A photo of a pioneer home in Mendon, Utah, with a milk stand in front.

(USU Special Collections & Archives, Folklore Collection 67)

Leland and Barbara Larsen talk about taking cows to pasture.

Mendonites used to know the name of every person, dog, and cow who lived there. As each of the cows came back from pasture, they would know where home was. Even if the cow ended up at the wrong barn, the barn's owner would immediately know where the cow belonged and who to return them to. 

But if a cow did go into the wrong barn, the owner would know their name and where their home was to return them to.

To listen to Barbra Larsen as she remembers getting treed by a black bull when she was a child, click on the audio recording. Barbra Larsen was out with the cows down the road when the bull chased her up a tree. Her mother eventually found and rescued her after she had been missing most of the morning.

Charles Ladle was well known for his dairying and he would deliver milk in his horse-drawn cart. He started milking cows in 1918 and would take his horse around town early in the morning to drop off milk cans and then pick them up in the afternoon. Farmers would put the milk cans on a platform, known as “milkshakes,” named because when the containers were lifted up onto the platform it would shake the milk.

In the videos below, residents talk about the history of dairying in Mendon, Charlie Ladle, and driving the cows to pasture.

It was a great childhood. Everybody knew everybody. You know, Fred Sorensen one time said that in Mendon, he said he, “Knew all the people on a first-name basis, most of the horses and half of the dogs.” —Paul Willie