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Lily Alavi, Professor of Literature at University of Utah, will discuss the heritage of Persian literature with a focus on women authors and poets. A Q&A will follow. 
Join us for a conversation on Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country. Deep Creek is a love letter to the earth, animals, and the best of humanity. By the legendary author of Cowboys are My Weakness, Pam Houston. 
Join us for a conversation and booksigning with Julia Corbett, author of Out of the Woods: Seeing Nature in the Everyday, a book full of wonderful turns and explorations about how our human lives entangle and enmesh with all that nonhuman life surrounding us. 
A panel discussion on the role of women, both as creators and stars, in science fiction in the past and at present, including a look at the rise of women of color in the genre
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Sunday, September 6, 2020
VIRTUAL BOOK FESTIVAL
Saturday, September 5, 2020
Friday, September 4, 2020
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Koyle's Dream Mine
Opposition from the LDS Church[edit]
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In 1913, Mormon apostle and geologist James E. Talmage examined some ore from the Dream Mine and reported to church headquarters that it was worthless.[9] On August 16, 1913, the LDS Church issued a statement entitled "A Warning Voice" directed at Koyle's Dream Mine.[11]:35 The introduction to this statement reads:
Abstract
The Koyle Relief Mine, located near Spanish Fork in Central Utah, has had a profound effect upon the life and property of thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Company officials claim that the number of stockholders, past and present, exceeds six thousand persons.
Despite the sixty-eight years of its totally unsuccessful operation, the mine continues to maintain a countless number of old believers and to attract a considerable array of new ones. Prompted by a type of religious fervor, these people continue to declare the mine divine and its founder, John H. Koyle, inspired. Basing their faith on the claimed dream, visions, and theophanies of Koyle, they await the coming forth of boundless riches from the mine which will be used to benefit not only themselves, but all of the righteous in the last days.
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
VIOLA IVIE SHEPHERD PHOTO ALBUM submitted by Jerry Shepherd
I found more photos that I didn't realize I had in addition to ones I knew that I had but had no idea where I placed them. The one of the five children, Thomas to Leland Shepherd, are the youngest surviving children of Andrew and Rachel Brady Shepherd. I listed them in order of birth, but in the photograph they are posed in a Z shape so start at Thomas, then Ida, then to the middle with Iva, lower left corner is Ira and over to Leland.
The photo of the construction of the high school at Mt Pleasant, I think I know the name but decided not to guess, shows a man at the far top of the photo that has an x drawn on him. That was Viola's brother, Alden Simons.
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| Thomas, Ida, Iva, Ira and Leland Shepherd |
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| Unknown Woman |
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| Mardee, Glen, Vedora Shepherd circa 1908 |
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| George Franklin Martin and his wife, Nancy Jane Shepherd.
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| 1I found more photos that I didn't realize I had in addition to ones I knew that I had but had no idea where I placed them. The one of the five children, Thomas to Leland Shepherd, are the youngest surviving children of Andrew and Rachel Brady Shepherd. I listed them in order of birth, but in the photograph they are posed in a Z shape so start at Thomas, then Ida, then to the middle with Iva, lower left corner is Ira and over to Leland.
The photo of the construction of the high school at Mt Pleasant, I think I know the name but decided not to guess, shows a man at the far top of the photo that has an x drawn on him. That was Viola's brother, Alden Simons.
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| Construction of North Sanpete High School `` |
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| Warren Shepherd and Semeilia Peterson |
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| Unknown |
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Wilcox Family ~~~ Pioneers of the Month ~~~ September 2020 (from our archives and updated)
History Of John Henry Owen Wilcox
History Of John Henry Owen Wilcox
taken from Family Search written by J.O. Meiling
On December 25, 1775, in a little town in Rhode Island, was born Hazard Wilcox. He met and wed Sarah Seeley. In 1824 the resided at Benton, Arkansas, where on 14 Feb. 1824, was born John Henry Owen Wilcox, the youngest and last of a larg family and the subject of this treatise.
