A History of Washington County

Cultural life

CULTURAL LIFE Theater The isolation of Washington County meant that the residents were dependent mainly on themselves for any form of "high cul­ture"- music, theater, literature. Fine arts would have to be generated largely in Dixie. If there were to be drama, it could not come from outside. No railroad would bring a troupe; roads were so bad that few bards would wander by. Either Dixie would be a cultural desert or the people would have to create a life of enlightenment themselves. In St. George, theater productions quickly became an expression of cultural life. A core of devotees grew into the St. George Dramatic Association, including Miles Park Romney, Charles Lowell Walker, Joseph Orton, Sarah Clark, Mary Romney, R. C. Lund, E. G. Woolley, B. A. Burgon, and many others. Regular productions began in the Bowery and moved to the St. George Hall as soon as it was completed in late 1863. The players preferred the basement of the tabernacle after it became available. Then they shifted to the winery and its 1875 addition, the Social Hall. 164 CULTURAL LIFE 165 St. George Opera House/Social Hall, constructed in 1875 and 1880, was a major culture center for the Dixie community. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Orpha Morris) Theater was not a church calling, however. It was a self-initiated community effort of those who had the inner desire to act. Such folks found each other, then organized an amateur acting company. Individuals such as Joseph Orton initially and A. W. Ivins and C. E. Johnson later stood out as crucial in the tasks of organizing, obtain­ing scripts, and even directing. Joseph Orton was most important for the first decade or two of theater in St. George. He kept a distin­guished group together from 1862 to 1877, and some of those people continued on after that with a new generation. Actors included Artemisia Snow Seegmiller, Jacob Gates, Susa Young Gates, Dan Seegmiller, Horatio Pickett, and E. G. DeFriez. This was a dynamic group that became very popular, staging productions regularly and drawing large audiences. The core group of thespians was amazing in its staying power and excitement for its members' avocation. Later, as each group of 166 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY players began to tire, a new one seemed to appear. The second group of players was as impressive as the first. They undertook to add a large wing on the already enlarged winery. By 1880 that addition was completed, seating as many as 400 people (It seats only 200 today). The building came to be called the "Opera House," and productions featured another new group of thespians: Frank Snow, Joseph Bentiey, John T. Woodbury, Ashby Snow, Brigham Jarvis, and Martha Snow Keate. Most actors stayed with their avocation for several seasons, some for more than a decade. They developed a popular following, becom­ing local celebrities. Among them were Sarah Clark, Mary Romney, Joseph Orton, Miles P. Romney, and Tony Ivins. The casts of the var­ied plays also included many well-known citizens such as Judge McCullough, Artemesia Snow (Seegmiller), George Brooks, A. R. Whitehead, J. F. Gates, C. E. Johnson, James G. Bleak, Charles Lowell Walker, Erastus Snow, Orson Pratt, Jr., Frank Woolley, R. C. Lund, G. A. Burgon, and at least a hundred more. Some of their children, such as Zaidee Walker and several Bleaks, also appeared in later years. In 1895 yet another cadre came on the scene in a series of short­lived local companies: The Clark Theatrical Company, Higgins Brothers Theatrical Company, John S. Lindsay Company, Lyceum Dramatic Company, and St. George Dramatic Company. The latter included Charles Whipple, W. A. Nelson, John T. Woodbury, Arthur Miles, Brigham Jarvis, Jr., Martha Snow Keate, and Walter Keate. Their vitality kept the theatricals in production until 1910 when they gave way to the new Dixie College, which staged performances, espe­cially musicals, in the Opera House until about 1927. Thereafter, the college productions moved to the Dixie College building, and in 1930 the Opera House was sold to Utah-Idaho Sugar Company to serve as part of a sugar-beet-seed factory. That building was restored in 1995 and is being used once again as a cultural facility in the center of town. For almost fifty years, various home-grown dramatic organiza­tions presented theater pieces at least monthly, often as much as every other week. There was probably more theater produced in St. George then than there is now, even with all the high school and college pro­ductions of the present day. One does not have to search far for a rea- CULTURAL LIFE 167 Cast of one of the early productions performed in the Social Hall. