Saturday, September 28, 2013

Biography of Mary Napier Rowe ~ taken from "History of Mountainville" Compiled by Melba Shelley Hill







Birth: Mar. 30, 1823
Stirling, Scotland
Death: Mar. 4, 1902
Mount Pleasant
Sanpete County
Utah, USA

Mary was a Scotch lassie, who joined the Church and came as a young girl to America.

She married Caratat Conderset Rowe 20 Nov 1848

Together they had the following children; Conderset, Candance Blanchard, William Napier, Janet Sterling, Allen "Lene", and Mary Rowe.

Read more on his memorial.

(Information has been gathered from several sources, so some of it may not be correct)

Isabella Napier Livingston was Mary's sister.
They were young girls in Scotland when they joined the Mormon Church, they were the only two in their family to do so. Mary emigrated first in the 1840's. Isabella came in 1860 with her 2 small boys. Sadly, they never met in America.

Furnished by: Carolee Grove



Family links:
 Spouse:
  Caratat Conderset Rowe (1823 - 1904)

 Children:
  Conderset Rowe (1849 - 1929)*
  William Napier Rowe (1853 - 1877)*
  Jannet S R Brotherson (1855 - 1922)*
  Allen Rowe (1858 - 1934)*

*Calculated relationship
Burial:
Mount Pleasant City Cemetery
Mount Pleasant
Sanpete County
Utah, USA
Plot: A_37_3_7

Edit Virtual Cemetery info [?]

Maintained by: Nancy K (Wilcock) Atwood
Originally Created by: Utah State Historical So...
Record added: Feb 02, 2000
Find A Grave Memorial# 141674

Friday, September 27, 2013

Clara Reynolds Kofford and Erastus Emanuel Kofford ~ submitted by Joanne Truscott Peterson








Our Friend Judy Has Passed Away


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Judy Malkiewicz 1950-2013


Malkiewicz passed away at her home on September 25, 2013 in her beloved Mackay, Idaho after a 2 1/2 year battle with high risk Multiple Myeloma.  Judith Ann was born December 8, 1950 in Fort Dix, New Jersey to Frank and Marjorie Christine Malkiewicz.

Judy graduated high school in 1969 from H. H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany and earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado in 1973.  She was employed as a registered nurse at Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado following graduation. In 1975, Judy began her 29-year teaching career at the University of Northern Colorado School of Nursing where she retired as a Professor of Nursing in 2004.  Judy earned her Masters of Nursing in 1975 and PhD in Nursing in 1991 from the University of Colorado. 

The thread that ran through Judy’s entire life was the intensity and dedication she brought to any task at any given time.  During her time at the University of Northern Colorado, she was a dedicated mentor and professor – and Judy challenged and expected much from her students.  Judy helped educate hundreds of nurses, as many would attest when chance meetings would occur in various hospital settings.  Their eyes would light up when they talked about what a wonderful professor she was.  In addition, Judy was regarded by her peers as one of UNC’s top professors of pediatric nursing.   While at UNC, she was awarded the M. Lucile Harrison Award, a prestigious teaching award recognizing her outstanding contributions to nursing education and teaching.  Judy was the first founding member and president of Sigma Theta Tau, Zeta Omicron Chapter at UNC, an international honor society for nursing research and professional development.  Judy loved her job, guiding and mentoring future nurses in the art and science of nursing.

When not at work, she was always exploring, doing and engaging others in some adventure.  Creating Christmas ornaments by the hundreds, making hundreds of handmade greeting cards, training for and running in a marathon, researching her family genealogy - you knew if Judy was involved, she was going to do it 110%.

When Judy retired in 2004 to Mackay, Idaho, hometown of her grandmother and the birthplace of her mother, she became a vital part of the Mackay community where she became immersed in the daily life and brought that same enthusiasm to her new community.  During her time in the Lost River Valley, she was a Mackay Food Bank volunteer, helped edit and publish a book called “The Mackay I Remember” with John Powers, was a former president of South Custer Historical Society, volunteered at Mackay Elementary helping at preschool and recognition assemblies, served as former Secretary of Mackay Women’s Club, volunteered at the annual Custer County Fair, was a member of Mackay’s Lion’s Club, was a member of American Legion Auxiliary and Poppy Coordinator, created and contribute daily to the “MacKay, Idaho 83251 Blog” and initiated putting Mackay’s families laid to rest in the Mount McCaleb Cemetery into “Find a Grave” and organized Mt. McCaleb Cemetery names and identification of veteran grave sites.  She was especially proud of her Mt. McCaleb Cemetery plot map that she created and used to help people locate the graves of their loved ones.

