SUP Wagon Tour winds through 1860 Lehi

Several Sons of Utah Pioneers and their conspiring cohorts caused chaos in Lehi last Saturday morning, June 2, 2018. Led by whippersnapper Melvin “P” Anderson, and aided by Mark Coddington and Bart Peacock, the group stomped through downtown in their horse-drawn wagons causing traffic delays and raising a ruckus.

Wayne Clark, admittedly obsessed with old-timey Lehi, told tales of vigilantes, a polygamous wife of Joseph Smith, a slave girl, an “Indian” home, and a murdering crossdresser; making old Lehi appear to be the wildest town of the Wild West. Afterwards, the Merrill Carson clan provided a gluttonous feast of transcendent turkey, blissful baked beans, and celestial coleslaw. Thankfully, the tryptophan in the turkey made the socializers sleepy, so they headed home, and Lehi was once again a peaceful place.

To learn more about what was said during the S.U.P. Wagon Tour through 1860 Lehi, take the following quiz:

 True or False (One point each)

1. Lehi’s first Bishop, David Evans, loved Asian food. His favorite dish was pad Thai.
2. Lehi’s fort was eight feet tall and made of cottonwood trees.
3. Joseph Smith III made Melissa Lott Smith Willes cry when he told her that she wasn’t ever really married to his father.
4. The remains of the fort wall were torn down after several old men lost their voices yelling at kids to “stop climbing on that darn wall!”
5. Yan-Tan, a friendly Ute who helped capture two Goshutes eventually convicted of murder, was given a home inside the fort to reside. However, he never slept in the home, preferring to stay in his wickiup.

 Multiple Choice (Two points each)

6. According to James Harwood, the county constable at the time, the first murder in Lehi occurred when:
7. A man, dressed as a woman, ran into the house where Jacob Lance was sleeping and killed Lance by hitting him in the head with a “bolt”.
8. A native American man, pretending to be a “squaw”, poisoned J. Wiley Norton’s soup of boiled pigweed.
9. A very large woman, disguised as a man with a beard, “sabotaged” a wagon used for hauling logs. When Abel Evans attempted to unload the logs, he was crushed to death.
10. On John Brown’s 1857 consecration deed, the most valuable object he claimed was: a. Two antique candelabras b. One African servant girl c. His seven-bedroom home
11. What did Preston Thomas do in the large log house on the north side of main street between center street and first west? a. He was the first clerk of Lehi’s Tithing Office. b. He was the first president of the Lehi Dramatic Association. c. He was Lehi’s first school teacher.
12. In 1855, construction began on the first L.D.S. meeting house in Lehi. How did they choose the location for this building? a. The lot was donated by Israel Evans as thanks for surviving the grasshopper invasion of 1853. b. It was smack dab in the middle of the fort. c. It was the lot next to Bishop Evans’ home.

Short Answer (Seven points)

In twenty-five words or less, describe the relationship between square donuts and one of Lehi’s first blacksmith shops.

Answers

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1. False. Bishop Evans may have never had Asian food. However, his home, the only “decent house” in the town according to Sir Richard Burton, was in the spot where Thai House Cuisine now stands.
2. False. The fort wall was twelve feet high and mostly made of mud.
3. True. Joseph Smith III believed that his father did not practice polygamy. He visited Melissa in 1885 to repudiate her claim of marriage to Joseph Smith Jr.
4. False. While we can be fairly certain that old men yelled at kids for playing on the wall, no one knows why not even one small section of the wall was preserved.
5. True. Yan-Tan died shortly after completion of the three-room adobe house.
6. B. Allegedly, the murderer was Wild Bill Hickman. The other answer choices are made-up.
7. B. John Brown listed the value of his servant girl at $1,000. His home, which did not have seven rooms, was valued at $150. No candelabras were listed.
8. C. He eventually quit. Probably because he had to attend too many lame professional development meetings and deal with several sassy teenagers.
9. B. It wasn’t quite in the middle, that would be in the center of the intersection, but as close as it could be. The church was located on the southwest corner of 100 South and 200 West.

10.Arden Tuckett, the man responsible for bringing square donuts to Lehi through his Lehi Bakery, lived for many years on the northwest corner of 300 South and 100 West — the location of one of Lehi’s first blacksmith shops.

 Scoring

20 points: Congratulations! You are a master Lehi historian.

19 points or less: If you don’t know history, you are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Good luck with that!