PETEETNEET MUSEUM TO REOPEN

(Photo courtesy of Payson Chronicle)

 

 

 

ALEXANDER COWAN

 ALEXANDER COWAN

Alexander Cowan was born in Campsie, Scotland on December 18, 1830. His parents were John B. and Agnes Barry Cowan. John B. was a weaver of fine textiles including lace curtains and other decorative articles.
    John B. was taught the gospel by early missionaries in Scotland.  He and his family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints.
    Soon after joining the Church, John B. disposed of his property and with his family started for America. His family consisted of his wife, four sons and one daughter.
    The trip was made in a sailing vessel and took at least six weeks to cross the ocean. Agnes, John B.’s wife, became ill and died. She was buried at sea. They reached New Orleans and sailed up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri.
    The Church authorities had caused a port to be opened at New Orleans in 1844 so that the trip across the plains might be shortened. This port remained open until 1855.
Upon arriving in St. Louis, the family resources were about gone. The two single boys, Alexander and William remained there to work for two years, so that they might assist the family to get established in Utah.
    John B., his daughter, two married sons and their families started for Salt Lake City. They crossed the plains in Levi Stewart’s Company, arriving in Salt Lake September 17, 1850. The daughter died and was buried on the plains. John B. lived in Salt Lake City for a while and then moved to Spanish Fork. His sons Andrew and James stayed in Salt Lake City. James later moved to Slaterville in Weber County.
    Alexander helped on the public work in Salt Lake, and 1852 with a pardner John Charford, contracted to make the adobes for the wall around the Temple block.  He crossed the plains 7 times.  In 1861 he went to states with two yoke of oxen to assist the Saints to come to Utah.
    In 1864 he was sent to Fort Bridger to assist colonizing and later to Carson Nevada, 1855 where he took up a ranch which had some very rich mines in it.  It is claimed while there he dug the first irrigation ditch to water his land, and in 1858 was called home on account of Johnson Army trouble.
    Alexander married Eilley Orrum Hunter, a widow,(divorcee) in Salt Lake City. They were among those who President Brigham Young sent to Washoe Valley, Nevada to establish a branch of the Church in Carson City. Alexander purchased 350 acres of land for $100.00 from Orson Hyde where they built a small home.
    As gold seekers came to Virginia City, Alexander and Eilley also went there. Eilley operated a cafe and Alexander went prospecting. He and Sandy Bowers struck and staked their claim on the Comstock Lode, one of the richest gold mines in the world.
    One day Alexander came back from the mine unexpectedly. He heard Sandy and Eilley plotting to kill him. Alexander quietly left Virginia City in the latter part of 1859. He had to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains on snowshoes. He made one misstep, went over an embankment and was buried in snow to his neck. He always felt that it was a miracle that he was able to get out.
    Alexander arrived in Salt Lake City during the Christmas holidays in 1859. He met Jane Mitchell who had arrived in Salt Lake City with a handcart company late in September or October 1859. After a courtship of three weeks, they were married in January 1860.
     After divorcing Alexander, Eilley got claim to the ranch after she divorced Alexander Cowan.  Later, Eilley married Sandy Bowers and became one of the first millionaires of the Comstock Lode. The built the Bowers' Mansion on the property that once bThey visited  kings in France and England. They built a beautiful mansion on Alexander and Eilley's property and furnished it with the best the world had to offer, buying many beautiful pieces of furniture and carpets from France and England. Even the door knobs were gold. Nothing was too expensive for them. The estate also had two large swimming pools. They lived a royal life for a while.
    Sandy and Eilley had a little girl. One day when the daughter had nothing to do, Eilley gave her a bucket of silver dollars to play with, which kept her happy the rest of the day. She died when she was only nine or ten years old and is buried in the family cemetery behind the mansion. Later, Sandy Bowers died of miner's consumption at the age of 36. Some men talked Eilley into investing her money and she lost everything. Eilley ended up a fortune teller on the streets of San Francisco and died a penniless pauper. She was buried next to Sandy and their daughter.
