Chase Park-Centerville, UT Historic Family Homes

Historic Chase Property for Sale!

This is the granary that was build on the property of Isaac Chase.  It was later used as a small home.
The granary is located at

23 W Chase Ln, Centerville, UT 84014

and was for sale in July of 2014 when all these photos were taken.

While driving in Centerville in July 2014,  I saw that the old Chase Family Granary was for sale.  We decided to drive by again to check it out on 24th of July Pioneer Weekend in 2014.    This post contains many of the photos I took that day and the info recorded on the historic markers.  (I have yet to obtain good photos of the Frank Leslie Chase farmhouse where Claire Weiss grew up.)

Here is what is written on the historic marker shown above:

In 1859, George Ogden Chase and his wife Josephine Streeper moved to Centerville with two small children. They moved into the log cabin built in 1849 by Thomas Thurston. This cabin was traded by Brigham Young to George's father, Isaac Chase, for his share of the Chase Mill in Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. The next year, George has a large white home built next to the cabin. Twelve more children were born here.

The 110-acre property was self-sustaining, as George built a two-story rock granary, laundry, ice house, smoke house, large barn and corral. He grew hay and grain for market, fruits and vegetables for his large family, and raised beef, lambs, and pork. The homestead was called "Chase Park" because of its full acre of lawn and shrubs, which surrounded the main home, log cabin and granary.

Josephine had been a school teacher in Salt Lake City and taught in the North Centerville Sunday School for many years. She kept a diary from 1881 to 1894, painting a picture of life in the Chase home. Visitors were numerous, including friends, church leaders, salesmen, and wanderers. These were elaborate events with-storytelling around the fire.

The home remained in the Chase family until 1982. In 1989, the home began to deteriorate and was torn down, leaving only the log cabin, the granary, and memories of the one grand home at Chase Park.

This marker explains that the Chase home in Centerville that was once located here on Chase Lane (1000 North) was demolished in 1989. There is a large pile of rocks where the home once stood and it someone has planted flowers there.

These old stairs once let to the adobe home with the large front porch.

The adobe cabin was built by George Ogden Chase in 1860 and was demolished in 1989. Chase Park had many black locust trees, just like Liberty Park.  The front porch was added about 1920. 

Here's what the Utah Division of State History had linked to the picture above written in 1919. ("Utah since statehood: historical and biographical" (1919), vol. 3.)

George Chase home at Centerville.

Property was in exchange for Chase property in Liberty Park. The ground belonged to his father, Isaac Chase, but home was built by George. Used in Utah Historical Quarterly, Jan. 1961, Historical Notes section.

George Ogden Chase, son of Isaac Chase, was with the family as they journeyed westward to Utah and settled in the capitol city, which remained his home until 1860, when he removed to Centerville. He secured the patents to much land in Centerville and in adjoining towns, which were issued to him and he deeded out to the respective settlers and in many cases trusting them for pay which he never got. Like his father at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, George O. Chase planted the black locust around much of his land, which later caused the place to be known as Chase Park. The home and place are still so designated today. This is one of the few pioneer homes still in use,

The old cabin is still used as a residence.

In 1859 Isaac Chase receive the "Thurston-Chase" cabin and surrounding farm in exchange for his mill property at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  His only son, George Ogden Chase, his second wife, Josephine Streeper, and their children moved in to the cabin in 1859.  They lived her until a nearby adobe house was finished in 1860.  This cabin was used as an additional bedroom when company would come for Christmas.  The three-room addition to the south of the cabin was completed in the 1940's.  The property remained in the Chase family until 1974.

Note the historic marker on the right side of the door.

This old Chase cabin still has a family living in it.

At first we didn't know if this was the smokehouse, an ice house, or an outhouse.  We have since determined it is the smokehouse.

This small upstairs bedroom was where David Weiss and his brother Max slept.  Photos of the rooms are available at the Zillow.com site mentioned below.

Note the thick walls of the original Chase Granary. 

 =====================
The Chase Granary is now for sale.
 Zillow.com info has more photos that are interesting and the Google street view will help you get oriented.

Go to:   http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/23-W-Chase-Ln-Centerville-UT-84014/12662594_zpid/

23 W Chase Ln, Centerville, UT 84014

1 bed, 1 bath, 1,318 sqft

Zestimate®: $164,518

Rent Zestimate®: $1,260/mo

HISTORIC SITE! Cute little cottage located right off of main street in Centerville. Custom built oversized workshop included. Home was previously a granary and needs some TLC. Open deck also accessible from bedroom.

========

There is an interesting article in the Utah Historical Quarterly (Volume 29, Spring 1961) where descendants highlighted some of the interesting history the the 100th birthday of "the gracious home" in Chase Park. The article points out that the home was probably the oldest continuously occupied house in Davis County--remaining in the hands of one family and occupied by family members during all that 100 years time period. 

