The History Blazer, January 1995 by Utah Historical Society

;\'EII'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROi\l THE

Lrtah State Historical Societ~

Salt Lake Cits. I'T 84101

300 Rio Grande

(801) 333-3500

FAX (801) 533-3303

January 1995 Blazer Contents The Nation's First Statewide Clean Town Contest

Early Baseball in Utah Had a Monnon-Gentile Twist Woman Suffrage Dominated Politics in Utah The Salt Lake City Street Railroad Strike of 1890 Utah's Own John Gilbert Thrilled Silent Movie Fans The Telephone Comes to Utah

The "Impossible" Humcane Canal Took 11 Years to Complete Chief Ouray Hoped to Achieve Peace with White People When the Din of Sheep Shearing Rocked the Desert A Wedding Song Connects Utah with 16th-Century Spain The Scofield Mine Disaster in 1900 Was Utah's Worst

19th-Century Utah Women Spun Yarn and Also Dug Ditches "Uncle Nick" Wilson's Adventures Filled a Book! Dixie Fruit Finds a Market The Pony Express Added a Colorful Chapter in Utah History Convict Labor Helped to Build Utah's Roads The Beginnings of the University of Utah A Boxcar Filled with Dynamite Explodes near the City

The 1918-19 Flu Epidemic Reached Remote Areas of Utah

A Utahn, George Sutherland, Served on the U.S. Supreme Court

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The Nation's First Statewide Clean Town Contest

IN 1914 UTAH

REPORTEDLY EARNED THE DISTINCTION of

conducting the first statewide clean town contest ever held in the United States. The Utah Development League and the State Board of Health jointly promoted the contest in an effort to improve sanitary conditions throughout the state. Rules and scoring procedures were made available early in the year and the response proved enthusiastic. A total of fifty-three towns entered. From Tremonton and Garland in the north to Washington and St. George in the south, civic-minded residents, generally under the direction of local commercial clubs, began efforts to beautify their yards and gardens as well as to improve public services and facilities. In Manti townsfolk removed a reported 300 loads of stones from city streets in a single day. In Hurricane a general committee from various civic groups supervised the work and effectively divided the different tasks into weekly projects. The committee set apart the first week for cleaning and beautifying streets and sidewalks. Week two involved work on lawns, flower gardens, and yards; and the following week townsfolk improved their corrals and outhouses. Similar efforts prevailed throughout the state until the August deadline marked the end of all clean-up efforts. In that month the Board of Health grouped the various communities into six classifications based upon population. The board then sent its team of judges to score each of the competing towns. The judges' identities as well as the date of their inspections were kept secret so that no town would have an unfair advantage. The chief judge was James H. Wallis, a former dairy and food commissioner of Idaho, whom the state hired specifically to supervise the contest. Points were awarded in thirteen different areas such as sewage disposal, garbage collection, water supply, control of flies, vacant lots, and condition of streets, parks, and alleys. After judges tallied their scores Manti was announced as the cleanest town in Utah. It scored 82.5 points out of the possible 100. Humcane was second at 78, Ogden third with 73, and Lehi came in fourth with 71.7 points. Ogden and Salt Lake City were the only two cities in the Class A population category; the former beat the state capital by only three points. In other classes, Brigham City, Lehi, Manti, Farmington, and Hurricane were all winners. In Hunicane, the townsfolk were justifiably proud of their accomplishment; and when their prize, a beautiful white drinking fountain, arrived it was given a prominent spot on the town square. The Developn~entLeague and the State Board of Health labeled the contest a success and felt the general improvement in local sanitary conditions was well worth the effort. News of the contest even reached other states, many of which wrote to Utah for suggestions on holding their own clean-town contests.

THEHISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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Early Baseball in Utah Had a Mormon-Gentile Twist

Tm U

in Utah N after the ~ Civil War. ~ Probably inspired by the Cincinnati Red Stockings' exhibition tour, which passed through Corinne in 1869, the first recorded baseball games in Utah were played in October 1869 between the Eureka Base Ball Club and a Fort Douglas team. Corinne, the "Gentile Capital," organized the Corinne Base Ball Club (C.B.B.C.)in the winter of 1869-70. Baseball became a part of the Mormon-Gentile rivalry when the C.B.B.C.announced that it would play Box Elder on July 4, 1870, for "the Territorial championship." Salt Lake City's best club, the Eurekas or Enneas, immediately challenged Corinne, which dropped the proposed Box Elder contest in favor of the Enneas. Corinne took the first game at home on July 4 (or "Gentile Dayw)but dropped the second on Pioneer Day (the 1870s "Mormon Dayw),celebrated that year on Monday, July 25, in Salt Lake City. The Corinnes took the rubber game in neutral Ogden and claimed the championship. Although the Corinne papers hyped the first game as a Gentile triumph, they dropped the acrimonious religious invective, probably because Corinne had brought in a number of 'ringers," including several Mormons, while the Enneas had several non-Mormons. Although baseball interest in Salt Lake City faded in the early 1870s, the Corinnes briefly thrived. Corinne claimed its second territorial title in 1871, but they failed to drum up games against teams in other territories. The town's interest in baseball faded thereafter, replaced by a variety of sports, including rowing, croquet, and lacrosse. Baseball revived in Salt Lake City, however, and by 1877 at least 17 teams competed in the capital. In July 1877 the Deserets, Salt Lake's best team, faced the Cheyenne Red Stockings, the first series that a Salt Lake City club had played against a team outside of the territory. Deseret took the first game 3-2 on July 23, prompting much local self-congratulation over the low score and the quality of play. Perhaps five thousand spectators, 25 percent of the city's population, saw the teams tie on July 24; on the 25th, the Utahns took the final game, 17-11. Jubilation over the Deseret victory was tainted by allegations of bribery and complaints that the name sounded too "Mormon" for its Gentile supporters. The controversy caused some Mormon players to quit the Deserets and join the new Red Stockings club, resulting in two clubs, one entirely Gentile (the Deserets) and the other (the Red Stockings) nearly all Mormon. The teams gained enthusiastic followings from the respective elements in the community, and the Deserets took the first series between them. In 1878 the two teams renewed their rivalry, with the Red Stockings taking the series before large, noisy crowds. Other western teams came to Salt Lake, ~ PASTIME" ~ WAS EAGERLY ~ ADOPTED ~

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and the local papers closely followed games. By 1879, however, th :- local teams were dominated by 'outsiders," some of whom were professionals, and the game never regained its intense partisan following. Sources: Larry R. Gerlach, "The Best in the West? Corinne, Utah's First Baseball Champions," and Kenneth L. Cannon 11, "Deserets, Red Stockings, and Out-of-Towners: Baseball Comes of Age in Salt Lake City, 1877-79," Utuh Historical Quarterly 52 (spring 1984).

