Pioneer Memories As Related by C.W. Anderson ~ from the Johanna Madsen Hafen Collection

C.W. Anderson wrote this as second person version.  The red marks made on the original manuscript changes it to "first person".

In the year 1854 a company of people set sail from Scandinavia.  It took them nine days to cross the North Sea, with their sailing vessel.  This same distance with distance now with steamers can be traveled in less than three days.  On their way to Liverpool they were nearly ship wrecked.  They left Liverpool on Christmas Eve.  That same night they were driven on dry land on the other side of the English Channel (France).  Here they had to wait til the tide came in to carry them off the land.  They found their ship was damaged and had to go back to Liverpool for repairs.  On the way back, when in the middle of the channel, they collided with another ship and almost went down. After arriving at Liverpool, they had to stay at a boarding place for six weeks, waiting for another ship.  It took them nine weeks to go from Liverpool to New Orleans.
They were then driven by the tide as far south as the Isthmus of Panama.

On their trip they buried fourteen people in the ocean.  They were followed three days by pirates, who were at times so close that their faces could be seen.
The people on board got their guns, knives and four cannons on board ready for use, if needed, should an attack be made.  For some reason the pirates changed their minds.

In crossing the Gulf of Mexico there was a man who fell overboard.  When they arrived in New Orleans, the people were having a sale or trade on negroes.  In going up the Mississippi River in a steamer to St. Louis there were five people who fell overboard, but no attention was paid to them.  It took two weeks to make the trip up the river.

At St Louis the cholera broke out among them, and during the two weeks while the went by boat from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth there were a great many that died.

While crossing the plains they saw buffaloes by the thousands.  The pioneers had to corral their cattle at night.  This was done by driving their wagons in a circle with the cattle inside the circle.  Sometimes in the day the buffalo were so thick that they would stampede their teams.  But they were not allowed to shoot them for fear they would fight.

The party reached Salt Lake on the 27th of September 1855.  During the winter of 1855-1856 it was very severe. The snow was three feet deep in Brigham City.  Many of the cattle starved to death, and their meat was all the people had to eat because the grasshoppers had taken their crop.  Therefore, when ever an animal died their meat was eagerly taken.  In the spring and summer about all there was to subsist on was sego roots and thistle stalks. One day mother, by mistake ate a poisonous sego, and results was convulsions and almost death.  They had no bread whatever from Christmas until the 24th of July.  The second year after arriving in Utah, however, was a better one, and they thought the crop was a good one.  It is strange to remember that they had been almost three years before a pig was seen.

One morning, during the first year, the mother and son of this family went out into the fields to look at their wheat and found it frozen.  They had started for home in dismay.  They became very hungry having not had anything to eat all day, and very little for previous days.  They came to a small spring of cold water, but before drinking, they blessed the water, and when they drank it, it satisfied their hunger, so that they were not hungry the rest of the day.

In the early spring of 1859,or March 20th, 1859, this family were among the original pioneers to Mt. Pleasant.  And since that time  have always had plenty and been happy and content.  Up to this time the men were mostly dressed in buckskin, both shirt and pants, and in many instances mostly bare footed.

The first construction in Mt. Pleasant was the fort which was built of rocks located on the block where the old Union Store and Opera House now stands (Madsen's Store) (2013 Recreation Center).  The first adobe house was built first house south of where the Armory Hall now stands (Wheeler's Drive In 2013).  The second house was where Mrs. Wise now lives (?), and the third by Nils Widergreen, on the block now owned by Wasatch Academy.  The adobies were made by John Waldermar.

Sometimes when people didn't have access to a cradle, they pulled the wheat up by the roots with their bare hands, and when this was done, the stacks would be as black as the ground.  The women and the girls always helped in the fields.  The Indians  often caused a great deal of trouble to the pioneers.

Plowing was done with ox teams, sowing by hand, reaping with a cradle, binding of bundles by hand, threshing was done by oxen stepping on the grain, and cleaning was done by the wind.

One particular plow, and that was a good one, was made entirely by wood, with the exception of about 5 percent iron. Iron was very scarce..

At the first celebration in Mt. Pleasant 1860, an oxen was killed and a public dinner was given in the bowery, built just east of the now social hall. A pitch pine arch in  each corner of the bowery furnished light for evening, many dancing barefoot on the dirt floor.  Music was furnished by John Waldemar and James Hansen.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

(The family referred to was the Niels Widergreen Anderson Family)

Mt. Pleasant Fort 1859 ~ Drawn by Thomas W. Woodbury Using Google Earth ~ Layout design by Walter Woodbury

Taken from David R. Gunderson's book "Journey of Faith", pages 45-47.

