TrailMarker

NATIONAL NEWS

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National Genealogical Society Conference (NGS) 2010

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) conference will be held in Utah this year, Wednesday through Saturday, April 28 - 30. This is one of the largest genealogical seminars held in the United States. Experts from around the country will be invited to make presentations. The SUP needs volunteers to staff an SUP booth during the conference. Please contact the National Office if members from your chapters would be willing to assist.

The American Sampler Trek

Enough SUP members have signed up to take the American Sampler Trek back east. It will be held May 11 -21. Call Dee Risenmay (208-356-5805) for remaining spaces. Since the first American Sampler trek was so successful two years ago, it is being repeated.

Nauvoo Pageant and Mormon Trail Trek

This trek will be held July 13-23, 2010 and will involve visiting LDS Church history and Mormon trail sites between Salt Lake City and Missouri and Nauvoo, Illinois. You can sign up on the SUP website: www.sonsofutahpioneers.org . A detailed day-by-day itinerary is also at the website. The deadline for signing is April 15.

Little Denmark/Scandinavian Heritage Festival Trek – May 27-29, 2010.

The first of its kind three day heritage festival celebrating the Scandinavian pioneers who settled in Sanpete County will be hosted by the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area. This can be attended individually, as a chapter, or you can join in a National SUP trek on a bus. Local guides will be provided for each town. Additional information will be sent email to all Area Vice Presidents and Chapter Presidents. This would be a great activity for those of you who have Scandinavian ancestors who settled in Sanpete County.

A Great Local Chapter Project!

Many monuments throughout the Rocky Mountain area are in need maintenance. They need to be cleaned, repaired, and cleaned around the monument. Nearly all the monuments are on the SUP website. You can examine the monument locations to determine the ones nearest your chapter. Stewart Radmall (801- 479-8308), National Director of Monuments, also has a list of the monuments located by chapter location. In some situations we need pictures of the monuments and GPS coordinates. You may want to consider this as a major project for spring and summer. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Valentines Social Held

On Saturday, February 13, 2010 a Valentines Day social was held for SUP members. Several past SUP Presidents attended, plus local members. Tom Pike (above) sang some old favorite Broadway songs from early times. Mike Bennett and his daughter Rose (below) provided excellent readings from letters written between Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It ended with the sonnet, “How Do I Love Thee”. Pictures were taken and provided to the couples who attended. A light dinner was served.

Pioneer Trail Memorial Highway

Gerald Haycock, working with Representative Ronda Rudd Menlove (right) and John Tanner were able to draft Utah House Bill 132 to establish the Pioneer Trail Memorial Highway from Henefer to Salt Lake City. According to Gerald Haycock, “the Utah Legislature in 1913 approved the route and designation, but the correct and final designation was never completed by the Highway Department on the Trail”. The bill was recently passed and will soon be signed by the Governor of Utah. A small contingency of SUP members attended the Legislature. You will hear more about the ramifications of its passage.

Trail Marker Newsletter

For those new to the Trail Marker newsletter, it can be found on the SUP website at: www.sonsofutahpioneers.org . Please review it each month to get ideas for chapter activities. Also, please send Louis Pickett information on your chapter meetings each month. His email is: louwill@utahbroadband.com

Below: The SUP Legislative contingency who attended the discussion on Utah House Bill 132. Front row, l.to r., John Tanner, Representative Menlove, and Gerald Haycock

CHAPTER NEWS

By Louis Pickett: louwill@utahbroadband.com

CENTERVILLE (Centerville, Utah) Chapter member, Wayne Lynn gave a “Pioneer Moment” at the February meeting. He told of his great grandfather being the only one in his family that had a pair of shoes good enough to wear to dances. His brothers would borrow his shoes to dance in. Since his feet were the largest they could all wear his shoes. Following that vignette Jeff Proctor entertained the group by playing his guitar and singing. His selection of songs included some from John Denver and others that the group related to. He had the group sing along with him on some of the old time numbers. The program was very much enjoyed.

