The Science of Leap Year ~~~ From The Smithsonian Institution

In 2024, February gets an extra day. Instead of 28 days, this year February will have 29 days. Almost everyone is familiar with the concept of leap year, but the reasoning behind it is a little complicated. For example, most people believe that leap year occurs once every four years, but that’s not always the case. What’s going on and why do we have leap year?

A calendar year is typically 365 days long. These so-called “common years” loosely define the number of days it takes the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. But 365 is actually a rounded number. It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. This “sidereal” year is slightly longer than the calendar year, and that extra 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds needs to be accounted for somehow. If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift. This would be annoying if not devasting, because over a period of about 700 years our summers, which we’ve come to expect in June in the northern hemisphere, would begin to occur in December!

By adding an extra day every four years, our calendar years stay adjusted to the sidereal year, but that’s not quite right either. Some simple math will show that over four years the difference between the calendar years and the sidereal year is not exactly 24 hours. Instead, it’s 23.262222 hours. Rounding strikes again! By adding a leap day every four years, we actually make the calendar longer by over 44 minutes. Over time, these extra 44+ minutes would also cause the seasons to drift in our calendar. For this reason, not every four years is a leap year. The rule is that if the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400, leap year is skipped. The year 2000 was a leap year, for example, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not. The next time a leap year will be skipped is the year 2100.

And why is it called “leap year?” Well, a common year is 52 weeks and 1 day long. That means that if your birthday were to occur on a Monday one year, the next year it should occur on a Tuesday. However, the addition of an extra day during a leap year means that your birthday now “leaps” over a day. Instead of your birthday occurring on a Tuesday as it would following a common year, during a leap year, your birthday “leaps” over Tuesday and will now occur on a Wednesday.

And if you happen to be born on leap day February 29, that doesn’t mean you only celebrate a birthday every four years. Every three years, you get to celebrate your birthday on March 1 and continue to grow old like the rest of us.

Thanks to leap year, our seasons will always occur when we expect them to occur, and our calendar year will match the Earth’s sidereal year.

Fun Facts About Being Born on Leap Day

• There is an approximate 1 in 1,461 chance of having a baby on Leap Day -- if you're that lucky, you might as well buy a lottery ticket too!
• If your baby is born on Leap Day, you can now join the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, a fun, free and informative organization that both celebrates and educates others on the fun and some of the challenges of having a Leap Day birthday.
• Apart from "cute," you can also refer to your special baby as a "leaper" or "leapling," which is what Leap Day birthday folks refer to themselves.
• Anthony, Texas is known as the Leap Year Capitol of the World and throws a giant festival every Leap Year where people come from all around the world to celebrate their February 29 birthday. Plan now for your little one's fourth birthday in 2024!
• Because not all technology systems have caught up, leapers may experience hassles and difficulties with recognition of their birth date. Sometimes, drop-down menus do not have February 29 as a choice and birthday loyalty programs may not have a way to recognize Leap Day birthdays in non-Leap Years. Also, some leaplings are questioned about their birthday, thinking it is a mistake.
• During non-leap years, leaplings celebrate their birthday on February 28 or March 1, or on any day they choose! It's common for leapers to recite their age in "leap year age" (ie, a 16 year-old would say she is only 4).
• If you're looking for a unique name to commemorate your child's rare birthday, consider one of the following suggestions:
• Julia/Julius - After Julius Caesar, who introduced the leap year
• Delta - The fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the leap year's occurrence every four years
• Romana/Roman - After the Roman Empire, from which the leap year originated
• Aurora - Roman goddess of the sunrise, representing the earth's orbit around the sun
• A translation of the word "leap" - "Salto" in Spanish, "Lele" in Hawaiian, "Ruka" in Swahili
• © 2024 Lamaze International

 

Postal Bus ~~~ Mt. Pleasant, Utah ~~~ Photo Found on Ebay (from our archives)

 

WOW ! The date is Sept 55.  I would have been  8 years old then.  Does anyone remember this?  Mail being delivered by bus....Hmmm.   The stores in the background I do remember.  Larsen's Drug Store on the corner with the post office next door.  I remember gray steps up to the Post Office.  I remember going to the far back end where our box was ....  #73.  Then there is the building I was trying to make into Safeway.  Ooops.  It was the Five and Dime or Pratts.  Having worked for the Postal Service, I found this to be a real treasure.  I worked in Spring City and Ephraim, never in my hometown of  Mt. Pleasant. Why OH Why didn't I buy the picture from Ebay?

Home of Elmer Delbert Miller and his wife Ellen Elizabeth Bigler ~~~ Researched and Compiled by Tudy Barentsen Standlee

 

Bobbed Hair and Short Skirts ~~~ (a reading by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf from our archives)

 

We, the old-fashioned long-haired, long skirted women of the modestly dressed school must confess there are times when we do admire and envy our beautifully marceled, well trimmed, brillianteened sisters of the bobbed hair and knee length skirt, and we do fight the temptation to "go and do likewise." And become one of the great masses. We assure you it does take a great deal of will power to say, "Get thou behind me Satan".

