Mt.: Pyramid

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Saturday, May 23, 2026

ERICKSEN MEAT AND GROCERY CHANGES HANDS

Sgt. Alfred J. Berti, Marries Naomi Ericksen.

Al was born Feb. 21, 1922 in Wishaw, PA to Enrico Berti and Josephine Messina. He served his country during World War II in the US Army.

He married Naomi Ericksen, on Aug. 10, 1945, and they moved to Niagara Falls, NY where he worked in bridge and pier construction on the Niagara River.

In 1950, they moved to Mt. Pleasant, UT where he became owner and operator of Ericksen Meat and Grocery. For many years it was a favorite gathering place for many Mt. Pleasant residents, who enjoyed the warm atmosphere, and a sense of humor.

He later was employed as a supervisor of the turkey processing plant in Moroni, UT.

Al was a true example of the perfect gentleman. He was a loving caring husband and father, who will be dearly missed. The family wishes to express their deep gratitude to Dr. LeGrand Belnap, the 4 West nursing staff at St. Mark's Hospital; and the love and kindness shown by the staff at Care Source.

Funeral services were held in his honor on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004, at 11:00 a.m. in the Mt. Pleasant 4th Ward Chapel (55 S. State).

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Naomi Ericksen Berti
Birth: 14 September 1925Mount Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah, United States

Death: 10 July 2008 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

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RED AND WHITE STORE

Henry Ericksen

Naomi's Grandfather Henry Ericksen:

In about 1885, Grandpa Ericksen (Henry Ericksen) and his brother Allif started a meat and grocery store in Mt. Pleasant. Grandpa managed the store while Alif ran the farm and livestock; buying, feeding, and slaughtering for the store. They would notify the townspeople that on a certain day they were going to kill a beef in the evening and bring it to the store the next morning so that people could get a "hunk" of meat.

There were steaks, roasts, boils, stews or hamburger - just a chunk of meat. They would start cutting just the back of the ears and end at the hind shank. all the cuts sold for the same price per pound; whether it was the neck or the porterhouse. Then, to carry it home, the customer whittled a sharp stick, jabbed it in the piece of meat, and went home to mama, to have it prepared for the family dinner. There was no paper, twine or plastic to wrap the piece of meat in.

In 1893, they built their store on Main Street and took in another partner; brother-in-law, Judge Ferdinand Ericksen. The store was incorporated as the Ericksen Meat and Grocery Co. Their store was in a two-story brick building with a full basement. It was considered one of the finest institutions in the community.

Ferdinand Ericksen was a lawyer and occupied three rooms on the second floor for his law practice. The town doctor, Dr. W.W. Woodring, occupied the other two rooms on the second floor.

In 1920, Soren M. Nielson and Uncle Harry, Henry's son, bought the store. Then in 1925, Uncle Harry, bought Nielson's half interest and owned and managed the business alone. Uncle Harry put in about forty-five years operating the store. They did their own slaughtering and feed their own livestock such as hogs, lambs, and cattle. Before the meatpackers came into the state, they shipped out daily loads of dressed meat to Salt Lake City, Bingham, Eureka, and also Carbon County.

During those first twenty years of operation, they started to make their own lunch meats, bologna, minced ham, corned beef, head cheese, hamburger and sausage. But when the big packers came into the state that phase of manufacturing was discontinued. Until 1925 they handled the livestock with a first-class saddle horse. After that, motor trucks and trailers were used to move the livestock between range, feedlot, and slaughterhouse.

Ice was used in the store coolers until 1915 when modern refrigeration was installed. Before that, ice blocks were stored in the ice house under sawdust and used to refill the store's ice about once a week. With the advent of electric home refrigerators, the store discontinued using its own ice supply.

After Uncle Harry sold the store, there has been several companies using the Main Street building, including Al and Naomi Berti's Red and White store, Terrel's Red and White Store.
The Ericksen Meat and Grocery Co. had a lot of competitors come and go, but operated for over sixty-two years. And since 1986 it has been the home of the Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, the local newspaper. And now is the Gun Shop.

