A History of Washington County

Sinking roots

SINKING ROOTS M<.o rmons were institution builders. Once their immediate survival was assured, they turned to anchoring their institutions. This was true in the Great Basin, and the Dixie pioneers implemented it without question when they arrived at the base of the Colorado Plateau. Even though their assignment took them below the Great Basin into the sandy desert, they assumed they would conquer it through irrigation, family farms, villages, churches, schools, shops, newspapers, libraries, banks, theaters, and courts, just as their co-reli­gionists were doing in scores of other settlements at higher eleva­tions. This institutional solution was working throughout the Mormon settled portion of the Great Basin and they intended to make it work in Dixie within the first decade. The initial Washington County settlers accomplished the basics of laying out townsites on the grid pattern Joseph Smith had adopted for his ideal City of Zion. Settlers drew lots for a town plot and acreage in nearby fields, diverted water onto the land, and arranged temporary shelters for their families. Then they automatically turned to the next step in their minds: building civic institutions. 52 SINKING ROOTS 53 St. George Hall and Main Street after a rare snow storm. The Hall was used as a store after the completion of the Tabernacle-seen at the end of the street. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Andy Winsor) They employed a compressed approach to civilization-impos­ing several development stages at once. Within a year of settling St. George, a post office had been opened (it was applied for prior to their arrival), the territorial legislature had issued a charter to the city (on 18 January 1862), schools had been established, four religious congregations (wards) had been organized, dams had been built, cooperatively built canals were in place, a community bowery was erected, a city council had been elected and several committees had been organized to build irrigation canals and to find timber and build lumber mills.1 This same, if not quite so complex, sequence had been followed in the dozen Washington County settlements that pre­ceded St. George. St. George Hall Only a few days after their arrival in St. George, Erastus Snow proposed to the citizens that they build a public hall to house social and educational activities. The only way to finance it was by public subscription. He put the proposal to a vote, and the people pledged to donate to the project. Historical records indicate that "a subscription 54 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY list was made with contributions pledged in various amounts ranging from five to fifty dollars each, and totalling $2,074 from 120 people, not one of whom yet had a roof over his head."2 The building was completed in three years and became the home of numerous theatrical, musical, agricultural, civic, and educational activities. It was called the St. George Hall and was located on the west side of Main Street, just a few doors north of the Church's tithing office. Dances were special favorites as were public holidays with oratory, singing, and general celebrating. The St. George Tabernacle Brigham Young did not wait for culture to evolve gradually after his fellow Mormons had built homes and had seen their farms pro­ducing. In the case of St. George, he called upon the residents to undertake a most ambitious civic effort first. After he visited the new settlement, some nine months following its founding, he wrote to the colony's leader, Apostle Erastus Snow, directing that they build "as speedily as possible a good, substantial, commodious well furnished meeting house, one large enough to comfortably seat at least 2,000 persons, and that will not only be useful, but also an ornament to your city, and a credit to your energy and enterprise."3 This request was no idle suggestion. Young had been at the site and received the plea of Snow. They both knew that the effort to establish a southern regional capital at St. George was turning out to be more of a problem than anticipated. The settlers were discour­aged- northern irrigation techniques were not working in this region. Already several had abandoned their call. The need for rein­forcements was urgent, but newcomers would face the same harsh realities-scorching heat, brackish water, alkaline soil, blowing sand, killing diseases, and bursting irrigation dams. It was not just a matter of character; resources had to be increased or the undertaking might foil. Brigham Young decided on the building of a tabernacle in order to rally the colony. It was to be a heroic structure that would state cat­egorically: "we are here to stay." This was to be the centerpiece of a capital city. Not insignificantly, its construction would provide employment for craftsmen, a subsidy to support the community for SINKING ROOTS 55 a few years while they attempted to conquer the desert. In his letter, Young went on to say: "I hereby place at your disposal, expressly to aid in the building of afore-said meeting house, the labor, molasses, vegetable and grain tithing of Cedar City and all other places south of that city. I hope you will begin the building at the earliest practi­cable date: and be able with the aid thereby given, to speedily prose­cute the work to completion."4 Brigham did not often subsidize a colony, but he chose to in this case most likely because of its strate­gic importance and certainly because of the exceptional environment it faced. The first task before the builders was to erect a tithing office across the street north of the tabernacle square. Erastus Snow began delivering a systematic message throughout the region to all Latter-day Saints: pay your tithes to make possible the building of the taber­nacle. Obviously