Larsen Building Fire ~ February 26, 1954 ~ from the Elva Guyman Collection

SEPTEMBER TOMBSTONES 2010

 These headstones are located in the older part of the cemetery in the south-west quadrant towards the middle road that runs east and west.

I Remember ~ Wasatch ~ April Fools

Saturday, September 25th Was Utah Museum Day

Here in Mt. Pleasant, we had a wonderful time.  We attracted families wanting to know more about Mt. Pleasant History.

Postcards From the Past

Alice Hafen Collection

Female Relief Society March 20, 1876

Meeing held March 20th, 1876.  Opened with singing "Let Zion in her Beauty Shine".  Prayer by Sister Simpson.  Minutes of former meeting read and accepted, also reports of  donations and disbursements. 

Sister Peel who had charge of meeting addressed the Sister and bore a faithful testimony to the truth of the Latter Day Work an rejoiced that she had the privilege of being numbered with the Saints of he Most High.

Sister Simpson also corroborated what the former Sister said and hoped the Sisters would be faithful and diligent in the performance of their duties.

Sister Morrison spoke at some length on the principles of the Gospel and the blessing accruing from a strict observance of those principles and hoped that the Sisters would strive to let their light so shine before others that they see their good deeds might go and do likewise.

The Sisters of  the Visiting Committee gave a good report and all felt desirous to press forward and do right. 

Meeting closed with singing "How Firm A Foundation".  Benediction by Sister Hemmert

MFC Morrison, Pres
Pro Tem, Sec

RED CHERRY SUNSET

These photos were taken on Sunday, September 19th from our back yard in Mt. Pleasant. As many as seven fires were burning around the state of Utah. The most tragic fire was up around Camp Williams, where  machine gun fire set off a fire that destroyed 4 homes and caused thousands in Herriman to be evacuated.

Female Relief Society March 6, 1876

Meeting held March 6th 1876.  Opened with singing  "O Saints Have You Seen On Your Mountain Tops".  Prayer by Sister Hemmit (Hemmert). Minutes of former meeting read and accepted, also reports of donations and disbursements.

Sister Morrison was pleased to meet with the Sisters and glad to see so many present, and that all wanted to unite together and take a lively interest in doing good in every possible way.

Also that the mothers would encourage their daughters to attend their meetings with punctuality that the older sisters might feel encouraged in striving to do them good.

Also that the sisters in going round would remember the emigration (fund) as it was the wish of Sister Young that the people should try and make an effort to help out the poor and the honest in heart, that they might have a chance to show what they could endure for the Gospel's sake. 

Sister Simpson was glad to meet with the sisters and be able to talk of the blessings we receive day to day; we had also great reason for  thankfulness that the servants of the Lord had been sent the everlasting gospel and bring us to the Kingdom, and rejoice in the blessings of the Last Days; prayed that te  Lord would help us to be faithful, that by putting all our mites together it would soon help to bring out the "honest in heart"; that this was the gathering dispensation and i was our duty to help gather them home before the Lord begins to pour out his vials of wrath upon the nations of the earth.

Sister Christensen felt well and hoped that the Lord would give her strength to go around and do all the good she could; she felt to sustain Sister Morrison and her counselor's and all that were placed in authority and prayed that the blessings of the Lord would be upon us Eternally.

Sister Hemmert bore her testimony and felt well and liked to come to Sister Meeting and was desirous to do all the good she could.

Sister Rasmussen also felt well.  She had been round visiting and said that the people generally felt well. 

Sister Peterson said it was now stormy and bad walking and now was the time to test our faith.  She was glad to be here and to e able to do a little every day; that if we do the will of our Father as far as we are able, it will amount to a good deal that the Lord had made manifest His will to us and it was our duty to work therein, if our hearts were right before Him, he would enable us to overcome every difficulty.

Sister Sorensen spoke in Danish.  Sister Johansen also felt well.  Sister Josephson bore her testimony, prayed that the Lord would bless us all in inasmuch as we wanted to serve in humility.  Sister Lovegreen felt glad to be present and thought the sisters would all enjoy a better spirit by attending the meetings.  She hoped the Lord would bless her husband and her children inasmuch as they tried to do His will and keep His commandments. 

Sister Frandsen said she felt it her duty to mingle her testimony with the rest of her sisters.  She had been round visiting and was well received and the people all felt well and was willing to assist in helping the poor.  She said if we could but keep the good spirit, even if we had trials to contend with, the Lord would help and bless us, for He had said He would have a "tried people", and we have no right to expect to be without trials.

