BINGHAM’S FORT HISTORIC AREA

A SELF-GUIDED TOUR
OGDEN, UTAH

HISTORY

The first settlers of what would be Bingham’s Fort came to the area in 1849. In 1851 Erastus Bingham became bishop of the entire area north of Brown’s Settlement (Ogden). Settlers dotted the land with cabins, cultivated fields and devised irrigation systems. After an incident in 1850 in which an Indian leader and a settler were killed at Four Mile Creek in Harrisville, and because of Indian uprisings in Central Utah in 1853, Brigham Young advised the settlers in Weber County to “fort up.” Bingham’s Fort was located on both sides of Second Street and mainly west of Wall Avenue. Isaac N. Goodale laid out lots, and settlers “teamed” their cabins to the site or took the cabins apart and reassembled them inside the fort.

Because of the food shortage in 1854-1855, ironically some of the “friendly” Indians gave up their arms and also lived inside the fort. Destruction of property and demand for food by marauding Indians tried the struggling settlers’ patience, but Brigham Young’s policy of firm kindness prevailed, and there was no loss of life.

By 1854 Bingham’s Fort became a flourishing town of 732 souls, triple the population of Ogden. Other local forts were even smaller than Ogden. By 1855-56 several mercantile houses operated within the fort. Sam Gates ran a molasses mill. A block west of the mill the schoolhouse served as the center of community life for residents of Marriottsville, Slaterville, Tracy’s Bench, Broom’s Bench, Harrisville and other fledgling communities. Day school, Sabbath school, dances, quilting bees and spelling bees were held in the schoolhouse.

Trouble with the Indians faded by 1856, and the fort was no longer needed for protection. Brigham Young visited Bingham’s Fort and asked the residents to move to Ogden. Bingham’s Fort had grown faster than anticipated, and Ogden was intended to be the center of the city. Many residents moved into Ogden, and some moved to their farm sites. Others stayed in Bingham’s Fort area, and it remained a farming community for the next one hundred years. There is still a strong historic presence on West Second Street as seen in adobe granaries, wooden barns and farmhouses.

In 1863 the name of Bingham’s Fort was changed to Lynne Branch as suggested by Walter Thompson, a native of Lynne, Scotland. Robert Bard (pioneer 1857, Ireland), the Lynne Branch president and community leader, lived on the western edge of Lynne in the settlement of Slaterville, bordering Marriotsville which later became the site of the Ogden Defense Depot.

In 1866 the Lynne Post Office was established. In the 1870s and 1880s the children of the immigrants built houses in the old fort and eastward to Five Points where businesses were developing. Five Points was an area of multiple crossroads, and around 1880 there was again speculation as to whether Five Points or the downtown district of Ogden would grow more rapidly.

In 1888 Fred Pierce was nine years old when he helped the men tear down the remaining walls of stone and dirt that enclosed Bingham’s Fort. At that time the Indians still made their camp in the Bingham’s Fort meadows.

By the turn of the century, the business district at Five Points had more than twenty-five stores, and the Lynne Ward recorded 503 members.

Bingham’s Fort settlement is a history of ordinary people – not the wealthy or renowned, but hard working immigrants who gathered here to make homes. Like Mary Cruse Stone, they had to be resourceful to raise their families. Mary found a use for everything, and for every need she found something to supply that need. For example, she would run her finger around the dishpan to collect the grease that adhered to its side, put it on a piece of paper or cloth, and used it to grease her little boy’s shoes. Grease was very scarce, and shoe blacking was not available.

1. ERASTUS BINGHAM CABIN SITE & FARM
(PIONEER OF 1847, VERMONT)
317 WEST SECOND STREET

In 1853 this was the site of the log cabin of Erastus and Lucinda Gates (pioneer 1847, Vermont) Bingham. It was inhabited and loved by many families after the Binghams and occupied until the 1950s. In the 1950s Clyde and Macel Stone Montgomery carefully built their new home next to the cabin without disturbing it or the old pioneer well located in the back yard. They attached the back of their house to an adobe granary built in the 1890s by Andrew Mills when he resided in the cabin during the Lynne farming era. Mr. Mills used old rocks from the wall of the fort to construct the foundation for the granary.

