The St. George Temple Baptismal Font

Baptismal font of the St. George Temple. Photograph © the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Used by permission.

The St. George Temple Baptismal Font

BY MARGARET M CANNON

SO IMPORTANT WERE TEMPLES TO THE MEMBERS OF THE Churc h of JeSUS Christ of Latter-day Saints that the Salt Lake Temple Block was laid out in 1847, shortly after the pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley Although this temple was not dedicated until 1893, three other Utah temples were completed earlier. The first of the three was the St. George Temple, dedicated in April 1877, thirty-one years after the Saints left Nauvoo. The struggle to cross the plains, survive in a wilderness, and settle new territories made the building of temples a great labor for the early pioneers. Finding people with the necessary skills also presented a challenge. To build the baptismal font for the St George Temple, two men, Nathan Davis, trained in business and mechanics, and Amos Howe, proficient in foundry work, came together at the right time and place.

Nathan Davis, born in 1814, was a Quaker who had been baptized into the Mormon church in Ohio in 1850 by his brother-in law Edwin D Woolley The Davis family operated saw and grist mills in Ohio. Nathan, an eldest son, had extensive experience in operating and maintaining machinery as well as running a business.

In 1851 Nathan and his wife Sarah Woolley immigrated to Salt Lake City where they built a home at 157 West North Temple. Shortly after his arrival, Nathan was appointed by Brigham Young to take charge of the machine shops of the city's public works, a position he held for at least ten years. He soon gained a good reputation as a mechanic and businessman.1 He began the Davis Foundry in 1872, and one of his first orders was to make the baptismal font and the twelve oxen to support it for the St George Temple.

Although Davis was a knowledgeable mechanic, he was not a skilled foundry man His company had problems with the complex job of making the mold for the oxen. At this point Davis learned that a neighbor in the Seventeenth Ward, Amos Howe, had been a welltrained foundry manager in St. Louis. Davis and Brigham Young approached Howe for help, which he agreed to give if he could be taken into the company as a partner. The proposal was accepted.

A better man for the job could not have been found. Amos Howe was born in New York but moved to St. Louis with his family in 1842 when he was twelve. There he apprenticed in the pattern shop of a large foundry and machine shop He also took night classes from an engineer who worked in the same shop. As a result, Howe was trained in foundry and pattern-making as well as in the profession of engineering. He could calculate stress and tension on what was produced, helping to ensure a suitable product. He was such a successful student that by age nineteen he was made superintendent of the large shops where he had trained.2

About this same time Howe was introduced to the Mormon church by one of his subordinates at the foundry. He was baptized in 1850 and married Julia Cruse, an English convert living in St. Louis, the following year. Later, Amos went into the foundry business with William H. Stone, who subsequently became a congressman from Missouri The Gaty McCune company they ran together was "the largest Foundry and Machine works west of the Mississippi River," according to Stone The Howe family remained in St Louis until 1864 when Howe decided to come West Stone told Amos that if he would remain in St. Louis he felt sure their firm would be selected to do the iron work for the Eads bridge, one of the first bridges to be built across the Mississippi River. Howe's future and fortune would have been assured, but instead he chose tojoin other Mormons in Utah.3

Later, when asked for a letter of recommendation to Davis and his associates about Howe's abilities as a foundry manager, Stone wrote, "Few men had opportunities that Mr. Howe had to make themselves masters of their professions, and I can with confidence say to you that when we dissolved partnership but few were his equal and none superior, in the practical management of a Foundry and Machine Shop." Stone included the name ofJames B Eads, designer of the Eads Bridge, as another reference.4

When the Howe family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they settled in the northern part of town, eventually building a home just around the corner from where Bishop Nathan Davis of the Seventeenth Ward lived and next to where the Davis-Howe Foundry would be established Davis and Howe were neighbors and members of the same ward before they formed a business relationship. According to a stock certificate issued in the early 1900s, Nathan Davis and Amos Howe established their foundry partnership on February 1, 1873.

Amos's granddaughter relates that when Brigham Young saw the first patterns for the oxen he chideci, "That won't do, Amos."5 Both Idaho and Utah were searched for a perfect ox, which, when found, was brought to the foundry "where it was corralled and used as a live model" for several weeks. Howe designed the font and oxen and was responsible for the drawings and patterns finally used. The new patterns were so successful that Brigham Young exclaimed, "Brother Howe, you have even registered the disposition of the live ox."

An article published in the Deseret News on July 17, 1875, extolled the Davis-Howe Foundry: "Their facilities for heavy casting and machine work are quite extensive." The account also reported on the progress of the baptismal font. By this time six of the twelve life-sized oxen that were to support the font had been finished, being first made in wood, then cast in iron. The writer said, "The modeller has done his work well, the imitation being excellent, and the castings are trim and neat." The font itself was described as "oval in shape, 18 feet by 9 feet at the top, rounding slightly inwards toward the bottom, and is about four feet deep. The bottom weighs about twenty-nine hundred pounds, and the sides about one ton." The font would "have the appearance of being in one solid piece when finished." Ornamental iron steps would lead up to it with a rail and banisters to match.

