Sunday, March 26, 2023

Flour Sack Underwear ~~~

Taken from Saga of the Sanpitch 1998

In days gone by, before the disposable throwaway generation, we
saved everything and used it. The flour used to come in cloth flour sacks. We
saved them and used them to make all kinds of things. The flour companies
cooperated and made them in pleasing patterns so wearing apparel could be
made from them.



FLOUR SACK UNDERWEAR
‘When I was a kid without a care
My mamma made my underwear.
A Iot of us and the Ranch's poor pay
Who could afford lingerie?
Monograms, lace, and fancy stitches
Were not to be found on my flour sack britches
Just pantywaists that stood the test,
Gold Medal Flour across my chest.
But the pants were best of all
‘With a scene I still recall.
Two bright-colored turkeys,
The symbol for hard red wheat,
Right across my seat.
Stronger than a grizzly bear
‘That flour sack underwear.
"Use it up-—wear it out
Make it do or do without."
"Waste not, want not."
And 1 soon learned that
"A penny saved was a penny earned."
So-—I made flour sack dishtowels, curtains and
bedspreads wide
All of them are tougher than a Hippo's hide.
But the thing that was best beyond compare,
‘Was that homemade-flour sack underwear!
Contributed by Susy Nilsson
Written by her Mother 

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Canning in the 1930's ~~~ Written by Mina Bjelke














Canning in the 1930's (compliments of
http://www.media.utah.ed/.)

The 20th century produced dramatic changes and opportunities for women. The events leading up to statehood brought to an official end at least the practice of polygamy, and the state constitution restored women's right to vote and guaranteed other equal rights. Laws passed in 1911 and 1913 set maximum hours and minimum wages for working women. Technology dramatically altered women's lives, especially in urban areas. Electric service, indoor plumbing, central heating, and the small power motor revolutionized homemaking. The growth of commercial laundries and expanding factory production of clothing, processed foods, and other household items relieved women of many tasks and created hundreds of jobs for them outside the home. Manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, banking, and services grew rapidly in the early 20th century. The success of many of these ventures depended on women. (taken from Utah History To Go ~~~ Miriam B. Murphy History Blazer, November 1995 During these years Ogden, for example, became a center for the canning industry, and by 1914 Utah ranked fifth among the states in canning. World War I stimulated growth of this industry as 22 Ogden canneries secured government contracts. This industry relied on female workers; many were young and unmarried, but the seasonal nature of canning also attracted married women. The Utah Manufacturers Association (UMA) called canning "light work that could be done as well by women and children as by men." Tomatoes topped the list of canned items. Jets of hot steam followed by a cold spray loosened the skins, enabling women and girls to peel 14 to 16 bushels a day.


Young Women From Mt. Pleasant Participated In the Canning Industry


"I had the opportunity to take Mary and go to Clearfield to work in the cannery.  I left Wilma with Aunt Emma.  We made quite good wages, enough to pay the tuition and buy the books and get Mary the much-needed clothes that high school required. 

 There was money left to pay the taxes and buy a few tons of coal.......I didn't buy myself any clothes, although it was a great temptation when I would go to Ogden to work with the girls while they did their shopping.  I was well-schooled that money can go only so far and this 'canning season' only lasted two or three months of each year.  I was happy when we were ready to go home from Clearfield. 

 The manager of the Woods Cross Canning Company came to me and thanked me for the interest I had taken in the girls and he asked me to come back the next year as campus matron.  I gladly accepted this position.  It meant a bigger check and nicer work.  The management liked me and the way I handled the girls.  They also told me to bring Don and that they would give him employment.  This helped make it possible for Don to go to high school when the canning season was over."


"The next year I got enough girls for both the Clearfield and Layton factories.  A man from the office came and took us on the train.  Printed rules were tacked in all the apartments, but oh, how these rules had been bent and broken in the past. So I decided we would live by the rules or take the consequences.  A week later when  I was making my final round of the apartments for the night, I discovered two of my girls were missing.  They had gone out through a back window.  I got in contact with the Ogden police.  They soon spotted them at the White City dance hall in Ogden.  They got back by midnight.  I was waiting for them, and when I told them to pack their clothes as I was taking them home on the 5:00 o'clock train, they wept and pleaded.  But I told them they were only two out of almost one hundred girls there, and I intended to have discipline, and that no girl was going to be harmed while under my care if I would help it.  

