History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

SETTLEMENT OF SAN PETE VALLEY.
twenty-five miles to the south, the site of Nephi, in
Juab county, was first occupied by Joseph L. Heywood.
Nephi was surveyed in the autumn of 1852,
the spot being selected on account of its beauty and convenience.
A fort was afterward built, surrounded by
a wall twelve feet in height and six feet at the base. 23
Through this town passed the old California or southern
road made by the pioneers in 1849; and here, in
cabins built of mud and willows, lived, at the close of
1852, more than forty families. 24
I have mentioned that Isaac Morley with two
hundred settlers went into the San Pete country in
1848. On the 14th of June, 1849, a council was held
at Salt Lake City, at which were present a Ute chief
named Walker, 25 and twelve of his tribe. After the
pipe of peace had been passed around, Walker declared
himself a friend of the settlers, and asked their sachem
to send a party southward to the valley of San Pete,
where they might teach his people how to build and
farm. "Within six moons," answered Brigham, "I
will send you a company." In the spring of this
year the party sent to explore this valley had already
selected the site of the present town of Manti, on a
branch of the San Pete Creek, though there was little
in the neighborhood to invite the settler, sage brush
and rabbit brush, the red man and the coyote, being
23
Its length was 420 rods, and its cost $8,400. Portions of it remained in
18S0. Geo. Teasdale, in Id., 111.
M The first settler was Timothy B. Foote, who, with his wife and six children,
took up his abode in this neighborhood in the autumn of 1851. Before
the end of the year he was joined by seven other families. Id., 107; and before
the end of 1852, 35 additional families settled at Nephi. Deseret News,
Dec. 11, 1852.
25 'Walker was the chief of the Ute Indians. . .Uinta was the great chief
of this region, and Ora was the head chief of the Ute nation. . .Walker's headquarters
were the Sevier, generally; he would pay a visit to San Pete once a
year.' Wells' Narr., MS., 4S, 56. 'Walkerused to go into California to steal
horses; had a place of concealment among the mountains. At one time, while
there, people were so incensed that they turned out to capture him and his
band. In the dead of night he quietly took possession of their horses and
trappings and came into Utah triumphant. He would boast of his proceedings
some time later. He never brought stolen goods into the settlements,
but secreted them among his people.' Utah Notes, MS., 8.
313