A Trial Furnace
Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,
cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail,
Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana
Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts, and Sherri Trittipo.
Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea,
belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit
to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended
family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail
box at any time.
"I finished the book about Southern Utah's Iron Mission this week:
A Trial Furnace. It was written by Andrea's Dad, Morris Shirts,
and Randy's wife, Kathryn H. Shirts. And if, after reading this
summary, any of you want to get a copy, let us know because we
can get them at a discount.
This was one of the best books I have read in years. Easy reading,
and I found it very interesting. Of course, we have a vested
interest. Andrea's ancestor, Peter Shirts, is mentioned 41 times,
and my ancestor, Bengt Nelson, is mentioned twice. One of the
things I will do as a result of reading this book is forward Bengt
Nelson, Sr.'s autobiography as a Thoughtlet sometime over the next
few months. His involvement in Cedar City came right at the end
of this book. However, I will start this Thoughtlet by quoting
the relevant section about Bengt Nelson in `A Furnace Trial:'
<![CDATA[ `In the spring of 1856, new settler Bengt Nelson described the
dwellings in Plat B, which reflected the poverty of the pioneers:
`Returning from Iron Springs, the first thing I did was to secure
a lot on which to erect a home for myself and wife, the new city,
the present site of Cedar, having been surveyed the year before.
I secured a city lot from the Bishop and was the third settler in
the new city, as the people had not started to move up from what
was called the old Fort, but as I was expected to work at the
iron works I came direct to the new location as it was much
nearer the iron works than the old Fort. I dug a cellar, but
having no lumber, I used willows for the roof, then covered them
with straw that I obtained from a kind farmer, and then covered
that with dirt, but it proved to be a rainy season, and the roof
leaked badly. I tore the roof away, made some adobes, walled up
the cellar, and built an adobe room on top of it. I succeeded in
procuring some old boards for the roof, and covered them with
dirt. But not having any boards for the floor, we had quite a
time, until I got hold of a few pieces and we made them answer
for part of a floor, at least.
The "rainy season," which made it so hard for Nelson to install
his roof, was all too brief. In 1856, the Iron County pioneers
were again plagued with drought and grasshoppers and some settlers
left to find farms in more hospitable country.']]>
A couple of years ago, I first heard about Parley P. Pratt's
Southern Exploring Expedition.
<![CDATA[ `On 24 November 1849, 47 seasoned men, traveling with 12 wagons,
24 yoke of oxen, 38 horses and mules, a brass cannon and food
for about three months left Salt Lake Valley.' page 9.
`In the comparative respite of Little Salt Lake Valley (present
day Parowan Valley), Pratt decided to let the exhausted oxen
recuperate while He and 20 men left the day after Christmas to
go over the south rim of the Great Basin while the others
established a base camp at the mouth of the canyon, where feed
and fuel were more abundant.' page 13]]>
Returning to Salt Lake:
<![CDATA[ `Pratt, along with 24 men and 26 horses, left on 22 January.
On the south slope of the elevation later called Scipio Pass,
drifts reached over 10 feet. The men broke trail for the
horses, rotating to the rear as they became too tired to
breast the drifts. Two horses gave out and had to be
abandoned. ... That night it snowed again. Pratt's
journal revelas his delightful sense of whimsy under
difficult circumstances:'
`In the morning we found ourselves so completely buried in
snow that no one could distinguish the place where we lay.
Some one raising, began shoveling the others out. This
being found too tedious a business, I raised my voice like
a trumpet, and commanded them to arise; when all at once
there was a shaking among the snow piles, the graves were
opened, and all came forth! We called this Resurrection
Camp.' page 15]]>
There were so many different interesting things in "A Trial
Furnace." I had no idea that Southern Utah was one of the
places where the old forts were built like we saw in all of
the Cowboy and Indian movies when I was growing up. Fort
Louise, may have been named for Joseph Smith's first plural
wife who had recently died (footnote 73, page 95), later
became Parowan. During the Walker war in 1853 the city of
Parowan was surrounded by a wall 12 feet high and six feet
thick at the bottom and two and a half feet thick at the
top (page 335). A Trial Furnace reports:
<![CDATA[ `On Friday, 22 September (1854), an Indian stole a horse
from Beason Lewis of Parowan. The thief was soon
apprehended. He was held under guard in the schoolhouse
while the settlers debated whether to take any action.
