Show The Herald JournalCache Sunday September 20 1987—5 AJ LookiNq Bock SmmoncIs The Cache Valley ‘Brigade’ Id the years after the Battle of Bear River the pent-u- p populations in the old settlements broke out into new areas in the valley In a series of Banned movesin ET Benson charge of the Cache colonies planted new towns at Petersburg (Paradise) Weston Oxford Dayton Clarkston and Stockton to occupy the unsettled parts of the valley and to provide homes for the overpopulated settlements And since new lands were opened Cache Valley also attracted a large share of the emigrants th came to Utah in the church uains that annually made the circuit from Utah to the Missouri River By 1865 the population of the valley had grown to the point that under the terms of the Millitia Act of 1852 the regimental structure was replaced by a brigade structure The only firm indications of that growth are the militia enrollment figures of men between 18 and 45 but they are instructive In 1861 there were 555 In 1863 there were 789 And on Aug 5 1865 there were 1094 On that day a special militia review was held m Logan and the regimental structure of the Cache Military District was changed to a brigade structure CoL Benson became Brig Gen Benson Under him were three regiments: the Cavalry Regiment commanded by Col Thomas E Ricks the First Regiment of Infantry by CoL WJL Maughan and the Second Regiment of Infantry by CoL Alvin Crockett Again the various companies and battalions were organised on a It was upon the first brigade structure from 1865 to 1867 that the brunt of the final emulsion of the Indians felL Not mat any of the various bands were forceably removed from the valley but the new settlements and the new farmlands and gracing lands effectively all of the valley By 1867 there was simply no room left in Cache Valley for the native Shoshonl and it was the duty of the Nauvoo Legion to make sure that any active Indian resentment of what was happening did not disrupt the lives or property of the settlers or disturb what was in effect the final land grab to wrest all of Cache Valley for permanent pre--empt- ed occupation Most of the new settlements were temporarily abandoned in 1865 and 1866 and the settlers called back into the larger east-sid- e towns for greater this protection And even action the millitia played a role David Jenkins of Logan recorded his role in the process in memoirs written in 1900: "Thomas E Ricks was in command of the militia at the time and sent me to warn the people of Clarkston of the trouble and tell them all to go to SmithfieU as we did not now what the Indians would do I was not much of a horseman but I got a horse and started u about I went across the valley where Benson Is now and had to swim Bear Ihrtr an experience I had never tried before but I got my hone Into the stream and got-uin the saddle on my knees the best I could and managed to get across without getting wet geographical basis a basis that much I then hurried on to by the fall of 1865 covered most Clarkston There was danger of of Cache Valley — embracing meeting Indians at any time but as it did the new towns in the I got through all right I think I west and the north was more afraid of crossing Godwin’s By United Best-sellin- g mid-nig- ‘A Press International novelist Gail Godwin’s latest book "A Southern Family" is autobiography a tragedy and is Eartmost intense work to date Godwin whose earlier successes include "The Perfectionists" "Glau People" “A Mother and Two Daughters" said she had very deep feelings about her latest effort “I never would have written this book if something cataclysmic hadn’t happened and it did happen The death In the book is the death of my brother It remaiu unsolved just like (the death) in the book" Godwin said in a telephone interview from her home in New York state "The only way I could express myself j ht Bear River than I wu of meeting the Indians The people left their homes as soon as possible and reached SmithfieU m safety" It was to meet the challenge of possible Indian raids that on July 14 1866 led Gen Benson to move the Liberty Pole from the public square in Logan (Tabernacle Square) onto the bench where the temple is now located Benson and his adjutant CoL James H Martineau devised a system of flags to alert the valley to the possibility of Indian attack A white flag indicated the possibility of Indian troubles and a red flag indicated that there were hostilities somewhere in the valley When the red flag was seen the local militia companies were to mobilize and await the arrival of a rider from Logan with orders from brigade headquarters For most of the summer of 1866 someone from each of the towns in the valley kept a close watch on Temple Bench and on General Benson’s flags Because the Bear River represented such a formidable barrier to easy communication eastwest in the valley on June 23 1866 Gen Benson effectively detached foe towns on the west side from the general militia structure and created "The Battalion West of foe River" a sort of Legion that embraced both the infantry and eavahT of Clarkston Weston Oxford and Stockton It wu a structure that was to survive until 1870 when the first bridges were built across the Bear And because there was a threat Gen Benson got very piety about absences from drill In November 1866 a formal court martial wu convened to try those who had been absent from the general muster It suh-Nauvo- USU Special Collections Ezra Taft Benson want 1811-186- 9 a success Englishman Foreigners were exempt by the Thomu Muse of Hyde Park Militia Act wu summoned to the court and his appearance recorded by CoL Martineau Morse stated "that he wu a subject of Queen Victoria and would not drill anywhere and that this court ” (foe might kiss his delicate blank in the minutes is Martineau’s) The court fined Morse 89 for absence and $5 for contempt of court! Morse told them he wouldnt pay And he didn’t He was on firm ground But there were other proA blems with the member of the court CoL William H Maughan wu too busy to serve and when he himself wu cited for that absence sent Gen Benson a note saying that he wu still too buy threshing wheat to attend court-marti- al his own court-martia- l! Editor's note: This Is Itw eighth In a (trios on tht Nauvoo Log Ion in Cacho Volley Southern Family’ part autobiography about it or even think about it was to write a novel about it" she said In the book Theo Quick and his estranged girlfriend are found dead and authorities and others conclude Theo murdered his girlfriend and then killed himself "I am closer to my brother now than I was when he was alive which is pretty ironic When you spend two rears trying to imsgine what someone's inner life was like it’s terribly ironic because now I understand him so well and I can’t tell him that that’s what this book is about" Godwin said Godwin spoke of the pain of writing thisnoveL "The pain would creep up on me at particular times" she said "I would write a funeral scene and so on and that wouldn’t be painfuL Where the pain would come in is when I would write even funny things that something didn’t even happen to him" In the book Theo helped his contractor father on building projects but kept falling through the sheet rock Godwin said the incident actually happened when someone was working on her house and it annoyed her She included the Incident she said because “that is what he (her brother) would have dime I tried to get everyone all their voices into the book And that was painfuL" Godwin who grew up near Asheville NC considers herself a Southern writer “I come right out of foe Southern literary heritage" Godwin said "I grew up in Asheville and my Sandmother could point out people on were used as characters in Thomas Wolfe novels In a way I had toget out of there so I wouldn’t Imitate (Wolfe) Yet the material and a lot of the feeling are still the same even in the new South "I think it works well for Walker Percy to stay at home and write and it may work well for some others to go away For me it seems better to go away" she said "That way I’m more completely in charge of my imagination I can call up the streets and memories and mix them around "This is my most intense book" she said "This book is a tragedy This boric is about people falling apart and not surviving their society’ so-calle-d |