HOLLADAY (Holladay, Utah) Chapter president, Ted Pierce, looked back over the past year and itemized some of the community service performed by members. These included assistance with the Holladay Summer Fest, providing two student scholarships, sponsoring 5^th grade pioneer essays, and submitting and discussing biographies of pioneer ancestors. Another very worthwhile service was the chapter donation of $500 to the Utah Food Bank. As a follow up to that donation the chapter took a trek to the food bank to tour the facility and to observe the work that is done there. After the tour they provided valuable service to the food bank. National President, Dil Strasser was the presenter at the January meeting. He spoke about the organization and the goals for 2010. At the February chapter meeting Al Rounds was the featured speaker. While he spoke he proceeded to do a painting. All of his paintings are watercolor. Al spoke of his desire to be an artist and of his training. He has created many paintings of pioneer architecture and pioneer life. His concluding statement to the group was “What we add to our lives take us to a better place”.

HURRICANE VALLEY (Hurricane, Utah) The January meeting was a very interesting one with the program coming from chapter members. Garth Isom (left), the board member over memorialization, was in charge of the program and had asked Wayne Edwards, Don Tait and David Isom to assist him by each giving brief excerpts from the lives of four men that the chapter had memorialized. Garth then encouraged the members to do more memorializing of their ancestors. He told them that it is quite easy to do and he offered to help anyone if needed. It only requires writing a short biography on the person being memorialized to be sent to the national office along with $35.00 for the head of house and $15.00 for each additional name. These names are then inscribed on a plague and the history is filed in the library where anyone can research them. All SUP members should consider participating in this program.

JORDAN RIVER TEMPLE (South west Salt Lake Valley) Dr. Milton Backman (left) was the presenter at the combined Jordan River Temple and Temple Quarry chapters in February. He has been a BYU professor of Religion for 38 years. He spoke of the many contributions of the Prophet Joseph Smith. According to Dr. Backman, Joseph Smith was visited by all major Bible and Book of Moron prophets. A major contribution that Joseph made was the abundant amount of revelatory writings in three volumes of new scripture. Some opponents of the Prophet Joseph Smith claim that there was not religious revival excitement at the time of the first vision as Joseph reports in his history. Dr. Backman has personally researched this claim and has proven that the claims of these opponents are false. There really was the revival excitement at that time around Palmyra, New York as Joseph claimed.

LEHI (Lehi, Utah) Mr. Steve Nelson of the Provo Pioneer Village came to the January meeting and provided a view of the past via slides and historical dialogue. The village is located at 500 West 600 North in Provo and is open for all to visit and enjoy. The village has been benefited by having the Brigham Young Chapter join in sponsorship. Steve has been very much involved in the development and expansion of the village. He is on the alert to insure era authenticity of items placed in the village. An example of that is the report that his plans were to put a sod roof on a cabin when he learned that Provo had a single mill about that time. So instead of sod the roof got wooden shingles.

LITTLE SALT LAKE (Parowan, Utah) In January those who attended the chapter meeting learned about the new Iron County Journal which is published by the Historical Society. Janet Seegmiller, (right) a member of the editorial board, was the presenter. She is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject due to her training and positions held. Janet is the author of “A History of Iron County – Community Above Self”. Among other assignments she serves on the advisory board of editors of the Utah Historical Quarterly. The first issue of the Iron County Journal contains an article written by Renee Brinkerhoff on Hollywood movie making in Iron and Kane counties, an article by Steven D. Decker about the martyrdom of Edward Meeks Dalton in Parowan, the only known man killed by law enforcement during the anti-polygamy crusades of the late nineteenth century and excerpts from “Forgotten Chapters of History” written by William B. Palmer. The purpose of the journal is to provide high quality scholarship on the history, culture and social development of Iron County.

MAPLE MOUNTAIN (Mapleton, Utah) The January chapter meeting featured David Ridges (left) on the subject: “65 Signs of the Times”. He is retired from the CES and is serving on the Church Curriculum Committee. Brother Ridges is a previous Springville stake President and is a popular speaker and author. It was a very interesting evening.

MILLS (South east Salt Lake City) The chapter enjoyed a wonderful meeting in January as Buddy Youngren, an authority of the Joseph Smith history, told of the love story of Joseph and Emma. Their story began in 1825 while Joseph boarded in the Hale home. Joseph was working for Josiah Stowel and Joseph Knight at that time. Emma’s father, Isaac Hale opposed the marriage. For that reason the two of them eloped and were married in Bainbridge, New York. He was 21 and she was 22 years old at that time. Emma was with and supporting Joseph as he received and translated the Book of Mormon. She was prominent in the restoration as leader of the Relief Society and editor of a hymnal. She suffered much due to the loss of children and the hardships put upon them because of persecution. She was named “an elect lady” by the Lord (D&C: 25)

MOUNT NEBO (Payson, Utah) Some history of Salt Creek was presented to the chapter in January by David Moore. Salt Creek is in Nephi canyon and got its name from a salt outcropping that was once mined somewhere in the canyon. It was also the site of a massacre. This massacre went two ways. Indians massacred some settlers that were transporting grain from Sanpete County to Salt Lake City. In turn, some unsuspecting friendly Indians were walking into a settlement and were massacred by the settlers. A future trek is planned by the chapter to visit the canyon where more information will be given by David.

