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| Salt Lake City - Utah - History |
"The homely adobe building on Third South just west of Main Street belonging to the First Congregational Church of this city, popularly known as Independence Hall, is one of the remarkable buildings of Utah. It was the first crystallization in bricks and mortar of Gentile tendencies in Salt Lake, social, religious and political. It was the point, if not the seed, whence started the Christian churches and scores of connected schools now among the most powerful influences affecting the destiny of this territory." These words were written by Ovando James Hollister (journalist and government appointee) sixteen years after the Congregational Church was organized and Independence Hall was built.
On January 22, 1865, Rev. Norman McLeod preached his first sermon upstairs in Daft Store where the Young Men's Literary Association held their meetings. Church and Sunday School rapidly outgrew the rented quarlers and in less than a year after McLeod's arrival, Independence Hall was built. The first church services were held on November 26, 1865.
Being the only Gentile church building for many years, it was made available to fraternal organizations such as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons, to young people's conventions and teachers' organizations, and to political candidates and causes. Free to all children, Congregational schools were conducted there and in many locations throughout the territory.
The Family History Library was founded by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1894 and it now houses the largest collection of genealogical material in the world. The society is dedicated to acquiring and preserving copies of the records of mankind. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) has financed the society's methodical work. The Church teaches that close ties to ancestors are a part of family happiness. In an LDS temple, a family begins with a marriage - a sacred ordinance that unites husband and wife. Further ordinances tie children to parents, parents to grandparents, grandparents to great-grandparents, and so on, linking the generations to each other. Members of the church believe that deceased ancestors may be
baptized and become posthumous members of the church.
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