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Title 6: CRIMINAL AND TRAFFIC CODES

6-1: GENERAL STATE OFFENSES AND TRAFFIC CODE:

6-1-1: CRIMINAL CODE ADOPTED:

Pursuant to the provisions of section 50-901 of the Idaho Code, there is hereby adopted title 18 of said Idaho Code, being the criminal laws of the state of Idaho, establishing principles of liability for conduct; establishing general principles of justification for conduct; defining offenses involving danger to persons; defining offenses against family; defining offenses against public administration; defining offenses against public order and decency; establishing a uniform system of penalties, including fines, forfeitures and imprisonment; and establishing criteria for imposing sentences upon those convicted of an offense, and said laws shall be and the same are hereby adopted as a criminal code of the city. One copy of said law shall be on file in the office of the clerk for reference to and inspection by the general public. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-1-2: ADOPTION OF IDAHO MOTOR VEHICLE LAWS:

It is hereby declared to be the intent of the city council to aid and assist by whatever means possible with the utmost consistency in traffic regulation among and between the agencies of Idaho having jurisdiction. Toward that end, adoption of the Idaho motor vehicle laws by cities of Idaho is a necessary means of assuring maximum uniformity within the state.

There is hereby adopted for the purpose of establishing rules and regulations for the use of all streets and public thoroughfares of the city that certain code more particularly described as title 49, Idaho Code, be and the same is hereby adopted and incorporated as an ordinance of the city as fully as though set forth at length herein. One copy of said law shall be on file in the office of the clerk for reference to and inspection by the general public. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-1-3: ISSUANCE OF CITATIONS:

Upon a violation of any provision of this chapter or the laws hereinabove adopted, the arresting officer shall execute the citation in the following manner:

Violation of Minidoka City Code, Section 6-1-1 (being in particular Section 18- of the Idaho Code) or Section 6-1-2 (being in particular 49- of the Idaho Code) as the case may be. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-1-4: PENALTY:

Violation by any person of any provision of the above codes shall be a misdemeanor and shall be punishable as therein defined; however, such offenses described as infractions, shall be punishable as an infraction offense. The fine and/or jail term for the violation of any said provisions shall be the same as prescribed by state law, as provided in the above codes. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2: PARKING CODE:

6-2-1: GENERAL PARKING RESTRICTIONS

Any person who parks a vehicle, except when necessary to allow movement of other vehicular traffic or pursuant to the direction of a peace officer or traffic control device, in any of the following designated places, shall be guilty of an infraction, to-wit:

A.   On a public sidewalk, designated pedestrian or bike path;

B.   Within an intersection;

C.   Within 15 feet of a fire hydrant;

D.   Within a crosswalk;

E.   Within 20 feet of any intersection, or a crosswalk at any intersection;

F.   Within 30 feet of the approach to any flashing beacon, stop sign, or traffic control signal;

G.   Between a designated safety zone and the adjacent curb or within 30 feet of points on the curb immediately opposite the ends of a safety zone, unless a traffic regulatory sign indicates a different length is allowed;

H.   Within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad line, excluding railroad spurs;

I.   Within 20 feet of the driveway entrance of any fire station or within 75 feet of such entrance when parking on the side of the street opposite such entrance, when regulatory signs indicate such prohibition;

J.   Beside or opposite any street excavation or obstruction in a manner which obstructs traffic;

K.   Upon any street or portion thereof in a manner which blocks or interferes with the regular flow of vehicular traffic;

L.   Upon, under, or within 50 feet of any bridge or elevated structure upon or part of a public road or railroad;

M.   At any place where traffic regulatory signs prohibit such parking; or

N.   In any fire apparatus access road as defined in the Uniform Fire Code. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-2: PARKING IN ALLEYS PROHIBITED:

Any person who parks a motor vehicle in any alley within the City for any purpose other than to load or unload such vehicle in a reasonably expeditious fashion shall be guilty of an infraction. Parking for purposes of loading or unloading a vehicle shall be permitted only if a clearance of at least 10 feet in width between the adjacent building or other structures is left on each side of the vehicle. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-3: PARKING ON PUBLIC ROAD OR EASEMENT:

A.   Any person who parks a motor vehicle having a gross vehicle weight greater than ten thousand (10,000) pounds on any public road or within city easements shall be guilty of an infraction unless such parking is necessary to load or unload such vehicle in an expeditious manner. This exception does not apply in areas designated as ‘No Parking’ zones unless written police approval is provided before such parking and following whatever conditions or assistance the Sheriff require for the particular instance.

B.   Any person who parks a motor vehicle or trailer loaded with any material that is offensive or noxious to human smell within the City shall be guilty of an infraction. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-4: PARKING ZONES ESTABLISHED:

The City Council has established and may hereafter establish parking zones and loading zones on the streets of the City. Establishment of and all changes in such zones shall be only as duly ordered by the City Council. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-5: DESIGNATION OF PARKING ZONES; PARKING SPACES:

A.   The Mayor, in conjunction with the Sheriff, is authorized and directed to designate all parking and loading zones causing appropriate parking signs to be installed upon the streets so as to clearly inform the public of the location of the parking and loading zones and of the parking times allowed. A related Council approved map of all such zones shall also be maintained at City Hall.

B.   The Mayor, in conjunction with the Sheriff, is authorized and directed to cause lines or markings to be painted or placed upon street surfaces or upon curbs for the purpose of designating the spaces to be used for parking of vehicles.

C.   In addition, or in lieu of the above, The Mayor may designate temporary ‘No Parking’ zones by posted signs or painting adjacent curb red in color and loading zones by painting the adjacent curb yellow in color. Such designations shall be ratified by the City Council to remain longer than thirty days and shall only be approved for a designated time or otherwise added to the Council approved map.

D.   The Sheriff or other law enforcement may prohibit parking at any time or place where there is adverse weather or fire or other emergencies or unusual conditions (such as unusual traffic or public assemblies) which require such prohibition, in the discretion of the Sheriff or other law enforcement officer. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-6: OFF STREET PARKING:

A.   The Sheriff is authorized and directed to cause lines or markings to be painted or placed upon parking lots owned or under the jurisdiction of the City and to designate the type of parking permitted such as passenger vehicles, trucks and trailers, boats and other types of motor vehicles. Vehicles shall park within the markings designating the space in accordance with the markings of the parking space and designation thereof. The Mayor shall cause appropriate parking signs to be installed upon such lots clearly informing the public of the type of parking permitted.

B.   The Sheriff may also enforce parking designations on private property open to public use.

C.   The Sheriff may designate another officer or code enforcer for this purpose. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-7: REPAIR OF VEHICLES ON PUBLIC STREETS:

Any person who uses any street, public easement, or alley within the City for the purpose of repairing any vehicle, except for temporary emergency repairs, shall be guilty of an infraction. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-8: STORAGE OF VEHICLES, MOTORHOMES, AND TRAILERS ON PUBLIC STREETS:

A.   It shall be unlawful for anyone to use any street, public easement, or alleys for storage of motorhomes or trailers. Trailers and motorhomes can only be parked upon a street or alley within the City for the purposes of loading or unloading for a period not to exceed two 24-hour periods in a 7-day time period. Clearance under 6-2-2 is still required. Any person who parks or allows a trailer or motorhome to be parked upon any street or alley within the City for a period in excess of this time in the same location shall be guilty of an infraction.

B.   Any person who parks or allows a vehicle to be parked upon any street, public easement, or alley within the City for a period of 48 or more consecutive hours in the same location shall be guilty of an infraction.

C.   Any vehicle, motorhome, or trailer unlawfully parked or stored may be removed by or under the direction of any peace officer and may be impounded according to the provisions under this Chapter.

D.   For the purpose of this section, a vehicle shall be considered to be parked ‘in the same location’ notwithstanding movement of the vehicle to another location on a public street or alley within 500 feet in any direction of the original location of this vehicle. ‘Motorhome’ is defined as set forth in Idaho Code 39-4201. ‘Trailer’ is defined as set forth in Idaho Code 49-121. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-9: MANNER OF PARKING:

Except as otherwise provided in this Chapter, any person who parks or allows to be parked any vehicle, in the following manner shall be guilty of an infraction, where:

A.   Any of the wheels or rims are on top of the curb, behind the back of the curb, on a sidewalk or designated pedestrian or bike path;

B.   Any of the vehicle is outside the markings designating parking spaces;

C.   In a loading zone or space so designated for longer than the permitted posted time, or while not actually engaged in loading or unloading; or

D.   In the direction opposite to or slowing, blocking authorized traffic movement. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-10: UNATTENDED MOTOR VEHICLE; ABANDONED VEHICLE:

A.   Any person who owns or has control of any motor vehicle and who leaves the vehicle without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, and removing the key, or who parks such vehicle upon a grade without turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the street, shall be guilty of an infraction.

B.   No person shall abandon a vehicle as defined in Idaho Code, title 49. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-11: PARKING RESTRICTION:

Any person who parks or allows such vehicle to be parked upon any street in violation of any sign restricting parking within such area, shall be guilty of an infraction. All such parking restrictions shall be established only by resolution of the City Council. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-12: IMPOUNDING VEHICLES:

Any peace officer may remove or cause to be removed and impound any vehicle parked in violation of the provisions of this Chapter. In the discretion of the officer and traffic or other safety concerns do not require immediate removal of the vehicle, at least 48 hours written notice should be provided before removal and impounding of a vehicle. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-13: IMPOUNDING FEES:

The owner of any motor vehicle or trailer that has been impounded by the Sheriff under any provision of this Code or any law of the State of Idaho shall pay to the City an impound fee in the amount as set by resolution before such vehicle or trailer shall be released. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-14: PAYMENT OF TOWING AND STORAGE FEES; DISPOSITION:

A.   The owner of any motor vehicle or trailer that has been duly impounded, removed from the City streets, towed or stored at the direction of the Sheriff Department shall pay a reasonable towing and storage fee before such vehicle or trailer may be released. The towing and storage fee shall be paid to the person or company effecting the removal and towing and providing the storage for such vehicle or trailer. The person or company shall not release the vehicle without proof of payment of impound fees to the City. If the motor vehicle or trailer is towed or stored by City personnel, the towing and storage fees shall be paid to the City as set by resolution.

B.   The Sheriff may dispose of impounded vehicles as provided under Idaho law and any relevant City resolution.

C.   Unauthorized removal of a vehicle from the custody of the city or person or company acting for the City without full payment in full of all fees and costs that have been incurred under this Chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and the vehicle may be recovered and disposed by the City or other authorized law enforcement agency. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-15: PARKING FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:

Any person who parks or allows a vehicle to be parked in any parking space designated for use by persons with disabilities and signed in conformity with the next section of this Code is guilty of an infraction, unless the vehicle is momentarily in the space for the purpose of allowing a disabled person to enter or leave the vehicle, or unless special license plates or a temporary card issued for the disable pursuant to Idaho Code§ 49-410 is displayed on the vehicle. For the purposes of this section, the registered owner of a vehicle who has expressly or impliedly consented to the use of his or her vehicle shall be deemed to have allowed the parking of such person by the person to whom such consent was given. The term ‘personal with a disability’ shall have the same meaning ascribed in Idaho Code § 49-117(7)(b). (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-16: DESIGNATION OF PARKING SPACES FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:

For the purposes of the preceding section, a parking space designated for persons with disabilities shall be any parking space or area upon which there is posted immediately adjacent thereto, and visible from each stall or space, a sign which is at least 36 inches above the ground, displaying the international symbol of accessibility that shall have the same proportions shown in Idaho Code§ 49-410. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-17: ENFORCEMENT ON PRIVATE PROPERTY:

The provisions of Sections 6-2-12 and 6-2-13 shall be enforceable with respect to handicapped parking spaces upon public property and private property open to public use. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-18: OWNER RESPONSIBILITY:

Every owner of a motor vehicle is liable and responsible for the operation of such motor vehicle by any person using or operating the same with the permission, express or implied, of such owner, and the violation of this Chapter shall be imputed to the owner for the purpose of penalties for unlawful parking. This includes impound fees and costs. If an owner filed a release of liability according to Idaho Code§ 49-526, the transferee shown on the release shall be imputed for the purpose of penalties. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-19: NOTICE OF PARKING VIOLATIONS:

A.   A notice of a violation of parking regulations of this Chapter may be issued by any police officer or by any person duly authorized by the Sheriff. The notice of violation shall be issued by placing it on the windshield of an illegally parked vehicle, in a secure manner, or in a prominent place upon the vehicle.

B.   The notice of violation shall state the date and time when it is issued and the nature of the parking violation observed. The notice shall advise the owner or operator of the vehicle that he or she must admit the violation and pay the penalty or deny the violation before the City Clerk within 14 days of the date the notice is issued.

C.   Any person issued a parking notice may enter an admission in the following ways:

            1.   Depositing the notice of violation and the amount of penalty stated thereon in the collection box located at City Hall;

            2.   Mailing the notice of violation with the amount of the penalty stated thereon to the address indicated on the notice; or

            3.   Presenting the notice of violation with the amount of the penalty indicated thereon to the City Treasurer at City Hall.

