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We have been busy all week doing indexing of marriage records for, mostly, North Carolina.  Records from the late 1700 up to 1940 or so.  I guess they wanted to see if we could actually do indexing of the records.  Arlene has a lot more experience than I do but after doing a thousand records, I got pretty familiar with it.  Of course, reading some of that old handwriting just never gets any easier no matter how you stare at it.  After a week of staring at old marriage records, we decided to go look at some local tourist sites.

The first one we stopped at was Brigham Young's Summer Home here in St. George.  It was crowded today so it took longer than normal to go from room to room.

 

View from the West end.

 

The descriptive plaque in front of the home.

 

Brigham Young had arthritis and the weather in St. George, being hot and dry, helps with that ailment.  He spent several years down here until he passed.

 

That is quite a mantle in the living room.

 

The dinning room.  The china on the table was ordered prior to his death and arrived shortly after he passed.  However,  he never got to eat off of them.  

 

The kitchen with the hot water heater and all.  

 

Kinda reminded me of Nauvoo and their stairways...

 

After walking through several bedrooms we ended up in Brigham's bedroom and were kind of surprised that his bed was not all that large.  Note the "chamber pot" at the foot of the bed.  Yeah, no indoor plumbing.  I also didn't see any outhouses so I'm wondering...

  

I noticed this picture on one of the walls and spent some time looking at the pictures.  This picture is kind of unique as it is President Brigham Young, his counselors and the 12 Apostles.  See how many you are familiar with.  Some of them are pretty young.

 

This is kind of a unique picture of the St. George temple back many years after it's dedication.  I couldn't quite get the colors right with the camera but it's good enough.  

 

Out in back they have this 150 year old Mulberry tree.  The pioneers used to  feed the leaves to silkworms to get silk for the women's dresses so they didn't need to dress in the course wool and cotton so prevalent in the area at the time.  

 After the winter home we went on a bit of a drive to Santa Clara just for a drive and to see the area.  We ended up at the Jacob Hamblin Home. 

 

A small roadside sign lets you know the home is just up from the road.

 

there is a nice view of the "river" that runs in front of it.  But, in this desert area, it's pretty much a creek most of the time.  It'll provide enough water for a few head of cattle and water some fruit trees.

 

This was Hamblin's saddle and, to the right, his Book of Mormon.  He was an Indian agent and worked tirelessly to help with the relations between the settlers and the local tribes.

 

During the bedroom part of the tour, the guide mentioned that the two women displayed on the mantle were his wives.  One of them lived until the late 1930's.   The two women were dedicated to each other and kept the family moving forward.  They were dedicated to each other.

  

The upstairs was one big room where they could all meet together and do the work that needed to be done to support pioneer life.  It was the hub of the house for most activities.

 

I noticed this rawhide chair.  Stylish, no?

After this little jaunt we headed home for some rest and prep for next week.  Looking forward to more training in some different areas of our mission.  I've got a date with the outgoing head of the ROC for a project that he needs to have us learn how to do.  That will involve more specialized things to do.  Indexing is interesting but this other stuff is a bit more challenging.  More to follow.  I'll try to include some pictures of where we work next week.