We reached Mount Pleasant at 1:00 o'clock p.m..  I phoned their mothers from the depot.  The train that took me back was due in twenty minutes.  How lucky I was because there stood Wilma.  She was staying with Aunt Emma who lived just a block away.  She had run to the depot when the train whistled to see who got off the train.  I made the most of that twenty minutes.  I gathered my baby girl in my arms and wept because I had to leave her again.  It was a long trip back.  I reached Clearfield at midnight.  I didn't have any more girls try that trick for a number of years.  It had a good effect on all the girls."


"Discipline was fine and they accomplished so much work in a short time.  Often when I walked down to the plant I would hear the girls singing in harmony with the songs of that day.  'The Utah Trail' and 'Springtime in the Rockies'.  The sweet harmony of so many voices almost drowned the grinding and clanging of the machinery noises.  It seemed they could work better and faster when they sang.  The community thought as much as I did of my singing Sanpete girls.  Some of them are grandmothers now.  But when I meet them they never fail to speak of the good times we had and how grateful they were that I had guarded them so close when they were in my care. 

 I will never forget one year when I took a large group of girls to Clearfield.  The company sent me $250 to buy the railroad fares for the girls.  We were to leave the same day as Colonel Lindberg was to be in Salt Lake.  When I went to buy the tickets, our station agent suggested that I buy a construction ticket to Clearfield; this would entitle us to a special train from Salt Lake to Clearfield and save the girls walking to the Bamberger and waiting there, and also save on expenses for the canning company.  So that was what I did.  We were all delighted.  When we reached Salt Lake a man boarded the train to tell Mrs. Bjelke that her special train was all made up and waiting in Salt Lake.  When we arrived in Salt Lake there was no special train there for us.  The girls stayed in a group while I went into the station master's office.  I  asked when my train would be ready.  Well, he was as confused as the other railroad men."


"It seems the president of the canning company, Mr. Stringham, had just arrived with ten girls he was bringing from Heber.  When he learned the waiting special was for the canning company girls, he and the ten girls boarded the train, and the special pulled out.  He thought the railroad company was very nice to furnish him a special train."

"Well, there I was with about eighty girls waiting at the depot.  The girls were disgusted.  The city officials learned of the predicament and sent five plainclothes men to the depot to help me take care of the girls.  When they handed me their cards, I thanked them and said I really didn't need any help.  Then the hotel managers started to come, telling how many girls they could take.  I told them that we were going to stay in the depot until a train took us and our luggage to our destination.  Then the railroad president from Denver called me on the phone and told me to take my girls to the best hotels at their expense.  I told him no, that the girls were staying with me.  So another special train was made up at 12:00 o'clock midnight and oh, were those railroad men grumpy.  They didn't want to take any of our bedding.  I said, "Oh yes, they would take our bedding.  Getting to our apartments wouldn't help if we couldn't get some sleep."  So they took it along.  We reached the apartments at about 1:30 a.m..  

The police in Salt Lake said I must be a superwoman to take care of so many girls.  I told them that I guess I wasn't so super, but the girls were a super variety.  They wanted jobs so they could go to high school, and some of the older ones wanted to earn college money.  They were grateful to me that I made it possible for them to work and earn this money.  They looked at us with admiration."


"The many years (eight) I worked as matron for the Woods Cross Company were very pleasant and profitable for all of us."
Mina Simpson Bjelke 

 

Thursday, March 23, 2023

FIRST MURDER IN MT. PLEASANT

ISAAC  ALLRED
murdered by Thomas Ivie
May 11, 1859

 

The First Murder


On the 11th day of May, 1859, on the south side of the street of what is now known as Main, between State and First West, a certain Thomas Ivie, assaulted with a fire brand, Isaac Allred, a church veteran and also a member of Zion's Camp, breaking Allred's skull, and inflicting other injuries upon him, causing his death the following day. The dispute had resulted from a quarrel over the difference of a small herd bill. On the 12th day of May, Thomas Ivie was arrested and taken to Manti, where he was bound over by Justice Elisher Averett. On the 13th of June, a grand jury was impaneled which on the 14th presented a true bill for murder against Ivie. A trial jury was then chosen and the case proceeded; the trial lasted until the 16th when it was admitted to the jury, who returned a verdict of guilty, and on Friday, June 17th, Judge Garner Snow pronounced a sentence of death upon the prisoner. Ivie appealed his case to be tried be¬fore Judge Eccles, and on the 3rd of July, Sheriff A. Tuttle left Manti with the prisoner for Camp Floyd. Ivie was kept at Camp Floyd for sometime, then turned loose. He went to Missouri, where he quarreled with a brother-in-law, who killed him and left his body in a corn field to be devoured by the buzzards. This happened about a year after he left Utah. Isaac Allred was buried in Ephraim. 
  page 44  History of Mt. Pleasant by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Allen Leon Beck ~~~ Former Mayor and Friend to All

 

Allan Leon Beck

4/28/1933 ~ 3/14/2023

Allan Leon Beck, 89, beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, passed away peacefully on March 14, 2023, at his home in Orem, Utah, surrounded by his family just short of his 90th birthday. Allan was born on April 28, 1933, to Earl Hafen Beck and Ruth Olsen Beck in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He was one of five children, Earl Duane (passed at birth), Allan, Eldon, Earlene and Ruth Ann.

