Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum,

Term Project Research Topic

Rita Anderson

History 1700 – 410 American Civilization Spring 2018

Professor: Ken Hansen

March 27, 2018

Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum,
 Many years ago I was adopted by the DUP, the president was my mother-in-law, El Dora

Anderson. Being part of this great extraordinary group of wonderful and kind ladies made me

feel flattered and honored. This is the main reason why I chose this topic. I went to the Church

History Museum two years ago, and I felt overwhelmed to see all the artifacts, representing part

of the history of all the pioneers of Utah, and the rich magnificence of our majesty and glorious

past.

The Pioneer Memorial Museum was dedicated in 1950 and maintained by the

International Daughters of Utah Pioneers located at 300 North Main Street across from the state

capitol of Utah. This museum was built in nineteen fifty as a tribute to those pioneers that came

here and settled in this commonwealth to become a state. The museum has housed many

artifacts from not just those first Mormon pioneers that came here to settle but those that came

some of them before them. 1

Since the founding of their organization in1901, the Daughters have acquired thousands

of the objects associated with the men and woman who made the journey to Utah before 1869.

Their collection includes objects owned or used by prominent Utah residents, as well as those

used by the numerous others who populated the territory. From the smallest treasured buttons to

the large “Roosevelt” fire engine. 2

They have artifacts from Jim Bridger; they had artifacts from those early Indians, they

also have artifacts from other peoples during that same period of time who came to help build the

railroad. Nonetheless, they had a special railroad room that is designated for the Golden Spike

showing the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

1
https://www.weberdupmuseum.org/museum-history.html (Accessed 20 March,2018)

2
http://www.dupinternational.org/dyn_page.php?pageID=11(Accessed 09 April,2018)
 The museum displays items used every day and artifacts from treasured occasions. The

objective of the museum is to provide pioneer descendants with a greater understanding of their

ancestors through offering access to their personal keepsakes. The museum endeavors to tell

history of “everyman,” rather than simply the dominant religious or political figures, interpreting

the whole community with all its subtleties, complexities, and contradictions.

The first relics, collected as “instructors in pioneer history,” were exhibited starting in

1906 in a room dedicated for that purpose in the Lion House, a previous residence of Brigham

Young that was also serving as a classroom for the LDS University. After having space in the

Deseret museum and the Capitol, the daughters drive for their own building began in 1921, when

the governor appointed a committee to find a suitable place for the museum.

Fundraising for the building began and land across the street from the capitol was chosen

for the location. Under the leadership of Kate B. Carter, the vision was a building that would

communicate the importance of the relics within. 3

The construction was funded by collecting a $5 memorial fee from the women’s

organization. Additional funds were generated by the sponsoring of “Brigham Young dinners,”

in which the daughters sold tickets to dinners and served “the kind of food the pioneers enjoyed,”

including soup and dumplings with Mormon gravy, dried corn molasses cakes and buttermilk to

drink,

Ground was broken in 1946 and the museum was dedicated in 1950. Originally

composed of 35 exhibit rooms, and a Utah artist was commissioned to design a stained-glass

window for the lecture room. Fairbanks’ glass art was created as a tribute to pioneer mothers.

3
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Daughters_of_Utah_Pioneers

The original museum was four floors and a basement full of cases for display of the institution

holdings.

One of the most remarkable things that caught my attention was to find in the basement a

beautiful wagon belonging to Brigham Young when he came to the Great Salt Lake Valley for

the first time. This wagon was used by Brigham Young when he crossed the plains in 1847 and

is one of the most popular artifacts in the Pioneers Memorial Museum. It dominates the view at

the top of the stairs to the upper floor of the Carriage House.

The wagon is said to have been made in Nauvoo, Illinois for James M. Flake a wealthy

Mississippi planter and a convert to the LDS church. Brigham’s special wagon was fitted with

seats running lengthwise along the bed and was used as Young’s council chamber, serving as

headquarters of the Pioneer’s company during the historic journey of the 1847 Vanguard

Company. Young also used the wagon as a speaking platform. The wagon was likely used for a

variety of purposes at that time.

4

I had the opportunity also to find some artifacts from Peru. Nonetheless when I was

walking from floor to floor I was impressed by the beautiful and delicate feathers of the Native

American Headdress; on this headdress was mounted on red felt with white thread on the edge

and beaded circle in the center. Family history suggests that the headdress was given to a

Mormon missionary by an Indian chief.

