Providence, Utah
Encyclopedia
Providence is a city in Cache County, Utah
, United States
. The population was 7,075 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Logan, Utah-Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 2.8 square miles (7.3 km²), all of it land.
on State Route 238
. Its 1990 census population was 3,344. Situated immediately east of the confluence of Spring Creek with the Logan River, the town lies astride a delta at the mouth of Providence Canyon and beneath 9000 feet (2,743.2 m) Big Baldy Mountain. The settlement was located on Spring Creek to take advantage of water, arable land, timber resources, and existing trails.
As directed by LDS President Brigham Young
, on 24 July 1855 Captain Briant Stringham, Simon Baker, Andrew Moffat, and Brigham Young, Jr.
, located headquarters for the Elkhorn Cattle Ranch on a spring of water near the west bank of the Blacksmith Fork River, immediately southwest of the present site of Providence. Subsequently, in the early spring of 1857, Samuel, Joseph, Aboile, and Nephi Campbell, and John Dunn, crossed the mountains from North Ogden into Cache Valley
seeking a new place to settle. To them, the town they called "Ogden's Hole" was becoming too crowded. They pitched camp at the present site of Providence, at a spring and pond where a creek from a canyon in the Bear River Range entered the alluvial lowland. To assess the fertility of the soil, the explorers broke sod and plowed a long furrow.
Plans were made for the immediate resettlement from North Ogden to Cache Valley of the Campbell and other families, but the move was interrupted by the approach of the U.S. Army with orders to force a military occupation of Utah Territory. The Weber County settlers evacuated their homes and moved south for temporary sanctuary on the "Provo bottoms," and the Weber County brigade of the Nauvoo Legion passed through Cache Valley to conduct a defensive reconnoiter of the Bear River region. A number of these men subsequently returned to settle in Providence.
Settlers finally came to Spring Creek on 20 April 1859. Arriving first were Ira Rice, a sixty-five-year-old War of 1812 veteran from Massachusetts, and a thirty-five-year-old Welsh coal miner, Hopkin Mathews, accompanied by his teenage daughter Elizabeth. They were joined by the English-speaking Bowen, Busenbark, Campbell, Clark, Clifford, Dees, Dunn, Durfey, Gates, Hall, Lane, Maddison, Rammell, Thompson, Williams, and Wright families, plus the Gassman, Lau, and Theurer families, whose native tongue was German.
Douglas fir logs were cut and dragged from Spring Creek Canyon to build cabins. The houses faced one another across a narrow road, which could be closed with wagons at each end to make a fort. On 25 April 1859 Peter Maughan
visited Spring Creek to establish a religious organization. He chose Samuel Campbell as presiding elder. The first indoor meetings were held in a log meeting-and-schoolhouse erected by John Maddison and William Fife. By August there were sixteen families living at the fort; the following month, a child (Hannah Priscilla Thompson) was born at Spring Creek.
On 14 November 1859 LDS apostles Orson Hyde
and Ezra Benson organized the Providence Ward. Elder Hyde chose the name: "Spring Creek settlement being situated in an elbow of the mountains and appearing to us somewhat of a providential place, we named Providence." Robert Williams was ordained as bishop. Two years later, when a U.S. post office was established in Providence, Williams was also named postmaster.
In 1860 John Theurer persuaded a number of fellow Swiss LDS converts (whose last names were Alder, Fuhriman, Kresie, Loosli, Naef, Stucki, and Trauber) to come to Spring Creek with its alpine setting. The Swiss tradition of community sauerkraut dinners continues to the present day in Providence. The village became a mix of Yankees, Englishmen, and Swiss, united by a common religious persuasion. As Providence was situated astride a Shoshoni trail from a winter camp on the Bear River to Bear Lake
via Blacksmith Fork Canyon, church authorities advised that a more substantial fort be erected. A six-foot-high, two-and-one-half-foot-thick rock wall was built to enclose both the log houses and an open commons area.
On 23 November 1862, in the foothills just outside Providence, a two-hour skirmish was fought by sixty soldiers under the command of Major Edward McGarry
of the U.S. Second Cavalry against thirty or forty Shoshonis under Chief Bear Hunter. The objective was to recover livestock and a ten-year-old white boy taken during the massacre of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail
in August 1860. Three braves were killed and five others, including the chief, were captured. An exchange of the captives was made for the boy, Reuben Van Orman, who had been held for two years.
