Today we went to the Payson Utah Temple Open House. Jill and her family went today too, but at a different time. It was beautiful inside. The decor reminded me of turn-of-the-century times, like 100 years ago. I could picture Harriet Stark Wride or Emily Beckstead Fillmore sitting on sofas of that style, although the grandeur of the building would probably be beyond their imagination. It was ornate, lovely, detailed, and peaceful. You can see a slideshow here showing more of the inside, please watch it, it shows everything better than I can.
There was a theme of apple blossoms in the stained glass, woodwork, and doorhandles, etc., which is significant because both the Wride's and Fillmore's had orchards. There was even a painting of a woman using an apron to collect apples. In a tribute Grandma Gwen wrote of her mother Harriet, she mentioned how she (Gwen) would climb up the trees and toss apples to her mother, and Harriet would catch the apples in her apron. So that painting is for us!
There were also wheat patterns in the glass, and the tile on the floor looked like quilting patterns. I'm so amazed at all the handcrafted details that are so appropriate to the region.
After the tour, we drove around Payson and Grandpa showed us where his aunts lived and where he used to play with cousins. We stopped here at Peteetneet School, established in 1901, where Grandma Gwen went to school and her sister Mary taught. It's a Utah Historic Site.
Peteetneet is a Ute word. The town could have been called that (there are stranger Utah town names like Parowan, Hurricane, Laverkin, Tooele, Orderville), but it was named after a guy named Pace. This monument honors the Ute people. The kids tried to look stoic.
Then we stopped by the Payson cemetary to see if we could find some of the relatives we learned about yesterday. After searching and clever detective work we found Gwen's parents, Harriet & Lewis. We were so excited to find them and the other Wride relatives surrounding them. We took a four generation photo.
