A History of Beaver County

The establishment of Beaver county and its communities-2

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 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 89 become self-sufficient and united, and created a general feeling of equanimity. First instituted in July 1838 to replace the ideal, though seemingly impractical law of consecration and stewardship, church members officially accepted the Law of Tithing in 1841. This law called for the donation to the church by members of one-tenth of their possessions at the time of conversion and one-tenth of their annual increase thereafter. During the exodus and early years of settlement, many set­tlers actually experienced a decrease rather than an increase which rendered the system less efficient than it would later be. Collecting tithes also proved to be difficult because more than 70 percent of all donations were paid in agricultural produce or livestock. According to Leonard Arrington, in his Great Basin Kingdom, five different kinds of payments were used: property, labor, produce, stock, cash, and institutional tithing. After 1850 the system became much more effi­cient, based in the General Tithing Office and Bishops' Storehouse in Salt Lake City. An elaborate network of local tithing houses helped distribute goods and services throughout the territory. Church farms, granaries, and storehouses were located at strategic points to facili­tate the care of colonizing groups and settlers throughout the area. The bishops' storehouses dealt with goods over and above the tithing totals. These surplus goods were frequently exchanged for needed items, for credit, or to benefit the community. To facilitate these exchanges, "tithing script" was issued by the church, thereby creating an internal monetary system of exchange. In 1867 Richard Curfew, an English weaver and convert to Mormonism, built a carding plant near Beaver. John and William Ashworth assisted Curfew in the plant located a few hundred feet north of the Messinger and Sons Flour Mill. Until the Beaver Woolen Mills took over their business, the carding plant provided a needed service to wool producers. In 1869 South African Samuel N. Slaughter opened a tannery. Slaughter immigrated from Cape Town, South Africa, to Salt Lake City. There, John R. Murdock and William Fotheringham invited Slaughter to come to Beaver where, they suggested, he could be suc­cessful in the manufacture of leather into shoes, harnesses, and other products. The tannery was located in a small adobe building located 90 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY on the edge of town towards the south. When business increased, Slaughter built a second, this time two-story rock building on the site. The tannery employed several men from Beaver in the manu­facture of shoes until the late 1880s. Dairies and creameries were located in several Beaver County com­munities. Abundant native grasses made Beaver's open fields ideal land for grazing cattle and farm animals. Many local women were employed by the dairy industry, churning butter at home, forming it into rounds, pressing a fancy pattern on the top and wrapping it in parchment and bartering it for other household products. Women like Sarah Nowers, Mary Low, Amelia Smith, Ann Levi, and Sophia Dean, among others, marketed their products locally and supplied the officers at Fort Cameron with butter while stationed nearby. The first creamery was established in 1889 in an old tannery building south of town. Specialty businesses followed in the wake of farm settlement. Handcart pioneer Joseph Ash opened a gunsmith and locksmith shop in Beaver. Ash, a particular friend to local Indians, fashioned and repaired guns for both anglo settlers and Native Americans. John Eardley, formerly of St. George, came to Beaver in 1887 and estab­lished a pottery in town. Known for his high quality earthenware, Eardley was also a local musician and band leader. East of the Messinger Grist Mill, James Boyter established the Beaver Marble Works. There he made tombstones with a gangsaw out of native mar­ble extracted from a marble quarry near Newhouse in the west end of Beaver County. This white marble had a slight streak of blue run­ning through it and did not take on a high polish. Granite for tomb­stones was found in a quarry six miles south of Beaver City. Before he came to Utah, he had worked as a stone cutter in Scotland. After Boyter retired from business in 1912, his son Henry K. Boyter made tombstones until 1926. Mail Service and the Telegraph As was true of most of rural Utah, Beaver's mail was delivered first by freight wagon and distributed by the bishop. In 1864 an office was established in a single-room adobe building in town owned by Judge Thomas. For a period of time, Ephraim Thompkinson received mail at his home. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 91 The Deseret Telegraph Company extended its lines as far south as Beaver by 1867, and from there to the mining camp of Pioche, Nevada, to the west and St. George to the south. This connected Beaver to both Salt Lake City and points east. William Fotheringham was the first telegraph operator; Robert Fotheringham the second; and Daniel Tyler the next. Beaver also became the junction of two stage coach routes, with one line going to St. George and the other to Pioche. The road to Pioche was also used by local freighters hauling timber for the mines and burgeoning community. Schools and Education As soon as families built log or adobe shelters to house their fam­ilies, they joined together to build buildings to house worship activi­ties and the education of their children. In Beaver the first public building was a multipurpose log meetinghouse that doubled as a school house for several years before a separate building was built. Teachers of younger students held schools in private residences. In December 1856 the town built a twenty-by-twenty-five-foot school building on the northwest corner of the Public Square. It was con­structed of cottonwood logs, with two windows on each side, a fire­place on the south end and door on the north, and a roof formed with board planks. For several years the school year included only the three or four coldest months of the winter. Children were kept busy helping their parents prepare fields, build fences and barns, and improve their shelters. In school the children were not above some mischievousness. Jacob Henry White, an early teacher from England who everyone called "Daddy" White, taught school in Beaver for many years. "He began each day with prayer, but always prayed with his eyes open to be sure that the pupils were in good order. Often he would stop in the course of his supplication to chastise some unruly child, when order was restored he took up his prayer where he left off."53 Books and supplies were very scarce. Among the first school books to reach Beaver were a few blue-backed spelling books and McGuffey's Readers brought to Beaver by the San Bernardino, California, exiles in 1858. A student in 1864 recalled t h a t " . . . she had only a piece of pine board 12 inches wide, planed smooth on both 92 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY sides, which she wrote on with a piece of charcoal from the fireplace. When the board was covered with writing she took it to the ditch and scoured it clean with sand, then it was ready for use again."54 Almost all reading and spelling were done in concert because of the large classes and lack of adequate books and supplies. Louisa Barnes Pratt described her classes in her journal. "In January 1860,1 again engaged to teach school. The education of the children, owing to so much moving about, had been sadly neglected. I labored with great dili­gence, using every possible means to make them learn, but want of suitable books was a constant annoyance."55 In 1855 the territorial legislature passed a law placing all public schools under the direction of county courts. The Beaver Ward bishop, Philo T. Farnsworth, was appointed the county superinten­dent of schools in I860.56 The county was divided into new districts in 1865. Beaver City57 became District No. 1, Greenville No. 2, and Minersville No. 3. Four years later Beaver City itself was divided into four districts, with a schoolhouse for each division. The schools became known by their particular building material-the Lumber School, the Rock School, and the Brick schools were each single chamber buildings with simple wooden benches for students. Teachers were paid in kind, with room or board, or with baskets of eggs, jugs of butter or jelly, bags of potatoes, wood, or grain. On 21 March 1860 Louisia Barnes Pratt wrote: "I closed my school. The pupils had made creditable improvement. The house of worship where I taught was a dread to me, so neglected and out of repair. It was, however, improved a little by the vigilance of the women of the community."58 Barnes taught a few months out of every year for twenty years in her home, a small adobe-and-log three-room house in Beaver. Because of growth, in 1869 Beaver was divided into four school districts and each area had its own school building. Richard S. Home taught for several years at a one-room red brick school built in 1870, called the Institute. His students ranged in age from fifteen to twenty-five years. He used the traditional teaching materials-McGuffy's Readers, Ray's Third Part Arithmetic, and Blue- Backed Spelling Book. "Almost all reading was done in concert, owing to the