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Livingston Family Association

1283 Logan Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84105




Bulletin #18

January 15, 1979

Dear Family,

We would like to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year. We pray for your success in all you undertake to do and hope you are praying for our success as we undertake to unite our family. We have some high goals this year and with your cooperation and help we are sure to attain them.

As you probably already know, we are hoping this is the year of the book. This is our main and highest goal and uppermost in our minds. Ron has put in so many many hours on the book besides getting a son and a daughter off on missions and a son married all within the past few months. With that behind, now he can settle in and finish tying the ends together. For any questions or suggestions about the book, call Ron Livingston, 379 W. 700 So. Orem, Utah 84057 - phone 225-3573. If you are holding information that he needs, please get it to him.

We saw many of you at the reunion in July down at Birch Creek. We had a good turn out, good weather, good food, and most important of all, good company. It was really great to be on the very spot where our ancestors lived and worked and played. Some of the cousins who remember those times took us around and showed us where the houses and other buildings used to be located. We were able to have an aerial picture taken of the area and it will be in the book with the different homes, etc. pinpointed.

At the reunion we gave out three sheets of pictures of the Orson Augustus Despain family and descendants. If you weren't there and you are interested in getting these, we still have some left. Just drop by and pick them up or let us mail them to you. We know this won't apply to everyone, but they are available to anyone interested.

Also at the reunion we gave out copies of the enclosed picture of a Birch Creek Sunday School. Most of you will be able to relate to someone on this picture. When we went to the reunion, we only had two or three people identified. Thanks to Aunt LaFern Johnson (who is in the picture) and Jess and Deon Livingston and other helpful people we were able to identify quite a few in the picture. So - - enclosed is a result of our unified efforts.

We would really like to thank three board members who were replaced at the reunion. They served long and well. They gave willingly of their time and talents. They are Ted Livingston, Dale Livingston, and Lois Riggs.

The new board members who were elected at the reunion are Byron Rasmussen, Ron Watt, and Kay Livingston. We appreciate their willingness to serve and appreciate all they have already done. We have met as a board and elected Denney Pugmire to serve as Chairman of the Board. He is well organized and anxious to do anything he can. Our board now stands as follows:

Livingston Family Board of Directors
Denney Pugmire, 10531 So. Crocus, Sandy, Utah 84070571-7228
Enid Cox, 1283 Logan Ave. Salt Lake City, Utah 84105484-2678
Margaret Livingston, 37 So Terrace Dr., Clearfield773-2238
Ron Livingston, 379 W. 700 So., Orem, Utah 84057225-3573
Veron Tomander, 2434 Maywood Circle, SLC 84109484-7485
Lewis Livingston, 590 Steele St, Craig, Colo. 81625303-824-5896
Kay Livingston, 3946 So 23rd E #4, SLC 84117272-1104
Byron Rasmussen, 426 Vine,Clearfield, Ut. 84015773-5489
Ron Watt, 4493 Thayn Dr., SLC 84120969-3844

Any suggestions or questions may be directed to any of the above. The reunion this year will be July 13th and 14th. The place has not yet been firmed up, but please plan on this date. Byron Rasmussen will be in charge of it this year, so please give him your ideas.

We have a research report which, due to lack of space, will be published in a subsequent bulletin - as well as further information on the book and complete details about the reunion plus another history.

James and Charles Livingston:

Slow of Speech but Faithful to the End

Ronald G. Watt

James and Charles Livingston were born in Scotland. Their parents died early in their youth, and they were finally reared by their grandmother. Mormon missionaries came to their door, and the entire family converted to Mormonism. James came to Utah in 1853 about a year before he sent for his grandmother and brothers and sister. His lifetime work, except for lapse periods, was in the Temple Quarry, first in Red Butte Canyon and then Little Cottonwood Canyon.

There are few sources available on either of the two men. Late in his life James wrote a short autobiographical sketch. There are no extant records for Charles. During their life they were members and later presidents of the eighteenth quorum of seventy. James was the senior president for the last few years. The meeting was conducted as a testimony meeting where the brethren expressed their feeling about the Church and their support for their leaders. The date of Charles' ordination is not recorded. In 1869 he was appointed a clerk and remained in that position until 1876 when he was made president of the quorum.