THEHISTORY BLUER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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Woman Suffrage Dominated Politics in Utah

THEDEBATE OVER WOMAN SUFFRAGE DOMINATED POLITICSin Utah throughout the 1890s. Though the issue was raging throughout the United States, Utah's historic background created unique concerns and attitudes towards the debate. Unlike other states and territories, Utah had legalized woman suffrage with temtorial legislation in 1870. When Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, however, voting rights for women were abolished along with plural marriages. Utah women took action to reclaim the franchise. In 1889 they founded the Woman Suffrage Association of Utah. Keeping in touch with the leaders of the LDS church, the new organization enjoyed widespread support from Mormons throughout the temtory. In September 1894 the Womn's Exponent, an unofficial organ of the LDS Relief Society, published figures showing that 19 Utah counties had suffrage organizations. Both the Republican and Democratic conventions of that year strongly endorsed universal suffrage as part of their electoral goals. It seemed that with such strong support on all sides woman suffrage would inevitably succeed in Utah. Then, during the Utah Constitutional Convention that began in March 1895, some delegates in both the Democratic and Republican parties began to argue against including woman suffrage in the new state's Constitution. Brigham H. Roberts, a Democrat from Davis County, was one of the most vocal contenders. He asserted that woman suffrage would make Utah a "freak state" in the eyes of the majority of states that opposed the franchise for women. Such a perception, he believed, would endanger Utah's chance for statehood. Another argument put forth against woman suffrage held that if women entered the political arena they would be dragged from their 'high pinnacles" of virtue and purity by the process. Amid these doubts, Emmeline B. Wells, president of the LDS Relief Society and of the Woman Suffrage Association of Utah as well, continued to remind politicians that Utah had seen no such negative effects from the seventeen years of universal suffrage women had already enjoyed in the temtory. Woman suffrage was undoubtedly the hottest topic at the Constitutional Convention and among its supporters and antagonists out on the street. Tension between the two camps intensifd. During one such clash, non-Mormon women united in the Opera House to rally against suffrage. Mormon suffragettes reportedly infiltrated the meeting to prevent a unanimous vote. Despite the efforts of those opposed to woman suffrage, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention passed it by more than a two-thirds majority. During the November 5 , 1895, election some 80 percent of Utah's voters-still all male-approved the new Constitution. Utah had indeed (more)

chosen to remain one of the few places in the nation to accept universal suffrage. Fear that such a situation would ruin Utah's chance for statehood were unfoundd. Two months later, on January 4, 1896,Utah became the 45th state of the United States.

THEHISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The Salt Lake City Street Railroad Strike of 1890

ORGANIZED LABOR SUFFERED MANY SETBACKS IN THE LATE 19th century. Workers in the 'unskilled" or 'semiskilledn trades found it particularly difficult to gain workplace rights. In September 1890 the streetcar men of Salt Lake City learned a hard lesson in the realities of worker/management relations. Streetcars were a new phenomenon in Salt Lake City; the first electric cars had appear& in 1889. The motormen and conductors of the Salt Lake City Railway Company formed themselves into a Street Car Men's Union in July of 1890 and joined the Utah Federation of Trades and Labor Council. The streetcar men objected to a company policy that required them to clean their cars at the end of their shifts. They argued that the company also required them to present a neat appearance, which necessitated the purchase of good suits of clothes at their own expense, and that cleaning up ruined those clothes. A union committee proposed that the company hire other workers to perform the cleaning, but the company rejected that idea and also refused to recognize the union. On September 17, 1890, about 130 men went on strike. For their part, company officials said that the union had misrepresented itself; that the union was originally to be 'only a benevolent affairn; that the men were paid more than streetcar workers in other cities; that the cleaning could easily be done in half an hour; and, most important, that the company would not allow its employees to dictate the terms of work. The company refused to negotiate and would not recognize the Utah Federation of Trades' representatives. The company immediately began hiring and training new men, some of whom were operating streetcars as early as the morning of September 18, the day after the strike began. The strikers made some attempts to block the cars at the comer of Main Street and First South, denouncing the new men as "scabsn; but the presence of policemen helped prevent any violence. The union had some support; the Federation of Trades sponsored a 'grand labor demonstration" with parades, signs, and bands. Other unions drafted resolutions of support, boycotted the streetcars, and contributed money. A. W. McCune, company president, moved quickly to solve his labor problems, and within five days a largely new crew had been hired and nearly all of the streetcars were running. McCune argued that the strikers "have the right to withdraw from our service. The company has an equal right to employ others to take their place . . . the real object was to compel from us a formal recognition of this labor order and its demands; and only the good God knows where it would stop if it was once begun." (more)

Despite a petition signed by many prominent citizens urging arbitration, the company stood firm. The union was broken within a week; some men renouncsd their demands and were rehired, while others had to find other work. R. G. Sleater, president of the Utah Federation of Trades and Labor Council, maintained that the lesson of this strike was not to allow unskilled laborers in the council. Although the streetcar men would be offered 'moral support," the council would limit its membership to skilled workers in the future. Sources: Salt Luke Tribune, Salt Lake Herald, Deseret Evenirlg News, and the Utah Iabor Archives, Mamott Library, Special Collections, University of Utah.

THEHISTORY BLAZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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Utah's Own John Gilbert Thrilled Silent Movie Fans

THESILENT FILM ERA

1920s featured a number of dashing, romantic leading men. The most famous of these was Rudolph Valentino whose performance in The Shcik assured him screen immortality and a vast female audience. Valentino's chief rival was Utah-born John Gilbert, and after Valentino's death in 1926, Gilbert reigned unchallenged as Hollywood's romantic idol. The addition of sound to motion pictures doomed the silent films, however, and with them Gilbert's career. John Gilbert was born in Logan, Utah, on July 10, 1897. His mother, Ida Apperly, was a well known local beauty who (to her family's horror) had joined a travelling acting company when it passed through Logan. Ida returned to her family in Logan to give birth to John Cecil Pringle, named after his father, an actor in the company. When she later married actor Walter B. Gilbert, young John took his last name. John Gilbert worked at a number of odd jobs before joining a stock company in Washington state at age seventeen. In 1915 he got his first movie role as an extra in a production by Thomas H. Ince. Gilbert played a number of small roles over the next few years while also working as a director, cutter, prop man, and set carpenter in the infant film industry. In 1918 he married for the first time and served a short stint in the Army. Gilbert's career began to take off in 1924 when he signed a contract with Metro-GoldwynMayer. M-G-M's "boy genius," Irving Thalberg, cast Gilbert in a series of big-budget pictures with the studio's major female stars. Films such as His Hour (1924), 77ze Merry Widow (1925), and Lo Boheme (1926) established Gilbert as a leading man. His suave, dark good looks appealed greatly to women, while his biggest hit, the war picture The Big Parode (1925), gave him action credentials as well. Gilbert's three pictures with Greta Garbo were highly successful, helped by rumors of their off-screen romance. Gilbert remained at the top of this competitive industry for four years, signing a contract in 1929 that reportedly paid him $10,000 a week for seven films. The sound era, however, proved to be.his downfall. Gilbert's first "talkie," His Glorious Night, was greeted with derisive laughter. The actor's delivery seemed stilted and unnatural, and his voice sounded high and weak. Gilbert's friends and supporters blamed the primitive recording equipment, but after another failure the studio offered to buy out his contract. The proud Gilbert insisted that M-G-M fulfill the letter of their deal, so five more movies were released to critical and popular indifference. Gilbert's career was not completely over. In 1933, supposedly at Garbo's insistence, the studio signed him to co-star in Queen Cltristina. He received good reviews for his portrayal of an alcoholic in 771e Caprair~Hate1 rl7e Sea (1934), but no further film offers resulted. Gilbert died of a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills in 1936 at the age of 38. OF THE

THEHISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a g m t from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The Telephone Comes to Utah

THEINTRODUCTION OF THE TELEPHONE IN Utah moved at a very rapid pace. Within a decade nearly every major city was equipped with a telephone exchange system. The number of customers grew yearly as more learned about the new technological wonder. By the turn of the century the telephone was a frequent, if not yet common, means of communication. Due to the energy and enthusiasm of a local merchant, A. M. Munser, Ogden was the first Utah city to introduce the telephone. Early in 1879 Munser installed a private line from his store to his warehouse in Ogden. Gradually, other wealthy businessmen followed suit. Then, in March, L. E. Holden, an influential mine owner, installed a telephone line from his office in downtown Salt Lake City to the Deseret National Bank six blocks away. News reporters and curious residents gathered in HoldenS office to hear the first words ever uttered over a telephone in the city. One reporter explained with amazement that HoldenP voice was heard on the other line as distinctly as if he were conversing in the room. All seemed to be amazed by Alexander Graham Bell$ "talking instrument. " As more residents acquired private telephone lines a new system was required to manage the calls. On March 1, 1880, Munser purchased a license from the National Bell Telephone Company to operate a telephone exchange in Ogden. The Ogden Telephone Exchange Company opened on September 8 to serve 24 lines and 30 phones. The first Ogden phone directory, published a month later, contained the names of 56 subscribers. Ogden was moving far ahead of other Utah cities in the race for telephone service. It took nearly a yea. before Salt Lake City followed Ogden's lead. An exchange license had been purchased in March 1880 but not acted upon. It required a transfer of ownership in December before the Salt Lake Exchange could be opened in April 1881 under the name of A. J. Paterson 6r Company. Soon Salt Lakers were consumed with preparations for telephone service. The first telephone wires were strung along housetops. This soon proved inconvenient. Because of the wide streets and large blocks characteristic of the city, telephone lines were run down the center of the street. Wires were strung to the top of poles that reached as high as 60 feet. Such changes were necessary as an increasing number of Salt Lake residents purchased telephones. Beginning with only a dozen telephone owners, the city had more than 1,200 subscribers by 1900. The first decade of the 20th century showed even greater growth, and by 1910 telephone subscriptions had increased to 13,048. Both business and social life in Salt Lake were being transformed by the telephone system. (more)

Gradually, cities and towns throughout Utah acquired telephone service. Following Salt Lake City by a few days, Park City became the third town to own an exchange system. Logan was connected to the Ogden Exchange in 1883, and Provo gained a telephone license from the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company of Salt Lake in the same year. Rural areas and smaller towns took longer to receive this modem convenience. Not until 1947 was telephone service installed in Monroe, Utah.

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The "Impossible" Hurricane Canal Took 11 Years to Complete

ON AUGUST6, 1904, nvE OR SIX WAGONLOADS

of people gathered on the Hurricane Bench to witness a dirty stream of water pour life onto the desert soil of southwestern Utah. The event marked the culmination of eleven years of tedious manual labor by some of the remnants of Brigham Young's Cotton Mission colonizers (these were members of the Mormon church whom Young sent to southern Utah to grow cotton). Beginning in the early 1860s these religious settlers inhabited tiny plots of land along the upper Virgin River Basin. They relied upon the river for daily sustenance, yet it often betrayed them with angry tantrums that left their dams, ditches, and crops in chaos. Many colonizers relocated in search of better conditions. Those who remained also sought ways to improve their lives. In 1893 nearly a hundred men from the basin communities met to incorporate the Humcane Canal Company in the hope of bringing water to the desirable lands of the Humcane Bench. Two previous surveys deemed the project impossible, and even the surveyor hired to map the ditch was pessimistic. He foresaw the immense amount of labor and money the canal would require and did not believe the impoverished settlers could finish it. Nevertheless, stockholders soon began construction of the nearly seven-mile-long canal. Workers laboriously hefted food, tools, bedding, and an anvil to the dam site at the bottom of a narrow gorge. The canal clung to the steep hillsides and ledges of the Hurricane Hill, making horses and plows impossible tools. Instead, the shovel, pick, crowbar, wheelbarrow, and hand-driven drill carved the ditch out of the canyon wall. At times the workers had to hang men down from ledges to reach the ditch, but rock blasting proved even more challenging. Thomas Isom remembered picking dynamite out of 'many a hole which had misfired." He explained, "We had to do this, dangerous as it was; we could not afford to lose a single stick." Work continued slowly, only progressing significantly during the winter when men and older boys could leave their farms in care of their families. As labor on the canal continued unrewarded many became discouraged and sold or forfeited their stock. By 1901 the canal company had expended nearly $50,000 in labor; those still involved were not willing to waste such efforts. Although their previous requests for help had been rejected, the canal board again turned to the Mormon church for rescue. In 1902 the board assigned James Jepson to travel to Salt Lake City and meet with Mormon President Joseph F. Smith. The meeting proved fruitful, as the church agreed to purchase $5,000 stock in the company. With this boost workers came scurrying back to the project and pushed the canal to completion.

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In 1906 the first residents of Hurricane arrived. Over the next two decades a near flood of settlers poured onto the bench eager to partake of the new land and economic opportunities the canal made possible.

THEHISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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Chief Ouray Hoped to Achieve Peace with White People

THEWESTERN UTEBANDS ORIGINALLY OCCUPIED about 23.5 million acres or around 45 percent of the present state of Utah. By the 1870s, however, Utah's Utes were confined to less than 10 percent of that area, slightly over 2 million acres on the Uintah Reservation. The Ute lands grew to over 4 million acres in 1880 when the federal government removed the White River and Uncompahgre bands from Colorado and created the Ouray Reservation in Utah. Although Ouray, the prominent chief for whom the new reservation was named, died before the forced relocation, he had spent his life negotiating with government officials and trying to assure a peaceful existence for his people. The exact date of Ouray's birth is unknown, but most authorities believe he was born in 1833 in Taos, New Mexico. He spent most of his youth working for Mexican sheepherders and fighting against rival Sioux and Kiowas. He learned Spanish, English, and several Indian languages that became very useful to him in later treaty negotiations. After the death of his first wife, Ouray married Chipeta, a beautiful Uncompahgre Ute toward whom he always showed deep devotion. In 1863 Ouray helped to negotiate a treaty with the federal government in which the Utes ceded all lands east of the Continental Divide. In 1868 he traveled to Washington, D.C., to represent his people and was appointed "head chief of the Utes" by the government. Ouray and his wife made several visits to the nation's capital and on one occasion met President Ulysses S. Grant. Ouray always attempted to secure the best possible conditions for his people while still remaining friendly to the whites. Nevertheless, each additional negotiation brought increasing losses of land for the Indians, and some resented Ouray's friendship with the whites and the special favors he received from them. Disgruntled Utes made various attempts on Ouray's life, but he survived and maintained his conciliatory attitude. With the discovery of gold in Colorado and the resulting influx of miners, Indian-white relations deteriorated. Finally, in the spring of 1878, Nathan Meeker, an Indian agent, triggered a series of events that led to the relocation of Ouray's people to Utah. The White River Utes had become infuriated over Meeker's attempt to force them to farm. Meeker called in federal troops, but the Indians succeeded in killing him and seven other whites and took several women as captives. When the government appealed to Ouray for help, the influential chief intervened and secured the release of the hostages and even welcomed them into his home while the situation was defused. (more)

Repercussions from this incident were devastating for the Indians. In 1880 Ouray traveled for the last time to Washington where he signed a treaty providing for the removal of the White River Utes as well as his own Uncompahgre band from Colorado to the Uintah and newly created Ouray reservations in Utah. Shortly after his return from Washington, Ouray died and was buried in southern Colorado. His wife, Chipeta, moved to Utah with her people and died in poverty and exile in 1924 on the reservation named for her husband.

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When the Din of Sheep Shearing Rocked the Desert

EACH SPRING IN THE EARLY DECADES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

the peaceful red rock desert of southwestern Utah was startled awake by an almost deafening din of commotion. Five miles east of Humcane the Goulds' sheep shearing pens came alive with a confusion of activity. The noise of sheep bleating, dogs barking, wranglers shouting, clippers whirling, and machinery clanking combined to create what some claim was the busiest shearing center in the West, if not the world. Beginning in 1910 southern Utah sheepmen opened the corrals that soon attracted herds from the entire region including Cedar City, Panguitch, Kanab, Kanarra, and Long Valley. The highly mechanized shearing shed efficiently processed the sheep at eighteen shearing stations. The clipped wool was flung onto conveyor belts and carried to a loft where wool "stompers" tossed it into huge wool bags hanging through holes in the floor. These men jumped into the bags and stomped on the fleece to compact it. The bags were then sewn shut with heavy twine and loaded onto freight wagons for the long trip to the railroad at Lund, near Cedar City. The operation proved an economic boon to many southern Utah residents. The corrals employed some thirty-five laborers and sheared around 3,000 head of sheep a day. The fastest shearer could by himself clip a reported 250-300 sheep in one day. A number of men also found work hauling the wool to the railroad. Residents of Toquerville, La Verkin, Hurricane, Virgin, Springdale, and Rockville welcomed such employment in the spring when money was scarce and many needed jobs. In 1914 the 131,000 sheep sheared at the pen produced 1,048,000 pounds of wool. This put into the hands of local freighters $10,480, besides creating a market for hay and other products and giving merchants and hotels lively trade. Not all, however, benefited from the shearing pens. Cattle ranchers complained that the sheep were trampling the feed and overgrazing the land. One year James W. Imlay of Hurricane lost 800 ewes to a mysterious poisoning, and in 1913 the shearing pens at the Goulds' ranch were totally destroyed by a fire that many believed was maliciously set. Regardless, the pens were quickly rebuilt and 110,000 sheep were sheared that year. In 1927 sheep and cattlemen held a convention in St. George to try and reconcile their differences. Their intent was to divide the range land that both sides relied upon for subsistence; but each side wanted more than the other would give, and the convention ended without an agreement. Despite the opposition, shearing at the Goulds' corral continued until it again burned in 1931. The operation reopened in 1932 but never reached the levels of output once achieved. The Great Depression dropped wool prices drastically low. Then, the advent of portable shearing machines sealed the pens' fate, and they eventually closed in the early 1940s.

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Statehood Centennial Commission. For more infornution about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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A Wedding Song Connects Utah with 16th-century Spain

THEROLE OF SPANISHEXPLORERS IN UTAHHISTORY is widely recognized, especially the legendary journey of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition through much of the present state in 1776. But Utah's cultural ties with Spain extend 200 years earlier than the epic trek led by two Catholic priests. It all has to do with weddings. A decade ago two University of Utah professors-William H. Gonzalez and Genaro M. Padilla-traced the roots of the Hispanic community in Monticello, Utah, and made some fascinating discoveries. They found that most of the Spanish-surnamed families living in Monticello had migrated from small villages in New Mexico beginning about the turn of the century. By 1920 Monticello had a substantial Hispanic community rich in traditions. Weddings, baptisms, and funerals all followed age-old customs. And of these, weddings provided the most unusual historical detail. After the marriage ceremony in St. Joseph's Catholic Church (built in 1935 in Monticello), the wedding party moved to the home of the bride's parents in a formal procession accompanied by music on the violin and the guitar. A special dinner was served, followed by an evening of dancing. As musical tastes changed over the years, newlyweds and their guests moved away from the waltzes and polkas popular in the early 20th century to the latest rock tunes. Even so, a traditional wedding march with intricate formations was usually one of the dances and a traditional wedding song-the entrega dc novios-was sung by one of the musicians about midway through the evening. Its words reinforced the community's support of the bridal pair and the solemnity of their marriage vows. This is a translation of one of many verses: 'What do the candles signify/when they are about to be li,ghted?/They signify the one union/which will last forever. " Unique to New Mexican Hispanics, the entrega de novios was adapted from the 16thcentury wedding coplas of Spain. In all of the Spanish-speaking world, according to Juan B. Rael, there is nothing like the entrega sung in a handful of New Mexican villages. Migrating families brought this tradition to Monticello, and it moved on with some of them to places like Price and Salt Lake City. For more information on the intriguing enrrega and other Hispanic traditions see William H. Gonzales and Genaro M. Padilla, 'Monticello, the Hispanic Cultural Gateway to Utah," Utah HLFtorical Qriarrerb 52 (winter 1984): 9-28.

