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Show Fig. 73 Lounge. Softwood, painted. Ca. 1870. H: 82.5 cm. W: 192.5 cm. D: 67.5 cm. Collection of DUP, Territorial Statehouse, Fillmore. Pioneer Utah included a large Scandinavian population, many of whom were craftsmen trained in their homelands. It is surprising, therefore, that pioneer furniture and decorative arts do not bear the strong imprint of old-world design and decoration. This lounge with its cutout heart and compass rose is a rare example of Scandinavian influence. Fig. 74 Lounge. Manti. Attributed to Ole Swensen. Softwood, painted and grained to simulate mahogany. Ca. 1865. H: 92.5 cm. W: 202.5 cm. D: 66.25 cm. Private collection, Salt Lake City. Census records describe Ole Swensen of Manti as a farmer, but according to a tradition of the Swensen-Peterson family he was also the maker of this lounge and other pieces of furniture in the family home. tinctive chairs, lounges, tables, and other household furniture were found throughout southern Utah. But no matter how energetically they were promoted, home-manufactured articles could not compete with the factory-made goods available in many stores by the 1870s and 1880s. P.U.M.I.'s superintendent, William Adams, complained that "the people did not patronize the institution as they should have done, perfering [sic] foreign importation to the home made."15 The experience of John Powell was similar. Trained as a turner in his father's London shop, Powell immigrated to Salt Lake City in 1856 and in the 1870s ran a thriving furniture-making shop in Fillmore. In 1873 he wrote in his journal, "I worked all summer at my shop and making furniture. . . . I sold $540 worth of furniture during the spring and summer."16 At the same time he was involved with the short-lived Millard Stake United Order, the Fillmore Woodworking Company, and the local Board of Trade. By the 1880s, however, his business had slowed down. "I stopped making furniture for a while as there was no sale for it."17 In 1884 he went to St. George to work on the temple. He returned to Fillmore in 1888 with a third wife and in 1889 served three months in the penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation. By 1890 Powell was sixty-eight years old; he was still able to work, but, he recorded, "Business very dull in Fillmore. Home made furniture not sought after."18 He later explained, "My furniture trade had departed on account of the store importing furniture so I was without employment and had nothing but my hands to provide with."19 He continued to work, however, making "wire doors" and "safes," checker tables, and children's toys (Fig. 75). In 1897 he noted again, "Trade is very dull. I have earned since Jan. 1 to May 30 $6.35."20 Five years later John Powell died in Fillmore at age seventy-nine. Henry Dinwoodey, the Salt Lake City cabinetmaker who had early used the barter system so effectively, was one of the few pioneer cabinetmakers to adapt successfully to the new realities of industrialization and modern merchandising. Even before the railroad was completed, Dinwoodey imported a steam engine, the first one in the territory, to run "a little rude machinery such as a turning lathe, circular saw and boring machine."21 At the moment the last spike was being driven at Promontory, Dinwoodey was in New York arranging for the shipment by rail of a quantity of furniture and machinery. The enterprising Dinwoodey made the most of opportunities opened up by the railroad. Throughout the 1870s he carried on a good business of home-manufactured furniture together with imported furniture, wallpaper, and carpets. In the 1880s he 75 |