Passing Through

The New West Magazine was published in the mid 1890s, and I can find very little information about this publication.  What I can find leads me to believe that it was only published for one year and records the author's impression of different towns he would stop at as he passed through by train.  There was an engineer named William F Ellis (also author of this publication) that worked for the railroad and as it was common for railroads at the time to publish propaganda disguised as information in order to entice passengers, I suspect that may have been the intent of this "magazine".
In any case, here are his impressions of Honeyville - just passing through of course.

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A Trip to the Dentist

Wisdom tooth extraction has always hurt, but I cannot claim that mine felt as bad as the account given in the journal of B.H. Tolman in 1882.  And although the dentists' tools don't look all that friendly today, they do not look like they did in the 1800s.

Set of dental tools from the 1800s

In his own words here is the account:

I am and have been suffering with a very painful face for about 10 days.  One of my wisdom teeth has been trying to come through for a number of years but made but little headway and was very painful at times so Sunday I went to Brigham City to attend the S. S. Jubilee and went to the dentist, Mr. Slocum, to have it lanced.  He gave it fits by cutting through the tough, inflamed flesh until the old lance grated on the tooth at the root, O horrible.  That was about noon.  It pained me severely all that night and at early morn I might have been seen wending my way to the dentists to have it got out entirely.  When finally I got him at it he commenced by giving it another severe lancing (wuh!)  Now comes the tug.  He worked till he got those enemies of iron and steel securely fastened away down below zero and then he commenced to pull and sweat until the forceps slipped off and, O John! I thought he had pulled my lower jaw off the hinges.  I never yet fainted and now I think I never can.  On went the hardened steel again as if his life depended on it and O Zounds!  O Whiss!  A long pull and a strong pull and they slipped again.  He had to rest and I, of course, I could not, but Jimminy Crickets!  How long till the millennium?  Somehow the time passed away and he got them things on the root again, pulled and the long legged pig ants they again missed fire.  The jumping snake and tickling end of the wasps, how comforted it feels to have them machines from the lower regions fastened on.  Monkeys and Jews harps! He brought the rooster to daylight, thank you, sir.  The next time I have him pulled I think I will let him stay there till it doesn’t hurt to have Wisdom Extracted.   I now wonder if I have atoned for my sins.

Yours truly, B. H. Tolman.

This is the ninth day and she keeps me awake nights now and very sore

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Treasures (they can be anywhere)

With all this snow on the ground I am going nuts not being able to go metal detecting.

This snow will take some time  to melt

So while we were in Honeyville visiting my parents on Saturday I decided to wander up into the attic and see if there is somewhere I hadn't yet searched for old 'stuff'.  Looking around I realized that the windows below, being that the the windows are in a hollow wall (with a header over it), creates a natural dam in the wall and things that may have fallen in there would only be a couple feet down.  Of course this only works if you have good access to the walls and they have not been insulated (generally pre-1970).

If you have just enough space to get your arm in below the double top plate you can feel above the header

With no dust mask and in street clothes I reached down into the dirt and spiderweb infested nastiness and pulled out a few treasure in very short order.

USA Atlas - 1920

Seed packet from a seed envelope with the brochure still in it - 1916 (2 cent Washington stamp)

Ad for fountain pens - 1920

Improvement Era - 1914

Farmers' Bulletin - 1915

Liahona - 1916

This creepy doll could be yours for selling $3.00 worth of magazine subscriptions.

Additionally there were some old handwritten letters, a ceramic door knob, a spoon, mason jar lids, a college binder from 1905, empty parcel tags, ink blotter from the post office, a missionary tract, and more.  Take some time to look in your attics - there are treasures to be found.

Now I just have to find a way to search 10'-0" down at the bottom of the wall (using non-destructive methods).  Any ideas?

While on treasures, this little beauty below was found in Honeyville this past summer (2015).  It is a silver 1891 seated liberty dime.

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WHERE IS IT?

I would love to know if someone can identify where these photos were taken.  There are a couple that I already know the answer to, but mostly I just do not know.  If you know where any of these photos were taken I would love to hear from you - please comments below.  And kudos to whoever knows the most.

Picture 1:

This may be a tough one as the house is burning

Picture 2:

Picture 3:

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Picture 9:

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Aerials of Honeyville

I presented a fun way to play with Google Earth overlays a couple months ago, so today I am going to post some of those full aerials for download.  The big overhead shots are from the USGS and are dated by publication date not by photo date - but they are close.

1938 - Click to download full resolution

1946 - Click to download full resolution

1948 - Obtained from the Honeyville Centennial DVD

1953 - Click to download full resolution

Regrettably they are not to Google Earth standards; if only you could zoom way in there and flip to street view.
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News From Years Past

How about some old news stories?  I find news clippings a lot of fun as they were very much gossip and opinion pieces and I learn a lot from that.  You almost begin to feel like you know everyone and what they were up to last week.  These are a collection of only a few of the Honeyville news stories that I have pulled from old newspaper archives.

Let's begin with the fun stuff - news with a little opinion.

Cool - let's hash it out in the paper under pen names (Brigham Bugler - March 1892)

Brigham Bugler - June 1892

It's for the children (Brigham Bugler - October 1891)

It's for the children pt.2 (Brigham Bugler - November 1891)

Footloose - I hear Kevin Bacon was one of those despondent children (Brigham Bugler - January 1892)

I think it is funny how the old papers went from news to ads to ads disguised as news and right back in to the news - and so seamlessly.

Hey, Honeyville has a new store - why not check out these other fine merchants (Brigham Bugler - July 1893)

Getting a post office was controversial (now they want to take)?

It's coming (Box Elder News Journal - June 1915)

And it's here - they moved faster then (Box Elder News Journal - August 1915)

 

Just plain old local happenings.

Brigham Bugler - December 1893

Box Elder News Journal - August 1910

Box Elder News Journal - November 1916

Box Elder News Journal - July 1920

Brigham Bugler - December 1891

 

Honeyville even got some mention in other newspapers.

Ogden Standard Examiner - June 1917

Salt Lake Tribune - June 1918

Davis County Clipper - April 1924

P.O.W. in them thar hills (Davis County Clipper - August 1943)

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Update on the train station

1989 commemorative steam powered passenger train passing Honeyville

I have a little better understanding of what you can see in the photos on an earlier post of the Honeyville train station.  I talked to Joanne Tanaka this evening who lived in the upper portion of the train station for 22 years.  During WWII she just was seven or eight years old, but that was the peak of rail service through town.  During those years the station was staffed 24-hours per day, the morning shift by Mrs. Tanaka's father.  During those years she recalls all the soldiers constantly passing through and how they would all wave to her family as they went by.

What did not make sense to me in the photos were the outbuildings, especially since there really is not very much room between the tracks and the road at that point.  Those photos are looking south and the outbuildings are a coal shed and the outhouses.

Unfortunately the photos I have posted are the best photos I know to exist.

See post The Train Stations

This is what the train station area looks like now.  The rubble of the old foundation is just behind this scene.

The shed to the left was used by railroad workers. They kept their equipment there to inspect and work on the tracks. They even had their own little kitchen inside.

Just for fun, what might the menu look like on a train from 1943?

1943 lunch menu on the Union Pacific

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