* "Address to the Pioneers," 1880.

"Pegleg's" reputation was as bad as that of any of those reckless trappers of his day, and perhaps, if the Mormons had known more about him, they would have given less heed to his advice, and counted less on his keeping his engagement.

With the returning Oregonians they also made the acquaintance of Major Harris, an old trapper and hunter in California and Oregon, who gave them little encouragement about Salt Lake Valley, as a place of settlement, principally because of the lack of timber. Two days later they met Colonel James Bridger, an authority on that part of the country, whose "fort" was widely known. Young told him that he proposed to take a look at Great Salt Lake Valley with a view to its settlement. Bridger affirmed that his experiments had more than convinced him that corn would not grow in those mountains, and, when Young expressed doubts about this, he offered to give the Mormon President $1000 for the first ear raised in that valley. Next they met a mountaineer named Goodyear, who had passed the last winter on the site of what is now Ogden, Utah, where he had tried without success to raise a little grain and a few vegetables. He told of severe cold in winter and drought in summer. Irrigation had not suggested itself to a man who had a large part of a continent in which to look for a more congenial farm site.

Mormons in all later years have said that they were guided to the Salt Lake Valley in fulfilment of the prediction of Joseph Smith that they would have to flee to the Rocky Mountains. But in their progress across the plains the leaders of the pioneers were not indifferent to any advice that came in their way, and in a manuscript "History of Brigham Young" (1847), quoted by H. H. Bancroft, is the following entry, which may indicate the first suggestion that turned their attention from "California" to Utah: "On the 15th of June met James H. Grieve, William Tucker, James Woodrie, James Bouvoir, and six other Frenchmen, from whom we learned that Mr. Bridger was located about three hundred miles west, that the mountaineers could ride to Salt Lake from Fort Bridger in two days, and that the Utah country was beautiful." *

* Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 257.

The pioneers resumed their march on June 29, over a desolate country, travelling seventeen miles without finding grass or water, until they made their night camp on the Big Sandy. There they encountered clouds of mosquitoes, which made more than one subsequent camping-place very uncomfortable. A march of eight miles the next morning brought them to Green River. Finding this stream 180 yards wide, and deep and swift, they stopped long enough to make two rafts, on which they successfully ferried over all their wagons without unloading them.

At this point the pioneers met a brother Mormon who had made the journey to California round the Horn, and had started east from there to meet the overland travellers. He had an interesting story to tell, the points of which, in brief, were as follows:— A conference of Mormons, held in New York City on November 12, 1845, resolved to move in a body to the new home of the Saints. This emigration scheme was placed in charge of Samuel Brannan, a native of Maine, and an elder in the church, who was then editing the New York Prophet, and preaching there. Why so important a project was confided to Brannan seems a mystery, in view of P. P. Pratt's statement that, as early as the previous January, he had discovered that Brannan was among certain elders who "had been corrupting the Saints by introducing among them all manner of false doctrines and immoral practices"; he was afterward disfellowshipped at Nauvoo. By Pratt's advice he immediately went to that city, and was restored to full standing in the church, as any bad man always was when he acknowledged submission to the church authorities.* Plenty of emigrants offered themselves under Orson Pratt's call, but of the 300 first applicants for passage only about 60 had money enough to pay their expenses,

* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 374.

Although it was estimated that $75 would cover the outlay for the trip. Brannan chartered the Brooklyn, a ship of 450 tons, and on February 4, 1846, she sailed with 70 men, 68 women, and 100 children.*

* Bancrofts figures, "History of California," Vol. V, Chap. 20.

The voyage to San Francisco ended on July 31. Ten deaths and two births occurred during the trip, and four of the company, including two elders and one woman, had to be excommunicated "for their wicked and licentious conduct." Three others were dealt with in the same way as soon as the company landed.* On landing they found the United States in possession of the country, which led to Brannan's reported remark, "There is that d—d flag again." The men of the party, some of whom had not paid all their passage money, at once sought work, but the company did not hold together. Before the end of the year some 20 more "went astray," in church parlance; some decided to remain on the coast when they learned that the church was to make Salt Lake Valley its headquarters, and some time later about 140 reached Utah and took up their abode there.

