History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

598
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND INSTITUTIONAL
where the first settlers 67 took up their abode in April
1859; Millville, two miles farther south, located in
June 1860; 6S Paradise, at the southern extremity of
the valley, containing in 1861 about thirty inhabitants,
69 and Hyrum, settled in 1860 by about twenty
families. 70
Thus far the progress of Mormon colonization in
the north, east, and west. Toward the south, the
first settlement in Beaver county, between Millard
and Iron counties, dates from 1856, at which time
Simeon F. Howd, James P. Anderson, and Wilson
G. Mowers arrived in Beaver Valley, commenced to
build a log cabin, and made preparations for farming
and stock-raising. Soon afterward they were joined
by others, making in all some thirty or forty families,
and in the spring of 1858 the site of Beaver City
was laid out. 71 The appearance of the valley was
not inviting. Situated at an altitude of 6,500 feet,
frosty and barren, its surface covered in parts with
sage-brush and its soil everywhere impregnated with
alkali, it was at first considered unfit for occupation.
Its main attraction was the volume of water afforded
by Beaver Biver, which courses through the valley
from east to west, its source being at an alti-
67 Ira Rich, John F. Maddison, and five others. Sloan's Utah Gazetteer,
18S4, p. 128.
68 By Ezra T. Benson, P. Maughan, and several others. George 0. Pitkin,
the present bishop, was appointed March 12, 1862. Ibid.
69 A. M. Montierth from Box Elder co. was the first settler in Paradise.
H. C. Jackson built the first saw-mill in 18G0, and the first grist-mill in 1864,
in which latter year the town site was laid out under the direction of Ezra T.
Benson. A log meeting-house was built in 1861. In 1868 the settlement
was removed three miles farther to the north, for better protection against
Indians. Orson Smith, in Utah Sketches, MS., 1-2.
70 Those of Alva Benson, Ira Allen, and others. It is related that the settlers
brought the waters of Little Bear River to their farms in 21 working-days,
by means of a canal eight feet wide, which afterward furnished the water supply
of Hyrum. While at this work many of them lived on bread and water,
and their tools consisted only of a few old shovels and spades. Some of them
dwelt for several years in holes or cellars dug in the ground.
71 In the winter of 1856-7 the first log school-house was built, but gave
place in 1862 to a brick building known as the Beaver Institute. In 1S67, also,
the first saw-mill was erected on the site now occupied by the cooperative
woollen-mills. Jos H. Glines, in Utah Sketches, MS., 18. Beaver city and
co. were so named from the beaver dams found there. Richards' Utah Misc.,
MS., 7.