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Kaysville Youth

PRESERVING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE

The Children and Teens Who Played Important Roles
In The Development of Kaysville and Fruit Heights

The youth of Kaysville have played important roles in the history and development of the town. Starting with the children who settled here after crossing the Great Plains of the United States, to those who were born here and nearby, many have contributed to the growth of the local community. Some have even provided leadership at county, state, and national levels.

YOUNG SETTLERS
During early pioneer times, the children suffered the “grim realities of a pioneer existence1.” When an old woman, Emily Stewart Barnes recorded her childhood and girlhood memories on scraps of paper. Emily had emigrated from England, and like her parents, had to learn how to survive in a desert climate, gaining skills they had not developed in their prior lives. Children and adults grubbed the sagebrush to make room to plant crops. They shivered under leaking roofs and tended cattle with bare feet. Few had time or resources to have a photograph taken so their youthful images remain elusive and today we must exercise imagination to see the child in the photograph of the old man.
Read More about some of the youth that helped settle the area.

COMMUNITY BUILDERS
Although most formal histories focus on adults, the children and teens in the early years worked alongside adults to establish a community. As the dugouts and cabins were replaced with adobe houses, the settlement evolved first into a town and then into a city. While the social structure grew, the youth continued to contribute to positive changes. After a few decades, schoolhouses and churches were built, and railroads and cars replaced horse and buggy. An opera house had been constructed and businesses continued to multiply although the economics were still mostly agriculturally based.
Read More about some of the youth that helped build our community.

Citations

  1. Barnes, Claude T. The Grim Years or The Life of Emily Stewart Barnes. Inland Printing Company: Kaysville, Utah; 1964.

Notes
More resources surface regularly that add to local history. KFH Museum welcomes stories of the children and young adults that give glimpses into their lives. Email to ourkaysvillestory@gmail.com.