With the Indian threat in mind, the early settlers erected two facing rows of cabins, described by some as simply rooms, adjoining each other to create a fort, with each room opening onto a central area. Box Elder Creek flowed through the center of the enclosure, which was about 100 feet (six rods) and 250 feet (15 rods) long, located at approximately present day 600-700 North between 400 and 500 West.
The low-walled cabins were built with roofs sloping to the back, and had small windows covered with oiled or greased cotton cloth to let in a little light. The shelters were small enough that bedding was rolled up during the day to make room for indoor activity, as well as to keep bedding dry. Since most families worked on clearing land and planting crops during the day, the cabins were primarily sleeping quarters. “Cooking was done in bake kettles over wood fires built in the rude fire places in the cabins, or over campfires built in the yard.”Lydia Walker Forsgren, ed., History of Box Elder County, (Brigham City, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1937), 219.
Cabin building in the fort progressed slowly during the summer and into the fall of 1851, as written in field notes by Andrew H. Jenson, now part of the LDS Church Historical Library:
George F. Hamson, with his wife and two children, arrived on Box Elder Creek on October 6, 1851. At that time William Davis had nearly finished his log house, the first built in the fort, but he had not yet moved into it. William Dees had just hauled logs onto the ground, preparatory to building. Thus it appears that William Davis built the first house on Box Elder Creek, Jefferson Wright and Benjamin Tolman the second, and George F. Hamson the third.1Olive H. Kotter, “Brigham City to 1900,” Through the Years, (Brigham City: Brigham City Eighth Ward, 1953), 8.
Three months later, George F. Hamson, Jr. was the first pioneer child born in Brigham City, on December 8, 1851, as the creek overflowed its bank and left a foot of water in the family’s unfinished cabin, continued Jenson. The Fife and Peterson history claims that the first pioneer child born in Brigham City was actually Harriet Melissa Clifford, born to Elisha (Wriston) Clifford and Deborah Campbell, on December 23, 1850. This references a family group sheet in the “Genealogical Library archives,” which may have been based on an inaccurate 1860 Census, wherein her place of birth was given as Brigham City (and her age was 10). Subsequent Censuses, as well as her headstone, show the flaw in that information. She was actually born in Far West, Missouri, in 1846, her family migrating to Utah with the Stephen Markham Company in 1850. Her father, Elisha Clifford, died along the way, possibly of cholera.
The Box Elder settlement expanded rapidly. According to Jenson’s account, the families who lived in the compound during the winter of 1851-52 were those of William Davis, Jefferson Wright, George F. Hamson, the Wristons (later known as Clifford), William Dees, Simeon Carter, Benjamin Tolman, Merritt Rockwell, and the widow Condit. In 1852 there were 24 extended families, including several couples, who lived in or near the Davis Fort, named for leader William Davis, who was appointed as Presiding Elder and later as Bishop for Box Elder.2Fife, Veara S., and Chloe N. Petersen, Brigham City, Utah, Residents 1850 – 1877, (Brigham City: Golden Spike Chapter, Utah Genealogical Association, 1976), 6-7.
The Davis Fort had a short existence, for the side-by-side cabins became infested with bedbugs and other vermin, were subject to flooding, and had always been considered temporary housing until families could move onto their own land.
In the spring of 1852, most of the families moved to their farms, even though some lived in dugouts or tents before they could build cabins, and they began plowing and working the fields. Life in a dugout is described in the adult memories of an early pioneer child:
In Brigham City we lived in a (one-room) dugout near a creek. Mother kept our dugout clean and dry. She was very much a lady, very refined, and she always made the best she could of what little she had to do with. . .
To make our dugout more homelike, Mother would wash sand from the creek bottom and scatter the clean white sand over the clay floor. Then we picked wild currant leaves from the bushes on the banks of the creek and spread these over the floor and we had a pretty green carpet.
Because our single room was so very small, it was necessary for me to sleep on a pile of straw on the floor under (Mother and Father’s) bed. My pile of straw was covered with a sheet and I had quilts over me.
The entrance to our dugout was down some stone steps and the dirt was piled high on each side of the steps. One day I remember a big blue snake came down over this bank of dirt, poked its old head in at the door and waved its head around. I was not afraid of it; we were only afraid of the rattlesnakes that stayed up on the hills among the rocks.3Alma Elizabeth Mineer (Felt)Susan Arrington Madsen, Growing Up in Zion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1996), 14.
