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Taber Ward
TABER WARD, Lethbridge Stake, Alberta, Canada, is the oldest and largest ward in Lethbridge Stake. It consists of Latter-day Saints residing at Taber, a town situated on Crow’s Nest branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 32 miles by rail east of Lethbridge, in the midst of a rich farming and coal-mining district. The inhabitants of Taber and vicinity are a mixed population of Mormons and non-Mormons, about equal in number. The people are mostly engaged in dry farming, of which they have made a success, but of late years some of the land has been irrigated from the Alberta Railway and Irrigation Company’s Canal. A fine Latter-day Saint meeting house, erected by the saints in 1908, was destroyed by fire in 1925, but a new modern chapel is now being constructed at a cost of $35,000. It will have an auditorium capable of seating 600 people.
Taber was first settled by Latter-day Saints in 1903; it was organized as a branch of the Church March 15, 1904, and as a ward Oct. 2, 1904. Ransom A. Van Orman was the first Bishop. He was succeeded in 1914 by Anthony Haynes, who in 1926 was succeeded by Albert L. Wood, who in 1927 was succeeded by Thomas W. Harris, who presided Dec. 31, 1930, at which time the ward had a membership of 715, including 203 children.
Tabernacle Temple Block
TABERNACLE (The), on the Temple Block, Salt Lake City, is an immense auditorium, eliptic in shape, 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, with a seating capacity of 8,000 people. The self-supporting wooden roof is a remarkable piece of engineering. It rests upon pillars or buttresses of red sandstone which stand 10 to 12 feet apart in the whole circumference of the building. The pillars support wooden arches 10 feet in thickness and spanning 150 feet. These arches, of a lattice stress construction, are put together with wooden pins, no nails or iron being used in the frame work. The building was erected from 1863 to 1867 before the railroads reached Utah, hence all the imported material used in the construction had to be hauled with ox teams from the Missouri River. The roof now has a metallic covering which a few years ago replaced the old wooden shingles. The original cost of this building was about $300,000, exclusive of the cost of the organ. Regular public services are held in the tabernacle on Sunday afternoons at 2 o’clock except the first Sunday in each month which is observed as fast day. During the summer seasons free organ recitals are given daily, except Sundays, for the visiting public. The acoustics of the building are so perfect that the dropping of a pin on the wooden railing can be heard distinctly at a distance of 200 feet. The tabernacle was planned and erected under the direction of Pres. Brigham Young, with William H. Folsom as architect and Henry Grow as master mechanic.
Tabernacle Choir
TABERNACLE CHOIR. This famous body of singers, known generally as the “Mormon Tabernacle Choir,” was organized by Pres. Brigham Young in the early days of Utah. Led by John Parry and later by Stephen Goddard, it rendered service in the bowery, erected on the Temple Block in 1849. Under the leadership of James Smithies, Charles J. Thomas and Robert Sands, successively, the choir took part regularly in the service held in the so-called “Old Tabernacle,” erected on the Temple Block in 1852. The Tabernacle Choir commenced its career in the present tabernacle in 1867 under Robert Sands, who in 1869 was succeeded as chorister by George Careless, [p.859] who in 1880 was succeeded by Ebenezer Beesley, who in 1890 was succeeded by Evan Stephens, who in 1916 was succeeded by Anthony C. Lund, who still (1930) leads this famous organization.