Winter Coups: A Memoir. . .
Virginia C. Parker
THE LITTLE LOGAN RIVER
Introductory Essay
". . . the stream that runs through Logan’s Merlin Olsen
Central Park."
Reading this caption under the photograph of a sun-dappled
bridge printed in the local paper, I was reminded of my father. He was a
botanist and historian who said to me, when I asked about a tall pink flower,
"That flower has a name, It’s Althea rosea, now use it!" That stream
that runs through Logan’s Merlin Olsen Central Park also has a name. It ought
to be posted so children and other newcomers to Logan will know it. The stream
is the North Fork of Logan River, sometimes called the Little Logan River.
I was born in Logan in my Grandmother’s house on the
Island. I grew up on the Island and that little stream also runs through my
garden. I had written an article that was published in the local Herald
Journal with a lovely photograph and that phrase printed above it. The park is
still known for the local football hero. No one knows the name of the stream,
nor its history.
That small stream is what’s left of the main artery of this
community. Unlike Main Street, or Center Street, or 400 North Street, which
are streets of commerce, the Little Logan River is the raison d’etre of Logan.
Logan River divides into two forks as it leaves the canyon. The first settlers
threw a log across the small stream for a bridge and claimed the island. On
the present park, the first settlers made camp in a little "hollow."
In June of 1889, David Reese, Griffith Charles, Sidney
Dibble and Able Caldwell were dissatisfied with the site chosen to settle on
Spring Creek, now known as Providence. They turned north and crossed Logan
River. They found a satisfactory field on the "island" which they plowed, and
on June 10, they planted three acres of wheat. Another group had chosen a site
on higher ground to the west. They surveyed a fort along what became Center
Street going west from Main Street. Other settlers joined the two groups and
all united to found the City of Logan.
Those who chose the higher ground constructed their cabins
in two rows facing each other. By October, they extended along three blocks.
Most of the log houses had dirt roofs and dirt floors. Some grain was threshed
that year. By the close of 1859, Logan had assumed a most important position
among the settlements of Cache Valley. Logan was named for the river. The
river was named to honor a member of the Hudson’s Bay Company who was
exploring the rivers of the mountains surrounding Bear Lake for beaver. The
trappers were exploring what is now called Blacksmith Fork River when they
discovered Cache Valley. As they made their way northward they discovered the
outlet of the ancient Lake Bonneville and the Bear River. There they were
attacked by Indians, and young Ephraim Logan was killed. The river in Cache
Valley was named to honor his memory. The valley was named Cache Valley
because they used the rivers to cache their furs.
The Logan island field became Bishop Wm. B. Preston’s
pasture and it included the present park. Early settlers, rejecting the fort,
claimed sites for cabins east of the pasture along the small steam. They were
Washington Rogers, N. M. Hansen, John Quayle and Niels Mickelsen, who was my
great-grandfather. His land extended from "K" Street, now 400 East, eastward
along the north bank of the little river to the fork of Logan River and north
to what is known as Canyon Road. It included much swamp and tules.
Hansen built on Canyon Road westerly from 400 East to what
is now Center Street and Canyon Road. Quayle claimed the bend of the river
westward to the site of the Deseret Mill, which included part of the present
park. It also included that portion of the pasture that I inherited from my
father. Rogers built on the park at 200 East and south of the old Deseret Mill
to the wagon road that became Main Street. Center Street was not cut through
beyond the Old Deseret Mill, now relocated and renamed as Central Mill until
sometime in my childhood. Neils Michelsen, father of my Grandmother, chose the
land along the north bank of the little river eastward to where the main river
divided. To be used as pasture. It was mostly swamp and tules.
Logan was designated the county seat of Cache County, in
1860. As soon as the townsite was surveyed, an irrigation system was laid out
and each city lot was provided with an irrigation ditch. As probate judge of
the Cache County, Peter Maughan divided the county into two precincts and
appointed a watermaster to each. It was the watermaster’s duty to oversee
construction of the irrigation water systems, and to distribute water fairly
to all.
