Henry Grow
Encyclopedia
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
") builder and civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
in pioneer
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
-era Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. His most notable achievement was aiding the construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle
Salt Lake Tabernacle
The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah along with the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and Salt Lake Temple.-History:...
on Temple Square
Temple Square
Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...
in Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
. Grow engineered the meeting hall's unique elongated dome roof.
Life history
Henry Grow was the seventh child of Henry Grow and Mary Riter Grow. Born in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
on October 1, 1817, he spent his childhood on his father's sixty acre (240,000 m²) farm. This farm was one of five bequeathed by Grow's German grandfather, Frederick Grow, to each of his children.
In his early adulthood, Grow was apprenticed as a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and joiner
Joiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
for the Norristown
Norristown, Pennsylvania
Norristown is a municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northwest of the city limits of Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. The population was 34,324 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County...
and Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
railroads
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
. He eventually superintended the construction of all bridges under George G. Whitmore, president of the railroads and ex-mayor of Philadelphia.
In 1842 Grow became involved in the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
. Baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May 1842, he traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
in 1843. At the time, Nauvoo was the home to the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. and center of the Mormon world. Grow worked on the Nauvoo Temple
Nauvoo Temple
The Nauvoo Temple was the second temple constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. The church's first temple was completed in Kirtland, Ohio, United States in 1836. When the main body of the church was forced out of Nauvoo, Illinois in the...
until its completion in May 1846. By that time Smith had long been assassinated by a mob, and the Church had schismed
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
as Mormons were being driven from Nauvoo.
Following Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, Grow traveled
Mormon Trail
The Mormon Trail or Mormon Pioneer Trail is the 1,300 mile route that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled from 1846 to 1868...
across the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
to Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
in 1851 as part of the James Cummings Company. He arrived in Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
on October 1, 1851, his 34th birthday.
Grow settled north of present-day Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
, but was called to Salt Lake City by Brigham Young in 1852 to oversee construction projects. In 1853 he designed and built the first suspension bridge in Utah, over the Weber River
Weber River
The Weber River is a c. long river of northern Utah, USA. It begins in the northwest of the Uinta Mountains and empties into the Great Salt Lake. The Weber River was named for American fur trapper John Henry Weber.-Weber River:...
. He was also superintended the construction of the original Sugarhouse
Sugar House, Salt Lake City, Utah
Sugar House is a neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, the name is officially two words although it is often written as one...
sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
sugar mill under the direction of Bishop Fred Kesler. From 1854 to 1861 he built or rebuilt at least five sawmills, mostly in Big Cottonwood Canyon
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Big Cottonwood Canyon is a canyon in the Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The -long canyon provides hiking, biking, picnicking, rock-climbing, camping and fishing in the summer. During winter, its two ski resorts, Brighton and Solitude, are popular among skiers...
. He also worked on a cotton mill and built more bridges, over the Provo and Jordan Rivers
Jordan River (Utah)
The Jordan River in the U.S. state of Utah is a river about long. Regulated by pumps at its headwaters at Utah Lake, it flows northward through the Salt Lake Valley and empties into the Great Salt Lake. Four of Utah's five largest cities—Salt Lake City, West Valley City, West Jordan and...
. The Jordan River Bridge, finished in 1861, employed the patented Remington bridge lattice similar to other bridges he helped construct in Pennsylvania.
In the early 1860s Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
tapped Grow for what became Grow's largest and most famous construction, the dome of the Salt Lake Tabernacle
Salt Lake Tabernacle
The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah along with the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and Salt Lake Temple.-History:...
. Young had become infatuated with the idea of constructing the Tabernacle in an elongated dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
shape. When asked how large a roof he could construct using a Remington bridge-style lattice, Grow replied that it could be "100 feet wide and as long as is wanted." In fact, Grow engineered the tabernacle roof to be 150 feet (45.7 m) across and 250 feet (76.2 m) long.
Construction of the Tabernacle began on July 26, 1864, but construction of the roof did not begin until 1865 when all 44 supporting sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
pier
Pier
A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars...
s designed by William H. Folsom in place. Grow rapidly built the roof structure from the center out, but encountered difficulty engineering the semicircular
Semicircle
In mathematics , a semicircle is a two-dimensional geometric shape that forms half of a circle. Being half of a circle's 360°, the arc of a semicircle always measures 180° or a half turn...
ends of the roof. This difficulty dragged structural work on the roof into fall of 1866 even as other parts of the roof were being shingled. However, Grow finished and shingled the entire roof by the spring of 1867, before the interior of the building was finished. He continued to superintend the construction of the building until it was finished.
From 1876 to 1877 Grow served a mission for the LDS Church in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
where he was able to visit old relatives. Upon his return to Salt Lake, he was assigned to tear down the so-called "old Tabernacle" that stood on Temple Square
Temple Square
Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...
and superintended the construction of the Salt Lake Assembly Hall
Salt Lake Assembly Hall
thumb|200px|right|Front entrance to the Assembly Hall with the [[Seagull Monument]] in foregroundthumb|200px|right|Inside Assembly HallThe Salt Lake Assembly Hall is one of the buildings owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the southwest corner of Temple Square in Salt Lake...
under Obed Taylor. Grow built several residences including a house for LDS Church President John Taylor
John Taylor (1808-1887)
John Taylor was the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States....
, and acted as superintendent of carpentry of the church through the 1880s. Grow's last important project was the construction of the Deseret Paper Mill for the LDS Church-owned Deseret News
Deseret Morning News
The Deseret News is a newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is Utah's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It has the second largest daily circulation in the state behind The Salt Lake Tribune. The Deseret News is owned by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of...
newspaper.
Grow died November 4, 1891. A polygamist, he had seven wives, of which only 4 bore children. Chronologically in order of marriage they were Mary Moyer, Ann Elliott, Ann Midgley, and Julia Veach. They bore him seven, eight, one, and fourteen children respectively.