BIOGRAPHIES - LORIN FARR PART 14

The first fuel used by the settlers in Weber County was sage brush. As sage brush became scarce, the men drove teams into the mountains and secured loads of oak, pine and cottonwood trees for their wood. Some would go into Ogden Canyon , chop down trees, mark them and float them down the river. They then would claim their own trees downstream and cut it up into desired lengths. Coal was later brought into Ogden from Coalville , Utah . Coal was first discovered in 1859 in Coalville. The fireplace was the place where homes were heated until stoves were introduced. (BBLP, p. 112-113) As time passed many home industries were replaced by businesses supplying basic human wants.

When the pioneers survived 'the starvation period,' (the time it took the pioneers to raise a crop or two) their diet consisted mainly of potatoes, corn bread, cornmeal mush, pork and dried pumpkins. All settlers had some milk, butter and cheese from their cows. They added molasses to their diet as well as greens indigenous to the area. Mary Bingham Geerston describes their diet as follows: 'Ours was a large family so we had to gather dandelions and sour dock for greens; we made teas from black willow and from wild rose leaves, and we dried the rose petals to place in our trunks and dresser drawers. From the sour dock berries we made wine, as well as drying them for pies, puddings, and even cakes. We loved the sego lilies for their exquisite bloms, but most of all for the bulbs which we ate, as we eat green onions. The wild currants had fragrant blossoms, but we thought of them as currant preserves which we enjoyed in winter." Service berries, wild strawberries, raspberries, choke cherries, black and yellow currants were often dried or preserved with honey or molasses. As the settlement matured each family had a vegetable garden, some grain, cows, chickens, pigs and sheep to add variety to their diet. Wild game was plentiful in those days. Joseph Taylor remarked that you didn't need a gun to get blue grouse, willow grouse, pintail grouse, prairie chickens and sage hens abounded. A rock or stick would do to slay these birds. (BBLP, p. 113-114)

The pioneers erected grist mills to grind their grain and make bread. To make leaven the women gathered saleratus from the surface of the swampy ground. This was placed in a kettle and hot water was poured over it. The contents were boiled thoroughly and then cooled. Skum was taken from the top and the sediment in the bottom of the container was thrown away. The remaining soda water was used as leaven, for the relief of burns and for cleaning clothes. Salt rising bred was made by adding salt and flour to quart of water cooked, more flour and salt added until the desired amount of bread was made. (BBLP P. 115)

In the early days the streets of Ogden became mired with mud. To construct buildings it was necessary to haul in wagon loads of gravel to give sufficient stability. Four thousand wagon loads of gravel and earth were hauled in to fill a muddy slough before the J.M. Thomas store could be constructed. The early side walks were made of planks ten feet long and two feet off the ground. Later asphalt sidewalks would be laid. The advertizing told of the growing commercial aspect of town life. Monuments, home sewing machines, the Ogden Theater, construction, boots, shoes, music, millinery, tailoring, livery stables homemade crockery and many other items were advertized in the Ogden Junction. (BBLP, p. 118-119)

Wilford Woodruff described Ogden on December 2, 1854 for the Deseret News. He wrote, "this is the county seat of Weber County and is a flourishing place containing some 150 families. The city wall will enclose one mile square and is to be built of earth 8 feet hisgh, 3 feet wide at the bottom and 18 inches at the top; but very little is yet built. They have two schools with about 120 scholars, one adobe school house." An English, William Chandless journeyed from Salt Lake to Ogden visitor recorded an impression of Ogden . Chandless wrote, "Ogden City was a specimen of the settlement of the settlements in Utah on the model of Salt Lake; precisely a mile square, part on the bench, part in the valley-bottom, enclosed by an earthern wall, and laid out in 'blocks'; a large portion was still unoccupied, but doble-houses were fast springing up. In the middle of the place was a schoolhouse, also used as a church, and its door plastered over with parochial notices; near it were two small stores-few settlements have as many, and what people want they must get direct from the city as best they can. The roads, except on the bench, were a miserable alternation of mud and water, and if not frozen over, hardly passable for a floot traveller; there was little cleanliness or neatness about them. Several small mountain burns ran through the place, and to the north lay a small,deep, sluggish river, closed in by kinnikkinnik, and crossed by a substantial wooden bridge; to this a list of tolls were affixed, but as far as I could see they were never exacted. Cattle on all sides straggle about, picking up what they can find, and at night return, or are driven within the walls; the cultivated land is necessarily more or less distant, but danger gathers the inhabitants and their stock to a single space." (History of Ogden, SHC, p. 34) The Farr fort was designed to enclose all the territory within what is now Wall and Madison Avenues (1940), and 21st and 28th Streets.(Hist of Ogden, SHC, p. 32)

