George Caldwell Pyper "Papa" was born May 31, 1880 in Nephi, Juab County, Utah. He is the oldest child of James Munro Gardner Pyper and Nancy Jane Caldwell Pyper. His father's first wife Many Ann Barton Pyper died after bearing five children, so Papa was the sixth child of his father's fourteen sons and daughters.
The name of the town at the time of Papa's birth was actually Salt Creek, because the creek or stream was salty. The name of the town Nephi comes form the Book of Mormon. As with most settlements in Utah, Nephi's founders were Mormons or member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Agriculture was the first industry. Farming and Livestock have always been important in the Nephi area. The settlers traced the source of the salt in the creek to a cave in the canyon east of town and they began to mine it. They mined it until 1925 when it became unprofitable to compete with the bigger companies on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.
Papa's father worked as a Store Clerk, Bar-tender and freighter. While freighting, His father would be gone from home for several weeks at a time and the young family would be on its own. His father found new work in the flour mill at Fairview, Utah. Papa was 5 years old when they moved to Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah. Papa attended school and remembered his teachers Annie Stevens and Guy C. Wilson. There were memories of the usual boyhood pranks like swiping eggs from the hen house and buying candy at Hansen's store. His father also worked at Hansen's Store and Terry's Sawmill. It seemed like a never ending search to find work, better work, and more work to provide for the growning family.
When Papa was 8 years old, his parents took their four sons: George Caldwell, Charles Munro, Alexander Leo and William Wallace to the Manti Utah LDS Temple. James and Nancy were Sealed as husband and wife along with their sons being Sealed to them. The date was September 27, 1888. It was a long but joyous trip and remained in Papa's memory as one of the great monents in his life and particularly of those happy times in Fairview.
