The move to the northeast was directed by John Rowberry; and the first two log homes erected in the new location according to one account was by James Staples and David Henry Leonard. Another account adds David Caldwell.² Both communities were part of a vast stock range, which had been given by the Utah Territorial Legislature to Brigham Young, his father-in-law William Hickman, Luke S. Johnson and others. William Hickman had been in Rush Valley wintering church livestock in December of 1855, when in January of 1856 a daughter was born to Minerva Wade, his third wife in polygamy. Lerona was the first white child born in Rush Valley.

When the Indian scare occurred, the Hickmans returned with their three-week-old daughter to their home in the "other" valley "three or four miles up the river from where Little Cottonwood empties into the Jordan River."
Lerona remembers "the lower California road" crossed over "a big bridge" near our farm.³ The same month Lemma Hickman was born, her father introduced into the Utah Legislature a bill to make Rush Valley a county. When the bill was passed, the county which had been created earlier now officially became "Shambip," a Goshiute word for "Rush." ⁴

Back in Council Bluffs, Iowa, William Hickman had helped to bury Minerva Wade's mother, who had been nursed by her daughter in the absence of both Minerva's father and brother, who were away with the Mormon Battalion. William had befriended both mother and daughter. Minerva fell in love with William becoming his third wife in polygamy. She had "promised her dying mother never to leave the Church."⁵


               Lerona Hickman  more...

The newly-formed county was not to last long however. One reason may have been the sparse population of the new county. One writer suggests the formation of the county was "little more than a favor" to Luke S. Johnson, who was a close friend of early territorial leaders. William McIntosh states in his 1861 diary: "Today is the regular setting of the court in ... [Shambip] county." (John Child, George Burridge and William were the selectmen for the county.) William further states "...the county is some indebted for one thing and another we want to settle up matters and get on clear footing."


At any rate Shambip dissolved and the area became a southern extension of Tooele County in 1862.
A pivotal figure, Luke S. Johnson had been elected Probate Judge; and John Rowberry, the civil and spiritual leader of the area, represented Tooele and Shambip Counties in the Territorial Legislature.⁶

When the settlement north of Shambip was colonized in 1866-67, the water from Clover Creek was divided between the upper and lower families. William McIntosh in his diary again comments: "In the year 1868 water began to be scarce the settlement of St. John and Enos Stookey don't think alike about our water rights" This dissension came to a head some years later when "The High Council... decided against... {Enos] and in favor of the lower settlers." He did not take his case to the civil courts; but because of the water scarcity many of the families began to move away two years after the St. John Ward was organized.⁷



           Luke Johnson  more...


This exodus continued up to the turn of the century. One example was the David Caldwell family who had a seven-room house and a barn made with "logs hauled from the mountains." The family had lived in St. John for 31 years. (David and Fanny Johnson had met at English Fort.) David "had the gift of healing and was sent for ... miles around." Fanny Johnson was the family doctor. She had "learned many things" from her father, Luke. S. Hearing of the abundant grazing in Alberta, Canada "Would [the couple] leave homes and friends in Rush Valley and move into an unknown land six weeks' journey from their home in Utah?" They not only did, but took 47 family members with them in six covered wagons and one buggy. They were followed in their exit by the McIntosh family. William McIntosh had helped his father, John, with the sheep, taking them from Rush Valley to summer in Sanpete County.

In the company of Orson and Mark Johnson, Wilham left in 1900 to look over the Big Horn Basin. Coming back for his wife, Nancy Lena Guhl, and his nine children, the family's "Household goods, as well as horses and cattle [were loaded] on a mixed freight and passenger train..." and headed for Wyoming.⁸

Meetings of "The Owners of the Use of the Waters of Clover Creek and its Tributaries" in 1878 included the following: Burridge, Arthur (Edward J. served as recorder), Stookey, De St. Jeor, Caldwell (David, Isaac and Abraham), Davis, (Elizabeth, John, Thomas, David and Griffith), Tanner, Jordan, Green (Richard, Charles and Daniel), Crosby, Hoagland, Charles, Rich, Todd, Bush, Morgan (Evan, William), Guhl (widow), Leonard, Dymock, Baker, Reed, McIntosh (Caroline), Orr (James, Matthew), Steele, Russell Davies, Duncan, Miller, Meacham, Christianson, Potter, Gamer, Anderson, Gordon, Larson (widow), Neddo, Rollins, Elison, Mills, Simpson, Staples, Root, Mooneye, Ahlstrom, Jensen, Erickson, Farrady, Draper, Rawlings, Lloyd, Johnson (America, Saul, Solomon), Jordan, Florence, Taylor, Rosenda, Uglan.⁹

