USA > Utah > History of Utah > Part 38
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* Lieutenant Howland complimented the charge made by Kimball's men in warm terms. He said it was as fine as could have been done by regular cavalry.
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something was wrong, Captain Grant requested Hiram B. Clawson, General Wells' aide, who had accompanied the expedition, to ride to the house and ascertain what was needed. He did so, performing the hazardous feat successfully, though the bullets sung past him as he rode. His friends at the house, seeing him coming, redoubled their volleys and drew most of the Indian fire in their direction. Returning, Colonel Clawson reported that surgical aid was at once required for the wounded. He and his cousin, Stephen Kinsey, a surgeon, then rode back to the log building. Returning, the two were again fired upon, one bullet just missing Clawson's head and piercing Kinsey's hat. Later, another ball came nigh hitting Clawson and went through Kinsey's trousers. Both, however, escaped unhurt.
Meantime, Lieutenant Howland, with something of the ingenuity of a Cortez, had conceived the idea of a movable battery, to operate against the Indian redoubt. His idea was at once acted upon. A barricade of planks, in the shape of a V, was constructed and placed upon runners, blankets being hung loosely on the inside to stop the force of balls that penetrated the timber. The outside was covered with brush and boughs to conceal the true character of the improvised battery. This pointed barricade, behind which quite a number of men could take shelter and deliver their fire without being much exposed, was pushed toward the Indian stronghoid. Like Macbeth, when Birnam wood, or what he took to be that forest, came toward Dunsinane, the Indians were thoroughly alarmed at the approach of this strange object, and divining its purpose made up their minds to retreat. Accordingly, that evening, they opened a furious fire upon the position held by the troops, and under cover of the darkness withdrew. The log-house had previously been vacated by Kimball's men, a circumstance which enabled the Indians to depart unobserved, after helping themselves to a supply of horse-beef from the dead cavalry animals lying near.
General Wells, who had been sent for to take charge of further operations, arrived next morning, but on preparing to attack the
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Indians, it was discovered that they had gone. One party, the smaller band, had retreated in the direction of Rock Canyon, a rough and difficult gorge a little north-east of Provo, while the main party had fled southward in the direction of Spanish Fork. A dead squaw -the one killed by a cannon shot-was found in the Indian encampment; also two or three warriors, dead or dying. Elk, the chief, subsequently died of wounds received during the siege. His being wounded had probably disheartened the savages and caused the retreat quite as much as Lieutenant Howland's battery. The Lieutenant had returned to Salt Lake City after the second day's skir- mish. Some of the Indians, more friendly than their fellows, had deserted their ranks before the fighting began, taking refuge with the white families in the fort.
Detailing certain men to garrison the stockade, and others to pursue the Rock Canyon refugees, General Wells, with the main body of the cavalry, set out upon the trail of the Indians who had gone southward. At Spanish Fork and Pe-teet-neet-now Payson- short skirmishes occurred, and eventually the Indians were overtaken near Table Mountain, at the south end of Utah Lake. Another battle ensued, and the Indians were practically annihilated. Most of the fighting took place on the ice, which was very slippery, making it extremely difficult for the horses to keep on their feet. The Indians, being shot at, would fall, as if dead, and then, as their pursuers drew near, rise up and fire. They killed several horses in this manner, but none of the cavalrymen were hurt.
Night came down, and a bitter night it was. The soldiers were forced to take refuge in the wickiups vacated by the Indians on the bleak mountain side. As these primitive shelters swarmed with vermin, the result may readily be imagined.
On returning to Fort Utah, General Wells found that Major Lytle and Captain Lamereux, joining their forces, had pursued the other band of Indians up Rock Canyon. The fate of these savages was similar to that of their fellows at Table Mountain. The total Indian loss was about forty; more than half the number of warriors
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engaged. Efforts were made to civilize the squaws and papooses, who were captured, but as a rule without avail. They lived with the settlers during the winter, but in the spring again sought their native mountains.
A treaty of peace was entered into between the settlers and the Indians, and the latter now agreed to be friendly and molest their white neighbors no more.
