The cricket invasion of Uintah in 1884; Grasshoppers in 1904 Ogden

THE year 1848 wasn’t the only year that Mormon pioneers had problems with crickets in their farm fields. The summer of 1884 was also a bad one for the pesky insects in the Weber County community of Uintah, in Utah.

“The crickets are making sad havoc with the potatoes, corn and other plants in the neighborhood of Uintah,” the Ogden Herald newspaper of July 5, 1884 reported. “The red pests have come from the hills in great swarms and are chewing the vegetation to the ground wherever they appear.”

-Twenty-one years later in the north end of Ogden, grasshoppers were a huge problem for farmers.

“Farms are invaded by pests” was a July 19, 1904 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. One man reported 100 cases of raspberries lost to the insects. The wheat fields were also being devastated.

Even the southern part of Box Elder County was also reported as being affected by the grasshopper invasion.

One desperate farmer advised mixing arsenic, sugar and bran with water to sprinkle on the insects to try and exterminate them.

-Neither time did the seagulls come to the rescue. However, regarding the famed 1848 seagull miracle, it appears that most of the pioneers did NOT initially view that as a miracle. It was only later and after Brigham Young returned from the east (as he was absent during the first insect invasion) that settlers looked back and saw it as a divine blessing.

South Weber, Hooper changed forever by an ecclesiastical disagreement

  

        South Weber City, 2013.                Photo by Whitney Arave.

By Lynn Arave

WHY is South Weber located in Davis County, 

when its very name is synonymous with 

neighboring Weber County?

WHY is it that about one-fourth of what some still 

consider Hooper territory, actually not in Weber 

County, but in Davis County?

The answer to both these perplexing identity 

queries relate to a significant county boundary 

change, made almost 160 years ago, back in 1855.

South Weber was indeed originally in Weber County and why it jumped counties is an ecclesiastical tale as much as it was a government decision.

According to Utah historian Glen M. Leonard in the book, "A History of Davis County," an ecclesiastical disagreement resulted in the boundary of Davis County moving about one mile north of where it originally was established.

President Brigham Young visited the South Weber area in October 1853 and declared that a fort should be established there. Kington Fort, named after the area's first bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Thomas *Kington (his name is misspelled "Kingston" in many, many other histories), was then created.
(A listing in the March 8, 1855 Deseret News lists South Weber as being in Weber County, more proof the community switched counties.)

However, soon Kington and Lorin Farr, Weber LDS Stake president in Ogden, had some sort of serious disagreement, though what it was about was never recorded. (Leonard suspects it might have simply been a boundary-related issue.) 

Lee D. Bell, author of “South Weber,” called the dispute "a falling out" in his history book of the community.

And, he believes the fact that the Utah Territorial Legislators intervened in the argument proves how serious a disagreement it must have been.

The book “East of Antelope Island” simply mentions that “there was some difference between President Farr and Bishop Kington, so it (South Weber) was annexed to Davis County by the legislature.”

Territorial legislators in 1855 redefined the Davis-Weber county line, because of prompting from Kington.  (Perhaps he was one of the state’s first lobbyists …) The legislature moved the Davis County line northward. This essentially put Kington’s Ward in Davis County and meant that President Farr no longer had any jurisdiction over the congregation – they were under Davis County’s stake president.

The county line moved south to the Weber River at the east end of Davis County. This meant that the Weber town of Uintah (previously called “East Weber”) was created to define what settlement remained on the north side of the Weber River.

The new Davis County town had also already favored the name “South Weber,” even though it was now in a different county, but at least it was indeed on the south side of the Weber River.

Now, Jump ahead to 1877 and a related boundary change was made. 

(Perhaps someone looked at a map of Davis or Weber County and saw the unusual zag in the county line... created in the 1855 change.)

 This time instead of keeping the twist south in Davis County’s border beyond South Weber, created by the 1855 change, the county line out west was now moved north about a mile to parallel the change made 22 years earlier in the South Weber section. This now made the Davis-Weber boundary line fairly straight from leaving the Weber River until it reached the marshes of the Great Salt Lake.

(Besides a crooked boundary, one other factor in favor of moving more Weber County land into Davis County -- by moving the Davis line northward on its west side -- was that Davis County was clearly still the state's smallest county of all. Legislators in 1877 may have felt the tiny county could use a little more land.)

The most significant effect this related boundary change created was that Hooper, originally known as “Muskrat Springs” and established in 1852, was now split.

This created “South Hooper” on the Davis County side and it was originally huge, going all the way south to today’s 1700 South (Antelope Drive), before the days of a West Point, Clinton and Syracuse. Over the decades as those three cities were established, “South Hooper” shrunk dramatically and only the section of unincorporated Davis County there is today was left. 

The South Hooper name also faded as the rural area only stretched from West Point at about 5000 West and State Road 37 (“Pig Corner”) about a mile north to the county line.

Yet, today some of these rural residents still consider themselves “Hooperites,” even though they reside in a different county.

A “Welcome to Hooper” sign is still posted in a field along Highway 37, deep into Davis County’s “Hooper.” 

Some students on the Davis County side of Hooper still attend Weber County schools.

New delivery drivers are likely baffled and lost by the abrupt address changes when they cross from Weber County Hooper to the Davis County side.

Eventually West Point may annex all of this remaining Davis County Hooper, as it is the only community that could.

Note 1: The South Weber Ward was located south of the Weber River in Davis County, and the ward was for a while tied to the Mormon Davis Stake; but, in 1904, because most of the residents of the area were oriented economically to Weber County, the ward became part of the Weber Stake once again for a time.

