n the space enclosed by the stockade was a mound, the top of which was levelled, and on a platform bulk thereon were mounted several twelve-pounders for the purpose of intimidating the Indians. But the Indians were not to be thus intimidated. In the autumn they began to steal the grain and cattle of the white men, and one of their number being killed while in the act of pilfering, hostilities broke out and the fort was soon in a state of siege.
Indeed, ill feeling on the part of the Indians had begun to show itself the previous year. Vasquez and Bridger wrote to Brigham on the 17th of April, 1849, that the Utes were badly disposed toward Americans, and that chiefs Elk and Walker were urging the Utes to attack the settlements in Utah Valley. The brethren were advised to protect themselves, but if the Indians were friendly, to teach them to raise grain, and "order them to quit stealing." Brigham was persuaded that Bridger was his enemy, and expressed the conviction that he and the other mountaineers were responsible for all the Indian trouble, and that he was watching every movement of the Mormons and reporting to Thomas H. Benton at Washington. 11 Alexander Williams and D. B. Huntington were empowered by the council to trade exclusively with the Indians on behalf of the community.
On the 31st of January, 1850, Isaac Higbee, of Fort Utah, reported at Salt Lake that the Indians of Utah Valley had stolen fifty or sixty head of cattle or horses, threatening further depredations, and asked permission to chastise them, which was granted. General Daniel H. Wells then called for volunteers from the militia, and on the 4th of February Captain George D. Grant started with a company for Utah Fort, followed soon after by Major Andrew Lytle.
[paragraph continues] The Indians were attacked on the 8th, and took refuge in a log house, whence they were dislodged next day, and driven into the thicket along the Provo River. In this encounter Joseph Higbee was killed, and Alexander Williams, Samuel Kearns, Albert Miles, Jabez Nowland, and two men named Orr and Stevens were wounded.
On the 11th the Indians fled from the thicket to Rock Cañon, whither the volunteers pursued them; but failing to find them, the white men proceeded to the west and south sides of Utah Lake, and shot all they could find there.
During the expedition twenty-seven warriors were killed. The women and children threw themselves upon the settlers for protection and support, and were fed and cared for in Salt Lake City until spring. Thus Utah Valley was entirely rid of hostile Indians. Until 1852 there was no further trouble with them of a serious nature; 12 and thus ended the first Indian war of Utah, which like all the others was rather a tame affair. It was the mission of the Mormons to convert the Indians, who were their brethren, and not to kill them.
Later in the year was founded the city of Provo, 13 somewhat to the eastward of Fort Utah, near the western base of the Wasatch Mountains, on a site where timber and pasture were abundant, 14 and where the gradual fall of the Timpanogos affords excellent water-power. In March 1851 it was organized as a stake of Zion. The settlement was pushed forward with the energy characteristic of the settlers. Before the close of 1850 more than twenty dwellings
had been completed; 15 and before the end of 1851 the place began to wear the appearance of a town, among the buildings in course of erection being a touring-mill and two hotels; manufactures were started; all were busy the livelong day at farm or workshop, and in the evening, writes Elder Isaac Higbee, in February 1852, "We have on Monday singing-school, on Tuesday lyceum, on Wednesday seventies' meeting, on Thursday prayer-meeting, on Friday spelling-school, and on Saturday the meeting of the lesser priesthood." 16
On Dry Creek, near the head of Lake Utah and about sixteen miles northwest of Provo, a settlement was formed in 1851, named Evansville. 17 The neighboring lands were surveyed in lots of forty acres, and to each new settler as he arrived was given a plat of this si