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Show ' S T. Atkin Tells Of Dixies Growth S His Lifetime As Dixie Pioneer of 1868 By Mabel Jarvis T' Atkin has been a close r for many years, and ,;iJra it becomes a pleasure to iVl!"? Ufe in th's community verw.- resulting from recent tiro n and access to data he vJV '(f7t This pioneer Dixie '4 t m in Sa,t Lake City, yJ6th'- 1865 a son of Hhn Rachel Thompson At-t At-t c"came to Utah with a hand of?any in 1858- His mother e4 1 Irish descent and had i kZ Mormon Church in 1849, a J01ning later. Father ' 'both old English stock, Parents resided in Eng land where they were married December 18th, 1854, embartoig for America February 12 . 18d5. Henry T. Was their fifth child, in a family of twelve. Since he was three years oi when his parents were called to join the move south to the Dixie Mission, this pioneer boy remembers remem-bers little regarding their life in Salt Lake City. St. George by that time was quite a thriving : town Arriving in the fall of 1868. the Atkin family made their fiist location lo-cation in what was then the Second ward, in the southwest corner of the town, occupying a lot on the northwest corner of Block 4 Plat (Continued on page three) Henry T. Atkin Jells Of Dixie's Growth His Lifetime As Dixie Pioneer of 1868 (Continued from first page) St George City Survey, where earliest home was a sod hut, tructed of grass sods about Jfoot by two feet, laid up in much the same as the brick adobe homes of today. The tot wrings coursing down I" h the valley when the set-jVcame set-jVcame in 1861, had been frerted into ditches and was being td for irrigation, the grass ps as they dried furnishing for these preliminary build-v' build-v' This sod house served the Atkins for a year then was replaced replac-ed vrith a four roomed adobe struc-are struc-are where they lived in greater comfort. Father Atkin was a mason by jade, which accounted for his iwial call to this Southern Mis-'ron. Mis-'ron. He assisted in the building of lie St. George Stake Tabernacle yd worked on the St. George Temple from its beginning until its completion in 1877. "I recall when ihe cornerstone of the Temple was iid and also when the building ias completed" said Henry T. Atkin. At-kin. "Often it was my duty to tar;' father's lunch to him while he was working on the Temple, aid many of us children there on Jie same errand, loitered about tatching the workmen as they pounded the shale into the founda-:ion founda-:ion trench, and later as they tossed the great piles of rock slabs and fashioned them into the alls of the first Temple built in Jie west." "One of my earliest recollections :! St. George", continued Mr. Atkin, At-kin, was the meetings and programs pro-grams held at the Old Bowery. It tas used as a meeting place for re--gious, civic and militiary purges. pur-ges. An old base drum situated i this structure was used to call he people together as occasions , aose, and also to spread the alarm a case of danger. "I remember the visits of Presi-at Presi-at Brigham Young to our City. : His visit was a big occasion and I 'f always came to town in prince-i prince-i 1)' style, with his ornamented h and span of black horses iiven by a well dressed high hat-si hat-si coachman. A large arch was lilt under which he must pass as is carriage came down the street, the children from the town I d UP and down the street to him honor. As he passed be-! be-! yen the lines, hats came off and ;J1 bowed out of reverence and spect for their great leader. St. rge was his winter home for a miber of years and he always i 'imtamed two homes and an of-, of-, here. During the entire time . "is visits St. George became ; f official church headquarters. well remembered time was ; he came for the dedication the Temple." 1 I" Henr.v T. was twelve years ' e the family moved to their - .. located on the banks of the i : irgin about six miles south -i- George, naming the place . hey settled Atkinville. The and at this point was di-to di-to clear for planting, and ; ."mpre difficult was the pro-.; pro-.; w getting water for irriga- constructing a dam across .. "am and forcing the water Mhei i?irrigation ditch leading and Each of the boys old H i ! ,e'P at 311 was assigned i "o task each morning, and nf, Jcomplete before the r "the day. There was plenty ; Zf t0 d0' and father forked right along with his ; eothemuchneed- J. and supplies they could 5Vmanh.re,this by Srew to "'Sin thl; flshlnS and swim-i swim-i 'i P0nd- This pond they ,.