ples. The main assembly room on the upper floor has a seating capacity for over fifteen hundred persons. The estimated cost of the building as it stood ready for dedication was one million dollars.
Dedicatory services were set for May 21, 1888. From accounts published at the time it is plain that the interest in the great event was intense. Thus we read:
"From an early hour on the 21st of May people began to assemble on the hill east of the Temple, at which admission was to be gained, and by 9:30 the grounds were black with people. The day was lovely, the threatened rain of the night preceding having passed away. As for two days before, all the roads leading to Manti were clouded with incoming teams, each loaded with living freight bound for the dedication."[1]
President John Taylor who, as the presiding officer of the Council of the Twelve Apostles had directed the laying of the corner-stones, and who afterward became the President of the Church, had died in July, 1887. A.gain the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was without an organized First Presidency of three, and at the time of the dedication of the Manti Temple, the Council of the Twelve was the presiding quorum[2] of the Church. Wilford Woodruff was at this time the president of the Council of the Twelve.
The services began at 11 a. m., by which time the
- ↑ See "The Dedication of the Manti Temple," "Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star," Vol. L, No. 25, June 18, 1888, p. 386.
- ↑ For this peculiar usage of the term quorum, designating a council or organized body and not specifically a majority of such body, see "Standard Dictionary" wherein we read under "Quorum," "Mormon Ch. A council or an organized body of the priesthood; as, an Elders' quorum; the quorum of the First Presidency."
