Historic Brigham City Relief Society Granary

Historic Brigham City Relief Society Granary. . , In 1876, Harriet Snow, Box Elder Stake Relief Society President, was asked by the LDS General Relief Society President, Emmeline B. Wells, to join with women's groups throughout the LDS Church to gather and store wheat against a time of need from drought, crop failure, or insect plague. Women and children went into the fields after the men completed the harvest and gleaned the remaining stalks and grains of wheat for storage. In Brigham City, 100 bushels of wheat were gleaned and stored first in the basement of the courthouse, and then in an upper bedroom of Harriet Snow's home., Harriet requested a granary be built and in 1877 Lorenzo Snow, her husband, authorized the construction of this rock building on what was known as Co-op Square. The granary was well-constructed of rock and brick. Primary children gathered glass to be crushed and worked into the mortar to help keep mice out. The women of the Relief Society kept the granary clean and used lime to keep bugs away. The stored wheat was used mostly for local needs, but at times wheat was sent outside Box Elder County. One such day of need arrived in 1898, when wheat was sent to Parowan and other southern Utah settlements that were suffering from drought. In 1906 a train car of flour from the Relief Society granaries was sent to earthquake-devastated San Francisco. At intervals unused wheat was sold and replenished to keep it fresh., The need for small, local granaries eventually passed, and this building was sold in 1913 to the Box Elder School District to store food for school lunch programs. Because of its thick walls, the building was used for cold storage. When use of the building ceased in 1967, it slowly fell into disrepair. In 2008 the Box Elder Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers emptied the building of the old freezers, re-built the collapsing roof and refurbished the inside. , This durable old building, the Brigham City Relief Society Granary, today stands as a reminder of the hard work, frugality and vision of the Pioneer settlers of Brigham City and Box Elder County., This kiosk was built as an Eagle Project in 2013 by Scott Shakespear and Varsity Team 801 with the support of the Box Elder Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers., S.U.P. Monument # 148.