Description

The First Decade of Settlement Comes to an End

After persevering through the hardships of their new settlement’s first seven years of existence – deadly conflicts with Utah Valley’s Native Americans; drought; grasshopper infestations; the cold, killing winter of 1855/1856; and the initiation of the stringent Mormon Reformation – Provo’s inhabitants hoped that the last three years of the first decade of settlement would be easier. They were to be extremely disappointed. The final months of reformation, the so-called Utah War, the Move South, and Judge John Cradlebaugh’s controversial federal court session in Provo all occurred during the last three years of the first decade of settlement.