ORAL HISTORY OF HYRUM BURTRAN PARKIN
as dictated by HBP and written by his Second Wife, Vera
One hot summer day August 6, 1875 in a humble but happy pioneer home a baby son was placed in the arms of a young mother by a kind neighbor Mrs. Marshall who was called a midwife. This young mother Phoebe Phylinda Stanley Parkin was but seventeen years of age and her kind and loving husband was twenty-one.
Their home was only a two room log cabin with a dirt floor. A wooden bedstead with a straw filled mattress in place of springs with a tick filled with wild goose feathers on top. In later years when the children arrived straw filled ticks were placed in the corners for them. It was several years before a wooden floor was layed but like all other pioneer families they were thankful for what they had and were happy.
This home was located just a few feet south of the present home of Clifford Olsen, in South Bountiful Ward on Onion Street or 8th West, Woods Cross, Davis County, Utah.
Aunt Rachel Foreman’s husband Frank had a lot of horses and he said if they would name the baby Burtran he would give him a horse when he was old enough to ride one. Burt said that Uncle Frank had lost a son by that name. Burt never did get the horse.
He always went by the name of Burt until after the death of his father Hyrum then he commenced signing his name, Hyrum B. Parkin.
Hyrum Parkin father of this young son was born in Loscoe, Derbyshire, England February 4, 1854. He like thousands of others who heard the gospel and joined the Latter-Day Saints left England with his father and mother John and Elizabeth Wright Brown Parkin and four brothers William J., John, Joseph, Heber and one sister Harriet and came to America.
They left England for America May 30, 1863 on the ship Syneshore in the David M. Stewart Company. This company consisted of 754 men, women and children who were coming to Utah to join the Saints. They landed in New York July 19, 1863.
From New York they traveled to Florence Nebraska and joined the Thomas E. Ricks Company who began the long and tiresome treck to Salt Lake City, Utah on August 10, 1863. After eight long weeks of travel they landed in Salt Lake City October 4, 1863 where the City and County Building now stands. This was called the Town 8th Ward Square. They were very travel weary but happy to at least be at the end of their journey where they could build homes and worship God as they believed to be right. Their trip had taken five months and sixteen days and many hardships were had on this long journey.
Burt says he remembers hearing his father tell how he found a large fish flopping around in a puddle of water on the banks of the North Platte River and he carried it to camp where they ate it. He was only nine years old and he felt like he had done a real big thing to help out with the dwindling food supply. All the family agreed with him.
Young Burt’s mother was the oldest child of Alexander Henry Stanley and Adelia Ann Brown. Phoebe Phylinda was the granddaughter of William Brown first Bishop of South Bountiful Ward from June 20, 1877 to October 28, 1892 when he died and Ira Egan was made Bishop in h is place.
Hyrum Parkin
Hyrum Parkin was one of the best read men in the community but never learned to write. He had to make an X as his signature.
Burt said he never remembers hearing of his father ever going to school. He read a lot of history and Burt always had to be careful or his father would trip him up.
One day Burt told his father that his teacher had said that Salt Lake City was growing faster than any city in the United States. Father questioned Burt about it. Was he sure his teacher said that. Burt said yes but Father wouldn’t believe it cause there were many cities growing faster than S.L.C. He told Burt he would ask the teacher and Burt was always afraid his father would ask the teacher and find out he had made it up. They were discussing the population of the cities when Burt said Salt Lake was the largest and that his teacher had said so. It was but a fib.
Elizabeth Wright Brown Parkin grandmother of young Burt was no relation to Bishop Brown on his mother’s side. Phoebe Narcissa Odell Brown wife of Bishop Brown grandmother of Phoebe Phylinda and Burt’s great grandmother. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Brown and Ann Wright.
Hyrum Parkin owned a ten acre farm given to him by his father John Parkin. He first built the two roomed log cabin. He and his young wife had to work very hard and get along the best they could without any horses. Later on they were able to get some cows, chickens, pigs, sheep also a team of horses and a light narrow gage wagon. Like all other pioneer people at the time.
Young Burt was taught to do the chores and herd their cows and the neighbors cows along with other boys of his age. They would take the cows up on hills east of Bountiful what is called Val Verda and North Salt Lake now.
During the winter the snow would pile up the snow under the ledge on dry Hollow Ridge and it wouldn’t melt for several months. The boys used to put their bottles of milk in the snow bank to keep it cold.
Bert Brown had a large, vicious, black bob tailed dog. One day when Burt went to get his milk the dog soaked his teeth into Burt’s arm on the crazy bone. It hurt so bad he fainted.
This early training and responsibility has been a blessing to Burt all his life. He has always been grateful for the wonderful heritage given him by his pioneer ancestors.
He has many memories of his younger days. Some that are humorous while others are not. One night a porcupine came into the kitchen and crawled into one of the black iron kettles they used in those days.
They had a small four hole stove but their furniture was very meager and the kettle was on the floor. Burt was told to go bring his Uncle Heber (who built and lived in the house Nellie Pages owns) to shoot the porcupine. Before he arrived it became frightened and wandered out into the yard near the open well and when Heber shot it pieces of the porcupine were blown into the well. In those early days they didn’t have screen doors but used mosquito bar a mesh material on the windows but in summer the doors were open for fresh air and without screen doors like we have it was very easy for small animals to come in.
They had an outside cellar where they kept their milk, butter and fruit also a pit for their vegetables. These cellars were like a room dug out of the ground with dirt floors with dirt and hay over logs for a roof. Shelves lined the walls for the milk and fruit.
One day a little lamb went exploring the cellar and found a jar of cream that was being kept to churn into butter. The lamb put his head into the jar and didn’t know how to get it back out. He would shove ahead instead of backing out. He had cream all over him and the cellar when found.
Rebecca or Becky Brown, as she was called, was Burt’s first school teacher. She was Bishop Brown’s third wife. The school was located across the street from the present South Bountiful chapel. It was adobe. Had one large room with a large pot belly stove in the middle of the room. A small supply room was built on the east end of the building. The long benches and desks were very crude compared to the fine desks of to-day but they seemed very fine to the children in those early pioneer days.
