Individual Details
William CARTER
(12 Feb 1821 - 1896)
Notes for WILLIAM CARTER:
Source: William Carter Family Organization
% Mary Ann Smith 2333 Campus Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84121
Also sealed to parents 25 March 1936 Alberta Temple (according to
Baptism certificate of William Carter held by Lena Christiansen, according to
William Carter and Harriet Temperance Utley were married and sealed on
William Carter was married to three wives. He was sealed to Sarah Elizabeth
BAPTIZED: by Edward Ockey according to History written by Harriet Carter
First in the West: FIRST PLOWING IN UTAH WAS DONE JULY 23, 1847
Taken from THE DESERET NEWS, April 10, 1947
William Carter is credited with having plowed the first half acre of soil in Salt Lake Valley, though Levi Kendall and Bishop Taft also intended to help prepare the ground for planting.
William Carter says, "July 23, 1847, I put in my plow on the south side of the 13th Ward, opposite Tuft's Hotel, on the west side of the block. Levi Kendall and Bishop Taft put in their plow and broke the beam; this was close to camp and they could not plow. Farther south I plowed about half an acre before any other teams came. This took place about noon." (Heart Throbs of the West compiled by Kate B. Carter.)
Plowing and planting would have been useless had it not been for the irrigation projects that kept the produce growing. This first furrow was the beginning of an irrigation system and an agricultural endeavor that amazed the world.
For the first bushel of corn raised, Jim Bridger offered to pay $1000. Flour raised in the valleys of Utah sold for $1 per pound to California gold seekers, and $25 per 100 pounds after harvests.
Agriculture proved to be the only dependable method of obtaining food for the thousands of emigrants gathering in Utah with the coming of the pioneers. The first furrow plowed deep into soil that has kept the west alive.
By 1849, 130,000 bushels of cereals were raised on about 17,000 acres of land and by 1880 more than 1259 bushels of grain were raised from 17 acres of the soil first plowed in Salt Lake valley.
CARTER'S FIRST UTAH PLOWING
STARTED AMERICAN IRRIGATION
taken from THE SALT LAKE TELEGRAM, Tuesday July 21, 1936
On July 23, 1847, a young man named William Carter took a shovel from his trail-worn wagon, which a few hours before had been stopped on the bank of a creek flowing into the Great Salt Lake valley from the north.
The ground about the campsite was barren, hard and burnt by sun, bitten by desert winds. A plow with which some men had attempted to turn a furrow had been broken.
William Carter sank the shovel in the low bank of the creek, cut an opening and let the clear mountain water run out across the rocklike earth. Presently, when the soil had absorbed the water, he shut it off.
Sank Furrow
He turned to his team and plow and sank the first furrow in the great basin beyond the mountains. But even more important than the plowing of the first furrow was the act of turning the water over the earth. This was the first irrigating done by an Anglo-Saxon on the American Continent.
When westerners of today consider the fact that a greater part of the inter-mountain empire would be barren desert if it were not for irrigation, the significance of William Carter's act becomes apparent.
On this day, July 23, 1847, Brigham Young had not yet arrived in the valley. He was to look out across it from his sick bed in the carriage of Wilford Woodruff, as the vehicle was stopped on Emigration Point, the next day . . .July 24, 1847.
Empire Building Begun
But the advance guard of the pioneer party . . . comprising 42 men who reached the valley on July 22. . . had begun to build the empire . . .by preparing to cultivate the desert soil.
The ground in which William Carter did his irrigating . . . at first turning water on the ground to soften it, and later to soak the seeds . . . was located on the northeast corner formed by the intersection of State road and Emigration street. Those streets are known today as State street and Broadway. At that time, the place had appealed to him as suitable for planting. The surrounding valley held few tracks and no trails.
From Auerbach Files
Mr. Herbert Auerbach, bibliophile and collector of Mormonania, has spent considerable time in gathering all available data on this historic event. It is from the files of his collection that most of the records pertaining to the first irrigation work and the first plowing in Utah have been taken.
The following not is included: "On July 23, 1847, William Carter, one of the members of Pratt's hundred, took over about a half acre of arid land near City creek and dug a ditch to bring the waters of the City creek to this land, where he planted potatoes. The ground was so dry and hard that he found it necessary to irrigate it before it could be plowed. Mr. Carter, who later moved to St. George, Washington County, wrote that he plowed this half acre before any other team came into what was later Salt Lake City. President Wilford Woodruff planted the potatoes.
