Show I III r r t t i i i g ooh J J I 1 1 s b I It t t By t SAM JR 3 I strange as It may seem my memories of 0 Park Parl City go back further than I j can remember i I Like Liko our younger brother Lawrence who remembers well vell the Park City fire firo In 1898 although he was not born until 1899 I But In io his boyhood he had heard so much talk of the fire still so vivid In Inthe intile tile the minds of or his elders that he too be believed be- be believed believed naturally as he grew older that that ho had bad also experienced In person that memorable event So In my own case ase my ray first recollection recollection I lection of the tho Park is of a n kidnap j i ing scare that occurred oc when I was a n. amere amere mere infant in arms It seems that Aunt Annie the late Mrs Henry In whose loving caro care I had been placed upon the death of my mother a few days following my birth had taken me to Park City by stage coach to see my father then n a young man at the beginning of his long association with The Record and his outstanding career of more than lilian 65 years of recognized leadership In the tho affairs of the old camp The Salt Lake House then the camps leading hostelry and perhaps the only one adjoined Tho The Record office on Its present site and as we drove up Thomas Connor proprietor of the hotel came out to greet us and started to fo to lift me from the stage He was unknown to Aunt Annie who as the the story story was told in our family circle cirdie for years afterward feared that a a. stronger stranger l was trying to make off oU with me and was quite concerned and not a n little flustered and was not entirely reassured until I was wall back in her arms or In those of my father In later years ears I grew to know ann ana an esteem highly Mr and Mrs Connor the parents of Mrs Mayme Paxton and the grandparents of Jerome Paxton and of or orI I tho the late lat J. J Ed Paxton The first firt meal I Ir r remember member eating away from home was in tho the family style dining room of or orthe the old Salt Sal t Lake Lako House And I recall I making myself almost sick trying to toI I eat all the food served me one because I be- be bet t It It quite necessary that I clean cleanup up my plate I I And AntI surely I cant can't remember al- al alI although I though it seems that I can the time I 1 Ii Iwas i i was almost run over at the Hubbard I corner by a loaded ore wagon as I 1 started to run across Main street and andI I was saved only by the tho driver high on his seat when ho he succeeded in swerving i his horse four-horse team until I 1 was out of I danger I Wonder to whom I 1 owe my life I There was hazards in those days clays too I I And I do seem to have ha vc personal re recollection re- re recollection recollection collection of going to Park from Salt I Lake City on the tho stage probably when I II I was five or six years years' old of a n. nearly day all trip with lunch and change of of horses at the Halfway House In Par Par- Parleys Parley's Parle Parleys Parley's leys ley's le s Canyon Canyon and and I 1 trust I was not in telling my own children when were home borne a few years ago that old stage coach we saw then long disuse but still holding up well at Ferry ranch below town was the one In which I had had traveled as a Certainly I remember going to Park City on the tho Union Pacific railroad via Ogden and Coalville a n very long time tune ago when the depot was on the flat below b low town I can stilt still see bee in memory's eye ej the tho glowing sparks streaming ing from tho the stack on the tho engine engine probably probably a n wood as as we wo rattled along A thrilling experience for a n young young- youngster ster So that the tho modern boy and girl speeding s along In motor cars and behind behind- lined streamlIned oil burning and hard fired coal locomotives has missed old Tho Utah Central narrow-gauge narrow fame camo tater later later If Record readers are in interested In- In Interested Interested In the rather too personal re recollections re- re recollections recollections collections of one of or the not too young old timers there thero there are some interest Interest- interesting InterestIng interesting ing things things' to be told of that old road and anti how l h w it came to be broad At any rate I 1 had started school In Inthe Inthe inthe the Third Ward schoolhouse in Salt Lake Lako City quite City quite a hike as I recall from my ray home on Second avenue be between be- be between between tween P and Q streets streets before before I went to Park City to bo be with th Dad who had established a new home following his marriage marriage- O to Miss Louisa Harper who becam became the mother of my brothers and anti sisters on sisters on the site of the present Rad- Rad Haddon don home on Park avenue So I must have been seven or eight years old at atthe atthe atthe the beginning b g of the when I really became a More than half a century ago ngo and that is some stretch in any persons person's p s 's lifetime me me to look back r i away so long now that even the news In Inthe Inthe Inthe the 25 years ago column in The Rec Rec- Record Record Record ord happened after I left I still on occasion feel a homesickness for Park City even though It may not be the good old mp I knew in its prime I and though so many of or my old friends j have gone on to greener pastures I My earliest memories naturally are I of or places and faces near near to home and to The Record office where I used to sleep as ns a kid on the paper feed teed board des des- despite despite pite the tho noise while a n person I recall only as Dirty Frank and a big very black lack Negro whose name I forgotten turned the press Next Ne to our home on the south was tho CJ Ci B. B Blanchard home He was an anand insurance and real estate man