After Three Months Travel the Aaron Johnson Company Arrived in Salt Lake City on September 5, 1850

After three months travel the Aaron Johnson Company arrived in Salt Lake City on September 5, 1850. Up until this time the Saints arriving in the Salt Lake Valley were staying in the valley,but this time had come to expand settlement to other areas. The first settlers had been sent to the Utah Valley in 1849. The Utah Valley could be a rich farming area, plus Utah Lake and the rivers provided a great source of easily available protein from fish, that the pioneers in Salt Lake Valley needed. For these reasons it was decided to try establishing a settlement there. As wagon trains arrived in the Valley in 1850 people with family in the valley stayed there and the wagon trains were sent south to the Utah Valley. Settling in the Utah Valley was not easy because it was a traditional Indian hunting ground, so white settlers were not welcome. The first settlers built two forts where they could live protected from the Indians. As more settler arrived they started setting up homesteads around the forts. The City of Provo was laid out and each family steeled on a plated portion of the City. Every family had a quarter of a block, enough room for a garden or orchards, plus room for barns and corrals. The farms were outside the city, but the settlers lived in the city. This plan made better protection against the Indians and also allowed for more social interaction among the settlers.1 Fort Utah The 1850 Census was taken just four days after the family arrived in Provo. Besides their own child Nancy Jane, and James and Melvin Ross, Rachel and John had Anna Reynolds, Polly A, and an infant Francis M. staying with them. John was listed as being a wagon maker.2 On December 10, 1850 Leah gave birth to another son, John Franklin Radford, named for his father.3 Most of his life he was called Franklin to distinguish him from his father. In 1851 city elections were held in Provo and John was elected an assessor. 4 Life was busy in the Provo Valley. Besides the normal activities of trying to provide for their families, building the community and helping each other there were Church meetings, every night; Sabbath preaching, Sabbath evening prayer meeting, Monday night Seventies Singing School, Tuesday evening Lyceum, Wednesday evenings Seventies meeting, Thursday evening prayer meeting, Friday spelling school, Saturday lesser Priesthood and day school.5 While in Provo John was ordained a 1 Jensen, Jens Maring, History of Provo, Provo Utah, 1924, page 152 2 1850 Federal Census, Utah County Utah. 3 Oak City Ward Record, FamilySearch Library Microfilm Number 25540 4 Jensen, page 30 5 Ibid Seventy by Hyrum Mace Sr. He was a member of the 34th Quorum of Seventies.6 The Radfords, the Smiths and the Ross families were members of the Provo Second Ward. They tried to live the commandments and follow the teachings of the Church leaders. In 1851 a tithing record was commenced in Provo, each man's property was appraised and 10% of the value was charged as a tithing obligation. 7 John willingly paid this though it was difficult. On 18 April 1852 John and Leah received their Patriarchal Blessing from John Smith.8 Leah and John were anxious to continue their spiritual growth. Traditionally after members of the LDS Church had entered the Salt Lake Valley they were ,rebaptized to renew their covenants. Often before starting a new endeavor in their live like getting married or going on a mission, they would also be rebaptized.9 Diana and Richard Smith were planning on going to Salt Lake to be sealed as a couple. Three days before they went, August 15 1852, many of their families including John and Leah were rebaptized. Most of the Smith and Ross families had not been able to attend the Nauvoo temple in the few shorts weeks it was open. At this time there was no temple in the Council House Salt Lake Valley so the upper floor of the Council House had been dedicated as a temporary temple. Brigham Young's office was on the middle floor so it was often called Brigham Young's office. By the spring of 1853 the conditions with the Indians had become intolerable. Every effort had been made to negotiate with them, but nothing had worked, they didn't want to give up their hunting grounds. Finally it was determined that the only way to gain peace in the valley was by force. By this time there were enough settlers in the valley to create a fair sized army. All of the women and children left their homesteads and moved into the two forts, a few men were left to protect them. The rest of the men organized an army and went to confront the Indians. This was part of the Indian troubles that were affecting all of Utah and which became know as the Walker War. For the women in this forts this was a very bad time. Conditions couldn't have been worse. The forts were small and crowded. There was usually several families assigned to one room. Then noise of many children running an playing soon got on everyone's nerves. As usual in the spring food was scarce as the winter supply had been used up. This year it was worse because with the men gone it was unsafe to go hunting or fishing for the wild game that they depended upon. There was a well in each of the forts, but these could not supply enough water for the needs of all the people. Everyone had to be extremely careful with the water, which meant there wasn't enough for bathing or cleaning. Some nights an expedition would be organized to get water from the river. The stronger women would carry buckets to the river under the cover of darkness and the guns of the few men who stood guard to protect them. They would carry the heavy buckets as full as they could back to the to supplement the well water. They counted on the Indians not liking to fight at night to protect them. They knew that outside the walls of the fort there were not enough men to put up a fight if the Indians decided to attack. Added to all this was the worry that the wives felt about their husbands and sons, not knowing where they were and what was happening to them. This made conditions very unpleasant.10 6 Provo Second Ward 7 Jensen 8 Patriarchal Blessing Index, FamilySearch Library Microfilm Number 392,680 Volume 12, pages 110-111 9 Provo Second Ward 10 This story is from family tradition; all histories of Provo refer to this tie but none go into detail except for an unpublished History of Provo, located in the Brigham Young University Library. Under these conditions Leah Ellen Radford was born on her parent's seventh wedding anniversary, April 6, 1853.11 She was named for her mother. She was called Ellen to distinguish her from the other Leahs in the family. It was a great relief when the men returned, but peace didn't come to Utah for some time, though conditions in Utah Valley did improve. Leah was counting on making a permanent home in the now peaceful settlement but about 1854 John was called to move to Fillmore, Millard, Utah in central Utah to oversee the building of the new state capital building. Fillmore was the center of the area claimed by Church leaders as the Territory of Utah and a capital building was needed. John had experience in building construction so he was called there. Leah's cousin Thomas Washington Smith and his family had moved there previously by at least April of 1853. The rest of he Smith Family stayed in Provo until about 1860 when many of them moved to Heber City, Wasatch, Utah. For Leah this was a hard move because she had never been separated from her family before Fillmore had been established about 1851 to be the Territorial Capital. Though it was centrally located Church leaders soon realized that it was too far away from the main trails for goo communications. Only one session of the legislature was held there before the government moved back to Salt Lake. Work on the capital was halted when only the main part of the building was completed do John went into business with Thomas Washington Smith, opening a feed chop mill located on the banks of Chalk Creek in the northern part of town. He also had a farm or ranch that he operated. It was in Fillmore that a major Fillmore State House change occurred in the Radford family. The principle of plural marriage had by practiced by members of the LDS Church or several years. While they living in Iowa Thomas Washington Smith had married a lady named Susan Reynolds Stevens, who had also lived in Gibson County Tennessee when the Smiths lived there. She had previously been married to an William Stevens and had three children with him, Mitchell, Polly and John.12 About 1845 Polly married a man named Thomas Adair, by him she had two children, Thomas and Susan or Susanna.13 He died and she joined the LDS Church and moved to Illinois, Iowa and Utah with the Saints. After her mother's marriage to Thomas Washington Smith she stayed very close to the Smith family. It was natural that a close relationship should develop between the Radfords and the Smiths With Leah's permission on December 15, 1855 Polly was married to John Whitlock Radford as a plural wife, by Brigham Young.14 A description of Polly remains: “she was 5'6” or 5'7”, she weighed 156 to 160 pounds, she was light complected with sandy hair an blue eyes.”15 1855 brought many more changes to the Radford family.

Load more