community building efforts, and within years Beaver felt the results of his competent leadership. "I bought a farm and some town lots and built houses for my families to live in." Murdock wrote in his biography. "I also immediately set about build- 80 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY ing school houses, a meeting house and other public buildings. I was very zealous in this labor and carried much responsibility myself."43 It was common practice of the church to plant powerful, influential businessmen and community leaders in other regions to facilitate growth bringing needed expertise and capital with them. Other men called from Lehi to lead c o m m u n i t i e s included A b r am Hatch in Heber City and Canute Peterson in Ephraim. Murdock oversaw the construction of the stake tabernacle, the original co-op store, the cen­t r a l school house, and the brick t i t h i n g office. In March 1866 Murdock became the stake president of the newly organized Beaver Stake. The Beaver Stake was first created in 1866 b u t reorganzied in 1877. Again church leaders paralleled local community and govern­mental leaders. Murdock became stake president two years after he arrived in Beaver. With population growth, new wards were created in the stake. Murdock also encouraged several other Lehi residents to join h im in Beaver including William Fotheringham, who had served two missions, one to India and another to South Africa. Fotheringham served as first counselor in the Beaver Stake. Thomas Frazer, a convert from Scotland who immigrated to Utah in 1861 and settled in Lehi, moved to Beaver in 1868 at the request of Murdock. A t r a i n e d stone mason, Frazer's rock buildings and homes are now landmarks in Beaver.44 The women's organization-the Relief Society-was first orga­nized in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the early 1840s but reestablished in Utah in 1867 and presided over by Eliza R. Snow. Local Relief Societies cared for the poor and the sick, owned property, operated coopera­tive stores and granaries, and supported home industry. After 1869 they helped organize comparable groups for adolescent women- Retrenchment societies. Throughout the nineteenth century, these groups promoted home industry, frugal practical economic and cul­t u r a l activities, a n d advocated women's suffrage and equal rights throughout the settlements. James Horace Skinner empathized with the difficulties women had in p r o v i d i n g the necessities for their families, challenged by primitive conditions in this pioneer place. Clothes were produced primarily by h a n d through the industry of women and their daugh- THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 81 ters. Wool s h o r n from local herds was carded a n d s p u n o n spinning wheels, t h e n woven i n to cloth. Buildings and Architecture Encouraged by Brigham Young to b u i l d p e r m a n e n t structures to last till t h e M i l l e n n i u m , t h e p i o n e e r s ' preference was for m a s o n ry over w o o d construction. D u r i n g an 1862 t o u r of t h e towns of south­e r n Utah, Young was critical of t h e quality of t h e built environment in Beaver. Recorder J.V. Long wrote, He showed the lack of local improvements of every kind, and stated that instead of visible improvements calculated to attract his attention . . . everything had remained in the statu(s) quo since his last visit. . . . We left the folds at Beaver feeling well, most of them showing signs of contrition and evincing a determination to improve the habitation of both man and beast by the time of the President's next annual visit.45 No progress h a d been n o t e d by t h e next year, as o n e of Brigham Young's associates complained, we were unable to discover all those marks of enterprise and improvement so eagerly looked for by the Presidency on their entrance into the various settlements. The houses are chiefly of logs, with a few adobies, and I saw two shingle roofs and one frame stable. The meeting house is built of logs also. There has been great neglect on the part of the people of Beaver.46 Given the existence of many fine masonry structures dating from the late 1860s on, it is apparent that major changes occurred in Beaver at that time. The marked improvement in c o n s t r u c t i o n quality seems to be t h e result of several n ew influences: a n ew leader, a suddenly prosperous economy, a n influx of n ew settlers, including some gifted masons, a n d t h e use of local rock a n d kiln-fired brick. Unsatisfied by t h e progress made under the town's early leaders, church authorities called John Riggs Murdock, t h e n of Lehi, to lead t h e colony. Founded in 1851, Lehi h a d become an impressive c o m m u n i t y of adobe, brick, a n d stone structures, a m o n g t h em Murdock's own large