From Ox Team to Irrigation Chief: The Legacy of Moses R. Porter
Moses Ross Porter: Builder of Canals, Keeper of the Community
Moses Ross Porter was born in Ohio in 1843, a time when the American West was still a wild dream for many settlers back East. In 1872, Moses crossed the plains by ox team, enduring the same rugged trail as so many pioneer families who would one day carve out new lives in Utah’s desert valleys.
He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the summer of 1876 in the Osguthorpe Mill Race, by Henry B. Skidmore, and confirmed by John Neff. That same year, he was ordained a priest and, just before marriage, an elder — after tracking down Joseph F. Smith in a potato field to sign his marriage recommend!
In October 1878, Moses married Mary Elizabeth Stillman in the Old Endowment House. The couple immediately set out to make a home of their own. They homesteaded 160 acres in Granger Precinct — land they called home from 1878 until 1914. There, Moses built a shanty to satisfy homestead law, stayed on the land every season he could, and proved up his claim. He raised cattle, planted crops, and worked the stubborn soil into thriving farmland.
In those early years, canals were unreliable. When the promised water failed, Moses went to Park City to burn charcoal and worked the railroad in 1880 to help pay the bills. But he never abandoned the mission of building up Granger.
He took an active part in civic life, serving for decades as a constable, road supervisor, and trustee of the Brighton School District. He was always organizing, fixing roads, building schools, or hosting church dances for the young people. He helped build the early Granger community halls and meetinghouses through donated materials and neighborly labor.
Above all, Moses dedicated himself to solving the valley’s water challenges. He served as director and superintendent of the North Jordan Irrigation Company for many years and spent thirty years as director and superintendent of the Utah and Salt Lake Irrigation Company. His steady leadership helped keep water flowing to fields that once seemed hopelessly dry.
After 1914, Moses and Mary Elizabeth moved to Salt Lake City, where he stayed active in the livestock business and local politics. Though they never had children of their own, they lovingly raised a nephew, Roy Porter, and a foster daughter, Nettie McRae, passing on their strong pioneer values to the next generation.
Moses was known for his unwavering faith too. He was ordained a Seventy in 1884 and later a High Priest in the Granite Stake House. He once shared how, before he was baptized, he faced a frightening moment alone in a canyon — a dark presence he rebuked in the name of Jesus Christ, an experience that remained a personal witness to him for life.
When Moses Ross Porter passed away in 1932, he left behind more than homesteads and irrigation ditches. He left a story of courage, grit, and unwavering devotion — a story still whispered today by the old canal banks and farm roads that helped Granger, and all of West Valley, blossom from desert to community.