    The homestead was sold several times and then bought by the State of Nevada. The mansion is now a museum where tour guides tell you their story. There are swimming pools and picnic areas for all to enjoy. The Bowers Mansion is located 19 miles south of Reno.
    On the hill just above the mansion is a cemetery. Their little daughter, about 9 years old, was first buried there. Then when Sandy died of miner's consumption at age 36, Sandy was also behied there.
    It was in the summer of 1861 while Alexander was on this trip, that his first baby, a daughter died. Jane had to go through this trying experience without her husband, but she was not alone. Kind and loving family and friends stood by her.
    It was on this trip that Alexander met Elizabeth Raetz and soon after their arrival in Utah on Nov. 20, 1861, they were married and she became a plural wife.  Jane went with them to the Endowment House and witnessed the ceremony. Elizabeth had joined the L, D. S.  Church when she was 25 years old in December 1859 in Berne County, Switzerland. She left for America in June 1860 with her deceased brother's five year old daughter.
    At an early date the pioneers realized that the lowlands to the south and west of Salt Lake City had to be drained in order for it to be suitable for cultivating. Alexander Cowan was one of the first to lead out in this undertaking. So, strong and purposeful men with ox teams and shovels drained and made useful hundreds of acres of soil. Most of the land prepared at that time is within the city limits today.
    When preparations for the building of the Salt Lake Temple were being made, it was such sturdy men as Alexander Cowan who went forth to bring the granite for the foundation from the granite deposits in the nearby mountains. He often told of the experiences he had with this noble group. When the wall around the temple block was built, John Croffer and Alexander made a lot of the cobble rock foundation which was three feet by three feet. The adobes were mortared in as well as the cobble rock and all were capped with sandstone blocks.
    In the fall of 1862, Alexander Cowan moved his family to Payson. His family then consisted of himself, Jane Mitchell Cowan and John M, then six weeks old, and Elizabeth Raetz Cowan. They came with ox team and arrived in Payson early in October.
    Alexander had traded an ox team for a peach orchard ready for bearing to a man by the name of Rube Jolly. This was the first peach orchard in Payson and was located at 3rd East and 3rd North. It was about two and one-half acres and people came from as far away as Sanpete County to get a supply of peaches. Many people came and dried peaches on shares. In peach blossom time, it was a beautiful sight to stand on the east hill and look down on the mass of pink blossoms.
    Later, Alexander obtained a homestead claim southeast of Payson which he sold to a Mr. Erlandson. A portion of this homestead is where the Erlandson peach orchard was for many years. He also owned a 150 acre ranch northeast of Payson. Here the two families took turns living for a period of a year. Jane decided rather than to move so often, she would rather stay on the ranch permanently. Elizabeth remained in town.
    At the time of the Indian trouble with Chief Black Hawk and Chief Walker Wars, Alexander Cowan was, on one occasion, returning from Sanpete County on horseback. He was prompted to leave the road and ride behind some brush. He had just gone behind the brush when a band of Indians, whooping and yelling, came galloping by. They overtook a man driving a wagon and killed him and his family.
    In about 1870, the people of Payson community decided to build a tabernacle. It was a spacious building built of adobes which were molded by Joseph Crook and Alexander Cowan. William McClellan was the carpenter.
    In the early days, much of the tithing was paid in kind, which means it was paid by giving ten percent of produce and animals raised to be used for food for the needy. It had to be hauled to Salt Lake City by team. These trips were usually in the fall of the year and Alexander Cowan made many of these trips. When it was necessary for two wagons to go, his son John M. went along as the second teamster. These trips took about four days.
    Alexander Cowan built many houses, mainly of logs. His last home was of brick. It was built on the corner of 5th East and 4th North in Payson. He was the father of fifteen children. Eight of them grew to maturity. He died December 25, 1918 at the age of 88 and is buried in the Payson City Cemetery.
 