James Livingston was ordained a seventy and made a member of the eighteenth quorum, on December 28, 1857. On March 13, 1858, he was presented to the quorum as a clerk. He kept the records more faithfully, at first, than his predecessor, and he was a good penman, but beginning in 1860 he began missing some meetings, perhaps because he was away hauling freight to Montana. His absences increased until he no longer attended meetings and no minutes were kept. In October 1869 the presidents of the quorum decided that he was no longer able to continue as clerk. A little over a month later he was appointed one of the quorum presidents.

It is only after this time that his devotion to his church and some of his ideas can be understood through the minutes. James was proud of his quorum's activities and their accomplishments. The record shows that he was not a conversationalist. He saw himself and fellow quorum members as doers, not speakers. He also said that he did not preach except in quorum meeting. If he was not a speaker, neither was he a complainer. He said that the quorum brethren should learn their duty and for the most part the brethren did their duty. He was proud [of] the way they responded.

The seventies quorums were unlike any seventy quorums in the church today. Each quorum recruited its own members from the elder's quorums, and a seventy remained a member of his quorum no matter where he moved. The eighteenth quorum clerk often wrote to the members living outside Salt Lake City. To further compensate for this scattered condition, [they] began meeting between sessions of general conference in October and April. They also met regularly with the twenty-seventh quorum. This joint meeting led to some difficulties. The eighteenth quorum had better attendance- - only one or two attended from the other quorum. Also the eighteenth was more aggressive in collection of donations. The two quorums finally agreed to meet together only once a month, and then later it appears that they even stopped this practice.

In 1876 building activity on the Salt Lake temple increased, and the eighteenth quorum was asked to donate for the work. Charles Livingston, who was one of the presidents, said that he was willing to do his part whatever was required of him, but he would rather work than preach. To help meet the quorum commitment, James offered to take some of the brethren to work with him in the quarry, but he wanted experienced quarrymen. The men who volunteered in the eighteenth quorum had had experience, and that pleased him. Some of the other quorums sent him some less experienced individuals. He commented that they did a good job, although their experience was not as good.

Another way the quorum helped was to hire a man to work at the quarry. The debate in the quorum after making this decision was whether to pay him $3.00 a day with board or $3.50 without board. James said that in the grub department of the quarry a man was credited up to $.60 a week for the food he brought. All of that food went into a common area, and was used during the week. The quorum decided to pay $3.50. The next year the quorum concentrated their efforts on raising money for their hired man. James was continually prompting quorum members to pay their donations. Charles Livingston was the treasurer for the quorum. Periodically he gave financial reports. One time he stood up and told the quorum they had expended almost more money than they had and two weeks' pay to the hired man was due, but he felt good about it because some of the regular contributors had not given their donations yet.

The twenty-seventh quorum decided to help pay the man in the quarry too, but their donations came in too seldom. Charles was assigned to visit members of the two quorums to solicit donations. When the 27th quorum lodged a complaint about the impropriety of his visits, James calmly assured them that Charles was not to collect money, but simply to remind the quorum members about paying their donations.

In the fall of 1877 the duty to provide money and workers for the temple shifted to the wards. A month later the presidents of the First Quorum of Seventy told the quorums that they were going to send the seventies on missions. The eighteenth quorum members must have trembled with fear. The Livingstons had said for several years that they were not preachers. James immediately told the brethren to prepare themselves by learning more about the Gospel so they could be ready to preach when the opportunity came. He felt that the time would come when the seventies would proclaim the Gospel to the world. In January and February 1878 he told the brethren that the seven presidents of the First Quorum had left it up to each quorum to recommend from their own number who would go on missions. He decided that everyone was eligible to go on missions and that they would put their names on the list no matter what their economic circumstances were. The quorum would come to their assistance.

After several months of silence following the announcement on missionary work, Charles said he thought the general presidency meant to send men who were in good financial circumstances. The seventies, he added, were minute men and should be ready to go, if called upon.

