COUNTY ARCHIVES – MARRIOTT SETTLE 1849

HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT OF MARRIOTT

1. SETTLEMENT OF MARRIOTT

The first attempt to settle northwest of the present-day Ogden took place in 1849-1850. Moses Tracy, Lorenzo Tracy, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rowe located in the extreme eastern portion of the present Marriott Ward on the land later known as Broom's Bench, named after John Broom in 1855. This bench is situated just inside of the present Ogden City limits. In the fall of 1850, Ensign Tracy, Harrison Keys, Isaac Oldecarte, Joseph Hancock, and four other families named respectively, Burns, Bell, Andrew, and Rolliston, moved to Broom's Bench but shortly thereafter left for Oregon. When the Indian troubles came in 1853, the settlers who still resided on Broom's Bench moved to Bingham's Fort, about two miles northeast, where most of them remained until 1856.

John Marriott, for whom the town was named, was its first permanent settler. In 1855 he was called by Lorin Farr, who was the leading personality in Weber County and who had charge of the colonizing program in this region under Governor Brigham Young's direction, to settle the portion of country now known as Marriott. He, his wife, Elizabeth Stewart Marriott, and their baby, Elizabeth, readily responded to Farr's call. On February 4, 1855, they located a short distance west and north of the crossroad in the center of the present townsite. Here the family lived at first in a wagon while Mr. Marriott made a small dugout without windows. This they used during stormy weather. Shelves were placed in the dugout and on one of them the baby was put to sleep while her mother carried water for half a mile. Upon her return, it was not uncommon to find snakes crawling over the bed in which the child was asleep. Before the year closed, however, John Marriott provided better living quarters for his family. He built the first log house erected in the settlement. Later an addition was made of adobes.

That first spring Mr. Marriott was actively engaged in clearing his land of brush for farming and providing water with which to irrigate. Unassisted, he dug the first ditch in 1855, which carried water from Ogden River to Marriott. Later a ditch was dug in connection with the Dinsdales on 17th Street up to where the Ogden Stadium is located. This gave Marriott preference rights to irrigation water. In due course of time the water was filed on in the State Engineer's office and a corporation formed known as the Marriott Irrigation Company under whose jurisdiction the community's irrigation water is handled today.

Later in 1855 other settlers joined the Marriott family, among whom were: Thomas Joyce, William Gill, William Beckington, Henry Reeder, Robert Hewitt, and Simon F. Halverson with their families. Within the next few years they were joined by Thomas Stanger, Caleb Parry, William Morris, George Stanger, James Burton, Mrs. Lilly, James Rycraft. William Hodson, Joseph Allen, Thomas Salisbury, Mr. Hill, Mr. Greenwood, and families. Thus, Marriott had received a population large enough to assure its permanency.

ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION

In 1856 the Saints in the Marriott district were organized as a branch of the Mormon church with John Marriott as presiding elder. He held this position until 1863 when the community was organized into a district with Simon F. Halverson as president and Thomas Joyce and William Gill as counselors. On May 28, 1877, the district was organized into the Marriott Ward. James Ritchie was appointed bishop with James Burton and Helen H. Tracy as counselors. Bishop Ritchie was still serving as head of the ward when the nineteenth century closed.

The various auxiliaries of the Church also functioned at Marriott. In 1867, the Sunday School was organized with Thomas S. Wadsworth, superintendent. On April 26, 1868, the combined Relief Society of Lynne (Five Points) and Marriott was organized with Ann Beckington as president, Liddie Gates and Nancy N. Tracy as counselors and Nancy Gates as secretary. Ten years later, Lynne and Marriott had separate Relief Society organizations. The Y.M.M.I.A., with H. H. Tracy president, was established in 1876, and the Y.L.M.I.A. was put into operation two years later. Its first president was Annie Madsen. In 1880, Elizabeth Marriott became president of the first Primary Association to be established in the community.

In 1886, the citizens of Marriott purchased an organ with funds received by donations. This was placed in the schoolhouse where they had been holding their church services since the erection of their first log schoolhouse twenty years earlier. It stood on the corner of 12th Street and the road running north and south in the center of the village. Thus, the people of Marriott had moved forward considerably in economic comforts since John Marriott and his family lived in a dugout during the winter of 1855.

At the close of the nineteenth century, Marriott had a population of 250 persons. They possessed 1,500 acres of good farming land, and many fine dwellings in the town showed signs of economic prosperity.