The adobe home was owned by Kate Chase, Ella Chase and Fanny Dean Matthews when it was purchased by Mrs. Josephine Chase Bradshaw who was the owner in 1961.   Max Weiss said at one time Claire Weiss had title to some of the property.  The cabin remained in the Chase family until 1974.   Claire Chase Weiss grew up in the farmhouse (located south of the cabin and adobe home and not yet pictured here) built by Frank Leslie with John Croft, the craftsman father-in-law, helping his son-in-law Frank.

The Mark and Cyndy Weiss family have pictures from 1996 of the Weiss children in front of the farmhouse that will be inserted later.

On the city website I learned that Centerville was the located between the two growing communities of Farmington and Bountiful and thus became "The City In-Between" or Centerville.

Here's an excerpt from this book written by granddaughter of George O. Chase, Josephine Chase Bradshaw (older sister of Clarissa Chase Weiss).

"At the time the family moved to Centerville, there was one willow tree that stood on the property.  When the home was built they put it under that tree and it still stands today.  (Note from Cyndy-this was probably the same tree that caused the adobe house destruction in 1989?)  A two-story home was first built with one large room upstairs and one large room downstairs, a log room on the north side and a leanto on the south.  The roof was made of split willows laid on logs, straw and diret were piled on the willows and it leaded dreadfully.

"Immediately the family started plans for a permanent home and in 1862 the large adobe home was built, and Josephine Bradshaw at the age of 81 still lives in that home.  (Ed. note: I remember when  Auntie Jo came to our wedding reception in 1975.) This family planted a full acre of lawn and beautified their land with shrubbery.  From that time on it was known as Chase Park.

"Besides the Thurston cabin and the large adobe home, a grainary was built.  It had two stories and grain was stored in bins on the bottom floor.  The upper level was used as a playroom by the Chase boys, as a practice hall for the family and the town band, and at one time it was converted into a Tea Room and many luncheons and dinners were serve there.  In 1952 the grainary was converted into a home."     (See p. 271 of the book The City In-Between.)

Written by Mary Ellen Wood Smoot in 1975.  Mark Weiss has a copy of this book that once belonged to Claire Weiss.

Here are some more interesting places to stop by the next time you are in Centerville, UT.

This is the statue on the monument honoring early Centerville pioneer families.

On the plaque at Founder's Park monument (as well as on the city website) are these concluding words by Vestil Harrison:
"The groundwork for all the conveniences we enjoy today was laid by the early pioneers of Centerville, whose suffering, diligence, and faith in the cause that brought them here made this the choice land we had inherited.  We honor these noble pioneers!  
May the dedication of this monument to their faith, sacrifice, and deeds, inspire us to emulate them and revere their memory with profound gratitude."
 

As I think of these pioneers, I think of the great faith of 
Isaac and Phebe and 
George and Josephine Chase.   

It is easy imagine their legendary family gatherings at Christmas time.  Their industry in building up Chase Park remains part of the legacy passed on to us today.  With great faith these pioneer families dedicated themselves to building up Zion in the Rocky Mountains.

As one descendant of Isaac (who was the father of George O. Chase) wrote:   

“Isaac Chase had three things:   

His wealth, his tools, his testimony.   

He left his wealth in New York and Nauvoo.   

He left his tools at Liberty Park, 

but he always kept his testimony.”

 

This is likely the chapel where the funerals were held for many of the Chase family members.  Originally built in 1879, many additions have been made to this chapel over the years.  Josephine talks of teaching Sunday School in her diary.  Likely she and her many children once walked these halls.  There is a "Church Well"  with fresh water available with or without chemicals available in the parking lot.  A Daughters of the Utah Pioneer (DUP) log cabin museum is located behind the chapel.

This is not too far from the Si's Curve In where David Weiss worked at this father's (Simon Weiss) fast food stand during David's Junior and Senior years of high school.  It is located on Hwy 89 where Bountiful turns into Centerville.

We will have to check the old photos to see if this is maybe part of the original Si's Curve in located across the street from the Junior High School.

Family rumor has it the students from the Junior High across the street drove away the lunch crowd and the business didn't survive.

Follow Me to Zion

"Follow Me to Zion"
This doll was a gift that was given to me by my children who know I have deep admiration for our pioneer ancestors.

I always thought it was strange that Utah actually had a state holiday on July 24th and employers give most people a day off of work!  Now that I live in Utah, I like the extra emphasis given to remembering our state and religious heritage.  The 24th of July reminds us of when Brigham Young announced the end of the trek west to Zion. "This is the Place" he said in 1847.   Today we remember and celebrate with parades, picnics, and maybe a family camping trip.

Each July I try to read a "pioneer book" in memory of my Utah ancestors.    I just finished reading 460 pages about amazing LDS women who were born between 1821-1845 in Volume Two of a series of seven volumes being edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Deseret Book).

The editors collected 30 biographies about faithful pioneer women covering the time period of the trek to Utah and the settlement of new communities in the west.  Whenever I think about pioneers, these are some of the first women I think of.  Their lives are a "monument to their faith and sacrifice" (Turley, Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume 2, p.  xii).