James admitted in the next meeting that he was “backward” in speaking in meetings, but in the quorum he did better. He said, however, if called he would be ready to go on a mission, and he would get the spirit of his calling.

In that same meeting Charles told the quorum members that it had been nearly 29 years since he had joined the Church. The only preaching he had done in that time had been in the quorum meetings. He then expressed his testimony and said that the brethren should faithfully discharge their duties and continue faithful to the end.

The quorum sent at least one of their members on a mission and gave him their entire sum of $23.50. The fund had been started especially for missionaries. Another member was told to prepare. Even though the Livingston brothers said they were willing to go, they probably breathed a sigh of relief that they had not been called.

Probably because he felt that they needed training, James asked the quorum members to bring their hymn books so they could sing in their meetings. He also desired to have a scriptural phrase read and wanted someone to teach the principles of the Gospel. By the end of the year, however, this missionary preparation effort ended. The meetings reverted back to testimonies. By 1880 the emphasis on sending missionaries to the world had slowed.

The Livingstons continued to bear fervent testimonies. Charles expressed a desire to continue faithful, to perform the duties required of him that he might gain his salvation and be saved in the Kingdom of God. James instructed the brethren to be faithful and discharge the duties requested of them as servants of God.

About a year after the first mention of teachings in the quorum, the presidency began to be concerned about making the meetings more interesting. Probably there had been some complaints by some of the younger brethren that testimonies alone were not interesting enough. Once again they assigned Gospel talks. James, who had received an assignment to talk on faith, read Hebrews chapter 11 and made a few remarks on the first principle.

At the next meeting James asked whether they should continue having speakers. Charles felt that the talks “would greatly benefit us, and give us courage to become speakers.” The testimonies continued, for that was the pattern established by years of habit, but the testimonies began to center around those short talks on the principles of the Gospel. Charles seemed to have caught a renewed fire. He said it did the members good and even though the subjects were the same, they learned something new every time. A few months later James admonished the quorum members to search the Church books and inform their minds on the principles of the Church of Christ. By the end of 1881 even James was able to talk at length on the principles of the Gospel. The short talks by the different members had greatly improved the quality of the meetings. It appears that again the speaking by the quorum brethren was only an interlude. The presidency was accustomed to testimonies and little or no preparation was needed for the meetings that way.

In May 1883 James announced to his fellow quorum members that the seventies quorums would be reorganized to more closely follow ward areas. Salt Lake City had over 40 quorums, and they were entitled to only fourteen. The presidency decided to send the remainder of the missionary fund to one of their brothers.

In July James “spoke of the many good times we have had together in this quorum and believed (without boasting) that the 18th quorum of Seventies had done their duty and lived about as near right in attending to all the requirements desired of them.”

In August the quorum met for the last time, and Charles read the farewell address. The address expressed the gratitude for being able to work together and thanked the brethren for their support.

The record book shortly after was sent to Franklin, Idaho, where the new eighteenth quorum resided.

The quorum record shows two brothers who were faithful to their early conversion. Although James and Charles showed little innovation in the meetings, they did respond to advice and were always desirous of following the leaders of the Church. Some of the rhetoric of their testimonies seem to be repetitive, but they were always genuine. James as the senior president presided well. He always asked for the feelings of the other brethren, a practice established by many before him. Occasionally the clerk would record a phrase unique to James's speaking. James liked to say that he felt “first rate” or the quorum was “first rate.” Charles' uniqueness does not come through quite as well. Although he does appear to be the better speaker of the two, he seems to have followed his brother in leadership. He was the one who was given charge of the funds of the quorum and was always concerned that the brethren should pay their donations.

The Livingston brothers continued to remain faithful in the Church. If there is an epitaph that would pertain to the brothers, it would be that even though slow of speech, they did their duty and were faithful to the end.

Thanks to Ron Watt who compiled this report from minutes of the 18th Quorum of Seventies. Thanks Ron, for sharing them with us in the bulletin.

Cedar Cliff Sunday School

Cedar Cliff Sunday School Map


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