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Show 1 877 to back roots date Presbyterian FLOYD: BY DEAN VON MEMMOTT (Continued from Page Special to The Daily Herald 42) In April 1861, Johnston, who had considered the Mormons to be traitors, resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army. He would later be killed in action leading rebel troops at the Battle of Shiloh. Col. Phillip St. George Cooke, who commanded the Mormon Batallion in the Mexican-America- n War, assumed command of Camp Floyd, which he renamed Fort Crittendon after its namesake joined the Confederacy. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Cooke received orders to shut down the fort, sell what his men could not carry and march back to the East. At a public auction on July 16, 1861, $4 million worth of government property was sold for $100,000. The departing troops presented Young with the flag and flagpole from the fort. The hotel remained in operation until 1947. A Pony Express station was also located near Camp Floyd. In 1964, the hotel and the few remaining vestiges of Camp Floyd were dedicated as Stagecoach Floyd State Park. Inn-Ca- AMERICAN FORK - When Albertsons's latest American Fork supermarket got built on I(X) East and Main in 1992, not all the historically significant buildings in the area got demolished. One edifice was still standing across from the store on 100 East when work on the market ended - the Community Presbyterian Church. Its roots go back to 1877 when a Rev. George R. Bird came into American Fork to set up a branch of the Presbyterian faith. Having compiled a history of that congregation. Ruth Teuscher, a local woman, said though Bird started out with five official members in September, 1877, the number of people turning out for the services was actually larger. "The church's membership has been going up and down for years." she said. "There is a segment of people who have attended our church for years but they are not communicant (official) members. They're not under any pressure to join. To become a communicant member is a personal decision." While the number of people attending services at the Presbyterian chapel has changed over the course of the past IIS vears. the building itself has remained a permanent fixture in the community. The church was a subject of a painting that had hung in a bank across Church Street from the building. "in 1995. it received notice for work beins done on its bell tower, damaged In talking by lightning in the 1950s. about that incident. Teuscher said she was living in American Fork when it happened. "The bell tower got hit by lightning in a bad summer storm on July 12. '952." she said. "1 didn't know it had been damaged until I showed up for church sen ices the following morning. Newspaper accounts say that the lightning bolt went down through the w eathervane that stood on the tower at the time and blew pieces of wood out as far as 30 or 40 yards. It was the only lightning strike in the area that night." In the aftermath of the destruction, the weather vane was replaced by a tall, steel cross. In the intervening years, minimal repair was done on the 6-f- tower. Teuscher said that when the Presbyterians celebrated the church's 100th anniversary, some of them wanted to have the bell tower restored to its original condition. Eighteen years later, a group of their Mormon neighbors came forward with an offer to help them. Phyllis Crookston, chairwoman of American ill Another Smith's Exclusive "crib for life" Fork's Centennial Committee, said, were "They (the Presbyterians) pleased when we offered to have the restoration of the bell tower as our Legacy Project for Utah's Centennial." To fund the restoration project, she said, the committee sold 2.000 copies of a cook book tilled American Fork Historical Recipe Book. "The copies were all sold before Christmas." Crookston said. "Copies of it went to a lot of states. Some went to New York and others to Alabama." She said her committee is having more copies of the book printed so the group can have money for other Legacy Projects in American Fork through the course of 1996. In reflecting on the Centennial Committee's role in the bell tower's restoration, Crookston said, "Besides celebrating our state's centennial year, we're showing the necessity of helping everyone in American Fork regardless of religion." She added when the work on the tower is completed, the bell is going to be rung 100 times in commemoration of Utah's 100 years of statehood. The scaffolding has recently been removed from the work site. is the oldest used The chur'-Presbyteria.! i'Ui..:;ngin Utah. That isa fact that makes all the more significant the link that the structure has to American Fork's frontier past. 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