Members of his tribe, assuming he would be executed, set
up ambushes all around the city and planned a general
massacre but the Mormons released the man with a stern
warning, perhaps not realizing at the time how close
they had come to disaster.' page 335]]>
I found it interesting how Indian relations were maintained.
After a "Pihede" brave entered John D. Lee's home and
behaved "very impudent," attacking Sister Lee with a club
or plank, opening a "very dangerous wound" in her head,
<![CDATA[ `On Mondy, the 9th (August 1852), the culprit was brought
to the settlement. Ouiwonup warned his brother, on pain
of death, not to retaliate for a peace pipe together and
the Mormon leaders gave gifts to the chiefs in token of
their understanding and cooperation.
Brigham Young's policy was to maintain harmonious relations
with Native Americans whenever possible. In April 1852, he
instructed an Indian agent, Major Holman, to
`endeavor to conciliate the Indians; also to learn their
numbers, situation, usual haunts, disposition to make
treaties, and obtain their consent, if possible, for a
settlement upon such location as shall be most desirable
for an agency and farming operations.'
The Mormons were also eager to proselyte. Henry Lunt
reported with delight that J.C.L. Smith had baptized 58
Indians on Sunday, 18 October.' page 287]]>
In regards to Cedar City:
<![CDATA[ `As a protective measure, the pioneers erected bastions
(guardhouses) "on each side of the fort." No information
survives to suggest how these bastions were incorporated
into the fort design. While they could have been set
midway on the east and west walls, they were probably -
if settlers followed the Parowan model - built on the
corners, perhaps one on the northeast corner of the fort
and the other on the southwest corner of the corral.
With the bastions in place, as Chatterley explains, the
continuous guard duty begun at the time of the Wagon-Box
Camp became more formal.' page 171]]>
I remember the fort my Dad built for me when I was a child.
It had a bastion on one corner. I have written about it
in previous Thoughtlets (../9811.html and ../9819.html).
I had no idea the first fort at Cedar City was built out
by the Knoll across from Clint Hunt's service station. I
recall Dad talking about his big plans to build a new
updated meatpacking plant on the north side of this knoll.
It turns out this was the very place the first settlers
moving to Cedar City from Parowan camped on their first
night in Cedar City. This became the Wagon-Box Camp, and
was protected from south winds by the knoll. The second
site was The Old Fort, just around the knoll where the
vetranarian always had his office and next to Robinson
Coal Yard. This is also where the KOA Kampground is,
out past where the Drive-In Theater used to be. The third
place they moved the city to was by the Interchange at
300 South and I-15 (MacDonalds, the Holiday Inn, etc.).
Bengt Nelson's house was in the fourth Cedar City location,
where the present street numbers are. Maybe A Trial
Furnace was all so interesting to me because I grew up
there and because I have such deep roots in Cedar City
soil. Hopefully each of you will someday read it, and
discover those same roots.
We have no comprehension of the trials these pioneers went
through that we might enjoy all that we have. There were
families of 15 or 20 raised in a single room, smaller
than my livingroom. As one specific example:
<![CDATA[ `According to Chatterley, "Daniel Ross, who left in Spring
of 1852, but came back with a wife, went barefoot up
Shurtz's [Shirts] canyon for logs to build a house and
when he came home during the evening he would lie on his
face while his wife picked the slivers out of his feet."
The story ends with a nicely understated comment that
"It certainly required courage and patience to build up a
settlement." page 186]]>
This is interesing to me because John Chatterley, one of
the descendents of the Chatterley referenced above, was one
of the salespeople who worked with me at Evans & Sutherland,
and then later at HyperMedia Corporation. His father was
my shop teacher in 8th or 9th grade, when I built the
`castle' Roice has, and the soldered `steam engine' Paul has.
