The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1908-08-12
Fourth Oldest Inhabltant In.
tervIeWod.
Continued From Page | .

were no TOaus, Ouly an lnuIau uIall
where Main street now IL. All were
living In wagons along the. little Lo-
gan river. Mr.. Evans with his com.
panions pushed on to High Greek
where by means Of the government
section stakes John Wright surveyed
the land into ten acre lots. These
the settlers drew By lot and began
blowing Immediately. Then came an
Indian scare and Pcter Vaughan or.
dered them to take theirfamilies back
to Wellsville. This they did and then
returned and got In the crop by June
sth. This was cut October 4th and
Mr.. Evans remembers harvesting Ill
bushels OF wheat. The crop once H.,
the men went to Wellsvilie for their
families and then came to Logan to
settle permanently, Provided with
axes and food for q week they went up
into Logan canyon to cut timber
This they rolled into the river to be
fl0ated down to the settlement. Mr..
Evans says he worked in the water a
week to break up a jam OF logs, but ia
vain. Not a single log did he get. The
settlers then made road into Green
canyon as far as what is now called
Benson's slide. There they got plenty
Of timber and hauled 1t down to town
and built fort on Center street and
Main, each man having four rods. Mr..
Evans cabin was on the site of Mr.
John Blanchard's brick house.
The makeshifts OF the settlers were
ingenious. Mr.. Evans says: 81 had
no hat to wear and made me a cap of
muskrat skins. In place Of coat
wore buckskin overshirt that got
from the Indians. There. were many
In the same tx. To make our bullets
we melted lead in a wooden ladle,
strange as 1t may seem. We gouged
a stick into the form OF q bowl. put
the lead In it and then put hot Goals
on top OF the lead. These we would
fam either with our hat or hand bel.
lows There was only one pair of bel.
lows In the settlement and they were
much in demand. The melted lead
we made into bullets with queer
kind Of combination mould and pin.
GERS, some OF which are still in exist.
ance.
I'VE were counselled to have, always
on hand forty rounds OF ammunition.
We were busy putting up our houses.
The roofs we first covered with will.
lows, then with bayonet grass and
finally we put on layer OF dirt. Our
hay we got 10 the slews to the west of
the town and we cut 1t with scythe.
l remember the FIRST time l went
down to the river to cut a scythe
snath. 1t was hard to select what I
wanted. There l was with willows
before me as tough as hickory, but
what did ! want? So cut six crooked
ones and took them to a Yankee Tor
him to select the most suitable"
Mr.. Evans had been q stone mason
10 Wales and In Salt Lake had helped
build the southwestern corner Of the
wall about the temple yard. We asked
him why he had turned farmer. ".You
see we were all paid In grain" he re,
piled. Everyone kept what grain he
needed for himself and then II he had
any left he would pay his debts. There
was so little that l often didn't get
any and soon saw that II wanted
to have any grain l would have to
raise IL for myself. However | still
kept on at times With my old trade
and nearly all the stone fire places In
town were built by me-"
Mr.. Evans tells as follows of the old
fashioned way Of saving logs: "Some
logs were sawed into boards that first
winter by James Ellis and Benz
Williams, the first as sawyer and the
second as pitman. Just above where
the Thatcher grist mill now is they
dug into the side Of the hill so as to
form q pit. The 10y was put on roll.
ers, fastened with dogs and whipsaw
used. There was no saw mill in Cache
Valley until Old Man Edwards built
one in Millville which TINS pot ite