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Utah

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Surnames/tags: Nueva _Espana Utah_Territory
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Utah, of Spanish Nueva Espana, later subdivided from California

Leaders are Mary Richardson -Project Coordinator and Allan Thomas, Project Coordinator. This was part of the first US Southern Colonies. After the Southern Colonies was begun again, these pages were not considered part of the second Southern Colonies (SoCOL) and retired.

This project is part of the United States History Project.


Contents

Related Free Space Pages

Colony Origin/History

  • By the 1840's, fur trade declined, and the only whites to set foot in Utah were pioneers on their way west. No one stopped in Utah Colony in their rush to the West due to the lure of gold in California. Then... a group followed the pioneer trails into the mountain valleys of Utah: the MORMON PIONEERS"'

Mormons with their leader, Brigham Young seem to be the first perminant settlers in this colony. These Mormons left their home in Nauvoo, Illinois, thus looking for a remote area to practice their religion, make a home, and cultivate the earth. Others followed from different areas. They settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake near present day Salt Lake City. History of Utah2]

"The Mormon Trail" [Click above to Enlarge

Timeline

  • 1540 - Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado crossed into what is now southern Utah, seeking the legendary Cíbola (Seven Cities of Gold).
  • 1776 - Dominguez-Escalante Expedition, Catholic priests search for legendary Seven cities of Gold, traveling north to Utah Lake. Fur trapper explored of Utah early 1800's.
  • 1825 - Étienne Provost visited area. Leader of Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden trapped in Weber Valley.
  • 1846 - Ill-fated Donner party crossed through Salt Lake valley late in season, did not winter there, continued forward toward California.
  • 1841 - Near present day Ogden, UT- Miles M Goodyear built a stockade with a few log houses near the confluence of the Weber and Ogden Rives on his Spanish land grant.

Utah History to Go

  • July 24, 1847 - Mormon pioneers arrived in Salt Lake Valley (Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
  • 1847 - U.S. captured Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in Mexican-American War
  • 1847 - 1857 - Settlements were built rapidly along Wasatch Front and Wasatch Platau in a 10-year period along a north-south line of colonies of settlements, from Cache Valley on Idaho border on North to Dixie on the Arizona border.

Utah History to Go

  • Feb 2, 1848 - Mexico and U.S. signed Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended Mexican War, made Alta California, New Mexico and Utah, officially became Utah territory, ratified by U.S.

Senate March 10, 1848 and signed by President Fillmore on Sept. 9, 1850. Utah History to Go

  • July 24, 1847 - Mor
  • 1848 - June 6. 1848 James Brown (with $5,000 in gold-dust) purchased the stockade near Ogden, UTah and land from Goodyear. (with confluence of 2 rivers, yielded was fertile area to raise grain and vegetables). LDS brethren and settlers settled there (current Ogden).
  • 1849 - Fifty families were called to settle San Pete Valley, south of Utah Valley, Tooele, Provo, Manti [1]
  • 1849-- Utah Petitioned U.S. for statehood in the name of "Deseret" - boundaries: all of Utah, portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. Congress rejected this, as was reluctant to grant statehood to such a large state with a low population and majority of Mormon population. Utah History.
  • 1850 - Sept 9, 1850 - President Millard Fillmore signed act officially establishing Utah Territory.
  • 1850 - Compromise of 1850 created Utah Territory, with Fillmore, Utah as capital. (1856, Salt Lake City replaced territorial capital).
  • 1850 - Large group colonized Little Salt Lake Valley in S. Utah. [2]
  • 1850 - 167 persons took supplies, equipment to Parowan settlement to plant crops to support the work of an iron enterprise at a mountain of iron and thousands Acres cedar for fuel near Cedar City. The colony was nucleus of dozens of settlements made in region.
  • 1855 - Missionary efforts for western native cultures established outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain.
  • 1857 - News of false rebellion caused President James Buchanan to send troops on the "Utah expedition" to stop the "faux" rebellion and replace Brigham Young as the territorial governor. Brigham was never told this or why President Buchanan thought he needed the U.S. Army to enforce a simple office change. Result: "Utah War or Buchanan's Blunder". Wikipedia Utah History
  • 1861-65 War Between the States
  • 1861 - Exploration in Uinta Basin reported area between E. boundary of Utah Territory and Wasatch Mountains and S. of Green River area wasteland was worthless. Young did not make further effort to colonize the area. Today best resources (oil, natural gas, phsphate and gilsonite are resources of Unitah County. .
  • 1890 Manifesto - Church of Latter Day Saints agreed to drop its approval of polygamy. History of Utah
  • 1895 - Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage.
  • 1896 - Congress admitted Utah as a state in 1896