THEHISTORY BLAZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The Scofield Mine Disaster in 1900 Was Utah's Worst

h THE EARLY MORNING OF MAY1,

1900, several hundred miners of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company of Carbon County left their homes in the town of Scofield to begin another day of work in the mines. Some were looking fonvard to the evening celebrations at Odd Fellows Hall where festivities would be held in honor of Admiral Dewey's 1898 defeat of the Spanish navy in the battle of Manila. Little did they know that the events of the day would culminate not in lively celebrations but in the death of 200 miners. It was the worst mine disaster in America to that time. At 10:28 a.m. the No. 4 mine shaft unexpectedly exploded. Though the sound of the blast was heard in the nearby town, many residents thought at first that it came from fireworks set off early in celebration of Dewey Day. Those working closer to the mine were more wary of the noise. Mine superintendent T. J. Parmley quickly organized a rescue team to assess the damage. What the relief crew saw as they approached the No. 4 mine was homfying. John Wilson, a miner who had been standing at the opening of the mine at the time of the blast, had been blown 820 f e t and was lying against a tree. It took nearly twenty minutes to clear away the debris that blocked the entrance to the mine. Time was crucial for those trapped inside. When the crew was finally able to enter the mine, they found that some men were still alive but quickly suffocating from the deadly gases left by the explosion. Miners in the No. 1 mining shaft, connected through tunnels to the No. 4, were also dying from the toxic fumes. During the next two days the towns of Clear Creek and Scofield began the sad process of caring for the dead and wounded. Once dragged from the mining shafts, dead bodies were taken to the company boarding house where they were cleaned and dressed for burial. Then they were taken to the schoolhouse where mothers and wives anxiously waited to claim them. The Pleasant Valley Coal Company provided the necessary materials to properly bury the dead. Coffins were shipped in from Salt Lake City and Denver. William Sharp, company manager, cane from Salt Lake with several doctors to offer assistance to those who were still alive. On May 5 two large funerals were held in Scofield, a Lutheran service for the 61 Finns killed in the accident and an LDS service directed by several General Authorities of the church. Services were also held in other towns throughout the state. Crowds of people waited at the Salt Lake train station for the bodies of loved ones to arrive for burial. The Scofield mine disaster left a deep scar in the community and in Carbon County. Although many felt that the mine operators had failed to implement proper safety procedures, state officials cleared them of blame and the Pleasant Valley Coal Company continued operating until (more)

1923. Since then, Scofield has become a ghost town. Several miles from the ruins of the town signs of a great explosion can still be found at the opening of the old No. 4 mine. For more information see AIIan Kent Powell, Ihe Next Time We Strike Labor in Utah's Coal Fie& (L~gan:Utah State University Press, 1985).

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19th-Century Utah Women Spun Yarn and Also Dug Ditches

IN 1870, 13.3 PERCENT OF AMERICANWOMEN OVER AGE TEN were working outside of the home. By the end of the nineteenth century, largely due to expanding businesses, this figure climbed to nearly 20 percent of American women. Over the same period Utah's female work force grew from 4 percent to 13.5 percent but remained well below the national average. Regardless, these numbers do not come close to suggesting the significant and integral role Utah women played in taming the harsh western frontier and in building the Beehive State. Utah's pioneer women not only oversaw domestic chores but also shared in farm and field work. Missions and church assignments frequently took Mormon husbands and fathers away from home, leaving women to manage the household and farm. In Deseret, Millard County, Christina Oleson Warnick described her dizzying list of tasks that included digging irrigation ditches, plowing, planting and fertilizing the land, shearing the sheep, cutting hay for the cows, and spinning yam and weaving cloth. Other women's workloads were similar; some supplemented the family income with sewing, laundering, or other home-based employment. Understandably, in Utah's urban areas the percentage of women working outside the home was higher than for the temtory as a whole. Jobs held by Salt Lake City female workers in 1870 included shoe shop keeper, nurse, and hotel steward, but the large majority worked as domestic servants. Utah women also engaged in a variety of other activities and organizations, including lecture societies, woman suffrage, the temperance movement, and a plethora of women's auxiliaries and clubs. In 1875 the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross opened St. Mary's Academy of Utah and that same year began a small hospital for sick and injured miners. Similarly, Mormon women opened the Deseret Hospital in 1882; it was almost entirely managed and staffed by female directors and doctors. In addition, LDS Relief Society women energetically became involved in a number of enterprises designed to help care for the state's poor. They not only donated money, food, and materials but managed business operations such as silk raising and grain storage. As the nineteenth century wore on, employment opportunities for women expanded. In 1872 two Utah women, Phoebe W. Couzins and Georgie Snow, were admitted to the Utah Bar; others traveled east and earned medical degrees. One Provo woman worked as a miner in 1900, and many women became telegraph operators, school teachers, nurses, and milliners. Still, by the turn of the century most Utah women remained primarily occupied as homemakers. Regardless of their title, however, it seems clear that Utah women were active in charity groups and other avocations that provided opportunities'to develop their skills and participate in civic campaigns for change. In general Utah's women embodied a spirited force that shaped nineteenth-century Utah. For additional information see Michael Vinson, "From Housework to Office Clerk: Utah's Working Women, 1 870- 1900, Utah Hisroricd Qunrrcrly 53 (fall 1985): 326-35.

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"Uncle Nick" Wilson's Adventures Filled a Book!

