Grandpa's Postcards: July 2014

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Bronze Cast Typifying "Mormon Hand-Cart" Pioneers en route to Salt Lake City in 1856

Today is Pioneer Day in Utah. It's a state holiday that celebrates the day Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also celebrate Pioneer Day outside of Utah as well.

Not only did Mormon pioneers use wagons to cross the plains as they traveled to the Salt Lake Valley, some of them used handcarts like the one shown in this postcard. Handcarts were a less expensive alternative to wagons.

The handcart pioneers placed their belongings in their handcart and walked 1,000+ miles across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley, which is an amazing thing to me. It shows the great faith and courage these handcart pioneers had.

This postcard is a 1939 genuine Curt Teich "C.T. Art-Colortone vintage postcard.

Transcription from postcard description:

The Hand-cart migration was a distinct movement in Western pioneer travel. From 1856 to 1861 nearly 4,000 people crossed the plains on foot. Men and women pushed or pulled their Hand-carts for 1,000 miles between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City. The Hand-cart companies brought to the State artisans, traders, agriculturists, blacksmiths, and men learned in the professions.

________________________

Nor gold nor glory their exalted quest,

who won for East the wide unconquered West.

They toiled o'er frozen crest, o'er parching plain

Eternal wealth in higher worlds to gain.

Forever in remembrance let them be, who gave

their all for truth and liberty.

Orson F. Whitney

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

This Is The Place Monument – Overlooking The Valley – Salt Lake City, Utah

In April of this year, I shared a vintage postcard with you that shows the This Is The Place Monument in Salt Lake City, Utah. I also mentioned in that post that there were six different postcards depicting this monument in my grandparents' collection and that I'd be sharing them in future posts.

It's time to share the second of these postcards with you today. The first postcard I shared shows the front of the This Is The Place Monument with the mountains in the background. The postcard I'm sharing today is quite interesting because it shows the back of the monument with the Salt Lake Valley in the background.

I don't know when this postcard was published. But my grandparents likely bought it in the summer of 1952.

I'll be sharing more This Is The Place Monument postcards in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The Temple At Midnight

This is a postcard that was sent to my maternal grandparents in January of 1954. I've blurred the name and address of the sender for privacy reasons. But here's the message they wrote on January 24, 1954:

Dear friends,

Thank you for your fine Christmas card and message. Father is progressing. He went to meeting this morning. When you are in Salt Lake come to see us again.

Best wishes,

In the summer of 1952, my grandparents and their family emigrated from Brazil to the United States. They had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1950s. My grandparents and their family traveled to the United States on the ocean liner S.S. Brazil. They arrived in New York City on July 22, 1952 and remained there until the end of July. They bought a car and some camping equipment and traveled across the United States toward their final destination in California. You can read more about their immigration adventures by clicking HERE.

One of the states they visited was Utah. My grandparents and their family stopped to visit the sender of this postcard during their trip to California.

The picture on this postcard shows the LDS Cardston Alberta Temple.

The Cardston Alberta Temple is located in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. The temple was announced on June 27, 1913. Groundbreaking for the temple took place on July 27, 1913. And the temple was dedicated about ten years later on August 26, 1923.

I found some pictures of the Cardston Alberta Temple online and thought I'd share them here.

These are from the Wikimedia Commons website. The first two are captioned “Laying of last stone on Mormon Temple at Cardston, Alberta, Sunday, Sept. 23. Photo A.” and “Laying of last stone on Mormon Temple at Cardston, Alberta, Sunday, Sept. 23. Photo B.” respectively. They both are dated 1917.

Wikimedia Common - No Copyright
Public Domain

It's really cool to see these historic photos of this temple.

The photo below shows the Cardston Alberta Temple in modern times. The photo was taken in 2011.

Photo by Matthias Suben