At Pioneer Square on 50 E. Vine Street in Tooele is the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum housed in the beautiful stone building which once was Tooele City Hall. The newer brick building on the far east is the finally restored Carnegie Library which now is home to the James L. Bevan Sons of Utah Pioneers Museum. The newer brick building between the these buildings is the brick wing added years ago to connect the two buildings and give the original library greater capacity. It is also now part of the SUP museum.
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Loading...The Sons of Utah Pioneers is back in action. It’s taken us old guys a long time to get up to date with social media, but luckily we have a few of the younger generation among us. We are meeting virtually; the only difference is we don’t have to haul all that equipment from the basement of the James L. Bevan Tooele Pioneer Museum (pictured). Members and their wives can sit at home in their sweats and sox and eat their own dinner, rather than bringing pot luck with them to the meeting location. Do we really miss setting up tables and chairs and then taking them down afterward, as well as vacuum up and clean the kitchen etc.? Nah! But we do miss the social part of seeing and sharing made-up stories with one another. Maybe this vaccine will allow us to do that social part soon. Until then, this virtual stuff ain’t bad.
Our first virtual Dinner (non-dinner) and Education Meeting was about the tremendous effort of restoring the outside of the museum to its Carnegie Library status, and doing lots of new things to the inside as well. All that work, and then along comes COVID. Well, it’s still there waiting to be enjoyed by one and all in post-COVID days. Which we hope will start in May. We are quite happy with the results and hope you will be too.
When I start naming names, I’m sure to forget someone, but the following SUP members did the yeoman’s job of making this happen: Glen Stevens, Joe Brandon, Robert Hansen, John Bryan, Wes Saling, Brent Hunt, Rick Henwood and, and, and whoever else I’ve forgotten. They treated us all to a great PowerPoint presentation showing progress from the beginning to the end. Oh, and we want to thank Mayor Debbie Winn and the Tooele City Counsel for squeezing out the funding for this most worthy project.
Last month, through the power of social media, we were treated to a presentation about the life of Tooele resident and later Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Francis M. Lyman, whose headstone is the largest in the Tooele City Cemetery. Joe McBride who had lived in Tooele all his life until a few months ago when he moved to Daybreak, gave the presentation from his living room to ours.
Again, I sat with my feet up and ate ice cream while learning some fascinating things about this Utah Pioneer. I’m pleased to call myself a Son of Utah Pioneers.
Paul Bambrough, Area Director for the SUP, presented and sustained the incoming Board of Directors for the Settlement Canyon Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers in this same virtual meeting. He even wore his official SUP shirt. Also present was Tooele County’s own and new National President of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, Brad Clayton from Grantsville. The newly sustained board is: Past President – Alan Jeppesen, 2021 President – Kyle Anderson, President Elect – Brent Hunt, Secretary – Albert Bottema, Treasurer – Robert Hansen, Chapter Awards – Kay Reese, Historian – Jerry Hansen, Membership – Howard Yerke, Scholarships – LeRoy Rose, Newsletter – Richard Kroff, Museum Director – Glen Stevens, Grant Specialist – Brent Hunt, and Publicity – Darrell Smith.
Our next virtual Dinner (non-dinner) and Educational Meeting will be on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. Bruce Dunn of the Tooele Transcript Bulletin newspaper will present the history of the Tooele Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which at one time included all of Tooele County. The newsletter a link will be emailed to all members just before the day of the meeting.