***

You will acknowledge it takes a more than ordinary strength to come before so many bobbed heads to tell you of your mistake and sins and to defend our long hair and skirts. But thanks to the teachings of our early innocent childhood when we were taught in school and in Sunday School a verse something like this, "Sin is a monster to be hated, needs to be seen, but seen too often, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.

***

Friends, we may well compare that sin, to the sins of the world, to the sins of the short skirt and the bobbed hair today, and are we not advised from the pulpit to "keep ourselves unspotted from the sins of the world?"

***

We have often heard the bobbed hairdo epidemic defended with the illusion that it makes one look younger. are we not taught to honor and respect old age? Is it honest to look like something you are not? Is it honest to deliberately act out a lie?

***

Only a short time ago, a certain Mt. Pleasant man; (you all know to whom I refer, but we shall call him Bob) was taken to a hospital in Salt Lake City, all on account of something that wasn't. He saw at a distance what he thought was a young chicken. He hopped into his automobile and when he overtook the object, he found that it was an old hen and that she was his mother-in-law at that. The result of the meeting was his trip to the hospital. One day while there, there was a knock at the door.

***

The lady sitting by his bedside, who by the way had her hair, bobbed the day before, stepped into the hall and there she saw a sweet young creature with a boyish bob and a short pantilooned skirt that asked to see Bob. Said the first lady to the younger, "May I ask who you are as we do not allow all visitors." "I am his sister." "Oh, said the other, I am glad to know you, I am his mother." Think of that, mother and daughter not knowing each other, not knowing the members of their own family, all on account of looking like what you are not, with bobbed hair and short skirts.

***

The bobbed hair is robbing the women of today of motherly love, of that sacrificing spirit that has made motherhood so hallowed. Compare the long hairdo mother of yesterday with the short hairdo mother of today, for instance. A few days ago a schoolboy asked his patient, red faced, perspiring father, who was busy preparing the midday meal, for some money with which to buy a belt. The poor father sadly replied: "Son, never before have I refused you any of the necessities of life, but since Ma bobbed her hair, it is all I can do to keep her on speaking terms with the barber and the marcellor and attend to the housework. And friends, that poor boy, that son and heir, that representative of the future generation, say perhaps the future mayor of Mt. Pleasant, was forced to go without a belt. And we all know how necessary a belt is to a pair of trousers. Think what might have happened.

***

Now there is an example of following the styles. There was a time when men were blessed with gallowses,then fashion said suspenders. Soon they discarded them and left only a belt. And, Oh what agony the men's belt has caused.

***

We ladies used to have petticoats, underwear and hose supporters. Gone are the petticoats, fast going is the underwear and we roll our hose. We used to wear sweeping long skirts, sometimes with a graceful train. Then they gave us the ankle length, then the eight inch from the ground, then knees and above. Ah, can you not see the inmodesty, the brazenness, and the trickery of it. i warn you. Stop your sinful style-following ways, or yhou, like the men, will only have a belt left.

***

Already a man who often occupies the pulpit, and whose wife is a Relief Society worker has written this verse: Mary had a little skirt, 'twas the latest styles no doubt. But every time Mary got outside, she was more than halfway out."

***

Recently I noticed an ad in a journal to the effect that with the short skirts now in vogue, the hose must match the complexion of the jewelry. And after reading that I stepped into J.C. Penney to see the effect it had had. And there, my friends, I saw old women, young women, grandmothers and stepmothers if you please, clambering to be waited on. One dear old lady was in tears, because they had told her the freckled hose had not arrived. A grandmother rushed in to match some purple beads. Had their skirts been long andmodest, like mine, they could have worn any kind of hose, and avoided that grief and worry.

***

A few days ago, I saw a North Ward Relief Society Teacher in tears. I asked her the cause and she replied, "Lost,yesterday, somewhere between Bart's and Slim's Barber Shops, two golden braids, each set with sixty golden hairs, now reward is offered for they are gone forever." She like so many poor bobbed hairdo women here today, was forced to wear her hat or stay at home. Oh, could they only have had a 10-day free trial, could they only have seen the effects of before and after.

***

The bible tells us, that in bible days, men wore long hair and flowing beards. What have they done? They have cut it off. They have shaved them off, until what do we have now? In Mt. Pleasant alone there are so many bald or almost bald headed men.

***

Oh, what is the world coming to when women, who's doting mothers gave them saint-like names will brazenly parade the streets with bobbed hair and short skirts and unblushingly show their shapely or unshapely calves, I mean limbs?

***

In last week's Pyramid there was the followning verse; Henry Snmith is dead, we loved him so, just what caused it, we did not know, until they cut him open, and there they found, short marcelled hairs, floating round and round. Reason tells us, had they been long hairs, they never would have gotten there, for Henry would have seen them, and taken them out of his gravy, pudding, or pie and saved his life before he died.