D.   Within 14 days of the date of issue of the notice of violation, any person denying the violation or defaulting on payment within 10 days after the 14 day period for admitting or denying, the violation shall be charged as an infraction. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-20: PENALTIES:

Any person who violates any provision of this Chapter, shall be guilty of an infraction, and shall upon conviction thereof, be punishable by a fine in an amount of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for the first offense, fifty dollars ($50.00) for a second offense, one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a third offense, and two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) for the fourth offense, each within a year of previous offense. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-2-21: ADDITIONAL REMEDIES PRESERVED:

The issues of a notice of violation is not the exclusive remedy for enforcing the parking regulations of this Chapter and all other lawful remedies are reserved, including prosecution by charging as an infraction. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3: MISCELLANEOUS MOTOR VEHICLE REGULATIONS:

6-3-1: U-TURNS:

U-turns shall only be permitted when it is otherwise safe and prudent to proceed, giving due caution to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-2: BACKING FROM ANGLE PARKING:

It shall be unlawful to back out of any angle parking stall, and while backing, cross the centerline of the road or the center of the road or to execute a U-turn while backing up. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-3: CITY SPEED LIMITS:

Speed Limits: Unless otherwise clearly posted by the Mayor or other authorized State or County authority, no person driving a motor vehicle shall, in any event, cause or suffer to travel faster than twenty-five (25) miles per hour on City streets, and fifteen (15) miles per hour in alleys. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-4: OBSTRUCTIONS, DEBRIS, OR OTHER BLOCKAGE OF STREETS AND ALLEYS:

It shall be unlawful for any person to cause a City street or alley to be blocked or obstructed in any manner by any material, machinery, debris or other things without the prior written consent of the City. If such blockage is a result of excavation, the person or persons causing such blockage shall additionally comply with all requirements of this Code with reference to excavation projects. The Sheriff or Mayor are authorized to take all necessary and immediate steps to clean, remove, cause to be cleaned or removed such obstructions or debris or material that block any streets or alleys all at the expense of the person or persons causing the same to occur. Such civil liability on the part of the person or persons causing such obstruction or blockage or causing unlawful debris to be placed upon a street or alley shall be in addition to prosecution as provided in this chapter. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-5: OPERATION OF VEHICLES ON PUBLIC OR PRIVATE PROPERTY:

A.   Public Property: It shall be unlawful for any person to drive a motor vehicle within the City upon public property other than a dedicated street, highway or alley open to public vehicular use, without the prior written consent of the City. It shall be unlawful to drive, enter, or impede the use or safety with a motor vehicle, except to access private property or another street, any portion of a designated pedestrian or bike path. Any such violation shall constitute a misdemeanor.

B.   Private Property: It shall be unlawful for any person to drive a motor vehicle over private property not owned by the driver without the permission or express or implied consent of the owner or other person authorized to give such consent. Absence of fences, barriers or “No Trespassing” signs, etc., does not of itself constitute implied consent. Further, the owner or his designated agent is always free, absent binding contractual obligations to the contrary, to revoke permission or consent.

C.   Street Closing Signs And Other Traffic Signs: The Sheriff or Mayor, as directed from time to time by the City Council of the City may permanently or temporarily close streets or alleys from use by motor vehicles and may place a barrier or other sign marking or indicating that such street is closed for use. The purpose of using barriers or signs temporarily closing streets shall be to restrict use of roads or streets that present unsafe conditions such as roads near schools while school is in session, road breakup or other road hazards, etc. It shall be a violation of the city traffic laws as an infraction for any person to drive a motor vehicle and either not obey or disregard the instructions given by such sign or barrier. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-6: TRUCK ROUTES:

A.   “Trucks”, defined as vehicles with a manufacturer’s rated weight of more than two and one-half (21/2) tons, shall not travel on city streets nor alleys nor any other public easements or rights of way except upon the following designated truck routes:

1.   Entire length of Broadway Street.

2.   Enter length of Wapi Street.

B.   The above restrictions do not apply to trucks making legitimate deliveries using the most direct route possible. Also, these restrictions do not apply to trucks traveling from a truck route on the most direct route available for purposes of lawful parking at a location and manner in compliance with chapter 2 of this title or traveling the most direct route available from such parking to a truck route. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-3-7: VIOLATION:

Violation of any provision of this chapter constitutes a misdemeanor punishable as provided in this Code; however, such offenses described as infractions, shall be punishable as an infraction. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-4: RESERVED:

6-5: MINORS:

6-5-1: PURPOSE AND AUTHORITY:

This section is adopted pursuant to Idaho Code 20-501, 20-505, 20-520, and other provisions related to juveniles and minors. This chapter is intended to protect juveniles and to provide additional protection to the community by prohibiting particular actions by juveniles or being beyond the control of parents, guardians, or legal custodians. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-2: DEFINITIONS:

GUARDIAN: A person who has been appointed by a court to act on behalf of a minor, delegated parental powers through a parental power of attorney, qualifies as a de facto guardian under Idaho law, or a governmental agency having care and custody of a child. Such includes foster parents, administrators of a shelter care facility, or step-parent.

INCORRIGIBLE MINOR: Any minor who commits more than one act of disobedience or other status offense. Includes refusing to submit to reasonable and lawful disciplinary consequences, or repeated disobedience to the reasonable and lawful commands of a parent, legal guardian, or custodian. Such refusal must have disruptive, dangerous, or threatening to the safety, order, or welfare of others or the environment.

MINOR: Any individual who has not reached the age of eighteen (18) or has not been emancipated.

PARENT: Natural or adoptive parents who have legal custody of a child.

RUNAWAY: Any child who is absent from the home or residence of a parent, guardian, person, or agency entitled to the legal custody of the child without the permission of said parent, guardian, person, or agency entitled to legal custody of said child. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-3: MINOR RUNAWAYS PROHIBITED:

A.   It shall be unlawful for any minor to run away from or refuse custody of a parent, guardian, or person or agency entitled to legal custody of the minor. Such act of running away or refusing is a violation of municipal ordinance.

B.   A violation may include, but is not limited to, the following:

1.   Staying overnight at a location other than their residence without the permission of their parent or guardian;

2.   Leaving their residence without permission of the parent or guardian such that the circumstances indicate the minor does not intend to return to the residence;

3.   Fails or refuses to return to their residence after having been requested, verbally or in writing, to return to the residence;

4.   Fails or refuses to return to their residence after being informed by a peace officer that their parent or guardian has requested the minor to return to their residence;

5.   Willfully flees or attempts to elude a peace officer after being lawfully order to stop by an identified peace officer.

C.   Each violation of any provision of this section shall be a misdemeanor. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-4: AIDING RUNAWAY PROHIBITED:

It shall be unlawful for any person to aid, abet, or assist any minor to be a runaway or cause a minor to runaway from minor’s parent or guardian. A violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-5: INCORRIGIBLE PROHIBITED:

It shall be a violation for a minor to be declared beyond the control of their parent or guardian, which declaration may be made when a minor disobeys reasonable rules, orders, directions, or expectations of a parent or guardian, or engages in behavior that is unruly, unmanageable, or incorrigible, and such disobedience or behavior is persistent, frequent, or severe. A violation of this section is a misdemeanor. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-6: FAILURE TO SUPERVISE PROHIBITED:

A.   Any person who is the parent or guardian of a minor commits the offense of failure to supervise a minor when a minor in their custody and control commits any of the following acts:

1.   Commits an act to bring the minor within the purview of the Juvenile Corrections Act or commits a crime for which the minor is tried as an adult;

2.   Fails to ensure attendance at school (truancy) or is not comparable instructed pursuant to Idaho Code, Title 33; or

3.   Violates curfew law as provided in 6-5-7.

B.   Exceptions: Any person shall not be prosecuted under this section if the individual demonstrates any of the following:

1.   The person is a victim of a crime committed by the minor;

2.   The person timely reported the act of the minor to law enforcement, a court, probation, Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, or other government authority; or

3.   The person took reasonable steps to control the conduct of the minor at the time the person is alleged to have failed to supervise.

C.   First Warning: When a minor commits any of the acts set forth in this section for the first time, and the exceptions do not apply, the parent or guardian may be warned by a peace officer of the content of this section and the penalties for violation of this section.

D.   Second or Subsequent Warning: When a minor commits any of the acts set forth in this section after a parent or guardian has been warned by a peace officer, and the exceptions do not apply, a citation or summons may be issued to the parent. The citation or summons shall set a date for appearance before a magistrate.

E.   Penalty: Any person in violation of failure to supervise shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, which may include restitution pursuant to state law. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-5-7: CURFEW REGULATIONS:

A.   Hours And Age Restriction: It shall be unlawful for any child less than seventeen (17) years of age to loiter on the streets, alleys, parks or other public place within the city between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and six o’clock (6:00) A.M.; provided, however, that a person below the age of seventeen (17) years may be upon the streets or other public places of the city between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and six o’clock (6:00) A.M., when such child is then engaged in the performance of a lawful employment or when such person is accompanied by his parents or one of them or legal guardian or other person having legal care, custody and control of such child.

B.   Responsibility Of Parent Or Guardian: It shall be unlawful for any parent, guardian or other person having the legal care, custody or control of any child less than seventeen (17) years of age to permit such child to loiter in or upon the public streets, alleys, parks or buildings of the city in violation of subsection A of this section between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and six o’clock (6:00) A.M. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-6: UNCLAIMED PROPERTY:

6-6-1: SHERIFF HAS CUSTODY:

All abandoned, unclaimed, or unredeemed impounded personal property within the city shall be delivered to the custody of the Sheriff. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-6-2: DISPOSITION:

Pursuant to state law, the Sheriff may sell all such abandoned, unclaimed or unredeemed impounded personal property pursuant to and subject to the requirements of title 55, chapter 4 of the Idaho Code, and delivering the net proceeds of such sale to the city clerk, which proceeds shall be placed in and disbursed to the general fund of the city. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-7: AIR GUNS; FIREARMS:

6-7-1: DEFINITION:

Wherever the term “firearms” is used in this chapter, the term shall mean any instrument used in the propulsion of shot, shell or bullets or other harmful objects by the action of gunpowder exploded within it, or by the action of compressed air within it, or by the power of springs and including what are commonly known as air rifles and BB guns. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-7-2: DISCHARGE OF FIREARMS PROHIBITED:

It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge firearms of any kind or description within the limits of the municipality; provided, however, that this shall not apply to police officers in the discharge of their duties. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-7-3: EXCEPTIONS; PERMITS:

The city council may at any time, upon receipt of proper application, grant permits to shooting galleries, gun clubs and others for shooting in fixed localities and under specified rules. Such permits shall be in writing attested by the clerk conforming to such requirements as the city council shall demand, and the permit thus issued shall be subject to revocation at any time by action of the council. The city council shall set by resolution, the rules applicable to the operating of shooting galleries, gun clubs, and other fixed localities for shooting. Also, a proper application will contain the following information: name, current address, telephone, place of employment, social security number, statement as to whether or not applicant has ever pleaded guilty to or been found guilty of any felony at any time, or any misdemeanor or infraction within the last ten (10) years. The same information is required to be on the application for any employees or persons who operate the facility. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-8: GRAFFITI:

6-8-1: DEFINITIONS:

As used in this chapter and except as otherwise required by the context:

BROAD TIPPED INDELIBLE MARKER: Any felt tipped marker or similar implement which contains a fluid which is not soluble in water and has a flat or angled writing surface of a width of one-quarter inch (1/4“) or greater.

MAKING OF GRAFFITI: The act of defacing, damaging or destroying any real or personal property of another through the use of an aerosol container of spray paint or a broad tipped indelible marker. Such defacing shall include, but not be limited to, walls, buildings, billboards or other signs, rocks or other natural markings or monuments, gravestones, fencing, roads, bridges or other public property, vehicles, trees, or other vegetation. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-8-2: MAKING GRAFFITI:

A.   No person shall make graffiti of any type on any building, public or private, or any other property real or personal owned by any person or any public agency or instrumentality, without the express permission of the owner or operator of said property.

B.   The making of each mark of graffiti in violation of the foregoing shall be a misdemeanor.

C.   In addition to any penalty imposed by any court of competent jurisdiction in the disposition of the misdemeanor charge, the perpetrator shall be civilly liable to the city and to the building owner, renter or lessee for the cleanup of the graffiti. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-8-3: POSSESSION OF GRAFFITI INSTRUMENTS:

A person is guilty of possession of graffiti instruments when he possesses any tool, instrument, article, substance, solution or other compound designed or commonly used to paint, write, spray, scratch, affix, inscribe or otherwise place a mark upon a piece of property which that person has no permission or authority to paint, write, spray, scratch, affix, inscribe or otherwise mark, under circumstances evincing an intent to use same in order to make graffiti upon such property. Possession of spray paint can in a public building, park, facility, or alley shall be presumptive evidence of intent to use same in order to damage such property. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-8-4: POSSESSION BY MINORS, PARENTAL/GUARDIAN LIABILITY:

A.   It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of eighteen (18) years to purchase or possess any aerosol container of spray paint or broad tipped indelible marker unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, or while involved in an activity sponsored by a school, church or community.

