Heiner & Dietzel - Monk Family Organization

They settled in Mount Joy, which was later named North Morgan, and Martin
began preparing for the rest of his family. Martin bought a forty-acre farm. They had to
clear the sagebrush from it and build a fence before they could plant any crops. With
only hand tools they worked long, hard hours.
They brought the small sheep lot with them to Morgan. This was a very risky
thing to do, since they had no hay. Luckily the country was covered with virgin grass.
The wind had blown the snow off the top of the mountain, and Anthony and Daniel took
the sheep up on top. They had no tent, but they took the old wagon cover that they
brought across the plains, straightened it across a low cedar limb and used that as a
bedroom and built a fire outside. One of the boys would come down once a week and get
bread and a jug of home made molasses. They used an iron kettle to melt snow in until
they had about two quarts of water, sweetened with molasses. They toasted bread by the
fire then put it in the kettle and have water toast. They lived on that for three months.
By 1864, the little community had its first meeting house built of logs which also
served for a school. In the summer of 1864, Martin assisted in building the first canal on
the north side if Weber River. The North Morgan canal was taken out and the Heiner’s
cleared about eight acres of land and raised some good wheat and potatoes, which was a
blessing to their family.
Two springs east of North Morgan, known in the early days as the Bennett
Springs, have been very valuable to the people of Morgan City. About 1864, Martin
Heiner and Daniel Robinson each obtained a right from the county court to a continuous
stream of water for domestic purposes from the North Spring. The remained of the water
from that spring was used to water the town lots. Each lot of one acre had a right to the
whole stream for eight hours. Then the next man took it. It took eight days and 14 hours
to water all the lots.
In 1864, George and Elizabeth were still working for Daniel Wells, but they came
home for Christmas. Elizabeth became acquainted with George’s friend, Thomas Grover,
whom she married March 10, 1866. Martin asked George to remain in Morgan as there
was so much work to be done on the farm, which he did.
Up to this time some of their children had not seen a school room. The winter of
1864 and 1865 they had school taught by Jos. Dark, for six weeks in a log house twelve
by fourteen feet, with a dirt floor and roof (this is the same log meeting room built by
Martin).
In 1865, Martin built the first rock house in Morgan. It consisted of two rooms; a
kitchen and living room, which would also serve as a bedroom. When he was ready to
put the roof on, council came from President Brigham Young advising everyone to build
two stories. So Martin added two rooms up stairs. He planted the first fruit and shade
trees in the young settlement.