Judy also created a blog about her illness, “jm’s Adventure with Multiple Myeloma,” which was read by thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world.  Her daily updates were graphic, medically thorough, often humorous, and filled with many many photos that allowed her family, friends, health professionals and other’s who suffered from Multiple Myeloma with endless information about this disease.

No remembrance of Judy would be complete without mention of her love of photography.  She documented and recorded the beautiful Lost River Valley as well as friends and family and her journey fighting high risk Multiple Myeloma.  Judy felt strongly that the pictures could document important elements of our life, from the mundane to historical facts of life in rural America or the details of what life is like fighting Multiple Myeloma so others could learn from her experience.  

Judy is survived by her father Frank J. Malkiewicz, her siblings Jeff (Carol) Malkiewicz and Jani (Robbyn Wacker) Malkiewicz, her nephew Nicholas Malkiewicz, her Uncle and Aunt Walter and Hedwig Dynia, numerous cousins and her beloved golden retriever Kemmer.  She was preceded in death by her mother Marjorie Christine Lundberg Malkiewicz and niece Lindsay Katherine Malkiewicz.

Graveside services will be held Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 1 p.m. at the Mt. McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay, Idaho. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the one of Judy’s favorite charities, the Mackay Food Bank, c/o Otto Higbee, P.O. Box 133, Mackay, Idaho 83251.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Sheep Fueled the 1920s Economy ~ Taken from Utah History To Go.


Group of Sheep



Miriam B. Murphy

History Blazer July 1996
During the 1920s Sanpete County's sheep herds were the largest in Utah, and woolgrowers were the kings of the local economy. Quality as well as quantity brought economic rewards. In 1918 John H. Seely of Mount Pleasant had sold a two-year-old ram for a record $6,200 at the National Ram Sale in Salt Lake City. It was a French Merino type sheep known as Rambouillet, and Seely had introduced the breed to Utah and Sanpete County.

Born in 1855 in San Bernardino, California, Seely moved with his family to Mount Pleasant in 1859 where he grew up on a farm and attended local schools. At age twenty-one he hauled mine timbers in Bingham, but his future lay in stockraising. According to historian John S. H. Smith, Seely managed a cooperative flock and "dramatically improved the quality of the sheep by selective breeding. When he established his own herd in 1888 he continued his interest in improving bloodlines." He liked the huge French Merino and in the late 1890s "began introducing Rambouillets from California into his breeding program." The results were so impressive that "he sent his assistant breeder on a buying trip to France and Prussia. By the time of statehood in 1896 Seely had a herd of some 6,000 Rambouillets. He was also known for breeding Durham cattle, Berkshire hogs, Scotch collie dogs, and Plymouth Rock chickens.

By 1920 Utah had the largest number of Rambouillets in the United States and "was the leading source of rams and ewes for flock improvement...their value lay in the large frames which they could impart to the smaller specialized breeds. Fleece yields from their progeny, when bred for wool, were quite exceptional and widely admired for uniformity and a fine, crimpy texture." Woolgrowers in Sanpete County raised the average weight of a fleece from six pounds in 1900 to ten pounds in 1930. The Rambouillet breed also had the advantage of being relatively docile and adaptable to climatic extremes.

 Although a few Sanpete woolgrowers had flocks in the thousands, many families kept small flocks that were part of cooperatively managed herds. Such was the case in Ephraim, a town of some 2,000, where income from sheep amounted to $125,000 one year. Wool prices were good throughout the 1920s, with 1923-25 "especially good years." Smith reported that wool "prices in Sanpete County were much better than the state averages, which were in turn better than national averages. Utah wool commanded higher prices than wool from surrounding states because Utah fleeces had a shrink factor 10-15 percent less than other fleeces. Sanpete wool was all this and more. Most of the Sanpete sheep were part of the Jericho pool, a marketing arrangement, whose clip set quality standards for the entire United States and always fetched premium prices"--on occasion more than three times the price of other Utah wool.

