Ericksen Meat and Grocery

Danish Ebleskivers

3 separated eggs
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Dash nutmeg
Oil

Separate eggs, beat egg yolks and add sugar, salt and buttermilk. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the egg mixture. Beat egg whites until very stiff and fold into the batter. Add vanilla and nutmeg.

Place about a teaspoon of oil in each indentation of a preheated Danish Ebeleskiver Pan (preferably cast iron). Then fill each indentation to about two/thirds full with the batter.
Cook until bubbly on the top. Then turn carefully with a fine knitting needle or skewer or fork and finish cooking the other side. When fully done, you can roll them in powdered sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon sugar or whatever suits your fancy. Serve them with jam, or syrup or real butter.

"Hunk" of Meat On a Stick - Ericksen Meats by Alice Hafen, granddaughter of Henry Ericksen

Inside Ericksen Meat and Grocery

In about 1885, Grandpa Ericksen (Henry Ericksen) and his brother Allif started a meat and grocery store in Mt. Pleasant. Grandpa managed the store while Alif ran the farm and livestock; buying, feeding and slaughtering for the store. They would notify the townspeople that on a certain day they were going to kill a beef in the evening and bring it to the store the next morning, so that people could get a "hunk" of meat.

There were steaks, roasts, boils, stews or hamburger - just a chunk of meat. They would start cutting just back of the ears and end at the hind shank. all the cuts sold for the same price per pound; whether it was the neck or the porter house. Then, to carry it home, the customer whittled a sharp stick, jabbed it in the piece of meat and went home to mama, to have it prepared for the family dinner. There was no paper, twine or plastic to wrap the piece of meat in.

In 1893, they built their store on Main Street and took in another partner; brother-in-law, Judge Ferdinand Ericksen. The store was incorporated as the Ericksen Meat and Grocery Co. Their store was in a two story brick building with a full basement. It was considered one of the finest institutions in the community.

Ferdinand Ericksen was a lawyer and occupied three rooms on the second floor for his law practice. The town doctor, Dr. W.W. Woodring, occupied the other two rooms on the second floor.

In 1920, Soren M. Nielson and Uncle Harry, Henry's son, bought the store. Then in 1925, Uncle Harry, bought Nielson's half interest and owned and managed the business alone. Uncle Harry put in about forty five years operating the store. They did their own slaughtering and feed their own livestock such as hogs, lambs and cattle. Before the meat packers came into the state, they shipped out daily loads of dressed meat to Salt Lake City, Bingham, Eureka and also Carbon County.

During those first twenty years of operation they started to make their own lunch meats, bologna, minced ham, corned beef, head cheese, hamburger and sausage. But when the big packers came into the state that phase of manufacturing was discontinued. Until 1925 they handled the livestock with a first class saddle horse. After that, motor trucks and trailers were used to move the livestock between range, feed lot and slaughter house.

Ice was used in the store coolers until 1915, when modern refrigeration was installed. Before that, ice blocks were stored in the ice house under sawdust, and used to refill the store's ice about once a week. With the advent of electric home refrigerators, the store discontinued using their own ice supply.

After Uncle Harry sold the store, there has been several companies using the Main Street building, including Al and Naomi Berti's Red and White store, Terrel's Red and White Store.
The Ericksen Meat and Grocery Co. had a lot of competitors come and go, but operated for over sixty two years. And since 1986 it has been the home of the Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, the local newspaper.

WORDS OF YESTERDAY by Owen Sanders

Words we used in 'Olden Days'
Have faded with the time;
Today, we'll bring them back again
And place a few in rhyme.

Singletrees and neck yokes
Doubletrees and blinders,
Belly band and martingale
Tug chains lines and binders

Bolsters bows and reaches
Stay chains, tongues and thimbles;
Fellies, spokes and king pins
Croupers, hames and spindles

Chimneys, wicks and tallow
Sadirons, flatirons, trivets;
Scrub boards, churns and dashers,
Half soles, brads and rivets.

Steelyards, toils and tally sticks
Snath and Scythe and sickles;
Grindstones, rasps and cradles
Spigots, barrels and pickles.

Thunder mugs and cauldrons
Hearths and blackened kettles;
Woolen dyed with walnut--
Horse hair padded settles.

