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Show Pioneer flashback Snow sent to help in Box Elder Thomas C. Romney, "The Life of Lorenzo Snow." (Quig Nielsen is an information officer for the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City.) i By QUIG NIELSEN "Strengthen the settlement on Box Elder Creek." That was the charge Brigham Young gave to Apostle Lorenzo Snow in 1853 when he asked him to select 50 families and go to what then was Box Elder, now Brigham City. The settlers "lacked a master spirit to guide its affairs." According to pioneer John H. Peters, the first men to establish themselves in the Box Elder region were Porter Rockwell, William Davis and Lyman Wells Rockwell at Porter Springs Davis in what is now Brigham City, and Wells at what was later named Willard. When Lorenzo Snow arrived in Box Elder, a few people had all the land and water. He proposed that they share the land and water with those who had none, selling the property for what the purchasers could afford. Many followed his suggestion. Shingles were not available on the house built by Snow so the roof was covered with slabs. With a touch of humor he said, "For two winters the rattling of those slabs, put in motion by the canyons breezes, supplied us with music in the absence of organs and pianos." Scandinavian immigrants who had crossed the plains in the summer were sent from Salt Lake City to augment Box Elder Creek's infant colony. Lorenzo Snow renamed the community Brigham City and under his direction Brigham City became "one of the most progressive and thriving cities in the Great Basin, probably the most successful project conducted by the Mormon apostle. ' Brigham Young is reported to have given his last public address in the city bearing his name. Source: "Through the Years Brigham City Eighth Ward," 1953; Milton R. Hunter, "Brigham Young, the Colonizer" |