SETTLEMENT CANYON (Tooele, Utah) On February 4^th the chapter enjoyed another great program as Alex Smith spoke of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Alex works in the Church History department and is very knowledgeable on this subject. He explained that the “Papers” are not a “documentary history”. Instead the project will publish documents created by Joseph Smith or by his staff, whose work he directed. Diaries, incoming and outgoing correspondence, revelations and reports of discourses are included. This has been and continues to be a very major project with many employees and volunteers working on it. The first two volumes have been published and are available to the public. Activities are continuing at the museum every Tuesday by members of the chapter. They are currently getting the building ready for the summer season.

SEVIER VALLEY (Richfield, Utah) Spanish Trails Marking was the subject presented at the January meeting by Leo Lyman and Bob Leonard. They discussed the subject and showed photos and maps as evidences where the trails were. It is known that there was not just one trail but several. They referred to the “Fish Lake Cutoff”. Tex Olsen, the chairman of the chapter scholarship committee, has given a testimonial of the value of the program. He made a contact with the principle of Cedar Ridge Alternative High School regarding the progress of the recipient of last year’s scholarship. He said, “You wouldn’t believe what the scholarship has done for Cory. It gave him confidence that he could handle post high school work. So besides helping him financially get into higher education, he is making it work.”

TEMPLE FORK (Logan, Utah) A history of the Ellen Eccles Theatre was given at the January chapter meeting by Wendy Hassan (right). She has a B.S. degree from the USU and M.S. degree from Iowa State University. She has been working for the arts in Cache Valley for 20 years. Wendy said that the pioneers started the tradition of art in all forms in the Cache Valley. In the early days there was a passion for dancing. The dances required many musicians. Even today, Utah has the highest per capita piano ownership in the world. In the 1890s the Thatcher Opera House was built. It burned the same day the Titanic sank, but the local newspaper in the valley gave front headlines to the Thatcher Building burning, and second page news of the Titanic. In the 1910s the building of the Capitol Theater was begun by the son of George W. Thatcher. There was only a small frontage on Main Street available so they built a small front with a long promenade that went to the theater area that was built in the middle of the block. It was on the vaudeville circuit. The Capital Theater also had a fire but was not entirely destroyed. It became a movie theater and then was renovated and became the Eccles Theater of today.

UPPER SNAKE RIVER VALLEY (Rexburg, Idaho) President Lynn Smith welcomed over 50 members, spouses and guests to the January chapter meeting. The theme for the meeting was “Getting to Know You”. Pres. Smith started off the meeting by playing the song of the same title. New members: Steven Hutchings and Dan Porter each gave a brief history of their lives and of their pioneer ancestry. That was followed by a brief history of the chapter given by the president. This included a quiz of past chapter presidents. Part of the quiz involved having past presidents, who were present stand at the front while the audience arranged them in the order of their service. President Smith also discussed the future of the chapter including the 2010 goals, the mission statement of the S.U.P. and the importance and responsibility each one has to be a good example.

2009 Medallions

Golden Spike

Also 2008 Headquarters

Design	Year	Metal	Cost Each	Qty	Total Med. Cost	Shipping Cost		Ship- ping Cost	TOTAL COST
Design	Year	Metal	Cost Each	Qty	Total Med. Cost	1-3 Med.	4-6 Med.	Ship- ping Cost	TOTAL COST
Headquarters	2008	Gold	$35		$	$10.75	$16.25		$
		Silver	$25		$	$5.25	$6.50		$
		Bronze	$5		$	$2.75	$5.25		$
Golden Spike	2009	Gold	$35		$	$10.75	$16.25		$
		Silver, Gold Spike	$40		$	$7.75	$11.25		$
		Silver	$25		$	$5.25	$6.50		$
		Bronze	$5		$	$2.75	$5.25		$
TOTAL									$

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