Sister Rosenlund felt well and hoped that the people would donate freely to help the poor from the old country.  Sister Fitcher (Fescher) was glad to be present.  She rejoiced in the knowledge she had of the Gospel and thanked God for the blessings which were daily bestowed upon us.  Sister Nabilla (?) bore her testimony in the Danish language and Sister Jensen hoped the Lord would give her the strength to overcome the weakness of her nature; that we might try to do to others as we would like to be done unto.  She knew this was the kindness of God, or she would not have been here; prayed that the Lord would help brother Brigham and give him power over his enemies.

Meeting closed with singing "All Praise to Our Redeeming Lord".  Benediction by Sister Simpson

MFC Morrison, Pres.
Pro tem Secy

Bells of Town ~ Pearl Madsen Olsen

There is a bell,

the high one over the schoolhouse

droning long and lazily

to tell the clocks in town. 

It puts each day to bed at nine o'clock

and often charges air with brisk alarm,

calling anxious men to fight a fire

or seek a straying child -- lost

and sometimes fallen into water.

I am awed by a bell in the steeple

over the meeting-house, and await

it's deep, religious voice

reminding me to worship.

Keeping time like metronomes --

thick and heavy as necks they fall from

are the bell tones drawing near

as cows amble home from pasture,

and fretful trebles of swinging pendants

tinkle higher when bleating ewes

search for wandering lambs.

Bells, bells of my town,

You sound the silence left by time.

Pearl Madsen Olsen

Oldest Pioneer Tells Own Story ~ Aunt Mary Wilcox ~ 1927 Newspaper Article

With the approach of the annual celebration of Pioneer Day by the Pioneer Association of Mt. Pleasant, it seems especially fitting to ask "Aunt Mary" Wilcox as she is affectionately called by everyone in Mt. Pleasant to tell some of the incidents in connection with the perilous trip across the plains and the soul testing first years in the pioneer colony in the Salt Lake Valley.  We will let "Aunt Mary" speak for herself and tell her story in her own words.

"My people lived in Canada north of Lake Ontario.  I was born at Whitbey, June 6, 1831.  Parley P. Pratt brought the gospel to us up in Canada and my people embraced the gospel and emigrated to Missouri in 1836. The persecution of the Mormons was at the height in Missouri then, so our stay there was a short one and in the spring of '39 we were driven out and settled on the Iowa side of the Mississippi.  We were a part of the Nauvoo Settlement.  There were about 15000 persons in the settlement and they stayed there seven years.  In 1839 the prophet and his brother, Hyrum were freed from prison in Missouri, came to Illinois and there they built a temple and built up the colony til there were between 25,000 and 30,000 when they emigrated to the west."

"In 1844 they killed the prophet and then the people that  persecuted the Mormons thought that now the settlement would fall to pieces.  'Now old Joe Smith is dead, they will soon disperse', they said, but when we did not, they started persecuting us harder than ever, and began to threaten. They told us 'You just yet, we have no use for you'.  Then Brigham Young told them 'Hold on, we'll go,' and they all began to prepare to go on a long journey.  At first they just started west in small bands whenever they were ready and reached what they called Winter Quarters.  That was in 1845.  They were strung out for a hundred miles whenever they could find feed for their stock and logs to build their cabins.  I can tell you what these cabins were like.  They had no floors, no windows no doors and no stoves.  We cooked on a fire on the dirt floor and the smoke found its way out through a hole in the roof.  They would bring in the wagon box, put on the bows and top and that was our bedrooms.  We cooked in the iron kettles and spiders we brought with us  but everybody had very little to cook.  The people died by hundreds that terrible winter."

"In the spring of '47 Brigham  Young said that all able to get together a year and a half provisions must follow on.  So we followed on the desolate trail and I drove my own ox team into the Salt Lake Valley.  I was just 17 years old and I drove that team every step of the way to Salt Lake Valley and on, but it was a barren desolate looking place-- just as nature had left it for thousands of years."

"Yes, there was between twenty five and thirty thousand people driven out into the wilderness to live or to die, whichever they could and many of them did die.  Brigham Young led the first company of 143 and they reached Salt Lake on the 24th day of July 1847. The company I came in was led by Apostle John Taylor and when we reached Salt Lake valley, he said, 'Sister Mary, it doesn't stand in the lids of history where a girl of your age has undertaken the responsibility you have on this journey.' I didn't know what he was taking any notion of me, not a bit."

"In crossing the plains we crossed the streams on rafts, but as we got farther west there wasn't a stick or a log to make a raft of and when we came to the Platte we went 400 miles upstream before we found a place we could cross.  That left us with nothing to burn, not even brush, so we had to gather buffalo chips and use to cook our food.  It was a terrible experience but it was a pleasure trip to us compared to what we had been through the nine years of persecution before it.
"I must tell you how we made butter on the way.  'We had four gallon churns and strained the night milk and the morning milk into the churn.  Then the bumping of the wagon during the day churned the mild and in the evening we had fresh butter and buttermilk to make biscuits with."

