Mendon May Day 1864
Susan Hancock Queen of May
In the spring of 1862, my parents and their four children James, Joseph, Ann Marry, and myself had packed everything in our wagons and were ready to come north. Brigham Young had called on several families to come to Cache Valley to colonize it. We came to Cache Valley and on to Mendon. We lived in the fort. It had a double street running east and west. I was ten years of age. My father built a house where Aunt Emma Hancock’s home now stands. He helped to build the rock meetinghouse which is now the opera house. I went to school in a one room log house with a sod roof. It was on the south-east corner of the square. Jasper Lemmon was my teacher. He taught the three R’s in reading and song. Two hemisphere’s on the globe, eastern and western, etc.
We could remember it by just singing the song. Brother (John) Donaldson was also one of my teachers. He moved to Teton, Idaho.
Our main amusements during my girlhood days were spinning yarn, making dye, making butter, knitting and making candles. Each family had a few sheep. We would wash the wool then spin the yarn. Brother Emil Stumpf would weave the yarn into cloth. I remember a black and blue plaid dress. He made the cloth and mother made the dress. I knit all the socks and mittens for my brothers and stockings and mittens for myself. We always liked to dance. The dance hall was our one room schoolhouse which was used for church, school and amusements. I remember that the wax from the lighted candles would drop on our shoulders. We were afraid the wax would ruin our dresses. We usually had one dress for Sunday and one for everyday.
The first store made doll I ever saw was one Brother James G. Willie brought from England when he came home from his mission. Everyone in town went to see it. We only had pioneer rag dolls to play with. The first candy I ever had was when I was sixteen years old. Brother Elijah Bott of Brigham City brought it to Mendon. We ate pieces of brown sugar for our candy. I was May Queen in Mendon in 1864. We went to house parties and had refreshment and sang songs.1
- Susan Hancock Sorensen History, As related to Verna B. Maughan Sorensen, November 1933, Mendon, Utah. This is an excerpt from her personal history.