Story of Sidney H. Epperson Pioneer

Written by Simon S. Epperson Seventh Son of Sidney H. Epperson
Printed in U.S.A  1941   Acorn Printing Co.

Copyrighted by Simon S. Epperson   1941


FOREWORD

To all Eppersons and others to whom this story may come--Greeting:

In the early ‘70’s the writer’s father had frequently related many of his experience, adventures and high motives in the settlement and up building of the West in the Rocky Mountains.

This was indeed most interesting and indelibly impressed upon my mind.

Many of these incidents would be lost to future generations were it not that someone preserve it for the future.

Sidney H. Epperson was of humble birth.  His parents and their progenitors’ were toilers; but their characters were godly and their names untarnished.

During the passing years the Author had taken notes but had neglected to write his life’s history.

Having sufficiently recovered from a long period of ill health, it became my desire to complete this data and record it in story form to his honor and as a legacy to his worthy posterity, who now number over two hundred.

Also to thousands of our early Colonial descendants, others who may desire to learn something of Western Pioneer life and to generations still unborn.

To the writer it has been a loving duty in the hope that all who may peruse this narrative will find joy and inspiration in reading it and learn lessons of what constitute character; real manhood and womanhood that endure.  Also that the reader will see not just the well woven pattern of a single family’s history, that we point to with pride, but that of all the sturdy Pioneers who laid well the foundation of the Golden West.

If such be your pleasure, all I have sought to attain will have been accomplished.   ---Simon Epperson.



CONTENTS


I--Ancestry---Crossing the Plains.

II--Arrival in Salt Lake Valley.

III--First Settlers of Prove Valley.

IV--Old Fort Midway.

V--Chief Tabby Makes Peace.

VI-- At Home in the Rockies.









Chapter I

ANCESTRY---CROSSING THE PLAINS

Sidney H. Epperson (nickname Sid) was of the lineage of William, John, David, Charles and Elias Epperson, his father, who was born November 21, 1798, in Albernarle County, Virginia, where records and Pension Rolls of the United States War Department show many Eppersons fought and died gloriously on the fields of battle in the Revolutionary War.  Time now finds many of their descendants in most of the states of the Union, from the tidewater section of Old Virginia to the peaceful waters of the Pacific, and from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south.

For a complete history of our noble ancestors the writer cannot recommend too highly the wonderful and inspiring book entitled, “History of the Epperson Family,” compiled and published after twenty-five years of research by Edna Epperson Brinkman of Hinsdale, Illinois, where copies may now be obtained.

Elias Epperson married Nancy Lunica Dalton January 10, 1824, in Kentucky.  They moved to Montgomery County, Indiana, in 1830 where Sidney was born December 31, 1832, in a long cabin on the sod-covered prairie then in its wild and primitive state, where the savage and treacherous redskin Indians (the Potawatomi, Sacs, Fox, and others) challenged the approach of the white man for supremacy, and the howl of the lonely coyote and prairie wolf made their presence known all too often, when bedtime approached for the weary pioneer settler.  Neighbors were far and few between and a dreary place it was. A schoolhouse was unknown in these parts, so their education was limited.  Their stay here, however, was but a few years when they decided to sell out to one Hardin Freeman November 26, 1834, and move westward to more fertile lands.

In 1837, when Sidney was five years old, they moved to Tipton, Iowa.  Little then did he realize that thirty years later he would have a son whose name should be called Tipton.  It was here his father settled on another quarter section of promising land in preparation of making a new home and how well were his fond hopes realized.

As the years rolled by the prairie sod was turned under by the ox team and converted into fields of golden wheat and corn, as he grew up to manhood, where his childhood fancies as he learned to pray at his mother’s knee, were changed to manhood realities and where he experienced the joy of achievement and the remorse of failure.  Where he learned to become a practical and typical farmer of the plains, which was seemingly a schooling to guide his future destiny.  He tell’s how he used to love to drive the oxen, hold the plow, ride the pony, and assist in the planting, care and harvesting of the crops, etc.

A most comfortable and welcome home soon took the place of the tent and first log shanty.  The well with it’s old oaken bucket stood near the porch where he used to pull up the sparkling water for the household, and his mother Nancy Lunica whom he loved so well.  He said he always had a desire in his heart to respond to every beckon and call and to lighten her burdens in every way possible.  Neighbors were then few and far away.  Their home had been plain and simply furnished; their food was coarse and their clothing was home spun, but the warm welcome there left nothing to be desired or to make it happy.

Elias and Nancy Lunica had now been blessed with thirteen children, eight of whom were still living, viz: Elizabth B. (Betsy), Sidney H., Charles Lee, Daniel H., Alexander (Dock), Martha Jane, Permelia, and Mary Ann. Four had been laid to rest in their childhood.  They were Sarah, Telethia, Jonathan, and Susan.  Now they were to part with the old homestead and its found recollections and the dear ones who had been laid to rest.

Father Elias had decided to sell out and move westward, going from there to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  He bought a farm twelve miles north on Honey Creek in the early spring of  1852, which was then being rapidly populated by the Latter-day Saints (better known as the Mormons).  Prior to their departure for the Rocky Mountains where the exodus had already begun by their leader Brigham Young, in fulfillment of the prophecy by Joseph Smith to his Saints in Nauvoo when he said, “You will go to the Rocky Mountains and become a great and mighty people.” How true was this prophecy fulfilled. Also Isaiah’s prophecy, chapter 2, verse 3: “And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”

It was in Council Bluffs where the family first heard the true and everlasting gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Some of them became converts and had a desire to go with the Saints to the Rocky Mountains.  Most of his people were of the Baptist faith.  Nauvoo was named in obedience to a “revelation” made to Joseph Smith.

Martha Jane Epperson married Henry (Hank) Busenbark at Honey Creek.  With the assistance of her father Elias and brother Sidney, they equipped their wagons with tents and provisions ready to join the caravan soon to cross the plains by ox-team.

Sidney was now a fine looking young man in his twenties, and as his father and mother put it, as good as gold, with a kind, loving and cheerful disposition.  He had been with them thus far through their trials, their joys, and their triumphs, and was happy that he possessed a worthy heritage descending from a long line of Eppersons who had a simple faith in God and man, and believed that a humble and happy home on earth was a divine thing next to heaven above.

The David Wood Company was now fully organized and well equipped to start their trek across the plains.  Sidney, Martha and Henry Busenbark left Council Bluffs with this company on or about June 20, 1852.

Their hearts beat with joy at the parting in the thought that in the near future their mother and father would be with them.  But alas, they were never to meet again in this world.  Elias died two years later, August 4, 1854. His death occurred in the evening after the funeral of his baby son Henry. He had already equipped his one wagon for his journey to the Rocky Mountains.  Nancy Lunica, his wife, lived only a few years and was laid to rest by his side and their baby Henry in Honey Creek, Iowa.

To those who are familiar with history it is needless to record their journey in detail, but anyone interested may well read “The Day by Day Travels of Brigham Young’s First Company in 1847,” which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune of 1936.

It may be well however to record a few rules, regulations and incidents relative to their journey.  The pioneer companies were all organized with captains over hundreds, fifties, and tens to be governed as follow: At five o’clock in the morning the bugle is to be sounded as a signal for every man to arise and attend prayer before he leaves his wagon.  Then the people will engage in cooking, eating, feeding the teams, etc., until seven o’clock, at which time the train is to move at the sound of the bugle.  Each teamster is to keep beside his team with loaded gun in hand or within easy reach while the extra men, observing the same rule regarding their weapons, are to walk by the side of their particular wagons to which they belong; and no man may leave his post without permission from his officer.  In case of an attack, or any hostile demonstrations by the Indians, the wagons will travel in double file.  The order of encampment to be a circle, with the mouth of each wagon to the outside and the horses and cattle tied inside the circle. At 8:30 P.M. the bugles are to be sounded again, upon which signal all will hold prayers in their wagons and be retired to rest by nine o’clock.

The first concern was water, feed for the stock, which was now becoming scarce, and wood for the camp.  Often they had to resort to the use of buffalo chips for fuel.  The captains for the company appointed night herders and watchmen for the cattle and horses as they were under the necessity of keeping constantly on the alert to protect themselves from attacks of Indians, especially the roving Pawnee tribes of the Platte.  At times they were fired upon and attempts were made to steal their stock.

Great herds of buffalo went on the stampede and carried everything before them in their mad rush.  Some of the crack riflemen however always got enough of them to provide the camp with meat, and at times they were sent out on horseback to hunt them.  Everybody enjoyed a nice buffalo steak.  The Saints were exhorted to praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing and with prayer of thanksgiving.

It was the custom at the close of the day’s journey to assemble and hold an informal concert, relate reminiscences or engage in the dance that the cares and hardships of their travel might be forgotten.  

The writer’s father, young Sidney, played the violin but said he loved to dance best, and no wonder, for it was here he met and danced with the charming young damsel from “Old Virginny,” with such beautiful brown eyes and long, waving hair, who was later to become his wife---The daughter of Jeremiah Robey, who hung the last door in the Nauvoo Temple.  Another of his favorites was Agnes, now sweet sixteen, the charming daughter of Captain Wood.  She later became the mother of Lydia M. Smith, who married the writer of this story thirty-eight years later. 

How often has the writer of this story sat by the old fireside at home and listened to Father, Mother and Grandpa Robey relate their experiences crossing the plains, comparable to God’s leading ancient Israel out of Egypt to the land of Cannan.

They said the David Wood Company was made  up of jolly, sturdy bunch of pioneers, companions and friends in every kind of weather.  Among others were Jeremiah Robey and family, Jess McCarrell, David Wood and families, who had made their way into the wilderness and provided their own means of transportation.  They carried with them their supplies and sustenance, their tools and utensils with which to begin their new homes in the west where they might live at peace with their neighbors and worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and not be molested nor driven from their homes any more.

They were men of experience from every walk of life---the farmer, the carpenter, the mason, the philosopher, the meek and the lowly---all going forward in a common cause, capable of overcoming every obstacle that might beset them.  They never faltered nor turned back.  They said their young folks were the life and joy of the camp, always mindful of the aged, the sick or the ones needing a kind and helping hand, especially when it was wash and clean-up day for the mothers and necessary to make repairs for the wagon train.

