MURRAY, Utah — The first pioneer-era ward created outside of Salt Lake City proper — the South Cottonwood Ward — looked back on 150 years of spiritual legacy Feb. 14 at a fireside featuring President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency.

"We rejoice on this occasion," declared President Faust, who presided over what is now the Murray Utah South Stake — which includes the South Cottonwood Ward — when it was the Cottonwood Stake. "We commend all those who have had anything to do with this sesquicentennial event of this truly historic ward, one of the earliest in the valley and the first one outside of Salt Lake City proper."

Also attending the fireside were President Faust's wife, Ruth; Elder Ben B. Banks of the Seventy and his wife, Susan; Elder Carlos E. Asay, emeritus General Authority and Salt Lake Temple president, and his wife, Colleen.

At President Faust's direction, impromptu remarks were given by Elder Asay, a former bishop of the ward, and by Elder Banks, who was one of President Faust's successors as stake president. Bishop J. Weston Daw, serving as bishop of the ward for the second time (the first was 38 years ago) conducted the meeting and gave remarks. Richard C. Howe, Utah Supreme Court chief justice and a lifelong ward member, gave a historical overview. Stake Pres. Craig Burton gave remarks. Two lifetime ward members, Elaine Howe and Luella Wheeler Finlinson, shared their testimonies at President Faust's invitation.

President Faust alluded to the ward's origins, it being one of four whose boundaries were defined south of Great Salt Lake City on Feb. 16, 1849. Literally hundreds of Church units are now within the ward's original boundaries, which stretched from Big Cottonwood Creek (about 4800 South) on the north to the southern rim of the Salt Lake Valley and from the Wasatch Mountain foothills on the east to the Jordan River on the west.

It was settled in 1848 by Church members largely from Mississippi under the direction of Elder Amasa Lyman of the Quorum of the Twelve. When the ward was organized in 1849, the first bishop was William Crosby from northeastern Mississippi. In 1851, he joined Elder Lyman in a trek to California, where they founded San Bernardino.

But the ward grew under subsequent leadership, and it became a stopping-off point for hauls of granite for construction of the Salt Lake Temple from the quarry at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. A granary constructed in 1877 under the direction of the Relief Society still stands today on the corner of the ward meetinghouse property.

"I represent two of the original pioneers," President Faust noted. "Amasa Lyman was my great-great-grandfather. And by marriage, I have some connection with the John Benbow family because my wife's sister married William Shirley Erekson [a former bishop of the ward and a Benbow descendant]."

President Faust said John Benbow "was the nearest that we ever had in the Church to nobility in England." It was Brother Benbow who hosted Wilford Woodruff at his home in 1840 when Elder Woodruff baptized about 600 members of the United Brethren Church into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brother Benbow later came to the United States, aided the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, came west with the Saints and eventually settled in South Cottonwood.

"Now I mention this," President Faust noted, "because this is typical of the faith of the people who lived in this community, not always prominent in the history of the Church as John Benbow, no, but people of commitment and faith and humility and dedication who literally put the Kingdom of God first in their lives."

He alluded to the contributions that have been made by Church members and missionaries from South Cottonwood to the growth of the Church worldwide.

"There is nothing like what is happening through the influence of this Church in all of the world," he declared. "There is no church which can compare with the activity and the growth. There is no organization which fosters the principles of truth and righteousness as this Church does. And those of us who stand at the very vortex of it have a hard time even to conceive of what is happening in the onrolling of the work in our day and time.

"I rejoice in all that has happened in the past. And I look forward in confidence to the future. I'm not worried about the world falling apart in Y2-K. There may be some glitches, but the progress, the onrolling, the outpouring of knowledge and truth and scientific wonders beyond that which we have even dreamed about so far will continue.

"And the work of God will go forward as the Prophet Joseph said, nobly and boldly until it fills the whole earth."

The fireside was held in the ward meetinghouse, dedicated in 1995 and situated on a site which, according to Pres. Burton, has been owned only by the Church or its agents and used for worship since the pioneers settled the area. Memorabilia and scrapbook displays were featured in the foyer of the building.