Good Evening, The subject of my presentation tonight was advertised as “Doc Schock.” More appropriately it might be entitled “A Search for Our Almost Forgotten Past” …co-starring, Dr. William H. Schock We share and honor the rich and fascinating local history of where we live. We could fill a football coliseum with the people who have lived and traveled in our County. I believe that a large majority of them have been forgotten today. Before we visit the “The Search for Doc Schock” I would like to share a few details of some of my favorite forgotten characters, and events, in our Sevier County history.
My personal favorite may be Major Claus Peter Anderson. He was actually only a Sergeant in the U. S. Army, and later a Captain in the Utah Territorial Militia…but he was always referred to as Major Anderson. He was born in Denmark, 1823, and, as a young man was a member of the King’s Guard. A moment of youthful poor judgment, while a member of the King’s Guard, got him exiled to the Virgin Islands then owned by Denmark. Whenever, however, he made his way to the U. S. from the Virgin Islands as a young man.
Peter Gottfredson’s “Indian Depredations of Utah” gives an account of Major Anderson’s early adventures as a Texas Ranger. Claus Peter Anderson later joined the U. S. Army in 1854, at Boston, Massachusetts. He was shipped from there to Ft. Ringold Texas, and then to the Florida Seminole Indian Wars, fighting under General William S. Harney. General Harney was then ordered to Utah in 1857 to quell the MormonRebellion. Harney did not make it to Utah, he got hung up in Bleeding Kansas, but Sergeant C. P. Anderson did arrive, and was subsequently honorably discharged from Co. A, 5th Regiment, at Camp Floyd, Utah in 1859, never having to fight the Mormons. He soon joined his Mormon Danish countrymen, and their new religion, as one of the first settlers of Mt. Pleasant Utah. Claus Peter, Serena and John Anderson are listed in the 1860 Mt. Pleasant Federal Census. Major C. P. Anderson accompanied Albert Lewis in the 1864 settlement of Richfield, Utah, and was appointed 1st Counselor to Nelson Higgins in 1865. He assisted N. M. Peterson in building the first canal. He was prominent in, or involved in, most of the Sevier County action during the Blackhawk War. After the evacuation of Richfield he was made Captain of the Militia Company in Ephraim. During the Blackhawk War Col. William Byram Pace called him “the finest soldier in the regiment.” The 1870 Federal Census recorded just four residents in the abandoned town of Richfield, Utah.
e C. P. Anderson with 3 young sheep herdsman. After the Blackhawk War Major C. P. Anderson became the second white settler of Grass Valley, Utah. Anderson was the Sanpete County Co-op Herd Manager and grazed sheep at Grass Valley in 1871 He was the first man to take a buggy up King's Meadow Canyon. He raised his family at Grass Valley including the orphan Christina Pederson. Christena's parents, with 16 year old Mary Smith, were killed in a brutal attack by White Horse Chief, outside of Glenwood, Utah in 1867. He ran stock in Plateau Valley. He was a First Councilor to Bishop Peter Rasmussen and had a ranch at the south end of Fish Lake on Doctor Creek. Major Anderson assisted in the 1875 baptizing of over 80 Native Americans at Grass Valley. Anderson played an early role in the settlement of Wayne County. When Ephraim Hanks was released from the Burrville Bishopric in 1882 he traded his Burrville property for Major Anderson’s Pleasant Creek claim on the future Floral Ranch.
Major Anderson figured large in the early settlement of Sevier County. Few remember Clause Peter Anderson today. I suspect that he is buried next to his first wife Serena, and likely her son John in the Richfield Pioneer Cemetery‌his name is misspelled on the brass plaque at the Pioneer Cemetery. He is all but forgotten today.
In 1851 Brigham Young headed the 3rd Mormon exploration of Sevier Valley. The first Mormon exploration of our County was the the 1849 Parley Pratt Southern Utah Exploration Expedition. The second was a 10 man Expedition headed by Ephraim Hanks in 1850. Of interest to me is the forgotten 1851 Expedition to the “Severe� headed by Brigham Young. This Expedition included the first white Mormon women to explore and travel through Sevier Valley. They were noted in the Deseret News as Mrs. Ira Eldredge, Mrs. Daniel Wells, Mrs. Heber Grant and Mrs. Brigham Young. Their first names are forgotten today.