A beautiful piece of art and very interesting room is called the quilt of many pieces,

Pioneer craftsmanship is evidence of the settlers own making. Many of the displayed items were

created out of necessity, such as tools and clothing. Others go beyond practicality to reflect

4
https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/1/brigham-young-pioneer-company

beauty and artistic skill, as exemplified by fine handwork. For instant, a quilt comprised of over

10,500 diamond shaped pieces can be seen on the third floor of the museum. Many visitors like

myself are drawn to admire the detail of this work created by Elizabeth Jane Rogers Shepherd.

Her husband made a brass pattern for her quilts, from which she cut one-inch pieces of paper to

be covered with squares of calico and other cotton material. She began making it in England and

completed the blocking after her arrival in Utah; a granddaughter and great granddaughter

finished the piece by quilting it. 5

The Pony Express was started on April 3,1860, in order to speed the mail across the

continent. At the peak of the service, 1,900 miles were covered from St. Joseph, Missouri, to

Sacramento, California. Eight of the best riders would travel between 119 stations to deliver the
6

mail. The average speed of a Pony Express rider was seven miles per hour, making the average

time for delivery 10 days. The average distance per rider was 60-120 miles each. The most

famous rider was Buffalo Bill Cody, who rode 322 miles in 21 hours and 40 minutes using 21

horses.

Riders were required to weigh less than 120 pounds and were allowed only 25 pounds

for equipment, including four mail pouches and a rifle. Total weight on the horse would be 165

pounds. The Pony Express was officially terminated October 1861, made obsolete by the

telegraph system, messages that took eight weeks by Pony Express now took only four hours by

telegraph. 7

5
http://www.dupinternational.org/dyn_page.php?pageID=98

6
https://utah.com/pony-express-trail

7
https://utah.com/pony-express-trail

 If you want to go back to those years and live for a moment through romantic,

inspirational valentines and love stories from the pioneers, one should understand love is not

getting old, but giving, not a wild dream of pleasure, and a madness of desire. Oh no, love is not

only that but it is goodness and honor, and peace and pure living, yes love is that; and it is the

best thing in the world, and the thing that lives longest. The Pioneer Memorial Museum has an

exceptional collection of beautiful valentines, both homemade and mass produced. As was the

national custom, pioneers exchanged valentines on February 14, and many of their paper love

notes have survived to this day. The following verse is taken from a poem, “Hand in Hand

Together” by Edgar A. Guest. 8

All the way to sunset land

We’ll walk down together
Side by side and hand in hand
Held by Cupid’s tether
On we danced in early May
Steps we’ll long remember;
So we’ll trip the miles away
Even to December.

As part of the preservation of the historical memorial Museum we can see several baby

carriages there. Most are displayed in the Carriage House Basement. Each buggy has been well

cared for and would have been a convenient way to take care of an infant out into the fresh air

for a trip around the neighborhood. A wicker buggy (# 1300) that belonged to Emily Brooks

Bank and Elizabeth Fryer, had a red silk parasol over the carriage body to shade the child. The

metal wheels are very narrow. This buggy would have been expensive in its days.

8
Museum Memories, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Edgar A. Guest, “Hand in Hand,” Collected
Verse of Edgar A Guest, (Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Company Publishers, 1946,) 730-1
 One of the most impactful memories I found in this museum is about my favorite time of

the year Christmas! The first Christmas. Ellen Jacklin Tracy wrote this story of a Christmas on a

little homestead in American Fork stating winter came early that fall. All along the bench in

American Fork, where the families lived on land they were homesteading, parents and children

had worker hard every day, but many of their crops were still in the ground.

In our home, father had been sick most of the summer and toward fall had been taken to a

hospital in Salt Lake for an operation. Trips mothers had made to the city by horse and buggy to

see Father had delayed the harvesting of the crops.

Father was now at home but unable to work. The apples had been picked, potatoes dug

and stored in the cellar, but the sugar beets, our only cash crop, were still in the ground. Taxes

must be paid as well as hospital and doctor bills, and there was very little money.