A List of Families Living in the Davis Fort 1851-1852
This list is an edited version of the list which first appeared in Veara S. Fife and Chloe N. Petersen, Brigham City, Utah, Residents 1850 – 1877, (Brigham City: Golden Spike Chapter, Utah Genealogical Association, 1976). That list was created from a variety of sources, some of which may have provided some details which have become confused over the years. For instance, at least one person is listed who almost certainly died before ever reaching Utah. Some may also be listed twice, both as a child in one household and an adult in another (for instance Lewis Boothe).
BOOTHE, Henry
wife Susannah Lyster
son John
son Willie
son Lewis
son Darius
dau Amanda
dau Martha
BOOTHE, Lewis or Louis H.
wife
BROOKS, James
wife Marinda Harwell ?
CARTER, Simeon Daggett Sr.
wife Louisa Holland Gibbons
son Simeon Daggett Jr.
dau Louisa Jane
CLAPPER, Chistian
wife Catherine Miller
son Joseph
dau Mary Ann md Thomas Treshe
dau Elizabeth md Hiram Ackley Hendrickson
dau Susan
CLAPPER, Christian
wife Margaret Smith
CLAPPER, Mathias
wife Sarah Ann Ettleman
WRISTONS or RISTONS (actually Clifford)
CLIFFORD, John
wife Elizabeth Price
dau Martha
son Elihu
son Isaac Newton
son Benjamin Rush
son William Henry
CLIFFORD, Tillman Berry
wife wid. Deborah Campbell md 1851
CLIFFORD, Deborah, wid of Elisha who died crossing the plains in 1850
son William Henry
dau Harriet Melissa
CLIFFORD, John Price
wife Mary Lois Van Leuven
dau Mary Ellen
son John Price
(moved to Logan)
CLIFFORD, Franklin Green
wife Jerusha Campbell md 18494Jerusha probably never lived in the Fort – it appears that she died along the way. See https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyPioneers?lang=eng&sortBy=death&companyId=191 – her death date is indicated as July 3, 1850, which would likely mean she died of Cholera on the trek West.
CONDIT, widow
wintered the first winter
DAVIS, William
wife Sarah McKee
son Jospeh McKee md Charlotte Condit
son Jared Moroni md. Harriet Jane Osborn
son James Spencer md. Susan Clapper
dau Sarah Bell (Mrs.)
Eric Forsgren (her small son)
Charles Forsgren
dau Margaret Ann md. Elisha Grenard
DUNN, Simeon Adams
wife Harriet Atwood Silver
dau Susannah by (2) who died
dau Sophia
son Simeon Adams
children after 1853
dau by 1st wife who died 1841 Mary
dau Betsy
wife (3) Jane Caldwewll (Waite)
son Joseph Moroni
ENSIGN, Martin Luther
wife Mary S. Dunn
dau Adeline
HAMSON, George Fredrick
wife Sarah Ann Smith
son Joseph Smith
son Hyrum Smith
son George Fredrick Jr. born December 8, 1851
HOCKINS, Samuel
wife
JONES, Benjamin
wife Rachel Hughes Evans
dau Margaret
dau Bettie
son Benjamin
KELSEY, Stephen
wife Lydia Snyder
dau Electa Abigail
son Stephen Robert
LEWIS, William D.
wife Mary
dau Ann
dau Mary
dau Charlotte
MORGAN, John
wife
PAYNE, Samuel
wife
PETERS, David or Davis Hughes
wife Laura Jones Davis
dau Sarah
son John Davis
son William
PHILLIPS, Moroni Lorenzo
wife Mariah Welch
PIERCE, Eli Harvey
wife Margaret Thomas
son Thomas
REESE, John Davis
wife Mary Morgan
dau Mary Jane
son Davis Morgan
son Joseph
dau Elizabeth
son William b. 1842 adopted son of Martha Brandon
ROCKWELL, Merrit
wife
wintered first winter
THOMAS, Benjamin
wife Susan Roberts
THOMAS, Daniel
wife Mary
son David
son Dan
son John
THOMAS, William called “Cotton Thomas”
wife Margaret Phillips
TOLMAN, Benjamin Hewitt I
wife Sarah Jane Agell
WILLIAMS, David
wife
WILLIAMS, Thomas
wife
WILLIAMS, William
wife Mary
son Garrett
dau Mary
son John
WILLIAMS, William
wife Hannah
son William
dau Henrietta
WRIGHT, Jefferson
wife Sarah Elizabeth Angell
dau Sarah Ellen
[…] and later known as the “Old Fort,” was located about 3 blocks east and two blocks south of the Davis Fort. Its approximate southwest corner is now marked by a monument at 200 West and 300 North. This […]