The children didn’t have many toys for entertainment so they had to play with what they could find. One game was called p.o.p. They would make a clay mud ball with a hole in the middle about twice the size of our baseballs. The clay would work up like the clay children play with to-day called building clay. They would throw the mud ball down on the ground which would make it pop open then the other players had to use their mud to fill it up. The one who got the other fellows mud and filled the hole first won the game.
One day Evelyn Benson took some of Burts mud so Burt threw some mud at her and it scratched her head a little. The teacher put a dunce cap on Burt and made him sit on the dunce stool in front of the class for a week. Anyone who disobeyed had to sit on the dunce stool or write words or hold books out at arms length for a period of time as punishment.
Burt remembers when he was just a small barefoot boy (he only wore shoes in the winter time) of driving cows to a pasture a mile away. He would take them to the pasture in the morning and bring them back at night at least two miles there and back twice a day for a week for a ten cent package of fire crackers to use on the fourth of July. Frank Brown was a little older than Burt and he usually had money as his family had more to do with so he gave Burt this job.
When Burt was quite small his father and John Donns took a contract to clear a hundred acres of land of sage brush that belonged to Sharp Walker. This was land where the Bountiful out-door movie show is now located and as far east as the Val Verda gate, the road north and road south of this property and west to highway 91. Burt had to pile up the sage brush with a fork and when it was dry would help to burn it. They also had to fence all this property. Burt would hold the posts and help tamp the dirt around them.
Father Parkin and Mr. Donns prepared the land and planted it in grain and alfalfa. They used a pair of mules. One was called Beck. One day Burt was left alone to drive these mules to harrow the land and when noon time came the mules decided to go home for their dinner and nothing he could do would stop them. He was only about ten years old. The mules didn’t run away they just walked off the job dragging the harrow behind them with Burt holding the lines.
Burt and his brother Archie two years younger than Burt decided one winter day to go rabbit hunting. They took his old double barrel muzzle loader gun he had bought from his Uncle Heber Parkin and went up through the sage brush and the old wash made by the water from North Canyon. Just north of the ground they had cleared for Sharp Walker. There was about a foot of fresh snow so they could track the rabbits. Burt would shoot the rabbits and have Archie carry them. He killed so many that they got too heavy for young Archie who was wet and cold with the snow. He told Burt if he shot another one he would go home and not carry them. They used to sell the rabbits for ten cents each and in those days ten cents was a lot of money for youngsters.
Another time Burt went shooting ducks down by the big dyke below where Ervin Moss lives now. There were willow enclosed ponds under the hill. Burt took aim at a flock of ducks on the pond. He killed two or three but the gun busted all to pieces. The barrel turned a somersault and stuck up in the mud in front of him. The stock struck Burt on the side of his jaw taking some of the shine off.
He brought the gun and ducks home. When he examined the gun he found that the load of shots in both barrels had gone off at once. The gun was completely ruined.
Grandfather Parkin
Burt also herded cows for his Grandfather John Parkin who had a three room white log house. The three rooms were in a row but Grandfather always laughingly referred to them as his three story house. It was located where the South Bountiful School house stands. His house and white picket fence were always kept white washed and spotlessly clean.
He raised a very splendid vegetable garden and chickens. He also had a few cows. Every Friday he delivered vegetables in season, butter and eggs to his regular customers in Salt Lake City. He drove a fine team on a light wagon.
Grandfather weighed around 160 or 170 lbs. and was near 5 ft. 8 in. tall. He had grey beard and chin whiskers and blue eyes. He stammered a little and was very jolly.
Grandfather was well educated. He held the position of Ward Clerk, Water Master, and Deputy County Assessor for many years. He was one of the most industrious men who ever came to this valley.
He gave each of his four sons ten acres more or less of land each and helped them build their homes keeping only a few acres of land for himself.
He also kept a small grocery store in one end of his house. Grandfather was noted for his fine early garden but especially noted for his seed potatoes.
When he died at the age of sixty-four and all expenses were paid he still had six hundred dollars to be divided up among his family. This was quite a fortune in these early days.
Grandmother Parkin was a good housekeeper, a wonderful cake maker and a lover of home. Whenever anyone came to see her she always had a piece of cake for them. She died at sixty-six, less than two years after her dear husband passed away.
Burt Ran Away from Home
One time when Burt was 11 or 12 years old he got mad about some punishment he had received and ran away from home. He went two miles away and played with friends during the day and slept in haystack at night. Some of his friends gave him something to eat. After two days and nights he went back home. He walked in rather ashamed and plenty hungry. He said “I see you have the same old cat.” No one answered or took any notice of him, just treated him as though he had never been away. Burt says he could see his father smile but he didn’t say anything. Burt said he didn’t know what to make of it. He never had any desire to ever run away again.
Burt’s Lynx Story
When Burt was about twelve years old he herded sheep for White & Sons owners of a slaughter house south of Orchard Ward where the gravel beds are. The slaughter house was built in the side of the hill near a spring and was previously the Crosley Brewery. They didn’t have means of keeping meat fresh in those days so they had to begin slaughtering them about four in the afternoon and take the meat to Salt Lake around four in the morning in the summer time. In the winter they didn’t have to get it to the market so early.
One time they found that something was eating the meat and they discovered a large lynx of the wild cat family to be in the building. He got in by means of the skylight. They closed the doors and windows. Then one of the butchers crept into the room and got the big spear they used to kill the beef with and when the cat or lynx tried to climb up one of the poles used to support the roof, the butcher pinned him to the pole. He shoved the spear right through the lynx.
In the spring Burt herded the sheep on the hills then when the grass got dry he would take them down near the Jordan River. At this time Horace Hatch or Hoey as he was called was herding cows for his father and several other people who owned cows. There were three or four boys but he was the only one who owned a watch. He placed a small pole or willow in the alkali covered ground which was hard and smooth and he marked off the time on the ground so the shadow of the pole would tell them the time of day. By this means the boys could tell when noon came also when it was time to return the sheep to the correls or bed ground.
One day Burt wanted to see if a sheep could swim so he set the dog on them and four of the sheep went into the river and swam to the opposite side of the river and he couldn’t get them back. He remembers to this day how he told his employers a lie when he said they just swam across and didn’t tell that he had pushed them in. He doesn’t remember if the owners ever got the sheep back. John Parks went across the river on horseback to try and find them but Burt doesn’t remember if he did nor not.
