ze until the tract was exhausted. The soil was rich; but here, as elsewhere in the northern part of Utah county, water was scarce. A supply was obtained by diverting a portion of the waters of American Fork creek, 18 and thereafter the affairs of the settlement prospered so rapidly that, in February 1852, the place was incorporated under the name of Lehi, or as it is sometimes written, Lehigh.
South-east of Lehi, on a plain about three miles east of Lake Utah, was founded, in 1850, a settlement
first known as Battle Creek, and afterward called Pleasant Grove. It was here that the first engagement with the natives occurred. Captain Scott with a band of thirty or forty men started south in pursuit of Indians who had stolen fourteen horses from Orr's herd, on Wilson Creek, in Utah Valley, and several cattle from Tooele Valley. The band was found encamped on a creek in the midst of willows and dense brushwood in a deep ravine. After a desultory fight of three or four hours, four Indians were killed, but none of the settlers. As was their custom, the women and children of the slain followed the victorious party to their camp. 19
In the neighborhood of Pleasant Grove were good farming land, good range for stock, and water-power, inducements which quickly attracted emigrants, and caused the place to thrive rapidly. In 1853 the present site was laid out, 20 and to this spot were transferred, on July 24th of that year, the effects of the community, then numbering seventy-five families.
Between Lehi and Pleasant Grove the village of American Fork was founded in 1850, on a site where were farming and grazing land of fair quality, a little timber, springs of fresh water, and a stream that could be easily diverted for purposes of irrigatiom. 21
About twenty miles south of Provo the settlement of Payson was laid out on the banks of the Peteetneet Creek; 22 a few miles to the north-east of Payson was founded a village named Palmyra, containing, at the close of 1852, fifty families; and in 1851, on Salt Creek,
twenty-five miles to the south, the site of Nephi, in Juab county, was first occupied by Joseph L. Heywood. Nephi was surveyed in the autumn of 1852, the spot being selected on account of its beauty and convenience. A fort was afterward built, surrounded by a wall twelve feet in height and six feet at the base. 23 Through this town passed the old California or southern road made by the pioneers in 1849; and here, in cabins built of mud and willows, lived, at the close of 1852, more than forty families. 24
I have mentioned that Isaac Morley with two hundred settlers went into the San Pete country in 1848. On the 14th of June, 1849, a council was held at Salt Lake City, at which were present a Ute chief named Walker, 25 and twelve of his tribe. After the pipe of peace had been passed around, Walker declared himself a friend of the settlers, and asked their sachem to send a party southward to the valley of San Pete, where they might teach his people how to build and farm. "Within six moons," answered Brigham, "I will send you a company." In the spring of this year the party sent to explore this valley had already selected the site of the present town of Manti, on a branch of the San Pete Creek, though there was little in the neighborhood to invite the settler, sage brush and rabbit brush, the red man and the coyote, being
the principal features. In November the town was laid out. 26 The name of Manti was suggested by Brigham, who declared that on this spot should be raised one of the cities spoken of in the book of Mormon, and here he built with his own hands an adobe house, which in 1883 was still pointed out to visitors as one of the curiosities of the place. 27
On Chalk Creek, in Pahvan Valley, south-west of Manti and about a hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake City, a site was chosen by Brigham, in October 1851, for the capital of the territory, and named Fillmore, in honor of the president. 28 During 1852 the foundations of the state-house were laid, and many private buildings erected, the settlement numbering about seventy f