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Show ! i STAKE CONFERENCE REPORTS ; ASJSTJtooRK I! Eloquent sermons, inspirational 'music, interesting reports, and largo congregations were features of the ; t I tenth anniversary of the organization j 'of tho North Weber stake celebrated I I at the quarterly conference held in tho j ; tabernacle yesterday at 10 a. -m. and 1 ' 2 p. m. President James Wotherspoon j I presided assisted by his counsellors, ;John V. Bluth and Francis Stratford. J "The special speakers were Apostlo f 'David O. McKay and President Scy- a mour B. Young and others who deliv- J ered addresses were President Lewis I W. Shurtliff of the Weber stake, and I President John V. Bluth and Francis I Tho conference opened with the J 'choir and congregation singing "Now Lot Us Rejoice in tho Day of Salva-tion" Salva-tion" and prayer by Elder G. S. Barker of the high council. . The stand was tastefully decorated with flowers ,and Kj ferns by the officers of the Y. L. M. I The tabernacle choir under tho direction di-rection of Prof. Joseph Ballantyne was at its best and was heard in the portrayal of realistic scenes from the raising of Lazarus, "The Woman of Samara," and tho "Crucifixion of Christ" The selections included "Give Us Thy Peace," Mildred Ware and Ii cnoir; u, iiuvc umiie anuircu vc.iu J and choir; "Hosanna," Mrs. Agnes Warner and choir; "The Woman of Samaria," Mildred Ware, Nepbi J. J 1 Brown and choir; "Father, Forgive Them," William S. Wright, Myrtle B. HIgley and choir; violin solo, "Medi- tation," Miss Mary Fisher; solo, "0, I Lord I Come," Mildred Ware with vio- ! lln obligato by Miss Fisher. The quarterly report which was read by President Wotherspoon fol-lows fol-lows in part. At this fortieth quar- Itcrly conference, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the organization of the stake, -which occurred August 2, 190S, this being the last quarterly conference of the ten-year period, a summary of the work in the stake, as shown by the annual tithing and statis- tical reports, may not be out of place Hj Organization. 1 A special conference of the Saints of the Weber stake living in the northwest north-west division as outlined at the quarterly quar-terly conference of the Weber stake, held July 19, 1908, being all that part of Weber county lying north of Twen-n Twen-n ty-fourth street in Ogden and Kanes- ville and Hooper in the county, and Ij west of Washington avenue and tho west boundaries of Pleasant View and North Ogden was held in the Ogden i tabernacle, Sunday, August 2, 1D0S, , at 10 a. m. and" 2 p. m. A' special s priesthood meeting was held August 1 at 9 a- m. in tho Third ward chapel , and another was held at the same I place at 1 p. m. on Sunday, August 2. There were present at the conference confer-ence Apostles Georgo F. Richards and B David 0. McKay, under whose direc- tion the northwest division was or- B ganized into the North Weber stake of Zion, and which embraced the fol-lowing fol-lowing ten wards, the date of their or- 1 iginal organization being shown: Har- risville, Lynn, Marriott, Ogden Third, Plain City Slaterville, West Weber, all of which were organized May 28, 1S77; Wilson, July 9, 1S84; Farr West, November 30, 1890; Warren, June 7, 1896. On the 14lh of March, 1910, the Taylor Tay-lor ward was organized out of the south part of West Weber, under the supervision of Apostles Hyrum M. Smith and south part of West Weber, under the supervision of Apostles Hyrum Hy-rum M. Smith and Orson F. Whitney, with William H. Jardine as bishop, James B. Hunter, first counsellor and Heber B. Hawkes second counsellor and Edward A. Barnes as ward clerk. On February 13, 1910, tho Ogden Tenth ward was organized under the supervision of the lato President Francis M. Lyman, with Moroni S. Marriott as bishop, and George S. Barker, Bar-ker, first counsellor and John G. Kihl-strom Kihl-strom as second counsellor, but was not set apart until March 20, 1910 under the hands of Apostle Orson F. Whitney. This ward comprises that part of the Ogden Third ward lying north of the Ogden river and west of Washington avenue, and that part of tho former Mound Fort ward lying west of Washington avenue and south of Seventh street, and extending to the . Marriott ward on the west. On October 16, 1910, the Lund and Preston wards in White Plain county, Nev., with the two branches of Ely and ton ward, all of which belonged to the St. George Stake, were annexed to the North Weber stake. Counsellor John V. .Bluth of this stake accompanied President Edward H. Snow of tho St. Goorgo stake, to these wards and branches on October 14 to IS and formerly for-merly accepted them as a part of the North Weber stake. Under date of December 26, 1911, the First Presidency advised that at their last council meeting tho North Weber stake lines were defined as follows: West to the eastern foothills of ths Sierra Nevadas, south from and