MOAB MUSEUM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- President of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Associate of Charlie Steen
Born in 1859 in Davenport, Iowa, Cooper would come west to the mining camps of Colorado as a young man and then to Utah to try his hand as a stockman. In 1885 he kept keep a small herd of cattle between Cottonwood and Indian Creeks, joining his herd with his neighbor, Melvin R. Turner to form the first Dugout Ranch (still known as such today). Preferring city life to the open range, Cooper invested in many local businesses with his Indian Creek Cattle Company partners after moving to Moab; his most famous venture being the Cooper-Martin & Co. that he formed with V.P. Martin, D.L. Goudelock, H.G. Green, and William Keller.
In 1918, he and his partners sold their interests in the Indian Creek Cattle Company to the Scorup-Somerville Cattle Company. In addition to the Cooper-Martin Company, he would later invest/purchase the Williams Drug Company and operate as its manager for nearly a decade. Other investments he would make in local Moab businesses included: First National Bank of Moab, Grand Publishing Co, Grand Valley Times newspaper, Moab Investment Company, Moab Land Company, Moab Transportation Company, among others.
After two decades in Moab, D.M. Cooper would relocate to Los Angeles, California but maintained his business interests in Southeast Utah, making many return trips to care for them, until his poor health prevented him from making the journey back and forth. He passed away at his home in Los Angeles in January of 1944.
Job Titles:
- Marketing and Membership Coordinator
Born on March 31, 1855 at Lāhainā on the Sandwich Island of Maui to Bishop Francis A. Hammond and his wife Mary Jane Dilworth Hammond while they were serving a mission for the LDS Church. The Hammonds would return to the mainland in 1856, Fletcher would spend most of his formative years growing up around Ogden and Huntsville, Utah.
In 1885, his father Francis, would be called to become the Stake President for the San Juan Stake and Fletcher would take his family to join his father in Southeast Utah. He would become invested in the livestock industry and eventually establish a home and mercantile business in Moab, Utah in 1894.
He first established Hammond & Co at the old Huish store on North Main Street (present home of Trailhead Pub). He would later build and establish the New Hammond Store with several of his sons in 1909 on the lot now occupied by Moab Coffee Roasters and the United States Postal Office. He would serve a mission of the LDS Church from 1909-1914 as President of the Norwich Mission in England.
Fletcher B. Hammond, Sr. would also serve as Grand County's Democratic Representative to the Utah State Legislature for eight years. He would suffer a serious leg injury after being caught in the machinery at the old Moab Electric Company Plant on Mill Creek in 1919, he would pass away days later after receiving treatment at the hospital in Salt Lake City, he was returned to Moab for burial.
Gerald Elias provided valuable resources, leads, enthusiasm, and music that empowers this account of Grandstaff's life. Elias brought the story of Grandstaff to Nick Sheedy, Lead Genealogist at PBS's Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who generously conducted a thorough review of available resources and shared a summary of his efforts to the Moab Museum in January 2021. The Moab Museum extends tremendous thanks to Nick and Jerry.
According to accounts of numerous early Moab settlers, Grandstaff ran cattle in the canyon that now bears his name. Grandstaff's canyon was one of the few in the immediate Moab area that had year-round running water, making it highly desirable "real estate" at a time when the region began to see an influx of cattle ranches and settlers vying for water and food for their stock.
After leaving Moab, and after a subsequent stint in Salida, Colorado, Grandstaff moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. There he married a woman named Rebecca (the marriage certificate has not been located, but she is listed as co-owner on multiple pieces of property), operated the Grandstaff Landing Saloon, worked as a miner, and owned a sulfurous hot spring. He lived in a small cabin on Red Mountain on the outskirts of town. Land sales records and multiple newspaper articles chronicle his land dealings and affairs in and around Glenwood Springs. Rebecca likely died around 1895 (she ceases to appear on census records) after which Grandstaff lived alone. Though his Red Mountain cabin was remote and his lifestyle somewhat solitary, Grandstaff had a circle of friends and was civically engaged - even running for Constable in Leadville, Colorado in 1889.
As is always the case with history, many details of William Grandstaff's life remain a mystery. While Elias' and Sheedy's research has added significantly to what we know about him, many questions remain about the first Black semi-permanent resident of what we now know as Moab: What was life like for Grandstaff? What were his day-to-day interactions like, as a Black rancher, prospector, and citizen in the Western US in the late 1800s following the tumultuous and painful years of the Civil War and reconstruction? Were the rumors of his alleged misdeeds in Moab credible? Did racism or, as some have suggested, jealousy over his possession of the finest, wettest canyon in Moab fuel his quick departure?
