meeting there the next day, and then back to Morgan. It also took two days to visit Croydon.28 Young Men and Young Women Organization On 18 August 1878, the Stake Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association and Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association were also organized. Sarah Rawle was sustained president of the Young Women Association and William Brough, president of the Young Men.29 Daniel H. Wells, an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve, was in attendance at this conference, and testified: "It is the love for the gospel that has brought us here to the Valleys of the Mountains. It was God's purpose to bring us here to be co-workers with Him, in consummating his mighty purpose."30 Years of Hardship By the summer of 1879, temporal problems were once again a concern. The wheat crop was poor, and drought, frost, and grasshoppers all took their toll. To help, the County Court in June remitted 25 percent of the taxes due.31 Work on the stake meetinghouse was progressing slowly, and funds were being gathered to try to roof it by fall. President Smith addressed the priesthood on several occasions. He advised the bishops not to be too "stiffhecked and undertake to drive the people." But they were to be fathers to them and try to get their goodwill by leading them and manifesting a kindly feeling toward them. In November, he pointed out President John Taylor's instructions to cut off the dead branches, to cast out corruption, and keep the Saints pure and holy. Nevertheless, he stated, they must be kind and merciful and have in view the Saints' salvation, and cut off nothing it is possible to save by kindness and encouragement.32 The year 1880 did not bring any rest from the problems the Saints were facing. Diphtheria raged throughout the Valley during the winter and early spring. Hulda Cordelia Thurston Smith, wife ofWillard G. Smith and daughter of Thomas Jefferson Thurston, describes some of the hardship their family faced that spring: "Quite early in the spring of 1880 the terrible scare of diphtheria broke out in our valley and people did not know how to treat it. Death took a terrible toll wherever it went. I was frightened terribly of it and, of course, looked very closely after our children. But finally, the last ofjune it came to us. My second daughter, Amanda, had it. I immediately treated her thoroughly for a sore throat, not knowing what it was. She was getting better when little Sarah, my seventh child, came down with it. And when I found out it was truly the diphtheria we had, I was perfectly unnerved, and did not know one thing to do for it. At that time in Salt Lake City, Davis, Weber, Utah, and Cache Counties, we could hear of whole families dying