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Show :r",iEi:3ErrC.g ASSOCIATION riAIlOrJAi 1929 I EUGENE A. HENROID ONE OF THE FEW Surah Chipman. Kugene A. Kenroid is one of the pioneer stalwarts who put all they had into the settling of new country; ho was among those men who saw the soil of Utah receive the first incision from white hands; he is one of the few left to see the ultimate outcome of that valiant service rendered long ago and one of the few to hear the praise of their children's children. No people can afford to forget their pioneers. We can testiify to the eminent micccss of their efforts. Their's is a living epitaph. Today Eugene A. Itonroid is nearing hs ninety-seventh birthday. His face still expresses the alertness of mind that characterized him in early years. I lis brain is unaddled with old age; still observant of the life about him, he watches and reads with the wisdom of his remarkable old age. As ho said to mo, "I have always watched things." Although his hearing is practically gone, his eyesight is good, and he reads without difficulty. Smiling complacently at irrecoverable yesterdays, he told me a little of his life. "I was horn in Havre, France, March 9, 1S33. In 1850 President John Taylor took charge of the French Mission, and it was at that time that I joined tho church. In 1853 I left for America. We crossed the ocean on board the "Livira Owen" and landed in New Orleans six weeks afterward. From there we traveled up the 'Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa, the official stopping place for the Saints going to Salt Lake. While, there, we orossed the river to Nauvoo and visited Joseph Smith's mother. She was finite talkative and gave a brief history of hr son. Josph's wife, Emma, however, was not talkative and avoided us. We recrossed the river, and after waiting six weeks in Keokuk for cattle and wagons, we started for Salt Lake. President Taylor had intrusted me with six young ladie.s to see safely to Salt Lake. I wondered how I could look out for them when I felt as though I couldn't take care of myself. But everything went well, and later one of the young ladies became my wife. I didn't marry them all however. (He laughed when lie said this . "Briefly, we had the same experience with the Indians as all travelers crossing the plains. We arrived in Salt Lake, Oct. 6, 1S53. I met Brigham Young, and almost immediately he asked me to take his boat and go around the Great Salt Lake to try and discover salt peter which was needed for making gunpowder. I did this but didn't find any. I then continued my search accross the Bingham mountains. I found none until passing through E. T. City (called after E. T. Benson). There was not enough for commercial use, however, so I returned to Salt Lake. Brigham Young obtained a position for me in the Deseret Store. Soon after, I was appointed to a mission to' France, from which I returned in 1857. "It was tl m (.1857) that I came to American Fork where I taught school. American Fork was settled in 1S50 by Stephen Chipman, Orsa Adams, Washburn Wash-burn Chipman and John Eldridge, and was beginning to thrive. "It was the year before the Union Pacific was brought to Salt Lake that the people of American Fork organized themselves into the free school system. sys-tem. Salt Lake did not organize until two years later, and I became the pioneer teacher in Utah under that system. In the fall of 1859 Joseph B. Forbes succeeded me as teacher and he, together with several other individuals in-dividuals assisted in building up American Fork educationally. After leaving school I took up surveying, and became the local and county surveyor, assisting as-sisting in straightening the lines of American Fork and other towns. "1 feel a deep joy in having watched the growth of American Fork. My sense of ownership is no less deep; and as I near the hundredth year of my life, I begin to realize our rich bounty. I think it reaches back to the beginnings; be-ginnings; I know it shall go on forever. "There was a time when I knew the name of every baby in town. Now those babies are old. Many are gone. I cannot help but wonder what changes will have taken place when the babies of today are old." Throughout the hard bread and butter struggle of the pioneer, Eugene Henroid did not lose the debonaireess of love of beauty and refinement innate in-nate in the true Frenchman. Necessity hit hard, and as he said, "One had to curb many desires, and concern oneself with the need and demand of the moment." In his appearance today, I was impressed by a fastidiousness rare in such advanced age and yet so commendable. Today, Eugene A Henroid's attitude and acceptance of life, seem to me to be best expressed in the lines of the poet: "The old order changeth giving place to new, And God fulfills himself in many ways." He regards his life as an absorbing experience; an experience that he shared with many others, a thread in the long tapestry of pioneer achievement. |