B.   Each parent or guardian of a minor found guilty of making graffiti shall be liable for such damages created or caused to the city or to the party suffering damage as a result of such acts, or both, up to two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) as set forth in Idaho Code section 6-210. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-8-5: BUILDING OWNER RESPONSIBILITY:

Each owner or renter or lessee of a building or business upon which graffiti has been made shall within seventy two (72) hours of notice by the police, remove or obliterate such graffiti so that it shall become or be made indistinguishable as a message, depiction, code or marking. If not removed, the obliteration of the graffiti shall be made with paint or other suitable covering reasonably similar to the background coloring of the wall or place where the graffiti has been made or placed. Failure to do so by the building owner, renter or lessee will result in the city taking such action on its own and then assessing the cost of such to the building owner, renter or lessee, if the perpetrator of the making of graffiti or his or her parent(s) or guardian(s) cannot be quickly identified by the city. The cost of same, being a benefit to the city and to the landowner, may be certified as a lien or debt against the land and placed on the Minidoka County tax rolls as an unpaid assessment. The building owner, renter or lessee required to make such cleanup shall be subrogated to the rights of the city to require reimbursement by the party making the graffiti or that party’s parents or guardian, if the maker is of minor age. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-9: SIGNS:

6-9-1: REGULATION OF SIGNS ON PUBLIC PROPERTY:

A.   No person shall, within the City limits, paint, post, stick, stamp, or otherwise affix or cause the same to be done by any other person, any notice, placard, bill, card, poster, or advertisement, or other device calculated to attract attention of the public, to or upon any lamppost, hydrant, tree, electrical pole, telephone pole, or upon any other pole, post, or fixture of the fire alarm system, electric light or electrical power pole, or utility pole, which are located on the public street or right- of-way or post, affix or place the same on any other City owned property.

B.   Any person who either places, or allows to be placed, any notice, placard, bill, card, poster, or advertisement of any type or kind within the City limits and not in violation of subsection A of this section shall remove the same within forty eight (48) hours after the occurrence of the event advertised, or within forty eight (48) hours after receiving notice to remove the same by the City, whichever event shall first occur.

C.   Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

6-9-2: POLITICAL OR CAMPAIGN SIGNS:

Political or campaign signs are permitted in accordance with the following provisions provided that any such sign shall not be erected earlier than sixty (60) days prior to the election at which time the candidates or measure will be voted upon and shall be removed within ten (10) days after such election, campaign or event. Unlighted, temporary signs promoting any candidate for public office or measure on the ballot are permitted in any zone. Signs shall be set back sufficiently from roadways so that the signs do not obstruct traffic or lines of sight for motorists. If in the opinion of the Sheriff or Mayor the signs constitute a safety hazard, he shall cause the sign to be removed and advise the party responsible for posting, as below set forth, of such removal and the reason. Prior to placing such political or campaign signs on private property, the permission of the owner or authorized representative of the owner must be obtained. Prior to placement of political or campaign signs on any private or public property, right-of-way, easement, or roadway, the campaign chairman or other authorized representative of the candidate or organization must obtain consent. The Sheriff may remove or cause to be removed any sign posted on public or private property for which consent has not been obtained. Permission may be provided by a property owner or a leasee in possession of property. No such signs may be posted on City buildings or the grounds of City buildings, meaning buildings owned or used by the City for Municipal purposes. It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to do the following:

A.   Post a political or campaign sign on private property without obtaining consent.

B.   Post a political or campaign sign on city property or public right-of-way, easement, roadway, or other public property without obtaining consent.

C.   Within ten (10) days after the election or event fail to remove and appropriately dispose of any political or campaign signs.

D.   Post a political or campaign sign where it is not permitted.

E.   Repost a sign removed by the city.

Compliance with these provisions does not waive compliance with other provisions of law, including, but not limited to, nuisance, public safety regulations and laws, laws regarding electioneering and campaigning, activities permitted or restricted at polling places, litter laws and any legal rights of private property owners. (Ord. 2026-9, 4 Aug 2026)

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Card from Caroline

On 4 April 1942, Milo James Ross and Gladys Maxine Donaldson were married in Ogden by Bishop Charles Heslop of the Plain City Ward, with Gladys’ father David Donaldson and her sister Dena Michaelson as witnesses. Six months later Milo enlisted in the Army. Their civil marriage set their path that took them through World War II, through Milo’s wounds and recovery in the Philippines, through building a home and raising a family in Plain City. Thirty-four years later, they made it eternal.

On 2 July 1976, Milo James Ross and Gladys Maxine Donaldson Ross were sealed as husband and wife for time and all eternity in the Ogden Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the senior Keith G. Campbell. Their daughter Judy Ethel Ross was sealed to them the same day. Witnessing the sealing were Glady’s brother in law Dr. Chauncey D. Michaelson, who married Gladys’ sister Dena in 1943, and Milo’s Sharp cousin, Bishop Robert Sharp.

Gladys kept a handwritten note recording the events:

Milo & Gladys & Judy / Married by Bishop Charles Heslop / April 4, 1942 / Married in Ogden Temple July 2, 1976 / and had Judy sealed to us.

She also typed out a fuller account of the sealing day:

“Milo James Ross and Gladys Maxine Donaldson Ross were married July 2, 1976 in the Ogden Temple by Kieth G Cambell Sr. Judy Ethell Ross was sealed to us the same day. In attendence were Bishop Robert Sharp and wife Laurall Sharp, Dr. Chauncy Michaelson and Dena Michaelson, Edward Telford and Sharrell Telford, Johne Telfort and Sharon Telford, Nick Coons and Annett Coons, Lillian West, Judy’s School Teacher, came to see Judy sealed to her parents.”

“Bishop Sharp and Dr. Michaelson were our Witnesses. I only wish Milo and I would of done this work sooner so we could have Milo Paul Ross our very wounderful son and Caroline Taylor our other wounderful dauter sealed to us. We pray that by our Prayers and Faithfullness some day soon they will take their wounderfull families and enjoy the true happyness of being married for time and all Eternity.”

Their daughter Caroline marked the occasion with this card:

July 2, 1976

Well, it isn’t every girl that has the chance to congradulate their mother & dad on their marriage to each other their 2nd time and the right way. My heart is full of happiness for you and I am so proud of you. If there is anyone in this world that deserves all the happiness and treasures of this world and the next, it is for sure you two. You are the perfect couple in every way. The most wonderful parents a girl could ever have, always so understanding and always putting their childrens needs first. Maybe I can’t ever show you how much I love and appreciate you, but now with your new marriage the Lord will help you feel it. I wish and “pray” that you will both be happy and content, but I love you with all my heart and hope somehow I can let you know.

With more love than I can send,
Caroline

Caroline was sealed to her parents 25 October 1991 in the Ogden Utah Temple.

Milo Paul Ross was sealed to his parents 4 February 1999 in the Ogden Utah Temple.

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In re Maupin

Decision: In re Johnathan Glen Maupin, Case No. 25-40104-BRW (Bankr. D. Idaho, 21 Nov. 2025)
Judge: Honorable Brent R. Wilson, United States Bankruptcy Judge
Counsel for Debtor: Paul Ross, Idaho Bankruptcy Law, Paul, Idaho
Counsel for Trustee: Jeffrey P. Kaufman, Office of Kathleen A. McCallister, Meridian, Idaho
Chapter 13 Trustee: Kathleen A. McCallister

Background

Johnathan Maupin filed a Chapter 13 petition on 19 February 2025. In amended schedules filed on 11 April 2025, he disclosed a prepetition legal malpractice claim arising from a divorce proceeding in 2023. The claim was listed as an asset of the bankruptcy estate. The Debtor requested that the Chapter 13 Trustee pursue the claim through counsel; the Trustee declined. Facing an approaching statute of limitations, the Debtor sought a path forward.

The Application

On 14 August 2025, the Debtor filed an Application to Employ Special Counsel under 11 U.S.C. § 327, seeking Court approval to retain Reed Larsen of Cooper & Larsen, Chartered, to prosecute the malpractice claim in state court. The proposed engagement was on a contingency fee basis of 40% of any recovery, whether by settlement or trial, with litigation costs to be paid from any recovery. Larsen filed a verified statement confirming no adverse interests with any creditors, the Trustee, or parties in interest.

The Objection

The Chapter 13 Trustee objected on 3 September 2025, advancing a straightforward textual argument: § 327 authorizes the trustee to employ professional persons with court approval — not the debtor. Because “trustee” and “debtor” are distinct terms of art throughout the Bankruptcy Code, it would be anomalous to read § 327 as extending to a chapter 13 debtor who holds no trustee powers. The Trustee cited In re Smith, 637 B.R. 758 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2022), and the Eleventh Circuit’s observation in In re Cumbess, 960 F.3d 1325 (11th Cir. 2020), that it is “exceedingly unlikely that Congress would have used the term ‘trustee’ … to mean ‘debtor.’”

The Debtor’s Reply

In a reply filed 24 October 2025, the Debtor acknowledged the split of authority on whether § 327 applies to chapter 13 debtors and engaged it candidly. The reply raised a separate concern arising from Idaho Supreme Court precedent — specifically Houpt v. Wells Fargo Bank Nat’l Ass’n, 370 P.3d 384 (Idaho 2016), and McCallister v. Dixon, 303 P.3d 578 (Idaho 2013) — suggesting that broad language in those cases might be read to mean the Trustee is the only party with standing to pursue claims belonging to the estate. Given that concern, the Debtor requested either an order approving the Application, or alternatively, an order denying it but expressly confirming the Debtor’s right to proceed independently. The practical urgency was underscored at the November 4 hearing, when the Debtor disclosed that proposed counsel had already filed the malpractice lawsuit due to the impending statute of limitations.

The Debtor’s amended Chapter 13 plan, confirmed on 28 November 2025, addressed the claim directly: Section 8.1 provided that the malpractice claim would remain property of the estate and any net proceeds would be paid to the estate. Section 7.1 provided for vesting of all estate property in the Debtor upon confirmation.

The Court’s Ruling

Judge Wilson denied the Application but did so in a way that resolved nearly every practical concern the Debtor had raised.

On § 327: The Court aligned with the majority of courts that have addressed the issue, concluding that § 327 and Rule 2014 authorize only a trustee to seek court approval to employ counsel — not a chapter 13 debtor. The statutory text is clear: a chapter 13 debtor does not hold the rights and powers of a trustee under § 1303, and the debtor-in-possession framework of chapter 11 (which does extend trustee powers to the debtor) has no counterpart in chapter 13. The Collier treatise confirms the conclusion: a chapter 13 debtor “does not need court approval before retaining counsel.” 3 Collier on Bankruptcy ¶ 327.01 (16th ed.).

The Court nonetheless surveyed the competing line of cases — including In re Goines, 465 B.R. 704 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. 2012), In re Jenkins, 406 B.R. 817 (Bankr. N.D. Ind. 2009), and others — which have read “trustee” in § 327(e) to encompass a chapter 13 debtor, often on the ground that the statutory scheme would otherwise be incoherent. The Court found those cases unpersuasive against the plain language of the statute.

On counsel’s obligations: Denial of the Application does not mean counsel operates free of any bankruptcy court oversight. The Court made clear that counsel for the Debtor remains governed by § 329 (requiring a statement of compensation paid or agreed to be paid, and subjecting that compensation to court review), Rule 2016 (disclosure and application for compensation), Rule 2017 (court examination of payments to counsel), and § 330(a)(4)(B) (requiring a compensation application for counsel representing a chapter 13 debtor). Counsel must also keep the Trustee apprised of litigation status, and any compromise must be brought before the Court under Rule 9019.

On Idaho standing law: The Court addressed the Debtor’s concern about Dixon, Mowrey v. Chevron Pipe Line Co., 315 P.3d 817 (Idaho 2013), and Houpt directly and carefully. Those cases arose primarily in the context of judicial estoppel — debtors who had failed to disclose claims in their bankruptcy schedules and were later barred from pursuing them in state court. The broad language in those opinions stating that “the trustee of the bankruptcy estate is the only party with standing to prosecute causes of action belonging to the estate” must be read against those specific facts and procedural postures, and against the fundamental distinction between chapter 7 liquidation cases and chapter 13 reorganization cases.

Under chapter 13, the debtor remains in possession of all property of the estate (§ 1306(b)), and upon plan confirmation, estate property vests in the debtor (§ 1327(b)). Federal courts have consistently recognized that a chapter 13 debtor has standing to prosecute prepetition claims — either concurrently with or independently of the chapter 13 trustee — precisely because chapter 13 is a reorganization proceeding in which the debtor retains control of estate assets. The Court cited DiSalvo v. DiSalvo (In re DiSalvo), 219 F.3d 1035 (9th Cir. 2000); Olick v. Parker & Parsley Petroleum Co., 145 F.3d 513 (2d Cir. 1998); and Maritime Electric Co. v. United Jersey Bank, 959 F.2d 1194 (3d Cir. 1991), among others. Here, the claim was properly disclosed, the plan acknowledged it as estate property and directed net proceeds to the estate, and the plan had been confirmed. The Debtor is unquestionably a real party in interest to pursue the claim.

