On Friday after work we drove down to Mt. Pleasant to see Sara Jo. Spring is the best time to drive down Highway 89, all the fields are green, the mountains are still covered in snow and the wild flowers are starting to bloom.
Sara lives in a great, pre-electricity house just a couple of blocks from her school. (Actually, in Mt. Pleasant EVERYTHING is only a few blocks away)
When visiting friends and family I always like looking through their books. Sara has some quite interesting books on her shelves - Modern Stellar Astrophysics, Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Principles of Electronic Instrumentation, Introduction to Electrodynamics, and my favorite, Practical Dynamics of Particles and Systems. I think Lance will never call my books boring again.
We aren't sure, but we think this is an experiment Sara is doing from her book "Principles of Electronic Instrumentation."
On Saturday, we drove the five short miles to Spring City for the "Heritage Day Historic Home Tour." We got to see sixteen of the twenty-two house on the tour. Grandma Annie Call lived in Spring City for several years after she was orphaned in Salt Lake City.
We went to the Post Office to talk to the Post Mistress (also the town historian) - she told us where Annie's step-mother's house was. It wasn't on the home tour but it was still interesting to see.
On the left are Grandma Annie Call's step-mother, Anna Wilhelmina Backman Malmquist Nilsson Peterson Billington Jensen with her fourth husband, Zeke Billington. On the right is how the house looks today.
It's surprising that a tiny town like Spring City would have such a large, beautiful school. Grandma Annie probably never studied here, Dad said she only made it to 2nd or 3rd grade.
One of the more interesting buildings we saw was the Endowment House, built in 1876. Annie's Grandfather Christen Nilsson may have married some of his plural wives here.
Inscription in the stone over the doorway of the Endowment House showing the compass, square, beehive and building date along with the words "Liberty and Virtue."
Construction on the church started in 1902 but Grandma Annie probably never attended services here. It wasn't dedicated until 1914, about five years after she moved to Chesterfield. By the way, it was dedicated by Anthon Lund, the apostle who talked Annie's father into leaving Sweden to join his wife, children and parents who had already immigrated to Utah.
We also found the graves of Annie's grandparents, Gertrude and Christen Nilsson. They both died before Annie moved to Spring City.
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Spring City is becoming an artists' colony, most of the houses on the tour were full of works done by Utah artists.
After the Spring City home tour we drove to Ephrium for "Scandinavian Days." There were booths for Mexican tacos, Chilean empanadas, and Lance bought two African frogs but we didn't see anything Scandinavian.
From Ephrium we went to Manti for a few minutes. All of the towns on the scenic byway Highway 89 are intriguing for their style of Mormon architecture - if you aren't interested in architecture it's still worth going just of the malt shops!
From Ephrium we went to Manti for a few minutes. All of the towns on the scenic byway Highway 89 are intriguing for their style of Mormon architecture - if you aren't interested in architecture it's still worth going just of the malt shops!
We had planned on going back to Salt Lake on Saturday night but when we went back to Sara's to pick up our things we ended up chatting with her and some of her co-workers until midnight so we decided to drive back home on Sunday.
On Monday, Memorial Day, Lance had to work but Glenn and Aunt Faye drove up to Ogden to put flowers on the graves with the rest of the family.
8 comments:
Oh! Your posts are so interesting. I loved seeing Sara's cool house, and I really enjoyed all the photos & history you included. I feel dumb..but I didn't know I was swedish! :) I always thought we were just scottish & english. :) Is there any other blood in me that I don't know about?
Glenn, you have such a talent for family history and you KNOW SO MUCH! Have you ever considered putting it all in a book? I think you should.
Thanks, Jeni!
By the way, you have German blood also. Anson Call's grandfather, Christopher Tiffany, was from Germany. He probably was a mercenary who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. He defected and later married Rebecca, the daughter of an old American colonial family.
Very cool and interesting indeed! That sounds like a really fun trip.
On my trip that I got off of last night, I had a Captain named Glenn and the First officer's name was Lance! What are the chances??? I tried to get them together with their names close enough to get a picture to send to you, but they weren't cooperative. You know what a bunch of homophobes a lot of pilots are... But I still though you would appreciate the story. Neither of those are names you hear all of the time and then for them to be flying in the cockpit together (no pun intended!). Hope yall are doing well!!!
On my trip that I got off of last night, I had a Captain named Glenn and the First officer's name was Lance! What are the chances??? I tried to get them together with their names close enough to get a picture to send to you, but they weren't cooperative. You know what a bunch of homophobes a lot of pilots are... But I still though you would appreciate the story. Neither of those are names you hear all of the time and then for them to be flying in the cockpit together (no pun intended!). Hope yall are doing well!!!
And here I'm the captain and Lance is the first officer - another coincidence!
Captain and First Officer?
Sounds like a modern day Village People!
It seriously looks like you guys had a great time. I'm totally jealous.
Echo Jeni comments! A book is a seriously good idea! LOVED Sara's house! She lives quite the life, doesn't she?! Thanks for the tour. love, Jane
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