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THE DRAPER UTAH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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A HISTORY OF SIVOGAH TO DRAPER CITY 1849—1977
    Volume Two of  History of Draper, Utah

SCHOOLS

From 1850–1852, a large portion of the education for children and adults was obtained by attending religious services, where sermons, hymns, prayers, and testimonies were shared. These meetings, held in homes before the first adobe meetinghouse was built in 1852, encouraged the Saints to good works and increased their faith and determination to face together as a team the hardships of pioneer life. Most pioneers were in their prime or younger when they came to Draperville to settle. President Brigham Young, with other Church leaders, visited and preached in South Willow Creek, giving the settlers encouragement and sound advice.

The attention of Draperville pioneers soon was given to secular education for their children. William H. McGuffey, a young professor, came to Draper in the winter of 1859 and stayed at the home of John Heward. Professor McGuffey spent two weeks visiting the local school, observing how his books helped the students gain knowledge. He was the author of the McGuffey Readers that later brought him fame and renown.

It is possible that common schools began before 1852 in the South Willow Creek settlement, but no documentary evidence has been established. Tradition indicates that "Phoebe Brown, wife of Ebenezer Brown, kept school ‘for the little ones in summer time’ but we are not told when or where her school was held."One Hundredth Anniversary of the Draper Ward, p. 12 Her teaching could have been between 1849 and 1852 when the school/meetinghouse was finished.

As the need for organized education became more apparent, school trustees were chosen and they extended invitations to people whom they deemed qualified to teach school. No written qualifications existed concerning a teacher’s training or background. The school could begin and end at the convenience of the teacher.

The earliest written evidence of school being taught in South Willow Creek is recorded in the 1852 diary of William Reynolds Terry, on page 11, "Dec 12 day comens teaching school on Willow Creek of about 25 scollars."

Mr. Terry brought these interesting qualifications to the position of being a schoolteacher, according to page 1 of his diary: "I lived with my father till I was one year old my grandfather Reynolds brought me up to the age of 13 years my g father died in 76 years of his age in the month of February A.D. 1826. Throw the process of the 13 years I was sent to school one year . . . I went to school seven months which finished my education which is very limited." The 12 February 1853 entry, pages 11 and 12, reads: "Closed school . . . comens ditching and fencing a far[m] of 24 acrs put in seed and raised a crop." Mr. Terry terminated his school because the weather became mild and the land could be prepared and crops planted.

In 1852, on the north wall of the original fort, an adobe school building was erected that served the settlement until eight years later. In 1860 a second structure called the Vestry was built and used for a school and a meetinghouse. This second building was located toward the northeast corner in the old fort.

After William R. Terry, the next schoolteacher of note was William M. Frampton, who taught during 1854–55. Specializing in music and chorus work, he organized and led the branch choir in addition to his school duties. Thomas Williams taught school for three or more years beginning in 1855 and received as one of his pupils Lauritz Smith, an immigrant from Denmark, whom he taught to figure in English, so Lauritz could keep his blacksmith accounts. Utah Community" June 1948, p.183

"Thomas V. Williams . . . emigrated . . . in 1855. He settled in Draper, where he became a teacher in the first adobe schoolhouse erected in that settlement."

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BUSINESS

Norman Brown and Joseph F. Smith as young boys were sent from Salt Lake City to herd cattle and horses in the cove. Reports to their families created enthusiasm for others to see the cove. Norman’s father, Ebenezer Brown, with three sons, Norman, Guernsey, and John, set out to see this part of the "promised land." The Browns discovered the cove unoccupied, with five mountain streams flowing west: Corner Canyon, Cherry Creek, Bear Canyon, Little Willow, and Big Willow, the latter three converging among willows and bogs before flowing into the Jordan River. Later they brought their cattle and horses, making many trips on horseback before bringing the family in 1849 to become the first settlers. Camping by a stream, they set up housekeeping in their wagon box. Desiring a more permanent dwelling, Ebenezer built a log cabin on the southwest corner of 12650 South and Fort Street. The following spring he returned to Salt Lake City and brought his wife and children to their new home.