large classes, and spelling was conducted orally. It was regarded a signal honor to spell others down until one reached the head of the THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 93_ class. Medals or other prizes were given at the end of the year to those having the highest averages in spelling and other subjects."59 Home also included physical education in his curriculum, outfitting the school grounds with horizontal bars, trapezes, and jungle gym. Ball games, wrestling contests and other sporting events became common occurrences. In addition to semi-public schools run by the Mormon settlers, in 1873 the Reverend Clark Smith came to Beaver to establish the Methodist Episcopal Church to conduct school for members and patrons. School was held in a small lumber building located across the street to the east of the county courthouse. One of the county's first native sons to gain national and even international attention was George LeRoy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. Born 13 April 1866 in Beaver to Maximillian and Ann Campbell Parker, George was the first of thirteen children born to the couple. Maximillian carried mail from Beaver to Panguitch through Circle Valley and became enthused about the area's agricultural potential. In 1879 he persuaded Ann to leave Beaver and they acquired a ranch three miles south of Circleville. After the move to Circleville, Maximillian returned to the county to work at Frisco, cutting ties for the railroad and studding for the mines. As a mail carrier while liv­ing in Beaver and as a laborer after the move to Circleville, Maximillian spent considerable time away from home. Consequently, George LeRoy, thirteen years old when the family moved from Beaver, did most of the chores and was considered by the family to be his father's "right hand man."60 Later, after the young man chose to follow the Outlaw Trail, he changed his named to Butch Cassidy and became one of the West's most famous outlaws. Cassidy developed a reputation as a western Robin Hood-stealing from the rich and giving to the poor and never shedding innocent blood. He became the subject of one of Hollywood's most famous westerns, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which actor Paul Newman played Cassidy and Robert Redford his friend the Sundance Kid. Even his alleged death in South America has met with controversy as many believe he returned to the United States and lived many years under an alias. Books continue to be written about him and suggest that during the first thirteen years of 94 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY his life in Beaver, he developed the skills as a horseman and cowboy that became part of his outlaw legend.61 Culture and Recreation Beaver's first dramatic companies were organized in the 1860s by Robert Stoney and Henry Blackner; Professor Reinhard Maeser gath­ered another group of actors and musicians at the school for theatri­cal presentations. One favorite drama was uniquely expressive of this group of settlers' story. Nick of the Woods was a hands down favorite of local audiences. This western depicted the terror the pioneers suf­fered at the hands of invading parties of Native Americans. Maeser himself played the role of " Jibbernansey," the great spirit of revenge, who alone had enough strength to frighten the attackers. One Daughters of Utah Pioneers' account of the play captures the light-heartedness of this very serious presentation. Scenery plays a signifi­cant role in the play. "One night in this very serious scene, the Indians had the white people encircled with no help anywhere. At this point the Spirit came over the falls with a lighted torch in his hand, striking terror to the Indians who are supposed to flee, but as the Spirit came down, the falls came with him, filling the "whites" as well as the Indians with dismay, not to speak of the dust and canvas that covered them all, but Oh, think of the joy and the laughter of the audience."62 Many of these performances were given in "Field's Hall," a long narrow hall with a gallery, a stage that stretched the length of the building, and wooden benches that were reputedly in constant disre­pair. Frequently, "the backs [were] always falling off just at the wrong time, leaving a dozen or more of the audience on the floor and the rest of the people convulsed with laughter, and of course one of the most dramatic scenes ruined by the actors joining in the mirth."63 Dramatic companies were organized in Minersville and Milford and produced such plays as Ten Nights in the Bar Room. Except for dances, the plays were the most popular entertainment activities in most Utah communities, and local actors and locally secured props often generated humorous stories that