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Show 190W STATE PIONEER CEMETERY LEHI, UTAH COUNTY UTAH STATE HISTORY 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 З 9222 00576 0074 PIONEER CEMETERY Present owners: First used: 1851 Address: 190-200 West State Bud NielsonJCoolteclМr. Auto Restoration away, some did not want their dead relocated, and other graves (including that of Јоhn G. White), could not Ье found. The remaining graves in the pioneer cemetery fell into such neglect that old-timers remembered it as а "big weed patch." Though the 1913 Нislory ој иЫ noted tbere was "а movement оп foot to сзrе for them and also to erect suitable monuments," nothing was done until 1919. At that time the city had the site cleaned ир and erected а fence around it. оп 29 Јunе 1950, during the Lehi Centennial Celebration, the lосal chapter of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers placed а stone monwnent with рlзqие оп the site. Within буе уезrs it Ьесате apparent that the cemetery marker would have to Ье moved. Vehicles entering and leaving Оenzil Turner's Тire Shop, which had Ьееп built оп the site of the old graveyard, had repeatedly bwnped the monwnent. City officials were sympathetic with the DUP сопсerns and eventually assisted them in obtaining а small triangular рјесе of property опе block east. ln the fall of 1958 the monwnent was being moved to the new site Ьу members of tbe Lehi National Guard when it collapsed into а рјlе of rock and mortar. Uпdauntщ the DUP women had the marker rebuilt and later obtained the city's cooperation in establishing Roadside Park there. Periodically, old graves in the pioneer cemetery have Ьееп uncovered. ln 1954, while constructing а cesspool near the monwnent, Оеп Turner uncovered the skeleton of an unknоwn redhaired woman. Bud Nielson found another in 1976 while installing the sewer linе to his new home. Тhe following year Don Harris, who owned Don's Kar Kare in the former Den's Тire Shop, unearthed another. Lehi's earliest cemetery (150-200 West State) is presently unmarked. The "CoolteclМr. Auto Restoration" building and Bud Nielson's home and taxidermy shop оссиру the site which was dedicated as а Ьшial ground in February 1851. Јоhn Griggs White, а seventy-five-year-old pioneer who made tbe arduous trek across the рlains the previous year, was the first to die in our community. At that time it was merely а small fort at Sulphur Springs. Оп the day of White's death carpenter David Savage, who owned а set of tools, constructed а соffin пот the deceased man's wagon Ьох. The women of the group lined the casket with their choicest material and dressed the body in the best аузilаы e Ьшial clothes. The corpse was then loaded in а wзgоп and transported several rniles northward to high ground оп а windswept bluff оп the west Ьank of Dry Creek. This was across the stream пот the location where some of Lehi's pioneers first settled the previous fall. White's grave, likely dug with the wooden spades of the day, lау deep in the crusted sand just north of the State Road (present-day llighway 89) which had Ьeen constructed through the area in 1850. The graveyard, like all lands in town at tbe time, was government owned. But опсе homestead parcels were given ои!, the cemetery site Ьесате part of Thomas R Jones's property. Jones soon deeded the burial grounds to the city. Since Lehi cemetery records prior to 1895 have Ьееп lost, по docwnentation for the pioneer cemetery exists. А ratio-comparison with American Fork's pioneer graveyard records (1852-68) which show eighty-five burials, suggests Lehi's old burial ground held 100-11 О graves. ln 1871 the Utah Southem Railroad surveyed а lјпе through the pioneer cemetery. lt was also evident that the State Road needed widening. So city fathers decided to relocate the cemetery. Alderman Israel Evans and Sexton George W . Thurmond supervised the surveying of а пеw cemetery at the north end of what is now Fourth East. Apparently some, if not most, of the bodies in the old cemetery were disinterred at that time and reburied in а common grave at the new site. Малу farnilies had moved 6 DИР Marker which originally stood оп Pioneer Cemetery site Site of Pioneer Cemetery today 5 А GUIDE ТО LEHI CITY'S HISTORICAL SITES ANDPLACES Published Ьу the Lehi Historical Preservation Commission 1997 fuщlсd Ьу grants from (ће I 'tah Slatc Иistorical Sociely 'lIId I.ehi CityCorporation |
