ADMINISTRATIVE WORK, 1894.
Electric Power Plant in Ogden Canyon.--Saltair.--Death of His Brother,
Thompson.--Temple Work for Benjamin Franklin.--An Optimist.--Death of
A. O. Smoot of Provo.--Utah Stake Organized.--Trip to Alaska.
During the early years of President Woodruff's administration
financial pressure rested heavily upon the Church. Something like
four hundred thousand dollars, however, of personal property, which
had been confiscated, was by the order of the supreme court turned
over to the President of the Church. The Church had given its support
to certain enterprises and was, about the year 1904, under financial
responsibilities for the electric power plant in Ogden Canyon and
the Saltair pavilion. The power plant was planned to command in part
the great and growing resources in this inter-mountain region. The
capitalization necessary to launch it was beyond private capital which
at this time could be obtained for such a purpose. As time went on the
scheme proved both feasible and profitable.
The Saltair Beach, President Woodruff was persuaded, would afford the
people a resort which might be kept under some measure of control
and be run in the interests of good morals. He looked upon innocent
recreation as a part of the daily life of men, and that amusement was
harmful only when it became excessive and associated with undesirable
companionship. President Woodruff in his own life never made any
great distinction between things spiritual and things temporal. His
spirituality was so characteristic a feature of his own life that it
was associated with all that he did and said. With him, God was so
associated in the affairs of men that their daily conduct was under His
constant supervision.
In January of '94, he recorded the death of his brother, Thompson
Woodruff, who had lived to the ripe old age of eighty-nine years.
Wilford was younger than his two brothers, but lived to a greater age
than either of them. His eighty-seventh {586} birthday this year was
celebrated in the Salt Lake Temple where he was surrounded by his
faithful associates, by the general authorities of the Church, and such
members of his numerous family as could come together. There were about
two hundred and thirty present.
At his advanced age of life he took great interest in the journey of
his friends to the other side. They were going to the spiritual world,
an abode to which he looked forward, himself, with great expectations
and some measure of satisfaction. He bids his old-time and departed
friends, in his journal, a heartfelt and loving good-by. He expected to
see them before very long. During that year his sister-in-law, Sarah B.
Foss, about ninety-three years of age, died; likewise Jessie W. Fox,
the pioneer surveyor; likewise President John Morgan, a federal soldier
of the Civil War, and one of the seven presidents of Seventy.
Much of President Woodruff's meditations, as well as his hopes and
ambitions, were associated with the world beyond the veil, and yet he
was not in the least sense a fanatically visionary man. When he had
important dreams they were in harmony with his religious conceptions
and a part of his duty, both to man and God. On the night of March
19th, 1894, he had a dream which followed his meditations upon the
future life and the work that he had done for the dead. In his dream
there appeared to him Benjamin Franklin for whom he had performed
important ceremonies in the House of God. This distinguished patriot,
according to his dream, sought further blessings in the Temple of God
at the hands of his benefactor. President Woodruff wrote: "I spent some
time with him and we talked over our Temple ordinances which had been
administered for Franklin and others. He wanted more work done for him
than had already been done. I promised him it should be done. I awoke
and then made up my mind to receive further blessings for Benjamin
Franklin and George Washington."
It may be well here to record the fact that President Woodruff and
John D. T. McAllister, at the early opening of the St. George Temple
were baptized for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and
for nearly all the Presidents of the United States. The appearance,
therefore, in his dream, of Franklin, was to him a satisfying
conclusion that he had at least received {587} joyfully the blessings
that came to him from the ordinances of the Lord's House.
There is noticeable in the journal of President Woodruff a singular
satisfaction which he always took in the missionary labors of his
sons. He had been a missionary himself--a zealous, indeed an ideal
missionary, like Paul of old. The missionary spirit never left him,
he was always zealous for the spread of his faith and rejoiced in
the zeal of his sons, when like him they were laboring to spread the
truth. He refers with special pleasure to the zeal of his son Owen
who was then on a mission in Germany. He liked the spirit of the boy
as it manifested itself in letters to his mother. His writings had a
wholesome, spiritual ring to them that characterized his own missionary
life. Indeed, the young missionary who was devoting himself faithfully
to the service of the Master, whether he was of his own household or
from some other home, was always a source of pleasure to him and in his
journal he pays his compliments to these young ambassadors of the truth.
There is one peculiar characteristic noticeable in the journal of
Wilford Woodruff, it is that hopeful, joyful spirit that dwells
with ever increasing satisfaction upon the things that are good and
uplifting. He had a spirit of appreciation for the good things of
life, he loved to dwell upon the good deeds of others, and though now
and then he spoke out in prophetic utterance against the evils of the
world, he was nevertheless prone to see the good quicker than the evil.
He said in his journal of October, that year, that "Aunt Jane," the
colored sister, had been to see him. She was anxious to go through
the Temple and receive the higher ordinances of the gospel. President
Woodruff blessed her for her constant, never changing devotion to
the gospel, but explained to her her disadvantages as one of the
descendants of Cain.
In after years when President Joseph F. Smith preached the funeral
sermon of this same faithful woman he declared that she would in the
resurrection attain the longings of her soul and become a white and
beautiful person.
