(As told by Margaret McNeil Ballard, 1859-1918, daughter of

Thomas McNeil and Jeannette Reid, and wife of Bishop Henry Ballard)

On May 17, 1884, the Logan Temple was dedicated.  The day after the dedication, President John Taylor said that all members of the Church who were worthy and who desired to go through the Temple might do so the next day.  My husband Henry Ballard, being Bishop of the Logan Second Ward, was busy writing out recommends to all who wished to go to the temple, when our daughter Ellen, age eight, came in with a newspaper in her hand and asked for her father.  I told her that her father was busy, but to give the paper to me and I would give it to him.

She said:  "No, a man gave the paper to me and told me to give it to no one but father."  I let the child take the paper to her father, and when he took it and looked at it he was greatly surprised, for he saw that the paper had been printed in Newbury, Berkshire, England, his birthplace, and was only three days from the press.

He was so amazed at such an incident that he called Ellen and asked her where the man was who had given her the paper.  She said she was playing on the sidewalk with the other children when two men came down the street, walking in the middle of the road.  One of the men called to her, saying:  "Come here, little girl."  She hesitated at first for there were other little girls with her.  Then he pointed to her and said "You."  She went and he gave her the paper and told her to give it to her father.  When we looked for the two men, they were nowhere to be found in Logan, and no one had seen men answering Ellen's description.

The paper contained about sixty names of dead acquaintances of my husband, giving the dates of birth and death.  The editor had gone to the Newbury cemetery and copied the tombstone inscriptions.

My husband took the paper to the president of the temple and asked him what he thought about it.  President Merrill said "Brother Ballard, that was two of the three Nephites who brought that paper to you, for it could come in no other way in so short a time.  It is meant for you to do the temple work for these people."

My husband was baptized for the men and I for the women and all the temple work was done for them.  I felt the Lord was mindful of us and blessed us abundantly.

The Ballard family had recently come from Newbury to Logan, and had spent 13 weeks on the ocean and 13 weeks crossing the plains.  They knew how far it was, and how long it would have taken the newspaper to arrive by regular mail.

During the 1950's the Ballard family sponsored the emigration of a young English genealogist, who had done research for them.  David Gardner went to Newbury and made a microfilm copy of the Newbury News for May 15, 1884, which he brought with him.  The original copy delivered in Logan had been placed in the Church archives at Salt Lake City.  This was compared with the microfilm copy, and they are identical, proving the Ballard story to be a true one.

(Logan Temple, the First 100 Years by Nolan P. Olsen, pgs. 153-155.)