The Court closed with a footnote acknowledging the pendency of Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc., No. 25-6 (U.S. 2025), in which the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to address judicial estoppel in the bankruptcy context — a case in which the Fifth Circuit had held that a chapter 13 debtor who failed to disclose a personal injury claim was judicially estopped from pursuing it. That issue is distinct from the facts in Maupin, where disclosure was timely and complete.

Why This Matters

1. A chapter 13 debtor does not need § 327 approval to retain counsel for estate litigation. The majority rule, now applicable in this district, is that § 327 applies only to trustees. A chapter 13 debtor may hire counsel to pursue a prepetition claim without court approval of the engagement itself — though counsel remains subject to disclosure and compensation review requirements under §§ 329, 330(a)(4)(B), and Rules 2016 and 2017.

2. Filing the application anyway was the right call. Given the split of authority, the approaching statute of limitations, and the Idaho standing questions raised by Dixon, Mowrey, and Houpt, bringing the matter before the Court at the earliest opportunity was sound practice. The Court said so explicitly in a closing footnote, noting it “appreciates the Debtor’s counsel’s thoughtful approach in bringing the issues before the Court at an early date, possibly preventing future difficulties related to this matter.”

3. Idaho’s standing cases must be read narrowly. The broad language in Dixon, Mowrey, and Houpt — suggesting the trustee is the “only party with standing” to pursue estate claims — was developed in the context of undisclosed claims and judicial estoppel. It does not foreclose a chapter 13 debtor from pursuing a properly disclosed claim as a real party in interest, particularly after plan confirmation has vested estate property in the debtor.

4. Disclosure is the linchpin. The contrast between Maupin and the Idaho judicial estoppel cases is stark. Where disclosure is timely, complete, and incorporated into a confirmed plan directing proceeds to the estate, the debtor stands on firm ground. The debtor who conceals a claim faces estoppel; the debtor who discloses one retains the right to pursue it.

5. Trustee coordination and Rule 9019 are not optional. Even where the debtor pursues the claim without trustee involvement, the claim remains property of the estate until vesting or abandonment. Counsel must keep the Trustee informed, and any settlement requires court approval under Rule 9019. Practitioners should build these procedural requirements into their engagement from the outset.

6. Watch Keathley. The Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc. may affect the judicial estoppel landscape in bankruptcy cases nationally. While the facts there involve an undisclosed claim — unlike Maupin — the decision could have downstream implications for how courts analyze debtor standing to pursue estate claims, particularly in states like Idaho whose supreme court has borrowed from federal estoppel doctrine.

Full Decision: Case No. 25-40104-BRW, Doc. 114 (Bankr. D. Idaho 21 Nov. 2025)

Memorandum DecisionDownload
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Evelyn Carlisle Sharp

Several months after her parents arrived at the new settlement of Plain City, Weber, Utah, on 17 March 1859, Evelyn Carlisle Sharp was born in a wagon box on 12 October 1859. She always noted she was born on Columbus Day and the first white girl born in Plain City. Her father was William Sharp, stonemason and cornet player, one of the founders of Plain City. Her mother was Mary Ann Bailey Sharp, seamstress and dressmaker, who had crossed the plains with an ox team in the early 1850s.

Evelyn Carlisle Sharp and Victorine Mary Sharp

Evelyn’s own account of her early life was preserved in the Utah Pioneers Biography, Vol. 28, Pages 6–7, copied by Maurice L. Howe of Ogden, Utah. It is nice to have some first-person voices from Plain City’s founding generation. The marriage notice from the Ogden Standard Examiner of 22 January 1881 and her Oregon death certificate of 19 April 1941 are limited records, in my possession, of her long life.

Evelyn Sharp Taylor and Victorine Sharp Maw

Pioneer Personal History of Mrs. Evelyn Sharp Taylor

Copied from Utah Pioneers Biography, Vol. 28, Pages 6–7, by Maurice L. Howe, Ogden, Utah.

Mrs. Evelyn Sharp Taylor, Widow of James Henry Taylor, has the distinction of being the first white girl born in Plain City. Her family was one of the early subscribers to the Standard Examiner and after her marriage she and her husband subscribed for many years before they moved from Ogden.

Mrs. Sharp Taylor is now a resident of Portland, Oregon. In relating some of the incidents of Pioneer days Mrs. Taylor said: “I was born on Columbus Day, October 12, 1859 in a wagon box in what is now Plain City — at that time it was just wilderness. My father was William Sharp and my mother was Mary Anne Bailey. They crossed the plains with an ox team in the fifties.

“When they moved up to Plain City, father set to work to build a log and adobe house and during that time the family lived in the wagon box placed in the ground. There were two white boys born previously in Plain City.

“I was the first white girl born there. After I grew up I married James Henry Taylor, who was one of the first white children born in old Binghams Fort on West Second Street at Five Points.

“My parents used to tell me about one of the first trips I ever made to Ogden. I was just a baby in arms and my mother and father went to town with their ox team and wagon. It was winter time and when they got home that night the sky was so dark and the roads so drifted over with snow that they lost their way when they were nearly home.

“Finally they discovered the wagon was on a big patch of ice where the river had overflowed. Try as they would they could not find their way so they unhooked the oxen and let them find their way the best they could. Father and Mother said I cried with cold. The wolves howled around the wagon all night while we were huddled there nearly frozen.

“When morning came my parents discovered we were only a short distance from our house. We used to see lots of Indians in those times.

“My family used to take the Ogden paper by mail in the early Seventies. I enjoy getting back to Ogden to meet my friends again.

“My husband in Weber Co. for a time, then we moved to Eureka, Utah where he worked in the mines. Later we moved to Baker City, Oregon and since his death lived in Portland.

“I am surprised at the mildness of the winters here in recent years. When I was young we never used to be able to see a fence for months because the snow covered them up. Snow 2 to 4 feet deep was not uncommon here in early days.”

The Taylor–Sharp Marriage

Evelyn married James Henry Taylor on Sunday, 16 January 1880, at the Taylor residence in Plain City. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. J. L. Gillogly. James Henry Taylor was the youngest son of John Taylor, and had himself been born in old Binghams Fort on West Second Street at Five Points in Ogden. About forty invited guests attended and partook of bountiful refreshments.

The notice in the Ogden Standard Examiner of 22 January 1881 — apparently updated or annotated years later — adds that Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were then nearly 70 years of age, “having reared and married off 12 children — and yet they both seem as full of life and viracity as ever.” Together they raised twelve children, eventually settling in Oregon.

Death and Survivors

Evelyn Sharp Taylor died on Saturday, 19 April 1941, at her home at 345 Third Avenue, Seaside, Clatsop County, Oregon, at 6:10 in the evening. She was 81 years, 6 months, and 7 days old. The cause of death was recorded as apoplexy, due to senile changes. She had lived in Oregon for 38 years.

Her obituary, headed “Weber Woman Dies in Oregon,” identified her as “the first white child born at Plain City.” She was survived by three sons and three daughters in Oregon, and by her sister Mrs. Victorine Maw of Ogden — Victorine Mary Sharp, born 8 April 1862 in Plain City, who had married Robert Edward Maw, son of Plain City pioneer Robert Maw. The last two surviving daughters of William and Mary Ann Sharp, separated by nearly three thousand miles.

Funeral services were held Wednesday in Portland. Evelyn was cremated at the Portland Crematorium; the funeral was conducted by E.B. Hughes Mortuary of Astoria, Oregon.

A Note on the Family

Evelyn was the sixth child of William Sharp and Mary Ann Bailey Sharp, and the first born in Plain City. Her brother Milo Riley Sharp — my great-great-grandfather — had been born two years earlier, on 23 July 1857, in Lehi, Utah, while the family still lived there before the move north. Younger sister Victorine Mary Sharp was born on 8 April 1862, also in Plain City.

The Personal History of William Sharp — a separate document in this family record — places the family’s arrival at Plain City on 17 March 1859, traveling with the large body of Lehi colonists who left on 10 March. It describes the journey vividly: seven days of cold, muddy travel, the wagons doubled-teamed through the muddy flats, arriving at about five o’clock in the afternoon with the ground covered in snow. The wagons were lined up and sagebrush piled behind them as a windbreak against the north wind. They dug a hole in front and built a campfire. This is the scene into which Evelyn was born seven months later.

William Sharp built the adobe home in Plain City that was later used by the Edward Sharp family — Dean Sharp lived in it as a child — and built the first Episcopal Church building, which still stands today as the Plain City Lions Civic Center, designated a historical site, its original bell refurbished and sitting atop the building. He played the cornet in Plain City’s first band. He served on the board of directors of the cooperative store organized at Plain City in 1869. He and Mary Ann divorced on 19 May 1876. William later married a widow named Charlotte Elizabeth Earl and moved to Ogden’s Mound Fort District, where he died on 22 December 1900 and was buried in the Ogden Cemetery.

Mary Ann Bailey Sharp lived on in Plain City until her death on 31 October 1913, and was buried there. She had been born on 28 November 1828 in Mattersey, Nottinghamshire, England — a village less than ten miles from Misson, where William was born.

For more on the Sharp family and Plain City’s founding generation, see:

Early Settlers in Lehi, Utah, before Plain City, Utah — Wayne E. Clark’s 2017 research on the Lehi consecration deeds, including William Sharp (no. 68)
Sharp-Bailey Wedding — William and Mary Ann’s story
Sharp-Stoker Wedding — Milo Riley Sharp and Lillie Stoker
History of Plain City — a multi-part series on Plain City’s founding families
1895 Plain City Student Body — the founding generation’s children
Sharp Family History Outreach — the broader Sharp family connections

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Authority and the Priesthood

I served as a missionary for the church from 1998-2000 in the Manchester England Mission. I am still an Elder, but my missionary work is more limited in scope, venue, and time.

Recently, an investigator was asking why the need for authority. He felt his baptism was just as valid as the LDS baptism.

It reminded me of a portion of a talk I carried around as a missionary. The talk was given by Boyd K. Packer at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, 3 February 1980. The talk has many good points, but I focus on the copy I carried when discussing the priesthood.

Our MTC District, I only know four of the 11. From l-r, #5 is Elder Olson, #9 Elder Scow, #10 Elder Young, #11 Elder Ross. The rest were going to Peoria, Illinois if I remember correctly.

“Consider this illustration.

“Suppose an agent came to you with a real bargain in insurance. He claims that his policy offers complete protection. He talks of generous coverage, very low premiums, no penalties for making a claim—even a heavy claim. Other features make the policy look better than any you have considered before. He tells you of the company he claims to represent. You know it to be very reputable. You study the policy and find more offered to you, with less required of you, than any policy you have looked at before. You check carefully on the company and come away satisfied that they are indeed reputable. They do stand behind their policies. Some of your friends have dealt with them for years and have always been satisfied. You, it appears, have found a real bargain.

“But in this imaginary account there is one thing that you did not discover, one hitch. This agent was never hired by that company. They have not authorized him to represent them. The company is not even aware that he is using their name. He obtained copies of the policy and adjusted it to give it a little wider appeal. He had some forms and letterheads printed and set himself up in business. When he writes a policy and collects the premiums, they do not go to the head office. The policy goes into a drawer somewhere, and the premium money into his pocket. Chances are, he figures, there will be no claim against the policy anyway, at least not while he is around. And since it is life insurance, certainly there will be no claim while the policyholder is around.

“You have, as the expression goes, been sold a bill of goods. For all you know, you are well insured. You feel content and suppose that when the day comes, as it surely will, your claim will be paid.

“Too bad for you! No doubt the company will reject your claim. They cannot be compelled to honor policies except those written by authorized agents whom they have hired and certified, no matter how convinced you were that this man was a bona fide agent.

“Will you get sympathy? Oh yes. Full value of the policy? Not a chance! Would you not receive anything? Well, for as long as you didn’t know the difference you felt secure, for whatever that is worth.

…

“If you had been sold the insurance policy we talked about, you might be quite complacent, thinking you were well insured. But oh my, how that gets reversed. Somewhere in later conversations would come the sermon, “You ought to have been more careful about where you put your trust. You should have checked more carefully.”

After reading the parable, we would often turn to Hebrews 5:4, “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.”

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Sharp – Bailey Wedding

Mary Ann and William Sharp

James and Sarah Goodlad Bailey are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter Mary Ann Bailey to William Sharp, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp. William and Mary Ann were married at Loup Fork, Howard, Nebraska on 10 July 1853. (Loup Fork appears to have been a crossing of the Loup River, somewhere between Fullerton and Palmer Nebraska, in order to go turn south to rejoin trail along the Platte River.)

William is mason and farmer. They will make their home wherever they are called to settle once they arrive in the Utah Territory.

Due to the circumstances of this family, it is pretty unlikely an announcement would have ever been written. Everything about these families was in motion. Family members on both sides were strewn all over two continents and their lives were still recovering from a number of personal blows. While this was probably a high point, they knew there was a long road still ahead of them. All four of their parents had passed before their marriage.

William was born the third of eight children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp 10 December 1826 in Misson, Nottinghamshire, England. His baptism is recorded on 7 January 1827 at Misson Anglican church, confirmed by the Bishop’s Transcripts at Nottinghamshire Archives. He spent his life as a mason but kept a farm. We do not know where or how he learned how to be a mason. His father, Thomas, is listed as “Ag Lab”, which is probably an agricultural laborer on the 1841 English Census. Thomas died in 1841 after the census was taken.

