52W Mark III – Week 34: Member of the Club

My Gx3 grandfather, William Burgess, was an active member of his community. In addition to participating in local politics as a school board trustee and later as an alderman, he was involved in a variety of social activities.

William was one of the original Mormon settlers of Utah, having travelled west with Brigham Young’s company, in a party of 1220 individuals. William and his first wife, Maria Pulsipher, arrived in 1848 and first settled in Huntington. Within a year, they had relocated to Salt Lake City. In 1852, William entered into a polygamist marriage with my Gx3 grandmother, Charlotte Liggett. The family then moved to Lehi in 1854.

William was one of the founders of the Lehi Dramatic Club. On February 16, 1855, he obtained the necessary licence to produce plays from the town, without fee. The club performed in Lehi’s log schoolhouse, using tallow candles for footlights and painted wagon covers for scenery and curtains.

The first productions of the club were plays called “Luke the Labourer” and “Priestcraft in Danger”. The former, a melodrama written by John Baldwin Buckstone in 1826, is the tale of a farm worker and his turbulent dealings with his former employer. The latter, by William M’Ghie, was first published in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, a periodical in Manchester, England, on May 15, 1849.

I doubt William actually performed on stage. Rather, I believe he was one of the people working behind the scenes overseeing the operations of the club. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that he may have been treading the boards!