Cardston Alberta Temple in Winter
What were
the Christmas stockings made from that first Christmas that the Saints settled
in Cardston?
a. Gunny sack material
b. Wool
c. Buffalo hair
d. Mosquito netting
Yesterday’s answer:
b. Santa Clauses
The
following from the life of David Henry Leonard, 1879: By mid-December, some of the original
settlers were out of flour. They had harvested scanty crops that first summer,
not enough to carry them through such a winter. With Snow lying deep over the
mountain, they were afraid to try going for provisions. They came to David
Henry.
“Do you have
enough flour to spare until we can get through the snow for supplies?” They
inquired.
“I brought
enough for my family, to see us through the winter, but what I have, I’ll share
with all of you, until it’s gone. Then, we’ll just have to trust in the Lord.”
Christmas
was near, and there were no trinkets, no candy, no gifts for the children. It
is amazing what Christian men will do for the sake of a child—what grown men
will do to make a child happy at Christmas.
Some of the
men in the valley from different settlements, those interested in the
mercantile business and those young and hardy, decided to go over the mountain
regardless of the hazards and perils, to obtain supplies and to get Christmas
candy and gifts for the children. They took wagons as far up Salina Canyon as
the road would permit. Leaving the wagons there, they put on their snowshoes,
and leading the horses to be used as pack animals, they headed out on foot to
complete their journey.
They arrived
in Manti after bucking eight- and ten-foot drifts, purchased their
supplies—sugar, kerosene for their lamps, lard for cooking, candy and trinkets
for Christmas, and the needed flour.
On the way
back home they did not fare so well. One pack mule slipped off the trail and
went rolling with all its pack down the steep mountainside to the bottom of the
canyon. Fortunately the snow softened its fall. Both it and much of its pack
were recovered. That night, tired by climbing and pulling and pushing the
animal back up to the trail, the company of six to eight exhausted men gathered
up the supplies and kept moving all night to keep from freezing.
After that
incident, they proceeded on their way without too much difficulty and arrived
at the settlements on December 23. The men from Huntington had a longer journey
than the men living in the southern settlements, for they had ten more miles to
go. By now it was December 24, and they feared they might not arrive in time
for Christmas.
In the
meantime, the settlers had collected at the Leonard dugout, where David Henry
and Alice Wimmer provided the music, and a Christmas party was attempted while
waiting the return of their Santa Clauses. Though the adults forced themselves
to appear happy, they feared the men would not arrive in time for Christmas.
Some of them feared the men would not arrive at all.
The mothers
with babies laid them on the one bed in the Leonard home. Benches were provided
for sitting. A few tried to dance in the cramped area. Some step-danced. Around
ten or eleven o’clock the door burst open and in walked the three Santa
Clauses—Joseph E. and Milas Johnson, and Johnny Wakefield, grizzly with bearded
icicles and crusted with snow.
What a
jubilee! Children received their gifts. Candy was passed. Songs were sung.
Children jumped for joy; women wiped away their tears of happiness; and a
prayer of thanksgiving was offered.
Chronicles of Courage, comp. by Lesson Committee (Salt Lake City:
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1992), 3:253-54.
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