***

A short time ago, as I was walking through the cemetery, I saw a mound all heaped up with Job's Tears, Love in the mists, Bleeding hearts, and For-get-me-knots. And I thought there has been a great loss. I stepped nearer and read the inscription. "Here lies Randy Lee, the wife of Gus. She bobbed her hair and it ended thus." now think of it. She might have lived forever had she listened to the dictates or that still small voice and the advice of her husband. On a little father in the same cemetery, I heard a man weeping. I went near him to console him, he turned to me with a knowing light in his eye and said, and "Here lies the body of my bobbed-haired wife. Tears cannot bring her back to life. Therefore, I weep."

***

I was told that a husband, who had not kissed his wife for more than twenty years, did so, after she was bobbed. The examiners for mental trouble, pronounced him incurable.

***

One could go on and on and tell of the sins and sorrows that bobbed hair and the short skirs have caused on the earth. Hee the warning, we are all preparing to be angels bye and bye. Have you ever seen an angel or the picture of an agel with bobbed hair and short skirts? No, they all have flowing robes. Let me plead with you as you are as you shall be. As you sow, so shall you reap. With all the proofs we have offered, with all the sadness that has been caused and all the calamities now existing, how can you unblushingly accept the bobbed hair and the economical short skirt?

***

H.E.L.

Alice Hafen's Recipes for Canker Medicine and Corns

 

Making History This Week ~~~ Odysseus

 Privately owned Odysseus lander makes first U.S. moon touchdown in half-centuryCompany 

confirms craft landed upright on moon 6 days after taking off from Florida's Kennedy Space 

CenterThe Associated Press · Posted: Feb 22, 2024 4:53 PM MST |

Taken from Wikipedia 

Rocket Propellant Tanks for NASA’s Artemis III Mission Take Shape

FEB 16, 2024  

     

 

Lee Mohon

 

All the major structures that will form the core stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis III mission are structurally complete. Technicians finished welding the 51-foot liquid oxygen tank structure, left, inside the Vertical Assembly Building at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Jan. 8. The liquid hydrogen tank, right, completed internal cleaning Nov. 14.
NASA/Michael DeMocker

As NASA works to develop all the systems needed to return astronauts to the Moon under its Artemis campaign for the benefit of all, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will be responsible for launching astronauts on their journey. With the liquid oxygen tank now fully welded, all of the major structures that will form the core stage for the SLS rocket for the agency’s Artemis III mission are ready for additional outfitting. The hardware will be a part of the rocket used for the first of the Artemis missions planning to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface near the lunar South Pole. Technicians finished welding the 51-foot liquid oxygen tank structure inside the Vertical Assembly Building at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Jan. 8.

The mega rocket’s other giant propellant tank – the liquid hydrogen tank – is already one fully welded structure. NASA and Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, are currently priming the tank in another cell within the Vertical Assembly Building area called the Building 131 cryogenic tank thermal protection system and primer application complex. It completed internal cleaning Nov. 14.

Manufacturing hardware is a multi-step process that includes welding, washing, and, later, outfitting hardware.The internal cleaning process is similar to a shower to ensure contaminants do not find their way into the stage’s complex propulsion and engine systems prior to priming. Once internal cleaning is complete, primer is applied to the external portions of the tank’s barrel section and domes by an automated robotic tool. Following primer, technicians apply a foam-based thermal protection system to shield it from the extreme temperatures it will face during launch and flight while also regulating the super-chilled propellant within.

VICTORY GARDENS DURING WORLD WAR I AND WW II.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

United States WWI-era U.S. victory poster featuring Columbia sowing seeds

In March 1917, Charles Lathrop Pack organized the US National War Garden Commission and launched the War Garden campaign. Food production had fallen dramatically during World War I, especially in Europe, where agricultural labor had been recruited into military service and remaining farms devastated by the conflict. Pack and others conceived the idea that the supply of food could be greatly increased without the use of land and manpower already engaged in agriculture, and without the significant use of transportation facilities needed for the war effort. The campaign promoted the cultivation of available private and public lands, resulting in over five million gardens in the US  and foodstuff production exceeding $1.2 billion by the end of the war. 

President Woodrow Wilson said that "Food will win the war." To support the home garden effort, a United States School Garden Army was launched through the Bureau of Education, and funded by the War Department at Wilson's direction. 
World War II 
See also: Food waste in the United Kingdom § HistoryThe British "Dig on for Victory" poster by Peter FraserA victory garden in a bomb crater in London during WWII
Australia 

Australia launched a Dig for Victory campaign in 1942 as rationing and a shortage of agricultural workers began to affect food supplies. The situation began to ease in 1943; however, home gardens continued throughout the war. 

Talula Frandsen Nelson

 

LOCAL DINOSAURS

 

Fairview Mammouth 
life size replica 

A life-size replica of the Columbian wooly mammoth, whose skeleton was uncovered at the Huntington Reservoir in 1988, is now in place at the Fairview Museum of History and Arts annex.

