Brothers Hark and Oscar were born into bondage and lived on John Crosby plantation in Mississippi. While still an adolescent, Hark was separated from his family and gifted to newly married Sytha Crosby and her husband, William Lay.Oscar was inherited by William Crosby. The enslaved brothers then became known as Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby, even though Hark chose Wales as his surname once freed and Oscar chose Smith.
Pioneer John Brown was later assigned to be the chargehand, taking Hark and Oscar to Council Bluffs, lowa, where they were all selected to be part of the advanced team in Brigham Young’s vanguard company. They were tasked with charting a course and improving the trail into the Salt Lake Valley.
As enslaved men, Hark and Oscar were keenly aware of what it felt like to desire freedom, even if the freedom the Saints sought was that of religious worship. The first Pioneers of 1847 consisted of many brave souls including former soldier Lewis Barney, church clerk Thomas Bullock, and the enduring Hark Wales, Oscar Smith and Green Flake. They reached the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847, two days ahead of Brigham Young.
The threshing machine is a piece of farm machinery that combines four separate operations in one unit.
Threshing
Separating
Cleaning
Stacking the straw
Power for the machine was furnished through a long belt connected to a tractor power take-off pulley. The threshing machine in front of you is an example of several such machines that served the farmers in southern Utah. The machines were privately owned by individuals or groups who contracted with farmers. As their grain ripened, the machine was moved into their field and operations set up. The thresher would move from one farm to another throughout the summer months until all the wheat, barley, oats, and sugar beet seeds were threshed out and put in gunny sacks.
The manpower for the threshing operation required a crew of five men who usually worked throughout the hot summer at this most strenuous job. Most of the workers were school teachers who, year after year, spent their off-teaching months working on the threshing crew.
Wagon or sled loads of grain or sugar beet shocks would be hauled to the thresher’s loading chute and pitched onto the conveyor belt. The machine did the rest.
The clean grain or seeds poured out of one spout, and under the supervision of a “sacker,” one-hundred-pound capacity sacks were filled. The “sacker” then sewed the tops closed. An acre of land produced up to fifty bushels of cleaned wheat. The chaff, or straw, was ejected from the thresher by a blower sending it through a twenty-foot cylinder to an area where it formed a huge stack. The straw was then used throughout the year as bedding for farm animals.
Eventually these threshing machines gave way to the combines which did a complete harvest in one operation.
This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
Spencer and Helen Isom “Home” 36 North 100 West Hurricane, Utah
This “home,” built in 1915, is typical of the construction of homes in Hurricane during that period of time. Maurice Hinton, a carpenter, built the home for the Thomas Isom family. The building was built on the back of the lot and used as a storage building and granary. A small home, which had been moved from the fields by Spencer, the son of Thomas Isom, was located on the front of the lot. Later, when more space was needed, the boys slept in the rear storage building.
About 1945, the small house in the front was torn down and a brick home was built. Spencer moved some of the old kitchen cupboards into this house where they lived during the construction. When their new home was completed at the front of the lot, this building was again used for storage. A basement under this building was used for food storage and was an ideal place to hang a beef or pig when one was butchered. The foundation of this building was formed by pouring cement over and around river rock, making it very strong, probably earthquake proof.
This building was moved from its former location and donated by the children of Spencer and Helen Isom to the Heritage Park Museum on July 18, 2007.
This is Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker #157 (see other S.U.P. markers here) located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
This freight wagon, bought by Harold Reeve in about 1930, was the last new wagon sold by the Sandburg Mercantile in Hurricane, Utah. Goods were hauled to the people in Hurricane from the nearest railroad in Lund, Utah, 35 miles northwest of Cedar City. Several 900-pound sacks of wool per load were hauled from the Gould’s Shearing Corral to the railroad, and wood from Little Creek Mountain and Mount Trumball was hauled to Hurricane. A team of large Percheron horses pulled the 16-foot by 6-foot wagon. The original color of the wagon was light brown.
In later years, the wagon was used for parades on the Fourth of July, Pioneer Day, and Peach Days. Through the years, the wagon has carried many people, including the mayor; city council; and groups from the Sons of Utah Pioneers, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, high school class reunions; and various musical performers.
About 1990, Harold Reeve’s son, Ashby, made the wagon available for display in the yard of the Heritage Park Museum. The agreement allowed Ashby to use the wagon for parades. The horses were later sold, and the wagon, a valuable part of Hurricane history, has not been used in a parade for many years. A ride that now takes about an hour was a five-day trip in a wagon like this.
May future generations better understand the early history of Hurricane and the contributions made by its citizens.