Monday, June 9, 2025

NEWSPAPERS OF SANPETE COUNTY

Saga of the Sanpitch 1980

NEWSPAPERS OF SANPETE COUNTY

Eleanor P. Madsen

Ephraim, Utah

Professional Division

First Place Historical Essay

“When the last editorial is written

And the ink is smoothly dried;

When the papers have been folded

And addressed and wrapped and tied;

When these two who stood together,

Though days were dull or bright,

Will have closed the office door at last

For the long, eternal night;

May the thoughts and words and phrases

Of the things they dared to say

Be their unquestioned ‘press card’

In that land of endless day.” 1

This poem might well be a eulogy to all the editors of early Sanpete newspapers. We picture two
toiling together with laborious hand methods, the only available tools in those early days before the turn of
the century, when every letter was set separately, all the inking done by hand, and the press operated by hand
or foot power.

The old print shops are now forgotten as newer and faster methods have replaced the archaic one.
Even the Linotype is now becoming obsolete as more modern, electric machinery performs many tasks with
minimum effort for the editor and his staff.
Survey after survey has proven that no other medium is so thoroughly read or listened to as the
hometown paper. Indeed, since April 24, 1885, when the Home Sentinel, the first newspaper published in
Manti by James T. Jakeman, 2
residents have eagerly scanned local publications for personal and social items,
odd bits of national and state happenings, and other copyrighted material. Three items taken from the first
editions have a bit of humor for the reader today.
“Salt Lakers are having strawberries and cream and our Manti, more rain.”
Ft. Green Items: “The stores of this burg are paying 6 cents per dozen for eggs and 42 cents per bushel
for wheat.”

“Wide brimmed hats are very fine as substitutes for umbrellas in the sun’ but people do say they are
out of place on the front seats of the theatre. He (she) whom the coat fits let him put it on.
Within five years two other local papers appeared. In June, 1890-, James T. Jakeman issued the County
Register in Ephraim 4, and in November, 1890, A.B. Williams and J.M. Boyden published the Mt. Pleasant
Pyramid. 5.in 1891 the Ephraim plant was purchased by M. F. Murray and Company. The name was changed to the Enterprise 6
by which it was known through the management of ten editors, Ward Stephensen, John
Christiansen, Fred Jorgensen, W.E. Thorpe, Oscar Neilsen, a. E. Britsch, Nephi Christensen, Curtis Mitchelson
and Roscoe C. Cox. 7 Mr. Cox began publication in 1925 and was editor and manager for 35 years, the longest
period for any of the publishers. 8

The plant was located first in a building at 30 East Center Street. It was
later moved to the basement of the Ephraim Bank building and then to 56 North Main (Roscoe Cox Home).
The Mt. Pleasant Pyramid was purchased from Mr. Williams and Mr. Boyden by Burke McArthur in
1911. Mr. McArthur bought the first Linotype machine in Sanpete County, and continued to make
improvements in the plant until it was modernized throughout. About this same time, he also purchased a
permanent home for the paper, the building which it now occupies. 9

“The price of the local paper was combined with the needs of those concerned in Sanpete; it was
printed in kind; in terms of so much hay, so many potatoes or so many cords of firewood.” 10 Rates of
subscription listed in the Mt. Pleasant Pyramid Friday morning December 29, 1912, were: one year - $1.50; six
months - $.75; three months - $.50.
Editorials played an important role in the early newspapers, serving to arouse interest and to motivate
the people to action on local issues. They also helped shape policies and form public opinion on vital matters,
proving that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword.”
Mt. pleasant also had a small newspaper called The Call, which was edited and published by Christian
N. Lund, Jr., in a plant on the south side of the street at about 270 West Main. Mr. Lund operated his plant
first in Salina, then in Mt. Pleasant for a total of about ten years before moving to Salt Lake City, where he
continued in the newspaper business with a paper entitled The Progressive Opinion, which maintained a
circulation in Sanpete County for many years.

The Home Sentinel in Manti with J. T. Jakeman, Manager, and Dan Harrington, Editor, was re-named
The Sentinel in 1890 when H. H. Felt leased it. On October 13, 1893, under lease to Joel Shomaker, the paper
acquired the title of the Manti Messenger, which has continued since that time. 11 Other publishers to the
year 1929 year were J. L. Ewing, Peter A. Poulson, M.A. Boyden and S. Peter Peterson. 12
An item from the January 26, 1894, issue of the Messenger gives an insight into law enforcement in the
city.