became part of the local lore. In Minersville one actor was supposed to be shot during the play. When the gun failed to go off, he fell to the stage floor, exclaiming, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 95 "Go on, I'm dead anyway." The laughter of the audience was remem­bered after the plot of the play was forgotten.64 Beaver County had several talented musicians who joined mar­tial bands for parades, orchestras for dances and musical presenta­tions, and for summer concerts under the stars. Beaver's Brass Band members wore uniforms of blue cloth, locally produced at the Beaver Woolen Mills, and felt hats with narrow rims and creased tops. The number "General Hancock's Grand March" was a local favorite fre­quently requested. Their first conductor, arranger, and occasional musical teacher was Lorenzo Schofield. When the San Bernardino Saints first came to Beaver in 1858, they included several talented musicians. That same year Beaver's choir was organized with John Weston as director. William Booth Ashworth was a member of the martial band that would serenade the town on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The band would stop at individual homes and frequently be invited in for refreshments while they warmed their hands at the hearth.65 Dancing was the most popular social activity. During the first years, a fiddler was the only source of music. In time the accordion and even the organ were used as instruments for dance music. Two of the most popular dances were the Christmas Dance and the Wood Dance, the latter held in the fall after crops were harvested. Men and boys drove teams and wagons into the mountains to gather wood for the widows and needy in the town and were rewarded for their efforts with free tickets to the banquet followed by a dance. During the summer most Beaver residents paused from the full schedule of farm work to celebrate Pioneer Day on the 24th of July- a commemoration of the arrival of the first pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley-with a parade, speeches, toasts, band music, picnic, games, races, a dance, and cannon salute.66 It is possible to examine Beaver County's early history and be struck by the relative homogeneity and tranquility of the picture and the significant accomplishments in community building during the first two decades of the county. But according to cultural geographer Ben Bennion, Beaver is also an example of the significant variety and diversity that existed just beneath the surface. John R. Murdock early noted the diversity of his people. According to one Murdock biogra- 96 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY pher, he "found the people considerably divided into f a c t i o n s . . . . His position was a delicate one, as Beaver was then, as it has since been, made u p of a great diversity of elements . . . He not only h a d the opposing [Mormon vs. gentile] elements . . . , b u t he also had more or less of the contentious element with the Church to reckon with."67 This, according to Bennion, was due to a number of factors about the origins of the original settlers. The majority of Beaver's settlers came from "points south and west, not n o r t h and east."68 Members of the original p a r t y came n o r t h from Parowan and the a b o r t e d Iron Mission at Cedar City. A large group of Mormons vacating the San Bernardino colony joined the group in 1857-58. This diversity would become even more pronounced in the 1870s with the location of the Second Territorial District Court in Beaver in 1870 and the estab­lishment of Fort Cameron in 1873. ENDNOTES 1. Dale L. Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 5. A copy of this history prepared as part of the WPA writers project is in the Utah State Historical Society Library. 2. Laws of Utah, 1856, section 9, 7, quoted in Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 2. 3. Laws of Utah, 1866, chapter 146, sect. 4. quoted in Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 2. 4. Reinhard Maeser, Sketches from the Life and Labors of Wilson Gates Nowers (Beaver: Weekly Press, 1914), 41 5. Early in its history, the Mormon church surveyed new towns begin­ning in Missouri according to a design Smith presented to his people in 1833. The "Plat of the City of Zion" was introduced in the form of a revela­tion from God and was first planned for use near Independence, Missouri. This city plan would become the standard for Mormon colonization and settlement over the next fifty years. It was natural that in its regional effort at settlement that Brigham Young would follow this precedent. The Plat of the City of Zion called for a mile-square grid of streets, each 132 feet wide, with three large squares at the center of the grid. Each block would contain ten acres, cut into half-acre lots providing for twenty houses to the block. Houses would be set back twenty-five feet from the street. Streets would be eight rods wide and intersect each other at right angles and run north/south and east/west. This middle tier of squares was to be fifty percent larger than the others and the site of the bishop's storehouse, tern- THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 97 pies, and meetinghouses. The plan further stipulated that all community members were to live in town with farm fields located beyond the town's boundaries. Ideally, stables and barns would be located outside of town on farm land, although many families built small barns and other out build­ings on town lots. As a physical plan for settlement, the Plat of the City of Zion incorpo­rated much that is familiar to students of New England towns. Its gridiron plan typified the settlement of the American West as proscribed by the Land Ordinance of 1784. There is obviously much in it that was already part of the cultural milieu of the times. However, even still it is, according to rural sociologist Lowry Nelson, an invention of the Mormons because of its unique reflection of the ideologies of millenialism, communalism, and nationalism which they derived from the social environment of the early nineteenth century and their reliance on the Old and the New Testaments. See Richard H. lackson, "The Mormon Village: Genesis and Antecedents of the City of Zion Plan," BYU Studies 17 (Winter 1977); Lowry Nelson, The Mormon Village-Pattern and Technique of Land Settlement (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1952); and Robert Alan Goldberg, "Building Zions: A Conceptual Framework," Utah Historical Quarterly 57 (Spring 1989). 6. Aird G. Merkley, editor, Monuments to Courage: A History of Beaver County (Milford: Beaver County Chapters of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1948), 10-11. 7. Beaver City is situated in Sections 15, 16, 20, and 22 Township 29 South, Range 7 West, Salt Lake Base, and Meridian. The townsite patent was issued to lohn Ashworth, mayor of Beaver City, 20 fune 1878, and embraced 1,280 acres of land. In 1882 George Buckner homesteaded the N E quarter of section 22 of the same townsite and range. Beaver city officials obtained by purchase this 160 acres from Buckner, 30 March 1882, for a total of 1,440 acres. 8. George Thomas, The Development of Institutions under Irrigation, (New York: Macmillan Co., 1920), 37. 9. lohn Franklin Tolton, History of Beaver, 18-19. 10. lohn Franklin Tolton, "From the Halls of Memory," typescript, n.p. chapter nine. 11. Tolton, History of Beaver, chapter four. 12. Patterson, "Legacy of a Great People," 143. 13. lames Horace Skinner, "Reminiscences," 2, Utah State Historical Society 14. William B. Ashworth, "Autobiography," quoted in fuanita Brooks, 98 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), 50-51. 15. Philo T. Farnsworth, From Utah Notes, a collection in the Bancroft Library, collected in 1884 under the supervison of Franklin D. Richards and quoted in Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 115. 16. Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 114. 17. Poll, Utah's History, 168. 18. "Memories of the Life of lohn Francis Tolton." Utah State Historical Society 19. lames Horace Skinner, "Reminiscences," Utah State Historical Society. 20. Keith Belly and J. Kenneth Davies give a very interesting overview of the story of the settlement of Minersville in "Minersville: The Beginnings of Lead-Silver Mining in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 51(Summer 1983): 229-45. 21. Erastus Snow quoted in Leonard Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 242. 22. Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols, (reprint ed.; Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 3:347. 23. Isaac Grundy to Brigham Young. 24 August 1859, LDS Church Library Archives. Quoted in Kelly and Davies, "Minersville: The Beginnings of Lead-Silver Mining in Utah," 238. 24. Reportedly the ore was soft with gold assays running as high as one-half ounce to the ton, silver from 19 to 30 ounces, and 38 per cent lead. 25. Alvaretta Robinson and Daisy Gillins, They Answered the Call: A History of Minersville, Utah (Minersville: Minersville Centennial Committee, 1962), 5. 26. Ibid., 7. 