 Dinosaur National Monument

May 9, 2016

G. E. Untermann and B. E. Untermann
Historical Quarterly 26 July 1958

SPLIT MOUNTAIN CANYON

One of the most unique and colorful areas in the entire National Park system is Dinosaur National Monument with its outstanding scientific and scenic interests. The Dinosaur Quarry, six miles north of Jensen, Utah, is world famous for the quantity, variety, and fine degree of preservation of the fossils it has produced. Twenty-three nearly complete skeletons were recovered, representing twelve different species of dinosaurs, most of which were beautifully preserved and as hard as the enclosing rock. The quarry and Split Mountain section nearby are replete with a great variety of material of geologic interest. The dinosaur fossils themselves occur in the Morrison Formation of Upper Jurassic Age and were laid down in an old stream channel one hundred forty million years ago. The quarry represents a sandbar or quiet cove in this ancient stream where the dinosaurs were washed in and lodged in large numbers just as driftwood lodges along sandbars in rivers today.

The history of the quarry began when Professor Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, discovered outcropping fossil bones on August 19, 1909. The excavation of the bones developed the quarry, which was operated by the Carnegie Museum until 1923. In 1923–24 the National Museum, Washington, D.C., and the University of Utah collected material at the site. No fossils have been removed by anyone since 1924.

It has long been the plan to relieve some of the remaining fossil material on the quarry face, leaving it etched out to form a striking exhibit-in-place. Not until national attention was focused on Dinosaur National Monument through the publicity it received as a result of the controversial Echo Park Dam debate were funds made available for the development of the quarry program, which has now become a part of the Park Service Mission 66. This ten-year program for the improvement of National Park Service areas has made several million dollars available for the development of dinosaurs. [On] June 15, 1958, the new Visitor Center and Museum at the quarry opened to the public. The north wall of this unique structure [is] the quarry face itself, upon which are relieved the dinosaur bones, left in place just as nature deposited them. This [is] one of the most striking exhibits to be seen anywhere.

During the operation of the quarry by Professor Douglass, he was plagued by theft of his fossil material and vandalism. In the hope that he would have better control of the fossil deposits, he tried to stake them out as a mining claim. However, he was told by uninformed personnel of the Department of the Interior, in Washington, that fossils were not minerals and that he would not be permitted to stake his claim. Actually, minerals of one kind or another replace most fossils, so they are minerals; but official Washington was not aware of this, and the professor’s petition was denied. As a last resort, he sought to have the quarry set aside as a National Monument and was successful in this when President Woodrow Wilson so proclaimed the eighty acres comprising the quarry area, on October 4, 1915. In 1938 the Monument was enlarged to 204,000 acres to include the scenic canyons of the Green and Yampa rivers. As now constituted three-fourths of Dinosaur National Monument lies in northwestern Colorado, a portion included in what is known as the Canyon Unit.

   

WHO WAS GARNER GODFREY POTTER (from our archives)

Hambleton
During the winter of 1851 and 1852, Madison D. Hambleton and Gardner Potter, left Manti going to Pleasant Creek Canyon to get out lumber for the market. Some shingles were manufactured in 1851, and the lumber produced was used in 1852 to build the first house erected in Allred's Settlement on Canal Creek, later this settlement was known as Spring Town.
In the spring of 1852, under the direction of Madison D. Ham­bleton and Gardner Potter, about half a dozen families proceeded to move northward from Manti, for the purpose of establishing a new colony. Among these settlers were Henry Wilcox, John Lowry Jr., William Davis, Seth Dodge, and John 'Bench. They located on both sides of the stream, just below where Mount Pleasant is now situated, and north of the main road running east and west. The stream, now Pleasant Creek, they named Ham­bleton, and the settlement was given the same name in honor of the leader of the company. Early in March, at the mouth of Pleas­ant Creek Canyon, just below where the Mount Pleasant City Power plant is now located, they erected a saw mill known as the Hambleton and Potter Mill. They commenced cutting timber and sawing lumber for the purpose of building their homes. They cleared the land and began farming about a mile slightly north­west of where the D. & R. G. depot is now located; planting crops on the south side of the creek, near the place where they built their homes. They enclosed some of the land with substantial fences, and raised a fair crop of wheat that year, and at the same time, the Hambleton and Potter Mill was turning out lumber and shingles.


(History of Mt. Pleasant by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf pp 18-19


So who was Gardner Potter?



