A History of Beaver County

The world outside comes to Beaver, 1870 - 1900-2

136 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY they at my command, to have averted the evil. I wept and mourned over them before and after, but words will not help them, now it is done. Death to me has no terror. It is but a struggle, and all is over. I much regret to part with my loved ones here, espe­cially under that odium of disgrace that will follow my name. That I cannot help . . . I have been treacherously betrayed and sacrificed in the most cowardly manner by those who should have been my friends, and whose will I have diligently striven to make my plea­sure for the last thirty years at least. In return for my faithfulness and fidelity to him and his cause, he has sacrificed me in a most shameful and cruel way. I leave them in the hands of the Lord to deal with them according to the merits of their crimes, in the final restitution of all things.66 Before he was shot, he sat o n the edge of his coffin, posing for pic­tures for each of his wives. He stood and spoke in a clear, strong voice of his lack of fear of death and faith that those who had wronged him would eventually pay for their dishonesty. He said, "Center my heart, boys. Don't mangle my body!" When the shots were fired, he fell back quietly and was brought to his family in Panguitch, Utah, for burial. His grave was marked with a simple marker which said, "Know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free."67 Anti-Polygamy Crusade The federal government was particularly forceful in its efforts in the anti-polygamy crusade of the 1870s-80s. Partly because of Beaver County's n o n - M o r m o n population, and its location on the trans­p o r t a t i o n route, Beaver City was chosen as the site for the Second Judicial Court for Utah Territory. Beaver, Iron, Washington, Kane, Garfield, and Piute counties were all included in the Second District between 1870 and 1896. In some ways local businesses benefitted from the n u m b e r of people who came i n t o town to a t t e n d court cases, b u t the prosecution of violators of anti-polygamy laws in the Second Judicial Court brought additional responsibilities to local M o r m o n leaders. J. M. Tanner, in his b i o g r a p h y of John Riggs Murdock, reveals: Men and their wives were brought to Beaver, where many of them were strangers. These had no opportunities to provide themselves THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 137 with assistance and they must either give bonds or go to jail. The requirement of the court in the matter of bonds was strict. Only those of well-known ability to meet financial obligations were accepted. John R. Murdock's financial standing in Beaver was first-class and he was ever ready to render every possible assistance to his unfortunate brethren, and went on the bonds of not fewer than fifty different men.68 In addition to posting bonds for accused polygamists, Murdock and other Beaver residents opened their homes to the families of men sent to Beaver for trial. Beaver polygamists were also subject to arrest. On one occasion two federal marshalls, k n o w n only as McGarry a n d Armstrong, searched for Marcus Shepherd, a polygamist with two wives and sev­eral children. Marcus was a sheep man who was frequently away with his sheep or in the mountains. Neighbors kept h im appraised of the movement of the marshalls through town and warned his wife when they were coming too near the Shepherds' home. While searching for Shepherd, the federal marshalls q u e s t i o n e d people all over town about the whereabouts of Shepherd's second wife. Because she hadn't had warning ahead of time, she had to dash out the back door and r u n across the back of her lot to hide at a neighbor's house down the street. Mae Crosby White's m o t h e r worked for the Shepherds and t e n d e d the children when b o t h were gone. She also helped Mr. Shepherd load up big bags of flour, rice, or sugar to haul up to his flocks to feed the other herders. Mrs. Shepherd came to hide in her home, staying for most of the day and night. The next morning the men in the family rose early to begin their morning chores, milking the cows and tending to the other farm animals. A marshall came up to the front gate and quizzed the children about who was inside the house. They lingered there for hours eventually leaving to get a search warrant from the county court clerk. While they were gone, the Crosbys' oldest daughter came to the house with her husband, dressed in their church clothes. The woman changed clothes with Mrs. Shepherd who then left the house, passing the marshalls on her way down the street where she climbed into a buggy waiting for her by t h e church. The marshalls searched the 138 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY entire house, looking behind furniture, rummaging through boxes and chests, and searching every room. Everywhere in Utah territory, Mormon polygamists suffered because of increased prosecution and the intense pursuit of men and women on the underground. Federal marshals came to be figures to be feared and avoided at all costs. Tales of the underground abound in narrative histories of the era, focusing on the ways the Mormons avoided being caught. One particularly scandalous pursuit in the area aroused the fear and ire of Mormons in Beaver County and intensi­fied the tension on both sides. In 1886 Mormon polygamist Edward M. Dalton was shot by Deputy United States Marshal William Thompson. Dalton had been indicted for unlawful cohabitation in the spring of 1885 but had escaped while under arrest. He fled to Arizona where he stayed for a number of months before traveling to his home in Parowan. Deputy marshals Thompson and Orton, in Beaver at the time, heard of Dalton's return. They left during the night of 15 December, planning to re-capture Dalton in his bed. They solicited the help of Mormon apostate Daniel Page. The next afternoon Dalton was herding cattle down a street near his home. Thompson and Orton, hiding in the Page home, waited till he passed by. They shouted out the order, "Halt, you are under an arrest." But when Dalton failed to stop, Thompson shot him in the back with a Winchester rifle. Dalton fell off his horse and died on the street.69 Panic spread from Parowan to towns near by with the news. Parowan sheriff Adams arrested Thompson and Orton and took them to the county courthouse in Beaver to appear before a judge at the Second District Court. Federal marshall Frank H. Dyer was notified about the shooting. Dyer immediately dismissed Thompson and sent another marshall, Arthur Pratt, to Beaver to take charge of the case. Thompson's matter was heard on 6 January 1887. All members of the jury were non- Mormons, primarily from nearby mining camps. They found Thompson "not-guilty" after two days of deliberation.70 At least eleven Beaver citizens were convicted of unlawful cohab­itation and sentenced to prison terms: William Fotheringham, three months, 23 May 23 1885 to 11 August 1885; John Lang, four months, 17 May 1885 to 29 September 1885; James E. Twitchell, seven months, THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 139^ 9 May 1885 to 22 December 1885; Henry Gale, seven months, 12 May 1885 to 15 December 1885; William G. Bickley, twelve months, 9 May 1885 to 27 May 1886; M.L. Shepherd, six months, 28 May 1886 to 29 November 1886; William J. Cox, six months, 28 May 1886 to 29 November 1886; William Robinson, four months, 7 May 1885 to 16 September 1886; George Hales, four months, 11 May 1886 to 16 September 1886; Thomas Scofield, six months, 26 September 1886 to 26 March 1887; and James Farrer, six months, 26 September 1886 to 26 March 1887. In addition to these m e n , " . . . John R. Murdock, John Ashworth, CD. White, William Ashworth, William W. Hutchings, Duckworth Grimshaw, Philo T. Farnsworth and David Levi. . . were regarded as violators of the Edmund-Tucker Law."71 Beaver Female Suffrage Association While Mormon polygamists faced prosecution for plural mar­riage, the Beaver Female Suffrage Association promoted universal suffrage by reminding men that women were their moral equals. Beaver County presents an interesting case study in nineteenth-cen­tury female suffrage, because of the large population of non- Mormon women in the county and because of the mining industries or the presence of the military there was a more diversified popula­tion during the late nineteenth century than was typical of the rest of the territory. As the county seat, Beaver City was the center of politi­cal, social, and religious action in the area, the likely location for a county suffrage association. The initial association was organized through the direction of general LDS Relief Society leaders-Eliza R. Snow and Zina D. H. Young who had been traveling throughout the territory organizing local units of the suffrage association. Therefore Mormon women felt the ecclesiastical support of their association in the women's rights movement. Scorning criticism that said that women would be exposed to "drinking, fighting and profanity that goes on" at the voting booths, women seeking the voted argued they were well suited to withstand such forces. As the secretary of the Beaver Women's Suffrage Association recorded: Let no man or woman be mistaken as to what this movement for suffrage really means. None of us want to turn the world upside 140 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY down, or to convert women into men. We want women, on the contrary, above all things to continue womanly-womanly in the highest and best sense-and to bring their true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report to bear upon conduct of public affairs.72 Beaver's w o m e n published a monthly, h a n d - w r i t t e n newsletter, t h e Equal Rights Banner, to p r o m o t e their ideology, stating regularly that women h a d a "purifying influence" o n government in t h e terri­t o r y a n d encouraged the territorial legislature to s u p p o r t the idea of female suffrage.73 Politically t h e group was neutral b u t adamant in its s u p p o r t of t h e single issue of suffrage. A t y p i c a l m e e t i n g w o u ld include discussion of relevant contemporary issues-the free coinage of silver, readings, singing, a n d other activities. For instance, o n 16 January 1894 t h e Beaver WSA secretary recorded t h e following: Programme next in order. Musick Instrumental by W. G. Bickley. Civil Government Class omitted, Prest. Farmsworth not prepared. Song by Mrs. Fernley, "The pardon come too late" next Reading from Womans Suffrage History by Louissa Jones lady not present. Speech by w.G. Bickley. . . . The Gentlemen, not being prepared with a lecture, he read a selection from W. Tribune. Typically, t h e members were from the elite of Beaver society-their h u s b a n d s were ecclesiastical a n d g o v e r n m e n t a l leaders, a n d b u s i ­nessmen or farmers. They were c o n n e c t e d by familial, religious, as well as social ties. Sarah Caroline Maeser, for one, in 1892, was the d a u g h t e r of t h e p r o m i n e n t e d u c a t o r - R e i n h a r d Maeser, t h e first school p r i n c i p a l in t o w n a n d t h e s o n of Karl Maeser of B r i g h am Young Academy. T h e Beaver Female Suffrage Association provided women a social outlet as well as place for t h em to p u t their creative energies in t h e effort to create a b e t t e r e n v i r o n m e n t for w o m e n in Utah territory.74 Architecture Despite its relatively small size a n d isolation from major urban cen­ters, Beaver County contains a veritable treasury of architecturally sig­nificant buildings. Its oldest t o w n a n d c o u n t y seat, Beaver City, is especially r i ch in its v a r i e t y of materials, styles, a n d early M o r m on house types, so m u c h so that it has been the subject of field studies and THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 141 The Beaver County Courthouse. (Allan Kent Powell) has been featured in architectural and historical publications. Beaver's unique collection of fine black rock (basalt) and pink rock (tufa) houses are well known and admired, as are its brick houses and its variety of historical building types. Less well documented but of importance is the historical architecture of the county's later, smaller Mormon towns, as well as the mining town architecture of Milford. Significant for helping to understand life in a more secular community with a non-agricul­tural- reliant economy, building construction and the town layout in Milford are distinctly different from that of the pioneer towns. 