Take a look at the Brigham City Temple construction two weeks ago and compare it with today. There is quite a difference as the east spire girders clearly show. It is exciting to see the progress towards the anticipated completion of the temple in 2012. Click on the images to enlarge.

The Temple Spires

I like the closeup photograph of the spire girders. Jill, that is a fantastic shot. The temple will have two spires and will face east toward the tabernacle. I have never followed the construction of a temple so closely before. It is great to see it gradually take shape.

The Tabernacle Spires

For a 150 years the lighted spire of the tabernacle has been visible to travelers along I-15 or coming down Sardine Canyon. But the tabernacle really has 17 spires for the large main spire is accented by sixteen much smaller spires topping brick buttresses. The temple’s angel Moroni will reach several feet higher than the highest point of the tabernacle spire.

The man you can see at the bottom right of the Tabernacle photograph below told Jill that he is obsessed with the new temple. He says he walks down every day to see the construction. He lives two blocks away.

The Spires

I really like this shot of the old and the new spires.

Brigham City History

Colonization (continued)

Small businesses established during the 1850s included a cabinet shop, a water-powered saw mill, a tanyard and a grist mill built in 1855-57 to produce flour and meal. The Box Elder County Courthouse, begun in 1855 and completed in 1857, was used for city and county business, theatrical productions, religious meetings and school.

Children attended school only when there was no farm work to be done, so most of them had little schooling. Many were taught to read and write by their parents or older siblings.

Very young children were given important responsiblities. As soon as Minnie Lund and her sister were large enough to hold an axe, they chopped all the wood, milked sixteen cows morning and night, and cleaned stables. When she was nine, she was sent out on the hillside to herd the family’s sheep. She taught herself to crochet lace, to braid straw, and to make straw hats for her family and friends. Before her twelfth birthday, she went to Honeyville to work for an aunt. By the time she returned home, her father had four polygamous wives, and she went from one to the other to assist with house and farm work. At age 14 she cared for a lady who had just given birth. She said, “I never had any childhood. It was work, work, work.” (From: Brighamcity.utah.gov)

Photo Credit: Jill Willoughby

Yesterday’s visit to the Brigham City Temple construction site showed a continuation of building and the use of several cranes. Similar to last week, the most visible sign of construction is the addition of more girders. As the temple has gained in height it appears that more cranes are needed, as can be seen in the photographs. Click on the images to enlarge.

Construction Cranes

The Tabernacle

The date stone of the Tabernacle has the year 1876 in Roman numerals engraved upon it. Construction of the Tabernacle was begun before this year but 1876 was when work resumed in earnest. If there is some other signification to the date I do not know it.

Brigham City History

Colonization (continued)

By the summer of 1855 Lorenzo Snow, his family, and all those he had chosen to bring with him had arrived. This influx of settlers transformed the small settlement to a sizeable town which was renamed Brigham City in honor of Brigham Young.

Apostle Snow became the first political and religious leader of the community. He had the town surveyed and familes selected lots and built permanent homes. The Snow family home became the stopping place for Brigham Young and his company of tourists whenever he visited the northern settlements. The Snow family often entertained as many as forty guests at once.

The men began clearing the land, tilling the soil, planting crops, and driving away grasshoppers “when those insects came in swarms like large clouds hiding the sun and devouring crops.” They also dug ditches, built roads and worked on public buildings. (From: Brighamcity.utah.gov)

Photo Credit: Jill Willoughby

It has been a week since the last photographs of the temple. The most visible sign of construction is the addition of more girders. In the third photograph, the height of the crane stands out — I wonder if it will be hoisting the statue of the Angel Moroni to its place atop the temple? In the last photograph in this series, you can also see the Tabernacle. Click on the images to enlarge.

Brigham City History

Colonization

In October of 1853, Mormon Church President Brigham Young gave Apostle Lorenzo Snow a special assignment. He was to choose 50 families to take with him to live in Box Elder. There he would organize a system of cooperative living in which the people would produce everything they consumed. Snow selected tradesmen with various skills important to the development of a pioneer community.

The newcomers began arriving in the spring of 1854 and joined the settlers already living near Box Elder Creek. Many of those who came in 1855 spent their first winter in dugouts. The men dug cellars in the ground and covered them with roofs made of poles, willows and dirt. Small openings were left in the makeshift roofs for light and for fireplace chimneys. These dugouts provided immediate shelter until more permanent log houses could be built over the cellars.

The only meat eaten that winter came from animals that had frozen or starved to death. In the early spring, people found sego lilies and a few wild tomatoes. For two months many had nothing to else to eat. Those fortunate enough to have a little flour made a thickening to put over the boiled segoes. Others ate them raw.

A Salt Lake City resident sent the Box Elder settlers a cow to add milk to their sparce diet. The cow ate a poisonous weed and died, and the people didn’t know what to do. They were starved for meat, but afraid to eat it because of the poison. Jensine Christensen fried a piece and fed it to her cat. the next day the cat was feeling fine so the people divided the meat, cooked it, and enjoyed it immensely. (From: Brighamcity.utah.gov)

Photo Credit: Jill Willoughby

Since last week, the temple has visible signs of more construction. The floors, instead of being just a framework of girders, now look like one could walk on them without falling through. In the last photograph in this series, you can also see the renowned Brigham City Tabernacle. Main Street runs between the two buildings. Click on the images to enlarge.

Brigham City History

Early Settlement

William Davis was the first white man to make his home in Shoshone Indian country near Box Elder Creek. He came in 1850 to explore the area, and in March 1851 he returned to stay. He brought his family and a few friends with him and the small group set to work building a fort for winter shelter and protection from Indian attacks. Eight families spent that winter in the crudely-constructed fort which soon became infested with insects. In the spring of 1852 they moved out of the fort onto farm plots.

By 1853, 24 Mormon immigrants were living along Box Elder Creek. Sarah Peters, who moved as a child to the Box Elder settlement in the spring of 1853, remembered the hostility of the Indians. One night when Sarah’s mother was home alone, she heard someone trying to open the door. As she approached, an Indian shoved his arm through the doorway. Pushing a table against the door, she grabbed a butcher knife and ran the back edge of it along the arm. The intruder withdrew his arm and then left the premises as the woman screamed for her husband, even though she knew he was nowhere near the home.

As Indian threats continued, the settlers were instructed to form a second fort for protection. They started building it in July of 1853. Individual houses were joined close together to form a block about an acre square. Openings at the north and south ends had to be guarded. (From: Brighamcity.utah.gov)

Photo Credit: Jill Willoughby

In just a week, since our last visit, the Brigham City Utah Temple has gained another floor. In the last photograph in this series, you can see where the Brigham City Tabernacle stands in relation to the temple. Although you cannot see it in the photograph, Main Street runs between the two buildings.

A plaque on Main Street reads:

BOX ELDER TABERNACLE – BUILT 1867-1890 Pioneer settlers used stone and wood from nearby mountains and their finest craftsmanship to built this place of worship. It was finished and dedicated in 1890. Six years later in 1896, it was gutted by fire and had to be rebuilt. The building was finished and rededicated in 1897.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Photo Credit: Jill Willoughby