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Show Volume XIV Issue XV The Ogden Valley news Page 13 May 15, 2007 History of Eden Note: The following events were recorded by Denna Richins of Eden, Utah as she sat by the sick bed of John Fuller, affectionately known as Grandpa Fuller and Uncle John to many of the Eden residents. These notes were taken as he talked to her, sometime during the year of 1953, a few months before his death March 14, 1954. John Fuller quoting to Denna Richins: “I think Richard Ballentyne gave Eden its name because of its beauty. As a child I remember I used to go in the foothills where I could look over the valley. The whole picture before me would wave in the breeze as the vegetation was so thick. The valley was settled in the early 1850’s. The homes were scattered but at one time there were twice as many people in Eden as there are now. There were the Ballentynes, the Argyles, Calahans. Lyans, Pritchets, Fackreles, Froerers, McBrides, Moffetts, Riries and others. (Spelling of names typed and spelled as in original article, probable miss-spelling.) The first to come to the valley were trappers, who came over the mountains from the west and south on pack animals. Others followed their trails and soon ranchers began to settle in the valley. The first settlers used oxen for work animals. The plows were forks of trees, which merely scratched the ground. Plows were made later with wooden beams and iron shears. Most any crop could be grown in virgin soil, but the main crop was hay, grain, and potatoes. Good gardens were grown which supplied the families with the necessary food. The grain, when ripe, was cut with a cradle and thrashed with a flail or by driving oxen on the threshing floor. Then chaff was blown out by the breeze. (When tossed in the air) About ten bushels were thrashed out in one day. Clothes were made from wool sheared from the sheep here in the valley. Housewives corded and spun the wool. Cloth was woven on the looms in Ogden. Homes for the valley pioneers were made from logs cut with an axe and hauled from the mountains with ox teams. Saw mills were later built and farmers spent most of the winters sawing timber and hauling it to the farms for building purposes. The irrigation water came from Wolfe Creek, down to Patio Springs of its own accord and from Patio, a canal, which was surveyed buy the aid of a sprit level; brought the water to the valley below. The farmers needed a faster method of shipping their produce to market and for traveling other than by horse and wagon and there were not trucks. David Eccles who once lived in Eden, but later moved to Ogden, built a railroad up Ogden Canyon over to Huntsville. The train was used to ship hay and grain or anything that went to market. It was also used to carry passengers to the city. The Bishops of the Eden Ward down through the years were: J. M. Ferrin – Grandfather of Arthur and Joseph Ferrin John Ferrell – Father of Minnie Wilbur David McKay – Father of Pres. David O. McKay J. M. Ferrin – chosen again for a short time Henry J. Fuller – Brother of John Fuller George A. Fuller – another brother Virgil B. Stallings – brother of George Stallings Alex Hogge Leonard Fuller- son of John Fuller Boyd K. Storey – Son of Rose Storey and grandson of John Fuller Grant Staples Lowell G. Stallings I, John Fuller, son of Edmund Burke, Fuller and Adelaide Jelly Fuller, was born April 22, 1866. My first home was over on the mountain west of Eden. My father and mother came from England and at first lived in Salt Lake City, where father was secretary to President John Taylor for several years. They wanted to buy a farm and it was here in Eden that they settled down and raised a family of 13, which consisted of seven boys and six girls. My father owned a heard of dairy cattle and when I was six years old. A merchant in Huntsville, Christian Mortenson, made trips to Salt Lake once a week to sell the dairy products. My mother churned forty pounds of butter a week and a certain day she would put the butter in a bushel basket. She took hold of one handle and, though I was only six, I held the other handle and we walked and carried forty pounds of butter to Huntsville. We sold it to Mr. Mortenson and brought back a basket of groceries in return for the butter. When I was seven years old, my job was to help the other boys of Eden herd the cows. We herded them up on he foothills and away from the crops in the valley. That was a long hard job for us boys. When we got a few years older, our job changed from herding cows to farming. I learned very early in life to drive ox team sand learned to put shoes on them. When they got sore footed, they would lay right down in the middle of the road and wouldn’t move. I have pounded thousands of nails into ox shoes. The hardest job I have ever done while helping my father farm was helping clear new land. There was sagebrush higher than our heads. As it was plowed up, we boys would follow along, pull it out of the dirt, and pile it up ready to be burned. We worked from four o’clock in the morning until we couldn’t see any longer at night. I never wore a pair of shoes when I was a kid. In the summer, I always went barefoot. The calluses on the bottom of my feet served as shoes. In the winter, we wrapped our feet in rags or sacks to keep them warm. We were pretty poor there for a while. I remember eating sego lily bulbs and cow cabbage. Mother would cook them and they would taste mighty fine. I have gone out into the grain fields with my mother; many times we would glean the wheat that the cradle left. We’d shell this wheat, and them blow out the chaff and mother cooked this up nice and soft and we had a fine supper of milk and corn bread. We had about all the diseases going around. I remember my brother Enoch lost three children with diphtheria. Hunting and fishing wasn’t the sport in those days that it is now, because wild game was too plentiful. We could get all the doe, antelope, or elk we wanted. If I had time I’d fish a little. I remember there were lots of wolves, fox, coyotes, and three kinds of bear. There was a grizzly bear, a black bear, and one little brown bear. It was nothing to see seven or eight a day while we were logging. You can bet I gave them plenty of room. There were lots of bobcats, cougars, and mountain lions. The farmers had to keep close watch over their animals. Once, George and I were coming home from the sawmill on a Saturday night. We came upon a flock of wild chickens. All we had was a little gun we called the tube. I stuffed the tube full of powder and while I aimed George struck a match to the powder. We got seven chickens at once. I loved to dance. There were lots of young girls to dance with. We had two dance halls and two dances going on at the same time. The music was made up of a violin, banjo and an organ. My how Wilmer Ferrin could play that organ. Jessie Wilbur played the banjo. I’d join the crowd in one dance hall, then I’d go over to the other and have fun there. We’d dance the Waltz, Scottish, Square Dance, Polka, and the Versuvian. We had a man to call and he’d get right down among the dancers and we’d dance wither we knew how or not. In those days on dance night, the folks would get the chores done at noon. We’d all climb into the hand made Bob Sleighs drawn with ox teams and take our supper and all the babies and away we’d go for the dance hall. The stage back of the orchestra was a bedroom for the babies. Beds were made after supper and there the HISTORY cont. on page 20 Historical Photo Eden School. If you can identify any of these students, please call Shanna at 745-2688 or Jeannie at 745-2879. Photo courtesy of Ned Clark. |
