The community
has always been a good place to live and raise a family, but it also
has always been a hard place to make a living. As the large farm families
grew, there was neither sufficient land nor water to let them stay and
take advantage of the agricultural lifestyle. Several families left
the area to find a better situation in Oregon, Arizona, or Canada. By
the late 1890s the problem had grown, and the Mapleton farm families
were getting frustrated at what they considered a lack of concern from
the Springville City Council about their problems (roads, ditches, canals,
and water rights).
By 3 September
1901 a petition by Aaron Johnson, Jr., son of the first Mormon leader
of Springville, and 110 other Mapleton adults, requested permission
from Utah County for the right to organize a town. It was granted; and
the first Mapleton town board reads like a Who's Who of important bench
leaders: John R. Bromley was president, and the trustees were John H.
Lee, Christian W. Houtz, John Tuckett, and Richard Mendenhall, who was
later replaced by William T. Tew.