--part1_0.79476f00.256e3c69_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit THANKS SO VERY MUCH FOR THE GREAT STORY WILFORD...I TOO TAKE PRIDE IN OUR WOOLSEY HERITAGE....I GIVE THANKS FOR THEIR UNDYING FAITH, COURAGE, STRENGTH AND WILLINGNESS TO GO FORTH AND CONQUER THE UNKNOWN....THESE WOOLSEYS ARE TRULY GREAT AND INSPIRING PEOPLE....THANKS FOR ALL YOU HARD WORK AND LABOR TO HELP US KNOW JUST WHO THEY WERE AND THEN IN TURN KNOW WHO WE ARE....RACHEL, COUSIN IN THE SOUTH.... --part1_0.79476f00.256e3c69_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: <WOOLSEY-L-request@rootsweb.com> Received: from rly-yd03.mx.aol.com (rly-yd03.mail.aol.com [172.18.150.3]) by air-yd02.mail.aol.com (vx) with ESMTP; Wed, 24 Nov 1999 22:58:19 1900 Received: from bl-11.rootsweb.com (bl-11.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.27]) by rly-yd03.mx.aol.com (v65.4) with ESMTP; Wed, 24 Nov 1999 22:57:37 -0500 Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-11.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA04267; Wed, 24 Nov 1999 19:54:22 -0800 (PST) Resent-Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 19:54:22 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19991124204942.00838100@mail.integrityonline3.com> X-Sender: wwwhit@mail.integrityonline3.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.3 (32) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 20:49:42 -0700 Old-To: Woolsey-L@rootsweb.com From: "Wilford W. Whitaker" <wwwhit@integrityonline3.com> Subject: Woolsey & Hole-in-the-Rock Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Resent-Message-ID: <Mv0brB.A.RCB.tLLP4@bl-11.rootsweb.com> To: WOOLSEY-L@rootsweb.com Resent-From: WOOLSEY-L@rootsweb.com X-Mailing-List: <WOOLSEY-L@rootsweb.com> archive/latest/635 X-Loop: WOOLSEY-L@rootsweb.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: WOOLSEY-L-request@rootsweb.com Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To all interested Woolsey researchers: When you see the words "Hole-in-the-Rock", what comes into your mind? Do names like Butch Cassidy, Etta Place, The Sundance Kid, Robert Redford, and other desperadoes, come into mind? Do you picture western badmen holing up in out-of-the way places in the badlands of Utah? Where bank robbers, train robbers and other desperate men could hide out, with the assistance of a few of their neighbors, from the law? And you wouldn't be far wrong. However, there is another 'Hole-in-the-Rock' which stands as a monument to the pioneers' courage and strength, and endurance. Even before the Mormons were settled in the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young was sending out scouting parties in every direction from Salt Lake, exploring the country and determining all the habitable areas, and as fast as he could, he sent families and groups of individuals to colonize these outlying areas. >From Fort Limhi in Idaho to San Bernardino in California, to San Juan in Utah and across the Colorado river into Colorado and Arizona and even down into Mexico, colonies were sent to raise permanent dams and school houses and churches and homes. They took with them their knowledge of irrigation and began to make the "desert blossom as the rose". And some of the Woolseys were on the cutting edge of this migration out from Salt Lake. In 1879, Joseph Smith Woolsey (s/o James Hopkins Woolsey and Lavina Patterson; s/o Joseph Woolsey and Abigail Schaeffer; s/o Richard Woolsey and Nancy Plumstead) was among the group of 70 families (250 men, women and children); with 83 wagons, 1000 head of stock, sent by the Mormon Church, under Silas S. Smith and Platte D. Lyman, to colonize the San Juan, Utah, area. They travelled unmapped areas, moving at the head of deep, slick-rock canyons as they tried to find a way down the steep canyons to the Colorado River. They spent the winter from Nov 1879 to 6 Apr 1880 in heroic effort pushing a road through the canyon-lands from Escalante, Utah, to Cottonwood Wash on the San Juan river where they founded Bluff City (now known as Bluff, Utah). San Juan area is the "Four Corners area, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico & Colorado join together. At last they found a cleft in the perpendicular canyon walls, where it was determined that it may be possible to build a road down the steep, narrow canyon. This group of pioners found this place and built a wagon road at "Hole-in-the-Rock" in Glen Canyon on the Colorado River. Part of the group began working backwards, improving the trail on which they had just come, others were sent back for supplies and dynamite. Others were dispatched to far canyon areas where trees grew and others dispatched to carry soil and brush to the head of the canyon. Others began the perilous task of leveling the steep, narrow, precarious canyon floor so that a team and wagon could descend from the head of the canyon. There were places where the floor dropped away precipituously and holes had to be blasted in the canyon walls in order to place logs which then acted as the base of the road, and brush and soil was placed on top of the logs which hung precariously over empty space for some distance. At several places, channels were cut into the canyon walls so that the inside wagon wheels would fit and keep the wagon on track. Some places were so steep that one could only walk upright with some difficulty. And mothers carrying their small children were expected to walk down this trail. At Last, they deemed it ready to travel, and the first team, of carefully picked animals, not skittish, but known horses, to make the first descent. They tied a large log behind the wagon to slow its downward flight, and attached ropes which were held by several men to keep the wagon from overtaking the team of horses. The wagon wheels would be blocked to keep them from turning. At last the intrepid driver nosed his team into the cleft of the canyon and urged his team forward. It was so steep that the team disappeared from his sight as they started down the steep incline. And the race was on. Even with all the restraints, the wagon threatened to overtake the team, and they had to be encouraged to keep moving faster, which would propel the wagon even faster, and team and wagon and driver and heavy log, and sweating men clinging to ropes, trying to keep away from the outside edge, which dropped straight down for over 1,000 feet, were soon dashing madly down hill. Horses where neighing, men shouting, babes and women left back at the head were crying, each fearing the worst, and praying for the safety of all. At last, a cry came up from the valley floor. They had all descended in safety and thus began the descent for which they had all worked so hard, that winter of 1879 and 1880. Of course, that wasn't the end of their troubles. They had to cross the turbulent Colorado and make their way up the steep canyon walls on the other side, which was as difficult, it not more so, than Hole-in-the-Rock. And Joseph Smith Woolsey was part of this great endeavor. He was married at this time and had five children, but it is not known by this writer if he took his wife and family with him on this first trip. By 1880 Joseph Smith Woolsey and family was living in Escalante, Utah, and were an upstanding pioneer family. Sincerely, Wilford W. Whitaker --part1_0.79476f00.256e3c69_boundary--