MORE PHOTOS FROM THE PAST

 

 

Main Street Fire    (History of Mt. Pleasant) p 180

About one a.m., on the morning of the 24th of July, 1898, a fire was discovered on Main Street, about one. half block west of State Street. The alarm was sounded and along with the fire engine, volunteers formed a bucket brigade. Most of the buildings were frame, and the flames could not be checked, in spite of their efforts, until all on the block between the Equitable build­ing and Consolidated Furniture Store had been destroyed.

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.

One of Mt. Pleasant's first stores owned and operated by M.G. Rolph. The upstairs was the home of the family.

The Union Store With the Opera House Upstairs

PHOTOS FROM THE PAST

 

JOANN SENA LEA WINWARD ~~~ A life-time friend

 

JoAnn Sena Lea Winward

August 2, 1938 — July 3, 2025

Mount Pleasant

Mt. Pleasant, UT JoAnn Sena Carlson AKA JoAnn S. Lea, JoAnn Winward, 86 of Mt. Pleasant Utah passed away July 3rd 2025 at her daughter’s home in Montpelier Idaho.

Born September 2nd 1938 to Lawrence and Aseneth Swensen Carlson in Mt. Pleasant, UT. JoAnn is survived by her brother “Bud” (Sophie) Carlson; Children, Farrell B. (Janice) Bowers, Cherryl (Don) Golding, Frank E. (Ramon Gomez) Winward, Shannon G. Winward, Shane L. (Julianne) Winward, 26 Grandchildren, 44 Great-grandchildren, and 5 Great-great-grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her parents, husband Elmo L. Winward, daughter Pauline Smith, siblings Betty, John, Francis, Maxine, Barbara and LaRae.

For many years, JoAnn and her late husband, Elmo showed their love for local children and the Christmas season by portraying Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.

A viewing will be held Friday, July 18th 2025 from 10:30 am – 11:30 am at the LDS church located at 461 N 300W Mt. Pleasant, UT. Funeral to follow at 12:00 noon.

To Watch Funeral Services Live, Click Here. The Live Zoom Link will Activate at 11:45 a.m. MST prior to services.

To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of JoAnn Sena Lea Winward, please visit our flower store.

MOUNT PLEASANT IN PICTURE 1859 -1959

 

MT. PLEASANT ELEMENTARY 6th GRADE ~~~ APPROX 1955

 

ADS YOU MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN ~~~ TUDY BARENTSEN STANDLEE

 

FAIRVIEW, UTAH ~~~ FOUNDED 1859

 

MAYOR CANDLAND APPEALS FOR INTERESTS iN THE CITY ~~~ 1918

 

Mayor W.D. Candland 

1918

Also see:

1918 flood 

https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=9054792&page=6&q=Mt.+Pleasant+flood&year_start=1912&year_end=1950&facet_type=%22article%22&facet_paper=%22Mt.+Pleasant+Pyramid%22 1918 flood

HISTORY OF CAR RADIO ~~~ Shared by Larry Staker

 

For most people today it seems like cars have always had a radios, but let's face it, they didn't. Here is a short history of the car radio along with a few other tidbits you might enjoy.

Back in 1929, two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point near the  Mississippi River in the town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset. It was a romantic night; however, one of the girls commented that it sure would be nicer if they could listen to music in the car.

Lear and his buddy, Wavering, thought about that idea. Both men had tinkered with radios (Lear served as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy during World War I). That week the two buddies took apart a home radio and tried to get it to work in a car.

It wasn't easy; automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electrical equipment that generate static interference, making it nearly impossible to listen to a radio while the engine is running. One by one, Lear and Wavering were able to identify and eliminate each source of the electrical interference they encountered. When they finally got their radio to work, they took it to a radio convention in Chicago.

There they met Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Galvin made a product called a "battery eliminator", a device that allowed battery-powered radios to run on household AC current. But as more homes were being wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers were making AC-powered radios so Galvin needed to find a new product to manufacture.

When Galvin met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention, he found his new product. He believed that "mass-produced" affordable car radios had the potential to become a huge business. He convinced Lear and Wavering to set up shop in his factory, and that is where they perfected their first fully functioning car radio which they installed in Galvin's personal Studebaker.

