Memories of Early Days in Cache County, January 5 - May 24, 1924

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1 MEMORIES OF aARLY DAYS IN CACHE CCBKTY
Personal Reminiscences of Its First Settlers Forgotten Scenes and Incidents
Recalled Oy ..ords of Those .ho Took Part In Them
by
Joel Sicks The Journal
Saturday, January 5, 1924
... Smith taught school the first winter, and the next year we added anot'ne.
room, and . ad two schools taught
n Reed, sni «r. ~>avage. There were
a  reat many Indians in the valley during the summer of 185S, bu$ they did
not molest us, but in the fall of 1860 we had as Indian scare and built a fence
across kicks' Bend in the at#t field, so t at M could keep aur cattle there,
ini case of trouble. The iiinute men were orga ized in 1860. Geese and ducks
and other wild fowl were thick in the.valley ana bears aire numerous in the
willows along the river. The first saw mill was started by Ben Williams and
James Sills in the fall of iS5S, on the old mill site n ar the Thatcher mill.
They used whip saws and could saw about 150 feet a day, which was used for door
and window frames, and flooring for our cabins.  The first irrigation ditch
to be dug was the one below the temple hill. It was dug in the spring <fcf 1860.
The second was the Cards mill ditch which runs along 4th /.est street in 1861.
Thatchers mill ditch was dug in the summer of 1862. The old up-r:;ght saw mill
was built in 1362 and one bur put in to grind wheatC   Father C.W. Card was
the miller with Jas. Mowarth as assistant. The Carding mill was built in 1862
by Byde and Ricka. T.B. Livingston started it, and Sister Byde ana 14 Burgoyne
ran .it. Logan was named from .eogan river which had been named by trappers
years before.  . hile we were at Smithfield we dug up an old cache and found a
lot of chains and ox yokes etc. In the fall of 1859 John Edwards fo.nd bones
of a yoke of cattle, yoked together, before we left -ellsville Peter ttkogfeaJB
appointed John ..right and John Welsen to preside over us, and wer remained
under that organization until V,.B. Preston was made bishop. A man named
-Edwards started a saw mill at UHlrHl* in the fall of 1359. Be had to take
our wheat to Brigham to be ground, until our mill was started. Thos. S. Ricks
and I .D. Pendricks brought in a separator and fan mill, and we would run our
wheat through the separator and then fan it out by hand. Pot half of us had
coats the first winter, we dressed mostly in buckskin. The first store was
opened in Reeses house by B.ia. Blair. He l^ter moved it to the corner where
St. Johns church is now. Thomas Lloyd made the first harness in Davy Reeses'
\     se. Father Ricks started hie tanner in 1860 and Bade leather for us and
Thomas Lockyer opened a blacksmith shop,  la could market oui" oats in -alt Eake
and buy cloth. I bought two sheep from. Crockett for 200 pounds of flour and one
from. Irvine.  The first year I -ut my wheat in on the 8th of June and harvested
it on the 4th of October."
In going to summit Creek we had to follow along the foot hills on account
of the marshy, boggy, swamp between x-ogan and Smithfield.  The county road
ran that way for many years."
Whan the pioneers were crossing the plains in 1847, they met a company of
trappers from Oregon, on their way East with furs, and from them gleaned some
information about the valleys about the Salt Lake from which I extract the fol&ewint
"Mr. Parris says he is well acquainted with the Bear River Valley, and the
region abound the salt lake. Prom his description, which is very discouraging,
we have little chance to hope for even a moderatley good country anywhere in
those regions. Be speaks of the whole region as being sandy and destitute of
timber and vegetation except the wild sage. j~e gives the most favorable account
of a small region under the Baavr Ri.er mountains called the Cache Valley where
they have practiced caching their robe;:, etc. to hide them from the Indians.
Be represents this as being a fine place to winter cattle."
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