Searching for Cora Sue - 11 - The Search Begins

October 6.1910

As soon as we finished breakfast we took a cab to the Alta Club, 100 East South Temple, as recommended by Mr. Riter. We got a good view of the Mormon Church buildings as we drove along, but we would have to save exploring that area of the town for after we made some progress
in our search for Cora Sue.

Our cabbie gave us some of the history of the building as we drove along. “They've occupied this place since June, 98, but they have been going since about 83. Just this year, the building was expanded with an East wing but the old main entrance facing South Temple is where you ladies should go, as that is now the women's and guest's entrance, and the main entrance, for members only, has moved to the North side. I take it you ladies are not Mormons,” he said.

“No, indeed.”

“This place was opened as a social club for non-Mormons, which there weren’t all that many of in those days, ‘to present the comforts and luxuries of a home together with the attraction to its members of meeting each other in a pleasant and social way.’ Most of the members are the financial, industrial and social leaders of our city, and in the beginning, membership was drawn
predominantly from the mining industry.”

As we had now stopped outside the building, we paid the cabbie and thanked him for his information.

As we went through the appropriate door, we went up to a desk and were asked what our
business was.

“We have been told that we might be able to find out from the Alta Club about a man who deals in
silver in the city - he makes jewelery.”

“What's his name?”

“Well, we don’t know that, but his wife is called Cora Sue.”

“ Fro crying out loud, is that all the information that you have about him?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I'm sorry that I can't help you. But I know that several of our silver mine owners have their offices at the Boston Building. Perhaps you could try there.”

“Thank you,” we said, totally devastated at the dirth of information she had provided, and the waste of this journey.

“Well, we can go to the Boston Building, whatever that is, and ask for a list of the silver mine
owners that have offices there.”

“Do you think he is really a mine owner?”

“Well, we don't know that he isn’t. And we have no other leads.”

“We could try the Catholic Church as you suggested before.”

“All right, let’s do that.”

So we flagged down a taxi and asked him to take us to the Catholic Church.

“Do you mean the Cathedral?”

“Are there many Catholic Churches?”

“Well there are a few smaller ones in the outskirts, but that is the one in the center of town.”

“Okay. Take us there, please.”

So he drove us, only a block or so in distance, to the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene, which has a
predominant Romanesque exterior built in red sandstone, complete with gargoyles.

“It looks so new. I can’t believe that we'll find out anything about Cora Sue here,” Kate said.

We walked down the aisle and studied the various aspects of the building. I was very taken with
the stained glass window in the sanctuary. It was quite simple inside, really, with white walls and green columns.

The windows on the west side portrayed the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.  Those on the east side beginning with the large east transept window, depict the Glorious
Mysteries.

I was very interested in the organ, as I play the one in our church at home. I could see it was 27
rank electro-pneumatic organ and was built and installed by the Kimball Company of Chicago - a much more modern version that ones that I've played.

As we were wondering what to do next, a priest came up and asked if he could help us. When I
indicated that he could, he said it would be preferable if we talked outside, so he led us back into the entry way.

“I am hoping to find someone who can tell me if my sister uses this church,” I said. “I have
lost contact with her, but when we were children she was a good Catholic. We have reason to believe that she lives in this city now, and I am desperate to find her.”

“Well, we do have a record of those who belong to this church. If you come with me into the
rectory, we will see what we can find.”

So again he led us into the accompanying building, and into a large office. He indicated that we
should sit down in the chairs across from him, and got out a filing drawer.

“What is your sister’s name?

“Cora Sue Kellogg,” I said, “but she might be married and we don’t know her married name.”

“Well, that will complicate things somewhat. Let me see if I have anything for a Cora Sue
Kellogg.”

So he went through the entries for the K’s, and came up with nothing except for George Kellogg and
his family, which we already knew were not related, and didn’t know anything about my sister.

“I could check the marriage record from the church that was here before the cathedral was built.”

“Yes, could you do that, please. I think if she married it would probably have been in 1900 or
shortly after that.”

So he went to another area and found the book where they recorded marriages. He looked through all the entries from January 1900 up to the current date, but found none that contained my sister’s name. “Again, I am very sorry to not be of any use to you. Are you sure she would have married in the Catholic Church?”

“If she would have been allowed, she would certainly have done so,” I said, “but her husband might have been divorced.”

“Ah, in that case, I think you should search for the wedding at the registry office. We wouldn’t
have been able to marry her to someone who was divorced.”

“Yes,” I said, “I knew that. But I am only guessing at my facts and hoped that perhaps she would have been able to be married legally in the church.”

“I'll have a word with some of the other priests and helpers who were around at the time and will let you know if I find out anything that might help you.”

“Thank you so much, Father. We are staying at the Peery Hotel. I am sorry but I don’t know your
name.”

“I am Bishop Lawrence Scanlon.”

“Oh, I had no idea you were the Bishop. You look just like an ordinary priest.”

“And that is the way I like it. It's only my ring,” which he then showed me, “that gives me
away.”

“How long have you been here?”

“I arrived in Salt Lake City in 1873, from Ireland, and there were only 90 Catholics in here and
Ogden combined, but with the miners and the railway men, our numbers rapidly grew. I became Bishop in 1886, and bought this land shortly after. We started building the Cathedral in 1899, but it was only completed last year.”

“It is a wonderful building,” said Kate.

“We hired the architects, Carl Neuhausen and Bernard Mecklenburg, who are quite well known for their expertise in church architecture.”

