CHAPTER 54.
ADMINISTRATIVE WORK, 1894.
Electric Power Plant in Ogden Canyon.—Saltair.—Death of His Brother, Thompson.—Temple Work for Benjamin Franklin.—An Optimist.—Death of A. O. Smoot of Provo.—Utah Stake Organized.—Trip to Alaska.
During the early years of President Woodruff's administration financial pressure rested heavily upon the Church. Something like four hundred thousand dollars, however, of personal property, which had been confiscated, was by the order of the supreme court turned over to the President of the Church. The Church had given its support to certain enterprises and was, about the year 1904, under financial responsibilities for the electric power plant in Ogden Canyon and the Saltair pavilion. The power plant was planned to command in part the great and growing resources in this inter-mountain region. The capitalization necessary to launch it was beyond private capital which at this time could be obtained for such a purpose. As time went on the scheme proved both feasible and profitable.
The Saltair Beach, President Woodruff was persuaded, would afford the people a resort which might be kept under some measure of control and be run in the interests of good morals. He looked upon innocent recreation as a part of the daily life of men, and that amusement was harmful only when it became excessive and associated with undesirable companionship. President Woodruff in his own life never made any great distinction between things spiritual and things temporal. His spirituality was so characteristic a feature of his own life that it was associated with all that he did and said. With him, God was so associated in the affairs of men that their daily conduct was under His constant supervision.
In January of '94, he recorded the death of his brother, Thompson Woodruff, who had lived to the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. Wilford was younger than his two brothers, but lived to a greater age than either of them. His eighty-seventh birthday this year was celebrated in the Salt Lake Temple where he was surrounded by his faithful associates, by the general authorities of the Church, and such members of his numerous family as could come together. There were about two hundred and thirty present.
At his advanced age of life he took great interest in the journey of his friends to the other side. They were going to the spiritual world, an abode to which he looked forward, himself, with great expectations and some measure of satisfaction. He bids his old-time and departed friends, in his journal, a heartfelt and loving good-by. He expected to see them before very long. During that year his sister-in-law, Sarah B. Foss, about ninety-three years of age, died; likewise Jessie W. Fox, the pioneer surveyor; likewise President John Morgan, a federal soldier of the Civil War, and one of the seven presidents of Seventy.
Much of President Woodruff's meditations, as well as his hopes and ambitions, were associated with the world beyond the veil, and yet he was not in the least sense a fanatically visionary man. When he had important dreams they were in harmony with his religious conceptions and a part of his duty, both to man and God. On the night of March 19th, 1894, he had a dream which followed his meditations upon the future life and the work that he had done for the dead. In his dream there appeared to him Benjamin Franklin for whom he had performed important ceremonies in the House of God. This distinguished patriot, according to his dream, sought further blessings in the Temple of God at the hands of his benefactor. President Woodruff wrote: "I spent some time with him and we talked over our Temple ordinances which had been administered for Franklin and others. He wanted more work done for him than had already been done. I promised him it should be done. I awoke and then made up my mind to receive further blessings for Benjamin Franklin and George Washington."