Emily Louise Pearce Bluemel
"I was born 18 March 1876 at Randolph, Rich County, Utah. I lived and grew up at the home of my parents, William and Mary Pearce and my three brother and five sisters.
"We raised all kinds of fruits, vegetables, beautiful flowers of all kinds and sugar cane. My parents made sorghum and molasses. They had big vats they put the juice in and boiled it until it was thick. The foam was skimmed off. We children would watch them make molasses. We had all we wanted to eat. There were lots of bees and plenty of honey. Mother made plenty of con meal and graham bread. When we had white bread, it was like getting a piece of cake.
"I worked out on a wash band for $1.50 a week until I got married which was 6 September 1894. I married William Oswald Bluemel. We moved from Randolph to Bridger Valley, Wyoming. We lived in this valley every since. In those days, it was just a sage brush desert. I helped my husband pick and burn brush so we could raise crop. He built the second house that was ever built on the bench.
" The first winter I was put here, there were only five women on the whole bench. We were so happy and such good neighbors. A branch of the Church was soon organized and was a branch of Summit County. That first winter, we held Sunday school and Church at the homes of the people who had houses big enough to accommodate the people. Soon, we built a small but larger log house on the southeast corner of Henry Bluemelís place and had all the meetings and Sunday School there. Later, the S. R. Brough homestead was selected for the town of Lyman. The old amusement hall was built. It burned down and another was built. The Relief Society and all the other organizations were organized. I have been a member of the Relief Society since its beginning. I have been a teacher for thirty years and then President of the Relief Society for two years. Then, I was a teacher and am still teaching."
It was a small one room log cabin. The next spring we built a larger two room log cabin. We then used the first cabin for a granary. In 1898 we added more rooms.
William Oswald Bluemel
"The Fort Bridger Military Reservation was abandoned in 1891. The area was thrown open for homestead entry in 1892. My brother and I went to the reservation in February 1892 and filed on land on the reservation. I moved to the reservation in June 1892 to work on my homestead and to work on the canal. I cleared brush, planted crops and built some buildings. I was married to Emily Pearce by Elder George A Peart on September 6, 1894. We started back to the homestead in Wyoming the next day with a team that took two hard days to make the trip. We cleared off more brush in the spring and planted grain and alfalfa. We had the best crop that could be raised that summer. We plowed during the day and burned the brush.
"After we had been in Wyoming for some time and before there was a church or anything except a few dances, a few of us got together and organized a meeting we called a literary society. This was held on 3 January 1895 and the following officers were selected: William Bluemel, President; Mary E. Stewart, Vice President; and T.J. Durrant as Secretary/Treasurer. We held a meeting every week starting with eleven members. This number grew to eighteen. We would have a program at the meeting which was followed by a dance and refreshments. Everyone brought something for the refreshments. Eventually, a branch of the Church was organized and the society was discontinued. The first Sunday School was organized 4 June 1896 with William T. Taneas as President, William Bluemel as first assistant and T. J. Durrant as secretary. I held this office for quite some time. I was called on a mission to the Eastern States and was set apart for the mission on 20 May 1919 by Elder Seymat B. Young. I went throught the Temple on 21 May and left for my mission, arriving in New York on the 27th. I was assigned to labor in the Pittsburgh Conference and arrived there on 29 May 1919. I was released from my mission to come home on 11 July 1920. I was set apart as President of the Young Mens Mutual with Frank Jarman and George Bradshaw as councilmen. In November, I was sustained as one of the Stake board for religious classes as well as a member of the Social Committee for dances. I was called on December 15, 1920 to preside over the Woodruff Stake Mission as President and was set apart by Elder B. H. Roberts. After the Woodruff Stake was divided January 7, 1940, I was set apart by H. Melvin Rollins as a Stake Missionary in the Lyman Stake on January 5, 1941. I was later set apart to be Stake Supervisor over the west district of the Lyman Stake by Elder Renald Bluhm. Later, I was set apart as first assistant to Elder Fred Hofer of the Adult Aaronic Priesthood Committee of the Lyman Ward by Bishop Donald Field."