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Show Life of Early Dixie Pioneer Replete With Work, Stirring Adventure By MABEL JARVIS (This is the first of a series of little visits with living Dixie Pio neers.) Mrs. Flora Snow Woolley was unable to be present at the Dixie Homecoming in September of last year, which necessitated our visit with her being by correspondence, but in time we contacted her at her daughter's home in Kanab and from her written life sketch we are happy to give the readers of the News a glimpse into the life of this former Dixie girl and charming daughter of Dixie's beloved be-loved Pioneer father, Erastus Snow and his wife, Elizabeth Rebecka Ashby. Flora Snow (Woolley) was born June 16th, 1856, in Salt Lake City just nine years after her parents reached the Salt Lake valley. Earliest among her recollections was that of her gift of a cloth-bound cloth-bound story book which her father brought on return from one of his many journeys in the interest of the Latter-Day Saints Church affairs, af-fairs, as nearly as she can remember remem-ber from his mission to St. Louis in 1858. "I remember how my mother sat on father's lap and I stood beside them as he showed us through this wonderful new story book", is the picutre Mrs. Woolley gives of this event in her childhood child-hood home. Many of these early events in Western, and especially in Utah history were too unusual to be erased from the minds of even tiny tots. Mrs. Woolley re-( re-( Continued on page six) Life of Flora Sr.cvv Wociley, Dixie Pioneer, Presents Outstsn:!lng Events Of Pioneer Life In Southern Utah's 1800's 1 ( C-in'in'wd from fir v. calls Ui.; birih of hor sister, Jose- phi no wh.-n sho was just, past Uvo j y,:;i!-i oM: of the starliin? novo south in anticipation of tho in-1 v.-isiori of Johnson's Army whr-n j sin1 was just a-n two and one-1 half yt;ais: and of sfoin to school , to a siot'-r Atwood in Salt Lake j City wh.-n she was just three. 1 Iiwni five years old when h.-r parents, with many olh.-rs, came! on that tedious four-weeks' trek j to Dixie, the details of that journ- j cy are still vivid in her memory; j the lit i!e tented city that sprang I up at the old Adobe Yard; the j survey of the city plats the fol-j lowine sprinn and the move into town. Their interest inn first home in St. Georee was a tent with mother Snow's rae; can"'' spread on the ground floor and their "Charter Oak" stove, one of the few then owned, placed in the center of the room beside the tent pole. There was much annoyance from liz-zarrls. liz-zarrls. scorpions, and rattle-snakes. One morning her mother found a large rattler curled up on the bed which she had made up a little earlier. Another day, there was a i coiled monster under the rocking J chair. And the big rain of 1862 1 was according to Mrs. Woolley, I "the best soaking this country ever had before or since", in spite of -thr Hnmrinr Hnne atonr the Rio Virgin and Santa Clara streams. I While Jacob Hamblin and Thales Haskell, who were sent to Santa Clara to labor with the Indians, In-dians, were negotiating with them, a great pow-wow was held in St. George, and this little girl witnessed witnes-sed the event. "A large iron kettle of ours hung on an iron tripod filled with boiling meat for a stew for t heir meal, while we children were sent around the town to 1 gather loaves of bread for them. I can always see them sitting in their circle around the fire smoking smok-ing their pipe of peace. Our meetings, dances and picnics were held in a large bowery, built of willows, until they could make adobes and build houses. Then the St. George hall was built, where Sunday school, meetings, and theatricals the-atricals were held for many years. I attended school there, taught by a lady named Sarah Clark, who afterwards became the wife of the Dixie Pioneer, Jesse W. Crosby. As time went on we had the best teachers the times afforded. A Mr. Kealer from Salt Lake, a Mr. Shoppman, James G. Bleak, and Richard Horn taught in the Fourth ward schoolhouse, reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and geography. We wrote compositions, but had no bistories or languages. It was I equivalent to our seventh and! eighth grades of today. Charley i Thomas of Salt Lake City was called cal-led to teach music. I attended his classes. He taught the Do, Re, Me. Fa So. He put on a concert at that time and my sisters Libbie, and Misha, and Jakie (Jacob) Gates sang in it. My mother made X,ibbie a white dress ruffled to the waist and a white-quilted petticoat pet-ticoat to wear under it. Jakie sang 'The Mocking Bird". Four of the men sang what was called a "round", each singing a line in succession. It was "Rush can bottom bot-tom old chairs to men, Old chairs to mend," quite unique. I sang in the ward choir, was secretary in the first Mutual Improvement association, my sister, Libbie being the president of the organization. I was also a member of the ward dramatics for many years, (until after my first child was born). The dramatic club was conducted by William Branch, Miles P. Rom-ney. Rom-ney. Joseph Orton, Daniel Seeg-miller. Seeg-miller. my sister .Artemisia and sister-in-law, Maggie, taking the leading characters. Our social times consisted of theatricals, dances, picnics, horseback rides, sewing bees, etc. A professor Bas-well. Bas-well. on his way to California, and a magician or slight-of-hand performer, per-former, gave an exhibition which was a wonder for those times, but of very common occurrence today. "In 1S77. I married Edwin Dil- worth Woolley, at the age of twenty-one. The St. George Temple was completed that year and dedicated on the sixth of April. We were married April 12. The following day, April 13th my husband left for a mission to England. Eng-land. He was absent about six months, when he was released and his partner in business was sent to Germany. My husband. Uncle Dan Seegmiller and Howard Spencer Spen-cer were accused of killing Colonel Pike in Salt Lake City many years before, and under existing conditions condi-tions had to be on the "underground" "under-ground" hence Mr. Woolley 's release re-lease from his mission. . "Soon after my husband's return re-turn from England. I went to live at his home. While here my first two children were born. Then in 1SS1 my parents went to Salt Lake City for conference and I went to our old home. ( the so-called Big House ' to live, took care of mother's moth-er's family, boarded the school teacher. Mr. Shoppman. Just