JAMES NEIL JORGENSEN ~ Long Time Friend

 

James Neil Jorgensen

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James Neil Jorgensen passed away peacefully at home the morning of September 16th, 2026 in the same valley where he was born, where he lived, and where he left a legacy. Neil was born October 1st, 1935, the second of four children born to Delma Mortensen and James Ray Jorgensen.

Neil was shaped by the land and the people of Sanpete Valley. He grew up on the family farm west of Mt. Pleasant, alongside his brothers, Keith and Robert, His sister, Colleen, and his grandparents. There he learned at an early age the value of hard work, keeping your word, caring for those you love, and never being afraid to begin with very little. At only 14 years old Neil bought his first herd of sheep laying the foundation of the heritage he now leaves behind.

Neil graduated from North Sanpete High School in 1953. He played basketball, was FFA Chapter President, played the saxophone in the band ‘Three Hits and a Miss’, and was awarded the State Farmer Degree. He served an LDS mission in Canada then attended BYU where he began dating the love of his life, Diane Aagard. On July 31st, 1959, they were married for time and all eternity in the Logan, Utah temple.

As newlyweds, there was no honeymoon or easy beginning. They simply went to work, herding their own sheep together across the desert through winter and spring. It was a life they chose and the work they loved and they did it side by side.

That same devotion shaped the way Neil loved his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Everything he did was for family, and family was everything. Neil never withheld his support, steadiness, or the words ‘I love you.’ He was a shepherd and his family his flock. His greatest pride was never found in what he owned or built, but in the people who gathered around him.

As the patriarch of the multigenerational Skyline Sheep Company, Neil was a sheep rancher whose influence stretched far beyond his own ranch. He operated sheep across multiple states, owned a processing and packing company, managed private and public land, and tirelessly advocated for the domestic sheep industry in every way possible. Neil was a Sheepman through and through.

In addition to sheep ranching, Neil had an entrepreneurial spirit, a deep love for the community he called home, and a tender spot for the underdog. Along with Diane, he started and ran the Country Squire store, restored the Main Street North Sanpete High Gymnasium, provided jobs, and generously supported those in need. He found genuine joy and satisfaction in working hard, building his community, and helping others.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Delma and James Ray, brothers, Keith and Robert, and sister, Colleen Morley. He is survived by his beloved wife Diane, their 4 children Jeff, Todd, Lisa and Jenifer and their spouses, 19 grandchildren, and 45 great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Monday, September 21st, 11:00 am at the Mt. Pleasant North Stake Center, 461 N. 300 W. Mt Pleasant, Utah. Viewings will be held Sunday evening, 6:00-8:00 pm and Monday morning, 9:00-10:30 am at the Mt. Pleasant North Stake Center. 

To Watch Funeral Services Live, Click Here. The Live Zoom Link will Activate at 10:45 a.m. MST prior to services. 

EIGHTH GRADE GRADUATING CLASS OF 1914

 

Back Row: James W. Anderson, Leo Sorensen, Croft Larsen, John Glen Matson, Bruce Madsen, Jens Christensen, Aurel Winkler, Clair Olsen, Daniel Rasmussen

2nd Row: Ella Larsen, Hannah Ericksen, Leona Swensen, Manila Norman, Vanessa Seeley, Hazel Poulsen, Ruby Emile Olsen, Alta Stansfield, Nellie Madsen, Eva Erickson, Macy Clemson, Goldie Nielson,

3rd Row: Alice Rowe, Vera Hasler, unknown Swazey, Stella Nielson, Winona Cherry, Marie Olson, Phyllis Morley, Ada Gunderson, Lillis Morley, Vera Poulson 

Bottom Row:  Austin Frandsen, E.N. Larsen, Edward Norman, Montel Winkler, Bert Peterson, Chesley Seeley, 

MILDRED MORLEY SEELY

 

TERREL MORLEY SEELY

 

Terrel Seely

May 15, 1944 — March 13, 2026

Mount Pleasant

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Terrel Morley Seely (81) passed away Friday, March 13th, 2026 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife and family.

Terrel was a husband, father, business owner, traveler, tennis player, golfer, pilot and friend to all those who knew him.

Terrel was born May 15th, 1944 to Ray Edwin Seely and Mildred Morley Seely. He was the youngest of 8 children and was the first of his siblings to be born in a hospital. His older siblings were Cherron Ray, Miriam Adela, Norma, Marlane, Robert Edwin, Marilyn, and SueAnn.