there was no other source of capital for civic projects than the productivity of the people. Voluntary contributions in the form of tithes were the lifeblood of all community efforts. Such donations were an indicator of one's adherence to the institution. And the tithes were paid, often after considerable exhortation and almost entirely in kind-eggs, chickens, wheat, grapes, sorghum, cattle, fruit. Much was perishable and had to be stored efficiently in the tithing office. From its stores, workmen could be paid for their labor on the limestone foundation that was soon in progress. Tithing scrip was also issued for supplies and became the de facto legal tender of local commerce. Once the limestone foundation was completed, workmen began quarrying the distinctive red sandstone for the tabernacle's walls in a quarry where today the Red Hills Golf Course nestles into the cliffs. Edward L. Parry was the chief mason, assisted by Charles L. Walker, Joseph Worthen, David Moss, George Brooks, James G. Bleak, William G. Miles, and John Pymm, among others. Their carefully cut blocks fit on the deep, six-foot-wide limestone foundation. Today the cutters' work can be inspected to see the distinctive marks of each craftsman. Oldtimers claim they can attribute specific stones to each cutter by their distinctive tool marks. The Dixie weather and clean air have preserved the stones so that even an amateur can distinguish the markings. 56 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Tithing Scrip issued by the St. George Stake Tithing Store House. (Lynne Clark Collection) Workmen were occupied from 1863 to 1875 with the demand­ing task. Huge timbers from Mount Trumbull were hand hewn to span the large auditorium. The lumber, milled in Pine Valley, pro­vided a large part of the need; however, it often had to wait while mill workers produced timber for the mines in Pioche, Nevada, that had priority because the mine owners paid in cash currency. Often Erastus Snow had to reenergize the tithepayers to supply the resources for the building. There were down times and there were also competing projects such as the cotton factory and the county courthouse. Other public subscriptions also competed for donors-the telegraph, public roads, Indian gifts, and departing missionaries, but the work proceeded gradually and safely. Orson Pratt's prayer at the tabernacle's corner­stone laying prophesied that the work would go forward without serious accident-and it did. Inspiring incidents were told about the construction. One favorite involved the windows. The wonderful New England design style included large windows with many panes that would flood the chapel with bright light. Plans called for 2,244 small panes in the forty pairs of horizontal sliding windows.5 The glass for the windows was shipped by boat from New York to California. David H. Cannon SINKING ROOTS 57 had been assigned the task of raising $800 for the glass through yet another public subscription. This money for the final payment was to be sent with the freighters on their trip to California when they picked up the windows to bring them to St. George. Cannon opti­mistically set a day for the freighters' departure; however, by that time he had raised only $200. Nonetheless, he determined to depart and "depend on the Lord" to aid the endeavor. At the same time, a Danish convert, Peter Neilson in Washington, was anticipating his long dream of adding onto his two-room adobe home; but somehow he was uncomfortable about the expenditure of his savings. Legend has it that without knowing specifically of the needed amount, he determined to give his long-amassed funds to civic purposes. He arrived in St. George with $600 on the morning the freighters were to depart. Whether the story has been embellished with time does not matter. Its elements are sound; Nielson's donation enabled the glass to be purchased and complete the enclosure. Many of the panes are still in place, easily distinguished. Orpha Hunt tells of a freighting experience her father, Revilo Fuller, had while traveling to California to pick up the windowpanes. He told the story to her later, and she wrote it down: We had three long desert drives with no water on the way and no feed for the mules except the scanty vegetation which grew by the way. Your grandfather Elijah K. Fuller and Uncle Wid and myself with many others made many a trip to Cal. However on the trip when we brought this glass, Father and Wid's team were driven by Jim and Tom Pearce. We hired an Indian boy who we called "Josh" to go along as night herd for the teams, taking a saddle horse for him to ride. He would take the mules out to where the grazing was as good as the country afforded and at the first peep of day he would bring them back to camp. That was one trip that everything went well as far as molestation by Indians was concerned. On our arrival at the Wilmington Docks, the ship was unload­ing her cargo. The boxes containing glass were dumped on the dock like so many stones. I refused to accept one single box until 58 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY they were opened and all broken glass thrown out. This made quite a delay but we had no broken glass to start out with. We loaded the boxes with the edge of the glass down so as to avoid breakage and it came through very well. We used to drive with one line for six or eight mules, training one of the lead mules as a "jerk mule" and it would obey the jerk to turn the team "Gee" or "Haw" as the driver desired. I tried to learn Josh how to drive, but he was scared to even touch that jerk line. You would hardly think that those little window panes cost seventy five cents a-piece, would you; at the present time you can buy all you want for ten. And this is how we got the window glass as told me by my father Revilo Fuller.6 Miles Romney