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Edna Cloward) son to explain the decline-the advent of motion pictures. After 1910 the Opera House was used for a while to show moving pictures as well as for staging college musicals. The theater had an impact in the lives of both the actors and the audiences. It was an important feature of pioneer Dixie society. Audiences were large; actors were well-known adult citizens, and the corps of performers succeeded through three generations. It was com­mon for them to perform in Silver Reef where there were large, bois­terous audiences who appreciated die performances. St. George drama groups also performed at Washington, Leeds, and elsewhere. Mainly, however, people saw them perform in their St. George theater. Initially the performances featured farces and vaudeville type melodramas including The Drunkard's Wife," The Farmer's Daughter, All That Glitters Is Not Gold, The Yankee in Cuba, and Rough Diamonds. These were the products of the St. George Dramatic Association which was founded in 1864 with Franklin B. G. Woolley as manager; James G. Bleak, director; William A. Branch, prompter; and Thomas Crane, doorkeeper. A perennial favorite was The Golden Farmer. Occasionally an outside influence affected Dixie theater. Charles J. Thomas came from Salt Lake City to give instruction to the thespi- 168 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY ans in 1868. He remained in town for several weeks and was warmly received. In 1879 the Harris Comedy Company included St. George, as well as Silver Reef on its tour, but mainly theatrical performances were done by local players. The theater provided mostly light enter­tainment, focusing on comedy, farce, and melodrama. One of the area's popular young actors, Anthony W. Ivins, later became a successful rancher, mayor of St. George, LDS apostle and a member of that church's First Presidency. In a talk to students, he reflected on his days on the stage: Among other things we had dramatics in those days [early days of St. George]. I chanced to be one of the performers, and my wife here another. We were playing "East Lynne." If the College hasn't played it, I will bring my family up to see it if you will put it on in Logan. We were so successful with it in St. George that we took it up to Silver Reef. A great number of Cornishmen had been brought to work in the mines tiiere. The house was crowded with people. I was playing the part of Sir Archibald, and my wife's sister was playing Lady Isabel. When it came to the part where Lady Isabel on her knees pleads for forgiveness (of course I had to be the stern husband who reprimanded her for the mistake she had made), there walked down the aisle a big Cornishman with his sleeves rolled above his elbows, who shook his fist at me and said: "Damn you, forgive her!" Later, in another play, we were in a complication on the stage which indicated that I had been the individual who had gone off with some money which did not belong to me. (Of course it was apparent to the audience that I was entirely innocent.) It looked bad for me, however, until a boy jumped on one of the seats and shouted: "Tony didn't take it! That man over there took it!"1 The achievement of die players was amazing-maintaining a full season each year for five decades, stimulating the community to con­struct a building; and drawing full audiences while maintaining their own employment, family, and church responsibilities. The commu­nity needed this entertainment as a diversion from the toil of Dixie living, and the leaders knew it. Perhaps that is a major reason the the­ater enjoyed regular support. The cadre of theater players reads like a Dixie Who's Who. The theater, for both thespians and audiences, CULTURAL LIFE 169 declared that Dixie was a focal point. It may have been isolated, but it was not insignificant. The nation may not have known about Dixie, but its people were creating civilization there. St. George was a city in the making. Communities in Arizona, Nevada, and southern Utah recognized it as a city, for the accoutrements of civilization were thriving-the temple, the tabernacle, and the theater. Music If theater was a spontaneous outgrowth of the people of the county, music was both an effort initiated by the common people and a program planned by Mormon church