This is Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker #165 (see other S.U.P. markers here) located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
The pioneer hay barn, manger, and corral you see before you were reconstructed using material from three earlier pioneer barns, primarily the Sheldon Wright barn. Some posts and boards for these structures came from the Rulan Isom and Bernard Hinton barns. Members of the Hurricane Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers were the primary builders of this reconstructed pioneer barn. The cement water trough came from the original Lafe Hall town lot at 65 North Main Street. A date inscribed on one side of the cement shows that it was made August 28, 1918.
Originally, most blocks in town, and some fields, had barns and corrals to store hay and provide shelter for farm animals. It was not unusual to have up to four barns and corrals, each on separate one-and-one-fourth acre lots, back to back or side by side. A team of well-trained work horses, a riding horse, one to three milk cows, and a couple of calves would be kept in the corrals. Harnesses and bridles for the horses, small tools, and farm equipment would be hung in the loft. Nearby would be a pig pen and a chicken coop.
At the end of each summer, these barns throughout the town would be filled to the roof with fresh alfalfa hay. The hay was hauled loose by a team and wagon. Each fall, a full- grown hog would be butchered and made into bacon and hams, and the fat rendered into lard for cooking needs. The chickens supplied extra meat and eggs for the family.
A nearby vegetable garden and orchard would help each family be virtually self-reliant for all of their food needs. Hundreds of quarts of fruits and vegetables would be bottled during the summer months and stored in the cellar for winter use. A typical, authentic cellar can be seen as part of the Bradshaw house.
This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
This early-day grain reaper, in front of you, is a machine that farmers once used in this area to harvest grain. These horse-drawn reapers replaced sickles and cradle scythes which farmers had used for centuries. Reapers made it possible to harvest larger crops, with fewer workers, than ever before.
This machine has a sickle-bar cutter linked to gears connected to a drive wheel. As the wheel turned, the scissor-like blades moved back and forth and sheared off the stems of the wheat being harvested.
The stalks of grain fell onto a platform. A water-wheel type rake then swept across the platform to deposit the stalks of grain into piles. Workers would follow to bind the sheaves into bundles. The bound sheaves would then be loaded on a wagon and stacked in a central area where a threshing machine could be set up nearby to complete the grain harvesting operation.
Several farmers in Hurricane owned a machine such as this, or an advanced model which further cut down on manpower by binding the grain automatically before it dropped to the ground. These machines eventually gave way to combines which cut and threshed in one operation.
This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
This twelve by fourteen foot granary This been used by three families as a home for over 40 years. It was built by George and Annie Isom around the same time Hurricane was settled, in 1906.
Located on the Isom lot at 83 North State Street and initially intended as a granary to store feed for farm animals, it originally served as “home” to Lewis and Mary Crawford. Their first child, a girl, was born here. Lewis worked for the Canal Company as a “ditch” rider to watch for breaks in the canal or other potential problems.
The Isom family moved into their “home” in 1911. After their new brick home was built on the same lot, they began using this building as a storage unit. Their daughters used it as a play house for several years. Its interior walls had been papered with the Washington County newspapers, needle craft pages, and Farm Journal pages.
Years later, 1936, this granary was sold to Sheldon and Blanche Wright, a newly married couple. They moved the granary five blocks to 274 West and 100 North, by team and a flatbed wagon. A lean-to, which would be their kitchen and pantry, was added to this new site. The house was wired for electricity, papered, painted, and floor coverings laid. The cupboards and most of the furniture in the house were made by Sheldon.
The original front room was used as a combination bedroom and living room. In the summer, their two daughters would sleep outside under the grape arbor which was connected to the house. The kitchen stove is the original used by the Wright family.
The Wright’s two last children, a boy and a girl, were also born in this house.
The Wright family continued to live in the house until July of 1948. They then moved into their newly constructed home on the same lot. This building was again used for storage and remained as a granary until 1994. It was then donated by the Wright family to the Hurricane Valley Pioneer Heritage Park Foundation. Now on display at “Pioneer Corner,” it is an authentic example of early pioneer life in the Hurricane Valley.
The white arrow shows this house in 1907 at its original location in the valley.
This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
In the early days of Hurricane and other southern Utah towns, sorghum cane was a primary crop that was grown to have its juice made into sorghum. Besides being used locally by most families as a sweetener, thousands of gallons of sorghum were taken by Dixie fruit peddlers to the towns farther north to sell for cash or use as “barter” to obtain other goods necessary for family needs. Money was very scarce or nonexistent.
Many families would raise a patch of sorghum cane which was planted in May, irrigated, and cultivated regularly throughout the summer. In the fall when the sorghum cane was fully mature, it would be cut, its red seed tassels topped off, and then hauled by horse-drawn wagons to one of the several sorghum mills nearby. This cane grew to be about ten feet in height and one inch in thickness with joints every ten to twelve inches.
