| OCR Text |
Show - n Kaysville and Lay ton ' Have Interesting9 Histories e fggzzr; ,qaB ' !E'ai , .r--r-; Jtv. : 4&$$$$x P$5 1 Z 7 & tar ml jCvV' I Jew j i . .---- i I fn 1 to ylfiB i fx?& 4 jr t f 1 ! it. v-i -r Lkrm aT1 - gi -Whs P BulrCs-ai srl spI im I s; 1 1 V tofflMOTlBBJPBIlSlBiHm! X -iBkBiGlJiti mgiiffiai t i 7 Flourishing Little Davis County Cities, Founded in the Days ' When Utah Was Young, Are Now Important Centers. ON a tract of high ground a mile from the shore of Great Salt lake, screened on the north and the south by dense growths of black willows, with a stream fed by a never-failing spring flowing near, is the site of the first known habitation of rnan within the confines of the present pres-ent "town of Kaysville. The earliest settlers found no houses thero, no tents, no wickiups, to mark a j permanent abode, but strewn all about, over an area of several acres, were evidences evi-dences of man 's having made the spot a dwelling place. There the women had ground seeds into meal, made meal into bread and, the task done, had laid aside the rude stone implements that served to crush the seeds and make them edible. edi-ble. There painted warriors and dusky hunters had chipped volcanic rock and fashioned spear points and arrow heads, and, departing, left those evidences of the stern exigencies of savage life to mark tho place of rendezvous. There children had played with queer shaped toys and, childlike, lost them on the dusty playground. There those utensils, itfaplcmenta of the battlefield and the Thase, and toys have been found, mute evidences of conditions of the dim, distant dis-tant past. Marked by Modern Home. The site of the one-time camping place, the one-time Indian village, is B0W marked by a modern home of brick an stone and timber. Upon the spot I where copper-hued children played and hard-worked women prepared the meager family meals now rise granaries and Darns filled with the fruits of boun teous narvests. At one time it was generally believed that the portion of Davis county in which Kaysville is located had been' uninhabited, un-inhabited, except by Indians, up to the time of the arrival' of the Mormon pioneers. pio-neers. .But the investigations of early settlers indicate that white men, be--lieved to have been trappers, but whose identity probably will always remain a mystery, had established' temporary homes in the vicinity prior to the coming com-ing of the Mormon pioneers in 1S47. At least two rude huts, or partial dugouts, dug-outs, are known to have ben found in the vicinity when the first Mormon cx- lorers pushed northward from the Salt ake colony to learn what the valley contained. Tho abandoned habitations were found on a hillside about two miles almost al-most due south of the present town. They were discovered by Hector Huight, who was the first white man to estab-bsh estab-bsh a permanent habitation in what is now Kaysville. New Trail Is Blazed. Tn 1847, not long after the arrival in tho valley of the first band of Mormon Mor-mon pioneers, Mr. Haight went north from Salt Lake, with a little herd of cattle, in search of grazing lands. He herded his stock near where Farmington now stands. For the winter be drove ! the herd a little farther northwest and ! made a location on a stream that today bears the name of Height's creek. He established a permanent home a little northwest of the rude huts he found 1 2 iftjp vide noes of prior white visitors to I tnp section. T!?1,owinr Mr- Haight came Samuel . Holmes,. who made his home near the junction of the two forks of Holmes's creek, as it has since become known. Edward Phillips and William Kay came next in order of settlement. Passing Pass-ing Haight 's creek and Holmes 's creek on the way northward, they came to a stream a mile further on and encamped. The stream is now known as Kay's creek. These two men and their families fam-ilies had spent the winter in the "big field" south of Salt Lake City and arrived ar-rived in the Kaysville section in the spring of 1850. j Mr. Kay erected a log house, and later an adobe structure. Ten roils further west on tho south bank of the creek Mr. Phillips erected a log house and established a permanent home. Later in the same year John Green and his family left Salt Lake and made their home some ten rods east of Kay's. Levi B-oberts settled a little further east and then came Robert D. Grant. And others came and the little settlement settle-ment grew; all were generally designated desig-nated as Kay's creek settlers and from ! this came the name of the present-day : town Kaysville. Water a Great Factor. The availability of water influenced largely the choice of homesites in the early days. Tho canyon streams were small, and, except on the lowlands near the outlets, were confined in deep gullies gul-lies and channels, from which it was inconvenient to bring the water upon the land. For this reason homes were first made on tho moist, alluvial, and sometimes marshy