leaders. Brigham Young and George A. Smith knew that life was going to be hard in Dixie. They planned right from the start for diversions to make life more bear­able. One was music. For that reason Charles John Thomas was called to St. George in November 1865. He stayed until May 1868 and orga­nized a choir, a brass band, and a children's choir. He also gave pri­vate lessons. A self-initiated choir under the direction of James Keate existed before Thomas arrived, starting within weeks of the pioneer com­pany's arrival in late 1861. A brass band appeared in St. George too. It was short-lived but was just the first of many that followed. Santa Clara was the home of a famous brass band. In 1864 John R. Itten inherited several band instruments which he gave to the community of Santa Clara. This enabled George Staheli, a talented coronet player from Switzerland, to organize a first-rate band which at times included John G. Hafen, Charles Hildebrandt, Gottlieb Bliggensdorfer, Henry Kuhn, Sr., Bastian Strausser, Herman Bosshard, John Keller, Jacob Bosshard, George Staheli, Jr., and John Staheli. For a long time George Staheli had to copy music from vari­ous sources to provide scores for the players. The Staheli band became known widely, especially because it often played at Fourth of July celebrations and welcoming ceremonies for dignitaries as they entered St. George. Staheli also organized a Swiss choir that became well known, often performing for stake conferences in the taberna­cle. The choir usually sang in the German language. Brigham Young and other leaders could not understand the words, but they 170 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY The Thompson Band, an early musical group. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Archie Wallis) applauded the choir. Both the choir and band quickly brought acclaim to Dixie. Bands were also a trademark of Washington City. It took a com­munity effort to obtain instruments. Around 1910 the band won a first-place rating at the Washington County Fair. At that time, its members included Frank Staheli, Emmeline Sproul, Angus Sproul, Mazel Sproul, Edward Nisson, Willard O. Nisson, Delia Nisson, Israel Neilson, Ina Neilson, James Cooper, LaMar Pearce, LaFayette Jolley, Byron Barron, and Clinton Averett. This and other bands did a lot for the community spirit at holiday celebrations and dances. In St. George, John Eardley organized a band in 1868. William H. Thompson became its leader in 1877. He also organized a juvenile band which continued until 1902 when Woodward School came into existence and took on the tradition. John M. Macfarlane was brought to St. George from Cedar City by Erastus Snow, specifically to continue the work of Professor Charles Thomas after he moved to Beaver in 1868. Macfarlane trained a choir which continued until 1885 for the St. George Tabernacle. That choir became a central part of the community, singing at the tabernacle and temple dedications, stake conferences, annual holidays, funerals, and once at Brigham Young's birthday eel- CULTURAL LIFE 171 ebration. The choir was not large, usually between fifteen and twenty singers, but it was well trained. Initially the membership included Mary Ann Sullivan, Emma and Eleanor Adams, Artemisia and Elizabeth Snow, William McAllister, Joseph Orton, William Kemp, Horatio Pickett, William O. Miles, Maggie and Eleanor Jarvis, Louis Worthen, Annie McQuarrie, Barbara Mathis, Mary Worthen, and others.2 Two rather famous events occurred during John M. Macfarlane's tenure as choirmaster that are often retold in the folklore of Dixie. The first was when his tabernacle choir cooperated with Reverend Robert Scanlan of Silver Reef by learning a Catholic mass in Latin and performing it in the St. George Tabernacle.3 The second signal event in the Macfarlane years of music was the composition of a simple hymn for Christmas. Wanting to do something special for a Christmas choir concert, Macfarlane asked Charles Lowell Walker to prepare verses he could set to music, which was a natural thing to do because Walker composed poetry for almost all civic celebrations. Walker brought Macfarlane some words but the composer did not sense a melody to match them. Macfarlane tossed and turned one night in bed and then suddenly an idea came to him. He woke his wife and dictated both words and music to her until the song was completed. That Christmas the choir proudly performed an original hymn, "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains." The song did not gain