While Burt was herding sheep for White & Sons he became very sick of typhoid fever and was in bed for six weeks. Several times it was feared he would die. Aunt Phoebe Hatch, Libbie Hatch, Mrs. John Benson, Aunt Mary Pace, Sarah Moss and others used to take turns sitting up all night taking care of him to give his dear mother a rest. Sister Libbie Hatch was a country doctor. These ladies and others went about taking care of the sick.
Tight Rope Walker
When Burt was about fourteen years old the Robinson Bros. circus came to Salt Lake City. They had a tight rope stretched to the top of the big tent from the ground for Mr. Baldwin, who held the only record of walking across the Niagara Falls with a wheel barrow blind folded and also claimed to be the champion tight-rope walker of the world, to give a free performance outside of the tent. Billy Atchinson and Burt watched the performance. Soon afterwards they stretched a rope near the top of the hay shed above the hay and started to practice walking the tight rope. In time they became so adept at it that they put on a performance at the 4th of July celebration in South Bountiful in the yard of the old school house. They placed a rope from one tree to another about six or eight feet high.
Young Billy took the first turn. He walked forward and backward on the rope. Burt then took his turn, he not only walked backward and forward but kneeled down and turned around on the middle of the rope and walked back again. The prize given to Burt as the champion tight rope walker of Davis County was a box of candy with a prize in it and a dish of ice cream. After Burt won the contest Billy took the rope down so that ended Burts career as a tight rope walker.
When Frank Brown visited us in April 1953 they talked about the rope walking and the loan of Frank’s shoes to see who was the best fighter. Frank a cousin of Burts lives near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Burt lives with Uncle Frank Daniels. One summer Burt lived with his Aunt Emma Stanley Daniels and Uncle Frank Daniels in Sniderville near Park City. Uncle Frank and Burt would go up the canyon and find the dead fallen trees, trim off the branches then drag them down to their wagon with a yoke of oxen. They would lay poles from the top of the wheels to the back then roll the logs on to the wagon with the help of chains fastened to the oxen. They would then bring their load of logs to their home in Sniderville where they would saw them in four foot lengths and split them. A man would come and haul these cords of wood to the mills in Park City to be used as firewood. Uncle Frank made his living this way.
Billy Goat Story
After Burt got through helping Uncle Frank he was given a chance to ride home with some of Uncle Frank’s relatives. These people stopped all night with some people near the south end of Parleys Canyon called Gorringers. In those days it was a long ride with horses from Sniderville to Woods Cross so it was very nice to have friends or relatives to spend the night with and renew acquaintance. People lived so far apart it was a common thing to have guests stay all night. These people had several goats and one very fine large Billy goat with a long beard and horns. He was penned up so Burt climbed up on the fence to watch him. Burt was dressed up in his first store bought suit of clothes and a new straw hat. Mr. Goat kept shaking his head at Burt and then unexpectedly gave a big jump forward frightening Burt so that he lost his hat off his head into the pen as he jumped off the fence. The goat jumped up and down on the hat in the mud until it was completely ruined.
Burt’s Memories of the Tithing Yard and Temple
Burt remembers that the whole west side of the block east of the Temple Square was used as a Tithing Yard. Hay, grain, poultry and all kinds of produce was brought in as tithing. A good sized store was located where the Hotel Utah is now. Eggs, butter, molasses and all kinds of things could be bought that had been brought in as tithing. Money was very scarce in pioneer days so the people paid a tenth of what they raised as tithing and then it was sold to people who didn’t raise their own farm produce.
When people went to Salt Lake to do their shopping or pay their tithing or other business they would leave their horses at the Tithing Yard and buy some of the hay for them to eat. Burt said one day he went to Salt Lake with his father and the man in charge of the yard said they could have all the hay Burt could carry on his pitch fork for ten cents to feed his team. Burt piled so much up and carried it that the man said had he known Burt could carry so much he would have charged them twenty-five cents. Burt was used to carrying hay.
Another time Burt went with his father to take a load of hay to the Tithing Yard. They had their Grandfather Parkins team and hay rack. He doesn’t remember if it was tithing from his father or grandfather. While his father was unloading the hay Burt walked over to watch the men hoisting up the granite stones or slabs to build the temple [Salt Lake Temple] which at this time was about one third up. Burt was only a little fellow at this time and he stood and watched an old grey horse working on the pug mill walking round and round grinding and mixing the mortar between two big rollers. An old Englishman had a trowel which he used to scoop up the mortar to test when it was ready to be used. He asked Burt if he wanted some mush. Burt only smiled, then the man said maybe you want some milk to go with the mush and slapped a trowel full of mortar into Burt’s mouth. He never said a word or even smiled. He just acted like he hadn’t done anything. Burt began to cough and spit and went to find his father and get his face cleaned. When his father saw him he asked if he got in the way and why did the man do it. Burt related the story and said he wasn’t doing anything just watching, that the man was the meanest man in the world and was too mean to be working on the temple.
Burt also remembers watching the stone cutters preparing the granite to build the temple. There was a railroad south of the temple called the Utah Central that brought the granite from the Little Cottonwood Canyon to these men on flat cars. After the large granite slabs were ready they would put a block and tackle and chain around the slab and haul it over to the building on a two wheel cart drawn by oxen. It was then hoisted up in place on the temple. It took forty years to build it. The temple was dedicated April 6, 1893 when Burt was eighteen years old.
The Utah Central Railroad owned by the L.D.S. Church also ran as far as Ogden where it joined the Union Pacific and hauled passengers and freight to Salt Lake. It was the only railroad in Salt Lake at this time and Ogden was as far as they went.
Burt also remembers seeing the horse drawn hearse bringing the remains of a man killed in the construction of the temple to be buried in the Bountiful Cemetery. A piece of granite used in the temple construction was used as a tombstone for him.
A long time after when some of the people were trying to close the upper road that leads past the present Val Verda gate a trial was being held. Burt was called to the witness stand and asked regarding the amount of travel along this road in a given period of time. Some contended only two or three used the road in a week. Burt said he didn’t count them but he thought there was around thirty horse drawn vehicles in a single day. The lawyer kept questioning Burt and finally asked just what day it was and Burt said he watched the mourners bringing the remains of the man killed on the temple to the cemetery. The trial was adjourned and the road continued to be used and still is being used. [Orchard Drive]
Brick Yard
Burt next worked at the Bill Vaglenna brick yard when he was 14 to 16 years old and earned enough to pay off a debt his father owed and earned enough to pay for the brick for a new four room house for his parents. He worked as a off bearer at the brick yard.
