The History Blazer, May 1996

THE HISTORY BLAZER A'E1.15 OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE

Utah State Historical Society

Salt Lake City. VT 84101 (801) 333-3500 FAX (801) 533-3503 300 Rio Grande

May 1996 Blazer Contents Daredevils of the SQ-Early Aeronauts in Utah Utah's Early African American Farmers Southern Utah's First High School Contemporary Ute Government Reflects Old Ways

Two Utah County Resorts The Pasta King of the Mountain West

Electrifying Utah-Engineer Lucien L. Nunn

Promoting Physical Fitness Charcoal Kilns and Early Smelting in Utah Controversy in Utah over Smallpox Vaccination The Women's Literary Club of Moab

Harriet Shepherd's House Was a Town Center Attic Papers Reveal Jesse Knight Ventures

Home Industry 20th-Century Style Boys' Potato Growing Clubs

Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. LTT84101 (801) 533-3500 FAX (801) 533-3303 +

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Daredevils of the Sky--Early Aeronauts in Utah

A COLORFUL HOT AIR BALLOON TUGGED AT THE ROPES tethering it to the beach near Great Salt Lake. "Professor" Staley, billed as the Prince of the Air, firmly gripped the dangling rope tied to the'trapeze bar suspended from lines attached to the batloon's netting. Hand over hand he climbed the rope and mounted the bar. At his signal the tethers were cut, and the balloon began its steady ascent. He performed a trapeze act as the gas-filled orb rose to perilous height. At more than 1,000 feet above the ground, the aeronaut jumped from the bar and hurled earthward at dizzying speed.

Then his parachute opened, and he slowly and gracefully dropped to earth. Spectacles like this made ballooning one of Utah's favorite spectator sports during the last two decades of the 19th century.

Of course, ballooning did not originate in Utah. In 1783 Frenchmen Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier launched a large balloon filled with warm, foul-smelling smoke and the word aeronaut was born.

Later that same year Francois Pitatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Ar1andes accomplished the first free flight. These aeronauts and others who followed gained instant fame.

Not until 1792 did Jean Pierre Blanchard, a French balloonist, and his companion, a small black dog, make the first manned (and dogged) free flight in America. His ascension was staged from the walled yard of Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison. Tickets sold for the hefty sum of $5.00 each. The occasion drew such luminaries as President George Washington and future presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.

In later years balloons were used for observation during wars and delivering mail, but their most remunerative use proved to be entertainment. The main objective of aeronauts during the 19th century was to delight a pleasure-craving public. As superstars of that era, balloonists barnstormed the country with their varnished or rubberized cloth balloons, provided thrills and excitement to audiences, and eventually worked their way into the American West. At first, merely ascending skyward in a balloon and bringing it back to earth was enough to awe crowds in Utah. When that became commonplace, new thrills were added. Balloons lofted horses and their riders skyward.

Night flights accompanied by fireworks were staged. Female aeronauts with form-fitting costumes were a real draw, and trapeze acts were popular. Both animals and humans parachuted from balloons.

One of the first itinerant balloonists in Utah was "Professor" P. A. Van Tassell, an aeronaut of some fame. He visited Salt Lake City in the summer of 1883 and made several successful ascensions. On July 24 his balloon rose from Washington Square to a great height and finally alighted in Red Butte Canyon. There was no set ticket price, but viewers were encouraged to contribute whatever they could to the 'Professor" who depended upon aeronautics for his (more)

livelifiood. High winds, storms, and malfunctioning equipment frequently caused the postponement of performances and changes in the program. In July 1888 'Professor" Joseph Gomes scheduled a balloon ascension and parachute jump into the Great Salt Lake at Lake Park. The large crowd at the resort was disappointed when weather prevented the event. The next week the ascension and drop of a Miss Wheeler at Lake Park was advertised. This performance drew a smaller audience because of the previous cancellation. Those hoping to see Wheeler in her revealing costume were disappointed when she failed to anive in time and was replaced by a boy.

From the mid-1880s through the turn of the century, bathing resorts around the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake were common sites for balloon ascensions, and some Utah boys became balloonists to take advantage of this aeronautics craze. One of these locals was E. E. Harris who operated out of Pleasant Grove and performed at Garfield Beach around Utah Lake. His July 14, 1894, performance at the Provo M e Resort thrilled the audience and made many women scream.

After ascending 2,500 feet, he parachuted from his balloon. Many people feared he would hit the water before his chute opened. When it finally did open, Harris realized he was not as far out over the lake as he had intended. In an effort to guide the chute farther over the lake he almost overturned it. The watchers were delighted when he landed gracefully in the water about fifty yards from shore. Two weeks later the aeronaut drew a crowd with a double parachute jump. The small dog of Sam Schwab, a local clothier, was attached to an 8-foot parachute and made the jump with Harris. Provo's Evening Dispach reported Sam's assessment of the event: 'If de barachute dond oben de dog am a det dog." To which Harris replied, 'So am I. He takes no greater chances than I do." Harris later ran afoul of the Humane Society and ceased using animals in his act.

Ballooning was undoubtedly dangerous because of unpredictable winds, fires, violent landings, and faulty balloons and parachutes. In August 1894 a storm nearly caused Harris to lose his life in Utah Lake. It was almost 10 P.M. before his balloon was ready for the ascent. A strong wind blowing over the lake from Spanish Fork Canyon caused the balloon to swoop over the water at a low altitude. The crowd feared Harris would drown in the rough waters as he abandoned his careening craft and jumped into the lake. The boats sent to search for him found him laboring through neck-deep water. He was covered with mud and a trifle worse for wear when he reached shore, but he was in good spirits despite his close call and the prospects of losing his $100 balloon.

In 1892 it was reported that 'Professor" Van Tassel1 who had performed in Salt Lake again in 1889 had fallen from his balloon into the sea near Honolulu and been eaten by sharks,. The story was corrected by a visiting aeronaut, 'Professor" Leonard. He reported that a man had indeed gone up in Van Tassel's balloon, fallen into the sea, and been eaten by sharks, but that man was not Van Tassel. The popular aeronaut was still alive and malcing ascensions.

With the advent of the airplane in the 20th century, Utahns gradually lost interest in aeronauts, and the balloon era ended. Not until recent time has hot-air ballooning regained its popularity, thrilling people again with the sight of aeronauts over Utah.

Sources: Donald D. Jackson, Z?zeAmornuts (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1980); M z Lake Herald, May 17, July 21, 1883; July 6, 7, 17, 1888; May 24, 1889; July 5, 1893; Provo Evening Dispatch, July 11, 17, 28, August 9, 1894.

THEHISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant fiom the Utah Statehood C e n k a l Commission. For more information about the Historicai Society telephone 533-3500.

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Utah's Early African American Farmers

h THE 1 9 CENTURY ~ ~ UTAH'S

SMALL NUMBER OF

African Americans worked at whatever

jobs they could find. Discrimination and a lack of educational opportunities generally meant lowincome, often menial, work. Some remained slaves until Congress banned slavery in the territories on June 19, 1862. Still, according to historian Ronald G. Coleman, "a few were able to apply their skills.. .as dressmakers, carpenters, barbers and shoemakers. Some applied their agricultural abilities to farming." Samuel Davidson Chambers was probably the most successful black farmer in Utah from about 1872 through the first decades of the 20th century.

