On 17 September 1898, John Smith Goodfellow and James Neville of Bountiful came to do the brickwork on the new meetinghouse. John andjim rode horseback over the mountains to Porterville. They stayed with William Florence most of the time they were working on the chapel. They laid the walls, six bricks wide, side by side. They finished the walls, except for the chimney, on 6 December 1898. When the building was at the square, placing the date stone seemed an almost impossible task. After the masons had actually given up, however, Hyrum Phillips, in a moment of inspiration, was prompted to use a block and tackle. The marker was soon in place. L H. Durrant had the honor of hauling the rock for the date stone from the quarry below Devil's Slide. He was proud that it was set in place on his forty-second birthday, 2 December 1898. After the brick masons finished the walls, the weather became too severe to finish the chimneys. The temperature dipped to twenty and thirty degrees below zero, and work on the church discontinued for a time. So severe was the winter that meetings could not even be held. On 6 February 1899, a blizzard came in dropping temperatures to 45 degrees below zero. The women of the ward worked as hard as the men on the church, going without many of the things they needed. Sister Elizabeth Porter suggested that each sister pay five cents a month donation until the meetinghouse was finished. Also, they were to donate a ball of rags to make a rug. The women held rag bees and tore worn clothing into strips, sewed the strips together, and rolled them into a ball, which was woven into a rug long enough to go the full length of the chapel. At one time the Relief Society paid $50.00 toward the fund, another time $4.50, and another $6.75. The sisters also bought blinds and glass pitchers for the meetinghouse. The women painted, scrubbed, and cleaned windows,' doing everything they could to help finish the chapel. The first gathering held in the Porterville church was a funeral. The chapel was not completed, but when Emily Jane Brough died in childbirth, her funeral was held in the church. She had been president of the Young Ladies Mutual Association when she died, and the young women oftheward, along with the members of the Sunday School, showed their love for her by beautifully decorating the unfinished church for her funeral. The young women all dressed in white and, forming two lines, walked behind the white topped buggy carrying her body. The steps were not finished, so planks were placed so that the casket could be carried up into the chapel. On 17 December 1899, the new meetinghouse was so far completed that a social was held in the basement. The membership voted to use the church for amusement, but closed the chapel to the libertine, the drunkard, or the profane. Thomas Rich objected to that proposal, thinking anyone with money could demand admittance, but his was the only dissenting vote. So, in addition to being a holy sanctuary—a place of peace and worship—the building also served as a place for dances, parties, and amusements of all kinds. 64