This new brick home was located just north of the log house and when it was finished the log house was moved back into the lot where it was used as a barn for the livestock. This new brick home was later sold to Clifford Olsen and remodeled as it is at the present time.
After Burt quit school and went to work for the Deseret Livestock Co. herding sheep he payed off a debt of $125.00 for lumber for his parents new home. This was in 1891.
At this time Burt had two more brothers besides Archie and one sister. Vada Lorene was born Jan. 17, 1880. John Henry or Jack as he was called was born Oct. 31, 1882 and Cyrus Elmer born Dec. 24, 1887.
The family like most all families at this time [didn’t] have much to get along on so all the boys had to go barefooted from the time the ground got dry in the spring until it got wet with snow again in the late fall.
When Burt herded sheep he got twelve dollars a month and at the brick yard he received fifty cents to a dollar a day. He used to go to school in the winter and work all summer.
Some of Burts school teachers were Mr. Hubbard in the second grade, Mr. Barrett in the third grade, Kate Derbridge in the fourth grade and John Johnson in the fifth grade as high as school was taught. Some of Burts early school mates were Mary Moss, Phoebe Moss Porter, Geo. Hatch, Evelyn Benson, Millie Benson, George Parkin and others. They weren’t all in the same grade.
The Latter-Day Saints had a Tithing Yard square just east of the Bamberger tracks south of the station and across the street from the old rock community church in Bountiful City. There was a ball diamond on this yard used by all the schools of Bountiful.
One day South Bountiful played baseball against East Bountiful. Following the game it was customary to have races, wrestle and jump to see who was the best. This day they brought Jess Tuttle East Bountiful best fighter and he was to fight Frank Brown South Bountiful best fighter but for some reason Frank didn’t want to fight so Burt said if he had a pair of shoes he would fight. Jess had shoes on and Burt was barefooted as usual. Frank loaned Burt his shoes and the fight commenced.
They fought until both were badly beat up. They were both skinned up with blood all over but neither would give in. Finally the other boys got tired of seeing them fight so hard and stopped the fight.
Burt Nearly Gets Drowned
One summer Sunday afternoon while Uncle Bert Stanley was living at their home he, Archie and Burt decided to go to the Jordan River to fish. They had been told not to go fishing on Sunday. Their parents were away from home for the afternoon so they all three rode old Polly, who was staked out to feed near by. They went to the river and after fishing for a while Burt decided to go in swimming and show the other two how far he could swim. He swam until he got tired and found that the water was so deep it was over his head and he was in serious trouble. He began to drown. Bert Stanley ran for help. The nearest house was a mile away.
Archie started poking the fish pole to Burt who finally grabbed it and Archie was able to pull his brother out of the river. Burt layed on the bank and threw up what seemed like gallons of water. He was so awful sick. The two boys managed to get him up on the horse between them when he felt better and hold him on the horse and finally got him back home. Burts mother told them that was their punishment for disobeying and going fishing on Sunday.
When Burt was sixteen he had his first photo taken.
Grandfather Alexander Henry Stanley
Grandfather Alexander Henry Stanley lived in a log house near where Quince Hatch home is now just west of the new Pioneer Oil Company in South Bountiful. He was born in Portage, Ohio Apr. 28, 1836. At one time he was fairly well to do and very religious. He made quite a lot of trades which turned out to be poor investments. Often he would be taken advantage of until he lost most all of his property. They had 14 children.
He and his wife Adelia Ann Brown Stanley separated and her father Bishop Wm. Brown bought her a home in Wanship, Summit County. She lived here several years. When Cyrus and George obtained work in the mines at Park City she sold out and moved to Park City where she bought a home with the money. She lived [here] until her death June 29, 1916 at the age of 76. She is buried in the Park City Cemetery. Their children were Phoebe, Fanny, Henry, Cyrus, Emma, George, Chloe, Clara, Charles, Charlotte, Margaret, Burton, Sylvia, and Alford. At this time, Oct. 1953, Geo. is living in Heber, Emma in Filer, Idaho and Margaret in Sacramento, California. The others are all dead.
Grandfather moved to Star Valley and married a woman they called Aunt Minie. He died May 2, 1912 in Lewiston, Cache County, Utah and was buried at Greys Lake.
Burt Works for Deseret Livestock Co.
When Burt was 16 he began working for the Deseret Livestock Co. helping to harvest the hay then afterwards as camp tender. He received twelve fifty dollars and board and room per month. Wm. or Bill Moss as he was called was the manager. He and Burt formed a life long friendship for each other. Bro. Moss advised Burt to buy ten shares of stock in the company from his Grandmother Stanley which had been left to her from the estate of his Great Grandfather Brown. Burt bought it for $30.00. He kept this stock until he divided his property in 1953 when it was given to Ruby and sold.
The following spring Phoebe Healy of Alpine worked with Melvin Moss cooking for the shearing crew at the Deseret Livestock Co. Shearing correl located about three miles northwest of Wasatch Station head of Echo Canyon. Burt was acting as a flunky or handyman about the kitchen. There was a dance at Wasatch so Burt took Phoebe to the dance. Afterwards he went with her for some time. He used to go to see her in Alpine. He used a horse and cart to make the long trip over the mountain. He sometimes stayed all night at the home of Joseph Bair. He would take a short cut through Draper over the steep mountain and back the next day. It was a long way to go to see a girl.
At the time Burt first took Phoebe to the dance when up to the Wasatch a man they called Cornel Shields told Burt he would loan him his clothes so he would look nice. Burt didn’t have any dress clothes with him. All during the dance first one fellow then another would pass some remark about how nice Burt looked in C. Shields suit and shoes and asked him what time it was by C. Shields gold watch. Burt got so embarrassed he never again was persuaded to wear someone else’s clothes.
Burt Goes to Chicago
In 1893 George Bowers and Burt each had a herd of sheep to care for in the Deseret Livestock Co. The manager told them the one who had the fattest and best looking herd when they were separated in the fall for shipping could go to Chicago with them. That fall when the lambs and weathers were taken out of the herds Burts herd looked the best so he went with Bill Moss and Ezra Hatch to Chicago with twenty-two cars of sheep.
