My Grandfather, John Fairchilds, my mother's father, his family and a few other families were among the first ones to settle in Ashley Valley at Vernal, Utah. they packed all their supplies on horses and rode on other horses, they called it a pack-train. They came from Illinois and some from Ohio.

John Fairchilds was the captain of the pack-train. There were no roads, no bridges or no crops raised in Ashley Valley at that time, so after they got settled it was too late in the summer to plant seeds and they were getting low on food. So John Fairchilds and most of the other men took pack horses and took off through this rugged country to Rock Springs, Wyoming to get food for their families. They really had a tough time. They got into deep snow at times and blizzards and it was awfully cold. they had to pack feed for their horses also.

One man died on the way. They were all doing their best to get back to their families, for it had taken them three times as long as they had expected. So at last they made it, but the women and children were almost starved, when they got back with food for them. This that I have just written was broadcast over the KSL Salt Lake City along about 1936 or 1937.

John Fairchilds built a large two story log house with a full basement on his ranch three miles from Vernal, Utah. He hewed the logs and covered them inside and outside with planed lumber that he whipsawed and planed by hand. He was a powerful man in his day, and a great man to prophesy as to what the future would bring. He told me when I was a boy about twelve, if you live to be fifty or maybe forty, they will be fighting in the air with airplanes. He was a great axman with an axe and also with scythe and cradle. Many people used to watch him as he chopped down trees. They would see the large, thick chips fly through the air and wonder at his great strength and skill. I have heard him tell when he was in Ohio and Illinois, about going into large hay fields or grain fields with scythe or cradle. Sometimes he said there would be as many as eighty men with scythes if hay, and cradles if grain, and he always took the lead. If not on the start, he would soon be in the lead.

Many, many times I heard him call to strangers in wagons or horse back traveling along the road, to come in and have some fruit or watermelon, or to have a meal with them. The young, old and middle aged people would come in great flocks many times and Grandma Fairchilds just delighted in getting a nice meal for them. Many times she would get a midnight dinner. She couldn't stand to see anyone hungry or discontented. If travelers came into the valley and wanted to stay for a while and rest up, they would most always send them to dad Fairchilds, and they were always welcome to stay as long as they wished, and they never charged them anything. Sometimes people that were traveling through would get very sick and they would take them in and Grandma would take care of them until they were well and able to be on their way again, and no charge for that either.

They had no money to speak of. Money was hard to get in those days. But they raised most of their food on their ranch. They were greatly loved by everyone that knew them and they both passed away after they were eighty some years old.

About six years ago, I went back to Vernal. Utah on a visit. I had been away from there forty-six years. I was in hopes I would see that old house that my Grandfather Fairchilds built so many years ago, but was dissappointed for it had burned down several years before.
Written by: E.A. Linderman
Compiled Dec.10,1996, by Forrest D. Linderman
Also read Earl Linderman's The two boys that ran away
and the biography of Orena Fairchilds Linderman

---

Orena Fairchilds. In 1882 my Mother Orena Linderman was her name after her marriage to my Father J.W. Linderman. Her maiden name was Orena Fairchilds. She was livingon a ranch close to Springfield, Illinois. She had six children at that time, five boys and a girl. Wilber the oldest, then Olive a girl, then Mark,Len, Bird and Earl myself. I was the youngest. My Father left my Motherthere, so she sold the ranch and decided to go to Vernal, Utah where her Father and Mother were. So she got on the train at Springfield, Illinoiswith six small children and got off at Green River, Wyoming and her FatherJohn Fairchilds came to meet her with two covered wagons and eight horsesand hauled us to Vernal, Utah. After we had been there a short time, Mothermarried again, his name was Charley Jones and she had three more children,all girls. Mabel the eldest, then Cora and Flossie. Then there were ninechildren, five boys and four girls. Three half sisters.

