OCR Text |
Show THE BOX ELDER NEWS, BRIGHAM CITY, UTAH. gation and using the waste water for power purposes. Acting on this theory, he (Kerr) purchased the land in the canyon, on which the natural dam is situated, and made the survey out of the canyon, and let contracts for the completion of the dam and the canal to convey the water out onto the flat. About this time a Mr. John R. Bothwell, an irrigation promoter, came to Utah and made a trip to the canyon and the valley, and was at once favorably Impressed with the proposition. He agreed to promote the enterprise. His object was to consolidate the land and water Interests. Members of the Corinne Mill, Canal & Stock company were with him and made a contract offering him, as an inducement for bringing the water to their land, one- - At this time enthusiasm in the valley became Intense, and all government land lying open for settlement, 1. e, the even numbered sections, were rapidly filed on, until every foot of government land was taken up. At the Garland headquarters at Colllnston, on the old Utah and Northern Railroad, a small town sprang up which easily eclipsed anything we have ever seen in this state for downright toughness. (That element has all left for parts unknown). The riff raff from all parts of the country flocked there to work on the canal and the railroad which was Ubout to be constructed through the Bear River Canyon. At a later date, Mr. Garland had 7,000 men upon his pay roll. The stupendous work in the canyon must be fly. 3 canal projects, I would say, as Receiver of the Bear Lake and River Water Works and Irrigation Company, and I was in possession of all the books and papers of said company, my unbiased opinion is that Jarvis and Conklins accounts were absolutely con rect. Nothing but the best of work was done in the construction of the canal, and the net amount due to the company from the sale of bonds was expended upon company works. I want to be just to all concerned in this great project. In many things I did not agree with Jarvis and Conklin, particularly Roland R. Conklin. Matters ran smoothly until about 1893, when the depressing financial avalanche swept the country, shaking almost every financial institution in the world. The interest on the bonds was due, and the canal was not earning running expenses. The land was not selling and, therefore, not earning anything; and failure in meeting and paying their coupons brought Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Beardsley to Utah. After they had consulted with a number of business men, I was selected to take hold of the project and offered very flattering inducements. 1 was then manager of the Z. C. M. I. manufacturing department and assistant general superintendent After I made the contract with Mr. Jarvis, he departed for New York, and quite a correspondence between him and Superintendent Webber, of the Z. C. M. I. took place. Mr. Webber tried to induce Mr. Jarvis to forgo his contract, but Mr. Jarvis held out. On June 27th, 1893, I received a telegram to go to England and meet with the and, in company with Jarvis and Conklin, make an effort to reorganize the company and to net the bondholders to advance $120,000.00 additional to finish the canal and put some land under cultivation. As I said, this telegram was received on June 27th, 1893, and on July 7th, just ten days afterwards, I arrived in London and set about meeting bond-holder- Sixteen Stacks of Turkey Red Dry Farm Wheat. Morion Orchard Co., near Corinne. half of the proceeds of sales of all the land and water in the valley. After a long and tedious wait, Mr. Bothwell succeeded in interesting the Jarvis & Conklin Mortgage Trust company in the enterprise. They took hold of the work and proceeded to put the proposition into shape. The first act of Jarvis and Conklin was to incorporate a company under the name of the Bear Lake and River Water Works and Irrigation company, with a capital of $2,100, 000.00. The following prominent Utah men acted as officers and directors: James C. Armstrong, president of the Commercial Bank of Ogden; John T. Caine, delegate to congress; Charles C. Richards, president . of the Utah Loan & Trust company; James H. Bacon, president of the Bank of Salt Lake; L. B. Adams, cashier of the Utah National bank of Ogden; F. E. Roche, manager of the land department. John R. Bothwell was president; James C. ArmJames H Bacon, secretary strong, and treasurer; Charles H. Miolet (?) auditor. You will notice that Jarvis and Conklin are not among the officers of the company, but they were made trustees of the property of the company. Jarvis and Conklin controlled the stock of the Bear Lake and River Water Works and Irrigation company