( e during extra hours. It kem uWteen acres and 'from tho" Chub wnicn came T which f7uer' and later with he canr, AtWn imPOTted. ; first Z arn' these were 'tior , P ever brought into eo?D?v-P.nd was also the ' '''"heweat? eai'ly ice PP1 ' lvuld t I Was cold enough as If "ood the pond each enough Vs the ice became :'3! Was sawed out in .Ch they Stored in a cave -1Clostoth 'uWed out of the t N?e i" greaM huse-Imbedding ken? dS 0f Straw and id-sum amazinS'y well, and " f wfT1 t0 buy a few B then precious com modity, with which to make a little lit-tle ice cream, cool a drink of water or make the cream churnable. Often Of-ten your writer has gone with her parents for a block of ice, and marveled at how the large blocks had been preserved from melting over the many weeks, just with the use of straw and chaff, in a hillside cave. Here also, for many years, ice was obtained for making that delicious cold lemonade which was dispensed so freely to young and old on the Fourth and Twenty-fourth Twenty-fourth of July, and for other midsummer mid-summer meetings while the supply lasted. Four cents per pound was considered a very fair price for ice in those days. Living thus rather isolated, this boy's chances for education were rather limited. When school was started in Price City, a- mile and a half north of Atkinville, Henry T. walked there and back each day and covered the work given. Samuel Miles was the teacher, and was considered good for that time. The texts comprised Wilson's Readers graded from' one to four, the good old blue-backed speller, and a number book or arithmetic. They used slates and pencils, and learned the best they could for their day. Just how seriously these boys and girls considered their school is shown as this boy recalls one incident. A runaway team or horses passed the school house one day. Forgetting lessons every child vacated the building and followed the runaway, returning to find the teacher just awaking from a much needed nap, which he had gladly taken during the absence of his classes. Teachers in those days often of-ten did a day's work on their farm outside of the hours spent in school and class work was sometimes some-times tiresome. Anyone who completed com-pleted the fourth reader was counted well learned for that time. The teacher had the arithmetic text and from that taught the boys and girls to use their slates and pencils in making the figures and learning to add, subtract and multiply, and some of them learned this routine fairly well. This boy had in all about three years of schooling. To this building in Price also, the family came regularly each Sunday, walking so their teams might rest while they attended at-tended Church. r It was at this home in Atkinville where President Wilford Woodruff was in hiding during the years from 1884 to 1886 inclusive. "All of us children knew he was in the home" remarked Mr. Atkin, "and we, as well our parents were proud to have our home selected for this purpose, since conditions seemed to require his keeping in seclusion for the time. The situation situa-tion wes explained to us and we were told never to mention the fact of his being there, for 'fear harm might come to this beloved' successor of President Brighajn Young. We would have stood almost al-most any torture before we would have exposed President Woodruff, or have had anything happen to him through our carelessness." April 26th, 1884, Henry T. Atkin was married in the St. George Temple to Sarah Jane Ellicock, John T. D. McAllister officiating. They spent the first year of their married life in a two room house he had built for them at Atkinville. Moving from Atkinville, they spent three years in St. George, then one year in Silver Reef while he was employed hauling wood. During these years Silyer Reef was a busy center, housing around three thousand people, and with stores and business houses lining its Main Street. Saloons also were plentiful. They rented a small lumber house and Mr. Atkin made good money as the wood was fairly handy and brought $8.00 per cord. He could haul a two cord load per day. But right in the middle of the winter the wood hauling was stopped and the camp was soon closed down entirely. Mr. Atkin recounts the great excitement that came with the finding of silver in the sandstone sand-stone of Silver Reef, and of the boom thus created, and the peculiar pecu-liar hush that came as the silver pinched out and every thing closed perhaps never to reopen again. The now useless buildings were sold for less than a song. Mr. Atkin bought a large lumber dance hall for $40.00 and hauled fully that much worth of lumber away when thej balance of the building burned down. Everything movable was soon gone, the roads ceased to rumble with their heavy six-span loads of silver bullion, and the once noisy city became a silent ghost town. By this time the Atkins had three children, two daughters, Luella, and Jetta, and a son whom they named Henry Randolph. They moved back to St. George where Mrs. Atkin remained with the children and her husband spent the next three summers working in the saw mills in the Sanpete