Contributed to Family Search by bkjohns
In 1892 Nathaniel Morris Hodges purchased the entire ranch from Mr. Emanuel Bisbing of Garden City. This extended from the Hansen property on the north end of the community to the hills on the south, and the lake on the east, including what is now Ideal Beach and the Church Welfare Farm. This included all the farm land as well as the lake shore, which was then being used as pasture. These early settlers cleared the land of brush, built houses of logs, dug wells, and with the Garden City early settlers worked to bring water for irrigation purposes from Swan Creek Spring. The south end of the ditch was called the Bisbing Ditch, some parts of which are still in use. Because farming was becoming more extensive as new land was broken up, the water supply was insufficient for irrigation, so in 1902 Mr. Hodges formed Hodges Irrigation Company, and began the project of enlarging and extending the canal to supply water for the increased acreage. This new canal extended south to new grounds known as Little Valley and Mud Spring Hollow. The work was all done with teams and scrapers, shovels, picks and axes. Lots of hard manual labor was involved, but it enabled N. M. Hodges, to greatly increase the acreage of wheat, barley, oats, and alfalfa. The crops at this time were harvested with horse drawn mowers, rakes, and binders. Hay was pitched by hand into the stack. Later hay loaders came into use and also derricks for unloading. Still later on the push rakes and over-shot stackers were used for many years. Grain was cut and bound into bundles by horse drawn binders, shocked to dry and later stacked. Threshing was done with six team horse power machine and the bundles were pitched onto the machine by hand. The women folk came in for their share of hard work also, during these early years. Milking cows, raising chickens, and taking care of the gardens. They churned their own butter and did their washing by hand.
Garden City was a two miles away. The church, school, grocery store, and Post Office were located in Garden City. During the good weather the children walked to school and at other times the families provided transportation with teams and wagons and sleighs.
In 1905 N.M. Hodges built his 2nd saw mill---this one was located east of the Charlotte Hodges home on the property next to the lake shore. It was operated by Vin Hansen, who was an experienced sawyer, lumber was planed and shingles were made, which was a great asset to the ranch and enabled families to improve their homes. A number of new homes were soon built on tracts of land which had been purchased from N.M. Hodges, who with his sons had organized a company called-- THE HODGES LAND, LIVESTOCK, AND MILLING COMPANY-- with N.M. Hodges as “EXECUTOR”.
Considerable range land had been acquired previous to this organization, hundreds of acres were leased to the government by special permits - located in the mountains west of the Hodges properties- between Logan Canyon and Bear Lake, for grazing of the herds of sheep, cattle, and horses. 2o to 24 men were employed the year round on the ranch for a number of years, considerable logging being done during the winter months. Old records show that many of the Garden City men had steady employment on the Hodges Ranch for many years. It was customary for the hired men to be given Saturday afternoon off, and this was looked forward to with pleasant anticipation by all, including the ladies, Many lively baseball games were played with neighboring towns and always a well attended dance in the evening, this being the chief recreation. Horse racing was an anticipated weekly sport. The Hodges boys owned many riding ponies of superior breeds and abilities. This sport was very competitive and enjoyed by the menfolk of the neighboring settlements on Saturdays. The race track was located from the big ditch, south of the “Ranch House” to the end of the main road--which ended at the property line--which is owned by Mrs. Parley Hodges today. In the wintertime, there were church programs and home dramatics. All of these taking place in Garden City.
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