In 1864 the town was laid out into square 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) blocks, each divided into six lots of approximately one and one-third acres. East of Main Street the lots face north-south; they face east-west on the western side of town. The log structures, including the meeting/school building, were relocated from the fort onto the lots under the supervision of Bishop William Budge. On 4 September 1871 James Martineau completed his detailed official survey of Providence City. The cemetery was moved from the south end of town to a hill north of town. Construction was completed in 1871 on a rock meetinghouse and on a rock schoolhouse in 1877. The schoolhouse was replaced by a new building with a bell tower in 1904.
For more than a hundred years, the major activity of most of the people of Providence was farming. Irrigation canals were dug from the Spring Creek and from the Blacksmith Fork and Logan rivers. The livestock industry included the raising of beef cattle (1859), honey bees (1866), horses (1870), dairy cattle (1874), poultry (1918), and foxes (1928). The horticulture industry included growing grain and alfalfa; apple, cherry, pear, and prune orchards; and peas, beans, and sugar beets. Beginning in 1886 Joseph Alastor Smith established Edgewood Hall as a nursery and dairy operation on the bench overlooking Providence. After its twenty-eight-room manor burned to the ground on Labor Day of 1935, the 140 acre (0.5665604 km²) estate was acquired by Wall Street financier and Logan native L. Boyd Hatch. An elegant formal estate was created by Hatch, but he sold out in 1953 to cattleman Theron Bringhurst.
The commercial activities of Providence included private mercantile shops of Rice, Hargraves, and Theurer plus a ZCMI Co-op store (1869–1912). Many years after the Co-op structure burned, Watkins and Sons Printing established a business in a remodeled and expanded facility. Other enterprises included molasses mills, a sawmill, lime kilns, brickyards, blacksmith shops, and an early automobile service station. The sugar factory of David Eccles and Charles Nibley began refining sugar beets in Providence in 1901 and operated for twenty-five years. Millions of tons of limestone for this and other refineries in the Pacific Northwest were quarried from Providence Canyon. The Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company extended its electric interurban line from Logan and established a depot in Providence in 1912. The railroad hauled limestone, farm produce, and passengers throughout Cache Valley as well as to Corinne
and Ogden
and beyond via a connection with the Oregon Short Line Railroad
company. Accompanying the UIC were electric lights, the telegraph, and the telephone. The last railroad train ran through town in 1947.
With the coming of statehood to Utah and with the population exceeding a thousand in the 1890s, Providence was organized as a town corporation. In 1897 Hopkin Mathews became town board president. Providence became a third-class city on 19 July 1929, with James Hansen elected mayor.
Commencing with its first subdivision in 1962, Providence changed at an accelerating pace from a farming community into a "bedroom" suburb of Logan. Fields began to give way to developer tracts of individually owned, single-family houses on small lots. Although there is a spattering of home enterprises, most commercial activities have disappeared from Providence. A major employer of Providence citizens is Utah State University
, which at its founding in 1888 seriously considered the Providence bench for its location. Other residents commute to Thiokol
Corporation facilities or Hill Air Force Base
as well as to smaller business firms and institutions in and around Logan.
of 2000, there were 4,377 people, 1,240 households, and 1,082 families residing in the city. The population density
was 1,549.0 people per square mile (597.2/km²). There were 1,290 housing units at an average density of 456.5 per square mile (176.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.73% White, 0.14% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.53% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races
, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.06% of the population.
There were 1,240 households out of which 50.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.0% were married couples
living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.7% were non-families. 11.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.51 and the average family size was 3.84.
In the city the population was spread out with 36.6% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $56,129, and the median income for a family was $58,856. Males had a median income of $39,306 versus $27,074 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $21,201. About 2.5% of families and 3.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 7,075 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Logan, Utah-Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area
Logan metropolitan area
The Logan Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties – one in Utah and one in Idaho, anchored by the city of Logan...
.
Geography
Providence is located at 41°42′18"N 111°48′51"W (41.705087, -111.814214).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 2.8 square miles (7.3 km²), all of it land.
History
Providence lies 2½ miles south of LoganLogan, Utah
-Layout of the City:Logan's city grid originates from its Main and Center Street block, with Main Street running north and south, and Center east and west. Each block north, east, south, or west of the origin accumulates in additions of 100 , though some streets have non-numeric names...
on State Route 238
Utah State Route 238
Utah State Route 238 may refer to:*Utah State Route 238 *Utah State Route 238...
. Its 1990 census population was 3,344. Situated immediately east of the confluence of Spring Creek with the Logan River, the town lies astride a delta at the mouth of Providence Canyon and beneath 9000 feet (2,743.2 m) Big Baldy Mountain. The settlement was located on Spring Creek to take advantage of water, arable land, timber resources, and existing trails.
As directed by LDS President Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, on 24 July 1855 Captain Briant Stringham, Simon Baker, Andrew Moffat, and Brigham Young, Jr.
Brigham Young, Jr.
