Show S u b I Brodders ro ers an and Sisters ByGrace By ByGrace Grace Johnson Johnsona a 0 1 Copyrighted i ht 4 f early ute life and times V tf eing the e Being town o f E P i E ire Mormon q O of to Coun County tY Utah and into in j sanpete the famous sure 3 be 1 to do Ephraim Stories This is one in Note r. r s II Editors Editor's of at stories from thes the series r es J s b bace bk and Sisters by y Brodders bOOk k Johnson At the ther Gr GrF Grace ace r F ion of the serial pubU- pubU sw I ic limited number of q a if of the book will be avail avail- I es Jc may be reserved Copies i vB I fv able calling the M Messenger Messenger- r- r bY office Eo Enterprise Installment 6 Isaac Im I'm Afraid V k b firs II t s ettler r of nf f I trIne u was Isaac Beh Be Be- i k Ephraim h who located on Pine PineCreek PineCreek n J. J I Creek now Cottonwood 40 acres i 1 where he claimed of land and made a dugout the winter where he spent of 53 1852 with his wile wife and i ni nine ne chi children dren Toward the 1 close dose of 53 he moved to ManU Mantl owing to Indian troubles 4 I 1 Pioneer Memories i I When my father saw t t f Isaac in n 1853 f told him Mm it was r no use to settle on Pine PineCreek Piner Pinea f a r Creek Ephraim as there water for f was only enough 1 his farm i Pioneer Memories Its It's a far cry from the days f. f of ancient geological drama to the the year ear 1852 Yes a far cry old old days when the I from the j r I waves of a primeval surf sur pounded pound pound- I ed on its Us southern beach Marti ManU j Ii Temple Hill to that day when T Isaac left the Fort at Manti ManU and drove his covered wagon to a lonely spot on Pine PineCreek PineCreek I Creek seven miles mUes to the north I and began a Mormon town later laterI I to be called Ephraim f And just where do you put nine children in a dugout A AI I dugout being a room one-room cellar I roofed with poles and dirt Why you build cupboard shelves all the way from the floor to the I ceiling depending ceiling depending on the number num num- I ber her of children you have have in in I that practical progenitor of toI toe to- to I I f days day's indispensable space conI cont con- con t e I i I the bunk bed Histories are such lifeless skeletons Imagination has to breathe the breath of life into them and put blood in their veins So picture Isaac a tallman tall tallman tallman man perhaps with a weather- weather beaten face and heavy beard shoveling a dugout cellar on The Crick a blo block k north from today's drug store the store the pile pUe of gravel and rocks growing growing growing grow grow- ing higher as the hole gets deeper Dragging pine poles and fitting them Into a roof all shoveled over with dirt Ears and nerves taut and alert for an unfamiliar stirring of a aleal leaf leal the breaking of ot a twig that would betray an Indian n presence c nl r What was it like that like that winter winter winter win win- ter Here is what it was like Eleven souls in one damp dugout cellar room alone in a wilderness November and snow December January and more snow savage blizzards whistling and around the dugout cruel frosts chewing their way through the dirt and pole roof February the children sick and the long bitter nights March the long bitter nights and the baby coughing April the baby coughing and MOCCASIN TRACKS May Moccasin t tracks acks and Isaac Im I'm afraid June July August We must harvest the crops An arrow In the dugout door two three September and Isaac his wife his nine children and his gun in his covered wagon urging the unhurried un unhurried unhurried un- un hurried oxen toward Manti ManU Arrows two three four thudding against the wagon box and Isaac hurry Im I'm afraid Im I'm afraid Im I'm afraid Fort Ephraim In 1854 some of ot the brethren went north from Manti to Cottonwood Creek formerly Pine Creek in inthe inthe inthe the winter and hauled rocks and built a fort wall and inside began to build houses with what materials they could get at that time Ume Pioneer Memories With the swelling tide of immigration im immigration im- im immigration migration from Denmark the 54 Fort was filled to overflowing overflowing over over- flowing and with more to come Nothing for it now but to build a larger fort enclosing the smaller one So now began again that frantic frantic fran fran- tic marathon between naked vulnerability and possible attack The praying And the pick axe And the rock And the quarry quarry- ing And the shovel And the mud And the sweat And themen themen the themen men with guns Behind the pace of plodding oxen of often ten with women drivers the miles between the rock quarry and fort unrolled with agonizing slowness A gruelling contest between effort and extinction and the slow rising of the fort walls But Fort what Hammering the final touches to the Forts Fort's finished gate the brethren caused A Biblical name to be sure with just the right and proper ring Leafing over the scriptures it was to remember the special blessings assigned by Father Jacob upon the House of Eph Eph- raim Now 1 if there were any special blessings left leftover over from Biblical days the brethren could think of no more appropriate appropriate appropriate time for the dispensing of the same than right now now- such as nudging those moisture- moisture laden clouds lying around in the sky doing over nothing nothing over the grain fields of Sanpete So Fort Ephraim it was 1853 54 Th The first thin advance of Danish converts growing into a widening stream Brigham waving them and their language on out to Sanpete DENMARK TO FORT EPHRAIM EPHRAIM EPHRAIM EPH EPH- RAIM It was a long and perilous perilous perilous peri peri- lous journey First Denmark to Liverpool to New Orleans 10 weeks on an angry Atlantic Missouri and the covered wagons the prairie the Platte and South Pass the the Sweetwater and Independence Rock Echo Canyon Emigration 5 months and 1500 more miles to Salt Lake with Brigham frantic frantically ally summoning his interpreter Twenty eight wagons and all Danish That language Everything Everything Everything Every Every- thing they say comes out upside up- up upside upside