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Beckstead-Butterfield House

04 Thursday Apr 2024

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Beckstead-Butterfield House

The Beckstead-Butterfield House, constructed in 1897, is a 1½-story brick Victorian Eclectic residence on Redwood Road in Riverton, Utah. The house is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as the most ornate and largest surviving example of a Victorian Eclectic-style central-blockwith-projecting-bays type house in Riverton. Although not a fully realized Queen Anne-style house, the Beckstead-Butterfield House has many Queen Anne details such as octagonal bays, an asymmetrical façade, irregular floor plan and colored glass sashes in the upper windows. The house was associated with three members of the Beckstead family, who were sheep ranchers in Riverton. The longest owner/occupants were members of the Butterfield family, who operated one of the largest farms in Riverton on the property between 1906 and 1950. The historic name has been chosen to reflect the ownership by both the Beckstead and Butterfield families. Both names are still associated with the house as a landmark in the local community. The farmhouse property has been reduced to 0.52 acres by late-twentieth-century development in the area. In the area of Architecture, the period of significance spans the original construction in 1897 to 1900 when the matching rear addition was believed to have been constructed. The construction of both the original house and the addition is attributed to the local builder, Carl Madsen. The exterior of the house has good historic integrity with some minor alterations that were reversed during the recent rehabilitation using state and federal tax credits.

Located at 13032 South Redwood Road in Riverton, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#100006389) on April 12, 2021.

The Beckstead-Butterfield House is locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as the most ornate and largest surviving example of a Victorian Eclectic-style central-block-with-projecting-bays type house in Riverton. Riverton is located approximately 30 miles south of Salt Lake City and remained a sparsely settled farm community until the 1990s when a population boom and suburban sprawl reached the town. Only about a dozen central-block type houses are estimated to have been built in the community. In 2004, a survey prepared for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office’s database found only five extant farmhouses identified with the Queen Anne style. Four of the five houses in the database were on or near Redwood Road, the main north-south corridor through Riverton and the prime location for commercial development. Two of the houses were recently demolished when the street was widened. Another house was remodeled into a commercial space with new windows, doors, and a façade ADA ramp. The fifth house is still eligible but does not appear to have had any Queen Anne details. A sixth house was not identified as Queen Anne style in the 2004 but was identified as Queen Anne in a 2016 survey of Redwood Road in Riverton. None of the six had towers or turrets, and of the five, only the Beckstead-Butterfield House has any other salient characteristics of the Queen Anne style.

The Beckstead-Butterfield House, built in 1897, is the last surviving Victorian-era central-block-withprojecting-bays type house in Riverton with Queen Anne-style details. The Beckstead-Butterfield House is more elaborate than most Victorian Eclectic-style houses in Riverton. The Victorian period marked two important changes in domestic architecture in Utah. The first was an end to Utah’s relative isolated as the coming of the railroad brought new materials to Utah. The second was the introduction of architectural style books that popularized the complexity and irregularity of the Victorian Eclectic domestic architecture. While the cross wing introduced asymmetry into Utah’s domestic architecture, the central-block house with its projecting bays produced the desired external irregularity while making the principal rooms larger and brighter (i.e. more window area). The floor plan of the original Beckstead-Butterfield House is an unusual variation by a local builder that had projecting bays on all four elevations, but no window openings in the south elevation bay.

The Victorian Eclectic was popular in Utah between 1880 and 1910. The Queen Anne style, as a variation of the Victorian Eclectic was popular between 1885 and 1905. Domestic examples are characterized by asymmetrical façades, tower/turrets, irregular floor plans, octagonal bays, dormers, and ornate woodwork. The Beckstead-Butterfield House is not a true Queen Anne because it lacks a tower. The house originally has a variety of materials, textures, and even colors, as seen in a 1906 photograph. The most distinctive characteristic of the Queen Anne style found on the Beckstead-Butterfield House are the multilight sashes. Surviving Queen Anne sashes are rare, particularly in rural communities like Riverton. The Beckstead-Butterfield House features three varieties of Queen Anne sashes: 1) multi-light upper sash, 2) perimeter square lights in a traditional window, and 3) a unique example of perimeter lights in a semicircular window.