In the winter of 1850, Ebenezer and his wife Phoebe welcomed Phoebe’s brother William Draper as they settled in South Willow Creek. By 1852 twenty families had settled in South Willow Creek, making food rather scarce. Many settlers were forced to live on sego-lily bulbs, chokecherries and other wild fruits and plants found in the canyons and foothills of the settlement. These foods didn’t always supply the needed nourishment. A majority of the pioneers had emigrated from parts of the world where 30 to 40 inches of rain fell annually. Until coming to the desert in Utah Territory with its insufficient rainfall, no one had taken time to think about irrigation. Snow captured in the mountains made irrigation water plentiful in the spring and early summer, but it diminished by mid-July and into the fall months as mountain snow melted to give up the cold, clear water to canyon streams rushing to the valley floor. The reduced streams caused irrigation problems, so that thirsty, wilting gardens and lost harvests forced the pioneers to develop ditch systems and flood-irrigation methods still used in parts of Draper to this day.

In the spring of 1850, lack of food caused Norman Brown, Ebenezer’s son, to plow the first furrow in the settlement. He continued plowing until a ten-acre field was prepared for planting the first known crop of corn in South Willow Creek.

Pioneer families at that time agreed to allow Norman Brown the use of all the irrigation water for the field of corn, then all shared in the harvest. Meager food supplies were mentioned in 1850 diaries. Much of the food supply was consumed by immigrants coming through Utah Territory on their way to California. Flour, costing $25 per hundredweight, was scarce.

Skilled pioneers were assigned by President Brigham Young to locate in settlements needing their services. A blacksmith, Lauritz Smith; a shoemaker, Thomas Vawdrey; and a teacher, William Reynolds Terry, were sent with their families to South Willow Creek. Skilled pioneers developed businesses after locating there. Henry E. Day and William R. Terry operated one of several adobe-brick plants near Crystal Hot Lakes at 14600 South and about 500 West. Lauritz Smith built his blacksmith shop in Draperville at about the same time the British engineer Henry Bessemer patented his process for making steel on 17 October 1854. p. A2

Several years were involved in developing a ditch system where farmers could get water—the lifeblood of farming in this arid desert—to their farms. About 1855, along came a gifted schoolteacher by the name of Thomas V. Williams. He "taught some and perhaps all of the years between 1856–1860. He married Pernecy Allen, daughter of Andrew Jackson Allen. Mr. Williams made a lasting contribution to irrigation by inventing the system of figuring the interval of watering turns." One Hundredth Anniversary of the Draper Ward, p. 12

"He merits consideration for many things, chief of which, perhaps, is the system he worked out for the farmers in taking irrigation water. Each farmer owned so many shares of water, depending upon the size of his farm, and depending also upon the amount of money and work he contributed to making ditches, digging canals, and building reservoirs. "Utah Community [1948], p.181–82

Until additional mountain water was used for irrigation purposes, ox-drawn and horse-drawn vehicles could not cross the deep and well-established marshlands in central South Willow Creek. Ebenezer Brown discovered marshes could be crossed by corduroying a willow road. As pioneers irrigated more land, downstream marshes diminished in size. The mountain stream along the main east and west road (12500 South) into South Willow Creek was a sea of mud most of each year. When the main road was moved two blocks north (12300 South) to avoid the poor travel conditions, the pioneers built their homes along the new road, leaving the old homes in the field.

During the 1850s in eastern South Willow Creek, "Absalom Smith had the first molasses mill. It was operated by a waterwheel in the eastern part of town." One Hundredth Anniversary of the Draper Ward, p. 7 Sugar cane was grown, harvested, and processed to make molasses, a sweetener used in baking, making candy, canning fruit, berries, and preserves. Water for home use was carried in buckets from nearby streams, or from rock-lined wells dug with crude shovels. Contaminated water caused many deaths, due to the lack of sanitary information.

Pioneer families burned wood and saved the ashes for soap-making, which was a springtime outdoor project. "Wood ashes saved during the winter were put into a barrel. Water was poured through the ashes and allowed to trickle out through a hole near the bottom. This brown liquid, or ‘lye’, was then boiled in a large kettle with fats and greases saved from the year’s cooking and butchering. The mixture was cooked slowly until it thickened to form a soft, jellylike, yellow soap."

