People Profiles: Development
Profile
John W. “Doc” Williams
In late 1896, John W. “Doc” Williams answered Moab’s call for a professionally trained physician–a guaranteed annual salary of $150.00. Williams served families, ranches, and farmers across the region, and supplemented his income by owning a general store and selling buggies. His saddle bag, pictured below, has leather pouches with a saddle strap for out-of-the-office calls. View the saddle bag on display at the Moab Museum.
![Doc Williams in Arches National Park [DATE].](https://moabmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Williams-Dr.-J.W.-in-Arches-Vol-4-ES-23-scaled.jpg "Williams, Dr. J.W. in Arches, Vol 4, #ES-23")
Profile
Dr. Paul and Mary Mayberry
Mary Mayberry and her husband, Dr. Paul Mayberry, relocated to Moab from Phoenix, Arizona, in 1956. Previously, Dr. Mayberry had been interning with Dr. Ekren in Phoenix when he learned of the need for doctors in Moab. Dr. Ekren finished the internship and moved to Moab to alleviate some of the need. Dr. Mayberry stayed behind to complete a four-year surgical residency and was situated afterward to take a position in Central America. Instead, he too relocated to Moab due to need. When the Mayberrys arrived Moab’s hospital was the Grand County Hospital, fashioned out of a house on Center Street, but plans for the I. W. Allen Memorial Hospital were under way. Dr. Mayberry performed surgeries at the Grand County Hospital in the surgical room, which was formerly a dining room, and later designed the layout of the surgery wing at AMH. He became very well known as a surgeon and consequently served a wide base of people in the region that would travel to see him. Mary Mayberry worked as Dr. Mayberry’s office nurse and as the assistant nurse to Hannah Pittman at the hospital.
Profile
Fletcher B. Hammond
Born on March 31, 1855 at Lāhainā on the Sandwich Island of Maui to Bishop Francis A. Hammond and his wife Mary Jane Dilworth Hammond while they were serving a mission for the LDS Church. The Hammonds would return to the mainland in 1856, Fletcher would spend most of his formative years growing up around Ogden and Huntsville, Utah.
In 1885, his father Francis, would be called to become the Stake President for the San Juan Stake and Fletcher would take his family to join his father in Southeast Utah. He would become invested in the livestock industry and eventually establish a home and mercantile business in Moab, Utah in 1894.
He first established Hammond & Co at the old Huish store on North Main Street (present home of Trailhead Pub). He would later build and establish the New Hammond Store with several of his sons in 1909 on the lot now occupied by Moab Coffee Roasters and the United States Postal Office. He would serve a mission of the LDS Church from 1909-1914 as President of the Norwich Mission in England.
Fletcher B. Hammond, Sr. would also serve as Grand County’s Democratic Representative to the Utah State Legislature for eight years. He would suffer a serious leg injury after being caught in the machinery at the old Moab Electric Company Plant on Mill Creek in 1919, he would pass away days later after receiving treatment at the hospital in Salt Lake City, he was returned to Moab for burial.
Profile
Helen M. Knight
Her older brother said: “…you’ll be a woman in a man’s world, leaving the world of education, and entering the world of politics.” Appointed in 1936, Knight’s challenging tenure as Grand County Schools Superintendent lasted for 25 years. Born in Moab in 1896 to the Taylor family, Helen graduated from the University of Utah, and guided Moab’s students, parents, and schools through the explosive growth of the Uranium Boom. Her determination sustained her through the challenges of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, and inspired the building of new school facilities (including the elementary school that bears her name) to educate the ever-increasing number of workers’ children.
Hear Heidi Redd share Al Scorup's journey to becoming the largest public land permittee in US Ranching history.
Hear Bob Baldwin share a memory of Scorup Cattle Company:All traffic stopped for Scorup's cowboys, who drove the sizable herd north through town on Main Street.
Rancher Heidi Redd remembers Cattleman Al Scorup and the challenges of early life at Dugout Ranch.
Lydia Taylor Skewes was there when JN Corbin "brought the first telephone across the river" connecting Moab to the modern world.
Joe Kingsley recalls JN Corbin's role in establishing telephone service, with barbed wire and a cooperative spirit, to Castle Valley