142 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY Beaver's most spectacular historic brick building is its Territorial Court House-the eventual county courthouse. In 1876 a group of selectmen petitioned the territorial governor and legislature for $15,000 to build a courthouse in Beaver City. The courthouse would house the Second Judicial District Court. Started in the mid-1870s and completed in 1882, the three-story, Victorian creation is one of the finest buildings of its type in Utah. Its architect is unknown, but William Stokes, a U.S. Army soldier and one-time U.S. marshal of Beaver, was superintendent of construction. The full basement was built of black basalt, while the main superstructure and four-sided clock tower is of red brick. The original court house size of 42 by 52 feet was expanded by a later addition measuring 29 by 32 feet. The building included a clock funded with $250 from the county and $625 from the city. Facing north, the main building contained county offices on the first level, a large court room on the second level, and rooms for officials and juries on the third floor. In the addition were vaults for records storage. Partially destroyed by a fire in 1889, the damaged sections were immediately rebuilt and improved, with the addition of a tower to house the town clock as well as a bell. Today the architectural gem finds service as a museum. Other early brick buildings of importance include the Beaver Institute, an 1870 school which, when enlarged with a two-story addition, became the Central School. Both the Low Hotel, built in about 1865, and the Mathews or Beaver Centennial Hotel, erected in 1876, were two-story brick structures. Many fine, nineteenth-century brick homes are still extant. Many commercial buildings, along with the high school and library, feature impressive brick architecture. Newspapers Beaver County has had an active and varied history of locally produced and published newspapers which were of particular impor­tance in connecting settlers separated by considerable distance in land. The Beaver Enterprise was first edited in August 1873 by George W. Crouch and the Carrigan brothers. For a period of time, the paper's mascot was the image of a donkey. The new editor, Scipio A. Kenner, who purchased the paper in 1875, got the idea from a group of mules Bishop John R. Murdock kept for a period of time in the THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 143_ tithing office yard. The mules created quite a disturbance during the night, braying incessantly, banging into the fences, and keeping the neighbors up all night. Kenner entitled the image, "The Beaver Nightingale." An alternate paper, The Beaver County Sentinel was published during the same years and managed by G. W McLaughlin. The Square Dealer first appeared on 29 January 1877, during the months before the execution of John D. Lee for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The editor commented on 23 March 1877 about Lee's confession: "One particular statement he had adhered to from the first. He had at all times declared that Brigham Young and the Church leaders had nothing to do with the Mountain Meadow Massacre."75 A daily newspaper, The Beaver Daily Chronicle began publication on 16 October 1876. This four-column, four-page paper was 11 by 16 inches and published every day but Sunday. The paper's fifty or sixty subscribers paid their subscription fees with wood, veg­etables, and wheat, or even occasionally with liquor. The Beaver Chronicle had a less than advantageous beginning. The first issue, dated 20 January 1879, was only one sheet and included this apology: "The public must bear with our shortcoming for a few days. We had paper ordered which started from Salt Lake on the 2nd, and it was not shipped from Juab until the 11th. We expect it every day. Hence a short coming may be caused by a long coming."76 By October the Chronicle had changed hands and changed names to the Beaver Watchman under the management of Joseph Field. Briefly after February 1881, the Southern Utonian surveyed public auctions of government barracks, stores, officers' quarters, and other buildings at Fort Cameron and other local business news. Reinhard Maeser and George Hales were editors. On 5 October 1883, the paper's name was changed to the Beaver Utonian, and finally in 1904 the paper again changed hands and became the Beaver Press. Post Offices and Mail Service Utah's first post office was established in Salt Lake City in August 1850 as the official center of communication in the territory. Beaver County's first post offices were established in Beaver, 24 July 1857; Minersville, 7 December 1864; Greenville, 8 December 1865; and Adamsville, 10 April 1868. With the coming of the railroad, trade and 144 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY communication with the world outside and increased mining activity prompted the establishment of post offices in Shauntie, 3 November 1874; Star City, 25 January 1875; Frisco, 30 August 1877; and Milford, 8 June 1880. Before 1870 mail came through Beaver County with freight wagon trains. In 1870 a mail route from Beaver to Fillmore was estab­lished. Riders traveled from Beaver to Cove Fort where fresh horses were obtained. John A. Skinner and Alonzo Hinckley were among the first riders, keeping their horses at the stables at Cove Fort and Corn Creek between the two towns. At that time the mail was delivered to the James Low Hotel. The first official federal post office was built in 1874 on the southeast corner of the Milton Anderson lot-with Horace A. Skinner as the first postmaster between 1874-1877. The post office shifted locations several times before a federal building was built. Because of its location on the railroad, Milford was an important distribution point for mail addressed to the eastern Nevada communities of Pioche, Panaca, Bristol, and DeLaMar, as well as communities in Iron and Washington counties in Utah. Water Beaver County's settlers were cognizant of their church leaders' commission to make the "Desert blossom like a rose." But before local farmers could make their land a success, they had to secure a pre­dictable and constant source of water. Most of them had experience with farming in the humid climate of New England or the Northeast. They were unfamiliar with the demands of a desert environment with different soil conditions, available water, and seasons. In the East, riparian rights had created the legal base for the distribution of water. Riparian rights represented a radically different attitude toward water use and regulation than was necessary in Utah. The riparian water right concept centered on the rights of land owners whose land bordered lakes or streams. They were entitled to have water flow naturally, undiminished in quantity and unpolluted in quality. In one case decided in the State of California in 1884, for instance, riparian rights were defined as follows: The right of the riparian proprietor to the flow of the stream is inseparably annexed to the soil, and passes with it, not as an ease- THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 145_ ment or appurtenance, but as a part and parcel of it. Use does not create it nor disuse destroy or suspend it. The right in each extends to the natural and usual flow of all the waters, unless where the quantity has been diminished as a consequence of the reasonable application of it by other riparian owners for purposes hereafter mentioned. The right of enjoying this flow without disturbance or interruption by any other proprietary is one of pure nature and is an incident of the property in land, not an appurtenance to it, like the right he has to enjoy the soil itself, in its natural state unaffected by the tortuous acts of a neighboring land owner. It is an insepa­rable incident to the ownership of the land, made by an inflexible rule of law an absolute and fixed right and can only be lost by grant or twenty years of adverse possession.77 Utah's social and physical environment created a unique situation. The policies and procedures of water distribution and use reflect on that particular set of problems. In Utah the system of water law and custom that developed applied the doctrine that water belongs to the public and is subject to appropriation by individuals or to grants by the legislature or other bodies (like canal companies) for this pur­pose. The diversion of water for use by the people was the accepted policy of the territory. During the territorial legislature's first session, the body gave the power over water to the county courts. Section 39, written 4 February 1852, defines the powers of the court: "The County Court has the control of all timber, water privileges, or any water course, or creek to grant mill sites, and exercise such power as in their judgment shall best preserve the timber and subserve the interest of the settlements in their distribution of water for irrigation or other purposes. All grants or rights held under legislative authority shall not be interfered with."78 Therefore the county courts held extensive power and the principle of public ownership of water was established.79 Possibly the most important power delegated to the county in this desert envi­ronment was the granting and adjudicating of water rights. Water legislation gave the power over regulation of natural resources to the courts, the probate judges and three selectmen in the county oversaw administration of the water network which included the appointment of a water master to oversee the regulation and