All day and all night the north wind blew hard and cold, bringing rain and snow which

turned to sleet and froze to solid ice. By morning the beets were frozen in the ground. All that

could be done that day by our little family was to feed the horses, cows and pigs. 9

The cows were milked, and the milk was put though the separator. The fresh cream was

placed in the big barrel churn, and the children helped, taking turns to rotate the handle round

and round until the cream became yellow butter. Mother then worked the buttermilk out and

molded the butter into twenty or more pounds. Each pound was wrapped in wax paper, ready to

be delivered. Old Bill was hitched to the buggy, and fresh butter was taken to the customers who

paid fifteen or twenty cents for each pound.

9
Museum Memories, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Ellen Jacklyn Tracy A pioneer Christmas,
Christmas on the homestead farm, 153.

 I was the oldest girl in the family, so I have to help with housework and caring for the

children and the baby. Life was on in that cozy little house. There was no money for Christmas,

which would soon be coming.

Ellen said they couldn’t even afford to go to the store and buy new material for the new

clothing, but her mother had a great surprise for her and her siblings she had a Christmas gift for

every child. What a big surprise I cannot imagine the sacrifice her mother did, then on Christmas

eve she went to bed hoping that Santa would come. Christmas morning dawned she continued,

and all was excitement and fun. There was even an orange in each stocking a special treat we

only had for Christmas in those days.

Them my mother asked “Aren’t you going to open your gift?” It couldn’t be put off any

longer. Carefully I pulled the lid off and looked inside. This time I cried for joy. Instead of chalk,

there were two miniature irons, a stand and a handle for the irons- Just like mother used only

smaller. It was the most wonderful gift ever, and they were for me.

For the next following years Ellen shared that Christmas story with all her generations

until she passed away but those little irons were preserver into her family forever. 10

That is all that matters, isn’t it? What a beautiful message life is moments instead of

material positions, sometimes we can find happiness by reading this beautiful lesson of love

writes for a little and innocent girl. Happiness is not only positions happiness lives in your heart.

The museum has six floors and approximately seventy-five thousand different artifacts all

the way from a person’s toothbrush to the Eagle Gate and the wagons that they traveled in, also

they have twenty thousand photographs, forty to fifty thousand manuscript histories of those

10
Museum Memories, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Ellen Jacklyn Tracy A pioneer Christmas,
Christmas on the homestead farm, 154.

people so they trying to collect all of this story that tells about these people from 1847 to 1869,

but all those interesting artifacts are distributed in 113 small satellite museums throughout Utah,

Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada so it displays more interesting and diverse history.

The artifacts and archives showcase and preserve the history of a specific era, the days of

pioneers, when Mormon dreamed of a homeland of their own- the State of Deseret, spanning the

West from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada and south San Diego and the Pacific

Ocean.

What a treasure we can find in the history of these outstanding pioneers which strong

testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ our savior, carry and preserve in evidential mode the

culture of the people who came to the Salt Lake Valley where the faith and love for each other

transformed this desert in the Beautiful Utah were I have lived since 2007 where I came to this

place for first time in my life, when I leave many memories of my childhood and my youth ages

in Peru. Now that I know more about Utah I thought this admirable legacy of our pioneers, I’m

more grateful for this wonderful land and incredible people that welcomed me with open arms

and which I am now part of its history. For that reason, this museum is unique we can reconnect

with the past in the present and felt it and loved.

 Museum Utah Daughter Pioneers

Also they have a research facility as well, they have the foremost collection of

manuscript histories of these people that came to Utah.

In memory of all Mothers Pioneers

View inside of the Museum

The Pony Express

Bingham Young
 Bibliography

1.-http://www.dupinternational.org/dyn_file.php?fileToken=HWVADZCRWS

2.-https://www.deseretnews.com/article/765571430/Pioneer-Memorial-Museum-Salt-Lakes-

treasure-house-of-artifacts-and-stories-is-a-secret-everyone.html

3.-https://utah.com/pony-express-trail

4.-http://www.dupinternational.org/dyn_page.php?pageID=98

5.-Museum Memories, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Edgar A. Guest, “Hand in Hand,” Collected

Verse of Edgar A. Guest, (Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Company Publishers, 1946,) 730-1

6.-Museum Memories, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Ellen Jacklyn Tracy A pioneer Christmas,

Christmas on the homestead farm, 153.