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Show November, 1945 (Ed. Note: This is a continu- ation of the story that started in the October issue.) Their beds were hewed out of lumber, the bed posts shaped with pocket knife and lathe, and then corded with rope or strips of raw hide to hold up the ticks, filled with straw. To us, of today, these beds would not be so comfortable, as we would have a hard time to hang on to a well-fille- d straw tick, but to the pioneers who had suffered so many discomforts, these proved comfortable beds. Some of the pioneer women brought feather beds and pillows. It became a custom when a daughter married for a mother to give her a feather bed and pillows. These were priceless heirlooms, as they were THE CENTERVILLE NEWSETTE by the late Mabel S. Randall during her last illness. lasses from that. This was the goods for anything that they first molasses mill in Davis would bring. Thus the pioneers were blessed in their time of County. During the early days of the need. settlement, there was a great The early settlers of Centershortage of sugar and when Samville were thrown on their own uel Parrish, Sr., commenced resources and had to invent ways making sorghum, people came of supplying food and clothing from surrounding settlements to for themselves and families. Naobtain it. It is said that William turally their clothing wore out, and more had to be supplied, and when the pioneer mothers had used all the material at hand, even to cutting up the canvas wagon covers to make shirts and trousers for their husbands and they knew that they must manufacture more clothing. Some gathered wool from the oak brush where the sheep had passed through leaving part of their fleecy coats; others whose husbands had a few sheep had the wool that was cut from the S3ns, John J. Smith R. Smith paid $100 for 100 lbs of sugar. In the winter of Thomas Tingey often passed down for several generations. Corn, dried meat, and potatoes were the principal foods among the pioneers at first. Johnny cake, corn dumplings and corn meal porridge were served after the corn had been grown, harvested, shelled and ground. Much of the corn was shelled from the cob as they gathered around the open fire place in the chilly winter evenings. Dried pumpkin and baked squash were considered delicacies. The pioneer women dried choke cherries and sarvice berries in the summer for winter use. They also used the native or wild currants fer fruit. As sugar was very scarce, they sweetened their fruit with sorghum or molasses made from corn stocks or beets and later from sugar cane. Samuel Parrish, Sr., made the first syrup or molasses in Cenmoterville, with a home-mad- e lasses mill made with wooden rollers to crush out the juice from corn stocks, and later they raised sugar cane and made mo Page Three the first wheat flour in Centerville was made by Samuel Parrish, Sr. Two large stones were brought out of the canyon, dressed and fitted and the wheat was placed between the stones and crushed to make flour. Later Anson Call built the old rock flour mill on Qeuel creek, which ground the grist our fathers raised for many years and still stands as a pioneer land mark. (Ed. note: This has recently been torn down). To the early pioneers of Utah the migration of the gold seekers was a blessing. Just when their resources were at the lowest ebb, the gold miners came and brought boots, shoes, clothing, carts, wagons, ginghams, woolens, spades, shovels, chests of all kinds of joiner's tools, and sugar and flour, which they were glad to let the settlers have in exchange for fresh meat, eggs, milk, butter and garden vegetables. They brought horses and mules from the settlers, paying as much as $200 for a horse or mule, that before their coming there was no market for at all. Many enterprising eastern men started to California with large stocks of merchandise. They little realized the hardships of the journey until they reached Salt Lake City and discovered that the hardest part of the journey was yet ahead; then they were glad to dispose of these 1848-4- 9 cheep's back. They washed it, dried it, then picked it apart, carded it into bats, or rolls, spun it into yarn on the spinning wheel, then with a hand reel they wound their skeins of yarn. They made different colored dyes from different plants and things in their gardens. Black walnut hulls, while quite green, were used to make brown dye, cnicn peelings for buff, saffron for orange or yellow, and polk berries for red, and indigo for blue. To produce green they mixed copperas and indigo. After dying the yarn they wove it into cloth, then made clothing for the entire family. Besides manufacturing clothing, they Zacheus Cheney, Sr. made soap from all left-ovgrease from cooking or butchering. Tallow candles were made by melting tallow and running it into moulds in which wicks were carefully placed. They made their own lye for soap by putting wood ashes on wooden barrels, pouring water over it and al er lowing it to drain. When the lye was prepared, they combined the grease and lye in large iron kettles over a bonfire and cooked it to the right consistency, then added salt gathered from the lake shore, poured it into wooden tubs or moulds and set it to harden until ready to cut into bars. These bars were then dried and packed into barrels for future use. It took many bushels of ashes and many pounds of grease to make a barrel of scap. They also made starch from potatoes, by grating the potatoes, washing them, draining the water off, letting the particles settle, then draining off the water and letting the starch dry. During the long winter evenings as they sat before the huge Geo. O. Chase fireplace with its brightly burning logs, the pioneer mother knitted sox and stockings, mittens, gloves, wristlets, and nubies from their homemade yarns, while our pioneer fathers took blocks of wood and shaped them with their pocket knives into such cocking utensils as butter bowls, wooden trays, chopping bowls, potato mashers, ladles, and spoons. Pioneer cooking utensils consisted mostly of iron kettles and iron skillets, also dutch ovens of iron, and most families had brass kettles of various sizes (kept bright by scouring with vinegar and salt). A few had brought China or crockery dishes with them and some of those from England had a few of the famous English wil- low ware. Home industry was encouraged among the pioneers by our early Church leaders. In 1847 Brigham Young, in admonishing the people to emigrate to Utah, told them to bring all kinds of choice seeds, grains, vegetables, fruits, Turn to page jour |