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LIFE STORY CONT.. On March 2, 1854, he was appointed to succeed Isaac Higbee as Postmaster of Provo. He still retained his position as Superintendent of Public Works and gave good and faithful service in both offices until 1856. On December 7, 1854, he was called as Clerk of the Supreme Court, which was being held at the old State House in Fillmore. Judge Stiles, James hayward and Marshall Stout, who accompanied Scoville to Fillmore, all commented on the building which housed the State Offices. In speaking of this structure, Lucius Scoville said, "A fine creditable building of red sand-stone and plastered walls." That building has endured the elements and today, standing in good condition serves as a relic hall of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. On July 31, 1855, he wrote a letter to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City about a sweet substances that appeared on the scrubs and trees. The letter of this phenomenon is as follows; "Last week a sweet substance was discovered on the leaves of the trees. A few began to gather it by stripping off the leaves and soaking them in water. In this way Brother A. Daniels made eleven pounds of sugar in one day. It looks and tastes like maple sugar. Many scores of men, women and children are now engaged in gathering it. Brother A. Daniels has just brought in three specimens which he sends to your care, and which you will please deliver as follows; vis; one cake to President Brigham Young; one to Brother George A. Smith; and the other to Brother Carrington. Brother Daniels says that he made twenty pounds yesterday, and he thinks it is getting better every day. When it was first discovered some said that it was honey-dew, others said it proceeded from the cottonwood trees, but it is found on all kinds of leaves and on the rocks. My children have gathered and brought in a quantity of it which they had taken from the leaves as it deposited. Many of the leaves have scales of this sweet substance as thick as window glass, and some is a great deal thicker. Brother Daniels tells me that his process is to cut the twigs from the trees and after soaking in water, strain and boil, similar to making maple sugar. I have tested some excellent metheglin made from the same substance. Will you please to see that the cakes are delivered. Yours Truly, Elder Lucius N. Scoville." On February 24, 1856, he was called to journey to Green River, Wyoming to conduct a party of pioneers from that point to the Salt Lake Valley. The trip from the middle west was always made under the guidance of an experienced plains guide, but from Wyoming to the valley it was the habit of the leader& to send a man out to complete the trip. After returning from the Green River he again took up work in public office, this time as County Recorder. It was here that he met Hannah Mans Marsden, and on September 16, 1856, at the Endowment House in Salt Lake they were married by President Brigham Young. In 1857 he reported to the Deseret News that potatoes and farm produce was plentiful, that the business of the Madison Fisheries was doing well, trout were plentiful and the industry of making fish oil was flourishing. On December 14, 1858, he was appointed Clerk of the Second Judicial Court and I in the following year, 1859, was made a Notary Public. This office at that time was considered rather important, in-as-much as a Notary seal was not as easy to require or as common as in the present time. He was hardly more than home and settled than he was again called into the mission field. This time much further from home and family. He was to travel almost the width of the country as his mission was to be performed in the States of New Jersey and New York. He was called September 9, 1860. This mission as well as being performed so much further from home was to keep him away a great deal longer. He did not return for almost three years as it was July 22, 1863, when his family once again saw him. His daughter Mrs. Nina Scoville Wignal, has a letter written by him to his family on May 16, 1861. This letter gave a great many facts about the Civil War, conditions as he saw them, as caused by the great war that was to decide whether this nation was to stand as one or as a nation divided. He also speaks at length of his experience in the mission field, the hardships that were their lot to suffer, which were made much worse than in ordinary times because of the war. After returning from his New York mission, he bought a small farm which was located just North of Springville and East of where the State Game Farm is now located. After building two small houses on this property, he and his wives moved to their new home where they intended to make a living. Here he started a small broom factory, from which he supplied the neighboring towns with the only ready-made brooms they could buy. These brooms were made entirely by hand. The cane and corn that was used in the broom part was planted and raised on the farm, the handlers were out of oak and hickory trees, then whittled and scraped to make handles. All of this work he did himself. Vegetables and other farm products were also raised on the farm. There were a few fruit trees, and in season he would take an assortment of fruits and vegetables, and brooms and travel south to the many small towns that were becoming more settled every year. Traveling by wagon and mule team, it would sometimes take him more than a week to cover all of the towns as far south as Manti in San Pete County. His business was growing all the time, and he felt very thankful that he had a home and a good living in this new section where at last the people were free from the persecution that they had suffered so long. (Due to the loss of diaries and notes kept by Lucius N. Scoville, very little is known of his life from the time of his buying the farm at Springville until his 80th birthday on March 18,1885, when a family reunion and celebration was held in his honor.) |