🠈 Wellsville, Utah 🠊
Wellsville, Utah is a city at the base of the Wellsville Mountains with a 2010 population of 3,432. The city borders includes the lower portion of Wellsville Canyon (sometimes called "Sardine Canyon") and US89.
The Wellsville Mountains is narrow but steep range of mountains separating the Cache and Salt Lake Valleys. Some cartographers consider the range to be a branch of the Wasatch range, while others like to consider the Wellsville Mountains to be a range unto itself. I admit, my sympathies lie with the former group.
Wellsville was first settled as Maughan's Fort in 1856 awarding Wellsville the distinction of being the first permanent settlement in the Cache Valley.
Daniel Hamner Wells
Wellsville is named after Daniel Hamner Wells (1814 – 1891). Mr. Wells was from a prominent colonial family. He moved to Commerce, Illinois before it was renamed Navou. Mr. Wells is noted for joining the Navou Legion before his conversion to Mormonism.
Mr Wells quickly achieved prominence in the new church and became an LDS Apostle.
Wells immigrated with the Mormon pioneers in 1848. On January 31, 1650 he drafted, in conjunction with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Apostles, Special Order #2 calling for the extermination of the Timpanogos Ute Tribe near Fort Utah (in Utah County). Wells led a detachment will killed 102 members of the tribe.
For his service the the church, Mr. Wells became second counselor to the First Presidency under Brigham Young in 1857. He was elected as the third mayor of Salt Lake City in 1866.
In 1870, Mr. Wells organized and founded the Peoples Party to offset a non-Mormon party called "The Liberal Party."
Mr. Wells had eight wives and thirty-six children. His eighth wife, Emmeline, became president of the LDS Relief Society.
References:
- Wikipedia - Daniel Wells (Drawn 6/29/2017)