Gardner Godfrey Potter and his brother William Washington Potter
· 29 May 2014 ·

Gardner Godfrey Potter Born 7 Jul 1811, Fort Ann, Washington, New York Death 14 Mar 1857, Springville, Utah, Utah Father: Thomas Theodore Potter Wealthy Weiler Married Emily Allen 1834 Married Evelina Maria Hinman Dec 1844 Arrived in Utah 20 Sep 1848 in Brigham Young - Along with Hosea Stout Author of History: Helen Potter Severson, 1981 assisted by Gary Boren, a descendant of William Potter, Historical Writer, USU, Logan Utah Article on file with the Daughters of Utah Pioneers History Library, SaltLake City, Utah Source of some information: Diary of Hosea Stout; other sourcesreferred to in the article are: 1825 Census of Washington County, NewYork; Deeds of property 1829 & 1831, Essex County, New York; 1830 Censusof Schroon, Essex, New York; 1830 census of Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio;LDS Journal History; Patriarchal blessing of Gardner Godfrey Potter; Book"The Mormons of Latter-day Saints in the valley of the Great Salt Lake,published 1857, by Captain Gunnison; journal of Albert Carrington; (Comment by Sherrie Chynoweth: This is a well researched document; however, it is unfortunate that all the sources weren't listed. There are some liberties taken by the author to guess what things were like or what probably happened, but these assertions are apparent and the writer made it clear it was not based on evidence. Even though the article is titled "Gardner Godfrey Potter," it is apparent that the writer incorporated all Potter information she uncovered in her research onGardner and his family. Fortunately, there is much information regarding William Washington Potter, Gardner's brother.) Gardner Godfrey Potter, son of Thomas Potter and Wealthy Weiler, was born7 July 1811 at Fort Ann, Washington County, New York. His paternalancestry goes through six generations of Potters in Massachusetts andRhode Island to Coventry, Warwickshare, England where Nathaniel Potterwas born about 1615 and came to America and died in South Kingston,Washington County, Rhode Island, sometime before 1644. Few facts areknown of the Potters in England before Nathaniel. It is known that ThomasPotter was mayor of Coventry in 1622-23. In 1628, Thomas Potter,Alderman, lost an election. In 1822, an avenue of ornamental treesplanted by Thomas Potter was destroyed. In May 22, 1895 there was alegal problem with a house built on the common by Thomas Potter.Numerous Potters were dignitaries in the Church of England. Some livedon New Street. Later generations were in Dartmouth, Bristol,Massachusetts and Joseph, father of Thomas, settled in Fort Ann sometimebefore 1774 where Thomas was born. It is believed that Joseph Potterfought in the Revolution war under Washington, perhaps at Bunker Hill,Dartmouth and Dorchester (where several of his sons-in-law also served.) Thomas Theodore Potter who was born in 1774 in Fort Ann, married WealthyWeiler, daughter of Amos and Marian Weller, first settlers of "Weller'sHill" near Fort Ann in 1799. There were the parents of ten children, allborn at Fort Ann. Thomas is listed in the 1825 census of WashingtonCounty, New York, but sometime between 1825 and 1828, he removed for atime to Essex County where some of his children remained temporarily andmarried. Thomas was deeded property there in 1829 from WilliamStevenson. He is listed in the 1830 census of Schroon, Essex, New York,and deeded property from Peter Smith in 1831. At the south end ofSchroon Lake is a town called Potterville. Thomas is listed in the 1830 census of Parma, Cuyahoga County, Ohio anddied in 1832 in Ingham County, Michigan "en route to visit his daughterwho lived there". [These statements that Thomas was found in New York andOhio in 1830 is problematiccould just be a typo, but will need furtherresearch.] His widow, Wealthy, survived him only two years and died in1834 in Parma, Ohio. Their ten children were born between 1800 and 1819. They were Jane, Joseph, Rebecca, Stephen, Sylvia, Gardner Godfrey,Susan, Betsey, Samuel or Lemuel, and William Washington. All thechildren were born in Fort Ann, Washington County, New York. Fort Annwas established during the war of 1812 from a small Colonial New Englandcommunity called Westfield. Gardner grew up around Fort Ann, attendingschool and working on nearby farms, and hunting in the woods to helpbring food to the table for the large family. He had two older brothers,three elder sisters, two younger brothers and two younger sisters. To the east of Fort Ann was the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west lay theboundary of the wilderness inhabited by unfriendly Indians. Gardner andhis brothers became the products of the frontier at an early age.Sometime between 1825 and 1828, the family migrated to nearby EssexCounty where they set up temporary residence, but remained in touch withrelatives in Washington County. His older brother Stephen remained inWashington County as postmaster and later went to California. Several ofhis sisters remained there and three of them married Whitney boys. Hisyounger brother William married Sarah Ann Whitney, who after the death ofher father and being homeless, was taken in by kindly old father ThomasPotter who claimed her as his own. From Schroon, Essex, New York, the family migrated west. In 1834 or 35they moved to Parma, Cuyahoga, Ohio not far from Kirtland where thehead-quarters of the Latter-Day Saint church had been established in1831. Here in 1834 Gardner married Emily Allen. Joseph Smith hadreceived a revelation instructing the people to build a temple.Accordingly he sent men northward into the forests of Michigan for timberfor the temple. Many skilled tradesmen were needed for this purpose.Gardner's brother, William, a product of the Atlantic Coast wharves,designed and built a boat and several barges, to transport the requiredmaterials from Michigan to Ohio via Lake Erie, where they were depositedon the Cleveland docks and taken to Kirtland. In