In 1848, the LDS missionaries came to visit in Misson. William was the first in his family, that we know, to join the church on 20 June 1848. His mother followed 11 August 1849 and his sister Isabella 16 September 1849. The records available do not show that William’s siblings, Elizabeth and James joined the church, but they came with the family to the United States on their way to Zion. The family story tells the family was friendly and open towards the missionaries. One of the missionaries was a George Emery (the only potential George Emery I could find appears to have lived 1792 – 1867).

Elizabeth Sharp was determined to emigrate with her family to Utah. Her family attempted to discourage her by warning her about the dangers of the American Indians. Nevertheless, she departed with William, Isabella, Elizabeth, and James. The other four children had died as infants before leaving England. The family purchased tickets at 25 pounds sterling in Liverpool. The family set sail on the “James Pennell” on 2 October 1850 commanded by Captain James Fullerton. The LDS leaders on board were Christopher Layton (1821–1898) and William Lathrop Cutler (1821–1851) leading the company all the way to Zion. Right before hitting the waters of the Mississippi the ship encountered a storm where the masts were broken and the ship drifted for a couple of days. Luckily, a pilot boat found them and another ship (that left two weeks later from Liverpool) tugged them to New Orleans, Louisiana. The ship arrived at dock on 22 November 1850. The family struggled with sea sickness and chills and fevers that beset them in New Orleans and St. Louis. From there the entire group boarded the “Pontiac” and continued to St. Louis, Missouri where they found work and spent the winter. Despite having crossed the Atlantic, Elizabeth, the mother of the family, died 17 February 1851 in St. Louis and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Among the fellow passengers on the James Pennell were the Singleton family of Misson. The Singletons were neighbors in Nottinghamshire. William Singleton (1793–1850) sailed with his children, including Thomas Singleton (1825–1885) and Charles Singleton (1838–1907). Tragically, William Singleton died in St. Louis on 16 December 1850, just three weeks after the ship docked. His son Thomas pressed on, becoming one of Plain City’s 1859 founding pioneers, where he worked as a carpenter and band leader alongside William Sharp. Thomas Singleton is listed among those excommunicated alongside William Sharp on 31 January 1879. Generations later, Thomas’s grandson Bert Elmer Singleton (1918–1995), born and raised in Plain City, became one of Utah’s most celebrated baseball players, pitching in the major leagues over 28 seasons. The Sharps and Singletons, neighbors in Misson, remained neighbors in Plain City across the generations.

Elizabeth’s death left the four siblings to fend for themselves. William and Isabella both still desired to move on with the Saints to Utah. William became fast friends with Mary Ann Bailey Padley, a widow who had lost her husband before leaving England. They were such good friends that Anne Elizabeth Padley (she went by Sharp her whole life though) was born 31 October 1852. Isabella married Joseph Carlisle, who had arrived two years earlier, 18 May 1853, in St. Louis. That same day the Moses Clawson Company, “St. Louis Company,” departed from St. Louis. Joseph and Isabella Carlisle, along with William Sharp and Mary Padley (with her son Lorenzo Padley and new infant Anne), left with the company. Joseph and William were well respected because they were apparently very good athletes and challenged anyone to a wrestling match.

The Sharps and Carlisles drove a wagon for William Jennings, a Salt Lake City merchant and freighter. The outfitting was done in Keokuk, Iowa. The company for traveling over the plains was formally organized in Kanesville, Iowa. On the trail, William and Mary Ann Padley were married 10 July 1853 in Loup Fork, Nebraska. The company arrived in Salt Lake City between the 15th and 20th of September the same year.

Mary Ann was born the first of seven children born to James and Sarah Goodlad Bailey on 28 November 1828 in Mattersey, Nottinghamshire, England. Her baptism is recorded on 8 December 1828 at Mattersey Anglican church, confirmed by the Bishop’s Transcripts at Nottinghamshire Archives. James was a blacksmith. The Bailey family were practicing members of the Church of England. Mary Ann attended school and obtained training in millinery and sewing. Sarah died in 1843 and James remarried to a lady named Harriet. We don’t have a death date for James at this time.

Shortly before her 18th birthday, Mary Ann met missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and converted. She was baptized 20 October 1846. Her father and Harriet dismissed her from the home for becoming a Mormon. She soon met William Padley, another LDS member and a tailor who lived on Allen Street in Sheffield, and married him on 4 February 1847 at the Church of St Peter and St Paul (now a cathedral) in Sheffield.

Padley – Bailey marriage record

William Padley was born 22 September 1826 in Morton, Lincolnshire, just across the River Trent from Mattersey, and they may well have known each other from their home area before both moved to Sheffield. They had a son, Lorenzo Joseph Padley, born in December 1847. William became ill when Lorenzo was born and died 22 February 1850 in Morton, Lincolnshire. Left alone with a new son, Mary Ann went back to her parents, who would have nothing to do with her unless she gave up her religion. She would not, and instead decided to join the Saints in Utah.

Mary Ann and Lorenzo sailed from Liverpool on 8 January 1851 on the “Ellen” with James Willard Cummings (1819–1883) as the leader of the company. The ship had a difficult passage with measles and what others thought was whooping cough. She arrived in New Orleans 14 March 1851. On the 19th they left for St. Louis on the “Alleck Scott” and arrived on the 26th. Mary Ann and Lorenzo stayed in St. Louis while the company moved on, and it was there that she met William Sharp and his family.

William and Mary Ann grew close during their time in St. Louis. A daughter, Anne Elizabeth, was born to them on 31 October 1852. Both were still determined to join the Saints in Utah. They arranged to drive a freight wagon west for William Jennings, a Salt Lake City merchant and freighter, as the means of joining the Moses Clawson Company. On the trail, William and Mary Ann were married on 10 July 1853 at the crossing of Loup Fork in present-day Howard County, Nebraska. The company arrived in Salt Lake City between the 15th and 20th of September that year.

They settled in Lehi, Utah, Utah for a couple of years but had a number of issues with range for the cattle and some other minor squabbles. Water was also not found to be very dependable in the Lehi area. During this time, William and Mary Ann gave birth to two children, William and Isabella in 1854 and 1856, but both died as infants. Milo Riley was born in Lehi 23 July 1857. I have written of Milo and his family previously at this link: Sharp-Stoker Wedding.

William learned of land north near Ogden, Weber, Utah that was going to be opened up from some of the Saints passing through Lehi (abandoning Salt Lake City before the arrival of Johnson’s Army). These Lehi Saints were told of ample land and good water that was available west of Ogden. A scouting expedition went to search out the area in the fall of 1858 and visited with Lorin Farr (1820–1909) who told them of the available plain to the west.

The Sharp family left with other Lehi Saints on 10 March 1859 to travel to this new area. The group of about 100 arrived 17 March 1859 at what is present day Plain City, Weber, Utah. The company arrived at about 5 PM during the middle of a snowstorm. The company lined up the wagons to protect them from the wind and dug a hole in the ground for the campfire. Reports indicate that snow was deep and conditions uncomfortable. Plain City apparently lived up to its name with sagebrush that rose over 4 feet tall from the high water table beneath the soil.

William Sharp put his carpentry and masonry skills to work making adobe brick and helping build the first homes in Plain City. William and Mary Ann lived in one of these homes. William served in the Plain City band, on the Plain City Z.C.M.I. board, acting as a builder, and also serving as a city leader. William and Mary Ann’s daughter, Evelyn, was the first girl born in Plain City in October 1859. Victorine Mary was born 8 April 1862 and was their last child. Mary Ann kept busy sewing and making suits, coats, and other jobs. Each of her daughters learned to become dressmakers.

William and Mary Ann each received their initiatory and endowment on 17 August 1861 at the Endowment House. On the same day, Mary Ann was sealed by proxy to her deceased first husband William Padley. As a woman already sealed to another man, she could not be sealed to William Sharp during their marriage, as the church did not permit women to be sealed to more than one husband at that time. The Sharp children’s sealing situation caused considerable family angst as all children born to Mary Ann after the 1861 sealing were born in the covenant to William Padley rather than William Sharp.

Lorenzo Joseph Padley died 24 July 1866 at Plain City, aged 18 years, 7 months and 11 days, putting his birth approximately 13 December 1847 in Mattersey, Nottinghamshire, England. He had grown up to become a valued member of the Plain City Music and Dramatic Association, which mourned him as a true friend and gifted musician. His remains were followed to their last resting place by a very large number of citizens, preceded by the brass band of the Association. The notice requested the Millennial Star in England to copy — a reminder that Mary Ann’s roots, and Lorenzo’s birthplace, lay in Nottinghamshire. The photo we have of him is pretty scratched, but here is a cleaned up photo, but it is not perfect. It is hard to tell what is his nose and what was deformities in the photo.

Anne Elizabeth married Daniel Claiborne Thomas Jr. on 29 January 1872 in Salt Lake City at the Endowment House, where they also received their initiatory, endowment, and sealing the same day. Daniel had been born 14 July 1850 on the Platte River in Nebraska on the trail to Utah. His father, Daniel Claiborne Thomas Sr., had been converted to the church by his brother Preston while on a mission to the Southern States, and the family had come to Utah in 1850, settling in Sulphur Springs (later named Lehi) among the earliest settlers there, before joining the Plain City founding group in March 1859. They settled in Plain City and had six children: Claiborne William (1872), Francis Milo (1875), LeRoy Bertrand (1878), Estella Inez (1884), Delbert (1888), and Elizabeth La Vieve (1889). Anne Elizabeth died 29 July 1891 in Plain City at thirty-eight, leaving six children ranging in age from two to nineteen. Daniel outlived her by thirty-eight years, dying in Ogden on 2 September 1929, and was buried beside her in Plain City Cemetery.

After several instances of desertion, Mary Ann moved out of their home on Christmas Eve 1875 and utterly refused to go back to William. William sued for divorce and Franklin Dewey Richards (1821–1899) granted the divorce (in probate court) on 19 May 1876.

At this time, it is possible that Bishop Lewis Warren Shurtleff (1835–1922), branch president 1870–1877, bishop 1877–1883, extended himself beyond what the members felt was right — going so far as to dictate how much everyone should pay in tithing — and some families were very vocal in expressing their discontent. William Sharp began construction on St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1877, and many disaffected members found a religious haven in this new faith. The building still stands today, owned by the Lions Club in Plain City. A significant group of members were excommunicated on 31 January 1879, including William Sharp, Mary Ann Sharp (listed separately because of the divorce), William Skeen, Edwin Dix, George Musgrave (father of their future daughter-in-law), Thomas Musgrave, Thomas Singleton, Thomas Davis, George W Harris, Jonathan Moyes, John Moyes, Winfield Spiers, James Wadman, Robert Davis, John Davis, and Thomas Robson. These lists also have “and wife” as well as “and family” which seems to indicate that spouses and families were included. Many of these families returned to the church after time away, some individuals never did. Milo Ross’s 1997 oral history interview offers one family perspective on the causes of the split.

This same year, William remarried to the widow of Charles McGary, Charlotte Elizabeth Earl, about 1879. We do not know exactly when or where.

Milo Riley married Mary Ann Stoker (aka Lillian or Lilly Musgrave) 11 May 1879 in Plain City in the little church William built. He died in 1916 in Plain City. Read about them here.

Evelyn Carlisle married James Henry Taylor 16 January 1880 in Plain City. She died in 1941 in Oregon.

Victorine Mary married Robert Edward Maw on 8 April 1883 in Plain City, her twenty-first birthday. Robert had been born in Plain City on 15 October 1859, the son of Robert Maw, one of Plain City’s founding pioneers who had consecrated his Lehi property in January 1857 and arrived in Plain City on 17 March 1859, the same day as the Sharp family. William Sharp had built the elder Robert Maw’s adobe house in those early Plain City years and had played cornet alongside Abraham Maw in Plain City’s first band. The marriage of Victorine Sharp and Robert Edward Maw united two of Plain City’s founding families. They had seven children: Ruby Ada (1884), Alice (1885), Jessie (1886), Florence Eveline (1888), Grace (1890), Edith Louise (1893), and Edward Clyde (1896). On the morning of 23 April 1897, a snow slide struck the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company’s Garfield Mine in Gibbs Canyon, four miles north of Brigham City. Robert was killed. The Brigham City Bugler reported the disaster that week, noting that he was a married man who left a widow and seven children. Victorine was thirty-four years old. Her youngest child, Edward Clyde, was barely a year old. She did not remarry, living in Plain City and later Ogden until her death on 18 March 1945. She is buried in Plain City Cemetery.

Mary Ann Bailey Sharp

Mary Ann continued to work as a dressmaker until she could not do so any more due to age. She lived with her Granddaughter Elizabeth Taylor from before 1900 and even moved with her to Baker City, Baker, Oregon. Mary Ann moved back to Plain City not long after Beth married.

Evelyn & Victorine Sharp

~

Evelyn and Victorine Sharp

William died at 950 Washington Ave in Ogden on 22 December 1900 at 74 years and was buried two days later in the Ogden cemetery. Mary Ann died 30 October 1913 in Plain City at 84 years and was buried there three days later.

