“Her edifice of strength still calms our fears.
She left a lamp to shine through all our years.”1
Mary Thompson, affectionately known as “Indian Mary,” did, indeed, leave a light to shine for those
who knew and loved her in the community of Ephraim where she lived for seventy years.
At the time when Mary was six months old, she and her mother had been captured by a band of
Indians who took them to Spring City. Here they placed the mother and her baby in a wickiup with a guard
stationed to watch them so they wouldn’t escape. During the night the guard fell asleep and Mary’s
mother left her on the ground and escaped. No doubt the mother knew if she stayed that both she and the
baby would be massacred. No one knows if the mother was able to return to her Navajo people in Arizona.
When the Indians discovered that the mother had escaped, they wondered what to do with the
baby. It looked as if they would kill her. It was then that Caroline Thompson Black’s husband, Joseph,
12
offered the Indian a hundred pounds of wheat for the baby. The trade was made and the baby was taken
to Caroline’s father, Peter Peterson Thompson, in Ephraim where she lived until she was grown.
Mary was a “dear member” of the Thompson family and did much to help them in their declining
years. When Mr. Thompson was stricken with cancer she helped care for him in those days, cloth was very
scarce and Mary “patently washed all the bandages that were used in the care of the cruel sores.” After
Peter died, Mary stayed in the home and cared for his wife, Mary Hansen Thompson, exhibiting the same
tenderness she had in caring for Mr. Thompson.
A son, Peter Thompson, also lived in the home at the time his first son was born, his wife died.
Mary took care of the little boy. “Became his slave,” until he, too, died at the age of six with diphtheria.
Mary mourned stoically. For weeks and weeks she kept little food in her stomach, although no one could
tell from outside appearances that she was mourning.
As Peter married again, this time to Marie Peterson, Mary decided to leave and for a time made her
home with the Canute Peterson family and was “much loved” by them.
Later, Mary moved into a small, one room home at 150 East Center Street in Ephraim. Although the
room was crowded with many things, it was always neat and clean. A small, coal stove with four lids stood
on one side of the room. The stove and pipe were always so shiny you could see yourself in them. A bed, a
table, a book case and two chests completed the furnishings. A rack on the back of the door was her
clothes closet. During the early years Mary lived in this home, often Indians would come around begging. She was
very sensitive about this and would pull the shades down and not answer the door when the Indians
knocked.
Mary was extremely independent and would carry water in a bucket from an outside tap and coal
from the pile at the back of her house while walking with crutches. Sometimes, she would let the little
boys, Neal and Knute Peterson and LaVor Taylor, help carry the buckets.
Mary had her one leg amputated at the knee when she was young.
There are several conflicting
stories regarding how this happened. One story states that she was born with a bad leg and developed
tuberculosis in it, which caused the need for amputation. Another tells that she was exploring an
unfinished house as a child in Ephraim and fell the height of the room, splintering the bones so that they
did not heal and had to be removed. A history of Mary says that when Professor Anthony C. Lund, a
grandson of Canute Peterson, went to Provo to study music, Mary was sent to care for him. He rented the
upstairs of a house. There was no railing around the landing. One night Mary stepped off the landing and
fell to the ground, breaking her leg. It was set but would not heal. Finally it had to be amputated.
Even though Mary walked with crutches, she was able to make a living for herself. She became a
dressmaker. She was an excellent seamstress and tailoress. She went to the homes where her services
were needed, charging 50 cents a day. Many homes in Ephraim were blessed with the skill of her hands as
she designed beautiful coats, suits and dresses. May sewed often in the home of P. C. Peterson for the six
children in the family. She made suits and coats for the three boys from clothing the father had worn. The
boys were always proud to wear anything Mary made for them. The clothes never looked “made over” but
were preferred to the boughten suits and coats. At one time she made baseball suits for Neal and Knute
who were about nine and ten years of age. They had professional photographs taken wearing the suits.
In addition to her sewing ability, Mary was also an excellent cook. Her dumpling soup was
unexcelled. Friends remember that she made the “most delicious divinity they had ever tasted.” Whether it was cooking, sewing or playing, Mary was enthusiastic. She was one of the College’s
strongest “boosters.” There was nothing she enjoyed more than attending basketball games at the college.
She had a reserved seat on the front row and was number one in her own private, cheering section. If the
opposing team didn’t behave just right, she would shake the umbrella she carried at them.
Her favorite
phrase was, “O you big fool!”
Evan Ericksen and Rulon Peterson were two players on the Snow College team. She was very fond
of Rulon and became extremely jealous when he courted and married Maxine Justesen. As the couple
invited Mary to their home for dinners, she grew to love Maxine as much as she did Rulon. They became
dear friends.
Mary liked baseball and all types of sports. She enjoyed pictures shows. On Saturday afternoon,
she and Knute Peterson, a son of P.C. Peterson, “whom she loved as though he were her own,” went to the
afternoon matinees at the local theater. The films were mostly Western with many incidents concerning
Indians. Mary asked Knute’s mother not to tell him she was an Indian until after her death. When Mary
died, Knute was about 12 years of age and did not know, until she was lying in her casket at the home of
Jennie Johnson, that Mary was an Indian. This made no difference in his love for her and he would go often
to the cemetery and care for her grave.