up up- side down or inside out So to be sure it was twenty- twenty eight wagons arrived and for Sanpete Sanpete Sanpete San San- ty-eight ty wagons leaving pete and Fort Ephraim and to Join other Danish At least there would be no confusion of tongues DENMARK TO FORT EPHRAIM EPHRAIM EPHRAIM EPH EPH- RAIM it was Three weeks and more miles but now they were there Drinking deeply of the pure mountain air of the United States of America the new Americans Americans Americans Ameri Ameri- cans got out of their wagons Unyoked their oxen Walked out In the sagebrush Kneeled down and thanked God for a safe arrival THESE OUR FATHERS Aye these were our Fathers Those who grubbed the first sagebrush Broke the first soil Quarried the first rock Prayed in the first church And oh yes fought their first grasshoppers Grasshoppers There had been crops in 54 The plowing had been hard and the fields were few but the virgin virgin virgin vir vir- gin soil turned over for the first time had produced enough to tide over the winter with seed for the next year And now it was next year 1855 and sun and sky smiled upon the land A good water year the snows were banked high in the mountains Roots in virgin soil drinking long and deep from the freshen freshen- ing streams the grain burst Joyfully out of the ground I With an extra bonus of showers the tender young shoots grew and flourished It was now that the head demon of the Great Basin congratulated congratulated congratulated con con- himself upon his tim tim- ing What an expansive welcome to the new Danish emigrants this would be Waiting until the green and waving field announced a bounteous bounteous bounteous boun boun- harvest for the fall with food for man and animal and for seed he rubbed his hands in anticipation and gave the signal NOW GRASSHOPPERS They came in battalions r Armies In clouds In the sky In greasy crawling mounds and hills they spread over the green and waving fields Immobilized from shock stunned beyond speech helpless before the destroyers the new converts stood and surveyed the disaster When the grasshoppers had finished the fields looked as 1 if they had been devastated by fire But there was no time for mourning Behind the mountains mountains mountains moun moun- winter was hovering Olson sold his silk hat his coat and feather bedall bed bedall bedall all brought over from Denmark Denmark Denmark Den Den- mark for some of last years year's wheat and a bushel of ot potatoes Others of the emigrants went into the hills and dug sego bulbs and thistle roots Pig Weeds more tasty than they sound and which grew plentifully plentifully fully around Temple Hill were gathered for greens Many of the men went north to other settlements to find work to pay for winter food We Look at the Sky All the cows horses and oxen were within the Fort wall at night and carefully herded during the day Log and mud houses were built within the Fort wall to provide for the settlers The arrangement of the houses and cattle yard on the inside of the wall as aswell aswell aswell well as meeting and schoolhouses schoolhouses schoolhouses school- school houses was that the cattle were in the center and the houses camps and wagons closer to the walls Pioneer Memories Time does odd things to the mind in the late hours of the night I am not here in the present at a table writing and waiting for my 2 am a.m. water turn I am standing within the walls of old Fort Ephraim a night in 1855 The pioneers are asleep with wit h the heavy sleep of the exhausted For a while they have forgotten forgotten forgotten for for- gotten the grasshopper disaster and that they must think o othe of f the future that lay ahead Looking back I could have told them what that future would be Long years of looking a athe at atthe atthe t the sky In winter hoping praying that those transient clouds inthe in inthe inthe the West would drift over to the East and materialize into storm snowbanks for Bluebell Bluebell Bluebell Blue Blue- bell Flat White Ledge Horseshoe Horseshoe Horseshoe Horse Horse- shoe Mountain and the Right and Left-hand Left Forks In summer hoping praying g those storms that bypassed our mountains the winter before The male Emperor penguin divides responsibilities with the female To keep the penguin egg ot off the ice they take turns holding it on their feet might drench us with a summer summer summer sum sum- mer shower and save the fields Hoping desperately for the shrunken waters of The Crick can irrigate only a fraction fraction frac frac- tion of the crops and unless it rains they will wUl be lost But it doesn't rain and the crops are lost Perhaps the next will be a wet year And so the farmer plants again Shading his eyes against the sun he looks at the sky His sons are born They too learn to look at the sky They look until they are grown and reluctantly pack their bags forthe for forthe forthe the fields of the town cant can't support new families So they wave goodbye and are gone How well we know the cycle If The sky The Crick The scorched fields A packed bag Goodbye But now I am back again standing within the walls of oldFort old oldFort oldFort Fort Ephraim that night in 1855 The sky Is brilliant with the eternal stars stars remote remote Imper imper- I cross the water ditch carefully and look about There Is no one to be seen No sound but the sound of cattle shifting eating flocks nocks rustling In their coops and pens I am alone But no That soft low laugh the laughter of a girl She is standing there in the shadow with her lover the moment Is sweet and she Is loath to go But now she is gone and her lover Is gone There is nothing but the night and the cry of a babe a achild achild child chUd is born N Now ow it is quiet again Allbut All Allbut Allbut but that long low moan There Therein in in that lighted candle-lighted dugout window The candle flickers as the life Ufe in the dugout flickers and is gone There is the sound of weeping The deep racking weeping for the dead The clink cUnk of arms and th the change of guard Love birth death the tapestry of life Ufe is little altered no matter where its threads are woven |