“I saw your wonderful organ. I presume that was bought recently,” I said.

“Are you an organist?”

“Yes, but ours in Medford, Massachusetts, in nothing like as grand as that.”

“Come back sometime when you have a free hour, and I will arrange for you to have a go at playing
it, if you like. I wish you every success with your search for your sister, and if you find her, I hope you can convince her to come back to our church.”

“Thank you so much, Bishop Scanlon.”

So with yet another more or less dead end, Kate and I took a taxi back to our hotel, and had lunch and then a nap before deciding what we should try next.

About 3 o’clock, well rested, we went to see what we could find out at Boston Building at 9,
Exchange Place in downtown Salt Lake City. It is right next door to an equally huge building, called the Newhouse Building.(pictured above)

Calling it a ‘skyscraper’ is not really an exaggeration at all. It has 11 stories, and along with a few other tall buildings, you can see it towering above the rest of the city.

Again we were very impressed with the quality of the building as we stepped inside. Outside, it has a classic ornate facade (I took a picture) and what greets you inside is a marble and terrazzo stairs and flooring. The woodwork is very ornate and the lobby walls have mosaics that extend from floor to ceiling along the staircase from the basement to the second floor.

A very pleasant woman standing behind the reception desk in the lobby asked if she could help us.

“What a wonderful building,” said Kate to start with. “Has it been open long?”

“Since last year, but they were working on it since 1907.”

“We are wondering if you could possibly give us a list of the men who have their offices here who are silver mine owners.”

“Oh, there are dozens of them,” she said. “Do you know the name of the man you are interested in?”

“No, only the name of his wife, Cora.”

“Well, I can’t say that I know anyone with a wife called Cora, but then, they don’t often
bring their wives in here. But, I'l give you a list of the names and room numbers of those we have. I suppose you might have to knock on each door in turn and ask them if they ave a wife called Cora,” she said laughing, not realising that that was exactly what we intended to do.

After about ten minutes, while we walked around and admired all the details of the building, she
provided us with a list. It was even longer than she had thought - with over thirty names on it.

“Good luck,” she said, and indicated that the elevator was just to our right, if we wanted to go
up and start looking right away.

“Is there a coffee shop nearby where we could make our plans?” asked Kate.

She directed us to one just across the road, so we retired there before we started out on our mammoth task.

“There is no way we can go to all these people's offices today,” she said. “I suggest that we
just try the first five names, and then come back again tomorrow if we've had no luck.”

“It would go faster if we separated,” I suggested.

“No, I don’t like the idea of that. I think for many reasons we are best together,” so I agreed with her.

“Let’s take five people all on the same floor.”

“That’s a sensible suggestion,” I said. So after coffee, we went back into the Boston Building and took the elevator up to the 7th floor, and visited J F Critchlow, A N Minnear, W Thomas, and then walked up to the 9th and saw A A Platz and H A Smith. And without a single person there being
able to say anything about a wife called Cora. Most of them though it was a huge joke, and an enormous waste of time, and exhausted with sore feet, by the time we had finished, we were about ready to agree with them.

We went home, had a lovely dinner at our hotel, and then settled down to go to bed.

“You know, Mattie,” said Kate suddenly. “We have been so stupid. We think that our target
man is called Eddie. We should only go to those whose initials have E in them.”

So with that very sensible thought, we decided that our trip tomorrow would not be nearly so daunting after all.

Early the next morning, armed with our new list of only ten names, we again approached the Boston
Building.

JE Bailey at 216 was of no use; AE Rawlings at 1020 was again a waste of time. But when we talked to ES Bounty on 327, he said, “You should try Eddie on the other end of this floor. I think his wife is called Cora or something like that.”

We couldn’t believe our good luck. At last a lead. So nervously we went down to room marked E A
Ulray, Mining, and knocked on the door.

The receptionist smiled and asked how she could help us. “Could we please have a word with Mr.
Ulray?” I asked.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but we do very much need to see him on an urgent matter.”

“I’m sorry but he's not available today. Perhaps you might make an appointment for sometime
tomorrow, the 7th,” she said, drawing out her desk diary and turning it to the next page. “I could offer you some time in the afternoon, say 3 o’clock.”

“Could you not give us Mr. Ulray’s home address?” I said. “It really is his wife that I am
wanting to see.”

“We certainly are not allowed to give out that sort of personal information,” she said frostily.
“Do you want this appointment tomorrow afternoon or not?”

“Yes, we do, thank you.”

“What name shall I put down?”

“Mrs. Mattie Temple and Mrs. Kate Temple,” said Kate.

“And can I let Mr. Ulray know the nature of your business?”

“No, it's personal,” said Kate.

“Well, we shall see you at 3 tomorrow afternoon then. Can you find your way back to the lobby?”

“Yes, thank you,” I said.

As we left, I asked Kate why she didn’t think we should have said what we were doing there. “We
might frighten him off, if he and Cora aren’t married and he thinks we're going to make trouble for them.”

“Oh, surely, that's a bit far fetched.”

“Well, I didn’t like that secretary, and I didn’t want her to know about our business, anyway. I’m sorry if you feel I did the wrong thing,” she added.

“No, I'm very happy for you to be as much in on the decisions in this search as I am. So far all the
advice you've given me has been very useful. I didn’t mean to criticize, Kate, honestly, but I was just surprised, that was all.”

“Well what are we going to do with the rest of today?”