Joseph C. Rich - Versatile Pioneer on the Mormon Frontier: A Story of Achievement Under Difficulties

Salt Lake City: Granite Publishing Company, 1958. First Edition. 371pp. Octavo [23.5 cm] Brown cloth with the title printed in off-white on the front board and backstrip. Fine/Fine. "Joseph C. rich might well be called the versatile pioneer; for pioneer he was, and a man of many talents and accomplishments he was. With but a few months of formal schooling, he became proficient in the basic elements of three great branches of learning as we know them today: civil engineering; journalism; and law. In addition, as a mere youngster he filled a mission to Great Britain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and upon his return was chosen as a member of the presidency of the Bear Lake Stake in which he served faithfully for years. At the age of twenty-three he was appointed county surveyor of Richland County, Utah, in an area now comprising two counties - one in Idaho, the other in Utah. During these early years, he proved himself a leader of men, capable of carrying out successfully difficult and dangerous undertakings. He had charge of the first road building project to connect the Bear Lake Valley with the Salt Lake Valley; he led a group of men against a dangerous band of outlaws, and recovered hundreds of head of horses and cattle stolen from the settlers. He also became one of the first merchants in the Bear Lake Valley, shipping goods in from Salt Lake City by Wagon Train, and sending the products of the valley in the same manner to points in Utah, Idaho and Montana." - from the Introduction.