During the day’s march there was no frivolity nor jay-walking.  They moved along with precision, with cheerfulness.  Love and hope were their watch-words.  Now great clouds of dust were being stirred up by the rolling wheels of the train as they moved westward over the plains of Nebraska and Wyoming and in fancy we hear the lash of the old teamster’s whip and then:

“Move on, move on, move on caravan’
Wend your weary way across the burning sands.
Get on, get on, get on lazy oxen,
A few more days and you may graze 
in fertile lands.
Hear the crunching of the wheels upon
The sandy loam;
I know each revolution brings us that much
nearer home--
So rock and roll, till we reach our goal,
Roll on caravan, roll on.”
(S. Hubbard)


There were now a thousand camp fires in the mountains and on the plains from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City.

The line of travel taken by the Saints was along the north bank of the Platte River to Fort Laramie, where they crossed the river and continued over the Oregon trail, up the Sweet Water and over the Continental Divide through the south pass, then across Green River to Fort Bridger.  Then they traveled to the southwest through Echo Canyon and East Canyon, over Big and Little Mountains into Emigration, and then to the valley of the Great Salt Lake.  At last they emerged from Emigration Canyon, September 17, 1852, tired and careworn from their long trek of a thousand miles across the plains. 


Chapter II

ARRIVAL IN SALT LAKE VALLEY

And now to view for the first time the barren and desolate looking valley that lay outstretched before them with little or no green vegetation except scattered bunches of wheat grass and sagebrush with a few cottonwood trees that fringed the streams of water that flowed peacefully to the west.  Their eyes eagerly swept the awe-inspiring but desolate environment, the majestic but bleak mountains, the shimmering lake, the forestless expanse, all suggestive of privation and hardship for the colonists.

The place where Jim Bridger (the old trapper) told Brigham Young he would give one thousand dollars for the first ear of corn raised in the valley.  In the distance they beheld the Great Salt Lake glimmering in the sunlight.  From their vantage point it was where Brigham Young had stopped his wagon on July 24, 1847, and, looking over the valley, spoke these memorable words, “This is the place--drive on.” His wagon wheels had been cutting a path for a new world to follow.  As a leader he had the soul of a prophet and the heart of a lion.  In the history of all peoples in all climes and in all dispensations since the creation, the pilgrimage of the Pioneers stands unparalleled in all the world today.

The Wood Company made their camp that night on the banks of City Creek where they laid their heads down in peaceful slumber.  They remained for a short time and then most of them moved on south forty miles to Provo which had been settled by John S. Higbee and some thirty other emigrants.  Jeremiah Robey, Sidney Epperson, David Wood, Jesse McCarrel, Hyrum Oakes, Peter Conover and others built their log cabins along the block which is now fifth west and first north, where they hoped to live in peace.  The beautiful Utah Valley, filled with the golden beams of the morning sun spread out before them.

Soon the hand plow turned over the black mountain soil.  Fields of grain and gardens were planted, and what wonderful gardens they became when the waters of the Provo River were turned on them.  They had corn, beans, squash, potatoes, turnips and various other vegetables in abundance.  Spring was upon the earth again and the violets were out.

My dear Aunt Matilda Springer (Mother’s sister) said our people never went shabby, nor hungry, as many of the unfortunate Saints had to do, and were always clean and respectable.

Well, I think my dear old Grandpappy Robey had a nice little roll of greenbacks tucked away in one of his big socks when he sold out in Virginia and started west.  Be that as it may, he was a scholar and a very fine old gentleman, as were dear Grandma and her family.  We loved them all--a happy family. 

Shortly after their arrival, Provo was divided into fine Bishop’s Wards, with J.O. Duke Bishop of the First Ward, James Bird of the Second, Elias Blackburn of the Third, Wm. Wall of the Fourth, and Wm. Faucett of the Fifth.

The thermometer stood at 137 degrees in the sun, August 27, 1853.  Some hot in Utah!

It was here in 1853 that Sidney H. Epperson married Mary Jane Robey, his girl of the plains, as recorded in some of the preceding pages.  Now it was his turn to build a log house near his father-in-law Jeremiah Robey, and assume the responsibility of a husband in the west.  He had his first experience fighting Indians under Peter Conover’s Militia who went to Mt. Pleasant, San Pete County, to protect the settlers, where six Indians were killed on the 23rd of July.  This same year the Indians stole some of father’s livestock while he was away from home, including a pair of first-class mules worth three hundred dollars.

On January 23rd, 1854, their first child whom they named Sidney Theophelus, came to bless their happy home.  This year most of the crops in Utah were destroyed by the grasshoppers, thus working a hardship on the settlers, but they never faltered.  The next year, 1855, they planted more abundantly and had good crops.

In 1856 many horses and cattle were stolen by the Indians in Utah County and Cedar Valley.  Two herdsmen west of Utah Lake were killed.

Sidney was now a member of the Utah Militia and was appointed Captain of the Provo Cavalry, and was later commissioned Major by the U.S. Government, of Indian War Veterans.  He was an outpost body guard of Brigham Young and was closely associated with such men as Lott Smith, Porter Rockwell, Daniel Jones, Eph Hanks, Luke Hickman and others who guarded the life of Brigham Young as they did their own.

Immediately after the killing of these men in Cedar Valley by the Indians, Brigham Young called out some of the militia from Salt Lake and Provo.  Peter Conover and Sidney Epperson’s reinforcements were sent to Cedar Valley and others to the Tintic Valley.  The Indians, after their ranks had been cut down, were driven off at these places.  Their only weapon of defense was their bow and arrow, so the rifle ball of the brave pioneers soon put them to flight.  This is known in history as the Tintic War.  Chief Walker led the Indians to battle.  During this time the tribes of southern Utah with their furious red paint and feathers, led by Chiefs Sanpitch, Kanosh and Kannara were attacking and plundering the settlers.

Other depredations continued at Santaquin, Spanish Fork, Moroni, Nephi and other settlements where the Provo contingent was frequently dispatched to render service.  In the meantime the stork had visited the Epperson home again and left another boy, Charles Alonzo Epperson, on March 15, 1856.

In November of this year Edward Martin’s Handcart Company, consisting of 576 persons, 146 handcarts, and 7 wagons, left Florence, Nebraska, and became snowbound in the mountains.  Relief teams, horsemen and supplies were sent to meet them.  Father said when they reached them it was a pitiful sight to behold.  After extreme suffering many of them had died in the mountains.  Men, women and children trudging in the snow and wading the streams half clad and half starved.  They had started too late in the season.

The survivors reached Salt Lake on Sunday, November 30, 1856, and father Sidney returned to his wife and family in Provo.

The story of western pioneer life is most wonderful.  I love to tell about it, but not half has ever been told.  We are brought a little closer to the tragic cause of it all when we realize that fully six thousand Mormon Pioneers lost their lives in an effort to reach the Rocky Mountains.  They had no means of marking the graves of their dead in those prairie stretches.  Only one grave out of the six thousand, so far as we know is surely marked.  I refer here to the grave of a Pioneer Mother near Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.  When Rebecca Winters passed away, one of the Company had the forethought to pick up an old wagon tire that lay along the trail.  Bending it into an oval, he set it within the grave.  On the top of the tire was chiseled the mother’s name and age.

A party of surveyors laying out the railroad along the North Platte River happened by mere chance to run the line right over the mother’s grave.  Then the surveyors, with a touch of sympathy that is beautiful to think of, went back for twenty miles and changed the line of survey, that it might miss the mother’s grave.

These Empire Builders were hardy and resourceful.  We can profit by, and gain inspiration for their fearlessness, patience and energy in facing great difficulties and overcoming them.

The winter of 1856-57 in the Rockies was a very hard one.  The snow fell eight feet in some of the valleys, making feed for the stock very scarce.  Five hundred animals perished from cold and starvation around the United States Army Camps on Blacks Fork, Wyo., while in Utah many of their cattle and horses were saved in the willow thickets and trees along the streams.

Time marches on.  Father Sidney had now spent five years starting a new home in the west and, as he states, it hadn’t all been sunshine and roses, but he never faltered nor lost his faith and courage.  Life was young and full of hope and promise.  He put his hand to the plow and sang as the days rolled by.

The grasshoppers and crickets had destroyed their crops.  Then followed a drought and next a frost.  So scarce was food at times that they had to be put on rations.  Some of them were compelled to dig Segos, thistle roots, berries and anything that nature had provided.  So kindly and neighborly were they to each other that no one was permitted to starve, and those who were fortunately in better circumstances were indeed very generous to those in need.  Merchandise was also extremely high as it all had to be freighted from Omaha, Nebraska, by ox team, a distance of one thousand miles.  The good women however did their part in sacrifice and labor.  They kept their looms, spinning wheels and knitting needles busy making homespun clothing for their families. Most of the children and some adults went barefoot.  Father tells how Francis M. Lyman (who later became an Apostle of the Church) used to come up town on Main Street, Provo, in his bare feet and watch the big bear that was kept tied to a post.  Many of the people who could procure Indian moccasins wore them. 

They all seemed to be jubilant and happy, however, and worked along day by day with never-tiring faith and courage.  Fort Provo had now been built and equipped which gave the settlers more security from the savage Redman.

But now something far more serious than Indian troubles was to take place.  It seems that the Saints of the Lord were to have no peace from the wicked.  On March 30, 1857, Judge W. W. Drummond in framing the letter of his resignations as Chief Justice of Utah, wrote the most wicked and abominable falsehoods against Governor Brigham Young and the people of Utah, thereby influencing the Government to send troops against the Mormons.

They were also accused of having destroyed the Government Seal, which afterwards proved to be a malicious falsehood.  Headlines from Eastern papers stated that the army was being sent to exterminate the Mormons who now numbered about 30,000 souls--men, women and children.  Naturally this created a great commotion…I might say almost a panic.  Their stalwart, sturdy, and beloved leader Brigham Young, however, stood pat and his followers fell in line and became calm as he assured them all would be well with Zion in the end.

On August 1, 1857, the Utah Militia was organized to be kept in readiness for an expedition to the mountains to prevent the approaching army from entering if necessary.  On August 24th, Albert Sidney Johnston’s Army arrived at Fort Bridger and set up their barracks.  On August 15th Brigham Young (Governor) had declared the Territory of Utah under martial law and forbade the troops to enter the Great Salt Lake Valley.  Large numbers of armed Militia were ordered to Echo Canyon and other points to intercept the soldiers and prevent their access to the valley, Father being one of the numbers.

