Cache County (Utah)

Though others had been in the valley some time previous, the first real settlement of Cache Valley began in 1856 at the direct counsel of Brigham Young, who made the decision after hearing of the severe problems in the Tooele settlement to the west of Salt Lake City. Brigham Young wrote to Peter Maughan inviting him to "pick out a location in Cache Valley for a settlement" (34). A group of approximately nine men and their families went to the valley where they camped at the southern end and built two rows of small cabins, this settlement was later became Wellsville. During that first year more families came and by 1857, thirteen houses were erected.

When the President of the United States ordered troops to march on Utah to ‘put down the Mormon rebellion', known as the Utah War, Cache Valley settlers fled south to rendezvous with fellow Latter-day Saint near modern day Provo, Utah. After the Utah War had ended, the original settlers returned to Cache Valley in 1859 accompanied by several new families, making a total of thirty families. That year, settlers migrated to Cache Valley in greater numbers and founded the North Settlement (later Mendon), Providence, Logan, Richmond, and Smithfield. The 1860 U.S. Census listed the total population as "2,605 persons in the valley" (48). By 1890, Logan was a "beautiful modern city and had become the business, educational, political, and religious center of Cache Valley" (59).

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