The Tithing Yard

On a cash-poor frontier, the church ran on barter, and this was a working yard for it — not just an office but a barn, corral, storehouse, and scales for weighing in hay and grain. Holladay's members paid their tithe in what they had: livestock, eggs, vegetables, homemade goods, or a day's labor in ten on canals and roads. What makes the yard telling is what came back out of it. The church issued tithing scrip against these goods, and that paper circulated as real money through the 1850s and after, credit for a chicken spendable like cash.

What the plaque says

Near this site for many years of 19th-century Holladay was located the "tithing yard" - a barn, corral, scales for weighing hay and grain, and a storehouse for home produce and products. LDS pioneers who founded Holladay followed Church teachings of donating one-tenth of their annual increase to the Church; because cash was scarce, many members donated at market value their tithing in animals, chickens, eggs, vegetables, and goods made at home. Other persons donated 1 day of work in 10 to Church work projects such as community canals, roads, and Church and school buildings. A Holladay family might donate livestock, perhaps resulting in an overpayment of tithing, and receive credit for surplus goods that were in the store-house or yard. For years the LDS Church printed tithing scrip, which was an important currency in the 1850s and thereafter. Holladay's tithing yard and storehouse met many community product exchange needs and, with tithing yards elsewhere, provided LDS Church headquarters with food and supplies for persons employed on its public work projects and generated income to pay its creditors. In 1890, when this tithing yard still existed, two-thirds of all tithing donations were in livestock and produce. By 1900, when Holladay's tithing yard and storehouse were cleared away, two-thirds of such donations were in currency.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 5.4 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 5.7 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Liberty Park — 5.7 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• International Peace Gardens — 6.2 mi
  A hidden garden where 28 countries are represented in miniature

More markers nearby

• Holladay's 1853 Fort — steps away
• Old Fort Site — 0.2 mi
• Holladay's 1848 Family Homesteads — 0.4 mi
• The 1847 Dugouts — 0.4 mi