30 well written biographies of Utah pioneer women are shared in this volume.

Most of these women participated in the early events of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They were children or young adults during in the persecutions in Missouri.  They remembered the peaceful times in Nauvoo and they wept at the viewing in the Mansion House over the body of their beloved "Brother Joseph".

They were married and practiced the principle of eternal marriage with their sister wives, they lived in Winter Quarters, and they migrated to Utah.   They moved their families south during the Utah War, sent husbands and fathers as missionaries abroad, helped organize Relief Societies, YLMIA, and Primary auxiliaries.

They watched their husbands go to jail, some moved to Mexico to keep their husbands out of jail, and many were present when the Manifesto discontinued the practice of plural marriage.  They fought political battles for a women's right to vote and they celebrated as Utah became a state of the Union.  Many of these women lived into the twentieth century

I feel a kind of honor and respect for these women that is difficult to explain. They are certainly valiant role models.   Many of the biographies contained excerpts from journal entries.  How thankful I am they recorded their stories and, as Emily Partridge Young wrote, "to use pen ink and paper as a trap, to hold [their thoughts] until they can be used."  (Turley, p. 442).

Pioneer family members have been gathered to Utah and the USA from all over the earth.  Look around the outer edges to see all the countries our ancestors left to gather to America.

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel wrote:  "In the latter years thou shalt [be] gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel."  (Ezekel 38:8)  My own faithful pioneer women came from England, Denmark, and Wales.  My husband's family from Holland, Scotland, Germany, and Russia.  Our children are recipients of an amazing legacy and have seen fulfillment of Ezekiel's words.

As stated on the Relief Society website, Daughters In My Kingdom:

We come from a long line of faithful, righteous women

"....The heritage of Relief Society is not just about women who lived in the past; it is also about women all over the world today who make and keep covenants." 

Watch moving videos here:   https://www.lds.org/daughters-in-my-kingdom/videos?lang=eng&page=1&length=3

I find myself thinking how much I owe my personal happiness to these early pioneer women. They went before, showing me how to walk in the path of faith.  "The faith these women exhibited as they rejoiced in blessings and dealt with struggles provides a model for us in facing our own challenges as we strive to build lives of faith today" (Turley, Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume 2, dust cover).

Blessed honored Pioneer.   LDS Hymn #36

Each July when in church we sing the words "Blessed Honored Pioneer" I find myself wiping my eyes as my heart swells with deep gratitude.  It is right that we sing our song of "honor, praise and veneration to the founders we revere" (LDS Hymnal, "They, The Builders of the Nation"  Hymn No. 36).

As Pres. Kimball (12th Pres. of LDS Church) expressed it:

"We know that women who have deep appreciation for the past will be concerned about shaping a righteous future."

Spencer W. Kimball, Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters, October 1978

Certificate documenting that Cyndy Owen Weiss is a descendant of a Utah Pioneer. The Salt Lake City Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum is one of my favorite places to visit!  The blue Faith in Every Footstep is a rubbing off of one of our ancestor's headstones.

Letter that came with certificate (above)  in 1997.

In 1997 I received a letter documenting my lineage from the Utah Genealogical Association.  It reads:  It is most fitting and proper that we ever recall their stirring indomitable spirits, faith, and courage in surmounting great obstacles and hardships to build the great State of Utah; and that we steadfastly resolve these noble qualities will ever endure in our lives as a heritage for future generations. 

Invitation to all:  "Follow Me to Zion".

Tucked inside a journal belonging to handcart pioneer Thomas Normington are two fabric strips with the words "Follow me to Zion" cross-stitched in the center and likely used as bookmarks.

These words were "an invitation to devote one's life to God and his purposes.  They are also an invitation for each person to consider his or her path" (Follow Me to Zion by Olsen and Allphin, p. xii).

 I want to follow the great women of faith that I have being reading about.  I want to walk in their footsteps and be more like them.  I want to have "faith in every footstep" like they did.  It is a good thing to think upon these ancestors each July 24th.


==============

Probably my favorite "Pioneer Song" is "Faith in Every Footstep".  I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform it this Sunday. Maybe you can take a minute and feel the power of this message.
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/videos/july-20-2014-music-and-the-spoken-word?lang=eng
 Here's another way to view it:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6jH4mOEDu5w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

---

Faith in Every Footstep 

Text and music: K. Newell Dayley, b. 1939

1. A marvelous work has begun to come forth among all the children of men.

O ye that embark in the service of God, give heart, mind, and strength unto him;

For prophets have spoken and angels have come to lift the world from sin,

That Christ may reign over all the earth and bless his gathered kin.

Chorus

With faith in ev’ry footstep, we follow Christ, the Lord;

And filled with hope through his pure love, we sing with one accord.

2. Those marvelous Saints who embraced this great work and shared it in lands far and near;

Who gave all their heart, mind, and strength to the Lord with wisdom and vision so clear;

Now stand as examples of virtue and faith, of souls prepared to hear,

Of knowledge sure, born of humble heart, and love that banished fear.

