Show f. f r t i Echoes from t the e dust I History of Ashley Valley LIFE OP TAYLOR Taylor the son of John and Eleanor Burkett Taylor was born In Ray County Missouri December 21 1836 His father John Taylor was born In howling Bowling Green Warren County Kentucky December 7 1812 and his mother Eleanor Burkett was born May 12 1815 There were seven boys and five girls in the family and they were all early pioneers of Utah John Taylor was a devoted friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith and twice he was put in prison for warning him that a amob amob amob mob was after him thus enabling Joseph to escape Both times John Taylor had to escape once he picked a stone loose and then set the jail on fire Cire making it appear as if he had been burned in the jail The second time he was kept in an extra room of the jailers jailer's house lie He made friends with the dog a vicious animal and kept a part of his lunch in his boot tops lops awaiting a chance to escape When he succeeded the jailer was away from home and his wife left the door ajar and stood near it ironing John slipped past the dog patting it iton iton iton on the head so it wouldn't bark barkand barkand barkand and made his get away He was discovered about the time he reached the Missouri River and knowing it was worth taking the chance he crossed the river on cakes of ice the bloodhounds refusing to go into the icy water after him WHEN WilEN TilE THE Prophet Joseph was killed John Taylor refused to give his allegiance to Brigham Young and moved his family to Texas in 1848 instead of Utah In 1854 he came to Utah and settled in Mill Creek Slaterville He belonged to the Josephites or Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ instead of the Mormons but most of his children belonged to the Mormon Church When the Taylors moved to Utah was about 18 years old In 1859 he married Mary Jane Hiatt who was born in Iowa December 21 1842 To this union were born 15 children In 1860 according to teachings of the Mormon Church at the time he married Clarissa Taylor Clarissa and to this union 14 children Taylor and his brother Alma Taylor and Ben Chadwick were called to go to Franklin Idaho and colonize but didn't stay there long In 1862 he returned to Ogden Valley where he lived two years and then moved to Plain City where he built several houses While he was living in Ogden Valley in Eden there was considerable trouble with the Indians and he was made a scout and went into the hills to bring back cattle and horses that the Indians stole from the white people He was engaged in several fights with the Indians Indians Indians In In- while living there One morning in the spring of the year when he had gone out outto outto outto to plow his field he noticed a cloud of dust just over the east corner of the valley close to the foothills He had hitched his horses but buthe he kept watching the dust cloud because he was certain it was Indians lie He kept watch until noon and then being convinced t tat t it was Indians rounding up the white peoples people's horses he unhitched his horses jumped on one and headed for the Fort where Captain Jefferson Hunt of the Mormon Battalion was in command This fort is now Huntsville and was named after Captain Hunt CAPTAIN HUNT sent five men with Taylor to apprehend and scare the Indians but before they reached them the Indians had gotten away driving the cattle before them They sent back to the fort for more men and grub and followed the Indians Indian's trail until evening and then made camp campin in a quake aspen grove The reinforcements arrived late that evening evenin making nine men in the posse Early next morning T T. Taylor got out and looked for forthe forthe forthe the Indians as they were not sure where they had camped lie He spied t their scout just as the scout spied him and hurried back to the camp where they saddled up and started out in pursuit The Indians were also making a hasty retreat but th the posse sighted them just as they were crossing a big canyon It U was the spring of the year and the heavy snow on the mountain mountainside side made it hard for the Indians Indians Indians In In- to scale the mountains being hampered pampered also by their wives and papooses The white men opened fire on them and when the Indians returned the fire only three white men Taylor Baldy Watts and Peg-leg Peg Hunt a son of or Captain Hunt nicknamed on account of having the a peg leg pother joined the the methe fight other six men n wouldn't join in the fight It was quite a battle but none of the white men were killed while about seven Indians were shot When an Indian toppled from his rus horse two other Indians would ride up and grab hold of or each arm and swing the body onto the horses horse's back and then ride away The Indians finally rode away leaving the cattle and horses they had stolen together with a number of or horses they had taken from other white people In the surrounding valleys THE TilE STOLEN horses and cattle were driven into Capt Hunt Hunts corral back at the fort and the people came and took out what belonged to t them em Then the six men who hadn't helped in the fight started to jump into the corral to take their pick of the spoils but Capt Hunt wouldn't let them have any because they hadn't helped when the fight started with the Indians