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Show The Story Of Roosevelt AS TOLD BY THE ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 7TH GRADERS (EDITOR'S NOTE: During the school year, 1945-46, the 7th grade students at the Roosevelt elementary school set about collecting collect-ing material and assembling it into a comprehensive history of Roosevelt. Chapter I of the story as told by the 7th graders is presented pre-sented herewith. Chapter II and III will appear in subsequent issues. is-sues. The "Story of Roosevelt" appears in its original form, untouched un-touched by the editor.) CHAPTER I Roosevelt is on U.S. Highway 40. It is about one hundred and fifty miles east of Salt Lake City. Roorevelt is in Duchesne County. Many changes have taken place in Roosevelt since 1905. It was in 1905 that President Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt issued a proclamation procla-mation opening some of the land of the Uintah Basin to homesteaders. home-steaders. People fjrom many states came to the basin to take up homesteads. Among the first settlers was Ed F. Harmston and his three sons. They filed on part of the land where Roosevelt now stands This same year 1905, Mr. Harmston, Cregg Harmston Charles Iorg and Ward E. Pack surveyed the town site of Roosevelt, Roos-evelt, street's were layed off and lots were sold. The first lot was sold to Charles Char-les Shurtleff where the Shurtleff Hotel now stands. The Shurtleff Hotel was the second building in Roosevelt. It was made up of a large tent and a frame work of boards. Later smaller tents were added in the back and these were used as separate rooms. The next lot was sold to the Roosevelt Mercantile. The first building however was a saloon built by Campbell called, The Roueh Rider Saloon. People who came here thought Roosevelt was a fairly large place and so came with no equipment for sleeping and living quarters and there was only one place in which to live and that was the tent used by the surveyers. Whenever the early settlers filed on the land they had just six months in which to establish a home. Usually this time ended in the winter therefore the Government Gov-ernment had to extend the time until May 15, 1906. Because there was not enough food for the settlers who arrived, Ed F. Harmston asked Charles Shurtleff, if he would bring his wife and a load of food to sell to the settlers who had not brought supplies with them. Charles brought his wife and her sister, also the supplies in the spring of 1906. Hay had to be hauled from Vernal to feed the horses of the settlers. It cost $65 a ton. It had to be guarded from the Indians who had cattle near Roosevelt. Cregg Harmston was the real first settler of Roosevelt. While on one of his visits to Myton which was then a trading post named after Major H. P. Myton, who commanded an armed torce to help put down Indian trouble he met Charles Iorg who came back to Roosevelt with him. They both lived in a tent about one hundred feet south of where Lee Brown's Turkey Plant now stands. In the spring of 1906, Mary E. Harmston named the town site "Roosevelt" after President Teddy Ted-dy Roosevelt. Roosevelt was incorporated as a third class city on Aug. 5, 1914. At this time the new Roosevelt city belonged to Wasatch County, but in 1917 was made a town of Duchesne County. Today it is the largest city in Duchesne County. The first meat market was run by Rob Marshall where the per-sent per-sent Willard Day Creamery now stands. The first white child born in the early Roosevelt Community was born to the Guekert family who lived near the present Roosevelt Roos-evelt High School. It seems as though water for house hold use has always been a problem in Roosevelt. Water in the early days had to be hauled in barrels from springs west of town. The first water was piped into Roosevelt from the cove in 1912 and 1913. It was piped by a private company of five men, later it was given to the city. The first celebration that was held in Roosevelt was in Roosevelt Roos-evelt on July 4, 1906. It was held in a grove one mile south of town. Mr. Lawrence from Denver Den-ver was then the owner of the Patry farm where Colbert Patry now lives. He invited all the people peo-ple of the Roosevelt area to come to his place to hold their celebration. cele-bration. Free lemonade was served serv-ed to a crowd of about 700. The water for the lemonade was hauled from the Cove, the Roosevelt Roos-evelt Mercantile furnished the lemons, Myton Post donated the ice and another store donated the sugar. Mrs. Shurtleff and her sister asked all the fellows without with-out families to donate 50 cents apiece and she and her sister furnished fur-nished and prepared the lunch. Melleto Harmston carried mail to Roosevelt by saddle horse from Fort Duchesne three times a week. Later Homer Rob carried car-ried the mail by horse and buggy for four years. The first newspaper printed in Roosevelt was printed and published pub-lished by two women, Ann Brown and Clarabell Wrieht. The first Post mistress was Mattie May Holmes. The first post office was a frame building 8 ft. by 10 ft. which is located straight across the street from J. C. Penny Co. The first library was constructed construct-ed in 1915 through the efforts of Nora D. Mathews who is also the present librarian and is in charge of the Elementary School Library. Libr-ary. The first library was on the corner by Lloyd Labrums service serv-ice station. The first Consolidated Wagon and Machine was established out in the Cove two and a half miles west of Roosevelt. In the spring of 1906 the Dry Gulch Irrigation Co was organized. organ-ized. They held their first meeting meet-ing in the Merchanlile store. Government In 1908 Ed F. Harmston became be-came tne first mayor of Roosevelt. .1 I Mil I III " 1 I II I . I, "The Uintah Standard", first newspaper printed in Roosevelt ' Published by Ann Brown and Clarabell Vright.( Photograph courtesy Tina Wilkins). j I " The present government of Roosevelt has a mayor who is George II. Harrison and a city council made up of the following members, E. J. Nixon, Vean Bair, Eugene Harmston, Paul Nelson, and Wayne Malin. The city recorder re-corder is John Wiscombe and the city Treasurer, Arnold Reef, This group of officers meet every second and forth Monday of every ev-ery month more often when necessary. nec-essary. All things pertaining to city government and business are discussed at these meetings. The city receives its revenue through taxation which may be direct property tax, excercise tax, income in-come tax, poll tax, school tax, water tax, sales tax, and gasoline tax. Roosevelt nas two main political politi-cal parties they are: the Citizens party and the Peoples party. These are. non-partisan tickets not directly including Democrat and Republican. The total number num-ber of voters in Roosevelt City are 700 about 28 of which are active voters. The city recorder is the purchasing pur-chasing agent for the city. At the present time the city government is working on sever al important problems among which arc continuation of adequate ade-quate sewage disposal, oiled back streets which are badly needed and more adequate pure water supply which is the most essential essen-tial and needed of all. Crime In Roosevelt there are about 14 divorces to every thousand population per year. In Roosevelt the amount of liquor sold during the past year amounts to ah , $89,000, and the amount of tob co sold amounted to ah $40 1,000. This is an astounSl fact to us as seventh cSg when we realize the fact thatl1? most as much .money is sopnt ! tobacco and liquor as is salni a the education of all the cE&,ont in Duchesne County. And ff? even worse when we reali n fact that there is about $179 S worth of liquor sold in Dueh County a year and $110 oon 1 tobacco sold in Duchesne Cnnni each year. This makes a toff1? about $289,000 which in ot year's time would pay for a 0ne High School and it is ? , $140,000 more than what is 2 ually spent on education. End 1st Installment Production of fertilizer may lop last year's 13,000,000-ton re- j cord by a million tons this year manufacturers report. ' j |