6 William Nicol Fife
William Nicol Fife is 6th generation from me. His life history is recorded below, as found in Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162 - 164. William Nicol Fife
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
A wide-awake, useful career, thrilling and even tragic in some of its phases, is that of William N. Fife, a prominent citizen of Weber county, who has also been a colonizer in Arizona. A native of Scotland, he was born at Kincardine, Perthshire, on the 16th of October, 1831. His parents were John and Mary M. Nicol Fife. The father was reared on a farm, but later in life followed surveying as a profession. William received a good education, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a carpenter and builder for a period of five years.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
At the end of his apprenticeship he found employment in the city of Glasgow, with the firm of J. Nairn and Sons, builders, and remained with them for nine months, after which he fitted out for Melbourne, Australia, to go into the building business with his uncle, Thomas Fife, who for eight years had been a resident of that land.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
He sailed from Glasgow August 2, 1852, and next day reached Liverpool, intending to travel through England and re-sail in the winter from London. At Manchester he entered into a contract with a building firm for one month, and took lodgings in a house which proved to be the Mormon conference house. There he met Alexander F. McDonald, Cyrus H. Wheelock and other missionaries from Utah, and was converted to their faith. He was baptized by an Elder named Lamb, and confirmed by one Elder France, on the first day of October. The course of his life was now completely changed; he thought no more of going to Australia, but made up his mind to emigrate to Utah.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
On the 7th of April, 1853, he sailed with a company of Latter-day Saints for New Orleans, where he arrived on the 2nd of June. There he met John Brown, the Utah Pioneer, who took charge of this the last company that crossed the plains to Salt Lake valley that season. Mr. Fife was the carpenter and a captain often among these emigrants, whom he helped to fit out at Keokuk, Iowa. They started from that point on the 27th of June—fifty-five wagons, with two yoke of oxen to each wagon—and reached Salt Lake City on the 20th of October. Seven lives were lost between Liverpool and the end of the journey.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
Mr. Fife's first employer in Utah was President Heber C. Kimball, with whom he remained, in charge of his building business, for eighteen months, and at whose house he married, July 9, 1854, his first wife, Miss Diana Davis, daughter of Daniel and Sarah Davis; President Kimball performing the ceremony. Their first child, Sarah Jane Fife, was born July 10, 1855, at her father's home in the Sixteenth Ward.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
In the fall of 1856, the Fife family moved to Ogden, the head of the house having entered into a contract to complete the Tabernacle in that city. His partner was Walter Thompson. The other parties to the contract were Chauncey W. West and Albern Alien. His first son, William Wilson Fife, was born at Ogden, August 16, 1857. This was the year of the Echo Canyon war, in which Mr. Fife, who had seen volunteer service in the Indian troubles of 1853, and had risen from corporal to second lieutenant in the militia, figured as first lieutenant and subsequently as quartermaster, with the rank of captain. He went with the Weber and Box Elder militia to head off Colonel Alexander, who was endeavoring to enter Salt Lake valleys by way of Soda Springs; and afterwards served in Echo Canyon. Returning from the "move," Mr. Fife next entered into building contracts at the military post rounded by the government troops in Cedar valley.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
"This," says he, "brought a great amount of money into the Territory, In company with my old friend, Walter Thompson, I started for Camp Floyd, arriving there September 15, 1858. We entered into a contract to put up government buildings at the post. We were treated with great courtesy by General Johnston and the other officers, and profited handsomely by our contract, hi 1859 we built a tannery for West and Hammond at Ogden; also stables for Wells Fargo and Company, who were running a stage line from Salt Lake City to Montana, hi 1860 I helped to finish the Seventies' Hall in Salt Lake; and later assisted to build the Ogden House for C. W. West, a store for William Jennings at Salt Lake City, and many other buildings of note.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
[p. 163] hi April, 1862, Mr. Fife was appointed city marshal of Ogden, succeeding James McGay, and was elected to the same office February 1, 1863, and re-elected for many succeeding terms. Subsequently he was coroner for Weber county and pound-keeper of his district, hi April, 1863, he was a member of the High Council of Weber Stake, in the fall of 1864, he presided over the local dramatic association.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