Along with the annual wool clip, Sanpete sheep owners also derived income from breeding stock. After selling to Mormon colonists in Mexico, they began looking farther afield to markets in Australia, South Africa, South America, Japan, and Soviet Russia. In 1921 about fifty  yearling Rambouillet ewes were sold at $50 a head to agents of the Japanese Department of Agriculture. Two years later the Japanese bought 160 ewes, and in 1924 a Japanese commissioner visited Sanpete to make additional purchases of Rambouillets. During the 1920s Sanpete stockraisers sent 1,250 head of sheep to Japan and Japanese Manchuria. Smith noted that "The Russians bought Sanpete breeding stock on an even larger scale, but only the purchases from the Seely flocks have been recorded--1,164 in three exportations. Larger numbers of sheep were bought from other breeders in the county...."

With its high, dry climate, abundance of bunch grass, excellent breeding program, and "near-perfect transhumance cycle," Sanpete County had proved an ideal place to raise sheep. Unfortunately, the worldwide depression that began in 1929 sent wool prices tumbling. On May 31, 1929, the Manti Messenger had reported that wool was selling at the highest price ever--about a dollar a pound. Then things suddenly changed. Rudolph Hope "related a story of two men who were dickering with a commission man after the peak of the season. Not content with a dollar they were trying for more, but during the bargaining a telegram arrived for the commission man who promptly refused to buy at any price and left. This was the start of the slump and soon wool was fetching as little as five cents a pound, irrespective of quality." The industry would never fully recover.

At the turn of the century Utah had some 2.7 million sheep, and Sanpete was the heart of sheep country. By 1994 the state had only 445,000 sheep and lambs and a wool clip of only 3.8 million pounds. Sheep remain an important element in the state's and Sanpete County's agricultural economy, but the glory days of the 1920s are gone forever.


Rambouiller Sheep

Ramboullet Sheep


Herd of Sheep

Herd of sheep on their way to the west desert.

Sources: John S. H. Smith, "Localized Aspects of the Urban-Rural Conflict in the United States: Sanpete County, Utah, 1919-1929" (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1972); History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah (Ogden: W. H. Lever, 1896); Wayne L. Wahlquist, ed., Atlas of Utah (Provo: Weber State College and Brigham Young University Press, 1981).


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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Dear Hal (Harold Graham Christensen)

Lee R. Christensen's  Photos and Stories From Mt. Pleasant

Lee R. Christensen ~ from his book (You Knew Me As Buddy)




May 20, 1996

Dear Hal,

Of all the Christensens I know, I’m the one most prone to reminisce about family history
so I very much enjoyed your letter to Bruce. Over the years I’ve corresponded with Ruby
Cox Smith, a cousin of our fathers, and I’ve shared your letter with her. She has been my
reminiscing correspondence, though I’ve never met her. It was her father, Bruce Cox, who
built the three big lambing barns at the Oak Creek farm/ranch.

While I’m calling the barns “lambing barns,” I don’t know that that is what they were built
for. I do remember a winter or two when J.W. did not sell his lambs in the fall, but kept
them and perhaps bought others to feed into the winter - a feedlot operation. What I remember
most vividly about the barns is how immense they were to a small boy and how
my mother considered the lamb manure to be pure flower growing gold.

Bruce may have lived for a time at Oak Creek place. During the early days of the Depression,
A.D., Tobey Candland, and Harold Swan all worked for J.W. Steve and Elsie lived at
Oak Creek, but either Alice/Tobey or Maud/Harold may also have lived there. I doubt the
Swans stayed in Fairview for more than a year before returning to California. A.D. and
family left the area for Nevada about 1937. J.W. lost the Oak Creek place about 1935-36.
You were very young so you probably do not remember when all of J.W.’s boys homesteaded
in the Sunnyside area of East Carbon County. I don’t know that any of them but
L.R. bought sheep. They built at least two cabins, Bill’s and L.R.’s. Because Tracy and
L.R. were WWI veterans, they had some advantages over the others. I think all but L.R.
dropped out early. L.R. was challenged when he came to “prove up” and he lost his place.
This forced him to buy in the Schofield area. He may have been there ahead of J.W. It also
forced him to merge his herd, six or seven hundred head, with J.W.’s.

I once asked L.R. how J.W. managed to hold onto his herd while so many big spreads went
under during the Depression. He said the banks could have foreclosed on J.W. and most
other herds in Sanpete County, but that J.W. owned some unmortgaged pasture land that
made his less insolvent, if that’s a description, than others. The banks, of course, had more
sheep than they knew what to do with so were not pressing foreclosures. There was always
the hope and the promise that Roosevelt and the Democrats would turn the economy
around. Which they did, of course, with a big assist from WWII.

Lee

The following is taken from "Utah History To Go" and written by John H.S. Smith.

With its high, dry climate, abundance of bunch grass, excellent breeding program, and "near-perfect transhumance cycle," Sanpete County had proved an ideal place to raise sheep. Unfortunately, the worldwide depression that began in 1929 sent wool prices tumbling. On May 31, 1929, the Manti Messenger had reported that wool was selling at the highest price ever--about a dollar a pound. Then things suddenly changed. Rudolph Hope "related a story of two men who were dickering with a commission man after the peak of the season. Not content with a dollar they were trying for more, but during the bargaining a telegram arrived for the commission man who promptly refused to buy at any price and left. This was the start of the slump and soon wool was fetching as little as five cents a pound, irrespective of quality." The industry would never fully recover.
At the turn of the century Utah had some 2.7 million sheep, and Sanpete was the heart of sheep country. By 1994 the state had only 445,000 sheep and lambs and a wool clip of only 3.8 million pounds. Sheep remain an important element in the state's and Sanpete County's agricultural economy, but the glory days of the 1920s are gone forever.


Sources: John S. H. Smith, "Localized Aspects of the Urban-Rural Conflict in the United States: Sanpete County, Utah, 1919-1929" (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1972); History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah (Ogden: W. H. Lever, 1896); Wayne L. Wahlquist, ed., Atlas of Utah (Provo: Weber State College and Brigham Young University Press, 1981).

The entire article will post tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hal was Harold Graham Christensen, a cousin of Lee R. Christensen
Harold Graham Christensen
Harold Graham Christensen
(Hal)

Friday, September 20, 2013

Does Anyone Remember This Dry Cleaner and Pressing Business?


O.D (aka Bob Young) operated the business.  Peter (my husband) remembers it being in business in the 1940s.  It was located  on the north side of Pleasant Creek and 1st west, on the west side of the road.  It was just across the road from Ursenbach (now Rasmussen) Mortuary.  Later on, Eldon Beck had an appliance repair business located in the same building.  The building is still there and has become a housing unit.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Henry Mervil Zabriskie, "Utah, Veterans with Federal Service Buried in Utah, Territorial to 1966"




Name:Henry Mervil Zabriskie
Death Date:01 Oct 1918
Death Place:France
Birth Date:27 Nov 1893
Birthplace:Mount Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah
Cemetery:City
Burial Place:Mount Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah
Military Unit:Co D 364th Inf
Military Service Branch:Army
War:World War 1
GS Film number:485497
Digital Folder Number:4236480
Image Number:01119
File:At close grips2.jpg

 The Lost Battalion is the name given to nine companies of the United States 77th Division, roughly 554 men, isolated by German forces during World War I after an American attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. Roughly 197 were killed in action and approximately 150 missing or taken prisoner before 194 remaining men were rescued. They were led by Major Charles White Whittlesey. On October 2, the division quickly advanced into the Argonne, under the belief that French forces were supporting the left flank and two American units were supporting the right flank. Unknown to Whittlesey's unit, the French advance had been stalled. Without this knowledge, the Americans had moved beyond the rest of the allied line and found themselves completely cut off and surrounded by German forces. For the next six days, suffering heavy losses, the men of the division were forced to fight off several attacks by the Germans, who saw the small American units as a threat to their whole line.
The battalion suffered many hardships. Food was short, and water was available only by crawling under fire to a nearby stream. Ammunition ran low. Communications was also a problem, and at times they would be bombarded by shells from their own artillery. As every runner dispatched by Whittlesey either became lost or ran into German patrols, carrier pigeons became the only method of communicating with headquarters. In a famous incident on October 4 inaccurate coordinates were delivered by one of the pigeons and the unit was subjected to "friendly fire". The unit was saved by another pigeon, Cher Ami,  delivering the following message:
WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALELL 276.4. OUR ARTILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT. 
Despite this, they held their ground and caused enough of a distraction for other allied units to break through the German lines, which forced the Germans to retreat.
  courtesy of wikipedia