In her later years, Mary used to enjoy standing by her curved, wooden picket fence to greet the
people who passed by. Whether it was an adult or a child, she enjoyed visiting with him and made many
friends through her warm, cheerful personality.
A tribute to Mary from Ethelyn Peterson Taylor has this to say of her:
“When I read in the Book of Mormon about the Lamanites becoming a white and delightsome
people, I think of Mary. She is proof to me. Her skin was no darker than my olive complexion. She was a
distinctive looking, aristocratic lady. My recollections of her were that she always wore a long, black skirt
with beautiful blouses and a large, elegant, black hat with satin ribbon and hat pins. Although on crutches,
she was regal in bearing, always a perfect lady. She was kind, generous and selfless.
Mary was an
impressive example of thrift and taking care of one’s self. Through the years she saved enough money to
pay for her burial expenses. She never knew she was ‘deprived.’ Mary was a noble, unselfish, intelligent,
independent and beautiful character. I shall never forget her.”
Mary Thompson was born in 1860 and died in 1930. She is buried in the Ephraim Park Cemetery
where many of her friends place flowers on her grave each May time.
Indian Mary is a legend of one of Ephraim’s ‘best loved’ citizens. Her life was “one of service and
devotion to those who had befriended her.”
Sources: Saga of the Sanpitch, Maxine R. Jennings, “A Lamp to Shine”.
Jennie T. Johnson and Ethel Thompson Lewis history, “Indian Mary”.
Personal recollections of: Ethelyn P. Taylor, LaVor Taylor, Lucille Peterson, Grace Johnson, Rulon Peterson, Olive Thorpe,
Ruth T. Langston, and Chauncey Thompson.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Photos Taken At Mt. Pleasant Cemetery On Memorial Day
Just a random selection of photos ~ Some are friends, some relatives, some very significant to Mt. Pleasant History
 |
| Clark Truscott, a lifelong friend of Peter Hafen |
 |
| Mrs. Clitheroe ~ A friend of My Mother's |
 |
| Alice and Niel Hafen (Peter and "our kids") |
 |
| Oscar Anderson |
 |
| Jack and Parline Shepherd Peter puts an arrow this grave site in memory of many bow hunting trips. |
 |
| Orlin and Veone Simons, Our Daughter-in-law's relatives |
 |
| Annie Lizzie Buchanan |
 |
| Annie Theresa Peel |
 |
| Peter Madsen Peel and wife Christine Folkman Peel Peter memorializes with a blacksmith crafted cattail. Peter M. Peel, First Mt. Pleasant Blacksmith |
 |
| Hilda Madsen Longsdorf Author of Mt. Pleasant History |
Monday, June 19, 2017
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Friday, June 16, 2017
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Grace Johnson~~~ Author “Moromon Miracle”
On July 23rd of 1967, a small crowd of about 2,000 people sat quietly chatting together in the early evening in the grandstands of the Sanpete County fairgrounds in Manti, Utah, and listened as rain fell on the metal roof above them. Two angry dark storm centers wheeled together overhead, and occasional flashes of lightning were answered with the sharp cracking and rolling of thunder. In the arena where broncos and bulls were ridden at fair time, the soft earth had been set with transplanted sagebrush, a grove of trees, and a wooden platform which served as a stage. The pioneer movement was represented by one handcart. Two Book of Mormon prophets, Mormon and Moroni, were seen on Temple Hill across the fences to the east, portrayed as a mortal on the west slope by Larry Stable, and as an angel on the temple annex by LeGrand Olson. Doug Barton had hung 100 watt light globes in gallon cans on steel posts to light the hill. Trees east of the fairgrounds had been trimmed to make the temple hill visible to the audience.One lone woman sat apart from the audience, oblivious to threatening storm, but reluctant to take shelter in the grandstand. When encouraged to come up into the protected seats she commented that this first night of the pageant was very crucial. ‘ ‘If it doesn’t go tonight,it will never go.” She chose to sit by herself in the rain.That woman was Grace Johnson. And although she felt that the initial presentation was vitally important, she could never have known the scope and grandeur that would come to the pageant, or the impact that it would have on the lives of people world-wide.
Miss Johnson wrote other books and plays. She had planned to spend her retirement years in writing, but with the request that her Mormon Miracle be prepared to be presented in 1967, she decided to put her writing away for just one year. That year extended into seventeen years, as she gave of her unique talents to help with the pageant.
Grace received dramatic instruction at the University of Utah and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and was a member of the Broadway Dramatists Guild and the International Platform Association for many years. She died in 1984.
Grace received dramatic instruction at the University of Utah and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and was a member of the Broadway Dramatists Guild and the International Platform Association for many years. She died in 1984.
courtesy of: http://mantipageant.org/history/grace-johnson
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
The History Of Flag Day
by Duane Streufert,
Questions or comments welcome! Established on 20 November 1994. Last Updated 10 February 2005. Web Design and Development by Visionary Enterprises |
Monday, June 12, 2017
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Hyrum and Rozetta Hafen Bramstead
 |
| Hyrum and Rozetta Bramstead Virgil and Katie  |
The above is taken from the Hafen Family History page 209
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)