was the general supervisor of the tabernacle's con­struction. His personal delight was building the two spiral staircases that led to the balcony. Their grace depended on delicate measure­ments. When Brigham Young visited the project, he took exception to Romney's construction of the balcony. President Young felt that Romney had the balcony too high; it was difficult for worshipers to see the pulpit. He wanted the proportions such that the balcony bisected the windows about equally, some six feet lower than Romney had installed it. It became apparent that two strong wills were con­fronting each other. Romney did not intend to change his staircases, since that would ruin the proportions, but Young insisted that the balconies be lowered. Visitors today can see the result. The balcony is where Brigham wanted it, and the staircases also are in place in their original design. People must ascend to the top of the Romney stair­cases before taking six steps down to reach the Young balcony. The tabernacle stands on the town square today as graceful as ever. Two major restoration projects, one on the exterior and the other on the interior, have been completed by competent restoration architects and builders at great cost (many times the original expen­diture). The building reigns in the city as a masterpiece of its kind. Residents and visitors alike are fond of it, well beyond their feelings for other LDS structures. The spiritual sanctity created by the sacri­fice in building it explains part of that feeling. Many hallowed events that also have occurred there add to the love felt by residents. The SINKING ROOTS 59 The St. George Tabernacle shortly after its completion in 1876. (Lynne Clark Collection) quality of architecture and the craftsmanship help too. But its sym­bolic meaning is central. It has to do with that vision the Dixie pio­neers had about a kingdom of God. Probably the most appreciative words written about the taberna­cle are these by Dixie historian Andrew Karl Larson: The Tabernacle is beautiful; there is no other word for it. As one looks at it in the soft mellow light of early morning or late after­noon, standing there so blended with the red hills that furnished its own stones, he instinctively reacts with awe and reverence. The finely dressed stones have lost their harshness through the soften­ing effect of the thousands of tiny short grooves cut by the cran-dall in the competent hands of pioneer artisans. There is no particular part that clamors for attention; what one sees is a uni­fied structure producing a simple and satisfying harmony of pur­pose. It leaves no feeling of heaviness, yet neither does it convey a mood of fragility. Its numerous windows, symmetrical in their 60 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY grace, draw the eyes upward to the pinnacle of the tower and back again with one easy motion. Inside and out, it carries the convic­tion of dignity and strength and the feeling of both solemnity and joy. Its appearance, far more than words can tell, reveals the love and infinite pains lavished upon it by those who slowly brought an architect's dream to reality. Born of suffering and travail, it imparts no sense of toil and hardship but the feeling of effortless creation that only great art can achieve. It is these things which lead the dis­criminating beholder to assert that the Tabernacle is the finest example of the chapel builder's art, not just in Utah, but in the whole Mormon experience.7 The St. George Tabernacle took on added meaning when church president Lorenzo Snow visited the city on 30 May 1899 and deliv­ered a famous sermon on tithing.8 It was a time when the church was facing extreme financial difficulty, partly an aftermath of the federal government's assault on the fiscal structure of the church through the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. President Snow came to St. George on a spiritual impulse and reported that he did not know why until mid­way in his talk when he stopped and then turned to the subject of tithing. The St. George Temple Midway into the tabernacle building project, Brigham Young announced an even more important undertaking-a temple. The idea had been first raised by the Mormon church president in coun­sel with Apostles Erastus Snow and Brigham Young, Jr., on 31 January 1871. Following consultation with the other general authorities at the April general conference, Brigham sent a letter to Erastus Snow in St. George announcing the decision. He described the temple as two sto­ries high with a basement housing a baptismal font. The structure was to be 196 feet long, 142 feet wide and 80 feet high, built of stone and plastered inside and out. Also crucial was the financing plan: all the tithing of the Latter-day Saints in Beaver and those wards south was to go to the completion of the tabernacle and the building of the temple. Why this additional project, this continual support for the Dixie SINKING ROOTS 61 colony, this ongoing request for donated labor and contributions? Historian Heber Jones reflectively explains: Brigham Young was getting old. He wanted to see a temple established in the west in his lifetime. His ambitions had been frus­trated in Salt Lake City by meddling federal authorities. No signif­icant work had been done on the Salt Lake Temple in seven years. President Young had been in and out of court or jail on several occasions and other charges were pending. He had visited St. George and knew that the people were restless and needed some­thing to unify and sustain them when the Tabernacle was com­pleted. It was a difficult mission in Dixie and some wanted to leave. He also knew that some of his most trusted, experienced and loyal followers were here. The place was relatively isolated and would be free from government and gentile interference. Skills, labor