before be-fore their return from the April conference, diphtheria broke out in St. George, my brother Herbert and my eldest child. Evalyr. being arr.or.g the many who died from the contagion. On the 16th of i May of that year, just eight days ! after burying our little daughter, : I moved to the Washington Field home, where I boarded the hired ; men. In the fall I moved back to town and kept house in two rooms I of the home where Mr. Woolley's ; other wife, Emma lived. In 1SS2 J my husband and his wife, Emma j moved to upper Kanab to go into! the dairy business, and the follow-! ing scar he moved me to that j place. For the next three years I lived part of the time in Kanab I and part of the time in St. George, coming down in the winters so my son, Dilworth could attend school. In the spring of 1886 we moved to Pipe Springs, Arizona, where I remained for five years, going to my mother's home in St. George in May 1887, where my son LeGrande was born, my son Arthur being born at Pipe Springs in 1889. Pipe Springs was then quite an important place, being the center of a large cattle business, and the stop-over place for the traveling public and we took care of them. This being the period when the "Edmond Tucker" law was being enforced and church property con-fisticated con-fisticated polygamous m.e n and women were hunted and hounded because of that principle. Pipe Springs being over the Arizona line made a safety zone and many of the wives of men who were then in the state penitentiary, kept out of the clutches of the law, and the deputy marshalls sought refuge at this place. My sisters, Mrs. Josephine Tanner, and Mrs. Georgia Thatcher, Ann and Ellen Chamberlain, a sister Bring-hurst, Bring-hurst, and Lynda Marriager, Bishop Bish-op Marriager's wife, were all there, their husbands being in the pen wearing the stripes. Lynda Marriager Mar-riager was our telegraph operator. Babies were born to some of these women during this time of exile." Interesting to many readers would be the additional details of this period as concisely related by Mrs. Woolley, including a very hectic and dangerous trip she took at one time to visit her folks in St. George and Salt Lake City, and of the several times she and others were compelled to flee ahead of the marshalls or submit to the punishments planned by the denizens of the law. Finally with the aid of friends along the line she was again' safe back at Pipe Springs with her children who had remained with her sisters there and at Kanab during her absence. All were happy enough when they could return to communities to live and the time of hiding was over. But it was during her isolation at this place that her life was enriched en-riched with the close friendships that sprang up under these unhappy un-happy circumstances. Following this five years at Pipe Springs, Mrs. Woolley lived for thirty-two years at Kanab where the family maintained a public house as it was called those days, a sort of a home hotel where meals and beds were provided for the travelers. Saving what she could from these small earnings, Mrs. Woolley made several trips to Salt Lake City as often as she could to visit her parents and brothers and sisters who resided there. It was during her years spent in Kanab that her beloved father, Erastus Snow died in Salt Lake City. In 1888 she was made counselor to President Halliday in the Kanab stake Primary organization, and served four years as ward Primary President. During her life in this community she kept actively associated as-sociated in the civic and religious affairs, sang in the ward choir, assisted in dramatics and in general gen-eral public programs. Their children child-ren were given the best they could supply in educational opportunities and all have made good, and those still alive give credit to their parents par-ents for their achievements. "During the period of pioneering", pioneer-ing", states Mrs. Woolley, "traveling "travel-ing was a real luxury, but being of a rather restless nature. I always al-ways had a desire to get out and see something of the world. I took advantage of every trip I found it possible to make, but my real journey came after my daughter, Bessie and my two sons, Arthur and Bert were attending school in the east. Bessie at Columbia and the boys in law school. I still kept the boarding house in Kanab and by scrimping and saving finally had what we figured would be enough for my then unmarried daughter, Prueda and I to go to New Y'ork and other places and visit the children. When I mentioned men-tioned it to my husband he thought it would be impossible, but when I showed him our savings his attitude at-titude changed and with his help we were soon on our way". Mrs. Woolley's report of this pleasure trip is like a story book reading and her travel-hungrey eyes never missed an item of interest in-terest on the journey the relics in museums, the homes of famous people, the art galleries, zoos, congressional con-gressional library. Lincoln Memorial. Memor-ial. Arlington cemetery, the relic house of the Daughters of the 'Revolution where are found the 'clothes of Dolly Madison, Martha and George Washington, and hun- dreds more scenes and items made dear to the hearts of the pepole. Even after the year 1916 she continued con-tinued to keep boarders in Logan and Salt Lake City, having moved there after the death of her husband, hus-band, but her own feasts continue to be the "joys she has tasted" on this and subsequent journeys. She is proud of her church membership, mem-bership, and of her parentage, grateful for her children and their accomplishments, and still spends her days going from one to another an-other where she can help and comfort and enjoy her life with theirs. From her birth she has been intimate with great trials, hardships, hard-ships, and sorrowing, as well as infinite in-finite joys, in the processes of pioneering pio-neering and building up the southern south-ern part of Utah, but through it all she has kept uppermost in her heart the ultimate purposes of life expressed in the thought that life was truly meant to be joyous and has devoted her efforts to turning turn-ing every passing event possible to good account. If it is a new grandchild, she gives it great welcome. wel-come. She is likewise happy when her grandchildren achieve success, and is as thrilled as anyone to be present when either of her lawyer sons win a case. We hope she may continue happy 'till the end of her chapter. |