Willard, Utah
Encyclopedia
Willard is a city in Box Elder County
Box Elder County, Utah
Box Elder County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. It lies on the north end of the Great Salt Lake, covering a large area north to the Idaho border and west to the Nevada border. Included in this area are large tracts of barren desert, contrasted by high, forested mountains. The...

, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 1,772 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Willard is located at 41°24′43"N 112°2′23"W (41.412070, -112.039732).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 7.2 square miles (18.7 km²), of which, 5.7 square miles (14.7 km²) of it is land and 1.5 square miles (4.0 km²) of it (21.19%) is water.

Founding history

In 1851, several companies of Mormon settlers were sent north from Salt Lake City to a freshwater bay of the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...

, now Willard Bay
Willard Bay
Willard Bay is a reservoir in Northern Utah.- Geography :Willard Bay is a freshwater reservoir located in eastern Box Elder County, Utah, north-west of the city of Ogden, on the north-eastern floodplains of the Great Salt Lake. The reservoir is operated by the Weber Basin Water Conservancy...

. A company of nineteen located on North Willow Creek, seven miles south of the site where Brigham City would be established. Two years later, the infant community relocated two miles further south and a fort wall was built due to the possibility of Indian attacks. Willard's first settlers were mostly of Welsh, English, Scottish and Dutch descent. Most were farmers, but some were merchants, carpenters, blacksmiths and school teachers. Historically, the economy of Willard centered around agriculture, with fruit crops being the major product. Gravel excavation and worked stone have also been a significant source of income.

Henry G. Sherwood surveyed North Willow Creek in 1851 and the community was renamed Willard in honor of Willard Richards
Willard Richards
Willard Richards was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency to church president Brigham Young in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death.Willard Richards was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to...

, a recently-deceased Apostle of the LDS Church and counselor to Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

, in 1859. Willard received her charter as a city in 1870.

Gifted stonemason Shadrack Jones took advantage of local rock cliffs and the alluvial fan exposed as ancient Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...

 receded. Between 1862 and 1883, he mined the local stone and built single family homes. Over thirty still stand and many are on the National Register of Historic Places. Other early structures included a brick yard, the first grist mill in Box Elder County, and a number of molasses mills.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 1,630 people, 517 households, and 427 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 286.5 people per square mile (110.6/km²). There were 539 housing units at an average density of 94.8 per square mile (36.6/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.26% White, 0.12% African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 1.29% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 1.29% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.11% of the population.

There were 517 households out of which 41.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 72.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.4% were non-families. 14.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.15 and the average family size was 3.50.

In the city the population was spread out with 32.6% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 9.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $52,150, and the median income for a family was $57,841. Males had a median income of $40,625 versus $26,364 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $17,592. About 5.1% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.9% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

Noted people associated with Willard

  • Anson Vasco Call II - First Mayor of Afton, Wyoming
    Afton, Wyoming
    Afton is a town in Lincoln County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,818 at the 2000 census.Afton is home to the world's largest elk horn arch...

     (served nine terms)
  • Evan Stephens
    Evan Stephens
    Evan Stephens was a Latter-day Saint composer and hymn writer. He was also the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 26 years .-Early life and family:...

    , Mormon Tabernacle Choir
    Mormon Tabernacle Choir
    The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...

    director
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