The first pioneer settlement in Cache Valley came in 1855, with the establishment of the LDS Church's Elkhorn Cattle Ranch and with Maughan's Fort, in what later became Wellsville.
In 1857, an area on the north side of the valley around what was called Spring Creek was scouted for possible settlement by some members of the Campbell family. They were impressed by the setting and returned to their homes in North Odgen, intending to pack up and move north.
But news of the impending arrival of Johnston's Army canceled all plans for further expansion, as all Latter-day Saints in outlying areas were called back to Salt Lake City.
Not until 1859, when the "war" was over, did settlers return to Spring Creek. When the Campbell brothers arrived, however, they found the land already occupied by a couple of their North Odgen neighbors, Ira Rice, a 65-year-old War of 1812 veteran, and Hopkin Mathews, a coal miner from Wales, and his teenage daughter, Elizabeth.
The story is told that the Mathews beat the Campbells by only a few days, and thus the Campbells did not get the prime acreage they had first scouted out. This might have been the source of early contention, but any lasting feud was quashed when Elizabeth Mathews married 21-year-old Joseph Campbell in 1861.
In any event, they were all soon joined by other settlers, among them: Alder, Baer, Bowen, Busenbark, Clark, Clifford, Cranney, Dees, Durfey, Fuhriman, Flemming, Fife, Gates, Hall, Hansen, Kresie, Lane, Lau, Low, Maddison, Naef, Nelson, Poulsen, Rammell, Thompson, Williams, Wright, Theurer and Zollinger families.
The first settlers lived out of wagon boxes until logs could be hauled from the canyons for homes. The first homes were built close together on both sides of a road, which could be closed off at each end to create a temporary fort, in case of Indian attack.
The first settlement was called Spring Creek, but when Apostles Orson Hyde and Ezra T. Benson came to visit late in 1859, they thought that name too ordinary. In view of what Hyde called the lovely and providential setting, he christened it Providence.
By 1864, the town was laid out in the eight-acre blocks that still form the infrastructure of the town.
The Old Rock Church was built about 10 years after the first settlers arrived, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in Cache Valley, says historian and Providence resident Doran Baker. The church was finished 13 years before the Logan Temple was built and 22 years before the Salt Lake Temple was completed.
The town now has a population of approximately 6,000. Most of the fruit orchards have been replaced by homes, and new businesses line the old Providence Lane.
But if you talk to any of the long-time residents, such as Stan Checketts, Marie Olsen, Opal Chugg, Ken Braegger and others who talked at the Day of Remembrance, you soon realize some things haven't changed. It is still a providential place.
Providence folklore
On a bleak, cold morning in mid-May, a group had gathered at the Pickett Blacksmith Shop to huddle around the glowing pot-bellied stove. The talk turned to the weather. One of the men went to the window to brush away the soot and look out at the still snow-covered landscape. "When will it ever get warm?" he asked. To which, one of the other men answered, "Vell, der way I got it figured: It von't get warm until der schnow goes, and der schnow vont go until it gets warm!"
Then there was Emil Gessel, who was often credited for saying, "I knew how it was going to be just as soon as I seen how it was."
The minutes of the town board meeting in 1888 reveal that a sizeable pile of dirt on Main Street (as a result of someone having dug a basement house) was clogging up the thoroughfare and impeding traffic. Motion was made and seconded that a hole should be dug in which to bury the objectionable pile of dirt.
— From "Providence and Her People"
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