1855 marked 10 years of Ogden history when Miles Goodyear, its first citizen, settled there. This year was one of the most severe for the colonists as that summer great black swarms of crickets and grasshoppers invaded the land. They devoured everything green with almost complete destruction of crops. This event was followed by an extremely bitter cold winter with deep snow. Cattle by the thousands died of starvation. Charles Middleton kept some of his cattle alive by feeding them on the boiled flesh of other cattle. Middleton said enough cattle perished that winter that if you laid them end to end they would have stretched from Ogden to Salt Lake . (BBLP, p. 92)

After learning that President James Buchanan had ordered Johnston 's army to put down the 'Mormon Rebellion,' on July 24 th , 1857 Brigham Young determined that they would not fight but flee their homes and hide out til danger passed. An assembled group of leaders heard the report of General Daniel H. Wells relate the facts of the army coming after he had returned from Independence and Laramie . Brigham Young's words to the group were direct and stinging in condemnation of this overt act of hostility on behalf of the government. As Lorin Farr and his company headed back to Ogden President Young's words rang clearly in Lorin's mind. This normally good humored leader's mood was turned serious and reflective as he discussed the situation with his family and counselors. Later in August after hearing one of Brigham Young's greatest speeches ever Lorin came back to speak to his Weber Saints in these words:

'They say that the coming of their army is legal, and I say it is not. They who say it are morally rotten. Come on with your thousands of illegally ordered troops, and I promise you in the name of Israel 's God, that they shall melt away as the snow before a July sun. I have told you that if there is any man or woman who is not willing to destroy everything of their property that would be of no use to an enemy if left, I would advise them to leave the Territory. When the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man attempts to shield his, he will be treated as a traitor. Now the faint hearted can go in peace; should that time come they must not interfere. Before I will again suffer as I have in times gone by, there shall not one building, nor one foot of lumber, nor a fence, nor a tree, nor a particle of grass or hay that will burn, be left in reach of our enemies. I am sworn, if driven to extremity, to utterly lay waste this land in the name of Israel 's God, and our enemies shall find it as barren as when we came here.' During this period of strong words of condemnation against the government for sending these troops Lorin Farr called his stake officers together to advise temperance, patience and prayer to get through their current difficulty. (LF, p 156-8)

. Throughout the territory the Nauvoo Legion was mustered for armed conflict. Chauncey West was headed the Ogden unit of the legion. They drilled in the yet uncompleted Ogden Tabernacle. Luman Surtliff reported that the month of August was taken up with military service. On the morning of September 29 th the drums awoke people in Ogden which was a call for ninety men to go and prepare to receive Johnston 's Army. On October 19 th the troops were sent north via Cache Valley to Bear River, then south through Malad Valley and Brigham City back to Ogden without finding any troops to encounter. In November, 1857 as the troops were ordered to Echo Canyon to meet the Federal troops reportedly coming that way those who were ordered to stay at home were to supply those going. Luman Shurtliff supplied a soldier his rifle, two blankets, one overcoat, an overshirt, pair of pants, a tea kettle, one loaf o bread, bucket of crackers, my horses and harness. He said he had partaken of and shared in the persecutions of the church since 1836 until the present and that he was willing to spend his time and strength in the redemption of Zion . Although some of the men from Ogden were retained during December most of them returned to Ogden in preparation to transport their families south. Reporting on his departure April 5, 1858, John Martin wrote, 'What a unique picture we must have made with the three teams of oxen, my cow, calf, pig, four lambs and a half dozen chickens. With my wife and her sister and the two children on top of our load.' (History of Ogden, p. 38-9)