He told T T. Taylor that was what he was always called to take his pick but Taylor wouldn't do that he told the Captain to pick one and let him pick one There was an exceptionally fine black horse in the bunch and Captain Hunt chose it for Taylor but Taylor himself picked the and poorest critter in the corral Several days after this while T. T Taylor was riding up around Liberty a aman aman aman man stopped him to find out ut where he had gotten the horse he was riding He told him about the incident and the man was glad to know that the Indians Indians Indians In In- had been punished because he said they had scalped his brother and burned his wagon and taken that horse and another just like it Taylor insisted that the man come back to Huntsville and take the horse to his brothers brother's widow At first the man didn't want to do that saying it was worth the price of the horse to know that an Indian had been killed but finally he gave Taylor for the horse but the mate was never found Not long after this the Indians Indians Indians In In- surrounded L Taylors Taylor's house about eleven o'clock at night and began riding around it giving their war whoops and riding as fast as they could This went on for about 30 minutes and his second wife Clarissa who had just been confined lay sick in bed It was wasa a bright moonlight night and the Indians were plainly visible There were two rifles rines muzzle loaders that fired one shot at a alime time lime in the log house but there weren't many bullets His first wife Mary Jane got busy with witha a ladle and melted the lead over the hot coals of the fireplace and poured it into the bullet molds Mrs Rebecca Hiatt his mother-in-law mother was also there and she told him to hold his fire until the Indians shot first She said that tha t she could load the guns as fast as he lie could fire them He lie knocked the chinking out from between the logs in several places to make portholes The Indians were evidently afraid to shoot or perhaps just wanted to scare them for they finally rode away A year or two after this Incident incident incident in In- with the Indians Taylor moved his families to Plain City and built a home there He later sold it to his father in It is still known as the old Hiatt place He lie bought more ground west of this and built another house and lived there until the spring of 1876 In the early days he freighted into Helena Montana with ox teams lie Helena lena was a gold mining ng town at that time and it was pretty dangerous to freight in those days on account of robbers Indians also plundered the freighters whenever they had an opportunity T T. T TAYLOR was deputy sheriff of Weber County under Gilbert Belnap While he was in inthis inthis inthis this office he arrested Charlie Williamson one of the worst robbers in the country at that time lie He was one gf of the robbers who molested wagon trains that went into Montana Taylor was living at the Hiatt place at the time and he and his brother Joseph brought him to the house and they took turns watching him so he couldn't get away Next morning they took him into town and put him in jail lie He was a looking hard-looking man one that you couldn't forget He lie was tried and convicted and sentenced sentenced sentenced sen sen- to the penitentiary After a while he killed a guard and escaped and a 1000 reward was posted for him Some time after the escape of Williamson T. T Taylor and some others went into Wyoming after cattle On their return th v camped at the Cheyenne River niver and Taylor started into town for supplies for the camp He stopped at the river to let his horse drink and noticed another man across the stream doing the same thing The man had bad his hat pulled low on his head bead but he looked so familiar that Taylor 1 r rode over with his hisgun hisgun hisgun gun drawn and sure enough it was Williamson Taylor ordered him to go goback goback goback back to camp with him and that night the men watched Williamson instead of the cattle knowing full well that he would steal them if they didn't keep him guarded Next morning he was turned loose asno as asno asno no one in the camp knew of or the reward posted for him for the killing of the man in Salt Sall Lake City News traveled rather slowly in those days In the spring of 1876 Taylor sold out to his father and wen went I up into Idaho lie He bought a place in Lewis Lewiston ton Idaho and started raising cattle but in 1877 he sold out and moved to the Ashley Valley in Uintah County He lie took about head of cattle and about the same number of horses and arrived there on September 16 1877 his family being the fourth white family to settle there TWO FAMILIES had come there three days before one by bythe bythe bythe the name of Downing and the theother theother theother other by the name of Fair Robert Snider had come there therewith therewith therewith with his family in the spring of 1877 There were eight old bachelors located there at the time lime and that was all the white people in the valley A few others came later that fall among them was Elihu Hiatt a brother of Mr Taylors Taylor's wife The country was wild and new there were a about bout 2200 Indians on the White Rocks Reservation and south across the Green River and across the Colorado line was another Indian Reservation with about