The city of Mapleton started out as an agricultural extension of the small Hobble Creek community that is now called Springville, Utah. Mapleton is located to the south and east of its parent community, on the Provo level of what was once Lake Bonneville. The area was partially covered by an extensive stand of junipers which started near the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon and extended around its western edge to the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. On the eastern side it is flanked by one of the most beautiful of the Wasatch Mountains–the official maps now call it Mount Flonette, but earlier inhabitants of the area called it Sierra Bonita. According to the testimony of Cyrus Sanford and Richard Bird, two early settlers of Springville and Mapleton, land on the bench was surveyed for farming purposes less than a year after the original settlement was founded in 1850. By 1856, a group of men including Sanford and Bird, Henry Claucus, Buck Atchison, Sanford Fuller, John Deal, John Maycock, Myron Crandall, Spicer Crandall, Henry Roylance, Thomas Avery, Walter Bird, Stephen C. Perry, and John Solomon Fuller were busily engaged in leveling the land and digging a ditch to bring water from Hobble Creek. The ditch was five miles in length and cost over one hundred dollars with its added improvements. The settlers cleared and fenced between five and six hundred acres of bench land; and, since they did it as a united group, they called the new farming area the Union Field. It was not to stay a united effort.
The early Indian wars, which started with the Walker War of 1853-1854, and subsequent hostilities in Utah and surrounding counties, kept the Springville farmers from effectively farming their new holdings. By the time these problems were dealt with, a new set of farming conditions existed that would change how the bench area was going to grow and develop. A more extensive land survey was completed in the late 1860s. When the Indians who had claimed Utah Valley were moved to a reservation in 1869, the development of the Mapleton bench area began. Those farmers who had previously developed the land had the best claims to the farmland. However, it was not going to be a smooth transition from a farming program developed from a United Order communal organization to an American free-enterprise land-grab allowed under the Homestead Act of 1862. The Union Field farmers struggled to get their land claims worked out; and when the final disputes were settled by the bishops’ courts, a new name was needed for the area. With the coming of permanent residents, a school was needed. By 1884 an acre of land had been donated by Lewis R. Perry at the southwest corner of his farm, and a twelve-by-fifteen-foot building was erected. The new schoolhouse soon became the focal point of the community. It was not only a place for children to be educated; it became the Mormon branch meetinghouse for the local farm families. Three years later, it housed the first Mormon ward on the bench. At that time, and probably because of land-claim problems, L.J. Whitney suggested that the new ward be named Mapleton after a small grove of black maple trees found at the mouth of Maple Canyon. The community has always been a good place to live and raise a family, but it also has always been a hard place to make a living. As the large farm families grew, there was neither sufficient land nor water to let them stay and take advantage of the agricultural lifestyle.
Several families left the area to find a better situation in Oregon, Arizona, or Canada. By the late 1890s the problem had grown, and the Mapleton farm families were getting frustrated at what they considered a lack of concern from the Springville City Council about their problems (roads, ditches, canals, and water rights). It was during the drive for a town government that a real sense of community developed. A large new school building, a larger Mormon meetinghouse, stores, a dance hall, and improved roads, canals, and groves of trees (where residents gathered for recreation) were developed by the people under the direction of their new leaders. By 1911 they had a new recreation center in town, built by public donation. Utah Power and Light Company was granted a franchise to supply electricity to the town by 1913, and a new water system was developed by 1918. In 1930 the town celebrated the establishment of a new culinary water system. Still, the officials never found a way, even after Mapleton became a third-class city in 1948, to provide enough local jobs for the residents. Lack of water, especially in drought years, ditches, canals, size of building lots, maintenance of roads, a shortage of recreation programs, and lack of a sewage system, still plague the city and challenge the local inhabitants. Mapleton has had a few stores and small industries since the 1890s, but it has never had any large stores or shopping malls. There is little industry to provide jobs and a tax base to help the community deal adequately with its problems.
The city has always had to depend upon a great deal of donated help and innovative ideas to solve its problems; but, amazingly, the community continues to thrive. The city held its small farm community flavor–with a dominant Mormon culture and small religious minorities–until after World War II. By the early 1950s, it was becoming a bedroom community for the metropolitan Utah County area. People attracted to rural living started to move to Mapleton and drive to other cities for their jobs. This has exacerbated some local conditions; Mapleton has retained its strong sense of community, but its leaders have felt increasing pressure to modernize as the population continues to grow. Mapleton’s 1990 population is quite cosmopolitan. There are still a number of the people from the old farm families, but they are becoming a minority with less influence on the city’s political decisions. A majority of Mapleton’s population is still native, with a large sprinkling of transplanted Californians and others adding diversity to the community. The increasing population is still putting extreme pressure on the city to solve its long-standing problems. With its lack of industrial base and extensive program needs, Mapleton is going to face major challenges in the coming years. It will take all the ingenuity of its diversifying population and a large economic effort to keep Mapleton a great place to live, but that challenge will not be new.
Divorce and Annulment In Mapleton, Utah
The biggest difference between a divorce and an annulment is that a divorce ends a legally valid marriage, while an annulment formally declares a marriage to have been legally invalid.
Divorce: A legal dissolving, termination, and ending of a legally valid marriage. A divorce ends a legal marriage and declares the spouses to be single again.
Annulment: A legal ruling that erases a marriage by declaring the marriage null and void and that the union was never legally valid. However, even if the marriage is erased, the marriage records remain on file. Note that a religious annulment is not a legal dissolution of a civil marriage.
