PAYSON–THE
FIRST 100 YEARS
PART
2–JAMES PACE
by
Payson Historical Society
" With
James Pace as head of the colony, it started to progress. A meeting was called and school trustees
appointed. They were: Joseph and George Curtis and James E. Daniels.
Immediately steps were taken to build a school house which was finished and
school started in April of 1851.
A
picket fence made of large stakes, nine feet high, the first fort was built
around the dwellings for protection against the Indians. The colony increased
so that a larger fort was layed out about the middle of March.
In
the Deseret News of 1851 we find: "On Friday, March 21, 1851, at 3 o'clock
p.m., President Brigham Young and party, who were on a visiting tour through
the settlements of Utah County, arrived in Payson and stopped over night with
fames Pace. Parley P. Pratt and Charles C. Rich's camp came up and formed a
corral on the west side of the fort. The following day, March 22, many of the brethren on their way to California,
arrived and joined the main camp. On Sunday, March 23rd, a meeting was held in
the fort addressed by Charles C. Rich, Heber C. Kimball and Amasa M. Lyman.
(President Young being sick.) In the evening another meeting was held in the'
house of James Pace, on which occasion Benjamin Cross was ordained a high
priest and set apart as bishop of Payson. On the 24th, President Young and
Kimball organized all the camps destined for California, after which the
president's party started on their return journey to Great Salt Lake.
The
first child born in this new colony was Jerushia Morrison Searles, daughter cf
John Courtland and Jerusha Morrison Hill Searles, on January 30th. She died Feb. 8, 1851, living just nine days.
Pheobe Hancock owned the first loom in Payson and wove the first cloth in this
year.
Their
first summer (in 1851) they had good crops of wheat, potatoes and garden
vegetables on their newly plowed farms.
In
the Church Chronology by Andrew Jensen it states that early in die year of
1852, post offices were established at American Fork, Springville, and Payson,
in Utah County. As far as can be ascertained, John T. Hardy was the first
postmaster in Payson. The post office being one room in his home. In August of
1851, Benjamin F. Stewart was elected Justice of the Peace, being the first to
hold this office.
On
the 28th of August 1852, James Pace and Elias Gardner were called on missions
to England, being the first missionaries sent out of Utah. James McClellan
succeeded to the presidency. It may be well to state here that the name of
Peteetneet was changed to "Pacen" as it was first spelled, in honor
of James Pace and sons. The spelling was
later changed to Payson.
January
21, 1853, the Legislature of the Territory passed an act incorporating Payson
City, by which name the place has been known since. The following boundaries of
the new city as stated in its charter, Viz: "Commencing at a point of the
east bank of Utah Lake due west from the center of the public square in the
city of Payson, in Utah County, thence south one mile, thence east to
mountains, thence along the base of the mountains to a spring known as
"Goose Nest Spring" thence northerly to a point where the bridge
crosses the Pond Town Slough, thence, down said slough to Duck Creek, thence
west to Peteetneet Creek, and down the main channel of said creek to Utah Lake,
thence south along the shore of said lake to the place of beginning."
These boundaries were changed March 6, 1882, to read as follows: Commencing at
the northwest corner of Township 9 south of Range 2 east, Salt Lake Meridian,
in Utah County, thence east three miles, thence south two and three-fourths
miles, thence west three miles, thence north two and three-fourths miles; thus
leaving an area for the city government of eight and one-quarter miles." *
*Quoted from “The Payson Story”
pages 2-3, published by the Payson Centennial Committee, October 1950
when it say's James Pace was first missionary sent out of Utah...does that mean first sent out of Payson, or Utah as a whole?
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