3. If we now desire to assist in this work and thrust in our sickles with might,

If we will embark in the service of God to harvest in fields that are white;

Our souls may receive the salvation of God—the fulness of his light,

That we may stand, free of sin and blame, God’s glory in our sight.

© 1996 LDS. All rights reserved. This hymn may be copied for incidental, noncommercial use. This notice must appear on each copy made.

Add caption

Days of '47 and other Pioneers in the Family

Blessed Honored Pioneer

Entering the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.  Isaac Chase's 5th wagon was the last to arrive that season.

It is that time of year again when in Utah we have a state holiday and honor the "firsts" to the Salt Lake Valley.  Every July 24th we "remember".

Here are the Utah Pioneer Lines of the Mark and Cyndy Weiss Family.
How many of them do you know by name?
Have you been to the cemeteries where your ancestors are laid to rest?
Could you recognize their photos?
Do you know what dreams brought these family members to the United States?

Here's the chart:

Utah Pioneer Lines of Mark and Cyndy Weiss

M for Mark’s ancestral lines, C for Cyndy’s lines

(rev. 8-05-13)

Name	Age at time of trek	Name of Ship	Overland Company	Year	Notes
Henry Clegg, Jr. C	30	Juventa March 31, 1855 From Liverpool to Philadelpia, PA	Richard Ballantyne	1855 Departed 1-2 July Arrived 25 Sept. 427 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT Wife of 12 years, Hannah Eastham, died May 28, 1855 in Mormon Grove (Atchison) KS and son died soon thereafter.
John Griffiths C	45	Horizon Liverpool to Boston MA	Edward Martin Handcart Co.	1856 Departed Aug 25 Arrived Nov 31 665 in company	Buried in SL City Cemetery Died day after arriving in SLC. 2 sons died on trail.
Elizabeth Webb Griffiths C	30	Horizon Liverpool to Boston, MA	Edward Martin Handcart Co.	1856 Departed Aug 25 Arrived Nov 31 665 in company	Buried in SL City Cemetery.  2nd wife of John.  Step-mother to Margaret. Remarried Wm. Keddington
Margaret Ann Griffiths C	16	Horizon from Liverpool to Boston MA	Edward Martin Handcart Co.	1856 Dep. Aug 25 Arr. Nov 31 665 in company	Buried in Heber City Cemetery 2 brothers died on trail. Separated from Sister and Father.
Thomas Moulton C	45	Thornton from Liverpool to NY	James G. Willie Handcart Co.	1856 Dep. Aug 16 Arr. Nov 9 500 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT One of Heber’s original settlers.
Sarah Denton Moulton C	39	Thornton from Liverpool to NY	James G. Willie Handcart Co.	1856 Dep. Aug 16 Arr. Nov 9 500 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT
Joseph Moulton C	11	Thornton from Liverpool to NY	James G. Willie Handcart Co.	1856 Dep. Aug 16 Arr. Nov 9 500 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT
Isaac Chase M	56	New York to To Nauvoo	Jedediah M. Grant-Joseph B. Noble Company	1847 Dep. 19 June Arr. 2 Oct. 175 in company	Buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery (Same Company with Eliza R. Snow)

Phebe Ogden Ross Chase M	53	New York To  Nauvoo	Jedediah M. Grant Co. Joseph B. Noble Company	1847 Dep 19 June Arr 2 Oct 175 in company	Buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery
George Ogden Chase M	15	New York to Nauvoo	Jedediah M. Grant-Joseph B. Noble Company	1847 Dep. 19 June Arr. 2 Oct 175 in company	Buried in Centerville, UT Cemetery

John Croft M	24	Underwriter from Liverpool to New York arr. May 3, 1860. (Train to Winter Quarters)	James D. Ross Company	1860 Dep. 14 June 1860 Arr. 3 Sep. 265 in company	Married to Amelia just before leaving England Jan 8, 1860 Newlywed adventure!
Amelia Mitchell Croft M	20	Underwriter from Liverpool to New York arr. May 3, 1860. (Train to Winter Quarters)	James D. Ross Company	1860 Dep. 14 June 1860 Arr. 3 Sep. 265 in company	Baby Howland born soon after arrival in SLC.  Buried in Enterprise, UT Cemetery
Jane Hornby Mitchell M	58	Underwriter from Liverpool to New York arr. May 3, 1860. (Train to Winter Quarters)	James D. Ross Company	1860 Dep. 14 June 1860 Arr. 3 Sep. 265 in company	Buried in Enterprise, UT Cemetery. Mother of Amelia Mitchell
John Cummings C	49	Tennessee to Nauvoo	Uriah Curtis Company	1852 Dep. Jun 28 Arr. 1 Oct 257 in company	(Personal Hist says John Maxwell Co.)
Rachel Canarda Cummings C	39	Tennessee to Nauvoo	Uriah Curtis Company	1852 Dep. Jun 28 Arr. 1 Oct 257 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT Cemetery
Isaac Cummings C	14	Tennessee to Nauvoo	Uriah Curtis Company	1852 Dep. Jun 28 Arr. 1 Oct 257 in company	Buried in Heber City, UT Cemetery
Elisha Jones C	37	Ohio to Winter Quarter’s	Aaron Johnson Company	1850 Dep June 8 Arr Sep 12	Buried in Heber City, UT Cemetery
Margaret Talbott Jones C	35	Ohio to Winter Quarter’s	Aaron Johnson Company	1850 Dep June 8 Arr Sep 12	Buried in Heber City, UT Cemetery
Sarah Jones C	8	Ohio to Winter Quarter’s	Aaron Johnson Company	1850 Dep June 8 Arr Sep 12	Buried in Heber City, UT Cemetery
Wilkinson Streeper M	41	Pennsylvania to Nauvoo	Easton Kelsey Company	1851 Dep June 29 Arr  Oct 7 157 in company	Salt Lake City Cemetery

