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Show Sunday. April 1, DAILY 2007 HERALD The Hi STORY PAGE B3 GOT HISTORY? The Daily Herald is looking for interesting stories about local history for this weekly page. Make suggestions or submit material by to Executive Editor Randy Wright, rwrightheraldextra.com. Or mail to the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 717, Provo, UT 846030717. No phone calls please. The hall the Cluff brothers built D. ROBERT CARTER or slightly more than tour decades, a large, adobe building stood on the northeast corner of the intersection of 200 North and 200 East. This structure once claimed the title of Provo's largest building. For years it served as the growing settlement's main social center and manufactur- F I i two-stor- ing hub. Residents called it duff Hall, and Provo's duff family felt proud to have it bear their name. After all, it was largely their industry, perseverance, skill and hard work that built it. Family beginnings David Cluff Sr., the patriarch of Provo's Cluff clan, hailed from Nottingham, N.H., where he learned the shipbuilding trade. At age 29, David and his first mate, Elizabeth "Betsy" Hall, launched their life together on matrimonial waters. The Cluf f crew eventually grew to include 11 sons and a solitary daughter. Betsy also raised the son of David's second mate, Hannah Chapman, so there were actually 12, boys in the family. While traveling on a canal boat in about 1830, David met Martin Harris, who was serving his first mission for the LDS Church. Harris interested Cluff in Mormonism, and David's family joined the new religion. In order to gather with fellow church members, the Cluf fs moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and then on to Nauvoo, 111. In 1850, the family started for the Great Basin in the Edward Hunter Company. They arrived in Salt Lake City in early October. After spending a few days in that city, the Cluf f s traveled south to Provo, where they arrived on Oct. 8 and camped on the Provo River near Fort Utah. According to Betsy's biog- raphy, she sat on the wagon tongue following supper that night and surveyed their situation. After taking a good look at the shabby condition of g the fort and the country surrounding it, she spoke in a disheartened voice, "So, this is Provo, where we have come to make our future home. The outlook is dreary; the future is not very bright." Her young son Benjamin overheard her dejected soliloquy and replied, "Mother, remember the old adage, The darkest hour is just before the dawn of day.' " This response somewhat cheered the pioneer mother, and she responded in a slightly more positive tone, "Yes, my son, we will hope for the best and put our trust in the Lord who has never failed us." ing an experienced carpenter, David found ample work in the growing frontier community. Like most other settlers, he also took up farming to ensure a ready supply of food for his family. As soon as trouble with the Utes subsided enough to make life outside the fort safe, David and some of his older sons chose city lots and began to move onto them Most of the first duff lots were located on three blocks near what is now the center of Provo: the current tabernacle block, the block just north of it and the block immediately north of the historic Utah County Courthouse. In 1852, David duff, one of his sons (likely David Jr.) and Ross R. Rogers opened a carpentry shop in a small adobe building near the northeast corner of the tabernacle block. The Deseret News printed a February 1852 letter David wrote to Willard Richards. In this missive, duff announced the opening of the cabinet shop and wrote enthusiastically, "We manufacture almost all kinds of furniture out of the best of seasoned Box Elder; and we have now on hand the choicest kind of Box Elder, from 12 to 30 inches in width, and it is equal, if not superior, to eastern maple for dining tables." duff likely cut most of his box elder from the virgin groves bordering the Provo River. About a year after duff founded the Provo cabinet shop, his oldest son, David duff Jr. was called to Parowan to establish a cabinet business in that small southern Utah community. He did cabinet work and farmed in Parowan for about six years. In the spring of 1859, David Jr. attended LDS general conference in Salt Lake City. Shortly thereafter, he asked church authorities for, and received, permission to return to Provo to the cabinet business on a larger scale. When David Jr. arrived back in Provo, several of his brothers still lived in town. His father was serving an LDS mission in Canada and the eastern United States. His brother. William, who had just returned from a mission to Hawaii, soon left Provo again in September 1859 destined for a mission to Denmark. also referred to duff Hall as "a first class building in design, and also in strength." Provo occupied what was likely the best site for settlement in the Great Basin It was blessed with good soil and ample water for irrigation and manufacturing. LDS leaders expected the people of Provo to use these resources to rapidly develop into a manufacture ing center, but to their dismay, progress came slowly. The Deseret News hoped the construction of duff Hall indicated that the people of Provo were finally beginning "to realize their natural advantages, and we trust before long she will become a first class manufacturing city." entirely too great for the 'duff boys. " Regardless of local opinion, they started building. Each brother's interest in the structure equaled the amount of labor, material and money he invested in it. The brothers may not have been able to raise a large amount of hard cash, but they showed themselves capable of raising a large building. They achieved their goal by hard work. The duffs dug the excavation, hauled rock and sand, cut logs and transported them to the mill. They made