Weber County to 1847
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WEBER COUNTY TO 1847 1.84: 6 was indeed a "year of decision" as described by Ogden- born historian Bernard DeVoto. The Smithsonian Institution was founded by Congress and Francis Parkman, a twenty-three-year-old Harvard student, began to travel west on the Oregon Trail and write his monumental history of the westward movement. More than 2,700 travelers journeyed west on the Oregon and California trails that year. John A. Roebling revolutionized bridge engineering by using twisted wire cables to support a suspension bridge over the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. Violence was widespread in the country and included the Mormons being driven from their settle ments in Illinois westward into Iowa, where they established tempo rary settlements at places like Mount Pisgah and Garden Grove as well as along the Missouri River at Council Bluffs. The first recorded baseball game was played at Elysian Field in Hoboken, New Jersey, between the New York Nine and the Knickerbockers. The New York Nine won 23-1. In 1846 James K. Polk was nearly halfway through his only term as president of the United States, and he was pushing for expansion 1 HISTORY OF WEBER COUNTY to both Oregon and Texas on the theme of Manifest Destiny—that it was the nation's destiny to control the continent. During that same year, the Oregon question with Great Britain was settled peacefully, with the United States acquiring all of the Oregon Territory west of the Rocky Mountains and northward from the 42nd parallel to the 49th parallel. Texas had been annexed to the United States in 1845 and controversy related to the Texas-Mexico border erupted into the Mexican War in May 1846. This generally popular war in the United States ended early in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which granted to the United States the Mexican Cession, which included the current states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as large parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. During the nearly two years of the Mexican War, overland pio neers were not deterred by what might be construed as the dangers of war. In fact, if anything, it appears that the war helped to stimu late travel from the Missouri River Valley to Oregon and California. Some 4,450 overlanders traveled to Oregon and California in 1847, and an additional 2,200 traveled to Utah during that same year. In 1848,1,700 emigrants traveled to the west coast while 2,400 traveled to Utah. By the end of 1848 there were about 4,600 settlers who had begun to establish homes in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake Valley. The large majority of them were Mormons who had traveled the Platte River route from the Mormon settlements along the Missouri River. The discovery of gold in California on 24 January 1848 brought about one of the largest migrations experienced in the United States. Thousands of fortune seekers traveled to California expecting to get rich in quick fashion. The Creation of Weber County The issue of providing a government for the western territories was pushed to the forefront with the settlement of the Great Basin by the Mormons and the myriad of gold rush camps which blossomed in California. The Mormons in the Great Basin decided to petition the United States Congress in 1849 for the establishment of what they called the State of Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret, with its headquarters in Great Salt Lake City, included all of the present states of Utah and Nevada as well as large parts of Arizona, Colorado, and WEBER COUNTY TO 1847 New Mexico, small portions of Oregon and Idaho, and much of southern California, including San Diego as a seaport. Deseret, as proposed, was larger than the then massive state of Texas. Although the Congress of the United States did not act favorably on the pro posal from the Mormons, the actual government for the Mormons and other settlers in the Great Basin was that of the provisional State of Deseret from 12 March 1849 until 1851.1 The Congress of the United States acted on the western territor ial questions in 1850 by passing in rather slow fashion the pieces of the Compromise of 1850. Slavery was a major thread running through all of the compromise measures. California was admitted to the Union as a free state. The New Mexico and Utah territories were created, and slavery was not prohibited by Congress in those two ter ritories but rather was left to be decided by the settlers. This new political doctrine for dealing with slavery was entitled "popular sov ereignty." The territory of Utah included within its boundaries all of the current state of Utah, much of Nevada, and small parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The territory of Utah was whittled down over the next several years, with the largest slice going to Nevada Territory in 1861. Utah would be governed as a territory from 1850 until statehood was granted in 1896. The constitution of the State of Deseret which was written and locally accepted in 1849 claimed that it involved the "inhabitants of that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." The government of Deseret included a governor, a gen eral assembly which consisted of a senate and a house of representa tives, and a judiciary. Members of the legislature convened for their first regular session in December 1849 in Heber C. Kimball's school. Hosea Stout noted in his diary for 3 and 4 December 1849 that he had received a notification to meet with the House of Representatives on the next Saturday (8 December) and did not know by what process he had become a representative. Historian Juanita Brooks writes that he was chosen by the Mormon church's leadership called the Council of Fifty, and she quotes Benjamin F. Johnson, who said that "this council did continue and become the legislature of the state of Deseret."2 One of the first spheres of business to be deliberated by the leg- HISTORY OF WEBER COUNTY islators was the establishment of counties. On 31 January 1850 "An Ordinance Providing For The Location Of Counties And Precincts Therein Names, &c" was passed by the legislative assembly. Included in the act was the following: Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the General Assembly of the State of Deseret, that all of that portion of country known as Weber Valley, and extending as far south as Stony Creek, and west to the Great Salt Lake, shall be called Weber County. Sec. 2. The County seat of said County shall be located at Ogden City. Sec. 3. The County of Weber shall be divided into three Precincts, as follows:—The City Precinct shall include all of the country lying in said County, between Ogden River and Sandy Creek, all north of Ogden shall be called Ogden Precinct and all south of the second Creek in said County, Sandy Precinct.3 The act also established Great Salt Lake County, Utah County, San Pete County, Tuilla (Tooele) County, and Little Salt Lake County. These initial six counties were established in a fashion to begin local government within some semblance of geographical areas cov ered by counties. The counties were essentially based upon a major settlement or settlements, which was the case of Ogden and Weber County. Little Salt Lake County would later be renamed Iron County. The outer boundaries of the counties were not particularly outlined except when they adjoined another county. The dividing line between Weber and Salt Lake counties was Stony Creek, which apparently was one of the creeks running from the Wasatch Mountains westward through what is today Davis County. The three precincts of Weber County as noted by the ordi nance were generally laid out in relationship to the mountains, the Great Salt Lake, and streams which flowed east to west from the Wasatch Mountains to the lake. The Ogden Precinct was the area of the county located north of the Ogden River. The City Precinct included the area south of the Ogden River to the creek south of the Weber river, which was named Sandy Creek. It appears that Sandy Creek is today's Kays Creek, which runs through a number of sand hills. All of the land between Sandy Creek and Stoney Creek became WEBER COUNTY TO 1847 the third precinct of the county and was named the Sandy Precinct of Weber County. This precinct would stretch today through much of Davis County. Although some of the boundaries of Weber County were drawn rather specifically by this ordinance of 1850, the north ern boundary was not mentioned or designated in any fashion, but was rather everything north of the Ogden River. The legislature of the State of Deseret met until the end of 1850 when the authority was passed to the Utah Territorial Legislature. In early 1851 the legislature of the newly established territory of Utah first met. The territorial legislature incorporated all acts adopted by the government of the State of Deseret into the laws of the territory of Utah. By the order of organization in the ordinance passed in January 1850, Weber County was the first county to be established in the territory. The assembly of the State of Deseret had met throughout 1850. On 5 October 1850 the assembly met in joint session and authorized the organization of Davis County by the marshal of the state. By 1852 the boundaries of Weber County were drawn as follows: Sec. 1. Boundary of Weber County: Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, that all that por tion of the Territory bounded north by Oregon, east by the merid ian, passing through a point where the Weber River enters a kanyon about four miles below the ford on Emigration road, south by the parallel of latitude, through the junction of the county road and the head waters of Rocky Creek, being about two miles south of the mouth of Weber River Kanyon, and west by California,—is hereby included within the limits of Weber County.4 The boundaries of Weber County were much better defined by this act, and the county became immense.