Born on May 21, 1831, in Alabama, Chambers was separated from his mother as a boy and taken to Mississippi where he was kept as a slave until the end of the Civil War. He and his wife, Amanda Leggroan, came to Utah in 1870 as Mormon converts. For a time Chambers worked at a sawmill,but by 1872 he had established a home for his family in Salt Lake City's Eighth Ward and was fanning and growing h i t . After about six years in the city the family moved to a small farm in the Mill Creek area southeast of town. The small hits-including currants, grapes, chemes, and goosebemes-that Chambers worked hard to cultivate won prizes at local fairs. The farm produced many neoessities for the family's survival as well: chickens, eggs, peas, wheat, corn, cabbage, pork, butter, and molasses.

Chambers had some 30 acres under cultivation by World War I. Two brick homes on the property housed Samuel and Amanda as well as Samuel's son Peter and his family. The Chambers farm produced a surplus that was sold to regular customers in the Mill Creek area and as far south as Holladay. Samuel or, sometimes, Amanda delivered fruit and milk, butter, eggs, and chickens by wagon. People also came to the farm to buy currants and other specialties grown by Chambers.

The f m sustained them for many years; Amanda died in 1925, Samuel in 1929 at age 98.

Other Af'rican Americans known to have engaged in farming in Utah were Edwin Woods, Sylvester James, Sylvester Perkins, and Green Flake. Only a few details are hown about these early agriculturalists. Woods homesteaded 160 acres in the Holladay-Cottonwood area of Salt Lake County. He and his wife and six children were living on the property in 1880. Woods apparently ran into financial difficulties, for the land was eventually sold for back taxes. James apparently made a living fanning. According to Coleman, UHepurchased his land in Mill Creek from whites who originally homesteaded part of the area. He later sold or gave some of the land to his son, William, who in turn gave a four-acre plot to his uncle, Sylvester Perkins. Perkins farmed this land as well as some of the nearby property of his brother-in-law, Sylvester James. " Green Flake, who came to Utah with the pioneer company in July 1847, helped with the intial planting of crops (more)

that year. Later, he and his wife, Martha Crosby, raised livestock, garden vegetables, and fruit on their land at U n h Fort in south Salt Lake Valley.

Census data provide only sketchy information about Utah blacks in agriculture. In the m e r category there were 2 in 1870, 5 in 1880, none in 1890, 10 in 1900, and 14 in 1910. (It must be remembered that many Utahns, regardless of occupation, raised fruits and vegetables for their own use.) The 1890 census does list 21 blacks as working in agriculture/fishing/mining in Utah. No black agricultural laborers were listed until the 1900 census with 10 and 1910 with 2 1.

Some African Americans also worked as stockraisers and herders: 1 was listed in the 1900 census and 18 in 1910. Although these numbers are small, so was Utah's black population-only 1,144 in 1910-yet the lives and livelihoods of these early agriculturalists affected the larger community.

See Ronald G. Coleman, "A History of Blacks in Utah, 1825-1910" (PLD. diss., University of Utah, 1980); William D. Chambers," New Era, June 1974; Leonard J. Anbgton, "Black Pioneer Was Union Fort Settler, " Pioneer, September-October 1981.

G. Hartley, "Samrael

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

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Southern Utah's First High School

hi 1883 FORT CAMERON, which had been established a short distance from Beaver, Utah, primarily to protect white settlers from Indian raids, was abandoned. John R. Murdock, president of the Beaver LDS Stake, purchased part of the property from the U.S. Army in hopes of locating an academy on the site. According to one account, he was assisted by Philo T. Farnsworth, bishop of the Beaver Ward, Kent Farnsworth, and other local citizens.

The $15,000 purchase price was a bargain, constituting only about one-eighth the value of the land and structures. It was another of the economic windfalls Fort Cameron had brought to the community. For their money the buyers obtained ten acres, eleven substantial stone buildings, a stable, and outbuildings.

These owners held onto the property for fifteen years. They allowed it to be used for summer schools and pleasure excursions while they lobbied Mormon officials in Salt Lake City for a church academy. Such a school was sorely needed-there being no secondary schools south of Provo--so that southern Utah families ambitious for their teenagers to obtain a real education would not have to send them away.

In 1897 the Utah House of Representatives considered a proposal for the state to buy and establish a comprehensive normal school on the Murdock property. Proponents argued that the state owned many buildings in northern Utah but few in the south. But statehood had just been obtained, and others felt Utah's coffers were too spare to support this $30,000effort. The measure

was defeated.

Thus it was up to Beaver citizens to make a local academy a reality. Among others, Sarah Maeser, member of the local Woman Suffrage Association and wife of the town's first principal, took up the cause. Her interest no doubt had something to do with her being the mother of Karl G. Maeser,head of Provo's Brigharn Young Academy. Interestingly, men as well as women were affiliated with the local suffrage group, and many of them doubled as academy supporters along with John R. Murdock.

Citizen efforts were effective. In 1898 the Mormon church acquired 240 additional acres from the U.S. government and turned the Fort Cameron site into the Beaver Branch of the Brigham Young Academy. A procession marked the opening of the school, attended by two Mormon general authorities and followed by a public concert and ball. Despite its offIcal name, the school was always known locally as the Murdock Academy after its chief patron.

For ten years the Beaver Stake operated the school, offering high school preparatory classes in addition to ninth and tenth grade courses. In 1908 the LDS church headquarters assumed total (more)

control over Beaver Academy and introduced a full high school cumcdum. How important LDS leaders considered the education of their youth is indicated by the addition of a $100,000 classroom building to the campus in 1908.

Finally catching on to the need for public education beyond grade school, the state legislature in 1922 passed a law requiring all Utah counties to maintain tuition-free high schools.

After 25 years, Beaver Academy was closed. Much of the land was sold and the equipment donated to the new Beaver High School.

From 1937 to 2938 Fort Cameron once again housed young men from all over the country, this time assigned to the Milford Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC dismantled the remaining buildings. The stone was used for a new Milford chapel and the Minermille town hall.

Today only the laundress quarters remain. Old Fort Cameron was recently surveyed for possible listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources: Thomas G. Alexander and Leonard J. Axrington, "Utah's Military Frontier," Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (1964); Metta Hutchings White, "Fort Cameron," in Heart Throbs of the West (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1941), vol. 3; Lisa B. Bohman, 'A Fresh Perspective: The Woman Suffrage Association, Beaver and Fiumington, Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 59 (1991).

naE HISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centemid Commission. For more information about the Historical Society tdephone 533-3500.

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Contemporary Ute Government Reflects Old Ways

BEFORE SPANIARDS INTRODUCED HORSES to the American West, the Ute Indians lived and traveled seasonally throughout Utah and western Colorado. The Ute community unit was the large, extended family. Depending on available resources, this unit might consist of three generations or more, including grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Community activities were seasonal and involved the entire group. Several family groups would join for special activities such as war parties, religious ceremonies, and hunts. Sometimes these larger groups remained together forming villages.

But whether one group, several, or a village, the leadership pattern was similar: decentralized and non-pyramidal. No single leader governed all aspects of Ute life. Instead, natural leaders emerged for their talent in war, hunting, medicine, or religion. These Ieaders' decisions were not binding, although logic and pragmatism recommended regard for their counsel. This applied to the elderly as well, who were listened to out of respect for their greater experience and wisdom rather than out of enforced power. Group decisions were made through discussion and consensus.