ELUAH NICHOLAS "UNCLE NICK"WILSONLED-A COLORFUL LIFE encompassing many of the major events and themes of western history. He helped to pioneer Utah, lived among the Shoshones as an adopted son, rode with the Pony Express, fought Indians, robbers, and rustlers, and founded a town in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His vivid stories enthralled his guests, SO he told of his life in a book first published in 1910. After his death a revised edition was published in New York-me W i t e Indian Boy: Xhe Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones. Nick Wilson wrote that he was born in Illinois in 1842 and migrated with his family to Grantsville, Utah, in 1850. Grantsville, Tooele County, was frequently troubled with raids by the local Gosiute Indians, and Wilson remembered having to seek shelter in the settlement's fort on many occasions. Wilson' s father, however, befriended the Gosiute elder Tabby whose friendship would help young Nick during his Pony Express tour. Nick learned to speak the Gosiute language during long hours spent guarding his family's sheep in company with an Indian boy named Pantsuk. After Pantsuk died, the lonely Nick was befriended by a group of Shoshones who promised the boy a fine pinto pony if he joined them. Nick was willing, so in August 1856 he rode off with the Shoshones. Nick spent roughly the next two years with the Indians, traveling with them in Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming as they made seasonal migrations to their hunting grounds. Nick was adopted by the Shoshone chief Washakie as his brother and was called Yugaik-"the criern-because he could imitate Indian babies. The boy became devoted to his Indian mother and often helped her with her chores. This behavior, and indeed Nick's very presence in the tribe, caused some problems: He was taunted by Indian boys for doing "women's work," and the elders worried that the whites would attack the tribe to retrieve the lost boy. Eventually, the tribe decided that Nick must return to his family, despite his desire to remain with Washakie and his mother. Because of his expertise in riding and breaking horses, Nick was hired as a Pony Express rider in the fall of 1860. He experienced a number of close shaves during bad weather and with Indians and once received a nearly fatal arrow wound two inches above his left eye. In his book Nick differentiates between "good Indians," like Washakie and his mother, and those who were "a treacherous and revengeful people," like Pocatello and those who attacked the Pony Express. When the brief Pony Express era ended, Nick found work as an Overland Stage driver and a freighter in Utah and Nevada. In the 1860s he moved to Idaho, earning a living as a fur trapper, sometimes in partnership with Indians. He drove a wagon over treacherous Teton Pass in 1888, settling in the Jackson Hole area and founding the town of Wilson which still bears his name. (more)

"Uncle Nick" became a favorite local personality, and his boyhood friend Washakie often visited him. "Uncle Nickn died in Wilson on December 26, 1915. For more information see 7he White Indiart Boy: ?he Story of Uncle Nick among the Shoshones (1919), revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs; and Kate B. Carter, Utah and the Pony Express (1960).

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Dixie Fruit Finds a Market

SOUTHERN UTAH'SEARLY SETTLERS FACED a variety of challenges. In addition to the harsh desert climate, poor roads made it difficult for farmers to reach northern markets with their cash crops. In one small town Frank Barber, an enterprising fruit grower, confidently tackled this impediment. Although his aspirations were not realized to their fullest, he succeeded in creating a statewide reputation for Dixie fruit. Barber moved to Hurricane, Utah, in 1907, shortly after the town's founding, and was soon chosen as vice-president of the Commercial Club. He immediately became interested in attracting a railroad to Hurricane in order to reach northern fruit markets. To accomplish this he first had to create a demand for Dixie fruit. At a meeting of the Commercial Club in 1912 Barber announced his intention to ship 1,000 cases of peaches to Salt Lake City. The biggest obstacle to the venture was the sixty-mile wagon trip to the nearest railroad at Lund, Utah. Some were skeptical that the fruit would arrive at market in good enough condition to sell, but Barber was ready to try. His first shipment consisted of twenty-three cases of peaches and seven cases of apples. He wrapped each fruit individually and placed it in a crate. He then arranged the precious cargo in a dead-x wagon filled with straw about eighteen inches deep. Barber recalied his feelings when he finally made it to the Salt Lake marketplace: 'It would just fill your heart with joy when I took the lids off from those boxes; those great big red peaches just shone there and they started to grab them and grab them and grab them." "My peaches arrived in better condition than most of the California fruit shipped . . . in refrigerator cars," Barber added. News of the Hurricane fruit even made the Salt Lake City papers. The Tribune and Deserel News both noted that the entire shipment was sold before noon at $2.00 and $2.50 per box ($1 to $1.25 higher than boxes from California). The newspapers interviewed Barber who used this opportunity to campaign for the extension of steel rails to Hurricane. He stated, 'All we want in the Dixie country is a railroad to eliminate the sixty-mile haul by wagon. . . . Give us an even break with the fruit growers of California and we will run them out of the Salt Lake market in one season. " Steel rails never did stretch to Hurricane, and Dixie fruit failed to run its California competition out of Utah. Nonetheless, Barber did create a significant reputation for Dixie fruit and by the 1915 coming of the 'auto truck" was able to ship larger quantities throughout the state more effectively. In 1918 the Commercial Club, in cooperation with other southern Utah clubs and produce companies, signed an agreement with William Rust who ran a wholesale fruit house in Cedar City. That year Rust reported handled nearly 80 tons of Dixie fruit.

THEHISTORYB M E R is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a g m t from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The Pony Express Added a Colorful Chapter to Utah History

ONEOF THE MOST COLORFUL,

IF BRIEF, CHAPTERS IN WESTERN HISTORY was the Pony

Express, which camed the Overland Mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, from April 1860 until October 1861. Utah Territory occupied a central position along the route, and many Utahns played a role as trailblazers, riders, agents, and station managers. Mail sexvice from East to West had presented a problem for decades, since the settled areas of the Midwest and California were separated by a vast stretch of sparse white settlement, sometimes hostile native inhabitants, treacherous weather, and in hospitable terrain. George Chorpenning and Absalom Woodward were awarded the first Overland Mail contract between Sacramento and Salt Lake City in 1851. Since their riders often delivered the mail by mule, wags dubbed this service the "jackass mail." Plagued by Indian attacks (including the massacre of Woodward and his party) and financial troubles, Chorpenning had his contract annulled in 1860. The Utah W& of 1857-58 led indirectly to the establishment of the Pony Express. The freighting firm of Russell, Majors, & Waddell held the contract to supply three million pounds of material to Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston's army. During the course of that strange conflict the company suffered major losses of equipment and livestock from Mormon militia attacks and harsh weather. William H. Russell failed to get the War Department to reimburse his firm for claimed losses of nearly half a million dollars. In order to save his company Russell proposed to launch a high-speed mail service across the "Central Route" between Missouri and California, expecting that the government would reward the firm with a lucrative subsidy. Russell spent about $100,000 to launch the new service, which required hundreds of horses, riders, stations, station managers, and support services such as feed and blacksmithing. A. B. Miller, a company representative in Salt Lake City, advertised for 200 horses; some of those he obtained were mustangs captured near Kimball's Junction and on Antelope Island. The greatest need, though, was for riders. The company called for young, light, brave, sober, God-fearing boys and men to carry the mail in grueling relays of 75 to 100 miles at a time at a full gallop across some of the West's most brutal terrain. Many Utahns served as express riders, including Mormon pioneer and Nauvoo Legion major Howard Egan, who had helped blaze much of the original Central Overland Trail, and his sons Howard Ranson Egan and Richard Erastus Egan. The riders and station managers endured many hardships, including a Paiute uprising that disrupted service for a month. Express rider Elijah "Nick" Wilson of Grantsville, Utah, was nearly killed by an arrow to the head near Spring Valley Station in Nevada. The Pony Express generally provided excellent service, covering the 1,966-mile one-way distance in ten days or less. It was ( ~ore) n

always financially troubled, however; some of Russell's shady dealings came to light, and he was forced to resign. The company, operating in the red as much as $1,000a day, lost its contract to a competitor. The real threat, however, was technological. In October 186 1 the Pacific Telegraph was completed at Salt Lake City, and messages could be relayed almost instantaneously. The Pony Express became obsolete overnight.