Including In-cluding Humboldt to the north line of St. Georgo stake, and north of thej Southern Pacific railway to the southern south-ern lines of Box Elder stake. . On February 25, 1912, the Metropolis Metro-polis ward in Elko county, Nevada, was organized with Wilfortl A. Hyde as bishop, John B. Crapo and Simpson M. Woolf, as counsellors, under tho direction of President Francis M. Lyman Ly-man and David O. McKay. On August 27, 1914, the Ruby branch of the Metropolis ward in Elko county, Nevada, was organized as an independent indepen-dent branch with Thomas N. Terry, Jr., as presiding elder. On January 10, 1915, tho West Ogden Og-den ward was organized by cutting off that portion of the Wilson ward known as West Ogden and comprising the following fol-lowing boundaries: Weber river on the east and north to the Rio Grande bridge, then following the railroad tracks to Canal Crossing, thence westward west-ward to tho sugar factory railway spur, thence southward a'long the said spur back to the Rio Grande track, thence along the said track to tho stake line on the south, and eastward along said lino to Weber river. The eastern half of the ward was in the city limits and tho west half including the meeting house site was outside of the city limits, me organization was made under the supervision of Apostle David O. McKay, with Frederick W. Walker as bishop, Charles R. Dana and Thomas Lightfoot as counsellors. March 25. 1917, the West Warron branch of the Warren ward was organized or-ganized as an independent branch with Samuel Knight as presiding elder and Daniel H. Wright as branch clerk. Thur the stake has grown from ten wards in 190S, to thirteen wards and branches in Weber county and four wards and one branch in Nevada, making a total of seventeen wards and two branches, nineteen in all. v Oldest Bishop The oldest bishop from point of service ser-vice in the stake is Bishop James A. Slater of the Slaterville ward, he being be-ing bishop of that ward at the timo the stake was organized and had been for several years prior therto. The youngest bishop in point of service ser-vice and years is Charles R. Dana of the West Ogden ward, he having been ordained October 14, 1917. Of the fifty-nine original officers of the stake, there remains only nine, and two of them have had a break in the ten-year term. The remaining original or-iginal officers are: James Wotherspoon, stake presid-dent: presid-dent: John V. Bluth, first councillor; Haskell II . Shurtliff and Emll Back-man Back-man of the high council, the Latter having been released to become bishop bish-op of the Harrisville ward and after serving in that capacity for some years, being honrably released on removing re-moving from tho ward. Ho was again taken into the council as an alternate member on his return. Georgina G. Marriott, president of the Relief Societies. Sister Marriott was released June 29,1916, because of ill health, but after an absence of about a year and a half, she was re-sustained re-sustained on a vacancy again occurring occur-ring by the removal of Sister Lucy A. Steers who had presided in the interim. in-terim. Eliza F. McFarland, president of tho Y. L. M. I. Association is the only one of the auxiliary stake presidents who has remained for the full ten years. James M. Thomas, president of the Y. M. M. I. A. removed only four months ago intd Idaho and has since that date become second counsellor in the Teton stake presidency. Of tho original members and alternates al-ternates of the High Council, nine have moved out of the stake, four have been made bishops, M. S. Marriott, Moroni Chugg, Timothy P. Terry, Lawrence W. Schemer; one bishop's counsellor, Ellas S. King; and one, William Van Dyke has been recently released because of ill health, he being be-ing the senior member of tho council since June 26, 1913. Four of the present pres-ent members of the council are bishops bish-ops Henry J. Garner, William Z. Terry, Emuel Bachman and Henry T. Maw. Record of Stake During the ten years there have been in the stake 2,111 baptisms, 2,526 children blessed, 2,123 births, 519 deaths; 56S temple marriages, 452 civil civ-il marriages, 133 missionaries departed depart-ed and 110 missionaries returned. The tithing and fast offering records show that these two principals are well ob- i t n i - r The following wards have built now meeting houses: Ogden Tenth, $12,000; Taylor $12.-000; $12.-000; Slaterville.