The Herbert Horsley Family and Sawmills of Caribou County
Herbert Horsley, one of the original groups of Mormon colonizers who came to Soda Springs in June of 1871, was born in England Sept 6, 1845. Thanks to the book “Tosoiba” we have quite a bit of information on Horsley.
He left home at a young age for adventure in the West Indies. Herbert Horsley first crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the age of 9 years old after having a fight with his father and running away and hiding on a merchant ship in the harbor. The ship sailed and before he was found it was far enough out to sea that the captain wouldn’t turn back. Instead, he gave him a job of tending to some dogs on board and keeping them quiet. If they barked too much, he was beaten. So, he tried his best to keep them quiet. The ship reached the West Indies for Herbert’s first trip to the Americas. It wasn’t all that much fun so after returning to England he made amends with his father and finished his schooling before joining the LDS church and returning to America with the church.
At 17, he joined the Mormon Church, came to the United States, and drove an ox team across the plains to Salt Lake with the early Mormon pioneers in the Henry W Miller Company in 1862. The next year he was sent to Ash Hollow on the Platte River, 300 miles west of Council Bluff, to guard supplies for on-coming Mormons and to care for crippled and sick cattle left by the wagon trains. In the spring he drove the cattle on to Salt Lake City.
He married Sarah Edgehill in the Salt Lake Endowment House in 1864. They lived at Provo, Utah for a short time then moved to Nephi, Utah. There he made shingles. They moved to Providence, Utah and then into the Bear Lake region in 1869.
Hebert, Sarah, and their six children were members of the Brigham Young party sent to establish a community at Soda Springs. He had a contract with Bigham Young to build fences and to dig ditches.
Here, in 1872, just one year after the first four homes were erected in Upper Town, he begun operation of the first sawmill, located on Soda Creek at the foot of Chester Hill. He saw the need for timber and for a time employed a steam engine for power.
An article by Grant H. Gibson in the Caribou County Sun, Aug. 16, 1984, gives a history of the steam engine. This is said to be the first steam engine used in the Territory of Idaho for the purpose of sawing lumber with steam power. The engine and sawmill were purchase by Brigham Young in St. Louis, Missouri in 1867.
The engine was a stationary type with no power to the wheels and had to be loaded on steel-wheeled dollies and moved by winch, oxen, or horsepower. It weighed about 10,000 pounds and has been estimated to develop about 125 horsepower from the 5’10” diameter belt wheel.
To get this equipment to Idaho it was shipped up the Missouri River by barge to Fort Benton, Montana, then off loaded onto heavy steel-wheeled freighter wagons to be moved to Franklin, Idaho by oxen. When the machinery arrived in Franklin, Brigham Young ordered it to be set up in Maple Creek Canyon to cut lumber for Franklin, Preston, Richmond, Smithfield, Logan and other farms and businesses.
In 1869, this engine and mill were moved to the new town of Soda Springs. Here they were set up on Soda Creek with the operation under the supervision of Herbert Horsley. According to the late Dr. Evan Kackley, Horsley would tie the safety valve down to get more power and see how much steam the engine could put on, which was about 12 pounds pressure. This gave the engine more pressure, but occasionally it would blow up.
In 1892, the engine and mill were ordered back to Franklin. After several owners and after the old steamer was moved several times, in 1936, under the direction of Frank Woodward of Franklin, it became a museum piece in the Pioneer Relic Hall at Franklin and has been chronicled in the sage of the Idaho steam engine.
The growing population of the area and growing demand for lumber prompted Horsley to build another sawmill. According to Kackley, Horsley wanted steady power, cheap to operate and hence diverted Soda Creek,
“Even then, Horsley found the seasonal variations in Soda Creek handicapped the sawmill operation. With great resourcefulness, he controlled the gates into the water wheel until the flow dropped below the point where it became feasible to use for power,” Kackley noted.
The water wheel was built by Ludwig Suhrke, that most talented cabinet maker and woodworker from Germany.
