Utah County’s Early Courthouses.

The first session of Utah County’s Court convened in March of 1851 in the log schoolhouse in Fort Provo located at 500 West and 500 North.

This schoolhouse served as the court’s temporary home until 1852 when the structure was moved to a new location on the block north of Pioneer Park at 500 West and Center Street.  It was remodeled into a log meetinghouse and schoolhouse shaped like a Greek cross.  The court met in this building until a Seminary was constructed a block north on the corner of 100 North and 500 West.

Finally, in 1866, Utah County began construction of its first official courthouse located on the west side of 100 West between 100 and 200 North.  Contractors completed this modest one story, brick building in the spring of 1867 at a cost of slightly more than $5,000.  In addition to a courtroom, the building housed Provo’s small library and a jail.

The most sensational trial held in this building occured in January, 1867, when a teenager, Chauncey Millard, was tried for the murder of a freighter on the west side of Utah Lake.  The jury found him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to face the firing squad.  Four hundred curious onlookers attended the public execution, Millard sold his body to a local doctor for a bag of candy.

After only five years, the county built a much larger courthouse on Center Street, and sold the old courthouse to the Provo Woolen Mills for $5,000.  The company used it for a warehouse and office and didn’t raze it until well into the 20th Century.

This is plaque #10 in the Series of Events from Provo’s History and is located in Maeser Park in Provo.

Provo’s Early Carding Mill and Machine Shop Were Vital to the City.

Shadrack Holdaway and his wife, Lucinda, arrived in Provo on the last day of 1850.  They brought with them an unassembled wood carding mill they had bought in the Midwest with gold dust they had accumulated in California during the gold rush.

They came to Provo because Lucinda’s family lived here, and because the Provo River provided ample water to run the mill.  Early in 1851, Holdaway build a cabin north of the river at the foot of the bench and set up his carding mill, a shingle mill and a machine shop.  He later added some new machinery and started weaving cloth.

When the Walker War began with the Utes in 1853, Brigham Young ordered all people living outside of town to move into the settlements.  Holdaway moved his business about a mile south to what is north the northwest corner of the intersection of Center Street and 500 West.  A large ditch running down the west side of the street provided power.

Holdaway opened Provo Woolen Factory during the spring of 1854.  The new business did carding, weaving and spinning. That tear the factory and the woman of Provo put their carded wool to good use.  They wove 3,500 yards of cloth.

Shadrack Holdaway and James Simkins opened the Provo Machine Shop on the same site.  They did blacksmithing and made spare parts for machinery.  The partners even manufactured a threshing machine.  Holdaway’s carding mill closed about 1870, but different foundries existed on the site until the 1950s.

This is plaque #11 in the Series of Events from Provo’s History and is located in Maeser Park in Provo.

The Excelsior Flour Mill Was Crucial to Provo’s Early Settlers.

Early Provo’s grist mills ranked among the most important businesses in town.  Farmers used wheat for money, and grist mills turned this form of money into something that could be eaten – flour.

In 1876, George Beebe (the father of Angus Beebe), who moved to Provo from Iowa, build the Excelsior, one of the city’s longest-lasting mills, on the northwest corner of the intersection of 500 North and 200 West.  Beebe found and excellent market for his flour in Provo, Salt Lake City and Utah’s mining towns.

Water from the old mill race running down 200 West powered the new and improved machinery of the mill almost all year long.  Sometimes for several months in the summer, the mill was forced to shut down because farmers used most of the water in the mill race.

In 1879, Beebe leased the Excelsior to John W. Hoover, who eventually bought it.  From this tome on, townspeople frequently referred to the business as Hoover’s Mill.  After John Hoover suffered a stroke in 1898, four of his sons operated the mill.  They continually updated the machinery and successfully produced several types of flour and animal feed.

More than a half century of milling history came to an end early on the morning of February 11, 1930.  About midnight, people loving near the mill detected an odor that smelled like burning rags.  A fire was soon detected, which likely started from spontaneous combustion.

Although the entire Provo Fire Department fought the blaze with size hoses and chemicals, the frame building burned like tinder, and the flames entirely consumed it.  Insurance only partially covered the loss, and the Hoovers did not rebuild the mill.

This is plaque #12 in the Series of Events from Provo’s History and is located in Maeser Park in Provo.

A Provo Accident Hastened the Death of President Heber C. Kimball.

Provo was blessed with some of the best natural resources in the Utah Territory, yet her economic development progressed at a disappointingly slow pace.  Many of the city’s early residents seemed relatively unmotivated and lazy.  Overall, the town and its people appeared slightly shabby and not very prosperous.

In 1867, Brigham Young decided the time was right to give Provo a mighty push down the path of progress.  The Mormon leader saw that new leadership was necessary in order to carry out this expansion.  Young called former Salt Lake City mayor, Abraham O. Smoot, to serve as Provo’s new mayor as well as the city’s presiding bishop and stake president.  Several Mormon Apostles and other “tried and true” men from Salt Lake City became members of the Provo City Council and the Utah County Court.

Brigham Young felt very strongly about pushing Provo forward.  He announced that he, along with President Heber C. Kimball, planned to spend more time in Provo and directly supervise the city’s progress.  Young and Kimball both bought houses in Provo and began improving them to set an example to the other residents.

Kimball instructed some of his sons to deepen the irrigation ditch around his Provo residence while he was absent in Salt Lake City.  He either forgot about his order or did not expect the work to be completed as quickly as it was done.  When Kimball returned to Provo late one spring night, he turned his buggy from the street into his property and drove into the deepened ditch.  The sudden stop hurled Kimball from the vehicle to the ground.  He landed on his side and hit his head.

Mayor Smoot took the injured man back to Salt Lake City.  No bones were broken in the accident, but Kimball never fully recovered from its effects.  Paralysis incapacitated the Mormon leader several weeks later and he died on June 16, 1868.

This is plaque #46 in the Series of Events from Provo’s Historyand is located in Bicentennial Park in Provo.

Fish in Utah Lake and the Provo River Saved Utah’s Early Settlers from Starvation.

Commercial fishing ranked as one of early Utah’s important industries, and Utah lake’s sucker and trout provided food for Utah’s settlers in times of need.

During the spring of 1848, the new settlers of Salt Lake Valley met hunger face to face.  Frost killed many of their young and tender crops, and Mormon crickets helped themselves to what was left.  The hungry settlers turned to Utah lake for food and established the Eutaw Fishing Company.  Its member caught fish in Utah Lake and took them to Salt Lake City to feed the hungry.

The abundance of fish in Utah Lake and the Provo River helped to attract settlers to Provo in 1849.  Fishing companies caught fish, and peddlers sold a portion of them fresh either locally or in Salt Lake City.  Many fishermen salted the rest of their catch and  placed the fish in barrels to sell later.

In 1855 and 1856, swarms of grasshoppers invaded the Great Basin and destroyed crops.  Fishing companies from LDS wards in Salt Lake City camped for weeks in Provo on the banks of the river and the lake.  They caught fish and sent them home to help feed the hungry.

And for a third time in the first ten years of settlement, fish helped feed the colonists in 1858.  During the move south from Salt Lake City, many evacuees camped near the river and lake.  Some of them formed co-operative fishing companies, and the fish they caught helped feed members of the camp.  Once again, fish provided a safety net for those in need.  This important industry continued to provide food for Provo pioneers for many decades.

This is plaque #4 in the Series of Events from Provo’s History and is located in Bicentennial Park in Provo.

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• Fish in Utah Lake and the Provo River Saved Utah’s Early Settlers from Starvation
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