father, Asael Smith, to Tunbridge, in 1791, and assisted him in clearing a large farm of its heavy growth of timber. On January 24, 1796, he married Lucy Mack, at which time he himself owned a farm.

In 1802, he rented his farm and engaged in the mercantile business. Among other things, he sent a cargo of ginseng to China, but was swindled out of the entire proceeds by an agent he employed. To pay his debts, he was obliged to sell his farm. (See Lucy Smith's book, History of the Prophet.) In 1816 he removed to Palmyra.

On the return journey, several ox teams were passed; a saw mill in operation, also a grist mill.

Meanwhile, others of the party took sleighs to go up to the monument. The ride was delightful, the company genial, and the first sight of the beautiful monument filled the heart with joy.

Elder Junius F. Wells met us, clothed in heavy, outdoor working garb, for he was most busily engaged in assisting his slow workmen in the herculean task of completing the cottage for the morrow. There were no pillars on the porches, the porch floors were not even laid; and inside, things were almost as incomplete. Mrs. Wells and her daughter, Abbey, were also in working clothes, sweeping, unpacking and flying about, directing others as well as working themselves. But all three were as courteous and thoughtful as if no other burdens but their unexpected visitors rested upon their shoulders.

At noon, the large party, over twenty, from New York and Boston, rolled into Royalton. Elder John G. McQuarrie, president i of the Eastern States Mission, was in charge, and his fine eyes were alight with enthusiasm over the grand event about to take place. With him were two of Zion's most talented soloists, Robert C. Easton, and Emma Lucy Gates. "Our Rob" had his dear little plump wife Janet with him, just as young and gay as ever she was. Her refined and cultured sister, Mrs. Eva Young Davis, accompanied them, thus making three daughters of Brigham Young and one granddaughter, as well as two grandsons, Brigham Cecil Gates, the young musician from Boston who was to accompany singers and chorus, and Murray Jacobs, who is in Boston on a mission, as rep

The Monument, as the shaft was finally set, December 8, and as Junius F. Wells had led the cheering, with heart full. and hand raised in thanksgiving and praise.

The shaft is of polished Barre granite, total height 50 feet: weight 100 tons: the foundation is concrete, 12 feet square, 16 inches thick: second base, 9 feet square, 2 feet thick. The inscription die is a cube 6 feet square, and the moulding 7 feet 4 inches square by 2 feet 6 inches. The shaft is 4 feet at the base by 3 feet at the top. and 38% feet high, a foot for each year of the Prophet's life-surmounted by a pyramid cap 3 feet high.

First photograph of the completed Joseph Smith Memorial Monument, at Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, after unveiling. President Joseph F. Smith in the center of a group of Utah people about the base.

resentatives of President Brigham Young. There was also Elder Gudmanson, a young student violinist, Miss Ellen Thomas, a vocalist, and Elder McQuarrie's wife, Maggie, with a large group of missionaries from that section of country.

That evening a social service was held in the large hall attached to the hotel which had been decorated with flags and greens in honor of the occasion. A huge fire had been carefully stoked with great pieces of wood, all day, to warm this quaint old gathering-place. Elder McQuarrie presided, in his usual genial and dignified fashion, at the evening service, and there was a general, social spirit felt.

The next morning, everybody was astir early, as there was a long, cold ride to the monument; and the services were to begin at 10 o'clock. The weather was a part of the wonderful providence which attended every phase of this work; it is very unusual to find less than five feet of snow in this region after the middle of November; and Elder Junius F. Wells had been so frequently told how 'impossible the completion of his work would be, and because of this fact the mild open weather with scarcely three inches of snow was called in all the country-side, "Wells weather." And "Wells weather," it continued to be, with just a flurry of snow to help the runners of the sleighs to climb the many steep hills leading to the monument.

The town of Sharon is some distance below the cottage and

monument, and is only visible at one turn in the road. But all the country seems to be named in townships, no matter how scattered the farmhouses may be.

Every sleigh and team for miles around was called into requisition, the ones for the Utah and New York party having been secured in advance by the thoughtful care of Elder Wells.

The road, past the winding White river, and up, up, up through winding, turning, twisting hill-roads, was made delightful with merry company and happy thoughts. The scarred trunks of giant maple and pine trees on each side the road told the story of the almost insurmountable difficulties encountered in conveying the mighty pillar and its base to the place where it now stands. For the special wagon, with even twenty powerful horses, which were secured to haul the shaft from the railroad up three miles into the hills, was found of no use. They could not draw it one inch, as the wagon sank deep into the soft earth. Next, a roadway was made of two-inch planks, which, even then, were soon broken and split. At last, chains were fastened around the trunks of trees, and progress was painfully made in this way-the shaft being thirteen days in transit up the three miles and a half road.

Numerous incidents occurred which unmistakably proved to the mind of Elder Wells, the interposition of Providence. One was amusing: a certain mudhole is so old and incurable that even the road-master, when appealed to, stood aghast at the proposition to mend that particular bottomless pit. A wagon-load of hay had sunk almost out of sight, several days before, but no one thought it possible to do anything towards eradicating the nuisance. However, the night before the shaft was to be hauled over, the whole soft bog froze over solid and strong, and nature had made the bridge for Mr. Wells.

Indeed, the name of Mr. Wells, in that particular country, is one to conjure with; the iron bridge at Royalton was found to be a mere toy, when it came to transporting a hundred ton stone across it; down to the lower bridge, then, went Mr. Wells. A section of railroad track was needed, Mr. Wells had it built. Special cars of extraordinary strength were required; they were secured through the enterprise and tact of Mr. Wells. In fact, the skill, the enterprise, the power and the influence of the Church it