When they arrived at Cheyenne, Wyoming they got out in a rain storm to change cabooses. Burt forgot his coat so went back to get it. He had to break a window on top of the caboose and crawl down into it as the doors were locked. His coat had been moved and he couldn’t find it. He pulled down the quilt on the conductors bed and there it was. His ticket was in his coat pocket so he was most happy to find it.
When they arrived at Laramie, Wyoming, they were told they would have one hours wait so they went to get some dinner. The train pulled out without them. Bill Moss told the owner not to get excited but finish their dinner. When they arrived back at the station they found a switch engine waiting to take them to the train that was waiting for them five minutes away. The conductor told Bill Moss that they nearly got left. Bill replied you almost had 2500 sheep on your hands.
In Chicago Burt saw pennies and paper money for the first time.
Burt was in the Union Stock Yard but a short time when he was approached by a young fellow who said he was alone and careful about who he talked to but be that Burt looked all right and he thought they could go around to-gether. Burt thought he was all right. They hadn’t gone far when they met a man on crutches who had a deck of cards and tried to get Burt and the other fellow to play and bet on them. When Burt refused he was called yellow.
While they were talking a big Scottish cop crawled down from the railroad car and asked what it was all about. Burt told the cop and when he searched the man on crutches for the cards he couldn’t find them. The Engineer crawled down from the engine and told the cop he saw the man throw something under the engine. They looked and found them. The cop took them to the police station. Booked them for a hearing.
The cop told Burt he had been watching those two fellows for a month and had been trailing them ever since the two of them met. He said a third man would have come with a gun and took all the three of them had and then tried to talk Burt out of squealing to a cop. And would finally divide the money between them. It was a racket they had been playing and now two of them were arrested.
The cop stayed with Burt all afternoon and took him through the stock yards and Armours Packing Plant. Burt told him he was a Morman but the cop wouldn’t believe him. He said he had told him the truth about everything else but that was a lie cause Mormons had horns and Burt didn’t have any.
Burt Meets Millesant Parrish
One autumn when Burt was bringing the sheep off the summer range to the winter range out on the western desert Burt’s sister Vada had a party for him and it was here he met Millesant Parrish and her brother Ezra and Ed.
The following spring when Burt came home from the sheep herd he happened to be driving past Millesant’s home and saw her standing at the gate. He stopped and talked to her and asked her to take a ride with him in his cart which she did. She lived in West Bountiful on 91 Highway where Jesse Argyle now lives. This was the beginning of a romance which resulted in their marriage two years later Jan. 20, 1898.
Burt was 22 and Millesant was 19. They were married by Hyrum Grant half brother of President Heber J. Grant. Hyrum Grant was President of the Davis Stake. The wedding took place at her fathers home followed by a big wedding supper. They had hams, turkeys, chickens and everything to eat. Burt says he never saw such a spread in his life. The Parrish family have always been noted for their hospitality and generosity.
Millesant was the tenth child in a family of fifteen. She used to say she was the tithing child as she was the tenth. Father Parrish gave them a cow for a wedding present. He told Burt there were hams hanging up in the smoke house. A smoke house is a granary that is used to smoke cure hams and bacon in. Many of the pioneers had them. Also that vegetables, fruit and molasses were in the cellar to help himself. Burt however was independent enough to thank Father Parrish and tell him if he couldn’t keep her he would bring her back.
Father Parrish had a sugar cane molasses mill where he would make molasses for people from all the surrounding communities. He would receive his pay for making by keeping a certain amount of it. There wasn’t much sugar at this time so a lot of good sorghum molasses was used. The people used to enjoy having candy pulled. The Parrish home of fifteen children and their friends had many wonderful candy pulling parties.
Burt kept busy doing little jobs for people until spring came, then he started digging a foundation for a two room brick home. His father gave him the building lot acres. Burt hauled the rock for the foundation, also the brick and lumber with his father’s team and wagon. Thomas and Bill Harrison did the rock and brick work and Quince Pack did the carpenter work. Only two rooms were finished at first but later when they could the third room was finished. Burt went back with the sheep before the house was finished to earn more money to pay for it. Bill Moss came by when he first started his house and persuaded him to build three rooms instead of only two as he had first intended to build. Mr. Moss loaned him $250.00 so he could have three rooms.
They lived in this home four or five years. Then he bought the Ellen Brown home and sold this brick home and two acres of land he inherited from his mother’s estate to his brother Archie for $500 and Burt and family moved into the Ellen Brown home where Wesley [Wesley Winegar] now lives.
Burt and Millesant were very lonely living alone so much of the time while Burt was out herding sheep so they asked Mr. Moss if she could go out with him on the summer range as camp tender. Mr. Moss said she could. Burt says he thinks they received $60 per month including board for the two of them. This money was all or nearly all clear so it helped a lot as well as giving them and baby Louise a chance to be to-gether for two summers.
They made camp in the big timbers near Big Bally mountain at the head of Willow area on the Wasatch range. Their camp was near a lovely spring where they could get fresh, clear cold mountain water very easy. Wild flowers were blooming among the grass and trees. Can’t you just picture this beautiful camping spot for a summer vacation for the wife and baby?
Bear Story
One night when Burt went to round up the sheep and bring them to the bed ground, he met a big grizzly bear with a live lamb in his mouth. The mother sheep was bleating and following the bear who saw Burt but didn’t pay any attention but passed right by about ten yards away.
Burt had two dogs with him, little Fanny and a big dog Dewey. Little Fanny went after the bear while Dewey went around the sheep then he also went after the bear snapping at the bears legs and shaking the bear trying to get him to drop the lamb. The bear however didn’t pay much attention to the dogs but ran up into the big timber and escaped.
Burt had a rifle hanging up in the camp wagon. It had a shell lodged in it. He took the end gate rod out of the wagon and hammered out the shell. Then he loaded it and carried his Winchester single shot 45-70 rifle from then on in hopes he could get a shot at the bear.
A few days later when he tried to get the sheep to feed up a ravine where there was good feed they didn’t want to go and would keep turning back every time he tried to force them forward. Even the dogs couldn’t get them to go so Burt investigated.