General Daniel H. Wells left Great Salt Lake City for Echo Canyon, where he established headquarters.  About one thousand two hundred and fifty men from the several militia districts were ordered to Echo Canyon where they engaged in digging trenches across the canyon, throwing up breastworks, loosening rocks on the heights, etc., preparing to resist the progress of the army until such time that their wives and children might be provided with security and safety.  If necessary they were to burn everything as far south as Provo where father lived.

On or about October 5,  1857, Lott Smith of Salt Lake City and Sidney Epperson of Provo with a small company of picked cavalry, surprised and burned two trains of Government stores near the Big Sandy and Green Rivers, and drove about fifty head of their oxen to Salt Lake City where they were held as ransom until the troubled waters had settled.

While on their way back they captured and took as prisoner one Charley Wilkins who had deserted the army.  Father got a great kick out of telling how Wilkins’ feet became sore from walking so they put him astride a big brown ox.  All went well with Charley until the ox humped up his back, twisted his tail and started to buck. Wilkins landed head first in a bunch of Wyoming sagebrush. From there on to Salt Lake he walked.

Up until now it is very evident that father had many experiences in the wild and wooley west, as it was sometimes called.  Often, with such worthy comrades as Theophleus Robey, Jesse McCarrel, Ephraim Hanks, David Wood, B.M. Smith, Peter Conover, and others, he had slept under the stars with his saddle for a pillow and his rifle by his side as a precaution, from the savage Indian and now from the invading troops.  While at home, silent prayers were being sent up from the mothers, often kneeling by the bedsides of their little children in reverent supplication for their return in safety.  These were indeed hectic days but they were not to last forever.

During the month of May, 1858, the citizens of Utah living north of Utah County abandoned their homes and moved southward leaving only a few men in each town and settlement to burn everything in case of approaching troops, on their arrival in the valley, should prove hostile.  Squatted through the town of Provo and for miles along its northern and western borders, were families from the north in every conceivable quality, form and material for habitation.  Many lived in the wagon-beds of their heavy covered wagons so frequently used in this country by merely taking them off the wheels and placing them on the ground. A cook-stove, placed in the open air, prepared the food for the family.  A few families had canvas tents; more lived in tents built like Indian teepees but thatched with straw; others lived in cellars dug in the ground or side of the hill, covered with brush and earth.  Some families had erected long or board shanties. All the temporary buildings of the Pioneers were very open and much exposed to the weather.  Within these crude little cabins, tents and sheds, the women were busily engaged in carrying on all the duties pertaining to cooking, sewing, mending, washing, and so many other things conductive to the welfare and contentment of their loved ones.

At this critical time the outcome of their future security and happiness seemed to hang in the balance.

On June 11th, the peace commissioners, ex-Governor L.W. Powell of Kentucky and Major Ben McCullough of Texas, sent as peace commissioners by the Federal Government under President Buchanan, met with President Brigham Young and others in the Council House at Great Salt Lake City and the difficulties between the United States and Utah were peaceably adjusted.

Briefly told, it was agreed that the troops were not to camp within forty miles of the City of Salt Lake.  Therefore, on the 26th day of June, the Army, under Albert Sidney Johnston, passed through the deserted streets of Salt Lake City and camped on the west side of the Jordan River.  It subsequently marched to Cedar Valley, which desolate region was to be enlivened and made famous in history.

There was great rejoicing now in all of the cities, towns, and hamlets of the pioneers from Idaho on the north to St. George on the south that had been settled with the onrush of Saints from the States.

Some of the troops from in and around Missouri were disappointed in their hopes that there would be no Mormons left when the army got thru with them.  Their Generals and Commanders held them under strict army rules, and regulations.  They had soon seen the folly of such an expedition on the part of the Government, and peace and relative understanding soon prevailed. 

No one was permitted for a long time to barter or do any trading with the soldiers except a commission of men duly appointed by Brigham Young.  In time some of the strict rules were suspended.

Camp Floyd was maintained by the Government at a tremendous expense for some three years, when in July, 1861, the soldiers were ordered back to the States.  The Government property, supplies and outfits, at the camp, estimated at four million dollars, was sold for about one hundred thousand dollars (about four cents on the dollar), the pioneers being the large benefactors.  Those who had the money were able to outfit themselves with all kinds of army supplies which the Government was unable to move.  Some perishable commodities sold as low as ten to twenty cents on the dollar.  Flour, which cost the government over five hundred dollars a ton, sold for eleven dollars a ton.

Before the soldiers broke camp, they blew up their arsenal, sunk their cannon in the springs and made a huge bonfire and threw the guns they could not take with them into it.  Many of the soldiers’ enlistment time was up and they bartered and sold some of their belongings for whatever they could get.

Thirty years later it was the writer’s pleasure to attend a Pioneer Celebration in Midway and Heber, Wasatch County.  A number of the Pioneers were called upon for extemporaneous speeches. Father Sidney Epperson in reminiscing said, “The Savior on one occasion fed his disciples on loaves and fishes, but Johnston’s Army fed the Pioneers on bacon and beans.” (Laughter.)

We must now go back to Provo, for lo and behold, the stork had again made his call, not to leave another boy, but this time a lovely girl, Mary Luvernia Epperson, born July 28, 1858.  It was a happy occasion, Father saying, “Well, now I have as many kinds as anybody else, two boys and a girl.” He spent most of his time now around his little house and family and made frequent trips to Camp Floyd where he had been permitted to furnish supplies of various kinds. Money was scarce but by taking advantage of every available opportunity he got along very nicely, bartering and trading with the soldiers. 



Chapter III
FIRST SETTLERS OF PROVO VALLEY

With the passing of another winter he and a few other families had made up their minds to sell out and move to a coveted spot, the beautiful upper Provo Valley nestled in the tops of the mountains some thirty miles north.  In cooperation with another group who were moving to the eastern side of the valley, they carved a road through the rocks and crags of the Provo Canyon, at times having to follow up the rough bed of that river that was hemmed in by the steep and sometimes abrupt sides of the mountains.  They were stupendous in their glory arising skyward several thousand feet and from whose gorges flowed streams of water, the Bridal Veil Falls and Upper Falls.

The rough road (more like a winding trail) was completed at last by these sturdy and never-faltering and persevering Pioneers. With their horse and ox teams loaded once again with their families and equipment, followed by herds of cows, sheep and hogs, which they had acquired, they arrived at their destination April 15, 1859, Sidney Epperson, Jeremiah Robey, Mark Smith, David Wood and Jesse McCarrel settled by a cottonwood grove on the banks of a stream  they called Snake Creek, on the west side of the valley.  Here they pitched their tents and built temporary corrals for their stock.  They made their gardens and planted their grain.  The other group located on the east side of the valley at Heberville.  They were Wm. Broadhead, James Davis, James Gurr, J. Hamilton, John Witt and Wm. Meeks.  These two little colonies were the first Pioneer settlers in the Provo Valley, 1859.

On the banks of Snake Creek the woodman’s ax was heard in the busy construction of log cabins for the coming winter.  Father said one day while they were building, a little band of Indians came along and stopped.  An old squaw, looking at the low door and window, began going through gestures and pawing upwards with her hands in imitation of the ground hog coming out. She said “Pooh! Pooh!” indicating that snow would be so deep they would have to paw out to get their breath.  How well this came true as the snow that winter fell to a depth of some three to four feet all over the valley.   While the happy little colony was snowbound they spent the winter playing checkers, chopping wood and making improvements around their cabin homes.  This happy little group of Mormon Pioneers had dedicated their lives to their God and the everlasting hills.  It may be of interest to some distant relative or friend who has never been in Utah nor the west, and who might in years to come read this story, to give a brief description of the little valley nestled high up in the top of the Rockies, where flies the golden eagle.

The valley is about ten miles wide and fifteen miles long, sloping gently to the south.  It is completely surrounded by picturesque mountains, more especially on the north and west where Mt. Timpanogos, towering 12,008 feet in the clouds, is covered with eternal banks of snow.  Summer and autumn scenes are surpassed nowhere in the world.  It is the happy summer hunting ground of the Red Men who find both fish and game in abundance and green grassy meadows for their ponies.  The mountains east of Heber City are covered with large forests of spruce and pine.  The beautiful Strawberry Valley is like a large meadow where thousands of sheep and cattle graze.  The streams are alive with speckled mountain trout.  The Provo Valley is well adapted for stock raising and farming.

Now we come to a new year in a new era--1860. How time flies and how wonderful, how magnificent are the events which are borne upon its wings.

Springtime had come and Sidney Epperson and Grandpa (Jeremiah Robey) filed on a quarter section of land each, about one mile north of Smith Grove, on Snake Creek.  Having crossed the dreary and desolate plains of never ending dust and anxiety, their eyes were now permitted to roam with delight over the beautiful landscape outstretched before them and to behold pictures fresh from the hand of God.  They breathed the gentle perfumed breath of spring.  The clouds of hardship and despair, the mist of needless worry and anxiety were put aside and they were enabled to pass by the hard, thorny places with good will and patience.

A tract of land, of rich mountain soil, skirted the western hills where two springs gushed forth their cool sparkling water.  This was the place where they would build their homes.  To the north they beheld the snow-capped mountains of Snake Creek covered below with huge belts of timber, towering pines, balsams and aspen.  From these snowy peaks came the swift waters of Snake Creek to the valley below where they flowed peacefully through the center of the land they were to possess. Its mossy banks were fringed with drooping willows of birch and aspen.  Its shaded pools were filled with speckled mountain trout and its cool waters rippled on to join the beautiful Provo River, winding its way through the green meadows of the valley, thence to Utah Lake, the Jordan River, and finally emptying into the salty dark blue waters of the Great Salt Lake.

From the water of (Snake Creek) they made an irrigation ditch for their land, one, if not the first in the valley, which was later extended some three miles south by settlers.  When water tickets are now issued, they are designated as under the Epperson Ditch.

The large rolling hill back of the spring, richly clothed with the choicest kind of bunch grass and early spring flowers, was named Sid’s Hill.  The canyon extending westward where the crest of the mountains are covered with great groves of quaking aspen for fire wood and fence poles, interspersed with lofty pines, was and will ever be called Sid’s Canyon in memory of him, by his posterity and others.  The underground of these forests extending higher and higher to the summit overlooking the Great Salt Lake Valley, is cover in summer with a carpet of grasses. Bluebells, sweet pea vines, columbines and mountain flowers of every hue and color make of it a mountain paradise for the grazing of sheep, cattle and sleek, fat horses, which are the pride of every Epperson.  This picturesque scene is one of breath-taking beauty and charm. 