Little is known of his early life. Leaving Arkansas the family settled in Missouri, where in 1831 the father died. It was here in Marion County, Missouri that the boy accepted Mormonism. This new religion had aroused such bitter antagonism against its adherents that mob violence was prevalent throughout the Middle west. They lived in Jackson, Clay, and Caldwell counties in Missouri, being driven from place to place with less regard than for so many cattle. On one occasion, Grandfather escaped the wrath of the mob by hiding in a corn field, and another time he was clad in girls clothing to cover his idnentity lest he be taken away by a brother-in-law who was bitterly opposed to his affiliating with the Mormons. He witnessed the transfiguration of Brigham Young when he assumed the likeness of the Prophet Joseph Smith at the time a successor to lead the western trek was being discussed. When it was seen futile to further attempt to maintain the homesteads in the Mississippi valley, and hold their religious convictions, the Mormon converts, in accordance with the advice of the Prophet Joseph, prepared to head west into the unknown Rocky Mountain region. John Henry Owen, with his widowed mother and sister Jane, was among them and early in the summer of 1847, in a slowly moving ox drawn prairie schooner, set out in John Taylor's Company, bound for that unknown, unexplored western wilderness. Jane and Justus Azel Sealey were married 10 March 1842, and were in the same Company. Over the prairie lands, along the North Platte river, up the ridges and valleys, up of the Wasatch Mountains, and down through Emmigration Canyon continued that trek of more than 1000 miles, the like of which is recorded no where else in history. What were the emotions that surged through his being his being when , on September 30, 1847, from a vantage point on the Western Slope of Big Mountain, he gazed over Salt Lake Valley, a cheerless, desolate, uninviting desert wasteland? What did he behold in that panorama to bid him welcome, or to suggest that this is the long sought haven in which to build a home? Somber indeed, was the picture painted by Jim Bridger when he urged the original emigrants not to stop in Salt Lake Valley. Said he, "This is no place for civilized man. Nothing but wild beasts and savages could possibly survive the vigors of the elements and the destitution of this barren land. Nothing can grow and utter starvation will inevitably follow if settlement is attempted." Did Grandfather lament and want to turn back as did the children of Israel? Never. With a burning desire for a home in a land of religious freedom, as the obstacles that beset the way of the o conquer the obstacles that beset the way of the frontiersman, as in the woof there was woven into his being some of the most enduring fabric that ever formed a part of human character.
He first settled in Salt Lake, where on the 14th of March, 1848, he was married to Mary Young, a convert from Ontario, Canada, who also came westward in John Taylor's Company. In 1850, they moved to Manti remaining there until 1853, when they settled at Fort Hamilton, a settlement located some distance west of the present site of Mt. Pleasant. That same year, they moved to Pleasant Grove, Then to North Ogden. In 1860, he came to Mt. Pleasant whare they resided the rest of their lives. He homesteaded 20 acres of land Three miles north of the town and tilled this land for nearly 40 years until he became so feeble he could plow but a quarter of an acre per day.
Grandfather participated in the Walker and the Blackhawk Indian Wars. While residing at Fort Hamilton, he was employed at a sawmill in Pleasant Creek Canyon, where on one occasion he was left as a watchman while the other workmen went to town. In the early evening he heard the words, "go home." He paid no attention to this until the warning was repeated three times then he went home. On returning to camp the next day they found it a smoldering mass of ruin. The Indians had set fire to the lumber, the logs, the wagons and every combustible object, and driven off the cattle. This cost Grandfather his wagon and oxen, but did not deter him in his determination to strive on. He traded all his possessions, including a house and lot for another wagon and yoke of cattle.
Though he went hunting occasionally to augment the family food supply, he had little recreation, his first concern was to supply provisions for a wife and eleven children. His life was filled with toil, trials, hardships, privations, sacrifices and heartaches incident to life in that time. He was ambitious and worked at any form of labor available, including farming, logging, mining, building log and adobe dwellings. At one time he worked at a mine near Austin, Nevada, where he was so severely injured that he was weak for years. He was an expert log hewer, even made lumber by this method. His ability in making ox yokes was widely known and many men came to him for his service. On one occasion he exchanged a large load of poles for 40 pounds of wheat, which he planted on an acre and a quarted of land, and with joyousness they gathered from the threshing floor seventy bushels of grain. He grubbed oak brush for a peck of corn per day and thanked God for the opportunity of earning that 14 pounds of corn to help feed his family. In our day, we hear much about the full dinner pail but Grandfather well remembers the days his dinner bucket contained only a pinch of salt, with which he hoped to season a kettle of segas, thistle stocks, pig weed or other edible plants he might find to cook for his noon day meal. Grandmother Wilcox oft repeated, "As I look back on these agonizing times, I wonder how in the world we ever managed to keep body and soul together. I know, However, that it was through the graciousness of the Good Lord on High, we were able to withstand those terrible ordeals." The Mormons made the desert blossom as the rose, but the first "roses to bloom for grandfather were a few potatoes broduced from seed brought from California on pack animals and sold pour to a customer at 25 cents each.