Matilda Wells Streeper M	37	Pennsylvania to Nauvoo	Easton Kelsey Company	1851 Dep June 29 Arr  Oct 7 157 in company	Salt Lake City Cemetery
Josephine Streeper M	16	Pennsylvania to Nauvoo	Easton Kelsey Company	1851 Dep June 29 Arr  Oct 7 157 in company	BY commanded George O. Chase to marry her. Brother was a Pony Express rider

“Non-Pioneer” Ancestors who Immigrated to Utah
Inger Marie Jensen C	47	Ship Wyoming from Liverpool to New York Previously: Ship from Copenhagen Denmark to Hull, England. Train from Hull to Liverpool	Train from NYC to SLC	1874	Buried in Heber City, UT Mother of Jensine Marie Jensen
Jensine Marie Jensen C	15	Ship Wyoming from Liverpool to New York Previously: Ship from Copenhagen Denmark to Hull, England. Train from Hull to Liverpool	Train from NYC to Salt Lake City.	1874	Buried in Heber City, UT
Max Weiss M	26	Ship Normannia? From Ivanova, Belarus Hamburg Germany to SLC		1895	Salt Lake City Cemetery-Montefiore
Annie Wahrhoftig Weiss M	35	SS Nordam from Ivanova, Belarus to Rotterdam and NY then by train to SLC		1903	Salt Lake City Cemetery-Montefiore
Simon Solomon Weiss M	6	SS Nordam from Ivanova, Belarus to Rotterdam and NY then by train to SLC		1903	Centerville City Cemetery
Peter Carl Ballegooie M	6	From Netherlands To SLC 1904			Buried in Redwood Mem. Estates, Taylorsville, UT
Everett Van Ballegooie M		From Netherlands 1904		1904	Wasatch Lawn Memorial (no grave marker)
Teuntje (Tessie) Hofman M		From Denmark 1904		1904	Wasatch Lawn Memorial (no grave marker)
Christian Jensen M		From Denmark
See Pioneer Overland Travel http://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/ for company details on all these individuals.

Many members of our family have re-enacted a Pioneer Trek.

Pioneers included the Moulton (Willie Company) and Griffiths (Martin Company).  Henry Clegg's brother's family also came with the Willie Company.

I can easily imagine John Griffiths in this picture.  2 of his boys died in Wyoming.  John made it to Salt Lake Valley with his two daughters and 2nd wife and then he died the very night of his arrival.

So have a great 24th of July-Pioneer Day Celebration.  Indeed we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Here is a wonderful talk that has always touched my heart.  

To Them of the Last Wagon

By President J. Reuben Clark Jr. (1871–1961)

The thousands of faithful, unsung Saints who endured the rigors of the westward trek and colonization left us a spiritual heritage to treasure.

======

In 1947, the centennial of the arrival of Latter-day Saint pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley, many tributes were paid to those who set their faces toward Zion and wore out their lives in pursuit of that spiritual homeland. One of the most poignant of those tributes was voiced by President J. Reuben Clark Jr., First Counselor in the First Presidency, in a general conference address Sunday, 5 October 1947. That address is now reprinted in tribute to those early pioneer Saints as well as to the millions of Saints today who trek across plains of personal trial and deserts of worldly perils toward their spiritual homeland.

My brethren and sisters, I should like in the beginning to add my testimony to the many that we have heard during this conference—my testimony that God lives; that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the World, the First Fruits of the Resurrection; that Joseph Smith was a prophet; that through him the gospel was restored and likewise the priesthood, the authority delegated to man on earth to represent Deity here among us; and that the Prophet has been followed down to and including our present president, George Albert Smith, by men who possessed the keys of the last dispensation as conferred upon Joseph Smith.

The matter that I shall give you today is very dear to my soul. Since I should like to say what I have to say in the best way I can say it, I have written it down and shall read it. I hope that what I shall say will be in harmony with the spirit of this great conference—I think the greatest I have attended in its high spiritual tone.