Winslow Farr, Jr., Lorin's youngest brother recorded that on April 1, 1858 that he went from Ogden to Echo Canyon with about 3,000 people to keep the soldiers back til the people moved south but never saw one soldier. Winslow also indicated that on May 22, 1858 he started for home camping on the Weber River . The raft they were attempting to get them across the river wrecked and he lost boots, socks and had to walk barefoot to home over 40 miles away. He went back down with the people in Provo and did some farming in Lehi. Lorin Farr made trips to Weber County almost every two weeks while in Utah Valley . (LF, p. 167)

Lot Smith and the Utah militia in 1857 had delayed the progress of the troops by capturing supplies and cattle from some supply trains on the Green River . They drove 700 head of cattle into Salt Lake along with burning 399,000 pounds of provisions enough to last the Utah Army three months. (L.F., p. 168)

Lorin Farr led a migration to the Provo bottoms in Utah Valley in 1858. Some made their quarters in wagons, tents and wickiups, built of long canes and flags. Here on these bottoms the Weber County people located themselves for about two months. The soldiers marched through the tomblike Great Salt Lake City on June 26th, crossed the Jordan River and established themselves in Cedar Valley west of Utah Lake . The Ogden settlers turned north between July 1 and 3rd, 1858, as Lorin Farr fearing disease and inadequate living facilities in the river bottom gained Brigham Young's permission to return to Ogden . The crops had prospered in their absence and the crops of 1858 became the best in many years. The return of the settlers marked a new beginning in Ogden . Soon the walls would disappear and almost be gone within 30 years. In 1859-60 the settlers built a road into the formidable Ogden Canyon to obtain much needed lumber. This project cost $50,000 and helped greatly to expand the city with building materials. (History of Ogden, SHC, p. 39-40)

Here is what Lorin Farr said (as recorded in Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak) of the move south ordered by Brigham Young:

"I received instructions from President Young to move the people of Weber County south; but previous to the move I took Bishop Chauncy W. West down and we selected a location west of Provo , being there and the lake, and the greatest portion of the Weber County people located on these bottoms. I came back and directed the people of the various wards, organized them under their different heads and commenced the move south. Before the 1 st of May nearly all of Weber County were down on the Provo bottoms which we had before selected. Some made their quarters in wagons, tents and wickiups, built of long canes and flags. In many placesthe cane houses had the appearance of villages. Here on these bottoms the bulk of the Weber County people located themselves for two months, having commenced the move early in May; some, however, went further south."

Before leaving home I put in all my crops and raised as much wheat that year as I had done in previous years. A few others also put in grain before they went but most the expected never to come back, thinking the community was about to make an exodus from Utah to some place not then chosen, similar to the exodus which they made from Nauvoo to these mountains under President Young's leadership. So a number of men were detailed to stay to burn our homes, leaving every settlement of Weber County in ashes, and the country as desolate as it was before the arrival of the pioneers. This was certain to be done throughout the entire Territory if the Peace Commissioners sent out by Buchanan failed to accomplish the terms of the treaty and Johnston 's army re-opened hostilities after obtaining a foothold in the country."

"So all was dark and uncertain when the people of Weber County left their homes; but I had faith in our speedy return, and said to m y family, when our wagons stood at our door ready to start, 'In two months we shall come back again.' With this conviction I had planted my crops and I left two men to take care of them and my premises."

"There were about three or four thousand of the people of Weber County camped on the Provo bottoms. As the summer came on the weather became oppressively hot, the water was bad as we had to dig holes to get water, and the people began to complain of sickness. The feed had also been all eaten off by the cattle, our cows dried up, flies were very bad in tormenting our cattle and it was with great difficulty that we controlled our stock from running off. "

"I saw that something had to be done at once in moving the Weber County people from the Provo bottoms, or much suffering would naturally ensue from their condition. So I gathered up my stock on the 1 st of July and set about moving the people back to Weber County , setting the example with my family. Having made my arrangements to return I went to Provo City being headquarters of the Church during this exodus. I informed President Young of the conditions of the people on the Provo bottoms and asked if he had any counsel for the Weber people; I also told him of my purpose to return to Ogden with my family unless otherwise directed by him."

