David Smith Park

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF DAVID SMITH PARK By Nellie Jean Park Cordner, daughter David Smith Park, son of John Park and Louisa Smith Park was born 21 April 1855 in Provo, Utah. His parents were baptized into the church in Canada and emigrated to Utah. They went to the endowment house in Salt Lake City about 1855 and received their Temple Ordinances. The trip was made by Ox teams and took three days to complete the journey. Father was born two blocks west of the old homestead on 5th West 6th South, Provo, Utah. He was one of eleven children. Provo, at pioneering time was young and there was much to be done with sage brush, oak and other wild woods to be cleared. His father, who was a farmer, owned many cattle and oxen and a large farm with but few tools. Father was baptized on the 5th of June 1869. His chances for an education was slim indeed. He went to school in the second ward. The Indians settled on one of his fathers' farms. They helped themselves to the crops and sometimes drove their cattle through the grain fields, then leaving them in the grain. My father and the rest of the family were always willing to help on the farms. At one time father and Uncle Joseph were herding the cattle out near what is now the infirmary and Ironton Steel plant. The Indians were very troublesome sometimes overtaking the men and beating them with their lariats and taking their lunches from them. They were rushing toward Uncle Joseph and father. Seeing them coming they ran to a little house that was near, where they were safe. Another time when father was quite young, father was playing on a large knoll, building a little log house out of sticks and pieces of wood. Two Indian boys came up, one of them kicking over the little house. Father gathered up the sticks and rebuilt it when the Indian boy kicked it over again. Joseph, it seemed always acted as a body guard for father. He came out of the brush just in time. He began to trounce the largest Indian boy. Father could, then manage the smallest one. They had their farm near nice streams of water and could catch trout in the pools with their hands. On day father and his brother were out gathering red berries called Haw Berry's. An old squaw was gathering berry's near by. Father began to tease her and she took out a butcher knife and ran after him, but he outran her. In the late summer he would go gathering Ground Cherries. My grandfather, John Park, died 30 March 1869. Father was then eleven years old. This left the boys a great responsibility with such a large family to care for. When the boys would do their plowing they always wanted father to drive the oxen for them because he used the whip in his left hand. Doing this it would not strike the one holding the plow. Oxen didn't like to work unless commanded. One of these oxen was named Ginger, the other Berry and at times they would run away. One day father and Uncle Joseph were sent out to plow. Neither wanted to plow and did not make a good job of it. When the job was completed they could see how badly it was done and it served as a lesson to them that it pays to do work well if you do it at all. His mothers family, the Smith's, lived at an old Fort about a mile square and from ten to twelve feet high, built of mud and grass to strengthen the walls. There were two or three tribes of Indians living near by, one large camp living on their farm. Sometimes they would fight among themselves and at one time there was number of Indian scalps found and thought to have been done by the Indians. When father was a mere boy he was sent to Draper, Utah with an ox team and wagon loaded with hay for his bother John, who was working at Draper. He traveled all day arriving near the point of the mountain when night overtook him. The oxen were wild and he was afraid to unyoke them, so he left the yokes on them all night. Next morning he went on to Draper with the hay. He started to work. He had a slush scrapper with no tongue, making it hard to handle. He worked here for some time. His brother, John, traded his oxen for a team of horses. Thus it was that he was always doing his part to help the family. He grew to manhood and at the age of 22 he married Epsy Albina Pace, daughter of William Byram Pace and Epsy Jane Williams Pace, who was also raised in Provo. From this union there were twelve children born, six girls and six boys. Louisa, the oldest child lived but a few hours. She was buried at Provo. After his marriage he went to work on the railroad as a foreman for Christman. His first run started at Wilder near echo canyon, at Grass Creek, out to a coal bed then headed for Park City. His next job on the main line was at Granger. Here, again, he worked as a foreman of the old Emigrant trail at Rockfort. This was the main line out towards Kamas. Father was praised by his boss for his good handling of his men and they were very pleased with his work. Later, he worked for Bill Dillon as foreman, this time near Soda Springs. This time he lost out by not receiving his pay, so he decided to move on a farm. He had four head of horses which he traded for some ninety acres of land near the Provo River about six mile out of North Provo. He received a deed for the land. Then he borrowed $150 for which he purchased one mule and one horse. He moved his family (father, mother, my sister, Pearl, and myself) to the farm. We had a small one room lumber house. There we began to pioneer and settle the land which he cleared of sagebrush, oak, and other timber. He hauled rock and, in some place, soil to fill the low places. He raised, with the help of his family, all kinds of berries, fruits and vegetables and large fields of hay. He raised potatoes weighting up to 8 lb each and Bellflower Apples that measured 14 inches around. He was a good farmer and had a very good water right, watering half of each week. His oldest son, David William, being two years and 10 months old was drowned in the Hooper ditch. He was carried about three miles down stream. His little body lodged against a culvert. It was late in the afternoon and mother thought he had gone with father to change the water. As soon as father came in they began searching for the baby, but it was not until 1 AM that his little body was found. This was a sad blow to us. The rest of the family was born on the farm. About 1885, my father bought a mower, giving his note for it. He was unable to meet the payment when it was due and the party he had bought it from was going to attach the deed to fathers' farm, but on finding it was a quick claim deed he decided not to attach it. Soon after this, father was able to pay for the mower. He traded forty acres on the south side of his land for forty acres from Newel J. Knight on Provo Bench [now Orem] where his home now stands. Afterwards, he gave one horse and some money to buy this forty acres back again, making his homeland complete again. Father sold ten acres of the Provo Bench land to Major Berry, receiving $100, leaving him but thirty acres on the bench. The fruit he raised father peddled the in Park City, Heber, Charleston and Midway making fairly well. Then he built two large adobe rooms onto the frame room in which we lived. Later he tore the frame room down, building four brick rooms attached to the adobe part with porches. In this home his children grew to man and womanhood, and were married except the three youngest. Father kept only horses that he could trust his children to handle as they lived two and one half miles from school and church and they were privileged to hook them to the cart or buggy at any time to go to school or anywhere they wished. In his early life on the farm he had a little old mare named Kit which he kept especially for the children. He kept her although she grew very old and had rheumatism. Sometimes she would get down and could not get up and he would raise her with a pole. He, also had another horse that he was very attached to, but it became ill and died. He always had a good team of horses and always took care of them. Kindness to animals was his motto. He always had a herd of good cows and they were well taken care of. He had a brown Shepherd dog called Shep, who was very faithful, but as he grew older he became partly blind and deaf. One day fathers' sister, Marion and family came to visit us. They came in a carriage and as they started home they ran over Shep and broke his leg making it necessary for father to kill him. We children all felt badly, but did not want Shep to suffer. In the springtime when the water was high, father spent much time I working to keep the water from making new channels. He would drag large cottonwood trees and build rock dams on them to hold the water in check. One day my sister, Pearl and father were sitting on a rock when a large rattle snake crawled out from under them. Mother raised turkeys, the sale of which, would help clothe the children. One time she had set a turkey, but found that something was carrying off the eggs. Father set a trap for it and there, he caught a skunk. It was not long until everyone knew about it. He, finally, was forced to get on a shed and kill it with a pitchfork as he had no shells for his gun. He had to bury his clothes in the ground. We could hear the coyotes barking in the evenings and sometimes in the daytime. When father was about one half mile from the house burning brush, my sister, Ethel, who was playing around, caught on fire from the burning brush. Father tore the clothing from her body in order to put out the fire. I remember father carried her to the house. Her curls were burned but her body was scarcely burned at all, but father's hands inside were raised up in a solid blister. We didn't have much in the house for burns but hurried and got some linseed oil and lime and drew out the blisters which were sore for some time. He had, also, smothered the fire from my sister, Pearl's clothing in earlier years. Father acted as school trustee for many years at Spencer school. He and mother were endowed in the Salt Lake Endowment House 17 Nov. 1883. All children went to the Temple to be married. He sent one son on a mission to New York - Sidney Ray, his third son. About 1917, father sold his home on the river to his fourth son, Roy for $7000. He moved over to his farm on Provo Bench which was now 25 acres, hiring, but little, help. This farm is planted out in trees, berries and so forth. He has always been prosperous. Father was called into the Bishopric, where he serves for two years. When he retired he was given a book of Mormon as a token of esteem from the ward. He is now President of the High Priest Quorum of the Sharon Ward. He, also, acts as peacemaker of the ward.