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Convict Labor Helped to Build Utah's Roads

THEUSE OF CONVICT LABOR

HAS BEEN A

WELL-ESTABLISHED PART OF America's pmal

institutions for centuries. Whether doing forced labor on one of the infamous "chain-gangs," working to pick up litter along Utah's highways, or serving as volunteer forest fire fighters in some of the West's most deadly and destructive fires, prison inmates have performed a wide variety of services for the community. Their work has been praised, ignored, and sometimes criticized. In Utah, the new state constitution drafted in 1895 made unlawful the contracting of convict labor and its use outside prison grounds except for public works. In 1909, thirteen years after Utah became a state, the legislature passed a law allowing the use of convict labor on public road work by prisoners whose terms were less than ten years. Two years later the legislature removed the ten-year limit and added the incentive that efficient and well-behaved workers could reduce their sentences by 10 days for every 30 days worked. Prisoners seemed to appreciate this opportunity. These laws coincided with a major road-building program in Utah,and Governor Williarn Spry saw the unpaid work of prisoners as essential in making Utah's road system second to none. The first project on which Utah prisoners worked was a stretch of road between Willard, Box Elder County, on the north to Hot Springs, near the Davis County line, on the south. A fiveacre camp surrounded by barbed wire was established. Each of the 52 convicts allowed to work on the project promised the warden that he would work hard and not try to escape. Still, guards were posted at regular intervals, probably as much to keep the curious citizens out as to keep the prisoners in. Four men did try to escape and one succeeded. Convict labor on the Willard experiment amounted to 6,503 man-days worked. With wages at $2.25 a day for regular laborers, the state saved $14,63 1.75 by using the convicts. Not all Utahns thought the use of convict labor a good idea. At a rally held in Liberty Park on July 2, 1911, more than 500 dissenters listened as speakers argued that the use of convict labor took potential jobs away from the unemployed. Responding to such criticism later, Governor Spry denied that the use of convict labor took jobs from other workers; rather, since the convicts received no wages, only a reduction in their sentences, their work was a bonus on top of the state funds already appropriated for road construction. Convict labor was used to construct roads in Utah until after 1920 but ceased before the end of the 1920s. On one project, prisoners left a monument of thanks to Governor Simon (more)

Bamberger for allowing them to engage in road construction and reduce their sentences. The monument can still be seen just off Highway 191 near the Carbon-Duchesne county line.

;

For more information on the use of convict labor see Virgil Caleb Pierce, "Utah's First Convict Labor Camp," Utah Historical Quurterly 42 (summer 1974): 245-57.

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The Beginnings of the University of Utah ~ E THERMORMONS ARRIVED IN UTAH,a Board of Regents was organized by Brigham Young to establish a university. With a growing demand for children's education, Young and others felt that a university was needed to train men and women as elementary schoolteachers. The Board of Regents began the task by plotting the land for a large campus. Since funds were not available to begin construction, the board used the little money it had to build a stone wall around the university lands. In the meantime, plans were made to build a smaller building, later called the 13th Ward Schoolhouse, that would serve as the university until the larger campus was completed. But the board did not want to wait for the construction of the schoolhouse to begin university courses. Without an official building, the University of Deseret opened on November 11, 1850, at the home of a local resident, Mrs. John Pack. The Pack home remained the tentative campus of the University of Deseret for the entire first quarter. Dr. Cyrus Collins, the only professor, taught courses mainly in the sciences. The school was open to men only and cost $8.00 for the quarter. Constantly on the move, the university opened its second quarter in a new location, the Council House on the southwest comer of Main and South Temple. A second professor, W. W. Phelps, was added to the faculty and the school admitted women. Then, when the 13th Ward Schoolhouse was finished in the fall of 1851, the campus was moved to this new building. About this time the university began to offer more resources and opportunities to students. New scientific instruments and books were acquired from local donors or imported from the East. The school offered students the possibility of receiving a teacher's certificate. A third professor, Orson Pratt, was hired to teach astronomy, mathematics, and algebra. Though the school seemed to be improving with each session, the University of Deseret was suddenly closed after its third quarter. Times had become increasingly difficult for the Mormon community in 1852. Crop failures and drought created greater concern for food and survival than education. This, along with the assumption that the university could now sustain itself, led the legislature to discontinue its annual $5,000 grant to operate the institution. Repeated demands for funding were ignored. Not until 1868 did the university reopen at the Council House location. Times were different in Utah during the late 1860s. With the coming of the railroad, Utah's relative isolation ended. Increased non-Mormon immigration boosted the economy and renewed the energy and need for a university. In 1868 the school's Commercial Department resumed operation in the lower rooms of the Council House. Then in 1869 the university took a major step forward when Dr. John Rockey Park, who had been operating a school in Draper, was hired as principal (more)

(later called president). He assembled a faculty of some dozen professors to teach such diverse subjects as phonography, natural history, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, music, and drawing.

Increasing numbers of students made most classes crowded and oversized. The evident need for expansion encouraged the board to establish the Timpanogos branch of the University of Deseret in Provo. Opened in 1870, it was the only institution of higher learning in Utah County until 1877 when it was replaced by the Brigham Young Academy, forerunner of Brigham Young University. Meanwhile, construction of the main campus of the University of Deseret was made possible by improved economic conditions. By 1884 the University Hall was finally completed on Union Square, site of present West High School. Eight years later, in 1892, the Legislative Assembly changed the school's name to the University of Utah. It was soon to have a new location as well. In 1894 Congress deeded 60 acres of Fort Douglas land on the city's east bench for the university campus. The first students registered for classes at the new location in October 1900. The momentous event culminated 50 years of struggle and determination to establish a permanent campus for the state's first university.

