Passing Events

Frederick Theurer, former bishop at Providence, died at the age of 82 years. He was a native of Switzerland, born September 29, 1839. General Christian R. Dewet, commander of the Boer forces during the war with Great Britain in 1899, died at Dewetdorp, South Africa, Feb. 3, at the age of 78 years. Giovanna Virga, noted Italian novelist and poet died Jan. 27, aged 82 years. One of his best known works was Cavalleria Rusticana from which Mascagni's opera was adapted. Former Bishop George S. Coleman of Teasdale died, Jan. 22, 1922, as a result of injuries received when a horse he was riding fell. He was born in Smithfield, May 20, 1866. C. W . Anderson, Mt. Pleasant, San Pete county, Utah, died Feb 10, at his home, 79 years old. He was a native of Sweden, born Nov. 12, 1843, and came to Mt. Pleasant in 1859. "Nellie Bly*' died in New York, Jan. 27, of pneumonia. Her name was Mrs. Elizabeth C. Seaman. She became famous as a journalist when she traveled around the globe for the New York World, in 1889. The permanent international court of justice at the Hague has elected Judge B. T. C. Loder, a Hollander, as president and Judge Charles Andre Weiss, French as vice president, says a dispatch from the Hague, Feb. 7. Dr. John A. Widtsoe was appointed commissioner of education of the Church, on motion of Elder David O. McKay, Jan. 26, 1922. Elder McKay resigned that position owing to a desire to devote more time to foreign missions. Viscount Bryce died suddenly Jan. 22, at Sidmouth, England. In America he was best known for his work on the "American Common- wealth." He was credited with knowing more about America than most Americans. James Arno Kirkham, of the British Mission, returned from Liver- pool, January 17. He states that the anti-"Mormon" campaign of Winifred Graham had blown over before his departure and that the mission is in excellent condition. Mrs. Zina Huntington Smoot, died at Provo, Jan. 18, as a result of paralysis caused by cerebral hemorrhage. She was the widow of State Senator A. O. Smoot, and was born in Springville, the daughter of Don C. and Malinda Singleton Huntington. Nathanael V . Jones, who passed away in Salt Lake City, April 18, 1921, was born in this city Nov. 9, 1850, the son of Nathanael Vary and Rebecca Maria Burton Jones. He held important positions in the Church and was a prominent figure in the community. Mrs. Elizabeth Huf faker died Jan. 27, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Joseph Gardner, West Jordan, at the age of 83 years. She was born in

PASSING EVENTS 473 Missouri, March 3, 1839, and came to Utah in 1847. She is survived by 7 children, 51 grand-children, and 61 great-grandchildren.' Mrs. Lydia Shurtliff, 85 years of age, died, Jan. 18, at her home, Salt Lake City. She was a native of Nauvoo, 111., and had been a resident of Utah for the past seventy-eight years. Mrs. Shurtliff was a sister of L. W. Shurtliff, president of the Weber stake of the Church. Maude Adams gave her country estate to a Catholic sisterhood. The donation is valued at $130,000 says a New York dispatch of Jan. 16. Miss Adams was born in Salt Lake City, in 1872, and is said to be a Protestant. As an actress she has achieved international fame. Cardinal Achille Ratti was elected pope, Feb. 6, to succeed Benedict XV. He was born in Desio, Italy, March 31, 1857. When the new re- public of Poland was established, Ratti was made archbishop and sent to Poland as the representative of the holy see. He will be known as Pius XI. Sir Ernest Shackleton died, Jan. 5, on board the ship Quest on which he was making another expedition into the Antarctic. The body was brought to Montevideo, Uruguay, on a Norwegian steamer, Professor Cruvel. The death occurred off the South Georgia Island. Captain Wild continued the expedition. A. Barton Hepburn died in New York, Jan. 25, as a result of injuries received when struck by a "bus" Jan. 20. He was well known as a financier and philanthropist. He contributed more than three million dollars to educational and benevolent institutions. George Stringfellow died, Feb. 4, at his home in Salt Lake City, at the age of 84 years. He was born at Hucknall, Huthwaite, England. With his mother and two sisters, he emigrated to Utah in 1864. They crossed the Atlantic ocean in the sailing vessel General McCiellan, making the voyage in thirty-two days. The B. Y. U., Provo, won the championship, Jan. 20, when its negative team defeated the U. of U. affirmative team in Salt Lake City, and its affirmative team triumphed over the negative of the U. A. C, at Provo. The question debated was: "Resolved, that the U. S. government cancel all war loans to the nations associated with her in the war against Germany, provided Great Britain does likewise." A new college, to be known as College of Applied Arts, was added to the Brigham Young University, Provo, by a decision of a meeting of the trustees Jan. 25, President Heber J. Grant presiding. Dr. M. C. Merrill was appointed dean of the college, and his wife, Mrs. Amy Lyman Merrill, was made dean of women of the University. A medallion in honor of Marshal Foch will be made by the Utah Sculptor, Cyrus E. Dallin, to whom falls ths honor of being commissioned by the state of Massachusetts to execute that work of art in honor of the visit of General Ferdinand Foch, commander-in-chief of the allied armies in the late war, on the occasion of his visi! to the United States. The agricultural conference called by President Harding, convened at Washington, Jan. 23, with about 300 delegates present. The president, in his opening address, made several suggestions of topics for discussion, including the development of the water resources and a code of laws and business procedure; co-operative loaning, buying and selling, etc. Fire in the Lafayette school building, Salt Lake City, Jan. 20, caused a damage estimated at $200,000. When the flames were extinguished only the walls were standing. The mercury registered in the neighborhood of