immediate recognition but has gradually been included in many Christmas collections in the English-speaking world. It is included in LDS hymnals and is now a standard part of Mormondom worldwide. John M. Macfarlane left St. George in about 1885 after serving as a local judge for several years. He was followed in his music assign­ments by Horatio Pickett and later by Joseph Warrington McAllister. Both offered classes in reading and singing music for the general public. His son, Joseph Wdliam McAllister, took over the stake choir, became a music teacher at the St. George Stake Academy when it opened, and directed musicals in the Opera House. The opening of the Woodward School in 1901 provided an opportunity for music training for all young people up to the eighth grade. Instructors included Mary Lund Judd, A. L. Larsen, Henry Otti, and Joseph W. McAllister. 172 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY When the St. George Opera House was completed in 1880, the­ater productions took most of its space, but musicals occasionally were produced. These included H.M.S. Pinafore in 1886 and 1889, and Rob Roy McGregor, Under the Palms, Queen Esther, and Children of Israel Wandering About in Egypt in 1891. Woodward School musi­cals were also presented there; The Merry Milkmaids, Priscilla, and Olivette between 1906 and 1908, for example. These productions gradually gave way to a prolific series of musical productions pre­sented by the St. George Stake Academy (later Dixie College) after its founding in 1911. The years of the academy/college in downtown St. George from 1911 to 1963 brought forth a major musical tradition. The names of William Staheli (band), Joseph W. McAllister (choir), and Earl J. Bleak (band-orchestra) are linked to the importance of music in Dixie. Professor McAllister produced many operas while Professor Bleak supported that effort as well as organized dance bands, march­ing bands, and an orchestra. Stella Christian Bleak served as the piano accompanist for many of the musical productions. Thus, by the time Washington County had passed the turn of the century, much of the county's musical life moved into the schools where it still thrives. Today the high schools in the county feature bands, choirs, and musi­cal productions that draw large audiences. The college expands upon that tradition with theater, musicals, choirs, bands, symphony, and a community concert series. Newspapers One of the most amazing appearances in the dry desert of Dixie was an early manuscript newspaper. Given to serious reflection, humor, history, and news, this handwritten circular, The Vepricula, appeared on 1 May 1864 and continued bi-weekly for a year. It was the product of a group of men whose minds were compelled to expression even though their lives were quite occupied with survival needs. They met before each edition appeared to critique each other's efforts and prepare the final copy. Evidendy the newspaper circulated, because on one occasion the writers urged their readers to pay a modest fee in kind. We have no way of knowing how widely the copies circulated. CULTURAL LIFE 173 The authors wrote with classical pseudonyms, a device quite common in literary circles in America at that time. Orson Pratt, Jr., wrote as "Veritas," George A. Burgon was "Signor," Joseph Orton signed himself "Cerus," G. S. R. Sangiovanne was "Ego," and Charles Lowell Walker "Mark Whiz." All five of these people were also active in the theater. Several of their articles were philosophical examina­tions of timeless themes: Hope, Evil, Association, the Will, Reason and Faith, Reading, Writing. Their reflections are as pertinent today as then. For example, consider this lofty paragraph: The anxious student should sedulously cultivate the art of composition, for by its assistance he learns to collect and arrange those items of useful information which are the real foundation of erudition. A man cannot become a good politician, a statesman, an author, nor a philosopher, until he has formed his opinions, and established them as criteria whereby to direct his future actions; and this disideratum is best obtained by carefully analyz­ing general principles, and giving on paper an originality to the result.4 Some editorials were much less high-minded: "Washington County is rough and uninviting in many respects. Yet if we will adapt ourselves to the surrounding circumstances we need not want for the common comforts of life I hear individuals complain of hard liv­ing, who fail to provide themselves with