I am pleased, my brethren and sisters, to

I am pleased, my brethren and sisters, to meet with you. on this occasion, and to have the opportunity to address, for a few minutes, this overflow meeting; and being called upon to be the first speaker, I shall consider it my privilege to choose my subject. While I shall be able to reach the ears of only a few of the great multitudes who attend this conference, there will perhaps be an opportunity of reaching many more through that which may be published. ¶

I have in my mind to refer very briefly to the work which is being done in the Historian's Office, particularly the history of the Church pertaining to the 19th century. The present, I trust, will be well taken care of, and I hope that better historical work will be done from now on than has ever been done before. This Church having grown from the time of its first organization with six members until it now numbers at least half a million has become a most important factor in the affairs of the world. In the beginning, when there were only a few members and only a few branches of the Church, the Latter- ■ day Saints were almost unknown, but as the work spread to nearly all parts of the United States and later to Canada, Great Britain, and many other countries, most of the civilized world became acquainted to a greater or less extent with the assertion made by the missionary elders of the Church that the Lord had opened the heavens anew and had restored to earth the gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Church grew, many events, which seemed small and insignificant in the beginning, began to tower high as something of great importance, owing to the great results that followed from apparently small and humble beginnings. This fact has caused the historians of the Church, at the present time, to turn their attention to the earlier days, and wander back over the old ground covered only in part by the early historians, and reconstruct and add new items to the history of the Church, without, however, changing that which had formerly been written, only adding and enlarging and giving details which were overlooked at the time that the Church was small. With that object in view we have been very busy at the Historian's Office during the past thirty-two years writing a detailed history of the Church from the beginning, in journal form, commencing with the 6th of April, 1830, and continuing to the present time. In our extensive labors we have contributed to this history of the Church from many sources which were untouched by the early historians who were satisfied to make up their history mainly from the current reports and the data sent in to the headquarters of the Church from adjacent settlements and branches, of which there were then only a few, compared with the present time. ¶

But many years ago our attention was drawn to the fact that much of the Church history, at the Historian's Office, was fragmentary — that the historical thread was not complete, but in many cases disconnected and unsatisfactory. This was especially the case when we looked into the history of any particular stake, mission, branch -or settlement of the Saints, for we discovered that there were, in many cases, no connecting links between the events that had happened in these different localities. In order to make the story complete, so as to make a consecutive history, we found it necessary to go into the fields ourselves; that is, visit the different stakes and missions for the purpose of obtaining additional information which should enable us to make unbroken or continuous histories of the various organizations in the Church. Hence, about thirty-two years ago we commenced extensive travels in which we visited all the stakes of Zion in this great inter-mountain region in the interest of Church history. Our travels extended from our settlements, in Canada on the north to those in Mexico in the south, including, of course, all within the confines of the United States. On these historical tours we usually called special meetings in the different settlements of the Saints, in which we frequently delivered lectures on Church history and drew attention to the importance of record keeping. Not only did we encourage the stake and ward clerks and the secretaries of quorums and auxiliary associations to keep records, but we also advised the keeping of family and personal records by the individual members of the Church. After a ¶

general meeting, usually held in the evening, to which the public was invited, we made appointments for the following day to meet with all the record keepers in the ward, and as many of the old settlers as we could possibly get together, always having everybody bring such records with them to the meeting as they might possess. We then divided into groups, directing the different secretaries to cull from their records such items as we might need for history. Thus we obtained not only a general history of the ward, but a history of the quorums of the Priesthood, the Relief Society, the Sunday School, the Mutual Improvement Associations, Primary Associations, Religion Classes, etc. We also had the old settlers relate to us their experiences, in the states of Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and other places, and then have them tell us of incidents that happened to them in crossing the ocean with sailing vessels, and on the plains with ox teams and handcarts, ending up with what they had experienced after their arrival in Utah, or after becoming settlers in any of the western towns, founded by Latter-day Saints. The notes made in these meetings were brought to the Historian's Office and there deposited carefully in boxes, ordered for the purpose, awaiting the transcribing and editing into the history of the" Church. These visits we continued for at least five or six years in the different stakes of Zion, until all the settlements of the Saints in the great west had been visited, some of them several times. ¶

After that we were sent abroad to all the Latter-day Saints missionary fields throughout the world, and in the travels in foreign lands thus planned and carried out we visited nearly all the conferences and branches of the Church in all the world, and did to a certain extent the same kind of labor which we had accomplished, in the several Stakes of Zion, with the exception that in the missionary fields we consulted old members of the Church instead of old settlers. On our arrival in Great Britain we found that a great many of the old records originally kept in the various conferences and branches of the Church had been lost, but those that could be found we gathered together with great care and sent them home to the Historian's Office, where hundreds of these records (many of them of very great value) arc now safely housed. In Scandinavia we found nearly all the old records preserved, and they were gathered and shipped to Church headquarters the same as the records from Great Britain. The records from the Swiss and German mission and from the missions on the islands of the sea, were also gathered in and sent home. ¶