Use of the horse enlarged the traveling territories of Ute f m e s . Increased mobility allowed more frequent contacts of longer duration between distant family groups. This led to the evolution of twelve major bands. Instead of family groups gathering for communal hunts, several bands joined forces. Inevitably, band leaders emerged to direct seasonal activities just as small group leaders directed family life. Greater mobility also led to more frequent encounters with enemy tribes. As a result, war leaders with expanded functions became more important to Ute society. Yet their power continued to be shared with other leaders, and they continued to lead by consensus and not by birthright or coercion.

Beginning in the late 1840s Ute land, mineral, and water rights were usurped and confiscated for white settlement. The confrontation of these two cultures, in particular the introduction of white concepts of leadership, created confusion not just between white man and Indian but between Ute chiefs.

White government was administered from the top down by a hierarchy that worked according to elaborate written codes and constitutions. Government bureaus had power to force compliance with their decisions. Early U.S. Indian agents had no understanding of the Ute vision of self-government, resulting in many blunders as whites insisted on dealing with one leader empowered to represent and make binding decisions for the entire tribe.

Driven to ever-shrinking reservations, their lives dictated by civil servants with little or no (more)

input from themselves, the Indians ultimately had to adapt. In 1927 six representatives from each Ute band elected the first Ute Tribal Business Council. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allowed them to draw up a constitution and by-laws and gave them new jurisdiction over tribal lands, assets, leases, enrollment, and inheritance procedures. By 1948 a Ute court of three judges was sitting. In 1951 the fist financial settlement was received on claims begun in 1938. The business council used the money for social and building programs, youth camps, land buy-backs, small business development, and per capita payments to tribal members.

In 1960 a faction of 50 'True Utes" tried to overthrow the business council, wanting to return to a traditional leadership system. But by now the majority of the tribe recognized that the complexities of modem society required new patterns.

Yet some of the flavor of traditional Ute government still operates. The council system itself means distribution of authority. In addition, Ute pragmatism may be seen in the division of council work into six departments geared to various needs and expertise; the offices of treasurer, perso~el,public relations, community services, resource development, and tribal education. In addition, the annual Bear Dance and Sun Dance, which became widely celebrated during the Spanish exploration period, continue to be held each year; tribal elders still offer advice and are respectfully listened to; and the tribe meets as a whole when deciding important issues. Finally, many checks of council powers have been written into the constitution, accomplishing what may once have been done informally through courtesy.

The new system is far more complicated than traditional Ute tribal govemment. Council leaders do not just lead hunting parties any longer but have powers appropriate to modem tribal conditions. But today's leaders still cannot speak for their people but require the participation and assent of all the tribe's members. Thus, while the form of Ute govemment may have changed, the spirit remains.

Source: Uintah-Ouray Ute Tribe, % Ute System of Government (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1977).

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

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THE HISTORY BLAZER i\'E1.ZrS OF UTAH'S PAST FRO.iif THE

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Two Utah County Resorts

LOCATED IN AMERICANFORK CANYON, just above Burned Canyon on the south side of Highway 80, is a huge half-cave carved by nature into the rugged canyon wall. This grotto was one of Utah's first dance halls. In the 1880s, as northern Utah County farm communities entered their second generation, Alva A. Green, Sr., bought the site and built a wood platform over the cave floor. A ledge already existed with room for a small orchestra. He furnished light wagons to transport dancers to the cave. They enjoyed long, cool summer evenings of music, dancing, and spooning* But the enterprise was not a commercial success. A four-mile ride on a rough wagon road was not that conducive to romance, and after getting there a girl had to scramble up a steep hillside to reach the dance floor. In addition, there was no lighting, which restricted use. The dance hall venture did not last into the 1890s.

Another pioneer recreational enterprise was more successful. In the early 1870s John Beck bought a plot of land on the north shore of Utah Lake. Called Saratoga, it had once been used by Ute Indians as a campground and hot springs and in the 1860s by an Austrian painter who had a cabin and orchard on it. At the time that Beck took over, it was a favorite picnic spot for settlers.

Beck was called 'the crazy Dutchman" because he had been the first to prospect in the Tintic Mountains, considered an unlilcely spot for finding a mother lode. But he had done just that, making and losing several fortunes from the Bullion-Beck Tunnel (later taken over by Jesse Knight) and other finds. Beck used some of his money to develop Beck's Hot Springs-one in North Salt Lake (now a children's museum) and one at Saratoga. Both ventures were successful.

In 1890 the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, which had a sugar beet fann adjacent to Saratoga, bought the bathing spa. The company operated Saratoga pretty much as Beck had.

In 1926 Frank Eastmond bought Saratoga and expanded it. Among other improvements, he added an outdoor swimming pool and a dance pavilion. For 35 years Saratoga reigned as one of the most popular resorts in the state. The spa's facilities included hot springs for therapeutic bathing and small cabins for overnight stays. In the 1950s the Eastmonds installed a merry-goround, tilt-a-whirl, and other children's rides. The Eastmonds and their son's famiy lived on the property in two homes. Both houses were naturally heated by the hot waters that ran beneath them.

In 1961 the Eastmonds were killed in an automobile accident. For several years their children continued to operate Saratoga until son Mick bought the others out in 1963. He added a giant metal waterslide, replaced the mbins with an up-to-date trailer park, and promoted Saratoga (more)

Springs as a swimming, camping, and fishing getaway. His daughter was Saratoga's salesperson, contacting businesses and families throughout the region to arrange company parties and family reunions.

In the 1980s Saratoga Springs languished. For a time it was used as a sportsman's retreat.

In the early 1990s a new family, owners of a national chain of hotels, purchased Saratoga.

Currently, pools stand empty and the waterslide has been donated to Lehi City for its olympicsized public swimming pool.

Sources: E l m L, Taylor, "Utah Lake," in Chronicles of Courage (Salt Lake City, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers,

1991), vol. 2; Fairamore Beck, "History of American Fork Canyon," in ibid.; Dancehall Cave, Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places, Presemation Office, Utah Division of State History; interview with Connie Nielson, Lehi Chamber of Commerce, March 8, 1996, who had worked at Saratoga.

THE HISTORYB u m 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 Pasta King of the Mountain West

ATTHE TURN OF THE CENTURY ANTONIO FERROopened a small store on West Second South in Salt Lake City where he sold groceries and tobacco products. In March 1905 the budding entrepreneur mamed Giovannina Calfa and soon thereafter launched the Western Macaroni Manufacturing Company. Eventually marketed under the 'Queen's Taste" label, no less than 45 different varieties of pasta products would be manufactured by Ferro and his associates. It seems that long before pasta dishes became trendy items on restaurant menus in Utah the state had a pasta king.

Ferro was born in southern Italy on October 22, 1872, to Cannine and Angela Perri Ferro.

The family owned a large farm. He attended the local schools and later a normal school, but in 1894 he left Italy for America. Like many of his countrymen he found work in mining, first in Pennsylvania and then in Colorado and Mercur, Utah. After working for more than a year and a half in Mercur, he left the mines and moved permanently to Salt Lake City. He managed the macaroni factory until his retirement in 1942 due to failing health. He died on August 29, 1944.

Ferro was active in the Commercial Club, the Utah Manufacturers Association, several fkatemal organizations-including the Sons of Italy-and the Catholic church. He and his wife had three children.

A detailed report of the factory published in the Utuh Payroll Builder in 1927 provides information on the scope of the business and the factory's operation. Ferro's company employed about 25 workers and had a daily capacity of six tons of various macaroni products, although at the time producing only five tons. The factory reportedly furnished 'most of the macaroni supplied to Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada, " with large quantities also shipped to Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. "Queen's Taste" products were also marketed in British Columbia for a number of years until the Canadian government began to tax imported wheat products.