Beyond the canyon that bears his name, traces of Grandstaff's story live on tangibly in Grand County. Today, an ice house constructed reportedly by Grandstaff survives on the property of the Moab Springs Ranch, and interpretive signage on the property celebrates his legacy there. Old charcoal graffiti at a cowboy camp in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park also makes reference to Grandstaff: a crude sketch depicts a face, and a proclamation that Grandstaff was "wanted dead or alive" with derogatory comments and unprintable racial slurs appear on the cliff walls too. It is unknown whether these drawings are contemporaneous with Grandstaff's presence in Utah, but they evidence strong hostility toward him by the people who wrote it.
While research can illuminate some truths about Grandstaff's life, much of what we do know invites questions that may never be answered. His story is remembered in both Moab and Glenwood Springs. So, what if anything does Grandstaff's story contribute to the expansive history of race in America?
Gerald Elias commemorated Grandstaff's life in an operatic composition that was performed for the first time at the Moab Music Festival in 2014. The words imagine Grandstaff's deliberation about the decision to leave Moab or stay, wondering if the angry settlers who forced him to leave were motivated by access to his canyon's water rather than any claims that he was bootlegging liquor.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Grand County Council Member
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Ex - Officio Trustees
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Board of Trustees
Born February 19, 1853 in Lincoln, Maine, Turner spent his early years engaged as a logger with his older brother Hiram. In 1885, he established a cattle ranch between Indian and Cottonwood Creeks and ran cattle with his neighbor. They called their ranch, the Dug Out Ranch. This partnership would establish the beginnings of a cooperative operation of Indian and Cottonwood Creek stockmen that would become known as the Indian Creek Cattle Co. Turner married Gretchen Margaret Rohwer Dresser on July 9, 1901 in Telluride, Colorado and at least one son, Willard Howard "Bill" Turner was born in 1903, who would grow up to be a sound engineer for over 30 years for RKO Studios. The 1910 US Census reports that Mel Turner was living on a farm he owned in Paradox, Colorado and that he was employed as a Grocer. His wife and son are not listed as living with him at that time. Turner passed away in Fowler, Colorado on September 6, 1932.
Nancy Maxwell Gillette, granddaughter of Lydia Adelaide "Addie" Taylor Maxwell, said, "She's an inspiration to me for her courage and spirit-a true businesswoman with style and character." An early successful female entrepreneur, "Aunt Add," managed the Maxwell House Hotel, Maxwell's Millinery, and Maxwell's Navajo Shop. Born the tenth child of Norman Taylor and Lurana Forbush Taylor in 1866, Addie married Philander Maxwell at age 17 and only two years later opened her hotel. She was an accomplished sidesaddle horsewoman and often was called on to lead local parades.
The youngest child of one of the first Euro-American families to settle in Utah, Murphy's father Felix marched with the Mormon Battalion, the only religion-based unit in U.S. military history. Murphy worked in farming, ranching, prospecting, and surveying - and was an accomplished artist and singer-songwriter. He authored The Moab Story and was elected County Attorney, only to sue the Board of County Commissioners for offering him a $10 annual salary rather than the $1,000 per year his predecessor earned. Murphy's legacy is found in the places that bear his name, including Otho Natural Bridge in Mill Creek Canyon and Murphy Lane in Moab.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Curatorial & Collections Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Grandstaff's story has long been the subject of speculation and legend. Questions about where Grandstaff was born, whether he was born into slavery, and where his name comes from have long intrigued Moabites, and genealogical insights provide helpful new clues.
William Grandstaff (with his wife and daughter) listed on the 1860 US Census in Cincinnati.One "Grandstaaff" or "Gransdorff" appears on the 1970 US Census in Omaha. This is the only Black male of approximately the correct age listed in the 1870 Census."Grandstair" enumerated on the 1880 US Census in the Utah Territory. Such discrepancies in name spelling are not uncommon, according to Sheedy."W. Granstaff" listed on the 1885 Colorado State Census in Chaffee County, Colorado.William Grandstaff listed on the 1900 US Census in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.Census records include a wide variety of spellings of Grandstaff's name, as well as differing designations of skin color, birthplace, and parents' birthplaces. Despite these discrepancies, it is considered likely that these records are all of the same person: the William Grandstaff who once lived in Moab and later moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The correct spelling of his surname is assumed to be "Grandstaff," as that is how it is most commonly found in records, and because that is the most common variation of this surname.
