The Blessing of Posterity

Now that the William and Mary Ogden family are safely established in their red adobe house in Richfield we should catch up on what was happening with family relationships.  Consider this time line of events occurring within this closely knit family:

Sept. 24, 1868   The Ogdens arrive in Salt Lake with the Edward T. Mumford Company

Nov. 1, 1869       Mary Anne Ogden, 2^nd oldest child, marries W.C.B. Orrock in the Endowment House. Their romance first started back in England.

Oct 9, 1871          Jane Ogden, 4th child in the family, marries Henry Dall.  She is 19 at the time; he, 32 and a widower of nearly 8 years.  He brings to the marriage a son, Samuel, age 9.

Aug 24, 1872       James Ogden, now age 26 and oldest of the children, marries 24-year-old Alice Wray. Alice had arrived with her family from the Lancashire area of England via the ship Wisconsin on August 13.  

Allowing for a week’s train travel the marriage took place about 4 days after her arrival in Utah.  This also looks like a romance that had its start back in England and had been patiently waiting to develop.

Mar 31, 1873      Thomas Ogden, the third child of the family, marries Ann Marsh.  Ann had arrived in New York on September 17, 1872, on the ship Minnesota.  She came with her mother and 3 sisters from the Bolton area in England; perhaps another Lancashire romance.  At the time of this marriage, Thomas was 24 and Ann was 19.

Summer 1873    Approximate time the Ogdens relocated to Richfield.

Dec 27, 1873       Alice Wray, wife of James Ogden, dies in Richfield two days after the first Christmas in their new home. No details of the cause of death are available.  They were married only 16 months.  She was buried in the Richfield Pioneer Cemetery.

Oct 13, 1874       James marries Betsy Marsh, the sister of Ann, and oldest of the four Marsh daughters.

If the family gathered together in 1875 for Thanksgiving dinner, there would have been William and Mary, their seven children, four sons or daughters in-laws, and nine grandchildren at the table, a total of 22 people; more than double their family size in six short years.

The Ogden's (with their trunk) pack up and find a new home

William took his three oldest sons, James (26), Thomas (22), and William (17) and travelled to the Sevier Valley to reconnoiter the area.  They were accompanied by Wm. Orrock and his brother-in-law Steven Theobald.  When they arrived they found considerable discussion in the area about building a new town near where Central is today.  To irrigate the land it was proposed that a new canal be built to carry water to the town site and fields that would soon be developed. 

It seemed a great plan and the men were anxious to be part of the planning and building of the new town.  They returned to Santaquin, discussed the news with the rest of the family, and made the decision to make Central their new home.  The men returned to secure property while Mary wound up their affairs in Santaquin and packed the trunk.  However they would soon find that plans and events were not going as well as they thought.

When the men arrived back in Central they promptly acquired some lots in the township on which to build their homes; they also acquired by lottery some farmland between the town and the river. It was then that issues arose that would alter their plans once again.  Some of the settlers in the new town wanted the canal to be constructed below the existing Richfield canal and others thought it best to build above and divert water via a flume.  Disagreement became arguments which became heated contention and bickering; all the while the season of planting grew later.  

Finally the Ogden’s decided that they could afford to wait no longer and made a decision to move to Richfield where there also existed opportunity, but with a more harmonious population.  Much of the land there had previously been cultivated before the evacuation and now had to be cleared off again and prepared to plant.  Once more each of the men was desirous of having their own lot for a future home and they acquired such lots in the south west quarter of the town; adjacent to each other.

The plan was to work together to first build a home for William and Mary and then to help one another with the construction of subsequent houses.  The necessary tasks were divided up and some made adobes and bricks and worked at construction of the new house while some began to clear and plant land so that a crop might be harvested by fall. The house was a large adobe with two fireplaces located at the corner of 500 South and 200 West.  When the house was ready to occupy, the property in Santaquin was disposed of, and the family was reunited in their new, and hopefully permanent, community.

Thus the Ogdens establish their new home in a new land and a begin a new and exciting era.

They didn't get the Memo

Richfield in 1870 wasn't much to see... in fact there was very, very little to see.  The people had left in a big hurry and were now living elsewhere for the time being.  Many of them were questioning whether they even wanted to return.  It wasn't the red dirt on their carpets that was their concern, it was the red men in the hills.  Blackhawk and his warriors were still marauding and any peaceful farming saint wanted to keep his scalp and his life. Richfield sat in the middle of the valley had little to offer in terms of protection and safety.  When the year 1870 arrived it was an empty village and it would take another year before the place would be safe to return to.

