The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • 10

Focus ii nircrxn re DAILY SPECTRUM SUNDAY, JULY 22,1984 PACE 10 GRAFTON University of Utah student Doug Beckstead indicates the interlacing of logs which characterizes this old granary near the of an adobe house. GRAFTON The Dave Ballard home on the west side of Grafton is proba- work to prepare the house for the filming of a DaytonStewart motion bly one of the best preserved since being built in the mld-1 800s, Two men picture) "The Red Fury." Obsession for Grafton student dim ntMim 8 by Loren Webb Staff writer motel, along with having a shopping center, condominiums and horse riding. They want another "Knottsberry Farm," he said. Wants state park Beckstead would like to see the ghost town made into a state park, especially because, "It is the only remaining agricultural ghost town in Utah. Mining ghost towns are a dime a dozen.

There's only one agricultural one in Utah and it may be the best example in the U.S." The chapel is also listed on the Utah State Register of Historic Places. Beckstead would like to see it listed in the National Register. At the same time, he hopes the integrity of the. town can be kept from further vandalism by being included in a historic district. While hoping to complete his thesis by next summer, "there's still a lot to do.

I want it (information) all. My project will result in the first comprehensive historical work done on Grafton." Beckstead added that after putting thousands of hours of research into the paper, "I feel Grafton is a part of me. I've fallen in love with that town. It's an obsession with me." Grafton was originally the Kane County seat and the high point of its population was 168. It had the potential to be a very important town.

There were houses on both sides of the main road and fields were extensively developed. Established townsite It was on Dec. 31, 1859, that Nathan Tenney and four families established the first townsite. By some strange intuition, Beckstead said they began surveying a new 200 lot townsite upstream. By surveying for a new location, it appears they expected to become a large town.

Then in December 1861, it started to rain and it kept up for 40 days and 40 nights. The birth of Marvelous Flood Tenney is a favorite story told in connection with this event. Rain and subsequent floods, however, washed the townsite away. But it wasn't a matter of their town being washed out before looking for higher ground because that had already been done. Grafton was resettled in 1862 and by 1866, 100 people claimed it aslheir own.

Indian troubles followed that year, necessitating Mormon President Brigham Young GRAFTON Several authors and books have touched on Grafton's birth and demise, but none have gone beyond the basic historical facts, says a University of Utah history student. Doug Beckstead, 25, has taken an intense interest in Grafton and has spent several years delving deep into this quaint pioneer community's roots. Currently completing his bachelor's degree in history while working on Grafton's history for his master's thesis, Beckstead says his research makes him the leading authority on the town. "I'm trying to dispel the stories and hype about the town, although it is a sensational town," he said, "and there are sensational people." His love of Utah's most photogenic ghost community is only outdistanced by his love for his newly wedded wife, Carol DeMille Beckstead, who he married June 2 inside the old Grafton Mormon chapel. "There is probably a very good chance our wedding was the first one ever to be held in the church," he said.

Worried about vandalism Today, Beckstead is not only interested in the town's history, but is concerned about vandalism which has 057072203occurred over the years and still continues. If it keeps up, he said, little of the community will be left in five years. "It's not just the vandals, but the movie companies the planned vandalism" which sickens him, such as the tearing out of the old fences and other wood work that took weeks to build with hand tools and a lot of sweat. Facades constructed next to the Alonzo Russell home (east of the chapel) include a saloon. "Grafton never had a saloon as far as I know," said Beckstead "and it was 100 percent Mormon and those people lived by the Good Book." In addition, he says "there is a highly negative opinion of the planned development by the Grafton Development Corp." Developers have listed plans to build a golf course, a 200 room motel that could be expanded to a 500 room to order settlers in the upper Virgin River valley to move to secure places.

Most Graf tonites-relocated in Rockville, others in Virgin: Prior to the Blackhawk War, nine towns from Virgin to Springdale had been in existence. During the war, barns, cabins and fences, left by the pioneers, were buried so the Indians wouldn't burn them. Abandonment of Grafton also brought about Rockville becoming the Kane County seat for a time. People came back By 1868, after the Blackhawk War had diminished, people began filtering back to Grafton and by the mid 1870s, 168 people were living there, thus gaining their IDS ward status back. The population dwindled again, however, and by 1907 the ward was disorganized and demoted to a branch of the Rockville ward.

Furthering the town's demise was the river's continued washing away of fields and filling up of irrigation ditches with mud. The river had a mind of its own, said Beckstead. It still does what it wants, regardless of any developer's thoughts to the contrary. He quotes Grafton resident Afton Ballard as saying "building ditches in Grafton was like doing the family's laundry, both were a weekly task." That's how fast the ditches would fill up, said Beckstead, who noted attempts were also made to put in concrete ditches but they continued filling up with mud faster than they could be dug out. By 1929, three families were left and in 1935 Grafton was a ghost town.

During the town's peak period, work began in 1886 on the LDS chapel, constructed of adobe and completed in 1888. The adobe was hauled from a site one-fourth mile west of town. The pits are still evident today. Lumber for the structure and other homes eame from Mt. Trumbull by way of Big Plains Junction and on the old Grafton Mesa road.