Mary Ann Bailey Sharp death certificate

William and Mary Ann both died outside the church.

In December 1933, fifty-four years after the excommunication, three of Isabella Sharp Carlisle’s sons — Joseph Carlisle, James Carlisle, and Harvey Carlisle — wrote to LDS Church President Heber J. Grant requesting proxy reinstatement for their Uncle William and his former wife Mary Ann. Their letter described William as “honest, virtuous and kind” and was addressed care of Mrs. James S. Thompson — Annie Thompson, who would later write the 1957 history of Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp, and who was the daughter of James Carlisle. The letter explicitly identified William as “born 10 Dec. 1826, Misson, Notts., England, and later settled in Plain City, Utah.”

President Grant responded on 16 December 1933, consenting to proxy baptism for both William and Mary Ann. He noted that since they had previously received their endowments on 17 August 1861, those ordinances would need to be restored by proxy as well, and authorized Elder George F. Richards, President of the Salt Lake Temple, to officiate. On 3 February 1934, proxy baptism and confirmation were performed for both William and Mary Ann at the Salt Lake Temple, with William’s sealing to parents following on 2 July 1934. The restoration of William Sharp and his wife to the church, by the hands of his sister Isabella’s sons, closed that chapter.

by

Some Early Settlers from Lehi to Plain City, Utah

A Personal Note

This document found its way into my family history files for good reason. Settler no. 68 — William Sharp (1825–1900) — is my ancestor. William was born 10 December 1825 in Misson, Nottinghamshire, England. He married Mary Ann Padley and the couple crossed the plains in the Moses Clawson Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on 15 September 1853. They went first to Lehi, but as the Plain City History records, “the land was not too good and there was no good grazing for their cattle.” They consecrated their Lehi property to the Church on 8 January 1857 — the same day as William Clark himself — before joining the group that would found Plain City.

The Daughters of Utah Pioneers history of Plain City describes William Sharp simply as “the first stone mason in Plain City.” That understates it considerably. He built the Episcopal Church in 1877, the old Singleton home, and Robert Maw’s adobe house — that last detail connecting two Lehi consecrators (nos. 68 and 47) in the work of building their new community. He played the cornet in Plain City’s first band alongside Abraham Maw. He made adobe bricks with Joseph Skeen, Joseph Robinson, and Jeppe G. Folkman — all men who appear on Clark’s consecration list. He worked with Thomas Singleton constructing many of Plain City’s early houses. His daughter Victorine Mary Sharp married Robert Edward Maw, connecting the two founding families by marriage as well as by community. His son Milo Riley Sharp played first base on Plain City’s founding baseball team, and Milo’s wife Lillie Stoker Sharp performed in Plain City’s second dramatic association. Milo served as school trustee beginning in 1897. Across generations, W. Albert Sharp served as a founding trustee of both the town board and the cemetery district when Plain City incorporated in 1944.

The Sharps were not alone in making that journey north from Lehi. The consecration list reads almost like a founding roster for Plain City — and the primary sources confirm it. Robert Maw (no. 47) left his own first-person account: “I Robert Maw, say that I was one of the first pioneers who came to Plain City on March 17, 1859. We left Lehi on the 10th of March.” The fall 1858 scouting party that selected the Plain City site included Daniel Collett (no. 14), Joseph Skeen (no. 69), William Wallace Raymond (no. 64), Joseph Robinson (no. 67), Joseph Folkman and Jeppe Folkman (no. 28), and Thomas Ashton — men who had consecrated their Lehi properties just months before. When Plain City Branch was organized in May 1859, William Wallace Raymond was appointed the first Presiding Elder, with Daniel Collett and Jeppe G. Folkman as counselors. Joseph Skeen — who built Plain City’s first log cabin and is credited with introducing adobe making to Utah — was appointed the first water master. His wife Alice Booth Robinson was recorded as the first white woman to set foot on Plain City soil.

Jeppe Jorgen Folkman (no. 28) managed Plain City’s cooperative ZCMI store from its founding in 1869 and operated one of the settlement’s first stores from his home. The Folkman family remained central to Plain City’s commercial and civic life for generations. Robert Maw (no. 47) founded the Maw family line in Plain City — his descendants produced three generations of ward bishops, a commercial dynasty in the Maw store and canning operations, and civic leaders serving on the town board and irrigation company board well into the twentieth century. William Van Dyke (no. 78) operated one of Plain City’s earliest merchant stores, confirmed as a living pioneer at the 1909 50th anniversary celebration. The Raymond family (nos. 63–64) provided the first Presiding Elder, first Relief Society president, and LDS Sunday School assistant superintendent.

The Lehi fort of the 1850s was, in a very real sense, the nursery of Plain City. Clark’s consecration list and the Plain City founding history are two windows into the same group of people, two years apart.

The following is a transcription of Clark’s paper, with the three original images and footnotes collected at the end.

Wayne E. Clark, a Lehi native and retired Auburn University professor of entomology, spent years examining the consecration deeds signed by early Lehi settlers, comparing them against Utah County property records, the 1860 Federal Census, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and family history sources. His 2017 paper, part of the Wayne E. Clark Collection at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives (lehihistory.com), has been cited by the University of Utah’s Century of Black Mormons project and published in the Lehi Free Press. The underlying deeds are held in the Utah County Office of Land Records and at the BYU L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Early Mormon Settlers in Lehi, Utah Territory, Consecrated Their Properties to Their Church

Wayne E. Clark
Lehi, Utah, 2017

The Lehi Pioneer Monument was erected in 1908 on the Northeast corner of First North and First West Streets in Lehi, Utah. A photographer pointing his lens toward the Southeast captured a portion of a small adobe home in an early photograph of the monument. That home stood on First North Street on the block on which the Lehi Memorial Building would come to stand in a few years. In pioneer times the block on which it stood was the northeastern-most of sixteen city blocks that were enclosed within a twelve-foot-high mud wall erected as protection against the fear of hostile Indians. The monument was constructed on the site of the last crumbling remnants of the old wall.

Things have changed in Lehi since the little adobe home stood across the street from the monument. The wall is gone and forgotten. The old Lehi High School/Junior High School athletic field that came to occupy the site on which the monument and the adobe house in the background is gone, if not entirely forgotten. Instead of the athletic field, chairs and umbrellas surround a small wading pool on a deck that extends south of the swimming pool that’s part of the large Lehi Legacy Center complex on the ground on which the monument stood, and a large parking lot covers the ground on which the house once stood. Today, if one stands on the spot where the photographer stood in 1908, or some time not long afterward, automobiles that carry people to and from the Lehi Legacy Center occupy a prominent portion of the scene. The Memorial Building can be seen along the photographer’s line of site in the background.

The owner of the home was my second great grandfather, English Mormon immigrant William Clark (1825–1910). He and at least 84 other heads of families in Lehi did what he did between 11 April 1856 and 30 January 1858. A little more than three years later he consecrated his little adobe house to the church.

Feramorz Young Fox provides an explanation of the “Consecration Movement” of the 1850s.2 He writes that the movement was church-wide. Hundreds of documents he calls “deeds of consecration” were generated in the Utah Territory between 1855 and 1862.3 The first public announcement of the Consecration Movement was given at general conference in April 1854, but the implementation was delayed until a proper form compliant with the laws of the Territory could be developed and printed. He writes that Brigham Young’s consecration deed4 is dated 11 April 1855, but notes the existence of an earlier deed recorded in Millard County on 1 January 1855.

Fox presents a table5 in which the numbers of deeds by county are listed, along with the population of each county between the years 1855 and 1857. The total for the fourteen counties in the table is given as 2,747. This must be the figure used by Leonard Arrington to calculate that about forty percent of the 7,000 heads of families in the Utah Territory deeded all their property to the church during the period in which the program was in effect.6 Fox gives the following numbers for Utah County: 69 (1855), 147 (1856), and 92 (1857) for a total of 922.

William Clark’s consecration deed is representative.

Be it known by these presents that I, William Clark, of Lehi City, in the county of Utah, and Territory of Utah, for and in consideration of the good will which I have for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, give and convey unto Brigham Young, Trustee in Trust for said Church, his successors in office, and assigns, all my claim to and ownership of the following described property, to wit:

One lot in the City of Lehi with buildings thereon and improvements: Lot no. 6 in Block 16 containing 50/160 of an improvement.

Also Lot 9 in Block 7 of Plat B in the American Creek Survey of Farm Land containing 5 acres … $25.00
Also Lots 12 & 13 in Block 5 Containing 2 acres in the Lehi Garden Lot Survey … $20.00
Also Lot 15 in Block 10 Containing 10 acres in Plat B, American Creek Survey of Farm Land … $30.00
Also outstanding account in land … $200.00
1 yoke of oxen, 1 horse … $140.00
1 wagon, $45, 1 rifle, $10 … $55.00
2 cows @ $30.00 each, 1 two year old, $25 … $55.00
1 yearling heifer, $15, 1 hog, $17 … $32.00
Farming tools, $10. Mechanics tool, $2.50 … $12.50
Household furniture … $50.00
35 Bu. of Wheat @ $2 per Bushel … $70.00
10 Bu. of Corn @ $1.5 per Bushel … $15.00
30 Bu. of Oats @ $1 per Bushel … $30.00
30 Bu. of Potatoes @ $1 per Bushel … $30.00
Garden Vegetable $6, Hay $24 … $30.00
120 lbs of Pork at 20¢ per lb … $24.00

Total Amount of William Clark’s property … $1048.508

Together with all the rights privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging or pertaining. I also covenant and agree that I am the lawful claimant and owner of said property and will warrant and forever defend the same unto the said Trustee in Trust, his successors in office and assigns, against the claims of our heirs and assigns, against the claims of any heirs, assigns, or any person whosoever.

[signed] William Clark his x mark

Witnesses:
Thomas Taylor
George A. Leslie
Thomas Ashton

Territory of Utah, County of Utah. I Lucius N. Scovill, Recorder of the aforesaid County, certify that the signer of the above transfer, personal known to me, appeared this 8th day of January AD 1857, and acknowledged that he of his own choice executed the foregoing transfer.

Lucius N. Scovill
Recorder of Utah Co. UT.

The property William Clark and his neighbors in Lehi consecrated to the church included title to land. This falls into three categories for Clark and for the others: farm land, garden plots and lots on city blocks. The farm land is defined in what the deeds refer to as the “American Creek Survey of Farm Land.” This survey has not been located.9 Likewise, the survey for the Garden Plots referred to on the consecration deeds has not been located.10 The third category of property in land recorded on the consecration deeds refers to a “Lehi Survey of Building Lots.” The survey was evidently done in 1853 by Bishop Evans, as described in the consecration deeds.

The sixteen blocks inside the fort were numbered beginning with the block on the Southeast corner as Block 1 and continuing east to west with Blocks 2 through 4, then switching to east on the second tier of blocks and so forth to Block 16 on the Northeast corner of the fort.

Although the blocks inside the fort had to be re-numbered, this numbering system is consistent with one in use today. The current system apparently dates from 1861. According to Gardner,13 on April 27, 1861, the council received a numerously signed petition asking that the city be enlarged. This unmistakable sign of growth occasioned much discussion. For one, Bishop Evans seriously objected to any such extension of the city, giving as his reason the lack of water in Dry Creek to supply any considerable addition to the population of Lehi. Finally, however, all objections were satisfactorily adjusted, and the City Council ordered that a tier of blocks be surveyed around the wall. These did not supply the unexpected demand for building lots, so a tier each on the North and South was subsequently surveyed and sold to home builders.

Gardner included a diagrammatic depiction of the fort, surrounded by the wall, in his history,14 with four gates for ingress and egress, four guard towers, and the locations and layouts of each of the blocks, as well as the layout of the building lots on the blocks, are depicted. The numbers of blocks 1–16 are shown, with the corresponding numbers of the same blocks in the later surveys and continuing to this date, in parentheses. The lot and block numbers are listed on 71 of the 85 1856/1858 Lehi consecration deeds.15 The building lots on the diagram as assigned to the individual settlers are identified by the following numbers. Some of the homes listed on the consecration deeds are still standing. The house nearest current addresses of these are listed. The apparent location of houses no longer standing are also given below.
The Settler Lists

Note: Seventy-two of the 85 examined consecration deeds list the block number and the lot number of property in the city. All of the blocks listed are inside the fort. A few deeds list portions of additional lots, and some list two or more complete building lots. Thirteen deeds list no city lots. Presumably those individuals did not own their own homes. Thirty-two deeds list an adobe house and one lists a “mud house.” These are valued from $150.00 to $1,100.00. Two individuals, Abram Hatch and John Riggs Murdock, specified that their adobe houses had four rooms and one cellar. Joseph Skeen listed a 6-room adobe house. Eight log houses (on 7 lots), with values ranging from $60.00 to $200.00, are listed on the deeds. Eighteen deeds list a lot number and a block number but specify only that the property was “with improvements,” without describing the type of house. Fourteen of the 85 deeds have no lot or block numbers or houses. Presumably these individuals did not own their own homes. Lehi settler’s consecrations ranged from $127.75 to $3,075.00, for a total of $93,128.70.