But the Constitution of the land, which also included territories, explicitly stated that the people must  be counted every ten years, and this year of 1870 was a year for counting.  Apparently the task fell to a Mr.Wm.W. Rockhill, a newly minted "Census Marshall," who had taken the oath of office and was either not informed of the grave risk to life and limb that lurked in southern Utah, or was unconcerned and oblivious to the dangers of the Indian uprising; but his duty was to count...  and count he would. 

Use your best imagination and you can see him riding an old flea bitten U.S. Government mule down from the north country, pencils in pocket, satchel under arm, with a round derby hat perched on his head, and little wire rimmed spectacles on his nose.  No doubt he had been carefully trained in the Palmer Method of handwriting which would have been a perfect supplement to his emotionless, accountant-like personality.  Exercise that imagination some more and you might see him slowly making his way down what little main street there was, stepping around some errant tumbleweeds.  There would have been little or no wind in mid-June and an oppressive stillness filling the afternoon.  But there was a curl of smoke at the end of the street and to that spot Rockhill focused his attention and gave his old mule a kick.  The only live body in the entire town was an old Swedish sheepherder by the name of C.P. Anderson.  Picture him at the campfire whittling a stick and judiciously considering the uninvited guest who was dismounting from the mule.  Rockhill would have politely introduced himself as a representative of the US Govt, which probably made him less welcome in the deserted town than Chief Black Hawk himself.   Up to this time the only questions that had been asked by agents of the federal government had to do with the marital status of Mormon men, and that never turned out very well.  So as Mr. Rockhill asked the required questions the wary old Swede probably told him the basics at least.  But listed below Anderson's name were three young men, without names, ages 20,18,16.  The notations are puzzling and we are left to guess who they might be. Were they sons of C.P. Anderson? Did they not have first names, and if they did, why no recording of them?   These are good questions; perhaps they were sons that Anderson had not yet gotten around to naming.  Or perhaps he didn't want the US Govt to know their names.  Or better yet... maybe the interview was cut short by a Ute arrow that suddenly struck a nearby tree.   Me thinks we will never know the details of that June 14, 1870 day in Richfield, so our imagination is all we have to go on.  The motto is; when in doubt... make it good!.

The entire Richfield Census of 1870

So that was what Richfield consisted of in 1870.  Humble start for an exciting town!!

Mr. Wm. W. Rockhill, Ass't Marshall of the US Govt., concluded his census count of Richfield with the following notation:

Note:  After agreeing to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the Ute's lived in peace for over 140 years and then decided to join the PAC 10 where they lived the rest of their days in obscurity.

Utahs Black Hawk War

Chief Black Hawk played an important part in the story of the Ogden family and where they would take their trunk and eventually settle.

Here are some “Bullet Points” to help the reader understand the tensions of the times:

The Black Hawk War wasn't really a war in the traditional sense; it was a series of skirmishes between Indians and settlers between the years 1869 and 1871. Like nearly any other conflict involving peoples of different cultures it had two essential elements; an abundance of tinder ready to ignite, and a spark that would set it off.

• The Tinder, was the encroachment upon the food, customs, and lands of the native people.  Settlements throughout northern Utah and growing settlements in southern areas of Cedar and St. George left the central area of Utah, comprised of the Sanpete and Sevier Valleys, as the last Indian lands in the state.  Not to cast blame, but it is obvious that settlers continued to alter the natural environment by logging, redirecting streams for irrigation, recklessly over-fishing rivers, and killing deer, elk, and other game. As both Indian and non-Indian competed for the land, tensions grew exponentially.
• The Spark.  During a conference between whites and Indians held at Manti the following incident is recited: “A local named John Lowry, believed drunk at the time, told the Chief to keep quiet, when someone yelled,  ‘look out he's getting his arrows!’ Lowry jerked the Chief (by his hair) off of his horse, and was about to abuse him, when some men stepped in and broke them up."-Indian Depredations in Utah - Peter Gottfredson. 

Thus the tinder was ignited by a drunken Lowry.  Tensions heightened, cattle were stolen, and a young Indian brave, newly named Chief Blackhawk, led the Indians against the settlers in what we now call the Blackhawk War.  Whites were ambushed and killed resulting in a backlash where settlers in turn hunted and killed Indians, including villages of women and children.  The settlers of Richfield were but many who were evacuated to fortified communities such as Manti for safety.  Not until the “red savages” were beaten into submission in 1871 were people allowed to return to their former towns.

