The Brigham Young Winter Home

(Our pictures....story from web)

Welcome to the winter home of Brigham Young, one of the most famous pioneers of America. He spent the last winters of his life in St. George enjoying the warm weather and directing the building of the St. George Temple and Tabernacle. Brigham Young caused the front portion of this home to be built in 1873. Made of adobe brick and pine wood, it contains many mid-nineteenth century antiques, some of which were actually used by Brigham Young*s family. The large mulberry tree supplied the leaves for feeding silk worms, the cocoons of which provided the thread for silk fabrics produced by pioneer women here in St. George.

The contributions of Brigham Young to Utah and the West are immeasurable. Born of humble parents in a log cabin in Vermont, June 1, 1801, Brigham Young became a man of extraordinary intelligence, loyalty, faith, and courage. In 1847 he was called to be the second prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Seeking religious freedom, which had been denied his people in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, President Young led thousands of pioneers across the United States in one of the most amazing journeys in American history and directed the establishment of more than 300 communities in the West. He actively participated in community building, becoming the Governor of the State of Deseret, later named the State of Utah. Before his death on August 29, 1877, he had helped develop roads, canals, telegraphs, railways, schools, theaters, factories, banks, whole industries, and universities.

 

 

 

      Original china on table...note the "Y" on it.  They burned pine cones in oven instead of wood

 

 

Brigham's bedroom....he stayed mostly upstairs and did most of his church business in his room due to severe arthritis.  Cane on bed is

  was one of his.  Note the picture of George Washington hanging on the wall between windows.....many which he displayed.  His father served with George in the Revolutionary War and Brigham grew up hearing stories about him. 

 Historians frequently refer to Brigham Young as  "America's modern Moses," but it should not be forgotten that it was the doctrines of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that President Brigham Young explicitly followed and reinforced by means of his extraordinary accomplishments.

   (This is the last picture taken of him on his 75th birthday. )      

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical of the advice given by President Young to his many visitors were these gems of wisdom:

1) Remember always that we are all the children of God. Every man is our brother, and every woman is our sister.

 

2) Avoid idleness and wastefulness. Both prevent true success.

 

3) Educate yourselves and your children in all the learning of the world and the things of God

 

 

 Representative of the principal reason for the settlement of  Utah's "Dixie", the garden still produces both cotton and grapes.

 

Hope you enjoyed the little story.....even though we are home now I still have a few posts........

                                                                  Stay Tuned.....

 

St. George Tabernacle Tidbits......

Well, to start with I have a correction to make. In telling about Brigham Young sending 30 families to southern Utah...it was actually 309 families (I checked my notes a little closer).  Saturday
morning we slept in and checked out of our hotel, having several places we wanted to see before heading back to Jenny and Logans.  The first place we went to was the St. George Tabernacle.  We learned lots of interesting tidbits about it.  

The Saints were sent to St. George to grow cotton....it was called The Dixie Cotton Mission because the dry hot climate was similar to other cotton growing areas it was ideal to grow there....the cotton could be made into fabric for clothing and other necessities, which the saints really needed.  After the saints had been there for 7 months the people were struggling.  Brigham Young advised them to build a tabernacle and a courthouse.  All tithing from the church south of Cedar City was turned in for the building of the tabernacle. It gave the people a purpose and they began to thrive.  Here are some pictures of the inside with some narration. It took 13 years to build.....from 1863-1871 and is said to have cost $110,000 to build.  There are 4 faces on the clock tower. The tabernacle became the center of activity, as it seated 2000.

The top picture is inside looking toward the front of the tabernacle.  There are 800 pipes in the organ

which are in the top corners of each side.  The woodwork was all made of pine, but master woodworkers that had migrated from europe painted all the wood to look like oak and mahogany.  Richard commented to me that he could just see Uncle Art and Uncle Robert looking it over and commenting on the fine craftsmanship

You can see the columns underneath the upper section.  After the light fixtures were put in, they realized that they blocked the view of those seated from being able to see the front of the tabernacle. Much discussion went into what do do to solve the matter.  Brigham Young called for 200 men to raise the entire upper sections so that 2 feet could be shaved off each column, which supported them.  That was quite a feat!!

