Oral History Program Dorothy Larkin Interviewed by Mildred Bates 22 May 1972 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Dorothy Larkin Interviewed by Mildred Bates 22 May 1972 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Larkin, Dorothy, an oral history by Mildred Bates, 22 May 1972, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview of Dorothy Larkin. The interview was conducted on May 22, 1972, by Mildred Bates. Mrs. Larkin discusses her lineage and relation to Elias Adams, her great-great grandfather. Interview of Dorothy Larkin of 1410 Fruit Heights, Layton, Utah on May 22, 1972. Her thoughts are taken from a family book "Elias Adams Pioneer" The Pioneering of Layton, Utah by Elias Adams in 1850. MB: Recording by Mildred Bates for History 428, interviewing Dorothy Larkins on her great, great, Grandfather Elias Adams. Ok, Dorothy we are interested in your grandfather. First let’s find out when he was born and where he came from and what he has to do with Utah History. DL: Ok, Elias was born in Millborne, Vermont, February 18, 1772. He was the son of Joel Adams. His mother died when he was very small and he lived with an Aunt and Uncle. His Uncle was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and by trade was a blacksmith and farmer. MB: Was he of the Mormon Faith? DL: No, well they don't know exactly when he joined the Mormon Church, they think it was probably when - around 1843. MB: Now, did he come as a pioneer when the first group of pioneers came to Utah? DL: No, he came in 1850 about three years after the original pioneers came. MB: Do you know if he came with a wagon group or with a handcart group? 1 DL: He came with a wagon group. He had oxen that drew his wagon. He had four oxen drawing it and he was very well prepared, he had as a young man been in the army for five years and fought the Indians so he was aware of the country they would be passing through se he was very well prepared for this and his family didn't suffer many of the hardships that many of the other families suffered. MB: Then he was married when he came. DL: Yes, he'd been married previous to this. He married Elmira Caldwall in 1823, she died in 1836. They had I think seven children and later he, oh where did he live? Anyway later after her death about a year later he married a second time, married Melenda Rialy. She was the wife that came across the plains with him. MB: Now, we're interested in knowing where he settled when he got to Utah and how come he settled the area he did. DL: Ok, why he came to Utah? Well, Elias and his family made preparations to leave Iowa and journey to Utah in the winter time and by spring the preparations were completed. He was a very good provider and in his wagon he had ample food, dishes, cooking utensils, bedding, clothing, ammunitions which where for the rifles that where carried by himself and his sons. He had seeds tools and everything which was available that space would allow. Of course many of the treasured belongings of the family were left behind. And one thing his wife said as they were about ready to embark upon their journey was "Where am I and the children going to ride?" But they had places provided for because he didn't want them to walk. They almost got into a Buffalo stampede during their trip across the plains. They told about in the History of him how they stopped for days and went on a Buffalo hunt, and would dry the Buffalo meat and things 2 like this. But he arrived in Salt Lake Valley 1850 just as the conference was in session. The conference had started on Sept. 6 and continued until the 8th. They came into the Salt Lake Valley and the Salt Lake that we know now was very different, they had a few log cabin and adobe huts, tents and covered wagons. A fort had been built of hued timber, drawn seven miles from the mountains and sunned dried bricks. He stayed only just a short time in Salt Lake, in fact I think it was just within the next day or two he left of the north. He came as far as Bountiful and they remained there long enough to make sufficient adobe to build a house for Paragreen sessions. It was the first adobe house constructed in Bountiful. And the reason he did this was that he had a flour mill and he was also a brick maker and he was a very successful man and to leave everything and come west I imagine was a really difficult thing for his family. But when his work in Bountiful was finished he moved on north to Kaysville, which is 25 miles north of Salt Lake. And the location he selected for his family to build his home was near the base of the mountains just a little, of a canyon that bears his name and it’s called Adams Canyon, and it’s just directly east of Layton. From this rugged canyon there was a clear stream of pure mountain water and there was an abundance of Oak, Maple and Mahogany so he knew that he had sufficient wood to keep his family warm during the winter months. And farther back in the canyon were plenty of pine trees he could bring down to build his new home. And so he and his sons during the next few month took two oxen and they would go into the mountains and they would cut the branches from the pines and the oxen would pull the pines down the area where they were going to build their home. Melenda and the girls stayed in the wagon and would be frightened to death because she was extremely frightened of the Indians. 