All along he continued to be active and prominent in military matters. As regimental Adjutant, he organized the first company of militia in Ogden valley, July 24, 1862. hi January following he witnessed the battle of Bear River, where Colonel Connor annihilated the hostile Shoshones of Southern Idaho. Marshal Fife assisted in getting teams to convey the wounded soldiers to Ogden. On July 1, 1866, he became a Colonel of Infantry hi the Weber Military district.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
In 1868, when contracts were let to build the grade of the transcontinental railroad across Utah, he, with Joseph Parry, to whom he was second counselor in the third ecclesiastical district of Ogden, took a contract to build several miles of the Central Pacific road between Promontory and Ogden. Between September 28 and the following December they completed the work, paying off their men and doing well for themselves. At the jubilation over the advent of the iron horse into Ogden Mr. Fife was marshal of the day. About this time he acted as a school trustee, and at all times did everything in his power for the improvement and advancement of the town. Concerning some of the events following the advent of the railroad he says:
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.163
"In May, 1870, the smallpox was brought into Ogden, supposedly by an Indian squaw. The first person taken down with it, a Mrs. Eggleston, died, and later some of Walter Thompson's family were afflicted with it, and one died. John Murphy and his wife also fell sick, and Mayor Farr thought it best to move them up on Brick Creek. Accordingly I erected a lumber room and moved them to it, furnishing them with food and other necessaries. The city was placed under quarantine, and I was instructed to follow up the disease with disinfectants and place a yellow flag in front of every afflicted house. I attended to this duty personally. By July forty cases were moved from their city homes to Farr's Grove on the banks of the Ogden river, the Mayor assisting me in this work. Very soon he was taken down with the disease, though in a mild form, and was also moved to the grove, where at the end of July I had eighty-nine cases. I got good kind nurses for the sick, and by strict regulations in the camp and the city the contagion was prevented from spreading any further. About half the people in camp I furnished with supplies from Z. C. M. I, at the expense of the city. A great portion of the time I was on the move day and night, and though handling most of the sick people in taking them to the grove, I was not attacked by the disease. Only seven of the eighty-nine cases proved fatal, and by the end of October all survivors were back in their homes. In 1876 the smallpox again took Ogden by storm, and as city marshal I worked day and night to destroy the disease. It was practically a repetition of my former experience, though most of the sick were quarantined in their own homes. Many lives were saved, and by the 28th of December the quarantine was raised. The scourge lasted over three months. The city paid me well for my services, and many leading men of the town presented me with tokens of respect.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
"Many strangers from East and West had made their homes in Ogden; the hotels were crowded, and the railroads brought many bad characters. I had plenty to do, making many arrests, newly equipping the police force, furnishing and refitting the city hall and adding more cells for prisoners. Among the cases brought to justice was a man named Lee, living with some ticket brokers at the Ogden depot. He had committed a dastardly outrage on a Mrs. Parley, a lady from the East. I followed him to Tacoma, Nevada, and arrested him in bed in the presence of four of his friends; a local officer accompanying me. I hand-cuffed my man and brought him back to Utah, where he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to the penitentiary for four years."
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
In the fall of 1873 Mr. Fife went on a mission to his native land, and at Glasgow hunted up and visited his relatives, whom he had not seen for twenty-three years. None of them knew him. He found his father and his grandmother, the latter in her ninety-third year. He describes it as "a great meeting." He fulfilled a successful mission, baptizing many, and having charge of the Mormon emigration from Glasgow to Liverpool, by appointment of President Joseph F. Smith. He returned home in November, 1874. From 1877 to 1880 he superintended the erection of various buildings, the last being the Central schoolhouse at Ogden, considered at the time the finest school building in the Territory.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
He next turned his attention to the South, starting early in November, 1880, with a view to exploring in Arizona and Mexico. He was accompanied by his second wife, a [p. 164] widow of Captain James Brown; and by her son Orson, her daughter Cynthia and his first wife's sons, John D. and Walter F. Fife. By way of Kane county they crossed the Buckskin mountains, the Big and Little Colorado rivers, and arrived on the Gila February 1, 1881. After exploring a week in that vicinity they proceeded on through the San Simon valley, struck the S. P. R. R. (just completed) and thence by way of the Apache Pass reached the great Sulphur Spring valley, where Mr. Fife left his family while he explored Sonora in Mexico; an account of which he wrote to President John Taylor. In the Sulphur Spring valley, at a place called Oak Grove, he located a fine ranch, and there, on the closing day of 1881, was joined by his first wife, Diana, his eldest son William W. and his daughter Agnes.