The upper seats on each side of the building came from the Salt Lake Temple in 1948.  The chairs with the holes underneath were larger than the others for those who needed a little more space.  Before they got the chairs, they sat on benches. 

The light fixtures were very heavy and in order to light them they had these big stones made to use as pullies...they were kerosene in those days.  They are made today out of aluminum, and of course no longer need to be lit except by flipping the switch.

The ceilings had cotton flowers and grapes carved into them.  Grapes were also planted along with the cotton and grew quite well in the area.  The cotton flowers also have vents in them which allowed for the soot of the lamps to be drawn up into the attic....which was much easier to clean.

There are 2244 panes of glass in the tabernacle.....80% of which are still the original panes.  Because the glass came from back east it was decided that it would best be shipped around to California to reduce breakage.  They did not realize however that when they went to pick up the glass that there was an $800. surcharge they would have to pay first.  There was no money for this. After much prayer, those working on the building went door to door collecting monies to pay the surcharge. They collected $200.  Not sure what they would do Brigham had faith they would come up with it.  At the last minute, a man named Peter Nelson had exactly $600. that he wanted to donate to the building fund.  That was alot of money in those days. 

AND......finally, the twin spiral staircases on each side which leads to the upper seats were hand crafted. 

We really enjoyed our tour of the tabernacle.  Today it is used for community concerts and performances.....and church meetings.  As we were finishing we were able to enjoy the sounds of 2 men from the community who were practicing for an upcoming organ/piano concert.

Tomorrow....The Brigham Young Winter Home

Surviving the Heat......

It was a hot day in St. George...over 100 degrees, but it is a dry heat, so it's not too bad.  We woke up hoping to get an early start...which we did!  Ate a yummy Best Western Breakfast and headed over to the St. George Temple.  It is quite majestic, somewhat similar to the Manti Temple.

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely time...after we went through the temple we walked around and enjoyed the grounds and visitors center.

A nice family took a picture of us together. We learned that Brigham Young had sent 30 families to settle this area and in 1871 construction began on the temple.  It was finished in 1877.  This is the first temple in Utah, though the Salt Lake temple was in the process of being built at the time.

 (and took 40 years to complete.)

 

 

 

 

 More pictures of the landscape.  This time it is black lava rock.  It came from a volcano millions of years ago.  It is used in building foundations to homes here because the red rock is too soft. The  bottom pic has an interesting cone shape.

 

 

 

 There are also some very interesting homes here....they are pretty in their own way....mostly all are the same color of the areas around them...I didn't get a good picture, but there are homes literally built into the rock a so that it is hard to see them.

 

 

 While in Utah we have wanted to go to this restaurant....Cafe Rio.  Many of you know that I have cooked cafe rio (pork) at home for many years using a not so secret recipe I got from a friend.  People have told me my pork tastes just like the real thing....so we went to check it out. It is a VERY fast paced and interesting place to eat..... they serve the food on these disposable cake tins.  It is just soooo crowded and noisy.  We ate here on Thursday night, and then today we went with our longtime friends Marshall and Helen Ann.  They have lived here about 14 years.

 

 

We spent a good part of the day with them....then we headed over to TUACAHN......... again.

They live very close to the amphitheater.

 

 

 

It was Amazing again tonight....this is the set...I don't look that happy....but really I am.  It was quite hot tonight, so during the intermission while Richard was getting us some water, I went up to get cooled off...there is water coming out of these misters at the top of the theater (we had seats right up front again tonight).  While standing there I struck up a conversation with some random people...they asked where I was from.  I told them.  They said they had family in Washington and mentioned the names...the Englands who had apple orchards.  My ears perked right up and told them I KNOW them...the conversation kept getting better.  Turns out the 2 women were Egans too! They looked familiar from seeing them at family reunions.  Such a small world. When Richard came back with the waters we snapped a picture.  What were the chances??

 

 I must tell Brittany because she says I know people everywhere....I think she is right!!

