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HUGH'S CAFE OUR SPECIALTY IS HOME MADE PIES • BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER Telegraph and Cooperatives.keptCedar City alive Sidney -Hahne OPEN 6 a~rt:I: to 12 p.m. /!.J . IN CEDAR CITY. ~ . CALL' - 1586-63111 155 N. MAIN C41fNA GAR'DEN ..... uu u • Coffee Shop & . Dining Room' P.e ter Vee, owner . -FEATURING- Special Chinese and American.Dinners .Seafoods -Steaks - Lunch Menu FAMILY DINING . 9 a.m. - midnight '7 days a weel.< 170N.Main Cedar City PII uuu U • • Orders to Go - 586-6042 FREE PARKING ON NORTH SIDE The most exciting milestone in the history of the 1860's for Cedar City was the coming of the telegraph line. -The first continental line was connected in Salt Lake City on the 23rd of October, 1861, an important event in utah History; The first message to go over that wire was from President Brigham Young to President Abraham Lin.. . coin: "utah has not seceded. She is firm for the Constitution." The answer was ::;imply: "The Government reciprocates your congratulations." The Deseret Telegraph Line fn.n Salt Lake City to St. George . was built cooperatively. The various communities on the line were assigned a certain stretch to' build-provide wire, poles, and materials and put up the line. The line was opened from Salt Lake City to St. George on January 15,1867. Three days later, January 18, 1867, the company-to operate it ..yas inc~)l'porated and was organized March 21, 1867, With Brigham Young as president. Within six years, the entire 600 miles line had been built; and, within the three-day period between completion and incorporation, put into operation. utah was the only territory or state to own her own system. Josiah Rogerson came to Cedar City from Beaver to' instruct the first group of operators: . Ellen Lunt, Alice B. Bulloch, Mary C. Corlett, and Henrietta L. Jones. The' Lunt Hotel and Stage Stop was the first telegraph station in Cedar City, and it was Henrietta who later sent and received telegrams for .Major John Wesley Powell when he brought his exploring party Qff the Colorado River. For this sel-vice, he gave her a beautiful black and gold cameo brooch and earrings to match. When historical news came over the telegraph, the operator would post it on a bulletin board on Main Street. Francis Webster, John Parry, Robert Bulloch, Andrew CorrY, Henry Leigh, Robert H~yborne! and D~vid Bu~och contributed the money for thiS newshne which provided the people with the biggest news items of their time. The town bulletin board became an especially busy place during election time as the men gathered around to see and to discuss the political news. These were lean years, but they were years of building . Cedar City citizens must have heaved a sigh of relief as January 1, 1860, ushered in a new decade. The-'50's had been anything but peaceful. Added to the rigors of pioneering two new communities, had been the demand of beginning a new industry. Then there had beeI;l the utah War and its attendent excitements and trials. Cedar City had stored food and fuel and prepared for a possible trek into hiding with the rest of utah. These p'roblems had ended peacefully, and Cedar Ci~y ' s settlers must have felt that now they could focus on building a community. There was a lot of building to do. The sale of the iron works to the Deseret Iron Company in 1852 had taken the' missionary flavor from the endeavor for many, and they left. Then, the iron works was permanently abandoned in 1861 when the machinery was sent to fhe newly settled community of St. George; and the population dropped from 928 souls to less than half that number. During the '60's,.then, Cedar City changed from an industrail to an agricultural community. Hopes for peace and prosperity were washed away by a destructive flood in January- of 1862. People worke4 closely together, however, sharing everything that they had ' and the work of building went forward. Still, difficuities multiplied. On May 24, 1865, Henry Lunt wrote in his journal: The Farmers have done an immense work this spring making a canal to conv~y water to the . south side of the new survey and thiS, together With the making of new sects for proper distrubution of water for irrigation purposes has kept us unusually busy ....Coal Creek is higher than even-all the dams perviously built for irrigation have washed out. Then, drought hit, coupled with a. scourge of gras$oppers and rabbits, challenging the agriculturists and threatening the survival .of the little community. . Men, women, and children worked together to plant and replant the devastated crops . During these lean years, clothing one's family was a big problem. Everything was hand made from scratch. An entry in Bengt Nelson's diary graphically depicts the ~ifficulties involved: . We brought very little clothing with us, and that was soon g~ne. _There was no place to buy more, and further, we had nothing to buy with. Money was almost unknow, and various articles that could. be raised or produced were the commodity of exc;hange.. Nothing was manufactued nearer than 1200 miles, and we either had to do for ourselves or go naked. Some families had moved down in the southern part of the Territory, in the region we call Dixie and they were raising cotton. The Bishop brought us some cotton, we picked the seeds out of it, got some hand cards such as we had in Sweden; and Ellen carded and spun the cotton into warp. My wife, Ellen, then spun twenty pounds of wool for Sister Hamilton to get five pounds for herself. She then.. procured a loom to weave it and thus the cloth was made for the first pair of pants that I had in Cedar. Young ladies were required to produce their own household items with the willing help of their mothers and sisters. One young woman who was married in 1869 listed her trousseau: My trousseau coIisisted of towels and tablecloths I had spun and mother wove with a diamond pattern to them. They were bleached white, Cotton sheet& and ' pillow slips, wool blankets, and rag carpet were all made with our own hands. I had two pair of bleached muslin pillow slips, one pair trimmed with Mexican drawn-work and the other with lace of my own making. rhad three quilts, a gopd feather bed artd pillows, also a good shuck bed. I had plenty of good .clothes. I had as pretty dresses as I have ever had. I had one lovely silk and . mohair, one nice cashmere, some lawn dresses, five good homespum dresses llnd nice underwear trimmed with my own work. Eventually, the settlers began building homes on lots outside the Old Fort. Bengt Nelson recorded thatlle "was kept busy farming and building, laying up two or three . houses every year according to the size of them." Mr. Nelson also noted tha organization of.' the cooperatives that helped the people over the economic shimp of the '60's. He says: "The Cooperative Mercanitle Company was organized on the 3rd of Marc~: 1869. I took $25 in the concern, being all I could do at the time. It was made up of small stockholders. and was kept by John M. Higbee in his ~anary." " Cedar City Co-op Store - From the Rhoda M. Wood Collection. Courtresy SUSC Special Collections Library. The Cedar City Co-op became the center for business activities, including banking, tax collection, and produce destribution. Both individuals and public institutions deposited 'funds with the store which paid' employees with store orders and limited amount of cash. It was the Co-op that turned produce into money. Bengt Nelson further recorded: "The Sheep Company was organized into a Co-operative Sheep ASSOCiation, May 20th, 1869. I put .in 68 head valued at $344.50. I took the contract of building the Co-op Store for part capital stock and part merchandise. I completed it December 17th, 1876." . During the years 1860-1880, C.edar City, through individual effort and initiative and cooperative effort, literally pulled itself up by its bootstraps. Comfortable dwellings were built, and the yards were planted with saplings find seeds from the mou~tain~. Wome~ had brought their 'flower seeds from their native countrIes as well to plant in gardens. Ceaar City was becoming a very attractive little settlement; and it was becoming home to its people, most of whom had come from other lands.