| Show Echoes from the dust History of Ashley Valley settlement The Echoes from the Dust features will be a series concerning concerning con con- the first ten years after settlement of the Ashley Valley WILBUR CARLTON mUTT BUITT Wilbur Carlton Britt Brill commonly commonly com com- called Will was born in Council Bluffs Iowa September September Sep- Sep lember 23 1849 He received his education in Council Bluffs He was was studying to become a ad d doctor and had completed one year of medical school when his wife Melissa Graves Britt passed away in 1875 1 IN 1876 leaving his two Iwo little daughters Lillian and Gertrude with their grandparents he and his youngest brother Finley left for the Black Hills of Dakota prospecting for gold While there Mr Britt nursed an anold anold anold old miner who had ad pneumonia He gave gay them a a map of a gold J ine near near Carter Creek in Utah Th The evening before th they y left for Utah Ulah a young man manby by byth bythe th the name of Peter Dillman asked to accompany them The three came to Green River City Wyoming then over the mountains to Carter Creek arriving in May 1876 They prospected for gold there until September Having found no gold by then they decided to come to lo Ashley Valley Before winter set inthey in inthey inthey they went to Whiterocks In the spring of 1877 Peter Peler Dillman Will and Fin Britt returned to lo Old Ashley where they built 1 cabins and prepared to make homes According to lo th the settlers settlers settlers set set- there the soil was very fertile A mans man's head could barely be seen over the top lop of the waving sagebrush and the grass was so tall it was shoulder high on an Indian pony tWILL 1 WILL BRITT built buil a post and store combined The Thep p- p post pst st office was put pul together with square quare nails and wooden pegs The one room was as par pars paril il ned I to create to two small mall rooms the store being a little larger than the post office The furniture in the postal department department depart depart- department ment consisted of a wooden cabinet sectioned off to lo create creates s several veral small boxes at the top lop with larger sections on the bottom for packages also a pOtbellied potbellied pOt pOt- pot bellied stove chairs and other equipment of the day The Toe mail mall carriers came through once a week with whatever mail they could carry carryon on horseback or on snowshoes snowshoes' from Green River Wyoming They received a sum of 25 cents per letter for the long journey of miles over the m mountains All their medical supplies and provisions also had to be brought over over Diamond Mountain from Green River Wyoming In 1877 Will Britt Brill married Elizabeth Montgomery of Heber Utah To this marriage w was was s born three e children Mabel Mamie and Bill In 1881 Will Britt built buill a new tw two story story room eleven-room log house They t then en had room enough for the family and extra rooms for strangers who came to Old Ashley and had no place to live liver Lillian Britt said Louie Simmons Simmons Sim Sim- mons Kit Kil Carsons Carson's son-in-law son lived with wilh them one winter IN 1881 WILL sent to Iowa for his daughters Lillian and Gertrude They came on the train Irain in care of the conductor Each girl was wearing around her neck a brass tag lag with wilh her name and her fathers father's name on it They were met in Green River Wyoming by their father and a group of freighters Chellus Lee and Iowa Hall hail John Blankenship Joseph Hardy and George Perry They arrived d in Old Ashley November 2 1881 The girls were proud of their new home as as it il was the first one oneto oneto oneto to have a roof of shingles which had been brought from Heber They also had hadan an organ and everybody gathered at al the Britts Britt's to lo have singing practice Kate Kale Ashton Brown was the organist and Will Britt accompanied accompanied ac ac- companied her on the flute The organ flute and fiddle were the only musical Instruments they had in the town at al that time lime When they had dances there were only enough women women up and down the Creek for four squares so sometimes the children filled in During th the early years in the Valley the people had many Indian scares However the Indians never attacked attack them TilE THE WINTER of 80 1879 was the Hard Winter All th the stored food was vas g gone ne The snow was so deep they couldn't go over the mountain for more food The pigs were so poor and weak eak they couldn't stand up The deer and antelope came into th the peoples people's yards to lo get food Most of the deer and cattle died standing up and then people would boil their bones for soup The settlers lived chiefly on ground wheat Peoples People's shoes worn out and one m man n Joshua the mail mai carrier carner wore his pant rags His wife wife took two seamless sacks with two red stripes and made him a pair of pants which had th the brand A AA AA AA A across the back in red let let- lers In the winter of 80 1879 a epidemic took look the lives of m many ny settlers most of whom were young people Since Will Britt had had one year of medical school he was often called out to help wilh the sick He was the town doctor also the dentist and druggist He was the justice of the peace the postmaster postmaster post post- master and the first school schoolteacher schoolteacher teacher Lillian Britt Brill White While said in 1882 potatoes were 25 cents per hundred pounds but the people were so poor they usually traded wheat wheal for vegetables MRS WHITE tells of several incidents that thai happened when her father was justice of the peace One night a man woke him up and wanted him to perform a marriage ceremony They called the close neighbors to lo come as witnesses It II was then the custom to lo c cut cul t a hol hole in inthe inthe inthe the ceiling of the living room to let warm air into the upstairs bedroom Her sister Gertie Gertle was wasa a small girl and was curious to see who was downstairs She was peeking through the hole to lo see sec the company got too loo near the edge and fell through the hole and landed right in front of the people The bridegroom had brought a load of oats to pay Mr Britt for his work but Will said he could use only one sack The groom said he wanted to pay enough so no one could take the bride away from him When they were ready to lo leave he wanted a bill of sale for his wife This was before a marriage license was required On one occasion Will Britt was riding his horse down the street streel in the evening A young man and nd his girl were on the opposite side of the road carrying pails of milk They decided they would get gel married right then so he performed th the ceremony Later a wedding dance was held typical of those days They passed bottles of pure alcohol and cigars to the themen themen themen men women and children although the women and children didn't indulge ON ONE OF his trips out of town to help the sick Will Britt Brill was too loo far away get logel home that night so he made a bonfire and laid a blanket on the ground to sleep on He had a dog that thai followed him every place if he herode herode herode rode the horse the dog rode behind the the saddle saddler This night the dog kept kepi growling and Will would tell it to lo be quiet Then he looked up up and saw saw two Iwo shining eyes on the opposite side of the bonfire He had a long stick he had been boon using to stir the fire so he fastened his pocket knife to th the end of it As the animal sprang at him he stabbed it il in inthe inthe the neck It II was a mountain lion In the town there were few houses then There was tt the e post postoffice postoffice postoffice office and store combined three saloons Another building housed both a butcher shop and drug store Pardon Dodds built a trading post in Old Town near where Davis Merkley's home now stands Frank Moore owned a ahome ahome home and a saloon This home now stands in Ashley near the Post office across the street Itis It II Itis is made of hewn hand-hewn logs There was was a courthouse which was later moved to Vernal on the corner orner of First North and Vernal Avenue It was recently torn lorn down to lo make room for the Deseret Federal Savings and Loan building IN 1885 THE TIlE Britt Brill family moved to lo Heber then back to lo Fort Duchesne where they operated a hotel This was when Fort Duchesne was being built buill At Al that time lime there were four companies of white while soldiers and two Iwo troops of black soldiers stationed there The Britt Brill family resided at al alFort Fort Duchesne four and one- one half years then they moved back to lo Vernal and built buill a home where Showalters Showalter's used car lot lol lolis lotis lotis is now located between Third and Fourth West Weston on Main Street This house is still standing Will Britt Brill passed away November 18 1895 at al the age of 46 of a heart attack He lIe is buried burled in the Vernal Memorial Park Written in 1975 by Iras Iran White While a granddaughter of Wilbur C. C Britt |
