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Show Emery County Progress Castle Dale, Utah Tuesday April 9, 2002 J B Emery County JL.IFESTY Off and Running Huntington's first woman mayor Lelia Liddell Wallace Lelia was born June 30, 1923, in the little town of Opbir. She was the fifth daughter of John Wilton and Memphis Myers Liddell. enthusiastic about challenges of the job Lelias older sisters are Hana (Winn), Loraine (Clair), Barbara (Oviatt) (now deceased), and family moved to the mining i i i i town of Columbia. Where her father went to work in the coal mine. For the first two years the family lived in a tent as there were only 20 houses in the town. After being the baby of the family for 12 years, Lelias place was upsurped! A son was born to the family and the whole community was elated for the Liddells. Unfortunately, Thomas Wilton, survived only 10 days. Then in 1936 another daughter was to join the Liddell girls, Helen (Faddis). During the time the family lived in Columbia, they got the measles and the family had to be quarantined. Lelia had other ideas, though, and ran away to her aunt Aid's. Hana had to go bring her back. Someone saw them and reported it to the Sheriff. He went to check on things and Lelia told him she could go where she wanted and called him a GDSOB. He went to tell her mother about it but was laughing so hard he could barely get the story out. In November 1938, the family moved to Price where Memphis owned the Dinette Inn. Her reputation for serving the best hamburgers in town is still unsurpassed! While working at the diner, there was a certain fellow that would often stop by to see if hamthey had any old, worn-out burgers. This fellow was Grant Hobbs Wallace. He and Lelia dated during their last years of high school and were married on February 6, 1942. About a year later, Grant drafted into the army and was sent to Olympia, Wash. Lelia joined him there until he was sent to the Pacific Campaign. From that time on she did not see him until the w ar was over and he was discharged. On Oct. 6, 1943, a daughter, Rita Ella, was born to the couple. Adjusting to married life was a struggle after such a long separation , but things must have gone all right because on Oct. 1, 1946, Karen Jo came into their family. In 1947, Grant was offered a job in Ohio and the family decided to make the move. It was a difficult decision to make to go that far from their families but the move proved to be a good one. The friendships they formed during those years are still intact. On Aug. 17, 1948, a son, Scott Grant, joined the family. Then in 1954, the Wallaces built a home in Elm Grove, WVa. (just over the Ohio river). Moving must have done something to Lelia because on Aug. 20, 1955, a daughter, Emily, was born. Sadly, the day after Emilys birth, Delias father died in Price. Her mother was there helping out and had to return West right away. In July 1957, the family was able to visit Utah where Lelia and Grant were sealed for all time and eternity in the Manti Temple. In 1963, Rita moved to Provo to attend nursing school. The following year, in September, Grants brother, Alvin passed away and the family .came west for the funeral. Karen opted to stay in Utah and the rest of the Continued on PAGE 2B. OR COPY 1 By PATSY STODDARD Editor The first woman mayor of Huntington is Jackie Wilson. She was sworn into office in early January. Wilson said, I was born in Priee and raised in Huntington all my life. My maiden name was Gordon. I graduated from Emery High in 1969 and married Boyd Wilson in September of 1969. 1 worked for Walt Mortensen and managed his drug store and cafe. I was there for quite a while. We have three children. Cody was born in 1973, Cacey in 1975 and Cheyanne in 1978. 1 have been working at the Huntington Elementary for 2 1 years as a teachers assistant. I love working with the kids. It is a joy to see them excel. I love helping them. I served on the planning and zoning adjustment board in 1976. 1 was interested in the development of the city. I served on those boards until I was encouraged to run for city counciL In 1996, 1 ran for a four year seat and was successful. I also ran again in 2000. The city council seats are staggered so they arent all up the same year. That way youll always have some people with experience in Photo by Patsy Stoddard Huntington Mayor Jackie Wilson. and wishes. One goal I have is to get the community interested. I feel when we have the public at our city council meetings that issues get resolved quicker. We would like to participate in Main Street enhancement programs. We would like to find out where the grant money is and go after some of it. Other communities are doing it and the programs are out there. There is a program from Senator Hatchs office that is also being checked into w'hich makes money available to small cities. Councilman Norm Richardson is over the beautification committee and he does a great job. We are concentrating on completing the curb and gutter for the streets. That will help with the drainage problems we have. Thats been a big project. Depending on how the money holds out we have plans for 37 blocks this summer. Ten blocks will also receive asphalt this summer. A few years ago a survey was sent out to city residents and that was one of the things the people wanted and now we are a little over halfway done with the project. Councilman Mark Justice has big there. In 2001, 1 decided to run for mayor and now I have the job. At times Ive felt I needed more experience, but now Im ready and Ill learn as I go. There are many things I hope to accomplish as mayor, I w ould like to help the town grow and develop. Our economic interests in the county and cities are at a stalemate. We are losing people. We hope to be a town where businesses will want to come and live. I w ould like to unify the citizens with the city and government. We need citizen input. We want to have our citizens involved. We would like to get some things going for the youth and also the needs of the elderly will be addressed. We are. working for the people and we need the public interest to hear their voice plans for improvements to our park and the developing of a new park on city property behind the library. He has prepared grant proposals which will go to the Community Impact Board for consideration for funding. Plans are also underway for continued improvements to the rodeo grounds. We have so many things to accomplish. We want to beautify our city to