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Description
Grafton Utah, October 17th, 2022.

The house that Alonzo Russell built for his 2nd wife Nancy Briggs Foster Russell.

My information source seems to have a contradiction. It states that Alonzo built the adobe house in 1861, but it also states that the settlers didn't arrive there until 1862.

Alonzo was a blacksmith by trade and supplied the settlement with all manner of services. He lived in the home until 1910 when he died at the age of 89. His son, Frank, and daughter-in-law Mary Ballard Russell moved into the house in 1917 and lived in the home until they moved to St. George in 1944. They were the last residents to leave Grafton.

The house is large considering the time and place, but Nancy had 9 children plus she also cared for the first wife's daughter and the two children that had been abandoned by the third wife.

Grafton was founded in 1862 by five families that had originally started a settlement named Wheeler in 1859. But Wheeler was destroyed in 1862 by a week long flood of the Virgin River.

In 1864 there were 28 families in Grafton. That seems like the peak of the town’s population. Growing crops alongside of the unpredictable Virgin River was too great of a challenge and many soon moved away.

Records show that the local school ceased classes after 1918-1919 school year. In 1920 there were only three families remaining. The last residents of Grafton, Frank Russell, and his wife, Ellen, moved away in 1944.

When I was looking around the place there were at least four houses, a church/schoolhouse and a handful of other buildings, of which two might have once been houses.

Over the years there have been at least seven movies with scenes shot at this location, the most famous of which was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There was also the 1935 film “Desert Mesa” (which was reissued in 1941 as "Mormon Conquest"); the 1928 film “In Old Arizona”; the 1930 film “The Arizona Kid”; the 1947 film “Ramrod”; the 1981 made for TV movie “Child Bride of Short Creek”; and the 1984 film “The Red Fury”.

Description
Grafton Utah, October 17th, 2022.

The house that Alonzo Russell built for his 2nd wife Nancy Briggs Foster Russell.

My information source seems to have a contradiction. It states that Alonzo built the adobe house in 1861, but it also states that the settlers didn't arrive there until 1862.

Alonzo was a blacksmith by trade and supplied the settlement with all manner of services. He lived in the home until 1910 when he died at the age of 89. His son, Frank, and daughter-in-law Mary Ballard Russell moved into the house in 1917 and lived in the home until they moved to St. George in 1944. They were the last residents to leave Grafton.

The house is large considering the time and place, but Nancy had 9 children plus she also cared for the first wife's daughter and the two children that had been abandoned by the third wife.

Grafton was founded in 1862 by five families that had originally started a settlement named Wheeler in 1859. But Wheeler was destroyed in 1862 by a week long flood of the Virgin River.

In 1864 there were 28 families in Grafton. That seems like the peak of the town’s population. Growing crops alongside of the unpredictable Virgin River was too great of a challenge and many soon moved away.

Records show that the local school ceased classes after 1918-1919 school year. In 1920 there were only three families remaining. The last residents of Grafton, Frank Russell, and his wife, Ellen, moved away in 1944.

When I was looking around the place there were at least four houses, a church/schoolhouse and a handful of other buildings, of which two might have once been houses.

Over the years there have been at least seven movies with scenes shot at this location, the most famous of which was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There was also the 1935 film “Desert Mesa” (which was reissued in 1941 as "Mormon Conquest"); the 1928 film “In Old Arizona”; the 1930 film “The Arizona Kid”; the 1947 film “Ramrod”; the 1981 made for TV movie “Child Bride of Short Creek”; and the 1984 film “The Red Fury”.