As noted in the Riverton Multiple Property Submission (MPS), within the Enterprise and Rural Development Period, 1882-1899, Riverton dairy farmers and wool growers became the most prosperous families in the community and were able to build more substantial and elaborate homes than most area famers. Most were located along Redwood Road. Local builder, Carl Madsen, built two large brick houses at 13217 S. Redwood Road (1893) and 13030 S. Redwood Road (1897) for the Charles Nokes (a dairyman) and George Beckstead (a sheep herder), respectively. Carl Madsen also built a massive brick barn for George Beckstead that was more ornate than the house.

The exterior of the Beckstead-Butterfield House has good historic integrity in the qualities of design, materials, and workmanship. Minor alterations such as the front porch enclosure and missing south porch were reversed during the 2019-2020 rehabilitation. Although the interior was substantially modeled over the years, the recent rehabilitation preserved as many extant historic features as possible. During the rehabilitation, the missing Victorian fireplace, staircase, and pocket doors were replaced with historically appropriate features. The property has good location, feel and association integrity, but the original farm setting has been somewhat compromised by recent development in the neighborhood. For this reason, the property is being nominated for Architectural, but not Agricultural significance.

Additional Historic Context: History of the Beckstead-Butterfield House

Riverton was settled in the 1850s by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church). The first residents lived in dugouts or crude log cabins near the Jordan River. A communal water project, the South Jordan Canal (begun in 1870 and completed in 1876), opened up the bench lands for agriculture. At the time the settlement was named Riverton in 1879, there were about one hundred residents living in scattered farmsteads on a bluff west of the Jordan River. After the completion of the larger Utah and Salt Lake Canal in 1881, as more settlers arrived, the community coalesced and expanded along Redwood Road. Redwood Road was the community’s main thoroughfare, in addition to being one of only two north-south transportation routes linking the north and south ends of the Salt Lake Valley at the turn of the twentieth century (the oldest route is the former Territorial Road, today’s State Street). It was named for the redwood stakes used to survey the road. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, a small commercial district developed at Redwood Road and 12400 South in Riverton.

The first owner of the land where the Beckstead-Butterfield House is located was James C. Hamilton, who received the first patent in 1883. A 30-acre portion of the homestead was acquired by Christian and Minnie Peterson, who sold it to W. W. and Mary Jane Beckstead in 1896. William Warren Beckstead was born in Riverton, on March 26, 1870. His parents were early settlers of Riverton, George Wesley and Eleanor Davis Beckstead. George W. Beckstead was a prosperous sheep rancher, whose assets were divided between his children at his death in 1890. In December 1891, W.W. Beckstead married Mary Jane Berg, who was born in Provo, Utah, on March 2, 1871. The Becksteads constructed a large brick eight-room home on Redwood Road in 1897. On November 22, 1897, Riverton’s local correspondent for the Deseret News reported on the progress of the new house:

W.W. Beckstead of Riverton has moved into his new residence. It is hardly yet completed—just enough to accommodate his family for the present. When finished it will no doubt be one of the finest in the vicinity. We want to see a few more such residences erected by our better able townsmen in the near future, as it adds greatly to the appearance of our settlement and displays the faith of its inhabitants in its future prosperity.

W.W. Beckstead farmed on his property in Riverton and managed sheep ranches in Idaho and Wyoming with his eldest brother, George F. Beckstead, and their sister, Mamie’s, husband Ed Harding. Two children were born to Mary Jane and W. W. before they built the brick house and two were built while they lived in the house. After just three years in the house, they decided to move to Rexburg, Idaho, to be closer to the ranches. The property in Riverton reverted to Christian and Minnie Peterson, who sold 10 acres to W.W.’s brother, George F. Beckstead. W.W. and Mary Jane Beckstead moved to Logan, Utah, in 1923. William Warren Beckstead died on February 2, 1954. Mary Jane Berg Beckstead died in California on July 18, 1968. They are buried in Logan.

