Since the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah in 1847, Brigham Young, the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time, was determined to help them become a self-sufficient people and bring industry to Utah. Sugar production was one of the industries at the forefront of church leaders’ minds, because of the vast amount of sugar that had to be imported into the area otherwise. Growing sugar cane was not a viable option because of the arid climate. However, around this time, a method was developed in France allowing sugar to be isolated from beets. Leaders of the church, including John Taylor, were assigned to purchase and move beet sugar processing machinery to the West. Once the machinery arrived, church members tested it to see if it would indeed be able to isolate sugar from beets. The project was a massive failure and the church lost a fortune.  No further attempts were made to produce sugar locally until 1889, when sugar beet production was becoming widespread throughout the United States, and the method of producing sugar from beets was more widely understood. Wilford Woodruff, as current president of the church, received a revelation that the will of the Lord was to have a sugar beet factory built in Utah. In order to raise enough capital for the factory, the church used a large sum of tithing money and borrowed from multiple banks. The Lehi Sugar Factory was built, and Wilford Woodruff opened the ceremony that dedicated the factory to the Lord, a common practice in the Church.  The sugar factory played a large role in the community, contributing greatly to the financial wellbeing of those living in Lehi and others close by. It provided  many jobs working in the factory and an opportunity for farmers to grow crops. The factory continued to operate from 1891 until 1924, when sugar production was relocated to other factories around the state. The factory lot, formerly owned by the Utah and Idaho Sugar Company, was sold in 1979 to a trucking company where it remains in their possession. The smokestack for the factory has since been converted to a cell phone tower, a symbol of the change that has taken place in Utah’s economy over the years.

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The Lehi Pioneer Cemetery was the first settler cemetery in the Lehi area. When the citizens first started using this land as a cemetery in 1851, it was public land. Thomas R. Jones acquired the property through the Homestead Act of 1862, but quickly deeded it to the city for its continued use as a cemetery. Although most of the records for the cemetery prior to 1895 have been lost, evidence exists proving that a pioneer who died at the age of seventy-five was the first man to be buried in this land. It is also evident that along with the many early settlers that died of natural causes there were a few murder victims buried in the Lehi Pioneer Cemetery, such as the Lehi schoolteacher, George William Thurmond, who was killed by one of his students while trying to decorate a city Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

In 1872, Lehi's population was growing and the city decided they needed to widen the State Road that the Lehi Pioneer Cemetery was located on and build a railroad through the middle of the cemetery. Subsequently, many bodies that were buried in the cemetery were dug up and reburied in a new cemetery. Many families who had family members buried in the cemetery had moved and were indifferent to the relocation, but a few families asked for the bodies to not be moved. In the process of building, most of the bodies in the area were removed but some were not found and remain there today, including John Griggs White.

Following the removal of the bodies from the cemetery and the addition of a railroad, the land was no longer recognized as a cemetery and people could buy the land for their own property. Den Turner bought some of the land and built a tire shop called “Den’s Tire Shop” during the 1950s. Bud Nielson also bought a portion of the land to build his home around the 1970s. Den Turner eventually sold his tire shop to Don Harris during the 1970s. All three men found skeletons of the pioneers on their land while doing construction. In response to the bodies that were found, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers decided to build a monument near Den’s Tire Shop on the centennial anniversary (1951) of the cemetery’s establishment. However, in the five years that followed it became evident that the monument needed to be moved because the customers of Den’s Tire Shop were repeatedly hitting the monument while entering and exiting the shop. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers pleaded with the city for the monument to be moved and in 1958, the city gave a small piece of land to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers a block east of the actual historical cemetery for the monument and small roadside park. Currently, one can visit the monument of this historical cemetery on this roadside park located from 190-200 West State Street, Lehi Utah.

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Porter, as he was called, has been credited with killing more outlaws than Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and Tom Horn combined - a reputation which earned him the rather menacing nickname, “Destroying Angel.” Having been one of the very first converts to, and members of the burgeoning Mormon Church in New York State in 1830, he became a bodyguard to the church founder and Prophet Joseph Smith. In this role he faced continued anti-Mormon persecution and violence, leading him to hone his skills of marksmanship and fighting. At one point, his family’s home was attacked and burned to the ground, as they watched. Thereafter, he vowed to never be helpless again. While Rockwell was in his service, Joseph Smith promised him that as long as he stayed faithful ito the Church, and did not cut his hair, he too, like the Biblical figure Samson, could not be killed by any man. Smith said that “no bullet or blade can harm thee.” This promise would make Rockwell known as a miraculous modern-day Samson type of figure, and created a great deal of fame, and mythology surrounding him. After Smith’s martyrdom, Porter Rockwell made the trek out west with the rest of the Mormon Church to what would become Utah Territory.

In Utah, Rockwell quickly resumed his duties as a bodyguard to the new head of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young. He became a Deputy US Marshal and local territorial lawman, working all throughout the territories of the American West. He was known as an expert marksman who carried multiple weapons with him - most notably, two large black-powder revolvers which he could shoot simultaneously. He gained enormous notoriety, through his many successes in law enforcement. Despite his numerous violent confrontation, he was never struck by a bullet. This prompted gunslingers to come to Utah to see if they could shoot down the “Destroying Angel,” gain some notoriety of their own, and put to rest the legend of Rockwell’s Samson-like invincibility.

At this featured location, on the Main Street of Lehi, Utah, one such outlaw tried his hand at defeating Rockwell and his myth. Lehi City court documents recorded the events of June 25, 1873 as an "affray," or the “the fighting of two or more persons in a public place, and to the terror of others.” This affray began as a young outlaw named Loren Dibble approached Porter Rockwell in broad daylight, drew two guns, and emptied them at him. According to onlookers, Rockwell simply stood still, staring directly back at Dibble, without even having his composure ruffled. When Dibble had fired all of twelve shots, Rockwell drew his own two revolvers and shot at Dibble’s feet, making the young outlaw "dance" to avoid being hit by each bullet. When Rockwell had emptied both of his own guns, he walked directly up to Dibble, grabbed him by his collar, and shook him like a rag doll. Rockwell yelled into Loren Dibble’s face “If it wasn’t for the fact that I know who your father really was, I’d have killed you!” Rockwell threw him to the ground, and walked away. This comment about Dibble’s father was not understood at the time, by those present, but has more recently come to be understood through genealogy and DNA tracing that Dibble was the son of Joseph Smith, through one of Smith’s polygamous wives. Few other outlaws were given the benefit of having their lives spared by Porter Rockwell. Rockwell was known to kill too soon, sometimes without sufficient justification for taking a life.

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