Perry Fitzgerald operated the first store in one room of the log-cabin home he built in the fort. Esther Brown made and sold straw hats in her store in the fort. Esther Ann Munro Boulter, a pioneer of 1852, also had a hat shop in the fort. Her mother had taught her how to sew men’s white shirts with fine tucks in front using hair taken from horses’ tails for thread to make shirt seams that did not show. She had also learned to make straw- and corn-husk mats, which she sold.

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SPORTS

During this decade, the energy of young children was spent in helping their parents with harvesting and finding food. For this reason, there is no record of sports being played. However, during celebrations there were probably all kinds of foot races for the young and old. Wood-chopping as well as corn-husking contests likely would have been held for adults.

LIFESTYLES

Some early pioneers went to Oregon for land, many to California for gold, and those coming to Utah came for their faith, but it was said of Henry Eastman Day, a nonmember to begin with, that a pair of blue eyes brought him across the plains. He had known Joseph Smith, had groomed Joseph’s horse in Nauvoo, and had been infatuated with a blue-eyed young lady, Leah Rawlins, who immigrated with the early Saints.

In the spring of 1850 Henry crossed the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City on 2 July 1850 and in Draper that fall. Snows melting off the mountains the next spring allowed Henry access to timbers needed in building a new home. While getting reacquainted with Leah Rawlins, he established a home and farm and was baptized into the Latter-day Saint faith. Henry and Leah where married on 2 January 1852. Their home, one of the first adobe homes built in Draper, still stands after several additions and with a history all its own.

In the winter of 1850 Perry Fitzgerald and Zemira Draper, friends and neighbors in Mill Creek, both decided to move to South Willow Creek and came to settle there in 1851. Several family histories speak of firsts: On 3 August 1851 Susanna Clarissa, daughter of Zemira and Amy Terry Draper, was the first child born in Draper. The first male child, William C. Smith, son of John Sivil and Jane Wadley Smith, was born on 6 January 1852. Many babies born in stormy weather required assistance for the birth and protection against the rain seeping through thatched roofs onto beds, cupboards, and the dirt floors of the crude cabin homes.

With the arrival of permanent pioneer settlers in South Willow Creek, Indians became concerned over the reduction in their deer and elk herds. Pine hens were more difficult to find, as were other game animals. The Indians began stealing horses and causing other disturbances to discourage other pioneers from settling in South Willow Creek. From the diary of Andrew Jackson Allen, a pioneer of 1847, we find on page 4: "This year [1854] there was another Indian difficulty the Indians stealing cattle and horses, and there was some more Indians killd and some 6 of the brethren killd also." Although these encounters did not occur in Draperville, precautions were taken as pioneers moved into the fort and worked on completing it. As such occurrences became less and less frequent, families moved back into their homes outside the fort.

Evening light in pioneer homes came from burning sagebrush and greasewood in open-pit fires and later in hearths. Later, it was common for strings to be placed in heated tallow to make the first candles. Later, heated tallow was poured into candle molds with strings stretched in the middle for a wick, and left to cool. By placing molds in hot water for a few seconds, finished candles were easily removed. Prior to the availability of matches, hot coals were used to light the candles.

Ashes were banked over glowing hot coals before families retired for the night so candles and fires could be lit early each morning. Borrowing hot coals to start a fire was not unusual among neighbors. Later, splinters of wood about the size of a pencil were dipped in sulphur. The finished matches were called sulphur splinters. Elizabeth Terry Heward made and sold sulphur splinters until telegraph matches made of phosphorus were introduced.

Most of the early cooking was done over fire pits or fireplaces with sagebrush and greasewood fueling the fires. Better fuel for cooking and heating homes became available when roads were built back into mountain canyons, making wood more available. Bread dough was placed in Dutch ovens and swung back in the fireplace to bake over the hot coals. The first kind of bread, salt-rising, was good bread, especially for "bread and milk." When men and teams were sent to help the handcart pioneers, saleratus, a leavening agent for baking, was introduced and used for making soda biscuit and corn cakes. Later, grower’s yeast, which had to be kept alive, was used. It was not unusual for a number of the pioneer women to keep it alive and share "starts," with neighbors bringing sugar and flour to get their yeast started again.