residence. Murdock's experiences in Lehi a n d Salt Lake City allowed h im to 82 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY One of Beaver's Pink Rock Houses. (Utah State Historical Society) understand what was possible for Beaver, and within a short time, the town took on a new, more advanced appearance. Adobe bricks were produced at an adobe yard west of Beaver near a spring in an area called the Adobe Yard Slough. Almost every Mormon community had eventually identified a lot in town that had the soil best suited for adobe making, and designated it the adobe yard. There they produced bricks for use in construction of their homes, their business buildings, and sometimes their churches and schools. They did this in the absence of available timber or profes­sionally produced bricks. The process was simple and just about anyone could help pro­duce adobes. The night before the work was due to begin, the men would dig loose dirt at the b o t t om of a large circular pit. After drenching it with water, they would let it soak all night. The next day the dirt and water were mixed and then stamped or tromped on until it was just the right consistency. Men, children, and even a town's women would join together to produce adobe, the women pulling their skirts precariously high above their feet in the effort to prevent them from becoming soiled. After the adobe mixture was just right, it was placed in molds THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 83^ formed with strips of wood to simulate the approximate size and dimensions of traditional kiln-fired bricks-familiar to these Saints from their homes in the eastern states or in other parts of the world. The molds were then placed in the sun for about two weeks until they were properly dried, then laid in even courses with a simple mortar- just mud and water. Pioneers from every social class and economic status used adobe bricks for building, sometimes covering them with a veneer of tar paper or stucco, but it was a cheap, quick, socially acceptable method of building up until the second decade of the twentieth century. Among the first and still extant adobe houses in Beaver was the hall-parlor residence erected for Robert Kershaw in about 1864. Because adobe has relatively low compressive strength, and because it returns to mud when it gets wet, it is much less durable than brick or stone. Thus few adobe structures remain in Beaver. From the 1860s, the period from which Beaver's oldest extant buildings survive, the burgeoning town had begun to develop a fairly sophisticated construction industry. Due to an abundance of build­ing materials and the presence of a talented work force, construction technology allowed local craftsmen to employ their knowledge of eastern states and British/Scottish designs in building substantial, architecturally impressive dwellings, meetinghouses, public buildings, and commercial structures. Among Beaver's settlers were masons and builders with construction experience gained in their homeland counties of Fife and Clackmanan in Scotland. Others hailed from England, and several had constructed northern European-influenced American building types while living in Parowan, Salt Lake City, and Nauvoo, Illinois. In the beginning, Beaver's builders were not short of knowledge and experience, but of the materials and technology necessary to put their abilities to good use. The early years were spent developing the needed technology. As soon as the technology could be developed, citizens of Beaver began to make fired brick. They were among the first people in Utah to build with this much superior masonry product. The earliest known commercially manufactured brick in Utah was produced in 1865 in the Atwood kiln in Murray. The first brick made in Beaver is believed to date from the same time, or perhaps a year later. There 84 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY One of Beaver's Black Rock Houses. (Allan Kent Powell) were at least two early brick-making plants, one operated by the Patterson family near a clay deposit near South Creek about four miles south of town, the other run by Anciel Twitchell and sons at Indian Creek (now Manderfield). The red brick from both plants was soft when compared to later pressed brick, but was superior in strength and durability to adobe. Its greater expense meant that some settlers would continue to build with adobe. It appears that after the arrival of stone mason Thomas Frazer in 1868, black rock structures could be built somewhat less expensively than brick but at greater cost than adobe. Thus residents could chose between three masonry products based on cost and architectural preferences. Among the important early brick buildings was the Beaver Stake Tabernacle, started after the first log meetinghouse burned down in 1865. The