The country in which they settled, which was grassy, wooded and fertile, was claimed by the Chiricahua Apaches, who because of their blood-thirstiness had been placed by the government on the San Carlos reservation. In the spring of 1882 these Indians broke away from the reservation, got into the mountains and went into Mexico, some of them also making a raid on the Arizona ranches. "My teams," says Mr. Fife, "were at the time in Pinery Canyon, nine miles above the ranch, at Lobley's logging camp; my son John D. being engaged in hauling logs to the silver mines at Tombstone. The Indians surprised them, killing Lobley and his partner, Fenroy. My son made for the hills and defended himself, lighting them alone, fifteen in number. He received two wounds; they tried to burn him out, but he made his escape; the animals were run off by the Indians. He was taken to Rigg's Ranch, and afterwards to my home. We followed the Indians, who went through the mountains to Sonora. I now built an adobe house to supplement my frame house, and provided it with port-holes on three sides as a protection against Indians. Soon after this I was visited by Brothers Erastus Snow, Moses Thatcher and Christopher Layton, whom I assisted in exploring for the benefit of our people." Mr. Fife also aided General Crook, who had been sent by the government to put the Indians back upon the reservation. He speaks of him as a brave, wise and kind officer. The Indians yielded to his persuasions, and he did the country a great service.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.164
And now came an episode that cast a deep shadow over a career for the most part happy and prosperous. On the 10th of September, 1883, Mrs. Diana Fife was murdered at Oak Grove ranch by a Mexican desperado, whose purpose seems to have been plunder. The day before the deed was done Mr. Fife had gone to the nearest Wells Fargo Company's office, forty-five miles away, to express money to some of his folks who had been to the St. George Temple and were expected home after visiting friends in Ogden. His sons John and Walter were down on the bottom lands, cutting hay, and the only ones at the ranch were his wife Diana, her daughter Agnes and a hired man, a worthy, kind-hearted Mexican, who chopped wood and did other work about the place. Choosing his time, the desperado, who had evidently planned the murder of all three, presented himself at the door, and diverting Mrs. Fife's attention by saying "Look!"—at the same time pointing to a window—he drew a pistol and shot her. The ball passed through the upper part of her hip, and she fell mortally wounded. He then aimed at the daughter, but the gun would not revolve. At this moment the hired man sprang upon and disarmed the murderer, and as he fled fired several shots after him, none of which took effect. He made for the hills and escaped. Mrs. Fife died in a short time. Her husband arrived home at daybreak next morning, to receive, along with the terrible tidings, the sympathy of many kind friends who had gathered to offer aid and condolence. With characteristic promptness he had the news spread in all directions, and every available man and boy was soon in the saddle, scouring the country in quest of the assassin. By ten o'clock that forenoon he was run down, captured and brought back, within half a mile of the scene of his crime, where he was examined, but would make no confession. A hundred men demanded his immediate death, and he was forthwith "strung up;" a horseman at one end of the rope being ordered to "take him off at full gallop." He hung for two days upon a tall oak tree, awaiting the arrival of the County officers.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 164
Another Indian outbreak is described by Mr. Fife, the result, in his opinion, of the ill-advised appointment by President Arthur, in February, 1885, of an incompetent Indian agent. The savages killed men and destroyed property wherever they could. General Crook again took the field, and under orders from President Cleveland, captured most of the Indians and shipped them from Bowie Station to Florida. General Miles finished the work, though he was not as successful as General Crook had been, and finally Geronimo and the rest of the savages were taken out of the country. The troops were stationed at and near the Fife ranch during much of the trouble.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 164
In 1887 Mr. Fife assisted Apostle Erastus Snow and others in exploring parts of Mexico, and subsequently sent one of his families to reside there. His third wife, [p. 165] Cynthia, and her family took up their abode at Oak Grove ranch. He is at present among his children in Ogden. One of his sons—John D. Fife—is in business at Salt Lake City.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
A wide-awake, useful career, thrilling and even tragic in some of its phases, is that of William N. Fife, a prominent citizen of Weber county, who has also been a colonizer in Arizona. A native of Scotland, he was born at Kincardine, Perthshire, on the 16th of October, 1831. His parents were John and Mary M. Nicol Fife. The father was reared on a farm, but later in life followed surveying as a profession. William received a good education, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a carpenter and builder for a period of five years.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