main- 146 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The John and Nellie Griffith house in Minersville. (Utah State Historical Society) tenance of irrigation systems and to insure that orders of the court were properly executed. Beaver County was divided into water districts according to the source of water-streams, rivers, or springs coming into the valley from nearby mountains. Districts exercised their author­ity under and according to charters received from the territory. Furthermore, the court directed the location of dams and canals; in fact, the location of reservoirs and canals could not be changed without approval of the court. The court controlled as well regula­tion of wells, springs and streams. Although local wards, irrigation companies, and groups of individuals provided the bulk of the labor required in building canals, reservoirs, and water systems, county and local government provided support and direction as well, and fre­quently the best work represented a combination of public and pri­vate. Occasionally the court directed the preservation or conservation of natural resources.80 On 11 April 1866, for instance, the court dis- THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 147 cussed a measure to prevent anyone from cutting down cottonwood trees that belonged to the county. In 1877 John R. Murdock, LP. Carter, and William Barton peti­tioned the county court to build dams and reservoirs on North Creek for irrigation. C.P. Bord, Edward Tolton, John A. Smith, Muir, Skinner, Frazer and forty others objected to this petition and made it known to the court. After studying the situation, the court decided that all water in North Creek and its tributaries should be declared an irrigation district and should be regulated as such. Within days the court called for an election so that citizens could vote on whether the North Creek Irrigation District could charge $2.00 an acre on all irri­gated lands for water from the creek.81 The Utah Territorial Legislature passed a subsequent act in 1880 establishing the idea that territorial water, when appropriated, became private property.82 This essentially repealed the 1852 law giv­ing the county court control over territorial water. From that point forward, the control over water passed into the hands of the select­men who became water commissioners of the county. Under this new law, it was no longer the responsibility of the territory to enforce a beneficial and economic use of the public water, but to create a forum for the adjudication of conflicts that arose over the separate parties. It defined their duties as follows: to make or to cause to be made and recorded such observations from time to time as they may deem necessary of the quantity and flow of water in the natural sources of supply, and to determine as near as may be the average flow thereof at any season of the year, and to receive, hear, and determine all claims to any right to the use of water, and on receipt of satisfactory proof of any right to the use of water having vested, to issue to the person owning such right a certificate thereof, and to generally oversee in person or by agents appointed by them, the distribution of water within their respective counties from natural sources of supply, and to fairly distribute according to the nature and extent of recorded rights and according to law, to each said corporations as to the nature or extent of their rights to the use of water, or right of way, or dam­ages therefore, of any one or more of such persons, or corpora­tions, to hear and decide upon all such disputed rights and file a 148 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY copy of their findings and decisions as to such rights with the County Recorder, and to distribute the water according to such findings or decision, unless ordered by a court of competent juris­diction. 83 Beaver County had numerous irrigation and canal companies that organized the distribution of water on the local level. The companies initiated the construction of canal systems, reservoirs, and regulated the maintenance and distribution of water. Nevertheless, water rights and the need for greater regulation were often debated in local papers. Some believed water legitimately belonged to the city, whose obligations it was to distribute it equally; others, the promoters of individual rights, supported the notion that individual private ownership of property brought with it control over water as well. Again water was the key to agricultural prosperity in the area. Minersville built a reservoir across the lower Beaver River as early as 1860 about two and one half miles below Minersville itself. Their dam was a makeshift affair constructed with dirt, rocks, and branches, and soon fell apart. Nevertheless, water was so scarce the settlers became discouraged and planned to move elsewhere. Brigham Young visited their community and encouraged them to stay, promising them eventually the valley would be filled with farms. Nelson Hollingshead supervised the construction of an irrigation dam at the mouth of the canyon near Minersville so that he could provide power for his grist mill. This dam was constructed with logs and lumber and was used eventually as a diversion point as irrigation was organized for the area. It also eventually washed away.84 Other farmers built two dams at Rocky Ford, one of brush and gravel and the other of diamond-shaped pens filled with rock. Despite their efforts, both dams flooded out and were washed out down river. The first incorporated company on the Beaver River was the Minersville Irrigation Company. The original bill of incorporation was drawn up by lawyer Frank R. Clayton and was signed on 7 February 1889 by Edwin Eyre, George Marshall, Soloman Walker, James W. McKnight, William Wood, William Hamblin, and Joseph H. Dupaix, and other residents of Minersville precinct. The purpose THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 149 This building was used as a hotel in Minersville. (Utah State Historical Society) of the dam built at Minersville was to store and control water from the Beaver River for irrigation purposes at the point near Minersville Canyon known as Rocky Ford. It was intended that the river would proceed naturally through the canyon to canals, ditches, and other waterways constructed and maintained by the company and diverted to land of the stockholders. Originally, the company had $30,000 cap­ital stock and 2,000 shares valued $15 each. Agriculture and Livestock Cattle raising also required a certain type of individual, well sea­soned by the environment and the challenges of settling in this diffi­cult terrain. Pioneer families like the Murdocks and the Farnsworths had the largest cattle herds and large tracts of land north of Milford on the Beaver Bottoms. Here they pastured several thousand cattle yearly. In the western part of the county, operations like the Pine Valley Ranch ran as many as 5,000 head of cattle. Owners of large herds hired cowboys to handle their animals. Quintessentially west­ern, the cowboy's life played out in the natural environment, with 150 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY only minimal interruption and marked by the shifts in prices for cat­tle. Sheep also grazed in the Tushar Mountains as early as the 1870s. The discussion over land use was always strained; hence, relations between cattlemen and sheepherders and between livestock raisers and forestry proponents were tense. Some felt local herds taxed resources and made life unpleasant. One angry citizen wrote in an editorial to the Southern Utonian, 18 April 1889, "Our County road has been filled up with muck making it very perplexing and annoying to the traveling public. Our canals and ditches that have cost considerable means and h a r d labor are filled with rock pushed by their herds of sheep crowding the roads." Farming life in Beaver County was dictated in part by the distri­bution of resources-water, land, and man power. Beaver County is overwhelmingly rural in nature, but here we see a greater diversifica­t i on of land uses t h a n is typical in other counties. The farmer's life was driven by the changing seasons and the effort to work the land with limited water. David A. Tanner recounted his father's efforts at raising enough food for his family and to sell at market: I remember that when I was a small boy my father raised potatoes and a small garden without irrigation. Alfalfa was raised, but the water was so close to the surface that it deteriorated in about two years time. . . . in my teens I was old enough to plow for corn. We used a Red Bird Sulky plow. I would make about a four inch deep furrow and make sort of a circle and then go along and drop the next row. Sometimes father would ride through the corn on a horse and you could just see the top of his head. This was over across the fields on the other side of the river. We raised red top, timothy, blue grass, and other grasses down the fields along the tracks to the north.85 Lucy E .W Burns remembered her father's farm three miles west of Beaver. Their home in town consisted of one-quarter of the city block, with a house barn, out buildings, and a yard full of chickens, pigs, cows, and horses. A vegetable garden, a small patch of alfalfa, and some fruit trees were the responsibility of the mother. The father THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 151 farmed land located on the p e r i p h e r y of town and usually owned twenty-five acres.86 Besides the endemic problems with rabbits feeding off crops dur­ing the night, wolves roamed freely through fields in Adamsville and Greensville.87 Fire plagued farmers who heated their homes with coal or wood stoves and worked over fires in the fields for a variety of pur­poses. The Southern Utonian reported a fire caused by Mrs. John Smith making soap in the yard beside her house when a high wind came up and carried the sparks into a nearby peastack. A cry was raised and the neighbors came running to the scene. The fire spread to the fence, and burned about two rods of it before its ravages were stopped. The sparks were carried by the wind to Heber Dean's correl across the street and several times the manure and straw got to a blaze but were extinguished before any serious results were experienced there. It was a close call and should be a warning to all to be careful with outside fires, especially while the wind is blowing.88 Beaver Woolen Mills Perhaps the single most i m p o r t a n t manufacturing institution was the Beaver Woolen Mills first incorporated in 1870 with a sub­scribed capital of $30,500, largely t h r o u g h the efforts of John Ashworth. The mill building was three stories tall, 60 by 120 feet, equipped with machinery shipped to Utah from New England. When installed, the production floor included nine looms for flannels and finer fabrics, one l o om for men's wear, and one l o om for the produc­tion of blankets. Three cards, one spinning jenny of 360 spindles, fin­ishing and fulling machines, warpers, a n d other miscellaneous machines made possible the production