| Show I I SOME LIVING PIONEERS Mrs Maria L Dewey Wooley of 342 East Fourth South street entered this valley In Seteber 14 lIrs Voles family became converts to the Mormon church while llv lag In Westfield whie lv Westfeld as in 1842 and as the Mormons were rapidly moving westward H decided to follow them Accordingly orons in the summer of moving disposed of j1Ir property in the east and started on their western sour soy They aTLVcd in auvoo early in the autumn and spent the winter I I there although warned almost daily that their lives were in danger Fear i sri f i ip I I i MRS MARIA L DEWEY WOOLLEY Ing the threats of the people would be put into execution the family left early in the spring for Winter Quarters and there joined Smoots company and set out to find a home in the unknown west The journey was long and tiresome west their cattle dying on the road thereby making it necessary to dispose of some of their provisions Af ter arriving in the valley they suffered great privations Supplies were scarce and for many monlhfi they lived on rations consisting of a small amount of flour a day with occasionally a little meat and milk so that when thistle greens and stewed sesroes were found and added to the menu It was Indeed considered a royal feast Mrs Woolley has preserved a gown she wore while in Nauvoo and it is bileeMr quite likely that i will again see the light of day during the Pioneer Ju i Mr John C Ensign came into Salt Lake valley with Daniel Spencers I A ry JlII i I I 7 i I fdV I 1 JOHN C ENSIGN I company of 100 on September 2 1S47 He was then 17 years old and was the first person to drive an emigrant wagon from Emigration canyon to the I Old Fort making a new road that was afterwards in constant use Tjy the pioneer Coming down from the bench into the valler there was nothin I to b seen but hunchcrass and grease wood They crossed a fark ijf City creek where the Methodist church now stands I was then seven feet deep and had been bridged by the earlier pioneers They drove on and camped at Old Fort square Mr Ensign with assistants began the next day to build suitable quar ters for the winter The los for their house were hauled from Red Butte canyon and Mr Ensign has preserved the fastening of one of the doors which was made from birch wood picked up that first day in the canyon The first garden patch put in by the pioneers was on the ground extend ing from the Knutsford to the Methodist church The seeds planted yielded a good crop hut not sufficient to keep hunger from the homes of many There was at that time great want and much begging but there was only one death caused by starvation On the day the company arrived in the valley they were met by some of the first company of pioneers who pointed out to them the mountains in the west and said There is tho end of your journey and said Mr Ensign yes terday I never look l at those mountains without feelib some of the same joy I felt that day when I was told a home had been found for us out in this great west |