3 MB: Do you know what they had to eat for that winter since they didn't get to plant the summer before. Did they have provisions to live off of? DL: During the summer of 1850 swarms of immigrants bound for California God Fields were going through the Salt Lake City and which now was termed the half-way house for the nation. As a result of the California bound migration there followed an enormous advance in the price of food stuffs. The supply which was limited while the demand was steadily growing. Flour was selling before the harvest of 1850 for $1.00 per pound, sugar was selling at the rate of three pounds for $2.00, potatoes had sold for $20.00 per bushel though beef was plentiful and could be had for 10 cents per pound. They were, Elias had been a real outdoorsman and had lived in the plains and the mountains and he was a tremendous hunter so his family had plenty of meat. And once in a while it mentions in his history that he would even, once in a while he would get a mountain sheep and this was a real delicacy apparently. They never did have to go without, even when the crickets and the grasshoppers came in hordes and ruined the crops. It told of one place about the crops planted in 1855 where almost a complete failure due to the drought, crickets and the grasshoppers. It is a statement of fact that when the grasshoppers where flying through the air on a summers day they were so numerous as to darken the sun for hours causing it to disappear from view. These insects would arise and remained in sustained flight from about 10:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. when they would alight eating and resting until the following day when they would continue their migration south. Should this flying horde alight upon a green corn or wheat field they would devour everything even the tender stock itself and they weren't discriminating in their tastes. Even onions growing in the garden where completely consumed by this hungry 4 multitude, leaving only a hole in the ground where the onions once grew. On one occasion these insects were flying over the waters of the Salt Lake and for some unknown cause alighted on its brimy composition which brought about their destruction. The winds that followed from the North West caused the lake waters to deposit the dead grasshoppers on its shores to the southwest of Layton. They were drifted into wind rows. Windrows you know what they are, how they rake the hay up in rows? That were miles in length and averaged from six to ten feet in depth. The stench from this dead mass was terrible and men who were hauling sand from the lake shore for building purposes testified to the truthfulness for the foregoing. Then they swept down on a community the men, women and children would turn out in mass to combat the pests driving them into prepared trenches and covering them with earth or forcing them upon piles of dry weeds or straw which they would set on fire striving in every conceivable way to destroy them until all strength was exhausted. Some said that the match to California with the Mormon Battalion across the burning sands of New Mexico and Arizona did not create the terrible experience the crickets and grasshoppers did when they swept down upon the fields of grain and corn to destroy them, because famine was facing the people in the coming winter which proved unusually severe. Cattle and sheep by the thousands died from cold and starvation during the winter of 1856 and 1857. And many pioneers suffered greatly and were driven to wild roots for food. But Elias was fortunate to the extent that he raised a good crop of corn which he harvested and arranged in shocks for winter. And then he enclosed these shocks inside the oak brush fence. Snow fell to a depth of 35 inches and remained crusted and frozen for three months. A large band of cattle ranging for forage broke down the fence protecting the 5 corn and trampled the shocks into the snow. And then this froze and formed a mass of ice. So this was destroyed and he couldn't use any of this for his own cattle which numbered about 20. And all of them died from starvation before the arrival of spring, with the exception of a cow a young bull and an oxen that they had driven across the plains. The winters proved so cold and severe that they decided to build a home in the hollow west I guess from where his home was upon the hill. This house was also made of logs, and was similar to one they had abandoned except that it had an additional room and the floors were made of split logs hue down smooth. The Soil here was more fertile and produced better orchard and garden products. A natural meadow supplied grass of hay. A fine spring which is still running, furnished water for culinary purposes in addition to irrigating the garden and orchard. The house was located on a sunny side of the hollow which sheltered their home from the cold north wind, and made it more comfortable for the livestock in the winter. So this was much more advantageous place to live. MB: The area that wasn't so good was that the area that is upon Hill AFB. DL: Well no, it was farther about two miles south of there, up toward the mountain. MB: Up on the bench area then? DL: There is also an Adams Park just west of there, now where Fernwood. Park is. It was also east of, guess that was east of Layton but that was closer to Hill Field but that as also his property. And I know that he had land where Hill Field is now because even when my father was a young man he would go up there and harvest the grain with, oh, what do they call them? 6 MB: Combines. DL: Well it wasn't combines. MB: Threshing machines. DL: Not even that, it was before that. But they go for days and it takes six or eight horses to pull them but I know that it was after even my father was married, and I use to play on the things that were here under the trees, they had them for years. But, this winter was really difficult on most of the families but again he and his sons were good hunters and his family really didn’t suffer. They always had plenty of meat and that. And then he was a very brave band the Indians knew this, and one summer, so they didn't really bother him too much. They killed one of his oxen a large fat one when south during the time that Johnsons army had come in. So when he came back and had found that this one fat oxen had been killed he went to the Indian Chief and spoke to him about it. And the Indian chief said he was sorry that it was killed and that we'll not kill any more of the Adams animals and he really felt bad about it because they had been friendly. I think there was a story in the book of Elias Adams that told about the time that they had such a beautiful garden and his son John was waiting patiently for his melons to ripen, so he went out one day and a group of Indian boys where there, they were breaking his melons and eating them and just being malicious, very maliciously. Anyway the boys were kneeling upon them to break them. So John ordered the Indians to leave the garden and they promptly refused and then he threw a rock and it struck one of the Indians in the head and it cut a nasty gash. Now they were convinced that he would