* Brannan's letter, Millennial Star, Vol. IX, pp. 306-307.

Brannan fell from grace and was pronounced by P. P. Pratt "a corrupt and wicked man." While he was getting his expedition in shape, he sent to the church authorities in the West a copy of an agreement which he said he had made with A. G. Benson, an alleged agent of Postmaster General Kendall. Benson was represented as saying that, unless the Mormon leaders signed an agreement, to which President Polk was a "silent partner," by which they would "transfer to A. G. Benson and Co., and to their heirs and assigns, the odd number of all the lands and town lots they may acquire in the country where they settle," the President would order them to be dispersed. This seems to have been too transparent a scheme to deceive Young, and the agreement was not signed.

The march of the pioneers was resumed on July 3. That evening they were told that those who wished to return eastward to meet their families, who were perhaps five hundred miles back with the second company, could do so; but only five of them took advantage of this permission. The event of Sunday, July 4, was the arrival of thirteen members of the Battalion, who had pushed on in advance of the main body of those who were on the way from Pueblo, in order that they might recover some horses stolen from them, which they were told were at Bridger's Fort. They said that the main body of 140 were near at hand. This company had been directed in their course by instructions sent to them by Brigham Young from a point near Fort Laramie.

The hardships of the trip had told on the pioneers, and a number of them were now afflicted with what they called "mountain fever." They attributed this to the clouds of dust that enveloped the column of wagons when in motion, and to the decided change of temperature from day to night. For six weeks, too, most of them had been without bread, living on the meat provided by the hunters, and saving the little flour that was left for the sick.

The route on July 5 kept along the right bank of the Green River for about three miles, and then led over the bluffs and across a sandy, waterless plain for sixteen miles, to the left bank of Black's Fork, where they camped for the night. The two following days took them across this Fork several times, but, although fording was not always comfortable, the stream added salmon trout to their menu. On the 7th the party had a look at Bridger's Fort, of which they had heard often. Orson Pratt described it at the time as consisting "of two adjoining log houses, dirt roofs, and a small picket yard of logs set in the ground, and about eight feet high. The number of men, squaws, and halfbreed children in these houses and lodges may be about fifty or sixty."

At the camp, half a mile from the fort, that night ice formed. The next day the blacksmiths were kept busy repairing wagons and shoeing horses in preparation for a trail through the mountains. On the 9th and 10th they passed over a hilly country, camping on Beaver River on the night of the 10th.

The fever had compelled several halts on account of the condition of the patients, and on the 12th it was found that Brigham Young was too ill to travel. In order not to lose time, Orson Pratt, with forty-three men and twentythree wagons, was directed to push on into Salt Lake Valley, leaving a trail that the others could follow. From the information obtainable at Fort Bridger it was decided that the canon leading into the valley would be found impassable on account of high water, and that they should direct their course over the mountains.

These explorers set out on July 14, travelling down Red Fork, a small stream which ran through a narrow valley, whose sides in places were from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high,—red sandstone walls, perpendicular or overhanging. This route was a rough one, requiring frequent fordings of the stream, and they did well to advance thirteen miles that day. On the 15th they discovered a mountain trail that had been recommended to them, but it was a mere trace left by wagons that had passed over it a year before. They came now to the roughest country they had found, and it became necessary to send sappers in advance to open a road before the wagons could pass over it. Almost discouraged, Pratt turned back on foot the next day, to see if he could not find a better route; but he was soon convinced that only the one before them led in the direction they were to take. The wagons were advanced only four and three-quarters miles that day, even the creek bottom being so covered with a growth of willows that to cut through these was a tiresome labor. Pratt and a companion, during the day, climbed a mountain, which they estimated to be about two thousand feet high, but they only saw, before and around them, hills piled on hills and mountains on mountains,—the outlines of the Wahsatch and Uinta ranges.