He heard a cracking sound and he finally saw the bear who had killed a big ewe and was tearing out a front leg with his jaws. The dogs hadn’t seen the bear. Burt aimed at the hind quarters of the big grizzly. The bear made a big jump and lunged forward toward Burt, nearly frightening him to death. The gun only had one shell in and afterward when Burt stepped it off from where he fired to the bear and sheep he found it was just 29 feet so no wonder Burt was frozen with fright.
The bear however decided to turn and run. Burt tracked him quite a distance over the logs into the big timbers by the blood he was losing but Burt was afraid to venture into the timber so went back to his sheep. He never saw any more of the bear so maybe he died.
Sometimes Burt would take baby Louise on the horse for a ride around the sheep. She would repeat over and over, “Are there any bears in those timber Daddy?”
Burts Fathers Farewell
One Sunday Burt’s father rode a horse over to their camp to visit with them. Father Parkin and Brig. Dilly were taking care of another herd of sheep for Deseret Livestock Co. Father told Burt he was sick and going home to die, that it was the last time Burt would ever see him alive. He told about getting up one night and going outside the camp. After returning back to bed he saw his mother, who was dead, walk up the wagon tongue and look at him.
Father and Heber Cooper had previously worked in southern Utah helping the government surveyors. They had to drink such brackish water that it had given them both a bad case of kidney trouble. Father said the only way they could use the water was to make real strong coffee with it. Father hugged and kissed baby Louise like he couldn’t part with her. He returned home very soon after this and in just two weeks time they came up with the front wheels of a wagon to take Millesant, Louise and Burt to the Wasatch station where they took the train for home.
They arrived home in the middle of the night and found Fred Cleverly was sitting up with the remains of Father Parkin Aug. 18, 1899. He was only forty-five when he passed away.
A Badger Story
One time while Burt was herding sheep on the Wasatch range he had to go down to Chapman & Strong Ranch for salt for the sheep. He was invited to have dinner with them. Just before they went in to dinner one of the ranch dogs a Coolie and mother of five little pups, ran a badger into its hole and was trying to dig it out. This was a very valuable dog. They had imported this dog and paid one hundred dollars for her.
When the men came out after dinner they found the dog still at the badger hold. The badger had grabbed the mouth and nose of the dog and smothered her to death. One of the men had to dig a hole around the badger hole and kill it with his shovel before he would let go of the dog.
The puppies didn’t have their eyes open so the men didn’t know just how they were going to raise them. They gave one of the pups to Burt and he took it to his camp. He would milk one of the ewes and feed the puppy with a spoon. The pup had a little white spot on the tip of his tail. Burt called him Tippy. He was the smartest sheep dog Burt ever owned. After Tippy got to be three or four years old he began to roam after girlfriends and finally got lost.
Coyote Story
Late one autumn night shortly before it was time to leave the summer range on the Wasatch for the desert winter range a coyote killed one of the large ewes in Burts herd. After the dead sheep had lain a couple of days Burt fixed up two traps. One a small one and one a large one. He chained them to the legs of the dead sheep. He pulled wool and covered the traps to hide them from the coyote he hoped to catch.
Early next morning he could see through the camp wagon window that the trap held one leg of the coyote. Burt walked out closer to the coyote and took a shot at it. As he did so it jumped and he shot its other leg off all but a small amount of skin that was holding it. Burt didn’t have another shell, a rock or a club of any kind to kill the coyote. He forgot about the other trap and set his dog on the coyote.
Old Dewey the dog gave a jump for the coyote and landed over the dead sheep into the largest trap and his leg was held fast. Even though Dewey howled with pain and the coyote was trying to get the dog Burt had to walk as far as the shearing corral a mile or more there and back before he could find any kind of a club to kill the coyote. He never thought about using the neck yoke, double trees or axe. His old gun was already cracked and wrapped with raw hide so he dare not use his gun to hit the coyote. When he returned he killed the coyote and released his poor dog from the trap. Dewey carried his broken leg for three or four months.
One day during lambing time on the Wasatch summer range when Millesant and Louise were with Burt he found that coyotes were taking the lambs. When a mother has her lamb the herder can’t take them into the herd for a few days or the lambs would get lost from its mother. The herder gathers a few mothers and lambs who are reasonable close to each other very gently into a group and then hangs up a lighted lantern near them to keep the coyotes away.
Often when a lamb gets lost from its mother or the mother dies giving birth to her baby the herder holds a lamb near a ewe and squirts milk all over the lamb then the mother sheep thinks it is her baby and will claim it. At other times the herder skins a little dead baby lamb and drapes the skin or hide over a lost baby or an orphan baby lamb. Then the mother of the dead baby thinks it is hers and will feed it and take care of it.
The mother and lamb know one another by the smell as well as by the sound of the bleat. It looks very funny to see lambs going almost draped in another babys hide. They cut the head off the pelt and have a hole to slip over the live lambs head and lamb wears it for several days like a blanket to keep it warm. The ewe doesn’t know that it isn’t her own baby.
Burt found some ewes that had lambed crying or bleating around hunting for their babies but couldn’t find them. At lambing time fifty or more mothers will lamb in a day and they stray away from the herd in various directions so it is the busier time of a herders life and the most important to keep track of all of them.
Burt decided to go to Niger Dan Hollow and hunt around to see where the coyotes were living and taking the lambs to their young coyotes or pups. He found a hole where there were puppy tracks all around the hole and skeletons of about a dozen lambs. He went back to camp and got his horse and rode over to the dipping corral for about a quart of sulphur which he took over to the coyote hole and placed it in a pan and set it afire and shoved it back into the hole as far as he could reach.
It was raining a little but he took off his rain coat and covered the hole so the fumes of the sulphur was forced back into the hole. Soon he heard the pups sneezing and coughing. He lifted the coat a little and when the pups saw the daylight one bounded out into Burts face. All five came out rubbing their heads and eyes. They couldn’t see or hardly breathe because of the sulphur fumes.
He gathered all of them into his coat and took them to camp. He made a pen for them out of a box and set it on the back of the wagon. Baby Louise liked to watch the baby pups. He tried to feed them meat and milk but no matter what he gave them they wouldn’t eat anything. He had to kill them or they would have starved.
Bill Moss said Burt had saved the sheep men five hundred dollars in a years time. These five pups when grown would have killed countless sheep.
