Utah Historical Quarterly Volume XX

Historical notes - 4

HISTORICAL NOTES The reception, on August the 10th, honoring the society's vice-president, The Most Reverend Robert J. Dwyer, Bishop of Reno, was a huge success. Well over five hundred guests visited the Governor's Mansion that evening to shake the Bishop's hand and to wish him success in his new field of labor. Many promi­nent leaders of church and state, as well as the general public, passed down the reception line, which was composed of the Bish­op, Governor and Mrs. Lee, President Joel E. Ricks, and all members of the Board of Control. The wives of the Board mem­bers acted as hostesses, while their daughters and their friends served refreshments in the dining room. In a formal business meeting held earlier on the day of the reception. President Ricks paid tribute to Bishop Dwyer for his many services to the society and to Utah history in the following words: We congratulate you, Bishop Dwyer, upon your extremely well deserved election as Bishop of Reno. We know you deserve it. You go with our best wishes and congratulations, and our hopes and prayers are with you in your new work. We realize this is a great pro­motion for you, and is the first time in the history of the state, so far as I know, for a native Utahn to be elected to the office of bishop. It is a wonderful achievement, and we are duly happy because it comes to a member and the vice-president of our society. We wish you Godspeed in your endeavors. This has a sad note to it, also. No one realizes better than I, unless it is President Young [Levi Edgar Young], the services you have rendered to the society in the years past. The editing of several volumes-one on Johnston's Army [Volume XIII], the immigration of the Pioneers in 1847 [Volume XIV], and your very fine article on Bishop Scanlan have revealed you as a very objective historian, and good objectivity is, of course, one of the characteristics we all seek in an historian. I have especially appreciated your friendly and wise counsel on committees, appointments, and other matters of interest to the society. I know I express the regret 396 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY of every member of the society in the deep personal loss they feel at your leaving us. We are very sorry to see you go, and we extend to you our congratulations and best wishes for the future. Bishop Dwyer then replied to President Ricks as follows: Members of the Board, it is becoming a little more difficult all the time for me to face up to these farewell speeches that I seem to be running into. I may say very sincerely, and I hope you will believe me, because it comes from my heart, that to sever my direct association with you is personally a very keen loss, because through the years that I have been connected with the society, I have taken a great deal of pleasure and derived a great deal of enjoyment and interest from the association that has been there. It has been a particular joy to me to see the society grow and mature, particularly during these past two years. I think, without passing laurels around or simply saying a nice thing for the sake of being polite, that the Utah State Historical Society is coming to the fore-an honorable member of an honor­able company, because of the quality of its publica­tions and because of the way the society is growing. It is now all it should be-a good Board, a wise president, and an excellent secretary and staff. So it is a matter of pride for me to have been associated with you, and what little I have been able to do has been done gladly, and that is recompense in itself. I certainly am not going to say farewell or goodbye, for every once in a while I'll be coming back to see you. The June commencement exercises of the Utah State Agri­cultural College were the occasion for another member of the society's Board of Control to receive a signal honor. Mr. William R. Palmer, prominent historian of Cedar City and long associated with the society, was the recipient of an honorary doctor of phil­osophy degree. Mr. Palmer is an outstanding authority and writer on local history, the Old Spanish Trail, and the Indians of the Great Basin. The society's secretary, Dr. A. R. Mortensen, has recently accepted the appointment as historian for the national organiza­tion of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. Dr. Joel E. Ricks, presi- HISTORICAL NOTES 397 dent of the society, has accepted election as vice-president of the same organization. An outstanding program of historic and current interest to both the people of Utah and the nation is the work of the Pony Express Mid-Century Memorial Commission of Utah. This or­ganization has for its purpose the honoring of the Pony Express and that unsung hero of today, the American Postman. An he­roic size memorial of the Pony Express sculptured by Dr. Avard Fairbanks is to be placed on the national capitol grounds, a gift from the people of Utah to the nation. A similar memorial is to be located on the grounds of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. By giving every person in the state an opportunity to con­tribute to the fund, the commission intends that this project be the gift of all the people. During the latter part of September a house-to-house drive was made to raise the funds necessary to complete this most marvellous project. Because of vast distances, the establishment of rapid com­munication facilities was always an important goal in the early West. Through the recruitment of many riders, horses, and equipment, Utah played more than her share in the building and maintaining of this very effective means of communication. While the life of the "Pony" was very short (April 1860- October, 1861), its dramatic success stimulated the development and completion of its successor, the telegraph. The Pony Express Memorial Commission has three objectives in mind: to memorialize the Pony Express, to publicize Utah and its people before the nation, and to honor everybody's friend, the Postman of America. Many civic and patriotic minded citizens throughout the state are behind the project. The Honorable J. Bracken Lee is Honorary Chairman of the commission, with Fred E. Curtis and Alvin G. Pack as chairman and executive director respectively. Nearly every pioneer, patriotic, and woman's club or organization is rep­resented on the commission. The society continues to receive valuable items to add to its microfilm and original document collections: Mr. C. Corwith Wagner, of St. Louis, Missouri, continues to be a friend of the 398 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY society and has recently donated photostats of several interesting original letters as follows: a letter from Epaphroditis Wells to his wife, Emma B. Wells, covering his trip across the plains and dated July 20, 1849; letter by Andrew McFarlane to his sister, showing an exceedingly rare "Salt Lake Deseret" postmark; A. L. S. by Brigham Young; and two letters by J. G. Hoagland to J. B. Ward, written from Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, No­vember 28, 1859 and March 11, 1860. Dr. Edward G. Titus, recently retired director of the Vital Statistics Division of the State Health Department, has given to the society numerous volumes dealing with state and regional statistics. The society has obtained microfilm copies of many of the Mormon pioneer papers in the past few months. These are an important addition to its microfilm collection. Recent important acquisitions to the library are as follows: George P. Hammond, ed.. The Larkin Papers, vol. II. William Matthews, comp., American Diaries. William Matthews, comp., Canadian Diaries and Autobi­ographies. Milo M. Quaife, Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway. Louis Houck, The Spanish Regime in Missouri, 2 vols. Leon L. Waiters, The Pioneer Jews of Utah.