Within the community of Riverton, the Beckstead house is more often associated with its second owners, George F. and Charlotte Beckstead. This is due to the fact that George F. Beckstead had a large brick barn built on the property soon after they acquired the house in 1900. The two-story barn sat slightly south and west of the house. It was built of brick with an ashlar granite foundation. The elaborate architecture of the barn included round towers at the front corners, a wide arched entrance, a stained-glass rose window, castellated parapet, and hard wood floors. The initials “G.F.B.” were installed above the entrance [Figure 3]. The castle-like, brick barn was a landmark in the community until its demolition in 1968. The George F. Beckstead barn was built by Carl Madsen, the most prolific Riverton builder of the period. Madsen is also believed to be the builder of the Beckstead house a few years earlier, and probably built the 1900 addition to the house for George and Charlotte.

Carl Madsen was born in Denmark in 1857. As a young man, he was apprenticed to a carriage maker. In 1881, Carl immigrated to Utah. Carl began working for a home builder in South Jordan in 1884. Carl and his wife, Anne Crane, moved to Riverton in 1889. His career as a builder lasted almost sixty years. Carl made was one of the building supervisors of the Riverton LDS Ward meetinghouse, designed by Richard Kletting, the architect of the Utah State Capitol. The building was nicknamed the Riverton domed church. It was built in 1899 and demolished 1940. Carl Madsen died in Riverton in 1947.

George Francis Beckstead was born on March 25, 1860 in Provo, Utah. He married Charlotte Emeline Hamilton in 1881. Charlotte was the sister of James C. Hamilton. George and Charlotte were the parents of nine children. Soon the death of George W. Beckstead in 1890, George and Charlotte moved into his father’s house in Riverton. In 1900, they moved one mile south on Redwood Road to W.W. and Mary Jane’s house. George F. had acquired a number of sheep herds by then. In her biography, Charlotte describes her husband as “the biggest sheep man in the state.” George F. also raised horses and the elaborate barn was built as a showcase for his horses. Charlotte brought George’s mother back from Salt Lake City to live with them in Riverton because they had “plenty of room.” Eleanor Davis Beckstead lived with them until her death in 1902. In 1906, the Beckstead family decided to move to Provo to help further the education of their almost grown youngest children. George Francis Beckstead died on January 5, 1916. Charlotte Emmeline Hamilton Beckstead died on June 7, 1953. They are buried in the Provo Cemetery.

Although the Becksteads did not move to Provo until 1906, on December 2, 1902, George and Charlotte deeded 80 acres of property, including the house, to Edward T. Harding, George’s sheep business partner and the husband of his sister, Mary Elizabeth Beckstead Harding. Edward Thomas Harding was born in Provo in 1860. Mary Beckstead was also born in Provo in 1866. They were married in 1886. It appears the Harding family remained in Provo and never lived in the Riverton house. On September 8, 1906, they sold the Riverton property to Almon T. Butterfield, a Riverton farmer. Edward T. Harding died in 1922. Mary Beckstead Harding died in Salt Lake City in 1944.

Though the early occupants of the house were members of the Beckstead family, the family of Almon T. Butterfield owned the property between 1906 and 1950, making them the longest owners. Most Riverton residents old enough to remember the landmark brick barn, also remember Almon replacing the initials “G.F.B.” with his own “A.T.B.” over the barn’s entrance. Almon Thomas Butterfield was born in Herriman, Utah, on July 5, 1868.

As a boy, Almon Butterfield herded sheep and later went into the sheep business. Almon married Sarah Jane Crump in 1896. Sarah Jane Crump was born in Herriman on September 2, 1873. They had four children in Herriman before moving to Riverton where four more children were born. While Almon was serving a mission for the LDS Church between 1908 and 1911, Alvin Miller helped run the farm for Sarah Jane. In addition to the 80 acres of property around the house and barn, Almon T. Butterfield had 500 acres of irrigated land, making him one of the largest farm holders in Salt Lake County. Almon T. Butterfield was among the founding members of a number of corporations in Riverton: Riverton Pipe Company, Riverton Canning Company, Riverton Drug Company, and the Riverton Livestock Company. He was the president of the Jordan Valley Bank for 26 years. Almon T. Butterfield served a term in the Utah state legislature.

