by Larry D. Christiansen
No other crossing in the Newton area has retained its name and character as this crossing of the Clarkston (later renamed Newton) Creek just at the northeastern edge of the community. It is made even more intriguing since its namesake’s, Andrew Quigley, connection with Newton was either extremely brief or just intended. Still his only mark on the community has been a lasting one. A partial reason for this has been that this crossing of the creek remained a crossing whereby the small stream was forded for well over a century, while the other crossing areas received bridges or culverts much earlier. But why the name Quigley? He could have chosen land along the creek in this area when settlers living in both Newton and Clarkston selected the land they wanted during the land distribution at the new community in mid-November of 1869. Records show that he had at least five acres in the south field which he committed in February of 1870 to the "Newton Co-op Farm" prior to his moving to Newton.
When Clarkston’s entire population did not relocate to Newton as planned, Andrew Quigley chose to make Clarkston his home. If he had moved to Newton in the spring of 1870, he quickly relocated back to Clarkston where he had established his home in 1868. The census and the birth of several children place him in Clarkston in 1870 and on through 1873. A collaborating account of this comes from a compiled history of John
Jenkins, who settled in Newton in 1869 and probably built the second home in the new settlement. This version describes how the planned relocation of the whole Clarkston community was to be carried out. In that procedure the settlers of the old town were to give up their land claims there in exchange for appropriate land and town lots at Newton with the selection of property done in advance of moving. In this, Andrew Quigley, because he was a polygamist with "3 or 4 families," was allotted most, if not all of, the block at the far northeastern corner of the newly platted Newton townsite. A short distance away was the best crossing of the Clarkston Creek, and it took the name of the closest planned property owner, Andrew Quigley. But when the planned relocation was changed in June of 1870, Andrew Quigley "never moved down" to Newton from Clarkston; however the crossing had been given his name and according to Griffin, this Quigley Crossing was the "only one used for years" to cross the stream..
Andrew Quigley was born in Ireland, and as a late teenager came to America as a stowaway. In 1850, at New York City, he decided to seek his fortune in the gold fields of California. The party he was journeying west with arrived in Utah where Andrew decided to remain. He began to work for a prominent man in Davis County and became acquainted with the man’s daughter. She helped convert the young Irish Catholic man to be a Mormon and he married her. The couple lived in the Farmington area, and in the late 1850's Andrew went with a party to the Salmon River Lamanite Mission in central Idaho, and four months after arriving he was wounded when the Indians attacked the horse herd.
Israel J. Clark, the founder of Clarkston, also had Farmington and Salmon River mission connections. This may help explain why Andrew Quigley came to Clarkston. He resided in Clarkston at least through 1873, and in either 1874 or early 1875 moved to the Oxford - Swan Lake area of Idaho. He died in 1881 and was buried at Oxford.
Quigley Crossing is still at Newton and shown on maps. The farmers still cross it in 2000, but they no longer go through the water but finally pass over a culvert. Besides being a crossing point, it was the last place where irrigation water was taken from the creek, and a pool nearby was used for baptisms in the early days of Newton’s settlement.
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Sources:
Clarkston Ward Historical Record Book "A", pp. 23-47, 52-54, 60-67.
Eldon Griffin. A Compiled History of John Jenkins, Mormon Pioneer and Early Resident of Newton, Utah. (The primary source of this information came from the writings or notes of Alice Jenkins Christensen with strong indications that much was in the form of interviews with her father, John Jenkins.)
W.W. Henderson, "The Salmon River Mission: Extract from Journal of L. W.
Shurtliff," Utah Historical Quarterly, (Vol. 5 No. 1) Jan. 1932, pp. 3-24.
Mrs. Willard Hadley, "Andrew Quigley," in Ben J. and Eunice P. Ravsten.
History of Clarkston: The Granary of Cache Valley 1864-1964, pp. 391-392.