HISTORY OF ALFRED WILLARD LUND

By A. Terry Lund, A Son

My father, Alfred Willard Lund, was born 27 October 1860 near the Jordan River about seven miles west of Salt Lake City. He was the first child born to Wilson Lund and his second wife, Ellen Nielson Lund. Grandfather had some property out in West Jordan where he built a little home and moved grandmother out there. She was a pioneer in very deed as the living conditions were very primitive in 1860. She had a few neighbors who were good and kind to her even though they couldn’t understand her Danish talk too well. It was a joy to Grandma to know she would soon have a baby to keep her company in her lonely hours. Grandma was sick before her time, and when help was needed, Grandpa had to drive the long distance into the city with ox team to get the nurse. The kind neighbor lady not seeing Grandma around as usual sent her Alfred to see if she were ill. When Grandpa finally got back with the midwife, Sister Richards, Father had already made his appearance. He was so small that a woman’s wedding ring could be slipped over his little hand onto his wrist. I have heard him say he could be fit nicely into a quart cup. He was carried around on a pillow. When he was named he was called Alfred Willard. Alfred for the little neighbor boy and Willard for Willard Richards, the husband of the midwife. He was just two years old when a little sister, Ann Maria, was added to the family on 21 October 1862. It was on that day that his father with both families were called to go to St. George. I don’t remember father telling anything about the trip south until their arrival at Coal Creek, just north of Cedar City where the pioneer company made camp. This was Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day some of the good brethren from Cedar City came to camp and invited the weary travelers into their homes to partake of a hot dinner. Brother John Gower invited the Lund family to go home with him. They gladly accepted and life long friendship was made. It was a week later that this second company to enter St. George Valley drew to a stop beside the camp of those who had come in 1861. The next thing that I remember father telling me about was the families experience at Calf Springs on Shoal Creek. His father was obliged to stay in St. George to Cut stone for the buildings under construction. Father has told us many times of his half brother, Rob, staying at this ranch to help with the cattle. He seemed more like a father to him than a brother. Father used to be very frightened and run and hide when the roving Indians would come to their shanty and beg for food. Oft times they weren’t too friendly. He loved to tell how Thomas Sirls Terry, who later became his father-in-law, came and moved them into the little settlement of Shoal Creek. He always appreciated the fact even though Brother Terry had two growing families of his own, he often brought them food and other necessities. His father came in the fall of 1866 and moved them back to St. George where his little sister Ida was born. The next summer they went to Pine Valley to live. The building spot that his father bought was on the west side of town near the creek. He used to recall how he carried little buckets of mud up the hill from the creek to chink the cracks between the logs of their house. He was baptized by Sylvester Earl 2 November 1868. The best times that he had playing with other children were while he lived in Pine Valley. He had two or three marbles with which he became quite an expert shot. He made a bow and a few arrows he enjoyed playing with. He learned to make a tuneful willow whistle in the spring. It was great sport to go down by the Creek and have an honest-to-goodness battle whites against the Indians. There was quite a bunch of little papooses in the tribe of Indians who were camped close by. The Papooses would get on one side of the Creek and the white kids on the other side armed with pliable willows. To one end of these they would hold a daub of soft mud. Then their target was just right, they would let fly with the ammunition. The white boys would scream with delight when the gooey mud spattered the little black hides of the enemy. In the winter the snow fell deep in Pine Valley. Sometimes it even covered the fences so they could walk right over them. The main enjoyment in winter was coasting down the low slope at the foot of old Pine Valley Mountain. Father claimed his sled was one of the best in the crowd. It was made of wood with mahogany runners. They couldn’t always stay on their run away sleds but that was part of the fun, to go rolling off into the snow. Grandma Lund milked cows to provide milk, butter, and cheese for her family. It was Father’s job to take them out in the hills and meadows and let them graze during the day, then bring them in for milking at night. I have heard him say how Grandma would give him a piece of corn bread to eat along the way. Sometimes the cows would wander far from home, and it would be after dark when he returned. His main companion on these excursions after the cows was a little orphan boy. They were very careful to look for Indians. If the boys saw the Indians first, they would hide. If the Indians detected them, they would try not to appear frightened. It was rather dangerous to be out because one man had been shot in the back with an arrow and another man was shot in the arm with one. Father received what little schooling he had in this community. His