$12,000; Lynn $12,000; McGlll, Nevada, $2,500. Tho follow-ingohave follow-ingohave added amusement halls: Harrisville $9,000; Marriott $9,000; Plain City $10,000; Taylor $6,000; or a total of $91,500 in building meeting house, class rooms and halls. This does not include repairs, renovations or remodeling. This has all been paid I and there is no indebtedness. The records show that during the I 5BgBga I past ton years 268S recommends have been issued and signed for varfous teraplo ordinances. Of these 67 have been for marriages. One Out of Every 22 Our people are striving to do their part in tho great struggle In which wo arc now engaged the fight for tho preservation of our rights and liberties. liber-ties. Our ward flags show 267 of our members in tho army, navy, marines, medical corps and other branches of tho government service. This represents repre-sents one gone out of every 22 of our population of men, women and children. chil-dren. If the same ratio were maintained main-tained throughout the nation, there would now be over four and a half million of our boys, either in training or at tho front. Tho groater portion of these boys have been taken from those active as officers or members of auxiliary and priesthood organizations, making necessary many re-organizations and adjustments. Liberal donations have been made by tho people of tho stake to Liberty bonds, War Savings Stamps, Red Cross, soldier welfare funds, but a complete report' at. this timo is not possible. Wc had four saloons located in the stake at the timo or Its organization. This grew to eight but later was reduced re-duced to one, nnd prohibition put a quietus to it. This of course refers only to Weber county we dare not name tho number within the boundaries boundar-ies added to us from Nevada. We rejoice in the fact that Brother David O. McKay has been assigned to this our fortieth conference, for he was present at the apodal conference when tho stake was organized ten years ago and was also present at our first quarterly conference held in December of that year, and has been with us at a number of the intervening interven-ing conferences and has participated in a numoer oi tne re-orgauizauons ot our bishopric. We regret that Elder Geprgc F. Richards who also attended our conference ten years ago, is unable un-able to be with us, he being in England Eng-land presiding over the European mission. mis-sion. In conclusion. President Wotherspoon Wother-spoon .voiced the appreciation of the presidency for the service rendered by the people of the stake and exhorted them to an even greater endeavor in church activities reminding them that there was no more glorious work than laboring for the building up of the Kingdom of God on earth. President Stratford said ho regretted regret-ted that there were not more people in attendance at the conference and wondered why it was that so man people had no desire to attend services servi-ces on tho Sabbath day. He said he had had many experiences that had strengthened his testimony and especially es-pecially with work-in tho Nevada wards where the spirit of the Lord had been poured out in such rich measure mea-sure and many difficult problems had been settled with satisfaction. He deplored tho fact that some people had no reverence for the Sabbath day, that they preferred to go hunting and fishing instead of attending services and suggested that the ward teachers seek to bring these people to a condition condi-tion of repentence. Seymour B. Young President Seymour B. Young in his address said he was happy to be at the conference and to hear the splendid splen-did report. He knew that such a report re-port was made possible by the united offort of the members of the stake and stated that whenever a people is found united there will also bo found such power and strength 'as manifest in the North Weber stake, The speaker made reference to his recent visit to Portland, Oregon, when that city welcomed the members of the G. A. R. and also of his visit to Camp Lewis where he said, from conversations con-versations with officers, there seemed to be one thought on their minds and that was to prosecute the war to a final finish that would bring liberty to the world, the right to have a home, to live with loved ones, and to kneel before God without being dictated to by an autocratic power. President Young stated that the history his-tory of tho church ever since its organization, or-ganization, in relation to that of the nation, had been one of deepest loyalty loy-alty and its strength has ever been with the causo of freedom, union and nationality, the democratic spirit of liberty and the rights of man. He referred re-ferred to the time when the church was traveling toward the west and when at Winter Quarters a call came from the, government for 500 men to go to the Mexican war. Although tle churoh could ill afford to spare a single man at that time, the men gladly glad-ly responded and thus demonstrated that, even under the most trying circumstances,' cir-cumstances,' the Latter-day Saints never failed to offer their lives, if need be,, for tho defense of their country. Continuing, he related how in the present day Mormon boys had answered an-swered the call of the country and that many are now in France. He said he was proud to he an American and also proud of tho record made by the Latter-Day Saints, in their response re-sponse to. the call