Write up by: Parker Wood

Placed by: The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, No. 242. Erected in 1957.

GPS Coordinates: 38° 27.383′ N, 111° 37.319′ W

Pictured above is the plaque and the First Public Building in Fremont, Utah.

Historical Marker Text: In the year 1878 William Wilson Morrell and William Taylor erected this structure, the first public building in Wayne County. It was 20×30 feet, built of logs, and used by the people of Fremont community as a church, school house, and public meeting place. Years later it was moved to the site of the new school house on the public square and used only for church purposes. In 1894 the building was again moved to its present location. Plastered, painted, and covered with siding. It is the home of the Relief Society.

Extended Research:

As a child my grandmother took me and my siblings to Fremont’s First Public Building, since it was important to her that she show us the work they had done on the building. She grew up a block away and attended school, church activities and community events there. But to know the history of the First Public Building in Fremont, Utah, it is important to first understand the histories of the indigenous people who lived there, and the histories of settlers who later colonized land in the 1870s. There were different bands of the Paiutes in the area who were nomadic in nature. They lived in small family bands, hunting and gathering on the land. There are limited sources regarding these bands of Paiute, but historians know that they eventually moved on to other parts of the region as they were driven out by Mormon colonizers. In the cemetery where my grandparents are buried, right next to them there are five Native Americans buried. They have been marked within the last five years by a local mortuary to commemorate their lives. As a child I was never told of the Indigenous people who had lived on the land before my ancestors colonized. It was as if they had just “disappeared.” While there are efforts being made today, the histories of these people may never be told.

Rabbit Valley was a very remote settlement area that encompassed different towns such as Loa, Thurber (now Bicknell), Torrey, Lyman, Fremont, and Teasdale. In most of the towns the Latter-day Saint colonizers established public buildings that served many purposes. Fremont was established in 1876 in the northern end of Rabbit Valley in a very remote part of the Utah Territory. Historian Miriam Murphy noted that Fremont is tucked right up next to the Fishlake Mountains. Rabbit Valley has a very high elevation of roughly 7,000 feet above sea level which is challenging as there is a very short season for crops and other farm goods. The bulk of people have cattle ranches or work for the forest service and other public entities.

Fremont is one of the towns in the county to have a public building. It is also rare that it has stayed intact for so many years, even after it moved in 1894. The foundations for the building itself was built by William Wilson Morrell and William Taylor. William Wilson Morrell is my 3^rd great-grandfather and he was a skilled craftsman. As the Latter-day Saint colonizers were building towns he played an important part in the construction of many buildings. He had moved from Ohio to Utah in the 1850s as he had converted to the LDS church. In a nearby historic marker, No. 414 that was placed by the DUP, the first Saw Mill of Rabbit Valley (pictured below) is also remembered. It states that William Wilson Morrell brought a water powered saw mill with him from northern Utah when he moved to Wayne County in 1877. A year later he and William Taylor completed the First Public Building of Fremont. The building was a gathering place of those in the community for church activities, schooling, and other town meetings.[1] My grandmother also mentioned that she attended school in the building as a young girl. My father also remembers going to church activities in the building as child.

The building served multiple purposes. It was a spiritual center where members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered to worship on Sundays. Many of those same citizens would gather during the week in the same building for public meetings. Children attended school there as well. While Morrell offered his skills in craftsmanship, Taylor owned the land where the building was first located.[2] As the town developed, the building was moved to the town center next to a newly built school so they could both serve as school houses. A new Rock Church was built in 1907 which then took a lot of the activities from the First Public Building. The citizens of the town wanted to make more of a town square which is the reason why they moved the First Public Building to its current location where it served for many years as the Relief Society building, the women’s organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[3]

The building itself is a very basic construction pattern with a traditional roof and rectangle shape for the foundation. The saw mill that Morrell brought with him from Northern Utah proved to be a very important resource which he used for building the First Public Building along with homes and other buildings in the area. Today the building is not used as much as it was in the past mostly due to its age and the preservation that is taking place.

For Further Reference

Murphy, Miriam B. A History of Wayne County. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1999.