According to all available records, Grandstaff was born in the 1830s or 1840s in the South, and since he is not found on the 1850 US Census, we may assume that he was born in slavery. Based on available records, it is unclear whether he escaped slavery or was willfully released by his owner.
While existing census records for Grandstaff cite that Grandstaff was born in Alabama or Virginia, three of five census documents naming Grandstaff indicate a Virginia birthplace. Indeed, Sheedy's genealogical research found a large family named Grandstaff in Virginia, but none in Alabama that held slaves. This evidence supports the conclusion is that William Grandstaff very likely was born in Virginia.
The slave schedules of the US Censuses typically list slaves only by the enslaver's name, age and color. Of nine slaveholders named Grandstaff (spelling variations considered), only two in Virginia and two in Tennessee held enslaved males who were the right age to be Moab's William Grandstaff. One of the Virginia slaveholders reported two mulatto (mixed race) boys aged about 12 and 16, and based on Grandstaff having no known connection to Tennessee and also subsequent census listings identifying him as mulatto, we can conclude that William Grandstaff was likely born into and held in slavery by George Grandstaff of Shenandoah County, Virginia. Based on available records, it is likely that Grandstaff escaped or was released from slavery sometime in the 1850s.
William Grandstaff reportedly arrived in Utah around 1877 and briefly occupied the abandoned Elk Mountain Mission fort along with a Canadian fur trapper nicknamed "Frenchie." The Mission, established in 1855, was a short-lived attempt by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to colonize the Moab Valley, which failed after a few months due to violent conflict between LDS missionaries and the local Ute people. Later settlers reported noticing a small garden at the fort, suggesting that Grandstaff and Frenchie had grown food there. Grandstaff was one of the very first non-Native residents to settle in this region, which began to see settlement by prospectors, frontiersmen, misfits, and explorers of all sorts who were venturing west in the 1880s.
After living in the mission's remains and then in a building that he constructed at what is now Moab Springs Guest Ranch, Grandstaff reportedly ran cattle in the canyon that now bears his name. Grandstaff's canyon was one of the few in the Moab area that had year-round running water, making it highly desirable "real estate" at a time when the region began to see an influx of cattle ranchers and settles vying for water and food for their stock.
Remains of the Elk Mountain Mission fort in 1906. Grandstaff briefly occupied the abandoned building during his time in Moab from 1877-1881.
Grandstaff's time in Utah was brief: He reportedly fled Moab in a hurry in 1881 when tensions between white settlers and local Native Americans (presumably the Ute) were turning violent. Rumors circulated that Grandstaff had supplied the Native Americans with alcohol, which angered the settlers, though the truth of these allegations and the backlash Grandstaff faced are hard to substantiate. Grandstaff purportedly left Moab so quickly that he left behind his cattle.
William Grandstaff reportedly arrived in Utah around 1877 and briefly occupied the abandoned Elk Mountain Mission fort along with a Canadian fur trapper nicknamed "Frenchie." The two were among the very first non-Indigenous residents to settle in this region, which began to see an influx in settlement by prospectors, frontiersmen, homesteading families, and explorers of all sorts in the 1880s. Grandstaff is credited with building a structure later used as an icehouse at today's Moab Springs Ranch, which is situated near a lush spring.
Grandstaff reportedly ran cattle in the canyon that now bears his name. Grandstaff's canyon was one of the few in the Moab area that had year-round running water, making it highly desirable "real estate" at a time when the region began to see an influx of cattle ranchers and settles vying for water and food for their stock.
William Grandstaff ceases to appear on Cincinnati records in the late 1860s. A through search of the 1870 US Census found one possible candidate who could be the William Grandstaff who later moved to Moab: one W. "Grandstaaff" or "Grandsdorff," aged 30, was listed on the census in Omaha, Nebraska that year. He was listed as Black and born in Missouri - a discrepancy with other birth records - and he worked as a house servant and lived with other boarders in a hotel.
Could Grandstaff in Omaha in 1870 be the same one that ended up in Moab? If so, why are the details of this census record at odds with others? One possible explanation: people who lived in hotels often did not self-report their statistics directly to a census enumerator, and so this information may be less reliable. Despite the birthplace discrepancy, this man is the only candidate from the 1870 census considered plausibly to be the William Grandstaff who showed up in Utah within the decade.