Neglect

I have neglected my poor blog as I've been going in many directions.
My grand-daughter has had a strange constant pain that finally is
diminishing yesterday. She has an appoinment with a internalist to
find out the cause in the coming week. I am thinking about her.

Tom's cousin from his great Aunt Minerva (Nerve)who married John Wesley Norton sent a package of papers that she got from Nauvoo church records of land, baptismals, temple meetings proving that John Reynolds was John Wesley Reynolds and his parents were James Elisha and Elizabeth Anderson Reynolds. The connections all work. I am impressed with the computer savey of Luann. She is also so into Panguitch and is from the Riley Reynolds Norton and Olive Rachael Lee connection. Her mother was a miller and part Cameron. Coopers. Myers. That girl is related to everyone who stuck around Panguitch. Aunt Nerve and John spent their lives here too. Luann and I are checking out the John D. connection. And since Dave Lee is also from Granddaddy (great-great) John D., I discovered his line is John D. and Aggatha. But Harvey Parely, who owned the land Dave lived on, is from Caroline and John D. So how this other family line managed to end up with the land might be another story. Or they might have lived all together in the same house, who knows? Anyway Luann is all into the Lee's, Coopers, Camerons, Millers, and Reynolds. Interested in everyone. She sent some rare photos of a gathering at
the old Stake House. Steve had never seen it. He is trying to find names. I am very interested in the data gathered.

I have been to the care center several times. Parley Pratt from Escalante and Jack Gleave from Piute talk and talk. Parley has a rare wit. He says of his first wife, "I couldn't catch up with her close enough to have a kid." I think he was married a year. Jack's first wife died in childbirth and he says he missed her every day the rest of his life. They pass on information about the sheepherd...oh did you know they herded 1000 sheep down main street in Cedar a few days ago?
Livestock Days?, the old mining days, the hard work of ditch building, the sheep herd, and other such information.

My brother-in-law Floyd is not doing so well. He is 90. My brother-in-law on Tom's side will be 90 this Feb. He rides daily on his ATV. They try to tell people where they are going..his wife is 81 or so...in case they wreck, we can find them. I seem to be endlessly collecting bits of history.

The Volleyball team from Panguitch took their 3rd in a row state tournament yesterday. The sirens of police and fireengines were out to welcome them home.

And Hallooween is today. We had a few spooks come by. Tom's friend Mark Orton was a huge big spook. He made us laugh.Opps! I meant the picture to go at the end.
It is last year's photo...Meadow, Drew, Wyatt, Katelin put there for Halloween! Oh well. My blog for today is finished.

FALL

This Fall there is a gradual changing color,
very beautiful. Changes every day.
It is election time. My neice Cheryl
is running for school board and will
consider the problems in our school district
seriously. She is in a different district, so
she won't get my vote.
Election - a new (Corroon) or old (Herbert)
govenor? Bennet lost already in the senate race
and others will take his place. I try to know
the candidates, but find I don't know them well.
They all want to improve the economy and
educate the children. Jim Matheson
does not want Utah to take in toxic waste...it seems like
everyone in the world wants Utah to dump their waste.
I don't want Utah the dumping ground for toxic waste. They do it now.
My son's mother-in-law who was the city mayor died
recently of lung cancer. Laurie Talbot took over.
She is good, but I miss Janet with the rest
of the city. Cedar City canditates banning the prairie
dog habitat as they are way too many. Utah papers never
seem to have a conflict with pro-life. Most voters
are pro-life. I have placed my votes.

