THE LOGAN TEMPLE

This temple is near and dear in our family. My parents were sealed there as well as several siblings. One of my Grandparents was the first (white) male born in the valley - just after crossing the pass, the need to push came and the baby was born.

I ran across a tape in college that was recorded by a Logan Temple Historian that showed the hand of the Lord in its construction.

My ancestors were inhabitants in the valley when the following was witnessed and noted the great illumination in their journals. What a wild experience - to witness such a divine outpouring:

Manifestation of Divine Approval.

One evening in February, 1896, the Hale family was completing the record of sealing for the whole record in the Logan Temple when “a strange phenomenon was reported: the sacred structure, it is said, became suddenly illuminated–flooded from dome to foundation with a blaze of light. Apostle Marriner W. Merrill, who was then President of the Temple, observed the phenomenon as he was traveling on the highway that night from Logan to Richmond. It was likewise observed by many residents of Logan. . . . The following night the Temple was again flooded with illumination, the same as on the previous night.
“President Merrill finally concluded and announced to the general assembly in the Temple that this beautiful and glorious manifestation was a spiritual phenomenon. ‘The matter was subsequently called to the attention of President Wilford Woodruff,’ the account in the Deseret News continued, ‘who declared it to be an assembly of the great Hale family from the spirit world, who had gathered within those sacred walls in exultation over their liberation through the beneficient ministrations in their behalf.’”
Many Family Histories. In behalf of a family so diligent, it is not surprising that other men of the world should search out other lines of their ancestry. The wife of Bishop Jonathan H. Hale, Olive Boynton, was a sister of John F. Boynton, who was one of the first Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He left the Church but in his later years spent virtually his whole time compiling a monumental genealogy of the Boynton family, tracing it back to about 1000 A.D. Others gave similar service. In the Church Record Archives are charts recording the names of 200 direct ancestors of Alma H. Hale. For virtually every line there are one or more printed family genealogies with excellent records of descendants, including the families of Palmer, Johnson, Wicom, Hazeltine, Harriman, Elithorp, Plummer, Wood, Dole, Stickney, Hardy, Kimball, Scott, Whotlock, Day, Pengry, Nichols, George, Pratt, and Hutchinson.
In this remarkable way has the prayer of President Woodruff been fulfilled.

HERE IS A DIRECT TRANSCRIPT TAKEN FROM THE TAPE OF THE LOGAN TEMPLE RECORDER:

Hale family and the Logan Temple

Nolan P Olsen wrote a book called, “Logan Temple, First 100 years.” Nolan is a native of Cache Valley, his family having lived there for 123 years. He served in the Logan temple as an officiator, recorder, member of the temple presidency, and as acting president of the temple during the remodel period. He loved to travel and tell the stories of the Logan Temple. The following is one of his favorite stories, since it involves his own family history. (It is also our family)

In Nauvoo, the Prophet Joseph and the Lord selected twelve apostles for the latter days, and among them was John F Boynton. Only 22 years of age, a brilliant young dentist, maybe the youngest of our apostles. John was there when the prophet talked temple work and when they baptized in the Mississippi River and whatever else went on. The Prophet called the Twelve in one day and talked polygamy to them, told them, “Since you are the Lord’s chosen, He expects you brethren to practice polygamy.” He told them to go out and get them another spouse.

Brother Boynton went home, talked it over with his wife, and they decided they didn’t want another wife. So, while the other brethren went romancing, John went home. Before long, the other brethren are back with their new wives. Brother Boynton was called in, he had nothing to report. The prophet told him to go do it. He was finally called in four or five times. Never did it. He was finally disfellowshipped and then excommunicated for disobeying the prophet. He had one or two other little troubles to go with his disobedience. He went back to his home in Massachusetts.

His sister, Olive Boynton, had married Jonathon Harriman Hale, bishop of the ninth ward in Nauvoo. (Jonathon and Olive were our great grandparents. This is one of my family stories.)

The Hales headed west. Grandpa and Grandma died at winter quarters with the cholera. Three brothers and a sister came west and settled at Grantsville out by Tooele.

In the late 1870’s Uncle John got word that the Mormons were building a temple in Logan, and that sparked his interest. He never did lose his testimony of the gospel, he was never rebaptized, but he did have three wives, one at a time.

When he heard about our temple he compiled a real unusual record of the Hale and Boynton families. He wrote 1100 letters, traveled 6000 miles in a time when there isn’t a printed book anywhere to help him. He sent the records to his nephews at Grantsville, and they didn’t know what to do with them, just stack them up in a cupboard. It was 350 miles to St George, that temple is open. The Salt Lake temple did not open until ‘93.

