This city is celebrating two centennials this year.
One, of course, is the festival celebrating statehood; the other is the 100th anniversary of one of the community's most enduring and stalwart institutions - the Manti Ladies Literary Club.The club had its beginning in late November 1896 when 12 young women gathered for punch and cookies at one of their homes.
The purpose was to study literature and also review the social scene.
Louise Keller, the club's first president, described the group as a sisterhood. It adopted a motto, "Our Hopes the Highest, Living for the Best."
In time, the membership exceeded 60 and the agenda gradually expanded from Lord Byron and Washington Irving to include dance, drama, music classes and conventions, beautification, an art gallery, scholarships and student loans, and in wartime, volunteer service.
A main goal of the founding members was a public library that would serve as a community focal point. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie bestowed that gift in 1910.
Ever since, the Manti Public Library has been a main project of the Ladies Literary Club. Members contributed 51 treasured volumes in the first campaign for books. And they've continued to give books, magazines, office equipment, supplies, curtains, drapes and other items.
One of the traditional benefits has been the Washington Tea, which raises funds for the Children's Corner. And the death of each member has been marked by the establishment of a memorial that would provide something special.
An especially notable contribution was made two years ago. Geniel Douglas, a Manti native, retired teacher and past club president, willed her very considerable estate to the library.
Bob Jensen, chairman of the library board, said some of the endowment will be used to shore up a crumbling wall and make other repairs, some will be for the purchase of books and equipment and most will be placed in a contingency fund.
"We have to think of the future," Jensen says. And Arlene Smith, president of the Literary Club, agrees.
"We've got a job to do," she says, "to meet the challenge of our second hundred years."