mountains, moun-tains, and doing anything he could get to do around home in the winters. win-ters. By this time his father had acquired ac-quired quite a herd of sheep and Henry T. in 1892, took over the job of herding them. A year later he rented the 1500 head, ranging them on Cedar Mountain in the summer and on the Arizona Strip in the winter. "Land was free at first," said Mr. Atkin, and you could build a cabin on any untenanted unten-anted acreage and claim the land. Feed was plentiful and sheep did well. A year later the state took over the lands and we had to secure title through purchase to our range. I bought 160 Acres from a man named Jackson for $300.00 which was a good price those days. I also bought one thousand acres of State land at One Dollar, and Twenty-five cents per acre. In this way I continued to get more land and got a good start in sheep." They bought their first home in St. George about 1893, and with some changes that building still stands. Here their third daughter Mae was born. In 1S97, this place (Continued on page six) Henry T. Atkin Continued from Page 3 was sold and they bought a larger home across the street, which they continued to occupy until 1936. Here a second son, named Henri-Tennyson Henri-Tennyson was born in 1S9S. During Dur-ing these years this pioneer stock man was seldom home, being compelled com-pelled to be out with the sbeep, "trying to get a start and build up a foundation for the sheep business." busi-ness." In 1908 he sold out his sheep purchasing the Morris cattle on Mount Trumbull and the following year bought the Nixon brand, giving giv-ing him about one thousand head of cattle. He soon discovered that the cattle business was more or less uncertain unless one could live right on the range. And get-ing get-ing a good chance he sold out to A. D. Findlay about 1912. Being at home more after this transction he began to take more interest in politics. The family had been aligned with the Republicans party from the time of the division divi-sion on party lines. In 1912 this much experienced Dixie pioneer was elected a member of the St. George City Council, and re-elected in 1914. Their principal activity at I that tirvio nr,noernprt with the widening of the ditch carrying the Cottonwood Water supply and upkeep up-keep of the water system. It was during this period that the first light and power plant was established estab-lished for St. George. It was a tedious job, but finally they succeeded. suc-ceeded. During these years Mr. Atkin purchased a number of farm plots and turned his hand to farming, his land including a hundred acres south of Main Street St. George, and formerly known as the Bunting Bunt-ing farm. Then in company with others he decided to go into farming farm-ing on a big scale and took up a homestead of 320 acres on the Ft. Pearce wash. But the difficulty of getting irrigation streams out onto this land caused them to give up the venture. "And one of the things I try to forget,", recounts Mr. Atkin, At-kin, is my venture in the pig business. busi-ness. Feed was scarce and this proved a real failure." In 1916 he decided to invest in sheep again, having been successful before as a sheepman. Along with Edward H. Snow and A. B. Andrus as partners they bought land, from the Cedar Sheep Association, 1300 head of top ewes from Lundell and Lundgreen of Cedar City, paying $7.00 per head for the ewes and 50 cents per acre for the 2400 acres of land. Later he bought out his partners and paid them good interest. in-terest. 1917 was a good boom year for the sheep business. Lambs brought on the average of $11.00 per head and the ewes he had paid $7.00 for, brought $16.00. In 1920 he sold his Kolob land to J. W Imlav, then another prosperous sheepman, and ran his sheep the year round on the Arizona Strip, buying and constructing reservoirs for vear round use, and moving around to meet the seasonal change. Two years later he sold his entire holdings to his brother William Akint, Jr. of St. George at $10.00 per head for the entire two thousand of his herd. And once again, sheep growing had proved an advantage to. him. About 1912, Mr. Atkin was made a president of the 29th Quorum of Seventies of the St. George Stake, and in this capacity was assigned the responsibility of collecting col-lecting funds for the building of a Seventies home, the rental of which would be used for the Missionary Mis-sionary fund. Going to town in the morning he came back with the required re-quired Thousand Dollars, which with labor and later additions put the job over. Later this home was-sold was-sold and another built. Mr. Atkin is now the owner of this first home. He contributed to all civic movements, move-ments, especially those concerned with education, giving Six Hundred dollars for the Dixie College in la |
