Truman O. Angell
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Truman O. Angell (June 5, 1810 – October 16, 1887), served many years as Church Architect for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and was one of the original Mormon Pioneers, entering the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. He designed the Salt Lake Temple, the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Fillmore Statehouse, the St. George Utah Temple, and many other important public buildings. His modifications to the Salt Lake Tabernacle are credited with perfecting the acoustics for which the building is famous.
[edit] Biography
Truman Osborn Angell was born on June 5, 1810 in Providence, Rhode Island, the third son of seven children born to James W. Angell and Phebe Angell (Morton). Between the ages of 17 and 19, he learned the carpenter and joiner's trade from a man in the neighborhood of his family home. However, due to problems that his mother had with his father, at age 21 he moved with his mother to China, New York (near her family), where he met and married Polly Johnson. At age 23, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with along with his mother and his wife, and the following spring he served a mission for the church for 9 weeks, traveling 500 miles. The following July, he and his wife settled in Lima, New York, with his mother staying behind. In the fall of 1835 they moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and Truman helped build the Kirtland Temple. He was soon ordained a member of the 2nd Quorum of Seventies and the following spring commenced making arrangements to go on a mission. One day while working, with only a day or two of work left, Joseph Smith, Jr. approached him and asked him to build a store. Truman answered "that in consequence of being a seventy I was about to go out into the vineyard to preach". "Well," Joseph said, "Go ahead," and Truman continued his work. In Truman's words he says:
The next day I looked up and saw the First Presidency of the Church together, distant about forty rods. I dropped my head and continued my work. At this time a voice seemed to whisper to me, "It is your duty to build that house for President Smith," and while I was meditating, I looked up and Brother Joseph Smith, Jr., was close to me. He said, "It is your duty to build that house." I answered, "I know it." Accordingly I changed my determination and yielded obedience. The numerous and continued calls to do this and that job soon plunged me in business so deep that I asked Brother Joseph if it was my calling to work at home. He said, "I'll give you work enough for twenty men."[1]
During the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Truman recorded the following in his journal:
When about midway during the prayer, there was a glorious sensation passed through the house [Kirtland Temple]; and we, having our heads bowed in prayer, felt a sensation very elevating to the soul. At the close of the prayer, F. G. Williams being in the upper east stand--Joseph being in the speaking stand next below--rose and testified that midway during the prayer an holy angel came and seated himself in the stand. When the afternoon meeting assembled, Joseph, feeling very much elated, arose the first thing and said the personage who had appeared in the morning was the Angel Peter come to accept the dedication."[2]
Truman O. Angell later went on to work on the Nauvoo Temple, having been appointed superintendent of joiner work under Church Architect William Weeks, carrying out the architect's designs in the construction of that temple. After the dedication of the Nauvoo temple, Truman left for the Rocky Mountains with the rest of the Mormon Pioneers. Three of his children died and were buried in Winter Quarters, and he entered the Salt Lake Valley with his sick wife and his remaining two children. From that time on, Church leaders put Truman in charge of the construction of numerous buildings in Utah, including the St. George Utah Temple, and the Salt Lake Temple. Truman's modifications to the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1870 are said to have resolved the outstanding acoustical issues with that structure. In 1851, Angell married his only polygamous wife, Susan Eliza Savage, who had been a textile worker in the Lowell, Massachusetts cotton mills in the early 1840s until she migrated to Salt Lake after joining the LDS Church.
He was originally asked to also be in charge of the design and construction of the Manti and Logan temples, but in consequence of their being about 100 miles distant from him in different directions, they were placed in the care of his two assistants. T. O. Angell, Jr., took care of the Logan Temple and William H. Folsom did the Manti Temple, while Truman stayed and worked on the Salt Lake Temple.
In April 1856, Brigham Young asked Truman to leave his family and go to Europe so that he could learn the architectural designs there. After he returned from his mission to Europe, he continued to labor on the Salt Lake Temple until his death on October 16, 1887, at the age of 77. For more than thirty-five years he had worked on the Salt Lake Temple. It was said that he knew every stone in its walls. Of Truman O. Angell, Wendell Ashton wrote: "As long as the Salt Lake Temple stands, there will be a magnificent monument to the patience, skill and dedication of its architect."