May 1842, Gardner Godfrey and William Washington Potter were baptizedinto the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, probably in Parma,Cuyohoga, Ohio, and moved to Nauvoo in 1843. It is not known whether anyof the other Potter family joined the church or not. Gardner and Williamhad always been very close and associated together in every endeavor andremained so all their lives. They were both loyal members of the church,were rugged individualists who preferred the frontier, outdoor life.They were brave, daring, fearless, and handsome. Gardner had red hairand a temper to match. He had a love for fine clothes and alwayspresented a good appearance. This fact probably had something to do withhis nickname being "Duff". In Nauvoo, William lived on the banks of theMississippi River and probably pursued his occupation of boat building.Gardner probably occupied himself with stock raising and farming.Gardner's wife Emily having died, he married Evelina Maria HinmanDecember 1844 on the Iowa River, Johnson, Iowa. Gardner Godfrey Potter was a close friend and associate of Hosea Stout,the stalwart Mormon leader and diaryist who was constable of the NauvooLegion in Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. He was later Attorney General ofthe state of Deseret and the Territory of Utah. He was United StatesDistrict Attorney for Utah, and President of the House of the UtahTerritorial Legislature. Gardner himself was a member of the Nauvoo Legion, the largest military body of the time, second only to the United States Army. Since both Gardner and William Potter were murdered in Utahin the 50's and left no written record, we are dependent on the diaries and journals of others and the public records for information about them. Hosea Stout makes several entries about Gardner in his journal. Theywere associated together in Nauvoo, Winter Quarters,, crossed the plainsin the same company and for a while together in Salt Lake. The Journal History also makes a number of references to the Potters. The Potter families endured all the hardships and disruption of theirlives connected with the murder of Joseph Hyrum Smith, and the violenceand destruction perpetrated by the mob, resulting in the Saints being driven from their homes and having to cross the ice on the Mississippi River during the winter of 1846, and struggling across Iowa to Winter Quarters. Brigham Young hired eight or ten good men to go to the Ponca Camp toraise a group for the Indians of the Omaha Nation to keep them away from Winter Quarters that fall. Gardner and his wife Evalina were left at Pawnee on the Ponca River near Winter Quarters. On October 8, 1846, the Potter brothers offered to herd the cattle of members of the Mormon Battalion for $200 [this seems wrong] a head and be responsible for the loss. This was accepted by Brigham Young. On June 3, 1847, Hosea Stoutsent G. G. Potter out in his place to meet some Indians and conduct them into Winter Quarters with fifteen other men, with twelve horsemen and two wagons to meet the pioneers who were returning from the Rocky Mountains,to put them on guard against the Indians, to take them supplies and assist them in case they needed help. Gardner was listed as having one round of shot. On Sunday October 17, 1847, while on the Platte River,four of the men killed a buffalo. When Brother Potter and Glines came up, they said the buffalo was too poor to eat, which they did not believe until they opened him and found that it was so. February 13, 1848, Gardner and his wife, Evalina received their Patriarchal blessings at the Ponca Camp given by Isaac Morley. Among other things Gardner was promised that "he would yet become an instrument in the hands of his God in the gathering of the people to the lands of their inheritance, for thou shalt participate with them when they are crowned in the lands of their inheritance. Let thy heart become stored,thy mind filled with intelligence to the rules and laws of Christ's Kingdom, and remember that thou will be placed in responsible stations,for thou wilt yet have to stand in the defense of truth, and stations that will call forth the energies of thy mind and the faculties of thy soul. Let thy heart be comforted for an enemy will never frighten three,for thee shall have victory over all that oppress three, and the candle of truth. Thou hast a gift to be cultivated and improved that yet neverhas been known to thine own mind." March 13, 1848, a son, Gardner Godfrey, was born and died at Winter Quarters. He is buried in the Mormon Cemetery at Florence, Nebraska andhis name is on the monument there. On June 1, 1848, Gardner and Evelina left the Elkhorn River, Nebraska, with President Young's First Division to cross the plains in 1848. They arrived in Salt Lake 20 September 1848. Gardner's brother William and family had arrived in Salt Lake the year before, having crossed the plains in the Daniel Spencer company with John Taylor, captain of their ten. When a baby boy was born to William and Sarah Ann Whitney Potter August 12, 1847 while crossing the plains,John Taylor asked William to name the child after him as his godson. Sothe third son of William and Sarah was named Elijah John Potter. The Potter brothers settled in the area adjacent to the old fort where Pioneer Park now is. They assisted in the construction of the fort for protection against the hostile Indians. It is said by Cary Boren,Descendant of William Potter, who does research and writes history for the Utah State University in Logan, and recently accompanied Robert Redford on his tour of outlaw trails in the west, that the log house which formerly occupied a place on the temple grounds was occupied by the Potter family. Shortly after their arrival in Utah, the Potters settledin the Sessions settlement, now Bountiful, ten miles north of Salt Lake where a colony of followers of Isaac Morley had grown up around his home. There is a hint that Isaac Morley, affectionately called "Father Morley", and early