474 IMPROVEMENT ERA 6 degrees below zero, and some of the firemen were frost bitten and had to be taken to the hospital. The building was completed in 1904. Mrs. Elizabeth Jolly Hicks, wife of George A. Hicks and one of the first settlers of Spanish Fork, died at her home Jan., 29, after an illness of three days from pneumonia. Mrs. Hicks was born in Weekly county, Tenn., May 6, 1837, the daughter of Henry B. M. and Britannia May Jolly. Her parents embraced the gospel and went to Nauvoo in 1840. A new gas from straw obtained by distinctive distillation has been produced by the United States government at one of its experimental farms at Arlington, Va. An automobile has been operated with the new combustible, and it has been used for illuminating purposes as well as for cooking, but the possibilities of straw gas have not yet been fully determined. Joseph Armstrong Fisher died at his home, Salt Lake City, Feb. 5. He was a pioneer of 1850, born in Nauvoo, 111., July 28, 1841. In 1862 he served in the Civil war by helping keep the lines of communication open between San Francisco and Omaha, under Captain Lot Smith. In 1863 he crossed the plains a second time, this time for the purpose of assisting emigrants into Utah. Famine in Russia is said to be threatening fifteen million people with death, unless speedy relief comes. That was the statement made by Dr. Nansen before the relief committee of the League of Nations at Geneva, Jan. 25. He said 33,000,000 souls are affected by the lack of food. Can- nibalism he said is resorted to in the famine-stricken area, as reported in a dispatch dated Jan. 30. Mrs. Mary Tobitha Coon, a pioneer of 1847, died Jan. 25, at the home of her son, Bishop Isaac W. Coon, Pleasant Green, Utah, of bronchial pneumonia. She was born March 3, 1834, at Nashville, Tenn., and came to Utah in the Daniel Spencer company, in 1847. She married John Coon in 1854 and became the mother of ten children. She had 67 grand- children, 87 great grandchildren, and 4 great-great grandchildren. The Knickerbocker Theater, Washington, collapsed Jan. 28, under the weight of two feet of snow on the roof. One hundred and seven per- sons were killed and 134 injured. Among those reported dead was Guy S. Eldredge, of Salt Lake City, brother-in-law of Senator Reed Smoot. Scott A. Dahlquist and Albert H. Paul, two Utah boys, arrived as the building collapsed and rendered efficient service in rescuing the injured in the debris. Methodists favor the law of tithing, according to a statement by Dr. Lovejoy, secretary of the stewardship movement of that church, made in an address at Detroit, Jan. 15. "The basic coin for church and Sunday school purposes still is the red cent," he said. "Churchmen today are giving but a trifle more than their grandfathers did for religion. A man still may be a respected member of a fashionable city church, ride in an $8000 automobile and pay 25 cents a week for his religion." Pope Benedict XV died Jan. 22, after a few days' illness which de- veloped into pneumonia. He was born near Genoa, Italy, in 1854, and became pope, Sept. 6, 1914. Benedict succeeded in restoring diplomatic relations with many countries, including Great Britain, and a short time before his death he had formulated a plan for reconciliation between the Vatican and the Italian government, on the basis of the recognition of the political independence of the Vatican ground and buildings. The remains were laid to rest in St. Peters church Jan. 26. Eli A. Folland was called by death at a hospital in Salt Lake City,