The 45 varieties of pasta produced at the plant ranged from acko-pepe to ziti and came in shapes resembling shells, stars, oats, and letters of the alphabet as well as various sizes and cuts of tubular pasta, flat noodles of various kinds, and an array of spaghetti-like types. The Payroll Builder writer seemed dazzled by the thought that the five tons of macaroni products manufactured daily would, if made into one long piece of the common tubular variety, "reach farther than from Logan to Provo." The guide at the factory said that Utah's Greeks especially liked the small o m pasta while Italians preferred spaghetti. (more)

The Western Macaroni factory used Utah eggs and Turkey Red flour made from wheat produced on Utah and Idaho dry farms, but 80 percent of the flour used came from the harder dururn wheat grown in Minnesota. The large mixers in the factory used 300 pounds of flour at a time. The stiff dough or paste moved from mixer to kneading machine to pressing machines where the various types of pasta were extruded. Racks of pasta were then taken to one of the many drying rooms for 36 to 40 hours. The drying process, critical to quality of the finished product, was monitored by hydrometers and supervised day and night by a worker who used dampers and fans to control the speed of drying so that the pasta would be neither tough nor brittle. Packers placed the finished product into packages, boxes, and barrels for shipping to stores, hotels, and restaurants in the city and throughout the Intermountain Area.

In calling his product "Queen's Taste, " Ferro was clearly exercising his prerogative as the pasta king of the Mountain West.

Utah Pa)rroZI Buildet. 16 (1927); Noble Warmm, Utah Since Statehood (Chicago, 1919), vol. 3; Salt Lake Tribune, August 30, 1944.

See the

THE XISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant fiom the Utah Statehood Cenkmhl Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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Electrifying Utah-Engineer Lucien L. Nunn

IN THE EARLY 1 mAN ENGINEER and contractor by the name of Lucien L. NUM was a major figure in bringing electric power to the Intermountain West. He is best remembered for the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado, and the Olmstad hydroelectric plant in Provo Canyon, Utah. But he also entrepreneured many smaller plants, some of them in Utah. His expertise was high-head hydroelectric technology for relatively small mountain streams.

At the turn of the century Beaver County, first settled in the 1850s, was a busy mining and wool manufacturing center. By 1880 it enjoyed rail service with the Utah Southern Railroad extension to Milford and a branch line to the silver mines. But Beaver lacked hydroelectric power.

The Newhouse Mines & Smelters Company was using an unreliable steam system fired by coal and wood to generate its electricity.

Nunn was attracted by the area's industrial activity. Newhouse Smelter by itself, he knew, was large enough to justifj a small power plant. NUM sent his survey crews into the Tushar Mountains looking for a potential power plant site. They found it in steep Beaver Canyon, twelve miles east of Beaver City. Here several streams flowed into the Beaver River at sufficient grade and supply to run several good-sized generators. NUM promptly organized the Beaver River Power Company with himself as president. His engineers began measuring seasonal water flows as he drew up plans.

In 1905 work began on the dam with A. B. Blainey superintending. Also 2.25 miles of wooden pipeline was laid from the reservoir to a riveted steel penstock (sluice or trough that guides water to the wheels).

In 1907 the company built the powerhouse itself. This was followed by an adjoining complex of offices, residences, boarding house, and shops for the self-sufficient company post.

Nunn hired W. H. W r , an up-and-coming Salt Lake city architect, to design the complex.

Lepper wisely took advantage of a nearby quarry of tuff (or tufa), a pink stone that was relatively easy to cut and square. It had been used in scores of Beaver buildings since the 1880s. The power plant structures, in the Craftsman architectural style, were simple but functional with their shingled upper walls and roofs.

The powerhouse had a sunken floor area for transformers and switches and an area with concrete platforms for two turbine-generators that had a total capacity of 2 megawatts.

In 1908 the penstock was built. Along its 4,5Wfmt length, it made a descent of 1,000 feet. The pipe narrowed from 28 inches at the top to 20 inches at the bottom. This design created a head of 1,069 feet at the turbines. (more)

In April 1908 the plant started up. A 40,000-volt line transmitted electricity to the Newhouse Mines' Cactus Mill 53 miles away. From there, substation transformers took power to Consolidated Mining Company's Indian Queen operation. A second substation carried power to the city of Milford. Over the next few years other customers signed on, including the towns of Minersville and Marysvale. Nunn had masterfully engineered both the mechanical and commercial aspects of this enterprise.

In 1910 smaller diversion dams were built on three streams feeding into the Beaver River.

Feeder lines were laid from these dams to the main conduit. These improvements were costly, but they paid off in increased capacity. Also in 1910, having problems with water regulation, NUM's engineers installed a surge tank at the top of the penstock. When one considers Nunn's many other operations, the care and attention his outfit gave the Beaver Power Plant is evidence of a wellmanaged, efficient organization.

Almost from the beginning Nunn used the Beaver plant as a second campus for his Telluride and Deep Creek educational foundations. Each summer apprentice engineers and students stayed in the plant's boarding house with attached classroom while getting on-the-job experience.

NUMthus helped train a generation of western civil engineers.

In 1917 Nunn merged the Beaver River operation with his Telluride Power Company, increasing Beaver's service area to include parts of Piute, Sevier, and Sanpete counties. In 1918 he builtthe Lower Beaver Power Station three miles downriver specifically to serve the Milford mining operations.

Nunn died in 1929. His interest in Telluride was left to the trustees of his foundations.

Dynamic management of the Beaver plant continued, with upgrades to the operation and improvements on the dam and conduit system. By 1938 all original pipes had been replaced by new welded steel. The wood staves were recycled into barns, sheds, and a blacksmith shop.

Eventually the plant was acquired by Utah Power and Light. Still in operation, the plant and grounds have been named a historic site.

Sources: Beaver Hydroeiectric Plant Historic District Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places, Preservation Office,Utah Division of State History.

THEHISTORYBLAZER 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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Promoting Physical Fitness

"DROP IN ANY AFTERNOON OR EVENING AND

on the indoor running track or take a dip in the superb pool or better still, join one of the classes. The work is easy, safe and recreative, [and] accompanied with music, it adds rhythm and pleasure." This invitation may sound like an advertisement for the newest spa facility in Utah, but it actually dates from World War I. It was included in a talk by B. S. Hinckley, general secretary of the Deseret Gymnasium, touting the value of physical fitness to members of the Utah Manufacturers Association.

'It isn't any credit to a man to make a success of life up to thirty-five and then be ready for the junk pile at forty," Hinckley wrote. He acknowledged that many men faced a high level of tension in their daily work, but rest and recreation were vital to continuing health and success.

Everyone, Hinckley insisted, 'from the strongest athlete down to the bed-ridden invalid" needed exercise, even if 'one can do no more than practice deep breathing. * Those who spent their workday using their 'mental machinery almost to the exclusion of the muscular.. .should aim to secure a little muscular exercise every clay." Without the safety valve of exercise, Hinckley predicted, they would become victims of 'nervous prostration, sleeplessness and anemia. " In the 1990s the demons exorcised by exercise would be sstess, overweight, stroke, and heart attack.

