Martha Matilda McGill Nelson - Life Story Part Eight

Martha Morgan:A Journey to Zion

Story by Allen Morgan Kendall

Pictures added by Lois C. Berrett

Life in Beaver 

As the impracticality of iron production at Cedar City became more apparent, the population decreased sharply. There were about 1000 residents in 1855, but by 1860 only about 400 remained.  Among those leaving were the Andrew and Jane Patterson family. Early in 1856 they were among the first of the settlers moving 36 miles to the north to a location on the Beaver River.30

Beaver River

When the Morgans left as the iron works closed, they joined the Pattersons in Beaver.

Mt Baldy viewed from Beaver in 1872

As the 1860 census was taken William was listed, no longer as a miner, but as a farmer. Also on this census William and Martha possessed something that would probably have never been theirs if they had remained in Scotland: $350 in real property.31

Here Martha gave birth to another son on 22 January 1860. She named him John Athos Morgan.32 The middle name given to the lad is interesting. Not a family name, it makes one wonder if Martha had developed a literary interest. Athos, of course, was the name of one of the fictional Three Musketeers in Alexander Dumas' 1844 novel of that title. Perhaps the book she was holding in her elderly portrait was more than a prop, but an icon of her interests to those of a later generation.

John Athos Morgan

Beaver was a beautiful location, hunting and other natural resources were abundant. The settlement was growing rapidly, ironically, due to the Utah War. Pres. Young had called many church members who were living in the corridor between there and San Bernardino, California back into the Utah Territory. Many of them found Beaver a desirable place to live.

The Morgans apparently found it desirable to move on.

Chicken Creek

Chicken Creek was a location that seemed ideal for a permanent home. It was located on the main thoroughfare through the Utah Territory about 15 miles southwest of Nephi, and no doubt many weary travelers to parts south, such as Cedar City, stopped there to rest from their journey. They must have found the shade of the cottonwood trees and thick willows, and the abundant flow of the creeks merging there very appealing.

Chicken Creek

After leaving Beaver, the Morgans were among a small group who attempted a settlement in the location of Chicken Creek. Once again they started from scratch. They were living there in 1862 when Martha gave birth to a daughter, Martha Ettie on 24 August 1862.

Martha Ettie Morgan

And where there yet when another son James Nathaniel was born on 2 October 1864.33

James Nathaniel Morgan

The Morgans helped to build a community in Chicken Creek. They had erected a meeting house which doubled as a school and social hall. They had put in gardens and wheat fields. But Chicken Creek was still not to be their permanent home. It must have been with some disappointment that they concluded that the location that looked so ideal was unsustainable to their needs. The soil was actually quite poor, and the growing season too short to allow the cultivation of fruit trees. The water dwindled in the fall, and locusts often devoured what crops could be raised.34 

There were still Indian conflicts.  In May of 1866, most of the residents moved temporarily to the fort in Nephi as a defense against attacks, but returned for the harvest in the fall.35

Sources: 

30. Dalton, Luella. History of Iron County, p. 200. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

31. Ancestry.com. 1860 U. S. Federal Census [Database on-line]. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.

com Operations Inc. 2009

32. LDS Church Membership Records.

33. ibid

34. Stephensen, Maurine. A History of Levan, p. 5. Chicken Creek Camp, Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

35. McCune, Alice P. History of Juab County, p. 152. Juab County Company, Daughters of Utah Pioneers. 1947.