March 1, 2001, Cont'd ers. In 1851, Erastus Bingham became bishop of the area south of the Ogden River. Lorin Farr became the stake president and served as the mayor of Ogden. Erastus Bingham had two previous farms before he ultimately resided at the site of the current day 301 West 2nd St. Erastus and his sons had found ore in Bingham's Canyon and were advised by Brigham Young not to pursue mining, but to farm. Erastus moved to the Ogden settlement and set up a farm approximately where the Ogden Temple square is located. He was asked once again by Brigham Young to move so that a city square could be laid out at the central location. Bingham's farm at 301 West 2nd St. remains the only original pioneer farm within the Ogden city limits. The Bingham log cabin remained on the farm site until 1953, when it was purchased by the Sons of Utah Pioneers for a recreated Pioneer Village in Salt Lake City. The cabin was moved to that site until it was ultimately sold to Lagoon, where it is displayed today as part of Lagoon's Pioneer Village. Erastus Bingham served as a member of the first Territorial Legislature in 1854. From 1856 to 1868, he served as bishop of the First Ward. In 1857 he built the first cabin in Ogden Valley, about 11 miles east of the present town of Eden. He used that area as summer grazing grounds. Erastus Bingham eventually followed Brigham Young's counsel to build up Ogden and moved his residence there, but retained his farm and cabins in Bingham's Fort. Some of his sons and their families continued to live in the fort. Bingham Fort walls were built of rocks and mud, principally mud. Each family was assigned to build a portion of the wall, which was about four rods from the house. Thomas Richardson, a pioneer boy who lived in Bingham's Fort, tells how the walls were constructed: "We did not have lumber to put up to hold the mud, so we placed upright poles tapering from about eight feet at the bottom and three feet at the top. We set stakes between the poles and wove willows in like a willow fence, then filled the space with mud. We made a ditch nearby to run water down to make the mud. "While wet, we threw it in with shovels ... The wall was about 12 feet high. The fort had an entrance on the west side large enough to drive a team through, with a gate constructed of heavy timber which stood as high as the wall." The walls of the fort were torn down when the fort was no longer needed for safety. Nine-year-old Fred Pierce re-membered helping the men tear down the remaining walls in 1888. Bingham's Fort was a site of Brigham Young's experimental program in Indian relations. Brigham Young's policy of "it is cheaper to feed them than to fight them" was carried out by Bingham Fort residents. Pioneer journals and stories provide supporting evidence of the Indians living in and around the fort, relying on help and support from the settlers. The fort was first built as a protection from the Indians, but because of the food shortage the winter of 1854-1855, some of the Indians gave up their arms and also lived inside and around the fort. One recorded incident illustrates how the white settlers in Bingham's Fort interacted with the Indians. Mary Eliza-beth Hutchens was born in 1857 to William Hutchens and his wife Mary Eliza Stone. Mary left an account of her life, recorded by her daughter. Mary wrote: "Bush head's hair stood upright all over his head and was strung with beads at intervals. All his tribe had the same kind of hair. He also wore a beaded and fringed buckskin suit the bead work in the form of large diamonds, black and white beads being used. "All of the tribes had different emblems beaded on their clothes. Bush Head was a very mean Indian. He used to bring his tribe to the meadows near Baird's. "His lodge poles were strung with scalps, not all of Indians either. Some scalps were of long light brown hair and some of short soft light hair taken from babies' heads. Her father told the children to never go alone out of the place until Bush Head's tribe had gone." One day Mary's mother had just house-cleaned the log and the adobe house. Mary was making the beds in the adobe house and her mother was cooking in the log house. Mary heard someone walk along the entry of the half torn down part of the house, then try the door. She turned quickly and in walked Bush Head, the chief. He said something which Mary couldn't understand and sat down on her mother's bed. Mary was horrified as even the children weren't supposed to touch the beds daytimes, least of all her mother's bed. She rushed out of the room and over into the log house where her mother was. She said "Mother, Bush Head is sit-ting on your bed." Her mother picked up the broom and went over into the adobe house and told Bush Head to get right of there or she would hit him. Evidently he understood her, he got up quickly and went out, although he talked back to her, but they couldn't understand him. When her father came home he was much concerned about it because he said they were all liable to be scalped if Bush Head was angry, but nothing happened. One day Mary's father, William B. Hutchins, came in laughing and said "Eliza, do you know what the Indians are calling you. They call you a fighting squaw. How do you like that?" As a result of the close association between the white settlers and the Indians, the Bingham Fort settlers were recruited for Brigham Young's Salmon River Mission, also called the Fort Lemhi Mission in Idaho. This was because the pioneers in this area learned some of the Indian language and coexisted with Chief Little Soldier's Shoshoni people and other natives. At one time, approximately the late 1860s, there were as many as seven different tribes of Native Americans camped to the west of the fort alongside Millcreek. That Indian camping area later became farms and then Defense Depot Ogden; it's now the Business Depot Ogden. According to pioneer records, there was repeated Indian interaction with Mormon settlers, with Shoshoni Chief Little Soldier acting as the peacemaker between the Indians and the white settlers. 110