Elijah Barney Ward 1813-1865 Buried in Salina, Utah
Mountain Man Elijah Barney Ward was involved in both the 1849 and 1851 expeditions as guide, informant and/or interpreter. Ward provided the unfortunate map to O. K. Smith of the infamous Death Valley Wagon Train. He was guide and interpreter to the 1853 Fort Supply Mission. Barney Ward had resided off and on in Utah since 1832. In 1863 he advised George Washington Bean that the country on the Sevier was the finest cattle country to be found. Barney Ward’s Indian wife was named Sally, they had two daughters from that union. She was also the Shoshone Indian widow of French Fur Trapper Baptiste Exervier, who had been accidentally killed in a drunken brawl at an early Mountain Man Rendevouz. Barney Ward, Fur Trapper, Mormon Guide and Salina’s first watermaster, was killed by Blackhawk, along with James M. Anderson, in 1865, at the mouth of Soldier Canyon. This was the the first days of the Blackhawk Indian War. At the time both Brigham Young and Orson Hyde wrote that they believed the reason Ward was killed involved Sanpitch’s intention to take Ward’s half-Shoshone daughters as his wives. When denied the two girls by the local Bishop, San Pitch reportedly said “Well, how about just one of them then? The girls were eventually taken to Salt Lake and raised in the Brigham Young home where they both later married Mormon men.
Incidentally Soldier Canyon, where Barney Ward was tortured and killed was likely named for Col. William Wing Loring’s 1858 Military Expedition through Salina Canyon, travelling from Camp Floyd to New Mexico. This Expedition was guided by the noted Fur Trapper and Mormon Battalion scout Antoine Leroux. In Loring’s report he attempted to name Muhseeneah (Molly’s Nipple) as Mt. Leroux, but the Gentile name did not stick. Col. Loring had lost an arm in the MexicanAmerican War. He later became a famous Confederate Civil War Army General ,under Stonewall Jackson, and after the Civil War he became the Grand Pasha of the Egyption Army.
While we are in Salina Canyon, and in honor of the 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike I would like to give tribute to the Sevier County resident who attended the 1869 Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory, Utah. Samuel H. Gilson, at 6’-4 and 240 pounds, is listed on the Pony Express records as a Pony Express rider. Whether he rode Express, or not, he and his brothers did run operate 3 Pony Express Stations in White Pine County, Nevada. Sir Richard Francis Burton gave the brothers mention in his book “In The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains.” Burton journeyed from Salt Lake City to California, in 1860. Gilson was sometimes known as Shoshone Sam. Gilson Peak and valley are named for him in Nevada. In Utah the Gilson Mtns., Gilson Butte and Gilson Valley in Sevier County are named for him as well. Sam got around! Gilson was a Utah Territorial Deputy Marshall and first resided in Nephi, Utah. In 1874 Gilson orchestrated the first Mormon vs. Gentile Baseball game in Juab County. The Mormon team prevailed 87-14 and newspapers claimed $800 dollars in coin and livestock changed hands that day. Gilson was present in Salina Canyon in the early 1870’s. His family claimed he travelled through Sevier County in 1870 with a herd of horses or livestock. In the fall of 1869 his brother James shot the jaw off a popular local teamster in a Nevada. This may have influenced their move to Utah. The Report of the 1874 Powell-Grove Karl Gilbert Expedition notes Gilson in charge of “Astronautics,” his Oak Springs Ranch and the place name “Gilson’s Crest,” in Salina Canyon on their maps. The Bennion boys, running cattle in the area, were in fearful awe of Sam. Samuel H. Gilson homesteaded the famous M & O Ranch in Salina Canyon, known as his “Mountain Home” and “Oak Springs Ranch”. Hodgmon’s 1880 D & RG Railroad Survey noted his cabins at both ranches.
Gilson was at the Execution of John D. Lee working under Marshall Nelson. Gilson also promoted the early Gentile dominance of the Fish Lake Plateau Cattle Industry by introducing his boss Marshal Elwin Ireland of the Ireland Land and Livestock Company to Salina Canyon. Gilson left his name carved in the rocks and trees from Hanksville to Nine Mile Canyon. The mineral Gilsonite was named after Sam… A cedar tree above Carbondale reads “Sam Gilson, By God!” Sam was not popular with the Mormons of the day but eventually gained some respect for his mining and his flying machine.
Samuel H. Gilson was the likely the only Sevier County Voting Registrar who invented and eventually patented a flying machine. He is all but forgotten today.
