LEAMINGTON

A short history of Leamington

In 1871, settlers of Oak City, Utah built a dam in what is now Leamington. The town itself was settled in 1871 by Thomas Morgan. He was the first branch president when the Leamington Branch of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)was organized in 1876. In 1880, a log meetinghouse was built and by this time the town had a ward of the LDS Church, with Mary Goble Pay as president of the Primary organization. Bengt Textorius was hired to bring a spur of the railroad down from Salt Lake City through Leamington past Lynndyl Junction. His wife, Josephine, talked her sister Anna and her son, Abe, to move from Sweden. She brought with her Bertha Rorstrum. Hans Olaus Sorenson married both of these women and started rearing families. He followed Bengt to Leamington in 1883. Hans purchased a farm south east of town. He helped build the canal up on the ridge which helped water the valley. Rodney Ashby was bishop for many years and Bengt was one of his counselors. Hans found that sugar cane grew better than wheat so he produced molasses. He also got a cream separator and worked with the neighbors to take the cream and make butter. He took trips to the mining town Eureka up north to sell, butter, eggs, meat, and flour goods, plus fruit and vegetables in season. Life was not easy. He made an adobe mill for bricks to make small homes. They would go up into the canyons to gather firewood for home and for the cone kilns to make charcoal for the trains. In winter they would heat bricks on the pot belly stove and wrap burlap around for their beds. In winter, they would cut blocks of ice from the Sevier River and place them in small caves covered with straw to serve as refrigerators. In 1930 Leamington and its immediate vicinity had a population of 356.

On Highway 132 near the middle of Leamington sits a 1950s-style Phillips 66 gas station with period cars in front of and around the garage. There is also a growing collection of retired farm implements. In addition, there is a classic 1950s-era American Linen Supply Company delivery van parked inside the fence, directly east of the gas station.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Leamington, Utah, revision 1381175496 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.