of virtually all types of cloth. Both converts from England, John and William Ashworth man­aged the mill initially. Department heads included William Robinson, John Dean, Henry Tattersall, Enoch Cowdell, Richard Curfew, Heber C. Dean, William Holgate, William Dean, a n d Thomas Schofield. English immigrant and experienced weaver Eliza Slater Moyes wove the first set of blankets. Key to the economic development of Beaver because of employ­ment opportunities it provided and revenues it brought into the area, 152 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The Beaver Woolen Mill. (Utah State Historical Society) the Beaver Woolen Mill was the first of its kind in southern Utah. Wagons loaded down with goods to be exchanged for mill products brought more varied products into local markets. Mining towns to the west provided steady markets for mill products as well. I n b o t h 1889 a n d 1890, a d d i t i o n s were built on the original building which extended the building by t h i r ty feet to the west. In addition, capital stock increased by $15,500 resulting in $46,000. Upgrades on machinery, the addition of new card sets and spinning jennys improved the quality of the product. A new manufacturing department producing shirts, socks, underwear, and other articles of ready-to-wear clothing broadened the range of products the mill pro­vided. The organizational s t r u c t u r e of t h e company also became increasingly specialized. William Ashworth replaced his father as superintendent, John F. Tolton and Charles Woolfenden both worked as bookkeepers and salesmen for the company. Other superinten­dents: included William Farnsworth, Franklin D. Farnsworth, and O.A. Murdock. By the 1890s it became increasingly difficult for the mill to market its manufactured goods for sale and the mill closed down by the end of the century. THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 153 Beaver Co-operative Commercial and Manufacturing Institution Besides cooperating for building projects and town settlement, Mormon pioneers organized in cooperative merchandising institu­tions under the centralized control of church owned Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI). Each local ZCMI branch functioned as part of a regional merchandising network designed to minimize non-Mormon competition and facilitate the distribution and production of home manufactured goods and the importation of states goods. Aimed toward territorial self-sufficiency, ZCMI allowed church members to purchase stock certificates and share in company profits. The Beaver Co-op Store was a two-story building constructed in 1872 of black igneous rock quarried from mountains east of Beaver. For its time, the store was the largest mercantile south of Salt Lake City. The Beaver Co-operative Commercial and Manufacturing Institution became an important part of the cooperative network of which the Salt Lake City ZCMI was the parent institution. The largest original shareholders of the Beaver Co-operative and Commercial and Manufacturing Institution were James R. Murdock with 865 shares at a value of $4,325; P.T. Farnsworth, Jr., 320 shares worth $1,600; and M.L. Shepherd with 165 shares worth $825. Most share­holders purchased only a few shares. The original board of trustees reads like a Who's Who in Beaver County and includes many of the original pioneers to the area: John R. Murdock, M.L. Shepherd, P.T. Farnsworth, Jr., A.M. Farnsworth, William Ashworth, John White, David Levi, James Lowe, John Ashworth, Edward Tolton, Robert Easton, WG. Nowers, William Greenwood, Thomas Frazer, Isaac Riddle, and James Farrer. In the effort to become self-sustaining, a variety of industries soon provided residents with a variety of products and services- woolen, flour and saw mills, dry goods stores, shoe and tailor shops, and bee keepers helped to provide a more substantial and diversified base for settlement efforts. A number of businesses that fed off stock and sheep raising also were located in the county. Some farmers broadened their resources with small flocks of sheep, usually between 154 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY ten and twenty. Wool production provided a variety of different jobs. It needed to be shorn, carded, spun and eventually woven into cloth. One Scandinavian immigrant, Charsta Lunblad, wife of Hans Lunblad former president of the Scandinavian Mission, wove the wool that her husband, himself a tailor, fashioned into men's suits. United Order The community attempt at cooperative living was n o where bet­ter expressed t h a n in Beaver's effort at living the United Order, first organized 12 April 1874. The objectives of t h e u n i t e d order were " . . . to carry o n a general business of farming, manufacturing, mer­chandising, fruit-growing, stock-raising, dairying, and as many other pursuits as will t e n d to the material prosperity of the order."89 The minutes of the organization read as follows: Realizing by the Spirit and Signs of the Times, and from the results of our past experience, the necessity of a closer union and combi­nation of our labors for the promotion of our common welfare, and whereas we have learned of the struggle between Capital and Labor, resulting in Strikes of the Workman with their consequent distress, and also the oppression of monied monopolies and, whereas, there is growing distrust and faithfulness among men in the Political and Business relations of life as well as a spirit for extravagant speculation and over-reaching the legitimate bounds of the Credit System, resulting in Financial Panics and Bankruptcy, Paralyzing industry, thereby making many of the necessities and conveniences of life precarious and uncertain and whereas our past experiences has proven, that to be the Friends of God, we must become the friends and helpers of each other in a common bond of brotherhood, . . . we must be self-sustaining, encouraging home manufacturing, producing . . . and not only supply our own wants, but also have some to spare for exportation.90 This very interesting document helps illustrate nineteenth-century values a n d social conditions in Utah. It outlines as well t h e basic materialistic assumptions of the day, what was considered essential to existence, what was thought to be of value. It further says that "we believe the beauty of our garments should be the workmanship of our own hands and that we should practice more diligently THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 155 Inside the Beaver Woolen Mill. (Utah State Historical Society) Economy, Temperance, Frugality, and the simple grandeur of man­ners which belongs to the Pure in Heart."91 The order's objective was to create a self- sustaining people, capable of meeting the difficulties presented by socially, morally, politically and commercially perilous times. Foolish fashions and and the use of imported luxuries was to be shunned. Trade and business relations with individuals who were not members of the order were to by avoided " . . . unless absolutely compelled by our necessities."92 Meetings of the United Order opened with prayer, with group singing, and felt much like a church gather­ing. Work was divided among members of the order by the same ecclesiastical figure who would call them to repentance on Sunday. Clearly, Beaver's United Order was an expression of a religious ideal. The Beaver United Order operated under a cadre of nineteen officers, with the most prominent positions going to John R. Murdock, president; William Fotheringham, secretary; and William J. Cox, treasurer. Initially, resources were divided among three super-intendencies- one for horses, one for cattle, and another for the tan­nery. The tannery remained in private ownership but an agreement was made for the united order to operate the tannery for which it received one-fourth of the tanned skins. This arrangement led to the 156 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY establishment in June 1874 of a shoe shop as another united order operated undertaking. The united order also acquired W Coplan's steam saw mill and signed a contract to provide beef for nearby Fort Cameron at the rate of 6.5 cents a pound for live cattle and 8 cents a pound for dressed beef. In spite of these promising beginnings, the Beaver United Order lasted only a few months. It was apparently a trial for some members of the Mormon faith. One non-Mormon in Beaver wrote to the Salt Lake Tribune, " A number of the faithful are distressed over this mat­ter. They dislike to give up their fellowship in the church, and they dislike to give up their property."93 Historian Dale Morgan explained that "Only about a third of the settlers had joined, and whether the difficulties of the organization were occasioned by communal con­flicts, lack of adequate capital, internal dissension, or other reasons, the order was abandoned and the property redistributed among the members.94 Economic Life The United States Census helps paint a demographic image of the county's social makeup and reveals patterns of population dips and plateaus. At the time of the county's first enumeration in 1860, 785 persons were recorded as residents. That number had increased by 155 percent by 1870 (2,007), and another 95.2 percent by 1880 (3,918). The county's population dropped by 14.8 percent (3,340) by 1890. A Beaver County Tax Roll for 1873 provides an interesting look at local occupations. This roll of the territory was used to select per­sons qualified to serve as jurors for the Second District Court. Of fifty-six men permanent male residents of the county, thirty-eight were farmers. Five were miners; two were freighters; and the rest were businessmen-a blacksmith, merchant, two shoe makers, liquor dealer, and stock raiser. Thirty-eight were from Beaver, the clear polit­ical center of the county.95 During the nineteenth century, locals made their livelihood through farming, freighting, stock raising, mining, or through busi­ness. Prosperity in one economic sector spread to the others. As long THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 157 as the mines were doing healthy business, freighters, miners, and ser­vice businesses prospered as well. For instance, in the 1880s Milford's business district included five stables and feedyards, five saloons, five blacksmith shops, two grocery stores, a drug store, Chinese restau­rant, meat market, granary, and numerous boarding houses. The Deseret Evening News gave a view into Milford's business district in April 1896: some two dozen buildings . . . among which are four very cred­itable hotels, two or three general merchandising establishments, two saloons, and a commodious and well appointed railway depot. There are no streets, and when a person with a conveyance sets out to go anywhere, he is pretty sure to strike some sort of structure amidship before going very far; when this happens either of sev­eral courses can be taken-he can tunnel under, climb over, go through, go around, turn back or remain where he is. In nine cases out often he goes around.96 Success in business seemed to depend on