Orange Seely

Who was Orange Seely?

Orange Seely was a Mormon pioneer and early settler of Utah. He is best known as the settler of the towns of Castle Dale and Orangeville, Utah.

Seely was born in Nashville, Lee County, Iowa. At age eight he was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1847 emigrated to Utah Territory with the early Mormon pioneers. He married Hannah Olsen on 24 July 1863 in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. In 1877 he was called by Brigham Young to set up the first encampments in Castle Valley, Utah and was made an LDS Bishop in Mt. Pleasant. He later served as Bishop in the wards at Castle Dale, Ferron and Huntington. From 1880 to 1889 he was the first counselor in the Emery Stake Presidency.

In October 1875 scarcity of feed for their livestock sent Orange Seely and a company of men from Sanpete County with a herd of United Order stock Eastward through Cottonwood Canyon to the Castle Dale/Orangeville area. The herd numbered 1500 head of sheep and about 1400 head of horned stock. The journey of forty miles took fourteen days. Upon their arrival at Cottonwood Creek, the men constructed a dugout twenty by thirty feet which they used as headquarters through the winter of 1875-1876. Seely also served as a member of the Utah Territorial Assembly in the session of 1894.