At the near close of this one hundredth year of the entering into these valleys of your fathers and your mothers, some of yours and mine, I wish to speak a few further words of humble tribute and thanksgiving to them, and especially to the meekest and lowliest of them, those great souls, majestic in the simplicity of their faith and in their living testimony of the truth of the restored gospel, to those souls in name unknown, unremembered, unhonored in the pages of history, but lovingly revered round the hearthstones of their children and their children’s children who pass down from generation to generation the story of their faith and their mighty works, and the righteousness of their lives and living, those souls who worked and worked, and prayed and followed, and wrought so gloriously.

I would not take away one word of praise or gratitude, honor or reverence from the great men who led these humble ones of ours. They were mighty men in brain and brawn, in courage and valor, in honesty and in love of truth, living near the Lord—Brothers Brigham and Heber and Wilford and Willard and Charles, the two Orsons and Parley and John and George and Erastus and Lorenzo and Daniel and Joseph and Jedediah, and a host of other giants, each and all richly blessed with the Lord’s divine love and with that gift of the Holy Ghost that made them leaders truly like unto Moses of old. I yield, we yield, to no one in our gratitude for them and for their work of directing the conquest of the wilderness and of saving men’s souls. Their names shine lustrously on those pages of history which record only the doings of the makers of epochs—those choice spirits, chosen before the foundation of the world, to be the leaders and builders of dispensations of God’s dealings with men; and these leaders of ours to be the builders of that dispensation which of old was named the “dispensation of the fulness of time[s]” [Eph. 1:10; D&C 112:30]. Unnumbered eternities will remember and honor them.

But I should like now and here to say a few words about those who trod after where those giants led, some in the same companies that the Brethren piloted, some in later companies following that year and the years after, some in the fateful handcarts, with their unexcelled devotion, heroism, and faith, all trickling forward in a never-failing, tiny stream, till they filled the valley they entered and then flowed out at the sides and ends, peopling this whole wilderness-waste which they fructified, making it to fulfill the ancient prophecy that the desert should blossom as the rose.

I would like to say something about the last wagon in each of the long wagon trains that toiled slowly over the plains, up mountain defiles, down steep, narrow canyons, and out into the valley floor that was to be home—this last wagon: last, because the ox team that pulled it was the smallest and leanest and weakest, and had the tenderest feet of any in the train; it was slow starting, and slow moving; last, because, worn and creaking, it took more time to fix and to grease, for young Jimmy generally had trouble in getting the wagon jack under the “ex” [the point where a shaft called the “reach” crosses the axle]; last, because its wind-rent cover was old and patched and took hours to mend and tie up to keep out the storm; last, because the wife, heavy with child, must rest till the very moment of starting; last, because sickly little Bill, the last born, poorly nourished, must be washed and coaxed to eat the rough food, all they had; last, because with all his tasks—helping little Bill, cooking and cleaning up the breakfast (Mother was not able to help much)—Father took a little longer to yoke his cattle and to gird himself for the day’s labor; last, because his morning prayers took a few more minutes than the others spent—he had so many blessings to thank the Lord for and some special blessings to ask the Lord to grant, blessings of health and strength, especially for his wife, and for little Bill, and for the rest, and then the blessings for himself that his own courage would not fail, but most of all for the blessing of faith, faith in God and in the Brethren who sometimes seemed so far away. For they were out in front where the air was clear and clean and where they had unbroken vision of the blue vault of heaven. The Brethren had really visioned the glory of the Lord, who walked near them, put his thoughts into their minds; his Spirit guided and directed them, petitioned thereto by the thousands of Saints who were back in Winter Quarters, back in Iowa, back in the States, and beyond, even across the waters, for the faithful poured out their souls in fervent prayer to Almighty God that the Brethren should be inspired. The Saints buoyed up the Brethren out in front with encouragement, with praise, and sometimes even with adulation. Knowing the Brethren were prophets of God, the Saints gave them full confidence, daily, almost hourly, expressed. The Brethren lived in a world of commendation from friends and the tried and true Saints. Rarely was their word or their act questioned by the faithful Saints. This was as it should be and had to be to carry out the Lord’s purposes.

But back in the last wagon, not always could they see the Brethren way out in front, and the blue heaven was often shut out from their sight by heavy, dense clouds of the dust of the earth. Yet day after day, they of the last wagon pressed forward, worn and tired, footsore, sometimes almost disheartened, borne up by their faith that God loved them, that the restored gospel was true, and that the Lord led and directed the Brethren out in front. Sometimes, they in the last wagon glimpsed, for an instant, when faith surged strongest, the glories of a celestial world, but it seemed so far away and the vision so quickly vanished because want and weariness and heartache and sometimes discouragement were always pressing so near.