dried fruits, beans, peas, and corn, and make no effort to have turnips, carrots, and parsnips, for winter's use."5 There were articles on principles of government and free speech. In October 1864 the paper announced the beginning of the season's lyceum series which featured debating clubs. On 15 May 1865, Cerus reported on his visit to oudying schools and a proposal for joint text­book purchasing. Veritas produced an essay, "Musings," which was a rationale for optimism. He argued that people have within them the power of response to the world about them. Some have a tendency to shirk from the unknown and to see death lurking at the end of each tunnel. He felt that early training was fundamental so people did not live placidly, allowing life to come upon them. Mental effort can 174 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY transform life and is as important as physical effort, according to the author. In the early period, a most unusual publication appeared, The Mineral Cactus. Edited by G. G. R. Sangiovanni, one of the original five writers in The Verprecula, its title was soon shortened to The Cactus. It was printed at the shop of the newspaper Our Dixie Times. The editor devoted the publication mainly to humor although its edi­torials were usually straightforward. One of the more interesting men in early Dixie was Joseph Ellis Johnson. Known as an expert nurseryman and one who encouraged fruit growing, Johnson was also the promoter of several newspapers (as well as other endeavors including being a notary and a producer of medications). Our Dixie Times began in January 1868 under his sponsorship and was renamed the Rio Virgin Times in May of that year. By 1870 Johnson shifted his efforts to the Utah Pomologist and Gardener, which united his nursery and journalistic interests. That paper in turn added the tide Silver Reef Echo to its masthead. As min­ing began to boom, the Echo became independent and appeared six days a week. Joseph Carpenter seems to have taken up the publishing task fol­lowing J. E. Johnson. He experimented with a couple of efforts as a teenager and then in 1878 produced the Union. It was renamed the Union and Village Echo in 1882. In 1879 Carpenter undertook a daily called the Evening Telegram which lasted only briefly. John R. Wallis produced a weekly, the Washington County News, from 1898 to 1900. He resurrected it in 1908 and continued to pub­lish it until 1933. In the interim period, D. U. Cochrane of Oregon bought the Washington County News and published the Dixie Falcon for a year before leaving the area. The Dixie Falcon was largely a polit­ical paper with news from the national scene as well as from local correspondents in the county towns. Its discussion of water reclama­tion in the West could be timely today: "The West contributes to east­ern improvements. Why should not the converse hold good?" The editor opined that eastern states were not losers through western reclamation-a fairly timely view but only popular in the West. According to the writer: "The benefit of a comprehensive system of government irrigation works to the arid west can hardly be underes- CULTURAL LIFE 175 timated, and it is high time the West was waking up to the situation, and doing its share towards getting Congress to take action."6 The railroad was a major topic. In addition to listing the special rates for conference round-trips to Salt Lake City (from Lund $7.50, from Modena $9.25, and from Urvada $10.00), the paper continued: Some seem to think that it is a foregone conclusion that the rail­road is coming through here. Nothing could be more foolish than this thought and nothing more fatal to the chance of that event happening. Along other possible routes people are bestirring them­selves in putting forward the advantages which their route affords and in no uncertain tones either. They want die railroad. So do we. The good things do not come without an effort. Something should be done in regard to this at once.7 The Washington County News entered the journalism scene in 1908 and continued to publish until 1988 under several different owners. It is a prized possession for Washington County, a source for much of the county's twentieth century history. There were other short-lived papers, the Southern Star in 1895, the Dixie Falcon in 1901, the Dixie Advocate also in 1901 which was renamed the Virgin Valley Enterprise about 1907. The Tri-State Advertiser, a weekly, began in 1963. In 1972 it became the Southern Utah Free Press and Southern Utah News- Advertiser. In 