success in mining, stock raising, and freighting, each of which brought needed revenue into the county. Freighting Freighting was also another important industry that brought customers and goods through the county. Particularly before the rail­road traversed the county, freighting companies played a particular role in connecting Beaver County with the world outside. Original roads followed Indian trails, but all were difficult regardless of the weather. Traversing rocky trails, muddy in inclement weather, freighters welcomed the services provided by these rural communi­ties. They hauled ore mined in the area, timber from Beaver Canyon to Frisco to build mining structures, hay from Adamsville to feed their animals, farm products to feed miners or to be shipped to more distant markets. It took three days to make the round trip from Beaver to Frisco. Customers themselves, freighters bought butter pro­duced by local housewives, Freighting was such a profitable enterprise that many local farm­ers took it up for part of the year to earn money to supplement their other income. Besides shipping goods between county towns, many 158 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY would bring their wagons up to Sanpete or Sevier counties fill them with farm produce and bring them back to supply local mercantiles. Bill Wood's father joined his father or his older brother in freighting when he was only ten years old on trips between Minersville and Salt Lake City. They would drive the teams hard, rest­ing periodically for a day or two to let the horses recuperate and feed. Soon he drove his own smaller wagon behind his father's, still loaded down with supplies. To climb hills, they would double up their teams, from time to time stopping the wagon, blocking the wheels and let­ting the horses rest.97 Freighting was particularly demanding work that proceeded regardless of the season. When the weather was warm, drivers rode on wagons with clouds of dust billowing in the wake of a team of horses or oxen. Even worse when wet, the roads bogged down with mud that rendered some places unpassable. Businesses lining Milford's and Frisco's main streets reflected the importance of the freighting industry-stables, blacksmith shops, feedyards, and board­ing houses provided vital services. On the average a single load would range in size from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds. Ingenious freighters would travel loaded each way-hauling machinery and merchandise out and ore from the mines back to the county's towns. Wagons were usually covered with sheets of canvass to protect the goods, and a standard wagon would be three or four feet deep. The driver sat on a seat high over the "jockey box," a tool box carrying tools, grease, and food, and supplies. Wooden water barrels tied to both sides of the wagon insured that driver and team would not perish in the desert environment and feed bags hung off to the sides as well. After the railroad was built to Milford, freighting occurred in three directions: east to Beaver, south through Minersville to Parowan, Cedar City, St. George, and other southern Utah towns; and west to the mines at Panaca, Pioche, and Delamar in Nevada. The round trip from Milford to Delamar often required nearly two weeks. While ore was the usual commodity hauled back from the mines, west-bound wag­ons hauled everything from produce and hardware to heavy mining equipment. On one trip Joe E. Eyre of Minersville and two other men drove an eight-horse team across Panaca Summit where the snow THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 159_ was up to their hips. When a piece of the mining machinery rolled off the wagon, it took them four days to get it back on the wagon.98 Railroad Beaver County's settlers benefitted by the coming of the railroad in a number of ways. Because the need for railroad ties was great a number of men cut timber in local canyons for the rails. The ax men cut the trees, then rolled them down the steep mountains. At the bot­tom they were cut into rail ties seven or eight inches thick. Most of the ties were finished with axes. The coming of the railroad to Beaver County facilitated the rapid transportation of ores extracted from the mines to distant markets. Before the railroad, teams of freighters hauled ores and agricultural products across the desert land separating Beaver County from east­ern Nevada and markets in towns like Panaca. The railroad came first to Milford in 1880 and soon after to Frisco and Newhouse. The line coming into Beaver County was potentially an extension of the Utah Southern Railway. Settlements south of Salt Lake were conscious of the economic impact a railroad depot had on community growth and competed for selection. Despite vigorous boosterism promoting Beaver as the perfect location for a railroad line, Milford was chosen as the desti­nation on the route south. For a while it seemed Minersville would be the Beaver County city to be chosen. The Deseret News published excerpts which illustrated the heated contest being waged over the issue. Minersville is steadily coming to the front, the surveyors hav­ing marked out the Southern Extension through the burg. Uncle George Adair, who resided at Minersville, some 18 years ago, used to relate a dream which he had about that town. He said that in his dream he saw a railroad built into said town and the place transformed from an insignificant little farming settlement into a live, bustling mining and railroad town. It is beginning to look as if Uncle George's prophecy might be fulfilled.99 When the railroad came to Milford, it also left its stamp on the com­munity. The depot, storage warehouses for goods being shipped in 160 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY and out of the area, and perhaps four dozen other buildings lined the streets contiguous to the railroad station. Milford's railroad station was constructed in 1880 when the rail­road came to Beaver County. The railroad that came through Milford was an extension of the Utah Central Railway which started in Ogden (in 1870) and extended into the south. Original investors included Joseph A. Young, William Jennings, Bishop John Sharp, LeGrand Young, and other businessmen from Salt Lake City. Upon its comple­tion, the Utah Central, Utah Southern, and Utah Southern Extension were all consolidated under the name the Utah Central Railway. In 1872 Brigham Young purchased stock in the Union Pacific Railroad Company, which joined with the Utah Central Railway in extended tracks even farther south into Utah territory. Perhaps the most i m p o r t a n t objective of t h e Utah Southern Extension was providing transportation for the rich silver and lead mining products coming out of the Frisco area, particularly the Horn Silver Mine. Sometimes as much as 150 tons of the rich galena ore coming out of the Horn Silver Mine were shipped per day. It would be difficult to underestimate the importance of the rail­road to the development of Milford City. Diversity in businesses, peo­ple, a n d challenges marked this t o w n as a place apart. Although Beaver was the county seat and center of agriculture and the stock raising industry, Milford became the principal location for the ship­ment of goods in and out of the county. When the Utah Central was engaged in construction of its south­ern line in 1889, Beaver County newspapers attempted to draw atten­tion to what Beaver had to offer, arousing its citizens to action. "The Railroad. Surveyors at Work. Fremont Canyon Being Surveyed. Shall We Let T h em Pass. Never! Never! Never!" one article was titled. It continued: Every citizen arouse! Every man to his post! A company of railroad surveyors is now located near the mouth of Fremont Canyon just over the ridge south of Beaver. Their apparent object is to survey through Fremont pass via Dog Valley on to the Sevier river, thence travel northward passing by Marysvale through Sevier and Sanpete counties. The route selected is very impractical, diffi­cult, and hazardous, besides being a long way around. THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 161 Via Beaver the route would be materially shortened, and notwithstanding the fabulous amount estimated by some that it would cost nearly $600,000 more to cross our way, it would be of incalculable more benefit to any road.100 In a series of editorials, articles, and other promotional material, the benefits of the railroad coming through Beaver were paraded before a willing audience. "Beaver is not dead but only sleeping," one wrote. "Sleeping to the great benefits that could be derived by a wide awake, rustling people; asleep to the many gigantic resources that lie dormant from lack of a little push; dosing over the untold resources of wealth that everywhere surround us. It is high time that there should be a shaking among the dry bones, and that further opportu­nities be not permitted to slip by us."101 "It is an established fact that railroad men in this part of the country mean push," another main­tained. "Our money would be returned to us in more ways than »10? one. 1U2 Beaver's mayor believed Beaver ideally suited for a depot: "We have the facilities here to make a beautiful city, if we can get a rail­road through here. We have the land and plenty of water if it is uti­lized. If a road will pass through Beaver it will greatly enhance the value of property. A railroad is the only thing that will advance Beaver in the proper scale." William Ashworth, superintendent of the Beaver Woolen Mills, was pessimistic about Beaver's future without the line. "If the road passes along and misses us entirely we have nothing to remain in Beaver for. If Beaver should have a railroad it will rank among the leading cities of the Territory. We have the facil­ities. We have the best water in the Territory."103 Settlement in Beaver County was spread out over miles and miles of land. Therefore transportation between the separate towns and communication were critical in creating a sense of community in the county. Early transportation was not with out danger. On 4 January 1894, John Franklin Tolton left his home in Beaver for Milford and the train which would take him to Salt Lake City for a session of the territorial legislature. While enroute to Milford I met with a mishap while crossing the Beaver River at a point near Minersville. The ice broke and caused 162 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY my team and bugy to drop into the current, the water being so deep as to flow into the buggy and came nearly upsetting the con­tents into the river. Reached Milford o.k. and took train the fol­lowing morning for Salt Lake City.104 Hotels and Boarding Houses Beaver's first hotels were the Thompson Hotel, run by Mrs. Edward W. Thompson and the Low Hotel, operated by Mr. and Mrs. James Low. While these establishments offered lodging for travelers, they functioned more as boarding houses for miners and other work­ers. The Lee Boarding House was located above Charley's Saloon. The boarding house was operated by an African-American couple named Lee who came to