SARAH SLUSSER NISONGER

 

 

SARAH  SLUSSER  NISONGER

     Sarah Slusser was born in Clear Creek, Warren County, Ohio, near Dayton, on April 26, 1812.  Her father’s name was Peter and her mother’s name was Mary Deam (Diehm) .  The Slusser family was large and included nine children.  They lived on a farm about seven miles from Dayton.  They had many cows, chickens, horses and were considered prosperous.  
    Near their home, was in a thick wood with many kinds of nuts.  There were walnuts and almonds that were gathered in for the winter.  They also raised popcorn and enjoyed apples and popcorn around the fireplace during the wintertime.  When they wanted turkey, they went into the woods and killed them, as they were wild.
    Sarah married Henry Nisonger on March 3, 1836 and from that time on she led an unsettled life.  When they were first married,  she went with her husband into the woods where he cut wood.  She cooked  for workers while they were thus employed.  It was about this time they met the Mormon Elders and immediately joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and where faithful members from that time forward.    
     Sarah and Henry had  nine children: David, born in 1837, Mary, born in 1840, Chester, born in 1841, Carmen, born in 1842, Airon, born in 1845, Sarah Jane, born in1846, Lydia Ellen, born in 1849, Phoebe, born in 1851 and Elisie, born in 1854.
    They moved to Saint Louis, Missouri where they were forced to live in a log house with several other families.  The children of the other families tormented her children all the time because they were Mormons.  Her husband couldn’t get work, so Sarah went to work at a shirt factory to help support the family.  They were planning to go to Utah so her husband took a contract to cut wood for the railroad.  This job lasted for two years.   She cooked for the men and cared for her family.  In this way they earned enough money to be able to travel to Utah.  Their outfit included two wagons and eight head of oxen.  One wagon was without a box and was loaned to a man by the name of Knox.  They got along with just the one wagon.
    They came west with the Milo Andrew’s Company and arrived in Ogden, Utah in the fall of 1856.  They rented their first home.  It was only one room which they shared with another family as it was hard to find a place to live.  The winter was long and cold.  It was very inconvenient as the children had whooping cough and one little girl died.  Henry was away working in the canyon a good part of the winter.
    Sarah joined the Relief Society while they were in Ogden.  On one occasion a neighbor had a baby and she had no pins for the baby’s clothing, so Sarah went to Relief Society and asked for pins which the sisters took from their own clothing and sent them to be used for the new baby.
    The next spring they moved to the bench where they rented a house for several years.  They bought a lot and started to build a dugout, but before it was finished her husband, Henry, was called to go to Echo Canyon to help keep the United States Army out of Utah.  Sarah and the children were left in an unfinished dugout.  Henry was gone all winter and the dugout was cold and leaked everywhere.  They were forced to sleep in wet beds a lot of the time.
    When Henry returned, they moved to Payson, Utah, where they lived in a brush shack in the southeast part of the city, for a short time.  They then moved to Camp Floyd where they lived for eighteen months.  Here Sarah washed clothes for the soldiers and baked pies and sold them.  They then moved to a ranch located at Pelican Point on the west side of Utah Lake.
    When Sarah wasn’t cooking, she cored wool, spun the yarn, and wove the thread into cloth to make clothes for her family.   She was alone with her two girls a lot of the time and it was ten miles from the nearest neighbor.  
    On one occasion, ten to fifteen Indians came along the road.  There were no Squaws or Papooses with them and Sarah was very frightened.  She put on a brave front and got out a large flint lock gun and put it on the loom where she was weaving.  The Indians came and saw the gun and started laughing and slapping their legs and talked in their own language.  Presently, her daughters came down off the hill where they had been tending sheep.  As they came near the house their dogs and the Indian’s dogs began to fight.   Sarah got up from her loom got a bucket of water and threw it at on the dogs causing the Indians to really laugh.  To the great relief of the family they soon left.  Sarah and her family went up into the hills that night and took the bedding from the dugout so if the Indians came back they wouldn’t find them.
    From the ranch at Pelican Point,  they moved to Goshen and from there to Santaquin.  Their first home in Santaquin was in the southeast end of town.   It was a one room log house.  Two of her children, Chester and Sarah Jane, were married there.  She continued to cord, spin, and weave.  A few years later Phoebe was married.   They moved to Diamond in the Tintic District.
    Sarah lived with her daughter Phoebe in Santaquin for the last two years of her life.  She passed away on April 2, 1900 at the age of 88.  She is buried in the Santaquin Cemetery.  Her husband Henry died November 27, 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah where he is buried.

 

 

DAVID CROCKETT

 

 

