In 1864 the town
was laid out into square eight-acre blocks, each divided into six lots
of approximately one and one-third acres. East of Main Street the lots
face north-south; they face east-west on the western side of town. The
log structures, including the meeting/school building, were relocated
from the fort onto the lots under the supervision of Bishop William
Budge. On 4 September 1871 James Martineau completed his detailed official
survey of Providence City. The cemetery was moved from the south end
of town to a hill north of town. Construction was completed in 1871
on a rock meetinghouse and on a rock schoolhouse in 1877. The schoolhouse
was replaced by a new building with a bell tower in 1904.
For more than
a hundred years, the major activity of most of the people of Providence
was farming. Irrigation canals were dug from the Spring Creek and from
the Blacksmith Fork and Logan rivers. The livestock industry included
the raising of beef cattle (1859), honey bees (1866), horses (1870),
dairy cattle (1874), poultry (1918), and foxes (1928). The horticulture
industry included growing grain and alfalfa; apple, cherry, pear, and
prune orchards; and peas, beans, and sugar beets. Beginning in 1886
Joseph Alastor Smith established Edgewood Hall as a nursery and dairy
operation on the bench overlooking Providence. After its twenty-eight-room
manor burned to the ground on Labor Day of 1935, the 140-acre estate
was acquired by Wall Street financier and Logan native L. Boyd Hatch.
An elegant formal estate was created by Hatch, but he sold out in 1953
to cattleman Theron Bringhurst.