use force if necessary to keep them out of the garden. So they departed in baste swearing vengeance as they left. Early that evening the chief and about fifteen braves 7 armed and decorated in bright war paint and eagle feathers each mounted on a favored horse approached his home. Elias knew the meaning of their suspicious appearance, he went forth from the house unarmed and met them in the dooryard. And upon inquiring for the reason for their coming in this matter the chief informed they intended to kill his son John because of injury which had been inflicted upon a member of his tribe. So Elisa Adams told them that his son was in the house and would remain there and that they could not kill him. And they said that they would take his life as a sacrifice in the place of John's, and needless to say his wife and children were huddled in the house listening very frightened. But this man of the frontier was calm and collected and told the Indians that they were squaws, in other words that they were cowards that they dared not shoot. Do you think a white man fears to be shot? And he said "shoot?" very loud and bared his chest to the rife point. The chief said, "He brave man." And instead of shooting they honored him for his fierceness and bravery and peace was made without the loss of life. Another interesting thing is before this time before they started raising sugar beets, sugar was quite scarce and I was quite interested in reading how they used substitutes. They would allow pumpkins to freeze in the late fall and then after this they would remove the juice and boil it down and use this for sweetening their food. For several years they used the juice from water melons in preserving their fruit. And then when they started raising the sugar beets the factories were erected in the territory of course they then used that. Elias Adams gave an ox and $25.00 for the first swarm of bees and they were purchased from a Mr. Puttman from Bountiful and these bees furnished honey which was used on rare occasions and it was really a luxury. Some of the things they ate were wild game such as deer, pine hens, ducks, geese, 8 rabbits, and occasionally Rocky Mountain sheep. There wheat to be ground into floor was hauled into Ogden for several years because there was a water power mill located near Weber River Bridge in Riverdale and it tells a story when George one of the sons and his mother took the grain to be ground and on the way back down through Uintah below Weber Canyon they could see someone approaching, so they were whipping their oxen to reach the forks of the road ahead of the approaching traveler that was walking. There was this old Indian called Old Limpy and he just terrified the children and they succeed in leaving him behind for a while but when they were going up the long steep sandy hill the Indian over took the wagon so Melinda kept cracking his knuckles with a whip handle to keep him from climbing into the wagon each time he made the attempt. Then when they got to the summit of the hill everything was ok because the oxen could go faster than Old Limpy was and he was left behind. MB: I think you mentioned something about your grandfather helping out with the irrigation in the area. DL: There's reservoir in East Layton that still bears his name. The Adams Pond. Irrigation was used I guess by the Indians many, many years before. The traces of head gates and things like this. But it was possible to produce crops without irrigation but by applying water to the soil doubled the yield on the same amount of ground. So water became very valuable. And a wise observer said, "Little drops of water mixed with sand makes a mightly difference in the price of land." So Elias evidently was the first pioneer in this area to store water in reservoirs for irrigation. And he realized that mountain streams wouldn't run heavy all summer and it wouldn't supply enough water to irrigate as much land as they needed. So he evolved plans to construct a reservoir to store the 9 water when it wasn't actually being used. This meant that the storage of water later developed throughout the Western United States and one of the chief factors in reclaiming sections of our country. So he selected a location for his reservoir which is now considered by engineers to be ideal. It was situated and still is in a suitable hollow about three miles, I think I stated that it was situated in a deep hollow three miles east of Layton, and it’s filled with water conveyed from the Adams Canyon where his first home was. With the assistance of his sons early in the spring of 1852 he started building the dam by the use of shovels. They made a dam forty feet long by four feet high and they stored sufficient water to irrigate just below it. Then energetic citizens from Kaysville became very interested in this possibility to enlarge it so they came in and began to enlarge it by using wheelbarrows and shovels and they apparently constructed a dam, they wanted it about 2 1/2 feet higher. So they made a trench two feet wide by two feet deep and it was made the entire length of the old dam and it was made upstream side next to the ice. This was intended to act as a key connecting the old dam with the proposed new addition. So the earth they brought in was placed in such a manner that the upstream side projected out over the ice for several feet. So the work was carried on intermitting throughout the winter. And it now measured fifteen feet in height. Well spring came and the reservoir rapidly filled with water furnished by the melting snows and they had a miniature flood because the pressure of the water came rushing down rolling over the gardens and meadows. Elias Adams, his house was on high grounds and was unharmed but all his meadows and garden areas were covered with all the dirt from the dam. So the damage wasn't serious but the citizens never returned to make repairs or to assist in the gradual growth of the dam. The original builder Elias Adams 10 had faith in the reservoir and the possibilities. The old dam was still intact even after the addition had disappeared and so he and his sons continued to build the dam by hand which was expensive and tedious and yet each year it grew a little more in height and width and eventually his one son Joseph