Second Place Personal Recollection
A wiener roast at the Bench farm in the foothills east of Fairview was a special party of the Season. If we couldn't afford to buy wieners or marshmallows, no matter what; we could always roast potatoes or ears of corn. We noted the good crop of pinenuts on nearby pinyon trees. That would call for another trip to the hills the next weekend. That particular night was Halloween; and after we enjoyed the roasted food, the group decided to trek across town to visit the two cemeteries. It was a long dark walk, past the last houses of the Brady, Cox, and Sanderson families. We stepped carefully over the bridge across the Sanpitch River or "Crick," being sure to turn the right bend in the road past a hay field.
A turn to the left would take us to the west hills' dry farms. The old or "lower" cemetery always seemed darker and colder. Maybe that was because of the 74 older graves with weather-beaten, lichen-covered, leaning headstones. In some places, the ground was sunken around the headstones, and in other places, there were gopher holes Foot markers for the graves are still used there. Veterans of the Blackhawk War lie at rest.
There are also immigrants from other lands and third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation ancestors. In the old cemetery, the Anderson marker with a huge round ball on top, shining in the moonlight, was a temptation, so we dared one another to climb it.
No visit to the lower cemetery was complete without our looking for the burial spot of Matt Helean's hand.
A story is told that when his hand was severed in an accident, he just threw the hand away. He suffered such pain and agony in the stump, that he recovered the hand, gave it a decent burial with a marker, and his arm stopped hurting.
The most famous site is the common grave of John Given, his wife Eliza, and four children; John, Jr., Mary, Anna, and Martha. That family had built a cabin with a willow shanty in Thistle Valley. Marauding Indians drove their cattle away and massacred the parents and youngsters.
They ripped open feather ticks and covered the bodies with feathers. Several decades ago, some graves were lost in the northeast section of the old graveyard due to flooding by the Sanpitch River. That was one reason for the existence of the other cemetery where the final resting places there are high and dry.
The "upper" or new cemetery is high on the west hills overlooking the valley. The sound of lonesome wind rolling tumbleweeds over the ground greeted us.
There seemed to be more stars shining on that cold Halloween night. Buried in that burial place are numerous close relatives and soldiers from both World Wars. The seven tiny graves in a row on one family plot always brought a lump to my throat. How could folks stand to bury seven babies? We were young and carefree those many years ago and didn't realize the memories in the making, our priceless heritage, and the privilege it was to grow up in a quiet little town boasting two cemeteries.
The Givins Family: On the grave marker and a plaque placed by Utah Veterans of the Blackhawk War, the name is spelled GIVINS. On a State Historical marker placed by DUP in Thistle Valley, the name is spelled GIVEN.
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