• • • HULDA CORDELIA THURSTON SMITH By Alberta Smith Porter Hulda Cordelia Thurston Smith was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, on June 1, 1846, in a covered wagon as the family was traveling from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters. She was the ninth child of Thomas Jefferson Thurston and Rosetta Bull Thurston. The Saints were being driven from their homes in Nauvoo and many were poorly equipped for the long journey to the West, where they hoped to escape persecution. All these travelers spent the winter in log and willow cabins with dirt floors and roofs that leaked. Much sickness developed and many died. The Thurston family survived and made the journey to Utah the next year. They were in the second immigrating company and arrived in Salt Lake on October 6, 1847. My mother and eight of her brothers and sisters were among the original pioneers of Utah. Grandfather Thurston and his sons soon began making adobes and built one of the first houses in Salt Lake City. In 1851 they moved to Centerville. Grandfather sold the Centerville home in 1859 because he wanted to settle in Weber Valley, a place he had sighted some years earlier from the tops of the mountains. In 1856, after a road of sorts had been made through Weber Canyon, grandfather planted a few acres of grain in the new area. It did not mature from lack of water, and frost ruined the crop the next year . In 1858, the family joined the exodus known as The Move South, when Johnson's Army was approaching. Several months later with the restoration of good feelings between the church and government, people returned to their homes. In October of that year, mother went with her father and his wife Elizabeth to settle permanently in Weber Valley, later named Morgan in honor of Judidiah Morgan Grant. She thus became one of the earliest residents of Morgan County. Her own mother and the younger members of her family moved there the next year. Grandfather Thurston and Charles Peterson with Mr. Peterson's two sons and son-in-law made the road through Weber Canyon and established the first homes in the Valley. Mr. Peterson was in the area which still bears his name, and grandfather on the land between Deep Creek and Line Creek. Line Creek was so named because it was the boundary between these holdings. The trip to Weber Valley, now Morgan County, was made in an open wagon on October 8, 1859. It was a long days journey over a road that was not much but a trail and the weather was very cold. The next morning the family found eighteen inches of snow on the ground. Snow continued to fall for a day or two and it was about three feet deep on the level. This made it impossible to move about much. The only other family in the valley, the Petersons, were only six miles away; but the families did not see each other until the next spring. It was a long, extremely cold winter with deep snow. There was no communication with the outside world (no letters or newspapers). For reading they had a Bible and several old volumes of the Journal of Discourses. They had no slates, paper, or pencils. Around the fireplace during the long winter evenings, the children learned the multiplicJttion tables. The also became expert • spellers . Their first house consisted of two long rooms, chinked, and daubed with mud. Rafters were of logs; willows and then straw or wild grass were laid; and dirt was heaped on top. A blanket was hung in the opening, which was left for a door, and unbleached sheeting was stretched across what would eventually be windows. One room had a hewed-log floor, but the other was of dirt. Food was cooked in the large fireplace, which was the source of heat and most of the light in the house. Candles were scarce. Heavy rain and melting snow came through the roof, and mud would sometimes be quite deep on the dirt floor. In spite of much suffering and inadequate food, the family usually kept well. Grandfather gradually improved a large farm including most of the land between Deep Creek and Line Creek. He raised many sheep and cattle. Mother often told of the hardships they endured and the heavy tasks they performed. The women and girls in the family washed the wool after it had been sheared from the sheep, carded it, spun it into yarn or thread, dyed it with concoctions brewed from various plants, wove it into cloth, and then made it into clothes for themselves and the men folks. The sewing was done by hand as there were no sewing machines. Knitting needles were always busy. Flax was raised in the Salt Lake Valley and other places, so material for sheets, towels, table linens, and underwear was woven from flax in addition to the work with the wool. Housework was done in the hardest way. Flatirons for ironing were heated on the coals. Water for washing and boiling clothes was heated outside during • warm weather; but during the winter, it was heated in the fireplace. 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 LOS 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 Parleys 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 oflogs, with a dirt and willow roof. They white-washed 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 .