times when discouragement could have ruled, but these pioneers were built of sturdier things, and they did not succumb to darkness. The family made their first home at Bingham Fort in the neighborhood of Second Street west to Harrisville Road about 130 rods west of Washington Boulevard, now Ogden, Weber County, Utah. At this place Sylvester met his sweetheart, Nancy Ann Shaffer, whose parents had joined the true church at Rushville, Indiana. They were married 22 January 1855, and were sealed in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on 3 December, 1864. His mother presented the new bride with a unique wedding present and told her its history. She explained that while the family resided at Lewis, Essex County, New York, three families with boys about the same age as her own Sylvester, lived close enough to seek each other out for play-time continually. A team of any two of the boys was amiable companionship, but when the three of them came together, trouble always ensued. In order to avoid confusion and quarreling, she taught her boy to sew a straight seam with a needle and thread, then gave him material for piecing a quilt and supervised him until it was completed. On his wedding day it was given to his bride. Sylvester and Nancy Ann made their home at Lynne, now Ogden Fifteenth Ward, known as Five Points, toward North Ogden, Weber County, Utah. Later they built a two-room log house on Mill Creek, Slaterville, Weber County, Utah. They spent the first winter in it before the spaces between the logs were chinked with adobe. On several occasions they watched the mountain lions prowl around their cabin and heard them sniff through the cracks. The open places were chinked the next summer on the outside, and the inside was whitewashed. A narrow stairway inside led to an upstairs attic, which was always treasured as a comfortable sleeping place during the coldest winter nights. Standing up space between the floor and the roof was just the height for children. However, as the children grew older and taller, they had to learn to control their heads in various cramped places and crowded situations. One winter as their food supply, which had been scanty to begin with, became less and less each day, and they were hungry for meat, Sylvester shouldered his gun and went hunting up Ogden Canyon. He did considerable climbing on the slopes, trudging through the snow, when suddenly he discovered that he was caught riding on an avalanche. As he came swiftly down the incline, he saw the snow ahead fall over the cliff; and realizing his own predicament, he uttered three words aloud, "Lord, help me." The next thing he realized was being thrown to a sitting position, and the snow dropped from under his feet as they dangled in mid-air over the cliff. He never remembered how he managed to maintain a grip on his gun; however, when he felt it still in his hand, he reached backward, quickly, as far as he dared and with all his strength thrust the barrel deep into the snow, thus using it as a brace to inch himself away from the precipice. Tears came into his eyes whenever the incident was mentioned throughout his life. 229