In winter the bleak wintry blasts sweep over these same hill tops and vales, covering them with a blanket of snow from six to ten feet deep.

On northward and eastward in a semi-circle we are permitted to view the 
head of Lime Canyon, the peaks at Alta, the Grassy Flat, the white mountain crags of Snake Creek, Caribou, Pine Creek and Bonanza Flat, and the pyramid-shaped lone peak whose eastern hills wane away to intercept the Provo River meandering southward through the center of the valley.

Coming back to the homestead on the east side of Snake Creek.  The land here is not so fertile and is better adapted for pasture.  It is like a green carpet richly clothed with wire grass, broad leaf, and red top, with dotted patched, at the spring season of the year, of the beautiful pink Johnny-Jump-Ups with their white nightcaps on.  The marshes of bulrush and cat-tails, with their bull-frog choruses were there to lend enchantment.  Night hawks drummed as they passed swiftly through the air in pursuit of insects upon which they fed.  From the branches of a  dead tree, which stood just across the creek, an old owl hooted, and away off on the mountain side a coyote howled dismally.

These fields were later to extend into the western side of a thriving little village.  Indeed this looked like the land of promise to them and with toil and perseverance, two sizeable log houses were built at the mountain spring with a housing over its cool sparkling water which had, no doubt, been waiting since the days of Adam for the kind and loving hands of Mother and Grandma Robey to pluck its watercress for a delightsome table relish. Soon the spring house became filled with large pans of milk, hoops of cheese, and jars of butter, made with the old-time up-and-down churn; also fresh eggs and other stores for  family use. A sizeable patch of grain, corn, potatoes, radishes, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, and other vegetables were planted for summer consumption and winter storage.  Their first wheat was taken to Provo and made into flour or exchanged for groceries and other necessities.

Their little band of sheep, horses, milch cows and oxen grazed on the foothills, being watched by day and penned up at night to protect them from Indian Marauders.  (The pioneers always looked forward, not backward.)

When autumn approached, the women folks were busy gathering service-berries, currant-berries and ground cherries to be dried and the tender thistle stalks were used to make pickles.  From the wool they spun and made comfortable quilts and clothing for the family.  They made feather beds and soft restful pillows from their fowl, wild geese, mallard and green head ducks, brought down by the hunter’s gun.  They kept the mantle fires of the home burning.

While this was going on, the men folks and boys garnered the crops and stored them. They had to cut their hay and grain with the scythe and cradle, which was very tedious work.  To the writer it seems as though they were fast coming into the land of milk and honey.

Father said with their bread and vegetable supply for winter they had their own beef, pork, mutton and jerked venison, interspersed with wild grouse, sage hen, fat wild duck or big white jack rabbit.  When night came they laid down to peaceful slumber--Oh to have been a Pioneer! They were far from the rude world’s cares with nothing to mar the tranquility of this domestic scene.

Now, for a change, I must tell you what they didn’t have: The tax collector, the dog catcher, the water master, the grazing master, the light collector, the doctor, the lawyer, the beggar-man nor thief. Someone else, however, who seemed to follow the Pioneers had called again.  The stork had left another boy.  Jeremiah Albert Epperson was born September 10, 1860.

And so each succeeding year they were to have seed time and harvest time, to sow and reap and follow about the same routine of life on the farm.  They earned their bread by the sweat of their brow, an injunction given to father Adam when he was driven from the Garden of Eden. 

It may be of interest to record the discovery of the hot pots by the Pioneers.  Mark Smith and Jesse McCarrel were the first to see them.  The larger group is located about one mile north of the Epperson homestead and then dotted eastward for nearly two miles. The water is from luke warm to near boiling and heavily impregnated with lime.  They are mostly round or cone-shaped and of various sizes.  About twenty of them are filled with water which runs over the top.  Some are about fifteen feet in depth and some apparently bottomless.  The cone of the largest one of the group is about two hundred feet in diameter and one hundred feet high, formed by the constant overflow of the percolating lime that has been going on for ages.  A weight was later sunk in this one and found no bottom at one hundred fifty feet.

One might say, how old are they? The answer might be, how old is the world?

Another large gusher coming from under a huge reef of pot rock is now owned by H.T. Coleman who married Emily Springer, the writer’s cousin.  Two of the pots a mile apart are now famous bathing resorts--Schneitter’s and Luke’s, with comfortable swimming pools and hotel accommodations.

In one of the dry craters, called snake den, between four and five hundred rattlesnakes were killed in a single day.  In the spring they appear on the outside and form into a group that would almost fill a bushel basket.  They tie themselves in knots with their heads sticking out in all directions for defense.  The country around the craters is apparently hollow as indicated by the sounds caused from rumbling wheels passing over it.

During the summer of 1860, Peter Shirts, Ephraim Hanks, Jno. Hanks and Mr. Riggs arrived in the valley and settled some four miles about Smith’s Grove on Snake Creek.  This is called the upper Settlement and later named Mound City, presumably by John Huber.  Mr. Huber states that Father Mills wheeled tools in his wheelbarrow from Provo and  located a saw mill here.  At night he locked himself in a box, as a protection from bears and snakes.

Many new families were now arriving and locating up and down Snake Creek for four miles.  John Van Wagoner built a flour mill at the lower Settlement in 1861.  This was indeed a blessing to the settlers.  It was the first flour mill built in the Provo Valley.  A few years later it was moved up the Snake Creek, west of Midway.

At a meeting held June 26, 1862, Sidney H. Epperson was appointed Presiding Elder (the Upper Settlement) with John Fausett, first and Samuel Thompson, second counselors.  This was his first calling to labor in the ministry.  

The stork called again and left another son, Elias Tipton Epperson, born September 10, 1862, just ten years after Sidney had left his dear old home in Tipton, Iowa, and started westward.

In 1864 David Van Wagoner was appointed to preside over about twenty families at the lower Settlement.  The Upper Settlement had now increased to thirty-six families, making a total of fifty-six families in the two settlements. Joseph S. Murdock was Bishop over the whole valley.

Viola Delphina Epperson, the little girl beautiful, was born March 27, 1864, at the Spring in the meadow, making six hale and hearty children now in the family.

Time and tide waits for no man.  We find Father Sidney busily engaged both spiritually and temporally.  He now felt the responsibility of leadership and unity of his people.  They supported  him wholeheartedly.  He never said, “Go do it,” but always said, “Come on, boys, let’s do it.” He was as pliable in spirit as he was in body.  They were all busily engaged in grubbing willows and sagebrush, breaking land and making ditches; constructing roads for fire wood that grew in the wild mountain canyons’ by digging dug ways, blasting rock and bridging streams that dashed and foamed down their rocky channel.  They worked hard six days in the week, but rested on the Sabbath day and went to church, to worship their God. 




Chapter IV

OLD FORT MIDWAY

In 1865 the Indians in Sanpete and the Sevier Vallies had waged war on the settlers, killing and wounding many of them.

The cunning redskins kept the frontier settlements in hot water and the Militia on the jump with their guerilla warfare and bloodcurdling war cries.  The success of these wily natives lay in the unexpectedness of their raids and to the alertness and swiftness in execution.

Early Pioneer scouts were not slow however in detecting the exact time when a community and its wealth of livestock was most likely to be attacked.

The stealthiest of their approach, the keen sense of surprise, the inclination to fight from ambush was their primitive mode of battle.  Their ability in escaping capture and evading reprisals, destroying tracks and leaving no evidence of their whereabouts were their methods of real skill in the art of warfare.  They terrorized the settlers and kept them in constant fear, striking when and where they pleased with a hatred feeling that they were ever being pushed westward by the pale face and that without a counter combat, they would see their doom in the setting sun.

Chief Black Hawk had also incited the Northern tribes to war; including the Utes, who had their teepees about seventy-five miles over the mountains east of Heber along the Duchesne River.

It was now evident that the Indian chiefs in every section of the country were urging their warriors to attack and plunder the intruding settlers.

In view of this fact the Man of Vision, President Brigham Young, advised that all of his people in sparsely settled districts should move together and build Forts for their protection and security.

There were at this time two colonies of settlers on the west side of the Prove Valley.  The first one was settle April 15, 1859, in a picturesque cottonwood grove on the south bank of a sparkling mountain stream which they called Snake Creek. The grove was named Smith’s Grove in honor of one of the first settlers, B. Mark Smith.  The other one, settled a short time later, about three miles north on both banks of the creek was known as the Upper Settlement, while a few long cabins were dotted up and down the stream as far south as the Sidney Epperson homestead.

The settlers now saw the need of united action for the preparation and safety of their families. However, the Upper Settlement colonists did not feel like moving to the Lower Settlement and vice versa.

In the spring of 1866, under the energetic direction of their presiding leader, Elder Sidney H. Epperson, a compromise location was chosen half way between the two and the settlers Forted in. The name Fort Sidney was suggested in honor of their leader and met with unanimous approval, but Sidney said, “No. We’ll call it Midway.”

The first step in laying out the new settlement was the survey of the townsite. Sidney H. Epperson and John Huber carried the tape, Mark Smith and Attewall Wootton the pegs and within a few days Midway was laid out in ample blocks thirty-two rods square, with a Main Street six rods wide and side streets two rods narrower.  A Public Square was set aside in the center of the new town site.

Action kept pace with dreams in those young Midway days; in an incredible short time the cabins of the upper and lower settlements were torn down and transferred to the new site.

Within a few days seventy-five primitive dirt-roofed log cabins surrounded the Central Square.  Some abutting against each other while in some instances strong panels of upright posts made palisades between cabins built slightly apart, the whole forming an impregnable wall around the square.  All doors opened upon the square.  Small rear windows were to serve as port holes in case of attack.

The inner six acres of the square was inclosed with a heavy pole fence typical of the old Pioneers and was used as a corral for the protection of their stock at night.  It was also the happy play ground for the children by day and the young folks by night.  It was here they made their own amusements.  When twilight settled over the scene they built small campfires, roasted potatoes and corn, sang songs and played games with all the joyous abandon of childhood and youth; always safe under the watchful eye of a night guard.  The main entrance was guarded by a massive double-panel pole gate, each one pivoted to a huge anchor post.  A heavy chain and padlock provided security when the gate was closed.  And within it all lived some of the crack rifleman of the West, some forty of them being able to hit the bulls-eye seven out of ten at one hundred paces. Eternal vigilance was the price of safety.  Sidney H. Epperson presided over Midway from the beginning.

