Near this location on the south side of Summit Creek, the first pioneers from Salt Lake, led by John P. Wright, began the settlement of Smithfield. The land was surveyed and lots assigned. By May 10, 1859, they commenced to plow and plant crops and gardens, but did not build homes. In June, a horseman brought word that the families should return to Peter Maughn's Fort at Wellsville because of threatening activities by the Indians. On October 10, 1859, brothers Robert and John Thornley, Jr. and their cousin Seth Langton arrived and built the first log cabin on the shore of Summit Creek. They cut and stacked wild grass to feed their animals through the winter, then returned to Salt Lake and brought their families with ten wagons, arriving December 1, 1859, and camping near their cabin. They were greeted by seven of the original families who had planted gardens earlier that spring. The winter was spent in wagon boxes, tents, or dugouts, with cooking over campfires. During a snowstorm on November 20, 1859, Harriett Ann Hunt, daughter of Marshall and Sarah Ann Runnion Hunt, was born in a wagon box as the settlement's first birth. An Indian attack in 1860 prompted the settlers to build a fort one-half mile east of this location, aligned with the main street in Logan, and sixty-eight cabins were associated with it. In 1864 it was considered safe to build individual dwellings, and the fort was abandoned as farming began, cattle were raised, and businesses flourished. By 1868 the settlement had a leather tannery, flour, shingle, and molasses mills, a limekiln, and a mercantile store, the Smithfield Cooperative Association, operated in the home of John and Margaret Stringfellow Thornley, where farmers, customers, and travelers were welcomed. In November 1869, John G. Smith was called by Apostles Orson Hyde and Ezra T. Benson to serve as the first bishop for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Summit Creek, and the town was renamed Smithfield in his honor, though for several years it was known as both Summit Creek and Smithfield.