27. Skinner, "Reminisciences," 28. Ibid. 29. "The largest Indian group was the Utes. They had divided into east­ern and western bands sometime before 1848. The western Utes occupied the eastern two-thirds of what is now the state of Utah, situating themselves south of the Shoshoni, north of the San luan River, and east of the south­ern Piutes. They were divided into smaller bands known as the Uintahs (in northeastern Utah), the Timpanogas (around Utah Lake), the Pavantes (around Fillmore and the Silver Lake area), the San Pitch (in the same gen­eral north-south area but ranging further east), and the Weeminuche (in THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BEAVER COUNTY 1856-1870 99_ southeastern Utah and across the border into Colorado). The Navajo had moved from northwestern New Mexico and northeastern Arizona into the region of Utah south of the San Juan River and traded regularly across the river with some of the Utes. Further south into the Arizona region were the Hopis and the Havasupis." Eugene Campbell, Establishing Zion (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988), 95. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid. 32. See Edward Everett Dale, The Indians of the Southwest: A Century of Development under the United States (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949), 132. See also United States, Congress, House, 43rd Cong., 1st Sess. 1873-74, House Exec. Doc. 157, Serial 1610, 19-21. One the negotia­tions see, "Journal History," LDS Archives; Gustive O. Larson, "Land Contest in Early Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly, 34 (October 1961), 318. 33. United States, Congress, House, Memorial of the Legislative Assembly of Utah Territory, 41st Congress, 1st Session, 1869, House Misc. Doc. 19, 1. Salt Lake Tribune, 20 April 1947. 34. Skinner, "Reminiscenses." 35. Andrew Jenson, History of Beaver Stake, cited in Dale Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 14. See also the account of this inci­dent by Gideon A. Murdock in Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 15-17. 36. Tolton, "From the Halls of Memory," chapter 9. 37. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 186. 38. Ibid. 39. Skinner, "Reminiscences." 40. Autobiography of William Booth Ashworth, Vol. I, 32, copy in Utah State Historical Society Library. 41. Skinner, "Reminiscences." 42. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 115. 43.Ibid. 44. Linda L. Bonar, "Thomas Frazer: Vernacular Architect in Pioneer Beaver, Utah," (M. A. thesis, University of Utah, 1980). In her thesis, Ms. Bonar examines the entire building career of Thomas Frazer, but gives spe­cial emphasis to eight houses: the Thomas Frazer House; the Edward Tolton House; the David Powell House; the William Robinson House; the Joseph Tattersall House; the Duckworth Grimshaw House; the Charles D. White House; and the Robert Stoney House. 45. Gordon Irving, "Encouraging the Saints: Brigham Young's Annual Tours of the Mormon Settlements," Utah Historical Quarterly 45{Summer 1977): 235. 100 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY 46. Lyman O. Littlefield quoted in the Deseret News, 12 May 1863. 47. Among significant studies of Beaver's architectural tradition are: Duckworth Grimshaw House Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places files, Utah Division of State History; Richard C. Poulsen, "Stone Buildings in Beaver City," Utah Historical Quarterly 43(Summer 1975); Linda Bonar, "Historical Houses in Beaver: An Introduction to Materials, Styles, Craftsmen," Utah Historical Quarterly 51 (Summer 1983). 48. See Bonar, "Historical Houses in Beaver." 49. This was accomplished by splitting the flue and running them around the sides of the windows and rejoining them at the ground floor fireplaces. 50. Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 11. 51. Ibid. 52. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 103. 53. Ibid., 70. 54. Ibid., 69. 55. Ibid. 56. The board of examiners included Robert Wiley, lohn Woodhouse, and Jessie N. Smith. Alphonzo M. Farnsworth became superintendent in 1862. 57. William J. Cox, Wilson G. Nowers, and Horace A. Skinner were elected school trustees for Beaver City. 58. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 70. 59. Ibid., 74. 60. Lula Parker Betenson as told to Dora Flack, Butch Cassidy, My Brother (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1975), 31-33. 61. See Larry Pointer, In Search of Butch Cassidy (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977); and Richard Patterson, Butch Cassidy: A Biography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998). 62. Ibid., 46., 63. Ibid. 64. Robinson and Gillins, They Answered the Call,l80. 65. Autobiography of William Booth Ashworth, Vol. I, 22, 66. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 47-49. 67. Joseph M. Tanner, A Biographical Sketch of John Riggs Murdock (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1909), 136, 172. 68. Lowell "Ben" Bennion, "The Gospel Net Gathers [Fish] of all Kinds:" A Diverse and Divided Beaver, Utah, 1856-91," unpublished paper, copy in my possession.