When the vision faded, their hearts sank. But they prayed again and pushed on, with little praise, with not too much encouragement, and never with adulation. For there was nearly always something wrong with the last wagon or with its team—the off ox was a little lame in the right front shoulder; the hub of the left front wheel was often hot; the tire of the hind wheel on the same side was loose. So corrective counsel, sometimes strong reproof, was the rule, because the wagon must not delay the whole train. But yet in that last wagon there was devotion and loyalty and integrity, and above and beyond everything else, faith in the Brethren and in God’s power and goodness. For had not the Lord said that not even a sparrow fall[s] unnoticed by the Father [see Matt. 10:29], and were they not of more value than sparrows? And then they had their testimony, burning always like an eternal fire on a holy altar, that the restored gospel was true, that Joseph was a prophet of God, and that Brigham was Joseph’s chosen successor.

When the train moved forward in the early morning sun and the oxen with a swinging pull that almost broke the tongue got the last wagon on the move, the dust in the still morning air hung heavy over the road. Each wagon from the first stirred up its own cloud, till when the last wagon swung into line, the dust was dense and suffocating. It covered that last wagon and all that was in it; it clung to clothes; it blackened faces; it filled eyes already sore, and ears. The wife, soon to be a mother, could hardly catch her breath in the heavy, choking dust, for even in the pure air she breathed hard from her burden. Each jolt of the wagon, for those ahead had made wagon ruts almost “ex” deep, wrung from her clenched lips a half-groan she did her best to keep from the ears of the anxious, solicitous husband plodding slowly along, guiding and goading the poor, dumb cattle, themselves weary from the long trek. So through the long day of jolting and discomfort and sometimes pain, and sometimes panting for breath, the mother, anxious only that the unborn babe should not be injured, rode, for she could not walk; and the children walked, for the load was too heavy and big for them to ride; and the father walked sturdily alongside and prayed.

When in the evening the last wagon creaked slowly into its place in the circle corral and the Brethren came to inquire how the day had gone with the mother, then joy leaped in their hearts, for had not the Brethren remembered them? New hope was born, weariness fled, fresh will to do was enkindled; gratitude to God was poured out for their knowledge of the truth, for their testimony that God lived, that Jesus was the Christ, that Joseph was a prophet, that Brigham was his ordained successor, and that for the righteous a crown of glory awaited that should be theirs during the eternities of the life to come. Then they would join in the songs and dancing in the camp, making the camp’s gaiety their own—as much as Mother’s condition would permit.

Then the morning came when from out that last wagon floated the la-la of the newborn babe, and Mother love made a shrine and Father bowed in reverence before it. But the train must move on. So out into the dust and dirt the last wagon moved again, swaying and jolting, while Mother eased as best she could each pain-giving jolt so no harm might be done her, that she might be strong to feed the little one, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Who will dare to say that angels did not cluster round and guard her and ease her rude bed, for she had given another choice spirit its mortal body that it might work out its God-given destiny?

My mother was one of those babes so born in 1848, ninety-nine years ago.

Another morning came, when courageous little Bill, who, with a hero’s heart, had trudged through long days of hot sun and through miles of soggy mud in the rain, his little body drenched, little Bill, weak and wan, must be crowded in to ride with Mother, for he was sick from a heavy cold. Months before, on that cold winter’s night when they fled Nauvoo for their lives to escape the fiendish wrath of a wild mob, Bill became dangerously ill with pneumonia, which left him with weak lungs. This old illness now returned. He grew worse and worse. The elders came and prayed he might get well. But the Lord wanted little Bill with Him. So a few mornings later a weeping mother and a grief-stricken father and that last wagon swung into place in the line, leaving beside the road, under some scrub brush, a little mound, unmarked save for heaped up rocks to keep out the wolves, a mound that covered another martyr to the cause of truth.

So through dust and dirt, dirt and dust, during the long hours, the longer days—that grew into weeks and then into months, they crept along till, passing down through its portals, the valley welcomed them to rest and home. The cattle dropped to their sides, wearied almost to death; nor moved they without goading, for they too sensed they had come to the journey’s end.

That evening was the last of the great trek, the mightiest trek that history records since Israel’s flight from Egypt, and as the sun sank below the mountain peaks of the west and the eastern crags were bathed in an amethyst glow that was a living light, while the western mountainsides were clothed in shadows of the rich blue of the deep sea, they of the last wagon, and of the wagon before them, and of the one before that, and so to the very front wagon of the train, these all sank to their knees in the joy of their souls, thanking God that at last they were in Zion—“Zion, Zion, lovely Zion; Beautiful Zion; Zion, city of our God!” [Hymns, no. 44]. They knew there was a God, for only he could have brought them, triumphant, militant, through all the scorn, the ridicule, the slander, the tarrings and featherings, the whippings, the burnings, the plunderings, the murderings, the ravishings of wives and daughters, that had been their lot, the lot of their people since Joseph visioned the Father and the Son.

But hundreds of these stalwart souls of undoubting faith and great prowess were not yet at their journey’s end.

