John Hamilton Morgan Journal; Trips to the Temple concluded.

[Note: Sometime between May 24th and June 27th 1890 Mary Ann Linton Morgan moved from Nephi, Utah to (Preston), Idaho.]

1890
June 27
About town attending to business. In the evening left on the 5 p.m. train for Idaho where I arrived at 11 p.m. and found all well.

June 28
Remained quiet all day. Brother Sol. [Solomon H.] Hale and George [C.] Parkinson called to see us. Cool.


June 29
Left on the 6 a.m. train for home. Arrived at 11:00 and attended Tabernacle Service. Addressed by brother R. McCallister and myself. Attended Ward Meeting and spoke in the evening.

June 30
Left for Manti on the 7:10 a.m. train in company with Mellie. Had dinner at Auntie [perhaps Ida Hunt] Udalls at Nephi, she going with us to Manti. At Chester, a team met us in which we rode to Manti, arriving at 6 p.m.; stopped at the Temple Hotel. Called and had a visit with Brother and sister A. C. Smith [unknown].

July 1
Went to the Temple and spent the most of the day there, witnessing, searching genealogies, etc. Had lunch at brother Smiths.

July 2
Mellie was baptized for her health and took an endowment for a friend of sister Williams’. We spent a most enjoyable day and had a pleasant visit with brother and sister Smith. President Wells was in the Temple and extended every courtesy and treated us very kindly.

July 3
Engaged most of the day in copying names in Mellie’s genealogy in the Temple. Spent the evening in the Temple.

July 4
Left for home at 6 a.m. and took train at 9 a.m. at Chester. Had dinner at Aunties [Udall] and met sister Lester [unknown]. Arrived home at 7 p.m. three hours late and very hot. The Gentile celebration was a flat failure as were their fire works tonight.


(Journal entry concluded.)


This is what The Life and Ministry of John Morgan by Arthur Richardson, Copyright 1965 by Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., pg, 488, says about these journal entries.

“We find him in the Manti Temple with his daughter Mellie on July 2nd at which time she was baptized for her health and he later ‘took an endowment.’ The following day he spent in ‘copying names in Mellie’s genealogy in the Temple.’”

That really confused me. However, I don’t have access to letters and additional writings that Nicholas G. Morgan and Arthur Richardson would have used in writing their book.

I had seen no indications in the journal that Mellie, John Morgan’s daughter, is accompanying him on this occasion. He last mentioned her in his April 20, 1890 journal entry: … My daughter, Mellie gave birth to a boy [Wallace J. Burt] last night at midnight, our first grandchild. Rained during the night and a part of today.

A kind distant cousin sent me a copy of (daughter) Helen Melvina (Mellie) Morgan Burt Austin’s obituary. I learned from it that for a time she acted as her father’s secretary. Sometimes she accompanied him when he traveled. I’ve since recognized incidents where that is the case. And perhaps that is the case here, however, I didn’t have a clue until I looked into the Richardson book. And now I can see a number of possible scenarios.

Nevertheless, it appears to me that John Morgan is taking care of that promise he made to his dying mother-in-law in 1883.

Possible R. McCallister:
McAllister, Richard Wesley (son of William James Frizen and Eliza Elizabeth Bell of Philadelphia, Pa.). Born Oct 15, 1825, Pottsville, Del. Came to Utah Sept. 13, 1861, Joseph Horne company.
Married Elizabeth Elenor Bell in Philadelphia (daughter of James Bell of Delaware). Their children: William James Frizen; Joseph W.; Susanna Bell; Mary; Lillie; John; James; Rich.
Married Emma Wallen.
High Priest. Deputy marshal in territorial days for a number of years. Died in 1905.
Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, by Frank Esshom, Utah Pioneers Book Publishing Company, 1913, p.1054.

Picture of another summer bloom on the Church Plaza, Salt Lake City, Utah.