After the show, some of the cast of the show greet people up top of the theater.....we could get in line, but instead I just snapped some pictures.

 

 

Mary Poppins and Bert....kinda fuzzy

 

 

Mr. Banks with the maid and children. 

The show was a bit different than the movie....a few different characters, but all my favorite songs were sung.  Mary Poppins came down with her umbrella from up above and the singing and dancing was wonderful!!!  Each evening at Tuacahn fireworks light up the sky during the finale.

I'm getting tired....but stay tuned.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lets just call this an Adventure.......

I had a much better sleep last night. Woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go!  We spent the morning getting ready for the next part of our journey.....

 

 

Sadie and I had some very important things to do before Grandpa and I left......she is such a girly girl!

 

 

 

....and of course we had some serious coloring to do....she did a great job!

 

 

Then there was a group hug when Daddy came home for lunch (he works just around the corner...the flagpole blowing in the wind that I took yesterday was the family business)  Then we said our goodbye's.....and traveled to what seems like another planet......

 

 

 

 

Aren't these mountains beautiful???  We headed south to St. George Utah, and the scenery along the way was breathtaking....We reached the summit at 7180 feet....can't tell you the summit of which mountain range, but we went through the gaument of colors.....brown, white, red rocks........mountains with trees.....you name it we saw it.

 

 

This area was awesome....there were ridges carved out by who knows what....wind?  A river?

 

 

We stopped at Cove Fort one of our church's historic sights.  We stopped here many years ago with the kids, but we thought it would be fun to see it again.  In 1867 President Brigham Young sent Ira Nathaniel Hinckley to build this fort instead of a town, because of the scarcity of water to be a way station for pioneers traveling along the "Mormon Corridor."  For more than 20 years the Fort served an important function, but as times changed so did the need for the fort. The land was leased out and eventually sold.  Nearly one hundred years later in 1988 the Hinckley family purchased the Fort and gave it as a gift to the church as a historic sight.

 

 

There were 2 sides to the fort....one side had the kitchen & dining room, where they served the many travelers that passed through, a mail room, telegraph room and a bedroom for the boys.  The Hinckley family had 3 boys and 4 girls.  The other side had the girls rooms, guest rooms and parents room.

 

 

An interesting little fact...the mattresses were made of this blue striped material and filled with ticking and needed to be fluffed up from time to time....they would use the rolling pin on the top of headboard to roll out the lumps.  Nothing was wasted, so when the fabric became too thin for a bed, boys pants were made out of it....and when the pants wore out, the fabric was torn into strips and made into rugs.

 

 

 

Richard is standing at a lookout...there was never any trouble with the indians....but it was there just in case.  The lookout actually looked out to a huge garden as well as the blacksmiths shop and other things.  There are 22 missionary couples that work daily at Cove Fort.....4 people are assigned just to take care of the garden.  It was immaculate....not a weed to be had.  The missionaries eat the food that is produced there.

 

 

 

The top is a pic that shows the date of when a bed quilt was made.  The blue quilt is a linsy woolsey quilt...not sure if that's how its spelled, but wanted to share for the quilters in the family.

 

 

This was used to wrap yarn into balls.....I'm not sure if I'm telling it exactly right.... but after it had gone around the weasel 30 times it would "pop" to stop....thus, the saying "Pop goes the weasel"

 

 

There a several of these very large Black Locust trees in the courtyard.  The life span for these trees is 80-90 years.  These trees are 145 years old.  They have them braced up in spots to help relieve the stresses they are under.

 

 

 

We headed out after our tour....about 135 miles from St. George.  The landscape was constantly changing.

 

 

I have never seen SO MANY billboards.  They were all along the way...I would say over 100...on BOTH sides of the road!

 

 

 

The red rock is just spectacular....you can see in the top picture how flat the top is....these are all as we neared St. George.

 

We got checked into our hotel and drove to Tuacahn where we would go to see

"Throughly Modern Millie" in just a few hours.

 

                                                  It was FABULOUS.......
                                                                             STAY TUNED.....