Almon T. Butterfield died on September 18, 1940. Around this time, the frame cottage was built to the north of the brick house. Sarah Jane may have lived there until 1950 when the property was sold to Decker Farms. Sarah Jane Crump Butterfield died on March 14, 1963 in Riverton. Almon and Sarah Butterfield are buried in Herriman, Utah. Between 1950 and 1953, the property was owned by Decker Farms. In the 1960s, the agricultural land was divided for subdivision development and changed hands several times. In 1979, the house was sold to R. L. and Beth Webster. The Websters had a large extended family and ran a home school in the house. The current owner, Barbara Catron, acquired the vacant house and property in 2017. Between 2019 and 2020, a full rehabilitation was completed as a mixed commercial-residential use.

Joseph Adams House

24 Sunday Mar 2024

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Joseph Adams House

The Joseph Adams House is significant as one of the best remaining examples of the turn-of-the-century farm house in Utah’s Davis County. Located between the two large metropolitan areas of Salt Lake City and Ogden, Davis County became the garden spot of the Wasatch front as a considerable number of prosperous family farms were operated in the county; however, in the last few decades much of the farmland has been appropriated for housing subdivisions, schools, shopping centers, highways, and other urban structures. The Joseph Adams House and out buildings, located in a grove of trees and surrounded by pasture land, provides a glimpse of the by-gone rural-agricultural era of Davis County.

Located at 400 North Adamswood Road in Layton, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#78002655) on February 17, 1978 (text on this page is mostly from that nomination form).

Related:

Joseph Samuel Adams was born at Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, September 19, 1841. Earlier his parents Elias and Malinda Railey Adams had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Illinois to be with the main body of Mormons. Following the exodus from Illinois the Adams family moved to Mount Pisgah in May 1846 and remained there until 1850. In the spring of 1850 Elias Adams was released from his assignment at the Mount Pisgah way station and allowed to complete the journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

After their arrival in Salt Lake City, September 7, 1850, the Adams family immediately traveled north to the Kaysville settlement where Elias Adams claimed a parcel of land .approximately one by two miles.

Joseph Adams remained with his family in Kaysville until 1873 when he was called to serve as a colonizing missionary to northern Arizona. The mission proved a failure, and the group returned to Utah. However Joseph Adams left his mark in Arizona at House Rock Springs where his assessment of the mission, carved in stone, can still be read, “Joseph Adams from Kaysville to Arizona and busted June 4, A.D. 1873.”

Joseph returned to Kaysville and in February 1876 married Isabella “Belle” Smith. He purchased 80 acres of land from his father for 450 bushels of grain. In the spring of 1876 a large log house was constructed and several out buildings including the granary, cellar and wash house. The farm proved profitable and in 1889 Adams began construction of the present brick house. Brick for the house was made by Joseph Adams who had learned brick making from his father.

Joseph Adams died October 13, 1901. His wife “Belle” remained in the house until her death in 1944. Prior to that time his son Charles moved into the house and the property passed to him. Charles Adams died in 1966, and his wife, Minnie N. Adams, is the current owner. She has deeded the house and property to her son, Charles P. Adams, who has shown a strong commitment to the preservation of the house and property.

Of the original eighty-acre farm only six acres are included as the National Register property. The six acres include the following buildings: the house, constructed in 1889-1890; the wash house, constructed in 1876; the milk house, constructed c. 1900; the granary, buggy shed, and milking shed, constructed in 1876; and a garage, constructed c. 1920. Also on the property but not included in the nomination is a thresher shed constructed in 1959.