convert of the church, had converted and baptized the Potter brothers. Anyway, they were close friends who had associated together in Kirtland, Nauvoo and Winter Quarters, and had received patriarchal blessings from him while at the Ponca Camp. This beloved patriarch had a loyal following of about a thousand people including thePotters who pledged to follow him wherever he counseled them to go. On December 24, 1848, there was a meeting of the Council of Fifty at the home of Heber C. Kimball, where Brigham Young nominated John D. Lee and John Pack Captains each to choose one hundred men to carry on a war of extermination against the wolves, wildcats, catamounts, pole cats, minks,bear, panthers, eagles, hawks, owls, crows or ravens and magpies. Each bird or animal was assigned a certain number of points from 1 for a raven to 50 for a bear or panther. The hunt started on Christmas day to thefirst of February. The side winning the least number of points was topay for a dinner for both parties. Gardner Godfrey was one chosen for John D. Lee's side. The time was extended, but it was never decided who was the winner and no dinner was ever had. In 1849, Chief Walker of the Sanpete Utes visited Brigham Young at SaltLake City, and asked the Mormon leader to send a colonization party to Sanpete in central Utah, to take up farms and settle the country. He offered to guide the company and help them to colonize the place.Brigham Young asked Father Morley to lead the company which he readily agreed to do. On November 12, 1849, he lead about fifty families to Sanpete including Gardner and William Potter and their families. Almost immediately the snow began falling and the temperature dropped.The colonists hastily constructed dugouts in the near-by hills. It was the hardest winter ever remembered by the Indians. Newly born babies had to be wrapped in large cowhides to keep warm. Cattle froze to death b ythe hundreds and were devoured by the starving Indians. In the dugouts,sagebrush fires were kept burning and the inadequate ventilation caused the smoke to severely hurt the eyes of the occupants. December 12, men were sent to Salt Lake City to obtain supplies. Theywere able to obtain the supplies, but on the return trip, they weretrapped by heavy snows in the mountains near Salt Creek. An Indian named Tabian (also known as Tabby, Tabinau, or Tabiana) rode into thesettlement and informed Father Morley of the plight of the men. William and Gardner Potter with a group of other men, traveled on snowshoes overthe mountains to rescue the trapped men. During the first winter thousands of rattlesnakes had sought the warm dugouts and as many as 500 were killed in a single night. In Williams'dugout, the family used torches to drive out the snakes and no one was bitten. In the spring of 1850, the men constructed log cabins and the dugoutswere abandoned. Isaac Morley named the settlement Manti, taken from the book of Mormon. A militia was formed and William and Gardner Potter were active members for three years. On the 27th the blow of a horn called the men together, to pursue Indians who had stolen horses from Gardner Potter and others, and a posse of twenty men including the Potter brothers went in pursuit. They returned home March 1st. The record does not say if they were successful or not.On March 7th, a party from Manti went to what is now Mount Pleasant tohelp Gardner and two other men to raise their mill. When the temple wasbeing built in the spring of 1852, the people moved from the foothills to the vicinity of the temple site, as protection from the Indians who werehostile and to work on the temple. Father Morley, who was 72 years old worked 10,314 [this can't possibly be correct probably a typo] days with team and 36 without team, more than any other man. William worked fivedays with team. Gardner was probably busy building his mill at Mount Pleasant as he is not listed as a worker on the temple. Within a few years, he was living in Springville. Chief Walker and his brother, Aropene, had turned out to be a traitorous enemy. He camped near the settlement and paraded through the settlement,wearing dripping scalps from a raiding trip into the Shoshone country. On one occasion Chief Walker demanded that Father Morley give his younges tson to the tribe. Realizing that to refuse would mean death to every settler, he took the child from the arms of its sobbing mother, and handed him to the chief who rode away with him. The settlers gathered together that night and prayed for the return of the child. The next day, Walker returned and delivered the boy back to his father, painted and clothed in buckskin, but unharmed. In Springville [Spring City], the town was besieged by the Indians. Acompany of men came from Provo and the war commenced at Mount Pleasant.Gardner Potter participated in this skirmish in which six Indians were killed. The residents of Mount Pleasant, including Gardner and his family, moved to the fort at Spring City for safety, but the fort was attacked agin. Gardner Potter was sent as an express messenger to Manti for help, and was successful in eluding his pursuers and arrived about 3p.m. in Manti. Drums were sounded, cattle collected and sentries posted at all prominent points and hasty preparations made for sending relief toSpring City. Three wagons were appropriated with twelve yoke of oxen attached to each,and twelve mounted guards including Gardner and William Potter. They arrived at daylight the following day, loaded the women and children in the wagons with most of the men walking behind and at the sides, and they were evacuated and brought safely to the fort in Manti which William had helped to construct the previous season. The grist mill at the mouth ofManti canyon had to be guarded constantly to insure a constant supply of flour to the colonists. The Potter brothers were among the guards until all the grain was ground. When the guard was relinquished, the mill was burned in the winter by the Indians.