This much being accomplished we next commenced a most extensive labor at the Historian's Office by compiling Church history from the records gathered, and from the extensive notes which we had made on our travels. We were successful in obtaining the services of expert typists who could write on their machines nearly as fast as we could formulate sentences in our minds for dictation, and thus we dictated from the notes collected histories of the different stakes of Zion with all their wards and settlements, and also histories ' of the various missions abroad, with their conferences and branches. This work went on, as a side issue, for several years,' the general, or journal history of the Church, being kept up at the same time. We continued this dictating work until a recent date or until nearly 'all the notes gathered on our travels had been converted into readable matter, and then we found that, in order to be absolutely accurate and correct in our statements, it would be necessary to make a final visit to all the wards and settlements of the Saints, for the purpose of reading to the old settlers and others the histories which we had prepared. I would like all the Saints to understand that this work is one of a considerable magnitude. It represents, so far as I know, historical work of a nature which never before has been attempted in writing histories of any community in this or any other country. I do not believe that a better effort has ever been put forth anywhere to get accurate and truthful history. On some of my travels I have carefully examined the histories of other states and countries, and especially on two of my trips to the states I examined many county histories in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, for the purpose of learning how such histories were generally prepared. I soon discovered that most of the historians who had prepared and' written such histories, to a greater or less extent, had been the servants of individuals who would pay them for their labors, and thus they were under the necessity or obligation of coloring facts and events in favor of their patrons, and people who happened to be poor, but perhaps had done very much more than some others, were left out of consideration and were given no credit because they could not pay. That which drew my special attention was some of the narratives in which the Latter-day Saints were associated historically. In almost every instance I found that the Latter-day Saints had been wickedly and maliciously misrepresented, and that, in many cases, riots and acts of mobs were palliated, condoned and interpreted as being justifiable in cases where the Latterday Saints were the victims of terrible outrages. I am sure that the ' history that we, as Church historians, are preparing, from a truthful standpoint will in many, many instances conflict with that which has been written by our enemies. ¶

In preparing and writing history, your historians, backed as they have been by the Church, have been under no particular obligation to anyone as to what we should write and to whom we should give credit. We have been in a position to do justice to everybody, to the rich and the poor and to the living and to the dead alike, endeavoring to tell the truth in every instance. ¶

I take great pleasure, on this occasion, to inform the Latter-day Saints that such a work as that to which I have alluded has been done, and I give it as my opinion that the time is not far distant when the achievements of the Latter-day Saints as preachers of practical Christianity and as founders of real Christian settlements in the United "States will be appreciated and acknowledged by mankind generally. We have not only figured prominently as pioneers in Utah, but our people were also the first Anglo-Saxon settlers in what are now the ¶

States of Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona. The "Mormons" also turned the little Spanish village of Yerba Buena, in California, into the present San Francisco, and founded other settlements of importance on, or near, the Pacific coast, including the famous town of San Bernardino and a pioneer settlement in the San Joaquin Valley. Some very pretty things could also be told about the Mormon Battalion and the "Mormon" pioneers generally who became empire 'founders in western America. Your historians have tried to the best of their ability to get at the facts in all cases and to write up the events so truthfully that our children will know what has been done by their fathers and mothers, who were pioneers in Utah and the other states which have been mentioned. Sooner or later the people of the United States and all the world will know that the Latter-day Saints, persecuted and misrepresented as they have been, were the pioneers of true Christian civilization in the various localities in this western country where they settled, and that they, as a God-fearing people, turned the wilderness and deserts into fruitful fields. ¶

At the present time we are engaged in making a final tour to the existing seventy-nine stakes of Zion, and we shall continue this labor until we have made a final visit to all the stakes and wards, and cities and towns, where Latter-day Saints reside. We realize that this labor cannot be delayed, as the early settlers are fast passing away, and if the history, as we have prepared it, is not read now it would be useless to attempt to read it for correction later, as there would perhaps be none of the old pioneers left to listen to it, or to help us in making corrections. About half the stakes have been visited already, and we shall not be satisfied until all have been similarly visited, and the histories prepared of the different stakes and wards have been presented to the people and accepted by them. On this, our final visit, in the interest of Nineteenth Century Church history, we are also gathering new material, although our main aim at present is to complete the history of the Church, and of its various units, from the beginning to the close of the last century. ¶

We desire to make a 'final and earnest appeal to all parties interested in this history of the Church to render us aid in completing our labors. We desire to borrow from the old pioneers or their children such private records as may have been kept by them, and we would plead with the present generation that they keep records and preserve them, as the time will come when the doings of our own day will be as important and interesting to those who live after us as the experiences and narratives of the early pioneers of Utah now are to us. ¶

We have been intrusted with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have been intrusted also with the privilege of preaching that gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It is the true and original gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have a right to hand down to future generations a true history of how that gospel message was intrusted to the Latter-day Saints and how we have filled our mission. We desire that our children and children's children should know what it means to them to be descendants of the God-fearing pioneers of Utah and the great west. I feel certain that the time will come, if it has not already arrived, that the children of the Latterday Saints will be as proud to trace their origin back to the Mormon, pioneers as early members of the Church, as many now are in tracing their descent from the Pilgrim Fathers or the early settlers of Virginia in the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. The Latter-day Saints have made a history which, in most of its details, will be entirely unlike the histories made by any other people who have settled in this western land. They have always been a God-fearing people, and a people who fear God and keep his commandments and conform their daily habits to the gospel of Jesus Christ will, in all cases, make different history from those who, either through carelessness or wickedness, disobey the mandates of heaven during their sojourn on this mundane sphere. ¶

May we, as the children of the early Latter-day Saints and the pioneers of Utah and the great west, be worthy descendants of our noble predecessors, may we continue the work which they so faithfully commenced and endeavor by our acts to make as commendable a history as they did. May we, as representatives of the true Church of Jesus Christ, be the means of bringing the knowledge of that gospel to all people for the benefit of our own as well as future generations, and may we, finally, together with our forefathers and our descendants, be saved in the celestial kingdom of our God, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