and materials were available. The people needed subsistence to see them through the pioneer period. The Cotton Factory was in trou­ble, and the natural scourges of flood, famine, and Indian fighting were competing with the sun as excuses the weak could use to question their call and go elsewhere.9 Brigham Young wanted his empire to be self-sufficient, and St. George was a key location for travel, supply, and defense. The colony had to be maintained. The temple construction reinforced St. George's status as an emerging regional hub. People from southern Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and even Mexico traveled to St. George to enjoy its ordinances. The temple was the first in Utah and clearly the one that had Brigham Young's imprint. He selected the site, south of the city, on a low hill. (The city would later expand and surround the temple.) The archi­tectural design by Truman O. Angell was directiy influenced by Young but, even more important, the form of the liturgy in the building would be developed under his guidance. The economic impact was significant too; for one thing, 100 men came from Sanpete County to serve as construction workers. They would later return home and build the Manti LDS Temple. On 5 November 1871 Dixie church members voted to sustain the decision to build the temple. Four days later the groundbreaking cer­emony was held. The excavation soon ran into serious water prob- 62 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY lems. About one-fourth of the foundation rested on solid limestone (on the north side), but the remainder of the building site was marshy. This problem was solved by draining the ground and trans­porting volcanic lava rocks from the west black mesa near where the airport is today. A road had to be built on the hill and wagons were needed to bring the stones to the temple site. It was tedious work to quarry the volcanic rock, transport it to the temple site, and drive it into the ground. Today the remnants of the road and quarry can be visited by taking a short hike beginning at the city park near the air­port. Thousands of tons of small rocks were first placed in the marshy soil. Workers then pounded the huge quarried volcanic blocks on top of the small ones. Temple builders developed a piledriver by encas­ing a field artillery cannon in heavy ash timbers bound by iron bands.10 The heavy weight was rigged to cables that pulled it into the air and then released it to fall and pound the large squarish stones deep into the wet soil. By this tedious and laborious method, a firm foundation was created that has served to keep the building solid and unharmed through a century of elements, including a major earth­quake in 1992 of 5.7 magnitude on the Richter Scale. The work was slow-draining the ground and pounding each stone until the piledriver bounced three times, indicating that the footing was solid. Milo Andrus recorded that he was "at work on the temple, which is progressing very well. There are over one hundred men engaged directly on the ground, over one hundred working in the quarry, and over forty men at Mount Trumbull getting out lumber. In addition some men are on the road for the purpose of getting wood, coal, etc. Every day the President [Brigham Young] and George A. Smith come to see how the work is progressing."11 With as many as 240 men active in the construction at one time, the ripple effect of this employment on the local economy was substantial, allowing the establishment of a bakery and several other enterprises nearby. It took more than two years to complete the temple foundation; its completion was the occasion of a major celebration. During that time, volunteers had constructed a road to Mt. Trumbull on the Arizona Strip where they built a mill to produce a million board feet of lumber. SINKING ROOTS 63 St. George Temple under construction. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor- Will Brooks) Red sandstone was brought from the tabernacle quarry for the temple walls; that work consumed another two years. The timbers then were placed and the interior work was begun. The baptismal room was installed in the basement. Iron oxen were cast in Salt Lake City to support the baptismal font. C. L. Christensen (age twenty) and several companions traveled to the rail station in Juab County to pick up the font and freight its parts to the temple. He recalled that his load, which was the bottom front of the font, weighed 2,900 pounds, along with two cast oxen, each weighing 600 pounds. Much of the travel back to St. George was done at night when it was cooler for both men and oxen. On the return trip, Christensen and other freighters frequently were forced to search for oxen that had broken away in search of water. But as Christensen relates, "The teamsters had plenty of good Dixie wine to keep them cool and we certainly enjoyed it."12 The entire undertaking was a construction saga. Most of the 64 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY labor was performed by volunteers who were "called" to the task. They left families to come to the site, families that had to be sup­ported by neighbors or by payments in kind from the tithing office (if the goods could be transported to them). There was a real cama­raderie among the workers, many of whom learned their skills on the job. In general, the project was completed without serious accident, though John Burt fell seventy feet from the scaffolding and was not expected to live. He did, however, and was back at the building site in two weeks to visit his brethren. It was a thrill to all and an achieve­ment- that no lives were lost during the building of either of the sacred structures. When the baptismal room and lower floor of the temple were completed, they were dedicated by Apostle Wilford Woodruff on 1 January 