Grandfather never learned to read or write, yet the feat of turning this sagebrush covered wasteland into fields of bounteous harvests, will be emblanzoned on the history of Utah by these early pioneers. It was not the call of wild, the desire for fame or fortune, or adventure that promted him to abondon his friends and posessions, but the hope of finding a place where he could dwell in peace and safety, unbomolested by a bloodthirsty mob determined to annihilate the converts to this newly-born religion. He had morality, truthfulness, and strict adherence to the golden rule worthy of emulation to the end of time.
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant, ... ... ..."
~~~~~
The following is a handwritten history written by a daughter of Mary and John Henry Wilcox .
Monday, August 31, 2020
Sunday, August 30, 2020
HAMILTON SCHOOL DAYS WITH PAULINE
HAMILTON SCHOOL DAYS WITH PAULINE Pauline M. Rasmussen Mt. Pleasant, The 8 o’clock school bell rings loud and clear with precious memories as I recall my many years at Hamilton School in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
Let me tell you a story about it while there is still time. The school should have rightly been given the name of “Hambleton” because the first settlement in Mt. Pleasant in 1852 was given this name in honor of Madison D. Hambleton, leader of the company, but through some misunderstanding in the spelling it was named Hamilton.
This beautiful three story red brick building was completed in 1896, just in time for me to be enrolled in the beginner’s grade when I was 6 years of age. Our first principal, D.C. Nelson, was an exceptionally fine man. My first teacher was Mary Johansen, a young single girl with unusual ability. We used a slate with a slate pencil for writing and each one of us had our own private little desk with a shelf underneath the top for our reading books and other school supplies. I remember the beautiful stories of the golden rod, and asters in our first primer. Our teacher brought the world of nature right into our classroom with her stories of the clouds and interesting projects.
I will never forget the squirrels in their metal wheel turning around like a Ferris wheel. Reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and penmanship were everyday routine. The girls dressed pretty much the same in our calico dresses and the boys wore blue denim bib overalls. In the winter we wore heavy clothing because we had to walk to school or ride in a wagon. I wore leggings that buttoned around my legs with overshoes buckled over them. After a long walk to school in the snow they would be so wet I would take them off and dry them off on the radiators. In the spring when the snow melted we wore rubbers to keep the sticky mud off our shoes and often times the mud would be so deep it would pull them off.
At recess we had a lot of fun playing games. One of our favorite ball games was “Rounders”, similar to our softball today. The girls usually played together under the sup0ervision of a teacher, but if we were left alone the boys would grab our ball and run. Of course the boys played ball, too, but one of their favorite sports was the “The Giant Stride”. A dozen chains with handles on hung from a large metal pole and they would grab one and run until they could swing way out in the air. It took skill, strength and courage so we girls enjoyed the regular swings better.
One of our very choice pastimes was to “Jump the ditch”. There was a big ditch across the road from the school grounds and in the spring we liked to challenge our friends to see who could jump the widest parts. It took some practice and a little growing up before we could do it without falling in. Nip Cat was another challenging game that everyone liked to try their skill at. We used a piece of wood sharpened on both ends and a stick to hit it with. A circle in the dirt was our target and we got so many points for getting close to the goal. Hopscotch and marbles were always very popular for boys and girls.
We had excellent teachers because they like to teach and wanted us to succeed. If a teacher could not control the class he didn’t last long. Our parents always took the part of the teacher in those days so we didn’t want to tell our parents if we had to be corrected in school for fear of further punishment from them. A few teachers manhandled the boys if they needed it, but we all had a great respect for our teachers.
I graduated from the 8th grade at the age of 14 with a special promotion and then attended the Normal School at Snow Academy in Ephraim for 4 years. North Sanpete High School was started in 1908 on the 3rd floor of the Hamilton School.
