Jedediah M. Brown, of South Bountiful, has been janitor at the large public school building in that region for the past twenty years, and during six years of that time was also nightwatchman at the Deseret Live Stock Co. Store. Yet during all that period, with the exception of fourteen months while he was absent on a mission, he has spent on an average two days a week in the Temple. For a number of years past his health has been quite poor, having contracted chills and fever while on his mission, which later developed into chronic rheumatism, from which he has suffered ever since. Whatever the condition of his health, however, he has never yet felt willing to give up his service in behalf of the dead. In addition to the service mentioned, he is under the necessity of traveling about twenty miles by train or otherwise every day he serves in the Temple.
Ernest R. S. Schnelle is also employed as a nightwatchman, in an outlying business district, and is responsible for a great deal of valuable property, some of which tramps are specially liable to prey upon, so that he has to be constantly wide awake and alert for twelve hours at a stretch every night, but he is among the most regular and devoted of the Temple workers.
Robert Hunter, who is nightwatchman at Z. C. M. I., is a frequent attendant at the Temple, mostly laboring for others, because of lacking names of his own kindred dead, and is in the habit of voluntarily contributing to the Temple expense fund all that he receives for his service.
Doubtless many of the women who are in daily attendance at the Temple, so serve at very great personal sacrifice. Self denying women seldom expect or receive full credit in this life for what they do in the way of service. Perhaps only the All-seeing Father or recording angels know all of the heroism involved in the nightly toil and rigid self-denial with which many, possibly most, of the sisters patiently and uncomplainingly serve in the Temple for the benefit of those who are powerless to repay them in this life. It would be difficult to find a more devoted and truly charitable class of women than those laboring in the Salt Lake Temple.
The women in attendance at the Temple almost invariably far outnumber the men—sometimes two to one. Another characteristic of the regular attendants is that there is a preponderance of foreigners. A very large proportion of the regular workers are Scandinavians. The Swiss and Germans are also quite largely represented.
One of the most self-denying and devoted women who ever served in the Salt Lake Temple was Sister Berger, or (as she was known in the Temple, by the name of her first husband) Catherina B. Moosheer. She was a native of Zurich, Switzerland, being born January 25, 1823. From the time she embraced the Gospel she was very much concerned about the salvation of her dead kindred, and took care to obtain all the information possible about her ancestors.
She arrived in Utah July 4, 1872, accompanied by her son and daughter. She purchased a home and exerted herself to the utmost to make her own way in the world by engaging as a nurse, by which she accumulated considerable property. She had the work done for her immediate ancestors as early as 1876, in the Endowment House. After that she found an opportunity of having her genealogy traced up by a party who was engaged in that line, and spent money very freely for that purpose. She worked in the Temple almost from the time it opened. In 1895 she was partially paralyzed, and never fully recovered therefrom. This made her if possible more anxious than ever to hasten the work for her dead kindred. She sold her home to obtain the means necessary to secure as many names as possible of her dead kindred, and to employ men and women to help her in doing the work for them. Her records show that in all sixty-five different people were employed to assist her. For a period of two and a half years she had twelve persons—six men and six women—constantly employed in helping her in the Temple. She had the work fully done for 1,748 of her dead kindred, and sacrificed all that she possessed in order to accomplish it.
It may be of interest to note that Sister Moosheer was the first Temple worker to complete a record of 1,000 names.
She died in Salt Lake City June 9, 1899, shortly after completing the work for the last name she had of her dead kindred.
Her son and daughter and their families gave her every possible encouragement in the Temple work while she lived, and are now more proud of what she accomplished therein than they would be if she had left them fortunes.