Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1920-07-30

Company and their high ideals and
sincerity in their religious beliefs is
evidenced by their posterity Of splen-
did citizens and by the kind Of town
they built.
We think nothing of running into
Salt Lake in less then day now, but
Just imagine the strength Of charac-
ter it took for that little group of
people to start out on a three hundred
mile trip in the middle of winter, with
OK teams that travelled at most not
more than twelve miles day, travel
ling into country where there were
no roads other than trails, and where
the Indians were anything but friend
Iy.
Under all of these difficulties 1t
seems that the peoples spirits would
have been at very now ebb and yet
this was not the case for they came
along happily knowing that they were
performing a duty. Even though they
often only travelled a distance of six
miles in day they were not dis
Outraged, but sang and occasionally
danced by the light Of campfres in
the enclosures made by their wagons.
After many long, weary days the
pioneers finally arrived in the valley
and found Henry Lunt, George
Woods and Joseph Walker here be-
fore them. These men had reached the
valley a month or two before and had
commenced work on town located
on the north side of Coal Greek below
what is now our cemetery. Here the
pioneers built homes, although they
only consisted Of dugouts or the wag.
on boxes supplemented with lean-to
made from willows, and they cleared
land and made farms.
This thrifty. Industrious little body
of people lived here about two years
then as more people began to move
into the town they decided to move
across the creek away from the hills
and built a fort to protect themselves
from the Indians. The houses in the
new town was built of cottonwood logs
which were brought from the bottoms
and the entire town was surrounded
by an adobe wall about eight feet
high and ~ feet thick. In eacf
side of this wall guard house was
built in order that the Indians might
not attack them unawares. When the
houses were ready the entire towr
moved from the first site, distance
OF one and quarter miles in one day
During the next five or six years
the pioneers cleared new land and cul
tivated il; they mined iron ore al
Iron Springs and coal in the canyon
and brought it to the smelter at the
Fort where they made pig iron anC
Iron castings. The iron industry wa;
finally abandoned because they found
it was not profitable, so the pioneers
turned their entire attention to farm
ing and stock raising.
More people moved into town each
year and finally it was necessary tc
move again so this time they moved
up nearer the hills and built wher,
our town now stands. Here the pio'
neers again had to clear new land fol-
their farms and go through all the
hardships of building a new town.
The first site was called "Coa
Creek; the second was called thu
Sort" but the third town was giver
the name of Cedar, selected because
of the many cedar trees which thei
grew in the valley.
In 1853 when the California gol'
fever was at its height great man,
people decided TO leave Cedar and fol
low the lure of gold. Presiden
Young advised them against such
move and begged them to stay o.
their farms. He said "If you g
down to California you will forge
your religion and apostatize from tn
church. and you will not prosper.
And his prophesy was fulfilled 70
most of the people who did leave
drifted away from the church, an
many of them not only were financia
failures but were broken down i
spirit and health.
However, quite a number who LEI
in 1853 moved back again in 1876
when the call for volunteers came t
meet the advance of Johnson's arm!
During the early years it mus
have required vast amount of coul
age and energy for the pioneers I
meet and conquer the wilderness I
which they had migrated, They wer
hundreds of miles from the neares
store and had to rely upon nature t
furnish them the necessities of lif'
All of their clothing was made fror
wool grown by their fiocks and wove
by the women, or from cotton whicl
was raised in Dixie. A tannery wa
one of the first attempts at manufac
turing, and all of the shoes the peopl