Edward Parry: Master Builder of the Manti Temple

Edward L. Parry (1830–1909) served as the supervising architect and master mason during the construction of the Manti Utah Temple from 1877 to 1888. A Welsh convert who had emigrated to Utah in the 1860s, Parry brought years of practical masonry experience to a monumental project that would employ hundreds of workers over more than a decade. Under his watch, the temple rose from the limestone quarries of the Sanpete Valley into a towering landmark visible for miles in every direction.

The most famous episode of Parry's tenure is the story of the prophetic dream. According to accounts preserved in family histories, Parry dreamed one night that a worker at the temple would fall from the scaffolding to his death. The dream was vivid and disturbing enough that Parry went to the construction site early the next morning, before any workers arrived, and personally inspected the scaffolding throughout the building.

During his inspection, Parry discovered a rope that had been improperly secured. Had a worker stepped onto the scaffold at that point, it would have given way, sending him to the ground below — exactly as the dream had foretold. Parry repaired the rope, and when the workers arrived, no one was the wiser. Only later did Parry share the experience as evidence of divine protection over the temple and its builders.

The story takes on added significance in light of an extraordinary fact about the Manti Temple's construction: over the course of 11 years of building, involving hundreds of workers, heavy stone, heights, explosives, and primitive safety equipment, not a single worker died from a construction-related injury. This safety record was remarkable for any major 19th-century construction project and nearly unheard-of for a building of this scale and complexity.