construction of the tabernacle epitomized the cooperative effort for which pioneer society is known. Robert Wiley and Samuel Edwards laid the stone foundation. The brick was supplied by Twitchel and sons, while the lime was burned by Joseph Tattersall, David Powell, and David Davey. Edward Thompson's sawmill pro- THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 85 vided the lumber, and Jonathon Crosby's finishing shop produced the planed-and-turned trim. The carpentry work, including the framing, windows, doors, pulpit area and later gallery, was done by the city's leading mechanics, Jonathon Crosby, Charles Bird, John Ashworth, and Roberts Keys. Wood shingles for the roof were made at Edward Nelson's mill. To ensure a high quality interior finish, church leaders sent to Beaver painter and grainer John Wicker and his assistant, a Mr. Schepelli, who had come from Europe with Wicker.47 Completed after several weeks of effort, the east-facing taberna­cle was a monument to pioneer craftsmanship and devotion. The tall, spacious assembly room had ample windows and a balcony or gallery at the east end. In the full basement were two big rooms used for Sunday school classes, priesthood quorum meetings and parties. Later Richard Maeser used the building for a church school. A bell tower with a "large, clear-toned bell" called students to class. Used for church, school, social, and civic meetings for sixty years, the beloved edifice was razed in 1931, its materials salvaged for continued use in building the West Ward Meetinghouse. It was also in 1868 that stone mason Thomas Frazer arrived in Beaver as an LDS convert and immigrant from Scotland, following seven years in Murdock's former town, Lehi. During his first two years, Frazer was kept busy doing masonry work on the Beaver Woolen Mills, Beaver Co-op Store, and other business buildings. About 1870 he found himself free to build houses, for which he used the black basalt rock found in the foothills and bench areas east of the city. The equivalent of what we now call a general contractor, he built scores of stone houses during the 1870s and 1880s, apparently employing his own designs which he modified and perfected over the years. Many of Frazer's well-built structures remain, mostly on the west side of town. Frazer's own home, a modest one-story stone building, is still extant. It typifies his style-well-cut, squared stones and carefully beaded mortar joints of uniform width, extraordinary craftsmanship, dormer windows, white-stained mortar, and Greek Revival and Federalist style influences. Eventually, between 1872-73 Frazer served as the major contractor for Fort Cameron, an enterprise that employed craftsman from all over the area. Sixteen of his stone 86 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY houses still stood in 1999; perhaps the most beautiful of these is the Duckworth Grimshaw house. Built in 1877, the Grimshaw house exhibits masterful stonework, dormer windows, a steeply pitched roof, and gable in the center of the facade, over the entrance.48 Just east of Beaver's main street is a house built for Marcus L. Shepherd, most likely by Thomas Frazer, in 1876. This two-story house included a full attic and a half-basement. Frazer's attention to detail is shown in the stone bay windows, decorative cornice, dorm­ers, and careful stone work. A central hall plan house, it has two gable ends with chimney stacks and windows immediately below.49 The earliest method of lighting homes was with candles pro­duced at home by housewives. Part of the traditional round of domestic work was creating candles from mutton tallow with molds made out of tin pipes one inch in diameter and joined together in sets of six. Coal oil lamps and lanterns, eventually hanging gas ceil­ing lights after 1884, made it possible for interiors to be lighted in the evening. Timber, Saw Mills, and Early Construction Timber was plentiful in the Tushar Mountains east of town, and capitalizing on the available water power, a number of saw mills soon operated in North Creek. Judge Babbit and his associate Wilson G. Nowers received a franchise from the first county court on 4 September 1856 for a saw mill and grist mill to be built a half mile north of the town plat. Three years later, in December 1859, W.W. Willis and P.K. Smith were authorized to build a saw mill on North Creek along with control of all water on the mill site, control of the timber along the creek in the canyon, and the right to build a toll road.50 A Mr. Harris owned a saw mill in Pole Canyon; Tom and Frank Holbrook ran a saw mill along the South Fork of North Creek. Thomas Whornham had a shingle mill in the North Creek Mountains, and James Valentine, William Twitchell, and Titus Greenwood of North Creek had a lime kiln at the west mountains, now called the Mineral