On Monday, the 18th, Pratt again acted as advance explorer, and went ahead with one companion. Following a ravine on horseback for four miles, they then dismounted and climbed to an elevation from which, in the distance, they saw a level prairie which they thought could not be far from Great Salt Lake. The whole party advanced only six and a quarter miles that day and six the next.

One day later Erastus Snow came up with them, and Pratt took him along as a companion in his advance explorations. They discovered a point where the travellers of the year before had ascended a hill to avoid a canon through which a creek dashed rapidly. Following in their predecessors' footsteps, when they arrived at the top of this hill there lay stretched out before them "a broad, open valley about twenty miles wide and thirty long, at the north end of which the waters of the Great Salt Lake glistened in the sunbeams." Snow's account of their first view of the valley and lake is as follows:— "The thicket down the narrows, at the mouth of the canon, was so dense that we could not penetrate through it. I crawled for some distance on my hands and knees through this thicket, until I was compelled to return, admonished to by the rattle of a snake which lay coiled up under my nose, having almost put my hand on him; but as he gave me the friendly warning, I thanked him and retreated. We raised on to a high point south of the narrows, where we got a view of the Great Salt Lake and this valley, and each of us, without saying a word to the other, instinctively, as if by inspiration, raised our hats from our heads, and then, swinging our hats, shouted, 'Hosannah to God and the Lamb!' We could see the canes down in the valley, on what is now called Mill Creek, which looked like inviting grain, and thitherward we directed our course."*

* "Address to the Pioneers," 1880.

Having made an inspection of the valley, the two explorers rejoined their party about ten o'clock that evening. The next day, with great labor, a road was cut through the canon down to the valley, and on July 22 Pratt's entire company camped on City Creek, below the present Emigration Street in Salt Lake City. The next morning, after sending word of their discovery to Brigham Young, the whole party moved some two miles farther north, and there, after prayer, the work of putting in a crop was begun. The necessity of irrigation was recognized at once. "We found the land so dry," says Snow, "that to plough it was impossible, and in attempting to do so some of the ploughs were broken. We therefore had to distribute the water over the land before it could be worked." When the rest of the pioneers who had remained with Young reached the valley the next day, they found about six acres of potatoes and other vegetables already planted.

While Apostles like Snow might have been as transported with delight over the aspect of the valley as he professed to be, others of the party could see only a desolate, treeless plain, with sage brush supplying the vegetation. To the women especially the outlook was most depressing.



CHAPTER VII. The Following Companies—Last Days On The Missouri

When the pioneers set out from the Missouri, instructions were left for the organization of similar companies who were to follow their trail, without waiting to learn their ultimate destination or how they fared on the way. These companies were in charge of prominent men like Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, Bishop Hunter, Daniel Spencer, who succeeded Smith as mayor of Nauvoo, and J. M. Grant, the first mayor of Salt Lake City after its incorporation.

P. P. Pratt set out early in June, as soon as he could get his wagons and equipment in order, for Elk Horn River, where a sort of rendezvous was established, and a rough ferry boat put in operation. Hence started about the Fourth of July the big company which has been called "the first emigration." It consisted, according to the most trustworthy statistics, of 1553 persons, equipped with 566 wagons, 2213 oxen, 124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, 35 hogs, and 716 chickens. Pratt had brought back from England 469 sovereigns, collected as tithing, which were used in equipping the first parties for Utah. This company had at its head, as president, Brigham Young's brother John, with P. P. Pratt as chief adviser.

Nothing more serious interrupted the movement of these hundreds of emigrants than dissatisfaction with Pratt, upsets, broken wagons, and the occasional straying of cattle, and all arrived in the valley in the latter part of September, Pratt's division on the 25th.

The company which started on the return trip with Young on August 26 embraced those Apostles who had gone West with him, some others of the pioneers, and most of the members of the Battalion who had joined them, and whose families were still on the banks of the Missouri. The eastward trip was made interesting by the meetings with the successive companies who were on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. Early in September some Indians stole 48 of their hoses, and ten weeks later 200 Sioux charged their camp, but there was no loss of life.

