be the temple of our God."[1] This was about five o'clock in the afternoon. An hour later it was agreed that a site should be laid out for a city in blocks or squares of ten acres, and in lots of an acre and a quarter, the streets to be eight rods wide, with side-walks of twenty feet.
At eight o'clock on the same evening a meeting was held on the temple square, and it was decided by vote that on that spot the temple should be built[2], and from that spot the city laid out.
On the 29th of July a detachment of the battalion, which had wintered at Pueblo,[3] to the number of 150, under Captain James Brown, arrived in the valley; they were accompanied by fifty of the brethren who had started the year previous from the Mississippi. On the following evening a praise service for their safe arrival was held in the brush bowery ,[4] has-
- ↑ 'This was about the centre of the site of the Temple we are now building.' Utah Pioneers, 33d ana., 23.
- ↑ 'Some wished for forty acres to be set apart for temple purposes, but it was finally decided to have ten acres;. . .the base line was on the south-east corner, and government officials afterward adopted it as the base meridian line. ' Taylor's Reminiscences, MS. , 21. When the elders arrived from England they brought with them to Winter Quarters, just before the starting of the pioneers, 'two sextants, two barometers, two artificial horizons, one circular reflector, several thermometers, and a telescope.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1847, 82. Thus Orson Pratt was enabled to take scientific observations. He reported the latitude of the north line of temple square, which was ten acres in size, to be 40° 45′ 44″ N., and its longitude 111° 26′ 34″ W. From George W. Dean's observatioias in 1869, taken at the temple block, the results were lat. 40° 46′ 2″, long. 11° 53′ 30″. Rept Const Survey, 1869-70. In taking lunar distances for longitude, it is usual to have four observers, but Orson Pratt had no assistant; hence probably the discrepancy. On August 16th it was determined that the streets around the temple block should be called respectively North, South, East, and West Temple streets, the others to be named, as required, First North street, Second North street, First South street. Second South street, etc.
- ↑ Says Mrs Clara Young: 'Before reaching Laramie three of the pioneers were sent to Pueblo to tell the families there to strike their trail and follow them to their settlement.' Ex. of a Pioneer Woman, MS., 7. 'The men of this detachment were on their way to San Francisco, but their wagons breaking down and their cattle being in very poor condition, they were compelled to turn aside and await further orders.' Utah Early Records, MS., 8.
- ↑ For many years these boweries of trees and brush had been constructed when any large number of the people needed a temporary place of shelter. This one was 40x28 feet. Col Markham reported at this meeting 'that 13 ploughs and 3 harrows had been stocked during the past week, 3 lots of ground broken up, one lot of 35 acres planted in corn, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, and garden seed.' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1847, 103-4. 'On the 20th H. G. Sherwood, in returning from an excursion to Cache Valley, brought an
