Show N N C t M 1 NOV 5 3 P ault OU lt 0 by SIRS MRS WILLIAM CHADWICK STODDARD the first man to make a home in morgan county was ben simon he was a trapper and built the first house in the valley at what is now known as the stoddard spring formerly it was known as the simon spring ben simon was part french and part cherokee indian ile he I 1 iad had an indian wife he came up from mexico when the i valley belonged to that country he had obtained permission from the mexican government to use the valley in which to run his cattle it is said of him that lie he was very kind to the first white settlers about 1860 judson L stoddard of farmington purchased the simon property property and the place was given its name in honor of mr stoddard Stoa StA dard he was a very progressive man and well to do and brought large numbers of cattle and horses into the valley he owned what is now the hyrum smith property he was one of the men who when brigham young and a large number of people were celebrating on the of july 1857 in big cottonwood canyon brought word of the coming of johnstons army to utah colonel jesse C little another early settler of morgan county was marshall of the day at this same celebration another noted resident of stoddard was lot smith who played such an important part in the echo canyon war in the fall of 1857 he and a small company of mountain rangers greatly annoyed johnstons army they blocked echo canyon against the troops to this end they constructed barricades and breastworks in the defiles of the mountains and took all possible measures effectively to impede the progress of the army at sandy fork they burned the supply trains and drove off the horses and mules they stampeded the cattle and set the dry grass afire but they shed not a drop of blood all this was accomplished with the most meagre equipment and a comparatively small force indeed to deceive the enemy capt smith often had his men ride in file around visible hill tops and passes for hours at a stretch making it appear to the soldiers that the mountains were alive with cormons mormons Mor Morn mons ions he thus accomplished by strategy what others might have performed by bloodshed lot smith was utterly devoid of fear and with a physique and a will of iron he was admirably f fitted for just such dangerous adventure his home in stoddard is now owned lu I 1 v mr william lyons at one time there was quite a settlement around the spring perhaps a dozen families resided there the road used to go farther towards the track than it does at the present time some of the families living there besides J L Stad dard and lot smith were philemon C merrill men ill conard smith the Man Alan hards henry rock miller parrish john hess tain smith a brother of lot nick barkdahl Bar kahl kalil dave saunders jen n f hayes and jake grover the people engaged in farming and stock raising at first toi mi rh ildren went to north morgan to school the present school building was wag henry rensen and john simmons miss olga edholm taught school there charles duir was kvas the first presiding elder stoddard is now a part pan of north orth morgan ward 1931 the first school house tva h rought bought by dave clawson and moved to his place in stoddard tt i is aill standing there SOUTH MORGAN ir in 1860 three men richard fry richard nor ind and daniel bull left salt lake city for weber valley t ta 5 ma homes they were the first people to settle ial x T r mi ic trinity of what is now south morgan the took up farms just north of the present town on tia ii i ii as the fry harding and turner farms in 1 ir 0 01 the next year 1861 mrs mary ann fry edding ar ve va corn there and was the first white child born in iowa morgan uram we quote from mrs smiths journal in the pr rig ng c 1860 two or three families moved into the valley alic kiich made it more pleasant and in the fall quite a number came and settled near us among them were some coulp people we held meetings in our house on sunday and we gener all alev had one I evening meeting a week and occasionally we moved our I 1 furniture lurn urn iture out and had a dance in which old and youner toli t iol part one of these families who came in was daniel bull and his son charles and an adopted son named george georg e one was qu quite tc a violinist iol inist and the other a prompter and we truly en coved ourselves and were united as one family stir colony remained on their farms until tho the prong c kf when two of the families moved to mo monda n v t town anva ano hollow low and mr norwood went to porterville the rea reason on for i itus his move was because they expected high water and i really eally had it for the valley was practically covered with ft al la pring erl in the year several killers kit tt lers who owned land n ti in for i fiod ii late hate vit vic mir knit comme nii td id to build a town at the I 1 mou ti t r all monday inday tc v ii 11 hollow on a small piece of land be I 1 t aft i v c n t tn n 1 disc tv t v ot ahr hills h ill and east canavon creek which was lencl b V T R G advich and donated by him lor jor a town 4 w N t 1 m 0 it ir kas as e callb hed and mi welch was wa appointed of m to t r tac I 1 i t mere merca bioli ing done to iii the 1 he valley a ht hi 11 r in amne T r r 11 iv by a nan named si li before T tr rai rashad raili had iad atil ery haipt a 1 roods hi gitil ii to to lie hauled in wagons 1 borri tn ti Alis ouri alij lur r matches 1 in nip mg sold ild for 75 cents a nr al bikar v 1 1011 a pou 11 atilo kLI IL 75 7 i cents a small IP 1 pound calic i 7 ri oo it its a 1 yard vard factory si r r 1 shoes hoes a pair te IU t 01 in 1 1 PELI lid N heat sold ild 1 n I i oil ili n hel a itier for 2 11 c r i i i i nir al thi th I 1 NN vas it i 9 i ib k drass k it i ili 11 IN t is arii rot 1 ii 11 i i