| Show 3 w 6 68 W P Qi ff 99 Wn a y t y ff ado A a l low W a 0 A JV Ir do C I a s Q b It 3 11 Mg Fi Il i Db j C lH moy IID ya and n 1 HIs I t d s e ps bu Life 6 to g dG M c a au at t C og 11 iJ F W m u W rn March a center with almost a decade Neb deb 11 Ill n J first arrived 1 in 11 11 Winter 11 t er Quarters 0 t ers now note known k as asI he It added dd Cl I after President Joseph F Smith head of the Mormon Mormons 1 F I ee old ohl village recently while on his Mi way vi visited that quaint i s lure Washington where he had appeared as the leading h home tm from Tt the h celebrated Smoot investigation With him were El ElM ElWI Ill in z WI n nF C s President of the tic Twelve Apostles hIder Elder Byrum M I man nn t er r F s 11 1 I and Elder Joseph A West est of Ogden t th son of the thc president L G S I n h few miles north of Omaha and au was the first located a fl Florence is place an and outfitting out fi quarters for or the tl IC Mormons l 1 after n f fI u J I b HI 11 It was wast there I the t I IC writer joined u 1 them t I left A the controversy at Washington was forgotten being d 1 F For r the time B when Smith ili and ami Elder Lyman lived over again the days I p President at Florence Horence recalling many instances long since lost in inte te here h are boys bos of s the thc web 0 of f time r tle down at the l bS bIg water works plant and looking out over overL They The were Smith said There at the upper end off of President L I ti lis tIJi L river had our winter road r on 01 the ice crossing to the thc is where here we land i f of oC the thee and then going down to old where many man bra side located In summer we e crossed crossell by b ferry err onto to the thene theand thes Mormons were drove through the shallow water s and then In 1846 we i asked Elder Lyman We ne came and I boys replied President Smith You were Yes in jn 1846 D rm Then ii they turned and amI looked off oft to the west Wt Up that draw where said President Smith III I had the most cx ex excite oaks used to grow the fit jack I losing life li e there of my life In II fact came carte near my experience cite ci I I 1 rill ril relate it Thomas Alden and I were herding cattle up the draw Each had hadi hada and we tre often had great sport running races and jumping the i a pony Noy the ravines as boys bos will do One day da while racing our Fakes O t across f parks we ere were suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by b a n body bod of Prance Indians Alden managed to escape e but bust the thc Indians caught me nie me from fromm my pony pon and then jumped on top of me with the intention iteration I l think of killing me mc I fought them then as best I could but w t could a boy do pitted against a horde of yelling Indians Even appearance was enough to drive clr c me wild with fear car for they thc had hadon on oa w war paint and their hair was plastered with white mud so it stood ip rp in front giving gh ng them then a most ferocious look I 1 thought my m time had come cone and had about lost hope when a lot lotof of cf Alden had appraised of my predicament came up over tie brow of the hill and the Pawnees jumped on their ponies and rode anI i 1 But Dui our cattle Where were they thc We believed the Indians had hadE E stampeded Impeded and nd driven them off We Ve started out to hunt for the thc herd bit b t could not find them Then we went event back to Winter Quarters as ilS florence was then called and there were the cattle safe and aud sound One Onet t ol ot our cur men Inen had seen them going north and had lId driven them in escaping tie Indians by coming corning down clown a big draw I In Florence in the center of a park stands an old cottonwood tree I II j ae aeI a I y iy I tJ M Iw il Pal by If V r JC ll rD it k Fm D Eft n lI m mIf j I IrBe If DM 1 Cantos 0 1 ll iJ F aa BS Da Jilly 1 E fey y T a HafiF a SI 1 Ms M ft Q to I wv W Is rG u Q 69 M WI M DO C s n r a Growa Graves ves planted in 1846 by h former President Brigham Young During the fifty t eight ci years it has stood there it has grown gr to be hc the largest tree of its 4 dr k kind in the th central west and 1 each cach U is visited b an year car IS by hundreds of people IJ tl 1 President Smith inquired his way WilY to the tree trec and anel readily recognized the ht surroundings hider Elder Lyman stepped the distance from from one side of the outer tips lips of the thc tough laughs bou hs to the other extreme and found that they COY cov covered t i LI I ered Bred a space of ninety fret feet ya While beneath the old cottonwood President Smith and his party part tf were photographed r I From the thc big hi tree the party parly went to the thc old u Mormon cemetery located half a mile stile west tv cst where here arc are buried it is believed between oJ o I I J H Hand and goo Mormons the greater portion of them dying di 1 during daring the thc years ears 3 1846 and 1847 1817 when the th scurvy brought on ou by hy eating too much salt f i i pork and having no vegetables at command ravaged rl the village The old tl I cemetery is I gra grass grown Many of the graves arc sunken None of the wooden placed there fifty years ago remain J rg i I Elder Lyman L has a sister buried there but hut no trace of her grave Bravo 1 t could he be found Elder Vest grandfather and grandmother arc are both hoth i sleeping in the thc old cemetery but hut where no one knows This state of af affairs f r fairs caused President Smith to take under consideration a proposition w b to erect a Mormon Morison ormon monument in the cemetery on the sides of which l can call be bc placed the panics names of all the thc Mormon dead The chances arc are ii I that the monument will twill be he erected if the village of Florence will agree to d care for Cor the cemetery better in ill the future than in the past Several r f h prominent citizens stated later they thc would gladly do so as Florences 1 dead arc are no now buried there thereA A number of old buildings were seen in ill Florence by h President 11 i Smith arid add Elder hider Lyman l which were built when they the lived there over oer i iJ years ago 1 J T As told by ay b President Smith it was in in February 1846 that the tho s Mormons were compelled to leave The Mormons had to h j sign an alt al agreement to leave leac by 11 certain a day he said or run the chances of being acing killed I was a 1 boy then and with my mother traveled ing illg at Florence or 01 Winter Quarters the th same year car where President Young had decided we should slop until he h found Cound a home for his people In the thc spring of 1847 President Young and pioneers started across r the plains following the Platte river in ill part and trappers trails in part They Thc reached Salt Lake Valley on July Jul 24 f having found the haven of rest sought and aud i ever since that lay day da Jill Jul July h 24 4 has u been area celebrated c by bythe bythe t the Mormons in honor of the occasion The Thc same year other pioneers went event across the plains to Salt Lake valley but hut the thc main lady body hod lid did not leave Florence until the spring o of G 1848 That was when Elder Lyman L and myself made the trip tl p Of the hardships encountered no one aile will ever know Imo except those who passed over that almost t trackless less barren desert Hut But President Young Y was ryas t with us having come cone to lead us liS and we wc feared nothing After that at frequent intervals other oilier parties of Mormons crossed the plains and set settled t tied in ill t The next time I r was at Florence was in 1860 when Elder Lynian and I were on our om way wa to Europe sent there then to do missionary work t r I f was back hack there again in ill 1863 but hut that was the last time lime until the pres present ent cut years cars later |