teacher was a widow lady who taught the school in her own home for about three months during the winter. Here the people lived the United Order for some time. It was his job to help cut the spuds for planting. This was a tedious job which went on for days at a time. When he was about 15 years old, the family moved back to Hebron where they lived about six years. Here my dad with the other men and boys would go out in Bull Valley and capture wild horses by trapping them in a wing corral. They would also get a supply of meat by killing wild cattle. Dad was a good shot with his cap and ball six shooter or with any other gun for that matter. I can remember once a bunch of us kids were held spellbound as he drove an eight penny nail in a board by shooting it on the head with his six shooter. He made his own bullets and carried his own powder horn with the powder in for his guns. Up in Red Creek Canyon once, he killed two nice buck deer with one shot from his 40-70 rifle. When the Lunds moved to Paragonah, Dad worked hard to help get established. They bought a little home from Hyrum Stevens and what land they could in the field. Father was a very religious man, living his religion every day as he believed it. He never made a practice of working on Sunday. Before he was married, he was chosen president of the Y.M.M.I.A. In March of 1888 he accepted a call to the Northern States Mission. He studied hard and did much good. I have heard him tell of two experiences he had that weren’t too pleasant. He and his companion were laboring in a Wisconsin town once where the people were very hostile to the Mormon preachers. Mobs threatened to tar and feather them if they didn’t get out of town immediately. Another time they were ‘rottened egged’ out of town, and they had a terrible time cleaning their suits. Dad came home in October 1889. His father had died while he was away. As soon as he returned he was made president of the Mutual. The next thing in order was to get him a wife. He went with a few girls around Paragonah, but the one he thought most of was Susie Terry out at the Terry Ranch west of Enterprise. He made a few trips out there and soon persuaded her that he was just the fellow she had been waiting for. They were married in the St. George temple 12 June 1894 by David H. Cannon. They came to Paragonah to make their home. He had a wife now to keep him company, so he decided to increase his farm setup by homesteading 160 acres of land out at Little Creek. He built a little log cabin and later added a comfortable adobe room. Their neighbors were William and Lovina Barton, another young couple who were homesteading, too. Lyde Barton and her family and David and Eliza Ann Edwards were also their neighbors. The Lund’s first child was born 28 October 1895. She was called Minerva and died 1 November 1895. Verna Ellen came next on 5 August 1897. She died of neglected medical attention following ruptured appendix 1 October 1915 at St. George, Utah. She was 18 years old and was going to school there. It was a great shock to Father, Mother and the rest of us when her untimely death occurred. My parents moved back into town as soon as they had their homestead proved up on. They lived in a little log house on the lot later purchased by Uncle Wils. As soon as possible Dad built a nice two-story brick home on his own lot that he had purchased. It was here that I was born 7 July 1900; Willard Hyrum, 31 December 1902; Mary Roxa, 2 February 1907; and Grace, 3 March 1911. All this time father was working with his three brothers, Wils, Rich, and Joe. They would take turns doing the farm work and freighting to the mining towns in Nevada. I think Dad and Uncle Wils did most of the freighting, perhaps because they were older and took more lead. On the freight road Dad drove four horses and two wagons. Old Snap and Prince, a pair of fine bays, worked on lead. Old Chris, a black, and Old Hooks, a gray, as wheelers. One time when he was going up over Panaca Divide which was a steep grade he dropped the trail wagon and took the lead wagon on top. He then went back for the trail wagon. In his effort to couple the two wagons together again he was crushed between them by the horses starting ahead unbidden. His chest was caved in and the bones in his shoulders and back were badly crushed. He was never too well after this terrible accident. He suffered much pain all the rest of his life. Some years after this Father chanced to take a drink of water from the Little Creek stream after a flood. He became very ill. When the simple home remedies failed to cure him, he was taken to Cedar City to Dr. Robinson. His sickness was diagnosed as Typhoid Fever. He was confined to the hospital for several months with Lottie Haight as his nurse. He was later taken to the Haight home and cared for until he was sufficiently recovered to be brought home. To keep Dad’s share of the farm work going Mother hired her nephew, Walter Windsor from Enterprise to come and work. To hasten Father’s recovery by increasing circulation the Doctor ordered him to take a cold bath every morning as he got out of bed. He followed this practice implicitly for two years or three, even on the freight road when he had to break the ice in the bucket of water. He was a strong supporter of all civic improvements. When a few citizens of the town decided to put in a water system from a side canyon up Red Creek, he took stock in the enterprise and did his share of the work on the pipe line. The