the adobe bricks and prepared the mortar. In fact, they did almost everything but put in the foundation and lay the adobe. John Watkins, Provo's master mason, put up the walls. The duff boys raised roof trusses that they had expertly fastened together with wooden pegs. Since the iron nails made by local blacksmiths were expensive, they used wooden pegs as fasteners wherever they could in the building. The result of their labors towered wild-lookin- . bell." A variety of other public and private activities occurred in the hall during the 1860s. The Deseret News reported public lectures being held there every Tuesday evening during the winter of 1863. Each week the hall saw "large and attentive audiences, which speaks the interest that is taken in them." The fact that two choirs and a band presented music during these meetings likely helped keep the audience awake and above all of Provo's other ' Carrying on buildings. Travel- ers frequently visited the east part of town just to see Cluff Hall attentive. as it came to be called. David and Harvey carried busion the furniture-makin- g ness for many years, and they provided employment for local artisans. D.F. William Christiansen, a recent convert to Mormonism, was one of these craftsmen. He arrived ' Cluff Hall in the Great Basin in 1864 and The result of their labors worked for Dinwoody's Furniture in Salt Lake City for a towered above all of Provo's short time before moving to other buildings. Travelers frequently visited the east part of Provo, where he found employtown just to see duff Hall, as it ment working for the duffs. came to be called. Christiansen made and A letter written to the Derepaired wagons and built coffins. He also made dolls, seret News in August 1860 described the new structure. The sleighs, rocking horses and paper said the duffs installed a wagons for children He left cabinet shop on the lower level Provo to live in Pleasant Grove in 1868. The west room contained a In addition to his work as a lathe, two circular saws and an cabinetmaker, David Jr. built upright saw. coffins in duff HalL and he A 10-- f oot-taby four-fowide undershot waterwheel - a performed the duties of an wheel propelled by the water undertaker. For a few years, his showroom was in the Lewis that ran under it - provided Building on the corner of Cenpower to run the machinery. The East Union Canju, a coter Street and 300 West. When David duff Jr. left for operative effort of the duffs and other families who owned a mission to Australia in 1875, land in the bench area of Provo he sold his interest in the furniin the 1850s (roughly the area ture business to George White. east of 200 West), provided Harvey duff remained in the furniture business and water to run the wheel. took a partner named Booth. The duffs used the east In 1877, duff and Booth built a room on the lower level as a two-storadobe place to construct furniture. The brothers kept a stock of furniture store on the east side of Center Street between Unifurnishings on hand for customers to choose from. Their versity Avenue and 100 East. After David Jr. returned new business commenced durfrom his Australian mission, ing the fall of 1860. he took up the undertaking The second story of duff Hall contained a painting room business once more. His July 9, room 1881, ad in Provo's Territorial and a large used as a school, dance hall, Enquirer reads: "The oldest and only Undertaker in Provo meeting room and theater. After inspecting the structhat keeps a full and complete stock of Undertakers goods on ture, the News correspondent Joint business venture complimented the duff broth- hand. Coffins, from the cheapest to the most elaborately ers by stating: "The boys deserve great credit for the It had long been Father trimmed, furnished on short notice at the old stand." duff's wish "that his sons industry and perseverance should unite in business and they have shown thus far in this undertaking. People spoke Other activities pull together." David Jr. and several of his brothers likely discouragingly and some maniSeveral types of activities fested opposition, but the boys Moses, Benjamin and Harvey stuck to their text and have started a cooperative busibegan in the upstairs multisucceeded almost beyond their purpose room soon after it ness venture early in 1860. was finished in the fall of 1860. expectations." They began construction of a adobe The LDS Church used local The Deseret News recognized David duff Jr.'s skill as industrial and agricultural building on the corner of 200 Life in Provo a carpenter and cabinet maker. fairs to encourage improveNorth and 200 East. ment and foster unity in each Since none of the broth In October 1860, the News The duffs soon moved into settlement. Local leaders held ers had much ready cash, the Provo's second fort located stated, "duff's specimens of Provo's fair in duff Hall in near the present North Park at people of Provo regarded the carpentry would do honor to 1860 and for several succeed 500 North and 500 West. Be any builder." The newspaper project "as an undertaking -- ll years. In November 1865, Provo held a ball in honor of Daniel H. Wells. According to the Deseret News, "Dancing continued until a late hour, and all went merry as a marriage lis , multi-purpo- two-stor- y, ing years. The Deseret News reported that in addition to the regular fruits, vegetables and manufactured articles, the fair held in Cluff Hall in 1865 included cloth, some "good home-mad- e exquisite needle work and penmanship, and a few curiosities." (Curiosities were likely common in Provo.) The duffs sponsored the first public dances in their hall at Christmastime in 1860. The family donated all of the money they made to help buy a bell for Provo's first tabernacle, which stood just north of Provo's current tabernacle. Samuel Sampson Cluff remembered that first dance for the rest of his life. In a