1877; temple ordinances were begun on 9 January.13 The temple was finally completed for the church's general conference on 6 April 1877. The Quorum of Twelve Apostles and First Presidency of the Mormon church gathered in St. George for the conference. It was a momentous occasion. The people of southern Utah felt it was their own achievement; and certainly all the area tithepayers had given measurably to the edifice. Wilford Woodruff was appointed president of the temple.14 The completion of the temple was not without its quirks. When Brigham Young saw the completed building, he was disappointed with its steeple. He felt that it was too squat, not achieving the dig­nity worthy of the grand structure; however, in deference to the builders, he did not require a change in its height. He had been will­ing to insist on a lowering of the balcony in the tabernacle because that was a matter of function, but the temple steeple was mainly dec­orative. Perhaps his desire to see the dedication as soon as possible overrode his disappointment with the tower; however, his displeasure about the short tower was no secret. Brigham Young died just six months after the temple dedication. Some two years later, in a severe cloudburst, lightning struck the temple tower. It had to be replaced. The builders got the message. The new tower was twice as tall as the former. Completion of the temple seemed to signal the end of the pio­neer period in Dixie. By that time communities had been firmly SINKING ROOTS 65 established. The church's public-works projects had been a great boon to the economy. Roads, mills, and craft shops that had been created for the tabernacle and temple could be utilized in other projects without subsidy. Clearly St. George and its sister commu­nities nearby were firmly established as the southern bastion of Mormon country. They would now become the sponsor of other new settlements including those on the Little Colorado River and in Mexico. It should be mentioned that during the temple construction, county residents continued to improve the tabernacle. A public sub­scription raised funds to purchase a clock for the tower and an organ near the podium. The clock brought about change in the community, ending disputes about water turns and improving the meeting sched­ule and the punctuality of worshipers. It even became fashionable for young people to become engaged to be married under the clock, at the strike of a late night hour. The clock became an item of pride for the community, further evidence that civilization was taking root. The installation of the organ similarly proved that culture was sig­nificant to area residents. Choirs could perform with the support of an instrument appropriate to the stately building. Cotton Factory Besides the tabernacle and the temple, the most recognizable structure in Washington County is the cotton factory in Washington City. It stands today as a clear reminder that cotton was once a major element of the Dixie economy. Certainly raising cotton was a signif­icant motive in the Mormon plan to develop communities in Washington County. John D. Lee kept up a continual lobby in the 1850s to send people to the land south of the Black Ridge to raise cot­ton. From his Fort Harmony colony at a high elevation he could almost see the land 3,000 feet lower; he ached to be involved in rais­ing semitropical plants that could be grown there-cotton, grapes, figs, sugar cane. He was sure that Brother Brigham could see the nat­ural advantages of a warm climate alternative for the Latter-day Saints. The settlers at Santa Clara experimented successfully with cotton raising as early as 1855. Augustus Hardy obtained a quart bottle of 66 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY cotton seed from Nancy Pearce Anderson in Parowan, who had brought the seeds with her from her home in South Carolina. Plants grew to maturity and did well, and farmers carefully kept seeds for the next year. Settlers in Washington brought cotton seed with them and raised cotton in the 1857 planting season. One party of Saints there, under Samuel Adair, were southerners from North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas who knew about cotton raising. Southerners also came south with the Covington company. Soon cotton also was growing in Toquerville and Grafton. That success impressed Brigham Young who then sent a party of fifteen men to the confluence of the Virgin and the Santa Clara in January 1858 to experiment with raising cotton on a larger scale. Joseph Home headed the group which located where John D. Lee advised, calling the community Heberville. During the growing season, they faced the trials of heat, thirst, disease, and broken irrigation dams. Setbacks drove their costs up, but by September they were able to deliver 575 pounds of cotton to Salt Lake City at a cost of $3.40 per pound. They returned the next year with a smaller group and faced serious water and disease problems, but they delivered a load of cot­ton to Brigham Young at $1.90 per pound. This was still too costly to compete with cotton raised by southern states where rainfall elimi­nated the need for irrigation, but it suggested possible success for Mormon attempts at self-sufficiency. With the outbreak of the Civil War in the eastern part of the United States, the idea of raising cotton in Utah's Dixie became more important. The evidence existed that cotton could be successfully raised in Washington County, and decisions had already been made to expand the mission in the south for political and geographical rea­sons. Therefore, one of the key instructions given to the newest Dixie missionaries was to raise cotton. The realities of the cotton-raising enterprise were soon upon the Saints in southern Utah, however. Once they brought water to the land, overcoming the difficulties of