At the end of his apprenticeship he found employment in the city of Glasgow, with the firm of J. Nairn and Sons, builders, and remained with them for nine months, after which he fitted out for Melbourne, Australia, to go into the building business with his uncle, Thomas Fife, who for eight years had been a resident of that land.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
He sailed from Glasgow August 2, 1852, and next day reached Liverpool, intending to travel through England and re-sail in the winter from London. At Manchester he entered into a contract with a building firm for one month, and took lodgings in a house which proved to be the Mormon conference house. There he met Alexander F. McDonald, Cyrus H. Wheelock and other missionaries from Utah, and was converted to their faith. He was baptized by an Elder named Lamb, and confirmed by one Elder France, on the first day of October. The course of his life was now completely changed; he thought no more of going to Australia, but made up his mind to emigrate to Utah.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
On the 7th of April, 1853, he sailed with a company of Latter-day Saints for New Orleans, where he arrived on the 2nd of June. There he met John Brown, the Utah Pioneer, who took charge of this the last company that crossed the plains to Salt Lake valley that season. Mr. Fife was the carpenter and a captain often among these emigrants, whom he helped to fit out at Keokuk, Iowa. They started from that point on the 27th of June—fifty-five wagons, with two yoke of oxen to each wagon—and reached Salt Lake City on the 20th of October. Seven lives were lost between Liverpool and the end of the journey.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 162
Mr. Fife's first employer in Utah was President Heber C. Kimball, with whom he remained, in charge of his building business, for eighteen months, and at whose house he married, July 9, 1854, his first wife, Miss Diana Davis, daughter of Daniel and Sarah Davis; President Kimball performing the ceremony. Their first child, Sarah Jane Fife, was born July 10, 1855, at her father's home in the Sixteenth Ward.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
In the fall of 1856, the Fife family moved to Ogden, the head of the house having entered into a contract to complete the Tabernacle in that city. His partner was Walter Thompson. The other parties to the contract were Chauncey W. West and Albern Alien. His first son, William Wilson Fife, was born at Ogden, August 16, 1857. This was the year of the Echo Canyon war, in which Mr. Fife, who had seen volunteer service in the Indian troubles of 1853, and had risen from corporal to second lieutenant in the militia, figured as first lieutenant and subsequently as quartermaster, with the rank of captain. He went with the Weber and Box Elder militia to head off Colonel Alexander, who was endeavoring to enter Salt Lake valleys by way of Soda Springs; and afterwards served in Echo Canyon. Returning from the "move," Mr. Fife next entered into building contracts at the military post rounded by the government troops in Cedar valley.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.162
"This," says he, "brought a great amount of money into the Territory, In company with my old friend, Walter Thompson, I started for Camp Floyd, arriving there September 15, 1858. We entered into a contract to put up government buildings at the post. We were treated with great courtesy by General Johnston and the other officers, and profited handsomely by our contract, hi 1859 we built a tannery for West and Hammond at Ogden; also stables for Wells Fargo and Company, who were running a stage line from Salt Lake City to Montana, hi 1860 I helped to finish the Seventies' Hall in Salt Lake; and later assisted to build the Ogden House for C. W. West, a store for William Jennings at Salt Lake City, and many other buildings of note.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
[p. 163] hi April, 1862, Mr. Fife was appointed city marshal of Ogden, succeeding James McGay, and was elected to the same office February 1, 1863, and re-elected for many succeeding terms. Subsequently he was coroner for Weber county and pound-keeper of his district, hi April, 1863, he was a member of the High Council of Weber Stake, in the fall of 1864, he presided over the local dramatic association.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
All along he continued to be active and prominent in military matters. As regimental Adjutant, he organized the first company of militia in Ogden valley, July 24, 1862. hi January following he witnessed the battle of Bear River, where Colonel Connor annihilated the hostile Shoshones of Southern Idaho. Marshal Fife assisted in getting teams to convey the wounded soldiers to Ogden. On July 1, 1866, he became a Colonel of Infantry hi the Weber Military district.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
