PICTURES TELL THE STORY--OLD PAYSON TITHING HOUSES

PICTURES TELL THE PAYSON STORY

OLD LDS TITHING  HOUSES

    The construction of the first Tithing House in Payson began in 1858.  The new building was located near the center of the fort on the southwest corner of today’s 200 North and Main Street.  The Payson Third Ward Church was constructed on the site in the early 1930's.
    The cellar for the building was excavated and  sandstone walls were laid up.  The pioneers then installed the floor joists of the main floor.  There were also 10 courses of adobe laid up for the beginning of the main floor walls.  The floor served as the roof of the cellar.  The floor of the cellar remained dirt.
    A stage was built in the south end of the unfinished main floor.  This served as gathering  place for the settlers.  The pioneers used candles and rag “bitches” (rag that was soaked in oil and lit.)
    There was no more work done on the building until 1860.  At that time, more adobes were hauled to the site and the remaining walls of the first floor were finished.    There were some more timbers brought down out of the canyon and it was partially framed during the fall.   It remained in this state during the winter.
    In September 1861 the members of the church laid up another story of the Tithing House.  Some timber had been sawed and plans were made to put a roof on the building.  The bishop and about ten men went into the canyon and obtained more lumber for the completion of the roof.
    When the building was finished, the cellar that was about three to four feet underground was used for the storage of tithes and offerings in kind.
    There were many public events held on the main floor that was about six steps above ground level.  The second story of the building was used for school classes.
    The Bishop’s Tithing Office as located at the north end of the main floor.  To the west of the Tithing House was the corn crib and a granary.  Further to the west of the corner could be found a large barn.
 

  In 1901, a newer Tithing House was constructed just to the south of the original one.  It was constructed just north of the John B. Fairbanks home. This newer Tithing Office building stood until it was demolished in 1959 and the property became part of the parking lot for the LDS Third Ward Church.  The Third Ward building had been constructed in 1932 near the site of the original Tithing House that had been previously torn down.
    In 1910, the Stark Store that was located south of the Tithing House on the opposite side of the street burned down.  The telegraph office had been located in the store.  After the fire, the telegraph office was relocated to the Tithing Office building.
    In addition to the photo of the original Tithing House, we have located a photo of the newer Tithing House when it was being demolished. 

   

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--PAYSON SENIOR CITIZENS

REMEMBER WHEN
Thursday, October 2,  2008
Kenna Holm
  
PAYSON SENIOR CITIZENS

    This is one of those weeks I have had to scratch my head to decide what to write about. I've really had a brain freeze.  I just couldn't seem to get inspired. Then I was talking to my friend JoAnn Stevenson and she was telling me about the fun trip the Senior Citizens just took and the light went on. The Senior Citizens, that's a good subject.
    I remember back when they used to be called "The Old Folks". Remember when they had "theOld Folk's Day" at the park? I'm not sure if they had regular meetings or not but Ido remember they had a nice dinner for "Old Folks Day".
     Now they have a more dignified name, "Payson Senior Citizens". (and here I am one of them). Senior just doesn't sound as old as OLD. Right?

    I believe the Official Seniors group was started in 1966 with Stan Wilson (for whom the Gladstan Golf Course is named) was the director and Elmer Jones was the assistant director. Stan held that position for 9 years..
 

  They held their first meetings in a small building next to the pool hall on Utah Avenue. They held their meeting bi-weekly and had 1 art class and 1 travel log. At that time they had about 30 to 40 attend.
    In 1964 the new Stake Center on 800 West and 500 South was built and the Nebo Tabernacle was no longer needed. It stood vacant long enough for vandals to destroy many things and broke many of the windows.

   The  city entered  into  a  long-term agreement lease of one dollar per year with the LDS church who still owned the building and Wilson and a group of men and I'm sure wives were right there with them, polished and repaired everything in that old building so they could have their activities there. They also beautified  the  grounds.  They had  various crafts  that  were  taught  for  both  men  and women and they served lunches at noon for the cost of 50 cents per person.
    In 1977 the building was sold and they had to find a new place to have their luncheons and activities. The building was sold to Central Bank and Trust for a new building to be built there.
    It was a sad day for the Seniors but they then moved down to the old Nephi Stewart home (on 393 West Utah Ave) which the city owned and held their meetings there until the new City Center which had just been converted from use as a hospital was ready. This was in 1982 that they moved into the new center.
 