irrigation, they faced harsh facts about their harvest. The cotton was so bulky that transporting it to either Salt Lake City or California was very costly. Brigham Young opposed selling the cotton outside the territory. If raw cotton could be woven into cloth in Utah, he felt, the Latter-day Saints would not SINKING ROOTS 67 The Cotton Factory and mill race, completed in 1866. Two stories were added soon thereafter. (Cuba Lyle Collection) have to buy textiles from gentiles (non-Mormons). It was good logic, but it did not face market realities. Dixie farmers could hardly give away their crop to northerners. Their grapes (as wine), dried fruit, and grain could be sold in Salt Lake City, but the cotton was a prob­lem. That reality caused Dixie farmers to plant less cotton, not more. Within a short time, it was clear that building a cotton factory in Dixie was the only effective way to keep the farmers growing cotton. Always pragmatic, Brigham Young realized the situation at hand. He also decided a factory had to be a business, not a religious insti­tution. He knew the straits of the economy, so he decided to invest personally in the factory. He told the southern Mormons that if they would raise the cotton, he would build the factory. He purchased the water rights on Mill Creek and asked Erastus Snow to select a site for the factory that could use the water for power. Young determined to dismantle the underutilized woolen milling machinery in Parley's Canyon near Salt Lake City and transport it to Washington City, where the most productive cotton fields were located. In September 1865, Young announced the cotton milling project 68 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY and engaged Appleton Harmon (who had built a famous odometer to measure mileage crossing the plains) to install the factory. The project was pursued with haste. Elijah Averett was the major stone mason though many others helped, several of them from the taber­nacle building crew. John Peck Chidester, Hyrum Walker, and August Mackelprang cut timber and hauled it to the site. The first floor of the structure was completed within the year and was dedicated 24 July 1866. The dispatch with which the cotton factory was completed was amazing, since at the same time the Saints were exerting effort to build the tabernacle, construct dams, clear land, and build homes. They were even sending teams to help bring new immigrants to Utah. Their manpower was stretched to the limit. Machinery was freighted south and installed the last few days of 1866 under the direction of a Scottish convert, James Davidson, who had been sent to direct the project. Volunteers contributed their mus­cle for building a millrace to bring the stream water to the water-wheel. By January 1868, the factory was in operation. In 1870 the building was enlarged by adding another story, a testimony to opti­mism. During construction Erastus Snow solicited funds from the local people to build the mill-race, and he then began a major financial project, inviting people to invest in the mill and make it a coopera­tive. The idea was for Brigham Young to get the mill constructed and working, then for the local people to buy him out and take it over. This was yet another plea for funding from people whose means were already severely stretched. Though some people invested in the pro­ject, it was difficult for Erastus Snow to find investors. Courthouse No sooner was the cotton factory completed than the commu­nity began building a formidable courthouse. The county probate judge at the time was James D. McCulloch, who served from 1859 to 1870. He was responsible for emphasizing the need for this signifi­cant public building. Instead of a public subscription to raise funds, the Washington County Court proposed a tax increase of two and one-half mills. In an election on 5 August 1867, the mill levy was approved by a large majority. Despite their poverty, there seemed to SINKING ROOTS 69 be no end to the civic will of the people. Yes, the building would pro­vide some jobs and yes, it would sink yet another root guaranteeing the permanence of the community; nonetheless, it was another financial sacrifice for people who were still trying to survive. It tested their mettle once more because it required a decision for the benefit of the whole instead of the individual. Once the tax was instituted, the judge authorized an expenditure of $500 to begin construction. The workmen who were erecting the tabernacle also built the courthouse. Samuel Judd worked the lime, William Burt led the plas­tering, Miles Romney shaped the wood. The building was 36 by 40 feet and three stories high. It included a jail in the basement, offices on the main floor, and an assembly room on the second floor to be used as a courtroom and for many other community activities, including socials and even theater. The building featured a handsome cupola. Folklore has it that the dome was designed to be used for hanging criminals, though such a use never occurred. The building was completed in 1870, a brief three-year construction period. It is still very much in use as a community center. The St. George Chamber of Commerce occupies the main floor while the newly restored chamber on the upper floor is home to many community meetings and socials. Tourists find their way to the building in large numbers; it is often the first landing spot for people who are investi­gating the area for recreation or as a place to live. The Washington County Historical Society has its offices in the basement and has spearheaded the building's restoration. These major projects-the St. George hall, the LDS tabernacle, the LDS temple, the cotton factory and the county courthouse-were the result of an amazing decade and a half of building activity. The St. George Latter-day Saints arrived just before January 