The Deep Roots of Hatch

Our next stop as part of Damon’s Family History Adventure was in Hatch, Utah – a tiny place that has always been a tiny place. But it is a place that looms large in Westover Family History and, for Damon, also in his Asay Family History. Here’s our video:

The incredible find in such a tiny place does a lot to explain the journey several families Damon is related to took to arrive where we are today. Quite literally, Damon exists because of the efforts of these people from both sides of his family to pioneer the area.

The Asay family was led by Joseph Asay Sr, who founded the nearby Asay Settlement on Asay Creek in 1872. Born in 1823, this pioneering 5th great grandfather to Damon was a respected man who, like others in Damon’s pioneer family history, was assigned to settle Southern Utah in several areas. Asay Creek was Joseph’s home for many years and many of his children and grandchildren remained in the Hatch area for years.

On Damon’s paternal side, William Reeves Riggs Sr moved to Hatch around the early 1890s and the Riggs family would become embedded in nearly every activity in the small community for generations.

For the multi-generational families that stayed in Hatch there were many who married each other. We see that in the later generations that came with names like Barnhurst, Barney, Hatch, and Burrows. A visit to the Hatch cemetery is an exercise in unraveling a lot of brothers marrying sisters and several generations of families that remained in the area.

For our Riggs family members, Hatch was a place of great memories. Here are a couple of my Grandmother, who spoke fondly and often of her grandparents on both the Riggs and the Snow side. Here she talks about her Grandma Riggs – Priscilla, as talked about in the video above:

The video below features both my Grandma Maurine but also Aunt Allie. In this video they recall Christmases they celebrated as children: