Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Kathryn Gunderson Obituary


 




Kathryn and David Gunderson were great contributors to our association and also to this blog.
David passed away just a couple of months before Kathryn.  
Now they are joined together again.



Dave was a brilliant friend who loved Mt. Pleasant.  We had long chats about his knowledge of Mt. Pleasant and also his precious memories.  We started a Blog in his name and added to it his posts or from his books.  We did this once a month or even more. 
https://draft.blogger.com/blog/posts/6800885120975455088

David Reed Gunderson     



David Reed Gunderson passed away on November 12, 2020, in South Ogden, Utah after an extended illness. He was born December 6, 1937, in Mt Pleasant, Utah, to Reed and Leoan Gunderson. As a family, he loved living in the Uinta Mountains by the Duchesne Tunnel. After Weber High School and Weber College. 

In June of 1958, he was called to serve a three-year mission to Japan for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1963, David earned a BS in Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, and, in 1969, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude with a minor in Physics. 

In 1969, he was hired by Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey where he enjoyed sailing the Navesink River with his boat partners. 

He married Kathryn Ann Cowley on December 30, 1971, in the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

David worked with a group that designed the world’s first ‘long haul’ digital communication network. Later, his work included leading-edge satellite technology. He wrapped up a 30+ year career negotiating in foreign countries the installation of intercontinental undersea fiber-optic cables under the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans and the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

 His language skills helped open Japan as a major hub for Bell Lab Systems. He helped open markets in Papua New Guinea to Japan plus markets in Europe, India, and West Africa.

 For his significant contributions, David was honored by the “Distinguished Member of Technical Staff” award. He was a BSA Explorer Post leader for 25 years at Bell Labs. In retirement, David was an adjunct professor in U of U Engineering. 

David loved genealogy and published the Early Mt. Pleasant, Utah History, Gunderson, and Madsen books.


Survivors are his wife, Kathryn Ann Gunderson; his sister, Gayle Gunderson (Gary) Hunting of Garden Grove, CA; brother-in-law, Charles (Vicki) Cowley of Ogden, Utah; 7 nieces and nephews, and 20 great-nieces and nephews.

Graveside services will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2020, at 2 p.m. at the Ogden City Cemetery, 1875 Monroe Blvd. Friends may visit with the family on Saturday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd. A memorial service will be held at a later date depending on Covid-19 conditions.


 




 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

LOIS FERN LUND BROTHERSEN

We will only give the histories of those who have already passed away. 



 

Obituary: Lois Fern Lund Brothersen

1915 ~ 2004

Lois Fern Lund Brothersen returned to her Heavenly Father on October 2, 2004, at the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah; following a long struggle with injuries and illness, and then finally a short struggle with cancer.

There are a lot of pages created in 89 years of life; she was born to Lewis and Melissa Bailey Lund of Moroni, Utah, on January 24, 1915. She married her lifelong love, companion, and soul mate, Alten R. Brothersen of Mt. Pleasant, Utah, January 11, 1933; was later sealed in the Manti Temple July 27, 1950. He died March 6, 1987. Her education came from the school of life having grown up in the experiences of the great depression which shaped their lives by hard work and dedication to taking care of the needs of their family, working side-by-side in the sheep, cattle, and farming operations. She began her lifelong avocation and career as a seamstress working at the parachute factory (making parachutes for the U.S. Government in the Second World War). She was extremely gifted and talented as a seamstress, working for such companies as Osborn Apparel and Pacific Trails, just to mention a few. She crocheted and knitted with love, making beautiful show quality sweaters and afghan, as well as designing and making clothes for her own children and family. She loved to beautify her home, raising lovely gardens, was an excellent homemaker, and cook, sharing talents with many. She had many friends and appreciated their kindness. She loved playing cards and socializing. Lois loved to travel and did so whenever she had the opportunity, traveling to places like the Cayman Islands, Washington D.C., Portland, Oregon, The Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York, San Diego, CA. and spent one winter in Arizona. Lois was very active in the LDS Church, holding many positions in the church. Her strong testimony of the church was reflected by her exemplary life. She was very active in Community affairs with her husband "Alt" and an active member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, she loved her rich heritage.

She is survived by her daughters Shirlene Jensen of Orem; Maxine Harward (Kimball) of Fountain Green; Mor Rae Brothersen of Mt. Pleasant; and son Boyd A Brothersen (Avrin) of Mt. Pleasant; 10 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren; her brother Cliff Lund, Moroni; and sister Florence Cook, Rome, New York. She was preceded in death by her husband "Alt",

Monday, March 29, 2021

Flu Shot Traffic and Spanish Flu Vaccine Development History

Corona Virus Flue Shot Traffic 2020-21


Spanish Flu Line Up 1918-19

(might have looked like)



 

  

The 1918-19 Spanish Influenza Pandemic and Vaccine Development

September 26, 2018 Karie Youngdahl

Clipping from Newark Evening News, 1918
Newark Evening News, 1918

When people write about the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-19, they usually start with the staggering global death toll, the huge number of people who were infected with the pandemic virus, and the inability of the medical field to do anything to help the infected. And while those factors were hallmarks of the devastating episode, researchers and health workers in the United States and Europe were confidently devising vaccines and immunizing hundreds of thousands of people in what amounted to a medical experiment on the grandest scale. What were the vaccines they came up with? Did they do anything to protect the immunized and halt the spread of the disease?
_____________________________________________

First, the numbers. In 1918 the US population was 103.2 million. During the three waves of the Spanish Influenza pandemic between spring 1918 and spring 1919, about 200 of every 1000 people contracted influenza (about 20.6 million). Between 0.8% (164,800) and 3.1% (638,000) of those infected died from influenza or pneumonia secondary to it. 

A few vaccines to prevent other diseases were available at the time -- smallpox vaccine had, of course, been used for more than 100 years; Louis Pasteur had developed rabies vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis after an encounter with a rabid animal; typhoid fever vaccines had been developed. Diphtheria antitoxin -- a medication made from the blood of previously infected animals -- had been used for treatment since the late 1800s; an early form of a diphtheria vaccine had been used; and experimental cholera vaccines had been developed. Almroth Wright had tested a whole-cell pneumococcal vaccine in South African gold miners in 1911. Manufacturers had developed and sold various mixed heat-killed bacterial stock vaccines of dubious usefulness. 

In terms of knowledge of influenza as an infectious diseases, not a great deal was understood at the time. Many medical professionals thought that influenza was a specific communicable disease that presented seasonally, usually in the winter. Even so, without specific diagnostic tools, mild cases of influenza were difficult to distinguish from other acute respiratory illnesses. The tools of the time were only able to detect bacteria, not smaller pathogens. 

And physicians and scientists struggled to understand whether yearly influenza to which they were accustomed was related to the occasional widespread and highly epidemic illness of years we now know were pandemic influenza (1848-49 and 1889-90).

German scientist Richard Pfeiffer (1858-1945) claimed to have identified the causative agent of influenza in a publication in 1892 -- he described rod-shaped bacilli present in every case of influenza he examined. He was not, however, able to demonstrate Koch's postulates by causing the illness in experimental animals. Many professionals accepted his findings, though, and thought Pfeiffer's influenza bacillus, as it was called, was responsible for seasonal influenza.

But as the 1910s progressed and bacteriological methods matured, other researchers presented results that conflicted with Pfeiffer's findings. They found his organism in healthy individuals and in those suffering from illnesses that clearly were not influenza. Additionally, they looked for Pfeiffer's bacillus in influenza cases and in many instances did not find it at all. Though many physicians still believed that Pfeiffer had correctly identified the culprit, a growing number of others had begun to doubt his findings.  

Those true believers had some reason to be hopeful that a vaccine could prevent influenza as the disease began its second appearance in the United States in early fall 1918. By October 2, 1918, William H. Park, MD, head bacteriologist of the New York City Health Department, was working on a Pfeiffer's bacteria influenza vaccine. The New York Times reported that Royal S. Copeland, Health Commissioner of New York City, described the vaccine as an influenza preventive and an "application of an old idea to a new disease." Park was making his vaccine from heat-killed Pfeiffer's bacilli isolated from ill individuals and testing it on volunteers from Health Department staff (New York Times, October 2, 1918). Three doses were given 48 hours apart. By October 12, he wrote in the New York Medical Journal that he was vaccinating employees from large companies and soldiers in army camps. He hoped to have evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vaccine in a few weeks (Park WH, 1918).

Chart showing deaths from influenza in Chicago in the fall of 1918
A number of influenza cases reported on November 2, 1918, in Chicago. AJPH, 1918.

In November, the Newark Evening News reported that 39,000 doses of the Leary-Park influenza vaccine had been prepared and that most doses were used. (Timothy Leary was a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.) Though it was too soon to tell if the vaccine was effective, "...the average person need have no fear of the results of the vaccine. Neurotic and rheumatic individuals, however, appear to be sensitive to the vaccine, while children take it with less disturbance than adults" (Newark Evening News, 1918).

By December 13, 1918, Copeland was not so confident about his department's vaccine. He told the Times that vaccines made from Pfeiffer's bacilli appeared to have no effect on influenza prevention. Rather, he was confident that a mixed bacterial vaccine (streptococcal, pneumococcal, staphylococcal, and Pfeiffer's bacilli) developed by E.C. Rosenow at the Mayo Foundation was an effective preventive. And while he thought that most people in New York had already been exposed to Spanish influenza, he mentioned that he would have Park prepare some of the Rosenow vaccines to immunize people in New York throughout the winter (New York Times, December 13, 1918). Well, more than 500,000 doses of Rosenow vaccine were produced (Eyler, 2009).

University of Pittsburgh, Tulane University, and even private physicians were making their own vaccines. Convalescent serum was also used (Boston Post, January 6, 1919; Robertson & Koehler, 1918). The Deseret (UT) Evening News noted on December 14, 1918, that free vaccine was available in communities around the state. 

Based on my survey of newspaper and medical journal articles from the time, it is clear that many hundreds of thousands, if not a million or more, doses of vaccines were produced during the pandemic years. (A few years ago I wrote another blog post about Rosenow's vaccine and other vaccines.) 

The Editorial Committee of the American Journal of Public Health tried to put a damper on people's expectations about vaccines. They wrote in January 1919 that the causative organism of the current influenza was still unknown, and therefore the vaccines being produced had only a chance at being directed at the right target. They noted that vaccines for secondary infections made some sense, but that all the vaccines being produced must be viewed as experimental. Acknowledging the somewhat ad hoc nature of vaccine development in the current crisis, they urged that control groups be used with all the vaccines and that the differences between control and experimental group be minimized, as to risk of exposure, time of exposure during an epidemic, and so on (Editorial Committee of the American Journal of Public Health, 1919).

Certainly none of the vaccines described above prevented viral influenza infection – we know now that influenza is caused by a virus and none of the vaccines protected against it. But were any of them protected against the bacterial infections that developed secondary to influenza? Vaccinologist Stanley A. Plotkin, MD, thinks they were not. He told us, “The bacterial vaccines developed for Spanish influenza were probably ineffective because at the time it was not known that pneumococcal bacteria come in many, many serotypes and that of the bacterial group they called B. influenza, only one type is a major pathogen.” In other words, the vaccine developers had little ability to identify, isolate, and produce all the potential disease-causing strains of bacteria circulating at the time. Indeed, today’s pneumococcal vaccine for children protects against 13 serotypes of that bacteria, and the vaccine for adults protects against 23 serotypes.

A 2010 article, however, describes a meta-analysis of bacterial vaccine studies from 1918-19 and suggests a more favorable interpretation.  Based on the 13 studies that met inclusion criteria,  the authors conclude that some of the vaccines could have reduced the attack rate of pneumonia after viral influenza infection. They suggest that, despite the limited numbers of bacteria strains in the vaccines, vaccination could have led to cross-protection from multiple related strains (Chien, 2010).

It was not until the 1930s that researchers established that influenza was in fact caused by a virus, not a bacterium. Pfeiffer's influenza bacillus would eventually be named Haemophilus influenza the name retaining the legacy of its long-standing, though inaccurate, association with influenza. And today, influenza vaccines – as well as H. influenza type b vaccines—are widely available to prevent illness.

Parts of this post were adapted from an earlier blog post of mine.

Sources

Cecil RL. Present status of pneumococcus vaccineAJPH. 1919;9(8):593-594.

Chien Y, Klugman KP, Morens DM. Efficacy of whole-cell killed bacterial vaccines in preventing pneumonia and death during the 1918 influenza pandemic. JID. 2010;202(11):1639-1648.

Convalescent sera used. Boston Post. January 6, 1919.

The editorial committee of the American Public Health Association. A working program against influenzaAJPH. 1919;9(1)1-12.

Eyler JM. The state of science, microbiology, and vaccines circa 1918. Public Health Reports. 2010;125(3_suppl):27-36.

Eyler JM. The fog of research: influenza vaccine trials during the 1918–19 pandemic. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 2009;64(4):401-428.

Influenza epidemic not expected here. New York Times. December 13, 1918.

Park WH. Bacteriology and possibility of anti-influenza vaccine as a prophylactic. New York Medical Journal. 1918;108:15:621.

Plotkin SA. Personal correspondence. November 23, 2011.

Robertson JD, Koehler G. Preliminary report on the influenza epidemic in ChicagoAJPH. 1918;8(11)849-856.

No decision yet as to anti-grip vaccine valueNewark Evening News. November 30, 1918.

Tells of vaccine to stop influenza. New York Times. October 2, 1918.

Free vaccine for communities of the state. Deseret Evening News. December 14, 1918.

Find an Influenza SerumKansas City Star, September 29, 1918

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Joe the Parrot

 The video below was submitted by Larry Staker.  It reminded me of a story told by David Gunderson 

Memories of Andrew Madsen’s Parrot, Joe ~ by David R. Gunderson






Early Photo of Hilda's House on State Street
I first met Joe in the late fall of 1942 when our family spent December at Aunt Hilda’s house in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. Originally, this home had been built by Andrew Madsen, Aunt Hilda’s father and my great-grandfather, and it was one of the first houses built outside the fort in the early 1860’s.

                                           Aunt Hilda



Joe lived in the south-west corner of Aunt Hilda’s kitchen and could speak in both English and Danish. Sometimes he used words in English that, as a five-year-old, I was not allowed to say. I don’t know about his Danish vocabulary, but I’ll bet it was just as colorful as his English vocabulary. I did notice that, unlike me, Joe’s mouth was never washed out with soap when he used any of his more colorful words. I also noticed that Dad and Uncle Bruce didn’t get the soap treatment either. I decided that maybe Aunt Hilda and Mom had just given up on all three of them A Picture of an Amazon Parrot
.
We believe that Joe was an Amazon or perhaps a Military Macaw parrot and that he had been obtained by Andrew Madsen in the 1910 time frame after his first parrot had flown off. The story goes that one day in the early fall, the first parrot was placed on the front porch to get some sun. When he saw a flock of birds migrating south, he simply flew up and joined them. His wings had been clipped and family members feared for his safety. They carefully searched for him for several days but no sign of him was ever found in Sanpete.

Some years later, a group of LDS missionaries returning to Sanpete from Mexico, reported that they had seen a parrot, perched in a tree that looked like the Madsen’s lost bird. When they approached it to try to coax it down, it flew away swearing at them in both English and Danish. We can’t say, for sure if this bird was Andrew Madsen’s lost parrot, but the number of feral parrots in Northern Mexico at that time, with the lost bird’s coloring and the language skills, must have been extremely small.

Joe seems to have joined the family at about the time of my mother’s birth and a year or two after Aunt Hilda had resigned her management position in the Scofield Division of the Eastern Utah Telephone Company to take over the management of the Madsen home in Mt. Pleasant.



 Joe with Russel, Royal, Leoan, & Chesley Madsen

Joe was quite attached to Aunt Hilda and he loved my mother, Leoan. He and Mom had a lifelong friendship and they had seen each other nearly every day as Mom was growing up.


 When Mom was eighteen or nineteen years old, she entered the University of Utah and had to be away from home for some extended periods of time. Joe missed her during these periods and must have felt that she had been ignoring him. He took personal offense to this, and when she came home on breaks, Joe would totally ignore her for a day or so. We think this was just to teach her a lesson, and let her know how it felt to be ignored. But this never lasted long, and he would soon forgive her and welcome her back into his inner circle of friends.


Joe was always busy cracking seeds, preening his feathers, honing his beak, scolding, surveying his domain, or doing other things that are important to parrots. But, when you entered “his” kitchen, Joe would always stop all of his activities and say, “Hello Joe, Hello Joe” (always said twice) and then he would wait for you to say “Hello Joe” back before he resumed his busy schedule.

By the time I met him, Joe was about 32 years of age, late in his midlife years, and he had become a bit “crotchety”. Aunt Hilda warned us that Joe had been known to bite and cautioned us that we should keep away from him.






Joe always wanted to have things done “his way”, and when Aunt Hilda did something he didn’t like, I remember of seeing him charge at her feet, with his wings flapping, and scolding her at the top of his lungs. This made believers of us children, so after that, we enjoyed Joe from a safe distance. Joe seemed to have liked this arrangement because I don’t recall that any one of us was ever bitten or even scolded by Joe.

Joe had a perch, a cage, some toys, and a cover for the night. He also had a cup for food and one for water. Each morning, Aunt Hilda would give him fresh water, fill his food cup with sunflower and other seeds and give him fruits and greens. I loved to see him play with his toys, pick up a seed, shell it, and pop it into his mouth. He wasn’t very tidy with the seed shells, scattering them all around his perch.


Aunt Hilda raised sunflowers in her garden for Jo; the ones with the huge heads and equally huge seeds. She had quite a few of these dried sunflower “heads” stored in her back porch, and I remember that she recruited me to help her pick them or scrape the large seeds out of the “heads” for Joe. I loved her cat "Tom" helping to do something for him.

Hilda, "Joe the Parrot" and "Tom the Cat"

Aunt Hilda suffered from rheumatism which worsened as she grew older. When she was away for treatment or visiting nieces and nephews, she always left Joe with her cousin, Emma Anderson. The Andersons liked Joe and he seemed to have liked them as well. In 1944 or 1945, after Aunt Hilda had cared for Joe for some 35 years, she found that she could no longer carry on and Joe went to live with the Andersons permanently.


In 1948, Aunt Emma called to offer to let us have one of her newly born purebred wirehaired terrier puppies. (Aunt Emma was very selective about the people she would trust with one of her puppies, and it was a great honor to be given an opportunity to have one of them.) When we entered Aunt Emma’s kitchen to get my new pup, mother walked over towards Joe’s perch to say hello. Joe wasn’t ready for such familiarity with someone he didn’t recognize and he turned toward Mom, flapping his wings and squawking at the top of his lungs. This was not an angry attack but enough to let Mom know that he felt that she was intruding on his private space. Mom backed off a bit but continued to talk quietly to Joe.


When he had settled down, he seemed to begin to study her, like you would when you meet someone you think you should know. He then brightened up and called her name in his shrill parrot’s voice, first, softly as a question, then with increasing volume as he recognized her, and finally brightly as a welcome to a dear friend that he hadn’t seen in far to long a time.


“Leoan??? … Leoan??? …. Leoan!!!”


Joe then seemed delighted that Mom had come to visit him; he wanted her to pick him up, and let him stand on her shoulder so that he could preen her hair and “cuddle” her.  Mom let him stand on her hand and wrist and let him climb up to her shoulder once but didn’t trust him to stay there. Both Mom and Joe seemed to enjoy this renewal of their long friendship.


I believe this visit to Aunt Emma’s to get my new puppy was the last time we ever saw Joe. He died a year or two later at the young age (for parrots) of about 42 years, far short of the 60+ years he might have lived in the wild.



In all, Joe shared his life with four generations of our family. We all loved him, and enjoyed his quirky ways. I believe that, in his way, Joe loved us too. 


Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Bishop William S. Seely (from our archives 2008)

 



Bishop William Stewart Seely
, the first Bishop of Mount Pleasant (Sanpete Stake), Sanpete County, Utah, was born May 18, 1812, in Pickering, Home District, Upper Canada, the son of Justus A. Seely and Mehittabel Bennett. Becoming a convert to "Mormonism" under the instruction of John Taylor, he was baptized in 1838 and migrated to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, where he resided until 1846, when he became an exile, like his co-religionists, and departed into the western wilderness. He came to Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and lived for some time in Salt Lake City and afterward in Pleasant Grove, Utah county.

 When Mount Pleasant, Sanpete County, was re-settled in 1859 he became one of the founders of that place, where he spent the remainder of his years and where he was active in everything pertaining to the growth and welfare of that commonwealth.


 When Mount Pleasant became an incorporated city, William S. Seely was elected its first mayor, and he acted as Bishop of Mount Pleasant for about thirty years. He took part in all the military movements during the Black Hawk war and also filled two missions to Canada, one in 1873 and the other in 1878.

 In 1868 he went as captain of a Church train as far east as Laramie after immigrants.


 Bishop Seely married three wives, two of whom survived him. His first wife was Elizabeth De Hart, who died April 6, 1873, after bearing her husband several children, of whom Elizabeth, Emily, Moroni, Emmeline, Joseph N., and Lucinda were still living in 1898. 


His second wife was Ellen Jackson, whose children are Justice L. and William S. 


The Bishop's third wife was Ann Watkins and her children are William A. and Anna R. 

Bishop Seely was not only a prominent citizen in local affairs but was well and favorably known throughout the Territory.  

Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT: Andrew Jenson History Co., 1901. Utah. He died at Mount Pleasant, Sept. 17, 1896.



In August 1885, William S. married his fourth wife, Susanne Foster. They did not have any children.



Ellen Jackson Seely, Second wife of William S., died on January 17, 1908. She was 89 years old.


Ann Watkins Seely, third wife of William S., died April 18, 1927. She was 81 years old and was buried in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.


Final Peace Treaty. Several peace conferences with the Indians had been held in different settlements. A meeting was held at Mt. Pleasant, September 17, 1872, at which General Morrow, Apostle Orson Hyde, Bishop Amasa Tucker, Bishop Fredrick Olson, Bishop W. S. Seely, Colonel Reddick Allred met at Mt. Pleasant with a great number of Indian Chiefs and braves, among whom were Tabiona, White Hare, Angizeble and others who were known to have encouraged depredations under Chief Black Hawk. The concluding peace treaty was signed at this time. That meeting was held at the home of William S. Seely. (the current Mt. Pleasant Relic Home) also see: http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/source/0,18016,4976-5975,00.html

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Monday, March 15, 2021

Charlotte Staunton Quindlan Johnson Hyde (from our archives)

 




Charlotte Staunton Quindlan Johnson Hyde
You would think that a wife of Orson Hyde would be buried in Spring City next to him. You would think that she would have a very distinctive, monolithic marker of granite and stand very tall. Not so for Charlotte Staunton Quindlan Johnson Hyde. Of those many names by which she was called, we can only verify that her name was Charlotte Quindlan Hyde. She lived in Mt. Pleasant, taught school in Mt. Pleasant and died in Mt. Pleasant. Her grave marker is about 18 inches tall made of marble. You literally have to kneel down to read her epitaph there.

Charlotte Quindlen was born 22 of August 1802 at Lower Pensnock, Salem, New Jersey. Charlotte Quindlan was the name used at the Endowment House in Salt Lake City when she was sealed to Orson Hyde in 1852. The marble marker lists her as Charlotte Staunton Hyde as does the Mt. Pleasant History Book. Perhaps the name Staunton came from another marriage. From the dates we find that she was fifty years old when she married Orson Hyde.
The following is taken from the book “Orson Hyde Olive Branch of Israel”
“Orson Hyde was chosen as an original member of the Council of the Twelve in 1835, when the Mormon Church first organized this governing body. Orson's most well-known accomplishment was as a Mormon missionary to Jerusalem (1840-1842) to dedicate the land for the return of the Jews. Because his words have proven prophetic in the many decades since his entreaty, a peaceful garden on the Mount now honors him and his supplication. In 1979 civil authorities in Jerusalem invited the development of a five-acre hillside garden in honor of Orson Hyde.
“Orson Hyde was a remarkable individual. He received esteem in many roles, among them apostle, teacher, missionary, orator, scriptorian, journalist, editor, lawyer, judge, statesman, colonizer, and administrator; also as the husband of eight wives, the father of thirty-three children, a friend of mankind, and a servant of God.
MYRTLE STEVENS HYDE,
During the years 1850-1852 Charlotte Quindlin Johnson lived in Kanesville, Iowa at the home of Orson Hyde as a domestic assistant to his first wife Marinda. She was already a member of the L.D.S. Faith. She had been divorced from a man named Johnson. She was described as a seamstress who also liked children. She helped Marinda with her children Alonzo, Frank and baby Delila. She was with the Hyde Family at Winter Quarters and as they traveled across the plains to Salt Lake, arriving in 1852. Marinda and Charlotte got along very well.

Orson and Marinda discussed the possibility of inviting Charlotte to become a wife rather than a domestic. Orson had also married Mary Ann Price who for a time was a domestic in his household. Orson and Mary Ann were married in Nauvoo in 1843. Orson talked with Brigham Young about taking Charlotte as another wife and Brigham Young approved. Orson proposed to Charlotte, she accepted and they were sealed as husband and wife in the Endowment House 22nd of November, 1852. She was the fourth wife of Orson. Besides Marinda and Mary Ann, Orson had married Martha Rebecca Browett, who he later divorced in 1850. Martha went on to become the wife of Thomas McKenzie who also divorced her.

In the spring of 1853 we find Marinda, Mary Ann and Charlotte all living together under one roof in Salt Lake. Charlotte, however, was having a hard time adjusting to being a plural wife and departed the family, a mutual decision between she and Orson. They were separated, but never divorced. Brigham Young granted official separation for Charlotte and Orson Hyde in 1859.

Charlotte came to the Sanpete Valley long before Orson shows his influence here. It was during the “big move” with the earliest Saints first to Fort Ephraim, then north to resettle Mt. Pleasant. The first pioneers had been driven out of Camp Hambleton, located one mile west of the current city of Mt. Pleasant. She first made her living as a seamstress then as a school teacher while the settlers still lived inside the fort. A schoolhouse was then built outside the fort. She was fondly called "Aunty Hyde" by her students. She inspired many of her students to become teachers themselves.

In Mt. Pleasant History by Hilda Longsdorf the following description of Aunty Hyde school: “In a little log house about 12x15 feet, on the south side of the street on First North, about midway between State and First West, (in the area where Mary Ursenbach now lives-2008) Charlotte Staunton Hyde taught school. The building was also known and later used for Lesser Priesthood meetings and similar Church gatherings. Mrs. Hyde was a woman who no doubt had earlier in life received quite a liberal education, and although described as “a little old woman who smoked a pipe and was quite deaf,” she was affectionately called "Aunty Hyde". Many amusing stories were told of her school, but with all her students there remained pleasant memories. There being no hand bell, as in later years, the children were always called from their play to the schoolroom with her familiar call, “To Books. To Books. To Books.””

“Mrs. Hyde lived in a little log house west of the school. She often brought her bread to the schoolhouse to bake. She had a skillet with a tight fitting lid and in this, by heaping on it coals from the fireplace, which was in one end of the building, she baked the bread during school hours. She was paid for her services as a teacher with any produce or garden stuff available.
Mrs. Hyde taught for sometime in the log meeting house in the fort. Many attended school. A number of the pioneers were polygamist families and usually were large families. In some cases the entire family had attended her school as was the case in Abraham Day’s family, Joseph, Abraham Jr. , Eli A., Ezra, and Ephraim, children of the second wife, all attended; among others who also in later days became prominent citizens were her students Emaline Seely Barton, Oscar Anderson, William Morrison Jr., Sylvester Barton, Joseph Nephi Seeley, Annie Porter Nelson, Melvina Clemensen Crane, Peter Johansen, Chastie Neilsen, Benta Neilsen, Peter Jensen, Allen Rowe, Henry Ericksen, Miranda Seeley Oman, Wilhemina Morrison Ericksen, Hans Neilsen, William D. Candland, Charlotte Reynolds Seeley, Sarah Wilcox Bills, Celestial McArthur Barton, William A. Averett, Amasa Aldrich, James B. Staker, Maria Tidwell Larsen, Libby Barton Averett, Morgan A. Winters, Eli A. Day, W.W. Brandon, Sarah Davidsen Wilcox, Maggie Peel Seely, Samuel H. Allen, Harry Candland, Albert Candland, Charles Averett, Hazard Wilcox and Hans Neilsen.

Although records show that Mrs. Hyde was not the first teacher in the community, in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on the south side of the center driveway, is a little marble slab now yellowing with age, upon which is engraved: “Charlotte Staunton Hyde, wife of Apostle Orson Hyde, born in Penn., Died in Mount Pleasant, December 3, 1881, age 78. At rest now---Through the kindness of pupils of early days, this stone is erected to her memory, she being the first school teacher in Mt. Pleasant.” M.M.F.C.M.”

Many, many children benefited from her talents, from her love and from her example.