Claim Supported
"This claim of Carter's is substantiated by Bancroft, History of Utah, page 261; also by Whitney, History of Utah, page 331. It was confirmed in conversations with the following early pioneers: Harrison Sperry, Erastus Snow, Bishop Charles Nibley, Z. Stewart of Tooele, Peter Peterson and Andrew Jensen.
"Shortly thereafter a number of the settlers started irrigation work and Pratt and his company cut some grass and prepared a turnip patch.
"This potato irrigation by William Carter marked the first irrigation in Deseret and the first irrigation by Anglo-Saxons in North America. The success of Carter's potato experiment was demonstrated by a crop the following fall, proving to the settlers that irrigation was practicable."
Medal Awarded
In the Covered Wagon Days celebration of 1888, William Carter's contribution to western civilization was recognized and a gold medal was struck for him. It was to be presented at fitting exercises at the Tabernacle on July 24. But unfortunately William Carter was incarcerated in the state prison, having been sent there as a polygamist by the federal government. The exercises were carried out nevertheless, as reported in the eminent Salt Lake Daily Herald of July 25, 1888:
"C.R. Savage was called upon to make a few remarks concerning the plow that turned the first sod in Utah. The honor of presenting to the audience all that remained of the old plow had, he said, devolved upon him, and he took great pleasure in the task. The gentleman who used the plow was not present, but he sent a letter (from the penitentiary) as follows:
"Dear Brother - It may interest some of our people to have a few items of the plow now in the museum, with which I broke the first sod in Utah. I had it made by Brother Hoge, just before I left Nauvoo in 1846, and when I reached Garden Grove (a stopping place on the emigrant trail westward) I used it to plow the land there for two weeks. Thus it became the pioneer plow at that place, and when I moved to St. George I used this same plow to break the first land in that place. So you see it had never failed to be the pioneer plow wherever it has been taken. Yours truly, William Carter."
"Here's that bit of iron." said the speaker, holding up all that remained of the pioneer plow ..."
Letter Read
Being ill on the day of this celebration to the west's first irrigator, President Wilford Woodruff of the LDS Church was usable to attend. However, he sent a letter which was read to the vast throng in the tabernacle by B.F. Cummings. It said in part: "We arrived in the encampment at 11:30 on the morning of July 24, 1847. The brethren had already turned out City creek and irrigated the dry and barren soil, being the first irrigation ever performed by any one in these mountains in this age. They had also begun to plow some, and that noble pioneer, William Carter, whose circumstances prevent his meeting with the pioneers today, broke the first ground and laid the first furrow. The plowshare that performed the work is on the stand today. On my arrival in camp, before I ate by dinner, I planted two bushels of potatoes in the ground broken up..."
The following memorandum is in the Auerbach collection:
Residents of Corner
"The Calkins family lived in a small adobe house...at the corner of State road and Emigration street...The Calkins family lived there for a number of years. Ann Eliza Webb and her mother lived there for a short time, probably in the early 70s. After Ann Eliza Webb, Emily Partridge Young lived there. Later Brigham Young bought the property and Zina D. Huntington Young lived there a number of years. She sold the property to a Boston syndicate, which built the Knutsford Hotel...On the east border of the Calkins corner. Hamilton Park resided..."
Thus several noted Mormon people resided on the corner where the first irrigation was done in the hemisphere, adding to the historic value of the site.
[Shanna Jones.FTW]
William Carter's christening record lists "of Bishop Street, labourer", referring to his father, at Ledbury Parish Church. William Carter and Harriet Temperance Utley were married and sealed on 27 Nov 1853 in Brigham Young's Office by Brigham Young himself. The record of that sealing was added to the Endowment House records when the Endowment House was reopened. (Mary Ann Smith) William Carter was married to three wives. He was sealed to Sarah Elizabeth Utley, a sister of Harriet Utley, his second wife. Sarah Utley died crossing the plains to Utah. Harriet allowed William, her husband to have her deceased sister sealed to him.