A few months later, Galvin drove his Studebaker 800 miles to Atlantic City to the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association Convention. He wanted to show off his new radio that was installed in his car. Upon arriving at the convention, Galvin didn't have enough money to rent a booth at the convention so he parked his Studebaker outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio real loud so every passing conventioneer could hear it playing. That idea worked and Galvin got enough orders to go ahead and put the radio into full production.

His first production model was officially called the 5T71; however, he needed to come up with a name that was a little catchier. Back in those days, companies in the phonograph and radio businesses like to use the suffix "ola" in their names – Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola – those were the big three. Galvin decided to do the same thing with his product.  Since his radio was intended for only use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola.

When the Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled. A brand-new car back then cost around $650 and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car today would cost about $3,000.)

The kicker was it took two men working several days to install the car radio. The dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and speaker could be installed, and the roof had to be cut open to install the antenna. Since those early Motorola's ran on their own batteries, not the car's battery,  holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate the new batteries.

Galvin lost money in 1930 and then struggled for a couple of years. But things picked up dramatically in 1933 when Henry Ford was so impressed with the car radio he became the first auto manufacturer to begin offering the Motorola pre-installed at the factory. In 1934 Galvin got another major boost when he struck a deal with the B.F. Goodrich Tire Company to sell and install his radios in its national wide chain of tire stores across the country.

Soon the price of the Motorola, installed, dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was now off and running. Galvin decided to officially change the name of his company from the Galvin Manufacturing Company to "Motorola" in 1947.

In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios. In 1936, he introduced push-button tuning so a driver could preset channels. Then he introduced the Motorola "Police Cruiser', a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to only pick up police broadcasts. In 1940, he developed the first handheld two-way radio -- The Handy-Talkie -- for the U.S. Army.

Consequently a lot of the communication technologies we take for granted today were created by Galvin's Motorola labs in the years following World War II.  For example, in 1947, Motorola came out with the first television set for under $200. In 1956, the company introduced the world's first telephone pager; in 1969, Motorola designed the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. In 1973, Motorola invented the world's first handheld cellular phone.

Today Motorola is one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in the world. And it all started with the idea of a car radio.

So here is the $64,000 question: whatever happened to the two men who built and installed the first radio in Paul Galvin's Studebaker - Elmer Wavering and William Lear? Well, sad to say they ended up going their separate ways and taking very different paths in life. Wavering decided to stay with Motorola and during the 1950's, he helped change the automobile again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing the inefficient and unreliable generator. His invention of the alternator lead to such automobile luxuries as power windows, power seats and eventually air-conditioning.

Lear left Motorola but continued inventing as well. He received more than 150 patents. Remember eight-track tape players? Yep, Lear invented that. But what Lear is really famous for are his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented the first radio direction finder for aircraft and aided in the invention of the autopilot.  He then designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. In 1963 Lear introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world's first mass-produced, affordable business jet. Now this is what blew my mind – Lear did it all with an eighth grade education.

******************

MINA SIMPSON BJELKE

 

THE RELIEF SOCIETY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS

 

THE PROPHET MORONI DEDICATED THE SITE OF THE MANTI TEMPLE ~~~Gerald Henrie, Provo, Utah~~~ First Honorable Mention Essay ~~~Saga of the Sanpitch Vol. 2

  Father Isaac Morley and others were trying to decide in the spring of 1850 on a suitable place to recommend to President Brigham Young as a site for a Latter-day Saint Temple, when my great grandmother, Betsy Bradley, and her three-year-old son, Hyrum, saw a personage in white on a white horse mysteriously appear on the hill to the north east of Manti and then just as mysteriously disappear. 

 Others may have seen this same manifestation. Great Grandma Bradley told about this mysterious appearance to everyone who desired to listen and one of the Sagas of the Sanpitch was born:  Everyone said, “This personage dressed in white on the white horse is the same personage that constrained Father Morley to point with a prophetic finger to an eminence rising in the distance and say, “There is the termination of our journey; in close proximity to that hill, God Willing, we will build our city,’ and that person is the Prophet Moroni!  And he wants a Latter-day Saint Temple built on the Manti Stone quarry!” 