  They had lots of room there and were able to put in a pool table, game tables for cards and such, they had the lovely kitchen to cook in and plenty of space to do whatever they wanted.
    In 1978 theygot their first 32 seat 'fun'bus that they took various trips in. The trips were usually just day trips.
    At that time Elmer Jones was the director. He held that position until 1997 when he retired. He had held that position for 27 years and did a marvelous job.
    After Jones retired, he was replaced by Becky Jackson who held the position of Director for one year. Sally Phouts Peay  then took the helm and directed until May of 2005.
    Judy Reynolds is now the director and has been for 3 years. She has worked hard to make the organization the very best. They take a trip over the canyon loop every year plus two or three other trips a year. They just returned from the Tuachan. They have entertainment come in, birthday parties once a month, woodcarving, oil painting, exercise classes, crocheting, tole painting, ceramics, pottery, Swedish weaving, computer and many more things. They now average from 55 to 80 people a day attending the center.
    Things have changed since the "Old Folks Days" hasn't it? Isn't it fun to stop and remember when...

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--MEMORIES OF YESTERYEAR

Remember When
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Kenna Holm

Memories of Yesteryear

    I've been thinking back of all the fun we used to have snow sledding, swimming, ice and roller skating and dances. I'm sure kids now days still have those things but have better facilities .
When we were young, we used to swim at Spring Lake. I remember my brothers taking me as a little girl and they would toss me back and forth and me giggling all the time, but one day one of them tossed me to the other one and he caught me by my legs and my head went down in the water. It about scared the heck out of me. I guess I can now blame them for me not liking water. No--I knew they would always save me but I can remember it frightened me. I hated the feel of the slime and vines down on the bottom of the pond. It was eerie. We also swam at Salem Pond.
    After the old Orem train system was shut down, they rerouted the highway and straightened it out over the Salem Pond. There is now a bit of pond on the North side of the highway. When we were in high school, I remember one kid from Spanish Fork by the name of Butch Clayson.  He dove off the side and hit one of the pilings of the old rail trestle.  It  was just under the water (that had been part ofthe railroad track) and broke his neck. He was lucky to survive that.
There wasalways places to swim. There was Warm Springs out in Genola  that was fun to go to. The water was so nice and warm but I think that has been closed off now and no one can go there because of gang problems or some kind of trouble. It was fun though. We also had Arrowhead Swimming Pool in Benjamin and Park RoShe in Springville that we could go to. They were both inside pools and they kept open longer than Payson Park Swimming Pool.
Park RoShe also had a roller skating rink in a building by the swimming pool. We loved to roller skate. We would take parties over there. We could choose to skate, swim or just picnic.
    I never was any good at either one but it was fun to go anyway. My husband excelled in all sports so it made me look like an amateur dummy when I went with him. He could do all kinds of fancy dives in swimming and at skating he was great. Me, I just blundered along.
    We roller skated a lot onthe sidewalks.Remember the old clip onroller skateswe would have to undo a screw to lengthen themout to fit our shoes and tighten that screw and then we had a skate key that we could tighten the clamps on to our soles of our shoes and then off we would go. We loved to skate on the roads or sidewalks. When we went to Park RoShay, they had shoe skates and they were easier to skate it. But then I still fell a lot.
I never was any good at any sport but it was fun to go anyway. My husband excelled in all sports so it made me look like an amateur dummy when I went with him. He could do all kinds of fancy dives in swimming and at skating he was great. Me, I just blundered along.
    In the winter, we loved to ice skate and go sledding. We had Peteetneet hill that has always been and still is the best to sleigh ride on. We would also sled at the old Payson Jr. High. (that they just tore down). We would get a pieceofplastic and slide downthe hill,laughing allthe way.We also would go out to Tote Gote Hill out on the West Mountain. We loved to tube out there.
    One time, (which my kids will never let me forget) there was two or three families of us all withtubesand things to slide downthe hillon,went out there for anouting.Myhair hadn't beendone so I put on my wig so I would look at least somewhat presentable. We climbed to the top of the hill and each got on our tubes to take turns sliding down and as I got about halfwaydown, my wig flew off one way while I was going the other and and we all cracked up laughing and like I say, my kids will never let me forget it. It was fun though even if I was the butt of all jokes.
    We would take wieners to roast or just hot chocolate to drink and totally enjoy the outing. I'mnot sure some would evenknow what tote gotesare now. Theyare a thing ofthe past but we would even sometimes pull the kids on their sleds or tubes behind the tote gote and have a ball.
When we were first married, we had an old 1938 Chevy  that we used to go up the canyon in. There were 3 couples of us newlyweds, Jerry and Lorraine Jones Mortensen (Jim's brother), Cliff and Beth Cartwright (Dona Cartwrights's brother) and Frank and I. We would get our sleds and line them all up behind that old car and be pulled everywhere. The end one would swing back and forth across the road. We couldn't do that now days. To much traffic. We would go down through the fields or up in the river bottoms in Spanish Fork. It's a wonder we didn't get hurt but you know, at that age you're invincible.
Remember when we had the irrigation ditches and each home had an alloted time to water their yards. We loved to put our swimming suits on and wade in the water and sit in the ditch so it damed the water up. Sprinklers were fun to. Oh the water fights we had.
When we went ice skating, it wasn't always the smoothest places but as kids we didn't care. The city flooded an area down on 8th West just off Utah Ave. (the Freeway is across it now). We would skate there and we would go out to Spring Lake. That always frightened me because I was afraid the Ice would crack and we would drop in . And as I remember there were a few ponds down in the fields we even skated on.
At one time the American Legion sponsored dances for the teens and we could go there on one night (I think it was Thursdays) and we could dance or play games. They had ping pong tables and they would have bottles soft drinks and goodies we could buy. I remember Andy Andress was always there to over see it. He was a fun guy. That was always so fun to go to those.
We could play tennis in the summer at the Payson Park Tennis Court. They also had Horseshoe Pits to play at also.
And of course there were always the night games. We had no TV's so we made our own fun. We played hide and seek, run sheepy run, red rover, and I could go on and on. We always had so much fun and it didn't cost money, just our imaginations.
Isn't it fun to remember back when......