President Woodruff's writings generally reflect the spirit of the
times. He was always in sympathetic touch with the interests of
humanity. In large measure the sorrows of his fellow {588} men were his
sorrows, and their joys his joys. It was not in him to live separate
and apart in the world and indulge in a selfish life. We may naturally
expect him, therefore, in 1894 to feel and sense the troubles that were
brooding over the country. There were railroad strikes and there were
Coxey's armies; men were suffering for the necessities of life and
undergoing great hardship in consequence of the panic of 1893.
One of the events of this year, which was perhaps the most pleasing
of anything he enjoyed in those days was the admission of Utah to
statehood. The enabling act was signed by President Cleveland on the
17th of July, 1894. Of this event he wrote: "The struggle has been a
hard one. It has seemed as though all earth and hell were combined
against the Saints having a state government. Now we must give God the
glory."
He joined in the general celebrations of that year. Pioneer day brought
with it additional joy as it did fuller appreciation. In connection
with Utah's prospective admission to statehood he received a lengthy
letter from General Clarkson who gave at considerable length the story
of Utah's recent admission into the Union. The General gives the names
and attitude of those who used their influence against, as well as
those who used theirs for Utah's admission into the Union. There were
those who labored, no doubt, with sinister motives for statehood. They
pressed their claims upon Church authority for recognition, they sought
political preferment and some, no doubt, were deeply disappointed.
In October of that year a circumstance took place which revealed the
generous and forgiving nature of the subject of this biography. On the
25th of October, Mary Jackson Ross died. She had been the first plural
wife of President Woodruff. By him she had one son named James. Through
disappointment and dissatisfaction she left her husband and married
another man. In her later and declining years she realized the mistake
of a hasty and unwise decision. She came to President Woodruff with a
desire that he take her back again into his family for eternity. He
attended her funeral, laid her away in his own burial lot, and was in
every way thoughtful and magnanimous to her and to the children she had
borne by her second husband.
Summing up the labors of that year he said that he attended ten
conferences, preached twenty-three discourses, wrote nearly {589} one
hundred important letters, and traveled twenty-six hundred miles. All
this he did in the 87th year of his life.
The beginning of the year 1895 witnessed the continuation of the
distressing financial situation throughout the nation. The effects of
the panic were not easily overcome and there was considerable suffering
throughout the country. To meet the special needs of the suffering poor
in Nebraska, President Woodruff in January contributed in behalf of
the Church two thousand five hundred pounds of flour. The Church had
so grown in its interests and wealth that it was then in a position to
take cognizance to some extent of the poverty and depressing conditions
throughout the country.
His birthday of that year was again celebrated in the Temple. Including
the Presidency, Twelve, and leading men, and his family, with special
friends, there were about two hundred and fifty present. Among those
who had come to pay him honor on this occasion was his old life-long
friend, President A. O. Smoot, of Provo. This was the last gathering
the latter ever attended as he died in less than a week at the ripe old
age of eighty years. Speaking of President Smoot's funeral procession
he said: "It is the longest I have ever seen in Utah."
On the 20th of the April following he was again in Provo for the
purpose of reorganizing the Utah Stake. Of that circumstance he wrote:
"We met in council for the purpose of taking into consideration the
appointment of a Stake President. We had no one in our minds when we
came together. While discussing the subject the spirit of the Lord
rested upon us and designated Edward Partridge as president, with David
John and Reed Smoot as his counselors. In this we were all united."
On the 20th of March the mine explosion at Alma, Wyoming brought the
distressing news that sixty-one men had been killed. Thirty-two of
these were members of the Church. The circumstance was most distressing
to the authorities and of course brought forth expressions of heartfelt
sympathy for those bereaved.
The summer of 1895 was excessively hot, and President Woodruff at his
advanced age felt the effects of the heat more severely than ever. It
was finally decided that he pay a visit to the western coast, and on
the 25th of June, in company with his {590} counselors he left for
Portland, where he embarked on a visit to Alaska.
On his return to Utah he paid a visit to the Lake, in August, in
company with Joseph Bannigan. After taking a bath in the water he said
it was the first time he had bathed there since 1847. It was from
Bannigan that the Church borrowed a large sum of money.
During the year, political excitement ran high and considerable
sensitiveness was manifested about Church influence. Rumors and alleged
influences by leading men were constantly brought to the attention of
the President. These reports were a source of considerable annoyance.
President Woodruff said in his journal: "Papers are publishing lies
against the Presidency of the Church. Presidents of stakes and bishops
are made to say things which are false. This is done for political
effect." Any attempts to correct false political statements current
at the time only added fuel to the fire. Utah was on the eve of the
enjoyment of statehood; both parties were clamoring for supremacy.
President Woodruff frequently manifested the irritation which he felt
by the constant annoyance to which he was subjected through politicians
who were frequently appealing to him.
November 21st, 1894, he recorded the death of Lorenzo Dow Young who
had come to Utah with the pioneers. He was the last of the brothers of
President Young, and died in his eighty-eighth year. During that year
Elder Woodruff traveled five thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven
miles. His time, however, was greatly occupied by the business
interests of the Church. Its financial obligations were constantly
growing and the Church had not yet overcome the financial distress
created by the confiscation of its property and the great loss that
came to it from litigations in the courts.
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