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Show i Vernal Express Wednesday, April 2, 2008 B5 EARLY PIONEERS: PART II Pete Dillman, Wilbur Britt and Finley Britt 'i i By Myke Hah Guest Writer This part of a tKree part history his-tory prepared by Hall recounts the arrival of Dillman and the Brittboys in Ashley around 1877. Their first meeting with Pardon Dodds, the region's first Indian Agent has Wilbur Britt sending for his daughter back East. Beside Pard Dbdd there was Al Westover, John Keeley, James Rynaman, Robert Turner, Charley Bently, James Barker, Ben Doke, Charles Jones, Bill Hayden and Pat Lynch. All were bachelors. Robert Snyder and his wife, Mary, was the only woman in the valley. Later, Pete and John Stein-aker Stein-aker hauled logs to Taylor Mountain Moun-tain and whipsawed boards for windows, doors and such. They hauled the logs that Fin and Will (Britts) used to build the cabin that became a store with the first post office. The cabin is still standing at 1361 W. 2500 N., Vernal with a Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Historic Plaque in place. Wilbur Britt was the first postmaster, first schoolteacher and coroner in the valley. Will had gone to medical school for one year and therefore, "filled-in" as the town dentist and druggist. He was often called out to take care of the sick. All his medical supplies had to be freighted from Rock Springs, Wyo., over Diamond Mountain into the Ashley. Will had two daughters, Lillian Lil-lian and Gertie. After his wife died he left the girls with their grandparents when he came west. After he and Finley. had built a cabin for them in 1881, he sent for the girls. The sisters were I ; ' t?jss. , , 1 ; " ; t .:,; f' ; ' , - .J The cabin at 1361 W. 2500 North in Vernal was built built for Pardon Par-don Dodds. Pete Dillman, John Steinaker, Wilbur and Fenley Britt hauled logs and whipsawed boards the cabin that later became the first post office in Vernal. put on the train in the care of the conductor to go to the West. Each wore a tag around their neck with their name and the name of their father. At Green River, Wyo., they were met by their father Wilbur and his friends Chellus, Lee and Iowa Hall, John Blakenship, Joseph Hardy and George Perry. They returned to Ashley on Nov. 2,1881. They were very proud of their new home, as it was the first house in the valley with shingles, which had been brought from Heber by team and wagon. An organ was later brought from Heber. Everyone gathered at the cabin to sing with Kate Ashton Brown as the organist. When Lillian was 14 years old, they moved to Fort Duchesne. She lived there until she was married to Warren D. White in August of 1890. Warren came to Fort Duchesne with the mechanics, mechan-ics, carpenters, bricklayers and plasterers from Omaha, Neb. They had come to build the officers of-ficers quarters at the fort. Finley went to work at the Ute Indian Agency. He worked there until he retired. He then became the industrial arts teacher at the Whiterocks School. He was also the gardener for the agency. He married Maria Merkley, daughter daugh-ter of Nelson Merkley, who was the first teenage girl to arrive in the valley. After Fin retried, he planted an orchard, selling fruit and produce at his place in Maeser. In his old age, he lived in a small cabin beneath a big box elder tree that still stands. He got his water from the Dodds Ditch, which is the oldest water in the valley. When his great-grandkids woulds stop by he would serve sliced bread sprinkled with water and sugar. " ) I 1 OPTIMUM MORTGAGE, L.L.C. ' , Phone: 435.789.7705 Conventional Fax: 435.789.7706 FHA M Purchases (Up to 100) P 80 North Vernal Avenue . state Income Loans L J I I i Vernal, Utah 84078 . Manufactured Housing f rett Reynolds breynoldsoptirnumusa.com .,v tmn Perfect Cm, Mortgage Loan J Specialist I - ' , 'J A " Dr. Bryan D. Smuin Chiropractic Physician V((JSfitf((.'iiiy't4rtp fi. -.Ill tefc) S 9 ' it r, IS 1, . i f - .1 M j t t kf.'t t f Si i ' 789 - 7290 319 West 100 South Vernal (Behind Showalter Ford Showroom) DCILdDW dDUJIT IPmn(DIE JIM AILIL USE TTMAHILIBMg Year Make Size 2007 Kampsite Solar & Cat Heater 2007 Hornet 30BHS 2007 .Hornet 27 FLDS 2007 Hideout ...31 BHS . 2007 Exiss 7 X 20 Stock 2007 Amerrlite ..21 MB 2006 Zinger 29 DBS 2006 Nash 26x 2006. Hornet 21 RSL 2005 Wanderer 25 2005 Vortex 2005 Regal 290 RL 1999 Terry 26' 1998 Road Ranger 19' 1998 Nash 24' . 1996 Road Ranger 28' 1994 Road Ranger 5 th wheel 1978 Aljo 21' 1973 Skamper ' 1973 Road Runner 8 bed - .. Ittats you like family! Sales & Service, 1570 W. Hwy 40, Vernal 789-1970 Of the group that made the trip to the Ashely Valley, all seemed to have stayed excepting John Bennett. Folders 967 and 3075 at the Regional History Room of the Uintah County Library indicate that a man named John Bennett was hung by a posse chasing a murderer in Brown's Park' in 1898. Hall admits that there's no indication of this being the same John Bennett, but after the group arrives in Ashley there 's no other mention of his life in local texts. 1-7 i s 1 it . ..... . .-,- ....... 1 1 . - i 1 I I.