Pg. 12 Mode of Living. The pioneers experienced difficulties with bad roads over rough hills and mountains; dangerous streams to cross, and season of drought and grasshoppers. Many a time it looked as though the crops would be entirely destroyed. Most of the people were poor. Many of them had large families, and the burden of providing food was often discouraging. Nearly all the people manufactured the cloth from which their clothing was made. They would clip the wool from the sheep; then wash it. And after carding and spinning, it was woven into cloth, from which suits were made for the men and dresses for the women and children. Blankets and underwear were also made. Besides clothing the people made their own soap, brooms, candles, molasses, combs, dyes and other useful articles. Soap was an important article, and was made somewhat as follows: Ashes from maple wood were kept in a barrel and water poured over them to produce lye. All the grease from cooking and butchering were kept, and in the spring the lye and grease Pg. 13 were boiled together in a large pot out of doors. Thus soap was produced. In the autumn candles were made. After the tallow was melted over the fire it was run into molds into which the wick had been carefully placed. This was allowed to harden and the candles removed from the molds. Rabbit brush was gathered and made into brooms. Dyes: For making green dye they would gather sage brush and boil it and strain it. Black dye was made from log-wood. The red dye was called madder, and the blue indigo. These dyes were generally used for the women’s and children’s dresses. A cloth called jeans was made from the course yarns and used for making the men’s and boy’s suits. This was made from the natural colors of the wool black and white. In weaving they would send to Salt Lake or Ogden for warp unless they wanted it all wool. Then wool was used for soap. There was a carding machine at Ogden where wool was made into rolls. (add here) Mrs. Marker says “These rolls were about as long as one’s arm. We would place one end in a spindle and turn a large wheel, and draw it out as we twisted it. When it was twisted enough we would roll it on the spindle until it was full. Then wind it off into skins.