Daughters of the Utah pioneers activities

By PHIL FAUVER Staff Writer

The Orangeville Daughters of the Utah Pioneers were invited to conduct pioneer demonstrations in the Cleveland Elementary School by Principal Jerel Lofley.
The Orangeville Daughters of the Utah Pioneers put on demonstrations of how pioneer women accomplished some of their important tasks around the home. These were participatory demonstrations for the students to learn how the pioneer women made butter, made colorful dye, braid yarn and washed clothes on a scrub board in soapy water, how the clothes were rinsed in clear water, the water was rung out and the clothes hung on a line to dry. Later the pioneer women would iron the clothes with hot flat irons kept on the back of a wood-burning cook stove.
Learning how to make butter from cream fascinated these third and fourth grade students. They especially liked the taste of the butter they had made and spread on crackers.
An entertaining game of Pioneer Bingo was played. To accomplish this game a flash card was held with a picture of an item used by pioneers. The instructor of the game holding the flash card would give a brief history or pioneer story about the item while the students found a matching picture on the bingo card.
The Cleveland students were taught pioneer women could not go to the store and buy colorful dye to dye clothes instead the pioneer women made yellow and red dye from things taken from their garden. The students then experimented with dyeing bits of cloth in boiled onion juice to turn the cloth yellow and boiled beet juice to turn the cloth red.
Pioneers braided cloth into rugs, braided colorful yarn into bracelets or hair ribbons and braided long strips of cured leather into rope. From this demonstration each student took home a colorful braided bracelet.
Willard Tharp told the story of how a young couple who wanted to get married and there was no place to buy a ring in the area. Their Bishop asked the blacksmith if he could make a ring. The blacksmith took a shiny horseshoe nail and turned it into a ring called the prairie diamond. He also told of how his great-grandfather had been a justice of the peace and had the authority to marry people and to arrest lawbreakers. At each station the women or men told stories about pioneer events. At the conclusion of this pioneer workshop Janice Spencer reviewed with the students what they had learned by asking them questions.
The teacher participated with the students at each station while Principal Lofley observed the student activities. Principal Lofley thanked the Orangeville Daughters of the Utah Pioneers bringing these demonstrations to Cleveland Elementary.
Those putting on this exciting event were Jean Scoville, Laurely Jones, Janice Spencer, Marilyn Fauver, Karen Cox, Vicky Sharp, Shelly Jeppson, Murleen Bean, Willard Tharp and Gerry Spencer.