John D. Lee Homes

John D. Lee died before Garfield County was created
and documents filed at the Gargield County Courthouse,
so the exact ownership if his homestead is a mystery.
He gave four wives land and recorded that in Iron County
but the land was in the Utah Territory. I imagined, with his
children's children's children in Panguitch, I could find the spot.
I researched back each spot I was told to find that one of the children
did own the land. I wanted to know where his wife Caroline,
mother of twelve children lived. Caroline had moved to
Scutumpah with John D. before he died. When it was time to
go to Lee's Ferry, she was pregnant and in labor, so went to
Kanab to be with family. She returned to Panguitch.
J.B. Hildbrand, photographer, came to Panguitch May 31, 1934,
to record where John D. Lee was captured. He took the three pictures above..
the original and the add-on? Picture taken at the same time? Both were given to Utah Historical Society under his name. One may be the right house. The top one was chosen to be in the Centennial Garfield County book.
The other two houses, still standing in Panguitch, were suggestions.
I don't think either one is the right one. One of the oldest houses in
Panguitch has been turned into the William Prince Inn. William was married to
John D. and Aggatha Lee's daughter. One story is that John D. was buried in the
basement, not out in the cemetery where he has a hugh headstone. That was the original house, but it is brick which came to Panguitch years after J.D.'s death.
Did they cover the old log house with brick? There is also a headstone in Parowan and one lost up on the mountain, I hear.
I am only trying to finish a small part of my book. Lee's ggggrand daughter was here yesterday. She told me he had four wives. I said...No, 19. 19!!!! Why don't I know that? Four wives stayed with him after Mountain Meadows. Or 5. He had 50 children. Those wives worked hard to keep the children alive.
Since he is well-known in Morman history, I thought to record his part in creating the GSENM!

Walking in Sand

Out of Cliffnotes I came up with a new title for my book and a new picture for the front. Walking in Sand - my guide to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This is the picture...me on the rocks of Boulder.
I also wrote a poem or two...this one is about a place Boulder, Utah...described as if no one had been there.


Even if you live in Boulder, Utah
you don't know anything about it.
You haven't heard Clyde cursing about
lost water or lost calves.
You didn't walk barefoot down a dirt road
to climb Thompson Ledge.
Anselm had never heard of or found the money cave
just a few feet lower on his Thompson Ledge.
You didn't talk to Irene at King's Store
or buy cans of food, Levis, grain, horse shoes,
bullets, salve for dehorning steers, candy
or sit drinking a coke in her arrowhead covered
table.
You didn't walk up to the old school,
this very building, and be taught by
Rose Peterson or Aunt Nethella or
climb the School House Ledge at noon
to see where Darrell Moosman fell.
You didn't clmb that cut-down Cottonwood
to escape being touched by Strycnine or
Dynamite.
You didn't ride Bender or Old Buttons
after herds of cows.
Boulder had those Bulberries to pick for jam.
You didn't tear apart milkweed or
walk down the board walk over mint to
the outhouse at Grandma King's.
You didn't go with J.C. fishing in streams
swimming in deep spots to let the fish
slip into your hands.
Or go to the Boulder Rodeo
right outside this window
where bulls bucked by your honking car
on down the road.
No, you haven't been to Boulder, Utah.

Novel by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

A very rich art dealer and a man raised as a sharecropper
come together at a mission...one dishing out food, one eating food.
The very remarkable wife of the art dealer, Deborah, brings
everyone together in so many remarkable ways. She is the exceptional one.
She brings out the exceptional in those around her. I am not going to tell you the story as it should be read by those who wrote and lived it.
I am only going to recommend that you do read it. It touches the heart.

Anasazi

Tom painted the wood with designs he has seen.
Boulder Heritage Festival will feature Anasazi this year
and we write..Boulder Cliff Notes this weekend.
My poem:

ANASAZI

The Red Sun
Little black or red square men
One hundred hands
painted by those long ago
who also left storage houses
or cliff dwellings high
on red cliffs.
My breath catches
at the leaping goat
hanging on a high cliff
impossible to climb.
Were they painting for the Gods?
God of wind. God of water.
God of food that came only with seasons.
As a child, I rushed to see those paintings
left behind...climbing high as I could.
I picked up a black obsidian arrowhead
down by Lampstand, laying on sand,
and a perfectly made white spiked one
by the Monkey House under a Cedar tree
lying there in that exact spot
where I am walking on a rare outing.
I am endlessly curious about those
who came before me.
The people who lived where I stand
and touch my life.
And I wonder...
Can I, like the Anasazi, touch lives
beyond my time with my scratchings?
Oct. 4. 2010