lowlands. Later, when settlers began to arrive more rapidly and the higher lands began be-gan to be settled, there were objections on the part of those first on the creeks i. vi i uv, line ui wain uy l.IIUftU UUUVe. It is said that the earlier settlers along Kay's creek asserted that there was not sufficient water for all their small holdings hold-ings and that none could be spared to reclaim the arid lands higher up the slopes. Such conditions brought about the establishment of prior water rights. Tn the latter part of January, 1851, Kaysville ward was organized by President Presi-dent Brigham Young, with William Kay as bishop. An interesting incident in connection with the name of the settlement set-tlement is related by some of the 'early settlers. Bishop Kay left the settlement settle-ment and there was a desire on the part of- some to change the name to Freedom. The matter . was carried to President Young for decision. When tho name Freedom was suggested Presi- I dent Young is said to hg.ve asked, with j characteristic bluntnoss:' "When did: Kay's ward get its Freedom?" The proposed change wan not made and, subsequently, sub-sequently, the setl lenient became known as Kaysville, the namo it now bears. Segregation Is Effected. Originallv, Kaysville ward embraced the district now comprising South , Hooper, Clearfield, Syracuse, Clinton, Layton and West Layton wards. , In 1877 the South Hooper ward was or-ganized or-ganized and later Syracuse and Layton wards were segregated. , The present town of Layton, there- fore, was originally a part of Kavs- . ville. It lies only two miles north- west of the present town of Kavsville i J and was named after Bishop C'hristo- 1 pher Layton, one of the earfv settlers of the district and the third bishop of Kaysville ward. , During the official term of Bishop ( Kay, probably about 1854, construction J 1 J i of a .fort was begun within the city limits of the present Kavsville. The wall was constructed of clay dug from the outside, the excavation forming a moat. It was put up in lumber forms, similar to the present method of concrete con-crete construction. At the base the wall was about five feet thick and it tapered up to a thickness of about three feet at tho top, the height being approximately ap-proximately six feet. Each able-bodied man in the community built a certain portion of the wall or hired the work done. The coming of Johnson 'e army to Utah in ISfiO, and the fear that the soldiers might commit depredations on the settlers as they marched through prompted the move south, which was undertaken by order of President Young. This scattered the original set-; tiers widely, and, while some returned, many established permanent homes in j the southern counties. William Booth, 1 William Blood and William W. Gal-braith Gal-braith were left in Kaysville during the move southward, with instructions to burn tho town in case the soldiers showed a disposition to take possession of the property. The army marched through from Fort Bridger' to Camp Floyd, west of Lchi, and the people were ed vised that they were at liberty lib-erty to return to their homes. Big. Project Fails. About 1807 President Young conceived con-ceived the idea of bringing the water of Weber river on to tho high bench lands of Davis county by tunneling through the ridge on the mountain road orthwest of Layton. ( .'onsiderablu work was done by tho residents of the listrict and good progress was made until un-til a large deposit of quicksand was encountered. en-countered. The conditions were reported re-ported to President Young, and, after investigation, a large quantity of lumber lum-ber to line the tunnel was "freighted :'rom the mills south of Salt Lake by )x teams. But the sand could not he controlled, and it was proposed to sluice nit a big cut by carrying ditches from lolmes and Kays creeks. Before the plan could be carried out the order to move south came and the work was abandoned. When it was decided to build a telegraph tele-graph line to connect the settlements of the state, President Young went into the Kaysville community and made known the plans. He received subscriptions subscrip-tions in cash for the wire, and iu labor for getting poles out of the mountain passes and setting them iu place. The first telegraph office was in the home of William Blood, the house still standing stand-ing ou the corner opposite the Kaysville tabernacle. Many Oxen Used. Oxen gave way to horses and mules for general use in 1860 and 1801, but were used on the farms many years thereafter. In the early days the set-tiers set-tiers freighted their surplus produce by 'ox team to far-distant points. They sent teams to the Missouri river for years to aid emigrants over the plains and the mountains, and sent their f lour vegetables, vege-tables, butter and eggs as far atield as the mines of Montana and Idaho, and, at times to southern California. j The history of Kaysville ad a city dates from March 11, 1868, when the old ward organizations gave way to a city government. The history of Layton ward is closely associated with that of Kaysville up to 1889. Prior to that time the church members from the entire section journeyed jour-neyed to Kaysville to attend the various va-rious religious services. In 1S80 a movement move-ment was inaugurated to organize a new ward. The new ward was first called Kaysville Second ward, but the name was later changed to Layton. West Layton ward, formerly a part of Kavsville Kavs-ville ward, was organized February 2 1895, with David E. Layton as bishop! Kaysville and Layton of today are modern, prosperous little cities. 