In the meanwhile, Major-General Robert T. Burton and his chief-of-staff, Colonel D. J. Ross of Salt Lake City, made a trip to the Provo Valley for the purpose of cooperating with the settlers for their security.  On June 26, 1866, they organized the Militia of Wasatch County and held an inspection drill at Heberville where a Fort for protection had been built.  They elected officers pursuant to the general Territorial order issued concerning Militia organizations.  Major Witt of Heberville was placed in command of the District. Having three battalions, one of cavalry, and two of infantry and to  be known as the Wasatch Military District.  Sidney Epperson and John Hamilton of Midway were elected Majors with John Watkins Bugler.  The Fort was conducted under military law, having officers and picket patrol, arising and doing certain work at the call of the bugle.  The Militia was in complete charge of all activities necessary for the welfare and general good of the community.

They now sensed the happiness of well-provided security and felt they would be able to repel any attack from the Redman should it occur.

This primitive old long Fort on the Pioneer frontier of the west presented a romantic and picturesque setting for the camera-man, but alas, none was present.  We can see it now only from our imagination--Old Fort Midway!
One lives again in the days of the “Old West” when a noble and God-fearing people, guided by a sublime faith, endured the trials and difficulties of Pioneer life, that we their descendants might enjoy the comforts of civilization and peace.

Fortunately the Fort was never attacked, and when it was time to disband most of the people decide to remain here.  The Old Fort was reserved by the town as a public square.  The upper and lower settlements were never rebuilt.

With the cooperation of Matilda Robey Springer, Emily Coleman and Mollie Epperson we have made it possible to record all of the first seventy-five families in the Old Fort and the exact location of each on of them as follows:

From the southwest to the northwest corner: Sidney H. Epperson, Jeremiah Robey, J.A. Robey, Simon Higginbotham, Geo. Snyder, T. Ritter, Edwin Bronson, Samuel Thompson, Ira Jacobs, Washington Clift, Moroni Blood, John Huber, John Wintsch, Geo. Dabling, Dr. Jno. Gerber, Lucien Jacobs, Wm. Meeks, Robt. Cunningham, John Morton, E. Bates, Wm. Beeler.

Form the northwest to the northeast corner: John Faucett, Sr., Jacob Burgener, Sr., John Buhler, Jacob Buhler, C. Schoney, Ulrich Abbegglen, Conrad Abbegglen, Richard Shirlock, Peter Abplanalp, Simon Schneitter, Casper Sulser, Peter Galli, Christian Abbegglen, Norton Jacobs, Wm. Coleman, and Mrs E. Van Wagoner.

From the northeast to the southeast corner: John Moser, John Davis, Chas. Love, Jno. Holfeltz, Geo. Bonner, Sr., Henry Coleman, Sr., Geo. Wilson, Wm. Wilson, John Lowe, Jesse McCarrel, D. Zufelt, Jas. Gurr, Harvey Meeks, Chas. Gurney, Abigail Shelton, John O. Neil, Jas. Jackson, George Wardle, Wm. Bagley, and Nathaniel Riggs.

From the southeast to the southwest corner: Attewall Wootton, Joseph Forbes, Marks Smith, David Wood, Hyrum Oakes, Martin Oakes, H. Horsley, Moroni McOlney, David, Andrew and James Hanilton, James and David Provost, John Van Wagoner, Sr., Eph Van Wagoner, David Van Wagoner, John Watkins, Alvah and Ephraim Hanks.

John Watkins was bugler and Sidney H. Epperson and Ira N. Jacobs were officers of the Fort.



Chapter V

CHIEF TABBY MAKES PEACE

In mid-summer, 1867, the settlers began to fear a reoccurrence of the raids and depredations of the previous year.  They had reason to suspect the Utes who had only recently been persuaded to go to the Reservation. These Indians, supposedly friendly, had come the preceding fall and on numerous occasions stolen a number of valuable stock along in late evening and at night.

In Heber several Indian raiders took cattle from Hundley’s corral.  A posse of settlers lead by Isaac (Babe) Cummings, Joe Parker, Andrew Ross and Sid Carter followed and caught the Indian in the Strawberry valley; killed one of them, wounded others and recovered the stolen cattle and secured four ponies besides. Such depredations continued until mid-July, when John Cummings, special scout, found an Indian in the east hills skinning an ox he had killed.  Cummings crept up on the thief and surprised him.  He brought him into Heber at the muzzle of his rifle.  The court held him as a prisoner and invited Chief Tabby to come over and make peace with them.


Chief Tabby accepted.  A month later he came riding across the ridge with all the Indians under his rule--bucks, squaws and papooses.  They made their camps in green grassy nooks along the Provo River where their ponies could graze.  Wickie-up were to be seen in all directions.  It was a gala day, of momentous hilarity and rejoicing.

The settlers were happily surprised and set to work with a will.  The men set up benches and big tables of boards on the Public Square.  The women bustled about preparing a feast.  Each woman in the valley was asked to bake a dozen loaves of bread.  The item on the menu, however, that really gladdened the heart of the Indian was beef.  They cooked some three or four beeves and served abundant quantities of milk, butter, potatoes, carrots and some of the good things in their larder.  They ate in high good humor and did impressive justice to the viands, but the white women smilingly brought on more.  What they did not consume the squaws tucked into sacks and baskets and carried away.

After the meal the redskins and whites smoked the peace pipe.  Leaders of the whites, Wm. Wall, John Witt, William McDonald, Sidney Epperson and others, spoke to the Indians waging the mutual benefits of peace and telling of the good feeling of the white men for the red.  Chiefs Tabby, Towintey, Moroni and others responded in the Ute tongue, saying they were all good Indians and were willing to lay by the weapons of war.  Thus the peacemaking effort came to a successful conclusion.

Besides food the Indians were given presents.  These consisted of clothing, quilts, blankets, coats, hats, dresses, petticoats and other articles too numerous to mention.  The Indians remained for a few days, then with their presents they returned to their home over the eastern hills.

Later in the fall of 1867 the notorious Chief Blackhawk went to the Ute Indian Reservation, laid down his arms, smoked the peace pipe with Colonel Head and then asked him to apply the scissors to his long black hair.  This the Indian Superintendent did happily.  News of the momentous event ran swiftly through the territory and the Pioneers heaved sighs of relief to know that their Indian troubles were over.  The anxiety and worry of patient mothers for the safety of their husbands and children, brought a new ray of hope and contentment for them.

Heberville Named Heber City

And now the picturesque little valley was taking on new life.  New home-seekers were arriving almost daily. 

Heber City was the pivotal point and became the County Seat of Wasatch County.

On August 20, 1862, the following officers were elected: George W. Bean--Representative to the State Legislature.
Thomas Todd, James Duke and Sidney H. Epperson--County Councilmen. 
John Hamilton--Sheriff.
John Session--Surveyor.
Henry Young--Recorder.
Thomas H. Giles--Commissioner of Schools.
John M. Murdock--Treasurer.
Thomas Rasband and Norton Jacob--Justices of Peace.
Zemira Palmer and William W. Wilson--Constables.
John Witt and Jeremiah Robey--Pound Keepers.

Among the early settlers of Heber City, not mentioned in some of the preceding pages, were the following: 

Hatches                   Dukes                 Murdocks
Cummings               Blackleys           Muirs
Thomas                    Sessions             Carrols
Jones                        Cliffs                  Bonds
McDonalds              Turners               Rasbands
Baums                      Smiths                Clydes
Witts                        Youngs               Montgomerys
Fraughton                Giles                   Turners
Jeffs                          Buells                 Roberts
McMillans                Carlisles             Hanks
Crooks                      Mayhos              Howarths
Fortis                        Hickens              Everetts
Fishers                      Lindsays            Colemans
Bairds                       McMillans         Cleggs
McNaughtons           Mairs                  Chapmans
Nelson                      Foremans             Horner
Walls                        Meeks                  Glanvilles
Harveys                    Lees                      Borens
Wings, and other. 













Charleston

On the Provo River Bottoms

George Noakes and Freeman Manning wintered stock in the south end of the valley in 1858 near Decker Ranch.

They settled at Charleston the following year with Nymphus C. Murdock, Enoch Gurr and the Daybells, with David Walker first presiding Elder.  In 1877 John Watkins was appointed Bishop with George Powell first and Enoch Richens second counselors.  Later came the Bagleys, Simmons, Ritchies, Thackers, Wrights, Caspers, Browns, Allens, Wagstaffs, Bakers, Wintertons, Edwards, and others.

Round Valley

Round Valley, now Wallsburg, was settled in the spring of 1864 by William Wall, William Boren, George Brown, William Haws, M. Mecham, D.H. Greer, H. Bigelow, R. Allred, Edward Stark and Moses Mecham. Enoch Gurr was the first presiding Elder there.

Center

Center Ward was first settled by Thomas Ross, Joseph Faucett, Joseph Cluff, James Adams, Jackson Smith and George Sweat.  Later followed the Harveys, Barnes, Gibsons, Mahoneys, Cluffs, Blakes, Sessions, Lindsays, Thomases and others.

Buysville


Buysville, now Daniels Ward, was settled in the early sixties by the Howes, Bethers, Jacobs, Cliffs, Nelsons, Buys, McGuires, Bells, Thackers, Andersons, Carlens, Oaks and Cliffs.

Robert Ross Epperson was born January 17, 1867, in Midway.

In 1868 dirt roofs were replaced with shingles secured from the David Van Wagoner Shingle and Sawmill.  On March 11, 1868, Sidney H. Epperson was reappointed by Abraham Hatch, with David Van Wagoner and Ira N. Jacobs, counselors, to preside at Midway.

William Henry Epperson was born January 12, 1868, in the “Log Fort String”. Midway.

In 1868 a Co-op Store was organized with Sidney H. Epperson, president; David Van Wagoner, vice-president; and John Huber, secretary.

The first stock subscribed was eight hundred dollars in shares of ten dollars each.  It was opened for business May 17th in the George Snyder Hall.  It was built by Judge Snyder, who later moved to what is now called Snyderville, some two miles north of Park City, one of the richest silver mining camps in the west.

A Ladies’ Industrial Schools was organized October 25, 1869, and Mary Jane Epperson wife of Sidney Epperson, was elected president.

On January 12, 1871, when the snow was three feet deep, Simon Shelby Epperson, the writer of this story, was born in one of the primitive pioneer log cabins of the “Old String Fort” surrounding the public square at Midway.  It must have been a cold day indeed as I have never had warm feet in the winter since I was born.