In 1868, when contracts were let to build the grade of the transcontinental railroad across Utah, he, with Joseph Parry, to whom he was second counselor in the third ecclesiastical district of Ogden, took a contract to build several miles of the Central Pacific road between Promontory and Ogden. Between September 28 and the following December they completed the work, paying off their men and doing well for themselves. At the jubilation over the advent of the iron horse into Ogden Mr. Fife was marshal of the day. About this time he acted as a school trustee, and at all times did everything in his power for the improvement and advancement of the town. Concerning some of the events following the advent of the railroad he says:
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.163
"In May, 1870, the smallpox was brought into Ogden, supposedly by an Indian squaw. The first person taken down with it, a Mrs. Eggleston, died, and later some of Walter Thompson's family were afflicted with it, and one died. John Murphy and his wife also fell sick, and Mayor Farr thought it best to move them up on Brick Creek. Accordingly I erected a lumber room and moved them to it, furnishing them with food and other necessaries. The city was placed under quarantine, and I was instructed to follow up the disease with disinfectants and place a yellow flag in front of every afflicted house. I attended to this duty personally. By July forty cases were moved from their city homes to Farr's Grove on the banks of the Ogden river, the Mayor assisting me in this work. Very soon he was taken down with the disease, though in a mild form, and was also moved to the grove, where at the end of July I had eighty-nine cases. I got good kind nurses for the sick, and by strict regulations in the camp and the city the contagion was prevented from spreading any further. About half the people in camp I furnished with supplies from Z. C. M. I, at the expense of the city. A great portion of the time I was on the move day and night, and though handling most of the sick people in taking them to the grove, I was not attacked by the disease. Only seven of the eighty-nine cases proved fatal, and by the end of October all survivors were back in their homes. In 1876 the smallpox again took Ogden by storm, and as city marshal I worked day and night to destroy the disease. It was practically a repetition of my former experience, though most of the sick were quarantined in their own homes. Many lives were saved, and by the 28th of December the quarantine was raised. The scourge lasted over three months. The city paid me well for my services, and many leading men of the town presented me with tokens of respect.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
"Many strangers from East and West had made their homes in Ogden; the hotels were crowded, and the railroads brought many bad characters. I had plenty to do, making many arrests, newly equipping the police force, furnishing and refitting the city hall and adding more cells for prisoners. Among the cases brought to justice was a man named Lee, living with some ticket brokers at the Ogden depot. He had committed a dastardly outrage on a Mrs. Parley, a lady from the East. I followed him to Tacoma, Nevada, and arrested him in bed in the presence of four of his friends; a local officer accompanying me. I hand-cuffed my man and brought him back to Utah, where he was tried, found guilty and sentenced to the penitentiary for four years."
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
In the fall of 1873 Mr. Fife went on a mission to his native land, and at Glasgow hunted up and visited his relatives, whom he had not seen for twenty-three years. None of them knew him. He found his father and his grandmother, the latter in her ninety-third year. He describes it as "a great meeting." He fulfilled a successful mission, baptizing many, and having charge of the Mormon emigration from Glasgow to Liverpool, by appointment of President Joseph F. Smith. He returned home in November, 1874. From 1877 to 1880 he superintended the erection of various buildings, the last being the Central schoolhouse at Ogden, considered at the time the finest school building in the Territory.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 163
He next turned his attention to the South, starting early in November, 1880, with a view to exploring in Arizona and Mexico. He was accompanied by his second wife, a [p. 164] widow of Captain James Brown; and by her son Orson, her daughter Cynthia and his first wife's sons, John D. and Walter F. Fife. By way of Kane county they crossed the Buckskin mountains, the Big and Little Colorado rivers, and arrived on the Gila February 1, 1881. After exploring a week in that vicinity they proceeded on through the San Simon valley, struck the S. P. R. R. (just completed) and thence by way of the Apache Pass reached the great Sulphur Spring valley, where Mr. Fife left his family while he explored Sonora in Mexico; an account of which he wrote to President John Taylor. In the Sulphur Spring valley, at a place called Oak Grove, he located a fine ranch, and there, on the closing day of 1881, was joined by his first wife, Diana, his eldest son William W. and his daughter Agnes.
