Show I IN NTH THE E BEGINNING B EG INN I NG By Alter Cecil I L SALT LAKE CITY'S FIRST BUILDERS The flower of the Mormon population was to an important extent the section that enlisted as the Mormon battalion in the Mexican war It moved southwestward on the Santa Fe trail the season before the Mormon pioneers moved westward on the old Overland trail These battalion men were in their prime most of them artisans and all good workmen The detachment which laid over for the winter at Pueblo and followed the Mormon pioneers into the into the Salt Lake valley on July 29 1847 had bad in mind to move on shortly to California California California Cali Cali- fornia in uniforms and on official duty However How Hoy However ever they revised their plans and set to work industriously at housing the settlers At the request of President Young the battalion battalion battalion bat bat- boys began on Saturday July 31 the construction of a bowery or shade about 40 by 28 feet over all under which religious' religious services general meetings and a common commo community center could be conducted It was a mere shed consisting of posts and stringers covered with willows and other brush cut from the stream courses It was was not water vater proof as the roof was flat It was at first seated with stumps logs boxes wagon seats and bedding bundles It stood on ground now occupied by the tabernacle tabernacle tabernacle taber taber- nacle and was first occupied in an an unfinished state August 1 Timber Brought In InA InA InA A wagon road was constructed into Red Butte canyon and logs were carefully selected and prepared for the sawyers The first suitable suitable suitable suit suit- able log w was s hewn into a dugo it dugo t boat but plows harrows and other implements were tobe tobe to tobe be wooded bowery seats were needed adobe casting boxes or frames were to be prepared and many other calls for timber were made Explorers in the valley the previous spring season in 1846 report a forest fire raging in inthe inthe inthe the Wasatch mountains just east of ot the valley This fire the Mormon scouts reported had deadened a considerable amount of useful timber timber timber tim tim- ber in Red Butte canyon the most accessible for the first needs J John hn Steele tells us JohnW John W W. Hess and James Bevan erected a whipsaw frame over a saw pit and began to produce timbers and lumber to specification finding aready aready a aready ready sale sal for lor the hundred board feet or so they could turn out in a day The sawyer on the bottom end of the saw in the pit had a dusty job and usually wore a netting or cloth over his head to the shoulders the top man guided the saw and was the principal power on th the upstroke Brigham Young once said Too many men want t tp be top sawyer which willbe will be understood from this description of the first saw mill Pioneer Housing Costs A free-for-all free discussion of ways and means for sheltering the people that first winter is re- re re reported reported ported by Clayton Colonel Rockwood re remarked remarked re- re marked that a log house 16 by 15 would cost 40 and one of adobes half as much Captain Brown was in favor of ot setting men to work building both log and adobe to fo hasten the work Captain Lewis said that inasmuch as timber is is scarce and we have spades and nd shovels and ana tools enough as many as can can be used he is in favor of building ad adobe be houses and saving the timber Lieutenant Willis said you can put up p an adobe house before a man could get the logs for a house Adobe houses are healthy and are the best for or gales Elder Brannan has a man in California who will take tak three men make adobes for a foot 30 house build b the house and ana put ut a family family fam- fam ily in it in iri week His a printing office was put up in fourteen days and paper printed Elder Richards said we want brick made and lime burned If wood is put into houses it will waste it We want all the timber to make floors and roofs We want the walls up and we are men enough to put them up in a few v days and have nave the women protected It was voted to put up a stockade of adobe houses S Samuel muel Gould and James Drum reported themselves themselves themselves them them- selves as lime burners Sylvester H. H Earl Joel J. J T Ralph Douglas and Joseph Hancock reported report d themselves as brick makers On Site of Pioneer Park It It was was' also decided th that t a acre 10 block sho should d be to th the sidewalk line by ho houses ses built of logs and adobes in the form of ofa a fort There were were to be gateways on opposite sides of the inclosure Chimneys Chimneys' and fireplaces were were to be Je e made of clay or adobes All windows windows windows win win- dows and doors were vere to open on the inside excepting such portholes as were necessary for observing or repulsing an enemy The block selected for the fort was three blocks south and three blocks west of the Temple block now Pioneer park At the first general meeting under the completed completed com corn Bowery Sunday August 8 a call was wasI I 1 m ma made pe le for men to work in in the adobe yard on the fort block and on Monday 76 vol volun volun- un- un On Tuesday morning August 10 President President President Pres Pres- ident Young and party went to the adobe yard the church leader laying the foundation for four houses Heber C. C Kimball four Colonel Markham Markham Markham Mark- Mark ham Dr Willard Richards and Lorenzo D. D Young one ne each Most of the farming was out of the way and all hands were busy timbering timbering timbering timber timber- ing on n the ni mountains mountains' or with house in making house plans in jn n the yard yam The First Chimney Wednesday morning August 11 the adobe walls started up p at ilta ata at a rapid pace be being ng 27 inches thick and D feet high made of adobes 4 b by 9 by 18 inches fiches in size Th Thursday morn morning ing the Dr r. r Richards laid t the e. e found foundation tion for another ho house e in hi the fort series George A. A Smith two two arid and Wilford Woodruff two Most of the houses were 14 feet wide and from 12 to 17 feet long The windows were covered not very many wi with glass but mostly with cheese cloth or with a sliding board with the latch string inside The adobe mud was was spaded up near the houses t to be built of it jt water conducted conducted conducted con con- ducted into th the yard or or pit from City creek and oxen used to mix the mud with their feet The houses for the church presidency and the twelve were together on the east side of the inclosure and were constructed ted chiefly of logs Steele tells us who is understood to have been the mason who wh laid most of the adobes in In the fort fart Burr Frost the blacksmith made Steele a trowel out of an old saw blade with which Steele made the first chimney that ever drew smoke in the valley in President Youngs Young's quarters which were the first four rooms on the east side from the northe northeast st corner of the fort Lorenzo D. D Young and family occupied the next two rooms and were the first to move in Heber C. C Kimball and family drew the next five rooms Willard Richards the next two Wilford Woodruff the next two George A. A Smith two Amasa M. M Ly Lyman nan two and andEras Erastus Eras Eras- Snow one all these homes being made of logs On Sunday August 22 the name of the new city as proposed in m the council of the twelve on the was was' presented present d to the people in as assembly assembly assembly as- as and adopted namely The City of the S Salt lt Lake Great Basin North America |