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Show Paragonah From cropland to a thriving community Paragonah public square and the Ward Chapel are located where the old Fort once stood. In 1861 and 1802 the people began moving out of the Fort and building homes. John H. Robinson and Orson Adams built a sawmill just east of town in the early 1860's. A burr grist mill was built in 1868 which supplied all of the flour used in Paragonah for many years. It was also in 1868 the Indians became very hostile again. Until 1870 the people were held in suspense and dread for fear the Indians might break in upon them and destroy their homes and farms. The town was constantly con-stantly guarded by twomen, every able bodied man and boy were required to take their turn as home guard. Since that time Paragonah has grown. All of the people have comfortable homes, electric and water systems have been added. A new chapel has just been completed. structed up to that time. All meetings were held at Parowan, and every Sunday, providing it was a nice day, one could see men, women and children walking or traveling to Parowan to worship God. The amusements were very limited, an old fashioned spinning spin-ning bee, husking bees., singing schools and dancing. The boys wore hickory shirts and homespun trousers and the girls wore calico dresses and ,al enjoyed en-joyed themselves immensely. The women were very united about their work. The wool was sheared, taken to the streams, washed and dried and colored by means of rabbit brush, alum, oak bark, oak leaves, indigo, tan bark and madder. Some of the women would card and spin while others did the weaving. Each family owned a few head of milk cows and the men took turns herding them in the meadows. The women made butter and using all the milk, took turns making cheese. The men usually went to the canyon for wood or timber in squads of six or eight and were never without their firearms. They were prepared for any attacks by the Indians. In about 1860 a townsite was selected and laid off. The Two brothers by the name of Job and Charles Hall traveled to Black Rock (just outside of present day Paragonah) took up 40 acres of land and planted crops. They did not make homes there, but traveled back and forth from Parowan to care for their thriving crops. This was in 1851. In the early spring of 1852, several other men joined the brothers among them were Charles Webb, William H. Dame, John Topham, Robert E. Miller, William Barton and Benjamin Watts. Huts of logs and cedar posts were built by these men and served as a shelter for them while they put in their crops. The women, however, stayed in Parowan. That spring they broke up and planted about 300 acres of land, the crops turned out to be very good and the year was a prosperous one for those early pioneers. As winter approached some returned to Parowan, others chose to stay. Grandma Barton and her three younger sons, J.P. Barton, S.S. Barton and J.S. Barton; the John R. Robinson family also settled in Paragonah in the fall of 1852. Some of those early pioneers built dug-outs to live in during the winter-they proved to be very comfortable. In the spring of 1853 crops were again planted and all was going along well until July, 1853, when the Utes became very hostile and the settlers were forced to abandon their homes and flee to Parowan for protection and to help protect Parowan. However, the Indians did not destroy all the crops and with some difficulty they were harvested and taken to Parowan. From the year 1853 to 1855, owing to the hostility of the Indians, In-dians, no further settlement was made in Paragonah, until President Brigham Young made a call to the firsA settlers to move back and make permanent homes. As a means of protection he advised building a fort. He traveled to Paragonah, selected and dedicated the spot of ground where the foret was to be built. And so it was in the spring of 1855 the men returned to Paragonah to began making adobes for the Fort. All succeeded in planting good crops. Everything came up nicely and prospects were favorable for an excellent harvest, har-vest, when all of a sudden grasshoppers burst in upon them. All of the crops were devoured nothing remained to be harvested. As the crops were destroyed, the men began to build the Fort as they had been advised. The Fort was laid off about 100 feet square, having lower walls three feet thick, the upper walls 2 feet thick and two stories high. It took in the nighborhood of 375,000 brick for the first story. The other story was not added until 1857. There was only a north entrance through which wagons could pass. There were no windows in the lower story. The Paragonah Fort was considered one of the best and most substantial sub-stantial which had been con- |