On April 10, 1870, Sidney H. Epperson was released as Bishop of the Midway Ward and H.S. Alexander sustained, with David Van Wagoner and John Huber as counselors.  They reported there had not been a single drunken person nor any riotous conduct in the county and no liquor or distillery shops in the valley.

After ten years of a faithful and enjoyable service, presiding over a branch of the church, Father had magnified his calling and received a most honorable release.  He states that he had been repaid a thousand times for all the time spent and was happy to know that the dreams of the pioneers had come true; for they were something that were without money and without price.  His heart was filled with gratitude in knowing they had been inspired by a religious ideal to a program of continuous self-enrichment.  He had a burning testimony of  the truthfulness of the Gospel he had espoused as well as having become bigger and better, more loving and beloved by all within the confines of the little valley in the Rockies.  His soul had been touched by the burning fires of celestial light. 

He had prospered temporally as well as spiritually.  With the help of his older boys they had greatly improved the homestead. Willow thickets, briars and sod grass had been cleared and replanted to fields of golden grain.  Twenty acres had been fenced for pasture land.  He had a flock of sheep, a fine herd of milch cows and a band of horses, unsurpassed anywhere in the west.  He seemed to be living in the fast-running stream of life.

With the help of his two older boys, Theophelus and Alonzo, now grown to young manhood, he was busily engaged with horse and ox teams hauling longs from the head of Snake Creek to the Moroni Blood saw mill to make lumber for the construction of a new home.  Two splendid carpenters, Jed Robey and David Ludlow were engaged to do this work.

The building was to be a spacious one (for those days), consisting of six rooms.  On the ground floor was to be a comfortable living room with a huge old-time fire-place for burning logs, a large comfortable kitchen and pantry, with a cool cellar below.  Father’s and Mother’s bed rooms were to be on the north end.  From the kitchen a winding stairway to enter a couple of bedrooms about with plenty of space for two beds each.  Last, but not least, was the big front porch with pillars supporting a latticed balcony above, which was accessible from the upper story and affording a beautiful view of the valley.  Two apple trees were planted near by and young poplars skirted the outer walks.

It was late autumn of 1872 the home was finished.  There was great rejoicing when Mother with her seven boys and three girls moved from the log house into these comfortable quarters.  Alas! The oldtime trundle-bed and camp-kettle were things of the past.

Within a short time the rude log houses around the Public Square were removed.  Each settler acquired a town lot and built a permanent home and soon Midway had been converted into a pretty little thriving village.

Daniel David Epperson was born February 17, 1873.  He was the first child born in the new home.

This same year the famous Old Pot Rock Tithing Office was begun and finished the following year.  The huge cellar was used for roots and vegetables.  The upper part had a stage used for show, home concerts and other amusements.  The main floor was used for an assemble hall and dancing.  It was here the happy Pioneers tripped the light fantastic toe.  The old time Quadrille was their favorite, with George Wardle calling off and Mark Smith, Rone Blood and Jed Robey playing Buffalo Gals or Hell on Snake Creek. You should have seen the dancers sasha and swing on the corners.  They sure knew how to do it. Everyone came in for their share of the good old waltz.

In 1875 the Swiss Hall of Music, often used for a dance hall, and later called the German Hall, was finished.  This too vied for notoriety.  It was here Andrew Burgener organized one of the first brass bands in the west, consisting of Jno and Chris Burgener, C. Burgi, Khuni Abbegglen and Peter Abplanalp, Jr. John Kummer usually furnished the music on his accordion, and how the Swiss people made the rafters ring when they swung into the old-time Polka and Rhythmic Waltz.  The settlers had a real old-time dance and supper in the school house in keeping with their progress and happiness.  The Swiss band furnished the music with John Huber, music conductor, in charge.

All was hustle and bustle for Leo Haefeli (the flying Dutchman) had come to town to teach school.  He was succeeded however, by Attewell Wootton, who was one of the first teachers in Midway in 1866, where he taught with dignity and honor for fifty years.  During this time he was also Superintendent of Schools for over twenty years.

The Flagstaff, Ontario and McHenry Mines had struck rich ore in the adjacent hills, so Father turned some of his attention to mining. His favorite companions were N.C. Springer, Theo. Robey, David Huffaker, Bedky, and Judge Snyder.  In company with his brother-in-law, N.C. Springer, they outfitted a light spring wagon with tent, bedding, supplies, picks, shovels, etc., and made an extensive trip prospecting as far south as St. George.  They visited Kanosh, Fillmore, Beaver, Parowan, Cedar City and the adjacent hills but after some three weeks of searching in vain for a mine they returned home with the oft-repeated saying, “All that glitters is not gold.” Father said they enjoyed every minute of the trip.  They had camped under the stars again, slept on the bosom of Mother Earth, beneath their own blankets and the starry coverlet of heaven.  Sleep more refreshing and dreams more sweet were never vouchsafed than those which waited on the grassy couch beneath the sky canopy of night.

Their failure to find a mine, however, did not discourage them.  Later they had better luck in the hills nearer home. One of the most profitable finds for Father was the marble quarry, located at the head of Snake Creek.  He sold his interest to Andrew Gebhardt of Salt Lake City, for one thousand dollars cash.  Huge blocks of marble were carted by ox-team down the rugged canyon and sawed into slabs for the market at the Cornelius Springer homestead.

He used this money wisely in the purchase of the Ramsdale farm about one and one-half miles south of Midway.  There were eighty acres of very choice farm land and a neat little four-room frame cottage.  He had plenty of fine work horses and boys to drive them.  Within a few years he threshed over two thousand bushels of wheat and oats, the largest threshing in the valley at that time.  B.M. Smith was his greatest competitor for fine horses and huge stacks of grain.

The stork had called again, leaving a dark-eyed beauty whom they name Ruth Lunica Epperson.  She was born May 20, 1875.  With eleven mouths to feed father was kept busy providing shoes and biscuits but he always found them.  Mother said her flour bin was never empty and no wonder, for it held seven hundred pounds!
Frank Sherman Epperson was born June 28, 1877.  He married Ada Mohlman November 21, 1901. She died September 24, 1902. Frank was then called on a mission to the Southern States where he labored in Alabama and later in Ohio.  He married Luverna Horrocks October 3, 1908.  As well as being an expounder of the Latter-day Saints Gospel, he was also gifted with a sweet voice, having sung to more than one thousand funeral services, without price.  He sang in the various ward chapels in the Provo Valley, Salt Lake City and Provo; also on other occasions too numerous to mention.  His contribution of songs to the bereaved, and the joyful melodies on happy occasions will ever linger with his host of friends.

Elmer Drew Epperson, the last one of a family of thirteen children was born December 22, 1879.  He married Maud Barker February, 1899. She died in August, 1901.  They lived with Father and Mother in the old home until she passed away.  He was married to Mae Davis December, 1903.  They lived most of the time on Father’s Ramsdale farm, taking care of it and raising horses and cattle.  He died December 31, 1909, and was laid to rest in the  Midway Cemetery.

Now, let each one of us remember that wonderful Mother of ours--Mary Jane Robey Epperson who was born April 28, 1836 in Old Virginia, the “Cradle of Liberty.”  Like father she too had played well her part in the drama of life in the West.  The memories of this noble heroic soul cannot be erased from the heart and soul.

She had gone down into the valley of the shadow of death thirteen times to bring forth a new spirit into the world, a noble posterity of ten boys and three girls that she was proud to own.

She was our first and dearest friend, the one who watched and waited for our coming out of the silence of eternity; the first to plant upon our infant lips life’s holiest and tenderest kiss, the first to keep for us the silent vigils of hope and love, the first to sing for us the twilight lullaby, “Hush my babe, lie still and slumber,” the first to read the language of our smiles and meaning of our tears, the first to interpret our cries and our baby lispings of delight.  She was the first to watch us grow, to teach us faith and truth.  She was the friend that was always for us and by us, the friend that never turned away, that never faltered, that never failed.  She was the first to weep with us over our sorrows and to wonder and hope for us in the hush of the evening hour.

The friend that stood by us when others stood against us, the friend that gave her strength and beauty and life and love for our well-being and it was upon her face that love wrote for us the divinest picture we shall ever see.  She was the friend that has no equal, and who stands alone with love and hope that outlasts the world.  Mother is the friend that is first in the memory of we children and last in the mind of faltering age.  The dearest friend in all the world to us, our lovely Mother.

It was her privilege to have been born of godly parents and to have inherited a strong healthy body as well as a kind and lovable disposition that characterized her all through life.

During the birth and care of her thirteen children she was attended by a kind and skilled mid-wife who called daily for some nine days or as often as required.  She washed and dressed Mother and the babe for the nominal sum of five dollars and felt she had been well paid.

How different conditions are today.  The charge would probably range from fifty to one hundred fifty dollars with about half the time and attention given to the patient.  It is said that these skilled Pioneer nurses or mid-wives, as they were called, were endowed with God-given talents and wisdom unsurpassed by the average doctor of today.

Be this as it may, not one of the thirteen children born was ever raised on the milk bottle and they all thrived and grew up nicely to manhood and womanhood without having a doctor prescribe a diet of A, B, C vitamins or to figure out the number of calories necessary for each meal.  It was plain wholesome food, well and regularly prepared, plenty of work, sunshine and sleep.  They believed in the axiom “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Mother’s famous soda biscuits we all loved so well seemed to be traditional with the Epperson family and no breakfast was ever complete without them spread with golden butter fresh from the old-time churn.  Our oldest sister, Mary Luvernia (Mollie), who has now passed her eightieth birthday, says she has eaten them almost every morning since she was born and has seldom been sick a day. What is true of Mollie might well be said of the rest of the family. 









THE FAMILY TREE

There grows in my Grandmother’s garden
A wonderful family tree;
Outstretched are its arms to each other,
It beckons to you and to me.
The message from all its bright blossoms,
Like perfume distills in the heart
And binds with good will and glad tidings
To make earth of heaven a part.
Oh we who are the flowers of promise
Once plucked from the family tree,
An unbroken chain of rare beauty
Safe linked to Eternity.

From the Beacon Light, April, 1929.

