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Show Joy to Gather My Share 21 called Forest Dale. The region had been surveyed into five-acre farming lots in 1848, and was occupied by John and Samuel Bennion, convert-immigrants from Wales, until Brigham Young decided to create a church farm there. He asked the Bennions ranch west of the Jordan River and South of 33rd South, in what is now called Taylorsville. On the property they left behind, the president built a home, one which he designed, with a gabled roof and porch all the way around. His blooded livestock were kept there, all the butter, eggs, milk, and cheese used by his family were produced there. On this farm, located from 21st South (then 12th South) to 27th South (then 13th South), and from 7th East to 10th East in Salt Lake City, Brigham planted the first sugar beets grown in Utah, the first alfalfa (called lucerne at the time), and the first mulberry trees, whose leaves were used to feed the silkworms in Brigham's large cocoonery, which had a capacity of two million silkworms. Brigham set out many shade and fruit trees and the orchard produced some of the finest fruits grown in the terri to re-establish their livestock tory. The old Cannon Farm and Cannon Ward having been "filled up" by 1889, Nora's older brother, George M. Cannon, pur chased the Brigham Young farm house from John W. Young, who inherited it from his father, divided the land into building lots, and named it Forest Dale after the walnut, locust, and fruit Brigham had planted there. Beautifully situated at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, near Calder Park (now Fairmont trees Park), Forest Dale became the ideal place for residences. Young married couples like the Stewarts and Cannons flocked to build homes. The electric streetcar line was extended to the area in 1890, making it accessible to downtown. George Cannon renovated the Forest Farm House, as it was now called, and dedicated it for use as a town hall and tempo rary LDS meetinghouse. The LDS ward, organized in 1896, held Sunday School and Sacrament meeting in the farm house until 1903, when the ward dedicated a chapel across the street from the farm house. The meetinghouse had a circular dome over the center of an essentially square chapel with a row of clerestory windows immediately under the hemisphere dome. |
