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Show Volume XXX Issue VIII The Ogden Valley News Page 9 February 1, 2023 Early Life in Eden The early settlers of Eden faced many other boys of Eden herd the cows. We herded hardships. John Fuller, son of Eden founder them up on the foothills and away from the Edmund Burke Fuller, wrote, “Clothes were crops in the valley. That was a long, hard job made from the wool sheared from the sheep for us boys. When we got a few years older, here in the valley. Housewives corded and spun our job changed from herding cows to farmthe wool. Cloth was woven on looms…. ing. I learned very early in life to drive an ox “Homes for the valley pioneers were made team and I learned to put shoes on them. When from logs cut with an axe and hauled from the they got sore footed, they would lie right down mountains with ox teams. Sawmills were later in the middle of the road and wouldn’t move. built, and farmers spent most of the winter saw- I have pounded thousands of nails into ox ing timber and hauling it to the farms shoes…. for building purposes. “The hardest job I have ever “My father owned a herd done while helping my father of dairy cattle and when I farm was helping clear was six years old, a mernew land. There was sage chant in Huntsville… brush higher than our made trips to Salt Lake heads. As it was plowed once a week to sell up, we boys would folthe dairy products. low along, pull it out My mother churned of the dirt, and pile it 40 pounds of butter a up ready to be burned. week and on a certain We worked from four day she would put the o’clock in the morning butter in a bushel basket. until we couldn’t see any She took hold of one handle longer at night.” and though I was only six, I School held the other handle and we walked The first school in Eden—a oneand carried forty pounds of butter to John Fuller home. room primitive log building—was Huntsville [from Eden]. We sold it to Mr. Mortenson and brought back a basket of built in 1866. Johanna Teeples taught that first year, followed soon after by Edmund Burke groceries in return for the butter. “I never wore a pair of shoes when I was Fuller. Having graduated from Oxford, he a kid. In the summer I always went barefoot. was called upon in many instances to advise The callouses on the bottom of my feet served community members. There were 83 students as shoes. In the winter we wrapped our feet in enrolled in those first years of school. In 1868, Richard Ballantyne organized the rags or sacks to keep them warm. “We were pretty poor there for a while. I Eden School District. The school was supremember eating sego lily bulbs and cow cab- ported entirely by tuition, which amounted to bage. Mother would cook them, and they would five cents per day for each student. In 1884 the taste mighty fine. I have gone out into the grain log schoolhouse was replaced by a larger frame fields with my mother. Many times, we would school building crowned by a bell at a cost of glean the wheat that the cradle left. We’d shell $1,004.50, which was raised by taxation. The this wheat and then blow out the chaff, and dimensions of the building were 26 x 40 with mother cooked this up nice and soft and we had 12-foot ceilings. It was built across the street from the north side of the Public Square—Eden a fine supper of milk and corn bread. “We had about all the diseases going Park. In addition to school, it was used for around. I remember my brother Enoch lost church meetings and all other public gatherings. It had a seating capacity of 78. Dedicated three children with diphtheria.” Alexander and Elizabeth Jane McBride January 27, 1884, it served the community until Ririe—daughter of settler Heber Robert a new yellow brick schoolhouse was built and McBride and Elizabeth Ann Burns—owned the dedicated September 14, 1919. The school bell first piano in Eden, “where it held an honored was moved to crown the new building. The bell was an essential part of the complace in the parlor.” They also boasted the first stationary bathtub in the valley, made of metal munity, announcing the beginning of school, and standing on four curved legs in its special the end of recess, and the noon hour. It also called the community together in case of fire corner of the small bathroom. or other emergencies. As the men worked the Farming & Livestock farms outside of town, the women and children The first settlers used oxen for work ani- were often left at their homes near the town mals. The plows were forks of trees which square. If danger presented itself, the women merely scratched the ground. Plows were made could run to the schoolhouse and ring the bell, later with wooden beams and iron shears. Most alerting their husbands of danger. During the any crop could be grown in this virgin soil, but time the school was used for church meetings, the main crops were hay, grain, and potatoes. 