LAKE VIEW The first settlement was on the shores of Utah Lake about 1855 and was a part of Provo, Utah. During the wet years of 1861 and 62 the homes were flooded by the rising waters and the settlers moved to higher ground -- giving Lake View its name and location. In the fall of 1877 the Lake View Ward was organized with Peter Madsen as its first bishop, the meetings were held in the Madsen home on the bank of the river, later a ward meeting house was erected of rock hauled from the canyons and sundried brick made by the settlers. This 24 by 40 foot room was located where the Lake View School was later built and was used as a community center for education and recreation as well as worship. In 1902 a larger church was erected in Lake View and the old one became the school house until 1910 when a new school house was built. When Lake View was first organized it consisted of South Lake View and North Lake View but in 1899 North Lake View became Vineyard Ward. Bishop Peter Madsen was released in Feb. 1892 having served fifteen years. John Johnson became the second bishop of Lake View, which position he held for twenty-four years. The Lake View dance hall was built in 1897 by Peter Madsen Jr., James Madsen, Samuel E. Bunnell and Mads Johnson, this was the first dance hall in the state to have a maple floor and people came from great distances to dance there. Some of the musicians and callers at the dances were; Eliza M. Startin, Peter Madsen Jr., James Madsen, Mads Johnson, Brigham Madsen, Joe Darten, Wall Holliday and Samuel E. Bunnell. The school house built in 1910 was not used in 1934, the children were transported by bus to the Vineyard school and in 1936 the building was torn down and the material used for a hanger at the airport. William W. Taylor became the third bishop of Lake View, he served for twelve years. Since then two of Peter Madsen’s Grandsons have been bishops of Lake View Ward - Spencer Madsen, son of Peter Madsen Jr., and Alfred J. Madsen, son of Charles A. Madsen. Some of the early settlers in Lake View were the families of Stephen Ithamer Bunnell, Mads Jorgensen, James H. Clinger, Nels Williamson, and his sons, John and Martin, Joseph Lunceford, Myron C. Newell, Neils Larsen, George C. Scott Sr., Peter Johnson, Lars Jacobson, Mons Peterson, John Stephenson, George M. Smoot, Horace Skinner and John Johnson. Taken from "The Madsen Family of Lake View, Utah County, Utah"

At birth his middle name was Alfred, after his mothers brother, But too his mother maiden name as his. 2nd counciler in His Ward