We were living at that time in a rock house in old Ashley Town three milesfrom Vernal. One day I was watching my step-father pack one of his horses. Iwas a small boy then, but I remember it well, and Mother came out and askedhim where he was going. He told her he was going to Alaska to hunt for gold.So she said when are you coming back, he said I will be back when Flossie iseleven years old, she was just a baby then. Mother said arn't you going toleave us any money, so he handed her $3.50, said that was all he couldspare. So he went and never came back. A few years later, we read in thepaper about a Charley Jones who had taken a bath in champagne. We knew thatit was him, for he would do such things when he had plenty of money. Thenlater on we read in the paper of a Charley Jones who had one of his armschewed off by a bear. We never knew if that was him or some other man.

So my Mother was left a widow with nine children and my brothers and myselfhad to make the living. So a little later my Mother decided to go toColorado at Rangely on the White River, about one hundred miles from Vernal.So she hired two men with two covered wagons, four horses on each wagon, andso we took off. We had at that time nine head of cattle but no horses of ourown, so we boys took turns walking and driving the cattle behind the wagons.It was quite early in the spring and some places there was a lot of snow andif it wasn't snow, then it was mud. Some days we only made three or fourmiles. There wasn't any road, just wagon tracks, through the sage brush. Theindians were attacking at that time too. But did not attack us. It took usabout ten days to go one hundred miles. It is only about sixty five miles atthe present time, as they have changed the route.

We had to ford Green River and also White River, for there wasn't anybridges nor ferrys at that time. So we finally got to Rangely, Colorado. Oneman owned the little town, his name was Coltharp. The town then consisted ofa large general store, hardware, clothing and groceries and a Post Officeinside the store. There were just a few dwelling houses. We could not hearof any empty house any where, so they told us there was an old dugout downthe river about eight miles. There was nothing else, so we went down there.We got there about the middle of the afternoon and when Mother took a lookat that old dugout, she sat down and wept. We children tried to comfort herand told her we would fix it the best we could and later on we would try tobuild a house. So we unloaded everything out of the wagons and the two menwho Mother hired took off.

If you could have seen that old dugout and knew that you would have to moveinto it with a family, you no doubt would have wept too. It was about 18X20feet dug down in the ground about six feet, with two very small half windowsone on either side just above the ground, and a dirt roof. The entrance wason a steep encline, so that when the snow would melt on warm days, the waterwould run into it and then freeze solid at night. It had just about two feetof ice in it. It looked like it might storm that night, so all of us boystook axes and cut willows and packed them in until we had them about a footthick on top of the ice, then made all of our beds on top of the willows.The next day we chopped and picked the ice out and built fires inside, sothen it was nice and dry.

We did not have any horses, so we had to walk to the store eight miles atRangely and pack our groceries on our backs. Very often we would pack fiftypounds of flour home on our back and thought nothing of it. Of course wetook our time and would rest often. We were often chased by wild bulls andwe had to be on the watch for them. Then one day a cowboy rode up to ourdugout and told my Mother that he had 160 acres of land along the riverabout two miles from us that he had homesteaded it, and had just a littleshack on it. No ditch yet, nor none of the land was in cultivation, but waslevel and good farm land. He said he was leaving the country and he wantedus to take it as a gift from him if we would accept it, and of course wedid. He signed it over to us, so then we left the old dugout and moved downon our 160 acres, into that little shack and built a brush shed by it andMother did the cooking in the shed and also we ate our meals in it.

At one edge of our land was a rock bluff about 80 feet high and just on topof the ledge was an old rock fort and at the bottom of the bluff on our landthere were horses bones in some places. The bones as much as two feet deep.The cowboys just a few years before we came there had gotten the Indianscornered on top of this bluff and had crowded them off over the ledge,horses and all. There were graves all over the steep hill sides, with just aslab rock stuck up for a marker. You could not tell whether it was Indian orwhite man burried there.