My first year of teaching was at Redmond, Utah, but the following year I stayed at home to be of help to my parents and was a substitute teacher at Hamilton.
On 22 March, 1911, I was married to Royal Victor (Dick) Peterson and we lived on a farm at Shumway Springs, southwest of Ephraim. We had 4 children; Eugene, Ray, Ila, and Audrey. We moved to Ephraim when our first child was old enough to start school.
My husband was struck by lightning 17 June, 1918, so after a year and a half I went back to teaching to make a living for my children. I replaced a teacher in Indianola that first year, teaching from January to May in 1920. The following year I started teaching full time again at my dear Hamilton School.
School was about the same then as when I attended except they had added music and art with special teachers for these subjects. We had many operettas and even and elementary school band. Each grade had their own room and teacher unless it was so large it had to be split.
When the school was first built there was an entrance for boys on one side and girls on the other, but later we marched in by grades from both east and west. I was one of the teachers who played the piano (on the second floor) for them as they marched in just like soldiers, never missing a beat or they may get jerked out of line. When John Mower became principal he did away with the marching.
The school bell always rang at 8 a.m. and again at 8:45. A little gong was sounded at 8:55 and if we were not in our seats we were counted tardy. Elmer Johansen was our principal when I started teaching and he was an excellent teacher as well. On March 24, 1922, I woke up to a beautiful morning and was just a little later getting to school than usual because I had been admiring the early signs of spring. As I was coming up the walk by the Library I met Vern Winters and she said, “Oh, our principal and janitor have just been killed by electricity.” The shock of such a tragedy was a terrible blow to the school and whole community. The night before there had been a terrific wind storm and it had knocked a great big limb down over the electric wires that led into the furnace room. The furnace had been moved into the basement of the boys and girls rest rooms because it would get so hot it “scorched” the floors in the school building. This little red brick house was about one fourth block south of the school. A large underground pipe carried the hot water from the boiler to the radiators in each class room. This fateful morning our janitor, Kanute Terkelsen, opened the door at the head of the stairway leading down into the basement and as he turned on the light switch he fell dead and rolled to the bottom of the stairs. Elmer Johansen came to school and found there was no heat so he went to check the furnace and saw Mr. Terkelsen laying on the floor. He immediately ran for Dr. Olaf Sundwall who lived just a block north of the school and he slipped on his robe and ran back to the scene with Elmer. They both reached the light switch, but Elmer knowing where it was, touched it first and fell dead, so Dr. Sundwall knew immediately they had both been electrocuted. Mr. Terkelsen was taken home and they put Mr. Johansen on the couch in the faculty room until his family could be notified. The children gathered around like flies to see what was going on, and Supt. J.W. Anderson told them what had happened and that they were all excused to go home and stay until after the joint funeral. Marjorie Pratt who was the music teacher was the principal for the rest of the year and also took Elmer Johansen’s classes.
The restrooms were later moved to the 2nd floor of the school and a nice kitchen was installed in the little red brick house where nutritious lunches were prepared for the children. ; our first school lunch was a bowl of soup prepared in a room on the 3rd floor by Sadie Allred and Esther Lindberg for one penny a bowl.
Fire drills were held frequently and the building was evacuated in 2-3 minutes. A gong with a metal chain running from the first to the third floor served as a signal. Five gongs in rapid succession meant “FIRE” and everyone knew exactly what to do. The grades on the ground floor marched out with precision and the children on the second and third floors slid down the spiral metal fire escape as fast as they could fly and a teacher was near to assist them if needed.
Mordsen Allred started a band in our school that really made a hit in our community and elsewhere. They were in demand for all celebrations in our county and participated in the 24th of July parade in Salt Lake each year. They looked very colorful in their white pants, blue capes and hats lined with gold.
Max Blain did much to lay a foundation in art for our students in his kind gentle way. Since most of my life was centered around Hamilton School. I cannot help but have many fond memories of students, faculty and incidents. They are all choice experiences of the good things in life and if there were any bad, I have forgotten them.
There were little accidents like the day my son Eugene had a sharpened stick run through his lip when they were playing gladiators at recess. I was reminded of a time I picked up one of my students and kissed her, the observer thinking it impossible for a teacher to love a student that much.
