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Show temporal matters as weli as spiritual matters, (7) the people who were scattered in the Valley should gather together in sufficient numbers to have a district school so children would not be in danger from traveling long distances, (8) encouraged the Saints to live so they would be willing to be dictated by their leaders, and (9) "it is the duty of every Elder to make his home so pleasant that his children will not wander therefrom to find the enjoyments of life."18 President Young concluded his message by blessing the fathers, mothers, children, and the beautiful Valley in which they lived. Elder George A. Smith then made a few remarks on education and the conference was closed. President Young and his party left for Salt Lake City Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. Ecclesiastical Organization Prior to 1877 Prior to 1877, when President Brigham Young set the priesthood in order throughout the Church, there was no definite order to the way local ecclesiastical units in the territory were governed. For example, there were local presiding bishops, acting bishops (meaning not ordained), seventies serving as bishops, bishops with no counselors, and stakes with no bishops such as the Weber Stake, which had presidents over the local units.19 Because of these multiple problems, it is somewhat difficult to completely understand how Church government functioned in Morgan prior to the organization of the stake in June 1877. At first Thomas J. Thurston presided over the entire Morgan Valley as bishop with Charles S. Peterson serving under him as presiding elder of the Weber Settlement. Richard Fry moved to Morgan in September I860 and sometime after that was called to serve as a counselor to Bishop Thurston.20 As soon as enough families located in a particular area, a branch of the Church was organized and one of the settlers was appointed as presiding elder. On Sunday 21 October I860 at a meeting held in the school house at Mountain Green, President Lorin Farr along with his counselor, James Brown organized the Saints in the northern end ofWeber Valley into a branch of the Church. Ten years earlier in the spring of 1850, Lorin Farr had been called by President Young to settle in Ogden and preside over the Saints in the northern part of the territory. In 1851 the Weber Stake was organized, and Lorin Farr was called to serve as stake president. Apparently with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the northern end of Weber Valley, President Farr called Charles S. Peterson to serve as the new branch president. A week later President Farr completed the organization by calling John Parsons and Thomas S. Johnson-to serve as counselors in the branch presidency.21 President Fair again met with the Saints at Mountain Green on Sunday 8 December 1861 to present a proposal from the First Presidency of the, Church to divide the Morgan Valley into two wards. Charles S. Peterson-was |