The Civil War was in progress when Shambip County was formed. During that period Brigham Young and Patrick E. Connor "overshadowed" all Utah Territorial figures. Camp Floyd had been established in neighboring Cedar County (formed the same time as Shambip), as a result of military troops being sent to Utah in 1857.

The Civil War "raging far to the east" became even more vital to Utah as important communication lines, the Pony Express, stage and the telegraph ran through the Territory.




Colonel Patrick Connor was sent from California in 1864 to guard the vulnerable Overland Trail.^l0

Utah farmers were too busy feverously cultivating their fields and grazing their livestock were not too concerned with what was going on in the states. David Caldwell in St. John had planted his crops in June of 1858, even though the "threat of Johnston's Army loomed," as once more the military returned to Utah, marching through Salt Lake City because of "misunderstandings" over mail contracts, treatment of the Goshiutes and management of local Probate Courts. (Washington officials felt too much power had been given in Utah to those Probate Courts.)

         Colonel Connor  more...

Luke S. Johnson had been elected as the first Probate Judge of Shambip County with George Burridge, William Russell and Enos Stookey as selectmen. ^1l
After the troops stopped in Cedar County and Mormon artisans and laborers helped to build a post, friction arose between the Mormon farmers in Rush Valley and the soldiers. The wild hay growing in Rush Valley was being cut by the soldiers and hauled away to their camp in order to feed thousands of oxen and mules. The camp was named for President Buchanan's Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, who was later to resign "'under pressure when a scandal erupted over his financing of the Utah War. ^l2

(The camp was renamed Fort Crittenden in 1861.) Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston had been Secretary of War for the Texas Republic before his appointment as commander of the Utah Expedition. Later in 1862 he resigned his union commission and took command of Kentucky and Tennessee as a confederate General, riding the same horse he had mounted in Utah throughout the war. While in the battle of Shiloh he "received a leg wound, which he ignored." He bled to death" on the battlefield.^l3

At his Camp Floyd headquarters Colonel Johnston received the Shambip delegation graciously, who had arrived at 3:00 O'clock in the afternoon after walking all the way and "asked what he could do for them." They placed the hay stealing operation plainly before him. "He listened with respectful attention." After they had finished their story, Colonel Johnston called for his secretary and, in the presence of Stookey and Pickett dictated a letter addressed to the soldiers.

" The name of Albert Sidney Johnston "stood high in the minds" of the Shambip settlers "ever afterwards.l4 "

He told them "to leave all the hay they had cut, to bring their tools, teams and wagons and immediately return to camp." The colonel at once dispatched the note. The name of Albert Sidney Johnston "stood high in the minds" of the Shambip settlers "ever afterwards.^l4

A month after the Civil War began Colonel Johnston was replaced by Colonel Philip St. George Cooke (of Mormon Battalion fame), who was later to be told to abandon Camp Floyd.
Jemima Stookey reported the Shambip settlers "got plenty of big army mules, wagons and harness cheap," when the post was abandoned.^l5

The Shambip pioneers gained financially from the army's stay nearby. Francis St. Jeor and James Steele took a contract to provide Camp Floyd with 150 cords of wood; and together with their wives and family they camped in Cedar Valley in order to gather the wood.^l6




One woman who later moved to Rush Valley made a living "by ironing and pressing clothing" for the Camp Floyd soldiers. At the camp she met her husband-to-be, Louis Strasburg, and was married at the camp in 1859. Louis, as a bugler, had spent the cold winter encamped with Johnston's Army near Ft. Bridger.^l7 He became one of the first commissioners of Tooele County.

