Description

Elijah Edward Holden

About 134 miles south of Salt Lake City is the tiny village of Holden, Utah. As you pass by Holden on Interstate 15, Holden looks like so many other little towns in rural Utah. With the expectation of the ordinary, may I tell you the story of how the name of Cedar Fort, Utah became Holden, Utah.

Elijah Edward Holden was born in 1826 in Kentucky. Later, he and his mother moved to Hancock County, Illinois where both were baptized as members of the church. In 1845, Elijah was ordained a Seventy. In 1846, he went with the church toward the Rocky Mountains. In July of 1846, Elijah marched off with the Mormon Battalion as a private in Company A.

Elijah became ill in the march to Santa Fe and was among those ordered to Pueblo with others of the battalion’s sick detachments. He and the rest of the sick detachments wintered over and entered the Salt Lake valley just three days after Brigham Young in July 1847.

Once in Utah, Elijah married and settled in Provo. Turns out he didn’t care much for Provo, so he packed up his family and moved south to Fillmore – the territorial capital. Once in Fillmore, Elijah was elected as a legislator. Not long after, according to family records, Brigham Young came through the area and saw a pleasing sight not too far distant from Fillmore, that would make a good location for a town.

Elijah and others were called to settle that area and it was named, originally, Cedar Fort. For a time, they called it Buttermilk Fort because everyone that passed by received a cup of cold buttermilk. Elijah arrived in Cedar Fort, built a home and established a farm.

Then, in 1856, Elijah was called to leave his family and go as a missionary to England. Not long after his departure, his wife and youngest child passed away. When Elijah returned home, he married again and went to work building up his farm and soon had it prospering.

Then, in September 1858, Elijah Holden traveled north to Nephi where he had business, and while there, he hired a young man named Thomas Bailey to come back and help him on the farm. On September 5, 1858, they left Nephi and started for Cedar Fort. The wagons loaded with wool for the women of the town to make clothes for their families.

Not long after their departure, an early winter storm set in. It began as heavy rains and soon turned to snow. For two days the storm raged. On the night of the second day, it appears that the team pulling the wagon gave out some distance from Cedar Fort. The boy with him was cold. Elijah’s daughter recounted what happened:

“Father knew they were close to home, so he gave his coat to the boy and told him to stay with the wagon and team and he would walk home and get help. He took his gun and money and started for home, but the storm was so fierce that he lost his way becoming exhausted. He stood his gun up against some bushes, tied his money in a red bandana kerchief and put it on the end of his gun and lay down to rest. After a three day search, his body was found. The boy also froze to death.”

In 1858, a post office was established, and the name of the settlement Cedar Fort was changed to Holden in honor of one of its revered pioneers – the man who gave up his coat.

Sources:

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWJJ-55M/elijah-edward-holden-1826-1858

https://latterdaylight.squarespace.com/question-of-the-day/2019/9/29/elijah-edward-holden