Reasons for Divorce vs. Annulment
There are different reasons for pursuing a divorce versus an annulment. At the core, ending a marriage is generally because one or both spouses want to leave the union. A divorce, which is much more common, is sought when the parties acknowledge that the marriage existed. An annulment is sought when one or both of the spouses believe that there was something legally invalid about the marriage in the first place.
Divorce
No-fault divorces, in which neither party is required to prove fault on the part of their spouse, is legal in every state, though some require that the couple live apart for a period of time before either can file. “Irreconcilable differences” is often cited as grounds for a no-fault divorce. Common grounds cited for fault divorces can include things like adultery, imprisonment, or abandonment. Regardless of type, the divorcing couple may still have disputes about property, finances, child custody, and more that must be settled through court orders. Fault divorces can lead to larger settlements for the party without fault.
Annulment
An annulment ends a marriage that at least one of the parties believes should never have taken place. If the marriage took place despite unknown facts, such as a secret child, or even a secret illness, it may be voidable. An annulment can also end a marriage if the marriage was not legal to begin with. This might occur if issues such as bigamy or incest made the marriage illegal. The legal grounds for obtaining an annulment vary between states, but typically include reasons like the following:
• One or both spouses were forced or tricked into the marriage.
• One or both spouses were not able to make a decision to marry due to a mental disability, drugs, or alcohol.
• One or both spouses were already married at the time of the marriage (bigamy).
• One or both spouses were not of legal age to marry.
• The marriage was incestuous.
• Concealment of major issues such as drug abuse or a criminal history
Length of the Marriage
Often, people assume that a very brief marriage can be ended with an annulment due to the short duration. However, legal experts disagree. While many states will not grant an annulment after a certain length of time, there is not an automatic annulment granted to end a marriage because the couple wants to end it after a short period of time. The marriage still has to meet one or more of the conditions above in order for it to be annulled.
Legal Assistance
Both types of marriage dissolution can be fairly complicated from a legal standpoint, requiring costly and lengthy legal proceedings. And both start the same way, with one or both of the spouses formally asking the court for either a divorce or an annulment. Either a divorce or an annulment can also be simple and low-cost if both parties agree to end the union without too many disputes or disagreements about how to do so.
After a Divorce or Annulment
Among the differences between the two types of marriage dissolution: After an annulment, the marriage is considered to have never legally happened. It is as if the clock is turned back to before the marriage. After a divorce, the former spouses may still have obligations to each other, such as spousal support, joint childrearing, and division of shared property.
Finances After Divorce vs. Annulment
After a divorce, spouses are often entitled to a certain number of years of spousal support, alimony, or a portion of each others’ profits or property gained during the marriage. With an annulment, in contrast, the parties are not really considered to have been valid spouses and are not entitled to these same rights. Instead, they will revert to the financial state they were in prior to the marriage.
Religious Rules
Many religions have guidelines regarding divorce and annulment. Often, permission is granted by religious clergy or by written guidelines. Obtaining permission to have an annulment or a divorce from your religious leaders is usually a completely separate process from the legal process. The rules regarding divorce and annulment in your religion often determine whether one, both or neither of the partners has permission to marry again within the religion or in a religious ceremony or to participate in religious rituals. A court of law may consider your religious marital status but does not have to recognize the religious determinations when making rulings about spousal support, property disputes, or any other legal issues.
Civil Annulments
Annulments are a form of relief for people who were placed in situations in which they never should have been married. Because civil annulments treat the marriage as though it never existed, a person must have a pretty good reason to obtain one. Typically, one of the following requirements (or legal grounds) must be met to obtain an annulment vs. a divorce:
• Fraud or Misrepresentation – One of the spouses has lied about something, such as age or already being married.
• Concealment – One of the spouses hid a major fact, such as a felony conviction.
• Misunderstanding – For instance, one of the spouses does not want to have children.
• Impotency or Incest – One of the spouses is incurably impotent (and the other spouse didn’t know), or the spouses are too close in familial relation to marry.
• Lack of Consent – One party lacked mental capacity to consent or was forced into marriage.
These things are usually discovered early on in the marriage, so there typically is no need to divide property or decide on issues regarding children. However, most state laws do govern how to decide such issues should an annulment of a long-term marriage occur. Check with your state’s laws regarding property division and child custody, visitation, and support. If you do have children from an annulled marriage, these children are not considered illegitimate.
Religious Annulments
The grounds for obtaining a religious annulment are different than those for a court-granted annulment. However, both types of annulments have essentially the same effect–the marriage is treated as though it never existed.
No-Fault and Uncontested Divorce
A no-fault divorce begins when either spouse files a request with the local court. If you meet the state’s residency and no-fault divorce requirements, the court will grant your request. Every state has a no-fault divorce policy, meaning that neither spouse must point fingers or place blame on the other for the breakdown of the relationship. Although no-fault divorce requirements may vary depending on where you live, typically, if you can demonstrate that you and your spouse are separated, you suffer from irreconcilable differences, or you’re incompatible, you will be successful in your request for a divorce. If there are unresolved issues on child custody, visitation, child support, alimony, or property division, the court will decide how to handle the disputes before entering a final judgment. If you and your spouse agree on all divorce-related issues, such as property and debt division, and you’re willing to put the details of your agreement in a written contract often called a divorce settlement agreement which you then present to the judge, the court will likely grant your request. Because you and your spouse handle any divorce-related issues before you see the judge, the process for an uncontested divorce is typically less time-consuming and less expensive than a traditional divorce.
Divorce Lawyer
When you need a Utah Divorce Attorney, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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