In the summer of 1850, Walker, it is said, laid a plan to massacre the people at Fort Utah. It was in revenge for a slight that he imagined he had received from Governor Young. The Ute chief had visited the Mormon leader to obtain his permission to engage in a campaign against the Shoshones, in which Walker wished some of the young men of Provo to join. Governor Young would not listen to such a thing, and again advised the warlike chief to cease fighting and bloodshed. Walker returned to Utah Valley in a rage. Gathering his band, he was about to fall upon the fort, when Sowiette, the white man's friend, again interposed to thwart him. He not only warned the inmates, who flew to arms, but told Walker that he with his band would help defend the fort against him. Walker again gave way, and for several years warred elsewhere, not molesting the Mormon settlements.
The following summer a successful expedition was undertaken by a company of volunteer cavalry under Captain George D. Grant, against the Goshute Indians, a band of renegades who for some time had been stealing stock and committing murders in Tooele Valley and the surrounding region. Their headquarters were in Skull Valley. Captain William McBride with a company of infantry had preceded the cavalry to that point, but finding it impossible to operate successfully against the Indians with his troops, had requested that a force of mounted men be sent to his assistance. The Indian camp was among the Cedar Mountains, on the western edge of a desert, twenty miles wide and very difficult to cross, owing to an utter lack of water. A first effort to surprise and chastise the savages proved futile, as they had learned of the coming of the troops and laughed
,
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and jeered at them from the rocky heights where they were entrenched. A second march of the cavalry across the desert, during the night, when the Indians supposed the pursuit had been abandoned, was completely successful. The savages were surprised in their wickiups just at day-break, and the males almost annihilated. Tons of "jerked beef," manufactured from the stolen cattle of the settlers, were found stored in the Indian stronghold. Among those who participated in this expedition, which gave many years of peace to the western settlements, were George D. Grant, William McBride, William H. Kimball, Robert T. Burton, Nathaniel V. Jones, Rodney Badger, James M. Barlow, John Wakely, Charles Westover and Jesse Turpin.
An important local event of the summer of 1850 was the establishment at Salt Lake City of the pioneer newspaper of the Rocky Mountains. The first number of the Deseret News-then a small quarto issued weekly-was published on the 15th of June. Willard Richards was its editor. Among the little force of compositors who set the type for this and subsequent issues of the News were Brigham H. Young and Horace K. Whitney, the latter one of the original Utah pioneers. The press-a small wrought-iron Ramage hand-press-stood in the building now occupied by the Woman's Exponent, immediately east of the present News buildings .* This pioneer press is still in existence, stored away on those premises among other relics of the past.
On the 23rd of September, at his residence in Salt Lake City, died Newel K. Whitney, the Presiding Bishop of the Mormon Church; a man much esteemed for honesty and integrity, and valued also for his superior business ability. He was succeeded in office by Edward Hunter, a man equally worthy and well regarded.
Bishop Hunter, it will be remembered, had been sent to the frontier in the fall of 1849 to put in operation the provisions of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund. The first company brought across the
* The Deseret Mint occupied a portion of the same building.
Mary Jane Dilworth Hammond
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plains by this fund arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 13th of October, 1850.
During that fall the settlements of Springville, Payson, Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove and Alpine, in Utah Valley were formed. In Davis County, besides Sessions' Settlement, Centerville, Farmington and Kaysville now existed; while in Weber the settlements of Lynne, Slaterville, North Ogden, Easton, Harrisville and Mound Fort were either formed or forming. The city of Ogden had been located that summer.
In December of this year George A. Smith raised a company of over a hundred volunteers, accompanied by about thirty families, and started southward to plant a colony in the valley of the Little Salt Lake. This place had been visited by Parley P. Pratt about a year before and reported by him as an eligible spot for the location of a settlement. Smith's company was organized on Peteetneet Creek, in Utah County. It consisted of twenty-five cavalry, thirty- two infantry, and thirteen men with a cannon. There were others who acted as a camp-guard. Arriving on the stream known as Centre Creek, they located the town of Parowan, now in Iron County. As usual with the Mormon colonists,-those who followed the advice of their leaders,-they at once built a fort for protection against hostile Indians. Walker, the Ute chief, was now in that neighborhood, and he at once paid a visit to the Parowan settlers, accompanied by a large band of warriors. "Their visit," says Apostle Smith, "demonstrated that our policy of settling in a fort was the only safe one. It was absolutely necessary for our preservation."