These are the words of our Mother, Mary Jane Robey Epperson, given to Luinca Epperson Mathews at Midway, Utah, June 1, 1912, concerning her testimony of Prophet Joseph Smith:
“I was personally acquainted with the Prophet and remember him well, although I was only a child. My father, Jeremiah Robey, worked in the Nauvoo Temple about five years and hung the last door in it.  My brother Theophelus and I used to carry father’s dinner and as he did the turning we often stayed to tread the lathe. I remember well the Prophet Joseph’s coming to my father’s home to administer to the sick.  Have been at his home and played.  Also remember when he was martyred and went to see him after he was dead.   I still retain the picture very vividly in my mind.  Have ever remained a faithful member of the Church and trust I will always continue true and faithful to the end.”








Chapter VI
AT HOME IN THE ROCKIES!

Father’s Patriarchal Blessing said he would feed thousands and how true did this come to pass.  His home became a place where every traveler whom darkness overtook was befriended for the night.  Many times it became necessary to make beds on the floor for their comfort and accommodation.  The hospitality there was known far and wide.

Friends like Mr. Swan, Jack Pape and others from Park City made their regular trips during the winter to hunt and shoot wild ducks and geese on the Provo River and they never failed to get all they wanted and sometimes more.

Soon the traveling man and drummer would stay with no one but “Uncle Sid.” Familiar faces in those days were Johnny Ango, Lon Bedkey, Nate Kuhn and others who vied for two pretty sisters, Mollie and Viola.

Herman Johnson and Jack Bolton from Salt Lake City sold Father the first threshing machine and sulky plow in Midway, and John Wing the first in Heber City.  He had the Poulson boys from Alpine bring the first self-binder up to cut his grain on the Ramsdale Farm. Everybody turned out to see it bind and flip the golden grain out in bundles.

The poplar trees had now grown tall along the green mossy ditch bank and it was here the cheerful young folks of the town loved to call and make their trysting place during the summer months when the crescent moon hung low.  The boys used to call it lover’s lane and no doubt many friendships were made here that were never broken.

Under the lights of the old coal-oil lamp and tallow candle, the long winter months were spent with books and the old slate and pencil, interspersed with coasting, bob-sled riding to the jingle of the sleigh bells, home parties and dancing.

All at home was peaceful and serene.  Under the parental care of a big-hearted kind and loving Father and Mother, who never spoke of guile of their neighbors nor permitted it from the lips of their children, we grew up to manhood and womanhood.  It was here under very favorable environments of home life and splendid associate’s that our characters were molded.  We shared our happiness with one another and had no troubles that could not be adjusted around our own fireplace.  Notwithstanding, some of us at times had plenty of zip and pep that was hard to control.  How we used to shake the rafters of the dear old home at times with song and laughter, with Father and Mother enjoying it best of all.  The organ pealed out sweet music to impress us of the love and happiness there.

The Eppersons were all for one and one for all, and clung together like a cluster of grapes, Father disciplined the boys when necessary, but the girls got off a little easier as they were cuddled along by their fond Mother.  Alas, we can never repay them for what they have done for us, worlds without end.

The Ramsdale Farm and the meadows of the old homestead were now yielding in great abundance and the boys fast growing up to manhood.  Father had at least one or two teams on the road contracting to assist in the upkeep of the home.  We furnished the old Flagstaff and Bonanza Mines with supplies.  Being high up in the mountains it had to be taken up on the old-time two-wheeled ox-cart, usually drawn by a spirited pair of sorrel horses, Dock and Dash.

The next thing acquired was the old up-and-down hay bailer, operated by the last yoke of oxen he ever owned, Buck and Berry.  The bales of hay were bound by small strands of rope and tied.  He had a contract with the Government at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, to furnish hay for the Government horses there.  Most of it was hauled in the winter on bob-sleds.  Up until now most of the hay had been piled in huge stacks around the old corral where the cattle were fed in winter.  Now we had decided to build a large frame barn for the storage of some forty to fifty tons of hay in the lofts about the protection of his fine horses and milch cows in the three stables below.

It was constructed by Jed Robey and David Ludlow, and was painted by Tom Ward, with a large sign over the north entrance--MIDWAY STABLE, S. H. EPPERSON. Work and saddle horses were now available for the prospector, the traveler and the public in general.  

How vivid in recollection of the writer (now in his early teens) were the shifting scenes of life in the happy home and on the farm.  It was here that pictures of my earliest memories were indelibly stamped on my mind and where my childhood fancies and dreams grew into manhood realities.  It was Home Sweet Home to me.  All humanity loves best the place where he was born.

Theophelus was now married to Eliza Van Wagoner and lived just across the street.

Alonzo married Elizabeth (Libby) Coleman and built a home across the meadows by the old mountain spring. When these two boys left to carve their own destiny, they were missed by all.

Father’s income was now at its peak.  His farm and meadow lands had practically all been brought under cultivation.  He had a nice band of about twenty work and saddle horses, brood mares and colts; also some forty head of milch cows, range cows, calves and beef steers.

It required some management to plant, irrigate, and harvest huge stacks of hay and grain as well as to care for the livestock.  Many of the horses and cattle were turned out on the mountain to graze during the summer.  It became necessary to brand them.  The boot brand was seared on the left ribs of the cattle and was recorded in Salt Lake City by Father November 22, 1888, and later May 21, 1900, Tipton Epperson had it recorded in Salt Lake City to be placed on the left shoulder for horses.  Soon everyone riding the range knew the Epperson brand.

With Theophelus and Alonzo gone, Tipton was given care and charge of the horses and the barn, and a fine hostler he was indeed.  Every horse knew his own stall and each horse collar, harness, saddle and bridle was hung in its proper place.  During the winter months, all repairs were made.  The harnesses were oiled and sewed in readiness for spring work.

Dock and Dash and other horses of the farm had served their time but they were replace by another strain of larger and perhaps better bred horses.  Prince, a bay stallion, and sire of many fine colts, with bay Barney his mate, were top-notchers. Frenchy and Nig, a pair of blacks, were Tipton’s favorites.  He kept them shining and in the winter they were  known by the sound of the sleigh bells they wore--even in the darkness of night, as the sleigh glided over the snow carrying a group of his pals, Tom Bonner, Bert Alexander, Bob Ross and their sweethearts, clad in muffs and furs to protect them from the cold.  These happy days were never to be forgotten.

Horses were forever a hobby with Father and his boys, so he purchased from Rod Swazey of Provo three fine fillies.  Red Bird was given to Robers, Bay Bell to Henry and Black Bess to Simon.  Red Bird left a fine strain of colts that were kept on the farm long after Father passed away.

Theophelus was proud of his pair of bay race horses, Frank and Billy, and his dapple greys, Chief and Blaine, as was Alonzo of Bill and Daisy, a pretty cream-colored mare with white man and tail.  Daniel enjoyed his grey saddle pony Jim and Black Dick, the race horse; Frank his pacer Snip.  Last of the ten boys, Elmer, had Sailor, Don and Kid.

Father loved to ride his favorite stallion, Black Hawk, in a mile race with the boys to the lower farm and always came out in the lead.  He was as fleet and beautiful as a reindeer.

Father was a good manager and in being so tried to encourage and make his boys happy in their work.  Each one as he grew up was given certain tasks to perform. Nothing went hap-hazard.  It was either milk a certain number of cows, feed pigs, chop wood for Mother, or keep the corrals and stables in order.  It was a pleasure indeed to do this work without someone looking down our collar…then to go out for an evening’s frolic was the real Johnny McCoy--the joy of our lives.

Time passes like the golden thread before the moving shuttle as each year brings a change in the family circle.  Tipton married Mary Jane Bonner and Viola Adelbert Alexander in the year 1885. The following year Robert married Bartha Springer and in 1887 Mollie married Dean Forrest and later John Baum.

With some help on the farm the younger boys kept things moving along for a number of years.  Simon married Lydia Smith in 1890 and Henry married Catherine Bunnel in 1892, leaving the care and responsibility on the three younger boys, Dan, Frank and Elmer.  No time was lost in assuming this responsibility.  Everything moved along harmoniously.  

Father was now in his sixtieth year.  The strength of his youth and middle age had been spent for his wife and children, the building  up of the west and his God.  He had to slow down and depend on the boys left in the family to do the heavy work which they did cheerfully.

Each one of the boys and girls, as time in its flight passed on, filled their niche in the dear old home and on the farm.  One by one they wooed and won their sweethearts and settle down happily near the old home. 

Unfortunately Albert was stricken with the rickets and never recovered.  Daniel, who never married, was now the main-stay on the farm and in the home.  No one perhaps will ever know the faithful services he rendered to Father and Mother in their declining years.

The acreage by now had been greatly reduced.  The Ramsdale Farm had been sold and with it went the old farm house that held so many fond recollections for us all, and especially for the writer of this story.  It was here when only nineteen years of age I taught my first term of school to some forty happy country boys and girls whom I shall never forget.  The school term closed in May and on April 4, 1890 I was happily married to one of my pupils I loved so well, Lydia (Lilly) Smith.

Some of the choice land on the old homestead by the spring had also been disposed of.  Also all of his range horses and cattle.  He kept a few nice brood mares, May, Daisy, and Bell, to do the farm work, and also a half a dozen good Jersey cows for Daniel to milk.

He contented himself each summer in raising a nice garden and caring for a flock of  poultry. He still loved to paddle in the water and irrigate the garden and pastures.

His magnetic charm of personality never left him.  He loved to have his old friends and neighbors call and chat with him of bygone days, the success of the past and what the future held in store for the faithful.  He loved to hear his youngest daughter, Lunica, sing and play the organ while her older sister Mollie made him more hot soda biscuits for dinner.  At eventide, when the golden sun had set in the west, he loved to sit on the front porch and admire the great Poplar trees he had planted as they swayed and bent and ever came back to shade the old home from the sweltering sun of summer.

He was contented in the part he had played in the drama of life and said that he had been inspired of the Lord to accept the Gospel for he knew it was true and that Joseph Smith was indeed a Prophet.  Had it not been for this inspiration he would never have come west to the Rocky Mountains.

He was proud of the success and achievements he had made, both temporal and spiritual, and of his posterity who numbered one hundred and seventy-five and were all true to the faith.  At this writing the number has increased to over two hundred.  What a prolific record!

He was happy to have been one of the early Pioneers who had built up a great Empire in the west.  They had made their homes, subdued the wilderness, built roads, bridges, school houses, churches and temples, and indeed made the desert blossom as the rose…and prayed and asked God’s blessings upon every furrow they had turned.

He was sealed to his wife for time and all eternity in the old Endowment House in 1859, but he lived to see the great Temples of the Lord erected where this work is now being done for both the living and the dead.