Range. Mills also were located near Indian Creek. The prospects for a substantial timber industry are suggested in the authorization given by county officials to Edward W. Thompson and William Barton to clear out the channel of the Beaver THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 87 River so that timber could float down the river during high water. They were also given permission to charge a toll of one-fourth of all t i m b e r sent down the river by o t h e r individuals or companies.51 However, the plan did not appear successful, and saw mills contin­ued to operate in the canyons and lumber was hauled out by teams and wagons. John R. Murdock and Edward W. Thompson installed a steam saw mill in 1868. Edwin Swindlehurst, saw mill operator for forty years, remembered a number of local saw mills: As nearly as I can remember there was the loseph Huntington Mill of Beaver; later the Samuel Hooten and Fred Harris Factory Mill at Indian Creek, later moved to Beaver. Charles Oakden and Joseph Tanner bought the Huntington Mill. The Mining Revenue Mill at Pine Valley (where Mr. Swindlehurst helped to cut 120,000 feet of lumber); the Henry Blackner and Sons Mill at Ranch Canyon; the William Hutchings Sawmill; the Arthur Lightner and Frank Pryor Steam Mill; the lames Robinson Mill at Indian Creek; the Thornton Mill bought from Arthur Lightner and John Avers).52 Much of this lumber was used in Beaver, Greenville, and Adamsville to build houses and businesses. But an important market was provided also by Frisco, Newhouse, and Pioche. Lumber freighted to the mining region ranged in price from $70 to $100 per thousand feet. By 1870 four mills were producing sawn logs and dimensional lumber for wall studs, floor joists, roof rafters, siding, and flooring. Early shingle, sash, and planning mills soon provided machine-sawn cedar shingles and molded t r im for baseboards, casings, mantels, and, eventually, doors, windows, and wooden ornament. These early mills were the Beaver Machine Shop, First Shingle Mill, N o r t h Creek and Indian Creek mills, r u n by Jonathon Crosby, A.M. Farnsworth, U.V. Stewart, and Willis Coplan, respectively. Two of the saw millers also ran lumber companies, and one of them, Jonathon Crosby, was also a building contractor. An early business directory (1871-73) lists three other men as contractors or "carpenter and builder," namely C. Bird, H. Walters, and Charles Harris. By 1880 others had entered the con­s t r u c t i o n work force. W. Holt was a major builder, while Willis HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Coplan and C.C. Harris had become lumbermen, and Coombs and Wand, and George Owen specialized in painting. Economic Life Brigham Young clearly stated the goal of pioneer activity in gen­eral conference addresses, exhorting his Saints to concentrate on the work of what he called the building of the literal Kingdom of God on Earth. Believing that their work called in the advent of Christ's mil­lennial reign on earth, Young and the other church leaders organized a wide variety of programs to establish an acceptable nucleus of the kingdom. These included missions to the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, colonization of the area, and community building. Communities were built by volunteer labor and donations of the members, wealth acquired and developed in colonization, and eco­nomic windfalls from travelers through the region. The wealth of the church was collected by the tithing system of the church and admin­istered by leaders in public works projects, agricultural and irrigation programs, merchandising, banking and industrial developments, transportation and communication systems. All of these projects were designed to build the kingdom and render it self-sufficient. This entire effort was driven by the belief in the imminent mil­lennial reign of Christ. People who believed the world's end was approaching were empowered by a sense of dedication to the work. Equally as important was the Mormon belief that the line between the spiritual and the temporal was insignificant, that for God all things are spiritual. The temporal practical work required to build a place-digging and laying out canal systems and building reservoirs, driving herds of cattle and sheep, plowing under miles and miles of land for planting, building structures for businesses, families, and public gatherings were for the Mormons religious acts-embued with a sense of significance that gave meaning to their labor. The peculiarly Mormon understanding of the earth as the "Lord's" enabled them to justify seizure of Indian lands without compensa­tion and the creation of land distribution policies, control over nat­ural resources like water, timber, and mineral wealth, and the accumulation of considerable material wealth to help the people