The Black Hawk War
Any settlement of the Washburns in Monroe (or Alma as it was then called) was postponed because of Indian problems. In 1865, a full-scale war erupted between the settlers and several bands of Utes under the leadership of Chief Black Hawk. For over three years, extensive conflict and devastation was experienced throughout Sanpete and Sevier Counties, and to a lesser extent, in the southern portions of the Utah Territory.(The Black Hawk war was the last and most costly of the Utah Indian Wars. One historian reports that it might have been avoided or brought to a speedy conclusion had the United States government delivered its obligations in money and goods as promised. The war began as an incident during a peace conference in Manti on 9 April 1865. John Lowry became involved in a personal controversy with a young Ute chief Yenewood whom he i claimed had stolen his horses. "John dragged him from the horse and proceeded to thrash him. Messengers carried the war spirit to distant Indian encampments and Chief Black Hawk emerged as the Ute leader. The depredations spread across Paiute, Sevier, and Sanpete Counties. The settlements in Kane, Iron, Beaver, Juab and Wasatch Counties were also forced to adopt costly protective measures" (see Gustive 0. Larson, Outline History of Utah and the Mormons, pp. 159-160). Obviously, Manti was in the center of the controversy)
In May 1865, the Black Hawk War commenced, and Abraham Washburn with nearly every other man in Sanpete and surrounding counties had to help protect themselves, their families, and property from their savage foes. There was standing guard on the outposts of the settlements, guarding the cattle in large corrals where they had been brought for safety, and many duties incident to such a time.
Most of the confrontations between settlers and Utes occurred during the spring, summer and fall months, which were critical months for the settlers to plow, plant, irrigate, and harvest crops. During the winter months, Black Hawk and his band camped in Castle Valley, between Fish Lake and the Green and Colorado Rivers. During 1865, the Indians reportedly drove off as many as 2000 cattle, occasionally killing settlers and travelers. The pioneers of the county also battled a grasshopper infestation in 1865 that destroyed much of their crops.' (M. Guy Bishop, A History of Sevier County, Utah State Historical Society, 1997, pp. 70-71. 15)
Those who were living in the parts of the country affected by that war will remember the feeling of dread and excitement which took hold of every individual at the sound of the bass drum in the night time. That was the signal that the Indians had made a raid on some settlement, or had killed some individuals, or were running off the cattle from some section of the country. It was also the signal for every able bodied man to gather on the public square, ready for immediate action. The mothers and children were terrified as the fathers and big brothers dressed hurriedly, took what guns, often an old musket, and ammunition and rushed out into the darkness to learn what had happened and if necessary to go in pursuit of Indians. . . All members of the family left at home would huddle into some corner filled with anxiety waiting for news of the cause of the night call.
There were many soldier boys, volunteers from Salt Lake and surrounding country who came to Manti to help the settlers during that war, and their headquarters was in the little fort just back of Abraham Washburn's corrals. His young son, Hyrum, often helped take care of their horses, and many are the good meals that some of the officers and men ate at his home. Among the soldiers was Benjamin Ashby (This is the same Benjamin Ashby whose journal is quoted above), an old friend of Brother Washburns. As I remember it, Mr. Vance and Houtz, two soldiers from the camp who ate their breakfast at our house in the morning were killed during the day at Twelve Mile Creek, by Indians in ambush. Mr. Washburn had an old style flint lock musket with a bayonet on the end, which he had used as a member of the Nauvoo Legion, but when the Indians got on the war path, he sold a fine young ox valued at 40 dollars for a new Bollard gun.
There were a few Indians who had worked for Brother Washburn prior to the war, and some of them loved him dearly for his kindness to them and his honesty in his dealings with them. Among them was Indian Joe, a chief, and on a few occasions when the whites were in battles with them, or very close on their trail, he would call to some man who he knew and send a message to Brother Washburn and others of his dear friends. On some occasions, when cattle were being driven off, he would turn back some that had the brand of his special friends on them. It was understood quite generally among the men that he was the friend of the whites.
Years after that war, Indian Joe met some of Abraham Washburn's sons in Grass Valley and he hugged and kissed them for the love which he bore for their father. On one occasion after Abraham moved to Monroe, the son on Indian Joe, who was now a chief, brought his band of Indians there, and when he saw Brother Washburn he was overjoyed and gave him his finest buffalo robe as a token of his father's love for him.