He is about 6'3" and now he lives in Phoenix, Arizona. The
pioneer stuggles are also captured with this paragraph:
<![CDATA[ `In this frontier environment, with survival always foremost,
volunteer laborers for community projects were hard to come
by. Leaders, struggling to govern, had trouble meeting
their own needs. In 1853, John Steele was to note in his
journal: "About this time I had my hands so full, I could not
tell what to do first, Indian troubles, settling home
matters which are generally plenty and as Calvin or the
President were absent nearly all the time, the work devolved
upon me." Lunt would have agreed, recording on 1 May 1852
that he had "returned home very much fatigued every night
this week[.] It is a very toilsome job to break up new land,
and to build new settlements." An entry three weeks later,
on the 21st, only underscored the amount of sheer physical
toil the job demanded: "The remainder of the day myself and
father Whittaker ditched on my ditching. Very much fatigued
in the Evening. The greatest portion of the lower dam, swept
away by the high water. Creek still raising." pages 219-220]]>
In regards to the Indian difficulties:
<![CDATA[ `On 27 July, the morning after the dance was interrupted, the
men gathered in the Bowery to hear the reading of General
Orders, after which the battalion was reorganized.
Instructions from Salt Lake City were very clear and, as
Bowering reports, were carried out right away:
`The familes living South side the creek commanded to move
into the fort. Peter Shirts came in from Shirts' Creek
seven miles south. John D. Lee came in from Harmony
sixteen miles south. The brethern began to build up every
open place in the fort, and to settle down as well as they
could, Joel H Johnson and family moved in from his place
six miles north [Enoch], The brethren stood guard day and
night and things going on well under the directions of
Elder F D Richards[.]" page 320]]>
In conclusion A Trial Furnace states:
<![CDATA[ `Although the iron missionaries were never able to supply
the territory with adequate iron implements, the benefits
they gained by colonizaing southern Utah far outweighed
their failures. Those sent to the Iron Mission understood
they were being called by a prophet representing the will
of God. ... One who studies the history of the Iron Mission
cannot fail to be reminded of a biblical metaphor that
exemplifies the whole enterprise: "Behold, I have refined
thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction" (Isaiah 48:10). This integrity and religious
commitment of each iron worker was refined and tested through
adversity no less than the iron they smelted. The furnace
smoke rising to the sky above Coal Creek represented for
them as much a burnt offering, and just as demanding a
sacrifice, as the smoke rising above the temple alter in
the Hebrews' promised land. The smelting and purifying of
iron stood as a daily symbol of the spiritual purification
and character refinement that each pioneer experienced by
putting aside his or her personal interests to establish a
modern-day Zion.' pages 418-419]]>
And I must admit, I often feel like my generation and yours take
all of this sacrifice for granted. As we drive in our fancy cars,
use our modern appliances to cook food from a grocery store the
pioneers would consider to be in heaven, talk on the phone across
the country, take an airplane ride to England, or simply log onto
the WWW and vote on a Grandbaby's name, I hope we will always
keep in mind the sacrafices these blessings are built upon, the
faith enabling those sacrifices, and the hand of the Lord in our
own daily lives.
In terms of my week, I read some. Matt and I went to the driving
range on Monday, Columbus Day. Tuesday Sam LeRoy and I had a 4
hour meeting with MCX Corporation, a division of Mitsubishi. It
looks like this isn't going to go very far, according to one of
my friends who had meetings with them the next day. Oh well!
I did get a verbal commitment from Trey Sibley of The Rudman
Group in Washington County, Colorado. Hopefully we will close
this deal next week. The Woodside contract is progressing, and
probably won't close until the end of the month. Steve Joseph,
Albert Boulanger, and I met with Wulf and Yemani for a couple
of hours on Thursday, and then I spent a couple of hours with
Steve and Albert talking about vPatch's next steps. I gave
the `Cricket' (formerly CoReExchange) lecture at Continuum
Resources. There is a lot to talk about here, and I will save
it for another time. Other than to say, I used comments from
reading A Trial Furnace as part of my introductory comments.
Matt had soccer practice Friday night, and a game on Saturday
afternoon. Andrea and I had choir practice Saturday morning,
and she had the annual Young Women's vollyball tournament and
went to the Taylor vs. Cinco High football game Saturday night.
Today was a nice day. We had another Latter-Day Night Live
planning meeting (Diane, I will send you details once we get
them all collected together within the next couple of weeks),
and our second choir practice for the Epiphany Concert coming
up the first part of December. Maybe when you all are down
for Thanksgiving there will be time Sunday evening for some
of you to listen to the choir practice and see why this is so
enjoyable. It was a pretty easy week, and certainly not
`A Trial Furnace.'"
I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements
of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how
important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of
distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets
go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at
rnelson@walden3d.com.
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)