Peter Gottfredson

Perhaps one had to live and experience the times to find any honor in the behavior of the white people in the Blackhawk War.   In a reunion of the veterans of the war, held almost 20 years later in 1894, John Lowry, the man who had probably ignited the conflict, spoke in praise of himself and his actions.  He boasted of his heroic action in pulling the chief from his horse by his hair and said, “I am confident that many lives were saved, because it put the people on their guard”.  No comment is made regarding his state of sobriety when making this claim.

Peter Gottfredson, who spent much time living closely with both whites and Indians, wrote a chronicle of the conflicts entitled “Indian Depredations in Utah.”  Gottfredson was a astute observer of interactions between the two cultures and his book is considered to be an accurate chronicle and reflection of the times and the conflicts.

South to Richfield

The year of 1872 was a watershed year for the Ogden family.  It was time to make a hard decision about where to permanently put down roots.  They had been three years in Santaquin but decided it wasn’t the place for them.  The biggest factor in making such a decision was to be able to acquire good land; preferable by using sweat equity, for money was a very scarce commodity.  In November of 1869 WCB Orrock married Mary Jane Ogden in the endowment House and his sister Mary Elizabeth Orrock married Stephan Theobald, who was also an English emigrant.  In December 1871 Theobald came to the Ogden family with the idea of possibly relocating to Richfield Utah, some 100 miles south of where they were.

The Sevier River valley seemed an attractive possibility.  The valleys to the north such as Manti and Ephraim were solidly established, primary with Scandinavian saints.  Further south the communities of St. George and smaller settlements extending north from it were also doing well.   But the central area of the state, particularly the area of the Sevier River drainage had experienced difficulties.  Someone obviously forgot to tell the local Native Americans they were now going to have to share their land and resources with fair skinned Mormon pioneers.  Tensions heightened, cattle were stolen, and a young Indian brave newly name Blackhawk led the Indians and settlers into what we know call the Blackhawk War.

Settlers came to the Sevier Valley in 1864, built dugouts in the ground and struggled to survive.  By the time the Blackhawk War began there were somewhere near 100 people living in the town of Omni, which would be renamed Richfield a few years later.  In 1868, due to the dangers of Indian attacks, the inhabitants packed wagons and evacuated to Manti.  This left the community deserted until 1871 when negotiations with the Indians brought to an end, at least for the most part, the Blackhawk War.  

The Ogden's and their traveling trunk arrive in Santaquin Utah

As mentioned earlier, the William and Mary Ogden family settled down in Santaquin Utah and began to learn the new lifestyle of the western high desert country.  Even today Santaquin remains a rather small rural community about 20 miles south of Provo Utah.  It is a crossroads and gateway of sorts where the roads divide and travelers must make a decision.  The trail to the west and south leads to the arid west desert, sparse in vegetation, but rich in minerals and precious metals.  And like any mining area it also hosted wild mining towns such as Eureka, Tintic, and numerous other camps. However a southbound traveler would find the Wasatch and Manti LaSalle mountains and the rich agricultural valleys of Sanpete and Sevier Counties.  And then in the very south there was Dixie, with its warm weather climate  and the town of St. George that hosted the beginnings of the first temple in the west.

The Ogden family had a mind to settle in Santaquin, mostly because they had family and friends there who had come earlier from the Bolton and Manchester areas of England.  Names like Openshaw and Greenhaugh appear in several family history's as some who helped the Ogden’s in one way or another and those names can also be found in Mary Vickers extended family genealogy.  Inasmuch as it was late in the season they immediately set about to prepare for winter by using their most abundant strengths: the ability to work hard and also to work together.  They cut and hauled wood from surrounding canyons and by winter had one of the largest woodpiles in Santaquin.  From then on it was a matter of trade, barter, and work on "shares" which meant receiving  a percentage of production.

When spring came they rented some land and learned to be farmers and planted wheat, corn, potatoes, and sugar cane.  William Jr. and John went to work in a shingle mill and were paid in shingles which were used on the home they were building.  They took the remainder to Salt Lake City and traded for supplies including a subscription to the Deseret News.

It was religion that compelled these immigrants to gather in Utah, at least for the most part.  But the added dividend was the ability to own their land.  Most of those who had come from Great Britain had spent their entire lives as tenants and share croppers for the wealthy aristocracy of the country; with never a dream of owning their own land.  When 5 acre parcels were put up for drawing north of Santaquin, the Ogden's were awarded four of them as a family. They immediately began to improve and fence and prepare for spring planting.  But after two years of work it became apparent that the land was marginal and also the water was scarce.  They had invested 3 years in this place and now they needed to make a decision on whether to pull up stakes and look for something better, or stay put and hope for improvement.  So with that decision looming we will close and wait for another entry...  soon to come.