Behind the granary is part of the Lynne Irrigation Ditch, which was engineered by Isaac Newton Goodale (pioneer 1847, New York) in 1851, and it still flows as it did long ago by the site of the south wall of Bingham’s Fort. The wall was built parallel to the ditch in 1853 for the convenience of mixing mud for the fort wall. China chips are still found in the bottom of the ditch where pioneer women scattered their broken china to keep the sediment down. This custom continued for decades.

As you proceed to 386 West Second, notice the large dead cottonwood tree on the north side of the street. It was a landmark in a meadow once belonging to Samuel Gates (pioneer 1852, Michigan). Great companies of Indians continued to come to this spot and camp from spring to fall in the 1880s and 1890s. Forty-five yards to the west you will pass through the location of the west wall of the fort.

Presently the Erastus Bingham cabin is located in Pioneer Village at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah.

2. JAMES STONE HOME (PIONEER OF 1853,
IOWA) 386 WEST SECOND STREET

This is a two-part home. The adobe half was purchased in the 1870s from George Gates by James Stone and his wife, Mary Ellen Melling (pioneer 1855, Wyoming). The log half was a late 1850s pioneer cabin belonging to the parents of James, William and Mary Cruse Stone from Slaterville. The cabin was “teamed up” and connected to the adobe house in the 1880s so that James could provide care for his mother. Two more rooms were added to the back of the home. James Stone died unexpectedly leaving Mary Ellen with five young children. Her mother, Ellen Knowles Melling (Salisbury), also came to live with them, bringing the total to three windows and five children; the oldest child was 12. They all worked together to manage the farm. Because of declining health, Mary Cruse Stone moved to 152 West Second Street to live with her daughter. It was under these conditions that Ellen Knowles Melling finished polishing the music to the LDS hymn “O Say What Is Truth”.

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3. JOHN A HUTCHENS HOME - 230 WEST SECOND STREET
4. JOSEPH A. HUTCHENS HOME - 214 WEST SECOND STREET

These two houses were built for the sons of William Hutchens, John A. Hutchens and Joseph A. Hutchens in the early 1890s.

In 1884 John married the girl across the street, Lois Brown, daughter of Alex Brown. John and Lois used a house design reminiscent of a southern style home with a long front porch similar to the house of John’s father. John was a farmer, a deputy sheriff, and then a policeman, patrolling Ogden City on a horse.

Joseph was listed as a carpenter for Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1892 Ogden City Directory. It is not known if he built this house, but the design is different from the houses of his father and brother. Joseph sold the house in 1900 and eventually became general foreman of the waterworks department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He married Mary L. Fife.

5. SITE OF THREE SCHOOLHOUSES AND VICTOR RENO HOME
198 WEST SECOND STREET

The schoolhouse site is the lot east of 214 West Second Street. It was built in 1852 and used for all public and church meetings. Isaac Newton Goodale and Henry Gibson were trustees, and Widow Green was the first teacher. In 1863 a new adobe schoolhouse replaced the original log structure. This was known as the corner of Mill Creek Lane and Bingham’s Lane (now Second Street).

In 1877 the adobe building was replaced by a third schoolhouse made of brick, measuring 24 x 40 feet. It was built at a cost of $2,300 with $300 spent on furniture. By 1891, the schoolhouse was used only for day school, and the Sabbath school was moved to the old Crawley Hall at Five Points. The lane north of Second Street on the west side of the school was then called Lynne Lane. In the late 1890s, the building and site were sold to Victor Reno for $500. Mr. Reno was born in Belfort, France. He moved to Ogden in 1885 and took up farming. He married Nellie Bune and lived in this house until 1936 when he died at the age of ninety-four. The house burned sometime in the 1970s.

6. ART STONE (PIONEER 1853, ENGLAND); ALEX BROWN (PIONEER 1848, NORTH CAROLINA); HENRY JAMES HOME 159 WEST SECOND STREET

This is a two-part structure. The rear is a stone house with a cellar underneath built in the late 1860s by Art Stone. At the time it was the only house in that part of the county with a cellar. These rooms still have log floors and inner walls of adobe. Art was highly favored by the Indians and allowed to participate in their games.