South, 400 West
1. Andrew Anderson (1833–1909). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 12, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,203.00 total consecration. 17 November 1856. BK C, 1855, p. 83. 37 South, 400 West

South, 200 West
2. Thomas Ashton (1813–1903). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 11, with log house, $200.00, $1,543.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 109. 36 South, 200 West

140 South, 200 West
3. Charles Barnes Jr. (1827–1911). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 7, with adobe house, $300.00, $1,008.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 129.

69 South, 300 West
4. Alfred Bell (1794–1874). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 11, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,201.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 123.

5. Jens Peter Ipsen Benson [Peter Benson] (1831–1898). Lehi, no city lot, $135.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 177.

6. Yeppa Benson [Jeppe Bendtsen] (1795–1872). Lehi, no city lot, $168.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 177.

West, 300 South
7. Samuel Briggs (1826–1898). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 4, with adobe house, $150.00, $997.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 131. 382

West Main Street
8. George Brough (1823–1914). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 16, with adobe home, $150.00, $421.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 180. 55 North Center Street

North Center Street
9. Abram Brown [Abraham Brown] (1808–1891). Lehi, Lot 9, Block 12, with adobe house, $250.00, $608.00 total consecration. 26 January 1857. BK F, p. 208. 333 West Main Street

West Main Street
10. John Brown (1820–1896). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 9, with improvements, $150.00, $3,083.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 81. 45 West Main Street

15 West, 100 South
11. Martin Bushman (1802–1870). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 8, with improvements, $300.00, $1,032.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 167.

284 West, 200 South
12. David Clark (1816–1889). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 6, with adobe house, $600.00, $1,520.00 total consecration. 5 February 1857. BK G, p. 71.

100 West, 100 North
13. William Clark (1825–1910). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 16, with adobe house, $200.00, $1,048.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 91. 45 West, 100 North

West Main Street
14. Daniel Collett (1807–1894). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 15, with improvements, $200.00, $1,313 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 126. 188 West Main Street

West Main Street
15. Sylvanus Collett (1835–1901). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 10, with adobe house, $150.00, $360.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p.

104, 115 West Main Street
16. Sarah Couzens [Sarah Jaque] (widow of Joseph Couzens [Joseph William Cousins (1809–1856)], deceased). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 13, with improvements, $150.00, $927.20 total consecration. 9 March 1857. BK H, p. 40.

206, 389 West, 100 South
17. Daniel William Cox (1801–1858). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 5, with adobe house, $450.00, $2,225.50 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p.

West Main Street
18. William Taylor Dennis (1810–1894). Lehi, no city lot, $4,115.50 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 111.

West Main Street
19. Joseph Dobson (1804–1872). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 15, with mud house, $200.00, $721.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 83. 130

86 North, 400 West
20. James Downs (1815–1882). Lehi, Lot 6 and W1/2 of Lot 7, Block 13, with adobe house, $250.00, $1,813.00 total consecration. 9 March 1857. BK H, p. 46.16

North, 100 West
21. Robert Dunn (1818–1885). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 16, with improvements, $250.00, $1,085 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p. 272.17 86 North, 100 West

North, 100 West
22. Shadrack Empy (1822–1892). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 14, with adobe house, $200.00, $820.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 130. 229

West, 100 North
23. Abel Evans (1812–1866). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 14, except NE Quarter of lot, with house, $150.00, $528.00 total consecration. 31 December 1856. BK F, p. 40.18 90 North, 300 West

Main Street
24. David Evans (1804–1883). Lehi, Lots 2 and 6, Block 14, $1,100.00, $3,075.00 total consecration. 10 May 1856. BK C, p. 39.19 288 West Main Street

Main Street
25. Henry Beck Evans (1830–1911). Lehi, no city lot, $180.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 284.

200 West
26. Joseph Field (1831–1911). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 10, with improvements, $200.00, $489.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 178. 49

200 West, South
27. John Folker (1814–1884). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 6, with adobe house, $200.00, $984.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 94. 166

South, 200 West
28. Jeppe George Folkmann [Jeppe Jorgen Folkman] (1824–1916).20 Lehi, Lot 6, Block 1, with improvements, $65.00, $394.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 285. 65 West, 200 South

200 West, South
29. William Fotheringham (1826–1913). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 1, with two log houses, $100.00, $1,845 total consecration. 4 November 1856. BK C, p.

73, 66 West, 300 South
30. Charles Wesley Gallup. Lehi, no city lot, $438.50 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 170.

31. John Henry Glines (1831–1897). Lehi, no city lot, $387.00 total consecration. 31 March 1857. BK H p. 90.

Block 6, Lot 6, 6 North
32. Abram Hatch [Abraham Chase Hatch] (1830–1911). Lehi, Lot 6, Block 4, with adobe house, $750.00, $2,891.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, np. 132.21

100 South
33. Lorenzo Hill Hatch (1826–1910), and Sylvia S. Hatch. Lehi, Lot 2, Block 13, with buildings and improvements, $800.00, $1,608.00 total consecration. 11 April 1856. BK C 1855, p. 41.22 212 South, 300 West

125 West
34. John Joseph Hayes (1825–1899). Lehi, E1/2 Lot 7, Block 7, $100.00, $311.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 105. 125 West, 100 South

96 North, 200 West
35. William Brown Hill (1836–1883). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 15, with improvements, $150.00, $931.75 total consecration. 29 December 1856. BK F, p. 30. 96 North, 200 West

93 North, 100 West
36. William Hyde (1818–1874). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 15, $150.00, $1,040.00 total consecration. 23 December 1857. BK H, p. 106.

187 West Main Street
37. Ezekiel Hopkins (1801–1872), or his son, Ezekiel Hopkins (1839–1911). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 10, with log house, $200.00, $610.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 120.23 187 West Main Street

87 North, 300 West
38. Daniel James (1807–1880). Lehi, E1/2 Lot 7, and N1/2 Lot 8, Block 13, with adobe house, $200.00, $871.00 total consecration. 28 February 1857. BK H, p. 21. 87 North, 300 West

South, 300 West
39. Samuel James (1825–1893). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 12, with adobe house, $150.00, $490.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 278. 24

West Main Street
40. John Karren (1834–1905). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 11, with adobe house, $150.00, $441.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 181. 231

West Main Street
41. Thomas Karren (1810–1876). Lehi, Lot 2 & the E1/2 of Lot 3, in Block 12, with log house, $150.00, $1,766.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 92. 390 West, 100 South

217 South, 100 West
42. Henry Kearns (1778–1859). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 1, with improvements, $350.00, $1,049.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 128.

West Main Street
43. Suel Lamb (1833–1913). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 9, with adobe house, $150.00, $652.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 127. 95 West Main Street

261 South, 200 West
44. John Irvin Lawson [John Lawson] (1805–1884). Lehi, N1/2 Lot 3, Block 3, with improvements, $50.00, $145.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 117.

290 South, 200 West
45. Abraham Losee (1814–1887). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 3, with improvements, $150.00, $1,153.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 115.

290 South, 200 West
46. John Smiley Lott (1826–1894) and Permelia Darrow Lott (widow of Cornelius P. Lott, deceased) and Peter Lott (1805–1882). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 3, $150.00, $1,153.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 115.

[Peter] Lyman Lott (1842–1906). Lehi, Lots 6 and 7, Block 3, with improvements, $600.00, $2,226.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 100. 241 West, 200 South

47. Robert Maw (1834–1920). Lehi, no city lot, $285.00 total consecration. 19 January 1857. BK F, p. 182. PC

45 West, 100 North
48. James McGaw (1824–1872) & Elias Bassett.24 Lehi, Lot 6, Block 16, with adobe house, $400.00, $2,255.00 total consecration. 23 December 1857. BK H, p. 108.

100 North
49. Ephraim Mecham (1808–1891). Lehi, no city lot, $392.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 280.

50. John Miller (1846–1939). Lehi, no city lot, $127.75 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 280.

300 West
51. John Murdock (1792–1871). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 3, with house, $100.00, $295.00 total consecration. 31 December 1856. BK F, p. 38. 209 South

300 West
52. John Riggs Murdock (1826–1913). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 3, also 3/8 of Lot 3, Block 4, Lehi, with 4-room adobe house with cellar, $800.00, $5,097.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 114. 269 South, 300 West

238 West, 300 South
53. Orrice Clapp Murdock (1824–1915). Lehi, Lot 2 and 2 rods of the E side of Lot 3, Block 3, with house, $500.00, $1,665.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 95. 238 West, 300 South

South Center Street
54. Jens Nelson [Jens Nielsen] (1796–1875). Lehi, N1/2 of Lot 7, Block 8, $50.00, $306.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 171. 140

South Center Street
55. Henry Elliot Norton (1826–1913). Lehi, no city lot, $460.00 total consecration. 7 May 1856. BK C, p. 42.

74 West, 100 South
56. Peter Madsen Peel [Peder Madsen Pihl] (1820–1900). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 9, with log house, $100.00, $537.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 279. 74 West, 100 South

140 South Center Street
57. Hans Peterson [Hans Pederson] (1823–1881). Lehi, S1/2 of Lot 7, Block 8, with log house, $60.00, $537.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 286. 140 South Center Street

88 South, 300 West
58. Canute Peterson (1824–1902). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 12, with improvements, $150.00, $1,957.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 85.

59. Peter Peterson (1821–1901). Lehi, no city lot, $307.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 283.

290 South, 100 West
60. Stephen Howard Pierce (1816–Deceased). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 2, with improvements, $466.00, $761.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 275.

290 South, 100 West
61. Charles Price (1800–1873). Lehi, no city lot, $680.00 total consecration. 27 November 1856. BK C, p. 104.

South Center Street
62. Tunis Rappley (1808–1883). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 1, with adobe house, $200.00, $772.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK F, p. 282. 220 South Center Street

260 South, 100 West
63. Alonzo Pearls Raymond (1821–1904). Lehi, Lot 8,25 Block 2, with adobe house, $300.00, $2,305.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 108. 260 South, 100 West

215 South, 100 West
64. William Wallace Raymond (1824–1881). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 2, with log house, $200.00, $2,020.00 total consecration. 31 March 1857. BK H, p.

88 West, 215 South
65. William Reid (1805–1858). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 13, with improvements, $23.00, $450.50 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 179.

86 North, 400 West
66. Alonzo Donnell Rhodes (1824–1893). Lehi, E1/2 of Lot 1, Block 10, with house, $200.00, $1,164.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 102. 90 South, 100 West

125 West, 100 South
67. Joseph Robinson (1814–1891). Lehi, W1/2 Lot 7, Block 7, with improvements, $100.00, $521.00 total consecration. 28 January 1857.26 BK F, p. 281. 125 West, 100 South

100 South
68. William Sharp (1825–1900). Lehi, no city lot, $235.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 86.

86 West, 125 South
69. Joseph Skeen (1816–1882). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 4, with 6-room adobe house, $1,000.00, $2,764.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 99. 377 West, 200 South

205, 390 West Main Street
70. Joseph Johnson Smith (1821–1902). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 13, with adobe house, $500.00, $1,804.00 total consecration. 20 January 1857. BK F, p.

89, 267 South, 400 West
71. Samuel Thomas Smith (1823–1890). Lehi, Lot 4, Block 4, with adobe house, $150.00, $507.50 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p.

West Main Street
72. James Taylor [James Whitehead Taylor] (1819–1891) and Ann Taylor. Lehi, Lot 8, Block 7, $700.00, $1,300.00 total consecration. no date, no month,27 1856. BK C 1855, p. 40. 110 South, 100 West

382 West, 300 South
73. Thomas Taylor (1826–1900). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 2, with adobe house, $300.00, $932.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 106–107.

65 South, 100 West
74. William Taylor [William Whitehead Taylor] (1828–1907). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 10, adobe house, $200.00, total consecration $625.00. [no date]. BK C 1855, p. 81. April 1856. 65 South, 100 West

186 South, 300 West
75. Daniel Stillwell Thomas (1803–1878). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 12, with adobe house, $300.00, $842.50 total consecration. 26 February 1857. BK G, p. 204. 405 West Main Street

West Main Street
76. Preston Thomas (1814–1877). Lehi, Lot 5, Block 11, with log houses, $200.00, $2,207.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 97. 281 West Main Street

186 South, 300 West
77. John Titcomb (1800–1858). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 5, with adobe house, $300.00, $1,150.00 total consecration. 10 January 1857. BK F, p. 122.

37 West, 200 South
78. William Van Dyke (1830–1901). Lehi, Lot 7, Block 1, with adobe house, $200.00, $523.75 total consecration. 30 January 1858. Not found in Utah County book.28

11 West, 200 South
79. Andrew Vince [Moses Andrews Vince] (1809–1859). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 8, $450.00 total consecration. 8 January 1857. BK F, p. 88. 11 West Main Street

216 South, 200 West
80. William Sidney Smith Willes (1819–1871). Lehi, Lot 8, Block 3, with improvements, $700.00, $2,020.00 total consecration. 9 January 1857. BK F, p. 112–113.

168 West, 200 South
81. Thomas Griffin Winn (1829–1904). Lehi, Lot 3, Block 7, with adobe house, $200.00, $666.50 total consecration. 7 January 1857. BK F, p.

