History of Grand County
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 May 18, 2018, 7:31 pm
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GRAND COUNTY
Probably the first English speaking travelers to enter what is now Grand
County were Janes Workman and Samuel Spencer, fur trappers, who found their way
to the valley of Moab in the summer of 1809, descending the Colorado River from
one of its headwaters to the crossing of the Old Spanish Trail at Moab, Utah,
and journeyed thence with a party of Spanish traders to southern California, (l)
The next visit of English speaking people to Moab Valley, of which we have
any knowledge, occurred in 1854, for in the official journal of the Elk
Mountains Mission, it is recorded that a party under the leadership of William
Huntington, and Jackson Stewart had been in the valley and left a cache of
supplies and equipment which the Billings party of 1855 used the next year, (2)
The Billings party, a group of missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints (commonly called Mormon), consisting of forty-one men, who
left Great Salt Lake City on May 7, 1855, under the leadership of Alfred N.
Billings, established a mission at Moab, for the purpose of educating and
converting the Indians to Momonism. (3)
By July 1855 the company had built a stockade and corral of logs and had
also farmed the land and planted grain. They then began work on e stone fort,
which was finished July 19 of the same year. They were visited by Ute and Piute
Indians, who came to trade, some of the chiefs being very friendly, (4) but they
did not remain so for very long; they became very dangerous to the settlers and
it soon became evident that this first attempt at colonization was a failure, On
September 23, 1855, a group of Indians came to the fort and after acknowledging
the killing of three Mormons, warned that it would be well for the remainder of
the Mormons to leave. The missionaries immediately decided to leave that part of
the country. No further attempts at colonization were made until about twenty
years later. (5)
About 1874 or 1875 two men, George and Silas Green, came to the valley to
range their cattle. They lived near the location of the old fort. No word was
received from the brothers after their arrival in the valley, and it is
generally conceded that they were killed by the Indians. Following the tenure of
the Green brothers, a mulatto negro, William Granstaff {Nigger Bill) and a
French Canadian (Frenchie), whose name is not definitely known, came to the
valley prospecting and took possession of the fort. (6)
In the fall of 1877, the Ray, Maxwell and McCarty families came to the fort
and remained until January 1, 1878, when they moved on to La Sal. In the spring
of 1878, A. G. Wilson and his son came into the valley and while there made a
trade with the Frenchman for his land, but when they returned later, the
Frenchman had traded it to Walter Moore and had left the valley.
Seven other men came to the valley during the fall of 1878, (7) and during
the winter of 1870-79 and the spring of 1879, many more settlers arrived. It was
during 1879 that the settlers petitioned the post office department at
Washington, D. C. for a post office. The petition being granted, a post office
was established, named Plainfield, in upper Moab Valley, with C. M. Van Buren as
postmaster. However the post office was soon removed to the lower valley where
the bulk of the inhabitants resided, and renamed Moab, after which time the
upper valley became known Bueno or Poverty Flat. William A. Pierce was the first
postmaster at the new location. The mil was carried into this valley in the
early days by horseback, and until 1955 there was one old cabin, still standing
near Moab, which had been used for a pony relay station, but it was torn down to
make way for a new highway. (8)
This section was organized into Emery County by the legislature in an act
approved February 12, 1880, (9) and the county seat located at Castle Dale.
Emery County was formed from a portion of Sanpete Countv.
In the following year, 1881, a log building 24 x 30 was built at the
southwest corner of the present courthouse block in Moab to be used as a
combination meeting and school house. This was used for all public gatherings
until 1887 when it was destroyed by fire. In 1888-89 the Mormons replaced this
building with an adobe Structure twenty-two by thirty-two feet which has since
been supplanted by a modern brick building erected in 1925. The predominating
religious creed is the Mormon, the only other denomination being the Baptists,
who also maintain a fine house of worship in Moab, (10)
In the fall of 1881 construction of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to
Salt Lake City was begun, the first passenger train arriving in Salt Lake City
in April, 1883. This is the only railroad line in the county and is thirty-five
miles from Moab. Sometime before 1885, the exact date of which in unknown, a
ferry boat was built and operated across the Grand River. (11)
Then came the creation of a new county from a portion of Emery County by a
legislative act of March 13, 1890 to be called Grand County, from the river of
that name which flows through it. This act reads as follows: "Be it
enacted by the Governor and the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah:
That all that portion of the Territory of Utah embraced within the following
boundaries to-wit: Commencing at the point of intersection of parallel 38°30'
north latitude with the west line of the State of Colorado, running thence north
along the line between Emery County and Colorado to the point of intersection
with Uintah County, thence westerly along the southern boundary line of TTintah
County to the center of the main channel of Green River, thence southerly
following the center of the main channel of said Green River to the northern
line of San Juan County, thence east to the place of beginning, is hereby made
and named Grand County, with the county seat at Moab, and said county is hereby
attached to and made a part of the First Judicial District of this Territory." (12]
The county boundaries -were changed in 1892, (13) when a portion of Uintah
County was added to Grand County, the present boundaries being as follows:
bounded on the south by San Juan County; on the east by the State of Colorado;
on the north by Uintah County; and on the west by Emery County.