My oldest brother Wilber was packing the mail by horse back from Rangely,Colorado to Mecker, Colorado sixty five miles up the White River. Hedelivered mail at White River City on his way to Mecker, he said he thoughtwe could do well at White River City if we go there and take in boarders androomers. So we went and soon found that it did not pay very well. So we cameback to the ranch and built a log house, set out an orchard and had a ditchsurveyed. Then Mother got a letter from her Father in Vernal that he hadjust bought a 160 acre ranch with water on it. 24 acres in alfalfa, a loghouse, barn, sheds for stock and lots of outside range. He said the placewas eighteen miles from Vernal on the Little Brush Creek at the foot ofDiamond Mountain. He told Mother if we wanted to come and move onto theranch that we could have all that we raised on it. But he said everyone thatknows the place says that the place is haunted, and I bought it for almostnothing from an old soldier, his name was Jake Slowmaker a bachelor. Hehomesteaded the land and worked hard to make a nice place out of it. But hesaid there was ghosts all over the place. He said the awful noises that heheard so many times were enough to scare the wits out of anyone. He saidthat many others have heard too and it scared them so bad that they wontcome near the place any more. So Grandfather Fairchilds asked him what thenoise was like. He said there was women screaming like they were beingmurdered, dogs barking and some kind of language like Indian language. Itwas terribly loud and he could never tell in what direction it came from. Itsounded like it was coming from all directions and the noise was always thesame everytime he heard it. He said that he was through with the place andthat the ghosts could have it.

Well now none of us were afraid of ghosts. We felt quite sure that we couldsoon find out what the so called ghosts were. So we came back to Vernal andmoved up on the old haunted ranch. Our closest neighbor lived up the creekthree miles. One afternoon Mother was alone in the house and she looked outthe window and saw a man on a horse and he was coming through our fieldawfully fast. So she thought maby someone was hurt and he was coming forhelp. So she went out to meet him. He said did you hear that awful noisejust a few minutes ago, she told him that she didn't and that she was insidethe house she supposed. He said he never heard such a noise in his life, soMother asked him what it sounded like. The way he described it was just thesame as the old soldier had said, Well he said I hope I never hear it againand went on his way.

One afternoon I was alone on the place, the folks had all gone away for afew days and I was working in the garden and I heard this awful noise. Ilooked in every direction for I always thought if I ever heard it I wouldfind out what it was. So as I looked I saw quite a dust raising in the airacross the creek in a ravine that was all sandrock from the top of the hillto the bottom. I saw that there was a big whirl-wind coming down that ravineand I noticed when the whirl-wind had got to the bottom of the hill that thenoise stopped. So I went over to look at the place and all up this rockravine were holes of every shape and form, many of them three feet deep. Sowhen ever a whirl wind came down that ravine all those different shapedholes caused the different sounds. So at last the ghosts on the old hauntedranch were solved.

This ranch was at the end of the road eighteen miles from Vernal, Utah. Thenthere was a trail that led through the hills and over Diamond Mountain intoBrown's Park, Wyoming. At that time there were many outlaws in the country.Bank robbers, train robbers, cattle rustlers and others. They usually wouldtake this trail by our ranch, as they travelled back and forth. Theytravelled mostly at night and quite often they would come to our house tiredand hungry and we would feed their horses and get them a good meal. Whenthey had got rested, then they were on their way again. Most of them wouldask us what the bill was, we told them that we never charged anybody for ourservices. But usually they would throw some money on the table, sometimesmuch more than enough to pay the bill. We knew some of the men for we hadseen for we had seen them many times. There was Lay and Casedy, Mat Warner,Joe Rose, Harry Tracey, We knew what they were doing, but we did not dareturn them in, for those that did as a rule did not live very long. Theofficers of the law did not have much chance with them. The outlaws justabout ran the country. Most of the men packed guns, some of them had a gunon each hip and a rifle tied on their saddle, and when they got in anargument and it led to a shooting scrape, usually the ones that were thequickest on the draw were the ones that kept on living.

One winter my Mother went to Vernal to send the girls to school and mybrothers were all away working and I was left alone on the ranch.I was about14 years old then. We had a lot of cattle, a few horses, pigs and chickensto feed. So I had to stay there and take care of them. The snow was abouttwo feet deep and sometimes from 30 to 40 below zero. I had to feed all thestock, out the wood and milk the cows. At night I would sit by the fireplacein the old log house and listen to the coyotes howl and the mountain lionsroar and other animals. Then when the wind blew along with the howling androaring of the animals, it sure was a lonely and dreary sound. I was theretwo months and never saw a living human being. So I could only talk to thedog, cats, cattle and horses.

