130 years ago today - Jul 8, 1896 • Wednesday

[George Q. Cannon]

Wednesday, July 8, 1896

I attended a meeting of the Wonder Mining Company this morning at 11 o’clock.

Brothers Heber J. Grant and F. S. Richards came to the First Presidency to know concerning the best steps to take in relation to the Parsons Ranch. President Woodruff has given his note for $20,000 to Wells, Fargo & Co., secured by the stock of this ranch; but Brother Richards, upon investigation, now finds that there is danger of this stock becoming valueless, and the question before us this morning was, what shall be done to save this? We can save it by taking up an option that we have, which will necessitate the payment of $35,000, though Brother Richards thinks he can get this reduced to $30,000. $15,000 of this will not be required to be paid for several months, and $15,000 will be paid to the State for lands covering a period of several years. Brothers Grant and Richards were both of the opinion that we should take this option up. President Jos. F. Smith was rather opposed to it; still he could see no way by which the $20,000 could be saved. Brother Richards was instructed to see Mr. Parsons and find out the best terms that he would be willing to have us take the option on, and Brother Grant was to see Brother Frank Armstrong, who stands with himself as the nominal purchasers.

Brother Evan Stephens came to talk about the choir going to Denver, and we had considerable conversation on the subject. We assured him that the Church could do nothing towards helping the choir on this trip. He thought that by each member of the choir paying $5, added to some funds that he had, he might be able to take the choir to Denver, if the Denver people would furnish $1000 and keep the choir while at Denver, and transportation could be obtained to Denver and return at $10 per head. I proposed to see the Union Pacific people and learn from them whether they could meet this.

Brother John James came this morning to the office to talk about holding a celebration on the 24th at Saltair. The Presidency of the Stake were sent for, and the matter was taken into consideration. A committee of fifteen was appointed to get up a programme, most of those appointed being sons or grandsons of pioneers.

[The Journal of George Q. Cannon, Church Historian's Press, https://churchhistorianspress.org/george-q-cannon]