But it was not just the captains of industry and their mental burdens that exercise could help. 'The man who works in the mill, the factory, the store or warehouse gets muscular exercise, but it is usually confined to a certain group of muscles," Hinckley noted, and such a man needed exercise and diversion just as much as anyone. Recreation should be entirely different from anything associated with one's occupation. Office workers should fmd some pleasurable activity such as walking, tennis, golf, gardening, 'raising chickens, or going to a gymnasium. " Hinckley concluded by inviting manufacturers to visit the Deseret Gymnasium, an institution that was already providing activities for some 500 "leading business men of the city and can easily take care of many more." The gym was centrally located near the downtown business district and equipped with 'most every known device for improving the health and increasing the happiness of man."

When Hinckley addressed Utah manufacturers the Deseret Gymnasium was just seven years old. The LDS church had built it in 1910 in the middle of the block east of Temple Square. The three-story brick structure was 90 feet wide by 150 feet long. It was trimmed with stone and featured attractive fjriezes depicting sports. The facility contained a large swimming pool with an instructor always present, bowling alleys in the basement, a running track, all kinds of equipment TRY OUT YOUR LEGS

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for athletic exercise, and a special pool and hot air room for physical therapy. Tennis courts were next to the building. Locker rooms for men and women, a barber shop, and a beauty parlor completed the gym's offerings. Hincfcley's claim that few cities had better gym facilities than Salt Lake City was probably true.

But physical fitness in Utah dates from before the building of the Deseret Gymnasium.The legendary Maud May Babcock, "Utah's first lady of the theater and of physical education," founded the University of Utah Departments of Speech and Physical Education. The New York native came to Utah in 1892, in response to a request from Susa Young Gates, to teach speech at the old Social Hall and at Brigham Young Academy. Before long she was teaching physical culture as well, and she helped to plan the Deseret Gymnasium.

Before Babcock's arrival physical fitness came naturally with such muscular activities as plowing, washing and canning, chasing stray cows, berry picking in the mountains, chopping wood, walking to town, and dancing-the most popular aerobic activity of the pioneer era.

Sources: B. S. Hinckley, "A Talk to Manufacturers on Physical Fitness, " Utah Payroll Builder 5 (1917); Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1941); Allan Kent Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994).

THE HISTORYBLAZER 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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Charcoal Kilns and Early Smelting in Utah

B E G ~ING THE 18605 MINING HAS BEEN an important industry in Utah. Tooele County has long been a leading producer of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. But because the first claims were staked by U.S. soldiers who did not stay in Utah and left few records, little is known about early mining techniques and camp culture. Archaeological study of the Soldier Creek charcoal ovens near Stockton, Twele County, has provided some valuable information not found elsewhere.

Located at the foot of Soldier Creek Canyon at an altitude of 6,100 feet, these four kilns were known as the Waterman Coking Ovens. Waterman was among four pioneer companies operating concentrators in the area. The Jacobs concentrator, built in 1872, was the first; Waterman's probably opened soon after. Another, Chicago Smelter, ran for only a few years.

Easily mined high-grade deposits of silver and gold had been found in the mid-1860s and quickly depleted. Continued mining of extensive low-grade deposits was economically feasible as long as ore prices remained high and smelters were conveniently located. The Watennan operation sewed both the Rush Valley and whir mines.

The kilns themselves reveal a knowledge of smelting techniques brought from California and the East. The best-premed oven is a dome-shaped structure representative of the eastern beehive-type kiln. Such kilns had parabolic domes, base diameters of from 15 to 24 feet, and heights of 19 to 22 feet. Their walls were thicker at the base and had two openings: one two-thirds up the wall for feeding wood into the kiln and drawing the fire and one at the base, presumably for removing concentrates and ashes. Both openings were covered by hinged iron doors. A ldfoot kiln held 15 wrds of wood at a time, a 26foot kiln 45 cords. A single batch of ore had to be burned 3-7 days and then cooled 3-6 days. Cracks in the kiln walls had to be patched periodically both inside and outside using a stuccolike material.

The Soldier Creek beehive kiln is relatively small, having an interior diameter of 13 feet 6 inches. Its structure is stone plastered with a hard, white mortar coated on the inside with carbon.

Spaced about every three feet around the base of the kiln are 3 x Cinch vents for regulating the fire. A kiln of this size probably cost between $500 and $5,000 to build, a modest investment given its long usage.

Other kilns have square exteriors with beehive-shaped interiors. One was fued through a dome-shaped archway in the bottom center. In addition, there is a rectangular lime kiln about 13 x 9 feet with a dfoot round cavity. It is made of stone mortared with red clay.

The Waterman operation was purposefully located midway between its timber source (more)

(Bald Mountain two miles to the east) and the Rush Valley mines (about three miles southwest) and Ophir mines (three miles southeast) to minimize transportation needs. Near the kilns lie the deteriorating foundations of two large buildings, several small ones, and a dugout. Written records, plus examination of the ruins, indicate a camp of 15 to 20 workers' f d e s lived near the smelter.

An 1874 newspaper describing the Chicago operation tells us something about the way the kilns operated: "In the rear of the furnaces are the fuel sheds, in which a supply is maintained of 20,000 bushels of charcoal, and forty tons of coke. The charcoal is obtained under contract, from the adjacent mountains, and produced chiefly from nut pine, delivered at the worh at twenty-one to twenty-two and a half cents per bushel. The coke used is obtained from Pennsylvania at a cost of $36 to $42 per ton.. .." Besides being furnished under contract, charcoal production was a cottage industry in early Utah with farrn wives and their children producing it as a cash crop.

Although the Soldier Creek kilns have suffered some vandalism, several are in fair condition. Because pioneer kilns in Utah have largely disappeared these in Tooele County are worth preserving.

Sources: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, 1961); Utah Mining Association, Utah's Mining Industry: An Historical, Operational & Economic Review of Utah's Mining Industry (Salt Latre City, 1%7); National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Preservation Office,Division of State History; James Gilluly,Geology & Ore Deposits of the Stodton & Faieeld Quadrangles, Utah (Washington, D. C., 1932); Utah Mining Gazette (1874); Faaaie Palmer Gleave, "History of Mary Jane Ewer Palmer, Pioneer of 1866," photocopy of typescript, Utah State Historical Society Libmy.

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

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Controversy in Utah over Smallpox Vaccination

SWPOX WAS PERHAPS THE MOST FEARED DISEASE in the West in the 19th century. And with good reason. An outbreak of smallpox among workers on the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada in 1868 resulted in three to five deaths daily. The bodies were loaded onto railroad cars and taken to a gulch two miles west of Elko and dumped in a common, unmarked grave. In 1869 smallpox devastated the Gros Ventre Indians in Montana, killing an estimated 800 of the 1,500 members of that tribe. When white traders stripped the dead-placed in trees according to tribal custom--of their skin robes and later sold them, their greed spread the epidemic even farther. So much death and suffering need not have occurred. Edward Jemer had developed a vaccine for smallpox in 1796 and made it available to all. But many in the West were as afraid of vaccination as they were of the disease. Utahns, especially, feared vaccination for smallpox.

By the end of the 19th century smallpox was so common in Utah that neighboring states complained that the Beehive State was a threat to the health of the Intermountain West. Newspapers regularly carried reports of outbreaks and deaths from the disease. One man determined to do something about the problem was Dr. Theodore B. Beatty , state health commissioner. He recommended to the State Board of Health that vaccination for smallpox be made compulsory because the disease was so widespread.

Many Utahns reacted with anger, superstition, and fear. Some argued that making vaccination compulsory violated their constitutional rights. Others spread tales of blood poisoning and loss of arms and life due to vaccination. Many were frightened by accounts of the disease but preferred to run the risk of contracting it rather than introduce it into their bodies with vaccine.

