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Show Waff helped with alphabet using it, but it never gained great support and following Young's death the alphabet died. Watt served 1 6 years as personal secretary to Young, traveled with the church president to record his words and served as church reporter. His recordings were constantly con-stantly published by the Deseret News, Millennial Star, Juvenile Instructor, In-structor, etc. He taught shorthand at the University Uni-versity of Deseret and trained teachers who went throughout the territory to teach shorthand in the schools. He brought the first typewriter to Utah and promoted and edited the Journal of Discourses. His records were the beginning of the Journal History of the Church. Watt served as corresponding secretary for the Deseret Horticultural Hor-ticultural Society and as officer of the Pomological Society, which encouraged en-couraged and assisted fruit tree growers. He was a member of the Universal Scientific Society. By PAUL CHALLIS BOUNTIFUL George D. Watt, one of the developers of the Deseret Alphabet, was a well-known well-known colonizer of Davis County and prominent church and civic leader. Watt lived in Layton and built a large house for himself, six wives and 25 children. Soon after his birth in Manchester, Man-chester, England, his father joined a group of adventurers seeking the "Fountain of Youth" in America. In 1820 his father died in New Orleans of yellow fever. When he was 15 his mother married mar-ried a man with a large family, and George was sent to live with his grandmother in Scotland. For some unknown reason George was abandoned aban-doned and the street became his home. After a year in a poorhouse he was taken by a man who taught him the shoemaker's trade. At 25 he had married and he and his wife met the LDS missionaries and were converted. con-verted. Five years later the Watts left for Nauvoo and from there he was sent on a mission to Virginia and North Carolina. In England, George had studied Pitman's shorthand and in Nauvoo his talents were welcomed. He taught shorthand at the School of the Prophets and recorded speeches of the church leaders. He also served as a member of the High Council in Nauvoo, At the trial of the accused murderers of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, May 19, 1845, he took complete notes of the proceedings, pro-ceedings, contrary to court instruction instruc-tion and slipped out a few concealed conceal-ed pages at a time with various individuals. in-dividuals. It is the only accurate account ac-count of the trial, many historians claim. The defendants were acquitted. ac-quitted. In 1 846 Brigham Young sent him on a mission to Great Britain. He recorded the conferences there and studied more shorthand. He arrived home in 1851 and did most of the work on what was called the Deseret Alphabet In 1853 Mormon leaders allocated thousands of dollars to have the new alphabet cast in type in New York. Young thought it would make it easier for children to learn to read since each character had only one sound. He also thought the alphabet could aid foreigners for-eigners in learning English. Classes were held and diligent attempts at-tempts made to convert the Saints to |