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Show Form No. 10-300a (Hev 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY « NOMINATION FORM CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER 8 PAGE 3 ___ ____ success as Presbyterian schools and churches sprang up in Sanpete and Sevier county under the prodding of the dynamic McMillan and, sadly, he also witnessed the gradual stagnation of Presbyterian effort. Because the Presbyterian schools had offered solid curriculae and able, well qualiied teachers, Mormon parents had rarely hesitated to take advantage of this educational opportunity for their children. But by the mid-1890s Mormon Stake Academies and the improved public education system made the Presbyterian schools less attractive, and gradually with the exception of Wasatch Academy the mission schools went out of existance. Proselyting, after the first harvest of Mormon dissidents, became increasingly difficult and conversions were slow. The Manti congregation dwindled through migration and reconversion to Mormonism, and when the Reverend McMillan died in 1917 the Presbyterian Church in Manti died with him. However, unlike some of his firey colleagues, the Reverend Martin was held in considrable esteem by the Mormon community of Manti. They valued his educated (a B.A. from the University of Ohio and a B.D. from Union Theological College) commitment to civic affairs in their community, and his consistently friendly and broad-minded attitude toward Mormonism. His funeral, in the church he had built and served for forty years, was attended by dignitaries of the Mormon Church who had offered the Manti Tabernacle to accommodate the large crowd who attended the service. Subsequently the First Presbyterian Church of Manti, with its bell that had once rung for city curfews as well as church services, fell into disuse and disrepair. It is currently operated as a lodge hall. -Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., National Excerpts. Pamphlet, December 1929, Utah State Historical Society Collections. 2Memorial of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, U.S. Senate, 47th Congress, 1st Session; Misc. Doc. No. 30 (Washington, 1882), Utah State Historical Society Collections. ^Addresses at the Tenth Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City, November 13, 1882, p. 1. 4-T. D. Martin, Presbyterian Work in Utah, 1869-1969, Mss. Westminster College Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. |