Snow, Anne. Rainbow Views: A History of Wayne County. Springville, UT: ART CITY Publishing Company. 1977.

The First Sawmill Historic Marker, No. 414, Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Fremont, Utah. 1981. Wood, Renon Jenson. Personal Journals regarding family history.

[1] Murphy, Miriam B. A History of Wayne County. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1999, 98.

[2] Murphy, A History of Wayne County, 101.

[3] Snow, Anne. Rainbow Views: A History of Wayne County. Springville, UT: ART CITY Publishing Company. 1977, 145.

First Wayne Stake Tithing Office

Photo Credit: Bill Kirchner, Sept. 29, 2018

GPS Coordinates:

38º 24.114’ N 111º 38.681’ W

Marker is in Loa, Wayne County, Utah.

Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, January 20, 2020.

Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, January 20m 2020.

National Register of Historic Places Marker

Built in 1897, the Loa Tithing Office is historically significant as one of 43 well preserved tithing buildings in Utah that were part of the successful “in kind” tithing system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) between the 1850s and about 1910. Tithing lots, which usually included an office and several auxiliary structures, were facilities for collecting, storing, and distributing the farm products that were donated as tithing by church members in the cash-poor agricultural communities throughout the state. Tithing offices were a vital part of almost every Mormon community, serving as local centers of trade, welfare assistance, and economic activity. This building is also architecturally significant as one of ten existing examples of Utah’s tithing offices which were designed in the Greek Revival style. Peter Christensen, who constructed the building, also fired the brick in a kiln located between the nearby town of Lyman and Horse Valley Ranch. The woodwork on the building was carved by Benjamin E. Brown, a local craftsman. In 1972 the building was sold to the local chapter of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

–National Historic Places Registry, Date Unknown

First Wayne Stake Tithing Office built in 1897 at a cost of $1,000 by Peter Christensen who fired the brick in a kiln between Lyman and Horsevalley Ranch. Benjamin F. Brown carved the wood decorations. Used only for tithing office as long as offerings were paid in produce. It then became the Wayne Stake Presidential Office. Now owned by Daughters of Utah Pioneers, where pioneer relics are displayed and meetings held.

–Mauna Loa Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1976

Extended Research:

Photo Courtesy: LDS Church History Library and Archives, Wayne Stake Office/Old Tithing Building, PH 211.

Tithing offices were found in every settlement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the Mountain West during the nineteenth century. These houses played a major role in the economic life of their communities. Historically, they were an extension of the communal storehouse which was established by Latter-day Saints in Missouri in the early 1830s. Leaders of the newly organized “Church of Christ,” as it was then called, established a system under the law of consecration, which asked all members to donate their surplus income and wealth to the church. The funds were used to buy land, construct temples, and provide for the needs of the poor. The law of consecration was replaced in 1838 by a “lesser law” of tithing, which required members to pay one-tenth of their annual increase or net income.[1]

Once the Latter-day Saints were established throughout Utah Territory, the receipt and disbursement of tithes necessitated the construction of a tithing office, a storehouse, and often a stockyard in every settlement. The tithing office, storehouse, and stockyard were under the management of the local clergy called stake presidents and bishops.[2]

As the membership of the Church increased in Utah, Latter-day Saint congregations were divided into geographic units called stakes usually named after the county or region they occupied and overseen by a three-man stake presidency. Stakes were subdivided into smaller units called wards, a term borrowed from voting districts in the early United States. Wards in the LDS Church were overseen by a bishop and two counselors, who reported to stake leadership. Members of the wards or stakes paid tithes to the Church in various forms, ranging from cash, labor, or grain, to livestock and produce, depending on an individual’s financial circumstances. Tithes paid were disbursed by the bishop or stake president for assistance to the poor and needy within their jurisdiction.

First Wayne Stake Presidency: Joseph Eckersley, Gerson Bastian, John Riley Stewart

Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, September 2019

Though Latter-day saints began settling in Rabbit Valley as early as 1865, Wayne County wasn’t officially organized until May 2, 1892. The elevation of the communities in the county vary from 7,300 feet at Loa to 4,200 feet at Hanksville.[3] The broad spectrum of elevation, and proximity to the mountains and Fremont River created difficulties for settlements in adapting to unpredictable weather patterns. Freezing temperatures, heavy storms, and flooding often interfered with farming and settlers were dependent upon the assistance of stake tithes to survive.