Brigham Tea and pine gum salve
Golden seal and yarow;
Shampoo soap from yucca roots
Hardwood teeth for harrow.

Plodding ox and stubborn mule
Buckboards, carts and sleds;
Ising glass for windows
Rawhide springs for beds.

Corn shucks for the mattress
Straw and limbs for sheds;
Logs for rustic cabins
Shakes for roofs o'er heads.

Button shoes and button hooks
Muffs and padded bustles
Petticoats and bloomers
Hatpins shawls and ruffles.

Weaving, braiding, plaiting
Knitting, netting, tatting;
Stitching, darning, quilting
Carpet rags and batting.

We could write in endless rhyme
Until all heads were reeling
But we believe we've said enough
To give an Old Time Feeling !!!

Two Tombstones of Note: Left, Charlotte Staunton Hyde - Right, Cyrus H. Wheelock

Charlotte was our Pioneer of the Month for October. She was an early school teacher and also the wife of Orson Hyde.

She had a very liberal education. She inspired many of her students to go on to become school teachers themselves. Her only pay was vegetables, fruit and heating supplies given to her by the parents of her students. She was also a seamstress. It was also said that she smoked a pipe. Brigham Young granted she and Orson Hyde an honorable separation.

----
Cyrus was our Pioneer of the Month for August. He was a courageous, honorable pioneer, who took a personal interest in everyone he knew, and was always there to help anyway he could. He is best known for smuggling a gun into Joseph Smith the day of Joseph and Hyrum's martyrdom. He also took back a letter to Emma that same day. He wrote the LDS hymn: "Ye Elders of Israel".---

Both markers are located on the south side of the middle road of the older part of the cemetery. Charlotte's about one third of the way traveling east toward the middle lane. Cyrus' is located just two or three rows east of the middle lane.

We owe much to these early pioneers of Mt. Pleasant. Most of the earliest pioneers are buried in this area of the cemetery. It is fun just to wander up that middle lane and view their markers and their epitaphs.

Blacksmith Class From Snow College Traditional Building Skills Institute

The Snow College Traditional Building Skills Institute Basic Blacksmith Class visited our Blacksmith Shop today. Gerald Cooper, Instructor wanted the members of the class to see a working pioneer blacksmith shop. He also demonstrated the coking of coal at the shop. See more about coking coal here: http://www.beautifuliron.com/thefire.htm

Some Would Ask "Why Should Massachusett's Chief Massasoit Return to the Utah State Capital?"

Because its about the Sculptor,

Cyrus Edwin Dallin.

But Why Should Mt. Pleasant Citizens Have an Interest in Him?

By Mike Stroud, circa May 1997
Massasoit Statue in Salt Lake City, Utah

In 1922 Dallin presented the original plaster figure to the State of Utah. A bronze copy was placed in the gardens in front of the building, perhaps to honor Cyrus Dallin and to make a connection between Utah and the early history of the nation. courtesy of http://www.hmdb.org/

Utah's Chief Massasoit statue, now sitting at the Metal Arts Foundry in Lehi,

(Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune)

A bronze Massachusetts Indian chief makes his return to the Utah Capitol sometime this month or next. Chief Massasoit, who celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621 with Massachusetts' pilgrims, has been missing from his prominent place in front of the Capitol's main steps since an extensive renovation began in 2004. But why does Utah show this honor to a Massachusetts Indian Chief?

Perhaps its about the sculptor, Cyrus Edwin Dallin.

Paul Revere Monument --- Boston, Massachusetts --- Cyrus Dallin - Sculptor (photo courtesy of Cyrus Dallin Art Museum, Arlington Massachusetts)

What Is Cyrus Dallin's Connection to Mt. Pleasant?

About the sculptor:
Cyrus Edwin Dallin was born in a Springville cabin in 1861 to Mormon pioneer parents but later became a Presbyterian. He had an early interest in art and American Indian life.

At age 18, he moved to Boston to study sculpture and later took two trips to Paris to learn the art from master sculptors.

He soon gained international recognition for his monumental, award-winning statues of American Indians and patriots. He returned to Utah to craft the Angel Moroni statue for the Salt Lake City LDS Temple and the Brigham Young Monument on Main Street.

He created three Chief Massasoit statues. Besides Utah's Capitol, the statues are in Plymouth, Mass., and on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo.