and out voted John R. Bothwell. Bothwell was succeeded as president by J. C. Armstrong It is quite certain that John R. Bothwell never made any money out of the scheme. He was a very enterprising man and always a gentleman. After retiring from the company, he left Utah and, up to a few years ago, resided in Illinois. Jarvis and Conklin, as trustees for the company, made a contract with the directors to sell the two million dollars worth of 7 per cent bonds, that were to net the company 75 per cent of this amount. Twenty-fiv- e per cent commission was not exorbitant in those days. Nearly all of these bonds were sold In Europe. This created a heavy expense going and coming, besides the maintaining of clerk hire, etc. Jarvis and Conklin had, at that time, a very large clientele of Quakers in Glasgow, Scotland; Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle and other English cities. They were not long in disposing of the bonds, which were sold at par. They Issued a very elaborate report of the valley and Utah. After the selling of the bonds, Jarvis and Conklin made a contract with William Garland, of Kansas City, for the construction of the canal in the canyon, which work in those days was quite difficult. Some consulting engineers reported adversely on the project, but the true American spirit conquered and the work went along swimmingly. William Garland at once began to make the dirt and rock seen to appreciate its magnitude and cost. It represents the best type of American construction, and it was awarded the first prize at the Worlds Columbian Exposition as a canal system, and it attracted the attention of engineers from every part of the W'orld. It is, perhaps, not known very widely, even in this valley, that this valley, that this irrigation system was represented at the World's Fair, but that is the fact. It was represented by a plaster of paris model 16 by 24 feet, placed on a stand three feet high. It showed the dam in Beaver River Canyon, the Bear River, the canals on both sides of the canyon, the railroad and the canals on the flat. Including the Corinne branch and the greater part of the Roweville branch, Bear River City, Brig - s bondholders. About thirty meetings were held a here matters pertaining to the canal were discussed, and we finally succeeded in reorganizing the company and obtaining the amount of money asked for. We were back in Bear River valley October 3rd, 1893. I was appointed receiver of the Bear Lake company January 4th, 1894, and began work aggressively, finished the Roweville branch, and put under cultivation about five thousand acres of company land. During the three or four years of building the canal and putting under cultivation company lands, a change took place in the Corinne company. John W. Kerr had died, and Toponce was out of the orThe stock of Kerr went to the Pitt ganization. vice-preside- Growing Beets Between the Rows of Young Orchards is Very Profitable. The above represents the Orchard and Beet Field of the Morion Orchard Co.t near Corinne ham City, and a few other towns were indicated on the model, and to make the illustration perfect the fair commissioners granted this company the privilege of running water through the works. I do not intend to give a detailed description of the canal, as such a history woulij have to be written by a practical engineer; I am simply giving you a history of its ups and downs. The construction of the Bear River Canal brought our friend Dr. T. B. Beatty here as medical adviser Dr. for William Garland and his army of men. Beatty spent one of the coldest winters we have had in Utah in the Bear River Canyon, and when Garland got through the Doctor settled in Salt Lake, and is now the Secretary of the State Board of Health. In reference to the reports of Jarvis and Conklin making large amounts of money out of the boys; and in 1894, when the receiver took charge of the Canal company property Tom D. Pitt was manager and vice president of the Corinne company. By August, 1894, the receiver had foreclosed the Bear Lake company and organized the Bear River Irrigation & Ogden Water Works company with W. H. Rowe as president and manager. It now became necessary for the two companies to get together the land company and the water company. The old company had placed a rental price upon water of $2 per acre. This, of course, retarded the sale of land and water to such an extent that practically no sales were made prior to 1894. The first official act of the president of the water company was to reduce the rental price of water to $1.00 per acre. W. H. Rowe, as president and manager of the Bear River Irrigation & Ogden Water Works company, and Tom D. Pitt, manager of the |