Hyrum and Parley Washburn have both stated that while living in Manti, about the year 1862-63, that grasshoppers had almost destroyed the crops, and when the next planting time came, seed wheat was so scarce that their father was compelled to plant the small amount of 15 pounds per acre, but through the blessings of the Lord, he reaped 45 bushels per acre. (There were many battles with crickets and grasshoppers. In 1865 there was a grasshopper infestation that destroyed much of their crops (see M. Guy Bishop, A History ofSevier County, Utah State Historical Society, 1997, pp. 70-71))
In 1870, the Utah Federal Census lists Abraham as having a household of eight, with a real wealth of $500 and a personal wealth of$700. (Utah Federal Census, 1870)
The Move to Monroe
After the Indian war in the fall of 1871, Brother Washburn took a part of his family, sons and sons-in-law, and went to Monroe to see what the prospects were for getting farms, as his great desire was to keep the family together. They all decided to move to Monroe the next spring, so his sons and sons-in-law worked a part of that winter on the old canal along with William Warnock, one of their Manti friends, who had decided to move with them. In the spring of 1872, they sold their possessions at Manti and moved to Monroe. Brother Washburn continued to work at his trade of shoemaking but he sent to Salt Lake City for his supplies of all kinds. At that time many men were working in the Marysvale mines and from them he received many orders for fine boots and shoes, which were promptly filled. (Mining in Marysvale, Piute County, began in 1878 when George Thomas Henry and Joseph Smith discovered gold just outside Marysvale. Later mercury, silver, potash, and alunite (used in fertilizer and to produce alum which was used medicinally to stop bleeding) was also found. Linda King Newell, A History of Piute County, Utah State Historical Society, 1999, pp. 108-109, 222-223)
After a few years, the United Order came and Brother Washburn was called to go to Glenwood and preside over a county tannery to make leather mainly for people in the United Order in Sevier County (On 2 October 1874 a branch of the United Order was organized in Glenwood (see Irvin L. Wamock, Sevier County Centennial History, Art City Publishing, Springville, Utah, 1947, p. 176). The plan usually entailed that participants deed all their property and labor to the church, receiving in return what they needed to live on from the local order's officials, usually the bishop and stake president. At the quarterly conference of the Sevier Stake in November 1877, the United Order in Sevier County was dissolved. In concluding this endeavor, the Apostle Orson Hyde reportedly said, ". . . you have tried to do the will of the Lord, and it will be a record in your favor" (see M. Guy Bishop, A History of Sevier County, pp. 91-93). The tannery was located on the stream in the canyon above ' Glenwood, below where the fish hatchery is currently located). He held this position until the order was dissolved. He had Andrew Helper, Charles Segmiller, Rudolph Richambough and others working under his supervision in that tannery (According to the Venice and Sevier County books, the proper spellings are Heppler, Richenbach, and Seegmiller). The Washburn family turned everything they owned except their house, lot, and sewing machine into the United Order. His wife, Tamer, kept house for him there. It was while living in Glenwood that Tamer received a legacy of a few hundred dollars from her father's estate in New York (This would have been sometime between 1874 and 1877. Her father had died in 1809. It is believed that her mother died in 1861). Again her liberality and generosity were exhibited. She gave fine presents to all her children and to members of Flora Clarinda's family. Lorena received cloth for a new dress and a new clock and dress were given to Flora Clarinda.
Before the United Order was organized, Brother Washburn dreamed that he saw President William Segmiller, who was then president of Sevier Stake and Thompson Lisonbee, the bishop of Monroe, holding men down and forcibly shaving their whiskers off. In the years that followed, the dream was fulfilled, not exactly in the way in which he saw it. President Segmiller was appointed County President of the Order, and Brother Lisonbee the President of Monroe.
Brother Washburn was always looking for ways to serve God or his fellow man. He was a saint in every sense of the word. He was a gentle, kindly nurse in his own family. His wife, Clarinda, was always busy with many public duties, and often when members of the family were not well, Brother Washburn would nurse the children while his wife, Clarinda, went out to nurse, comfort and cheer others. At Christmas time early in the 1870's, the Washburn relatives joined together and had a large Christmas tree, the first one in Monroe, and Abraham was Santa Claus.
Shortly after they arrived in Monroe, [Abraham] went to the hot springs, cleaned it out, and bathed there very often (The hot springs are located a half mile east ofMonroe, and cover an area one quarter mile wide and about a mile long. The land was filed upon by Thomas Cooper in 1882, and in 1886 Cooper built a box of lumber ' and lined it so it was water tight. This became the first swimming pool in the locality. A few years later Cooper erected a building that included a pool and dressing rooms. In 1908, it was sold to Beck Industrial Company. Beck planned to establish a chicken ranch and use the hot springs for hatching chickens. The ranch was never established and the Coopers regained ownership. In 1911, the property was sold to Mountain View Hot Springs Company and a large open air pool was built. In 1915, the property was returned to the Coopers (see Wilford and Mildred Murdock, Monroe, Utah: Its First One-Hundred Years, published by the Monroe Centennial Committee, 1964, 62-64). The pool is currently closed). His son Parley was entirely healed by bathing in that spring, from a pain which had settled in his left shoulder at the time he had measles when he was a small boy, about the year 1864-65. Abraham Washburn was a peace loving man, who always put oil on the troubled waters and tried to draw the innermost feelings of people together, and cement them with love and good fellowship. He looked for the good, the genuine qualities in his fellow men.
In the early days of Monroe, there was a crowd of boys who did many things which were very disagreeable to some of the people. Mr. Washburn said that anyone who is capable of doing mean things, is just as capable of doing good if you could just get them turned in the right direction. So he often visited the leader of this crowd of boys, Samuel McCarty, and had long talks with him and found him to be very intelligent and he tried to turn the young man's feet into paths of usefulness. He said all the mischief had come through misdirected energy.
Abraham Washburn was a very hospitable man and had many fine friends throughout the country, dear friends whom he had known and associated with in Nauvoo, friends whom he had met and worked with in Winter Quarters, and on his journey across the plains, and his friends were often his guests. His home often resembled a free hotel. Even in the early days in Monroe, when hay was very scarce, I have known times when he has fed as many as 11 teams in one night, teams belonging to his traveling friends, who were also housed and fed. His children sometimes felt that it was quite a burden to have so many people to look after. He never made a charge for food nor shelter.
Mr. Washburn and his friends, after the evening meal, would sit until a late hour relating their early experiences in the Church, and discussing religious problems. Those who listened to those discussions grew spiritually while volumes of unwritten Church history was given verbally by those who took part in it. And to those yet living, those talks of the early days are treasured memories.
Brother Washburn was ordained a patriarch for Sevier County by Apostle Albert Carlington in 1884. He gave 162 patriarchal blessings in 19 months. Professor B. F. Larsen, his then small grandson, received the first blessing.
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