roundabout way, it helped win him a wife. Samuel decided he was ready for marriage and selected Miss Frances Worsley as his potential partner. Three grand dances were scheduled for the holiday season in 1860, and Samuel asked Frances to be his partner for the first one. Possibly playing hard to get, she refused his invitation, claiming she had already been asked. Samuel formulated a plan of action that through the years has trapped more than one wily female. Without delay, he asked Miss Whipple, one of Provo's foremost belles, to accompany him to the dance. She accepted without hesitation. On the night of the grand ball, Frances immediately noticed Samuel enter the new hall with Miss Whipple on his arm. Samuel caught the cagey girl of his dreams in his trap. Frances immediately changed her mind about wanting Samuel to court her. She accepted his next invitation. Twenty-four-year-o- ld According to Frances's sage Pending the completion of the Provo Meeting House (first tabernacle), citywide Sunday religious services took place in duff HalL On rare occasions, the congregation attending these meetings heard a plea for tolerance similar to that recorded in the Minutes of Provo Stake on December 12, 1866: "The gentiles would like to come among us, we must receive them at our gates in a friendly manner, Not curse them simply because they are gentiles.".fhe upcoming Christmas season apparently helped soften the normally bombastic rhetoric heard over the pulpit in early Provo. In the faU of 1877, other LDS Church groups also used duff Hall. Provo's Second Ward outgrew the small adobe building they were using for a schoolhouse and a church. The ward temporarily used duff Hall until a larger building could be erected a half block west of the original one. Even Provo's small but growing Masonic Lodge used duff Hall. For about nine months in 1872, the lodge leased the hall before moving their meetings to Benjamin Bachman's house. BYU precursor In a very broad sense, duff Hall served as the preexistence of Brigham Young Academy's development, In 1861, Warren Dusenberry taught school in Provo's LDS First Ward. The next year he rented duff Hall for $50 a month and started a school of his own. He made the desks himself. Dusenberry left his school to start a private business and serve an LDS mission in 1865. When he returned to Provo in 1869, he and his brother Wilson started a school in the Kinsey Building. It was so successful, they expanded to the Lewis Building on 300 West Center Street. They used the same desks in the Lewis Building that Warren had manufactured for his school in suitor, "The flame of love kept burning brighter and brighter until on the 19th day of May, 1861 ... we were united in the holy bonds of matrimony." Other dances of a similar type occurred in duff Hall throughout the following duff Hall. This new institution became known as the Timpanogos Branch of the University of Deseret which became the predecessor of Brigham Young Academy. So, you see, it all started in duff Hall. 65th anniversary of imprisonment of WWII Japanese Americans the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Friday's gathering also celebrated efforts to build a $5 BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, million memorial at the Wash. Fumiko Hayashida site where Japanes Americans leaned heavily on her cane as were brought to board the the beat of taiko drums reverberated along the south shore ferry. It's to be called Nidoto Nai Yoni, Japanese for "let it v of Eagle Harbor. not happen again." Around her stood former About $2.6 million has been politicians and war veterans secured for the project so far, who had come to help mark the 65th anniversary of the im- including $2 million from the prisonment of Japanese Ameri- state. The memorial already features trails, footbridges, cans living on Bainbridge Island during World War II. gates and a pavilion. Later this At 96, Hayashida is the oldyear, construction is to begin on a 272-foest Bainbridge survivor of 227 "story wall," with men, women and children who an interpretive center and 150-fowere herded onto the ferry pier planned in future Kehioken and taken to internphases. "I thought nobody cared, ment camps. They were the first of nearly 120,000 people of Hayashida said at Friday's Japanese descent on the West , dedication. "I'm very happy. I Coast to be rounded up after hope I live to see it done." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS re The US. House last month voted 4194 in favor of a bill sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, to give national park status to the site. The measure, expected to be approved by the Senate, would make the memorial a satellite of the Minidoka Internment National Monu - ment in Idaho. Hayashida testified before Congress in support of the bill She and others boarded the ferry from Bainbridge on March 30, 1942, then were taken by train to Manzanar, a remote camp in California's Mojave Desert. 801-22U0- wttffliinfiHrj:teiM . 7TLfHf7T7Vx "Gem Talk" THE WEDDING RING mi Feller ot The custom If giine a ring at the time of betrothal originated with the Romans. Since the wearing of gold was permitted only to the nobility, the first engagement rings were Iron and contained no The betrothal, while solemn, was not unbreakable. gem-stone- 4 ' ' it U k ' I U fu- -i p'tUtilM li'tl, . to if y j'v HIM: Itl 9 31 s. By the third century, Rome had converted to Christianity ana me pugnting of troth was Incor frwatirb porated into the marriage ceremony. The engage ment ring, now gold, became a wedding ring symbolizing an unbreakable contract The practice ofpladng the ring on the third finger of the left hand also originated with the Romans. They believed this finger contained a win directly connected to the heart. Wil FfflcT b the otkt of Goldsmith Co. Jewelers 120 No.t'nhrrsityAve. HI !TOVO w pldvmiih(rrkTj com |