Dallin died in 1944 at age 82.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11121562
Source: Utah History Encyclopedia


The Connection
Cyrus was the nephew and namesake of Mt. Pleasant's own Cyrus Wheelock. In Hilda Madsen Longsdorf's History of Mt. Pleasant we find the name Cyrus Dallin on page 305 as one of the gentlemen who took part and helped in Mt. Pleasant's theatrical troop.

In numerous histories of his life it is said that he made friends with the indians as a child. No doubt there were indian children who lived in and around Springville. But maybe he also played with the indians children who lived near Mt. Pleasant as well which is noted in the histories of other Mt. Pleasant pioneer children such as James Burns, Conderset Row and the Frandsen children. It is said that the indian children taught him to fashion indian figures out of clay and that is how his sculpting of figures started.

So if you should have the opportunity to visit Boston Massachusetts, make sure you see the Paul Revere monument. When you look at the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake temple, or visit the Utah State Capital in the future, remember our connection with Cyrus Dallin, world renowned sculptor.

Newspaper Rock -- Where Native America Meets Pop Culture

Newspaper Rock -- Where Native America Meets Pop Culture

James Burns ~~~ Pioneer of the Month - December 2008

WHO WAS SHERIFF JAMES BURNS?

James Christopher Burns was the son of John and Lydia Ann Porter Burns. He was born in Linden-Rock Port, Atchison Missouri in September of 1849. His parents were headed for California in the Great Gold Rush of 1849.
At the place known as “the Last Crossing of the Sweetwater”, in the State of Wyoming, two-month old baby James Burns was found by a company of other travelers. He was lying at his mother’s breast. Both parents lay cold in the embrace of death. They had succumbed to the deadly disease of cholera. Deadly cholera is a very contagious disease. One brave soul from the company by the name of Milton Dailey risked his life to save the baby, if possible. The kind-hearted people of the wagon train did what they could for the baby, and they put forth efforts to find any relatives.

Arriving in Salt Lake City, they found the Saints gathering for conference, and Milton Dailey, gave the baby to Brigham Young who held him in his arms before the conference gathering, told of his parents tragic death and asked for information. The baby’s aunt, his mother’s sister, was among the saints and claimed the child.

He was then taken to the home of his grandmother at Provo, Utah. His early boyhood and manhood was spent in Mt. Pleasant, where he was educated and grew to the type of man that earned the love and respect of all who came in contact with him.

He fell in love with Matilda Josephine Anderson. It was thought by many to be “love at first sight”. James Burns often remarked that when he gazed into Matilda’s eyes of blue, he knew she was the one being in the world to make him happy. They were married on the 22nd March 1869.

After the Blackhawk War, he made friends with the red men, allowing his children to play with them, learn the Indian songs and dances, and many of their phrases.

James Burns prospered and progressed and became the Sheriff of Mt. Pleasant, and later served the people of Sanpete County in the same capacity.

Then on the 24th of September 1894, he received a telegraph notice from Scott Bruno, asking him to meet him in the morning at Moroni, as there had been a sheep stealing case.

The following is taken from the writings of Niels Heber Anderson:
‘Bill Brewer, Scott Bruno, Niels Heber Anderson and Sheriff James Burns confronted sheep rustlers at Reader’s Ridge back of the Horseshoe Mountain. Evidence of the changing of the ear marks and brands made it quite clear that certain sheep had been stolen.

Sheriff Burns made an attempt to place the rustlers under arrest without first disarming them. As he approached them, they shot and killed the sheriff, then warned the other men that if they did not stay out of the affair, they would receive the same treatment as had been given the sheriff.

Bill Brewer and Anderson brought the news to Spring City and Mt. Pleasant. Thomas Braby, with the Mt. Pleasant Militia, was soon on the scene of the shooting, and the body of James C. Burns was taken to Mt. Pleasant. Although the Militia searched and guarded for a couple of weeks in the ledges and dense timber, the murderers were never apprehended.
“James Burns’ life was short but some there are who do not have to live long to accomplish big things. He was killed in the performance of his duty.” Olivia Burns – daughter in law and author of James Burns History  

Mt. Pleasant Depot - Wagon - Men (unknown)

Sent in By David R. Gunderson, Ogden, Utah

Contributed by Betty Gunderson Woodbury.
Can anyone identify the people?