Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together from the trees. Every vestige of green was gone. Thomas Jr. said on the Enterprise Point, the hoppers were six and eight inches thick. The dog would try to run through them, but they would jump and hit him in the eyes and face until he would howl. Had it not been for the money the settlers earned on the construction of the railroad, it would have been impossible for them to have remained in the valley. The railroad brought in supplies and by these means the settlers survived through the winter. Thomas Jr. tells that when he was about eight years old, there were 900 Indian warriors led by Chief Washakie come through Morgan on their way to Wyoming to battle with the hostile tribe of the Sues (Sioux). They left the squaws and papooses at Box Elder County, went on their way up through this valley, and camped on the flat where the Peterson school house now stands. They demanded food, so the bishop of Peterson had each family give what they could. They also stripped everything out of the settlers' gardens, then moved on. They were gone five or six months when they returned. The sad story was told that there were only sixty braves to return to the squaws and papooses. The rest of the tribe had been slaughtered in battle. Thomas Jr. walked from Enterprise to Peterson to go to school, about four miles. He said they had very few clothes, no underclothes, and no overshoes. His first teacher was Isaac Bowman. He went to school three or four months and some of his school mates were Will and John Croft, Joseph Green, and Henry and Charles Hale. Thomas Jr. worked hard all through his boyhood years. One of his first jobs away from home was on a large ranch out on Bear River near Evanston. He, Will, George Croft, and Joseph Green walked from Enterprise to the ranch in March. The snow was deep and they went up Lost Creek and over the Divide. The snow crusted until they reached the top of the divide and then it broke through, making it almost impossible to walk. It was about midnight when they finally reached the ranch and they were nearly frozen to death. That fall they went to Park City, where silver mines were being opened. There they contracted Thomas Palmer Jr. to cut quaking aspen for the Ontario Mine, for $1.00 per cord for green and $1.25 for dry wood. It was burned at the mine to run the hoists. They worked there for three years. The Union Pacific was building a branch line Rail Road from Echo to Park City. Thomas Jr. got a job grading for the railroad up through the Coalville meadows. From there he joined a bridge gang and worked for twelve years on bridges from Ogden to Laramie, on the regular gang outfit of the Oregon Short Line. From there he went to Granger and then to Hams Fork, then on to Golden, Colorado. There had been wash outs there at the mines and the bridges had to be rebuilt. He worked there three or four years as head foreman of the gang. Then he came back to Ogden and worked four years on the Union Pacific. Dancing played a big part in the entertainment of the young people in the early settlements. Thomas Jr. said he danced at the old Peterson Hall, at North Morgan, and Milton and Enterprise. He remembered having his hat stolen at the Milton dance hall one night and had to go without a hat for nearly a year until he could afford a new one. Thomas Jr. remembered traveling from place to place at that time was very slow. The only mode of travel was by horseback, or horse and wagon, but the young folks still had good times, and he smiled when he told about the incident when he met Rutha Stewart, the girl who later became his wife. Rutha Elizabeth Stewart was bom March 16,1868, at Ogden in the vicinity of 26th Street and Washington Avenue. She was the daughter of Rufus Stewart and Nancy Browning Stewart. Her father came to Utah with the second company of pioneers in 1847. Her mother was a full sister to Jonathan Browning, the gun inventor. She lived in Ogden until she was eight years old, when her mother died, leaving eight children, one a baby two months old. Rutha's oldest sister, La Vina, cared for the children. And when La Vina married James Stewart and moved to Morgan, Rutha went with her to live. Their home was the one now owned by J.C. Little. Rutha was twelve years old at that time. She lived with La Vina until her marriage to Thomas Palmer at the age of twenty-one. Rutha Stewart Palmer