~ Old Piute Records Stir ‘Up Memories By Frank Jensen Tribune Staff Writer JUNCTION, Piute County— At the turn of the century a courthouse could be built for less than $8,000. Wages of county -officials ranged from $40 to $550 a year. - THIS INTRIGUING record of an era of low wages: and equally low prices is contained din the records of the Piute County Courthouse. ' These official chronicles date back the to April county 26, 1869, when was organized by order of Probate Judge Joseph S. Wing. William Black oe first settler. — was THESE RECORDS ‘olay are kept by Irene Elder, Piute County recorded. A slender, bright-eyed woman, she grew up in the colorful mining camp of Marysvale, which also was the terminus of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. ar remember | the freighters coming from Arizona. and _ southern Utah with their wool and the burlap sacks stacked 80 rods or more along the tracks,” she said. “It was a wonderful, fascinating place to live.” PART OF THIS world of yesterday is annotated in the| Irene Elder, Piute County recorder, holds piece of courtPiute County court records. One dated 1898 lists salaries house floor penciled with names in 1904 and still legible. received by county officers as follows: Commissioners, $75 a year; sheriff, $350; clerk, $550; note of an item in the records fireproof a vault and a strip of flooring was discovered recorder, 300; surveyor, $50, of the indigent. and poor. with the name of the builder, and fish and game warden, $40. THE FOLLOWIN G account. architect, and members of a IN 1903 THE recorder. duti- ‘ing of a bill paid to one Jere- Piute County family | ea fully entered the following miah Dennis and others for written in pencil. order: taking charge and burying of ONE OF THEM, Nattie MorFor the destruction of grasshoppers in the boundaries of Charles Welling and Carl O. rill, later became county recorder, and her father, John Piute County, the following Peterson, both “‘paupers.” bounty or reward shall be ofMerchandise, $6.09; making Morrill, who’s name also appears, the county clerk. fered: For each pound of grass- of coffins, $18.50; burial The inscription was dated. hoppers, the rate of one cent per pound shall be paid for clothes, $3.00; washing bodies, June 7, 1904. each pound destroyed, pro- $4,00, and $3.00 paid to Jere-| Dennis for _ services vided that no less than 50 miah rendered. Total bill: $34.59. pounds be destroyed.” is f . If the price of famine was ACCORDING TO legend the low, disease took a higher toll Blackhawk War began in Piute _ of the county’s coffers. One County in 1865 when a rancher bill of $52 was paid to Dr. F. caught an Indian stealing J. Lyon for expenses as a cattle and promptly shot him. health officer during a small- The wounded Redskin crawled pox outbreak. over. the mountain where he J. B. KNIGHT received pay- told his tale to his chief. In 1873 the county was the ment for guarding roads 19 days during a smallpox epi- scene of a sheep and cattle demic at Kingston, and L. G. war that caused the removal Long was given $1. on March from office of Sidney Man7, 1892, for a new pair of socks. ning, sheriff, for refusal to His old ones, “supposed to be: remove sheep from the cattle infected with diphtheria,” were range. burned. AT LEAST FOUR. towns Undertakers should take had their turn as county seat $1450 Paying per ton FOR UNPREPARED SHEARABLE SCRAP IRON Delivered to Our Plant Goes to March 3 | Sentencing of P. J. Marcan:tonio, convicted by a jury in November of a charge of practicing optometry without a license, has been continued to March 3 by City Judge J. Mays. Arthur | JUDGE MAYS said counsel | __ for the defendant had filed a motion for a new trial. Arguments on the motion will be heard on March 3, was moved to Junction, on the gi south fork of the Sevier River. Plans for the two-storied courthouse building were apm| proved in 1902 and the county f™|commission ordered. the. clerk ai to pay $225 to the architect if a'the courtroom could be re- #\ duced in size without changing m|the shape of the building. A CONTRACT was awarded A} Aug. 18, 1902, to Young, Allen PEPPERS ALLIED METAL COMPANY g 401 WEST 9TH SO. EL 5-7433 fiand Morrill, low bidders. A half a century later gn) part 0f the flooring was torn up to Earnings ® NEW YORK (AP)—United States Borax: and Chemical Corp. posted record sales and earnings in the year Seg Sept. 30, stockholders were notif At $66, 654,174, sales were’ up 7 per cent from $62, 191,620. Profits were up 14 per cent. Net income totaled $6,920,209 or. $1.50 a share, compared with $6,048,249 and $1.29 in the preceding year. Earnings reported by other corporations included: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, for 11 aoe ended nie 30: | 960 $3 39,729, oe $51,711, Sigh net income a share Tlinois Central s oe net income $ 9,789,377 $13, 7eS a share 14 Northern Pacific Railwavnar l<tHHibg dtd Scrap Iron | We Are Now Optometry Case bed | SHEAR 4d tt hed hed BN NEW # until the center of government a| OUR Needs 4 Your |?