A Badger Story
One day Burt and wife noticed a badger come out of his hole to sun himself. Burt fired two or three times at the badger but didn’t hit it. Millesant asked him to let her shoot it. Burt hesitated as he thought sure she would miss and he was anxious to kill it. She persuaded him to let her try.
They were shooting from the back window of the camp. She took careful aim and killed it with the first shot which was a surprise to both of them as she probably never used a gun before in her life.
Sheepherder Story on Western Desert
One night Burt, Bert Brown, Ed Gwynn and Ed Wood went over to Jack Egans camp, after the sheep were bedded down for the night, to play cards. This was about two miles away. They played cards until midnight when four of the fellows stretched out on the bed asleep leaving Ed Gwynn and Burt with no place to lay down. They played cards for a while then they decided to play a prank on the other fellows. They emptied the pepper can into the oven. They used table forks to pin up the door flap so they couldn’t get out.
The boys woke up sneezing. Two of them stuck their heads out of the back flap and when they did so Burt threw a bucket of cold water on them. Burt broke ice off a tub of water to get the cold shower for the guys. The poor fellows swept the top of the stove but they never thought to look in the oven for the pepper. They finally tore the front door flap all to pieces and tumbled out into the snow in their bare feet cussing Burt and Ed but they were all ready on their way back to camp.
This happened out on the western desert. Burt admits it was a dirty prank to play and he hopes his grandsons won’t try it on their friends.
Another Sheepherder Story
One time Burt and George Bowers and a red headed fellow by the name of Neff were gathering up all the stray sheep out of other herds. The red headed Neff was a prankster and always getting some kind of joke on the other fellows. The three of them took turns doing the cooking. Neff was working for Nash while Burt and George were working for the Deseret Livestock Co.
In the camp one night Burt was mixing some bread out of self rising flour for supper using a large spoon to do the mixing. The fellows started telling jokes and Neff laughed so hard and had his big mouth wide open so Burt couldn’t resist putting a large spoon full of dough in Neff’s mouth. Neff put both hands in the batter then rubbed it into Burts hair. To carry the joke still farther Burt bided his chance and slipped back of Neff, then turned the pan upside down on top of Neff’s head and twisted it around and around. The batter run all down his face and neck.
Bill Moss came to the camp just in time to see the fun. They almost made themselves sick laughing so hard. For a year after when ever any of them saw the others they always mentioned it, and enjoyed another laugh. They had a big mess to clean up and supper was extra late but they had so much fun they didn’t mind.
Grandfather Brown
Burts Great-Grandfather Brown lived where our home is. He had a large adobe house, concrete barn and corrals surrounded by a large apple orchard. He used to keep about two or three dozen beehives in the orchard. He also made lots of cider vinegar.
Burt enjoyed visiting and helping his great grandfather. He used to give Burt apples and honey. When he gathered the honey he used a mask, gloves and heavy clothing but when the bees were swarming he handled them without a mask or special clothing.
Grandfather also owned the home Wesley Winegar lives in and his last wife Ellen lived in it. He had four or five wives.
A Wild Cat & Dog Story
When Burt was herding sheep on the west side of Lakeside mountain, called the Great American Desert he had a dog called Scotty. One day he and Scotty were crossing a large ravine rounding up the sheep to bring them to a new bed ground when a big wild cat jumped out of the bushes and Scotty started chasing it. He chased it up against a sheer rock wall at the head of the ravine or canyon. The cat tried to climb the wall but fell back and the dog pounced on it.
While Burt was rounding up the sheep he could hear the dog barking like everything. When he went to see what Scotty was doing he found him shaking the wild cat ferociously. Every bone in the cats breast was mashed to a jelly by the dog and the dogs face was scratched nearly to pieces. One eye was hanging out on Scottys cheek. Burt cut the skin holding the eye and threw the eye away. Burt had an awful time making the dog let go. He placed the cat on his back with the front legs of the cat around his neck to carry it to camp. The dog pulled it off his back a couple of times on the way home.
Burt had quite a time to get Scotty to leave it alone so he could carry it home. And after he got it home and put it on the top of the wagon wheel Scotty pulled it off and shook it some more. Burt had to talk to his dog and had quite a time quieting him. He finally had to put the cat up over the top of his covered wagon where Scotty couldn’t reach it. Poor Scotty only had one eye the rest of his life.
Burt said at Xmas they received some home made candy, popcorn, an apple, sometimes a pair of home made socks or home made mittens. His folks made him a home made sleigh out of some boards. He never tasted an orange or banana until he was a good sized boy. And then only in warm weather around April conference. There would be some brought in to Salt Lake.
He had a pair of skates when he was ten years old but they were iron that had straps over the toe and a heel plate. Not like the fine steel skates the children have now. Burt became a good skater and used to have a good time skating in the winter time on the ponds and river. He also enjoyed fishing in the river when a young boy.
Burt Buys a Farm
When Great Grandfather Wm. Brown died he left his fourth wife Ellen and four children the house where Wesley lives and fifty acres of land. To Elizabeth his 2nd wife he left a life lease on a large adobe house and one acre of land where Burt’s home now stands.
There was also a concrete barn with a lumber roof, a shed and corral, an apple orchard and an oseage orange tree hedge in front and along the north side of where LeGrande’s house is and west for some distance and then south. These trees were like those north of Wesley’s home.
Burt bought this land with Elizabeth holding the life lease on the home until her death. Burt deeded this acre of land to his wife Millesant so she would be a property owner and could vote in a school election. She later gave Stanley one fourth acre to build his house on. She kept the three fourths acre for herself.
Some years later Burt bought the house from Stanley and when he and Vera Johnson were married he gave her a life lease on this home. Following her death it will revert back to the estate. Burt never lived in this old adobe house but rented it to James Hepworth and then to Albert Burningham. Later Burt had his brother-in-law Henry Parrish tear it down for the material in it.
Oct. 13, 1902 Burt bought thirty acres of this Brown property for $18.60 per acre from Ed, Albert and Frank Brown including the acre Elizabeth held a life lease on. Elizabeth’s daughter Hannah Brown Atchinson had previously been given ten acres just south of Elizabeth’s home and her son Wm. ten acres south of this where Julian Hatch now lives. Bishop Brown divided all of his property up before his death to his four wives and their children.