1862 and the temple was dedicated on 6 April 1877. The resources for these heroic structures were imported from throughout the region; the buildings housed institutions that were clearly respected by the people in the area, and, in the case of the temple, of the area well beyond Dixie. Town Buildings At the same time these major edifices were being built, almost every town in the county was in the process of building a community 70 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY structure to house both church and school. Citizens throughout the county also labored on the construction of lumber mills, irrigation dams and ditches, and endless road building. Driving through these communities today, one can see many stately public buildings from the pioneer period in Toquerville, Virgin, and Pine Valley, among others. In Washington City, a bowery was used for public meetings until 1877 (the year of the completion of the temple). After that, under bishops John Woodruff Freeman and Thomas J. Jones, residents con­structed a substantial stone schoolhouse for both educational and religious uses. That building was remodeled in 1942; the original por­tion of the resulting building was demolished in 1961. In 1863 a meetinghouse/school was constructed in Santa Clara and was used until it was replaced by a new one in 1902. Gunlock built an adobe school in 1881 which was used until 1912 when the school was moved into the wardhouse. Even at tiny Pinto, a small log meetinghouse was built in 1860, then replaced in 1866 with a rock edifice, 24 by 16 feet, which also served as a school. The first meetinghouse in Pine Valley was a log building con­structed in 1859. At least two schools were completed in the 1860s. In 1868 Ebenezer Bryce, an English shipbuilder, supervised the con­struction of the handsome Pine Valley chapel. It is built of wood, appropriate for the many sawmills that initially made the community famous. To this day it is one of the most attractive structures in the state. It was used as a school for fifty years until only a few families remained in the valley during the winter. It is still in use for religious services, being one of the oldest continuously used Mormon meetinghouses. Its structural beams are most impressive, bound together with pegs. The handsome exterior continues to grace the scenic alpine valley. Toquerville was the site of Toquer Hall, built in 1866 and dedi­cated as a church by Erastus Snow. It still stands among many his­toric pioneer structures in that town. This community has served as the focal point for much development of the Virgin River Valley. The telegraph was located there, and the town served as the Kane County seat for several years. John C. Naegle located his extensive agricultural enterprises there, particularly wine making and horse raising. He SINKING ROOTS 71 The Springdale Church and School which was destroyed by fire in 1929. (J. L. Crawford Collection) built a fine two-story home which is now a state historical landmark. In addition to supplying Silver Reef miners with agricultural prod­ucts, the community aided in the settlement of several other towns- Virgin, Rockville, Shunesburg, Grafton, Springdale, La Verkin, and Hurricane. Virgin became independent of the Toquerville LDS Ward in 1866, the year outlying communities were advised to "fort up" as a protection against marauding Indians. The increase in population made the old log schoolhouse inadequate, and a handsome new meetinghouse, 30 by 40 feet, was built in 1866 by public subscription. In 1874-75 a two-story adobe schoolhouse was erected. It has recently been restored and serves as a city hall and museum. Other pioneer structures also can be seen, including the old adobe church in Grafton which still stands but has long been out of use and appears rather fragile. Rockville and Springdale haven't been as fortunate where pioneer buildings are concerned. The meetinghouse/schools in both com­munities were frame structures and both succumbed to fire- 72 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Springdale's in 1929 and Rockville's three years later. Separate church and school buildings replaced the old buildings in both towns. Rockville's oldest existing pioneer structure is known as "The Rock House." Built by one of the Huber brothers as a residence, it is still in use as such; however, its most interesting feature is the frame building on the west end which was one of the first telegraph offices in Utah. Only four original homes still exist in Springdale, and all but one have lost their pioneer identity through remodeling. A unique story at Springdale involves the sawmill located on the east rim of Zion Canyon and the cable system that lowered lumber to the valley floor. This did not come until after the turn of the century, but it is a stun­ning story of ingenuity and enterprise. Another element of Springdale's history is that of Zion Canyon becoming a national park. That, too, happened after 1900. Funding Public Institutions Early community building in Washington County laid a founda­tion for a continuing spirit of philanthropy. Though the Dixie colony benefited from financial infusions from tithing funds of neighboring colonies and from Brigham Young's personal funds, most civic endeavors had to come from the efforts of the local people. At a time when settlers needed to put great effort into building their own homes and farms, Erastus Snow appealed to them time and again to donate their labor, produce, and funds to public projects. This tradi­tion of giving for the good of the community was well planted and has been drawn upon virtually every decade down to the present. In St. George a tithing office was built even before the tabernacle was begun. Most county towns also built such a facility where tithing in kind could be donated, stored and