make it a pleasant place with a friendly environment where people will want to raise their families. We want to bring businesses into our city. The industrial park outside of Huntington has been a big project. Talon Resources has plans to relocate their business there. We want to have businesses where our kids can work so they can come home. There are many people out there who would love to return to the county, but there isnt anywhere for them to work. We need to develop industry so our children can have jobs. We need to look around and see whats out there and make it attractive and enticing for them to locate their business here. Rosann Fillmore, county economic director has been really helpful to us. She helped secure a forest service grant to build the little park up by the cemetery. She has been a real asset. The more people you have involved the more you can do. We can work as a team and accomplish a lot. Dont wait for a hot issue to become involved. Come to your city council meetings and see whats going on. We have an item on the agenda for public comments where you can voice your opinion or concern about something thats going on. We cant rule or take action on it at that time, but we can discuss it and put it on the agenda at a later time if it needs further attention. We also have a great Youth City Council who help out in a lot of ways. I am excited to be here, its fun and interesting. Im going to give it a good run. I love Huntington and living here. We have nice people and a nice community and we have a lot of good people working for the city and in the city council. They keep me in line. I know that with team work, we will be able to accomplish many things, said Wilson. BITS OF HISTORY WMs imi How did Emery County towns get their names? started in 1890 when work began on a reservoir for storing water for irrigation. As elsewhere, dugouts were the shelters. Several families spent part of the summer of 1887 getting logs out of Miller Creek for more substantial homes. At one time Cleveland had on their main street two grocery stores, an ice cream shop, a blacksmith shop, a movie hall, which w'as also the roller rink, a tavern, a school (which taught a library, and the U.S. grades Post Office which was housed in various homes, depending on who was the postmaster at the time. At present , there is a grocery store, the elementary school (grades which serv es Cleveland and Elmo, and beautiful brick buildings: the post office, the library, a LDS church, the city hall, besides a ballpark and tow n park and pavilion where many town events bring people By SYLVIA H. NELSON Spring stimulates everything including curiosity it seems. And the minds of a few in Emery County seem to be going in the same direction by asking the same question. Since I couldnt answer off the top of my head as to how every town in Emery County got its name, I spent many happy hours finding out. For Cleveland, I turned to my friend, Freda Fillmore, who came up with the information from (Excerpts from Emery County History as told by Vernice Wells.) The little town of Cleveland just seven miles southeast of the settlement of Huntington, was named in honor of Grover Cleveland w ho was President of the United States at the time. This Information is also on page 147 of the Emery County 1880-198In 1884-8- 5 K-8- K-- 6) 0. Henry A. Oviatt, together. On page 176 of Emery County 1880-198- 0 which says that the of Elmo was townsite original situated in sections 32 and 33, and lots sold for $10 each, but no date offered. There is also no date for A meeting was held to decide what to name the tow n, and only four men Samuel N. Alger, Jacob Johnson, John Eden, Robert T. Litster and Martin Mortensen took up homesteads here in spite of the great handicap they faced in the matter of water. They found that a canal would have to be built for a distance of 15 miles... After three longyears, water finally reached Cleveland on May 1, 1888. Another difficult project was A V iwn.rt a ), attended ift iii Mr. Erickson, Mr. Larsen, Oviatt and Mr. Mortensen. After Mr. r r nn f ni ir f it ri ifim1 -- . discussing names they decided to name it after them, so each used their initial and spelled ELMO. The first date offered is In 1911 the community bought part of the Old Cleveland school house and brought it to Elmo. It was enlarged through the years and church, school and social gatherings were held in this building, and people traveled on horseback or in wagons to attend dances held in Elmo. Dancingwas one of the main forms of entertainment enjoyed by the people at this time. However, the first child born was Velma Mortensen (Eden) and the first burial at the cemetery was a baby, Violla Emma Oliver,. ..buried in January, 1915. The cemetery belonged to the church until 1970; then it was turned over to the town.... Now most of the graves have grass on them. There were no electric lights until 1931, nor any culinary water system until 1940 when it was put in with help through 1909-200- 2, theWIYY In 1917 a new brick school was built just south of the old church. It had four rooms in it and all grades, and was used until 1962 when the Cleveland and Elmo elementary grades were combined. The bricks for the school were made in Jim Ovesons field by the wash by Frank 8, mmW nrj Wnirrnm rnW ntf ntf nffwt p fHi R. Jones and Walter Clegg. The first postmaster was Mrs. Thursa Olsen and was housed in one room of Charles Oviatts house in 1912. Post offices of Elmo were in various postmasters homes until "In Dec., 195!), Ericksons Einar and postmaster Ina Erickson remodeled their garage to house the post office. This was the first time the post office was in a building of its own. The first water was taken out of the Cleveland canal at the John Lewis Gap, down the hillsides and across flats. It was called the Eagle Ditch. Some people built log homes while others lived in tents for a year or so. Elmo is now a far cry from those days of almost 100 years ago. Although the old church and school are gone, there are fine brick buildings: a post office, a library, a large LDS Church, and Turnquist Retreat, a home for elderly residents, besides lovely large homes in and just out of town. It was the fastest growing town in Emery County in 2000, increasing by 12 percent that year. Some of the people w ho live in between Cleveland and Elmo say they Who knows, this are from could be the source of unother town name for the next history book authors. Cle-m- o. 1 tt.mi Vm fi m m' mt |