PASSING EVENTS 475 as a result of pneumonia. He was born April 8, 1855, at Exeter, England, and came to Utah with his parents in 1865 as members of the ox-carl com- pany headed by Captain George Holliday. He has resided in the Sixteenth ward for fifty-four years. Mr. Folland served the city as a member of the city council in the years 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893. He was a member of the building committee during the construction of the city and coun'.y building. He was for ten years superintendent of the Salt Lake Foundry and Machine Co. He spent the years of 1881 and 1882 in missionary work. One hundred and thirty-seven years old was the reputed age of Ga- Be-Na-Woncer also known as John Smith and "Wrinkled Meat," a Chippewa Indian, who died at Cass Lake, Minn., Feb. 7, after a week's illness of pneumonia. A year ago he became totally blind, but his mind remained clear and he often recalled when he was a scout for the Cbip- pewas in the wars with the Sioux. He also remembered events of the war of 1812. One of his boasts was that he had never fought against the white man. Up to four years ago he had never visited a big city. He had been married eight times. He had no children, and the only survivor is Tom Smith, an adopted son, with whom he lived. Mrs. Amy Lyman Merrill, Superintendent of the Practice House and Chairman of the Woman's Advisory Committee, at the Utah Agricultural College, was recently appointed Dean of Women at the Brigham Young University for the next school year. Mrs. Merrill is a daughter of the late President Francis M. Lyman. She is a graduate of the Utah Agricultural College and has taught in the public schools in Utah and also in the L. D. S. U., where she was head of the Domestic Science Department. She was the first Home Demonstrator in Utah. Mrs. Merrill has done work at both the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, having done special Practice House work at the latter in the summer of 1919. She is the wife of Dr. M. C. Merrill, who was recently appointed Professor of Horticulture and Dean of the new College of Applied Arts, at the Brigham Young University. The armament conference in Washington was formally closed Feb. 6, with the signing of various documents and a farewell address of President Harding. As a result of the conference there will be a "naval holiday" as regards the building of the largest type of battleships and scrapping of a certain number, thus obviating naval competition between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. The Anglo-French alliance will be terminated and an agreement between the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France will take its place; certain restrictions regarding the use of submarines and poison gases have been agreed on; Japan and China have reached an understanding concerning the Shantung contro- versy, but Japan has made it clear that she has no intention to withdraw from Manchuria and Siberia; finally, the United States has agreed not to have any naval station in the Pacific west of the Hawaiian Islands, in consideration of an understanding that Japan will not fortify certain islands. Dr. M. C. Merrill, Professor of Horticulture at the Utah Agricultural College, has just been appointed Professor of Horticulture, and Dean of the new College of Applied Arts, at the Brigham Young University. Dr. Merrill is the son of the late Elder Marriner W. Merrill. He was graduated from the Utah Agricultural College in 1905. After a year of teaching in Springville he accepted a position with the Bureau of Agriculture as Agri- cultural Inspector and Superintendent of an experiment station in the Philippine Islands. He resigned this position in 1910, and spent the follow- ing year studying agriculture in Japan, China, Ceylon, Egypt, Palestine, and twelve countries of Europe and the British Isles. Upon his return

476 IMPROVEMENT ERA lo America he spent one year in graduate work at Cornell, after which he entered the University of Chicago where he received a master's degree in Botany, in 1912. The next year he entered Harvard University, from which he received a master's degree in Chemistry, in 1913. From Harvard he went to the Missuori Botanical Garden, at St. Louis, receiving the Ph. D. degree from Washington University in 1915. Moses W. Taylor, who passed away at his home in Salt Lake City, Jan. 13, was a son of the late President John Taylor and Sophia Whitaker Taylor. He was born in Salt Lake City, March 9, 1862. From 1901 till 1921 he presided over Summit stake and was released on account of fail- ing health. From a paper by Elder Charles R. Jones, patriarch of Summit stake, the following extracts are made: "His work as a Stake President and leader among the people of Summit Stake, where he labored for twenty years, stands today as a monument to his honesty, integrity, and devotion to the cause in which he was engaged. During the years that he presided over that stake he attended every meet- ing and appointment that it was his duty to attend, with the exception of three or four, having traveled many miles at times to be at his post of duty. No weather was ever too inclement or roads too muddy to hinder him from attending to his duties. He was ever anxious for the welfare of his people; to see them succeed and prosper brought! happiness to him. Surrounded, as he was, with a faithful and devoted wife and family, he was encouraged to go forth in the performance of his duties; he knew that their faith and prayers were always for him. The law of tithing was strictly obeyed by President Taylor, and upon several occasions when he has handed to me, as his bishop, a check for tithing, he would remark that it was for more than he had earned, but he always wanted to be on the safe side with the Lord. As a strict observer of the Word of Wisdom he led a clean and pure life — worthy of imitation by all his associates. Presf* dent Taylor delighted to visit the homes of the people, whether they were members of the Church or not, and his presence in the home always brought joy to the occupants. He loved to bless and comfort those in trouble and need." William W . Riter passed away at the Latter-day Saints hospital, Salt Lake City, Jan. 17, at the age of 83 years, after an illness of about three months. He was a pioneer of 1847, a faithful Church worker, and .one of the leading business men of the West. Elder Riter was born in Chester county, Pa., September 4, 1838, and came with his parents to Utah in the exodus from Nauvoo, 111., reaching Salt Lake in September, 1847. In the early '70s he was associated with President Brigham Young as one of the contractors in the construction of the Union Pacific, had an active part in the building of the Utah Central and was superintendent and manager of numerous of the branch roads that were big factors in the develop- ment of the state. In 1886 and 1888 he was the speaker of the house of the Utah legislature, and for more than thirty years he was a member of the board of regents of the University, chairman since 1905. Mr. Riter was vice president of the Deseret National bank, president of the Deseret Savings bank, vice president of the Ogden Savings bank, of the First National bank of Rexburg, Idaho, and of the Oregon Lumber company and the Utah Hotel company of Salt Lake. He was twice married; first at New York City in March, 1871, to Miss Susan Denton of East Rockaway, Long Island, N. Y., by whom he had two children. She died in this city in 1879. Four years later, in April, 1883, Mr. Riter was married to Miss Priscilla Jennings, daughter of William Jennings, once mayor of this city, ' by whom he has had six children. Funeral services were held in the Assembly hall, Jan. 19. President Heber J. Grant was one of the speakers who paid tribute to the sterling qualities of the departed.