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Show Pg. 30 Milton and Littleton. The town of Milton is located about five miles south of Peterson on the west side of the valley. While Littleton is a mile or so farther south. The first man to settle at Milton was Thomas Jefferson Thurston, who came there in the spring of 1855. From his daughter’s journal we quote the following: My father took his wife Elizabeth (and I went along for company) and settled farther up the valley (From Peterson) where the help of Jedediah M. Grant’s men and teams, he plowed some land, and sowed about 10 or 12 acres of wheat, which failed to mature for lack of water. They built a dam in Deep Creek in the spring of that year, and took out the water in ditches. But the stream soon failed. So they went on about two miles to Canyon Creek, put in a dam, surveyed a ditch and dug it and brought the water to Deep Creek, where they turned it in above the dam. But by this time there was not water enough to fill the creek bed or to wet the canal, which was about two miles long. So again their crops were a complete failure. Father had injured himself with the heavy Pg. 31 work of lifting rocks in the canyon, and before he had finished his work, he became very ill and came near dying. He probably never would have gotten out of the valley had not Mr. J. Morgan Grant come up with his carriage and brought him to Centerville, when he could be under the car of a physician. He got better but not well, and took his wife, Elizabeth and baby and again went into the valley. He plowed the same land and a little more and again sowed it to grain. This, however, did not mature on account fo frost. He harvested it and put it into a corral, thinking it would be convenient for corn feed the next spring when putting in his crops. Our Mormon boys who were out in the canyon passes in the year 1857 – 8, watching for Johnston’s army, found this fodder very useful. Our cabins also made them quite comfortable during the cold weather. The interest of Pres. Jedediah Morgan Grant in the early settlers of Weber Valley was remembered with gratitude by those first settlers. And at the organization of a Stake |