The Adams house is a good example of a basic “T” form, 2-story brick house (with a one-story shed addition), which uses Queen Anne style decorative elements without the variation in plan or massing characteristic of more elaborate Queen Anne buildings. The fine decorative detail, although limited to the front façade, makes for great visual interest. The first floor double two-over-two windows in the gable end framed by a brick arch, with a tracery pattern in the wood infill below the arch. The second floor windows above and the dormer window are set in raised brick corbelling. Both second story windows, one in the gable end and the dormer over the porch, are framed by raised corbelled brick.

The porch projects past the front of the house and is supported by six turned posts with bell and spindle fret work just below the porch roof line. The roof of the porch is broken by a projecting gable over the steps with a turned finial on the gable peak.

The wash house is approximately 10 feet by 14 feet. The log structure was constructed in 1876 for bathing and washing clothes.

The granary, located to the rear, southeast of the house, was constructed in 1876 and is built of wood on a stone foundation which comprises a cellar and is reached by an entry on the west side of the granary. The granary is reached by doors on the north.

Attached to the granary on the east is a buggy shed with three stalls which open to the north. Attached to the buggy shed to the east is the milking shed. It opens to the south. The milk house, a 4 foot by 6 foot wooden shed used to cool the milk is located approximately forty feet west of the granary.

The garage is located east of the house, approximately 120 feet and north of the granary approximately 60 feet. It is a wood frame structure.

The house and out buildings are surrounded by approximately four and a half acres of pasture land.

Franklin D. Richards House

16 Saturday Mar 2024

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Franklin D. Richards House

The Richards House was constructed in the early 1860 T s by Franklin D. Richards for his plural wife Rhoda H. Foss Richards. Franklin D. Richards married Rhoda after the death of Willard Richards, her first husband and Franklin D. Richard’s uncle.

Located at 386 North 100 East in Farmington, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#77001303) on December 23, 1977.

Rhoda Foss Richards was born April 19, 1830, in Maine. She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1844 and in 1850 came to Utah with her mother, brother and sisters. The next year, November 30, 1851. she married Willard Richards, second counselor to President Brigham Young. One son, Calvin W. Richards, was born to Rhoda before Willard Richards died six weeks before his 50th birthday on March 11, 1854. One of several plural wives left by Willard Richards, Rhoda and other wives lived in Salt Lake City while several other wives lived in Farmington.

With no one directly responsible for the welfare of the Willard Richards family and the family facing acute financial problems, several wives wrote to Brigham Young seeking his advice. Following Young’s counsel, four of the wives, including Rhoda, married Franklin D. Richards on March 7, 1857. The marriage might have taken place earlier but Franklin D. Richards left for a proselyting mission to England two weeks after Willard’s death in March 1854 and did not return to Utah until October 1856.

Following the unsettled period caused by President James Buchanan’s sending a Federal Army to put down an alleged rebellion among the Mormons, Franklin D. Richards moved Rhoda to Farmington in 1858 where she occupied a log cabin until the three-room rock house was completed some time after the birth of twin boys, Ira and Exra, on July 27, 1860. Earlier another son, Hyrum, was born to Franklin and Rhoda on December 14, 1857. Later a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, was born on October 31, 1862.

Rhoda lived in the Farmington home until her death in 1881. Although the official residence of Franklin D. Richards was Ogden, his journal notes frequent visits to Farmington to care for Rhoda and three other wives who lived in the community. An attractive lady of twenty-seven at the time of her marriage to Franklin, Rhoda seems to have been an understanding wife for whom Franklin had a great concern. A few days before her death, Franklin, upon her advice, reluctantly left to accompany other church authorities on a visit to the Southern part of Utah. In a biographical sketch of Rhoda Foss Richards, Mathias F. Cowley writes, “She was kind and lovable, yet firm for the right in everything whether of small or great importance. She and her family were very poor in this world’s goods, but rich in faith and the hopes of a glorious future. She was well educated but yet willing not only to be a school teacher but to milk a cow, feed chickens and attend to every essential work whether in the house or out of doors. She raised her family in the main with little help from her husband for his duties as a faithful apostle of the Lord called him away from home most of the time, and having a large family they had to struggle but it made them self reliant. . ..”

