1850s: While passing through Uintah, MaLinda Adams and boys have confrontation with a man they call “Old Limpy”

[There are at least two versions of this story.]

[Version 1 is copied from Ancestors and Descendants of Elias Adams, the Pioneer, 600-1930. Pg 105-106]

[The Adams family lived in Layton.] The wheat to be ground into flour was hauled to Ogden for several years, where a water-power mill was located near the Weber River Bridge at Riverdale.  One day Malinda Adams accompanied George to this mill with a grist of wheat to be ground.  The boys were never allowed to go alone on account of the Indians.  While returning home with their flour they noticed someone coming out of Weber Canyon as they were passing through Uinta.  They pressed forward, whipping their oxen to reach the forks of the road ahead of the approaching traveler, who was walking.  It proved, as they suspected, to be “Old Limpy,” a lame Indian, who terrified women and children when unguarded.  They succeeded in leaving him behind for a while; but, when going up a long, steep, sandy hill, the Indian overtook the wagon and its occupants, and would have climbed aboard if Malinda Adams had not cracked his knuckles with the whip handle each time he made the attempt.  When the summit of the hill was reached, the oxen were lashed with the whip and loped away to home and safety, leaving “Old Limpy” far behind in the rolling hills of brush and sage.

[Version 2 is copied from Elias Adams: A Pioneer Profile, published in 2007. Pg 341.]

A grist mill being built in Kays Ward was not yet in operation, so they hauled wheat to be ground into flour to a water-power mill at Riverdale. Their road home passed the mouth of Weber Canyon then ascended a long, steep sandy hill. Catherine Adams told of a trip to the mill and an encounter on the hill road.

“Another time mother and my brother George went to the grist mill for some meal and flour. George was 18, but mother would never let him go alone to the mill. All the men folks were away this day, and so mother went with him. There was an old Indian in the neighborhood who used to chase women. They were all terrified of him. This day he tried to climb into the wagon. George couldn’t make the team go fast because he had a heavy load, and while he drove mother took a club and beat the old Indian’s hands with it every time he tried to climb over the end of the wagon.”

[George Adams was born in 1836; if he really was 18 at this time, that would place this story in ca 1854.]

A collection of documents, excerpts, and photographs relevant to the so-called Weber Ute people of Northern Utah. Not a complete history — research aid only.