Report on the Fremont Stake

I am very gratified, my beloved brethren and sisters, for the position that I now occupy in standing before you as a representative of the Fremont Stake of Zion. Our Stake is located about two hundred miles north of this city. It is in the extreme northeast corner of what is usually termed Southeastern Idaho. It also extends across the continental divide into the southern borders of Montana, the branch of Lima in that State of the Union being a part of the Fremont stake. In the state of Idaho there are eighteen wards located in the Fremont stake. The area of our stake is approximately 70 miles square, embracing in the neighborhood of 5,000 square miles. We have a population of about 6,000 Latter-day Saints. All of the organizations of our stake are complete. Like the rest of my brethren who have reported, I feel proud to be associated with those who have charge of the various organizations in our stake. I am especially pleased to be associated with my two counselors, whom I have learned to love as men of God, and who are heart and hand with me in every enterprise that we esteem for the good and welfare of our people. I do not think that there is a better High Council throughout the length and breadth of the Church than we have in the Fremont stake of Zion. We hold meetings regularly once a month, and have a splendid attendance. There is no proposition ever brought before our people until the entire High Council are apprised of it and are unanimous in favor of it. We have two councils of Seventy, whose jurisdiction extends throughout our stake and one of the adjoining stakes. They are doing a very good work. We have four Elders' quorums, actively engaged in their labors. The superintendency of the Sunday schools of the stake are most active men, and the Union Board associated with them are exemplary members of the Church. They meet regularly bi-weekly, and arrange for their labors among the various Sunday schools of the stake. So does also the stake board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, and the Stake board of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association, meet bi-weekly, and I can testify that they are men and women of God and doing a noble work among our young people in that vicinity. We have not met with the success in our religion class work that I would like to see; but we hope to bring that institution to the front as soon as we possibly can. With this exception, all the auxiliary organizations and the quorums of that stake are in excellent condition. ¶

Financially we are more blessed and prospered than we have ever been before, although we have no need whatever to complain of the blessings of our Heavenly Father that have attended us in that section of the country. It seems but yesterday that we settled on that then sagebrush plain, and located our tents on the banks of the South Teton river, under the direction of President Thomas E. Ricks, who was then Bishop Ricks, and he was under the jurisdiction of Presiding Bishop William B. Preston, who was then the President of the Cache stake of Zion. All that extent of country which now comprises the Fremont stake, the Bingham stake, the Teton stake, and a part of the Pocatello stake, was then known as the Bannock ward of the Cache stake of Zion. The number of Latter-day Saints in that locality at that time did not exceed perhaps 200 souls. Today in these various stakes our people number approximately 20,000. ¶

What was then the Bannock ward of the Cache stake of Zion is now known as the Ricks Academy district, named in honor of our late highly esteemed and lamented president, Thomas E. Ricks. I am pleased to say that this institution of learning was organized by him under the direction of President Wilford Woodruff, fifteen years ago on the 12th of November next. From that time unto the present, although it has had many difficulties to encounter, it has lived and increased its usefulness among our young people. This year we have an attendance in that institution of 265; and I can tell you, brethren and sisters, I feel extremely proud of them, and of the noble work they are doing, with the faculty of the institution, under the able leadership of Brother Ezra Christianson. The work that they have been doing this winter is indeed excellent. In this institution there have been 40 young men, called from these different stakes, to take the missionary course, and this spring nearly all of them have been called to take missions to various parts of the earth. These young men are scattered abroad today, others are going, and the benefits of this institution are so widespread that we cannot estimate the length and breadth thereof. On the 15th of November next— the fifteenth birthday of this institution — we expect to have completed a $50,000 structure as a home for it. This year Fremont stake has contributed upwards of $12,000 for the erection of this building, and by doing a similar work during the coming season we hope to have it ready for occupancy on the 12th of November. ¶

As far as the tithes of our people are concerned, we feel that we have no complaints whatever to offer. In connection with what we have done towards the erection of the academy, our tithes have increased nearly $4,000 during the year 1902. ¶

I bear my testimony to you, as I have borne it time and time again, that this is the Church and kingdom of God in which we are engaged. Notwithstanding all of the opposition that has been brought to bear against it during the 73 years of its existence, look at it today, scattered throughout the length and breadth of these mountain valleys, our young men in almost every nation under heaven promulgating the truths of the Gospel, and who is there that cannot say with me this morning that were it not for the overruling power of Omnipotence this work would have gone down; but today we find it is the work of God, and the people are growing and increasing upon the right hand and upon the left. We have in our stake, as some of the other brethren have said, all of the modern improvements (?). Twenty years ago it was a sagebrush plain; today we have upwards of 50 wards in that part of the country, we have a branch railroad, we have the electric lines, we have telephone communication, and everything is prosperous with us, financially and temporally. I feel to thank God for It; but above all things I thank Him for a standing in the Church of God. I bear my testimony to you of its truthfulness. Above all things, let us be true to the covenants that we have made, and not one of us be a traitor. I am extremely thankful for the very timely suggestions that have been offered by our Presidency during this conference with regard to the importance of teaching our young people the necessity of manual work. I omitted to state that in our institution of learning which I have been speaking of we have made preparations already to have a class in manual training the coming winter, as also a class in domestic science. We are scattered over a very large tract of country, and I only regret that there are not more of our young people who are looking for homes, that they may come and help us carry our burdens. We have had bridges to build, schoolhouses to build, churches to build, roads to maintain, and everything that is necessary in the development of a new country. Our people have taken up large farms; they are too large, and in too many cases they have been under the necessity of mortgaging them, and I am sorry to say that more than 50 per cent of the farms in our stake today are mortgaged. Our people are carrying too heavy a load, and we would very dearly like to see a host of our young people come into that country and buy out one-half or two-thirds of the farms we own, and help us to lift our mortgages and maintain those things that are necessary in the colonization of a country. We invite you there; but we do not want to go contrary to the counsel of the First Presidency in asking our young people to scatter out too far. However, we will always welcome you to come and share our burdens, because we want to observe the counsel of the First Presidency and get out of debt as soon as we can. We do not want, though, to sell our farms to strangers, but we would like to sell to our own people. ¶

God bless you, brethren and sisters. May His Spirit attend this people throughout the length and breadth of the world. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