Franklin D. Richards was one of the most important intellectual leaders of the LDS church and Utah during the Nineteenth Century. Born April 2, 1821, in Richmond, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, he joined the Mormon Church in June 1838 and moved West first to Missouri and then Illinois. During the period from 1840 to 1845 he served several proselyting missions in the United States and in July 1846 he left for a two-year mission to England.

Arriving in Salt Lake City in October 1848 he was called as one of the Church’s twelve Apostles on February 12, 1849. In October 1849 he returned to England as President of the British Mission from January 1, 1851, until he left England for Utah in May 1852. Under his administration the Prepetual Emigration Fund, a system whereby emigrants could borrow from a fund to pay for their travel to Utah then return the money to the fund for the use of others, was established in England. A successful administrator and missionary, Franklin D. Richards served as President of the entire European Mission, which included the British, French, Scandinavian, Swiss, German, and Italian mission fields, from 1854 to 1856 and 1866 to 1868.

Following his return from the last mission he was asked to move to Ogden to be the presiding ecclesiastical authority in Weber County. In this capacity he represented Brigham Young at the ceremonies marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.

During the polygamy crusade of the 1880 ! s he was described as the “visible head of the church.” While Church President John Taylor was forced into hiding because of the polygamy issue, Franklin D. Richards and his wives, “. . . conformed their mode of life to the requirements of the law.” Without harassment by Federal authorities, Franklin Richards, while in communication with his colleagues who were in hiding, was able to act in an official capacity for the church including presiding over the church general conferences from October 1884 to October 1887.

In 1884 Franklin D. Richards was assigned to assist the Church Historian, Wilford Woodruff, and in 1889, when Wilford Woodruff became President of the church, Franklin D. Richards was appointed Church Historian. As a:_ historian, Richards was devoted to objectivity and authenticity. “His administration was marked by an intense desire to secure the strictest accuracy possible, and to have all history subject to the most careful scrutiny that may be available.”

He assisted Hubert Howe Bancroft in his preparation of his History of Utah which was completed in 1885 but not published until 1889. He participated in the founding of the Utah Genealogical Society in November 1894 and served as its first president. Recognizing that Utah’s History extended beyond the bounds of “Mormon History,” he also participated in the founding of the Utah Historical Society in 1897 and served as its president until his death on December 9, 1899. His Presidential address of 1898, given less than three weeks after his appointment as president, sought to define areas of possible research into Utah’s varied past. He noted the areas of agriculture, irrigation, manufacturing, mining, architecture, transportation, communication, colonization, education, Mormon and non-Mormon religious institutions, literature, fine arts, invention, social customs, manners and morals, politics, and woman’s suffrage. Regarding architecture he noted, “The evolution of architecture, as exhibited in the advancement from primitive log cabin to the stately mansion, and from the plain adobe structure with its small openings and little sashes, to the imposing edifices, public and private, erected and beautified with sandstone, granite, marble, onyx and other costly materials, obtained within our borders, must not be forgotten.”

He concluded the address with an optimistic outlook for the newborn organization’s future, “I regard the organization of this society as the foundation for a superstructure which will be continuously added upon, as the years pass by, until an edifice will appear which will command the admiration of successive generations, which will be invaluable to our mountain State, which will rank among the foremost institutions of the kind in our beloved country, and which will aid materially in the education of our people and advance the welfare of mankind.”

Following the death of Rhoda Foss Richards in 1881 the house remained in her family’s possession, and in 1890 Ezra Richards brought his new bride, Amanda Reeder, to the Farmington home. A farmer by occupation, Ezra also served a mission to New Zealand from 1885 to 1888 where he directed the translation of the Book of Mormon into the Maori language. Later from 1896 to 1898 he served as President of the New Zealand Mission. He added a fourth room to the three-room house in 1904.

Ezra Richards died February 1, 1930. However, his wife Amanda lived in the house until her death on March 4,1962. The house is currently owned by Clara Richards, a daughter of Ezra and Amanda Richards and granddaughters of Franklin D. Richards.