- VJ r ' i t The same cabin as it appeared sometime after construction in the late 19th century. Four schools to receive 'Financial Peace' class Four high schools in the Uintah Basin will be among the 102 high schools in Utah to begin teaching students about basic financial concepts under a program sponsored by Zions Bank. Course materials for Financial Peace for the Next Generation, created by nationally-syndicated radio talk show host bestsell-ing bestsell-ing author Dave Ramsey, have been sent to Uintah River High School, Union High School, Tabiona School, and Altamont High School. The majority of the sponsored classes will begin this spring and the curriculum has been approved and adopted by the Utah State Office of Education. "To graduate from high school you have to know what an amoeba is but not how to balance your checkbook," said Ramsey, in a press release issued by Zions Bank. "After years of listening to parents tell me their financial woes on the radio it made sense to develop a program that would teach teenagers how to avoid their parent's mistakes." A study by Robert D. Manning Man-ning found that three out of five students with credit cards max them out during their freshman year of college and nearly three-fourths three-fourths of students use their student loans to pay for their credit cards. Beginning with the graduating graduat-ing class of 2008, Utah's high school students are now required to complete the mandatory course called "General Financial Literacy" in order to be prepared for life's financial decisions. Financial Peace for the Next Generation helps supplement in this course requirement. Ramsey's course is delivered through a DVD series that covers the basics of insurance, investing, invest-ing, saving, retirement planning and college planning, along with the difficulties associated with credit and debt. More than 2,000 high schools in 50 states and three countries are using the course to teach students how to begin building wealth at an early age and how to avoid the pitfalls that lead to debt and even bankruptcy. Supreme Court will hear 10 Commandments case By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider a free speech case in which a church wants to place a religious monument in a park.- Officials in Pleasant Grove City asked the court to step into the lawsuit brought by a religious group known as Summum, saying say-ing that if the group prevails, governments would be inundated with demands to display donated monuments. The dispute stems from Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove's refusal to allow the display of a "Seven Aphorisms of Summum" monument in the same park that is the home for a Ten Commandments monument donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles 47 years ago. At issue is whether a donated monument displayed by a municipality mu-nicipality remains the private speech of the original donor, or is government speech; and whether placing donated monuments in a government-owned park creates a public forum or whether the government retains authority to select which monuments to display. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled that monument remains the private speech of the donor and that the park is a public forum. "Government bodies are now sitting targets for demands that they grant 'equal access' to whatever what-ever comparable monuments a given group wishes to have installed, be it Summum's Seven Aphorisms, an atheist group's Monument to Freethought or Rev. Fred Phelps'sdenunciations of homosexual persons," lawyers for Pleasant Grove City wrote in asking the Supreme Court to intervene. In response, the church says government bodies always have the option of banning display of all privately donated monuments. Pleasant Grove has treated donated items as private speech for decades, said the religious group, Summum, a Latin term meaning mean-ing the sum total of all creation, was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City. The Seven Aphorisms refer to a notion that when Moses received stone tablets on Mount Sinai inscribed in-scribed with writings made by a divine being, he actually received two separate sets of tablets the Seven Aphorisms and the Ten Commandments. In agreeing to hear the Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove case, the Supreme Court is apparently holding a nearly identical case involving a Ten Commandments monument monu-ment in a Duchesne City park. Summum has sought to have it'sSeven Aphorisms monument erected in that park as well. V 1 ....? f VCPNMl 54 North Vernal Avenue ' t PVSi (?C? Verna1, Utah A IMIkD 435-789-351 1 j www.vemal.com About Your Business with Free ' all; X- i r l S4 ONE-DAY SEMINAR from Dian Thomas, MS, Media Personality If you're responsible for advertising, publicity, fund-raising, or public awareness, aware-ness, this seminar is for you! You can get the word out without spending a dime It's true! In just one day, you'll learn: How to boost your visibility Increase sales and credibility Essential skills for the small business owner and entrepreneur Hot PR essentials ... and you can doit! 1100 East tagoon St. 559 North 1700 West Roosevelt, Utah 84066 Vernal, Utah 84078 435-722-6900 435-725-7100 Attend Dian's One-Day Publicity Seminar WHEN: Thursday, April 3, 2008, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. WHERE: Uintah Basin Applied Technology College 1100 E. Lagoon St. Roosevelt, UT 84066 COST: Only $ 1 69 (Ask about the Custom Fit discount, only SOU) HOW: Call today: 435-725-7100 or e-mail lezleeubatc.edu Call for additional information. 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