Haws/Hodgkinson I have always loved Provo - from the time I was a student there and every time I have gone there over the past 35 years. My love for Provo may stem from the fact that Gilberth Haws (who we talked about last week) was one of the founders of Provo. Here is his story:
Gilberth and his family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 23, 1848.
Six months later, in March 1849, Gilberth Haws and family were called by Brigham Young to go south to Utah Valley. They helped build the first fort which was built near where the lower river [Provo] bridge now stands.
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Illustrations of Fort Utah
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| Fort Utah |
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| Fort Utah |
In June 1849, their second daughter Matilda died and was buried on a little knoll near the river and afterwards moved to the Provo City Cemetery. On 8 October 1849 their fourteenth child was born, Gilbert Oliver Haws, the second child born in Provo. There being no doctor or midwife, Gilberth went to Salt Lake and brought back a midwife by the name of Angel, Mother Angel she was called. Gilberth Haws and wife and their fourteen sons and daughters were active members in laying the foundation and in the growth and prosperity of Provo, sharing all the privations and hardships incident to pioneer life.
Gilbert Haws and family were industrious pioneers. The older sons were engaged in all the Indian Wars and were on guard duty.
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| Indians in Provo |
Father and sons cultivated the soil, made ditches, roads and bricks, brought timber from the mountains for fuel and building purposes and the making of farm implements, tanned hides, made shoes for the family, laboring under the greatest difficulties with the crude implements in use at that time. Mother and daughters bore their share of the burdens as they converted the raw materials into food and clothing; cooking over a fireplace, grinding grains to make bread; spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing by hand for the family, gathering herbs, barks, bush and leaves for coloring yarns and cloth and making soap from wood ashes and grease scraps. From 1848 to 1853 the family moved four times: first from Salt Lake to Provo in the first fort; then to the second fort which was built where North (Sowiette) Park is now located; then Gilberth took up the land known as the Tanner Farm, located west of the Provo River and just below the Carterville Road, on the north half of which the B.Y.U. Studio is now located, and moved there.
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| Sowiette Park |
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During the time they lived on the farm Provo City was laid out and when the Walker War broke out and with Indian troubles increasing, they moved into town in 1853 and located on 4th West and 1st North where they lived until their children were all married and scattered.
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| Provo Farm |
In April 1851 Gilberth Haws was elected a member of Provo City's first City Council and later as a Selectman. These positions he filled for several years. He owned an interest in the Provo Cooperative Mercantile Institution, the first of its kind in the Territory of Utah, and in the Provo Woolen Mills. He held many positions in the Church and was a High Priest at the time of his death 3 March 1877. His wife, Hannah, died 21 August 1880 and they are both buried in the Provo City Cemetery.
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| Provo Cooperative Mercantile Institution |
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| Provo Woolen Mills |
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| Mt. Timpanogos |
Who knows, maybe Katie and Jeff live close to where Gilberth, Hannah or any of their children may have put down roots.
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