Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together Food was scarce so the hills and fields were scoured for additions to the meager diet. Sego lily bulbs were cooked or eaten raw. Thistles, nettles, dandelions, wild mustard, pig weed, and turnip tops were gathered and cooked as greens. Often a bacon rind would be boiled for a short time with the vegetables, then removed, carefully dried, and saved to be used again. Potatoes and beans that were raised in the first years were kept for seed. Mother said she was an older girl before she tasted a cooked potato. There was no screening of the wheat or removal of the bran. Seeds of sunflowers and other weeds were ground with the wheat and the result was a bitter- tasting bread. The bread was baked in bake kettles before the fire. Sometimes heavy storms would wash out the roads and make it impossible to leave the valley, and some men would walk over the mountains to Kaysville and carried back bags of flour. As time passed, other families settled in the valley. One family was that of Daniel Bull. He and one of his sons played the violin. Times became brighter. A branch of the LDS Church was organized with grandfather as bishop. For amusement, the women and girls had quilting, rag sewing bees, wool picking parties, and so on. Usually these parties lasted all day with the men coming in for supper. Often they moved out tables and beds, Mr. Bull would furnish the music, and old and young would dance until two or three in the morning. In 1866 an organization known as the Weber Canyon Road Company was formed for the purpose of building a better road from Henefer to Salt Lake. It was to be a toll road and an agreement was made with the Overland Stage and Mail Line to use this road instead of the one through Parley's Canyon. Stock was sold in the project and a good road was completed. Then the railroad came along and wanted the right-of-way through Weber Canyon. They offered to build a better road with fewer crossings of the river and their offer was accepted. When Mother was seventeen years old, about a dozen Scandinavian families were among the settlers located near. They were anxious to have their children learn the English language. They asked mother to teach their children and she consented. Some others joined the group and mother opened the first school in Morgan County with about twenty-five children. She remembered how rapidly the children learned to read, write, and spell in English. Some of them taught their parents. At first Grandfather Thurston presided over the valley as bishop, later a division was made and Charles Peterson presided over the other half. Early in 1865, Brigham Young sent Willard Gilbert Smith to preside over the entire valley. He was a guest in the Thurston home and in April of that year, after a brief courtship, he and mother were married. After the marriage ceremony, when they came out of the old Endowment House, they noticed the American flags were hanging at half-mast. Word had been received that President Lincoln had been shot and killed. The first home my parents had was of logs, with a dirt and willow roof. They whitewashed it and moved in, but it was a poor place. It seemed impossible to stop leaks in the roof, and the fireplace smoked because it was improperly built. Two children were born while they lived in this uncomfortable place. Later they had a three-room brick house with a shingle roof, and best of all, a cook stove. In the spring of 1880, diphtheria broke out in many parts of Utah, including Morgan. There was not doctor nor drug store and no one knew what to do. It was of epidemic proportions. Everyone was frightened and no one dared to help a neighbor. In a few instances, whole families died. At that time, mother had seven children and four of them contracted the dread disease. They lost two little girls. After this terrible experience, mother decided she would prepare for such emergencies by studying medicine. She got training from Dr. Kohler who had come to the West to regain his health. After he went back to the East, mother had most of the medical practice for the entire county. In time, laws were passed requiring examinations of all practicing doctors. Mother went to Salt Lake and passed the examinations in several subjects and was given a state certificate. She was one of the first women in the State to achieve this distinction. ©9- 186