distributed. In 1887 a more per­manent bishop's storehouse was built at 41 North Main. Two large letters, "T 8c O," standing for Tithes and Offerings, hung on the front of the building. Bishop James A. McArthur managed the office and received eggs, chickens, cream, butter, cows, sheep, horses, and hay. There was a large weighing scale in front of the building to determine the amounts donated. The hay was stored in a barn two blocks away, near the opera house. Workers on the tabernacle and temple were often paid in tithing scrip which they could redeem for commodities SINKING ROOTS 73 St. George Tithing Office/Bishop's Store House on Main Street. Tommy Terry, Bishop James McArthur, and St. George Wells in front. (Lynne Clark Collection, donor-Nellie Gubler) from the storehouse. Even stores in town would accept tithing scrip, because merchants could use it to pay their tithing. Bishop McArthur's son, Andrew, reported that the storehouse was like a community center. A bulletin board next to the front door served to post notices of funerals, social events, or of items to buy, sell, or trade. The community "lost and found" area was inside, as was a place for exchanging news and current events. This saga of community building in Washington County remains most impressive. Many structures that the early settlers built together are still in evidence. Some of them are vitally important institutions, others are historic restorations, many are but memo­ries. Andrew McArthur recently rebuilt the St. George Tithing Office, for example. The basic story, however, is a legacy of commu­nity building by people who were undergoing most severe tests of scarcity and survival. They determined that community was as important as individuality, that culture came before profit, that group values and a sense of mission were what made individual lives significant. They achieved much of what they did by cooperation in building and sustaining institutions. 74 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY ENDNOTES 1. Albert E. Miller, Immortal Pioneers (privately published, 1946), 34. See also Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1886), 62. 2. Andrew Karl Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 116. 3. James G. Bleak, "Annals," Book A, 151. 4. Ibid., 151-52. 5. Charles M. Brown, "The Past Restored, Historic St. George Tabernacle Reopens" (brochure distributed at 1993 reopening of the St. George Tabernacle), Dixie College Archives. 6. This handwritten note recording Revilo Fuller's memory as told to Orpha F. Hunt was recently discovered and placed in the Dixie College Archives by Ronald McDonald. 7. Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, 576. 8. The event has been made known by a film entitled The Windows of Heaven, released in 1963. The movie idealized the event somewhat, causing Will Brooks to criticize it in his autobiography, Uncle Will Tells His Story, ed. Juanita Brooks (Salt Lake City: Taggart 8c Co., 1970), 62-64. Brooks said he was at the meeting and did not notice such unusual proceedings as the film depicted, however, he was writing fifty years after the fact. A thorough examination of the event was recently completed by E. Jay Bell in his article "The Windows of Heaven Revisited: The 1899 Tithing Reformation," Journal of Mormon History (Spring 1994): 45-83. Bell concluded that Lorenzo Snow did indeed have a revelation about tithing and that he expe­rienced a spiritual manifestation in St. George; however, he maintains that linking the payment of tithing to the arrival of rain did not occur in that speech but was added later by folklore. 9. Heber Jones, High Priest meeting notes, 20 March 1977, 2. In pos­session of Heber Jones. 10. Where did the cannon come from? The current story in vogue is that it was made in France, taken to Russia by Napoleon, abandoned in retreat, and then taken to Alaska and down the west coast to Fort Ross. It was then purchased from the Russians by John Sutter and given to mem­bers of the Mormon Battalion as a part of their pay as they left his employ in 1848. They in turn put wheels on it and took it to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City it was taken to Parowan and eventually to St. George. Janice DeMille, in her book on the St. George LDS Temple, attributes this version to Juanita Brooks in an article she wrote for Arizona Highways in 1947. Mrs. Brooks cites Howard R. Driggs as her source, and Driggs mentions John Bidwell and John Sutter as his sources. Some of these accounts refer to the cannon as being made of brass, which it obviously was not. SINKING ROOTS 75 It is generally agreed that Jessie Crosby brought the cannon from California. Karl Larson in I Was Called to Dixie, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in Under the Dixie Sun, A. K. Hafen in Devoted Empire Builders, and the Crosby family all indicate that Jessie Crosby brought the cannon directly to St. George from California in the 1860s while freighting. It is believed by this group that the cannon was taken from Commodore Stockton's fleet and that it had been used to fight the Mexican War in California. It was brought to St. George to be used as an artillery piece by the local militia and thus was not the same cannon that left Sutter's Fort in 1848. For a personal description of the rock gathering and the quarrying and foundation work see Henry G. Mathis, interviewed by Washington County Centennial History Committee, Dixie College Archives. 11. Ivan J. Barrett, Trumpeter of God (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 1992), 271. 12. Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Heart Throbs of the West, vol. IX, 3-5. 13. Jenson, Church Chronology, 95. 14. Thomas G. Alexander, "An Apostle in Exile: Wilford Woodruff and the St. George Connection" (Juanita Brooks Lecture, Dixie College, 1994).