ANTIQUE VINTAGE EXPO

DON'T MISS THIS EVENT ON SATURDAY, MAY 14

BE SURE AND PICK UP YOUR

PETEETNEET HAT PIN OR FRIGE MAGENT

WHILE YOU ARE THERE

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--PETEETNEET, TAYLOR AND PARKVIEW SCHOOLS

REMEMBER WHEN

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Kenna Holm

PETEETNEET SCHOOL, TAYLOR SCHOOL AND PARK VIEW SCHOOLS

    So many things have changed over the years.  I went to elementary school at the old Taylor School which was one of Payson's first school houses.  When I  went to school at Taylor, there  was just the  Peteetneet and Taylor Elementary schools.  The kids on the East side of Main Street went to the Peteetneet  School before the addition was added and the kids on the West side of Main Street went to the Taylor.

    The Taylor School had 6 class rooms then in 1949 they added on to the North of the building making 4 more class rooms and an auditorium.  Before then, we had our assemblies and programs in the big hallway of the school.
    Our  lunch room was in the basement and we had to go downstairs by the furnace room to get to the lunchroom.  When I was there the teachers I remember were: Della McCellan was
1st grade and also kindergarten (we just went 6 weeks in the summer as I

    Thora Jean Moore Jewett said they loved living next to the Parkview because  they had  the park to go play at and all the land behind her house.
    In talking to Jim Pfouts, who also lived  in the neighborhood, he told me a few things they did.  They called the field where the playground is now, 'The Pasture'.   He said they used to hunt  pheasants in there and one day shot one that landed on Ralph Wilson's 2nd story balcony.(now who would do such a thing?) He also said that when they were building the school, the neighborhood kids would take flash lights and half of them would go to the north end of the structure and half to the south and theywould crawlup in the rafters and crawlalong towards eachother and ifyou got hit with the beam of a flashlight, you were dead.
    Jim said that the old Wilson home stood on the corner of 1st East and 3rd South.To the South there was the home of Annie Spainhower (she was a clerk at Christensen’s for many years).  The Westrings lived in the basement of her home.   Next to that was the basement home that belonged to Glen and Afton Hansen.  There was then an empty lot and the then home of Mary Jeppson (who taught at the Taylor and then went onto the Park View to teach) stood about where we find the front entrance ofthe schooltoday.  There was another empty lot and then the Patten home was across the street from Jim Pfouts’.  Next came the old Bale home.   This home was originally built by Joseph L.  Townsend.   He wrote many of the hymns we find in LDS hymnbooks today.  Just to the southofthat was the home of the Morse's (that was Thora Jewett's mom and step-dad).  When they built the schooltheytook out the Hansen’s house, Jeppson’s, Patten’s and the Townsend  home.  Thora Jean’s parents home still stands just south of the school today.
     Mrs.  Jeppson said when she went to the Park View to teach, it felt like home since she could look out the window and see the same things she did when she lived in her home located there.
    I think the first principal of Park View was  Garth Olson (Mildred's late husband).  My mother worked in the lunch room along with Trelma Curtis, Lora Miller and another lady I don't remember the name of.   My mom was one of the best cooks and so was Trelma.  Mom did the baking.  It was nothing like the hot lunch programs of today.  They did all the cooking from scratch.  In fact I have a lot of my mothers recipes she used at the school.  (Big recipes) She made hot rolls that were to die for.
    Also Jack Powellwas the next principaland he would love to sneak into the kitchen and get treated to hot rolls or cinnamon rolls before lunch time.
    The school was beautiful and they had a lot of play area in back.  Then like every thing else, it became too small.  They used mobile units for a while to take care of the over load of students.
 