"[John Boulter] furnished music for the dances and had the first orchestra in Draper about 1860. Members were John Boulter, Sam Frost, Hack Crandall (violinists), and William Boulter, prompter. The dances started at seven-thirty or eight o’clock and lasted until eleven p.m. Lunch was served and games played during intermission. They then danced until two and three in the morning."

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PEOPLE

Absalom W. Smith "came to Utah in 1852, and took up land on the state road west of Draper. I served in the Draper bishopric as a counselor to Bishop Isaac Stewart. I also served as a member of the first school boards in Draper. I went on two missions for the LDS Church."

"Grandfather [John Lachonius Heward] writes in his history that his mother traded an old-time flat iron to Betty Draper for delivering him. He said he always thought his mother would have been better off if she had kept the iron."

Elizabeth (Betsy) Staker Draper was born on 25 February 1805. She and her husband William Draper Jr. moved into Draper in 1850. Betsy "soon became the town midwife, which profession stood her in good stead when her husband left Draper when Johnson’s army came into Salt Lake Valley. Betsy said ‘I’m gett’n old and my kids ’r most growed and I ain’t picken up and leaven for nobody, nowhow!’"

During this decade efforts were made in building walls around the Draper Fort property, and more substantial homes for the settlers, to help reduce problems associated with the Indians. "[John Boulter] worked making adobes, helping build the old fort wall at Draper, and contracting making adobes for the U.S. troops encamped at Cedar Fort under Captain Johnston’s Army. He worked with Porter Rockwell constructing U.S. mail stations, and belonged to the militia guarding against the Indians."

John and his brother William Boulter worked together as masons building several pioneer homes in Draper. "Both brothers loved music and provided a lot of entertainment for the people of Draper." John played several instruments and was a talented singer, composing some of his own music and lyrics. "He is remembered by many early pioneers for his jovial disposition and readiness to contribute his share of making a pleasant time for all." William followed along with his brother, calling (prompting) for the square dances.

"[Sarah Heward Stocks] had to wear clogs, or boots, and the children at school made fun of the way she was dressed, and because of this she was unable to learn. So the family moved to Mountainville, now called Alpine. While here, a cousin gave her mother a piece of wagon cover from which she made Sarah a dress. Later, woolen rolls came from the factory wrapped in cotton cloth. Her Mother made her a dress and painted a red rose with green leaves on it."

The Oakey family left England in the spring of 1856 on the steamship Thornton and crossed the plains with the Willie Handcart Company. Jane’s history parallels that of her family for that period of time. The trip across the plains with the Willie Handcart Company had been a difficult one because of cold weather and lack of food. One-fifth of the company lost their lives, including Jane’s little sister, Rhoda Rebecca, aged ten. "A short time after her arrival in Salt Lake, President Brigham Young asked John Enniss to take Jane Oakey as his plural wife. John Enniss and his wife Elizabeth Boulter were members of the United Brethren in England and no doubt were acquainted with the Oakey family. John was 37 and Jane almost 18. On March 8, 1857, John took his wife Elizabeth Boulter to the Salt Lake Endowment House to be sealed, and he was sealed to Jane Oakey the same day."

"When the grasshoppers had destroyed most of their [Henry E. Day family’s] crops and flour had become scarce, they made pancakes to make the flour go farther. The older members of the family would get a whole pancake, the younger ones, a half and the small children, a quarter."

From John Fitzgerald’s history we learn that on 17 February 1858 seventeen-year-old John Fitzgerald and Sarah Ann Williams decided it was time to get married. At that time any elder could perform the ceremony. The young couple wanted to be married as they had been taught all their lives, so they hitched the horses to the wagon and drove to Salt Lake City where they were married in the Endowment House by Apostle Daniel Wells. Home from the long trip, they looked forward to their wedding supper of mush and milk at the Perry Fitzgerald home. As many young married couples did, they made their home with John’s parents for some time.

