Gibson–Sowards House
The Gibson/Sowards House is locally significant architecturally as an excellent example of a rare and diminishing type and style of house in Vernal. It is one of only three known frame Victorian houses built before 1900 still standing in good condition. Vernal and the surrounding Uintah Basin was one of the last areas to be settled in Utah. Its period of early settlement coincided with the height of the Victorian architectural style in Utah, 1880-1910.5 The Victorian styles appeared in Salt Lake City in the 1880s and began to be seen in the rural areas in the 1890s. The Gibson/Sowards house is a very early rural example of the Victorian Eclectic style, even more unusual because of its frame construction. It retains its original fabric and contributes to the historic qualities of Vernal.
The Gibson–Sowards House is located at 3110 North 250 West in Vernal, Utah, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#97001465) on November 24, 1997.
Unlike many other sections of Utah that were settled by groups in a communal manner under the central leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Uintah Basin area was open to homesteading by individual families. Early scouts sent in 1861 by Brigham Young, President of the Mormon church, told him that the area was not good for settlement. That same year, United States President Abraham Lincoln set aside the land south and west of Vernal aside as the Uintah Indian Reservation. Mormons and gentiles alike competed for land after relations with the Indians were regularized in the time of peace following the Black Hawk War in 1869. The area where Vernal is now located was occupied by Native Americans, trappers, prospectors, and drifters until c.1876. Pioneer families began to arrive in c.1878, and this area was homesteaded. The town of Vernal was founded in 1878, after settlement had already begun in the outlying areas. The downtown area was laid out in the standard Mormon community grid pattern but the outlying areas were developed without a grid. Because of the distance to a major railhead, settlers produced, manufactured, and developed almost everything they needed. Sheep and cattle ranching, and the farming of grains and alfalfa, along with milling and honey production, were the primary economic endeavors in the area. A boom/bust economy related to the oil industry which began in 1948. Oil, tourism, and agricultural related industries continue to provide the economic support for the town of Vernal.
William Gibson was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1845. He came to America with his parents in 1852. The family lived a nomadic lifestyle in New Orleans, St. Louis, Florence and Council Bluffs until arriving in Salt Lake City on August 9,1860. In 1864 William moved to Kamas, Utah. The following year the Black Hawk War began and William enlisted in the Utah Militia. He married Mary Adelia Lambert on May 6,1872 in Kamas. Mary was born in Salt Lake City on September 11,1851. She moved with her parents John and Adeleg Grosbeck Lambert to Kamas in 1861.
After the Utah Militia was discontinued, the Indians made several raids on Kamas driving off horses that belonged to the settlers. William pursued them several times through the Uintah Mountains with his old militia company. Through his expeditions he discovered that he wanted to live in the Uintah Basin. He, Mary, and two children8 moved to Ashley Creek, just east of the present house,9 as soon as it was possible in November of 1877. They built a rock house but lived there for only a short time until the frame house was completed in 1891. The garage was built in 1925 with doors in both the front and the back because William feared that Mary might be unable to stop. (William refused to learn to drive and Mary, who was 74 years of age at that time, was the only driver.)
William was politically active in the area, serving as the first sheriff in Uintah County after it was formed in 1880. He was also elected to the first state legislature in 1895 where he was outspoken and usually said something which the newspapers considered worthy for printing. During this time he conceived of the idea of painting “Remember the Maine” on the face of a 500 foot high cliff in Ashley Canyon (still visible). William died in 1932.
Mary was a Sunday school teacher in 1880, a district trustee during 1904-08, and president of the newly organized Ashley Ward Relief Society in 1915. Mary died in 1935.
Their daughter, Mary Eliza Gibson, and her husband, General Nelson (N.G.) Sowards, moved into the house following the settlement of William and Mary’s estate. N.G. was born in Kentucky in 1862. He attended B.Y.U., the University of Utah and the University of California. He served as principal of the Uintah Academy in 1892-1893, as Uintah County superintendent of schools for seventeen years and taught school for fifty years. Mary attended the L.D.S. College in Salt Lake and the University of Utah.
She was a Sunday School teacher, Primary teacher and First Counselor in the Relief Society. Mary and N.G. had ten children.
After their son, Leland Sowards, and Ruth Louise Jones were married in 1938, they moved in with his parents into this house. Leland farmed and ranched for his father and later followed his grandfather’s lead in politics, serving as state representative and state senator. Ruth was a nurse at the Uintah County Hospital until her retirement. Leland and Ruth had seven children.11 Ruth Sowards is the current owner and occupant of the house.