town was incorporated in 1916. He acted as town board member for two terms. He also served two terms as County Commissioner of Iron County. All these years his church work was never neglected. He acted as Superintendent of the Sunday School for 21 years in this ward. When he was released, he received a beautiful gold watch as a token of appreciation for his faithful services. He was one of the seven presidents of the 69th quorum of Seventies for 15 years. In 1920 he again acted as president of the Y.M.M.I.A., serving this time about five years. He became a High Priest in 1916 and from then on was ward supervisor of that group for many years. He was a member of the ward genealogical committee for a long time. In 1926 he was set apart to work on the Parowan Stake Genealogical Board. He and Mother were always interested in doing temple work. They traveled to St. George whenever they could. Father was anxious to have his children obtain as much education as possible. Four of us went to St. George to school, and Willard attended the Murdock Academy in Beaver. At the close of Vera’s first year at the ‘Dixie’ Father went down to move her home. On the east side of Leeds he stopped to water the horses at a big ditch. To save time he didn’t unhitch them from the buggy, but just removed the bridles to let them drink. Something at the side of the road frightened the team, ‘Old Dick’ and ‘Snip’, who left on the run. Vera who had been sitting peacefully on the seat pulled back on the lines and tried to stop them, but to no avail because there were no bridle bits to govern the runaways. A fellow on horse back saw the dangerous plight Vera was in and took out in hot pursuit. He succeeded in grabbing Old Dick by the halter rope and brought them to a stop before any damage could be done. Barbara Adams told me a little story just recently to show father’s honesty. She used to clerk in the store in Parowan. One day Father came in and bought quite a bill of goods. He was given $5.00 too much in change. He didn’t notice it until he got home, but the next day he drove the distance of 4 ½ miles to Parowan to rectify the mistake. It was around 1915 that father had an opportunity to make some extra money right at home by being agent for the Jensen Creamery Co. of Salt Lake City. Later it was known as the Mutual Creamery Co. He shared this business with his brothers, Rich and Joe, because they were all working together. They would take turns gathering the cream from the people of Enoch, Summit, Parowan, and Paragonah. A sample was taken from each quantity of cream, then it was put together making an average of forty, ten gallon cans which made up the load hauled by team and wagon to the railroad at Milford. It would take the better part of four days to make the trip until Joe bought an International truck. Then the round trip could be made in one day. They would load back with freight for the store and individuals. At regular intervals to their list of goods was added a gallon or two of Port wine for some of the good old brethren of Paragonah. This was purchased from the saloon in Milford. (Of course this was just taken as medicine. Ha, Ha) The cream business was a great help to the people of these towns to be able to have a little pay check coming in regular. Mother died June 30, 1922 of Brights Disease. This was a great sorrow to Father and, the rest of us, since his health had been so poor, she had taken a lot of the responsibility and made things as easy for him as possible. There was one little incident that happened that eased our grief somewhat at her passing, however. She had been sick for about a week when she called me to her bedside one morning and told me that Grandpa Terry had been to visit her during the night. She said he gave her the choice of going with him or staying here. She chose to go because the work he had outlined needed her help on the other side, and it was much more important than what she was doing here. Roxa at the age of 15 assumed the responsibilities of the home and did a fine job. That fall I went on my mission as had been planned. Willard married Mary Dunton and lived in the home. Father took Roxa and Grace and went to St. George where he could work in the temple and the girls could attend school. Later when we all got married, father spent most of the winters in St. George and his summers in Paragonah helping Willard and I on the farm. When Roxa moved to Salt Lake and Grace to Nevada, he spent most of his time in his later years with Roxa. He enjoyed attending the church meetings wherever he lived and made many friends. His greatest joy, however, was in doing temple work. He had a burning desire to do research work and find his dead ancestors. He was liberal with his means in this important endeavor and had an expert researcher from the Genealogical Society hired constantly. He loved children and derived a great deal of joy and pleasure from his 16 living grandchildren. In January 1944 he went down to Henderson, Nevada to be with Grace where it was a little warmer to spend the remainder of the winter. He hadn’t been there very long until he took sick. He was taken to the hospital and operated on for strangulated hernia. He was recovering satisfactorily when pneumonia developed. He died February 27, 1944. He was brought home to Paragonah where a fitting funeral service was held. He was buried by the side of his dear wife in the Paragonah Cemetery.

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