We need not think the lives of those early Saints was one big round of persecution, and of being driven from one place to another, for apparently it was not so. Wherever the Saints were they tended to have music—singing or dancing. We read from Father Morley’s history that the Latter-day Saints at the Morley settlement enjoyed peace during 1841 and a fair degree of material prosperity resulted from their labors. There were dances and social affairs to add to the interest of life. The young folks would gather in the evening, clear brush and rubbish away, and make merriment in dancing, playing games, and having spelling matches. Amos Cox and Sam Gifford played the violins at the dances.
During that second year more land was cleared. Typical of Mormons, they built a schoolhouse. They had good vegetable gardens and farms. They had no fruit except the wild fruits; strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and plums which were abundant. In the fall they gathered the wild walnuts, butternuts and hickory nuts and stored them for winter. One youngster said, “We would spend some of the long winter evenings cracking nuts, and not a few jokes with them.”37
37- Cordelia Morley’s History - Entertainment of Saints, cracking nuts and jokes
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