 DAVID CROCKETT

    David Crockett was born on December 30, 1806 on one of the Fox Islands off the Atlantic coast of Maine.  The place is called Vinalhaven and is in Knox County.   The islands are covered with pine trees and the main industry is fishing.   James was the son of James Crockett and Elizabeth Breckett and the grandson of Isaac Crockett, who was also born on the island in 1746.   David married Lydia Young on December 20, 1830 when he was twenty-three years old.
    David was among the first people on the Eastern seaboard who accepted the gospel as taught by the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   The missionary who taught David and his family was Wilford Woodruff when he was on his first church mission;
    Wilford noted in his missionary journal about the receptiveness of the people and they had been able to convert the entire congregation after preaching to them, The Crocketts had been attending a church where the minister was Baptist.
    In 1847, the Crockett family had a strong desire to be associated with the main body of saints.  ,  So with a team and a wagon, they started for Nauvoo, Illinois.  They arrived there during October of 1841.   They had seven children at that time, the oldest, Alvin, was ten years old and the youngest Wilford Woodruff Crockett was only a few months old at the time.   The baby was three months old when they reached Nauvoo.   They became eye witnesses to and shared in the hardships that were endured prior to the great exodus to the west in 1846.
    During the entire winter during their stay in Nauvoo, the whole Crockett except for Alvin, was confined to their beds with the fever that was probably malaria.   Twelve-year-old Alvin took care of them as best he could.   He chopped wood in the nearby forest and brought t home in a wagon for  fuel to keep the family warm during the cold winter months.
    When the saints were driven from their home in Nauvoo, the Crockett family settled in Dover, Davis County, Iowa. They made their living by farming on shares until April 1849.   They then traveled to the Missouri River where they remained until July 4, 1849.   On that day, they left for the Great Salt Lake Valley with the Williard Richards Wagon Train Company.
    By this time, they had added three more children and they now had a total of ten children.   David William was just fifteen months old.   Lydia, who was now thirty-seven years old was pregnant while crossing the plains in the heat of the summer.
    David Crockett,  arrived in the Salt Lake Valley October 19, 1849, on the 18th birthday of his son, Alvin.  In 1851 he was sent by Brigham Young to help colonize the settlement at Peteetneet.  
    When they arrived, they were told that all of the land had been taken up that could be watered by the creek.  Disappointed, they and the David Fairbank family turned eastward and became the first settlers of Pond Town.
    Later, the people at Fort Peteetneet reconsidered and the Crocketts returned when more land was opened for settlement.  The city was incorporated January 1, 1853, and David Crockett was elected first mayor of Payson.  He served the term of 1853-54, and was reelected for two additional terms, 1855-56 and 1857-58.  He was later elected alderman and served the term of 1859-60.
    David's wife Lydia,  was a midwife.  The family moved to Logan about 1860, where Alvin Crockett became the first mayor of that city.
    The Payson City was incorporated on January 21, 1853 and the first Mayor elected in the new     city was David Crockett.   Payson had been  incorporated, through action of the Territorial Legislature of Utah.  The settlement then included Spring Lake Villa to the south and Summit (Santaquin) to the southwest.   He was elected immediately after the  incorporation of the city.   He served the term of 1853-1854.  Later, he was re-elected and served two additional terms, 1855-56 and 1857-58.  After this he served a term as alderman in 1859-60 and then moved his family to northern Utah.  His son, Alvin, became the first mayor of the City of Logan.  
    The year 1855 was ushered in with all the peace and prospects of a good life that one could expect in a new country with the people surrounded with tribes of Indians, almost shut out from the knowledge of the world, subject to plagues of insects, droughts and so on.
    The "Reformation" was faithfully preached into the first part of 1857, and its constantly burn¬ing fire finally began to make havoc in the ranks of the unbelievers.   The work was so successful that on March 16th of that year some 228 persons went down to Peteetneet Creek and were re-baptized in the icy waters that flowed from the snow banks in the canyon.  Public and private confessions of faults and sins were common and a very happy state of affairs existed.  Every man was inspired with a desire to do right, make restitution for injuries to others, and accept peace offerings from his neighbor.  Meetings were well attended and speakers spoke as men with authority.
    Immense quantities of grain were sown that year and a large harvest was reaped.  It is possible the Lord saw the humbleness of the people and rewarded them accordingly.
    Now word reached the settlers that James Buchanan, president of the United States, was sending an army to quell an uprising of the Mormons in Utah Territory.
    Because of the pressing need for doctors and midwives, a few Payson women went to Salt Lake City to take a course in obstetrics offered by the Relief Society.  Romania Hyde was instructor.  Those attending were Lucinda Patten, Mrs.  John (Sarah) Koonz and Mary Oberhansly
The colonists at Peteetneet (Payson) were among the first to use irrigation as a means of watering their crops.
    Only three years earlier, Brigham Young's pioneers of 1847 had been some of the first Anglo- Saxons to use irrigation in the North American continent.   So it was that when John C.  Searle plowed the first irrigation ditch in Payson, he was among the first in the New World to try this method of turning water onto arid lands.   Within a few months after their arrival, the first seventeen families believed the water supply too low to support additional settlers.  Thus it was that they directed newcomers to the springs three miles east of Peteetneet.
    The situation was serious, more settlers were coming into the colony almost every week, and the people began to look about for means of developing additional water.
    In 1854 Mayor David Crockett  and other city officials caused a dam to be built at the spring where Spring Lake Villa would be established three miles south of Payson.  Water could be stored in this man-made lake and used as needed.  It was channeled through what has always been known as Spring Creek and used to irrigate lands southwest of Payson..
    David married Lucinda Sophronia Ellsowrth Pierce I 1856, who was divorced from her prvious husband.   She was one of Payso’s first school teachers.   David's wife, Lydia, was a midwife.   They family moved to Logan about 1860, where his son, Alvin Crockett, became the first mayor of that city.
    David Crockett died on April 12, 1876, and Lydia died March 11, 1888,   Lucinda died December 11, 1915.  David and both of his wives are buried in the Logan City Cemetery.