the same number of Indians so so it was real Indian country There were no canals and nothing was raised in the valley except a little corn that Captain Dodds raised Captain Dodds had been agent at al White Rocks Reservation but had been removed when Critchlow was put put in He had a little trading post established there and did some trading Indians selling them paint and beads and ornaments to adorn themselves One of the first things Taylor did after establishing a camp for his family to live in was to 10 togo g go down on the Green River and put up some wild hay and haul it up to his camp to o feed his milk cows and teams that winter He took up a homestead and after putting up some hay he made a trip up into Taylor Mountain and located a road so that pine logs could be taken off the mountain He got what help he could to tomake tomake tomake make the ro road d and was the first man to fetch a load of pine logs into the valley The mountain was named for him He got out a set of house logs and built him a two room house that fall He had no lumber for forthe forthe forthe the roof or for the door jambs or windows so he split poles for forthe forthe forthe the roof and also for the door doorjambs doorjambs doorjambs jambs and windows He hewed out timber limber for the doors and used cloth for the windows lie He and his family lived there that winter THE TilE NEXT SUMMER he got out logs and he and a few neighbors neighbors neighbors neigh neigh- bors built a school house on his place That was the first school schoolhouse schoolhouse schoolhouse house built in the Ashley Valley Pete Dillman and John built a pit and sawed out lumber with a whip saw for forthe forthe forthe the school house Will Britt taught the first school that was taught in Ashley Valley in the winter of 1878 In the summer of 1879 T. T Taylor got a contract to carry mail mall from the valley to White Rocks agency and his hisson hisson hisson son James Levi then 15 years old carried d the mail for his father He lie made three trips a week going over one day and back the next In the fall faU of 1879 there was an Indian uprising A number of the White Rocks Indians went over and joined the White River Indians and all of the people on the bench moved in together and forted up Taylor his is brother Alma and Captain Dodds refused to move T T. Taylor said that he wasn't going to tear down his house until he saw something to get scared at so they didn't move into the fort A man named Meeker was agent at the White River Reservation and he sent a man through to Fort Rawlins Hawlins to report the Indian uprising When the Indians came to Meeker and asked him if he had sent word to the soldiers he lieto lied lie to them about it but the Indians knew that he was lying and went on to the Reservation and f massacred every white man and then took look the women captive Among the women captured was Meekers Meeker's wife his crippled mother and two of his daughters The soldiers under Major Thornburg had to come through a canyon that was narrow and steep The Indians lay in ambush and when the soldiers started down the canyon they killed them all off ocr except one A delegation came to T. T Taylor to see If he could get the Indians to 10 release the women they were holding captive When the men arrived at the place the Indians were holding the women the Indians had moved they had turned the women over to an Indian by the name of Chipita later he turned them to the agency at al Ouray Colorado THE TIIE SPitiNG SPRING of 1880 the government stepped In and put the Indians on one reservation just between the White Rocks Hocks and the White River reservations reservations reservations reser reser- locating them on the Green River at the mouth of the Duchesne River Two companies companies companies com com- of soldiers stayed at the Green River that winter and established Ouray Agency The next spring they established Fort Thornburg When the Indians quieted down about 1884 the soldiers abandoned the fort and established For Duchesne on the Uinta River about the year 1886 1880 The winter of 1879 was an extra hard winter in Ashley Valley Quite a few people were in the valley by that time lime The people who had just moved in were poor and hadn't brought enough provisions to last them r until spring A few rew raised a little wheat that summer but there was no grist mill so they couldn't get gel their wheat ground and they soon ran out of flour A number of people lived on cracked wheat wheal they ground In their coffee mills Mr Taylor had plenty of flour and told the people to come to him and he would divide with them as long longas as he had any About the middle of or February he be ran out of flour himself an he hired a man by the name of or Lew Brown to go with him to Heber City Cily to get gel more flour He Ile took 14 head of or horses and a wagon He Ile took the wagon as asfar asfar asfar far as Currant Creek and then went on with the 14 head of or horses from Crom there They took oats that he had raised that summer for feed for the horses They went through the Strawberry Valley to Heber City The snow was 10 feet deep so they left oats cached along their trail In order to have feed for their horses on the return trip At Heber City they bought 2800 pounds of flour and packed each horse with pounds each and walked and |