   Then in the last few years they expanded more.  They took the home that was South of the corner of 300 South Main.  That home was the home of Ralph Wilson.  He had 3 daughters, Barbara, Andra Lou and Colleen.   Barbara and I were good friends and runaround in the same crowd.  We had a lot of fun parties at that house.   Ralph sold the house when he married Jean Christensen.   Rex and Harriett Mendenhall bought it.  Now it's gone and it's also part of the play ground for the Park View School.
    There was also a dry cleaners on the very corner of 300 South Main that was owned by Darrell Hill.  He closed it and built down the street by Crump's  car dealership  that later became Jolly Joe's.  The cleaners was then  run (after the Hill's moved) by Mary Mortensen.  (Jim's mother).  After that Joe Wilcock and his wife Shirlee bought it and run the cleaners for a long time. 
    It seems just like yesterday they built the Park View but its been 55 years but it's really fun to remember when....

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--PAYSON POLICE RESERVE

REMEMBER WHEN
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Kenna Holm
  
Payson Police Auxiliary

    At DUP meeting a while back Sue Ellsworth Jolley said to me "Hey, I've got some neat pictures of the old Payson Police Auxiliary when my dad was in it." Of course right away I was interested. I thought it would be fun to look back to those days when we had a Police Reserve.
It was organized in 1955 under the direction of Police Chief Dick Chapple. The Justice of Peacewas Eugene Hillman (Russell Hillman and Marianne H Evans father). He swore them in on a Saturday morning. At that time Howard Ellsworth (father of Sue Jolley and Randy Ellsworth) was the first Captain.

First Auxillary Police group: (front l-r) Hyrum Jensen, Sgt Cornell Binks, Sec/Treasurer Howard Ellsworth, Cpt. Joe Jackson, (back l-r) Blaine Wilson, Shirley Bjarnson, Wandle Francom, Reed Argyle.  Absent: Harold Jones,2Lt; and Bernell McAffee

    The members worked on a volunteer basis, except when working as extra policemen , like during Onion Days.  They set up by- laws and it stated in the by-laws that each man had to give at least four hours a month under a regular police officer. In talking to Joe Jackson, he said theyalways enjoyed that. Therewere 4 police officers at the time. Page Peery (Shirlene P. Wood and Lynn 'Sam' Peery's father), Bob Cartwright, (father of Dona Cartwright) By Montague (Jerilyn Sorenson's father) and of course Dick Chapple.

Formal Photo (front l-r) Hyrum Jensen, Joe Jackson, Howard Ellsworth, Harold E. Jones, Cornell Binks. (2nd row l-r) Wandle Francom, Bernell McAffee, Unknown, Reed Argyle.  (3rd row l-r) Blaine Wilson, Red Partridge, Shirley Bjarnson
 
 These men all bought there own uniforms and anything else they needed.  They purchased their own hand-cuffs, radios, and other equipment. This was done through donations of members and also the amount they were paid when they filled in for regular members of the police department. They started out with 13 members and it stayed around that many all the time.
    I remember they looked really sharp in their uniforms.  It was the beginning of some of the men’s occupation like Joe Jackson who went on to work in the Sheriff's Dept; Blaine Wilson (Steve's dad and Colleen's husband) went on to become Police Chief here in Payson and later a Highway Patrolman. A lot of different men were in that auxiliary at one time or another.

Payson Police Auxillary in 1967.  (L-r)Howard Ellsworth, Nick Paige, Richard Murdoch, Harold Jones, Hyrum Jensen, Clifford Herbert, and Dale Black.  Not present were Shirley Bjarnson and Duane Jewett.
    Isn't it so nice to have dedicated people who are willing to give of their time and means to help others. Isalute all those have been in this auxiliaryand worked for each of us even though they are no longer an organization it's fun to take time and remember when....