MfH^'Hii Pioneer History Binds Us 'Together her tail around my hand and she ran so fast, I couldn't keep up, yet couldn't let go. I finally got loose, but it broke my left arm, close to the shoulder. When I regained consciousness, I had to walk about a mile and half to get home, holding my broken arm under my suspenders and having to cross Canyon Creek on a pole. Father's small farm was near the hills on the west side of the valley. A great deal of my time was spent roaming the hills, hunting cows, digging sego lily bulbs, etc. Three or four times a week, Mark and I would go down to Canyon Creek about four o'clock in the afternoon, and enjoy catching trout. We nearly always came home with a large string of fish. Often we would stay until dark, make a fire on the bank, and fishing seemed to improve. They seemed to bite better under these conditions. On the Fourth of July once, my brothers, Charley and Mark, and I went fishing and caught fifty- four nice trout. Mark was fishing with an old rusty hook, when a large fish bit his line off, just above the hook, and got away. A few minutes later, I caught the same fish and Mark getting his hook back again, was able to continue fishing. Father had a two year old steer that he broke to pull a large sleigh. The runners where made of maple and it was built good and solid. In the winter, we would have the steer haul the sleigh with a forty- five gallon barrel of water once a day. We had to take it about a half mile, and often when we would get to the gate, the steer would give a quick jump and off would go the barrel of water. That would mean another trip. My job was to get the water in the summer. Mother would have me carry about a thirty gallon barrel of water each morning very early, before the cattle were turned out, as the streams were very small, and ran several miles from where it boiled out of the mountain. If it wasn't hauled early, it became unfit for use. I thought mother was a little severe on me, as she would have me turn out what water was left each morning, and refill the barrel with clean, fresh water, and put it in the cellar where it would keep cool. In the winter, when we were out of school, we coasted down the hills with the other boys of the village. We spent many pleasant hours this way. We especially enjoyed coasting on the crusted snow, when we could walk uphill for several miles, to get to ride back. My pals were: James R. Burt, the Raymond Rich boys, Albert and Abe Dickson's boys, Charley and William Crouch's boys, John, Mark, Jim and Henry Taggert (brothers). This made a real crowd. I remember an old Indian bringing a rifle to my father to have it fixed. He said, "Maybe me come back, maybe me never come back, maybe me die - you have the gun!" Father gave the old rifle an overhaul, but the old Indian never came back. My father made the first shoes I ever had. He was a shoemaker; violin and fife maker; a first class mill and wheelwright. He owned a stone burr flour mill. The large timbers in this mill were hewed with a broad-ax. They were ten by ten inches, and all the cogs were made of oak, running very smoothly. No nails were used to speak of in this mill. In the History of Morgan County, we find this notation: "About 1863 George W. Taggert and Henry and Morgan Hinman of Farmington, commenced building a grist mill in Richville. Due to difficulties in obtaining materials, it took until 1866 to complete the mill. During the process of building the mill, President Brigham Young visited the site. After looking the workings over, told them that they had the draft sunk in dead water; that if they would sink it deeper, it would work. This turned out to be true, and after following the Prophet's instructions, the mill ran as it was intended. Before this time, they had no mill in the upper Weber Valley, and at one time there was a slide at Devil's Gate that made it impossible for wagons to get out of the valley, so that it was necessary for men to make their way over ten feet of snow to get some flour to avert starvation. Because of the difficulty in obtaining flour, this mill in Richville was really appreciated, and the people were encouraged to grow more grain. It became so busy that as many as thirty teams would be waiting at the same time for flour. This mill continued in operation until 1890, and was torn down in 1915." (end of quote from Morgan County History). Grist mill built in Richville in lHb6 by George Washington Taggart and Morgan Hinman. Dismantled about 1910. i%