Some Mormons believed that the leaders of their church were against vaccination. For almost a year frequent editorials in the Deseret Navs objecting to it had intensified public opposition to smallpox vaccination. Earlier, though, George Q. Cannon had written favorably about vaccination, concluding: "If the evidence can be relied upon, vaccination is an excellent preventive, and people should avail themselves of it as a guard against smallpox." Another Mormon voice for vaccination was the Woman 3 Bponent. As early as 1888 the newspaper noted the local prejudice against vaccination and suggested that people need have "no fear of transmitting the disease from one to another" if the vaccine was used properly.

Dr. Beatty campaigned vigorously for vaccination, telling of the million vaccinations in New York that had not produced adverse results. In 1901 he offered $1,000 to anyone in Utah

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who could prove the loss of a limb because of vaccination. Armed with data on Utah's abysmal smallpox record, Beatty went before the legislature to argue for a compulsory vaccination law.

Legislators turned a deaf ear to his arguments and proceeded to pass the McMillan bill which repealed the compulsory vaccination ordinance and branded the Board of Health as 'a useless . agency, expensive to the state, and wholly incompetent.. ..led by a dictatorial Health Commissioner." Governor Heber M. Wells quickly vetoed the bill, and just as quickly the legislature passed it over his veto. Passage of the McMillan bill was generally celebrated throughout the state.

It was a hollow victory, though. During the 1920s and 1930s smallpox was almost eradicated in states with compulsory vaccination laws. In 1920, for example, Utah had 1,131 cases of smallpox per 100,000 population while New York had only 2.9 and Massachusetts, another compulsory vaccination state, a mere 0.7.

Dr. Beatty hung tough, however. He continued in his post until 1935 and chalked up an impressive record in public health for the state. An Illinois native, he graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago and did postgraduate work in New York and Europe before moving to Utah in the 1890s. He became the state's chief health official in 1899. At the time of his death in 1948 Utah newspapers praised his achievements. The Deseret News noted that 'he did a great work in promoting sanitation and quarantine, to which at the time there was widespread opposition ...both state and nation had to be educated up to a realization of the importance of public health measures. " The Salt Loke T~bunecalled him 'a tireless fighter against ignorance, greed and superstition when they stood in the way of the health and well-being of his fellow Utahns.

Smallpox, typhoid fever and diphtheria were brought under control through his work, which also saw maternal and infant death rates greatly reduced."

Sources: Ward B. Studt, Jerold G. Sorensen, and Beverly Burge, Medicine in the Zntermountuin West (Salt Lake City,

1976); biographical clipping He, Utah State Historical Society Library.

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

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The Women's Literary Club of Moab

UTAH WOMEN, BOTH URBAN AND RURAL, have enjoyed parbcipating in clubs, associations, and organizations of all kinds. In addition to providing opportunities for socializing with other women, many of the clubs helped to satisfy a desire for cultured conversation and learning. Many a Utah town boasted a literary organization for women. In Moab, Grand County, a group of women met on March 9, 1897, to found the Busy Women's Club. Sarah J. Elliott was elected president, Helen Kirk, vice-president, and Melissa Stork, secretary. Other members included Annie Green, Lula Goodman,Addie Maxwell,Mildred Williot, Effie Taylor, Sadie Wilson, Annie Loveridge, Clara Savage, Vera Olson, Susan Ray, Sena Taylor, Lydia Watts, Lula Stork, Essie Shafer, Emma Empey, and Augusta Walker. With the exception of Sarah Elliott and Lula Stork a l l the women were married. On June 7 the club m a t e d with the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs as the pioneer member of the state group from eastern Utah. The club changed its name to the Women's Literary Club in October 1914.

The club's original purpose, Mrs. D. E. Baldwin wrote, was "the study of literature, history, art and general culture." The women also took a keen interest in their town, and she noted their early efforts in promoting the incorporation of Moab, sanitation, and covering the sidewalks with shale. The club also participated in a banquet and entertainment in honor of the state's fust governor, Heber M. Wells.

The club's meeting room through 1913 was in a log cabin on Main Street. Later the members met in the Grand County Courthouse, the music room of the high school, and in private homes. The number of club members was originally limited, but as more women became interested in the organization the membership was increased to 25 and then 30. Finally, no limit was set on the number of women who could join. By 1927 the club had 48 members, met twice a month, and had furnished new club rooms. The expanded membership undoubtedly made it difficult to hold meetings in the members' homes.

The club's accomplishments during its first three decades, as outlined by Baldwin, are impressive: 'We were instrumental in getting a free traveling library." The women had tried to secure a Carnegie library for Moab, and although that proved beyond reach their efforts eventually led to a 'wonderful self-supporting library." The club donated its own library to the town's facility. The group sponsored an art exhibit one year, and 'three real oil paintings were presented to the school." During World War I the members took up Red Cross work and promoted food conservation. .'Always the club helped in every conceivable way for the heroes in France, from buying Thrift Stamps to sugar substitutes," Baldwin said. The members observed Arbor Day by (more)

planting trees, 'some being dedicated to the fallen soldiers. " Other wmmunity campaigns included cooperating with the Home and School League 'to try to stamp out the tobacco habit of minors. " The women raised money to furnish a mom at the Moab Hospital and to help buy an X-ray machine. In 1927 the club cooperated with the City Council in 'installing water hydrants, buying hose and art for fire prevention, and for sprinkling the streets" to keep down dust in the dry season. The club had not forgotten its genesis, though, and still pursued culture. That same year, they were using a study course in world literature produced by Brigham Young University.

On April 9, 1927, the Moab women hosted the Eastern Utah District Convention of the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs. They gave a luncheon for the group, and in the evening a banquet was held. On the following day "the visitors were given a trip down the Colorado River in the Moab Garage boat. Lunch was served on board by the club." Mrs. G. R. West of Price, Carbon County, reporting on the meeting noted: "The present trend is away from the purely selfcultured clubs.. . every club president spoke of some work.. .for community betterment, " including study courses for young women, town clean-ups, cemetery improvements, hospital assistance, Americanization programs, elimination of "objectionable magazines from news stands, " and state and national legislation affecting women and children. Clearly, the women of Moab and eastern Utah were actively involved in local civic affairs and well aware of state and national movements, especially legislation, that might affect their own lives and those of their children.

.

See Mrs. D.E. Baldwin, "Woman's Literary Club, Moab," Utah Payroll B u i h 16 ( h e 1927); Faun McConkie Tanner, Ihe Far County=A Regional History of Moab and La Sal, Utah (Salt Lake City: Olympus Publishing Co., 1976). Note: the two accounts differ on the year of the club's founding, but 1897 seems the more likely date, given that the club celebrated its diamond anniversary in 1972. Tanner calls the group the Women's Literary Club.

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Harriet Shepherd's House Was a Town Center C

EASTOF BEAVER'SMAIN STREET is a substantial red brick house that predates most of the homes around it. In its day (1876) townspeople considered it a mansion with its two stories, full attic, and half-basement.

Some of its architectural touches show loving workmanship: the stone bay windows, decorative cornice, dormers, and exacting stone work. It uses a central hall plan (two rooms flanking the entrance halllstairs) unusual for Beaver. It has another intriguing feature: on the two gable ends are chimney stacks with a window directly beneath each. How was this accomplished? The builder, in bringing the flues down, simply split them around the sides of the windows, rejoining them at the ground 'floor fireplaces.

