FORTY-THIRD QUARTERLY STAKE CONFERENCE, JUNE 22, 1919

The Forty-Third Quarterly Stake Conference of the North Weber Stake of Zion was held in the Ogden Tabernacle Sunday, June 22, 1919, meetings being held at 10 A.M. and 2 P.M. This was the first conference to be held since September 1918,the 41st and 42nd quarterly conferences of December 1918 and March 1919, respectively, having been canceled because of the influenza epidemic. There were present of the General authorities, Elder Anthon W. Ivins of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and President Levi Edgar Young of the first Council of Seventy. of the Stake Authorities there were present: Each member of the Stake Presidency; the Stake Clerk; each member and alternate member of the High Council; one of the two patriarchs of the Stake; all of the officers of the High Priests Quorum; 38 of the 40 bishops and counselors in the Weber County part of the Stake, and 40 out of the 47 members of the Stake Auxiliary Boards, a total of 102 out of 112 of these officers, or 91%. The attendance at the morning session was 850; at the afternoon session 701.

Sunday, June 22

10 A.M.

“Come, Come, ye Saints” was sung by the choir and congregation.

Prayer was offered by Bishop Myron B. Richardson.

The solo, “Come, abide with me,” was sung by Elder Nephi J. brown.

Counselor John V. Bluth made a brief report of the condition in the Stake and called attention to the changes that had occurred in the history of the world, the Nation, the State, the Church as a whole, and in the Stake since we last met in conference in September, 1918. Among those he named and briefly commented on were the following:

The victories of the allies in the war, the taking of the St. Mihiel salient by the Americans under General Pershing which had withstood the assaults of the Allies for four years, the Argonne Forest drive, the taking of sedan which broke the German line in two, and, finally the signing of the Armistice on November 11, which ended the war. He quoted the prophetic utterance of President Grant at the previous June Conference, possibly the gloomiest moment in all the struggle for the allied arms, when he declared that “I do not know what other people may think, but there is no doubt whatever in the heart of every true Latter-day Saint as to how the war is going to end. We have no fear that the Kaiser shall ever rule over this land of ours.”

The scourge of influenza, which covered practically the entire world, and which took 400,000people in the United States alone, which began after the September conference and had now apparently run its course. He commented on the fact that not one of the officers embraced in the list of112 officers in our Stake was taken during that scourge.

The Fourth and fifth Liberty loans had been called for and had been heavily oversubscribed, something like $8,000,000,000.

the death of Theodore Roosevelt, a typical American, a man of force and vigor and of wonderful influence in the life of our Nation.

That prohibition of the Liquor traffic had taken hold of the Nation.

The publication of the vision of the Dead, received by President Joseph F. Smith.

The death of President Joseph F. Smith.

The selection of Heber J. Grant as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The selection of Melvin Ballard as an apostle.

The selection of Elder David O. McKay as General Commissioner of church Schools, with Stephen L Richards and Richard R. Lyman as his assistants.

The release of most of the Mission Presidents and the selection of their successors.

The postponement of the General Annual conference because of the “flu.”

The death of President Thomas B. Evans of the Ogden Stake.

The selection of a new bishopric in Marriott Ward.

The selection of a new Y.M.M.I.A. Stake Superintendency.

The selection of a new Primary Association Stake Presidency.

The decision on the part of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve, the Presidencies of the Weber, North Weber and the Ogden Stakes and the bishoprics of these stakes in assembly called together, to erect a Gymnasium in connection with the Weber Normal College to cost $200,000, of which the church would meet one half.

He reported further that notwithstanding the war and the “flu” conditions, the tithing for 1918 was the largest ever paid in the stake, being a 24% increase over that of 1917. The tithing fort the stake was 104% higher than the first year after the organization of the Stake, and the tithing in the three stakes was 99% higher than the year which followed the division of the Weber Stake.

Ward teaching had been broken into by the “flu.” He read the instructions sent to the bishops on their duties and that of the ward teachers during that time of sorrow and affliction.

A missionary schedule providing for a monthly visitation to the wards for a period of six months to preach the first principles of the gospel had been inaugurated and was now in progress, being much appreciated.

he called attention to the low attendance at sacrament meetings, 19% and at Priesthood meetings, 16%, the failure on the part of many to give service or assume responsibility; held that prosperity often proved a detriment to the people; though prospects for crops were not bright because of the drought, he hoped that the Lord would not withhold his blessings, and he closed by reading IV Nephi 1:15-17, 22, 25, 26, to show how happy a people could be when serving the Lord and the condition that they fell into when riches drew them away from his face.