Beaver because of Fort Cameron. Other early Beaver hotels include the Betensen Hotel, the Mathews Hotel, the Farnsworth Hotel, the Baker House, and the Beaver Hotel. Milford had several quality hotels. The Williams Hotel, built in 1881 by John D. Williams, housed smelter workers, mining magnates, and visiting religious leaders including Laurence Scanlan, Catholic bishop for Utah. The Smithson Hotel was the largest of Milford's early hotels, with as many as forty regular boarders plus other trav­elers in need of accommodations. The Tanner House, originally built as a private residence for Ebenezer Tanner and his family, was adopted as a hotel by the Tanners and became a popular stopping place for "drummers," as traveling salesmen were usually called.105 Schools Beaver schools operated in several different locations and under separate districts during the 1860s and 1870s. In 1873 the Methodist Episcopal church opened a school which operated continuously until 1891. A second Methodist school was operated by Reverend Karl L. Anderson from 1908 to 1912. These two schools were part of a Protestant missionary initiative in Utah to provide a good education for Mormon children with the conviction that with such an educa­tion the children would turn away from Mormonism. In 1881 Beaver's local schools underwent consolidation. All the separate districts became one unified district to facilitate tighter administration of funds and programs. The problem of housing Beaver County students was periodically met with special school THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 163 taxes for t h e p u r p o s e of enlarging existing facilities or b u i l d new ones.106 Reinhard Maeser was Beaver's first school principal. Maeser recorded in his diary, My father and James E. Talmage were about to make a trip through Southern Utah as far as St. George, in the interest of edu­cation, and I was invited to go along. While visiting at Beaver the trustees consulted my father respecting a teacher for their school. The three or four districts having been consolidated, would make this a large and important one. I was asked if I would accept the position, which I did. After returning from St. George in the latter part of July, 1881,1 remained in Beaver to arrange for the opening of school in the latter part of August.107 In part because of Maeser's influence, the Mormon church estab­lished their first school south of Provo, the Beaver Stake Academy in 1886. First held in rooms over the Beaver Co-op store, the academy held daytime classes for school aged children and nighttime sessions for adults. In 1890 the academy built its own building, a two-story pink sandstone structure located at the center of town. In 1888 the Utah Territorial Legislature passed a bill establishing a Free School System in Utah. The Southern Utonian published a cen­sus of school aged children in 1890 that described the expenditures of t h e system in the county. Beaver h a d a t o t a l 988 children, 153 determined as non-Mormon, 835 as Mormon. Beaver had the largest population with 545, Minersville with 148, Greenville with 105, and Adamsville with 86. The state would spend $2.50 per year on these children, between the ages of six and eighteen, for teachers salaries, supplies, and school buildings.108 Because of the impracticability of r u n n i n g the academy in this changed situation, with free schools, the Beaver Stake Academy closed in 1890 and the building rented to the county for use by a new school called the Park School.109 In 1909 a new two-story red-brick eight-r o om school building was built on the same lot to the north. Besides organizational changes, Beaver County schools saw an evolution in the concept of gradation. Before 1894, school age children were sep­arated into five divisions, which ranged from the First Reader to the Fifth Reader. In 1894 that changed and students were placed in eight 164 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The Murdock Academy Band. (Utah State Historical Society) grades. Policies varied some according to the principal in charge, but discipline was particularly strict under J.S. Hanks (1907-1915). He was particularly exacting in the way children entered and exited the building. To walk as a group, they lined up at the door, two abreast, from the lowest grade to the highest, with each teacher stationed nearby. Disobedient or unruly students were placed in the "Awkward Squad." And those who created the most challenging discipline prob­lems were given a special drill by Mr. Hanks. The Beaver Branch of the Brigham Young Academy, later known as Murdock Academy, began its tenure in September 1898. After Fort Cameron was abandoned, the Mormon church became owner of half of the property, with John R. Murdock and Philo T. Farnsworth own­ing the other. The two men donated their share to the church, which represented a value of $15,000. The property was used during the interim for summer schools and recreational uses. Responsibility for renovating the space was given to the Beaver Stake with the stake presidency responsible for raising funds necessary for the construc­tion and remodeling. The campus included 240 additional acres around the fort buildings. When it opened, a procession marked the THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 165^ day attended by two Mormon general authorities and a public con­cert and ball. Thirty-eight students enrolled the first day, and within two weeks the enrollment reached 100. The school was directed by E. D. Partridge who was sent to Beaver from the parent institution in Provo. He remained until 1900 when he returned to Provo and Andrew B. Anderson was assigned as principal. Students from all across the region came to complete the two-year high school course offered. Classes were offered in chemistry, physics, mathematics, English literature, and music. Physical education, elocution, and the­ology rounded out the offering. The Beaver Branch of Brigham Young Academy became an inde­pendent school in 1908 and was renamed Murdock Academy. With the construction of a beautiful two-story pink stone building between 1908 and 1913, and a full four-year high school program offered, Murdock Academy stayed open until 1922, when declining enrollment because of the development of public high schools in the area led to its closure on 12 May 1922. Much of the school equipment was given to the Beaver High School.110 Health Issues Settlers of Beaver County were dependent on a group of dedi­cated midwives who delivered babies and cared for other medical needs as best they could until medical doctors arrived in the county. Traditions and customs affected health care in Beaver County as in other parts of the country. Women and usually their husbands were adverse to using the services of a male doctor during child delivery. Consequently, until well into the twentieth century a cadre of dedi­cated midwives took charge of this important responsibility. Midwives not only assisted in the delivery process but stayed on to help both mother and child with whatever needed to be done includ­ing the necessary house work. Some, including Elizabeth Grundy, received training in Salt Lake City in child birth and other medical techniques. One midwive, Ruth Reese of Greenville, took pride in greeting the young men she had delivered with, "I was the first one to see you, my boy."111 The first doctors, John Ward Christian and George Fennemore, came to Beaver with the San Bernardino exiles in 1858. Both men 166 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY remained in the county for the rest of their lives. Fennemore turned one of the rooms in his house into a drug store. In 1872 Dr. Wayne Smith came to Beaver with the soldiers at Fort Cameron, and follow­ing the closure of the fort he remained in Beaver to practice. Other doctors arrived later including Seymour B. Young in 1890.112 Still, the practice of medicine remained an imprecise science. When John Franklin Tolton was afflicted with a rash, sores, and swelling on his hands in the summer of 1892, he went to two local doctors but found little or no relief from their treatment. He then " . . . consulted Dr. Yellowstone who was visting Beaver, with a wonderful show and advertising his celebrated medicines, and was unable to make any sat­isfactory terms with him on promise of a permanent cure, as the doc­tor would not back up his guarantee."113 After suffering another two months, Tolton finally paid a specialist-Dr. Elison-$50 for treat­ment. The guaranteed cure proved successful. Until the first trained dentists arrived around 1880, blacksmiths often handled the necessary extraction of aching teeth without any anaesthetics but with the assistance of several men who held the patient. For children, a string tied to the loose or aching tooth was attached to a door knob and the door slammed shut to accomplish the extraction.114 In a time when good dental hygiene was not com­monly practiced, many people lost their teeth and were outfitted with bridges and dentures. One local dentist, Elijah Smith, learned the practice from a den­tist whom he assisted and went into business for himself. In 1906 when the Utah State Dental Board learned that he was practicing without proper training or a license, he went to Salt Lake City and took a course in dentistry. Among the techniques he learned was how to freeze teeth before extracting them. However, "Many times he would put the freezing agent on the teeth and then pull them before it had a chance to deaden the pain. By the time the gum was numbed, the tooth was out and if a patient remarked that it hurt he would say, cOh, I knew you could stand it.'"115 In 1889 the managers of the Beaver Woolen Mills planned to install public bathing rooms. "It is intended," the Southern Utonian reported, to "have one large plunge bath, 12 X 20 ft. long, and a num­ber of private baths."116 A diphtheria epidemic broke out in 1891 THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 167 causing many to move out of town for a period of time.117 During the epidemic William and Hattie Fotheringham lost three children. Meetings and all public gatherings were canceled and the town was placed under quarantine.118 Recreation Beaver County, as a community, is first of all a geographic set­ting. Marked by mountains to the west and east, the broad and sweeping valley floor, the arid climate and environment, and rela­tively homogenous population present a particular set of resources with which the community is built. Beaver County's cultural life reflects an effort to go beyond the geographic setting to find ways of interacting to build a shared bond of social meaning and satisfaction with life. Dances were favored entertainments, joining all ages in the quadrille, the waltz, the polka, and scotch reel. Dances were sched­uled in conjunction with July 4th celebrations, Pioneer Days, or other holidays; in observance of weddings, changing seasons, or the har­vest. Dance music might be as simple as a combination of fiddles and accordions, organs and whatever variety of instruments was available. Settlers joined for dances in school houses, churches, and sometimes at home. Summer dances were staged in barns, under boweries, or in fields lighted by hand-made candles. Beaver County residents joined for philanthropic purposes in the "wood dance," an event scheduled after the fall harvest for the area's widows and poor. Men and boys hauled wagon loads of wood in exchange for tickets to the dance, wood that was then donated to those in need. The women of the Mormon Relief Society prepared a delicious meal spread out on long tables-steaming hot vegetables, meats, pies and cakes, homemade bread and jellies. Often a group of young men would generate the idea of staging a dance and covering the costs themselves. Expenses included $1.50 for the fiddler, $1.00 for the caller, and candles to light the room.119 Refreshments might be simply squash and potatoes roasted in the coals of the fire. Candy pulling was also a popular activity that accompanied evening dances. Dances were also held each time a company of pioneers pushed through town on their way south. 