EMCN FLOAT: John Neff

The First Three

The first three families that settled in the East Mill Creek area came within weeks of each other in the fall of 1848. They were the John Neff Sr. Family, the Daniel Russell Family and the Alva Keller Family. The flour mill was started in July 1848 and completed in December of 1848 in time for milling the wheat harvest of the past fall. John Neff Sr. supervised the operation of the mill. His son, Frankly Neff operated the mill for most of the years of its existence.

Mary Barr married John Neff 12 January 1822 in Lancaster County. When the Mormon missionaries came through in 1843, John and Mary and the then-surviving nine of their ten children joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved the next year to Nauvoo, Illinois, selling out at a sacrifice and taking with them the millstones from their Pennsylvania grist-mill. By 1846, they had continued on to Winter Quarters at Florence, Nebraska, where Cyrus, their fourth child, died at the age of 20. Brigham Young assigned John to build and run the mill that still stands there. The Neff's went on to Utah in one of the earliest pioneer companies, traveling in the spring and summer of 1847, leaving oldest son Franklin and his wife Elizabeth to run the mill, while it was still needed. In Salt Lake, they became millers to that community and the founders of the settlement called East Mill Creek, still a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, with a distinguished pioneer history.

Neff's Mill by Al Rounds

“Father John Neff was one of nature’s noblemen. He would neither speculate out of necessities of his fellows, himself nor sell to anyone who would, but no person was ever turned away from his mill without something to appease his hunger whether he had anything to pay for it or not.”
-George C. Lambert

“That Brother John Neff had done that which no other man would do, namely, he supplied the many needy with food stuffs at a low price when he could have received 5 & 10 times more from passing emigrants and speculators.”
-Brigham Young

Obituary of John Neff-“Father Neff was truly devoted to his religion. The Kingdom of God to him stood paramount to everything else. His faith was exhibited by his works. He was liberal with his means. When assistance was called for it was forthcoming.”
We could be left to wonder whether the Neff family ever yearned to return to the beautiful green lands of their former home in Pennsylvania. This is answered by a letter from Major Charles E. Wentz to a friend back in Lancaster County after visiting the Neff home in East Mill Creek. It stated in part that "Mr. John Neff, formerly of Lancaster County, is one of the best farmers in this Territory. He has nearly two thousand acres of land embracing some of the best soil in the world; the greater part, however, is a desert. He has a large gristmill and a sawmill and is building a large mill for sawing shingles, lath, etc. He has cattle and sheep by the thousands to be seen grazing upon the mountain benches. He is considered one of the wealthiest men here. He has no desire to return to Lancaster, and is exceedingly happy in his religion. His wife is a perfect lady, one of the sweetest women of her age I ever saw. Mr. Neff told me with perfect sincerity that he had everything that his heart could desire. We passed a delightful day with them. ...They gave us a magnificent Lancaster County dinner ...Among the preserves was watermelon butter. The edible part of the melon boiled down without sweetening of any kind. It was delicious."