            Camp Floyd

To protect the Overland Mail a Mormon mounted cavalry unit guarded the telegraph line through Rush Valley and Utah Territory during the Civil War for three months. But since Brigham Young generally viewed that war "as a non-Mormon fight," that was the extent of their participation.
However, as regards communication, the telegraph was viewed as a great improvement over the Pony Express, which it replaced.^l9

Finally Washington sent Colonel Patrick Connor from California to guard the Overland Mail from the Carson Valley to Salt Lake City and eastward. Colonel Connor departed Stockton in command of his California volunteers with fifty teams of stock and approximately 850 soldiers. Reaching Nevada at Fort Churchill, he "assumed command of the Military District of Utah."²⁰ Connor's assumption of command occurred one year after the abandonment of Camp Floyd.

Two days before leaving office in 1861 Buchanan "cut off the western portion of Utah" which had extended to California and gave it to a new territory. By 1966 Utah's western border ended at Deep Creek adding more land to Nevada.^2l Colonel Connor chose to move his troops to the Salt Lake Valley overlooking the city. He spent his time in the army "combating Mormon economic and political control in Utah.²²
Although he was headquartered in the Salt Lake City, Connor and his soldiers made use of Steptoe's former camp in Rush Valley; and Connor encouraged his troops to prospect the the hills surrounding the valley. He also encouraged them to become friendly with the Goshiute Indians, who "had knowledge of treasures."

As a result of this prospecting activities, silver deposits were found on the western slopes of the Oquirrhsl Consequently, Colonel Connor formed a mining district called the Rush Valley District (2 June 1864).²³

Connor lost no time establishing a "new town in Rush Valley [for his operations]. Stockton was the name," after Stockton, California, where Connor had served as postmaster. A local resident George Simpson (listed in the 1878 water meeting) cut and hauled cordwood to the Stockton smelters and his wife made butter to sell at Stockton; so it was truly an economic boon to the area.²⁴

" After Connor arrived in Utah and 'found no disloyalty nor indication of revolt among the citizens' he felt that a 'superfluous task had been assigned' to him. He had 'hoped to see action in the Civil War.' Connor saw 'no need for active duty in carrying out ... [his] military responsibility and encouraged troops to prospect the mountains.' 27 "

By 1866 (when the move from Shambip to St. John was made) Connor's holdings in the Rush Valley Mining District were extensive. Also, William Hickman's son, James, was a recorder of the mining district from 1892 to May of 1895.²⁵

Connor's soldiers also prospected on the west side of Rush Valley in the Stansbury Mountains. A hole at the head of Clover Creek even today is known as "Soldier Hole." While Colonel Connor was camped was camped there at Clover Creek, he invited the Green family of Clover up to his camp for dinner. Hannah, who was just a little girl remembered "how good the dinner tasted to her," after the meager fare she was accustomed to.²⁶

When Connor had arrived in Utah and "found no disloyalty nor indication of revolt among the citizens" he felt that a "superfluous task had been assigned" to him. He had "hoped to see action in the Civil War." Connor saw "no need for active duty in carrying out ... [his] military responsibility and encouraged troops to prospect the mountains." ²⁷ He also said "if it is intended that I shall merely protect the overland mail and permit the Mormons to act and utter treason, then I had as well locate at [camp] Crittenden.[Camp Floyd]"²⁸

The telegraph gave the Mormons information about the progress of the Civil War and the waste and bloodshed of the battles, while they enjoyed "the rich blessings of peace." David E. Davis of Shambip operated the telegraph station at Government Creek in 1871 at Skull Valley; and the family were neighbors to Porter Rockwell.²⁹






Three descendants of the early settlers
on a float for the Clover Centenial Parade
in 1956.
(Lincoln Stookey, Frank Hickman, Ed Johnson)







Near the turn of the century William Bracken found employment in Connor's mines hauling ore. He lived first in Stockton and then Slagtown, eventually moving to St. John . ³⁰

Other residents of Rush Valley also found the mines to be a source of income For example, the Caldwell family managed a store and a meat market in Mercur . They butchered the meat in St. John, and then hauling it in their wagon the 12 miles to the store "in time for the store to open by 8 a.m." Alice Caldwell kept "a rooming house in the upper story of the store."^3l

