| Show written for this chit paper WINTER QUARTERS FLORiN olm DOUGLAS CO neb oct 8 1898 this morning nied by foder geo T marshal Ma rahal Pr president aident of the iowa conference I 1 left council 33 blufe luffe and proceeded by street oar across the url river and through the city of omaha to fort moba amaba situated four miles milea north of the city thence we walked two miles to florence or old winter quarters qu arten whore where I 1 am now seeking additional information to that which we already possess concerning this Ibi historic locality the name dame of florence or winter quarters Is ia familiar to nearly ever every y mormon household in utah not only to ito those whore experience in life has baa been with the place but to the younger members membern of the church who although boro born and raised 1 in a the rocky mountains have become more or love jen acquainted with the same be cause of what they have beard their seniors relate concerning it florence of today which occupies the exact bile of old winter quarters la Is a town containing about one thousand inhabitants and is an incorporated city at that the omaha water works which were built here a few years ago has baa added fresh importance 10 0 the place as ae quite a number of men are em employed loyed around the works which are considered ahead of anat ang ing ot of the kind in the western country there are four very verv large two of which can lift and pump gallons of water every 24 hours the work of these two pumps is called low flow service as they only pump the water into the reservoir or filtering ponds situated on the level adjacent to the works just 42 feet above oboy the river after passing through th the necessary filtering or cleansing process the water to returned to wells at the water broms from which the other two iwo huge pumps send it up to the reservoir situated in omaha six miles As attaint taint at an elevation ot of feet above the river at florence the amount of water furnished the city of omaha daily is gal gallons lotis out but the capacity of the pump Is gallons per day the work albat these two largest pumps do is called the high service 22 flur florence nce baa a fine school house bouse a city hal ball 1 a hall half a dozen tores stores a number of shops and some fine private res residences donces theold the old mormon gravey sui i situated on a hill ot of the town tow D is enclosed with a substantial wire fence and is still u ed d tor for burying the he deab principally by the poor people who ean can not to buy lots I 1 in a the new graveyard I 1 examined the headstones closely but fou found id none that gave any inform information atio as all to where any of the saints were resting all the monuments and head boards now DOW standing being of more recent date it has baa been 1 rebii I mated however that abut ab ut saints are buried in this aeme tery it must be remembered that anat it was not only in the days day of winter quarters that our people succumbed to too diseases dle eases incident to the hardships and to which they were exposed notary the so eo called black fc curvy but that subsequently when the now new city of florence was founded on tile the site of winter quarters the place was selected elected soon as an ou out fitting tatting place the he saints who crossed the plains and while these aomia companies wes or emigrants grants were encamped in and around florence preparing fur for the over land journey fourney numbers of them died aud and were buried in the grounds that were originally selected an aa a burying place by the exiles from in 1846 thus bearing lu in mind that florence was the outfitting outwitting out fitting place for the mormon emigration until 1864 and that tons tens of thousands of cur car people crossed the plains and mountains from this point including the handcart hand cart companies of 1866 1856 1867 1857 1869 1859 and 1860 there to is ground for believing that the statement regarding the number ot of dead slum alum boring on trio hill tat at florence is not in excess of the facts the oldest settler now residing at florence is james H deland who to ia eighty nine years old he haa bee bood been a resident of florence sinco since 1857 1867 and told us that he was well acquainted with geo Q cannon and other migration emigration agents agento w who 0 tended trio trie mormon overland travel from 1869 to 1864 mr deland de land occupies the promises premises on which president president young had his temporary house bouse in winter quarters from 1846 48 and related to us a number of pertaining pertal ning to the history of these theme early days daye immediately south of mr delands delande residence Is the present public square near the center ot of which stands a lonely cottonwood tree the largest to be seen any whore where 11 I 1 I 1 this part of th the country cuu its if trunk being more than four tse feet iu in diameter this tree we were informed formed Iti owed its existence act that president young whom us ue lived on the adjacent lot placed a cottonwood stick in the ground at that particular point for the purpose of tying lying bis bin cows when milk milking tag and this thi latiok started barted to grow which by the way is no do uncommon occurrence for cottonwoods cotton woods when the ground is suitable and hence the present large tree under the shades of which many a plem pic nic has been served mr delanu showed us the so called mormon grant consisting of eight acres of lanu janu situated at the point where a small creek pu puts into the mis doun river north of tho town this eight acre lot was placed at the disposal of the church emigration tion agents to erect euch buildings upon BH might bd ba necessary for out purposes purpose ee this was at the time when florence was selected a seconds time as the min main starting point fur the plains pl airis F r many years yeara after the emigration over florencej Floreu Florou cej ceased those these buildings were left standing ata but there aro are nu no traces of them now me los ground ou oct which they stood being now cultivated a fine crop of corn was raised on it lnig beon it appears that the church title to that piece of property has never been extinguished it to is many years since florence ceased to be a rival of omaha it was such in the beginning but bul omaha has as now nearly tu in florence not evou even street railway 0 with its successful rival the oar car line irom from omaha only extends to the barracks or fork omaha amaba now and then a historian or newspaper man Is in found who is in fair mindel enough to give credit where it Is due even evau evento to mormon cormons Mor mons the lolL jollu wing extract irom from a burx entitled history of amaba 0 from the pioneer days to the present time is a sample or 01 this among the institutions that aided greatly to give Omaha a more than tham local notoriety in her infancy was hw omada arrow the first newspaper published hrc here the first number of which is dated july 28 1864 1854 soon after the ho urvey survey had completed it was a tour four page pae el six x e olum a obest abe columns golu ans being rather wide the reader to is in fornies in ii hue us immediately antior abw head that it was a family newspaper devoted to the he arts sciences general literature agriculture and politics politico its if politics belag democratic it took ina in a wide hold field certainly aud and it if these general features tea tures are any criterion the arrow was a paper that circulated among people of social refinement andl literary culture even of that early age J E johnson and J W Patt pattison leon were the editors and publishers was the business man of the concern he was a mormon there were only twelve hum numbers bore of th the a araw pu published b covering the period from july 28 to november 10 1854 11 after florence ceased to be the start ing point fr the church emigration crossing the plains a little village seven miles milea north of nebraska city and forty miles south of florence FJOr euco was selected as the out outwitting outfitting fitting place az and served fur for that purpose io 1864 1866 and 1866 or until the union pacific took the emigration further we west st jn in a history of nebraska published in 1882 I 1 find the following under the caption of 01 wyoming aside maside from nebraska city syracuse unadilla Un adella and dun dunbar bar ane principal town in otoe clu acu ty ity entitled entitle il to special mention is 18 Wyom wyoming ilog now called dresden Dreis den aud and that not for its ito present importance but ltd past glories the town was laid ut in 1856 1855 and the following year had bau gr wn tu to such dimensions that jacob dawson fished a weekly newspaper called the wyoming telescope Tole mope and with the ab si sleta siance nce of mr jackdon the paper was continued about two hearp then iben sum aue publication during the early years of its ita existence tue citizen imagined wyoming was to be the leading town of tile ibe upper missouri before the 0 mple tion of the abe union pacific railroad the mormon emigrants t for hull gait lake were brought from st louis by boat and wyoming was the point ot debark anu and where their carriage commenced two large houses were erected for the accommodation of the new converts one ot of them a two tory story and basement stone edifice is still iiii banding tan tand ding tog here to is IH the burial place of several persons mormon emigrants dresden at present contains a post effice two small stores and two or three scores borrs of people the present village known as wyoming is in merely a post postoffice ioe office situated two miles rom I 1 the old site bite ANDREW JENSON |
