My Grandfather, John Fairchilds, my mother's father, his family and a few other families were among the first ones to settle in Ashley Valley at Vernal, Utah. they packed all their supplies on horses and rode on other horses, they called it a pack-train. They came from Illinois and some from Ohio.

John Fairchilds was the captain of the pack-train. There were no roads, no bridges or no crops raised in Ashley Valley at that time, so after they got settled it was too late in the summer to plant seeds and they were getting low on food. So John Fairchilds and most of the other men took pack horses and took off through this rugged country to Rock Springs, Wyoming to get food for their families. They really had a tough time. They got into deep snow at times and blizzards and it was awfully cold. they had to pack feed for their horses also.

One man died on the way. They were all doing their best to get back to their families, for it had taken them three times as long as they had expected. So at last they made it, but the women and children were almost starved, when they got back with food for them. This that I have just written was broadcast over the KSL Salt Lake City along about 1936 or 1937.

John Fairchilds built a large two story log house with a full basement on his ranch three miles from Vernal, Utah. He hewed the logs and covered them inside and outside with planed lumber that he whipsawed and planed by hand. He was a powerful man in his day, and a great man to prophesy as to what the future would bring. He told me when I was a boy about twelve, if you live to be fifty or maybe forty, they will be fighting in the air with airplanes. He was a great axman with an axe and also with scythe and cradle. Many people used to watch him as he chopped down trees. They would see the large, thick chips fly through the air and wonder at his great strength and skill. I have heard him tell when he was in Ohio and Illinois, about going into large hay fields or grain fields with scythe or cradle. Sometimes he said there would be as many as eighty men with scythes if hay, and cradles if grain, and he always took the lead. If not on the start, he would soon be in the lead.

Many, many times I heard him call to strangers in wagons or horse back traveling along the road, to come in and have some fruit or watermelon, or to have a meal with them. The young, old and middle aged people would come in great flocks many times and Grandma Fairchilds just delighted in getting a nice meal for them. Many times she would get a midnight dinner. She couldn't stand to see anyone hungry or discontented. If travelers came into the valley and wanted to stay for a while and rest up, they would most always send them to dad Fairchilds, and they were always welcome to stay as long as they wished, and they never charged them anything. Sometimes people that were traveling through would get very sick and they would take them in and Grandma would take care of them until they were well and able to be on their way again, and no charge for that either.

They had no money to speak of. Money was hard to get in those days. But they raised most of their food on their ranch. They were greatly loved by everyone that knew them and they both passed away after they were eighty some years old.

About six years ago, I went back to Vernal. Utah on a visit. I had been away from there forty-six years. I was in hopes I would see that old house that my Grandfather Fairchilds built so many years ago, but was dissappointed for it had burned down several years before.

Written by: E.A. Linderman

Compiled Dec.10,1996, by Forrest D. Linderman