80 West, 168 South
82. William Henry Winn (1833–1884). Lehi, no lot or block, $148.00 total consecration. 9 April 1857. BK H, p. 84.

240 South, 100 West
83. Solomon Wixom (1809–1879).29 Lehi, Lot 7 and N1/2 of Lot 8, Block 2, with adobe house, $400.00, $1,308.50 total consecration. 28 January 1857. BK H, p.

36 West, 100 South
84. Georg Gottlieb Zimmermann (1781–1866). Lehi, Lot 2, Block 9, with improvements, $125.00, $443.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 169.

88 South, Center Street
85. John Zimmerman (1820–1908). Lehi, Lot 1, Block 9, $125.00, $1,873.00 total consecration. 16 January 1857. BK F, p. 176.
Fort Cabin Occupants

The cabins were arranged end-to-end to form a hollow square in the first of two phases of the fort. Van Wagoner says nearly three hundred settlers occupied sixty cabins, but he names only fifty-three individuals31 on the list corresponding to the numbers (1–85) of the diagram.

East Side (7)North Side (12)West Side (18)South Side (16)
William Goates2. Thomas AshtonJohn AndreasonOrrace Murdock
81. George Zimmerman4. Alfred Bell17. Daniel Cox51. John R. Murdock Sen.
John Zimmerman22. Abel EvansSamuel James50. John Murdock
John Spires23. David Evans38. Samuel James31. Abram Hatch
61. Tunis Rappley14. William Dobson75. Luke Titcomb45. Mrs. Pamelia Lott
Martin BushmanPhilip OlmsteadCharles Partridge45. John S. Lott
John BrownPrime Coleman7. Samuel BriggsIra J. Willes
William ColemanWilliam Goates77. W. S. S. Willes
George Coleman70. Samuel T. Smith44. Abraham Losee
William Burgess12. David ClarkMrs. Lydia Losee
Jehial McConnell57. Canute Peterson68. Joseph Skeens
Joel W. White9. Abraham Brown40. Thomas Skeens
Israel EvansJohn MercerAlonzo D. Rhodes
David Evans69. Joseph J. SmithThomas Karren
Riley Judd84. Daniel S. ThomasJohn Winn
David JuddSamuel HarwoodSilas P. Barnes
John W. NortonDaniel Cox61. Tunis Rappley
Henry NortonOley Ellingson
J. Wiley Norton
David Norton

Closing Notes

Some of the settlers remained in Lehi after their 1856/1857 consecrations were accepted and recorded. The locations of the homes of several of them in later years have been located in other studies.32 Some moved from Lehi. Some moved from the fort in Lehi to other property in Lehi. For example, William Clark moved from the Lot 6 property on Block 16(40) to a home on Lot 4 of the same block some time before he received title to both lots in 1871.

Some of the names absent from the cabins list are absent from the consecration deeds. This could reflect the fact that the individuals left Lehi before the consecration movement began, or that the individuals did not consecrate their property, or that their consecration deeds have not yet been located.

Sixty-eight of the 128 building lots on the sixteen blocks in the fort are represented on the consecration deeds. If 40% of the men in the Lehi settlement consecrated their property, as Arrington says was the estimated percentage of the participation of the men in the Territory, 51 lots should have been claimed on the deeds. It appears that participation in the consecration movement was higher in Lehi than in other parts of the Territory.
Notes

1 This, and similar documents by Wayne E. Clark, are posted at the Lehi Historical Society and Historical Archive Indexes, https://www.lehihistory.com. Thanks to John Knollin Haws Jr. and the other volunteers at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives for encouragement and support, and to Dan Olds for heartily pushing for the search for consecration deeds and for other important historical information. Corrections or additions welcome. wayneeldenclark@gmail.com.

2 Fox, Feramorz Y. (March 1944). The Consecration Movement of the Middle ‘Fifties,’ Improvement Era, 47 (2) February, March 1944: 80–81, 120–21, 124–25, 146–47, 185, 187–88.

3 He wrote that the recorded deeds were to have been sent to the office of the Trustee-in-Trust of the church in Great Salt Lake City. These must include the deeds now preserved in the LDS Church History Library, in Salt Lake City. Consecration Deeds, 1854–1867. One book, Consecration book, circa 1857–1858, Call Number CR 5 53, Identifier CR 5 53/b0001. No. 233, has a list of deeds from throughout the Territory. The original deeds on the printed forms of many are accessible from CR 5 53: Consecration Deeds 1854–1867. For example, the original consecration deed of John Brown is accessed from Deeds, B, #271–288. Fox mentions the existence of two deeds in possession of a man who found them in a rubbish pile.

4 Found in “Book A of Deeds” in the church historians office, and in “Pioneer Records, Salt Lake County Recorder’s Office, p. 249.”

5 p. 120

6 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900, p. 146–147. See also James Naylor Jones, The Utah Valley Home, https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/987726. Accessed 15 February, 2017, and Willing Hands: A Biography of Lorenzo Hill Hatch (1826–1910), http://www.b13family.com/html/journal-lorenzo_hatch.htm. Accessed 15 February, 2017.

7 Fox notes that this is an exact count, taken from records in office of the county recorder. He must have seen the copies of the deeds preserved in LDS Conveyance books in the Utah County Office of Land Records, 100 East Center Street, Suite 1300, Provo, Utah 84606. The contents of the books are indexed for electronic searching. Consecration deeds of early Lehi settlers are found in books labelled LDS Church Conveyances, BK C, BK F, and BK H.

8 His consecration was twenty cents below the average, $1,048.70.

9 Ownership and numbers of Lots and Blocks and acreage on various surveys throughout the county are contained in Webb Access to Utah County Land Records – Abstract Images — LDS Church Conveyance. Included are “American Creek Survey 1851,” “American Creek Survey of Farm Land,” 1853–1855, “Upper Dry Creek Survey of Farming Land,” 1853, and “Lake Farm Land.”

10 Presumably the garden plots in 1855/1856 were the same as the ones on later records. The earliest entry in the Utah County abstract book for garden plots for Lehi is for 1 December 1879.

11 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, https://archive.org/stream/historyoflehiinc

12 Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1023732&from=fnd, accessed 17 November 2016.

13 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, p. 158–159.

14 Hamilton Gardner, 1913, History of Lehi, Including a Biographical Section, https://archive.org/stream/historyoflehiinc.

15 Webb Access to Utah County Land Records – Abstract Images — LDS Church Conveyances BK C, BK F, and BK H.

16 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 2, fd. 16

17 Original in CR 5 53, box 2, fd. 16

18 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 1

19 Immediately follows the deed of David Evans, dated 10 May 1856, and of Henry C. Norton, dated 7 May [1856].

20 A brother, Jens Peter Folkman (1829–1911), has a son born in Lehi in 1858.

21 Original in LDS Church History Library CR 5 53 box 3, fd. 3

22 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 3. See also Willing Hands: A Biography of Lorenzo Hill Hatch, 1826–1910, http://www.b13family.com/html/journal-lorenzo_hatch.htm

23 Original in LDS Church History Library, CR 5 53, box 3, fd. 3

24 James McGaw, age 34, was in Ogden, Utah, in the 1860 Census. His wife, Mary Matilda Bassett (1800–1878), age 56, was with him, as was Mary’s mother, Matilda Salter Bassett (1800–1878), age 56, (1837–1906), age 23, and Elias Bassett, age 40. Elias must have been James’s brother in law.

25 This may be listed in error for Lot 6. Lot 8 of Block 2 is also recorded as having been claimed by Solomon Wixom on 28 January 1857. Alternatively Raymond and Wixom could each have occupied 1/2 of Lot 6 in 1857.

26 Immediately follows the deed of David Evans, dated 10 May 1856, and precedes the deeds of Lorenzo Hill Hatch, dated 11 April 1856, and of Henry C. Norton, dated 7 May [1856].

27 See Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Joseph Robinson, https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/pioneers/17621923085049108012/joseph-robinson. Accessed 1 March 2017.

28 See Biography of Joseph Morgan Wixom, https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/999379. Accessed 1 March 2017.

29 This figure includes $1000.00 listed by John Brown for his wife’s slave girl. See Consecration, Reformation, and “One African Servant Girl” in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2a0libjFK1d2VEME0/view?usp=sharing

31 Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1023732&from=fnd, accessed 17 November 2016, p. 4–5, citing Andrew Field, “Notes.” Courtesy Leona Noyes, Lehi Library/Archives. Tunis Rappley is listed on both the East and South sides of the fort.

32 A subsequent study of the consecration deeds combined with the 1860 Census and other sources of information resulted in a more complete picture of the Lehi City fort in the years following the issuance of the deeds. Mormon Pioneers in Lehi, Utah Territory, 1854–1871, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2YzRBczAxMjlhsVFU/view?usp=sharing

33 The Old Fort Wall, a Herd of Cows, and a Near and Dear Neighbor in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2a0libjFK1d2VEME0/view?usp=sharing


~

For more on William Sharp and his descendants, and on the Plain City families whose Lehi roots are documented in Clark’s consecration list, see:

Sharp-Bailey Wedding — William and Mary Ann’s story
Sharp-Stoker Wedding — Milo Riley Sharp and his family
History of Plain City — a multi-part series on Plain City’s founding families and history
1895 Plain City Student Body — the children of Plain City’s founding generation, including Delwin Sharp and the Skeen, Maw, and Folkman families
Sharp Family History Outreach — the broader Sharp family history and connections

Wayne E. Clark, Lehi, Utah, 2017. Part of the Wayne E. Clark Collection at the Lehi Historical Society and Archives, https://www.lehihistory.com. Contact: wayneeldenclark@gmail.com. Corrections or additions welcome.

Settlers in Lehi, Utah, Consecrated their Properties to their ChurchDownload
by

John and Elizabeth Quayle

John & Elizabeth Quayle

Above is a photograph of John Quayle and Elizabeth Sharp, presumably with one of their children.

Elizabeth Sharp was born on Christmas Day in 1834, in Misson, Nottinghamshire, England to Thomas Sharp and Elizabeth Cartwright Sharp. She is the sister of William Sharp (my ancestor), James Sharp, and Isabella Carlisle.

Elizabeth married John Quayle, a shoemaker born circa 1825–1828 on the Isle of Man, as consistently recorded in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses. His specific parish of origin has not been confirmed. Elizabeth and her family arrived in St. Louis in late November 1850 aboard the ship James Pennell, which sailed from Liverpool on 2 October 1850 and arrived at New Orleans on 23 November 1850. The passengers continued up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, where they found employment and shelter. Elizabeth and John were married by 1852. Their eldest child Emily Emma was born in January 1853 in St. Louis. The 1860 Census has the family living in Meramec, St. Louis, Missouri. 1870 places them in Central, St. Louis, Missouri. 1880 places the family in St. Louis, where both of them died. By the 1880 Census, John had become a foreman in a pork house, probably the pork house of his brother-in-law James. The family seemed to have some difficulty accurately informing the census takers, their ages jump pretty wildly from the right year to up to nine years in difference.

Emily Emma Quayle was born January 1853 in St. Louis. She married Gustavus Crause on 16 March 1887 in St. Louis. He was born 1853 and died 1917. They had no children. Emily Emma died 1 February 1928 in St. Louis and was buried 3 February 1928 in New St. Marcus Cemetery, Affton.

John W Quayle was born 5 November 1855 in Illinois and died 12 May 1910 in St. Louis. He was buried on 15 May 1910 in New St. Marcus Cemetery, Affton. He married Laura Breitenstein on 19 June 1883 in St. Louis.

James H Quayle was born 15 February 1858 in St. Louis and died 6 September 1864 in St. Louis. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Isabella Quayle was born October 1861 in St. Louis and died 12 September 1864 in St. Louis, just six days after her brother James. She is also buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Margaret Quayle was born July 1864 in St. Louis and died 25 April 1866 in St. Louis. She is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery. Margaret was born the same summer James and Isabella died, and died before her second birthday. Elizabeth lost three children in less than two years.

Ida Quayle was born 29 June 1868 in St. Louis and died 13 November 1888 in St. Louis at age 20. She did not marry. She is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Public Lot G, Grave 5.

Elizabeth Quayle, known as Lizzie, was born December 1870 in St. Louis and died 25 June 1903 in St. Louis at age 32. She married William Dugan in 1892 in St. Louis. They had two children: William Dugan (born 1894) and Isabella Dugan (born 1897, died 1900). Elizabeth is buried in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis.

John Quayle died in St. Louis. The date has not been confirmed but he predeceased Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Sharp Quayle died on Thursday, 6 November 1908, at the family residence at 4825 Gravois Avenue, St. Louis. The death notice described her as the beloved mother of John Quayle, Mrs. Elizabeth Dugan, and Mrs. Krause, and the sister of James Sharp. Funeral services were held Friday, 7 November 1908, at 1:30 p.m. from the family residence. Elizabeth and James Sharp, according to records, did not join the LDS Church. They died within eight months of each other: James killed by a streetcar on 24 February 1908, Elizabeth passing on 6 November 1908. Elizabeth Sharp Quayle is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Section Fischer, Block 292, Lot 3742.

Death notice of Elizabeth Sharp Quayle, St. Louis, November 1908.