When Logan opened in ’84 our Hale family moved to Cache Valley. Here they hired Brother Samuel Roskelley to keep the records. From then until about 1903 he kept a steady stream of names going through the temple.

One Sunday that fall he brought the records back to our Grandpa, Alma Hale. He said, “Brother Hale, my eyesight is poor, my health is bad. I can’t finish the records.” Grandpa didn’t know what to do. Nobody had been trained in genealogy in those days. When you don’t know what to do, there’s always something you can do. You can fast and pray.

Grandpa said he fasted and prayed for a week and some of the family joined him. The next Sunday, Brother Roskelley came back and said, “Give me the records. I made a promise to a heavenly being that I have to keep.”

He said, “Friday, as I came from the temple and neared the Hyde Park Lane, a man on a white horse suddenly appeared at the side of my buggy, and asked about the Hale and Boynton records. He assured me they were properly compiled, and the work in the temple was being done correctly, that every spirit was anxious that the work be completed for him or for her.”

Brother Roskelley explained his health problems. The rider promised him in the name of the Lord that his eyesight would be good, his health would improve and he could do it. Brother Roskelley agreed and the visitor disappeared. Brother Roskelley went home, took his glasses off to go to bed that night and never put them on again in his life. He had good eyesight.

He woke up the next morning feeling like a young man. His aches and pains were gone and he ran and did what he wanted. And as he described his visitor on the horse, Grandpa Alma Hale said, “Why, that was my father; that was Jonathon Harriman Hale, bishop of the ninth ward in Nauvoo.”

It took Brother Roskelley about two years to finish the record. One week in the fall of that year, we had a Hale reunion in the temple. We completed the last baptism, endowment, and then the last sealing on a Friday afternoon. That night as Brother Merrill returned home to Richmond, as he’d get to Smithfield and before the homes blocked his view of the temple, he would turn and tell the temple goodbye. This night as he did, he said his heart jumped almost out of him. The temple was on fire, and he didn’t know what to do. By the time he could drive his horse and buggy back the temple could burn down and he wouldn’t be much use to it. He decided to sit. He turned his buggy around and watched. In two or three minutes he said to himself, “That is not a fire.” There were no red flames burning upwards, but the whole building was lighted inside and out with a beautiful rosy glow that was steady and not a burning flame. He knew something unusual was taking place, but he went on home and came back on Monday morning.

As soon as he knew the story he talked with President Joseph F Smith, and the President asked, “What family in the Church has done something unusual in the temple?” The Hale family was the only one anywhere to complete such a record of 4,000 names. The President told him you have been permitted to have a visit from those 4,000 members of the Hale and Boynton families, who came from Heaven to sing and rejoice and be happy at their deliverance in the Logan Temple.

The people of Logan gathered at the temple to see the building lighted. We didn’t have electricity in the building until 10 years later; it was 1915 before we had electricity. Nothing but a coal oil lamp that would not light the building.

As the people marveled they heard a heavenly choir sing in the big room upstairs, and for about two hours the heavenly choir sang beautiful music. It happened again on the Saturday night, two nights in a row. The building was lighted and the heavenly choir sang.

THERE IS ALOT OF OTHER GREAT INFO I WILL PUBLISH LATER ABOUT THIS TEMPLE AND MAYBE GET A RECORDING OF THE TAPE TO GO WITH THIS.

AS A FUNNY SIDE NOTE, MY SISTER DATED A GUY WITH THE LAST NAME OF BOYNTON. THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THE GUY WAS HIS FLAMING RED HAIR AND HIS NOTORIOUSLY BAD TEETH. THEY WERE SO BAD, MY MOM GAVE HIM THE NICK-NAME OF "SNAGGLE-TOOTHED BUCK". NOT VERY NICE OF MY MOM - BUT SHE WAS A BIT OF A EUGENICIST AND DIDN'T WANT ANY GRAND KIDS WITH ANOMALOUS GENES; EVEN THOUGH SHE BROUGHT A FEW BAD ONES INTO THE FOLD, HERSELF. IN LOOKING BACK, SHE MAY HAVE JUST WANTED TO AVOID MAKING THINGS WORSE THAN WHAT SHE HAD ALREADY DONE..... THAT STORY STILL BRINGS A SMILE TO MY FACE THINKING ABOUT IT.