History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

310 SETTLEMENT AND OCCUPATION OF THE COUNTRY.
The Indians were attacked on the 8th, and took
refuge in a log house, whence they were dislodged
next day, and driven into the thicket along the Provo
River. In this encounter Joseph Higbee was killed,
and Alexander Williams, Samuel Kearns, Albert
Miles, Jabez Nowland, and two men named Orr and
Stevens were wounded.
On the 11th the Indians fled from the thicket to
Rock Canon, whither the volunteers pursued them;
but failing to find them, the white men proceeded to
the west and south sides of Utah Lake, and shot all
they could find there.
During the expedition twenty-seven warriors were
killed. The women and children threw themselves
upon the settlers for protection and support, and were
fed and cared for in Salt Lake City until spring.
Thus Utah Valley was entirely rid of hostile Indians.
Until 1852 there was no further trouble with them
of a serious nature; 12 and thus ended the first Indian
war of Utah, which like all the others was rather a
tame affair. It was the mission of the Mormons to
convert the Indians, who were their brethren, and not
to kill them.
Later in the year was founded the city of Provo, 13
somewhat to the eastward of Fort Utah, near the
western base of the Wasatch Mountains, on a site
where timber and pasture were abundant, 14 and where
the gradual fall of the Timpanogos affords excellent
water-power. In March 1851 it was organized as a
stake of Zion. The settlement was pushed forward
with the energy characteristic of the settlers. Before
the close of 1850 more than twenty dwellings
12 ' I was ordered not to leave that valley until every Indian was out of it.'
Wells' Narr., MS., 45-6.
13 At a general conference of the church, held in October 1S49, it was
ordered that a city be laid out in the Utah Valley, and called Provo. Utah
Early Records, MS.. 97.
14 A heavy growth of cotton-woorl and box elder covered the river bottom,
with a large belt of cedar extending some four miles north from tne river
and about half a mile in width. Bunch -grass was very plentiful. Albert
Jones, in Utah Sketches, MS., 55.