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Show Pg. 110 men were ordered to stay at home and protect the people here in case of an attack from the Indians. Mr. George Heiner says he was 18 years old at the time they were first mustered out of the drill. He says there was real danger of the Indians everywhere at that time, and that they had to be fed to have peace! He has seen as many as 500 Indians go through Morgan County at one time. The Indians wanted to claim the valley. Settlers could not always pick berries. They were “Indian’s berries.” Once he and Joel Manhard were ordered up Pine Canyon, and over as far as the Bear River, and were gone for a week. Mr. George C. Southam of Vernal says he has heard his father tell of the early days in Morgan, and that at one time his father, with Maney Welch and others, were sent to Devils Slide to guard the Indians at the narrow pass where the funnels are. Mr. Southam tells the story of a man, Mr. Cahoon, who was scalped by the Indians at Morgan, during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. He says Mr. Cahoon always wore a cap after this, even while eating. After the railroad was completed he was given the position of Pg. 111 conductor on the train. Ephraim Robison, of Ogden, was a member of the militia of Morgan County. He tells of an incident that happened in Morgan in the spring of 1865. He says it happened right in the heart of where Morgan City now stands. He and John Roe were standing together when a band of 500 Indians, many of them warriors, crossed the river and rode through the town. They had long poles, like fish poles, with scalps hanging from the ends of them. In the band was one white woman, “Never can I forget” says Mr. Robison, “Seeing her with a white hand-kerchief over her head, tied Indian fashion, and her long fair hair hanging behind. She uttered not a word, and we didn’t know when our time would come. Later we heard that between Green River and Rock Springs, a company of immigrants, with wagons, had all been killed but this one woman.” Mr. Robison says that at one time in Porterville the Indians demanded flour or fight. Pres. Young had told the settlers to give the Indians food to keep them peaceable. So they gave them flour and beef and they |
