Renewing a heritage

When he was a kid, Kent Lott cherished hearing about how his great-grandfather left Sweden as a young boy and then walked and walked and walked and walked across the Plains with the Mormon pioneers in the mid-19th century.

Lott's grandmother used to beam with pride when recounting how her father hoofed almost the entire route to the Salt Lake Valley, only hitching a wagon ride for one day because of a leg injury.

Andreas Anderson's cross-country trek — which thankfully doesn't include any mention of being uphill in the snow both ways — was one of the first stories Lott, now 69, remembers being told. And it made a lasting impression.

The same goes for Louise Huefner, who grew up hearing how her great-grandmother picked berries as she traveled with pioneers. Huefner, 74, listened with wide eyes and ears as her mother and grandmother described the scenes her ancestor witnessed as she watched Nauvoo burn and mobs push her family toward Utah.

Orson Wright, 76, was enthralled learning about how his great-grandpa migrated here from Philadelphia in the early '60s — the 1860s, he clarifies with a chuckle — and became a bodyguard for Brigham Young and how another great-grandfather headed West and helped design the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle and the ZCMI facade.

These direct descendants of Utah pioneers now are among those who over the years have assumed the roles of storytellers and are sharing their precious heritage heirlooms with younger generations.

"It is absolutely vital to pass down these histories," Huefner said, "because we don't understand ourselves or our own worth until we know about our ancestors."

But keeping the pioneer past alive is the ongoing trial facing the two biggest pioneer organizations in the state — the International Society of Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the National Society of Sons of Utah Pioneers.

Recruiting members

The biggest challenge of late for these daughters and sons is trying to attract a few more grandsons and granddaughters to join their aging organizations.

"I think the farther and farther away we get from the pioneer era, the less interest there is on the part of younger people coming up," said Lott, national SUP president. "I think it's important for us to understand and realize the heritage we have because of what the pioneers did for us and to preserve that (heritage) and maintain an interest in whatever way we can."

Huefner, a historian for the DUP, whose mother and grandmother also were members, agrees.