Agriculture and livestock grazing, however, remained the major industry for the upper and lower families. The sheep represented the family livelihood for the Caldwells. Sometimes the sheep would stay in the hills by themselves, but other times, David's son with a covered wagon or only with a tent, had to tend them.³²

Horses were always in demand and grain production was important, too. One man in 1862 raised a bumper crop of 350 bushels.³³

The forage for livestock production was derived from rangelands whereas the irrigated lands composed only a small percent of the landscape. "The hills were covered with bunch grass... and the lower lands furnished white sage, bud sage, shad scale, rabbit brush and greasewood, for winter pasturage." Lucern and alfalfa were introduced very early as winter feed but the livestock were "kept on the open range as long as possible."
The snowfall in Rush Valley was light, so the range was used as long as possible.³⁴

Joseph Steele is credited with raising the first dry-farm wheat in Hickman Pass, after he came with Sarah Burridge to Rush Valley in 1867.³⁵ George Burridge reported a grasshopper invasion that same year. He and Hannah Shaw had shared the wagon at Atchison, Kansas, with Hugh Gowans and his family, occupying Steptoe's abandoned barracks in Rush Valley upon their arrival in Utah.³⁶

During the three-year lapse without a school in St. John , a class was held in a one-room dugout with the Wilson Reader as a textbook.³⁷ A new school was not built in Shambip until 1879. Elizabeth Deffner has said that establishing a schoolhouse "was a sign of [the] settlers optimism for and commitment to the future. A schoolhouse represented their determination to build a home, a permanent community, and to prepare the next generation for whatever it might face."³⁸

The settlers could now dance in the new church, although a dance hall had been built in the west end of a barn built by Enos Stookey two years before the move "large enough for six sets to dance at once."³⁹ Dancing always had Bishop Burridge's blessing but like all Mormon bishops "With it also came their admonishment to preserve a proper atmosphere and attitude. Every occasion was to be opened and closed with prayer."⁴⁰ All the town mixed together and people from Stockton and Vernon came to join-in. Not only to dance but also to enjoy each others company. Babies were brought along and allowed to sleep on benches. Whole families participated in common dances. Favorite dances were the Cotillion, Scottish Reel (though many settlers were Welsh), Quadrille and Scottische. With no restriction on time, the dance often went beyond midnight. The fiddle was the most important with its "driving rhythm that gave dancers the impetus to move their feet." Lively music was required for reels, jigs and marches. The waltz did not become popular until the turn of the century.^4l
                  Enos Stookey

Mention had been made of the role mining played in the lives of the settlers. Mercur, especially, was a major mining town twelve miles across Rush Valley. By 1880, it had grown to about 1,500 people. Stores and saloons and a mill were erected with the ore being transported by team and wagon to the mill in Manning Canyon. As the people of Rush Valley entered the 20th Century, they seemed prepared to meet the challenges ahead.



ENDNOTES

Chapter IV: Rush Valley to the Turn of the Century

1. Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, Gwenevere Anderson Stookey and Sarah J. (Sadie) Davis Green, History of Clover 1856 - 1956 (Tooele, Utah: Transcript Bulletin, 1960),23.

2. Mary Ann Laurence, A Noble Birthright A Record of the Lives of Walter Herbert Caldwell and Mary Francis Allred (Orem, Utah: Likes Pub 1998), Berniece B. Anderson, "St. John," History of Tooele County 4th Printing (DUP Salt Lake City, Utah: Publishers Press, 1973),331.

3. "Autobiography of Lerona Minerva Hickman Vanderhoof," http://www.hickmansfamily.homestead.com, downloaded 21 October 2003. Lerona had an 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. Ouida Blanthorn, "Rush Valley's Past," History of Tooele County. Volume II (Tooele Transcript Bulletin: 1990),110.

4. Resolutions, Acts and Memorials Passed at the Fifth Annual Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah; convened at Fillmore City, Dec. 11,1855.

5. "Autobiography of Lerona Minerva Hickman Vanderhoof."

6. Chad J. Flake and Vaughan P. Stephenson "Shambip County," Utah Holiday Magazine. December 1988,53; Hope A. Hilton "Wild Bill" Hickman and the Mormon Frontier (SLC, Utah: Signature Press, 1988),53; William McIntosh, "Diary of William McIntosh 1857 1898," typescript, 1947 copied by the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah.

