Julius Taylor, the editor of Salt Lake City’s African American newspaper, The Broad Ax, had not been in Utah long when he was invited to attend Old Folks’ Day in 1896. He wrote the following account.
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C. R. Savage, Esq., in 1874, twenty-two years ago, conceived the idea of giving the Old Folks of Utah (Utah the imperial and the matchless new State of the intermountain region), a grand, free excursion annually, and during all of the intervening years, the old folks of Utah have continued to look forward to the days on which these annual outings would occur with a great deal of pleasure, and with the happy thought of being able to assemble together at least one day in the year somewhere in these God-blessed valleys, and converse with each other about the many and the wonderful changes which they have witnessed during the past forty-nine years here in Utah…
On the journey to and from Ogden, the old folks and all others on both trains, were served with lemonade and cake by beautiful young ladies. In passing, we cannot refrain from mentioning the name of the lady who so graciously served the Broad Ax with refreshments.
We have had the pleasure of meeting a great many handsome ladies in all parts of Utah, but we are of the opinion that none of the ladies which we have heretofore met, excels Miss E. Aris, late of Lathenham, London, England… ((Emily Aris Peart Lamoreaux, 1877–1940.)) Miss Aris has resided in this fair and beautiful city of Zion for about five weeks, and she is greatly in love with the same.
President Wilford Woodruff in passing through the cars, as other elderly gentlemen, extended his hand to us, and when we inquired the name, the response came, “Wilford Woodruff.” We were somewhat embarrassed for a few moments, and President Woodruff perceiving this, he invited us to occupy the seat opposite to him and Mrs. Woodruff, which we did. After being seated, he began to converse with us on the various topics of the day. President Woodruff is a very remarkable man. He is in his eighty-ninth year, yet he does not appear to be one day over sixty. After being engaged in conversation with him for a long time, we finally came to the conclusion that there is no purer or better American than he. William E. Gladstone is the Grand Old Man of England, and Wilford Woodruff is the Grand Old Man of America. Continue reading Julius Taylor Attends Old Folks’ Day →
This story, much as it reads as though it came from the pen of Mark Twain, perhaps, or Booth Tarkington, is non-fiction, a chapter from the autobiography of Amanda Durfee Williams Woodward (1890-1973) – she went by Amy, so that’s what we’ll call her from here on out. 
