OCR Text |
Show Page 296 hundred folio pages, for recording the names of the living and the dead. The patriarch then arose, thanking his family - he had one wish left, he said - to see the "winding-up scene," but the infirmities of age weakened his faith, and he "sometimes thought he would not realize his desire to the fullest extent." But if he should pass he wanted his children to continue and fill up the record. "Altogether, it was a rare and a pleasant gathering." As Historian, Orson tended the records of the Church as well as his own, but as he became more feeble, the work fell increasingly upon his assistant, Elder Woodruff. During the general conference in autumn of 1880, Orson arose to present John Taylor, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith as a new First Presidency over the Church, and went on to discourse upon the "history of the priesthood" from Abel's sacrifice, through Melchizedek and Abraham to Moses. But poignantly enough, the congregation was requested "to be as still as possible" so the weakening voice could 66 be heard. The end of the Jubilee Year found Orson prostrated with one fulminating shock after another. His portliness worked against him, and the diabetes, for so many years only a mild irritation, soon sheared him 67 to nothing; he fought earnestly to survive. A great family reunion would be held in the autumn, 1881, at his request involving all the descendants of Apostles Parley and Orson, and he dearly wished to meet once again and bless his many children, wives, nephews, and nieces all 68 together. He gained sufficient strength to take the second seat among the apostles at general conference and once again at a service held on the first day of July, the day word shook Salt Lake City that the President of 69 the United States, James A. Garfield, had been shot. The assassin, it 70 was rumored, was a Mormon. |