“O love divine,” was sung by Sister Mildred Ware and the choir.

President Levi Edgar Young, of the Council of the Seventy, addressed the congregation. He said in effect: I am very glad to be with you in this conference this morning. I believe that the day will find us enjoying the spirit of God to the fullest extent. I believe that we are going to return to our homes at the end of the day very much built up in our faith and in our hope to live nearer to God than we have ever lived before. I was greatly interested in the report that has been made concerning the stake, and it is quite true that great changes have come in the world since you last met in quarterly conference, great changes have come into many people’s lives, and yet we are practically the same today as we were a year ago, except we have grown a little. We have received new thought, we have greater feelings, and take it all in all we have made some progress, and yet I say we remain the same. It is that same individual that is growing it is the same church that is growing, it is the same Spirit of the Lord that is growing into our hearts only to a greater degree, and in that way we feel today that life is fuller and bigger and more glorious than ever before; we certainly feel this way if we have been trying to live nearer to God and His great work. Living right is the greatest thing on this earth and to me the sweetest thing of the gospel lies in the fact that wish my simple faith I go to God today and repent of what I did yesterday knowing that I can come back to God, knowing that I can do right, knowing that I have the great privilege of living, and I believe that during the past nine or twelve months since the conference has been held we have all been filled with such thoughts.

I want to take up what to me is the need of the hour above all things. In this complex age I sometimes fear we are going to get away from the simplicity of life, the joy of living. The simplicity of life, after all, rests on the first great principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ namely Faith in God. That is the thing I want to bring home to us all this morning, faith in God, for it is what the world needs more than anything else. Give me the man of faith and ten to one and I will show a real servant of god. Give me the man who bases his life on faith in God and I will show you a great man. Between Salt lake and here I noticed many dry, parched fields, and yet, down here some twelve or fourteen miles, I noticed a twenty-acre wheat field, one of the pretties things I have seen this year. It may go fifty bushels to the acre. But the farmer who came next seemingly had lost his wheat field and, possibly, his beet crop, and is trees do not look very well. I was trying to form a contrast between the two men who own these farms. Possibly the man who goes and surveys his great wheat field will have faith that God has blessed him greatly, and the other who sees the parched condition of his land and the burning of his wheat crop will say, I resent life, I resent the blessing of life. Possibly he will not; if he is a saint, if he is really living near to God, he will build up in his soul a greater faith and know that whatever occurs to his field the Lord is his shepherd and he shall not want, he cannot want, because of his faith in God. Great problems are coming to us now and we must fight the battle of humanity, the battles of industry, we must fight for life, and behind that fight must be our faith in God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. Faith is what the world is in need of, and faith is the most beautiful attribute of the human soul for from it emanates everything, love, devotion, beauty, the great life that you and I are seeking for with simple faith. So the man who goes forth tomorrow and sees his crops dying, the man who has worked and looks at his hardened hands and realizes that all is swept form him, but rises up in faith, that man has the chance of his life and will say: The Lord is good, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, God is my God and in Him will I place my life and my faith. That is what the old world needs and needs badly.

When the Pioneers came into the valleys they had that faith. I remember my mother telling about grandmother when she came into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847. She was a young girl and had brought a baby into the world on the banks of the Missouri River, and a day after giving the child life she placed her hand in the hand of her husband and said: “I am ready to go, God has blessed me, and god will take care of us.” But grandmother, when she came into the valley sat down and wept. She went for a walk and grandfather found her weeping, and as they looked down into the little camp in City Creek they cold see just a little dried up camp. there she stood weeping, and grandfather told her: “Why, this is to be the place where we are going to build up Zion.” Grandmother said: “This the place? – everything so parched, everything so dry, even no grass for the horses, nothing for the cattle.” Grandfather said: “Yes, this is the place.” Then, we are told, she wept again, but pretty soon she stood up and said, amid her tears, “You are right; it is the place. Through all of this grayness and vast parchedness, I know that God has led us here and I can see God’s spirit hovering over the valley. It is the place, and here we will stay and build our homes, and God be praised for it.” Now, that was faith, and here they settled and built their homes. Hundreds of pioneers went through the same experiences. Now, whatever lies before us, be they industrial, economical or political problems, our faith must rise supreme because we are Saints, because God is at the helm, and God will not desert us. You know that hymn: “Come, come ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way.” “But with joy wend your way!” I wish that could be engraved in the heart of every Latter-day Saint from which he or she could receive renewed faith every morning. “Come, come ye Saints,” helping each other to see the right, the joy of Sainthood, the joy of living the joy of fellowship. Why, that is what, I say, the world is so badly in need of.