“Sleigh riding has been the order of the day for some time. Some of the boys were a little too fast to
be within the limits of the city ordinances last Sunday and as a result were fined on dollar each.”
A rival paper in Manti, the Sanpete Democrat, was first issued in June, 1898, 13 and in 1902 was known
as the Sanpete Free Press with L. A. Lauber, publisher. It sold for $1.00 per year. 14 A local item in the January
7, 1902, edition reads as follows: “The rabbit hunt on Monday between Manti and Ephraim resulted in favor of
Ephraim by a score of 186 to 155….”
In the south end of the county, the Gunnison Valley News recorded this item:
“The great event came when a man named Camp came with a press and started a local weekly, which
he called the Gunnison Gazette. It was housed in a little building that stood on the north side of Center street
next to the school lot. After a short while, in 1909, he sold it to Nephi Gledhill. It was an old Washington hand
press. It took the family to get the paper out. The children would go after school and set type. When the
bank building was finished it was moved into that basement.”1513
In 1919 the paper was transferred to Howard W. Cherry, who modernized its operations and changed
the name to Gunnison Valley News. Subscription rates were $2.00 a year and $1.00 for six months. 16

Many
issues of the paper that year carried items of soldiers returning from World War I. the paper for July 4, 1919,
gave a detailed announcement of a patriotic program followed by foot, auto and horse races, boxing, baseball
and dancing, saluting the soldiers with the greeting: “Welcome, Soldier boys, the town is yours. Let’er bust.”
Prior to the editions of the local papers in the various communities in the County, the readers of early
news were able to obtain the Daily Deseret Evening News, which began as a weekly journal in 1867. “It
contained a variety of material, including speeches, lectures on scientific subjects, messages from church
heads, legal notices, local news, messages from the settlements reporting their progress, etc. It was always
part of the settlement. It gave the people a sense of contact with the world, a basis for comparing their lives
with that of other settlers and made them feel part of a large and important body. Everybody read the
News.”17 In this News, September 22, 1883, there appeared “more than two columns of the full size
newspaper, the names of all the stake presidencies and ward bishops for all the organized stakes of the
church.”

The Salt Lake Weekly Herald (Tribune) also found ready circulation in Sanpete County, 18
In listing early day publications, the Snowdrift, with Roscoe C. Cox as its first editor, provided
happenings and literary contributions from students at the College as well as being a media for training and
developing of talents in the news field.

The local papers were a powerful force in uniting the thoughts and actions of the people in the
communities. In giving due credit to the editors and publishers of Sanpete newspapers in the 44 years from
1885 to 1929, we are aware that they put the good of the people before their personal gain. First and
foremost was their love of the work, hearts that felt and understood the pulse of the community, men who
dared crusade for a better world, sometimes unappreciated, sometimes misunderstood, but never ceasing
their efforts for the printed page until that final copy was edited. These hands that set the type, turned the
presses and folded the papers will not be forgotten. Their words will echo and re-echo from the yellowed,
brittle pages, reminding us of conflict, tragedy, of joy and faith and hope, of life, as it was in our Sanpete
towns through these years.
Sources: 1
Christie Lund Coles, “To Mother and Dad”, Newspaper clipping.
2
These Our Fathers, p. 36
3
Snow College Film Library, Home Sentinel, 1885.
4 W. H. Lever, History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, p. 287.
5
These Our Fathers, p. 103.
6 W. H. Lever, p. 287.
7
These Our Fathers, p. 86.
8
Armanda Cox, Personal information.
9
These Our Fathers, p. 103.
10 Albert Antrei, “The Salty Old Press of Sanpete County”, Enterprise, 1979.
11 Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, December 29, 1912.
12 Antrei.
13 Song of a Century, p. 123.
14 W. H. Lever.
15 Sone of a Century, p. 123.
14 W. H. Lever.
15 Snow College Film Library, Sanpete Free Press, January 7, 1902.14
16 These Our Fathers, pp. 156-157.
17 Snow College Film Library, Gunnison Valley News, May 2, 1919.
18 These Our Fathers, pp. 156-157.
LAND OWNERSHIP IN EARLY FAIRVIEW

Friday, September 27, 2024

PHOTOS FROM OUR ARCHIVES

Hamilton Elementary

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James Jensen Wines and Liquors

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Lundberg Block

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Main Street Looking East

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Sanpete County Coop
(the gentile store)
In 1866, Mormons were ordered not to buy at Gentile stores.
By 1868, signs printed with "Holiness to the Lord" above a drawing of an All-Seeing Eye were hung over the front doors of all Mormon businesses, "

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Safeway Store on the North Side Of Main Street

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Hi,

My name is Lois Elkington.