filmy gan ga m ui Aluig tv lu na mr r I 1 lavid coolbear says that in 1863 i ed i 4 1 il lillis joseph dean and robert ere i the hillside of monda TI in I 1 fr afi fo mirillia amm liv charl li arli s dack I 1 tun V li j 1 in niini ni iii I 1 i i 1 I 1 I own wn i s moved there there was no bridge over nver I 1 it are re it now ilow iz i the luo ing to to jo 0 o d domi 11 HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY continued from page 1 lay jay in the water for six weeks but was finally found at the end of the island sir mr ager made the first brick in south I 1 morgan moi gan the monday town colony prospered as well as could be expected the spirit of colonization began to grow more and more this valley became a favorite locality for the home seekers and people kept settling month after month until the limited space at the mouth of monday town hollow would no longer furnish ample room for the people to live comfortably some of them were in favor of moving to littleton because there was more room I 1 most NJ 0 S t of tie the I 1 settlers S owned land east of canyon creek and were in favor of locating a town where south morgan now is the land was offered at a lower price than that of littleton so most of the people decided to move there the first to locate there was ebenezer crouch frederick darke and robert hogg it is said that robert hogg built the first house in south morgan this house was afterward purchased by daniel bertoch and moved to littleton in 1864 under the direction of brigham young jesse W fox surveyed and laid out the townsite town as it now is the lots were rods and contained one acre and 74 rods of land each they went up on the hill on the east side of af the valley and the main street was laid off from a large boulder to a certain bush the center one of three on the west side of the valley this accounts for our streets not running at right angles with the compass all the other streets run at right angles with the main street the lots were individually purchased from darke and hawkins at a price of 2500 to each in 1865 and 66 most of the families in monday town transferred tran s berred their residence to new morgan there were also quite a number of new settlers in 1867 and the town began to attract attention about 1864 charles turner began the manufacture of bricks from native clay these were the first made in morgan city good brick buildings began to take tak e the place of log cabins the george IV simmons house is said to have been the first brick house in south morgan and others say that john agers house was the first this house is still standing as are many others made from brick manufactured in that early day mr turner also burned lime for 30 years lime sold at a bu and brick for and per thousand the simmons house was built from brick made by thomas brough of porterville in february 16 1865 death called for the first time on the settlers of south morgan elizabeth wilkins turner wife of charles turner was the first to die she was buried in a little clay hill south east of town which had been selected as a cemetery miss elizabeth crouch is said to have been the second person buried there the fry ditch now the city ditch was vas taken out in 1861 by three men richard fry daniel bull and richard norwood it used to head just back of david Cool bears property and continued down to the bull and fry farms abiah wadsworth nelson arave and george higley operated a saw mill where the grist mill now stands the cot lenwoods Lon ton woods that grew along the river were cut up tip into lumber and this greatly assisted the new colonists in improving their homes bomes they floated logs down the river into a large pond back of the mill this pond covered many acres of ground and is now being farmed by dark clark brothers mr arave and mr higley built a shingle mill just east of where the seminary building now is and the head of the city ditch was changed to its present location and used by these hese men as a millrace mill race in the spring of 1864 the people undertook to construct another canal known as the weber ditch a committee consisting of richard fry charles turner and george simmons acted under the direction of thos J thurston the work was to be done by pick and shovel the ditch commenced near the warm como springs and followed down the valey ley as far as line creek near milton work continued for three years and was done at times under very difficult circumstances it was flamed across canyon creek at richville and after some years milton took out a new ditch from canyon creek and the lower end of the he weber ditch was abandoned in 1866 ezra T dark clark of farmington bought the he saw mill and on the spot where it stood just east of the river crossing built the weber valley flour mill about 1892 thomas and edward bought the clark mill and mill site they tore it down and built the roller mill which is in operation still it burned to the ground on feb 10 1932 in feb 1865 the people of south morgan were organized nto into an ecclesiastical district with richard fry as president robert hogg and charles turner as assistants the meetings were first held in richard frys house and after woods in robert hoggs and john agers homes in july 1877 the south morgan ward was organized with charles turner as bishop and thomas corwill and E ebenezer crouch as counselors robert hogg was a counselor for or awhile first mr corwill moved away from morgan and james R stuart was made a counselor in 1886 mr crouch moved away and richard R fry became counselor about the year 1867 richard fry and charles tucker explored the rock above como springs and decided that it contained a glod quality of lime stone they built a limekiln lime kiln there and manufactured a large amount of lime continued next week |