Construction of canals and lateral ditches began with the
first settlement. Pioneers built the canals by hand and worked for possession
of water rights and shares. Most of the small irrigation companies that exist
today, were incorporated after statehood as stock companies. The original
ditches exist by right of eminent domain and are protected by state law,
though most were not specified on early deeds. Water rights have existed by
decree of the court since 1860, and have been upheld by the Utah Supreme Court
as recently as 1953.
The Logan Hyde Park Canal was begun March 27th
and was completed on May 18, 1860. It was taken from the North Branch of Logan
River and runs along Canyon Road, dividing at about 200 East. There a portion
of water flows northward to Hyde Park, the rest flows under Center Street
where it turned the water wheel of the "Old Deseret Mill" built in 1866.
The grist mill and water wheel were torn down to build the
Boy Scouts of America building in the Merlin Olsen Central Park. The canal
rejoined the Little Logan River at this point, carrying water to the old
woolen mill where it powered another water wheel. Continuing westward, the
little stream turned the water wheel at Thatchers’s Union Roller Mill, built
at 100 West and 100 South, in l865. Flowing through the campus of Logan High
School, the little stream circled Crimson Field to the C. W. Card planing
mill, later Anderson’s Lumber Company.
A small direct current arc machine was run by the power
wheel at the mill to generate electricity to power the saws. Electricity
generated at night was sold to the city to light five streetlights. In 1886,
The Logan Electric Light and Power Company was formed as a stock company. It
used the little stream to generate electric power to light the streets of the
City of Logan and was the first electric light plant in the State of Utah.
The little stream did a lot of work for the early citizens
while it defined the dual character of Logan, which continues today. At one
time Logan City got its water supply from this stream, later wells were dug.
The Island was settled mostly by Scandinavians who preferred its rural nature
as it suited their agrarian lifestyle. Most of the Scandinavian immigrants
were skilled crafts people who earned money practicing their trades as
bricklayers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and cabinetmakers. They planted gardens
and orchards, and grazed their cows in common pastures.
By 1884, there were about 36 families in this locality and
a ward was organized, known as the Logan Seventh Ward. In June 1884, a
bishopric was established with Isaac Smith as bishop, N.R. Lindloff and
Ephriam Mickelsen, who was my Grandmother’s brother, as counselors. The first
meetinghouse was a one-room log structure on 400 East, and just east of the
little stream. The ground was donated to the ward by William B. Preston from
his pasture. The lumber used in the building was purchased from a lumber yard
owned by the temple. Later converted to a two story house, it still stands
south of my present home.
Settlers on the Island retained their agrarian lifestyle
until after World War II, then many of the garden plots were developed as
sites for small homes. Barns were torn down and the pastures were subdivided
into sites for apartments and subdivisions of small homes. Meantime, the
higher, flat area of Logan was settled by merchants and businessmen. Its
streets were the first to be paved; the houses were large and representative
of commercial success. The political and religious power was fixed in the more
affluent neighborhoods until the Utah State Agricultural College was built
upon the highest hill. Then its influence was imposed upon the community,
earning for Logan a reputation as the "Athens of the North."
The dual character of agrarian neighborhoods versus the
tidy, landscaped rectangular lots still affects the development and planning
of Logan. The little stream no longer flows as a natural river. It is
maintained as a canal with the installation of a large headgate and has lost
its wildlife of fishes, muskrats and a variety of birds for which it had
served as sanctuary. It no longer floods onto its natural flood plain. Its
bridges are invisible since much of the little stream has been forced
underground where it flows unseen through cement culverts.
Only in Logan’s Merlin Olsen Park do foot bridges span the
little stream. Only in the park does it sparkle in the sun and gather the
shade over quiet pools. The powerful rapids that turned the water wheels have
been spread into a shallow stream that is more a lake than a river. What was
intended as Pioneer Memorial Park to memorialize the pioneers and soldiers who
died in World War I, became a playground, with a playing field that
memorializes a local football hero. May the pioneers rest in peace while their
little stream flows into a well engineered system of canals, weirs and dams.