The settlers of the Sanpitch had shown how the power of the Lord is manifested to a people and had seen the fruitation of their Saga fulfilled in the summer of 1850 in the words on page 436 of Orson F. Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball”: “One of the Elders laboring in the Manti Temple writes: ‘In an early day when President Young and party were making the location of the settlement here, President Heber C. Kimball, prophesied that the day would come when a temple would be built on this hill.  Some disbelieved and doubted the possibility of even making a settlement here.  Brother Kimball said, “Well, it will be so, and more than that the rock will be quarried from that hill to build it with, and some of the stone from that quarry will be taken to help complete the Salt Lake Temple.” On July 28, 1878, two large stones, weighing respectively 5,600 and 5,020 pounds, were taken from Manti stone quarry, hauled by team to York, the U.C.R.R. terminus then, and shipped to Salt Lake City to be used for tablets in the east and west ends of the salt Lake City Temple.’”

 Why did the General Authorities of the L.D.S. Church and President Brigham Young hold so tenaciously to insisting that a Latter-day Saint Temple be built on the Manti stone quarry if they didn’t have the assurance that the Prophet Moroni had dedicated that site for a temple? 

 This test of President Heber C. Kimball’s prophecy took place June 25, 1875 at a conference held at Ephraim, Utah. Before the above mentioned conference was held in Ephraim, the resident of the city of Ephraim had quarried enough stone that was suitable to build the foundation for a temple and this stone had been taken from the Ephraim stone quarry and  had been deposited on the spot where the Noyes Building of Snow College now stands.  The residents of Ephraim had hoped to have the temple built on the ground where Snow College now stands in the center of Ephraim.  This same stone is at the present time still in good condition in the foundation of the Noyes Building at Snow College.

 Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball” states on page 435, “At the conference held in Ephraim, Sanpete County, June 25, 1875, nearly all the speakers expressed their feelings to have a temple built in Sanpete County, and gave their views as to what point and where to build it, and to show the union that existed, Elder Daniel H. Wells said, ‘Manti,’ George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richard, Lorenzo Young, and A.M. Musser, said, ‘Manti stone quarry.’  I have given the names in the order in which they spoke.  

At 4 p.m. that day, President Brigham Young said, ‘The Temple should be built on Manti stone quarry.’” I testify from what I have read and have had handed down to me through family tradition and otherwise that Brother Warren S. Snow was an honest man and I believe wholeheartedly his following statement.  Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball” says on page 436, “Early on the morning of April 25, 1877, President Brigham Young asked Brother Warren S. Snow to go with him to Temple hill.  Brother Snow says, ‘We two were alone, President Young took me to the spot where the Temple was to stand.  We went to the southeast corner, and President Young said, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot, and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground.’” I am predicting that the sage of the Prophet Moroni dedicating the site for the Manti Temple is a saga that will live a long time in the hearts and memories of the people who live in Sanpete County or in the Valley of the Sanpitch!

 1. Additional reference to great grandma, Betsy Bradley, (Mentioned in para. 1) can be read on page 60, para. 2, in the book, Descendants of William Henrie, by Manetta Prince Henrie, Chapter Five: Myra Elizabeth Henrie Oldson: Quote:  “Grandma Betsy also told Myra of how she and her three-year-old son, Hyrum, had seen a personage in white, on a white horse, mysteriously appear on the brow of the stone quarry when President Isaac Morley and others were trying to decide on a suitable place to recommend to President Brigham Young for a site for the Latter-day Saint Temple.  It disappeared just as mysteriously.  Everyone said they thought it was the Angel Moroni, but little Hyrum said, “It was the Lord.”

 2. Additional reference to Father Morley pointing a prophetic finger (mentioned in para.2) is mentioned in history of “Early Manti” in the story of Mrs. A.B. Sidwell, “Reminisences of Early Days in Manti,” para 3, para. 2:  Quote:  “On the arrival of the last detachments, Father Morley being among that number, (He having been unavoidably detained) – a council was held relative to the advisability of remaining where they were then encamped.  Father Morley felt constrained to proceed about three miles southward and pointing with a prophetic finger to an eminence rising in the distance, said, ‘There is the termination of our journey; in close proximity to that hill, God willing, we will build our city.’” 

EXPERIENCE IN SANPETE