"Ann Wilson was the daughter of Joseph Wilson and Emma Webb. Her family was among the first to join the LDS Church in England. They became members in 1840. Ann’s father, Joseph, was an elder and a great debater for the Church. He used to hold street meetings where he did the speaking and his three daughters, Eliza, Ann, and Mary, did the singing."

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HOMES

The first home built in Draper was erected by Ebenezer Brown, the first settler. One story handed down from that time has Ebenezer pulling his log cabin with oxen team from Salt Lake City to Draper. No written record of this can be found. In his son Norman Brown’s history, the following statement is found, "Norman helped bring logs from Salt Lake City and built the first house in Willow Creek."

As mentioned previously, during these early days in South Willow Creek, when the fear of Indians was high, a fort was built for protection. It would only be natural for early immigrants to build small homes near the fort. An example is the first home built by Ebenezer Brown that was built within one hundred feet of the fort. Another example is Lauritz and Mary Kristine Mikkelsen Smith, who arrived in South Willow Creek in 1854. "They built a small adobe home near the old fort for protection from the Indians. It was here that Joseph was born on February 1, 1856. When the fear of Indian uprisings lessened, they took advantage of the government Homestead Act and chose about one hundred sixty acres of rich fertile soil in the eastern part of town."

Henry Eastman Day’s home appears to be the second home built in Draper, almost one mile west of the fort. It was made from adobe and subsequently enlarged as his family grew. His home, added on to several times, continues in use to this day as a family dwelling.

"The following spring [1851] they [Robert and Harriet Shipley] moved to Draper, then known as Willow Creek.

"They went to work building their first home, a dug-out six feet deep and twelve feet square. The roof was of poles, limbs, and dirt. A fireplace in one end served for heat and cooking. The floor was dirt. The beds were made of willow tops. A dish of grease, with a piece of cloth used for a wick, provided light. This dug-out was a far cry from the lovely home they left in England.

"The first year of their arrival, Robert bought a cow for $40, which he paid in labor by digging a ditch for Mr. John S. Smith. In 1853 they built an adobe one-room home with a large open hearth fireplace. That winter they shared their home with Harriet’s parents, four other adults and their baby, Robert.

". . . [Harriet’s] children didn’t like the scratchy sheets made from the new linen. It took many washings to soften the fragments of stock left clinging to the fibers."

Absalom Wamsley Smith crossed the plains, settled in Draper in 1852, and built a large home known as the Smith Inn, located on the northeast corner of 12500 South in an area once known as Draper Crossroads. When the north and south highway was first surveyed it passed through the Smith farm, between the house facing west and the large barn and livery stables across the street facing east. One road into Draper was moved north to 12300 South. (See map on inside front cover of volume one.) Travelers going south from Salt Lake City frequently ended their day’s journey at the Smith Inn, finding comfort for themselves in one of the twelve rooms, and a barn for their horses across the street. Though a photograph of the inn is not available, the Isaac M. Stewart home (12500 South 700 East) was built using the same architectural plan.

William Reynolds Terry completed his home at 13312 South Fort Street in Draper. Isaac Mitton Stewart was an original pioneer to South Willow Creek. His "first home was a one room adobe house which he roofed with dirt. He secured a small tract of land for cultivation and his initial attempt at farming was attended with great difficulty because oxen were used in plowing; harvesting was done by hand, and grain was threshed with a flail and cleaned through a sieve before the wind. 

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SUMMARY

By 1860, Draperville was a permanent settlement with an organized ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints replacing the branch. The Draperville Post Office was established. A well-planned irrigation system was begun and paved the way for good crops and basic foods, which became more plentiful. The "first ear of corn" and more had been grown in the Salt Lake Valley. Blacksmith shops were established. Many pioneers were living in adobe homes and some in log cabins. Only a few families continued to live in wagon beds and dugouts. School classes held in homes diminished as an adobe school building was built on the north wall of the South Willow Creek Fort in 1852. The Vestry built eight years later added space for the increased number of scholars. Johnston’s Army was gone. Orrin Porter Rockwell’s station, located north of the new Utah State Prison site, was available for weary travelers going south and the few going north. The rhythm of life was bringing joy and happiness to the pioneers as they welcomed the new decade.

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