168 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY One long remembered dance in Minersville was an April Fools Dance in 1889 when a prize was offered for the best "April Fools Surprise." The prize went to two sisters, Melissa Ellen Wood and Emma Wood, for the cupcakes they baked with cotton on the inside, but delicious looking frosting on the outside.120 Basket dances were also popular, and women and girls decorated baskets which they filled with fried chicken, biscuits, fruit, and cake to entice the highest bid. Sometimes the bids reached $10 and more for a basket, which entitled the winner to share the food with the lady who had provided it. "If a boy found out which basket belonged to his beloved he would really bid, while the other men added to his worries by also bidding to keep him from getting it. . . . It was com­mon to see an older man eating lunch with a young girl, or a young man eating with an older woman, but people were good sports, eat­ing and dancing with the girl whose basket was drawn."121 Pioneer children were encouraged to learn to dance by watching their parents and other adult members of the community and at spe­cial dances held in the afternoons for children. "The music was the same as they had in the evenings and there were always older people in attendance to supervise the teaching and enjoyment of thse dances for the children." Dances included the Virginia reel, quadrille, cake walk, Chicago glide, highland fligh, 7-Up, Berlin polka, Danish slide off, lanses, shottish, square dances, and waltzes.122 Beaver staged numerous parades through the year, but none so impressive as the Pioneer Day parade. Leading the parade was Beaver's martial band complete with piccolo, four fifes, four snare drums, and one large drum. The parade marshal wearing a plumed wide brimmed black hat and red sash, sword to his side, riding his finest horse followed close behind. Perhaps the most interesting entry in the parade were the figures representing President Brigham Young, the handcart companies, Indian war parties, and pioneer farmers. The local 24th of July queen, Miss Utah, and Miss Beaver rode in a special wagon, later a float, down Main Street. The parade ended near the town park, where a picnic lunch met all participants, accompa­nied by band music under the shade provided by an ample bowery. The 4th of July gave Beaver County another occasion to celebrate. The variety of sponsors for one day's festivities paints a picture of THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 169 An early Beaver horse race. (Utah State Historical Society) the stratification of the local society. Supporters included the Beaver Co-op, a merchant and photographer, a brewmaster, a liquor sales­man, several saloon, hotel, and drug store owners, an ice cream par­lor owner, an editor, and butcher. A parade led off the day's activities. After the grand marshall began the parade, a "Goddess of Liberty" on an elaborate float drawn by four well matched horses proceeded down the street. Individuals representing the thirteen original colonies, the other states and territories followed. The band members rode in a wagon also pulled by four horses to the park where they embarked and played through the afternoon under the bowery. During the afternoon, children's games and foot races and sports activities entertained all who joined for the celebration. A patriotic program including readings of the Declaration of Independence, orations by local teachers and political officers, and songs sung by school-aged children continued through the after­noon. John Franklin Tolton described the 1893 4th of July in Beaver in his diary and concluded that Beaver's patriotism and ability to cele­brate matched that of any other place in the United States. 170 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY A bowery was constructed in front of meetinghouse and a nice program rendered. Miss Laura Ashworth represented the Goddess of Liberty; R. Maeser, orator of the day, did credit to himself and the occasion. The town was well represented with traveling men and strangers generally, who pronounced the celebration equal to anything they had seen in cities of similar size in any part of the Union. In the evening a grand display of fireworks was witnessed by a vast gathering of people.123 As early as 1876, Beaver saw baseball games in a ball diamond located on t h e west side of town. One team, composed of boys between the ages of fifteen and sixteen, was called the "Rough and Ready." The older team, c o m p r i s e d of twenty-year-old men, was called t h e "Resolutes." Rules for games were decided u p o n by the town. First, in the delivery of the ball by the pitcher, overhand pitching not being permitted. The hand in making delivery must pass below the hip line. Second, the catcher was required to stand some ten feet behind the batter and take the ball on the rebound. No player was permitted to use a glove or mask. Bare handed he must han­dle the ball, and be assured it required some pluck.124 Frequently the most p o p u l a r group activities were informal sporting contests. The Salt Lake Tribune mentioned one such match: A party of Friscoites and Milfordites who are now making the Gift House their headquarters, modest gentlemen, but egotistical enough to believe that they have among their numbers gentlemen of superior athletic ability, and whose proficiency in that line is only overcome by their personal attractions, are soon to have an opportunity to display their prowess at Black Rock or any other place they may select along the Lake Shore, in jumping, running, putting the stone (Caledonia style) or at single handed talking. And while we entertain towards them the highest feelings of friendship, we believe that they will meet their match on the Lake Shore.125 Statehood Beaver celebrated the arrival of statehood for Utah in 1896 by staging a g r a n d parade which began at 10 o'clock and proceeded THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 171 down Beaver City's Main Street. Clubs and individual citizens drove floats, wagons, and other vehicles along the route. Both city and county officials waved cheerfully to appreciative crowds that lined the streets. "Utah, the Queen of the West" was represented "tastefully" by Sadie Huntington. The bicycle club members fell back three blocks before reaching the meetinghouse which had been artistically deco­rated. Mayor W. H. Bakes conducted the general meeting, which began with Beaver's band's presentation of military music. Beaver's choir sang, "Utah, the Queen of the West," and Lizzie Nielsen read the proclamation of statehood. Precisely at noon, a salute of forty-five guns echoed through the air.126 For John Franklin Tolton, statehood marked the dawning of a new era for Utah and for Beaver County. "For twenty-five years . . . the people had been under the dominance of carpet-bag rule in its most vicious form. Those who came as our rulers were actuated with a spirit of prejudice and often times hatred toward the Mormon peo­ple, and under such stress there was little hope for a spirit of amity and 'good Will Toward All Men.'"127 County Government Changed with Statehood Statehood brought a change to county government when the county court was replaced by a three-member commission. The commission met in the commission chamber of the county court­house. Beaver's County government reflected patterns established by the Utah legislature and supplemented those services provided by the state itself. In some important ways, county government functions as an administrative arm of the state, and in others as an extension of state programs. Article XI of the Utah Constitution described coun­ties as "legal subdivisions of this state."128 The county acts in a way as an agent, administrating state programs within the county, always bound by state regulations and restrictions. In this same hierarchy of government services, the county enlarges upon city government. The county uses federal grants-in-aid, shared state revenues, county prop­erty taxes, the local option sales tax and other fees and license fees gathered locally. These monies are used for internal improvements construction, and control of county roads, sidewalks, ferries, bridges, public buildings, airports, cemeteries, as well as flood control, fire 172 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY The courtroom inside the Beaver County Courthouse. (Utah State Historical Society) protection, mental health, substance abuse services, medical care and welfare services, resource development, and other services. "Among the many things that might be done in and around our city, to assist in beautifying it, is the cleaning and fixing up of our cemetery. The home, or resting place, of our loved ones who have gone before us, we cannot say is much of a credit to the city," one Beaver correspon­dent to the Southern Utonia reminded her fellow citizens. The Beaver County Courthouse was the scene of much of this activity and activities of the Beaver City Council often overlapped with county projects. In 1889 the county built a reform school to house juvenile delinquents outside the adult jail.129 Beaver City passed an ordinance in 1889 restricting the sale of liquor, gambling, and other dubious activities.130 Animals could no longer run freely down city streets-from then on, cattle, horses, mules, sheep, goats, and hogs could be driven through town toward pastures if carefully monitored. If they were running loose, THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 173 t h e t o w n m a r s h a l l c o u l d c o n f i s c a t e t h e m a n d p u t t h e m in t he pound.1 31 At the end of the century, Beaver County boosters were confident that their future was secure: There are prospects ahead of us which, shall they be realized, will cause Beaver to take a front position. With the advent of the railroad and other modern conveniences we can see a future of great prosperity and growth for our city. And those who seize time by the forelock and are preparing for these near events, will be among those who will reap the greater benefits. Property in this city is being inquired about, the climate, the general surroundings, the business status and all questions that tend to show that Beaver has a name abroad and that cannot be downed but is continually rising into greater prominence.132 These optimistic sentiments were shared by many b u t would be tried by changed economic conditions a n d a n ew century. ENDNOTES 1. Southern Utonian, 24 December 1889, 5. 