The house once belonged to Marcus L. Shepherd, a local sheepman and chairman of the board of Beaver Woolen Mills. He was able to build a large brick home at a time when most of his neighbors were still living behind logs and adobe.

The mill, opened by the Mormon church in 1871, enjoyed an immediate success seIling finished woolen goods to nearby Fort Cameron and the booming Lincoln and Horn Silver mines in the Mineral Range west of town. Beaver's inns and hotels were also well patronized by miners traveling to and from the Nevada mines.

The brick for the Shepherd house was probably made of clay from the Patterson pit four miles south of town. This clay was relatively soft but heavy and hard to transport. As a result, most of the more substantial Beaver houses of the 1870s used the local black lava stone that was both a workable and an economic alternative to brick, wood, and adobe. Thomas Frazer probably built this house, despite stone being his specialty; certainly he built the adjacent granary-which mimicked the house in material and design-as he mentioned doing so in his workbooks.

The relative lavishness of the house may be explained by some family history. In 1876 Marcus Shepherd had a 39-year-old wife, Hannah, and a nearly grown family. But as a member of two IDS stake presidencies and a man of substance, he was expected to exhibit exceptional piety -i.e., live the Mormon law of plural marriage. Accordingly, in 1870 he had taken a second wife, 18-year-old Cedaressa Cartwright.

Tradition has it that Hannah and Ceda did not get along, which would be understandable, and that Marcus subsequently lived most of the time with Ceda. Whether or not this is true, "the big house" may have been built to placate a disillusioned senior wife. At least Hannah took title to it, and on her death six year before Marcus's she willed it to her daughter and not her husband. (more)

Whatever Hannah's and Ceda's differences, the two were similar in their civic generosity.

While Ceda was raising seven children and giving away the blankets and clothing M m s received as mill dividends to Beaver's poor, Hannah opened the second floor of her house to neighbors for community dances and socials. Her granary was used for a time as the local jail. The story is told that an Indian was once incarcerated in it after murdering a young miner for his boots. When the victim's brother arrived hankering for justice, the jailer simply unlocked the jail door and looked the other way. That way no trial was necessary.

Hannah Shepherd did not live to see her husband's fortunes decline. Several years before she passed away, the mill ran into trouble. It had operated chiefly on the barter system, trading finished goods for raw materials. As Utah wool gained importance on the national market, wool producers were able to sell for cash, of which the mill had little. Moreover, the mines were beginning to play out and the boomtowns to decline, affecting mill sales. To avoid laying off workers, Shepherd infused his own dollars and wool into the company and succeeded in keeping it operational for another few years.

But in 1889, a year after Hannah died, the mill closed. Hannah's daughter took possession of the big house and lived there for many years. Ceda kept giving away blankets until there were only a pair left.

Sources: Harxiet S. Shepherd House Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places, Presewation Office,Utah Division of State History: Saraessa Harris Baker, "The Other Mother," in Heart m o b s of the W;art(Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1939), vol. 1; "Beaver Woollen Mill,"ibid. (1941), vol. 3.

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Attic Papers Reveal Jesse Knight Ventures

h 1965 A RETIRED MIL~TARY COUPLE, G l e and ~ Gloria Foster, bought a turn-of-the century house on Mill Creek in Salt Lake County from its owner, a grandson of one of Utah's few Mormon mining magnates, Jesse Knight. The house was not built by Knight but by one of the Neff brothers, pioneer millers; the Knight descendant had bought it in the 1950s. But while exploring the attic, the Fosters discovered a manila envelope containing a bundle of mine account records once belonging to Jesse Knight. The family expressed no interest in the papers, so the Fosters kept them for thirty years, only recently showing them to historians.

The papers consist of 180 half-size pages, narrow-lined, hole-punched, and bound by string.

Most are preprinted forms containing information about various mining ventures. Typed entries show each entity's ownership, capital and dividend data, incorporation date, location, and claims held. Handwritten notations indicate changes in ownership over the years. The earliest date mentioned is 1892, the latest 1926.

A sheet for one of the incorporations, Plutus Mining Company, Lists Jesse Knight as president, Jacob Evans vice-president and director, W. L. Mangum secretary/treasurer, and directors J. William Knight, David Evans, and George Havercamp with the name Walter Fitch of the Utah Sugar & Trust Company added by hand. Plutus was organized in 1907 with $100,000 in capital and 12,455 out of 1,000,000 shares issued at a par value of 10 cents. Claims included the famous Plutus and Mahogany mines in the Tintic Mining District. The company was sold in 1914 to Consolidated Mining Company, another Knight venture.

Altogether, the papers detail a Knight empire the beginnings of which were related by a niece in Hean Z?zrobs of the West. Jesse Knight formed his fist mining company in 1892. It took him four years to strike a mother lode. According to the niece, it happened like this: one day he was prospecting 'all by himself" on the east side of Godiva Mountain. Stopping to rest under a pine tree, he heard a voice say, 'This country is here for the Mormons.' This convinced Knight the claim was valuable and that whatever wealth it produced should be distributed-a principle he instilled in all his children.

Knight's technique was to study the limestone in which known ore deposits had formed using this as a guide for estimating the placement of other veins. A 150-foot tunnel had already been dug during this property's assessment, so Knight brought in three associates who extended the tunnel using jackhammers, drills, and blasting powder. They worked 24 hours a day in 8-hour shifts with Jesse himself hauling the dirt by wheelbarrow to the mouth of the mine.

In August 1896 they struck lead ore. The three associates were ecstatic, but Jesse remained (more)

calm, having expected this all along. He hauled the first diggings into the sunlight, dumped them on the ground, and said, 'I have done the last day's [manual] work that I ever expect to. I expect to give employment and make work from now on for other people." Another famous Knight bonanza was the Mammoth. In 1874 surface outcroppings of this lode had been discovered but exhausted. Knight discovered the vein below surface. Other famous Knight mines were the Opex Standard, Dragon Consolidated, Iron Blossom, and Gemini. Some Tintic mines in the 1890s had a copper content as high as 48 percent, and their waste was so rich in gold and silver that small concentrators were built right on site. It is said a single 1907 carload of Tintic ore was valued at $107,000.

The attic papers show just how much employment Knight eventually created. The primary focus of his 65 companies was copper, iron, and coal mining, with gold, silver, and other precious metals as secondary products. Besides the Tintic mines, Knight acquired the infamous Emma at Alta, the West Mountain operation in Bingham Canyon, and Miller Hill at the head of American Fork Canyon. He also held important claims in several Nevada districts plus mining property in m n a , CoIorado, and Missouri.

But his papers reveal diverse ventures, including an ore-sampling company, the UtahPacific Railroad, and a grain and elevator company,all serving the Tintic mining camps. He acquired sugar, canning, and woolen mills. There is an account for a large stock ranch near Richfield, a record of his ownership of Springdell Resort in Provo Canyon, and a page for the Pmvo Opera House listing his wife Amanda Newel1 Knight as director with the notation that it was later sold to the state.

With further study, perhaps these pages found in an old attic will shed even more light on "the Mormon connection" to Utah's mining history.

Sources: Jesse Knight/O. Raymond Knight accounting records in possession of Becky Bartholomew; "Mining in the West,"in Kate B. Carter, ed., Hem nrobs of the Wkst (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1940), vol.

2; Miles P. Romney, Utah's Mining Industry: An Historical, Operational & Economic Review of Utah's Mining Industry (Salt Lake City: Utah Mining Assn., 1967).