1942 - Hill Air Force Base, Camp Douglas and Dugway proving grounds-The Dugway Proving Ground is ~ 85 mi (137 km) SW of Salt Lake City, Utah, in southern Tooele County and north of Juab County. This area size is about 801,505 acres (1,252.352 sq mi; 3,243.58 km2) of the Great Salt Lake Desert, (about the size of the state of Rhode Island). Dugway has mountain ranges on three sides. The Lincoln Highway passed through the site of the Dugway Proving Ground, and is the only section of the old highway closed to the public. Dugway name was created as it means "a technique of digging a trench into a hillside to create a flat surface along which a wagon can travel." DPG also serves as a facility for US Army Reserve and US National Guard maneuver training, and US Air Force flight tests, mostly from nearby Hill Air Force Base in Clearfield. DPG is controlled by the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC). [3]

Government Structure

Commemorative Stone donated by Utah Territory, 1853 for Washington Monument

1849 The Mormon pioneers and leader, Brigham Young petitioned U.S. Congress for entry into the Union as the State of Deseret, with its capital of Salt Lake City. Its proposed borders were huge, including the Great Basin and watershed of the Colorado River, which would have included part or all of 9 states. This "proposed" constitution made Brigham Young governor.

Sept 9, 1859- 5o Jan 4, 1896 Deseret had become a de facto government in the Great Basin by the time the Organic Act of Congress created it as organized territory of U.S. This is when the territory was admitted to the Union as a State. At the same time California was admitted to Union as a state and New Mexico Territory was added as Southern segment of land acquired under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.The rest of the nation was not in favor of just a Mormon governance of territory due to opposition to practice of polygamy.

Utah continued as a territory.

1858 Non-Mormon settlers entered Western part of territory after the discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode, 1858. 1859 Non-Mormons also entered the eastern part of territory during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, resulting in the discovery of gold at Breckenridge in Utah Territory.

1861 Nevada Territory was created out of the western part of Utah territory and large portion of the Eastern area of Utah territory was reorganized to be part of the newly created Colorado Territory.

1863-69 The railroad arrived from California and from the east. Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" or "Overland Route" was constructed between 1863 and 1869, linking the entire country by railway.


1864 The sparsely populated Nevada Territory was admitted to the Union. (3 years after formation of a territory) This was a result of Union wishing to consolidate its hold on the silver mines of its territory.


1876 Colorado was admitted for the same reason: gold mines, lead mines, coal mines.


Settlers

  • Native Americans
  • Mormons- Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormon pioneers, came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. [4]

They began irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches and schools. It was important to grow crops for subsistence and the growing season was shorter than that in more southern areas, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites that had sufficient water for crops. History of Utah.

1847 The experiences of the returning members of the Mormon Battalion, helped others know where dependable rivers and fertile river valleys could be found in Colorado, Arizona and southern California.

"The Mormon Trail" [Click above to Enlarge]

Aid to Assist Emigration of Mormons Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company was organized to help Mormon refugees migrate from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) became a major instrument for gathering Latter-day Saint converts to Utah from abroad, and assisted ~ 26,000 immigrants (~36% of approximately 73,000 Latter-day Saints emigrants from Europe to USA between 1852-1887. The funds were considered loans to immigrants who benefited from aid. Repayment of those loans was to provide a continued source for others.


1856 the response of those emigrating exhausted the resources of PEF, straining finances of the Mormon Church, that Brigham Young insisted that PEF operations be confined to the resources of the company itself. For 6 years in 1860s the pioneer system of labor tithing was tapped by yearly sending ox teams, wagons, and teamsters' oxen- wagons to haul immigrants back. Immigrants benefiting from this resource by the "Church trains" signed promissory notes to repay PEF, to repay Church. This did not yield monetary returns, but gained many immigrants. Nearly 2/3 of beneficiaries of the PEF were passengers of"Church trains.Pioneers

1868 benefiting from a special fund-raising drive and additional resources from Europe, the PEF helped bring 725 immigrants all the way to Utah.

Migrating From All Colonies

Migrating Ancestor Template

How to add the Migrating Ancestor Template

Migrations

  • Migrations from Mexico into Utah
  • Migrations from California into Utah
  • Migrations from East coast westward to Utah
  • Migration for freedom of religion -Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
  • Migrations of pioneers hoping to find gold or silver.

