Pioneer flirting terminology

Relationships formed on the trail. With the tens of thousands of pioneers that trekked westward to the Salt Lake Valley, young people did fall in love. The trail had a way of bringing people together and having them rely on each other was a natural way for kids to start “liking each other.” Let’s face it, when a guy and girl are attracted to each other, there’s the tendency by either to flirt. Flirting, I’m certain, has existed since the days of Adam and Eve. Even though it’s been around for centuries, it doesn’t mean it has always been referred to as “flirting.” That’s what we refer to it today, but what was the pioneer’s terminology for this word?

a.      Sparking

b.      Teasing

c.       Lightening

d.      Cooing

Yesterday’s answers:

1.      A   He was made to be invisible to the mob

In Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts in 1832, Orson Hyde narrowly missed harm when he and his companion held a meeting in a private home. A mob of several hundred men surrounded the house to tar and feather the elders. Orson noted that “a little boy came into the house to see if we were there and he did not see us, and went out and told them that we were not there, and they then disappeared swearing and scolding, and thus the Lord delivered us.”

Joseph Smith’s Kirtland, Karl Ricks Anderson (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1989), 79.

2.      A   A pop  gun

While George A. Smith was delivering a sermon at a meeting near Syracuse, New York, in 1835 a Baptist deacon “furnished a pop gun and ammunition, which he passed in through the windows to a man who fired pop-gun wads of tow at me all the time I was preaching. He was an excellent shot with the pop-gun, the most of the wads hit me in the face. I caught several of them in my hands. Many of them tickled, but some of them paid good attention. I finished my discourse without noticing the insult.”

Joseph Smith’s Kirtland, Karl Ricks Anderson (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1989), 79.