One day I asked my students to write a little story about what they were going to do during their summer vacation. One sweet little girl said,”I want to play school all summer. I have a black board but I don’t have any chalk. I wonder what I will do.” I smiled to myself and saw to it that she got her chalk.
Some of my wonderful teachers were: Mary Johansen, Lydia Hasler, Margaret Reynolds, Fannie Candland, Jennie Jorgensen, Ada Nelson, P.C. Peterson, Daniel Rasmussen, Annie D. Stevens, John O. Lovegren and Joseph Hughes.
Others who were teaching there during these years were: Andre L. Larsen, Voila Whitaker, Ida Larsen, Ida Merz, Sena R. Madsen, Tressa Larsen, Andrea Johansen, Mina Hasler, Addie Anderson, Florence Monsen, Elma Noland, Olaf Anderson, Caroline Lovegren, R. W. Livingston, Alberta Larsen, D.C. Jensen, C.J. Jensen, and P.M. Nielson. Those who were there when I was teaching were: Elmer Johansen, Anders Nelson, John F. Mower, Mable Rasmussen, Ervin Bohne, Vern S. Winters, Tillie Borg, Merrill Sandberg, Helen Larsen, Merlin Christensen, Christie Clark, Ethel Lund, Fawn Madsen, Louise Frandsen, Josephine Peterson, Pearl Jorgensen, Louella Jorgensen, Fontella Langlois, Emeline Kindred, Mildred Knudsen, Deon Allred, Bernice Madsen, Max Blain, O’Leah Wall, Alta Jensen, Loa Allred, Gwen Allred, Betty Wall, Ethel Rasmussen, Edna Jensen, Marie Jensen, Ruby Sorensen, Ellen Carter, Flossie Staker, Lizetta Seely, Very Millet, Loa Bangerter, Beth Larsen, Catherine Fowles, Beth Ericksen, Grace Simpson, Ruth Reynolds, Mae Clemenson, Edith Aldrich, Verl E. Johansen, Helen Bohne, Delma Jorgensen, Claris Stevens, Beth Brinton, Abe Little, Florence Little, Howard Kay Lay, Mardsen Allred, and Fern Jacobs. If any were not mentioned it was not intentional.
I retired in 1956 at the age of 65 after 34 years of teaching. My two lovely daughters died in the prime of their lives, but my sons carried on the Peterson name proudly. I was married to Arthur Rasmussen later in my life so I was called Miss Monsen, Mrs. Peterson, and Mrs. Rasmussen by my many students, but to all those who knew me best I was just Pauline.
Time marches on and a new generation has taken over a new building which was completed in 1962. Hamilton School was truly a landmark of Pioneer industry and a monument of their integrity. The bell was placed in a Monument by the D.U.P. on the lawn of the Pioneer Museum and it still rings loud and clear for special occasions.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Shepherd Family Photos and Some Unknown
Yes, I do have more photos, unfortunately the remainder from my great-grandmother's book we don't know who the people are but they are delightful images. I think some of them are her Dalley relatives. I do not live in Mt. Pleasant, the Jerry Shepherd there I believe is the son of Uncle Levoir Shepherd, a brother to my grandfather.
I have somewhere an old brochure of Mount Pleasant that I found in Salina, I believe it is from the 1940s or 1950s that has interesting images in it, I don't know if you have that or not. I also have a copy of a letter written by John L. Ivie from Mount Pleasant during the Black Hawk War. I am just so slow in finding and archiving things.
Jerry
Unknown Shepherds
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Unknown Image
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Unknown Baby
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Moses Andrew Shepherd
Friday, August 28, 2020
Ivie Photos ~~ Submitted by Jerry Shepherd
The photos from top to bottom are Ida Priscilla Ivie, Funeral card of John L. Ivie, and James Oscar and Annie Ivie, Viola's father, his second wife. John L. Ivie was her grandfather and Ida Priscilla her aunt. Both Ida and Oscar were born in Mt. Pleasant, their father was prominent in the community prior to moving away in 1882.
Ida Priscilla Ivie
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Funeral Card of Col. John L. Ivie
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James Oscar and Annie Ivie
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More Shepherd Family Photos
Coming Tomorrow !
More Shepherd Family Photos
Coming Tomorrow !
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
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