The Richards house is significant as one of the early rock houses constructed in Farmington. Since the Franklin D. Richards residence in Ogden has been destroyed, the Farmington House is perhaps the best tangible reminder of the life of this early church leader and historian. The relationship which developed between Rhoda Richards and her first husband’s nephew is an example of the workings of polygamy among Nineteenth Century Mormons.

The original portion of the Franklin D. Richards House is a one-story, three room stone structure with a T-shaped plan. The stone used in the building is a hard, igneous stone gathered from nearby fields and riverbeds. The walls of multicolored stone are laid up in random rubble fashion. Basically vernacular in character, the Richards’ House is trimmed with a plain cornice and frieze and flat lintels and sills, all of plain, unmoulded wood. The window and door bays are square. The windows are 6/6 double-hung sash with simple beveled muntins.

The front porch, a hipped roof canopy which extends across the full length of the western side of the trunk of the T appears on early photographs with round wooden columns and brackets. It is likely that this porch, along with a one-story, frame, hipped wing along the eastern and southern sides of the trunk of the T, were added after 1890. The posts and brackets remain on the later porch, but the frame siding has been covered with newer sheathing. Fortunately, these exterior alterations are on the backside of the house and are not visible from the front view.

Inside, the original rooms retain their original dimensions, trim and spacial arrangements. One fireplace of c. 1890 vintage is also extant. The house has been carefully maintained so that the original design and fabric contribute to our knowledge of pioneer vernacular craftsmanship.

Bowman-Chamberlain House

15 Friday Mar 2024

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Bowman-Chamberlain House / McAllister Home

The significance of this home lies both in its architecture and its occupants. The architectural significance has already been noted in section 7 B. The site passed through a number of hands before it was purchased by Henry E. Bowman .April 30, 1892, It was he who had the present dwelling constructed. Bowman arrived in Kanab in 1885 where he taught school. In 1887 Henry E, Bowman bought an–adobe house faced with brick at 2nd North and Main in Kanab, It was in this home that Bowman began his mercantile business in the 19 x 21 ft. living room. In 1892 H, E, Bowman and four other residents formed a corporation called the Bowman Company, At this time they built a brick building on the corner of Center and Main, It wasn’t until 1894 that Bowman sold the adobe home mentioned above, at which time his new home was probably completed. It is not known who designed the home or if an architect was used, Bowman operated the mercantile business until 1896 when he sold both his home and the business to Thomas Chamberlain in order to raise the funds to go on a mission for the Mormon Church to Switzerland, He was president of the Swiss Mission from 1898 to 1900, Upon his return, he went to Mexico, returning to Kanab in 1916 and acquiring the Bowman Company once again. Bowman was responsible for the construction of the road connecting Kanab and Orderville to the north which required hauling clay and gravel by team to cover the sand which stretched between Kanab and Orderville, This highway was later to become part of Highway 89,

Located at 14 East 100 South in Kanab, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#75001811) on July 8, 1975.

On November 28, 1896, Thomas Chamberlain acquired the Bowman house for $5,000. Chamberlain was among the first settlers of Orderville arriving in Long Valley in 1871, He was among the first to join in the United Order, a Mormon cooperative effort which was particularly successful in Orderville, He was designated bishop of the Qrderville Ward in 1877 and was one of the original High Councilors in the Kanab Stake, He was on the Board of Directors of the United Order serving for nine years as its president, Chamberlain had six wives and fifty-five children. He served six months (1888-9) in the Utah penitentiary for polygamy, His first wife, Elinor Hoyt Chamberlain, resided in the home until 1935, when it was acquired by her daughter, Lillian C, McAllister, Her husband, June McAllister, continued to live in the home from 1956 until his death, at which time it was sold by his estate to the city of Kanab, Kanab citizens are now engaged in a restoration project which has received funds from the State Bicentennial Commission, Plans for the building include museum space as well as a meeting place for the local historical society and other groups.

Daniel Heiner House

13 Wednesday Mar 2024

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Daniel Heiner House

The Daniel Heiner home in Morgan is a distinguished pioneer residence that marks the local importance of a man who, in peculiarly Mormon fashion, combined a life of religious leadership with active entrepreneurial activity in ranching, mining, and banking, as well as significant involvement in Republican politics.