2. J. F. Tolton, History of Beaver, (np, nd) 50. 3. United States, Congress, House, 42nd Congress, 2nd Session, 1871-72, House Exec. Doc. 285, Serial 1520, 2. 4. Ibid., 1. 5. United States, War Department, Surgeon General's Office, A Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions of Military Posts (Washington, D.C., 1875), 328; Aird G. Merkley, ed., Monuments to Courage: A History of Beaver County (Milford, UT: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1948), 30; "Military Forts of the West," Heart Throbs of the West, 3 (1941): 174; Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1892-1904), II, 718; United States Congress, Senate, 47th Congress, 2nd Session, 1882-83, Senate Exec. Doc. 45, Serial 2076, 2-3; Thomas G. Alexander and Leonard ]. Arrington, "The Utah Military Frontier 1872-1912: Forts Cameron, Thornburgh, and Duchesne," Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (Fall 1964): 330-38. 6. Mae Crosby White, "A Brief History of Fort Cameron," manuscript at the Utah State Historical Society. 7. Surgeon General's Office, Report, 329-31. 174 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY 8. "Military Forts," Heart Throbs, 3 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers), 174-75. War Department, Report, (1878), 1, 316. 9. Surgeon General's Office, Report, 331. 10. War Department, Report (1877), 1: 302, and (1881), 1: 368 ff. 11. Louisa Barnes Pratt, "The Journal of Louisa Barnes Pratt," Heart Throbs, 8 (1947): 381-82. 12. R.C. Drum to R.T. Lincoln, Adjutant General, Washington, D.C., 12 January 1883; Robert Todd Lincoln to Chester A. Arthur, Washington, D.C., 18 January 1883; in United States, Congress, Senate, 47th Congress, 2nd Sess, 1882-83, Senate Exec. Doc. 45, Serial 2076, 1-3. 13. The district is about seven miles square and lies upon both flanks of a small range called the San Francisco Mountains. 14. Florence Barnes, interviewed by Rosemary Davies, 25 February 1975, Milford, Utah. 15. Deseret News, 30 June 1880. 16. Alton Smith interviewed by Rosemary Davies, 30 September 1978, Milford, Utah. 17. Evan Patterson, "Summary of Beaver County Minutes, 1856-1883," 6, copy in my possession. 18. Essay Caigh, "One of the Places that went up like a Rocket," Deseret Evening News, 23 April 1896. 19. Ibid. 20. Merkley , Monuments to Courage, 243. 21. George A. Horton, Jr., "An Early History of Milford Up to Its Incorporation as a Town," M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1957. 22. Abstracts in the County Clerk's Office, Beaver, Utah. 23. Florence Barnes Interview, 17. 24. Joe Smith, interviewed by Rosemary Davies, 7 October 1974, Milford, Utah. 25. Ibid. 26. "When the Fabulous Horn Silver Mine Caved In," The History Blazer, Utah State Historical Society, n.d., n.p., 1. 27. Frank Robertson (author of Boom Towns of the Great Basin) quoted in the Deseret News, 8 September 1969. 28. "When the Fabulous Horn Silver Mine Caved In," 2. 29. Fred Hewitt Letters, Utah State Historical Society. 30. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 259. 31. Salt Lake Tribune, 1 July 1877. THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 175_ 32. Philip F. Notarianni, "The Frisco Charcoal Kilns," Utah Historical Quarterly 50 (Winter 1982): 40-46. 33. Ibid. 34. Nell Murbager, "Forgotten Industry of the West," Frontier Times, May 1965, 26. 35. Utah Mining Gazette, 25 July 1874, 381. 36. Tenth Census, 13, 471. The Engineering and Mining Journal, 18 November 1882; 273, described the kilns as well: "Each kiln burns at one time 32 cords of wood, making from 1200 to 1500 bushels of charcoal-pinon pine, at a cost of $6 per cord, being used. It takes from six to ten days to burn a kiln. The company uses about 30,000 bushels of charcoal a month, besides about ten cords of cedar wood per day, at a cost of $3 per cord." 37. John Franklin Tolton, "Memories of the Life of John Franklin Tolton," typescript at the Utah State Historical Society. 38. The Salt Lake Mining Review, 30 August 1911, 17. 39. Rich County Reaper, 30 August 1937. 40. The Utah Sulphur Industries operated until about 1949. In 1961-62 the Sulphurdale Chemical Company built a new mill for $250,000 and began once again commercial production about 1965. 41. quoted in "History of the Methodist Episcopal Educational Work in Beaver, Utah," Southern Utonian, 24 December 1889. 42. Deseret News, 4 August 1880. 43. Southern Utonian, 14 February 1890. 44. "Record of the County Court, 1856-1883," 403. 45. Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 2 August 1881. 46. Southern Utonian, 11 July 1889. 47. Ibid., 27 June 1889. 48. Deseret News, 21 July 1880. 49. Ibid., 29 September 1880. 50. Cannon received 515 votes, Campbell, 223. Statewide, Campbell received 1,357 votes to Cannon's 18,568. 51. Deseret News, 4 August 1880. 52. John Franklin Tolton, History of Beaver County, chapter eight. 53. The Frisco Times, 15 August 1882. 54. "Memories of the Life of John Franklin Tolton." 55. Ibid., diary entry for 20 June 1891. 56. Ibid. 57. J. M. Tanner, A Biographical Sketch of John Riggs Murdock (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1909), 190. 176 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY 58. See Stewart L. Grow, "The Development of Political Parties in Utah," Western Political Quarterly 16 (September 1963): 39-40; G. Homer Durham, "The Development of Political Parties in Utah: The First Phase," Utah Humanities Review, 1 (April 1947):, 122-23; Charles C. Richards, The Organization and Growth of the Democratic Party in Utah, 1847-1896 (Salt Lake City: Sagebrush Democratic Club, 1942). 59. Frank H. lonas, ed., Politics in the American West (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969), 359. 60. Deseret News, 12 June 1872. 61. Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 28 June 1876. 62. Juanita Brooks, John D. Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clarke, 1961), 335. 63. Ibid., 337 64.Ibid. 65. Ibid., 337-38 66. John D. Lee quoted in Juanita Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), 207. 67. Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 210. 68. Tanner, John Riggs Murdock, 171. 69. Deseret Evening News, 16 December 1886. 70. Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, 3, 536-37. 71. Tolton, History of Beaver, 51-52. 72. Quoted in Lisa Bryner Bohman, "A Fresh Perspective: The Woman Suffrage Assocations of Beaver and Farmington, Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 59 (Winter 1991): 10. 73. Equal Rights Banner, undated, 8, in Beaver Suffrage Association Minutes, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. 74. See Bohman, "The Woman Suffrage Associations of Beaver and Farmington, Utah," 4-21. 75. The Square Dealer, 23 March 1877. 76. The Beaver Chronicle, 20 lanuary 1879. 77. George Thomas, The Development of Institutions under Irrigation (New York: Macmillan Co., 1920), 43. 78. Ibid., 45. 79. See Ibid., 46. This proposition included five basic ideas: "the right to grant preference of use for irrigation; the right to grant a restricted use for power purposes, as in the case of flour and saw mills; the right to limit the amount of water a person or corporation can appropriate; the right to pre- THE WORLD OUTSIDE COMES TO BEAVER 1870-1900 ]77_ scribe the territory where the water shall be used; the right to fix the place of usage or the point of diversion which shall not be changed save by per­mission of the same power that made the grant at the pleasure of the grant­ing power where the flow was not great or not sufficient or not needed." 80. On 9 December 1859 (Beaver County Records), the court ordered the preservation of timber in Beaver's canyons. 81. Evan Patterson, "Summary of Beaver County Minutes," 7. 82. Thomas, Development of Institutions under Irrigation, 54. 83. Ibid., 140. 84. Alvaretta Robinson, ed., They Answered the Call: A History of Minersville, Utah, (Minersville, UT: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1962). 85. David A. Tanner quoted in Horton, "History of Milford," 71. 86. Lucy E.W. Burns, Oral History, interviewed by Jay Haymond, 27 February 1974, Beaver, Utah. 87. Southern Utonian 31 October 1889. 88. Ibid., 9 May 1889. 89. Article II, included in "Record of the United Order of Beaver Stake of Zion," typescript on file at the Utah State Historical Society. 90. Record of the United Order of Beaver County of Zion, Beaver City, 12 April 1874, 1, Utah State Historical Society. 91. Ibid. 92. Article XV, in "Record of the United Order of Beaver Stake of Zion." 93. Quoted in Leonard ]. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox, and Dean L. May, Building The City of God: Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976) 145. 94. Morgan, "Historical Sketch of Beaver County," 22. 95. "Beaver County 1873 Tax Rolls," Beaver County Courthouse. 96. Deseret Evening News, 23 April 1896. 97. Bill Wood, Charles K. lamison, and Randall M. Banks, interviewed by lay Haymond, 24 February 1977, Minersville, Utah. 98. Robinson and Gillins, They Answered the Call, 131. 99. Deseret News, 11 February 1880. 100. Southern Utonian, 14 November 1889. 101. Ibid., 13 June 1889. 102. Ibid., 27 lune 1889. 103. Ibid., 25 April 1889. 104. Tolton, "Memories of the Life of lohn Franklin Tolton." 178 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY 105. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 151-54, 243-45. 106. Southern Utonian, 30 December 1890. 107. Reinhard Maeser, quoted in Merkley, Monuments of Courage, 76. 108. Southern Utonian, 20 August 1890. 109. The school district bought the Park School in 1932 and razed it to make room for a play ground. 110. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 82-87. 111. Ibid., 158-159. 112. Ibid., 91-92 113. Tolton, "Memories of the Life of John Franklin Tolton," 6. 114. Merkley, Monuments to Courage, 94-95 115. Robinson and Gillins, They Answered the Call, 177. 116. Southern Utonian, 23 May 1889. 117. Ibid., 19 May 1891. 118. Tolton, "Memories of the Life of lohn Franklin Tolton," 2. 119. Autobiography of William Booth Ashworth, Vol. I, 22, copy at the Utah State Historical Society Library. 120. Robinson and Gillins, They Answered the Call, 184. 121. Ibid., 185-86. 122. Ibid., 182-83 123. Tolton, "Memories of the Life of John Franklin Tolton." 124. Tolton, The History of Beaver, 27-28. 125. Salt Lake Tribune, 19 July 1881. 126. Southern Utonian, 10 January 1896. 127. Tolton, History of Beaver, 49-50. 128. Utah Constitution, Article XL 129. Southern Utonian, 11 April 1889. 130. Ibid., 27 June 1889. 131. Ibid., 23 May 1889. 132. Ibid., 26 August 1890.