The juice was squeezed out by inserting the cane stalks into the roller press of the mill, as you see displayed before you. The power for this mill was provided by a horse connected to a long pole. The rollers in the mill turned as the horse walked around in a circle.
The juice was caught in buckets and then poured into large, metal troughs over a hot fire. The next step was to boil the juice, a long process, until enough water evaporated for the syrup to reach the desired thickness. Making good molasses was an art and highly appreciated.
It could take up to sixty gallons of juice to make six gallon cans of sorghum. Farmers could obtain about one-hundred gallons of sorghum per acre of sorghum cane.
The tassels of seeds, topped from the cane stalks, were used to make flour or as feed for chickens and livestock. Enough seeds would always be saved for the next year’s planting. The cane, after the juice was extracted, was called “bagasse” and was used as a feed for livestock or as fodder to bed down animals.
None of the sorghum was wasted. Even the scimmings, which had been continually skimmed off the top of the boiling juice, were put into a barrel and became “dessert” for the cattle.
Dixie Sorghum was a life-saver for the early Pioneers of southern Utah. This sorghum served as a sugar substitute for most families.
This is located at the Heritage House Pioneer Center / Heritage Park / Museum at the Bradshaw House-Hotel at 85 South Main Street in Hurricane, Utah.
“The History” The First wagons crossed the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois on February 4, 1846. The untimely winter departure became necessary due to the mob violence against the Mormons’ farms, homes and families. As they departed and began their trek to the west, they were subjected to gale-force winds, torrential rain, axle-deep mud, freezing temperature and snow.
The Saints faced an epic journey of 1,300 miles to an unsettled territory far away in the west. Some were farmers, and many were city dwellers from the eastern United States and Great Britain, experienced in valuable trades, but unfamiliar with the skills of harnessing horses, oxen and mules, driving wagons, herding livestock, or foraging for food on a long trek.
Through much work, sacrifice and prayer, and guided by the hand of God, the first faithful Saints under the leadership of Brigham Young completed their journey west, arriving in the Great Salt Lake Valley over a three-day period between July 22 and July 24th, 1847. Tens of thousands more followed in their footsteps to settle their promised land in the Rocky Mountains.
To these early pioneers whom we love, honor and cherish, may your names be forever remembered; and may we who inherit your legacies never forget your sacrifices, your values, your vision, and your magnificent accomplishments.
“The Prophecies” Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), is shown here standing next to Brigham Young, his successor, on the banks of the Mississippi River near Nauvoo, Illinois. Brigham is holding a map showing the westward trek of the Latter-day Saints that Joseph had seen in a vision. Before Joseph’s death, he prophesied about the relocation of the Saints to the Rocky Mountains, and he and Brigham conversed many hours on the subject. “My people shall become a numerous and mighty host in the vastness of the Rocky Mountains,” Joseph Smith said. Other Saints were also privileged to hear Joseph’s prophecies concerning the prospective exodus:
“Joseph Smith said, ‘Now I will show you the travels of this people.’ He then showed our travels through Iowa and said, ‘Here you will make a place for the winter and here you will travel west until you come to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. You will build cities to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west and you will become a great and wealthy people in that land.” –Mosiah Hancock
‘Joseph Smith, just before he was killed, made a sketch of the future home of the Saints in the Rocky Mountains and their route … to that country as he had seen it in a vision. Levi Hancock drew a copy of that map … and told them that there were four copies of that map taken; one of which Brigham Young kept and one that was carried by the Mormon Battalion by which they knew where to find the Church and Salt Lake Valley.” –Oliver Huntington
“While he (Joseph Smith) was talking, his countenance changed to … a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in gazing at something at a great distance and said, ‘I am gazing upon the valleys of those mountains. Oh the beauty of those snow-capped mountains!’” Anson Call
SUP Attribution Plaque “The blessings of the Most High will rest upon our tabernacles and our name will be handed down to future ages. Our children will rise up and call us blessed and generations unborn will dwell with peculiar delight upon the scenes we have passed through, the privations that we have endured, the untiring zeal that we have manifested, (and) the insurmountable difficulties that we have overcome in laying the foundation of a work that brought about the glory and blessings which they will realize – a work that God and angels have contemplated with delight for generations past, that fired the souls of the ancient patriarchs and prophets – a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the powers of darkness, the renovation of the earth, and the glory of God, and the salvation of the human family.” Joseph Smith May 2, 1842 Nauvoo, Illinois
This “Eyes Westward” statue was erected by the Sons of Utah Pioneers and is a replica of a statue standing on the banks of the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois.
“Pioneering Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” July 2008 * Monument #140
Sculptor Attribution Plaque Eyes Westward Sculptor Dee Jay Bawden