1972 it was sold to Gail Stahle and renamed the Color Country Spectrum, becoming a daily in 1976. Stahle in turn sold it to Thomson Newspapers of Toronto, Canada, its current owner. It con­tinues as the daily newspaper of Washington and surrounding coun­ties and is now named the Daily Spectrum. In 1992 Tom Backman published a few issues of the Red Desert Digest as a competitor to the Spectrum, but that paper did not survive.8 One factor that made the existence of newspapers difficult in pioneer times was obtaining newsprint. Without railroads in the county to bring in newsprint, it was not easy to remain in produc­tion. Costs were high. Advertising was hard to obtain. People had litde money, so it was difficult to get subscribers. There was no short­age of writers and venturers who wanted to produce newspapers, but sustaining one was difficult. This helps explain why, with a dozen 176 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY efforts between 1864 and 1908, only one newspaper sustained pro­duction for the next eighty years. Books and Discussions As early as 1864 there was an attempt to establish a library in St. George. The territorial legislature authorized the establishment of such a book repository. Key citizens were named to a library board; they included Orson Pratt, Sr.; Erastus Snow; Franklin B. Woolley; Angus M. Cannon; Jacob Gates; Orson Pratt, Jr.; and James G. Bleak.9 This library board maintained a small collection of books in the St. George Hall and even sponsored lectures. The books were obtained from private subscription funds. The modest library appears to have been moved to the Lyceum building nearby on Main Street when the LDS Mutual Improvement Association agreed to take over care of the books about 1875. The Lyceum had housed a bakery that was built during the construction of the tabernacle and temple. When construction finished, the bak­ery building became available and was deeded to the Mormon church's Relief Society and the Mutual Improvement Association. It was remodeled and rededicated in 1884, with a reading room included. The books were to be read in that room rather than circu­lated. A more ambitious library had to wait until 1910. The state legis­lature had authorized cities of the third class to levy a one-mill tax for the use of libraries. Mayor George F. Whitehead proceeded to establish a library in conjunction with the St. George Stake Academy which was then under construction. A room in the college building was devoted to a library and the books were moved from the Lyceum to the academy. The next mayor, Thomas Judd, applied to the Carnegie Foundation for $8,000 to build a separate library building located west of the tabernacle. The city added $4,000 to the budget and by 1916, the next mayor, James McArthur, also serving as library board president, saw the project finished. In 1919 Mayor Albert E. Mfller facilitated the transfer of the library to the supervision of the Washington County Commission, and it became a county facility.10 Throughout the pioneer period, there were occasional public lec­tures. The Seventies Quorum of the LDS church sponsored some, CULTURAL LIFE 177 and a short-lived "School of the Prophets" was instituted in 1868 to include members from Washington, Santa Clara, and St. George. These two endeavors were closely tied to ecclesiastical leadership. The next generation ventured more on its own, establishing the St. George Literary Society in January 1894. Andrew Karl Larson described the society's activities as focusing mainly on literature and politics.11 Society members read Welch's English Literature together and discussed parts of it at each meeting. The minutes book includes the members' names: Fred Woolley, Kate Kemp, Edith Ivins, Elias Kemp, Walt Adams, Alex Andrus, Tom Andrus, Louie Woolley, Lizzie Lund, George Lund, Marry Morris, Louie Miles, Morgan Thurston, Harry Thurston, W. G. Miles, By Ashby and Maud Snow. Alma Nelson, E. G. Whitehead, and Alonzo Clark apparently joined later. The Literary Society evolved into the Utah Club which became more of a debating society, focusing on a study of the U.S. Constitution. Journal Writing Since survival was the chief concern during the 1852 to 1877 period, people of Washington County Dixie turned most of their efforts to hard physical labor: work to bring water to the land, work to make the land produce both food and cotton, work to build civic structures, homes, and roads. It was a time of toil. The years that fol­lowed to 1930 demanded continued