thought he could reduce the labor and the cost of the dam by experimenting, so two embankments were thrown up top of the dam and then ground sluicing was applied and the water carried the earth from the nearby hill of sand and clay and deposited its heavy load between the embankments they had made. So their labor and costs were solved. A cubic year of earth could be placed on the dam for three quarters of a cent and water for sluicing purposes was available only during the flood period of each year. And so it took a number of years before the dam was completed. And then in 1397, it was incorporated into the Home Irrigation Company and the capital stock of this was $50,000 dollars. And in 1929 when this book was written by a grandson the present dam at that time was 70 feet in height and 400 feet long and its width at the bottom was 450 feet and its width at the top is eighty feet. As far as I can see it’s still the same as it was in 1929. It contains 150,000 cubic yards of earth. Its outlet was through a cast iron pipe. Engineers where consulted and advised and the reinforced it with concrete on the up side of the dam so that they wouldn't have any more accidents with it. And then they didn't have any seepage from it. They stated this is what they did to get away from that. So there is few parts of the world where irrigation has pushed forward more systematically and with better results than here in Utah. MB: Now one thing we haven't found out for sure if he was sent up here by the church elders from Salt Lake or if he just chose this area on his own. 11 DL: It doesn't really say if he was sent or if he just came out but apparently he was sent because his destination was quite sure. He headed north and he knew just about where he was going to be located. I am sure that he was sent. According to the United States Census for the year 1850 the population of the territory of Utah numbered 11,354 persons of whom about 6,000 or almost half of these were residents of Salt Lake City. The Indians population of the territory was conservatively estimated at 1,800. But at this time the territory of Utah was much larger than the state. It was bounded by New Mexico on the south and east by Kansas and Nebraska and on the west Calif., and on the north by Oregon which then also included Idaho. So Utah was one of the largest territories in the United States. Its length from east to west was 650 miles, its width 350 miles. The portion known as the great basin beyond where there was no settlements in 1850 had an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, and was surrounded and intersected by mountain; ranges. Elias Adams and his family joined the exodus to the south when Johnsons Army was coming through. They took with them all their moveable effects. His draft animals consisted of one four year old bull and an ox which was called Bright. Melinda his wife and her two children, Melinda and Hiram who were six and three years old rode in the wagon with their household effects. Joshua who was ten years old drove the oxen and his father walked and herded the cows and the young stock. Their daughter Carolina who was approaching her 13 birthday walked and drove eleven turkeys. The hog was also taken along by being tied underneath the wagon to the reach about midway between the wheels. Here without difficulty the wagon directed his course of travel. The sheep which consisted of about twenty in number where placed in a common herd and where cared for by their son Elias Jr. and Joseph. And then they 12 had the faithful old dog Vender that came clear across the plains with them and had been with them constantly since their arrival in the valley and was getting old and feeble, he selected to remain and act as guard to the old home. And it was quite sad to leave him behind but he was later among the missing and was never seen again. So they traveled south to Spanish Fork and camped and waited there for the action of the soldiers but as it worked out there was no war, but there was peace and they went back to their homes and they found that the wheat grass had grown tall around their home during their absents. Their mother warned the children to remain close to the house because she still had tremendous fear of lurking Indians. Many cattle and horses had been stolen and Elias Adams found that one fat ox had disappeared. When searching for the missing animal he found evidence that the Indians had taken it and killed it and used it for food. MB: How many children did he have all together? DL: Elias Adams had seven children from his first wife, seven from his second wife. So he had fourteen children. I only could find record of one that had died at the time they were living in this house by Adams Canyon. This house when they left it, the grave of this child who was around 13 years old was lost and over the years never could find it again. But Elias Adams lived a full measure of life he attend the age of 94 years of age and with the exception of one day possibly he would have reached the century mark. But he had an accident he fell off the front porch of his new brick home. He died Feb. 17, 1886 and I didn't find it documented that this was the first brick home to be built in Layton. And of course at that time it was Kaysville and later it was divided into Layton and was; made a town. But when he moved here it was Layton. But it was said of Elias Adams 13 that He feared neither bear, Indian nor the devil, and he was all daring all enduring pioneer. He was a fearless adventurer with excellent judgment and foresight his rugged path was filled toil and hardships which he braved in order to realize his dreams and aspirations. He was home builder colonizer and pioneer in many activities all of which were successful. He was kind hearted, benevolent to those less fortunate than himself and many partook of his abundant hospitality. His descendants now numbered several hundred and comprised one of the largest and best respected families in the west. They extend from Canada to Mexico and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. Many of them have held high position of trust to their state and country and many of course, have been service of the country and their grateful for the birthright heritage that he left them. 14