"After reflecting a few moments he replied, 'Yes, Brother Farr; I want you to go and tell those in the Provo bottoms and all from the north to go back as quickly as they please, and if any of them question the authority say that my cattle are gathered up and that I am going to take a portion of my family and start for home this night.'"

"President Kimball who was with him said it was the first he had heard of President Young's intention and he was overjoyed at the word to return home. This was at five o'clock in the afternoon of 1 st of July."

"I returned to the Weber County people and sent the word around to all the I could that night. Some were so surprised that they questioned the message. I told them they could do as they pleased, that my cattle were gathered up and that I was going to start with my family in the morning."

"On the 2 nd of July, I took a portion of my family in my carriage and started for Weber County , having left orders to have every family notified to return home. I arrived at Ogden on the fourth of July, just two months to a day from the time we left, and found my crops in flourishing condition, and my buildings and premises well taken care of."

"The Weber County people who left their homes expecting to never come back, commenced their homeward journey on the 3 rd of July, most of them coming right away, while others came scattering back at their leisure, not having put in crops, reaching home in the fall. Others never came back but remained in the south and settled in Utah County and Juab County ."

(BBLP, p. 96-98)

From other sources we learn of the challenges of 'life in Provo .' Thirty thousand people were reported to have brought their wagons piled high with possessions into Utah Valley . Accommodations were very rough and rudimentary. Temporary housing was built on the public square, many settlers took as many people as they could into their homes and every assistance given to help those camping out. The north side of the square was full, while on the west the buildings ran half way down. The housing was built close together like a fort. Brigham Young occupied several of the shelters. In the center was a large tent used as a storehouse. Lorin Farr remembered that as summer approached and the weather became unbearably hot that 'the water was bad as we had to dig holes to get water and the people began to complain of sickness. The feed had also been eaten off by the cattle, our cows dried up, flies were very bad tormenting our cattle, and it was with great difficulty that we controlled our stock from running off.' (Heart Throbs of the West, Vol 10, p. 258-9)

The move south as discussed came about after careful deliberation by President Brigham Young as well as other church and civic leaders. A meeting was held on March 18, 1858 in the Church Historian's office where the First Presidency, eight of the Twelve Apostles and thirty of the military leaders discussed the impending crisis. There was talk of completely leaving the territory with other sections of the country being considered. In the end Brigham Young spoke saying, 'We are here and here we will stay in this Territory.' They then agreed that all present at this conference would abandon their homes and move south leaving enough men to burn their homes and possessions if the army tried to take control of the territory. The words of Brigham Young echoed through the valley and few would fail to heed their leaders strong declaration to move south in a show of defiance against the invading army of the United States . The bishops of the wards notified their members of the move and soon the road to Provo from Box Elder County were lined with horses, mules and ox teams carrying families and provisions. The contents of the large wheat bin on the church farm in Salt Lake was moved to Provo . (Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, pg. 8-9, Kate Carter)

Later in response to a question about the seriousness of the army coming to Utah , Lorin Farr would say, 'No, I did not believe the soldiers were sent to exterminate us. Many of them came from the same heritage we had; they came because they were sent and didn't understand why they were coming. Many of them later proved this when they stayed in Utah and some joined the Church. Brother Brigham gave us the plan how to meet the army, and that is what we did.' (LF, p. 164-5)

The return of the settlers to Weber County marked the beginning of a new era in Ogden 's history. Soon thereafter it ceased to be a small frontier town huddled within its fort walls. Eventually the walls had completely disappeared. The population of Ogden City in 1860 was 1,464 people, 323 more than the total population of the entire county ten years earlier. As we continue our narrative Ogden would grow in population, commerce and industries.