Burt tried to borrow the money from Stephen Ellis but he had loaned his money to build the new South Bountiful church. Bro. Ellis told Burt to ask Mohonri Brown. Burt asked him and he said he was very happy that Burt wanted to buy this property and was willing to loan him the necessary money which he did. Mohonri was half brother to the boys Burt bought the thirty acres from.
Charles E. Hogan bought Nellie Brown Goodfellow’s ten acres between her mother’s home and where LeGrande’s home is now. Burt built LeGrande’s home for himself and family. Later he sold it to LeGrande for $5000. Millesant drew up all the blue prints for this home and was the supervisor of its construction.
Leo Hawkins a deaf and dumb fellow did all the carpenter work. Millesant used to write instructions on a piece of lumber. There were scraps of lumber all over with her instructions written on them. Joe Kiniston took the contract to build the house for $10,000. He hired Duncan Bro. of Centerville to do the brick work, Leo Hawkins to do the carpenter work, plastering and painting.
Mr. Kiniston was raised just across the street from Millesant and she had so much confidence in him that she gave him the contract. He abused her confidence and didn’t pay for the lumber as he should have so Burt had to pay $1200 for lumber that he shouldn’t have had to pay. So it cost them $1200 more than the contract because of Mr. Kiniston’s dishonesty. They didn’t have a good contract.
Burt Buys Ten Acres More
When Burt had the rest of the Brown property about paid for he got a chance to buy the last ten acres of the original fifty acres. Once more he obtained a loan from Mohonri Brown to pay for it.
At this time Burt was working for the American Smelting and Refining Co. rock quarry located on the east side of Highway 91 north of Salt Lake near the old Becks Hot Springs. He was getting $100 per month—the largest wages he ever received working for other people. He used to take a load of hay from his farm once a week to the quarry for $10 per ton which was a big price for hay.
The company would feed Burt’s horses all day then he would drive back at night. The family lived on this hay money and every [unreadable words] would give Mr. Brown the one hundred dollars on his loan. When he first started working at the quarry he only got $2 for a ten hour day breaking rock with a 16 lb. hammer. Later he worked on the tipple dumping train cars altogether for about two years then when he got promoted to engineer running the hoist and crusher he got $100 per month for 2 years. Burt was working at the rock quarry all the while he was buying the Brown farm and paying Mohonri his loan off. After he quit the quarry he went to farming in a big way.
Burt always had a good garden, a few pigs for winter, his cows which furnished them with milk and butter, a beef to eat, turkeys and ducks also chickens which furnished them with fresh eggs. They had raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples, peaches besides all their potatoes and vegetables of every kind. It took time however to get these things started, a few at a time.
All other days of the week, weather permitting, he rode a bicycle back and forth to work. In the winter time he used a horse and cart. He did this most of the time for all five years. One or two winters they rented a house near the quarry to be close to work and rented his house (the Ellen Brown home) to a Mr. Ashley. All the while Burt was working at the rock quarry he led a very busy life. He worked 10 hours, rode back on his bicycle. In those days the roads weren’t paved and he had to pump his bicycle all the way and walk some places. He did his chores then grubbed out the old apple and osage orange trees. His wife and family have always been good to cooperate and help in every way they could. There were hundreds of trees to be removed besides the old house where Elizabeth lived, sheds [unreadable sentence], barn foundation, leveling etc. to prepare the land for farming. He gave the house to Henry Parrish for moving it and later he gave a home across the street to Charles Wm. Atkinson for tearing it down and moving it.
After Burt left the rock quarry he worked with his team at the Parley Hatch brickyard southwest of his farm. He and Chet Ames pulled clay into the conveyor belt with a team and wheel scraper to make brick.
Besides his own farms he rented ten acres of his mothers and twenty acres of Billy Knighton and went into the dairy business. Most of Burts cows were pure bred Holsteins. He milked eighteen head. Burt then bought twenty acres of land from Alice Atkinson which he later sold ten acres to Ervin Hatch. Then he and Ervin went into the dairy business of buying and selling milk and hauling it to the Elgin Dairy in Salt Lake City. They bought the Berlin Dairy in Salt Lake and went into the retail milk business. Some years later they sold out to Al Harris Bro. Dairy and it is now the Cloverleaf Dairy. Walt Bryson ran the milk wagon for Burt and Ervin and delivered the milk to customers in Salt Lake. Burt and Ervin gathered the milk from the farmers and bottled it.
Burt raised beets, hay, grain and had pasture for his cows while in the milk business. When Ervin and Burt dissolved partnership he [Ervin] moved to Idaho to make his home.
Burt was road supervisor twenty-five years. He drove the first horse driven road grader that came into the county and the first gasoline powered road grader in Davis County. He also made the oiled road from Lagoon east to the main highway in Farmington. He also fixed old road in Bountiful City and west Layton.
He took a contract to haul all the material for the South Bountiful School. Burt hired Calvin Moss with his team to help haul the brick, sand and gravel. They also hauled the material to remodel the court house in Farmington. They slept in the jail while doing this job.
Burt was janitor at the South Bountiful School for about two years. His daughters Beatrice and Ruby helped him do the cleaning. He said the job was wished on to him,
Another contract job Burt did was to build a mile of sewer from west of the Jordan River to the Great Salt Lake. The sewage killed hundreds of wild ducks where it emptied into the river so they had to build it on to the lake and empty it into the salt water.
Indian Story
Burt was only a little bare foot boy herding cows upon the foothills when one day he met a Buck and his Squaw on their ponies. There were a camp of Indians up on the big flat near North Canyon. They saw Burt carrying his lunch and stopped and asked him for it. It frightened him so much he was afraid not to give it to them. They are his dinner and laughed and said heap good and rode away leaving him to herd cows all day without any lunch.
There used to be a band of Indians camped. One day a Buck Indian came to his mother’s home. She was busy peeling and bottling some peaches and he asked for some. She told him he could have some. He kept feeling the hot bottled fruit. She told him to go out and pick some but he didn’t want to do that. He insisted on having her bottled peaches. She had quite a lot of trouble making him understand that he couldn’t have the bottled ones, that he could only have the fresh ones. He finally went away mad. In the early days the Indians used to be forever begging for every thing from food to clothes and often they simply stole things they took a desire to have.
Bottles in those days were scarce and hard to get. Lots of crockery jars were used for jams and pickles. Cans were also used. Sealing wax was put around the lids to keep the jars air tight.