The early settlers of Utah, in the midst of their colonizing labors, found time to establish schools and provide for the education of their young. As early as October, 1847, three months after the advent of the pioneers, a school was taught in the "Old Fort," by Miss Mary Jane Dilworth, aged seventeen. This young lady, who was undoubtedly the pioneer school-teacher of Utah, afterwards became the wife of Hon. F. A. Hammond, now President of the San Juan Stake of Zion. She opened her little school to teach the
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children of the pioneers about the last of October, in a small round tent on the west side of the south extension of the old stockade. Pieces of logs were used for seats, and a small camp-table for a desk. In January following, Julian Moses, as soon as he had finished his little log house covered with willows and earth, began teaching a school therein, having benches made of puncheons. Similar schools sprang up in other settlements as fast as they were formed. Our first Sabbath school,-the forerunner of the colossal Deseret Sunday School Union of today-was opened in the Fourteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, in December, 1849. Its founder was Richard Ballantyne, now Superintendent of Sabbath Schools in the Weber Stake of Zion. These were Utah's educational beginnings.
Two months later, on the 28th of February, 1850, the Legislature chartered the University of the State of Deseret, designating Great Salt Lake City as the location of the institution, and vesting its control and conduct in a chancellor and a board of twelve regents, to be elected annually by the joint vote of both branches of the General Assembly. The first Chancellor of the University was Orson Spencer. The original board of regents were: Daniel Spencer, Orson Pratt, John M. Bernhisel, Samuel W. Richards, William W. Phelps, Albert Carrington, William I. Appleby, Daniel H. Wells, Robert L. Campbell, Hosea Stout, Elias Smith and another whose name we have been unable to obtain. David Fullmer was Treasurer, and James Lewis, Secretary. The chancellor, regents and secretary, besides taking the usual oath of office, were each required to give bonds in the sum of $10,000. The treasurer's bond was $100,000. At the initial meeting of the board of regents, on March 13th, 1850, three of its members were appointed a committee to act with Governor Young in selecting a site for the University building, as well as locations for primary school buildings. Section 11 of the original charter of the institution provided that $5,000 be annually appropriated by the Legislature for the support of the University. Another section made it the duty of the Chancellor and board of regents, as soon as the financial condition of the institution
Julian Mofel
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would warrant, to establish a free school for the benefit of orphans and other indigent worthy persons.
The University of Deseret, under the title of the "Parent School," was opened for the first time on Monday, November 11th, 1850, in "Mrs. Pack's house, 17th Ward," under the direction and supervision of Chancellor Spencer. Dr Cyrus Collins, A. M., a sojourner in the city, on his way to California, was employed for the time being to take immediate charge of the school. Later, Dr. Collins retiring, Professor Orson Spencer and William W. Phelps, and later still Professor Orson Pratt became the preceptors. Owing to a lack of room the school was at first organized for "young men only," but a separate department for ladies was contemplated. The tuition was eight dollars per quarter ; half payable in advance. The second term of the Parent School opened in February, 1851, in the upper room of the Council House, corner of East Temple and South Temple streets. Forty pupils, male and female, were then enrolled, the idea of a separate department for ladies having been abandoned. Subsequently the school was held in the Thirteenth Ward, where the University building was projected. A few years later the Parent School collapsed, the common schools established throughout the city and Territory being deemed sufficient for educational purposes at that time. Until the revival of the Univer- sity in 1867-69 the common schools, so far as possible, supplied its place.
During January, 1851, the General Assembly of Deseret granted charters to the cities of Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo, Manti and Parowan. The first to be incorporated was Salt Lake City. The event occurred on the 9th of January.