The territorial legislature had previously, on January 16, 1865, provided
that in new counties the probate judge should proceed to organize such county by
appointing three selectmen to form a county court. The probate judge and the
three selectmen were then empowered to appoint all ether county officers
required by law, to act until the next general election, (14) consequently a
county government was organized in May 1890, with the naming by the legislature
of a probate judge, who appointed three selectmen to serve until the next
general election. The probate judge and the three selectmen then met as a county
court on May 5, 1890 and appointed the following county officers: clerk and
recorder, assessor and collector, coroner, treasurer, prosecuting attorney,
surveyor, and sheriff. These officers served until after the general election
which was hold August 28, 1890. (15)
When the county was first organized, George H, Wads, the county clerk,
rented his home to the county for s courthouse. However, Wade sold his home in
1891 to Tom Trout and the county had to look elsewhere for a place to conduct
its business. In January 1892, the county purchased from O. D. Allen, a lot on
which was located a small house. They built an addition to this house, also a
jail on the property which served until 1903. Construction of another courthouse
was started in 1903 and completed during February 1904 at a cost of about
$10,000. The present two story courthouse was built in 1937 and is modern and
fireproof.
Laurana Taylor became the first school teacher in the valley. In 1904 a
high school building was constructed, to which an addition was made in 1917.
During 1934 a $130,000 grade school building was completed and these, augmented
by several district schools throughout the county, demonstrate the
progressiveness of the county's school system. (16)
The greater part of Grand County is very arid, broken terrain, with the
exception of semi-tropical fertile valleys, pocketed here and there, at
altitudes of approximately 4,000 feet, which produce an abundance of fruits,
vegetables, and grains; the arid country produces a variety of desert grass
which is very nourishing fodder for sheep and cattle. From this low altitude in
the valleys, the mountain peaks within 20 miles, rise very abruptly to
elevations of over 13,000 feet. The chief industries are agriculture and stock
raising. The mining industry is also important; all of the coal consumed in the
county being mined therein.
The county contains 3,692 square miles. About 4,200 acres of this area are
improved farming land. The assessed valuation of the county for the year 1936
was $3,564,432.00, which constitutes a per capita wealth of approximately
$1,700. (17) In 1930, the census showed a population of 1,704 persons,
distributed in eight towns as follows: Moab, 1,104; Thompsons, 90; Cisco, 105;
Westwater, 44; Dolores, 14; Elgin, 128; Sego, 213; and Castleton, 6.
Bibliography Works Cited
1. McConkie, Faun, "History of Moab", in The Times Independent, Moab, 1935,
in a series of newspaper articles.
2. Idem.
3. Young, Levi Edgar, The Founding of Utah, (New York, Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1923; 445 pp.) p. 188.
4. McConkie, Faun, "History of Moab", passim.
5. Jenson, Andrew, Church Chronology, (Salt Lake City, Deseret News, 1899,
259 pp.) p. 53.
6. McConkie, Faun, "History of Moab", passim.
7. Idem.
e. Idem.
9. L. of U., 1880, chap. 4, sec. 1.
10. McConkie, Faun, "History of Moab" passim.
11. Idem.
12. L, of U., 1890, chap. 60, sec, 1
13. Ibid., 1892, chap. 16, sec. 1.
14. Ibid., 1851-70, p. 183, sec. 1.
15. Minutes of the Selectmen of Grand County, 1890, entry 1 in Inventory
16. McConkie, Faun, "History of Moab" , passim.
17. Assessment Rolls, 1936, entry 186 in Inventory.
Selected Readings
Hansen, George H., A Regional Redistricting Plan for the State of Utah,
(Provo, Brigham Young University Press, 1937, 59 pp.).
Jenson, Andrew, Historical Record, (monthly magazine published by Andrew
Jenson at Salt Lake City from January 1806 to August 1887, Vols. 5,6).
Ore Deposits of Utah, (Dept, of Interior, U. S. Geol. Sur., Washington, D.
C.T Government Printing Office, 1920, 'Professional Paper 111, 672 pp.).
Sloan, Robert W., Editor, Utah Gazetteer, (Salt Lake City, Herald Printing
and Publishing Co., 1884, 636 pp.)
Utah-Resourccs and Activities, (Salt Lake City, Utah; Published for the
Dept. of Public Instruction by the Paragon Press, 1933, 458 pp.)
Warrum, Noble, Utah Since Statehood, (Salt Lake City, Utah, The S. J. Clark
Publishing Company, 1919, Vol. 1, 821 pp.).
Additional Comments:
from WPA Inventory of County Records, 1938
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