Providence Settlers

Providence Settlers

I interviewed my grandma, Barbara Mathews, on the history of farming in my family. My grandma loves genealogy and knows our family history better than anyone. She was excited and more than willing to share.

The ancestors to the Mathews’ family came across the planes in the third handcart company around the 1860’s; H Mathews and his daughter, Elizabeth Mathews, among them. Elizabeth became one of the first members of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers group. Elizabeth and her father  were among the first to settle in Providence, Utah. They established fruit trees and had a successful fruit farm, producing mostly apples and peaches on the bench in Providence. They owned 160 acres.

After looking at the timeline for this time period, I did notice that in 1862, due to the Homestead Act, settlers who had worked the land for 5 years were granted 160 acres of land. The Mathews property was 160 acres as well, I wonder if that was a coincidence or if maybe the land was granted to them.

I actually grew up in Providence, on a little bit of land that used to be part of the fruit orchards. My grandma said that if you go up to the old property, there are still two rows of the original orchard still existing. I hope to be able to go and find those two rows soon.

On the other side of the family, we have the Parkinson’s. My grandma, Barbara, is a Parkinson.  If you read about the history of Wellsville, it talks about how the Parkinson’s and Maughan’s were the first to settle in Cache Valley in what is now Wellsville. (Wellsville, to this day, has a lot of Maughan and Parkinson families). The Parkinson’s started a farm where they produced beets and hay, mainly to feed cattle, and ran a dairy farm.