Pending the first election provided for by its charter, the following-named officers for "Great Salt Lake City" were appointed by the Governor and Legislature: Mayor, Jedediah M. Grant; Aldermen, Nathaniel H. Felt, William Snow, Jesse P. Harmon, and Nathaniel V. Jones; Councilors, Vincent Shurtliff, Benjamin L. Clapp, Zera Pulsipher, William G. Perkins, Lewis
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Robison, Harrison Burgess, Jeter Clinton, John L. Dunyon, and Samuel W. Richards. Two days later the clerk of Salt Lake County- Thomas Bullock-administered to each the official oath, and the first municipal council that convened in the Great Basin was then duly organized. Its initial act was the appointment of Robert Campbell as City Recorder, Thomas Rhodes as Treasurer, and Elam Luddington as Marshal and Assessor and Collector. The rate of taxation for city purposes was fixed at one-half of one per cent. The city was divided into four municipal wards, according to the number of the Aldermen. At the first election under the charter, in April following, the only changes in the personnel of the city government were the dropping out of two of the original council-Messrs. Clapp and Dunyon-and the substitution of Robert Pierce and Enoch Reese.
The general tenor of the charters granted to the several cities was similar to the following,-the original charter of Great Salt Lake City :
AN ORDINANCE TO INCORPORATE GREAT SALT LAKE CITY.
SEC. 1. Be it ordained by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret : That all that district of country embraced in the following boundaries, to wit :- beginning at the south-east corner of the Church Pasture, about half a mile north of the Hot Spring ; thence west to the west bank of the Jordan River ; thence south, up to the west bank thereof, to a point in said bank directly west from the south-west corner of the five acre lots, south of said city, thence east to the aforesaid south-west corner of said five acre lots, and along the south line thereof; thence east to the base of the mountains; thence directly north to point directly east of the south-east corner of the Church Pasture ; thence west to the place of beginning ;- including the present surveys of said city, shall be known and designated as Great Salt Lake City; and the inhabitants thereof are hereby consti- tuted a body corporate and politic, by the name aforesaid, and shall have perpetual succession, and may have and use a common seal, which they may change and alter at pleasure.
SEC. 2. The inhabitants of said city, by the name and style aforesaid, shall have power to sue and be sued ; to plead and to be impleaded ; defend and be defended, in all courts of law and equity, and in all actions whatsoever ; to purchase, receive, and hold property, real and personal, in said city ; to purchase, receive, and hold real property beyond the city, for burying grounds, or other public purposes, for the use of the inhabit- ants of said city ; to sell, lease, convey, or dispose of property, real and personal, for the benefit of said city ; to improve and protect such property, and to do all other things in relation thereto, as natural persons.
P. M. Helt
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SEC. 3. There shall be a City Council, to consist of a Mayor, four Aldermen, and -nine Councilors, who shall have the qualifications of electors of said city, and shall be chosen by the qualified voters thereof, and shall hold their offices for two years, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. The City Council shall judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of their own members, and a majority of them shall form a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, under such penalties as may be prescribed by ordinance.
SEC. 4. The Mayor, Aldermen, and Councilors, before entering upon the duties of their offices, shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, that they will support the Constitution of the United States, and of this State, and that they will well and truly perform the duties of their offices, to the best of their skill and abilities.
SEC. 5. On the first Monday of April next, and every two years thereafter, on said day, an election shall be held for the election of one Mayor, four Aldermen, and nine Councilors ; and at the first election under this ordinance, three judges shall be chosen, viva voce, by the electors present. The said judges shall choose two clerks, and the judges and clerks, before entering upon their duties, shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, such as is now required by law to be taken by judges and clerks of other elections ; and at all subsequent elections the necessary number of judges and clerks shall be appointed by the City Council. At the first election so held, the polls shall be opened at nine o'clock a. m., and closed at six o'clock p. m. At the close of the polls, the votes shall be counted, and a statement thereof proclaimed at the front door of the house at which said election shall be held ; and the clerks shall leave with each person elected, or at his usual place of residence, within five days after the elecion, a written notice of his election ; and each person so notified, shall within ten days after the election, take the oath or affirmation herein before mentioned, a certificate of which oath shall be deposited with the Recorder, whose appointment is hereinafter provided for, and be by him preserved. And all subsequent elections shall be held, conducted, and returns thereof made, as may be provided for by ordinance of the City Council.