In 1873, Mr. Stone sold the rock house to Alexander and Amanda McMurty Brown. Alexander and his brother, Jesse, residing at 217 West Second, were sons of Captain James Brown. With their father, they took possession of Miles Goodyear property in 1848 and plowed the first furrows in Weber County. By the 1870s, both brothers resided on West Second Street and entertained neighborhood children with stories of their adventures with the Mormon Battalion.

In 1918, Henry James, a farmer, built the front part of the dwelling connecting it to the existing stone building. In 1936, when Mrs. James was digging in the yard on the east side of the house, she uncovered the grave of a Jesuit priest. The grave contained a large rosary, cruets for holy water, items for performing mass, clothing of a Jesuit priest and a false tooth. All of the items had been burned, leading the neighborhood residents to speculate concerning the year and circumstances of his death.

7. WILLIAM HUTCHENS HOME (PIONEER OF 1848, SOUTH CAROLINA)
152 WEST SECOND STREET

It was hard for William Hutchens to live in a log cabin after growing up in a South Carolina mansion. William and his wife, Mary Eliza Stone (pioneer of 1851, England), lived in five places before this one, and in each place William had always tried to build the best house obtainable.

Finished in the late 1860s, the first room was adobe with a later frame addition that included a long porch. There were three rooms and an upstairs. It was one of the first houses to be shingled and plastered in this part of the country. A mother-in-law room was built on the east side of the structure in the 1880s for Mary Cruse Stone who had been living previously with her son at 386 West Second. The granary was built in 1869. William served as a school trustee, a city councilman and in many Mormon ecclesiastical positions until the time of his death in 1885.

8. GEORGE PIERCE HOME (PIONEER OF 1852, ENGLAND)
140 WEST SECOND STREET

During the 1850s fort era, this acreage was owned by Sam Gates who built a molasses mill. In the 1860s, when there was no sugar cane in season, the water to the mill was turned off, and the large water wheel remained standing twelve to fifteen feet high in the dry riverbed. Children invented their own amusements, and the boys discovered a broken spot in the rim of the wheel where they could crouch, hold the spokes and revolve swiftly.

In the 1870s, Sam Gates sold six acres to George Pierce, a farmer with a keen interest in newspapers. He bought papers from the eastern states and peddled them to the settlers. He subscribed to the very first Ogden paper when it began in the 1870s.

George and his bride, Jane Romriel (pioneer of 1854, France), first lived in a small adobe house (west half of the structure) and later enlarged it to its present size in the 1890s.

9. PETER SHERNER HOME (PIONEER 1863, DENMARK)
122 SECOND STREET

Mary Elizabeth Hutchens and Peter Sherner built a one-room adobe house in 1874 using window casings and doors taken from an old house that Mary’s father, William Hutchens tore down. The land was considered a poor building site because of four anthills that stood higher than a person’s head. In addition the land was gorged out by an old crisscross channel of the Ogden River just back of their house. Sam Gates had erected a molasses mill near the edge of their place, and the old mill wheel still stood in the dry riverbed. It took a team of horses and scraper to level the land, take down the mill and make a home site. During the years that followed, the family grew, and the house grew to accommodate ten children.

10. THOMAS IRVINE HOME 136 SECOND STREET

Thomas Irvine and Julia Sherner were married in 1907 and moved into this newly built house. Two daughters and one son of Peter Sherner eventually owned property on Second Street. Thomas distinguished himself as a baseball pitcher. On one occasion a semi-professional team traveling to California stopped in Ogden to play a practice game. The game was played at Tabernacle Square in downtown Ogden. In that game, Thomas fanned 21 out of 27 men, and the final score was 9 to 1 in favor of Ogden. After that outstanding performance, scouts inquired to see whether he would consider a professional baseball career. Thomas served two missions for the LDS church and was employed by First Security Bank.

