Show ov lobele 0 40 1 e it was on a clear autumn day sept 2 1849 that a little caravan of covered wagons pulled by ox team broke a trail into what it known today at tooele thoele county rolling plains of deseret soil sage brush tulle grass and lofty mountains greeted the gaze of those few men women and childr ren that made up that pioneer car avan prior to this time civilization had barely made its mark on this coun try lying on the eastern edge of the great american deseret A few emigrant and trappers and ex had skirted its boundaries in 1846 the ill fated donner party en route to the california gold fields had all but perished on the salt flats in western tooele thoele coun court ty yes trappers and explore re had come and passed on apparently willing to leave it to the ravages of the desert climate and the red man when the mormons entered the great salt lake valley in 1847 they immediately sent out invest gators to observe the surrounding country for likely places to begin colonies on july 27 1847 brigham young orson pratt tom brennan and others rode to the south shore of the lake entering what is now tooele thoele county the above three men proceeded to chatis known as adobe rocks and for the first time viewed this valley as a likely place to make a settlement during the next two years 1847 to 1849 the saints in salt lake city were too busy breaking ground raising and harvesting their much needed crops to do anything further in settling tooele thoele valley nothing more happened along this line until the little caravan of pioneers previously mentioned wound its way into the valley the names of these very first settlers were judson toleman cyrus call and samuel mecham their wives and two children they pitched camp at the head of the present city of tooele thoele abely where the daughters of utah pioneers monument now stands between main street and first W street on third S like all early day settlers they began at once to explore the nearby canyons for springs of water timber and pas tare ture for their settlement after consid ebale work to erect suitable shelters for the group these first pioneers returned to salt lake city to attend october con ference of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints they reported to president brigham young on the condition of the val ley and were promised help by him on their return trip from this conference they were accompanied by benjamin toleman cyrus toleman his wife and two children zhynia wright and his adopted son francis X lougy orson braffet and mary kelsey they began at once to prepare for their first winter in tooele thoele in De of the same year apostle ezra T benson robert skelton and john joined the little colony and faced the hards hardships hITs of the first winter here it is difficult to visualize the conditions of that first winter spent in this isolated valley we might add here that at that time 1849 too ele county was the extreme out post of civilization it was the ev western frontier and the eastern edge of the american des ert and the last settlement this side of california it was therefore more exposed to the ravages of the indians the indians had roamed ulmo bested for unnumbered years this was their country their natural resentment of the intrusion of the white men added to the many dif dlf faculties facing our early pioneers these indians goshute koshute tribe were troublesome hostile and often dangerous a always I 1 w a y s molesting frightening and tantalizing the set tiers and were inclined to use the art of stealing to accomplish their undertakings many interesting and hair raising stories have been told and written of these indian troubles and efforts to drive out these early settlers history tells us that during the next few years many would be per manent settlers moved from this valley because of their fear of the indians perhaps this was a sort of culling out process only those fearless ones who possessed the physical and mental stamina able to 0 o withstand such hardships stay stayed ed on so those pioneers who built up his this valley were of the most stalwart and courageous character they never faltered but planted their roots deeper into the desert soil and laid the foundation of a city upon a desert such interesting history as the naming of tooele thoele the building of the mud walls the pioneer social and educational life will be told in the following weeks |