SEC. 6. All free white male inhabitants of the age of eighteen years, who are entitled to vote for State officers, and who shall have been actual residents of said city sixty days next preceding said election, shall be entitled to vote for city officers.
SEC. 7. The City Council shall have authority to levy and collect taxes for city purposes, upon all taxable property, real and personal, within the limits of the city, not exceeding one half per cent. per annum, upon the assessed value thereof, and may enforce the payment of the same in any manner to be provided by ordinance, not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, or of this State.
SEC. 8. The City Council shall have power to appoint a Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor and Collector, Marshal and Supervisor of Streets. They shall also liave the power to appoint all such other officers, by ordinance, as may be necessary, define the duties of all city officers, and remove them from office at pleasure.
SEC. 9. The City Council shall have power to require of all officers appointed in pursuance of this ordinance, bonds with penalty and security, for the faithful performance - of their respective duties, such as may be deemed expedient, and also to require all officers
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appointed as aforesaid, to take an oath for the faithful performance of the duties of their respective offices.
SEC. 10. The City Council shall have power and authority to make, ordain, establish, and execute all such ordinances, not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, or of this State, as they may deem necessary for the peace, benefit, good order, regulation, convenience, and cleanliness of said city ; for the protection of property therein, from destruction of property by fire or otherwise, and for the health and happiness thereof. They shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen by death, resignation, or removal, in any of the offices herein made elective ; to fix and establish all the fees of the officers of said corporation, not herein established ; to impose such fines not exceeding one hundred dollars for each offense, as they may deem just, for refusing to accept of any office in or under the corporation, or for misconduct therein ; to divide the city into wards, and specify the boundaries thereof, and create additional wards ; to add to the number of Aldermen and Councilors, and apportion them among the several wards, as may be just, and most conducive to the interest of the city.
SEC. 11. To establish, support, and regulate common schools ; to borrow money on the credit of the city,-provided that no sum or sums of money be borrowed on a greater interest than six per cent. per annum,-nor shall the interest on the aggregate of all the sums borrowed and outstanding ever exceed one half of the city revenue, arising from taxes assessed on real estate within this corporation.
SEC. 12. To make regulations to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the city, to make quarantine laws for that purpose, and enforce the same.
SEC. 13. To appropriate and provide for the payment of the expenses and debts of the city.
SEC. 14. To establish hospitals, and make regulations for the government of the same ; to make regulations to secure the general healthi of the inhabitants ; to declare what shall be nuisances, and to prevent and remove the same.
SEC. 15. To provide the city with water, to dig wells, lay pump logs, and pipes, and erect pumps in the streets for the extinguishment of fires, and convenience of the inhabitants. .
SEC. 16. To open, altar, widen, extend, establish, grade, pave, or otherwise improve, and keep in repair, streets, avenues, lanes and alleys ; and to establish, erect and keep in repair aqueducts and bridges.
SEC. 17. To provide for lighting of the streets, and erecting lamp posts ; and establish, support and regulate night watches ; to erect market houses, establish markets and market places, and provide for the government and regulations thereof.
SEC. 18. To provide for erecting all needful buildings for the use of the city ; and for enclosing, improving, and regulating all public grounds belonging to the city.
SEC. 19. To license, tax and regulate auctioneers, merchants, and retailers, grocers and taverns, ordinaries, hawkers, peddlers, brokers, pawn-brokers, and money changers.
SEC. 20. To license, tax and regulate hacking, carriages, wagons, carts and drays, and fix the rates to be charged for the carriage of persons, and for wagonage, cartage and drayage of property ; as also to license and regulate porters, and fix the rates of portage.
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