Building of the Fort Walls On 6 May a letter was received from Brigham Young reminding the settlers of the need to build a fort for their protection and on 13 May 1859, President Ivie called a meeting for the purpose of discussing the building of the fort wall, and as to what methods to pursue. Finally, four men were called to supervise the construction of the wall. Jahu Cox was allotted the north side, Thomas Woolsey Sr. the west side, W. S. Seeley, the south side, and John Tidwell Sr., the east side. The above named captains divided the brethren into four groups, after which they were organized into companies of ten, with a captain over each ten, and work commenced immediately with rapid progress. The following statement is made in Andrew Madsen's Journal: "During the month of June, we were kept very busy in attending to our crops and the building of the large fort wall." 10 July, Apostle George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman visited the settlement to organize the Saints on Pleasant Creek into an ecclesiastical ward. William Stuart Seeley was chosen and ordained Bishop and the name Mount Pleasant Branch was adopted for the colony, giving credit to its pleasant location, beautiful mountains, fields and surroundings”. Work continued on the fort wall until 18 July 1959, when it was completed, and it had the distinction of being the finest fort in Sanpete County. Erick would have worked in building this important structure and lived within it for some time. When Caroline and the family arrived, they all would have lived within the fort for some time.

 Description of the Finished Fort: The fort enclosed the block later known as the Tithing Yard. 26 rods by 26 rods (429’ X 429’), enclosing about five and one-half acres3 of ground, between Main Street and First North, and State Street and First East." "It was made according to instructions and was built of native rock, taken from the surface or dug out of the ground." "It was laid with mud mortar." "The wall was 12 feet high, four feet wide at the bottom, tapering to about two feet at the top. To allow the maneuvers of the Indians to be watched from the fort, the wall was built with port holes every 16 feet. and about seven feet from the ground. The holes were about two feet wide on the inside, about four inches wide on the outside and about 18 inches high." "Later the inside of the wall was utilized for one wall in the erection of houses, 16 feet square, with one port hole in the middle of the outside wall of each house." "There was a flat roofed house in the northwest corner of the fort upon which guards could stand and view the country."

 "There were two large gates, one in the center of the north wall, and one in the center of the south wall, with a small gate adjoining it, giving a thoroughfare in passing. These openings had heavy wooden gates. Small entrances were in the east and in the west walls, which made it convenient, as they were not always obliged to use the same entrance." "The water supply was obtained from Pleasant Creek, which passed almost parallel east and west through the center of the fort. A large bridge was erected over the stream." "All corrals for the cattle were built on the north, just outside the fort, leaving a road-way between." At this time Mount Pleasant was a thriving community of about eight hundred inhabitants, with about 1200 acres of ground under cultivation.

The Settlement (from Nickles From a Sheep's Back by Pearle M. Olsen)

The Mt. Pleasant Fort was similar to the one above, which is Cove Fort.
Mt. Pleasant pioneers did not cut the rocks, they left them whole.

About four months after Mt Pleasant's very beginning (March 1859) it was reported that there were eight hundred inhabitants who were industrious and enterprising.  Already they had 1200 acres planted and crops looke promising.  The foundation for a fort wall had been laid and was 26 rods square, built of stone - - - four feet thick at the base.  The wall, when finished, was to be twelve feet high and two feet wide at the top.

A grist mill and a new saw mill had been erected.  A bowerey, 40 by 60 feet, built of upright cedar posts was covered with large, fresh green boughs and willows.  It was located in the southwest corner of the fort, and became the center of community activities.

Settlers celebrated July holidays that first summer with salutes, and drums beating at daybreak.  After a meeting consisting of singing and prayers, spirited speeches and instrumental music, a meal was served to everyone - - - and dancing began.

People still lived in their wagons and dugouts.  On the 11th of August they began harvesting limited crops consisting of native grasses called wild hay.  Their only means of cutting the grass was with homemade scythes and they raked it with pitchforks someone made from native wood and whatever iron could be obtained.  The simple method was time consuming.  They accomplished the hauling of the hay by using oxen, sometimes pairing one ox and one cow.

After they had harvested the wild hay it was time to harvest the grain crop.  It was also scythed - - - then cradled and raked into bundles - bound and hauled to the yards.  There it was threshed by trampling of oxen - - -or flailed by men with willows and flails.  To separate grain from chaff required a light wind or breeze.  Piled on a canvas and tossed into the air the grain fell into another canvas as the chaff blew away.  The process was repeated several times to thoroughly clean the grain.  Wilhemina ( the author's grandmother) took an active part in the harvesting of crops, as did other girls and women who helped with the raking, binding and gleaning.

Settlers drove oxteams to Manti to gather salertus that was in plentiful supply south of town.  That which was to be used for bread making was carefully gathered with spoons, and the less desirable saleratus that could be used for washing of clothes was scooped up with shovels.

