Fort-ified

When the Saints first entered the Salt Lake Valley they determined to protect themselves by building an adobe fort. This fort soon became too small as waves of emigrants entered the Valley. People generally read about this fort and feel that it was the only fort built in the Salt Lake Valley. How many forts were actually constructed within stones throws of each other?

a.      5

b.      2

c.       3

d.      4

Yesterday’s answer:

B.   Waiting until the last day of the month

A man called to be a teacher was expected to visit a big set of families living in the ward. As ward populations grew, he was assigned a companion so that teachers could visit in pairs. Some teams were assigned to visit all the families in a given block, giving rise to the “block teacher” designation. They visited monthly in many wards but only quarterly or randomly elsewhere. A survey in 1870 shows that LDS wards had between eighteen and twenty-four block teachers each, and each team visited between eight and twenty families. Bishops met monthly, or sometimes biweekly, with their acting teachers to receive reports and give assignments.

Then, as now, end-of-the-month visits were common. In 1864, Bishop Hardy complained about teachers who “Put off their visits through the wards to the very last evening before they have to give in their report, this hurrying way of visiting, failed to accomplish the design of a Teachers duty.”

Nearly Everything Imaginable, Walker, Ronald W., Doris R. Dant ed., (Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1999), 261-262.