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28 Spectrum's Cedar ~irthday Supple~ent November 6, 1980 _ . :..-. 0" By Sidney Hahne It waS Pioneer Day, July 24, 1859. The gates of the Old Fort (Cedar Fort) swung open, and most· of its inhabitants, led by the band, paraded through them and marched joyously to the townsite Brigham Young- had chosen for Cedar City five years before. The move to the the new town lots was not accomplished at once as President Young had suggested. In reality, it took until 1861 to complete the move. But this happy group mar· ching jauntily along in time to the music were going to the site that had been chosen for their T;ibernacle._ As .yet, there was only a bowery on the ground, set up for meetings and celebrations; and this was a celebration. . Not until November 27,1877, howeyer, did Bishop C,J. Arthur lay the cornerstone on the southeast corner with appropriate ceremonies; and it was 1884 before the building was actually begun, 25 years from the Pioneer , Day parade to its site. . ~ After the laying of the cornerstone, sketches for the building were submitted and placed where all could see so that the people might vote their,preferences. Mayhew Dalley's sketch was the one accepted. . ~ . The foundation was staked and ~ug to the desired depth; . and it is recorded -that:· "For several reasons this was · filled with water to se~tle the ground preparatory to laying' the foundation. , ..It was the fall of 1884 when Bishop Lunt urged that the building begin. Brick-Iaying.began in the early spring 9f 1885. The foundation was d~clared solid." During January, 1884, Bengt Nelson was yoted.director of, the building . . The masons chosen to assist .him were Andrew Jensen, Joe Corlett, and William Dover. ' ' The quarrymen were Edward Parry, John Parry, George Perry, and Evan Williams. Qe_orge.Ashdown was named to head the carpenters, while James Simkins and Richard Palmer took charge of the blacksmithing duties. '!Eighty-two thousand bricks and rock for the . foun' dation and windowsills were ordered. Thomas Thorley recommended red pine timbers twenty-two .feet l'ong by fourteen inch~s square for jQists. They were sawed by . Thomas Walker and his brothers; then, they were hauled" .: ' by Samuel T. Leigh, August Mackelprang, and' Kumen Jones late in,theJall. " Imagine the difficulty of hauling such large timbers w'ith teams on a steep mounUiihside. ' ,When completed, the Tabernacle was an imposing rock and brick structure with a ·tower, a bronze weathervane, · and, crowning glory, a town clock in the steeple. _The' white keystone bore the inscription: . "Holiness to, the Lord". typifying the dedication of its builders. A white fence surrounded the lot .on which, in·1892, was planted 'a lovely green lawn and many small trees .donated by George Perry, Inside, . the spacious chap,el boasted sweeping staircases with balustrades of polished' wood that led to 'a roomy gallery which added to the seating . capacity of the building. ; The roster of men and women who worked on the Tabernacle looks like the Cedar City census record of limo. . Almost everyone contributed something. It was a work of love that would stand until 1930, when it was razed to make room for a new Federal Building. Through the years, its ~ was a landmark in the city and a place where one could ~ find nourishment of spirit. .. • As in ~very early decade of <;edax: qty's history, the. - work accomplished was done In spIte of troubles and difficulties. During the 1880's, the problem was the persecution of those living in polygamy. However, the community experienced a period of expansion and _ ' growth. . ' • John Urie recorded in his diary: "Census of 1880 showed 135 houses,-142 families, and 740 inhabUants. Witl,lin the next ten years, Cedar City had eclipsed Parowall in size.'." This, in the face of the challenges of the "underground". While the men were erecting the lovely Tabernacle and other public buildings, they were also playing "Hide and seek" with the U.S. marshals who held warrants for their arrest for unlawful cohabitation. Often, the telegraph wire brough the 'cryptic code: "Please send up another chair", meaning that the marshall was on his way. Sons and daughters ran messages and me'a ls to hiding fathers; and jail sentences were recorded with as great frequency . . and as much pride as were missions. In 1881, Hengt Nelson took the contract to ' build· the District Schoolhouse. He furnished the tending and building for $5.50 per tl,lousand, which amounted to $37~: ,The foundation and dressing of ' the rock amounted to · $107.60: . In 1882, polygamous men lost the right to vote; and in, in 1885, the U.S. Government threatened to ~isfranchise all Mormon men. A convention was. held in St. George in May, 1855, where non-polygamists ,met .,to petition the Government for their right to vote . .It was denied, They . were Mormons; therefore, they had no rights. The bitter persecution wouldn't end until 1890, when President Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ended 'polygamy offiCially With his"Manifesto" . During this decade of trouble and hiding,' however, in spite of the hardships involved, the Parowan Stake o' ........... Academy was estabiished in Cedar City, 'making it possible to receive a secondary education in Southern Utah. ' Soon, five- acres of ground were set aside on "Academy Hill" for a building for it; and, near the end of the century, this site was donated for even higher education in the form of a branch of the State Normal School. . . Industries that were begun or flourished in the 1880's were: a grist mill, a tannery, a metal shop, a machine and gunsmith shop, a cabinet shop, several blacksmith shops, . a gunpowder plant,- and a plaster mill. : - . Although the iron industry remained mostly a future . promise, the Great Western, Manuafacturing Company produced considerable quantities or iron during the 1880s . Pioche, Bullionville, Silver Reef, and other mining towns received deliveries of tons of iron castings from Great. Western. Still,-the mining industry.needed a railroad on which to ship its .ore in order to show better profits; and that would not come in the nineteenth century. . I ':========:;;;;:::;=::;;;=:;;;;:;:: ' • Farm·and CitY Package-~olicys All enclusive policys And. . , Excellent Rates On Life - Health - Casualty 'Lei us give JOu a quol~ 520S,.Main Cedar City Utah . 586-8073 See Larry Ad.air or Larry Glazier Home industries thrived as well. Spinning wheels were found in every home and looms in many. A newspaper of the day reported the spinning and weav.ing of 3,000 yards of cloth from seven hundred fleeces in Cedar City. Mountain 'dairying became the assignment of mothers and children who lived summers on Cedar Mountain making butter and coeese"1Vh1le the men and older boys remained in Cedar to tend the farms and businesses. Surplus dairy products were freighted to Il.lining camps and other towns to sell or barter. The decade closed witl,l the publication of Cedar City's first ~ewspaper. Richard Maeser had a newspaper in Beaver and conceived the idea of a chain of newspapers. He, therefore, 'as editor and proprietor, brougllt out the first issue of the Iron County News on November 22,1890. Maeser seems to have been a journalist more in dreams than if fact, however; for the infant paper soon died, as had many of his previous ambitions, to be succeeded, beginning Friday, December 8, 1893 by the Iron County Record, owned and edited by Will C. Higgins.