We did pretty good on the old haunted ranch. Made a good living and finally bought it from our Grandfather John Fairchilds.
Written by: E.A. Linderman
Compiled Dec.10,1996, by Forrest D. Linderman

---

George Freestone was born Aug. 13, 1838 on Prince Edward Island (Canada) to English parents, Thomas and Ann Fall Freestone. He was their eldest son and in 1840, while still a small child he sailed along with his parents to the U.S. He spent his boyhood growing up on a small farm in Harden Co. Ohio.

At that time, Mormon missionaries were preaching in the area and his mother went to hear them speak. She was so impressed with their teachings, she brought the rest of the family to later meetings. They were all eventually baptized into the church and decided to join other members who were travelling by ox teams to Utah. By November of 1852 they arrived at Mt. Pisga, Iowa. Here they suffered many privations during the Winter months. They left for Utah again in the Spring and arrived in Salt Lake on Sep. 9, 1853 in Daniel Miller's company. They moved to American Fork and lived there for one year and then came to the area of Alpine at the foot of the beautiful Wasatch mountains.

The first years in Alpine were very hard. The family was nearly destitute especially after George's father, Thomas was killed by Indians in 1858. It was the strength of his mother that held the family together.

On Dec. 25, 1861 George married Alice Carlisle, the widow (divorced) of Mr. Wilkins with three children: Richard, Jed and Jeanette. George was 23 years of age, and Alice was 26. She was an English woman from Nottingham, the area made famous by Robin Hood. Alice was the daughter of Richard and Jenny Field Carlisle. Her parents also came to Utah from England to be with other members of the L.D.S. faith and had also settled in Alpine, Utah.

George was busy this same year hauling rock for the Salt Lake temple. He also served in the Black Hawk War as a Captain in 1866. George had a farm in Alpine and here he and Alice had four daughters: Alice, Mary, Rhoda and Drusilla. After the birth of Drusilla, Alice fell ill and lingered for eight days and died on Dec. 4, 1868. She was buried this same day on the hilltop cemetery in Alpine. Sadly, Drusilla was to live to be only eleven years old. George soon moved his family to Bridgeport, Idaho where he met his second wife.

On Aug. 12, 1872 George remarried Jennie Lind, the 17 year old daughter of Jens and Mary Nielsen Lind. She was born in Jutland, Denmark and had come to the U.S. with her parents in 1868. George, his new wife and his four children moved to Bear River, western Idaho, with intention of raising stock. George enjoyed fishing and hunting while living in this area. George and Jennie had three children, George, Georgine and Rosella in Idaho.

After living in Idaho for seven years the family then relocated by mule team to Vernal, in the Ashley Valley. This journey took them a month to complete and their first winter was very hard. Like other new settlers, they built a one room log cabin with a dirt roof that had no floor or windows. Food was scarce and many people became ill. There was no doctor in the area but luckily all of the children, stricken with diphtheria, recovered. All of their horned stock perished. Later, George was to have better luck with farming grain and raising bees.

Here he built the first frame house. He planted the first nursery of fruit and shade trees that supplied the settlers for many years. George and Jennie had eight more children in Vernal: James, Emma, Louis, Reuben, Emery, Charles, Afton and Clarence.

In 1894 George served a mission in England and while there visited relatives at Flixton, Suffolk. He wrote the following account of this visit in his diary: "Feb. 28, 1894. A beautiful morning. I walked to Flixton, the old Freestone homestead, about three miles from cousin James' place where Father and his brothers and cousins were born. There is a little church there built of flint stones and gravel cemented together. It stands upon a hill and belongs to the Church of England. It has a tower and a spire on which stands a rooster. In the churchyard lie my grandfather and grandmother, but no tombstones mark their graves. Just below the hill stood the house where they once lived and died, but it is gone now and another takes its place. The country round is very beautiful, being covered with many groves of trees. I returned the way I came, and many curious thoughts filled my mind".

George, after living a long and full life, died on Aug. 26, 1920. Jennie survived him by sixteen years and died on Aug. 30, 1936. They are both buried in Vernal. 

---