On the 19th of October the party were met by a mounted company who had left Winter Quarters to offer any aid that might be needed, and were escorted to that camp. They arrived there on October 31, where they were welcomed by their families, and feasted as well as the supplies would permit.

The winter of 1847-1848 was employed by Young and his associates in completing the church organization, mapping out a scheme of European immigration, and preparing for the removal of the remaining Mormons to Salt Lake Valley.

That winter was much milder than its predecessor, and the health of the camps was improved, due, in part, to the better physical condition of their occupants. On the west side of the river, however, troubles had arisen with the Omahas, who complained to the government that the Mormons were killing off the game and depleting their lands of timber. The new-comers were accordingly directed to recross the river, and it was in this way that the camp near Council Bluffs in 1848 secured its principal population. In Mormon letters of that date the name Winter Quarters is sometimes applied to the settlement east of the river generally known as Kanesville.

The programme then arranged provided for the removal in the spring of 1848 to Salt Lake Valley of practically all Mormons who remained on the Missouri, leaving only enough to look after the crops there and to maintain a forwarding point for emigrants from Europe and the Eastern states. The legislature of Iowa by request organized a county embracing the camps on the east side of the river. There seems to have been an idea in the minds of some of the Mormons that they might effect a permanent settlement in western Iowa. Orson Pratt, in a general epistle to the Saints in Europe, encouraging emigration, dated August 15, 1848, said, "A great, extensive, and rich tract of country has also been, by the providence of God, put in the possession of the Saints in the western borders of Iowa," which the Saints would have the first chance to purchase, at five shillings per acre. A letter from G. A. Smith and E. T. Benson to O. Pratt, dated December 20 in that year, told of the formation of a company of 860 members to enclose an additional tract of 11,000 acres, in shares of from 5 to 80 acres, and of the laying out of two new cities, ten miles north and south. Orson Hyde set up a printing-press there, and for some time published the Frontier Guardian. But wiser counsel prevailed, and by 1853 most of the emigrants from Nauvoo had passed on to Utah,* and Linforth found Kanesville in 1853 "very dirty and unhealthy," and full of gamblers, lawyers, and dealers in "bargains," the latter made up principally of the outfits of discouraged immigrants who had given up the trip at that point.

* On September 21, 1851, the First Presidency sent a letter to the Saints who were still in Iowa, directing them all to come to Salt Lake Valley, and saying: "What are you waiting for? Have you any good excuse for not coming? No. You have all of you unitedly a far better chance than we had when we started as pioneers to find this place."—Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 29.

Young himself took charge of the largest body that was to cross the plains in 1848. The preparations were well advanced by the first of May, and on the 24th he set out for Elk Horn (commonly called "The Horn") where the organization of the column was to be made. The travellers were divided into two large companies, the first four "hundreds" comprising 1229 persons and 397 wagons; the second section, led by H. C. Kimball, 662 persons and 226 wagons; and the third, under Elders W. Richards and A. Lyman, about 300 wagons. A census of the first two companies, made by the clerk of the camp, showed that their equipment embraced the following items: horses, 131; mules, 44; oxen, 2012; cows and other cattle, 1317; sheep, 654; pigs, 237; chickens, 904; cats, 54; dogs, 134; goats, 3; geese, 10; ducks, 5; hives of bees, 5; doves, 11; and one squirrel.*

* Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 319.

The expense of fitting out these companies was necessarily large, and the heads of the church left at Kanesville a debt amounting to $3600, "without any means being provided for its payment."*

* Ibid, Vol. XI, p. 14.

President Young's company began its actual westward march on June 5, and the last detachment got away about the 25th. They reached the site of Salt Lake City in September. The incidents of the trip were not more interesting than those of the previous year, and only four deaths occurred on the way.