for men and for every ev-ery other call made upon them at home. He greatly rejoiced in being able to testify that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God. Apostle McKay;. Elder McKay was pleased with the attondance and with the excellent report showing the progress of the stake since its organization. Commenting Comment-ing on a roll call that had been made during the service of the members of tho different wards present, and comparing com-paring tho attendance of tho Taylor ward which was 17 per cent, with that of the Ogden Third ward, which was only 7 per cent, he said it was an evidence of tho fact that "Tho nearer church the farthest from grace." Tho speaker then discussed the subject sub-ject of attendance at meetings as a duty devolving upon every member of the church and stated that where our treasuro is our hearts would be also. If you love the gospel, he said, no opportunity op-portunity for financial gain would supersede su-persede your performance of your duties du-ties in tho church. Ho exhorted tho bishoprics and ward teachers to reach out after tho members of the stake whoso hearts had not been touched by the gospel of Christ and urge them to perform their part of the work that thoy, too, might receive the blessings of heaven. At the afternoon session President Bluth, in a brief talk, made an appeal for a greater spirit of devotion when attending services and not to engage in talking and "whispering while the. service was in progress. With more reverence, ho said, the meetings would result in a greater spiritual blessing to the congregation. He regreUed the constant need of changing officers in the various organizations for various causes, some ho stated being due to a falling off in spiritual enthusiasm. As an example of faithful service ho reforred to the fact that Stake Clerk David Evans had so arranged his affairs as to be present at each of tho forty conferences of the stake and that he was always at his post of duty. Even when ho had been sick, he had mado the effort to be at. his place during the conference sessions. President Shurtliff, tho veteran president of tho Weber stake, told of his great joy at the opportunity to attend at-tend the conference and to rejoice with the Saints in the progress their stake had made in ten years. He was greatly interested in tho North Weber stake because he had more relations in that stake than In the one over which he presided. He rejoiced in a testimony of the fact that Joseph Smith was and is and always will bo a prophet of God and that ho was raised up to 'inaugurate the great work of establishing to the kingdom of God on earth in the latter days and to prepare pre-pare r the second coming of ChrlsL "Thoughtful men of the world," he said, "are ceasing to jeer at -the name of Joseph Smith and were now giving some thoughtful consideration to the Latter Day Saints becauso of their wonderful accomplishments." Elder McKay, who delivered the principal address in the afternoon, stated that his mind was with the boys in France and with those who were anxious to go there. He wanted to tell the fathers and mothers that we would win the war and that they should not be filled wtih sorrow or despair. Ho knew the price to be paid would be tho best blood of tho nation but ho had a testimony that death was but an incident in mortal life and that all who gave their lives in this great cause wouiu Jive in an endless eternity. eter-nity. The speaker called attention to some of the more favorable aspects of the war of which he said there were many, making mention of tho great strides given the soldiers on tho subject sub-ject of immortality. He was proud to know that millions of Americans were willing to sacrifice their woalth and lives, too, if necessary, to give freedom to the world and that this sacrifice would be made with no thought of remuneration, re-muneration, indemnity or annexations- j Reading from the Bopk of Mormon, ' that when the Jews "shall no more turn aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember re-member the covenants made to their j fathers" stated that that prophecy j was now being fulfilled was an evidence evi-dence that the Jews would soon return re-turn to their native land and that the curse that had rested upon them for nineteen hundred years was being removed. re-moved. Referring to the word of the Lord that "the Gentiles shall be great In mine eyes, because they have made it possible for my people to return to their homes," he stated that while Great Britain had no such thought in mind that nation will become great in the sight of the Lord because of its attitude toward the Jews. The closing address was given by President Young who stated tnat the members of the church had ever contested, con-tested, inch by inch, for the rights we have, and the present war in which we are engaged, is for the same cause, the rights of ourselves and our fellow-men. |