Source: William Carter Family Organization
% Mary Ann Smith 2333 Campus Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84121
Also sealed to parents 25 March 1936 Alberta Temple (according to
Baptism certificate of William Carter held by Lena Christiansen, according to
William Carter and Harriet Temperance Utley were married and sealed on
William Carter was married to three wives. He was sealed to Sarah Elizabeth
BAPTIZED: by Edward Ockey according to History written by Harriet Carter
First in the West: FIRST PLOWING IN UTAH WAS DONE JULY 23, 1847
Taken from THE DESERET NEWS, April 10, 1947
William Carter is credited with having plowed the first half acre of soil in Salt Lake Valley, though Levi Kendall and Bishop Taft also intended to help prepare the ground for planting.
William Carter says, "July 23, 1847, I put in my plow on the south side of the 13th Ward, opposite Tuft's Hotel, on the west side of the block. Levi Kendall and Bishop Taft put in their plow and broke the beam; this was close to camp and they could not plow. Farther south I plowed about half an acre before any other teams came. This took place about noon." (Heart Throbs of the West compiled by Kate B. Carter.)
Plowing and planting would have been useless had it not been for the irrigation projects that kept the produce growing. This first furrow was the beginning of an irrigation system and an agricultural endeavor that amazed the world.
For the first bushel of corn raised, Jim Bridger offered to pay $1000. Flour raised in the valleys of Utah sold for $1 per pound to California gold seekers, and $25 per 100 pounds after harvests.
Agriculture proved to be the only dependable method of obtaining food for the thousands of emigrants gathering in Utah with the coming of the pioneers. The first furrow plowed deep into soil that has kept the west alive.
By 1849, 130,000 bushels of cereals were raised on about 17,000 acres of land and by 1880 more than 1259 bushels of grain were raised from 17 acres of the soil first plowed in Salt Lake valley.
CARTER'S FIRST UTAH PLOWING
STARTED AMERICAN IRRIGATION
taken from THE SALT LAKE TELEGRAM, Tuesday July 21, 1936
On July 23, 1847, a young man named William Carter took a shovel from his trail-worn wagon, which a few hours before had been stopped on the bank of a creek flowing into the Great Salt Lake valley from the north.
The ground about the campsite was barren, hard and burnt by sun, bitten by desert winds. A plow with which some men had attempted to turn a furrow had been broken.
William Carter sank the shovel in the low bank of the creek, cut an opening and let the clear mountain water run out across the rocklike earth. Presently, when the soil had absorbed the water, he shut it off.
Sank Furrow
He turned to his team and plow and sank the first furrow in the great basin beyond the mountains. But even more important than the plowing of the first furrow was the act of turning the water over the earth. This was the first irrigating done by an Anglo-Saxon on the American Continent.
When westerners of today consider the fact that a greater part of the inter-mountain empire would be barren desert if it were not for irrigation, the significance of William Carter's act becomes apparent.
On this day, July 23, 1847, Brigham Young had not yet arrived in the valley. He was to look out across it from his sick bed in the carriage of Wilford Woodruff, as the vehicle was stopped on Emigration Point, the next day . . .July 24, 1847.
Empire Building Begun
But the advance guard of the pioneer party . . . comprising 42 men who reached the valley on July 22. . . had begun to build the empire . . .by preparing to cultivate the desert soil.
The ground in which William Carter did his irrigating . . . at first turning water on the ground to soften it, and later to soak the seeds . . . was located on the northeast corner formed by the intersection of State road and Emigration street. Those streets are known today as State street and Broadway. At that time, the place had appealed to him as suitable for planting. The surrounding valley held few tracks and no trails.
From Auerbach Files
Mr. Herbert Auerbach, bibliophile and collector of Mormonania, has spent considerable time in gathering all available data on this historic event. It is from the files of his collection that most of the records pertaining to the first irrigation work and the first plowing in Utah have been taken.
The following not is included: "On July 23, 1847, William Carter, one of the members of Pratt's hundred, took over about a half acre of arid land near City creek and dug a ditch to bring the waters of the City creek to this land, where he planted potatoes. The ground was so dry and hard that he found it necessary to irrigate it before it could be plowed. Mr. Carter, who later moved to St. George, Washington County, wrote that he plowed this half acre before any other team came into what was later Salt Lake City. President Wilford Woodruff planted the potatoes.
