Tracing my agricultural roots

I grew up living just 15 minutes from my maternal grandparents. Our Sunday afternoons were spent dining around their table sharing pot roast and mashed potatoes. They would often have us over to help with housework or to earn money mowing their lawn. I thought I knew a lot about my grandparents, but as I have gotten older, I’ve learned more and more details that I wish I would have been able to question them about when they were living. I was in my teens when I learned that my grandfather had herded livestock from Brigham City out to the family pasture land in Promontory Point, but by the time I realized the significance his past had in my own life, he had passed away.

As much time as I spent with my grandpa, I can only recall vague memories of the stories he would tell us of his childhood. I had always known that he grew up in Brigham City, Utah where his family had owned the main town mercantile. I knew that his father had been a prominent leader within the Latter-Day Saint community, but until I dug a little deeper into researching his past, I had no idea what role they played.

I came across a website written by my mother’s cousin, who actually happens to have been named after my grandpa. How had I never known that my grandfather had a namesake?  After contacting Raymon B. Horsley II, I learned a great deal about my family’s connection to agriculture and in fact, learned that they played a very significant role in the distribution of the agriculture of northern Utah during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brigham City is very close to Promontory Point, where in 1869 the Golden Spike linked the east and the west by joining the railroad.  This connection of transportation opened the gates for the sharing of goods from one side of the country to the other. My great grandfather, William Clements Horsley, was there when it happened and took advantage of the new opportunities it presented. Clem, as they called him, along with his sons, opened a mercantile in 1886 calling it, Horsley and Sons. Using his previous experience as manager of mercantile for the Latter-day Saints Co-op Store, Clem and his sons successfully established a thriving business and with the joining of the railroads, the agricultural harvest of the area could now be shipped across the United States. Horsley and Sons soon grew into one of the largest shippers of agricultural goods west of the Mississippi. This store remained open until 1955 when my grandfather decided that retail was not his passion, and the store was closed.

William Clements "Clem" Horsley as a younger man

Horsley and Sons 2005 and in it's early days, exact date unknown

I had always known about the store and have driven by it countless times. I knew the family owned land in Perry and out at Promontory, but now knowing more of the story, I wish I could go back and see it through different eyes. I would love to be able to see things as they were in their prime, knowing that my family played a huge role in supplying a large part of the country with the agricultural products of Utah. I wish now that I could sit down with my deceased grandpa and hear his account of his life in Brigham City.

Citations

Horsley, Ray. "William C. Horsley Family". www.wchorsley.org/home.html. Images.

Horsley, Raymond B. II "Re: Horlsey Family History." Message to the author. 10 Sept. 2015. E-mail.