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Home Industry 20th-Century Style

HOME INDUSTRY-IN UTAHTHE TWO WORDS ALMOST IMMEDUTELY bring to mind the pioneer era and the exhortations of Brigham Young to produce locally as many of life's necessities as possible. No doubt the Mormon leader would have applauded the tub-thumping of the Utah Manufacturers Association (UMA) 70 years later. During 1917 the Urah Payroll Bu.i&r, official publication of the UMA, celebrated the wide variety of Utah products. Slogans at the top of many pages urged readers to support local businesses: See That a Utah Concern's Name Is on the Label, Let's All Join in Buying Utah Made Goods, Try the Utah Made Goods Next Time, Utah's Industries Grow Through Your Patronage, Utah Made Goods Are Superior, and Farewell to Every Dollar Sent Away from Home.

In a follow-up report on the success of the statewide observance of Utah Products Week, November 11-17, 1917, the magazine boasted: 'Is there a man or woman, boy or girl in the State of Utah who did not have brought to his or her attention the necessity of patronizing home industries? Is there a home in Utah that did not respond to the patriotic call to 'Buy Utah Made Goods'?" Part of the program's success can be attributed to an underlying theme of patriotism in time of war. Buying locally would stimulate Utah's factories to operate at a high level of efficiency. Greater factory output would bring local prosperity and would also feed and supply the troops fighting in Europe. Consuming local products was also supposed to decrease congestion on the nation's railroads which were freighting war-related goods.

The Utah Products Week campaign targeted every possible audience by involving the schools, churches, newspapers, and magazines. Even the relatively new medium of motion pictures was enlisted in the effort: 'The motion picture houses, too, would not allow their audiences to retire before flashing before their eyes the significant slogan, 'Try Utah Made Goods, They're Better. '" Teachers were praised for their creative approach to interesting their students in "the sound gospel of buying local products." At the Ensign School in Salt Lake City, for instance, children in the upper grades had 'assembled 150 labels, cartons, cans, glass jars, sacks, and other receptacles, each containing a distinct Utah Product, the output of seventy different Utah factories. " The products were attractively displayed for all to see. In addition, the pupils participated in an industrial parade, dressed in outfits covered with labels from Utah foods and clothing that 'supply the daily wants of the average household." A banquet at the Hotel Utah on November 16 capped the week's activities. Senator Reed Smoot addressed 'the brilliant audience" and cited the need for American industries to boost their production to meet vital wartime needs. (more)

Ogden had jumped onto the 'buy Utah products" bandwagon on October 9 when boosters and publicists there hosted a luncheon at the Hermitage for members of the Municipal League of Utah. The menu, printed by Swville Press in Ogden, featured Utah products exclusively. Where possible the foods were grown or processed in Ogden. The bill of fare included Mountain Brand ham, roast Ogden beef, crisp Ogden garden lettuce, celery, and fresh tomatoes, Hooper cheese, Goddard's pickles and catsup, Kern's special bread, Hess's nut loaves and layer cakes, Delicia ice cream, Elberta peaches, Weber County grapes, Maid o'Clover butter, Paul Revere chocolates, Murphy's Hotel Utah coffee, Beam-Becker Brewery's prohibition-era nonalcoholic drink, and Columbia Club cigars and Corina cigars and cigarettes.

The Utnh P a y d l BuiIder itself appeared in a new and more attractive format during 1917, its fifth year of publication. The special, enlarged November issue, which ran to 108 pages, was sent throughout the state to libraries and to teachers and other people of influence in communities.

The magazine contained capsule histories of more than 40 Utah industries fiom candy and condensed milk to macaroni and overalls. It certainly a p e d possible to satisfy most of one's daily needs with Utah products. Brigham Young would have been proud.

Source: Utah Payroll Builder 5 (1917).

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Boys' Potato Growing Clubs

DURING THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1912 James C. Hogensen toured the state hoping to organize Boys Potato Growing Clubs in every county. This project of the Extension Division of the Utah State Agricultural College (USAC) helped to N N 1a requirement that the division 'provide agricultural and home science information to anyone not attending a land-grant institution,* including young people. Hogensen's trip was a success. He visited 58 schools and talked with 6,786 boys. With the cooperation of local school officials he organized clubs.

A native of Denmark, Hogensen had moved to Cache Valley in 1880 with his Mormon convert parents. He attended schools in Newton and Richmond and later the USAC in Logan, graduating with a degree in commerce in 1899. As a student he had supported himself by working on f m s , canals, and railroads. As a schoolteacher in Clarkston he also served as the county fruit tree inspector. In 1902 he began postgraduate studies in soils and horticulture at Michigan Agricultural College and in 1903joined the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D. C., in its new soil experiment station program. In 1906 he received a master's degree in agriculture &om Cornell, and by 1907 he had joined the USAC faculty as a professor of agronomy.

Hogensen, who had won renown as a student orator, must have conveyed a great enthusiasm for the potato-growing project to the boys he visited in 1912, for the response was amazing.

In Cache County, for example, 10 Potato Clubs with almost 600 members were organized. Box Elder County boasted 9 clubs with some 300 boys. Utah County's 4 clubs had enrolled 100 boys, while a club in Sanpete County brought 20 boys into the program. These clubs mark the beginning of Utah 4-H. The goal was ambitious. Historian Daniel A. John said that "each boy pledged to grow a half acre of potatoes under the direction of the Agricultural College.. ..accurate records had to be kept. ...Each member of a local club was allowed to compete with other members for local prizes.. ..the winners would advance to the county fair.. ..[and then] to the state fair, where four silver cups were awarded.. .." Winners on the state level would be judged on certified yield (60 percent), best 50 pounds (20 percent), best dozen tubers (10 percent), and for a paper detailing how the crop had been grown (10 percent). Merle Gilbert Hyer, age 16, of Lewiston, Cache County, took the top prize of $100 at the Utah State Fair in 1913.

Hattie Holbrook of Bountiful, Davis County, won the first prize in the home economics division. As state winners she and Hyer also received free trips to Washington, D.C. They were accompanied on the train trip by Hogensen and his wife, Lydia. In Washington the Utah youngsters participated in meetings of the Boys and Girls Agricultural Clubs. Thirty states were (more)

represented. Hyer won acclaim for his potato-growing prowess: 'He raised 797 bushels of potatoes, although the Utah average was only 190 bushels. He did this without the aid of wmmercia1 fertilizers, although he did admit to spreading some of the barnyard variety on his project."

President Woodrow Wilson had been scheduled to greet the state club winners, but in his stead Mrs.Wilson welcomed them. They lined up by state in alphabetical order, placing the Utahns well back in the line. Hyer remembered "the long, beautiful, white gloves the president's wife wore. .[He]had to stifle a smile upon greeting Mrs. Wilson, since after shaking the hands of fifty or so farm kids, her gloves had turned black."

By 1914 Hogensen could report as state club specialist of the Extension Division that nine different types of clubs had been organized: corn, market garden, potato, apple, poultry, sugar beets and mangels, breadmaking, flower garden, and sewing. Business and professional people as well as farmers had become enthusiastic supporters of club work. Hogensen believed that the program increased cooperation between school and home, led to better farm and home record keeping, boosted children's school performance, helped children view agriculture and home economics in a favorable light, improved 4selection and combated plant diseases, and curbed waste-quite an achievement for the Utah 4-Hmovement that had begun with the Boys' Potato Growing Clubs two years earlier.

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Source: Daniel A. John,

"The History of Utah 4-H"(M.S.thesis, Utah State University, 1982).

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.