At 6 years old, Terrel contracted Polio and was flown to Salt Lake City Hospital by his doctor. Several years later, Terrel would get his pilot’s license and continue to fly for decades.

He served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand. Later, in 1966, he joined the National Guard and served his country for 7 years.

In 1968, he was attending Brigham Young University in Provo when he met the love of his life, Glenda Westwood. They dated for over 2 years before getting married on August 28th, 1970.

He graduated with a degree in Zoology with plans of becoming a fish and game officer. However, in 1973, an opportunity came up to purchase the Red and White Grocery store in Mt. Pleasant. Terrel, Glenda, and their oldest two children at the time began the family business. Later, he would purchase the Safeway building which became Terrel’s Foodtown. In 1991, he moved the store into its current location and called it Terrel’s Market. He always valued integrity, honesty and genuine care for others in his business ventures.

Serving his community was always important to Terrel. He served as Bishop of the Mt. Pleasant 4th Ward in 1980. He also served as a director and board member of Associated Foods, and Chairman of the Board for the Utah Grocers Association.

He served a second mission with Glenda in 2004 which was split between South Africa’s Area Office, and St. George, UT’s historic sites.

In 2012, he and Glenda were the Grand Marshals of the Hub City Days Parade. They felt so honored by the community they love.

Terrel is survived by his sister Marlane, his wife Glenda, and their 7 children. Robert (Elisa) Seely, Jennifer (Chris) McIff, Joe (Julia) Seely, John (Jordan) Seely, James (Shannon) Seely, Michelle (Vern) Akauola,, and Natalie (Rex) Hansen. They have 24 grandchildren and 2 great-grand children.

Terrel leaves behind a legacy of love for family, faith and community.

The family would like to thank all of the wonderful medical doctors and staff that have helped Terrel over the past several years. Your efforts and compassion have been a blessing and we are very grateful for you.

There will be a viewing the evening of Friday, March 20th, from 6 to 8 PM. This viewing will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located at 461 N 300 W, Mt Pleasant, UT 84647.

Another viewing will be held Saturday, March 21st, from 11AM to 12:30PM at the same church building.

This will be followed by funeral services at 1 PM at that same location. Interment in the Mt. Pleasant City Cemetery. 

To Watch Funeral Services Live, Click Here. The Live Zoom Link will Activate at 12:45 a.m. MST prior to service. 

THE PROPHET MORONI DEDICATED THE SITE OF THE MANTI TEMPLE ~~~Gerald Henrie, Provo, Utah~~~ First Honorable Mention Essay ~~~Saga of the Sanpitch Vol. 2

  Father Isaac Morley and others were trying to decide in the spring of 1850 on a suitable place to recommend to President Brigham Young as a site for a Latter-day Saint Temple, when my great grandmother, Betsy Bradley, and her three-year-old son, Hyrum, saw a personage in white on a white horse mysteriously appear on the hill to the north east of Manti and then just as mysteriously disappear. 

 Others may have seen this same manifestation. Great Grandma Bradley told about this mysterious appearance to everyone who desired to listen and one of the Sagas of the Sanpitch was born:  Everyone said, “This personage dressed in white on the white horse is the same personage that constrained Father Morley to point with a prophetic finger to an eminence rising in the distance and say, “There is the termination of our journey; in close proximity to that hill, God Willing, we will build our city,’ and that person is the Prophet Moroni!  And he wants a Latter-day Saint Temple built on the Manti Stone quarry!” 

The settlers of the Sanpitch had shown how the power of the Lord is manifested to a people and had seen the fruitation of their Saga fulfilled in the summer of 1850 in the words on page 436 of Orson F. Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball”: “One of the Elders laboring in the Manti Temple writes: ‘In an early day when President Young and party were making the location of the settlement here, President Heber C. Kimball, prophesied that the day would come when a temple would be built on this hill.  Some disbelieved and doubted the possibility of even making a settlement here.  Brother Kimball said, “Well, it will be so, and more than that the rock will be quarried from that hill to build it with, and some of the stone from that quarry will be taken to help complete the Salt Lake Temple.” On July 28, 1878, two large stones, weighing respectively 5,600 and 5,020 pounds, were taken from Manti stone quarry, hauled by team to York, the U.C.R.R. terminus then, and shipped to Salt Lake City to be used for tablets in the east and west ends of the salt Lake City Temple.’”

