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For the Good of All
COMMUNITY SERVICES
T X he majority of the settlers of Ashley Center (Vernal) were Mormons, and the site where the original fort had been located was owned by church member David lohnstun, who had granted power of attorney to the M o r m o n church. Church officials held a meeting on 13 September 1884 in which a motion was made that a townsite be located on the old fort site. The m o t i o n carried and eight m e n were placed on a committee to set prices on the city lots. The townsite was surveyed on 7 March 1885. 1 The town organization was established in 1893. Four years later, in 1897, after meeting the legal requirements for filing and advertising, a proposition to incorporate Vernal as a thirdclass city was placed on the ballot. O n 2 November the proposal passed, with a vote of 129 for a n d 15 against. S.M. Browne was elected mayor, defeating S.P. Dillman by a count of 102 to 57 votes, l o h n Pope was elected marshal with 153 votes; his opponents, leff Wilcox and William Preece, received one vote each.2 From that point on Vernal operated as a city with a mayor, not as a town with a board 392
