Forest Street

The stumper reference question for today is - who was Forest Street named for? Was it originally spelled Forrest and named for the Forrest family who's father was a sexton at the cemetery? or was it because that street was once lined with trees?  Do you know? I couldn't find an answer in a book here so I have calls out to many local people with no answer yet.  I am hoping the county recorder might have one when she is back in the office tomorrow.  This is almost like the question of when the sycamore trees were planted and I was glad to see an answer to that in a News Journal letter-to-the-editor today.

Some information about the initial building of roads in Brigham is found in  "A history of Box Elder County" by Frederick Huchel and "History of Box Elder County" put out by the DUP:

" Brigham City provides an example of the problems in building roads. Only to the south was road building relatively easy, following the old Indian and Gold-Rush road toward Ogden. To the east was the obstacle of the narrow defile of rock-and-brush-filled Box Elder Canyon. To the west was swamp between the town and the railroad station on Forest Street - the main east-west thoroughfare. Old timers recalled that "travel to and from the railroad station demanded that the swamp on West Forest Street be drained and filled. It took years of work and many tons of gravel to make the street what it is today" To the north, it was as bad as to the west: "North Main Street of Brigham City was a veritable quagmire from near Seventh North to some distance north of city limits. To the north-west, it was the same. The "Watery Lane" road was built "through the bogs and marshes which were caused by the overflow waters from Box Elder Creek."

In 1854-5, when the town site was surveyed, Main Street was only four blocks long. On the east side of Main Street traveling south of what is now Forest Street was the Court House, which was commenced in 1855. Very early in the history of Brigham City, streams of water flowed down either side of Main Street and the shade trees were planted to mark the boundary line between the street and the sidewalk, neither of which were graded. During Mayor John D. Reese's term of office (1875-1878) the fire department was organized and trees were planted on either side of Forest Street and ground was set aside for parks.

If you know any history about Forest Street, please let me know,
Susan