Brigham Young, Jr. served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1899 until his death. His tenure was interrupted for one week in 1901 when Joseph F...
, located headquarters for the Elkhorn Cattle Ranch on a spring of water near the west bank of the Blacksmith Fork River, immediately southwest of the present site of Providence. Subsequently, in the early spring of 1857, Samuel, Joseph, Aboile, and Nephi Campbell, and John Dunn, crossed the mountains from North Ogden into Cache Valley
Cache Valley
The Cache Valley is an agricultural valley of northern Utah and southeast Idaho that includes the Logan metropolitan area. The valley was used by 19th century mountain men and was the site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre.-History:...
seeking a new place to settle. To them, the town they called "Ogden's Hole" was becoming too crowded. They pitched camp at the present site of Providence, at a spring and pond where a creek from a canyon in the Bear River Range entered the alluvial lowland. To assess the fertility of the soil, the explorers broke sod and plowed a long furrow.
Plans were made for the immediate resettlement from North Ogden to Cache Valley of the Campbell and other families, but the move was interrupted by the approach of the U.S. Army with orders to force a military occupation of Utah Territory. The Weber County settlers evacuated their homes and moved south for temporary sanctuary on the "Provo bottoms," and the Weber County brigade of the Nauvoo Legion passed through Cache Valley to conduct a defensive reconnoiter of the Bear River region. A number of these men subsequently returned to settle in Providence.
Settlers finally came to Spring Creek on 20 April 1859. Arriving first were Ira Rice, a sixty-five-year-old War of 1812 veteran from Massachusetts, and a thirty-five-year-old Welsh coal miner, Hopkin Mathews, accompanied by his teenage daughter Elizabeth. They were joined by the English-speaking Bowen, Busenbark, Campbell, Clark, Clifford, Dees, Dunn, Durfey, Gates, Hall, Lane, Maddison, Rammell, Thompson, Williams, and Wright families, plus the Gassman, Lau, and Theurer families, whose native tongue was German.
Douglas fir logs were cut and dragged from Spring Creek Canyon to build cabins. The houses faced one another across a narrow road, which could be closed with wagons at each end to make a fort. On 25 April 1859 Peter Maughan
Peter Maughan
Peter Maughan was an early Mormon pioneer who settled the Cache Valley of Utah under the direction of Brigham Young.-Life:...
visited Spring Creek to establish a religious organization. He chose Samuel Campbell as presiding elder. The first indoor meetings were held in a log meeting-and-schoolhouse erected by John Maddison and William Fife. By August there were sixteen families living at the fort; the following month, a child (Hannah Priscilla Thompson) was born at Spring Creek.
On 14 November 1859 LDS apostles Orson Hyde
Orson Hyde
Orson Hyde was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...
and Ezra Benson organized the Providence Ward. Elder Hyde chose the name: "Spring Creek settlement being situated in an elbow of the mountains and appearing to us somewhat of a providential place, we named Providence." Robert Williams was ordained as bishop. Two years later, when a U.S. post office was established in Providence, Williams was also named postmaster.
In 1860 John Theurer persuaded a number of fellow Swiss LDS converts (whose last names were Alder, Fuhriman, Kresie, Loosli, Naef, Stucki, and Trauber) to come to Spring Creek with its alpine setting. The Swiss tradition of community sauerkraut dinners continues to the present day in Providence. The village became a mix of Yankees, Englishmen, and Swiss, united by a common religious persuasion. As Providence was situated astride a Shoshoni trail from a winter camp on the Bear River to Bear Lake
Bear Lake
-Lakes:In Canada:*Bear Lake , a lake in Crooked River Provincial Park, north of Prince George, British Columbia*Bear Lake , a lake in the northwestern Omineca Country of the North-Central Interior of British Columbia, part of the Skeena River drainage via the Bear and Sustut Rivers *Great Bear...
via Blacksmith Fork Canyon, church authorities advised that a more substantial fort be erected. A six-foot-high, two-and-one-half-foot-thick rock wall was built to enclose both the log houses and an open commons area.
On 23 November 1862, in the foothills just outside Providence, a two-hour skirmish was fought by sixty soldiers under the command of Major Edward McGarry
Edward McGarry
Edward McGarry , officer in the Mexican American War, California politician and officer of California Volunteers in American Civil War, leading cavalry at the Battle of Bear River, later Colonel, of the 2nd California Cavalry, and Commander of the District of California, and received a brevet...
of the U.S. Second Cavalry against thirty or forty Shoshonis under Chief Bear Hunter. The objective was to recover livestock and a ten-year-old white boy taken during the massacre of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
in August 1860. Three braves were killed and five others, including the chief, were captured. An exchange of the captives was made for the boy, Reuben Van Orman, who had been held for two years.
