George Wise Cropper

The Millard County Progress, Friday, 21 Jan 1916

ONE OF MILLARD COUNTY'S BRAVEST SONS

CALLED HOME.

George Wise Cropper was born May 4, 1847, at Spring Creek, Harris County,
Texas and died in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 11, 1916, in the L.D.S.
Hospital, leaving two sons and five daughters; his wife, one son and two
daughters having preceded him to the Great Beyond. He also leaves two brothers,
Thomas W. Cropper of Hinckley, Utah, and Leigh R. Cropper of Deseret, Utah,
one sister, Mrs. Kate Webb of Los Angeles, Cal., and a host of relatives
and friends to mourn his demise.

The funeral services were held in the Deseret L.D.S. Chapel on January
15th under the direction of the Bishopric and was conducted by First Councilor
P. T. Black, assisted by the Indian War Veterans Association, of which
he was a member. He was laid to rest in the Oasis Cemetery beside the graves
of his wife and children.

Mr. Cropper came to Utah with his mother in the year 1856, his father having
died in Texas in the year 1851, and settled in Fillmore, Utah, where he
lived with his folks until 1861, when they moved to Deseret, where he and
his brothers and step-father, Jacob Croft, superintended the building of
the first dam in the Sevier River. After a number of years the dam went
out and the place was abandoned. Then again in the winter of 1875 and
1876, Gilbert Webb and Mr. Cropper and brothers and some others rebuilt
it. It was this venture which caused the bankruptcy of Gilbert Webb, who
had furnished the funds for the undertaking. The Deseret Irrigation Company
then formed and they bought the dam of Mr. Webb and all his rights, under
the direction of a committee composed of the following: George W. Cropper,
William V. Black and Hyrum Dewsnip.

George Wise Cropper has always been an ardent worker in the interest of
the west side of Millard County and had great faith in its future. For
many years he served as sheriff of the county and arrested or assisted
in arresting some of the most desperate characters that have ever visited
this part of the country. It was mainly through his labors that the notorious
"Ben Tesker" gang was finally exterminated. He knew not the meaning of
the word fear. He also took an active part in the Indian Wars of that time
and in the first settling of Utah.

Rogers, Sadie. East Millard Pioneers, Death Notices, As Published in the
Progress 1913-1937, p. 50