Our Beginnings From the Autobiography of Ervan Clegg (1899-1985)

Our Beginnings
From the Autobiography of Ervan Clegg (1899-1985)

The first time that I was in Tabiona was May, 1906. The Reservation was opened up for homesteading to white settlers September 5, 1905. Many people went there to homestead land for a future home. My sister and her husband Nephi Chatwin were among the new comers. So in May, the following spring, my father and mother helped move the Chatwins to their homestead, which was in the little valley straight north of the river crossing at the mouth of Golden Stair Hollow in Tabiona, then known as Upper Duchesne. I went with my parents, also drove the family cows, about six in number, from Heber City to Tabiona. At the time I was seven years old. There were only a very few white people here at the time. I think only the Maxwells, Robert Giles and family and some Indian families. No farm land had been put under cultivation except some at the mount of Stair Hollow by Ephriam Panowitz, an Indian who had his place, or part of it, under cultivation.

The Chatwins had erected a log house the fall of 1905, so they moved into the house in May 1906. Water was necessary to grow a garden. A small stream from the Toigut Spring was flowing down the wash, so father and Mr. Chatwin proceeded to build a ditch to bring the water from the wash in the hope that a garden could be grown for the family. Two or three days work had been done and the water diverted from its natural course. The Indian Tonigut had a small herd of sheep in the valley and when the water was brought to the home he camped his camp to near where the water was flowing so water for the camp would be available. .

I remember there used to be a store and beer hall, I think that was operated by Defa, on the Bench north of Chiarelli’s Farm, and just a few rods north of the business was a sign advertising a business place farther on. It read: "Phelp’s store down the hill above town", sounds odd but it was true. Fred Woolley and I road our horse from Tabiona to Phelp’s Store a distance of 9 miles and back just to buy a little candy and not more than 10 cents each. We could also buy store goods at Robert Giles’s Ranch, four miles below Tabiona. . .