'They have wide, shady streets, cement sidewalks, side-walks, municipal waW and lighting systems, sys-tems, telephones, while two steam railroads rail-roads and one electric; interurban furnish fur-nish ample transportation facilities. From the time of the early settlers the community has devoted the most of its attention to farming and allied industries. indus-tries. Both Kaysville and Layton have modern flour mills and canning factories, Layton also boasts of a sugar factory erected last year, and Kaysville boasts of one of the most prosperous brick-malting brick-malting plants in the state. The residents have never gone in extensively ex-tensively for truck gardening, but raise ample vegetables for their own needs with some to spare. Some of the farmers farm-ers have planted big orchards and small fruits and berries are grown in abundance. abun-dance. The soil of the section seems especially adapted to the growing of tomatoes, to-matoes, and this has led to a big canning can-ning factory being erected at each place Kaysville and Layton. For a number of years sugar beets ha.ve .been grown quite extensively and shipped to Ogdcn and other poiuts in this secttion ot the state, where beet sugar factories fac-tories are located. About eighteen months ao it was decided that a sugar factory at Layton would be a paving proposition, and one was erected' erect-ed' in time to handle last year's beet crop. The results fully met all expectations expec-tations and the sugar beet industry in j tho future will be one of the biggest ; assets of tho community. j Great quantities of wheat and other grains are grown in tho section, and : this led to the erection of modern flour i mills at both Kaysville and Layton. I The mills have prospered since they : wero established, and they are now, and have been for several years, shipping ship-ping their products to all parts- of the western country. Grapes Are Grown. Grapes grow in abundance on the hillsides, hill-sides, but on account of the great cropB of this fruit grown in California ready markets were at times difficult I to find. The manufacture of grape i juice was hit upon as the plan to afford af-ford a ready market for the product of the vines, and a factory was established estab-lished which is daily gaining prestige throughout the intennountaiu country. Dairying is one of the big industries of the section. Any number of thoroughbred thor-oughbred herds are kept by the resi-1 , s s i dents, and milk from both Kaysville and Layton is sent daily to Salt Lake and Ggden. Much of the hay and grain raised on the farms is marketed in the production of milk. The farmers have good, up-to-date homes, surrounded by fine buildings, gardens and orchards. Thrift and prosperity are everywhere in evidence, and through the use of modern conveniences con-veniences much of the terror of the old days of farm homes has been eliminated. elim-inated. Modern business blocks have been erected in both Kaysville and Layton and eacli (own has its own bank. Practically Prac-tically all lines of business essential to a farming community are represented represent-ed at one or both towns. Have Good Schools. As the central point Jn Davis county, Kaysville is the home of the Davis county high school. Junior high schools, in which the first two years of the high school are taught, are maintained at Bountiful and Syracuse, but the central cen-tral high school, at which the full four-year four-year course is taught, is maintained at Kaysville. The excellent railroad facilities fa-cilities and the good roads to Kaysville Kays-ville from all sections of the county make the little city an ideal spot for the location of the county's highest institution in-stitution of learning. A Presbyterian school also is located at, Kaysville. Few towns in Utah offer more inducements induce-ments in so far as residences are concerned con-cerned than Kaysville and Layton. i About midway between Ogden and Salt Lake, either place may be reached by train in half an hour. With all the modern conveniences so desirable for residences available and ample transportation trans-portation facilities to and from the larger cities of the state, both towns look forward to the day when they will be considered suburbs of either or both the "Capital" and the "Junction" cities. |