In 1864 the town was laid out into square 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) blocks, each divided into six lots of approximately one and one-third acres. East of Main Street the lots face north-south; they face east-west on the western side of town. The log structures, including the meeting/school building, were relocated from the fort onto the lots under the supervision of Bishop William Budge. On 4 September 1871 James Martineau completed his detailed official survey of Providence City. The cemetery was moved from the south end of town to a hill north of town. Construction was completed in 1871 on a rock meetinghouse and on a rock schoolhouse in 1877. The schoolhouse was replaced by a new building with a bell tower in 1904.
For more than a hundred years, the major activity of most of the people of Providence was farming. Irrigation canals were dug from the Spring Creek and from the Blacksmith Fork and Logan rivers. The livestock industry included the raising of beef cattle (1859), honey bees (1866), horses (1870), dairy cattle (1874), poultry (1918), and foxes (1928). The horticulture industry included growing grain and alfalfa; apple, cherry, pear, and prune orchards; and peas, beans, and sugar beets. Beginning in 1886 Joseph Alastor Smith established Edgewood Hall as a nursery and dairy operation on the bench overlooking Providence. After its twenty-eight-room manor burned to the ground on Labor Day of 1935, the 140 acre (0.5665604 km²) estate was acquired by Wall Street financier and Logan native L. Boyd Hatch. An elegant formal estate was created by Hatch, but he sold out in 1953 to cattleman Theron Bringhurst.
The commercial activities of Providence included private mercantile shops of Rice, Hargraves, and Theurer plus a ZCMI Co-op store (1869–1912). Many years after the Co-op structure burned, Watkins and Sons Printing established a business in a remodeled and expanded facility. Other enterprises included molasses mills, a sawmill, lime kilns, brickyards, blacksmith shops, and an early automobile service station. The sugar factory of David Eccles and Charles Nibley began refining sugar beets in Providence in 1901 and operated for twenty-five years. Millions of tons of limestone for this and other refineries in the Pacific Northwest were quarried from Providence Canyon. The Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company extended its electric interurban line from Logan and established a depot in Providence in 1912. The railroad hauled limestone, farm produce, and passengers throughout Cache Valley as well as to Corinne
Corinne
Corinne, pronounced "ko-rin", " car-inn", "ker - in", "core - in", "core-rin", "caw-reen" or "co-reen", is a female name, and the French or English variant of Corina, meaning "beautiful maiden." ....
and Ogden
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
and beyond via a connection with the Oregon Short Line Railroad
Oregon Short Line Railroad
The Oregon Short Line Railroad was a railroad in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon. The line was as organized the Oregon Short Line Railway in 1881 as a subsidiary of Union Pacific Railway. Union Pacific intended the line to be the shortest route from Wyoming to Oregon...
company. Accompanying the UIC were electric lights, the telegraph, and the telephone. The last railroad train ran through town in 1947.
With the coming of statehood to Utah and with the population exceeding a thousand in the 1890s, Providence was organized as a town corporation. In 1897 Hopkin Mathews became town board president. Providence became a third-class city on 19 July 1929, with James Hansen elected mayor.
Commencing with its first subdivision in 1962, Providence changed at an accelerating pace from a farming community into a "bedroom" suburb of Logan. Fields began to give way to developer tracts of individually owned, single-family houses on small lots. Although there is a spattering of home enterprises, most commercial activities have disappeared from Providence. A major employer of Providence citizens is Utah State University
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
, which at its founding in 1888 seriously considered the Providence bench for its location. Other residents commute to Thiokol
Thiokol
Thiokol is a U.S. corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems...
Corporation facilities or Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force Base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, Sunset, and Layton. It is about north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air...
as well as to smaller business firms and institutions in and around Logan.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 4,377 people, 1,240 households, and 1,082 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,549.0 people per square mile (597.2/km²). There were 1,290 housing units at an average density of 456.5 per square mile (176.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.73% White, 0.14% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.53% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.06% of the population.
There were 1,240 households out of which 50.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.7% were non-families. 11.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.51 and the average family size was 3.84.
In the city the population was spread out with 36.6% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.6% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females there were 98.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $56,129, and the median income for a family was $58,856. Males had a median income of $39,306 versus $27,074 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $21,201. About 2.5% of families and 3.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.0% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over.
Law and government
- Ron Liechty is the current mayor, elected in 2009.
- Randy T. Simmons, a professor of political sciencePolitical sciencePolitical Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Utah State UniversityUtah State UniversityUtah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
, was elected mayor of Providence in 2005. His term expired on January 1, 2010.