Facing west, Wayne tithing office and Loa tabernacle (Wayne Stake) Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, January 20, 2020.

In response to these hardships, in 1897, members of the Wayne Stake followed the counsel of Church headquarters in Salt Lake City and built a white brick building to serve as the Wayne Stake tithing office. There were originally two floors, the main floor, and a cellar used for storing vegetables and potatoes. Behind the building was a large wooden granary where the clerks stored grain paid as tithing. Further east of the granary, church members stacked the hay brought in for credit.

In February 1897, Bishop Levi C. White of Blue Valley (later Giles) said, “The Ward is in Good conditions, owing to the recent storm the people have not been able to do mutch ditch work. Had it not been for the donations made to their ward by the Saints in the upper settlements, they would not have been able to raise crops this year. The people greatly appreciate the Generocity of the saints who have donated to their needs.”[4] Again, in May of the same year, Hans W. Hansen reported the good results that came from “the liberal donations of the people of the western part of the stake to those living in the eastern part.”[5]

Members of the stake willingly paid tithes to help preserve their economy. George S. Bastian of Loa, stated that nothing gave him “more joy than to take of his substance and help the poor and needy.” And Elias W. Blackburn of Bicknell reminded members of his congregation that they had “made a promise in the Nauvoo temple to help the poor and needy,” and now he could say he had spent the past “six months exclusively in making good this promise.”[6]

Labor was also a common donation for tithing. The Wayne Stake tithing office was likely financed through labor donations. The white bricks for the structure were made in a kiln between Lyman and Horse Valley by Peter Christensen, a member of the stake, who then laid the brick. Benjamin Brown another Latter-day Saint member in the stake made the fancy woodwork on the doors and porches.[7]

Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, September 2019.

By the early twentieth century as communities became more financially secure, tithing in kind gradually dwindled throughout the stakes. After Latter-day Saints in Wayne Stake discontinued the payment of tithes “in kind,” the granary behind the tithing office was moved to another location in Loa. The white brick building was then used as the stake clerk’s office until the 1950s when the Loa Tabernacle/Stake Center across the street added a cultural hall and stake offices.[8]

The Mauna Loa Daughters of Utah Pioneers purchased the tithing office building and currently use it for DUP meetings and as a museum which houses antiques, photos and other artifacts from early Wayne County.

German Spinning Wheel housed in Wayne Tithing Office. Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, September 2019.

Pipe organ from Loa Tabernacle, also on display in the Wayne Tithing Office. Photo Credit: Andrea Maxfield, September 2019.

Notes:

[1] Leonard J. Arrington, “The Mormon Tithing House: A Frontier Business Institution,” The Business History Review, 28:1 (March 1954), 24.

[2] Arrington, “This Mormon Tithing House,” 25.

[3] Anne Snow, Rainbow Views: A History of Wayne County, 4^th Ed. (Springville, Utah: Art City Publishing Co, 1985), 1-18.

[4] Loa Stake General Minutes 1893-1981, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Call Number: LR 9963 11, 219-20.

[5] Loa Stake General Minutes,226.

[6] Loa Stake General Minutes, 223.

[7] Snow, Rainbow Views, 422.

[8] Loa Utah Stake Manuscript History and Historical Reports, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Call Number: LR 9963 2.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources:

Loa Stake General Minutes 1893-1981, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Call Number: LR 9963 11

Loa Utah Stake Manuscript History and Historical Reports, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Call Number: LR 9963 2

Secondary Sources:

Leonard J. Arrington, “The Mormon Tithing House: A Frontier Business Institution,” The Business History Review, 28:1 (Cambridge: The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1954), 24-58.

Anne Snow, Comp., Rainbow Views: A History of Wayne County, 4^th Ed.(Springville, UT: Art City Publishing Co., 1985).

Utah Historical Markers

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Category Archives: Wayne

First Public Building – Fremont, Wayne, UT

First Wayne Stake Tithing Office