Located at 543 North 700 East in Morgan, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#78002664) on December 20, 1978.

Daniel Heiner was born November, 1850, in Pennsylvania to German immigrant parents. After conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Heiner family migrated to Utah in 1859. With ten members in the family, together with all their belongings, there was no room on the one wagon for eight year-old Daniel Heiner….so he walked the 1,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

ollowing some years of hardship, during which he worked as a shepherd )oy, Daniel finally settled with his family in Morgan county. During these early years he helped support his family through hunting and leading hunting parties and by working as a laborer on the Union Pacific Railroad. Despite his almost total lack of formal education, Heiner was literate and intelligent and eventually at age 22 he was called as the village schoolmaster in Morgan.

In 1873 Heiner married both his brother’s widow and a virgin of his choice, and in his biography later noted that following the double ceremony in the Salt Lake Endowment House he had exactly two dollars to his name. However, it was not long before his energy and initiative had created a family ranching business that he maintained throughout his life. In addition he managed Echo Land and Livestock Company for 15 years, and bought and sold cattle on behalf of the Whitney § Chambers Company of Evans ton, Wyoming. In commenting on his vigorous business instincts, Heiner remarked that he could never “content myself by killing time.” Every activity had to be turned to good account, and for example, “When I was riding horses over the country I would notice the kind of grass, brush, or timber that I was going through. If I passed a grove of timber, I would figure out mentally how much lumber could be sawed out of the grove, by guessing how many acres in the grove, how many trees to the square rod, and how much lumber could be cut out of an average sized tree.”

The family fortune from mining, principally coal and silver claims, was the result of this eagerness to work and achieve. “I went down there (Emery County) four or five times and climbed over the high mountains following coal measures and survey lines while my neighbors were sitting by the fire warming their shins. I succeeded in getting twelve of my children (he had nineteen) located on coal claims, which are now know as the Black Hawk coal mine, about the best coal mine in the state.” Growing out of his mining and ranching activity was Heiner’s interest in banking which led to the creation of the First National Bank of Morgan of which he was President for 16 years.

Describing himself as a “natural Republican,” Heiner served in a number of local political offices, and was mayor of Morgan City for two years. Following service in the first state legislature, Heiner was then appointed as road commissioner for Morgan County. In this role, he had several significant accomplishments in road and bridge building.

Keeping pace with his growing prestige in the secular world, Heiner’s role in the Mormon Church grew increasingly more responsible. As a polygamist he narrowly escaped prosecution, being saved from being brought to trial by the timely announcement of the Manifesto which had the effect of halting active prosecutions of polygamists under the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Although he did not join the distinguished group of Mormon Church leaders serving time as “prisoners for conscience’s sake” in the territorial prison, Heiner had gained that extra measure of responsibility, from a Mormon point of view, which probably ensured his eventual selection as President of the Morgan state (akin to a diocese) of the Mormon Church. He served in that position for twenty-three years.

Daniel Heiner was preceeded in death by the two wives who had given him nineteen children. Before his own death in 1931, at his home in Morgan, he was married to his nurse, Barbara Wheeler.

The Heiner Home, like the man, is a measure of the sturdy values of pioneer enterprise and its solid construction and innate style a fitting memorial to a man who made contributions to his community through business, politics, and religion.

The Daniel Heiner house is a very well maintained five-over-five I-form central hall house. A two-story porch runs almost the full width of the house, with the porch columns matching the five-part division of the façade openings. Although the jigsaw scrollwork brackets on the sides of the columns are missing, the porch railings and balustrades are in excellent condition. The stucco walls were originally scored to give the appearance of cut stone; they are now painted slate blue. The shingle roof has been covered with neutral colored asphalt shingles.

The house stands on the edge of a valley and commands an exceptional view of valley farm lands and mountains. A number of pioneer residences, differing in style, are strung out along a country road. Unfortunately, they are interspersed with modern dwellings.