 Why did the General Authorities of the L.D.S. Church and President Brigham Young hold so tenaciously to insisting that a Latter-day Saint Temple be built on the Manti stone quarry if they didn’t have the assurance that the Prophet Moroni had dedicated that site for a temple? 

 This test of President Heber C. Kimball’s prophecy took place June 25, 1875 at a conference held at Ephraim, Utah. Before the above mentioned conference was held in Ephraim, the resident of the city of Ephraim had quarried enough stone that was suitable to build the foundation for a temple and this stone had been taken from the Ephraim stone quarry and  had been deposited on the spot where the Noyes Building of Snow College now stands.  The residents of Ephraim had hoped to have the temple built on the ground where Snow College now stands in the center of Ephraim.  This same stone is at the present time still in good condition in the foundation of the Noyes Building at Snow College.

 Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball” states on page 435, “At the conference held in Ephraim, Sanpete County, June 25, 1875, nearly all the speakers expressed their feelings to have a temple built in Sanpete County, and gave their views as to what point and where to build it, and to show the union that existed, Elder Daniel H. Wells said, ‘Manti,’ George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richard, Lorenzo Young, and A.M. Musser, said, ‘Manti stone quarry.’  I have given the names in the order in which they spoke.  

At 4 p.m. that day, President Brigham Young said, ‘The Temple should be built on Manti stone quarry.’” I testify from what I have read and have had handed down to me through family tradition and otherwise that Brother Warren S. Snow was an honest man and I believe wholeheartedly his following statement.  Whitney’s “Life of Heber C. Kimball” says on page 436, “Early on the morning of April 25, 1877, President Brigham Young asked Brother Warren S. Snow to go with him to Temple hill.  Brother Snow says, ‘We two were alone, President Young took me to the spot where the Temple was to stand.  We went to the southeast corner, and President Young said, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot, and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground.’” I am predicting that the sage of the Prophet Moroni dedicating the site for the Manti Temple is a saga that will live a long time in the hearts and memories of the people who live in Sanpete County or in the Valley of the Sanpitch!

 1. Additional reference to great grandma, Betsy Bradley, (Mentioned in para. 1) can be read on page 60, para. 2, in the book, Descendants of William Henrie, by Manetta Prince Henrie, Chapter Five: Myra Elizabeth Henrie Oldson: Quote:  “Grandma Betsy also told Myra of how she and her three-year-old son, Hyrum, had seen a personage in white, on a white horse, mysteriously appear on the brow of the stone quarry when President Isaac Morley and others were trying to decide on a suitable place to recommend to President Brigham Young for a site for the Latter-day Saint Temple.  It disappeared just as mysteriously.  Everyone said they thought it was the Angel Moroni, but little Hyrum said, “It was the Lord.”

 2. Additional reference to Father Morley pointing a prophetic finger (mentioned in para.2) is mentioned in history of “Early Manti” in the story of Mrs. A.B. Sidwell, “Reminisences of Early Days in Manti,” para 3, para. 2:  Quote:  “On the arrival of the last detachments, Father Morley being among that number, (He having been unavoidably detained) – a council was held relative to the advisability of remaining where they were then encamped.  Father Morley felt constrained to proceed about three miles southward and pointing with a prophetic finger to an eminence rising in the distance, said, ‘There is the termination of our journey; in close proximity to that hill, God willing, we will build our city.’” 

MT. PLEASANT BOOK ~~~ SURROUNDING COMMUNTITIES

MARY LOWRY ~ CHIEF WALKARA'S CHOIC FOR LIFE ~~~ (from our archives)

 

Although there are other photographs claiming to be of Chief Walker,

 this is said to be the only one that is positively documented as him. 

On March 13, 1850, Manti Bishop Isaac Morley baptized Walkara. Membership in the LDS Church, however, did not change Walkara's basic nature. He traded on the membership when it was convenient. His ties to the church, he concluded, entitled him to two things - priesthood "medicine" and a white wife. Several years passed before Walkara and three other Indians were ordained elders in the church priesthood organization.

He was not so successful in obtaining a white wife. At one juncture, he decided that Bishop Lowry's daughter, Mary, was a good choice. He dressed to the nines and went to the Lowry home when he thought Mary would be alone and placed a blanket, some moccasins, a beaded headband and other items on the table, followed by a crude proposal. He offered her furs and cowhides with hoofs and long horns - even a "white man's teepee."

