In 1877, President Brigham Young called on Jefferson Tidwell to explore the country east of the Wasatch Range, in what is now Carbon, Emery, and Wayne Counties, and told him that if he would settle on White River, now Price River, he would soon be on one of the great thoroughfares of the nation, a prediction later verified by the construction of the Rio Grande Railroad. After Brigham Young's death, President John Taylor called Jefferson Tidwell on a mission to return to the area in October 1879 and organized the settlement of Wellington. Early settlers of Wellington included Nathan Galloway, Jefferson Tidwell, William Jefferson Tidwell, William Averett, Robert Snyder, Thomas Zundle, W.J. Hill, Joe Montus, Ephraim Green, Bob Watson, Frank Ellem, Dick Thompson, Hyrum Strong, William Reed, Walter Barney, Joseph Gale, Henry Gale, Thomas Gale, Newton Hill, John Vance, J.J. Thayne, E.A. Jones, David Ellis, John Ellis, Severin H. Grundvig, Ben Roberts, Isaac Roberts, Joe Roberts, John Roberts, E.E. Branch, the Palmer family, F. Matthew Simmons, Joe Darling, Ben Smith, Hyrum Chittenden, Peter Liddell, Guy Bassett, Romjues, Fausetts, George Young, William Bishop, Lehi Jessen, A.E. McMullin, George Yaeger, John Blackburn, Ellias Cox, Elam Cheney, Sidney Allred, George Downard, George Blaine, Thomas Blaine, Arthur Barney, Martin Allred, W.A. Thayne, Gustive Larson, Dr. Fisk, Abraham Liddell, George A. Wilson Jr., Taylor Wilson, John Wilson, Bruce Bassett, and their families.