The Search For Doc Schock Tonight’s subject is #4 in the men’s column of “Forgotten Folks.” William H. Schock was born a sturdy son, of Dutch parents, on January 31, 1846 in Fork’s Township, Pennsylvania. He died in Richfield, Utah in 1927 after 56 years of practicing medicine, mining precious metals, and raising purebred stock. He was reporteded to have had the largest library in Southern Utah. His ranch was in Plateau Valley, Utah. By way of clarification, Plateau Valley is on the North end of Grass Valley beginning at the Narrows and continuing North 7 or 8 miles above Koosharem Reservoir. Doc Schock’s name and the place name Plateau are seldom recognized today.
My search for Doc Schock began around 1975. John McMillan, or Jack Mac as he was often referred to, was telling me stories of times past. He spoke of driving his new automobile around Sevier County...1920 or so. He glanced at me and inquired "Do you know what a Marmon is? In confusion I asked "a Mormon?" Jack Mac says "No, a Marmon. They were a very good automobile. A little later he spoke of Doc Schock…I asked hesitantly “Doc Shot, like a needle?” Jack looked at me closely, shook his head as he pronounced “Schock” and then shuffled away. In 1916 the Utah-Idaho Motor Company sold Marmon auto’s in Richfield, Utah. I would learn this, and much more on Doc Schock, in the years to come. I heard again of Doc Schock from Boobe Hole ranchers Hal and Tim Anderson. They said his cabin was located at the old King Place. They both said he was some kind of an herbal Doctor.
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I read in Volney King’s 1898 Diary “Aunt Esther very sick, they sent to Dr. Schock.” On an 1895 GLO Survey, I eventually read, in very blurry letters, “W. H. Schock” and below that ... “Plateau P. O.” A Post Office in Plateau? I became intrigued by Doctor Schock. I was familiar with the King Ranch as my grandparents had lived in that cabin several summers in the 40’s, while working for Emery King. Our family has owned the cabin since 1985.
Searching the internet, I found an image with a brief description of W. H. Schock. He was also mentioned in the A. M. Hunter Collection, as a practitioner of Thompsonian Medicine, a bachelor, a member of the I.O.O.F., a Colorado River gold miner and ran for office as a member of the Socialist Party.
Thompsonian Doctors of the time promoted natural cures and remedies. These homeopathic doctors were commonly referred to as “puke ‘em and purge ‘em” Doctors as their treatments often involved ridding the body of poisons, by one end of the body, or the other.
Doc Schock was documented in Gregory Crampton’s excellent historical archaeology book “Ghosts of Glen Canyon.” He locates both Schock’s Bar, Schock’s cabin and Schock’s Trail in this book. The Socialist party had me baffled. I could not think of a more unlikely place for a Socialist to live, let alone run for office, than in Plateau, Utah.
I wondered…Who was this guy? He appeared sporadically in Sarah Sloat Burr’s 1880’s Grass Valley Diary… typical entries such as...”She got no better. They got the Doctor Schock.” He attended George Hatch’s death from Typhoid in nearby Koosharem. Pete Steele traveled from the Henry Mtns. To Plateau Valley, Schock"s Ranch to have a seriously infected splinter removed and treated. He appeared in historical Utah newspapers at the State Fair showing thoroughbred stock with other ranchers named Parker, Forshee…or Hunter. He was a witness in a SLC murder case and was a member of the Salt Lake Philharmonic. The Glenwood history book “Founded on Faith” has Matilda Gillespie describes Doc Schock as a practicing physician in Sevier County. She speaks of her cooking on the Colorado River, 12 Indian Mummies, artifacts…and Schock’s gold mining camp.
South African convert Samuel Francom, describes him in 1888. Francom travelled the east side of Plateau Valley, to Rabbit Valley. He describes “a prosperous rancher, with a large house and barn.” He notes his hospitality…and his education. Details filled in as time went on.
He was born in Pennsylvania. He was a Union Army Veteran, as a member of Co. D, 140th Infantry, in the Civil War. He studied medicine at the University of Illinois and the university of Michigan @ Ann Arbor. He appears in Plateau in 1882. He had his brand registered with the State in 1888. He practiced medicine in 3 Counties. He played a prominent role in mining placer gold on the Colorado River, with the likes of Arth Chaffin, Billy Hay and Bert Seaboldt. He died in 1927 at Richfield, Utah.
