226 2nd Street
Moroni Stone was born in 1850 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to English immigrant parents, William and Mary Cruse Stone, who celebrated their conversion to the Mormon Church by naming their baby Moroni. The family arrived in Bingham Fort in about 1857. He and his three brothers learned agriculture skills from their father who farmed where the Aspen Acres subdivision is now located. When of age, he and his brothers secured their own farms on 2nd Street and helped each other in their work.
As a young unmarried man, Moroni also worked on the railroad to earn cash to run his farm. He was hard working and had high expectations. The pay received was $5 a day for a man and a team and $10 for Sunday work. These wages seemed enormous to the frugal pioneers. [1]
In June 1879 Moroni married Charlotte Gale; he was 29 years old and was serving at the time as a volunteer fireman. After the wedding, the Gale family served a full course dinner to 100 guests, and during the meal, the Ogden Brass Band serenaded them from the middle of Washington Avenue. Later in the evening, a dance was held in the Fireman’s Hall on Grant Avenue at 25th Street. Moroni and Charlotte led the wedding waltz. [2]
Moroni built their house at 226 2nd Street next to the North Branch of the Lynne Ditch (then called Bingham Fort Ditch). He made the adobe bricks by hand, getting the clay at the “2nd Street Swamp”, mixing it, placing it in molds, and putting it in the sun to dry. The lumber used on the inside was brought from Monte Cristo. [3]
After his marriage, Moroni quit working for the railroad and farmed. For additional money, he drove a horse-drawn sprinkling wagon over the dirt roads to keep the dust down on Washington Avenue and Bingham Fort Lane. He was an active supporter of the community and continued as a volunteer fireman.
The decades of the 1870s and the 1880s were times of intense political conflict in Weber County and Utah Territory. The People’s Party (Mormons) skirmished with the Liberal Party (non-Mormons). The People’s Party wanted to elect Mormons or those who were sympathetic to Mormons in office, and the Liberal Party wanted just the opposite. Moroni Stone was excommunicated from the Mormon Church for attending railroad dances, and he became an outspoken and active member of the Liberal Party. [4]
The Mormons formed economic cooperatives, particularly the 1868 ZCMI, to control the economic impacts of the railroad. Price gouging was commonplace as non-Mormon merchants raised prices on necessary goods to Mormon patrons. But the Liberals protested the organization of ZCMI and other economic programs advocated by Brigham Young in response to the railroad, mining, and outside trade.
Some Mormon Church members were not happy to be told how to vote and where to shop; two of Moroni Stone’s brothers were excommunicated for shopping at mercantile stores other than ZCMI (see 159 W. 2nd St.). Moroni’s third brother was excommunicated for eloping with his sweetheart (see 368 W. 2nd St.). Some called the Stone brothers “rowdy”. [5]
In addition to moral, political, and business issues, polygamy and prospective statehood were also major concerns in the 1870s and 1880s. The 20-year rivalry between the Mormons and the non-Mormons did not die easily, but with the abandonment of polygamy in 1890, both groups became increasingly more cooperative. Most residents of the county and of the territory were interested in achieving statehood, and so there was a decided effort to politically reorganize.
The People’s Party was dissolved in 1891, and local Lynne ward members were now counseled to make their own political choices. Moroni had already been making his own political choices for the last twenty years. In the latter part of 1891 “considerable excitement prevailed” among LDS church members at Five Points as they divided into political parties according to personal choice. In the 1892 election, there were three parties recorded at Five Points: the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Liberals. Moroni rode out the years of conflict and always remained an active, contributing member of the community. [6]
Moroni and Charlotte had many diverse friends to whom they opened their home. Charlotte was a wonderful mother and cook with many domestic talents that endeared their home to their children, grandchildren, and many friends. Moroni played the violin and is remembered for his violin-whistling duets with his sister, Sarah.
Moroni had two nicknames: “Honest Rone Stone” because his word was his bond and “Whispering Rone” because he talked with such a loud voice. Once he saw a young boy shuffling along and he boomed out in his outspoken way, “Walk up Coffin!” meaning “Don’t drag your feet.” [7]
Many of Charlotte and Moroni’s adult children remained at Five Points and contributed to the development of the community. Their son George Stone was a member of the Redfield Dance Orchestra, and two of their daughters married two Redfield brothers who were later involved in several businesses at Five Points: Emma Stone married Cleveland Redfield who invented the Universal Spot Welder, [8] and Charlotte Stone married Fred Redfield who started the Superior Honey business. Their son Charlie Stone had a plumbing business and a gas station at Washington Blvd. and 3rd Street that Ralph Kunz acquired many years later. Their son William Stone was a chiropractor for many years at Five Points. [9] In 1910 his sons Spencer and George Stone helped Fred Redfield develop the Superior Honey business which was located at 349 3rd Street on a railroad spur. [10] Spencer Stone also served on the Ogden board of education and in the 1940s the Spencer Stone family donated the site at 606 Washington Blvd. for the Emerson Stone Branch library. [11]
[1] - Ogden Daily Standard, May 9, 1919.
[2] - Ogden Standard-Examiner, Married, June 18, 1879; Pioneer Personal History of Charlotte Gale Stone by Elvera L. Manful, 1937, manuscript, p. 3.
[3] - Ibid.
[4] - The Standard, July 19, 1891.
[5] - Richard C. Roberts and Richard W. Saddler, A History of Weber County, 1997, Utah Historical Society and Weber County Commission, p. 133, 134.
[6] - Ibid, p. 140; Andrew Jensen, History of the Lynne Ward, p. 12.
[7] - Interview Helen Redfield Rogers and William Byron Redfield by Anna Keogh, 1998.
[8] - Pearl Stowe, Ogden Utah 8th Ward, Lorin Farr Stake,1908-1980, p. 319.
[9] - 1920 Census.
[10] - Ibid, p. 323.
[11] - History of the Weber County Library System, p. 2, 5; Ogden Standard-Examiner, Industrial Leader Dies While On South American Vacation, April 21, 1950, p. 12A.