Horsley also installed a grist mill on the lower deck, operated by water power, where he ground the grains for the community, avoiding the long freighting by team of this essential.
Machinery for the new mill was freighted in from Corinne, Utah, and set up at the former site. This mill was in constant operation year-round and though the mill was damaged twice by fire, Horsley rebuilt it each time. He produced both rough and planed lumber during the “70s and early “80s for not only Soda Springs, but for Gentile Valley, Chesterfield and other outlying settlements.
In 1881, ZCMI re-opened a branch store in the “Old Rock Store” building on Hooper Avenue now standing diagonally across from the Hooper School. Horsely took employment at the store for a time, later purchasing the store and operating his own business, “Herbert Horsley Merchantise,” as well as managing the sawmill and serving actively in church and public affairs.
Settlers often traded logs for dry goods, hardware or groceries at the store. Sometimes men working at the sawmill took their pay or a portion of it in product from the mill or merchandise from the store. One settler, Neils Anderson, living near Riverdale, told of cutting pine logs in the woods and selling them to Horsley in Soda Springs to supplement his insufficient farm income. The trip to Soda Springs and back required two days.
Horsley served as Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, mail carrier to Caribou Basin for several years, and served two missions to Great Britain for his church.
In Soda Springs, eight more children were born to the Horsley family, giving them a total of 14 offspring: Thomas Herbert, James, Harriet, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth, George, Sodina, Laura, Willard, Harry, Sopia, Alice, Edith and Grover. Sodina was the first white girl born in Upper Town. Edith and Grover died as children.
Sarah fell from a train, which resulted in her death in 1898. Herbert married Lucy Smith Skinner in 1899. One daughter was born to this union.
The sawmill burned about 1900 and was never rebuilt. Herbert Horsely operated his business until his eldest son, Thomas Herbert, took it over. He continued to carry on the building industry in Soda Springs for many years. Herbert died April 1, 1936, in Soda Springs and is buried in the Fairview Cemetery.
The Horsley children and grandchildren carried on the tradition of building the city of Soda Springs. Thomas Herbert, eldest son, took over his father’s business and continued to serve the needs of the city. He was the second LDS Bishop in Soda Springs. He served on the city council, board of Education and was very active in the civic development of the settlement. He was known as one of the pillars of Soda Springs for many years.
James M. Horsley, second son of Herbert, was very talented and farsighted. He bought a private electric power plant from a Mr. Slusser and turned it into the first successful power plant in Soda Springs. Sawmills continued to be an important industry in the area. Other sawmill operators included Tom Williams and John Watson who located a mill on Pearl Creek, turning out finished as well as rough lumber. They floated it down the Bear River, then loaded it onto railway cars at Rose Siding. Most of it was used in Soda Springs buildings.
A mill at Eight Mile was first started by Frank Merrill and George W. Ward, and later operated by George Sorter and Silas Mapes, son-in-law of Ward.
John Bailey operated a sawmill on Bailey Creek in 1887. Dan Hutchins located a mill on Lane’s Creek in an area which became known as Sawmill Ridge. Danish worker Olaf Hilquist was head man at the saw, which had a blade that ran up and down and was turned by a water wheel. Workmen called the saw, “Up Today and Down Tomorrow.” This mill furnished lumber for many of the cabins at Williamsburg. In 1820, Campbell started a sawmill on Dave’s Creek.
Edwin M. Smith had a steam powered sawmill in Logan Canyon which he moved to Dave’s Creek in 1934. He hired 18 to 20 families each year from April until it snowed in the fall. It operated in that location until 1940, when they moved the mill to Soda Springs. The machinery was powered first by steam, then diesel, and finally by electricity. In 1946, Edwin M. and his two sons, Edwin B. and Vaughn opened a mill in the Diamond Creek area.
Garrett Somsen has a sawmill at Gravel Creek, which was later taken over by his son Earl, Sr. then his grandson, Earl, Jr. and is still in operation today.