1884 to 1910, the bell also tolled for the times Good gardens were grown, which supplied the of church gatherings. families with the necessary food. Hunting & Fishing In 1866, a “grasshopper plague” came to Eden, which lasted for seven years. John Fuller John Fuller wrote, “Hunting and fishing wrote, “The grasshoppers destroyed almost all wasn’t the sport in those days that it is now the crops and nearly brought starvation upon because wild game was too plentiful. We could the people. get all the doe, antelope, or elk we wanted. If I John Fuller wrote, “The grain, when ripe had time, I’d fish a little. I remember there were was cut with a cradle and thrashed with a lots of wolves, fox, coyotes, and three kinds of flail or by driving oxen on the threshing floor. bear. There was a grizzly bear, a black bear, and Then the chaff was blown out by the breeze one little brown bear. It was nothing to see seven when tossed in the air. About ten bushels were or eight a day while we were logging. You can bet thrashed out in one day.” I gave them plenty of room. There were lots of Regarding husbandry, he added, “When I bobcats, cougars, and mountain lions. The farmwas seven years old, my job was to help the ers had to keep close watch over their animals.” Fuller also tells of the flocks of sandhill cranes that numbered several hundred, which migrated over the valley. He also noted that due to the great damage of vegetation from overgrazing in Eden, the number of large coveys of native grouse were severely reduced. As a boy, he enjoyed Mother Nature’s beautiful garden of wildflowers found in the springtime in Eden. And that, in his estimation, there was never a more beautiful sight to see. Recreation Music and dancing were a large part of Eden’s early days. In 1891, Elisha Wilbur built a new store with a second story built for a dance hall, which had a hardwood floor. The building still stands today and stands directly north of Eden Park. People came from miles away to attend the affairs. Admission was 25 cents for gents and ladies were admitted at no charge. Dancing was an art then. The men sat on one side of the hall, the women on the other between numbers. The signal to choose partners was the beginning of the music, which consisted of chording on an organ and a fiddle, with Elisha often doing the fiddling. Fuller recounted, “There were lots of young girls to dance with. The music was made up of a violin, banjo, and an organ. My how Wilmer Ferrin could play that organ. Jessie Wilbur played the banjo. We’d dance the Waltz, Schottische, Square Dance, Polka, and the Vesuvian. We had a man to call, and he’d get down among the dancers and we’d dance whether we knew how to or not. In those days on dance night, the folks would get the chores done at noon. We’d all climb into the handmade bobsleighs drawn with ox teams and take our supper and all the babies and away we’d go for the dance hall. The stage back of the orchestra was a bedroom for the babies. Beds were made after supper and there the babies slept while everyone else danced. This was in the winter when the snow was three feet deep.” Sarah Jane Burnett, born in 1868, wrote of “roaming the hills barefoot as a child gathering wildflowers that carpeted the entire countryside. It was a ‘Garden of Eden.’” She loved the recreation afforded by the community, and nostalgically recalled the drama of Christmas festivities and the July celebration both the 4th and 24th. “Then there were the dances! With… the music of Jesse Wilbur on the fiddle, Wilmer Ferrin at the organ, and sometimes someone on the banjo providing music this side of heaven.” From The Past . . . CLASS OF 1919 Standing: Margie Jensen, Max Clark, Merlin Burnett, Lawrence Burnett, Orville Graham. Sitting: Mamie Stallings, Gertrude Stallings, Mrs. Van DeNaker (teacher) Inez Stallings. May 1919. Photo courtesy of Ray Wilmot. From the Past…. Correction Cleo Smith Zarek called in with corrections for some of the names from the “From the Past” photo that ran in the January 15, 2023 issue of the newspaper. Following are a list of names, some of which have been updated or corrected. Valley School Eighth-Grade Students Circa 1935 Front Row (left to right): Not sure, but may be Fenno Schade, Jay Capson, and Dean Hislop. Second Row: Perhaps Leland Burton and not Clark Olsen, Durlyn Johansen, Helen Stuart, Beth Jensen, Bud McKay, and Beth Felt. Third Row: Teacher Mr. Burnett, Mozelle Wangsgard, Ruth Hawks, Stanley Wangsgaard, Jaunita Allen, and Halvor Bailey. Photo courtesy of Leta Bailey. 2668 Grant Avenue, Suite #104A, Ogden, UT First Friday Mass will be held Friday, February 3 at 8:30 a.m. for St. Blaise Day Followed by Children’s Adoration Kids Craft Wednesday Night 5:30 p.m. Saturday Night 6:00 p.m. Sunday Morning 9:00 a.m. First Friday 8:30 a m. Fr. Joshua Marie Santos 801-399-5627 FrJoshuaS.Stambrose@gmail.com Saturday 5:30 p.m Sunday 8:00 a.m. or by appt. Saint Joseph Catholic Elementary, Middle School, and High School Providing a challenging, college-focused education in the proven tradition of Catholic schools, for the families of the Ogden Valley. We want to teach your children! For information on our program, financial assistance, tours, or application, please call 801-393-6051 or 801-394-1515. 801-612-9299 |