A fuller picture of the man emerged as I researched the “also forgotten” newspaper publisher, A. E Howard. Howard owned and edited two Sevier County newspapers, The Salina Press, in Salina, and the Sevier Sun in Richfield. There are no extant copies of the Salina Press today, and only one copy survives of the Sevier Sun. Buried in the Richfield Cemetery A. E Howard is placed highly on my list of Forgotten Sevier County Characters. He might be referred to as Southern Utah’s answer to Mark Twain. In the CHL, I discovered a copy of a wonderful book Howard published in 1897 titled “A Bunch of Carrots.” The book is based on articles in his newspapers and is a marvelous tongue-in-cheek look at life, politics and the struggle for economic prosperity in Sevier County during the 1890’s. In the chapter titled “A Trip Through Grass Valley” I read “We put our horses in Dr. Schock’s pasture and spent an hour pleasantly with Dr, Schock in his parlor.” “Dr. Schock has a fine library, a beautiful
piano…and lives a life of contentment free from the skirts of women and the haunts of men.” Plateau Valley peaked in population around 1902 with 43 souls including the 14 students in the Plateau School District. In my lifetime there were no large homes or barns in Plateau Valley…at least until very recently.
This hay trolley, unearthed on Schock’s place was the type used to pick up loose hay with forks from a wagon or a dump rake. Using a team of horses the trolley was used to raise the hay to a beam on the 2nd story of a barn and then trolleyed to the place of storage at the back of the barn.
I distrusted the account of a parlor, a fine library and a beautiful piano in Plateau, Utah‌but I was forced to grant the possibility of the large barn.
Considering the location I also granted the possibility of Schock living “a life of contentment, free from the skirts of women and the busy haunts of men.�
While digitizing copies of the Richfield Advocate, a few years ago, I read the title “A Model Ranch” on the front page of the July 24, 1895, Richfield Advocate. I read of cattle and horses imported from Scotland, the magnificent terrace garden, and the Doctor’s study. “There is a fine Brussel’s carpet(Schock had been to Amsterdam), elegant furniture, a sweet toned piano, stringed instruments galore, and best of all, the finest library in Southern, Utah." The reporter describes Schock’s Ranch as a Health Sanitarium which also has the designation as the Plateau Post Office. The article concludes by noting the ongoing project to supply lights to the home and large barn, using a dynamo in the ditch above. This is fully 9 years before there was electricity provided in the City of Richfield. I had to believe there had been a barn, a library, and a sweet toned piano in Plateau. But, where did they go? In the back of my mind I wondered about Schock’s gold, but as I studied his life it seemed very
likely that rather than Doc Schock owning gold, perhaps gold had owned Doc Schock?
Schock sold his ranch and continued to prospect for gold on the Colorado River, until his death. He attended the Farmers Round-Up at the Lyric Theatre in 1913. He lived in Richfield for over 20 years, surrounded by his fine library, in an apartment on the 2nd floor of the Andelin Building.
The Richfield Reaper reported Schock as being a flag bearer in the 4th of July Parade. He wrote a health column for the Reaper at times and also wrote a glowing report on the construction of the State Capitol. He performed at musical events and continued to practice medicine until near his death. William H. Schock lived a life of accomplishment with an appreciation of the Arts. He served his
fellow man providing care, prescriptions and potions. He attended to everything from childbirths, fractured bones, terminal disease and deaths. He lived a life of learning, he loved to read. His diary states “read everything tonight but the bible, have to find it.” He subscribed to 28 magazines at one time. For better, or for worse, he was a social progressive, and cared for his fellow man. His death is reported on the front page of the Richfield Reaper April 28, 1927. I worried about his Library. I heard a story where it might have burned in a fire, but I hoped not. On a recent trip to the UHS Research Library, I re-visited the A. M. Hunter Collection. I discovered an undated and misfiled letter from one Elayne Schwartz, to Utah State History Director Everett Cooley. Elayne Schwartz, from Provo had “discovered” Doc Schock’s Diary in Antimony. She was headed to the Reaper in search of help. I read the following article.
“I went into Koosharem and talked to an oldtimer, Lewis Hatch. He gave me additional info on Schock and like everyone else asked “Whatever happened to Schock’s Library?” Richfield Reaper, July 30, 1964. Whether it is too late to do anything about, or not, I don’t know but the doctor had an enormous library. Anyone that can remember him remembers the fact vividly.” “He was not listed in the recent Community Centennial History.”
While visiting the archived issues of the Richfield Reaper, I discovered where his library came to reside.
I hope someday, I might read on the flyleaf of a Richfield Library book the phrase…”
I recently asked the Richfield Library to place this on poster on the wall.