Information Found in Family Search https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/7482631

SEVEN URBAN LEGENDS IN UTAH WILL KEEP YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT (from our archives)

 

These 7 Urban Legends in Utah Will Keep You Awake at Night

Utah has some interesting urban legends — some more believable than others.

1) Bear Lake Monster: There’s a scary monster living in Bear Lake.

J. Stephen Conn/flickr

The urban legend of the Bear Lake Monster goes back to at least 1868, when Deseret News reporter Joseph C. Rich ran a series about the serpent-like creature. The series quoted many well-known citizens who all claimed they’d seen the monster. However, in 1888 Mr. Rich admitted that he’d made all the stories up. The legend continues, however. Every so often, someone claims to have seen the Bear Lake creature, which bears a resemblance to the Loch Ness monster in Scotland.

2) Hobbits Live in Sugarhouse: Vicious “hobbits” live in a community of tiny houses on Allen Park Drive in Sugarhouse. The hobbits are magical, evil creatures who worship the devil.

Nuwandalice/flickr

There is indeed such a community of tiny houses but it originally housed birds, not people. Dr. and Mrs. George Allen lived on the property in the 1930s and were bird lovers and collectors. Dr. Allen build many housing structures for his birds, some of which looked like tiny houses. When he needed an influx of cash to fund his bird sanctuary, he added some small human homes to the 8-acre property and rented them out. You may still find some of the houses on the property for rent, but you won’t have hobbits as neighbors.

3) 6-Year-Old Utah Girl Loses Her Hands: Her father punishes her with a hammer, causing both hands to be amputated.

Mr. Granger/Wikimedia

The child was playing, “mechanic” in the garage, pounding on the family’s new car with a hammer. When her furious father caught her, he used the hammer on her, beating her hands until two fingers fell off. The attack did so much muscle, tissue and nerve damage that she had to undergo amputation. Allegedly, the mother refused to press charges, stating that the father was “responsible for discipline in the home”, so the child would be returned to her abusive parents. A Utah reporter received an outraged letter about this “true case” in 1986. A quick call to Primary Children’s Hospital determined that there was no such patient there. While horrific child abuse really does occur, luckily this Utah story was simply based an urban legend that had been circulating across the country.

4) Whale Carcass in Farmington: In December 2014, a farmer found a dead whale in his field.

Robinsegg/flickr

This rumor got started when World News Daily Report, a spoof site similar to The Onion, wrote the story. Someone read it and didn’t realize it was posted on a spoof site, so he/she shared it on social media, where it went viral. People thought it made perfect sense that whales could live in the Great Salt Lake — somehow forgetting that the lake is way too shallow to house such large creatures, let alone feed them. Davis County dispatch received dozens of calls but the Sheriff’s department verified that it simply wasn’t true.

5) The Disneyland Hearse: The old, horse-drawn hearse that sits at the entrance to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was used to transport the body of Brigham Young to his funeral.

P M M/flickr

No one is sure how the urban legend got started but it’s alive and well today. It would be a great addition to Church history, but sadly, it’s not true. The Deseret News spoke to Glen M. Leonard, the director of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Museum of Church History and Art back in 2001. Mr. Leonard said that records show Brigham Young’s body was moved from the Lion House to the Tabernacle on a platform carried by men, as instructed in Young’s will. After the funeral, the same men carried Young’s casket to the cemetery on First Avenue. Other experts have determined that the hearse at Disneyland was manufactured some time in the 1890s — Brigham Young died in 1877.

6) Escalante Petrified Forest: Take home a piece of petrified wood from this state park and you’ll suffer bad luck due to an ancient curse.

Tim Vo/flickr

The state park receives as many as a dozen letters from previous visitors every year, returning petrified wood and telling stories of accidents, lost jobs and other misfortunes. It’s illegal to remove anything from a state park, including pieces of petrified wood. However, there’s no proof that a curse has anything to do with visitors’ misfortune.

7) Provo Teen Cooks Herself in Tanning Bed: Over-tanning leads to the death of a teen who cooked her internal organs.

leyla.a/flickr

The story goes that a 17-year-old girl won a trip to Hawaii, and wanted to get tan before her trip. The tanning parlor told her she could only tan for 30 minutes per day, so she went to seven different parlors to get the tan she wanted in just one afternoon. She ended up at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center — blind, and with her internal organs shutting down — because she had cooked herself in the tanning beds. A woman wrote a letter to Dear Abby about the Provo teen. Abby quickly disproved it with a call to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. A version of this urban legend circulates around the country every so often, but is just a story; it’s never happened.

Do you think any of these legends are true?