Brother Brigham again called them to the colors of the kingdom of God, and sent them to settle the valleys, near and remote, in these vast mountains of refuge. So again they yoked their oxen and hitched up their teams, and putting their all in the covered wagon, this time willingly, unwhipped by the threat of mob cruelty and outrage, they wended their slow way to new valleys again trusting with implicit faith in the wisdom and divine guidance of their Moses. The very elements obeyed their faith, faith close kin to that which made the world.

These tens of thousands who so moved and so built were the warp and the woof of Brother Brigham’s great commonwealth. Without them Brother Brigham had failed his mission. These were the instruments—the shovelers, the plowers, the sowers and reapers, the machinists, the architects, the masons, the woodworkers, the organ builders, the artisans, the mathematicians, the men of letters, all gathered from the four corners of the earth, furnished by the Lord to Brother Brigham and the prophet leaders who came after, that he and they might direct the working out of His purposes. These wrought as God inspired Brother Brigham and the other prophets to plan, all to the glory of God and the upbuilding of His kingdom.

Upright men they were, and fearless, unmindful of what men thought or said of them, if they were in their line of duty. Calumny, slander, derision, scorn left them unmoved, if they were treading the straight and narrow way. Uncaring they were of men’s blame and censure, if the Lord approved them. Unswayed they were by the praise of men, to wander from the path of truth. Endowed by the spirit of discernment, they knew when kind words were mere courtesy, and when they betokened honest interest. They moved neither to the right nor to the left from the path of truth to court the good favor of men.

So for a full hundred years, urged by the spirit of gathering and led by a burning testimony of the truth of the restored gospel, thousands upon tens of thousands of these humble souls, one from a city, two from a family, have bade farewell to friends and homes and loved ones, and with sundered heart strings, companioned with privation and with sacrifice even to life itself, these multitudes have made their way to Zion, to join those who were privileged to come earlier, that all might build up the kingdom of God on earth—all welded together by common hardship and suffering, never-ending work and deep privation, tragic woes and heart-eating griefs, abiding faith and exalting joy, firm testimony and living spiritual knowledge—a mighty people, missioned with the salvation not only of the living but of the dead also, saviors, not worshippers of their ancestors, their hearts aglow with the divine fire of the spirit of Elijah, who turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers.

And thousands upon thousands of these tens of thousands, from the first till now, all the elect of God, measured to their humble calling and to their destiny as fully as Brother Brigham and the others measured to theirs, and God will so reward them. They were pioneers in word and thought and act and faith, even as were they of more exalted station. The building of this intermountain empire was not done in a corner by a select few but by this vast multitude flowing in from many nations, who came and labored and wrought, faithfully following their divinely called leaders.

In living our lives let us never forget that the deeds of our fathers and mothers are theirs, not ours; that their works cannot be counted to our glory; that we can claim no excellence and no place because of what they did, that we must rise by our own labor, and that labor failing, we shall fall. We may claim no honor, no reward, no respect, nor special position or recognition, no credit because of what our fathers were or what they wrought. We stand upon our own feet in our own shoes. There is no aristocracy of birth in this Church; it belongs equally to the highest and the lowliest; for as Peter said to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, seeking him: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

“But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34–35).

So to these humble but great souls, our fathers and mothers, the tools of the Lord, who have, for this great people, hewed the stones and laid the foundations of God’s kingdom, solid as the granite mountains from which they carved the rocks for their temple, to these humble souls, great in faith, great in work, great in righteous living, great in fashioning our priceless heritage, I humbly render my love, my respect, my reverent homage. God keep their memories ever fresh among us, their children, to help us meet our duties even as they met theirs, that God’s work may grow and prosper till the restored gospel of Jesus Christ rules all nations and all peoples, till peace, Christ’s peace, shall fill the whole earth, till righteousness shall cover the earth even as the waters cover the mighty deep [see Moses 7:62]. Let us here and now dedicate all that we have and all that we are to this divine work. May God help us so to do.

[illustration] To Them of the Last Wagon, by Lynn Fausett, © courtesy Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, all rights reserved

[photos] Photos courtesy of LDS Church Archives, except as noted.

[photo] This group of emigrants, photographed near Coalville in 1867, arrived in Utah toward the end of the wagon train era.

[illustration] Detail from Shall We Not Go On in So Great a Cause, by Clark Kelley Price. [photo] Inset, below: Pioneer sisters Mary Elizabeth and Emma Chase, about 1853.

[illustration] Chimney Rock, by George M. Ottinger.

[photo] Edward Martin, captain of the Martin Handcart Company, and family, about 1870.

[photo] The surviving pioneers of 1847 sat for this photograph on 24 July 1905. (Photo by C. R. Savage Photo.)

[photo] Mrs. Young Elizabeth Steele Stapley, first LDS child born in the Great Basin on 9 August 1847.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/print/1997/07/to-them-of-the-last-wagon?lang=eng&clang=eng

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

July 24th Pioneer Day Parade in the late 1800's

Happy Pioneer Day!   

Remember who you are and where you came from.