THE FIRST HOUSES

When their harvesting was finished that first year, the settlers began to build houses in the fort and prepare for winter.  Roadways and alleys were marked off and nearly two hundred houses were erected - - - many of them using the rear wall of the fort for the rear wall of the house.  A slant roof and adobe walls were characteristic, but a few were made of logs.  Most houses had one door, two windows, and sod roofs, with dirt floors in all of them.  There were some houses along the alleys and a few of them were built both inside and outside of the fort.  Some men were brave enough to risk Indian attack on their families and decided to live outside the fort.

The fort wall was spaced with portholes every sixteen feet that were seven feet from the ground.  A flat roofed house in the corner provided a platform upon which guards could stand for a good view of possible Indian trouble.  Wide wooden gates centered the north and south walls, and narrower wooden gates were in the east and west walls. 

A huge fireplace in each house was used for night light, also for heat and  cooking.  Pitch pine and cedar wood made excellent fuel.  Matches were unknown so it was important to keep fires burning constantly, banking them well at bedtime.  If a fire died out, live coals were obtained from a neighbor by carrying them in a bucket, shovel or pan.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MT. PLEASANT FORT

July 1859


The following statement is made in Andrew Madsen's Journal:


"During the month of June, we were kept very busy in attending to our crops and the building of the large fort wall." July 10th, Apostle George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman visited the settlement, after giving much good instruction and advice to the people, proceeded to organize the Saints on Pleasant Creek into an ecclesiastical ward. William Stuart Seeley was chosen and ordained Bishop with Harvey Tidwell as first counselor and Peter Yorgen Jensen as second counselor. The office of president was thereby vacated, and Brother James R. Ivie felt very much pleased when released from the responsibility that had been placed upon him, in the establishment of the colony for which he had worked so hard. As it was a very pleasant place in which to live, the name Mount Pleasant Branch was adopted for the colony, giving credit to its pleasant location, beautiful mountains, fields and surroundings.






Work continued on the fort wall until July 18th, when it was completed, and had the distinction of being the finest fort in Sanpete County. Following is the summary of descriptions of the fort, given by Andrew Madsen, Peter Monsen, R. N. Bennett, and Peter Gottfredson. "It enclosed the block later known as the Tithing Yard. 26 rods by 26 rods, enclosing about five and one-half acres of ground, between Main Street and First North, and State Street and First East." "It was made according to instructions and was built of native rock, taken from the surface or dug out of the ground." "It was laid with mud mortar." "The wall was 12 feet high, four feet wide at the bottom, tapering to about two feet at the top.






This wall, in order that the maneuvers of the Indians could be watched from the inside, was built with port holes every 16 feet. about seven feet from the ground. The holes were about two feet wide on the inside, and about four inches on the outside, and about 18 inches high." "Later the inside of the wall was utilized for one wall in the erection of houses, 16 feet square, with one port hole in the middle of the one wall of each house." "There was a flat roofed house in the northwest corner of the fort upon which guards could stand and view the country."






"There were two large gates, one in the center of the north wall, and one in the center of the south wall, with a small gate adjoining it, giving a thoroughfare in passing. These openings had heavy wooden gates. Small entrances were in the east and in the west walls, which made it convenient, as they were not always obliged to use the same entrance." "The water supply was obtained from Pleasant Creek, which passed almost parallel east and west through the center of the fort. A large bridge was erected over the stream." "All corrals for the cattle were built to the north, just outside the fort, leaving a road-way between." At this time Mount Pleasant was a thriving community of about eight hundred inhabitants, with about 1200 acres of ground under cultivation.

"Old Armory" now Recreation Center, Honors Mt. Pleasant Soldiers

The "old armory", now Recreation Center, located on the north east corner of the intersection of State Street and Main was given special treatment by a couple of local artists last summer. Soldiers were painted on the outside walls in a very realistic 3-D effect that actually looks like they have been carved into the exterior wall. On the inside of the building, in the foyer area, the names of all the veterans of Mt. Pleasant are displayed from the Blackhawk War to the present day. Then all along the bottom wall of the building are faux stones which look very realistic and add so much to the aesthetics of the old building.

The Doughboy that once stood in the middle of the intersection, had lost his rifle. Rather, the rifle had been stolen. Now it has been replaced. A number of years ago, the Doughboy was moved to the corner to avoid traffic problems.

A lot of hours were put into the project and a lot of dollars to honor our Mt. Pleasant Veterans.



The grounds around the building have been re landscaped. In 1991 the Daughters of Utah Pioneers placed this marker to mark this corner as the location where the Old Mt. Pleasant Fort once stood. All improvements make for a very nice addition to our city.