The speaker then showed how the ancient prophets lived in this day and age in what they had written for us; called attention to Jeremiah, and his experiences, and his faith; to Isaiah, holding the book of Isaiah to be the greatest working political treatise that has ever been written; that book, he said, could teach the American nation how to become a great and God fearing nation, and expressed the wish that it could be introduced in the schools of the country. He spoke of the beauty in nature, how everything was shaped to work out certain purposes and accomplish certain ends; he called attention to the wonderful faith of Columbus and what it brought about and then continued:

Brethren and sisters: It was faith that won the war, the faith of righteous men that went into the war. What shall your faith make you – your faith and my faith will lead us into the kingdom of right, the kingdom of God. God cannot get along without the individual, and the individual makes up the home.

I remember the story told by Irwin Cobb. he was ordered by the London Post to interview General Pershing and so he started out one morning at 6 o’clock to go to Pershing’s camp. He expected to get to his quarters sometime during the night, but he was going to walk through the valleys, and about two o’clock in the afternoon he was tired and hungry.

As he was passing through the country there seemed to be nothing left, not even a house. As he walked on he saw the side of a house standing, but the rest was all gone; soon he saw a forge, and at the forge he saw a woman hammering. He stepped up to the door and stood looking, and down in the ashes he saw a little baby, about 14 or 15 months of age, playing in the dirt. He stood watching the woman hammering. Pretty soon she felt the presence of somebody. She spoke to him in French and asked if he was an American, and he answered, “Yes, I am an American newspaper correspondent. My name is Cobb.” He spoke enough French to let her know what he wanted.

“O,” she said, “I am not afraid of you.”

“Will you give me a drink of water,” he said. She hurried to a little stream and got some water. He said: “What are you dong?”

She said: “My two sons were killed I the first battle of the Marne, my other two sons fell at Verdun, my husband, – there is his grave, and this is our home. I do not know where the others are buried, and I have nothing left but the little boy in the ashes. I am going to rear him to be a good child of France and a good child of God. O,” she continued, “what am I doing. I make horseshoes. Every morning at six o’clock I begin my work. I make all the way form 18 to 24 and 30 horseshoes a day. At six o’clock, at the ring of the Angelus, I pack up my horseshoes and I take my little boy and walk 18 miles to the commissary department and deliver my horseshoes and get scrap iron for the next day. True,” she said, “I couldn’t walk it if it were not for the automobiles that pick me up and help me. And they give me iron for the next day. Sometimes it is one or two o’clock in the morning before I am back here. Sometimes the little boy keeps me up and we have no food, but the next morning at daylight I am beginning work.”

“You are wearing yourself out, how can you keep it up,” he asked.

She took out a little cross – she was a Catholic – “That’s what does it; faith in God that I am right.”

And the woman began hammering her horseshoes into shape – and do you know, that’s the kind of work that won the war. France never could have gotten along without her. Faith, the first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – faith, let us live by our faith.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. he maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

Faith in God, that is what we need, that is what the world is in need of, good, plain, simple faith.

“Blessed Redeemer” was sung by Jed Ballantyne, Stella Olsen and the Choir.

Benediction was pronounced by Elder George H. Butler, of the High Council and the conference adjourned until 2 P.M.

2 P.M.

The Choir and congregation sang: “How firm a foundation.”

prayer was offered by Elder Henry T. Maw of the High Council.

“See you not yon radiant star” was sung by Myrtle Higley, Mildred Ware and the Choir.

The General and Local Authorities were then presented by Counselor John V. Bluth and were unanimously sustained as follows:

General Authorities.

As Prophet, Seer and Revelator and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Heber J. Grant.

As First Counselor in the First Presidency – Anthon H. Lund.

As Second Counselor in the First Presidency – Charles W. Penrose.

As President of the Council of Twelve Apostles – Anthon H. Lund.

As Members of the Council of Twelve Apostles – Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot, George Albert Smith, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, David O. McKay, Anthony W. Ivins, Joseph Fielding Smith, James E. Talmage, Stephen L. Richards, Jr., Richard R. Lyman and Melvin J. Ballard.

As Presiding Patriarch of the Church – Hyrum G. Smith.

The Counselors in the First Presidency. The Twelve Apostles and the Presiding Patriarch as Prophets, Seers and Revelators.