Monday, September 16, 2013

Nephi Gunderson Family ~ Restored and Submitted by David R. Gunderson

 Folks,
A few weeks ago, I sent out a picture of Uncle Nephi Gunderson and Aunt Maria and their family in the Mt. Pleasant July 24th Pioneer Day Parade held in 1905.
I got it from the Mt. Pleasant BLOG.
I quickly got several important responses.
  • My sharp eyed cousin Betty Woodbury pointed out that in 1905 Uncle Nephi and his wife were to young to have such a large family. She was right,. Uncle Nephi and Aunt Maria were not even married until Sept. 1905, and their first child (a girl) was born in 1907. They did have four sons , but one died in infancy. The result of this study is that these must have been "barrowed " children - nephews and a niece or maybe neighborhood children. Children love to join in parades, etc.
  • Several people pointed that Uncle Nephi and the oldest "son" were wearing wooden shoes. I think that there is good reason to think Aunt Maria was wearing wooden shoes also. They looked very similar to Erick Gunderson's wooden shoes. The Relic Home in Mt. Pleasant has several examples of this kind of wooden soled shoes with fabric or leather tops.
  • As a result, I changed the title on the picture and photographically enhanced the wooden shoes so that they are slightly more visible. In addition, I noticed that one of the "sons" seemed to be wearing "rags" on his feet. Pioneer records often reported that immigrants wore rags on their feet while crossing the plains. The other “sons” seem to be wearing boots and the “daughter” may be wearing wooden shoes like Aunt Maria but it there is no sure evidence.
  • One of my "friends" thought that the tough looking kid on the far right looked just like me. What do you think?
I have also sharpened the picture and attached the new version for your use.
More comments are welcome.
Thanks
David R. Gunderson

(See more of David's Posts here: http://davidrgunderson.blogspot.com/

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Hannah Madsen Aldrich ~ May 6, 1942





     
Birth: Oct. 14, 1840, Denmark
Death: May 6, 1942
Mount Pleasant
Sanpete County
Utah, USA

Parents: Ole Madsen and Annie Neilson
Married Martin Aldrich
COD: Gangrene of right foot.
Death certificate State of Utah
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=140090

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Dancing In Mt. Pleasant ~ taken from "Highlights In The Life of James Monsen".

James Monsen

As the years came, so did responsibility; and yet associated with care and toil,  our pleasures were many and varied.

Those who had wagons with boxes on and spring seats to fit in were among the high class.  Ordinarily, for a real pleasure ride, two span of horses were hitched to one wagon containing four spring seats, with as many as three in each seat.  The pleasure, of course, was fast driving; so much that officers were delegated to order and enforce a slow down.  However, there were no speed limit signs.
photo courtesy of  wikipedia commons


For a long time, our dancing was done  in the different homes.  Old man Bramstead, we called him, was our fiddler.  He usually played the fiddle with his eyes closed, and I am not so sure that he didn't often play in his sleep.  Being hard of hearing, he sometimes continued playing after the dancers were all seated or until someone touched him.  
Eventually, the Jessen Hall was built, where theaters and dances were both carried on.  I don't know whether or not John Hasler became the owner of the hall, but he furnished the orchestra, and accepted cedar posts for the dance tickets.  I think two posts were required for each ticket.  
Six or eight boys would go with one team into the cedar hills, and in one day get enough posts for several dances. In that manner Hasler procured enough posts to fence a quarter section of land he had homesteaded just east of town.  I didn't join any of the boys in hauling posts, but I thought I was big as they were and could also dance.  On presenting fifteen cents at the door for admission, Brother Hasler, in his broken English, said, "You ish too leetel".  However, I was admitted and had a good time as though I had furnished two cedar posts.
The Madsen Hall finally took the place of the Jessen and all other halls.  We danced every Tuesday and Friday nights, beginning at eight o'clock and dancing until three or four o'clock in the morning, except for a recess at about 12 o'clock.  The older dancers went to different places for a midnight supper, while the younger people went to the store just beneath the hall.  It was opened an hour for the purpose of selling things to eat.  The counters were lined with youngsters eating crackers and cheese, canned salmon, and all kinds of canned goods. These were early dancing days.



Monday, September 9, 2013