-- Friday, Mar 16, 1999
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
I was at the office of President Lorenzo Snow most of the day.
Josephine and I attended a Relief Society meeting and had supper in the 12th Ward. It was to commemorate the organization of that body 58 years ago tomorrow. Papers were read by the sisters and I spoke a few minutes. (1)
-- Mar 22, 1900; Thursday
At eleven o'clock in the forenoon the regular council of the Presidency and the twelve met in the Temple. There were present: Presidents Lorenzo Snow, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith; Brigham Young [Jr.], Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, George Teasdale, Anthon H. Lund, Abraham O[wen]. Woodruff and Rudger Clawson. Elder Matthias W. Cowley was visiting in the Southwestern States mission. ...
A communication was read from a committee representing the
Latter-day Saints College, consisting of John C. Cutler, Spencer Clawson, William B. Dougall and Joshua H. Paul, setting forth the needs of the school in relation to additional room, and suggesting the idea of running up the News building two stories higher than now contemplated, for college purposes. No definite action could be taken in this communication for the reason that President Snow was doubtful whether the building could be erected during the present year, in fact he was of the opinion that it could not be; and again, the needs of the college as to additional room would depend on the ability of the Church to appropriate means to any extent for this purpose. In the event of inability on the part of the Church to extend the usual assistance to the college, the College Board would perhaps deem it necessary to curtail its studies and thereby reduce the number of students.
President Snow requested the brethren, in their visits to the Stakes, to hold meetings with the Bishops and their counselors and the Stake Presidencies, and urge upon them the necessity of their taking up a private labor themselves with the non-tithe-payers of their several wards, and not leave such matters to the ward Teachers. It was suggested that a former action of the council was that this very thing should be done. ...
Elder Brigham Young reported his late visit into San Juan [Utah/Colorado], Maricopa [Arizona] and Snowflake [Arizona] Stakes. At Maricopa he found that President [Collins R.] Hakes was anxious to have a ward in Tonto Basin organized. The trip to this place was a hard one and a long one, being 110 miles [to] the Reno mountains. Lyman Leavitt was made Bishop of this ward, which is called Pine Ward, and his counselors were two young men who were chosen with the idea that they would have power in uniting the hearts of the people in that place, as the feeling existing had not been the best. At San Juan, he said, he felt impressed to act upon a suggestion made to him by Elder Francis M. Lyman before he went south, to the effect that Brother Burnham, of Fruitland [New Mexico], ought to be ordained a Patriarch, and therefore he had ordained him. While there he wrote recommending the division of the San Juan Stake. At Fruitland, a few years ago there were only three families, whereas now there are five hundred. The Gentiles there were selling out their homes, and remarkably cheap places were being bought up by our people. It seemed that a spirit was operating upon the Gentiles of that place to move away. At Farmington, the Gentiles were also selling out, and many excellent ranches were being disposed of. For instance, a place he happened to know of consisting of 160 acres, with 1200 bearing trees on it, and forty acres of it in lucern, with water rights and good house and barn, was being offered for $2,200. The eastern half of the stake should have a man, he thought, presiding over it who could be laboring among the people continually. President Francis M. Hammond lives at the northwest corner of the stake, and has to drive 150 miles to get to the first settlement east on the desert. ...
Referring to the increased work of the ward clerks, President Cannon asked if it would not be a good plan to permit the
presidents of Stakes to authorize the ward clerks to charge a fee of ten cents as a means of remuneration, since for the work they do they receive no compensation. Agreeable to this Elder Lyman moved that the clerks be permitted to charge ten cents for each recommend issued by him, either of removal or to the Temple. The motion was carried.
Elder Lyman now spoke of the unsatisfactory state in which the history of the Southern mission was in. Some years ago Elder James G. Bleak was appointed to write up the history of the colonization, growth and development of the southern mission, and he regards himself as its historian, but no history to speak of has been compiled. In talking with some leading brethren in St. George [Utah] on this subject it was their mind that Brother Bleak ought to be released from the position he holds in the Temple to devote his time exclusively to compiling this history, a great deal of the data he is supposed to have in a systematized form. Brother Lyman moved that he be released for this purpose, and that he be instructed to devote his whole time in the performance of this work and to bestow upon it his best thought and close attention. The motion was carried. ...
At the close of the Council the Presidency returned to the office. An order for $1,200. in favor of Bishop Theodore Brandley, of Sterling, Canada, was issued. This amount was advanced to the people of Sterling to enable them to purchase wire with which to fence their lands and to purchase seed grain. They are to give their notes to the Church according to an agreement prepared by the attorney, F[ranklin]. S. Richards, and Bishop Brandley is to see that the notes are given and paid.
An order for $411.25 in favor of Presiding Bishop's office was also issued. This order is for Canada lands turned over to M[ilton]. D. Hammond, agent, by people who had worked on the canal on their tithing account. Brother Hammond holds the script representing the amount of these lands, and the people turning in the scrip receive the credit for the same at $3.00 an acre on the Bishop's books. A similar order (No. 307) was issued on the 6th inst., for $797.90. Brother Hammond is charged with the same. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
2 - First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes
LDS History Chronology: Lorenzo Snow
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Lorenzo Snow
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
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