No one dared But no one, except the driver, dared ride the wagon down the steep grade into town, said Beckstead. The pioneers chained all four wheels together and locked it up solid before starting down. A log was used as a drag break and then after maybe uttering a few prayers, the teamster headed out with the horses dragging the wagon down with gravity doing the rest. Geographically, Beckstead claims social events in the upper Virgin River valley revolved around Grafton. Dances were held in the chapel which served as the church meetinghouse, school and town hall.

During the day, residents farmed and did chores in the day. At night after eating supper, they'd gather at the church house, play instruments and dance. That occurred almost every night. "It was a chance to talk about the activities your basic scuttlebutt in a small town," said Beckstead. During this period, Ether Wood and a couple of other cronies enjoyed ringing the church bell every New Year's Eve.

Bishop Alonzo H. Russell swore they weren't going to it one year. Strung rope The pranksters however, were able to get inside unnoticed and strung a rope from the church bell to a nearby outhouse. That afternoon, Russell locked the door and the windows as he left all to no avail. That night, the bell started ringing.

When Russell came out, the bell ringing ceased. Each time he went inside his home the bells started ringing. After playing their joke to the hilt, the boys finally gave up. Through special arrangement, Beckstead said he was able to use the original bell at the time he was married in the Grafton chapel. Original carpeting from Alonzo Russell's loom was also loaned during the cere-mony.

While doing research this summer, Beckstead hopes to learn more about the people of Grafton; what were they like and where they came from and where they went after they left. He has already learned for example, that one blind Grafton lady would hold onto a wire stretched between her door and an outhouse. The final period he deals with is the movie era. The first movie filmed in Grafton was in 1929, entitled "The Arizona Kid." The best known film, a portion of which; was done jn Grafton was "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in 1969. A later, made-for-television film, "Child Bride at Short Creek," was also filmed in the ghost town.

Movie underway "The Red Fury," a DaytonStewart film is currently underway on the premises. While Beckstead claims Grafton has been written about in at least three ghost town books, Stephen Carr's "The Historical Guide To Utah Ghost Towns" contains the best research to date. The other two include: Sunset's "Ghost Towns of the West" and George Thompson's "Some Dreams Die; Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures." All three cover the same topic areas: (1) the settlement and flood period (2) Indian troubles (3) abandonment and (4) the movie period. Thompson's book "is a real thorn of a book," says Beckstead, because "he doesn't cite his sources." Thompson's story of Marvelous Flood Tenney, born during a major Virgin River flood storm, states that Tenney was born and christened a girl. But Thompson has nothing to back up that alleged fact, said Beckstead.

Some of the most interesting research Beckstead has unearthed, with the help of Lucy Cox at Pipe Springs National Monument, is locating what they believe is the site where the Berry family was killed on April 2, 1866. Family killed Joseph and Robert Berry, along with Robert's wife, Isabelle, who were killed on that fateful day, are buried at the Grafton cemetery massacre site is located between Colorado City and Cane Beds, not at Berry Knoll. When the bodies were located, said Beckstead, the popular story of the Berry killings denotes she was had been molested, was pregnant and was full of arrows. In actuality, she was killed by one bullet to the head. She was not raped.

She may even have been killed by either of. the Berry brothers to prevent a more hideous torture or death from the hands of the some 30 Indians who overran them. The Indians became successful after one of the two horses was wounded on the initial attack. That prevented the occupants from getting away in their wagon. The wagon ended up in deep sand and the odds were pretty slim the trio were going to get out alive, says Beckstead who cites the Journal History of the LDS Church and a letter from Nephi Johnson to LDS Apostle George A Smith for this information.

Robert and Joseph Berry were returning to Berryvil-le(Glendale) from Spanish Fork when the killing occurred. They spent their last night at William Maxwell's ranch (located at Short Creek) and were slain the following day. Died violently Ironically, Beckstead said two other Berry brothers Suffered violent deaths one of whom died at the hands of a mob in Tennessee. Dr. Robert Mclntyre and James M.

Whitmore were also killed within 10 miles of where the Berrys died during the Blackhawk Indian war, he said. Another source he refers to is Sara Jane York Tiffany who mentions in her diary that when the bodies were brought back to Grafton, she noticed the door of the chapel open and went inside. There, she spotted the three bodies. Next to them on a chair were arrows taken out of two of the bodies. Tiffany also saw her mother die of the "fever" and witnessed the death of three brothers two of them at the same time.

Beckstead relates the townspeople wouldn't allow her to go to the funeral because she couldn't stop cryina after seeing he Berry bodies. Today, membera of he? family are all buried, in a neat line, at the Grafton cem-etery. Just why the two Berry brothers and the woman were brought back to Grafton to be buried lies in thefact that it was the closest and largest town available to the scene. A. marker on U.S.

89 south of Glendale, relates the story of the Berry brothers' killing, but inSiJSS'ltott the attack as occurring in April 1856, said Beckstead GRAFTON Shortly after the tying the marriage knot Inside the Grafton chapel on June 25, new-lyweds Carol Demille and Doug Beckstead rode by horse and buggy to their home In Springdale. Doug Beckstead claims their marriage was the first to take place In the chapel..