Native Americans

  • Archeological evidence indicates native American presence in Utah abt 10,000 -12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near Great Basin's swamps/marshes, were hunters of fish, birds, small game animals.
  • Desert Archaic people - lived in caves near Great Salt Lake and were gatherers. Diet - cattails, pickleweed, burro weed, sedge and used nets and atlatl to hunt water fowl, small game, antelope. Red meat was a luxury. Plant fiber woven nets, woven sandals, gaming stcks and animal figures from split twigs have been found.[5]
  • Ancient Puebloan culture, (Anasazi) ~ 500 years before 'Fremont people', of Four Corners area crafted pithouses, elaborate adobe/masonry dwellings, kivas for religious purposes, field terracing with irrigation systems, and craftsmen of turquoise jewelry, pottery. Culture peaked ~ 1200 AD - agriculture-based, grew maize, beans, squash and domesticated turkeys.
  • Fremont People - Utah Hx near Fremont River in Utah, (now N. and W Utah, parts of Nevada, Idaho, Colorado from ~ 600 to 1300 AD lived close to streams/water previously occupied by Desert Archaic people. They used bow and arrow hunting, built pithouse shelter and graineries of stone, grew maize, corn, squash, and produced low fired pottery, petroglyphs and pictographs.[6]
  • NUMIC Language speaking
    • Shoshonean People 1200 AD - 4 main groups Shoshonean speaking from the west, possibly southern California- Four main Shoshonean peoples in the north and northeast
    • Goshute bands of Shoshonean in NorthWest (Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah)
    • Northwestern Shoshonean people
    • Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region
    • Southern Paiutes in the southwest
  • Plains Athabaskin Speakers in 16th century in San Juan River basin in Utah's southwest from Great Plains). These were a hunting people following bison. In 17th century the Athabaskans expanded, inhabiting the deserted areas of the Pueblo peoples had abandoned prior centuries (Spanish mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in 1620s, referring to people in Chama valley region east of the San Juan River).[7]
  • Dine of Navajo - plains Athabaskan speakers - San Juan River basin. Intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, (Utes in eastern Utah).
  • Apaches People
  • Lipan
  • Jicarilla
  • Mescalero Apaches

Mormons and other white men moved onto Paiutes’ hunting areas and farming areas, thus changing the Paiutes’ lives.. They attempted to convert Indians to their faith as well as hiring them to work with them on the farms. Unfortunately they and other white men brought diseases that killed many of Paiutes and others.

Slaves

  • Navajos and Spanish traders stole Paiute children to sell as slaves.
  • Ute bands in 1830 -1854, Ute bands regularly raided Goshute camps, stealing children to sell as slaves to Mexican traders.

Economic Resources and Information

  • Buffalo
  • Salt Lake
  • Salt Flats of Great Salt Lake Desert East of Wendover, Toole Co. Utah
  • Bonneville Salt Flats -densely packed salt pan in Tooele Co. NW Utah (remnant of Pleistocene *Lake Bonneville) -the largest salt flat West of the Great Salt Lake. Bonneville is BLM land.
  • Bonneville Speedtrack
  • Iron
  • Mormon Tabernacle and Temple
  • Wasach area Agriculturally cattle, sheep are raised, and alfalfa is grown there. Unitah and Ouray Indian Reservation on W., while BLM (Bureau and Land Management), Ashley National own majority land, with very little private land there. NOTE: significant dinosaur and pre-historic remains have been discovered on E. edge of county. Dinosaur National Monument was established.

Conflicts Within The Colony

  • 1754 - 1763 Seven Years War (French and Indian War)
  • 1775 - 1783 American Revolution
  • 1810 - 1821 Mexican War of Independence
  • Mountain Meadows Massacre - 1857 a wagon train of settlers was killed by Mormons and Paiutes.
  • Bear River Massacre- in 1863 soldiers stationed in Salt Lake City. Ft. Douglas during the Civil war, attacked peaceful Shoshones that were camped on Battle Creek, (near Franklin, Idaho). The soldiers surprised the sleeping camp and massacred more than 250 men, women, and children.
  • 1850, Utah Territory was created with Compromise of 1850; and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) designated capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City was designated the new territorial capital.
  • Runaway Officials of 1851
  • 1863 - The Long March- Kit Carson was sent with his soldiers to Navajo country to force the Navajos to move to Bosque Redondo, NM. He burned their homes, fields, stole livestock, destroyed the water, forced the people to walk 300 miles in cold weather to NM. In 1868 the U.S. government allowed the Navajos to return to a reservation
  • 1857 –1858 Utah Expedition, (Buchanan's Blunder), Mormon Rebellion - False news of a Utah territory rebellion, led Pres. Buchanan to send U.S. forces to Utah Territory, (Utah Expedition) to enforce the replacement of Brigham Young. Thus settlers and Paiutes killed 120 people. Utah War More forces were sent.

The Mormons feared U.S. military force meant to harm or kill them. They prepared to defend their settlements and families, by sharpening old sabers, turning scythes into bayonets, and evacuating their homes to migrate from the Utah valley in Southern Utah.

A strategy: hinder and weaken the forces, by felling trees to block the army's entry into the Salt Lake Valley.