physical labor because the yield from the land was so sparse, the roads so desperately hard to improve, the freighting so challenging in the heat and sand, die range so vast for animals to graze, the water so minimal to store for the dri­est seasons, the food so scarce to feed the many mouths in large fam­ilies. Work seemed to dominate life. Work, however, was not the whole story. In fact, the traces those generations left behind are balanced between work and words. Words emerged in the form of celebrations, choirs, bands, poetry, newspa­pers, sermons, letters, journals, drama, and songs (to say nothing of meeting minutes, legal documents, surveying notes, and other civil records). Humane letters poured forth right from the start, especially in journals. James G. Bleak was perhaps the first case in point. When Brigham Young organized the Southern Utah Mission in Salt Lake 178 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY City in 1860, he selected a diverse group with many trades that would create a balanced community. Bleak was called to be clerk of the mis­sion. He was assigned to keep a journal of the venture. That was but the start of his writing of words.12 Bleak was a man of official written words. His words survived-in city councd minutes, church council records, court records, business records, and especially in his journal of the Southern Utah Mission which he compiled from those records. The settlement of Dixie is documented as richly as was the Philadelphia Convention, as solidly as was Puritan New England. Today we have a score or more of magnificent journals where words speak to us-words from those who labored by day and wrote by night. John D. Lee, for example, was a man of action, an entrepre­neur par excellence. He bought and sold, built and farmed, freighted and repaired, but somehow he also was impelled to write. He was a great booster of Dixie in the earliest days. He presided over a large family and had many sons engaged in his far-flung enterprises. He dealt with Indians as well as Salt Lake autiiorities. He was a judge and a legislator. All of this stands quite apart from the single event, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, for which history judges him.13 One powerful journal such as John D. Lee's is special for any community, but there are more. Charles Lowell Walker provides a counterbalance to Lee. Walker was a follower, not a leader; an aes­thete, not a merchant; a reflective creator, not a commander. Walker was a town dweller, Lee a man on the move. Introspective and spiri­tual, Walker was also one of the strugglers who never accumulated a surplus, while Lee quickly became affluent from his wide-ranging industry. Both, however, were men of words. Lee's boomed from every pulpit he saw and every marching field he commanded. Walker wrote from the back pews and in the late nights. His poetry gradu­ally won the hearts of the whole colony and his songs became their vehicle for ritual and celebration. Here were men of words, worthy of the American Revolution or the Civd War, who just happened to be isolated. Their words are largely unknown in America, but their qual­ity is worthy of the dreams they express. There are also many more: Thomas D. Brown, who recorded the Southern Indian Mission and also protested John D. Lee's authori­tarian leadership at Fort Harmony; Jacob Hamblin, whose prose CULTURAL LIFE 179 belied his limited education but whose adventures with the Indians are more powerful than legends; Orson Huntsman, whose six vol­umes make record of a life he claimed was insignificant as he wan­dered from town to town, but who eventually transformed Shoal Creek by building the Enterprise Reservoir; Martha Cragun Cox, who was a perceptive school teacher and polygamous wife; William Ellis Jones, another struggler who never acquired enough to bountifully support his family, who taught school, made bricks, raised fruit, and served in the Gunlock bishopric, and who at times anguished but loy­ally followed the faith; Joseph Fish, whose extensive record of Enterprise was but one of his achievements in pioneering; Lenora Cannon Gardner, who brings a full description of women's lives in Pine Valley including midwifery, weaving, visiting, religious instruct­ing, and building community cohesion; Mary Ann Hafen, who recorded her girlhood in Santa Clara; Levi Savage, who farmed and traded with Silver Reef, was involved in continuing disputes in Toquerville, dodged federal marshals, and went to prison for polygamy. These were people