Scottish-born convert John Menzies Macfarlane arrived in Utah in 1852. The 18-year-old taught school in Bountiful for a few months, then moved to Cedar City in the fall of 1853 where he took up farming and again taught school.

The federal census consistently describes Macfarlane as a farmer. His career, however, was far more varied than that suggests. He was Toquerville’s first postmaster in the late 1850, and served as Iron County’s first superintendent of schools in the late 1860s. He became a surveyor, exploring the possibility of diverting the Virgin River to irrigate lands near Hurricane, and aiding miners at Silver Reef and in Nevada’s Pahranagat district to establish their claims.

Macfarlane studied law. He was part of the defense team in John D. Lee’s trial for the 1857 massacre at Mountain Meadows. He became a justice of the peace, and was elected probate judge of Washington County in 1879. He resigned in 1885, going to Mexico to avoid prosecution for plural marriage (he had three wives, by whom he had had 26 children). Macfarlane returned to Utah only once, visiting St. George in 1892 for unsuccessful medical treatment; he died and was buried at St. George.

While many served as willingly as Macfarlane did wherever they were needed to build Zion, Macfarlane had one skill that set him apart from his neighbors: A talented choir director, Macfarlane organized his first choir at Cedar City as early as 1861. He took them by wagon 60 miles to St. George soon after that community’s founding, to encourage its struggling settlers. He organized a brass band for Cedar City and headed efforts to purchase a cabinet organ for the chapel there. Reports from southern Utah activities throughout the 1860s-’70s are dotted with references to Macfarlane’s “highly entertaining” concerts and his “rich” performances at church conferences. Such a performance at St. George in 1868 moved colony leader Erastus Snow to ask Macfarlane to relocate there. He did, to St. George’s delight and Cedar City’s sorrow.

While he remained based at St. George, Macfarlane made extended trips to Silver Reef to perform mining surveys. During such a trip in 1879, Macfarlane met the Rev. Lawrence Scanlan, sent from the archdiocese of San Francisco to minister to southern Utah’s Catholic miners. The two men became respectful neighbors and dining companions, despite their serious religious differences. When Scanlan mentioned his regret that he had no choir and only an unfinished chapel in which to hold services, Macfarlane tendered the use of the new LDS tabernacle at St. George and offered to teach his choir to sing the Latin mass. Scanlan was skeptical, but he provided Macfarlane with a copy of the desired music. On May 25, 1879, after two weeks of practice, Macfarlane’s 30-member choir sang for Scanlan and the Silver Reef miners, and probably for an equal number of curious Mormons, in the St. George tabernacle.

Still, despite his civic, religious and diplomatic successes, Macfarlane made his best known contribution one evening late in 1869. Desiring a new Christmas song for his choir, Macfarlane brooded over possible texts and tunes. With its bright melody and joyful message, the carol Macfarlane wrote that night has spread far from its Dixie birthplace, to the point where many have forgotten the carol’s relatively recent — and Mormon — origin:

Far, far away on Judea’s plains,
Shepherds of old heard the joyous strains:
Glory to God, Glory to God,
Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth, good will to men!
Peace on earth, good will to men!

Sweet are these strains of redeeming love,
Message of mercy from heaven above,
Glory to God, Glory to God,
Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth, good will to men!
Peace on earth, good will to men!

Lord, with the angels we too would rejoice,
Help us to sing with the heart and voice,
Glory to God, Glory to God,
Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth, good will to men!
Peace on earth, good will to men!

Hasten the time when, from every clime,
Men shall unite in the strains sublime,
Glory to God, Glory to God,
Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth, good will to men!
Peace on earth, good will to men!

 (Illustration: Macfarlane composing his new Christmas carol, The Instructor, December 1961)