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Show The Early Records of Wellsville Third Cache Valley Historical! Paper-An Interesting Account Given By Francis Ounnell From the parly records of Wellsvllle, kept by Francis Ounnell, the first school teacher, we take the following remarks, Indicative of the early life in the valley and giving the names of many ot the leading pioneers, some of whom are still living: "On September 17, 1850,Peter, John and Wm. H. Maughan, Franols Gun nell, George M. liryan, A, D. Thompson, Thomp-son, Zlal Ulggs, with their families, settled this place (Wellsvllle) under the presidency of Peter Maughan. They put their wagons In the form ot a fort for defense against the Indians. In-dians. Their first counsel was to provide pro-vide hay for their stock, their next duty to build log cabins for themselves. them-selves. In November Peter Maughan went to the legislature which was to meet at Fillmore City, then the capital capi-tal ot the territory. He returned in February. Trie' winter was very hard. Ploughing was begun on March 18. They celebrated July 4, 1857, with the following program and with W. H. Maughan as master ot ceremonies: Salute by company of twenty-four men at daybreak. General muster at 0 a. m. and Inspection In-spection of army by Captain Peter Maughan. Assembly ot citizens at 2 p. m. and speeches by Francis Gunnell and others. On July 23 a heavy frost killed all potatoes. On July 2i was the first celebration of Pioneer day in the valley. val-ley. John Thlrkell w as the orator of the day and delivered a prophecy that a temple would be built somewhere to the north and that God would modify the elements and they would raise their wheat though they had lost j their potatoes. So much for the 'events of the first year of the settlement. settle-ment. On March 22, 1861, John Owen, - Charles Bailey and Wm. Sanderford ) were appointed to cross the plains for the benefit of gathering the poor. As contributions lo this purpose among others Robert Raxter gave ono pair shoes, two pounds butter and one pair of socks; Sam MacMurdle gave two pounds buttor, ten pounds meat, one pound tallow and one bushel of wheal; lal RIrks gave one pair shoes, thirteen thir-teen and three-fourths pounds dressed bacon, 100 pounds Hour and two pounds tallow. To.show the value of articles which took the place of money It is Interesting In-teresting to note the following articles paid to Charles Bailey: One pair pants (little worn) . . . . ,7 00 One pair boots 8 00 One factory shirt 100 Three pair socks 3 00 Among donations given to keep peace with the Indians we note that six sheep and thirteen bushels of wheat were given on May 2, 1801. An ordinance of September 29, 1801, for the malntalnance of the school re quired every man over twenty, whether wheth-er married or single, to pay ono load of wood to the school house and also to pay one pound of tallow or lard and one-half a bushel of oats. The oldest and only extant record of Cache Valley Val-ley Stake ot Zlon, which Is now In the possession ot Bishop Owen of Wellsvllle, Wells-vllle, shows that the stake wasorgan-Ized wasorgan-Ized November 13, 1859, with headquarters head-quarters at Wellsvllle and Peter Maughan as president. The members of tho High Council wero Sam MacMurdle, Mac-Murdle, John W. Lusk and John Owen of Wellsvllle; Ebenezer Sanders, John E. Jones, Thos. E. Rlx and John Nelson of Logan; Dudley J. Merrill of Smlthfield; A. Cooper and Wm. Lewis ot Richmond; John Clifford ot Providence Provi-dence and Wm. Finley of Mendon. The bishops wero Wm. II. Maughan for Wellsvllle, W. B. Preston for Logan, Lo-gan, John G. Smith for Smlthfield, Thomas Tldwell for Richmond, Rob- Iert Williams for Providence and Andrew An-drew Shumway for Mendon. |