Friday, September 12, 2025

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNT PLEASANT FORT 1859 ~~~ ANDREW MADSEN JOURNAL

This sketch was found at the Fairview Museum.  It's authenticity is unknown.
Notice the N on the top and S on the bottom noting North and South.




 



July 1859



The following statement is made in Andrew Madsen's Journal:


"During the month of June, we were kept very busy in attending to our crops and the building of the large fort wall." July 10th, Apostle George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman visited the settlement, after giving much good instruction and advice to the people, proceeded to organize the Saints on Pleasant Creek into an ecclesiastical ward. William Stuart Seeley was chosen and ordained Bishop with Harvey Tidwell as first counselor and Peter Yorgen Jensen as second counselor. The office of president was thereby vacated, and Brother James R. Ivie felt very much pleased when released from the responsibility that had been placed upon him, in the establishment of the colony for which he had worked so hard. As it was a very pleasant place in which to live, the name Mount Pleasant Branch was adopted for the colony, giving credit to its pleasant location, beautiful mountains, fields and surroundings.






Work continued on the fort wall until July 18th, when it was completed, and had the distinction of being the finest fort in Sanpete County. Following is the summary of descriptions of the fort, given by Andrew Madsen, Peter Monsen, R. N. Bennett, and Peter Gottfredson. "It enclosed the block later known as the Tithing Yard. 26 rods by 26 rods, enclosing about five and one-half acres of ground, between Main Street and First North, and State Street and First East." "It was made according to instructions and was built of native rock, taken from the surface or dug out of the ground." "It was laid with mud mortar." "The wall was 12 feet high, four feet wide at the bottom, tapering to about two feet at the top.






This wall, in order that the maneuvers of the Indians could be watched from the inside, was built with port holes every 16 feet. about seven feet from the ground. The holes were about two feet wide on the inside, and about four inches on the outside, and about 18 inches high." "Later the inside of the wall was utilized for one wall in the erection of houses, 16 feet square, with one port hole in the middle of the one wall of each house." "There was a flat roofed house in the northwest corner of the fort upon which guards could stand and view the country."






"There were two large gates, one in the center of the north wall, and one in the center of the south wall, with a small gate adjoining it, giving a thoroughfare in passing. These openings had heavy wooden gates. Small entrances were in the east and in the west walls, which made it convenient, as they were not always obliged to use the same entrance." "The water supply was obtained from Pleasant Creek, which passed almost parallel east and west through the center of the fort. A large bridge was erected over the stream." "All corrals for the cattle were built to the north, just outside the fort, leaving a road-way between." At this time Mount Pleasant was a thriving community of about eight hundred inhabitants, with about 1200 acres of ground under cultivation.




Wednesday, September 10, 2025

RURAL MAIL DELIVERY

Rural mail delivery 1930 in Maine. 
Courtesy of National Archives History Office 

















Here in Mt. Pleasant, we didn't have mail delivery until the new Neighborhood Box Units went in circa 1980.


In 1898 a fire destroyed the post office on Main Street owned by John N. Ericksen: 

Those who sustained losses were: Dr. S. H. Allen, store build­ing; M. G. Rolph, building and cigar factory; Dr. A. Lundberg, building, household furniture, dentist and jewelry tools; M. C. Kroll, store and bakery; Maiben & Aldrich, drug store; New York Cash store, merchandise; Equitable Co-op Store, building; Victor Nielson and Olaf Olson, Shoe Company; Kofford & Johnson, building and stock. The Post office, owned by John N. Ericksen; C. E. Hampshire, barber shop; Dr. C. McGoughan, office furniture; Dr. H. P. Morrey, office fixtures; J. C. Barton, barber shop and fixtures; Carl Kroll and Hyrum Hansen, each shoemaker fixtures. The Odd Fellows, Masonic, Workman and Woodmen lodges, their hall and furniture. Some were partly insured. The fire being checked by an adobe wall in the Lundberg building, saved the Con­solidated Furniture Company, W. O. Ash & Company, and a frame building built by Nils Rosenlof, later owned by Rasmus Anderson. A year later, this frame building was also destroyed by fire.












 

Thursday, September 4, 2025

FRIENDS OF 222D FIELD ARTILLERY ~~~MAY 22, 1941




































 


Local Military Men WW11
Our friend Lee writes: Peter and Kathy: Trooper on left unknown and by name and face the next four, Charles Wright, Bennett Madsen, Bert Hafen and Burt Ruesch>. Looks like they are just going on or coming off guard duty>. Late Spring 1941,,San Luis Obispo, Calif>. There are three old troopers there in Mt Pleasant, Burt Ruesch, Lynn Poulsen or Dean Staker that have better eyes for faces than I do>. You'll find all three at the "pool hall " keeping their eyes sharp and their hands steady>.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
double click to enlarge

Sadly, Frank Ruesch and Joe Matson were killed and did not return home.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

JAMES WALKER AND PARLEY FULLMER ~~~ PHOTO BY GEORGE EDWARD ANDERSON

 


The print features James Walker as the barber and Parley Fullmer as his client who were both Mt. Pleasant residents.  The photo was taken inside George Edward Anderson's tent studio.  Notice that the barber chair is wooden.  It is believed that James Walker was an early-day barber in Mt. Pleasant 





We have had a small copy of this print in our collection, however Darlene Frandsen Blackham recently donated a 11x16 copy.

This photo was taken by George Edward Anderson. 


George Edward Anderson was born in Salt Lake CityUtah and apprenticed as a teenager under renowned photographer, Charles Roscoe Savage.[1] At Savage’s Temple Bazaar, Anderson became friends with fellow apprentices John Hafen and John F. Bennett. Hafen later become an accomplished artist and Bennett was instrumental in preserving Anderson’s glass plate negatives.


At seventeen, Anderson established his photography studio in Salt Lake City with his brothers, Stanley and Adam. He established a studio in Manti, Utah in 1886 and moved his studio to Springville, Utah with his bride, Olive Lowry in 1888.
Anderson is best known for his traveling tent studio, set up in small towns throughout central, eastern, and southern Utah, that he used to document the lives of residents in the years 1884 to 1907.
Although known as a portrait photographer, Anderson's studio portraits are complemented by thousands of documentary portraits taken near homes, barns, and businesses. These photos document families, small town Utah history, railroad history, mining history (including the Scofield mine disaster), and the building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temples. Pure landscape photography was not Anderson's main interest, but his photographs of Church sites are important documents of LDS history. He photographed these sites while traveling across the country to begin his LDS Church mission in England from 1909-1911. The Deseret Sunday School Union of the Church published some of the views, as Anderson called them, in a booklet entitled The Birth of Mormonism in Picture. (The above information was taken from Wikipedia)

The original can be found at this link:http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/GEA/id/1511/rec/25George Edward Anderson

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

CLASS OF 1899 ~~~ GEORGE CHRISTENSN ~~~ PRINCIPAL

 


 


George Christensen 


Dorthea Mogensen Christensen
George's First Wife
Died in 1899














Francis Ellison Christensen
George's second wife