I 1 believe but the thing I remember best about him is that he owned a fine horse a n ablack ablack black one name forgotten also alO that ho he kept stabled in a barn on the lot Just back of the house Flies Files must have been beenk a. a reg re problem then for the neighbor neighborhood ei hood housewives And Anti I can almost hear now the thud of the horses hoofs as he kicked at tho stall boards in the middle Continued on Page Four Looking Backward Continued fr from m page e One ot of the tho nIght The boom boom punctuated the steady roar of the stamps In the old Marsac mill mUl whIch was musIc to my ears In those days dRys and others will recall with me being awakened by bytho bythe the tho when the mill mUl shut down for repairs or for whatever reason and be- be beIng be beIng Ing unable to go back to sleep until the machinery rolled agaIn And somo will remember too the cascade of sparks that showered down when they blew out the stacks to I clean them and the tho fear instilling blast of the tho old mills mill's fire one whistle long blast one short for the fIrst ward one I long two short for the second one long three short for the thIrd But that's another story I On the straw and manure pile back backof of Blanchards Blanchard's barn we used to play circus what grand and lofty lotty tumbling I and acrobatics and an occasIonal prize tIght fight because It was In the days ot of Lanky sob Bob and Gentle L. L Sullivan nn the tho Boston strong boy man JIm Corbett and the mighty John and others ot of theIr professIon and boys then as noW had their heroes The Blanchard lot like ours was n a rendezvous for the gang Houston Rolley who was rather older than the others of us Bob and Ernest Watson who met tragIc and untimely many years ears ago In a mIne explosIon at Butte and who lived next door to the tho Blan- Blan Blanchard chard house In the th Watson home that still stands It was one of at the few tew homes for tor many blocks on Park avenue that escaped destruction In the bIg fire James and Johnny Doyle Dole whose homo home was separated from our own on the I north by the Methodist church While Speck McDonald who lived Just back backof I ot of the tho church the who lived on the tho street back ot of us as did the Tom Shanley's and Frank Fran Frank RIch RIch- RIchardson Richardson 1 ardson and the tho Howell boys Ernest and Jimmy we remember who lIved on the tho opposite sido from us and Frank ShIelds I There were many others some not al- al always ways of the tho immediate neIghborhood I who used to come occasionally to play play- I and sometimes to pick pl tIghts fights We nl- nl always ways tried to oblige them I A of doors below the Doyles' Doyles c couple Uple y the the on our side sido of the avenue was home ot of Mr and Mrs James T. T and theIr Minnie family and James Bangor Bango both of whom and their parents have long sInce passed on on and Joe who though blinded years ago by bya a bullet fired by a 0 dIsgruntled in MexIco has overcome thIs handIcap to win recognitIon as a 0 writer ot of nt at his home In Monroe New York state The Tho elder JIm was auperin- auperin superIntendent of the Anchor mill In those lays and nd he was the other man In our block who kept a 0 horse on whIch ho rode to and from work Mr was wasa a powerful man physically and with strength of character not at all affected by nn an unfortunate Impediment In speech Those who remember Jim Kes Kesel l at atall atall all must remember him os as having been beena a 0 very fine frIend Reading recently of the tho death ot of MIss I Lizzie Walden Waldon recalls the mod modest cst little Waldon home across the tho street f from om the Tom and ond LizzIe lived there with I theIr mother Just below the home was WILS the Walter Wilcox house a miners miners' boardIng boardInghouse boardinghouse house at ono time and I still cnn can plc- plc I turo the tho men sitting and smokIng PIc-I PIc and ond talkIng on the long porch and on the tho steps In the twilight hours after atter sup sup- per With the lived Willie Scoble ScobIe theIr grandson who also grew I up In the tho neighborhood corner Cater across the street was WILS the Congregational church a brick structure structure ture and a landmark and many's the game gamo of kick the Can n and run sheep run wove weve played under the arc light that sputtered and spattered on the old church corner RIght across the street from home lived Mr and Mrs Joe Cohen and family Elsie and Ida of at whom I was enam- enam enamored enamored ored In adolescent years and their brother a little fellow It seems to me we called Buzz The Cohens burned out In the bIg fire as wo we remember it moved to Salt Lake city where both Joe Joeand Joeand and Mrs Cohen were active neUve In Demo Demo- Democratic cratic politics We always used to think that Mr Cohen looked like the pIctures of Grover Grever Cleveland And as we see It now next the Cohen home probably on the tho lot later occupIed by the tho EpIscopal church which burned stood an Ice house its double walls rifled with sawdust to preserve for tor summer sum sum- summer mer the Ice cut during winter months from ponds below town SOmeone kept a goat In the Ice house too And And- It makes one feel teel like lIko a pioneer to recall seeIng oxen draggIng cordwood rom from the tho hills for furnaces at the Mar Mar- Marsac Marsac sac mill and many's the game of boy boy- boyhood hood baseball we played In the shadow 01 I mm mill yard Just of those woodpiles In the tho build build- building fine fino school beyond the present ing 4 1 So the tho figures and the faces and the tho i In IncIdents ot of early days troop past I 1 ot of fond SO I n 60 many many sharply etched more per per- them some somo the mists oJ blur and waver In Napa that I of the years what say But they were good old days you will J I j |