As First Seven Presidents of Seventy – Seymour B. Young, Brigham H. Roberts, Jonathan G. Kimball, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin, Charles H. Hart and Levi Edgar Young.

As Presiding Bishopric: Presiding Bishop of the Church– Charles W. Nibley; First Counselor – David A. Smith; Second Counselor – John Wells.

As Church Historian and General Church Recorder – Anthon H. Lund with Andrew Jensen, Brigham H. Roberts, Joseph Fielding Smith and August William Lund, as his assistants.

As General Church Board of Education – David O. McKay, Stephen L Richard, Jr., Richard R. Lyman, Willard Young, anthon H. Lund, George H. Brimhall, Rudger Clawson, Charles W. Penrose, Horace H. Cummings and Orson F. Whitney, with Arthur Winter as Secretary and Treasurer.

As Trustee-in-Trust for the Religious Body of Worshipers known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Heber J. Grant.

As General Church Auditing committee – William W. Riter, Henry H. Rolapp, John C. Cutler, Heber Scowcroft, Peter C. Johnston.

Stake Authorities.

As President of the North Weber Stake of Zion – James Wotherspoon.

As First Counselor in the Stake Presidency – John V. Bluth.

As Second Counselor in the Stake Presidency – Francis W. Stratford.

As Members of the High Council – George H. Butler, Haskell H. Shurtliff, William A. Taylor, Luther Buck, Alfred Dixon, Joseph Skeen, William C. Hunter, Henry J. Garner, Thomas England, Francis L. Woods, Emuel Bachman and Martenas Barton, and as Alternates: George S. Barker, Edward A. Barnes and Henry T. Maw.

As Stake Clerk – David W. Evans.

As Stake Chorister – Albert J. Powell.

As Stake Organist – Florence Powell.

As Stake Representative of the Genealogical Society – Charles Kingston.

As Patriarchs – Levi J. Taylor and Nathan Hawkes.

As Officers of the High Priests Quorum: President – Charles Kingston; Counselors – Walter W. Crane and Henry H. Butler; Secretary – Edward A. Barnes.

As Officers of the Various Quorums of Seventy:

Fifty-Third Quorum – Ezra H.G. Williams, Sumner P. Nelson, Lemuel G. Sisman and Richard C. Butler, presidents, with Sumner P. Nelson as acting secretary.

Fifty-Fourth Quorum – Ammon Green, Jr., Brigham H. Bingham, James J. Gibson, Albert Green, Charles L. Heslop, Elijah W. Clayton and Adam M. Hunter, presidents, with Ammon Green, Jr., acting secretary.

Sixtieth Quorum – Martin D. Harris, Jethro D. Brown, Howard A. Dabb, Merlin J. Bartholomew, Riley E. Taylor and Samuel Tomlinson, presidents, with Howard A. Dabb, acting secretary.

Eighty-Seventh quorum – Josiah B. Carver, Lewis R. Jenkins, Willard R. Lund, George F. Weatherston, Arthur W. Marriott, Hans P. Poulsen and William A. Kerr, with Thomas Jenkins, secretary.

As Officers of the Various Elders Quorums:

First Quorum – President, Frederick Williams; Counselors, Carl Torgerson and Charles W.Tolhurts; Secretary, W. Leroy Wiggins.

Second Quorum – President, Clarence E. Bramwell; first counselor, Elbert P. Drumiler; secretary, Herman Cardon.

Third Quorum – President, Joseph E. Garlick; counselors, Orson E. Asper and Ira T. Short; secretary, Albert Crowther.

Fourth Quorum – President, Mark M. Knight; Counselors, Louis A. Hansen and Walter Geddes; secretary, Alonzo Wheeler.

Fifth Quorum – President, William A. McFarland; Counselors, Winslow Farr and Edward Penman; secretary, William Kay Hipwell.

Sixth Quorum – President, Andrew Hunter; first counselor, Bowa Defreas; secretary, John Johnson.

Seventh Quorum – President, Walter Griffin; Counselors, John E. Moline and James F. Hunter; secretary, Fred Nielsen.

Eighth Quorum – President, Johan M. Pedersen; Counselors, William Thornton and Joseph Gooch; secretary, Soren Norman Larson.

As Officers of the Tabernacle Choir: Manager – Charles J. Ross; Director – Joseph Ballantyne; Organist – Samuel F. Whitaker; Secretary – Annis B. Brown; Librarian – Leland Newey; Assistant Librarian – Delbert Foulger.