The country in which they settled, which was grassy, wooded and fertile, was claimed by the Chiricahua Apaches, who because of their blood-thirstiness had been placed by the government on the San Carlos reservation. In the spring of 1882 these Indians broke away from the reservation, got into the mountains and went into Mexico, some of them also making a raid on the Arizona ranches. "My teams," says Mr. Fife, "were at the time in Pinery Canyon, nine miles above the ranch, at Lobley's logging camp; my son John D. being engaged in hauling logs to the silver mines at Tombstone. The Indians surprised them, killing Lobley and his partner, Fenroy. My son made for the hills and defended himself, lighting them alone, fifteen in number. He received two wounds; they tried to burn him out, but he made his escape; the animals were run off by the Indians. He was taken to Rigg's Ranch, and afterwards to my home. We followed the Indians, who went through the mountains to Sonora. I now built an adobe house to supplement my frame house, and provided it with port-holes on three sides as a protection against Indians. Soon after this I was visited by Brothers Erastus Snow, Moses Thatcher and Christopher Layton, whom I assisted in exploring for the benefit of our people." Mr. Fife also aided General Crook, who had been sent by the government to put the Indians back upon the reservation. He speaks of him as a brave, wise and kind officer. The Indians yielded to his persuasions, and he did the country a great service.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p.164
And now came an episode that cast a deep shadow over a career for the most part happy and prosperous. On the 10th of September, 1883, Mrs. Diana Fife was murdered at Oak Grove ranch by a Mexican desperado, whose purpose seems to have been plunder. The day before the deed was done Mr. Fife had gone to the nearest Wells Fargo Company's office, forty-five miles away, to express money to some of his folks who had been to the St. George Temple and were expected home after visiting friends in Ogden. His sons John and Walter were down on the bottom lands, cutting hay, and the only ones at the ranch were his wife Diana, her daughter Agnes and a hired man, a worthy, kind-hearted Mexican, who chopped wood and did other work about the place. Choosing his time, the desperado, who had evidently planned the murder of all three, presented himself at the door, and diverting Mrs. Fife's attention by saying "Look!"—at the same time pointing to a window—he drew a pistol and shot her. The ball passed through the upper part of her hip, and she fell mortally wounded. He then aimed at the daughter, but the gun would not revolve. At this moment the hired man sprang upon and disarmed the murderer, and as he fled fired several shots after him, none of which took effect. He made for the hills and escaped. Mrs. Fife died in a short time. Her husband arrived home at daybreak next morning, to receive, along with the terrible tidings, the sympathy of many kind friends who had gathered to offer aid and condolence. With characteristic promptness he had the news spread in all directions, and every available man and boy was soon in the saddle, scouring the country in quest of the assassin. By ten o'clock that forenoon he was run down, captured and brought back, within half a mile of the scene of his crime, where he was examined, but would make no confession. A hundred men demanded his immediate death, and he was forthwith "strung up;" a horseman at one end of the rope being ordered to "take him off at full gallop." He hung for two days upon a tall oak tree, awaiting the arrival of the County officers.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 164
Another Indian outbreak is described by Mr. Fife, the result, in his opinion, of the ill-advised appointment by President Arthur, in February, 1885, of an incompetent Indian agent. The savages killed men and destroyed property wherever they could. General Crook again took the field, and under orders from President Cleveland, captured most of the Indians and shipped them from Bowie Station to Florida. General Miles finished the work, though he was not as successful as General Crook had been, and finally Geronimo and the rest of the savages were taken out of the country. The troops were stationed at and near the Fife ranch during much of the trouble.
Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, Vol. 4, p. 164
In 1887 Mr. Fife assisted Apostle Erastus Snow and others in exploring parts of Mexico, and subsequently sent one of his families to reside there. His third wife, [p. 165] Cynthia, and her family took up their abode at Oak Grove ranch. He is at present among his children in Ogden. One of his sons—John D. Fife—is in business at Salt Lake City.
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http://www.orsonprattbrown.com/Fife/WmNicolFife1831-1915.html
link to information about tabernacle with pictures
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