Terrified of antagonizing the chief, Mary blurted that she was promised to another man. The name that came to mind was her brother-in-law, "Judge Peacock," who had married her twin sister. Walkara, according to several accounts, plunged his knife hilt-deep into a table and said he would take the matter to Brigham Young.

Young, in fact, promised Walkara that if Mary "is not already married, you may have her." Young knew what the chief did not - that Mary and her brother-in-law had rushed to Nephi immediately and wed. With polygamy in full sway, it was a logical solution to the problem.


The Walker War ended through an understanding personally negotiated between Young and Walkara during the winter of 1853 and finalized in May 1854 in Levan, near Nephi, Utah. In his contemporary work Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West (1857), photographer and artist Solomon N. Carvalho gives an account of the peace council held between Walkara, other native leaders in central Utah, and Brigham Young. Carvalho took the opportunity to persuade the Indian leader to pose for a portrait, now held by the Thomas Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although immediate hostilities ended, none of the underlying conflicts were resolved. Walkara died in 1855 at Meadow Creek, Utah.

At his funeral, fifteen horses, two wives, and two children were killed and buried along with him.

Quoted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkara#CITEREFBailey1954

Mary Artimesia Lowry Peacock
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Birth:  Mar. 14, 1834 Liberty Clay County Missouri, USA Death:  Apr. 17, 1910 Sterling Sanpete County Utah, USA OBITUARY: The Manti Messenger, Friday 22 April 1910: Death of Mary L. Peacock. Mary Lowry Peacock wife of late Judge George Peacock died in Sterling Sunday after an illness of several weeks, at the home of her son John L. Peacock. She was one of the oldest settlers in that place and was the mother of ten children. She was a sister of John Lowry, a Manti pioneer now a resident of Springville. She was born in Missouri in November 1834 and came to Utah with her parents in 184?. The funeral was held from the Manti Tabernacle Wednesday and a large crowd of friends and relatives attended. Family links:  Parents:   John Lowry (1799 - 1867)   Mary Wilcox Lowry (1802 - 1859)  Spouse:   George Peacock (1822 - 1878)*  Children:   Daniel Movell Peacock (____ - 1895)*   John Lowry Peacock (1855 - 1918)*   George Peacock (1857 - 1909)*   Brigham James Peacock (1858 - 1920)*   Susan Lucretia Peacock Richards (1861 - 1961)*   Clarence Abner Peacock (1864 - 1918)*   Rosabella Peacock (1866 - 1867)*   Ariel Aroldo Peacock (1870 - 1910)*   Delroy Lynn Peacock (1874 - 1933)*   Mary Luella Peacock Tennant (1879 - 1902)*  Siblings:   Sarah C. Lowry Peacock (1820 - 1892)**   James Hazard Lowry (1825 - 1913)*   Hyrum Madison Lowry (1827 - 1847)*   John Lowry (1829 - 1915)*   Abner Lowry (1831 - 1900)*   Susan Lucretia Lowry Petty (1834 - 1859)*   Mary Artimesia Lowry Peacock (1834 - 1910)   George Moroni Lowry (1836 - 1865)*   Sarah Jane Lowry Higgins (1839 - 1875)*   Elizabeth Eunice Lowry (1841 - 1846)*   William Mahonri Lowry (1844 - 1846)*   William Alexander Lowry (1854 - 1854)** *Calculated relationship **Half-sibling Burial: Manti Cemetery Manti Sanpete County Utah, USA Plot: Lot 12 Block 14 Plat B Maintained by: Scott Keele Originally Created by: vaunamri Record added: Mar 18, 2009 Find A Grave Memorial# 34944943	Added by: Cathy Peacock Added by: Dawnetta Cemetery Photo Added by: Beeswax   Photos may be scaled. Click on image for full size. - vaunamri  Added: Apr. 22, 2011

NORTH SANPETE HIGH ~~~ NINTH GRADE~~~ CLASS OF 1962

 

BEGINNING OF THE TURKEY INDUSTRY IN SANPETE COUNTY

 

Denice Blackham Madsen

 

Denice's children from left to right.:

Tom, Paul, Cheryl, David, Chris, and not pictured Jim.

Denice's children from left to right. Tom, Paul, Cheryl, David, Chris and not pictured Jim.