essay contest

Jacob had to write a 200-300 word essay about one of his ancestors for Utah history.  A little contest was sponsored by the local Sons of the Utah Pioneers chapter for the best essay.  He chose to write about his great-great grandfather, John William Platt (Mark's side of the family). He won second place in his class and got a certificate and $5! Way to go Jacob!

Here's his essay:
John William Platt is my great-great-grandfather.  He was born in 1858 in southern Utah near St. George.  He was the oldest of 12 children and his family was very poor.  Their home was made of rocks, trees and mud.  He started going to school when he was a child.  He loved school even though it meant he would have to leave his family and live for the winter with another family in St. George.  In the summers he herded cows and helped with the farming.
When he was young he learned how to build things like houses and helped with the construction of the St. George Temple, but his favorite thing was school.  His parents encouraged him to go to school even though they never had that chance.
Later in his life his family thought that with the money they saved they could buy sugar for jam.  But in the same year that they had saved enough money, John got his mission call to New Zealand.  His family agreed to use the sugar money and everything else they could save to pay for his mission.  John spent most of his mission teaching people to read and write.  The last six months of his mission he finally taught people about his church.
Before and after his mission, he attended Brigham Young Academy and was one of the first students there.  He was also the first of his family to attend college.  After he was done with his schooling he became a teacher in southern Utah.  For his first job he was assigned a group of students that had been so obnoxious that they made their previous teacher leave! John believed in discipline and soon had the class in control and the students grew to like him.  During this time he boarded with a local family and fell in love with one of their daughters, Mina Berry, and they were married.  They had 12 children.  He continued to be a teacher for many, many years, teaching drama as well as the basics -- reading, writing, and math.
He saw lots of changes in his life.  Horses and wagons were replaced by cars.  He even owned a Model T Ford, but turned out to be a bad driver.  He is a pioneer because he was a teacher when a lot of children didn't get the chance to go to school.  He spent much of his life making sure children in small towns and people who were poor could get an education.  He died when he was 85 years old.  John William Platt was a pioneer.