Show AURORA the first settlers of aurora came from provo liar march eh 9 1875 they were geo T holdaway and J alma holdaway elliott newel ezra H curtis and sons ezra sidney and lorenzo the holdaway brothers and newel had previously located the place the company brought a small herd of stock with them and some plows but made sc rappers and harrows from wood to do their first work of clearing the land crops failed the first year and travelers persisted in trying to discourage the settlers but they were determined they started work on the canal shortly after af ter their arrival at the new place and finally finished it successfully houses were built along the river but in june 1884 1894 many of them had to be abandoned because ot high water the first house built was for julia curtis curbs the first woman to come to aurora the first bridge across the river was built about where charles curtis corral is the first meeting house was built in 1879 it was used as aa a school house until 1888 when the rock school house was erected in 1906 the first amusement hall was built it burned to the ground in 1910 and the present hall was built in 1911 in 1929 a new school house was built prior to the construction st of the meeting house many dances were held in the home of mrs laura holdaway Holda Fay the town was called willow bend until application went in for a post office the government sent nent a list of names from which to select a name for the post of lice and the name aurora was selected taking the place of willow bend as the name of the town newman was the first postmaster the first school teacher was maggie keeler heeler of richfield on february 27 1881 the aurora ward was organized with joel durfee as bishop daniel and W H harward as counselors the railroad reached salina in 1898 george T holdaway strung the ties from the salina bridge to richfield Rich neld the railroad gave an excursion rate of 4 lake city and return aurora has a splendid water right it is now served by the rocky ford the windy and the state canals culinary water is piped from a mountain spring prior to the time water was piped many people were served from the first well in aurira drilled by geo T holdaway when electricity was available the water was pumped by electricity the town of aurora was incorporated in 1913 with A shaw as the first president |