West to Prosperity: FUTURES

 

PICTURED (clockwise): Will Pickering, John Allen, and Charles White. William Pickering and Charles White were born in Payson in 1878, and John Allen in Santaquin,1869. 

Three friends gathered for a portrait. Three futures stretched out before them. One would win the Homestead lottery, but die tragically, at 27, after walking home alone from a night dance in a bone-chilling Uintah January. Another served Latter-day Saint missions and in church leadership roles, and in politics as councilman, mayor, county commissioner, and state legislator. The third would enforce the law as marshal of Eureka City, and oversee mines as a foreman at the Humbug and Centennial.