Show some interesting early history of coalville Co alville and summit county by A F PHILIPS in the salt lake telegram in summit county are two great industries the mining of coal and t the ie mining of metal both PreCi preciou Olf and base the story of the discovery oi of the metal mines was recently told hence this is the story of the coal mining industry of the county inthe in the summer of 1859 a prospector roaming through what Ls is now the hestend westend west end of summit county discovered coal his name was spriggs his discovery was near what is now t the h e city of Co alville the news of the discovery unread spread rapidly and early settlers within reach went there to mine coal for their own use it was not however until several years later that the mining of coal in summit county became a major industry the first carload of coal to be shipped out of coal ville was on may 14 1873 while it was the coal find that first brought coalville Co alville into prominence it was the building of a short line railroad known as the summit county railroad which was subsequently dismantled and abandoned that built up this section of the county the prominence attained by park city and the demand for coal there and elsewhere resulted in the building of the utah eastern railroad from coalville Co alville to park city a distance of twenty five miles the railroad was a peculiar outgrowth and it resulted in the building of a branch line of the union pacific railroad from echo to park city a distance of thirty two miles the union pacific road supplied the territory with coal from its wyoming mines notwithstanding the fact that utah possessed coal fields that could furnish as good and generally a better quality of coal than was imported in the winter months great difficulty was experienced perien ced in getting coal in su clent quantity to supply the demand and the price asked tor for it was regarded as exorbitant to overcome this it was Propos proposed td to pass a bill by the legislature authorizing the counties of salt lake summit davis and tooele thoele to rais by the issue of bonds funds to build a line between coalville Co alville park city and salt lake the effort proved abortive gov arnor george W emery vetoing a bill the legislature had passed individual efforts were then put forth in 1880 and the work prosecuted under most trying circumstances the poor the aged the laborer who I 1 had a few dollars placed their money in the enterprise in the bellel belief that coal could be had cheaper T th ht result was to say the least unfortunate the line lineham had to be bonded and only by the help of the principal owners of the ontario mine was it made possible to build the road as tar far as park city f miles it was operated for some time by the trustees carrying coal from coalville Co alville to park city but liter later was P paralleled aralle led by a branch of 4 the lie union pacific and the control of the little road passed into the hands of that corporation the coal fields on the weber river extend tor for ten to fifteen miles above echo and the coal mines have been developed to a depla dep ih i h of 1500 feet which disclosed that there are bodies of coal to work upon tor for fifty generations to come among the old timers in coalville Co alville was john boyden a native ol of england who with his family came t tc salt lake in 1863 and who later moved to morgan where he died in 1892 he established the first drug stores in coalville Co alville in 1891 which iss i still running under the management of his two sons with bis bishop hop W W cluff he established the the first public library and reading room in coalville Co alville his son J leslie boyden was on a mission in england for more than a year while walter the other son was instructor in the public schools he was former food and dairy commissioner of the state and is at present a member of the state board of agriculture bishop william W cluff whose home was in utah county became bishop of summit stake which included settlements in morgan summit and wasatch counties and he made made his home in coalville Co alville then mn he was sent on a mission to denmark remaining there two and a half years upon his return t summit stake was reorganized to include all settlements in summit county and the western part of wyoming he represented summit county six terms in the legislature two of 0 which he presided over the senate other old timers ki in Co alville and county were A B winters henry B wiles W H smith robert jones who settled near henefer thomas L frazier who was a member of the mormon battalion david moore joseph huff edmund rees H P healey moses taylor john wright joe dark clark and james johnston charles R jones now a special auditor in the state land office who printed the Co coalville alville times I 1 is sal said to have been the arst person in utah who announced in a newspaper the assassination of mckinley on the night that the president was shot at the buffalo exposition jones was printing the edition of his paper when the flash announcing the assassination was called to him by the telegraph operator at the union pacific station he ped printing and made a brief story of the act of the assassin in august 1870 a curious discovery was made by a company of miners in kamas prairie weber valley in digging a sort of hole filled up with loose dirt they came upon what proved to be an old shaft the wall had been cut by some instrument and whoever did the work had left a series of steps supposed to have been used for removing the debris of the old mine when the working party reached the lower end of the shaft they found a tiff tunnel inel running underneath for an indefinite distance and in removing the rubbish specimens of rich silver ore were found there was reason to believe that it was the work of mexicans in 1852 one of a party of mexicans arrested in this territory for kidnapping indians to reduce them to slavery confessed to general wm win H kimball then deputy marshall arid and said it was the best paying business they had engaged in from the time they had stopped packing ore on being questioned further the mexican said he h used to pack ore to santa ye fe from a point about fifty miles from what was known as provo fort up the tim river this would be in the neighborhood of where the ancient mine was discovered near henefer another peculiar discovery was made a cave which Is declared to be bottomless so lar far as explorers have been able to determine A number of attempts were made in the long ago to explore the cave but all returned with the same story that no bottom could be found summit county was created by the legislature of 1853 54 and the county seat town was War iship where it remained until february 12 1859 when E P higging Higgin 1 then acting governor approved an act removing it to Co coalville alville where it has since remained the county contains 1832 1332 square miles Co coalville alville Is the home of george beard pioneer and artist gnose paintings have drawn wide admiration his pictures are of matuie and they have received the praise 0 of the art critics of the country some of his paintings are on e exhibition hibi tion in m the tha hotel utah the national copper bank and the tha utah state national bank in salt lal lala As in all the early settle settlements menis the people of coalville Co alville started to ro build a wall around the settlement settle meat and a fort was built in the center of the town among the early sett rs were samuel P hoyt after chim hoytsville was named alma pid redge who was afterwards a can didace for congress and ja q I 1 johnston who landed 15 no daiv prid GS on in i a farn far owned by job n |