Excerpts copied from “Items of History” by David Moore, early settler of Ogden, found among papers in possession of his son Joseph B. Moore.
Excerpt 1:
First Settlement of Mound Fort 1848
The winter of 1849 and 50 was long and severe, with deep snow. Several head of cattle and sheep died during the winter.
Some eight-five Shoshones with their families were camped at the big bend of Weber River and from fifty to sixty families of Utes were camped on South side of Weber river just below the junction of Ogden with the Weber. They were all very quiet during the winter. In the spring the Shoshones moved away to their hunting grounds. The Utes remained and several of them died in the spring with the measles.
Excerpt 2:
First Settlement of Weber County
[…] In the fall of 1849 several more families were sent into Weber County to settle, to wit: D. Moore and wife, George and Frederick Barker and families, Robert Porter and family, arrived the 24th day of October. Isaac Clark, John Thompson, Philip Garner and some one or two more arrived in November, making an addition to the little settlement of some ten or twelve families. About the beginning of 1850, Lorin Farr came to Weber and took charge of affairs. In February the first Military Company was organized, twenty-five in all. Cyrus C. Canfield, Captain. The crops grown in 1849 were good, supplying most of the wants of the settlers. The Indians camped on Weber River were quiet and peaceable, they numbered some one-hundred and fifty warriors. In the spring many of them went away, some died with the measles and many more of them suffered much with that disease. The were nursed and fed by some of the settlers, and those that remained of the Indians remember the kindnesses dealt out to them at that time.
Excerpt 3:
Items of History by David Moore – Memories of the Early History of Weber County
The Shoshones had left early in the spring [of 1850] for a hunt but Soldier’s band had the measles very bad and quite a number died of that disease, and he did not go away until some weeks later.