7. William McIntosh Diary; Berniece B. Anderson, "St. John.", 334.

8. Mary Ann Laurence, 175,209-213; John W. McIntosh, History of Burlington 18931963, " (privately printed, mimeographed, 1963),42-43.

9. "Record of Meetings and Other Transactions of the Owners of the Right to the use of the Waters of Clover Creek and its Tributaries in County Tooele and Territory of Utah, 1878, typescript, copy in possession of Cecil Arthur, St. John, Utah.

10. E. B. Long, The Saints and the Union (University of Illinois Press: Urbana and Chicago, 2001), introduction 3; Mary Ann Laurence, 171

11. E. B. Long,6

12. William P. MacKinnon, "Epilogue to the Utah War: Impact and Legacy," Journal of Mormon History, Fall 2003, 193.

13. William P. MacKinnon,202-203; Scott Nielson, "Albert Sidney Johnston," Allan Kent Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia (University of Utah Press: 1994) ,66,67,287. When Johnston was sent to the Pacific, reassigned at his request in March of 1860, he had a 60 man escort traveling with him. To make sure Johnston had left, Brigham Young had Orrin Porter Rockwell shadow the group as they "rode across the rim of the Great Basin" away from Utah sending "an unmistakable message to the departing general about the real power in Utah Territory." (See McKinnon, 201.) "Upon sensing danger, Rockwell's dog was trained to rise up and silently lick his master's face." (Page 202).

14. History of Clover 2d printing, , quoting Grantsville Stake Manuscript History,8.

15. Ibid., 8.

16. History of Clover, 5,47; LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 548. Utah Since Statehood Historical and Biographical edited by Noble Warrum in 1919 and published by the S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. in Vol. IV, 777-778 has biographical sketch of David H. Leonard married to Emma Child. The couple came to Shambip after 1861 and left in 1879 for Huntington (Emery Co.). For a sketch of Alonzo Stookey, see Volume III and for Richard Nelson Bush Volume II, 624.

17. Daughters of Utah Pioneers History of Tooele County, 586.

18. History of Clover, 1st Printing,14,17; E. B. Long, 14.

19. William P. MacKinnon, 195.

20. E. B. Long, 98-99.

21. Ibid.,26.

22. Brigham D. Madsen, "Patrick E. Connor," Utah History Encyclopedia, ed. Allen Kent Powell,113.

23. Brief History of Stockton, Utah (Stockton Bicentennial Committee, 1994),5.

24. DUP History of Tooele County, 576-577; Ouida Blanthorn, compiler, A History of Tooele County (Utah Centennial Co. History Series: Utah State Historical Society, Tooele Co. Commission, 1998),292,293.

25. http://archives.utah.gov downloaded 10-17-2003.

26. History of Clover 2d printing, 20.

27. Ibid., 25; http://archives,utah.gov downloaded 10-17-03.

28. E. B. Long, 101.

29. E. B. Long, 6; History of Clover 2d printing, 18.

30. DUP History of Tooele Counry,429.

31. Mary Ann Laurence,206.

32. Ibid., 204.

33. William McIntosh Diary.

34. Ouida Blanthorn, "Rush Valley's Past," quoting "Memoirs of Ormus A. Bates," typescript, 6 June 1941.

35. DUP History of Tooele County, 583.

36. Carol Johnson Cluff Collection, a descendant of Luke S. Johnson, 499 Holly Drive, Tooele, Utah, 84074.

37. Mary Ann Laurence, 175.

38. Elisabeth Deffner, "The One-room Schoolhouse," American Profile, November 2003,6. For more information log onto www.johnstown.K12.oh.kus/cornell

39. History of Clover, 2d printing, 13,14.

40. Larry V. Shumway, "Dancing the Buckles off their shoes in Pioneer Utah," BYU Studies 37 (1997-98),21.
41. Ibid., 37,38AO. The fiddlers were Alonzo and Walter Stookey, Nephi Draper, David Leonard and John Ahlstrom. The Swedish Ahlstrom family was very musical.