"Those first years in the Salt Lake Valley we had it bad.  We nearly starved.  We would drink a little milk, eat some wild greens and bit of buttermilk cheese and that was a meal.  We settled south of the city in what is now called the 'Sugarhouse Ward'.  We managed to get in some crop that first year and then the crickets came and ate it all and then the seagulls came and ate the crickets, but we had no more seed and there was nothing to get.  The people who settled north of the city were not visited by the crickets and they got a fair crop.  My husband worked all day grubbing oak for a part of the day and gleaned the stubble ..lds and sometimes got two quarts a day.  Then at night I would boil a little of what I had gathered and grind a little in a hand mill and made read and in this way we lived.  Then in '49 the gold rush to California  began  and we got a little flour and a little bacon from the emigrants  as they passed through."

"The second year we had a fair crop, but we did not understand irrigation and we had a hard time.  We never knew a comfortable meal in three years.  The first potatoes came to Salt Lake by pack animals from California and they were divided among all the people so everybody would have an equal chance, but we got only four potatoes to a family, and  we got a few beans to plant.  Some were discouraged and went to Oregon and California, but the leaders told us 'if you'll stay, we'll guarantee you won't starve to death and you'll live to see this a rich and beautiful valley'."

"We moved to Manti in 1850, but the indians robbed us of everything we had burned our wagons and our cabin and we were forced to go back to the Utah Valley.  We had three little children then.  For ten years we worked at anything we could get to make another start in the world and in 1860 we moved to Mt. Pleasant.  There was nothing but bare sagebrush then.  The early pioneers built a fort, that is, they built their houses one against another with a solid wall to the outside.  The second year those who could began to build houses for themselves, and others stayed in the fort a longer time."

Aunt Mary said she could have talked the rest of the week telling of their many struggles.  At the age of  96, she is clear minded, lively and a most entertaining talker.  She stands at the head of six generations and can count over 500 descendants.  She had four grandsons and three great grandsons in the World War, one of them,  Melvin Patton of Payson, fell on the field of battle.  Here was the first wedding in the new colony.  She married John Henry Wilcox when she was still a girl of 17; William S. Seely performing the ceremony.  She is the mother of eleven children, all of whom grew to manhood and womanhood and raised large families of their own.  Two have passed on to their reward within the past few years and Aunt Mary says she is "ready for the call........",but in the meantime she is taking a deal of pleasure in life and can justly be proud  of the long useful years she has dedicated to the difficult job of  opening up a new land.

Mt. Pleasant Homes ~ Glass Plate Negatives ~ Restored by Chas Hathaway

Three years ago we found a candybox in the attic of the Relic Home filled with glass plate negatives.  They were in pretty rough shape  ~ beyond hope of restoration.  Chas Hathaway came to the Relic Home a few months ago and took one on to restore.  He did such a beautiful job, we asked him to do more.  These photos are just an example of the many he has done for us. 

Now we hope you can help us by

identifying the homes and the people

included in the photographs.

Chas Hathaway: http://chashathaway.com/about-chas

Lee Remembers "Class of '34"

Kathy: My book ”You Knew Me As Buddy” is more or less dedicated to my Hamilton grade school Classmates of 1934; considered by at least two of us to be the “greatest” class in the schools history. And probably by many others because on at least two occasions the class was given the responsibility of enforcing school rules on a large, older group.

When we were third graders the powers that be set up a “kangaroo” court system to enforce playground rules. Charged violators were assembled in a classroom/courtroom where they were tried and sentenced before a judge, who as I remember was a fifth grade teacher. The third graders were to maintain order in the courtroom. This activity lasted about three weeks.

When the "Class of '34" was in eighth grade North Sanpete High School joined the Traffic Patrol bandwagon and started a traffic control program. The "Class of '34" were to be the Enforcers. One of the big goals of the program was to stop the high school students from cutting across State Street at the bridge to the candy store corner. At noon of the first day a squad of us eighth graders with our new flags walked over to the bridge and the NE corner of Main and State to begin this new operation.

I was with two others at the bridge and here comes the noonday stampede of students headed for downtown. Remember, we had one hour for lunch. The Enforcers at the corner never saw a student. The Enforcers at the bridge never stopped one. I don’t know that any of them even asked us what our flags were for, and they never saw them again. The Program lasted just the one day.   .......Lee R. Christensen

Nine North Ward Relief Society Presidents Meet for Picture ~ 1950s?