He grew up in Indianola, Utah, and was always very active and loved spending time outdoors, hunting, fishing, and playing football, basketball and track. He graduated from North Sanpete High School in 1951, and afterward attended the University of Utah in 1952. He served in the Utah National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve, spending time overseas in Taiwan. Allan was very proud to be a Veteran and had a great love for our nation’s flag.

He married his high school sweetheart Marian Ruth Nielson on June 4, 1953. They were married 25 years and were blessed with four children, Mark Allan, Malinda, Marianne and Matthew.

Allan had a love for learning and could build or fix anything he put his mind to. He built the first workable television in the area at Indianola in 1949. It is now in the Fairview Museum. He installed the first TV in Mt. Pleasant at Herman Beck’s home before TV stations moved their transmitting stations high on the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City.

He founded Beck’s TV, a local business in Mt. Pleasant in 1958. His son Mark Allan took over the family business in 1980 and it continues today as a retail home furnishings business on Main Street.

In January 1958, he engineered and installed Sanpete County’s first television translator relay site, located at the base of the mountain east of Mt. Pleasant. This translator station made TV possible for Mt. Pleasant and surrounding towns and is still functioning today.

He held many offices in the Chamber of Commerce, including the president. He was a charter member of JC’s and the Sanpete County Search & Rescue and held several offices in both organizations. He served as Mayor of Mt. Pleasant (1978-1980) and worked hard to make improvements to the city, including the municipal sewer system and settling ponds west of the airport. He also was able to get the airport improved from gravel to a paved landing surface.

On July 23, 1980, he married the love of his life Betty Moulton Harvey at “The Lake” in Indianola, Utah, and increased his family by two children, Craig and Katie Sue. They were later sealed in the Provo Utah LDS Temple on April 28, 1984. They made their home in Orem, Utah.

They loved spending time in Indianola, and created a Hideaway there, constantly improving and caretaking the pond on the mountain (“The Lake”) and considered it their home away from home. Their family, including children and grandchildren, have come to love The Lake and the beautiful surroundings that Allan has been instrumental in creating.

Allan also worked at Wells Distributing and then Ryan Distributing, both in Salt Lake City, as Service Manager of their appliance division, and later worked at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (Provo) in the Engineering Department, fixing and maintaining all the electronics in the facility. He retired from Intermountain Healthcare in 1996 so that he could spend more time in his favorite place, Indianola.

He is survived by his wife, Betty Moulton Beck and 6 children, Mark Allan (Laura) Beck, Malinda (Scott) Overman, Craig (Carolyn) Harvey, Marianne (Patrick) Davis, Matthew (Becky) Beck, Katie (Eric) Peterson, 24 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Monday, March 20, 2023, 11:30 a.m. at the LDS chapel on 500 South 600 West Orem, UT. Viewing 9:00-11:00 a.m. prior to the service. Interment will be in the Mount Pleasant City Cemetery. Many thanks to Dignity Home Health & Hospice team, especially Markae, Marisela and Melissa who took great care in assisting Allan in his final days.


Click Here to Watch Funeral Services Live. The Live Zoom Link will activate at 11:15 a.m. MST prior to services.

Monday, March 20, 2023

Tributes and Sketches From "Family History of William Bristol, Ane Marie Sophie Clausen, Joseph Cambron , and their Descendants

This History is taken from the book "The Family History of William Bristol, Ane Marie Sophie Clausen, Joseph Cambron, and their Descendants ...... Written by Pat L. Sagers. 














Calvin Clausen 



































 

Sunday, March 19, 2023

W.D. Candland And Sons

 




Guy L. Candland, along with one of their prize Rambouillet sheep..  He was very capable in many ways, including probably building the barn. He attended Utah State Agricultural College in Logan and wanted to pursue law or other professions, but his father thought animal husbandry was more economically sensible so he eventually, along with his father and brother, Royal Candland, ran the WD Candland & Sons sheep business.