Page:History of Utah.djvu/331



MS., 2.

Public meetings were generally held near the lib- erty-pole in the centre of the fort; religious and secu- lar meetings were also held in private houses. In March 1848 the population of the city was reported at 1,671, and the number of houses 423." Bridges were built over Mill Creek and Jordan River. Daniel Spencer was appointed road-master, and authorized to call on men to assist in making roads. In order that the burden might fall equally on all, a poll and property tax were instituted.

There were several mills soon in working order. A small grist-mill on City Creek was built by Charles Crismon near the pioneer garden; then there were Chase's saw-mill and Archibald and Kobert Gardiner's on Mill Creek, and Nebeker, Riter, and Wallace's in a canon ten miles north of the city. A carding machine was erected near Gardiner's saw-mill by Amasa Russell, and a flouring mill during the summer by John Neff, Leffingwell constructed a threshing machine and fanning mill on City Creek, with a ca- pacity of two hundred bushels per day. Mill-stones cut out of the basalt in the valley were of very good quality. Mill-irons, mill-stones, printing-presses, type, paper, and the carding machine were brought by the first bands of emigrants in 1848.^^

The spring saw everybody busy, and soon there were many flourishing gardens, containing a good va- riety of vegetables. In the early part of March plough- ing commenced. The spring was mild and rain plenti- ful, and all expected an abundant harvest. But in the latter part of May, when the fields had put on their brightest green, there appeared a visitation in the form of vast swarms of crickets, black and bale- ful as the locust of the Dead Sea.^^ In their track

^*Juv. Inft., ix. no. 1, 9.

^^Hist. B. Young, MS.; Home's Migrations, MS.; Geo. Q. Cannon, in Juv. Inst.; Tayloi''s Reminiscences, MS.; Woodruff^s Journal, MS.; Young's Ex., MS.; Wells' Narr., MS.; Richards' Narr., MS.; Nebeker's Early Justice, MS.; Jenning's Material Progress, MS., passim.

'6 Utah Early Records, MS., 29-30.