of words-in journals, songs, lectures, news­papers, and drama. They were writing to us. Their sense of destiny was clear. Seldom did ambivalence challenge the meaning of life for them. They arose in the morning committed to the tasks that faced them. They saw their chores as well beyond routine. They measured tiieir days by tiieir achievement, both for their kin and their kingdom. They tried to be at harmony with their neighbors in their very com­munal lifestyle. It was not always easy. They spoke to those who would inherit Dixie; they expected that life would always be sparse (how shocked they would be to see today's luxury), but they expected those who came after to perpetuate the purpose and not become lost in the material. So they used words in many venues. They preached, they testified; but they also described and enlivened. The result is that their lives are very much with us, if we will but read their words. ENDNOTES 1. Albert O. Mitchell, "Dramatics in Southern Utah, From 1850 to the Coming of the Moving Picture," Masters diesis, University of Utah, 1935. 180 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 2. Reed Paul Thompson, "Eighty Years of Music in St. George, Utah, 1861-1941," Masters thesis, Brigham Young University, 1952, 29. 3. Bernice Maher Mooney, Salt of the Earth, 274. 4. The Vepricula, 15 May 1864, Dixie College Archives. 5. Ibid., 1 Sept 1864. 6. Dixie Falcon, 22 September 1900, Dixie College Archives. 7. Ibid. 8. The following list of Washington County newspapers was compiled by Loren Webb. The Vepricula (The Little Bramble), May 1864 to 15 June 1865, semi­monthly written by Orson Pratt Jr., George A. Burgon, Charles L. Walker, Joseph Orton and Guglielmo Gustavo Rosetti Sangiovanni. Our Dixie Times, 22 January 1868, renamed Rio Virgin Times, 13 May 1868. Edited by Joseph E. Johnson. Utah Pomologist, 1 April 1870 edited by Joseph E. Johnson. Name changed to The Utah Pomologist and Gardener, then to The Utah Pomologist and Silver Reef Echo, then to The Silver Reef Echo. Sold to G. W. Crouch and lames N. Louder and renamed The Silver Reef Miner. The Mineral Cactus, 25 February 1868. Name changed to "The Cactus" 19 September 1868. Edited by G. G. R. Sangiovanni The St. George Juvenile, semi-montiily 1868; Joseph Carpenter renamed it The St. George Enterprise, November 1871. The Union, 14 June 1878. J. W. Carpenter renamed it The Union and Village Echo, June 1882, Bloomington. The Southern Star, 20 July 1895, weekly, James T. Jakeman. The Evening Telegram, 8 April 1879, Joseph Carpenter, daily except Sunday. Washington County News, 18 June 1898 to 28 July 1900, John R. Wallis. The Dixie Falcon, September 1901, D. U. Cochrane. The Dixie Advocate, 6 September 1901, Charles S. and Joseph F. Wilkinson renamed it The Virgin Valley Enterprise, 1907. The Washington County News (renewed), weekly, 30 January 1908 with John R. Wallis as editor and publisher to 1933, then owned by Edgar and Hazel Simpson until late 1930s. Owned by Clyde and Nora Lyman until 1958, then by Frank Mountford until 1973, then by Jim and Asa Mountford until 20 March 1986. Owned by John Rogers, publisher, and Jeannette Rusk, editor, until 8 March 1988. Tri-State News Advertiser, weekly, 1963, Kanab, Hurricane, by Errol Brown and Ben Brown. Became Southern Utah Free Press and Southern Utah News-Advertiser, 1972. Sold to Gail Stahle and became Color Country Spectrum. Became a daily 24 March 1976, renamed The Daily Spectrum, CULTURAL LIFE 181 1982. Sold to Thomson Newspapers, January 1984. Became "The Spectrum" 1994. Notable editors LaVarr Webb, Jr., Carrick Leavitt, Paul Challis, Brent Goodey, Chris Miller, Janet Fontenau. The Southern Utah Sun, 7 January 1986 to 13 June 1987, LaVarr Webb, Sr. as publisher and Gaylen W. Webb as editor. Red Desert Digest, Tom Backman, editor, 1992. Senior Sampler, November 1989, Michael and Donna Stanley, sold 1994 to Van and Maureen Willson. 9. Bleak, "Annals," Book A, 200. 10. See Under the Dixie Sun, 334. 11. Andrew Karl Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 511. 12. Caroline S. Addy, "James Godson Bleak: Pioneer Historian of Southern Utah," Masters thesis, Brigham Young University, 1953. 13. John D. Lee, A Mormon Chronicle. The Diaries of John D. Lee 1848-1876, 6 vols., ed. Robert Class and Juanita Brooks. (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1955.) These handsome volumes provide one of America's truly great jour­nals. They are candid, and they also capture the fervor of the Latter-day Saints' kingdom building.