Brigham Young donated the font to the church for the St. George Temple at a cost of five thousand dollars.6 Howe family accounts say Young was so pleased with what had been built that he paid one thousand dollars more than called for by the contract. About two and a half years after Davis approached Howe for help in making the oxen mold, the font and oxen were ready to be transported from Salt Lake City to St. George.

In the Deseret News of August 29, 1931, C. L. Christensen recalled his experiences as one of the crew delivering the font in the summer of 1875. The font and oxen, which according to Christensen weighed 18,000 pounds, were shipped in parts on the Utah Southern Railroad, probably as far as Spanish Fork.7 The rest of the way it was transported in three specially built oxen-drawn wagons, under the direction of Nathan Davis, Elijah Sheets, an experienced blacksmith, and three other men. Christensen's wagon contained the bottom of the font which was in two pieces, with two metal oxen bolted carefully in between Standing on end, the parts reached the top of the wagon bows.

Christensen wrote: "Everywhere along the way we were royally received and entertained." With people relatively isolated in those days, the arrival of the wagon train created a special event in each small town it passed through and provided a welcome respite for the transporters No one but the local LDS bishop—and those who received his permission—was allowed to see what the wagons contained Soldiers traveling to Beaver on foot passed and repassed the wagon train several times. Because the John D. Lee trial for the Mountain Meadow Massacre was underway in Beaver, the soldiers suspected cannons or other arms were being shipped south and wanted to see what was in the wagons. But the caretakers of the font kept to their instructions and did not let any unauthorized viewers see what they were carrying.

The weather created a major problem for those transporting the font With temperatures frequently exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, some of the oxen pulling the heavy loads nearly died of thirst. Whenever they sensed a stream of water nearby, they tried to stampede to get a drink.

When the caravan finally reached St. George, a distance of some 300 miles from Salt Lake City, the men unloaded the font and each piece was carefully placed and bolted under the direction of Nathan Davis. When Apostle Orson Hyde saw the font he wept for joy "that he had lived to see another font in place in a temple of the Lord."8 The only other baptismal font to that time had been in the Nauvoo Temple The Deseret News noted on August 20, 1875, that Davis had returned "last evening from a trip to St. George . . . for which place he started on the 12th of July."

After several years Davis left the direct management of the company to Howe, but the Davis family held stock in the company until it closed in the Great Depression Nathan Davis died in 1884, Amos Howe in 1908. The foundry that the two men began made many other contributions to building the Utah economy, including numerous products for the mining industry of the state. They also built the font, but not the oxen, for the Logan Temple, dedicated in 1884.9 They made and donated both the baptismal font and the oxen for the Manti Temple, dedicated in 1888, Amos Howe giving the work and the materials in honor of "his two devoted wives."10

Amos's son George, who began working for the foundry at the age of fourteen, indicated that Amos designed, fabricated, and installed the steel roof on the Salt Lake Temple and did much of the metal work. He also recollected that the foundry made the first fire hydrants for Salt Lake City in 1876 and 1877 and that Amos Howe designed and built the Main Street facade of the ZCMI building Later company records show that thirty-four columns, weighing one ton each, were made for ZCMI in 1922; and in 1925 the company produced gateposts for the Temple Block in Salt Lake City.11 Nevertheless, perhaps the most significant articles produced by the Davis-Howe Foundry were the oxen and baptismal font for the St George Temple This work brought Nathan Davis and Amos Howe together at a crucial time and place and established their foundry's reputation.

NOTES

Mrs Cannon, a great granddaughter of Amos Howe, lives in Provo, Utah.

1 Preston W. Parkinson, The Utah Woolley Family (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1967), pp. 143-46.

2 Howe Family Scrapbook, compiled by Charles R Howe and June Howe Johnson, p 5, in author's possession.

3 Ibid., p 6.

4 Ibid., pp. 66, 67.

5 Interview withJulia Howe Hegstead, Springville, Utah, February 22, 1990.

6 John T. Woodbury, Jr., St. George Temple, St. George, Utah, pamphlet prepared for St. George Temple Information Bureau.

7 Diane Slater, "You Asked for It," Provo Daily Herald Magazine, October 31, 1992, p 3.

8 C L Christensen, "How the Temple Font Was Taken to St George," Deseret News, August 29, 1931, Church News section, p 8.

9 Nolan Porter Olsen, The Logan Temple: The First 100 Years (Providence, Ut.: Keith W Watkins & Sons, 1978), p 124.

10 Howe Family Scrapbook, p 10.

11 Davis Howe Foundry Board of Directors' Meeting Minutes Book, 1921 to 1937, and Order Book, 1901 to 1904, Utah State Historical Society Libraiy, Salt Lake City.