We, his descendants, expect to have this vicarious work done for our noble ancestors as fast as we can prepare their records.  My nephew, Amos Epperson, and wife and others have done the work for quite a number, and Lawrence has a list of fifty ready for baptism in the Temple.

If we are to be saviors on Mt. Zion, as recorded in the scripture, the time is now ripe for the accomplishment of this glorious work, with Father standing at the head.

Mollie, who had no children, sold her place and came to live with Father and Mother, who gladly welcomed her back to the old home.  She was everything that could be desired as a nurse, a good cook, and a splendid housekeeper.

Father had been upset for a number of years with rheumatism in his shoulders which caused him a great deal of discomfort, but he ate well and now past the seventies still enjoyed life about as usual. Mother’s health was also very good.

Now the four of them, Dan, Mollie, Father and Mother, were to spend many pleasant years together.  There had been little change in the routine of life around the home and on the farm.

During the latter part of the summer and winter of 1912, Father began to fail rapidly and for the first time in his life he lost his appetite and said, “When I was young and could have eaten the luxuries of life, I did not have them, but now I have them and cannot eat them” He contracted pneumonia the following spring and after being confined to his bed for a time recovered and was up and around as usual.  It wasn’t to last long.  He took a backset and passed peacefully away within a few moments of 10 A.M. Sunday morning, June 1, 1913, while propped up in the arms of his faithful daughter Mary Luverna as she and her sister Lunica were preparing to move him to the front room to get the fresh air and watch the children go to Sunday School.  He had lived 81 years, and gone to reap his reward in the Kingdom of God.

Services were held in the little church he had helped build some forty years before.  They were conducted by Bishop Jacob Probst. Many tributes of respect were paid him by the speakers.  One thing that deeply impressed the writer was the testimony of his esteemed friend, Patriarch Duke.  At the close of his sermon he said, “Now I want to say a few words to his sons: If you beat the record of your old Father you will have to go some.”  He was laid to rest in the Midway Cemetery, located on the bench which affords a view of the beautiful Provo Valley that he loved so well. 

Two years later, on May 15, 1915, his wife Mary Jane Epperson, took suddenly ill.  She ate a hearty dinner and partook of some canned pears which the doctor said might have been tainted with Ptomaine poison.  She vomited violently with no relief.  Her daughter Mollie, faithful to the end, held her up in bed and her last words were “Lay me down, I may never rise again.” And so it was.  She was laid to rest beside her husband, May 17, 1915.  MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.

They have gone to reap their reward of a long and happy life well spent with their contented family and host of friends that have been tried and true.  We their children are happy in knowing we shall be privileged to meet them on the shores of Eternity when that grand reunion takes place.

The bell in the old church tower across the way, has tolled its parting knell in Midway for ten of the family, with the exception for Theophelus who was laid to rest in Provo, and Viola in Byron, Wyoming.

There are still five of us left, at this writing, in the family circle--Mary Luverna Epperson, age 82; Daniel D. Epperson, age 68, both of Midway, Utah; Frank S. Epperson, age 63, and Ruth Lunica Epperson McNaughton, age 66, of Heber City; and Simon Shelby Epperson, age 70, the writer of this story, 737 East 17th South Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The clock keeps ticking as time moves on.  Twenty-six years have passed and the graves in the little cemetery have ever been kept green by the kind and loving hands of Mollie and Dan.

The dear old home has also been kept neat and clean from cellar to attic.  New shingles and fresh coats of paint from year to year have kept it fresh and in perfect preservation.  It has withstood the chilly blasts and snows of winter, the sunshine and the rain for nearly seventy long years.  Standing so home-like and serene it ever welcomes the children of its heritage, back to its beautiful flowers of every tint and color of the rainbow and its green lawns so peaceful and restful.

Our dear sister Mollie and brother Dan, its occupants, who respect its part glories and love its home-like spirit, have seemingly taken the place of Father and Mother.  The latch string still hands on the outside of the door and the same kindness and hospitality ever abides there as of yore.

It is indeed a pleasure after so many years to still be permitted to come together and put our feet under the familiar old family table and partake of sister Mollie’s hot soda biscuits, spread with golden sweet butter; taste her fried chicken, creamed peas, and potatoes, fresh from the garden, smell the coffee fields of Brazil, with a glance at a pitcher full of rich Jersey cream, and finish up the sugar cookies and a piece of custard pie.  Then a pleasant evening talking of the family ties and happy days spent in the dear old home.  And last, what joy to ascend the winding stairway once more to our first sleeping rooms, with a fond good night to drop into one of Mother’s soft feather beds and dream dreams of our happy childhood. 

The temples of marble may moulder to dust, the monuments of the great may decay, but the memory of Father and Mother and the dear old home will live in our hearts forever.




AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

I, Simon S. Epperson, seventh son of Sidney H. Epperson, Mormon Pioneer (1852) and Mary Jane Robey, Mormon Pioneer (1852), was born in Midway, Wasatch County, Utah, in a Pioneer log house in the old String Fort, January 12, 1871.  The snow was three feet deep.

After finishing the District Schools, I married Lydia M. Smith April 4, 1890, at the Smith Grove.  In 1892 completed a Normal Course at the B.Y. Academy, Provo, Utah.  After that I taught school in Midway for seven consecutive years; was Secretary of the Midway Town Corporation, the Midway Water Works and Irrigation Co.

During this time, with the help of my good wife, I had built a modern five-room home and barn, bought and paid for 25 acres of the best farm and pasture land in the Valley, equipped it with implements, vehicles and a number of fine horses and cows. 

Owned and operated a Livery Barn there for four years, 1911 to 1915.  

Had one-third interest in the Midway Drug Store. I spent 2 years on the road, with horse team, for the Home Comfort Range Co. Spent 2 years for the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Co., and 13 years, 1906 to 1919, as Branch Manager of Studebaker Co. at Heber City, where I purchased a home on First South and Main Street. Leaving Heber City May 31, 1919, I purchased a home in Silver City, Utah, where I leased the Iron Blossom Mine a• number of years and later was 'rime-Beeper for the Rights
Investment Mining Co .of six payrolls. Then I was Night Watchman at the Tintic Mill, 1920. From Silver City, I moved my family to Pioche, Nevada, on June 1, 1924, where I served as Bookkeeper and Assayer of the Bristol
Silver Mines Co. under the Management of my oId friend J. H. Buhler, who was my schoolboy when only six years old. When my son Frank was called from the Panaca Ward of Lincoln County, Nevada, in 1926 to fill a Mission to the Southern States, I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, August 29,
1926, and bought a home at 259 South 2nd West. I then secured a position from Tom Morris as Watchman for the Park Utah Consolidated Mining Company. I was there for some three years when the mines closed in 1931.
AT HOME IN THE ROCKIES 

During the depression, I secured a position as City Sillesman and Advertiser at the Summer Auto Camps, for the Original Utah Woolen Mills, makers of the famous Jack Frost lines. On August 7, 1930 I sold our home at 259 south
2nd West, and purchased our last one at 737 East 17th South, Salt Lake City, Utah.
While I lived in Midway I worked in all of the Church Auxiliarly organizations, as Sunday School Teacher, Class Leader in the Young
Men's M. 1. A., and was Ward Clerk and Chorister of the First Ward under Bishop Coleman for 7 years.
In Heber City was Sunday School Chorister of the Second Ward, a member on the Sunday School Union Board and Second Counselor to David A. Broadbent when Religion Classes were first organized in the Stakes.
While in Silver City, was Sunday School Superintendent and Supervisor of Religion Classes. Was then chosen as First Counselor to Bishop Jesse Haws and was also Ward Chorister. When we moved to Salt Lake we joined
the 14th Ward and later the Hawthorne Ward where I belong to the High Priest's Quorum.


















FAMILY RECORD

6TH GENERATION FROM WILLIAM EPPERSON
SIDNEY HIRAM EPPERSON Fourth child of Elias and Nancy Lunica Dalton  Epperson of Albemarle Co., Va.; b. Dec. 31, 1882, Montgomery Co., Indiana; d. June 1,1913; m. 1853, Provo, Utah. Mary Jane Robey, dau.
Jeremiah and Ruth Tucker Robey; b. April 28, 1836, Harrison Co., West Va.; d. May 13, 1915, Midway, Utah.

7TH GENERATION
SIDNEY THEOPHELUS EPPERSON
B. Jan 23. 1854, Provo, m.; d. July 15, 1916; m. Eliza. Van Wagener 1814; d. June 25, 1934.
CHARLES ALONZO EPPERSON
B. Mar. 15, 1856. Provo. Ut.: died Mar 17, 1927; m~Elizabeth B. Ooleman, Mar 8, 1881.
MARY LUVERNA EPPERSON
b. July 28, 1858. Provo; m. Dean Forrest, 1888; d.; m. John Baum.
JEREMIAH ALBERT EPPERSON 
B. Sept. 10, 1860; d. Mar. 30, 1920; single.
TlPTON ELIAS EPPERSON
D. Sept. 10, 1862; d. Apr. 25, 1895; m. Apr. 29, 1885, Mary Jane Bonner; d. May 29, 1937.
VlOLA DELPHINA EPPERSON
B. Mar. 27, 1864; d. May 29, 1937, Byron, Wyo.; m.
Adelbert Alexander, Apr. 29, 1885; d. Oct 21, 1931. 
ROBERT ROSS EPPERSON
B. Jan. 20, 1867; d. Apr. '29. 1888; m. Sept. 15, 1886, Bertha Drew Springer; d. July 22, 1924.
WILLIAM HENRY EPPERSON
B. Dec. 17, l8GS; d. July 4, 1933; m. Katherine Bunnel, 1892.
SIMON SHELBY EPPERSON
B. Jan. 12. 1871; m. Apr. 4, 1890, Lydia Melissa Smith.
DANIEL DAVID EPPERSON
B, Feb. 17.1893, Midway; single
RUTH LUNICA EPPERSON
B. May .20, 1815; m. Jan. 2, 1889. Wm. Mathews; d. Feb. 8, 1927; m. Jas. McNaughton, Sept, 21, 1933.
FRANK SHERMAN EPPERSON
B. June 28, 1811; m.  Ada. Mohlman, Nov. 21, 1901: d. Sept. 24., 1902; m. Luverna Horrocks. Oct. 3, 1906.
ELMER DREW EPPERSON
B. Dec. 22, 1879; d. Dee. 31, 1909; m. Maud Barker. 1899; d. Aug. 11, 1901; m. Mae Davis Dec. 7. 1903. Midway,
Utah