Not knowing the name of the little stream that runs through
Logan’s Merlin Olsen Central Park will not diminish the pleasure of the
children playing there, but the forgetfulness of those who renamed it and now
inherit the labor and vision of the first settlers should not be forgiven.
Both my Grandparents lived on the Island. Grandmother Catherine Mickelsen
Sorensen had grown up in an adobe log house located on the north bank of the
Little Logan river. Grandmother moved to Lago, Idaho when she married, but
returned to Logan in 1914 and built the brick home that still stands at 481
East Center Street.
Grandpa John August Carlson and wife Anna Lundstrom Carlson
built on 400 East next to the old Seventh Ward Church house at the corner of
100 South. His pasture was located across the street in the bend of the Little
Logan River. The pasture became my Father’s and he built a new home there in
1953. Now it and the pasture in the bend of the Little Logan River is mine.
I was born and grew up in Logan. I left it and went away to
college, married and lived in California many years before I returned. When I
returned to Logan, it was to a place that remained only in my mind and memory.
Now, I want to share my adventures and tell you why I returned home. . .
Read more in the book. . .
GRANDPA CARLSON: CACHE VALLEY BLACKSMITH 1878–1904
John August Carlson was born in Lansbro, Jonkoping, Sweden
June 28, 1859. He died January 19, 1944 in Logan, Utah at age 84. John A.
Carlson emigrated to Zion after he was converted to Mormonism. He was the last
surviving member of his family and had completed his apprenticeship as a
blacksmith. He believed he had a future in Zion working on the railroad. He
emigrated with the help of the Perpetual Immigration Fund.
On the immigrant ship and journey to Utah, he met Anna
Lundstrom, who was born March 6, 1866. She was immigrating with her brothers
Per Eric and Gustof Lundstrom, and elder sister Tilda, all from Vingaker
Sodermanlan, Sweden. Upon their arrival in Utah, Anna and Hilda went to Tooele
to work until they learned English. Her brother Gustof and John Carlson went
to Logan. Per Eric went out in the desert of Tooele County to herd sheep. He
was lost and never heard from again. Tilda had moved to Salt Lake City where
she contracted Diptheria and died. Anna moved to Logan and she and John
Carlson were married, in 1876 in the Logan Temple.
John A. Carlson worked at his trade as a blacksmith in
Logan with C. H. Lundberg. He did black-smithing, horse-shoeing, wagon and
carriage repair. They lived in Logan, near Anna’s brother Gustaf. They settled
in Logan on what was known as the Island. During1894–1896, he served a Mission
for the LDS Church in Sweden, leaving Anna with five children. He moved to
Smithfield in 1897, when he took over the smithy in Smithfield. He worked in
Smithfield until 1909. He moved back to Logan so his children could attend the
Brigham Young College. Then he became an officer and employee of the Lundstrom
Furniture Company that was founded by Anna’s brother Gustaf, better known as
A.G. Lundstrom. . .
Read more in the book. . .
VAR SA GUD: KRINGLOR et PLATTER
My brother Leroy called her "Grandma Bun" and with good
reason. No one came to Grandma Carlson’s house without being offered a bun and
a cup of hot chocolate, or postum to dunk it in. Baking buns on Saturday was a
family ritual. Family tradition tells of a neighbor who came each Saturday
afternoon to borrow buns. On Tuesday, this neighbor returned a pan of baking
powder biscuits. Grandpa said the biscuits weren’t good for anything but to
feed the chickens, so out to the chicken yard they went, while Grandma
continued to bake buns every Saturday for both families. And the chickens
enjoyed the biscuits!
In turn, each of her daughters and granddaughters were
allowed in the pantry, where the process of making dough occurred. As she
kneaded the golden lump, Grandma took your fingers and pressed them into the
dough saying "likka dis–like this," to teach you how to recognize the proper
texture for great bread. Her recipe. . .
Read more in the book. . .
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