1857 there were approximately 450 men in the Iron County militia. At the outbreak of the Utah War of 1857-58, rumors of invasion by the United States Army set the militia in motion. Iron County Militia No bloodshed occurred, as the military set up a base 40 miles away. Mormons who had to abandon homes and crops resented this. History of Utah

  • 1861 - Civil War- U.S. forces were transferred to fight in Civil War until California militia arrived.
  • 1863 Bear River massacre California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the war, may have instigated an encounter between the Shoshone and the Militia. 200-400 Shoshone Native Americans and many of the militia were killed. [1]
  • 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history.

Elsewhere in the United States, the Civil War was ending.

  • 1890 Manifesto - the Church of Latter Day Saints agreed to drop approval of polygamy.
  • 1895 - State hood
  • 1898 - Spanish American War
  • Railroads shown.
  • 1941 - World War II - Army Air Field, Nevada, was a training base for bomber pilots, including the crew of the Enola Gay. The Enola Gay was stationed here until June 1945. Wendover, Utah is located on the Western edge of Utah in Toole county. Wendover Air Base
The Air Field is west of Wendover, Utah (about 100 miles west of Salt Lake City which to an actual visitor feels like it is within Nevada.
This author's uncle leased his water rights to the US Army during World War II.Richardson-7161 12:08, 22 September 2017 (EDT)


Research Resources

The Family History Archive is a collection of published genealogy and family history books.

Guides to Overland Trail Diaries, Reminiscences and Repositories Brigham Young University

A Physical, Political & Economic Description of the Utah Territory and Salt Lake City. 1851; Including the text of the Act of Congress to Establish the Territory of Utah, passed September 9, 1850 (9. Stat. 453).

BYU Family Historian

WikiTree Resources

Existing Categories
Related Free Space Pages


Cemeteries

Category Cemetery Formatting


  • Wikitree Category:Utah Cemeteries - This mid-level category page for cemeteries located within the State of Utah. Subcategory listings for each of the state's counties have not been developed yet.
  • A second link to a progress page, is not completed as of this time. When completed will be showing a listing of cemeteries within the state for which surveys are completed or are in progress.
  • Sources to search:
  • Utah Cemeteries
  • National Parks Service records search for national cemeteries.
  • Tea for 2
  • Find a Grave
  • http://boards.rootsweb.com/topics.cemetery.us.ut/mb.ashx
  • http://utahgravestones.org/
  • http://www.interment.net/US/ut/index.htm
  • Project:Utah_Cemeteries
  • Interment.net: Utah Cemetery Records
  • [2]
  • List of people buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery
  • Jump up ^ "Burial Information: WALLACE, MARY M. BABY". Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah Division of State History. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  • .Jump up ^ " CWGC casualty record."
  • Arave, Lynn (1999-05-19), "S.L. Cemetery Is Alive with History The Famous and the Humble Rest in Peace Together", Deseret News
  • Hilton, Linda K.; Andrus, Rob; Opfermann, Ben (1995), The Famous and Infamous: a guide to the Salt Lake City Cemetery (map), Salt Lake City: Mohawk Publishing, ISBN 0-9648578-0-4, OCLC 39385266
  • Burke, Leann (July 19, 2013), "Salt Lake City Cemetery: Where Mormon history lives", The Salt Lake Tribune
  • Cemeteries & Burials, Heritage.utah.gov
  • Salt Lake City Cemetery at Find A Grave
  • Cemeteries and Memorial Sites of Politicians in Salt Lake County, Utah, The Political Graveyard
  • Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) No. UT-2, "Salt Lake City Cemetery, 200 N Street, Salt Lake

Free Resources

Paid Resource Sites

Ancestry.com Fold3

Photos and Images

Photos and Images of Utah

Resource Page New Mexico

Resource Page California

the following states were derived from California; New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and part of Colorado

the following state was derived from parts of Utah, New Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska

Resource Page West la Florida

Resource Page East la Florida

Overland Trails - Images BJU Harold B. Lee Digital Library

Sources for this Page

Sources

  1. ↑ History of Utah
  2. ↑ Colonization of Utah
  3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_Proving_Ground
  4. ↑ Mormon Settlement
  5. ↑ Utah History
  6. ↑ History of Utah
  7. ↑ Utah History




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Comments: 6

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Bradley-4416 Eileen Bradley
Well this is cool. I was looking for unsourced Utah profiles and got side tracked reading all the information on here. Nicely done. Hill Air Force Base, Camp Douglas and Dugway proving grounds?
posted by Eileen Bradley
J-276 Paula J
Image:Profile_Photo_s-268.jpg

December 9, 2014

posted by Paula J
Keniston-36 Bob Keniston Jr.
Mary,

Great job on this page.

posted by Bob Keniston Jr.
Wright-7062 Terry Wright
Great page Mary
posted by Terry Wright
N.-17 Maggie N.
What a great page for Utah !
posted by Maggie N.
[Living Lockhart]
This is fantastic! Great job!  :)
posted by [Living Lockhart]

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