I am the great-granddaughter of Justus Moore (JM) Boyden and; Elenora (Elinora, Nora, etc.) Jorgensen.

My grandmother Helen Elizabeth Boyden Elkington was born in Mt. Pleasant, Utah and collected three photo albums.

I have scanned her albums and other photos she obtained.

I would love to share with your terrific museum these family treasures.

Attached I have included a family tree for your reference.

Justus Moore (JM) Boyden had a brother Moses Alphonzo (MA)Boyden who assisted him at the Pyramid newspaper.

He also worked for the railroad and ran a newspaper in Manti before moving to the state of Washington where he became the publisher of the newspaper there.

MA Boyden married Hannah Lena Madsen who was born in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.

I have attached the following:

1) Family of George Washington Boyden - father of Justus Moore and Moses Alphonzo Boyden.

Both sons moved to Utah and lived in Mt. Pleasant, married girls from Mt. Pleasant.

2) Information about MA Boyden found in the newspaper at his death.

Majority of the information here was obtained through the Indian Valley Museum in Taylorsville, California.

http://www.indianvalley.net/iv-museum/

from Bob Crawford a 3rd cousin I located through Ancestry.com

I discovered a book (Vol. I) in the basement of my grandmother's house after she passed.

I kept wondering where Volumes I and II were.

Then started thumbing through and after looking up Elkington and other names, I checked Boyden.

Bingo, there was my great-great-grandfather Justus Moore Boyden.

Attached, you will find scanned pages from that book:

UTAH - A Centennial History

Personal & Family History

Volume III

Lewis Historical Publishing Company Inc.

New York

1949

I have also attached his obituary that I discovered this summer (2014).

Lois Elkington

Newspapers.com

The Salt Lake Tribune 11 October 1958 - page 48

Heart Ailment takes life of Ex-Teacher, Mayor

Justus Moore (J.M.) Boyden

SANDY—Justus Moore Boyden, 89, 16 W. 1st North, former Sandy mayor and former music supervisor of the Jordan School District, d i e d Thursday at 9:45 p.m. in a Salt Lake hospital of congestive heart failure. Mr. B o y d e n was also one of the founders of the Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, editor and publisher for more than 20 years, and was Mt. Pleasant city recorder six years. He organized the Utah National Guard Band as a lieutenant, and was conductor of it for a number of years.

PROMINENT in the Republican Party, he was former chairman of the Sandy city voting district and chairman of the 18th legislative district, and secretary of the party in Mt. Pleasant for several years.

Born Dec. 4, 1868, in Indian Valley, Plumas County, Calif., he was a son of George W. and Marie Price Boyden. He married Nora Jorgensen, of Mt. Pleasant in 1892. She died in 1937. He married Pearl Wilson in 1950 in the Salt Lake Temple, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 1912 he sold the Pyramid and became a music instructor at North Sanpete High School, Mt. Pleasant. He also served on the board of education there for three years.

The year the Republican Party was organized in Utah, he traveled through the southern part of the state with Frank J. Cannon, Reed Smoot and George Sutherland, later U.S. senators from Utah, and Heber M. Wells, later Utah governor.

He retired as Jordan District music supervisor in 1937, was elected a member of the Jordan Board of Education in 1939, and served two terms. In 1947 he wins elected Sandy mayor. He served through 1949.

Surviving are his widow; one son and one daughter, George P. Boyden, Colorado. Springs, Colo.; Mrs. Helen B. Elkington, Sandy; five- grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren and three sisters in California.

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Salt Lake Tribune – 12 October 1958 page 111

Service Monday For One-Time Chief of Sandy

Special to The Tribune

SANDY — Funeral services for Justus Moore Boyden, 89, 16 W. 1st North, will be conducted Monday at 11 a.m. at 8090 S. State.

Mr. Boyden was former Sandy mayor and music supervisor of the Jordan School District. He died Thursday at 9:45 p.m. in a Salt Lake hospital of congestive heart failure.

Friends may call at the place of services Sunday from 6 to p.m. and Monday prior to services.

Burial will be in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.