Claim Supported
"This claim of Carter's is substantiated by Bancroft, History of Utah, page 261; also by Whitney, History of Utah, page 331. It was confirmed in conversations with the following early pioneers: Harrison Sperry, Erastus Snow, Bishop Charles Nibley, Z. Stewart of Tooele, Peter Peterson and Andrew Jensen.
"Shortly thereafter a number of the settlers started irrigation work and Pratt and his company cut some grass and prepared a turnip patch.
"This potato irrigation by William Carter marked the first irrigation in Deseret and the first irrigation by Anglo-Saxons in North America. The success of Carter's potato experiment was demonstrated by a crop the following fall, proving to the settlers that irrigation was practicable."
Medal Awarded
In the Covered Wagon Days celebration of 1888, William Carter's contribution to western civilization was recognized and a gold medal was struck for him. It was to be presented at fitting exercises at the Tabernacle on July 24. But unfortunately William Carter was incarcerated in the state prison, having been sent there as a polygamist by the federal government. The exercises were carried out nevertheless, as reported in the eminent Salt Lake Daily Herald of July 25, 1888:
"C.R. Savage was called upon to make a few remarks concerning the plow that turned the first sod in Utah. The honor of presenting to the audience all that remained of the old plow had, he said, devolved upon him, and he took great pleasure in the task. The gentleman who used the plow was not present, but he sent a letter (from the penitentiary) as follows:
"Dear Brother - It may interest some of our people to have a few items of the plow now in the museum, with which I broke the first sod in Utah. I had it made by Brother Hoge, just before I left Nauvoo in 1846, and when I reached Garden Grove (a stopping place on the emigrant trail westward) I used it to plow the land there for two weeks. Thus it became the pioneer plow at that place, and when I moved to St. George I used this same plow to break the first land in that place. So you see it had never failed to be the pioneer plow wherever it has been taken. Yours truly, William Carter."
"Here's that bit of iron." said the speaker, holding up all that remained of the pioneer plow ..."
Letter Read
Being ill on the day of this celebration to the west's first irrigator, President Wilford Woodruff of the LDS Church was usable to attend. However, he sent a letter which was read to the vast throng in the tabernacle by B.F. Cummings. It said in part: "We arrived in the encampment at 11:30 on the morning of July 24, 1847. The brethren had already turned out City creek and irrigated the dry and barren soil, being the first irrigation ever performed by any one in these mountains in this age. They had also begun to plow some, and that noble pioneer, William Carter, whose circumstances prevent his meeting with the pioneers today, broke the first ground and laid the first furrow. The plowshare that performed the work is on the stand today. On my arrival in camp, before I ate by dinner, I planted two bushels of potatoes in the ground broken up..."
The following memorandum is in the Auerbach collection:
Residents of Corner
"The Calkins family lived in a small adobe house...at the corner of State road and Emigration street...The Calkins family lived there for a number of years. Ann Eliza Webb and her mother lived there for a short time, probably in the early 70s. After Ann Eliza Webb, Emily Partridge Young lived there. Later Brigham Young bought the property and Zina D. Huntington Young lived there a number of years. She sold the property to a Boston syndicate, which built the Knutsford Hotel...On the east border of the Calkins corner. Hamilton Park resided..."
Thus several noted Mormon people resided on the corner where the first irrigation was done in the hemisphere, adding to the historic value of the site.
[Shanna Jones.FTW]
William Carter's christening record lists "of Bishop Street, labourer", referring to his father, at Ledbury Parish Church. William Carter and Harriet Temperance Utley were married and sealed on 27 Nov 1853 in Brigham Young's Office by Brigham Young himself. The record of that sealing was added to the Endowment House records when the Endowment House was reopened. (Mary Ann Smith) William Carter was married to three wives. He was sealed to Sarah Elizabeth Utley, a sister of Harriet Utley, his second wife. Sarah Utley died crossing the plains to Utah. Harriet allowed William, her husband to have her deceased sister sealed to him.
Events
| Birth | 12 Feb 1821 | Ledbury, Hereford, England | |||
| Christen | 11 Mar 1821 | St. Michael & All Angels Church, Ledbury, Hereford, England | |||
| Marriage | 5 Dec 1843 | Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, USA - Ellen BENBOW | |||
| Death | 1896 | St George, Washington, Utah, USA |
Families
| Spouse | Ellen BENBOW (1825 - ) |