100 years ago
A raging fire wiped out much of the town of Park City, Utah, including a new Church meetinghouse, on Sunday, June 19, 1898, according to the June 20, 1898, Deseret Evening News.
"Park City, Utah's proud and prosperous mining camp, has practically been wiped out of existence, being visited yesterday by the most disastrous conflagration in the history of Utah," the news article reported.
According to the article, the LDS meetinghouse accounted for $4,000 of the total of $570,000 in property loss in the fire.
Later, the First Presidency - President Wilford Woodruff and his counselors, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith - released a letter asking members of the Church to assist in rebuilding the meetinghouse, saying the loss fell heavily upon the Saints of Park City.
The letter, dated July 9, 1898, and which appeared in the July 23 Deseret Weekly News, said: "The leading brethren of Summit Stake are making an earnest effort to rebuild. . . . But the task is greater than the Saints in that place and Summit Stake can accomplish alone, after having so recently raised such a large amount to build the structure now destroyed."
Quote from the past
"I can say to you, my brethren and sisters, the happiest people in this world are those who love their neighbors as themselves and manifest their appreciation of God's blessings by their conduct in life." - President George Albert Smith, from an address given during the April 1949 general conference
