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A Friendly House by a Historic Road: The Hampton-Bigler Home
A Friendly House by a Historic Road: The Hampton-Bigler Home
BY ARNOLD R. STANDING
For more than a hundred years, a stately, friendly, stone house has nestled at the bluffs near the banks of Bear River on Utah Highway 154 between Collinston and Fielding in Box Elder County. During this period this house has served both as a hotel and family home. The house and its locale are steeped in history.
It is here the Bear River has a gravel bottom, making it a natural ford which was used by Indians far back in the unknown past. Trappers, explorers, emigrants, and freighters likewise used this ford. John C. Fremont very probably crossed the Bear River at this location on September 14, 1843, on his way to Fort Hall after his exploration of Great Salt Lake. Captain Samuel J. Hensley and his followers doubtless used this ford in 1848, and it was here that Captain Howard Stansbury crossed the Bear River with wagons when he traveled from Salt Lake City to Fort Hall in the fall of 1849. Many of the California gold rush emigrants who used the Salt Lake Cutoff also traveled this route.
At an early date Benjamin Y. Hampton and William S. Godbe saw the potential in this location and established a ferry in 1853. Toll charges were ten cents for a horse and twenty-five cents for a wagon. The ferry operated until 1859 when the partners constructed a bridge across the river. The bridge was rebuilt later and the original piers used in the construction. Records in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Archives indicate that Hampton received a charter to build a toll bridge across Bear River in 1866. The bridge became generally known as Hampton's Bridge, but is now known as the Bigler Bridge. Charges for its use, determined by the territorial legislature, were $3.00 for a wagon with two horses or oxen, loaded carts $2.00, and loaded pack horses $1.00.
The Hampton family lived in the stone house constructed near the bridge, and members of the Godbe family enjoyed visiting there occasionally. For a number of years, this family home also served as a hotel. In these early years thirty-five cents was paid for bed, supper, and breakfast. Nearby, a thatched-roof log house, west of the present stone one, was used for preparing and serving meals.
On June 30, 1864, the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Company made its first stage run to Virginia City, Montana. It was later expanded to other Montana and Idaho points. There were stations every ten or twelve miles to change horses, with overnight rest stations approximately eighty miles apart. The house at Hampton's Bridge was the first overnight station north out of Salt Lake City.
In 1866 Hampton and Godbe constructed the stone house near the bridge. Built of limestone obtained from a quarry located a short distance east of Collinston, the walls are about two feet thick. The hotel had eighteen rooms, including ten bedrooms on the second floor that were reached by a stairway from the entrance hall. On the first floor, at the front or north end of the house, were two large rooms used as a sitting room and a parlor. A large fireplace provided both physical and friendly warmth. At the back, or south end of the house, was a large kitchen. A dining room occupied the space between the kitchen and sitting room. There was an outside "necessary house" just east of the house. And in keeping with the grandeur of the establishment, it was carpeted, plastered, and wallpapered.
Shortly after the house was built, a large barn was constructed across the road to the north, near the bank of the river. The frame work, held together with wooden pegs, was made of logs covered with board siding. It had a passageway in the center where the stagecoaches were sheltered. They were driven in through a large door on the west side of the barn. Pegs were available for hanging saddles and harnesses, and a safe was provided in an overhead office room for the protection of valuables, including gold carried from the mines at Virginia City, Montana. This barn is still standing.
In the fall of 1875, a transaction changed the house to less of a business venture and to more of a home. James Standing and his wife Mary exchanged their property in Salt Lake City to Hampton and Godbe for their property at Hampton's Bridge. An indenture dated October 12, 1875, executed by Ben Hampton conveyed his share of the property by quitclaim deed to James Standing. An agreement dated October 30, 1875, between William S. Godbe (trustee) and James Standing, conveyed to Standing for the sum of $1.00, 584 acres of land, the "stone house known as Hampton's Station and the Bridge known as the Bear River Bridge together with all other improvements thereon." It is of interest that the agreement also conveyed two span of horses; two saddle horses; one Durham bull; one red Devon bull; all the cows, yearlings, and calves (approximately ninety-two head) "save and except three cows" lately owned by Hampton and Company;
A deed dated November 19, 1875, conveyed the Standing property in Salt Lake City to Annie Godbe for the sum of $13,000.
James Standing and his family continued to provide meals and lodging for travelers, forage and shelter for their animals, and use of the bridge for a toll fee. The bridge was subsequently sold to Box Elder County in 1883.
James and Mary Standing and their children were congenial folks, and the stone house soon became a social center for the scattered families who were beginning to settle the area. Both parents were musically inclined, James once played in the Nauvoo Brass Band and Mary had been a choir singer. They imparted their love and talent for music to their children. Several of the Standing children played musical instruments, including the organ, guitar, violin, and flute. The sounds of group singing and instrumental music frequently added to the richness of living in the Standing home. The home also served as a center for dancing and other social activities of the settlers for miles around. A son, Hyrum, planted a grove of trees where picnics were enjoyed by local families. It was also Hyrum who taught school in the west room on the first floor of the house. His brother Leonard operated a store and blacksmith shop in a building near the river, but across the road west from the barn. Both joy and sorrow were known by the Standing family while living in the big house.
Tragedy came to the home, when a son, Joseph S. Standing, who was serving on a mission for the Latter-day Saints church in the Southern States, was killed in 1879. In contrast, July 4, 1892, was a festive occasion when a new bridge, built on the site of the old one, was dedicated. Individuals gathered from far and near in buggies, wagons, and on horseback. They danced all night on the bridge to music furnished by a band situated at each end.
In 1864, before the stone house was built, the young bride of Mark Bigler from Farmington, Asenath Patton, came to help cook and serve meals in the old log structure. Asenath Bigler's descendants have owned and occupied this property longer than any others. Mark Bigler, one of the first settlers in Collinston, settled there in 1862. One of his sons, Jacob A. Bigler, married Agnes Standing, the youngest child of James and Mary, on November 30, 1894. James Standing died January 16, 1886, and his wife Mary passed away May 4, 1894. Jacob and Agnes Bigler acquired the home and property from the Standing estate and continued to run the hotel.
In 1904 a branch line of the railroad was constructed from Brigham City, Utah, to Malad, Idaho. This development eliminated much of the mail, stagecoach, and freighting business at the bridge, but some continued to pass that way. Many of these travelers sought accommodations at the stone house. However, with the growing use of the automobile, overnight guests tapered off until the Bigler family discontinued their hotel service. The home was remodeled somewhat in 1917 and 1918, and a spacious front porch with stately columns was added to the home.
Agnes Bigler died January 26, 1938, and Jacob Bigler died April 30, 1952. Their son, L. Odell Bigler, and his wife, Juanita Loveland, obtained the home and property from the Bigler estate. They have lived in the home since this time.
The rooms and shady lawns of the old home are cheered by the voices of the children of the fourth and fifth generations of the descendents of James and Mary Standing, as the beloved home serenely begins its second century. But how long the serenity will last is a matter of conjecture. Two threats menace the continued existence of the old home and barn. A modern highway is being surveyed which will run through the yard if not the house. And if the historic old building should survive this threat, it surely will be consigned to the waters of a reservoir which will rise behind a dam to be constructed on Bear River.
Aware of these threats, an Historic American Building Survey team in the summer of 1967 measured, sketched, and photographed the old home. These records are filed with the Library of Congress and the Utah State Historical Society. And so if these threats materialize, the detailed plans and photographs of the Hampton-Bigler home are available to future generations.
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