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11. PORTER PIERCE HOME 141 SECOND STREET
15. FRED PIERCE HOME 233 SECOND STREET

Fred and Porter Pierce, sons of George Pierce, both built houses on Second Street and were successful farmers in Weber County. Porter Pierce built the house at 141 Second Street in about 1900 and then rented it. Later he and his wife, Grietje Smit, moved into the house. The Oregon Short Line was built five feet beyond the picket fence in the front yard.

Fred and Hilma Hallen Pierce resided at 233 Second Street in 1921. This bungalow style was popular in the 1920s as evidenced by three similar versions of this style on Second Street. Mr. Pierce was a director of the Lynne Irrigation Company.

After the turn of the century, many residents of Second Street were farmers still using Brigham Young’s pattern of living in a neighborhood and farming elsewhere.

12. JAMES GARDNER HOME AND STORE (PIONEER APPROX. 1852, NEW YORK)
156 SECOND STREET

James and Mary Gates (pioneer 1852, Michigan) Gardner were married in 1852 and subsequently lived in a log cabin in Bingham’s Fort. In 1883, they received a deed for this two-room adobe, which featured two doors on the east side. Mary kept a little store in the front, and it became a gathering place for the boys in the evenings. Although Mary was an older lady, she held the respect of the young men that like to congregate there, and whenever any questions arose in their conversations, she served as the Bureau of Information. In the 1970s, a large addition was added to the back of the adobe house.

13. LAWRENCE SHERNER HOME 218 SECOND STREET

This house was built in 1901 for newlyweds Lawrence and Rozina Shaw Sherner. Behind the house were many buildings: a wash house, a chicken coup, a pig pen, a barn with a cow yard attached, an outhouse, and a divided coal shed with kindling kept to one side of the coal.

Mr. Sherner was farmer and manager of Ogden Paper Company. Among other things, he was known for outstanding strawberries; people came year after year and bought them by the case. Their daughter recalled how the house vibrated when the Oregon Short Line traveled on the tracks, which lay on the south side of Second Street. She remembered running out of the house when she heard the train coming to put two pins “crisscross” on the tracks before the train passed. The smashed pins would make what she called a pair of “old scissors”.

14. MORONI STONE HOME (PIONEER 1853, IOWA) 226 SECOND STREET

Moroni was three years old when he arrived in Slaterville in 1853 with his parents. Eventually, three of his brothers and one sister built homes on Second Street.

The date “1880” is inscribed on a corner brick of this house built for Moroni and his wife, Charlotte Gale. “Honest Rone Stone,” as he was called, was a farmer who loved horses and drove a horse-drawn sprinkling wagon over the dirt roads for Ogden City. The adobe front of this house has two rooms down and two rooms up with a wooden staircase. The middle of the home was built with soft brick, and a framed kitchen room was later added to the rear of the house. The couple had twelve children.

16. ANDERS GUSTAF ANDERSON HOME (PIONEER 1865, SWEDEN)
259 SECOND STREET

This structure currently houses a day care center. There are actually two homes connected beneath the current address. The home on the western end formerly had the address of 251 Second Street. This 1881 house was the first home of Anders and Alice Harrop (pioneer 1857, England) Anderson. It began as a two-room adobe structure, and as their family grew, they added three more brick rooms. Mr. Anderson was a farmer.

In 1907, one of their sons, Joseph Anderson, a carpenter, built a two-room frame house directly to the east at 259 Second Street for this bride, Viola Purdy. About twelve years later, he added more rooms. One of their five children recalled being afraid of the Indians who came to bed for food in the early 1920s. Her grandmother always fed the natives, who left a mark on her fence to tell other Indians that the people here were kind. The engineers passing by on the Oregon Short Line were friendly and threw lifesavers to the neighborhood children who, in season, threw back pears.

Illustrations of the sites drawn by
Dale Bryner

Compliments of:
OGDEN CITY LANDMARKS COMMISSION

This publication receives funding from a CLG Grant administered by the Department of the Interior under the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The financial assistance is for identification and preservation of historic properties under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

PLEASE DO NOT ENTER PRIVATE PROPERTY WITHOUT PERMISSION