SOURCE: Page 167 of “History of Weber County,”

OR on this Web link:

http://cdmbuntu.lib.utah.edu/utils/getfile/collection/USHSArchPub/id/6295/filename/6330.pdf

*NOTE 2, More about Kington --  "Thomas Kington came to Utah with the Aaron Johnson Company in 1850, he brought his two daughters and second wife, Margaret Pisel, mt great-great grandmother.  

"Thomas Kington was 56 years old when he came to Utah. We always thrill when reading of the experiences with the United Brethren and Wilford Woodruff. Thomas Kington was the leader of the group that listened to Elder Woodruff at the Benbow farm in England.

"After his work in South Weber, Brigham Young asked him to help in Brigham City. Later, he moved to Wellsville area in Cache Valley. He remained faithful to the work that he embraced when in England.  We're grateful for the heritage he established for our family in the Wellsville area: Our mother was born on a small farm that was located along the Sardine Canyon Road, overlooking Mt. Sterling and Wellsville. She was a granddaughter of Thomas Kington. 

"Thomas Kington died in July 1874; he and several of his family members are buried in the Wellsville Cemetery.

"Our family treasures his faithfulness and steadfastness."

 -From Lynn DeHart of Ogden, Utah, a, Kington descendant.

NOTE 3: A look at Kington's headstone proves with any doubt that KINGTON is the CORRECT spelling of his name.
-It also appears that the misspelling came as the fort that Kington established became infamous because of the "Morrisite War." When a writer or a historian thought "Kington's Fort," that extra "s" seemed to roll off the tongue and hence it easily became spelled incorrectly as "Kingston's Fort."

                              The Hooper sign located deep inside Davis County.

Looking northward along State Highway 37, where Weber County Hooper begins.

                      The view southward on State Highway 37, where Davis County "Hooper" begins.


-Note 4: AND, North Salt Lake City, at the opposite (south) end of Davis County, like South Weber, also seems mis-named. Many are confused by that misleading moniker too ...
A "North Salt Lake" in Davis County? Yes and not to be confused with the north portion of Salt Lake City itself.

-Note 5:There was a failed proposal in 1914 to add South Hooper, as well as Clinton and South Weber back to Weber County, since residents there stated they did more business in Ogden and Weber County, than Davis County. (See the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Jan. 29, 1914.)



(-Portions of the above article were previously published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner, by Lynn Arave, on Nov. 22, 2013.)

Is It 'Wasatch' or "Wahsatch'; 'Uintah' or "Uinta'?

By Lynn Arave

Is it Wasatch or Wahsatch? How about Uinta or Uintah?

The answer is they are all correct depending on the usage, and have some interesting history behind them as well.

Though Wasatch is the accepted spelling for the mountain range and a county east of Salt Lake City, there once was a town named Wahsatch located along I-80 at east end of Echo Canyon about 24 miles southwest of Evanston, Wyo. It was named for Chief Wahsatch, a Shoshone Indian whose name was spelled that way, according to John W. Van Cott's book "Utah Place Names."

Wahsatch sprang up as a railroad town in 1868. Hundreds lived there in its frantic heyday, but eventually it became desolate when Evanston took over as the area's railroad hub. Now a ghost town, it is still listed as Wahsatch on the official Utah highway map.

But it is apparently one of few instances in Utah where Wasatch is still spelled with an 'h.'

Kent Powell, a Utah State Historical Society historian, said he's also wondered if Wasatch and Wahsatch weren't just two different spellings of the same word. Chief Wahsatch, he said, likely did not learn to spell his name in English and so someone else probably came up with the spelling.

Clarence King of the U.S. Geological Survey worked in Utah in 1869 and his photograph titled "Wahsatch limestone cliffs" supports the notion of that spelling once being applied to the mountain range.

Wasatch is a Ute Indian word meaning "mountain pass" or "low place in a high mountain," according to Van Cott.

Besides the lone place name using the Wahsatch spelling, a few current organizations and events have adopted it.

For example, there's the Wahsatch Shooters Association and two footraces — the Wahsatch Steeplechase and Wahsatch Rendezvous.

In addition to Wasatch/Wahsatch, there is another Utah place name spelled with and without an 'h' — Uintah and Uinta. There seems to be some question, even a little controversy, over the missing or added letter.

According to History to Go, an online historical resource by the Utah State Historical Society/Utah State History Department, early maps usually attached an 'h' to the end of Uintah. However, it was left off of Maj. John Wesley Powell's publications from his 1869 geographic expedition as being unnecessary for pronunciation of the word.

There's even a possible dark side to the Uintah spelling. Some descendants of the original Indians of the Uintah Valley Reservation suspect that in 1902 the federal government added the "h' to Uinta to distort the true identity of the Uinta Indians and to distance itself from an 1861 executive order that created the Uinta Valley River Reservation. At the same time, they wondered whether it was just mistake made by a government typist.

Uinta/Uintah also is a Ute Indian word and there is some disagreement on its meaning. It either refers to land at the edge of pines or streams of water or living high up where timber grows, according to "A History of Uintah County" by Doris Karren Burton.

Local historians see the spelling more as a matter of expediency.

"I have been told that for Uinta/Uintah that Uinta is applied to natural features- — Uinta Basin, Uinta Mountains, Uinta River — while Uintah is for political or names — Uintah County, Uintah Indian Reservation, Uintah Stake, etc.," Kent Powell said.

Burton essentially agrees. "The National Board of Geographic names applies the spelling Uintah to political subdivisions, such as counties, reservations, etc., and the spelling Uinta to mountains, streams, and other geographic features.

For example, there's Uintah County, Uintah town in Weber County and Uintah High School in Vernal. Meantime, there is the Uinta Mountains and the Uinta National Forest.

Floyd O'Neil, director emeritus of the American West Center at the University of Utah, said there's really no way to know for certain about how the spellings came to be, adding "This all creates a great spelling bog."

(Originally published in the Deseret News, July 27, 2009.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net