| OCR Text |
Show Sheet three. Stephen Markh~ The upper settlement, SI?anish Fa;rk.., wer~ advised to move into P~, 1n the !1Yrt for safety after sunday 5 JliT.arch, 1§9..3, George A. Smith in traveling through the County, wrote to President Young and said that Palmyra, one of sites in the Territory. It then contained one hundred familie River afforded abundant water for machinery and irrigation. ~- Walker was the Great War Chief of the Utah Nation. When the , .. ,L,rn= WPA they 'fu.l City :hsh 1F...1rk I 1- 'f the settlers who had located on their farms along the river bottoms , , ompelled to abandon their farms and move into the tovm of Palreyra. Here they built their house joining together forming a hollow square inside, which t hey utilized for corrals and stock y:ards, after leaving a street around the fort between their houses and t he , \ yard. In this Fort the settlers felt much more safe from the Indians. March. 22, 1853, the Saints of Spanish Fork Wards held a meeting in the evening for the purpose of dividing the Ward and appointing a Bishop of Spanish Fork Ward. On this occasion Stephen ].[arkham was ordained as J3ishop and set a11art to preside over Palmyra ilard with Silas Hillman, his first and John w. :Berry his second Councilors. The Great Colonizer, Governor Young, f oresaw that an outbreak of the Indians was _.u:ely at any moment, and ju.st before the occurrence, on one of his visits to the Sou thern Settlements, he called at Palmyra to warn the people of approaching danger, and counciled them to errect a Fort for security and defence. Pres . Young at that time directed J . w. Berry, and V!illiam Holt to go with a company of Militia as far sou·th as Fort Harmony, and advise the different settlements to build forts. immediately for defence against the Indians. ''/hen the Wal ker War broke out a fev1 weeke. afterwards , the settlements of Spanish Fork and Palmyra v1ere exposed to t he depredation of the Indians, but t hey soon built the Fort . The settlers went ou t in companies to gather their grai n and at night stood guard in t he Fort, The Settlements were put under thoroubh klilitiary dicipline. Every able man enrolled in the Militia and answered r oll call night and morning. The most notable even·t in the Hi story of Spanish Fork and all :.l.outhern U"tah, was t he famous "Walker "liJar J" June 19. 1853, an Indian war broke out . The Indians had been mad about an action st had transpired in Springville . One of the Citi zens had whipped an Indian, beca;se "ne was whi pping his squaw, and the Indian died on t he 19th of June. '!'he s ame evening some of the maddest Indians rode down to Payson and shot a man who was standing guard. Walker at that time had about three or four hundred warriors with him. camped near the mouth of Payson Canyon. The alarm was made in the might . Seventeen settlers started from Palmyra to Payson on foot as their horses were on the range. They arri~ed in Payson next morning when a Company of Mounted men arrived from Springville, also Col. Conover from Provo. arrived with more foree . A council of war decided to follow the - Indians and get to SanPete as soon as possible before the Indians, as they were headed that way. June 21, Silas Hillman took command ot the Cava,:J.ry Company of Palnzy-ra City, as he was Lieutenant of that Company. On arriving at San Pete Valley, the main body of tro-ops went on to Manti City, but the Palmyra Company went by Springtown where the families were gathered together in a board fort. The company want on to Manti to join the main ~rrzy which consisted of about two-hundred men under the Command of Colonls Markham and Conover. They stayed in .Manti some seven or eight daJJs . One of the companies ran across a camp of thirty or forty Indians and had a brush with with them, killing some, and the balance retreated. Another par·ty of Indians came down the canyon to the mill, a.bout two and a half miles from Manti• in the night. After ·this there was strong guard/ kept at the Mouth of the Canyon. · |