As Officers of the Relief Society: President – Georgina G. Marriott; Counselors – Julia E. Parry and Annie L. Middleton; Secretary– Mary A;. Terry; Treasurer – Lucretia West.

As Officers of the Sunday School: Superintendent – Albert J. Powell; Assistants – Robert H. Hodge and Jay Gould Stone; Secretary – Jay Gould Stone.

As Officers of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association: Superintendent – Jesse H. Draper; Assistants – Almon D. Brown and William W. Barker; Secretary – Irwin Higley.

As Officers of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association: President – Eliza F. McFarland; Counselors – Olive Shaw Blackham and Ida A. Shurtleff.

As Officers of the Primary Associations: President – Genevra Brown; Counselors – Melissie Taylor and Sarah A. Larkin; Secretary – Ethel Sisman.

As Officers of the Religion Classes; President – Albert Green; Counselors – Elias Peterson and Andrew P. Sorenson; Secretary – John Earnest Hipwell.

As Old Folks Committee – Haskell H. Shurtliff, chairman; Richard R.D. Brown, Lawrence W. Sherner, Myron B. Richardson, Timothy P. Terry.

As Amusement Committee – Jesse H. Draper, Eliza F. McFarland, Ellen M. Barnes, Esther H. Shurtliff Farr.

President James Wotherspoon expressed himself as being more than pleased to meet again in conference capacity. The talk we had this morning, he said, was meat and drink to every one of us. The illustrations were excellent and emphasized the truth that we needed to get back to the simple faith in god.

“Hosannah,” was sung by Myrtle Higley and the Choir.

Apostle Anthony W. Ivins addressed the congregation taking for his theme the resurrection. He had been very much interested in the report made by Counselor Bluth, he stated, and the summary of the great events that had taken place since the last conference had been held in this Stake. It had been the most eventful year in the history of the world. The unprecedented sacrifice of human lives, the thousands whose remains lie on the ocean bed, the countless numbers whose graves will never be known by the loved ones who sent them forth to battle, he said, had created in the minds of thinking people a desire to know something of the condition of the man after death. Is there a future life? If so, what of our personality? Does it persist? Will we know anything of the past any more than we know here of the previous life? These were pertinent questions, said the speaker, and he then reviewed the different views held by thinkers, ministers and philosophers. Very few agree. There was a uniformity of belief among Christian ministers. They all believe in life after death, but so far as the individuality of the person is concerned, they are hopelessly divided. He had not found a single author who believed in the reuniting of the body and the spirit to become a living, material soul. He quoted the belief and philosophies of such writers as Max Nordau, John Blundell Burton, Madam Bezant and others and gave their views at some length, but gave answer more to the view point of John Blundell Burton who states that he would like to believe but is in doubt because no one comes back to tell. to this point the speaker mainly addressed himself. He held that there was much evidence for the resurrection and the literal reuniting of the body and the spirit. He quoted the Savior’s words: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall live, and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” The Savior was crucified, died and was resurrected, and there can be no doubt of the validity of the testimony of the many who saw him after his death and that he was a living soul of body and spirit, and not merely an intangible spirit. He spoke of John’s vision on the Isle of Patmos and his testimony that the dead should rise, quoted form III Nephi, as to the resurrection and the reunion of the bodies and spirits of men to again become living souls. Elias and Moses came back and visited with the Savior while in company with some of his disciples in the Mount; John the Revelator tells of a heavenly messenger that came to him and when he was about to bow down and worship him the messenger restrained him saying, “I am but one of your fellow servants, one of the prophets.” He came back to tell. Joseph the boy prophet, saw the Father and the Son. John the Baptist, who lived during the Savior’s time on earth and was beheaded by Herod came back and gave to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic Priesthood, telling them they were his fellow servants. He then reviewed the results of a faith which, while it believed in a future life, thought we would come back in the shape of some animal or some plant, and thus continue changing from one to the other throughout the ages.

He stated further that the time of the coming of the Redeemer was very near. It did not matter so much whether we lost our crops, or our stocks and bonds, or other material things for we could not take them with us, but our children, our wives and our husbands, our fathers and mothers, these go with us into the eternal world, they are the only eternal things the Lord has promised us, and we should cherish them, do not let our children grow up without faith, do not lose the faith ourselves, but keep ourselves unspotted from the world and serve God and the resurrection would not only be a reality to us but a joyful one.

The duet, “Truth reflects upon our senses,” was sung by Nephi J. Brown and Mildred Ware.

Benediction was pronounced by counselor Francis W. Stratford and the meeting adjourned.