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A Boxcar Filled with Dynamite Explodes near the City

ONTHE MORNING OF MAY13, 1910, Charles Bums noticed smoke coming from a distant boxcar on the Oregon Short Line railroad near his home in the northwest section of Salt Lake City. On second glance he determined that the boxcar was filled with dynamite and would surely explode. Taking no chances, he immediately set out to notify officials. Soon trains heading for Salt Lake City on all Oregon Short Line and Salt Lake and Ogden rails were halted. The fire department quickly erected a road barricade, ensuring that no one could pass into the area where the boxcar was expected to blow up. In anticipation of the explosion some residents rushed to areas where they could see the action and still be far away from the danger. Men and women gathered on the foothills to watch the burning boxcar on the Oregon Short Line siding. At 12:20 p.m. the boxcar exploded near Beck's Hot Springs northwest of the city. Several men running from the blast half a mile away were knocked to the ground. According to newspapers, pieces of the boxcar were hurled into the air for a mile. Flying wood and metal severed some telephone and electric wires, and the surrounding buildings suffered an immediate power outage. The event caused a fright in the McComick Building in downtown Salt Lake City when the elevator lost power and dropped an entire floor. The blast also caused windows to break in nearby homes and buildings. When all seemed safe and quieted, residents came down from the hills and regarded the damage. Where the boxcar had been was a gaping hole measuring 15 feet deep and 40 by 30 feet wide. Many wondered who or what had ignited the boxcar, but no one could come up with a definite answer. Some blamed the event on a spark from a passing Oregon Short Line train or on a passenger or employee of the line, while others suggested that the heat of the sun had caused the fire. In the end, the cause seemed less important than the fact that little harm had been done. Thanks to the early warnings of Charles Bums, the town had mobilized to prevent any deaths or injuries. Rather than causing tragedy and tears the event offered a few hours of excitement and a splendid fireworks show to Salt Lake City residents in the spring of 1910.

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The 1918-19 Flu Epidemic Reached Remote Areas of Utah

As UTAHNSJOINED THE REST OF THE NATION in cheering the end of World War 1 and the defeat of "Kaiser Bill," another enemy, an extremely contagious flu virus, unleashed a worldwide epidemic. First loosed in the United States in spring 1918, it soon engulfed the world and proved deadlier than the war. Globally the disease killed as many as 20 million people. In Utah over 40,000 people contracted the disease and of them over 1,700 died. It affected everyone from the Ute Indians on the Uintah Reservation to city folk to those living in small farming towns such as Hurricane and La Verkin in Washington County. In Hurricane, school, church, and show halls all closed and everyone wore gauze masks. In fact, resident Alice Stratton recalled, "anyone caught on the streets without one was subject to arrest." Stratton's mother kept a simmering pan of Lysol water on the back of the kitchen stove in which the masks were disinfected, and nearby a stack of fresh clean shields waited for anyone who ventured "downtown." The quarantine was long and lonely, and despite all their precautions Stratton's family still caught the flu. The ill lay strewn over the living room floor where they auld be near the fire and their mother could constantly administer water, soup, mustard plasters, and a cool hand on hot foreheads. During this time of death most people kept to themselves for fear of being infected, and even Santa Claus that year did not dare venture into homes. Instead, he stopped at every gate in town in a Model T Ford, distributing stockings filled with candied PopcornThose who were well helped others. Some men in Hurricane and La Verkin chopped wood, fed and milked cows, and tended to other outside chores for their sick neighbors. Some women, like Ruth May Fox in northern Utah, even went into contaminated homes to bathe, clean, feed, and otherwise minister to the ailing. Fox recalled, "I offered my services as a volunteer nurse during the 1918 influenza epidemic, when people were dying and everybody was afraid to go help them. I cared for seven families, and although untrained, I worked hard." The flu epidemic eventually subsided, and life without gauze masks returned to Utah. Even so, the persistent virus made occasional unwelcome visits. For example, in March 1922 the Hurricane town board again quarantined residents due to the flu's reappearance. For the most part, however, the feared disease never returned in the same lethal proportions as 1918-19.

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A Utahn, George Sutherland, Served on the U.S. Supreme Court ON SEPTEMBER5, 1922, THE U.S. SUPREME COURT'SONLY UTAHNto date was appointed and confirmed without discussion. George Sutherland was born of British parents in Buckinghamshire, England, on March 25, 1862. That same year, his father joined the Mormon church, and soon the family immigrated to Utah Territory, settling in Springville. Before long, however, the elder Sutherland renounced his new faith, and young George was raised as a non-Mormon. The family left Utah for several years but eventually returned to take up permanent residence. The need to earn his own support forced George from school at age twelve. He found work as a clerk in a clothing store in Salt Lake City. A few odd jobs later, in 1879, he was able to return to the classroom. He enrolled in the newly established Brigham Young Academy in Provo. There he came under the influence of Karl G. Maeser, the academy's president, whom Sutherland always acknowledged as having had a decisive effect on his life. Sutherland's experience at the academy was followed by a brief period of intensive study at the University of Michigan Law School. In March 1883 he was licensed to practice law in Michigan, but a Provo classmate, Rosamond Lee, attracted him back to Utah and they were soon married. Sutherland then went into partnership with his father, opening Sutherland and Son law practice in Provo. As a young attorney George defended many persons indicted under federal antipolygamy laws and earned the respect of his Mormon neighbors. Politically, however, Sutherland joined Utah's Liberal party and campaigned for the end of polygamy. He ran as the Liberal candidate for mayor of Provo in 1890 but was soundly defeated. Following Wilford Woodruff s 1890 Manifesto ending the Mormon church's open support of polygamy, Sutherland felt that the Liberal party had lost its usefulness. He promptly declared himself a Republican and was influential in organizing the GOP in Utah. His political career blossomed. In 1900 he was elected to a term as Utah's congressman, and in 1905 he returned to Washington as a U.S.senator. He won reelection to the Senate in 1911. In 1917 William H. King defeated Sutherland in his bid for a third-term in the Senate, but Sutherland remained in Washington, D.C., where he opened a law office. Elected president of the American Bar Association in the fall of 1916, he led the ABA's support for the war effort and also continued his forthright defense of individual rights. His service in Washington brought him into contact with influential politicians, including Warren G. Harding who, upon becoming president, chose Sutherland to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. During Sutherland's sixteen years as a justice he remained faithful to his beliefs in individual rights and freedom from government control. Particularly challenging to those beliefs was Franklin D. Roosevelt's barrage of New Deal legislation. Sutherland became one of the 'nine (more)

old men of the court" who complicated the course of the New Deal and led to Roosevelt's failed court-packing scheme. Sutherland announced his retirement in 1938 and died four years later on July 18, 1942. One year prior to his death, his alma mater, Brigham Young University, awarded him an honorary degree. At the ceremony Sutherland offered these words of wisdom that his life personified: "Character to be good must be . . . so firmly fixed in the conscience, and indeed in the body itself, as to insure unhesitating rejection of an impulse to do wrong." For additional information see Joel Francis Paschal, Mr. Justice Sutherlaid A Man against the State (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951).

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