BOOK VI. In Utah

CHAPTER I. The Founding Of Salt Lake City

The first white men to enter what is now Utah were a part of the force of Coronado, under Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardinas, if the reader of the evidence decides that their journey from Zuni took them, in 1540, across the present Utah border line.* A more definite account has been preserved of a second exploration, which left Santa Fe in 1776, led by two priests, Dominguez and Escalate, in search of a route to the California coast. A two months' march brought them to a lake, called Timpanogos by the natives—now Utah Lake on the map—where they were told of another lake, many leagues in extent, whose waters were so salt that they made the body itch when wet with them; but they turned to the southwest without visiting it. Lahontan's report of the discovery of a body of bad-tasting water on the western side of the continent in 1689 is not accepted as more than a part of an imaginary narrative. S. A. Ruddock asserted that, in 1821, he with a trading party made a journey from Council Bluffs to Oregon by way of Santa Fe and Great Salt Lake.**

* See Bancroft's "History of Utah," Chap. I.

** House Report, No. 213, 1st Session, 19th Congress.

Bancroft mentions this claim "for what it is worth," but awards the honor of the discovery of the lake, as the earliest authenticated, to James Bridger, the noted frontiersman who, some twelve years later, built his well-known trading fort on Green River. Bridger, with a party of trappers who had journeyed west from the Missouri with Henry and Ashley in 1824, got into a discussion that winter with his fellows, while they were camped on Bear River, about the course of that stream, and, to decide a bet, Bridger followed it southward until he came to Great Salt Lake. In the following spring four of the party explored the lake in boats made of skins, hoping to find beavers, and they, it is believed, were the first white men to float upon its waters. Fremont saw the lake from the summit of a butte on September 6, 1843. "It was," he says, "one of the great objects of the exploration, and, as we looked eagerly over the lake in the first emotions of excited pleasure, I am doubtful if the followers of Balboa felt more enthusiasm when, from the heights of the Andes, they saw for the first time the great Western Ocean." This practical claim of discovery was not well founded, nor was his sail on the lake in an India-rubber boat "the first ever attempted on this interior sea."

Dating from 1825, the lake region of Utah became more and more familiar to American trappers and explorers. In 1833 Captain Bonneville, of the United States army, obtained leave of absence, and with a company of 110 trappers set out for the Far West by the Platte route. Crossing the Rockies through the South Pass, he made a fortified camp on Green River, whence he for three years explored the country. One of his parties, under Joseph Walker, was sent to trap beavers on Great Salt Lake and to explore it thoroughly, making notes and maps. Bonneville, in his description of the lake to Irving, declared that lofty mountains rose from its bosom, and greatly magnified its extent to the south.* Walker's party got within sight of the lake, but found themselves in a desert, and accordingly changed their course and crossed the Sierras into California. In Bonneville's map the lake is called "Lake Bonneville or Great Salt Lake," and Irving calls it Lake Bonneville in his "Astoria."

* Bonneville's "Adventures," p. 184.

The day after the first arrival of Brigham Young in Salt Lake Valley (Sunday, July 25), church services were held and the sacrament was administered. Young addressed his followers, indicating at the start his idea of his leadership and of the ownership of the land, which was then Mexican territory. "He said that no man should buy any land who came here," says Woodruff; "that he had none to sell; but every man should have his land measured out to him for city and farming purposes. He might till it as he pleased, but he must be industrious and take care of it." *

* "After the assignments were made, persona commenced the usual speculations of selling according to eligibility of situation. This called out anathemas from the spiritual powers, and no one was permitted to traffic for fancy profit; if any sales were made, the first cost and actual value of improvements were all that was to be allowed. All speculative sales were made sub rosa. Exchanges are made and the records kept by the register."—Gunnison, "The Mormons" (1852), p. 145.

The next day a party, including all the Twelve who were in the valley, set out to explore the neighborhood. They visited and bathed in Great Salt Lake, climbed and named Ensign Peak, and met a party of Utah Indians, who made signs that they wanted to trade. On their return Young explained to the people his ideas of an exploration of the country to the west and north.

Meanwhile, those left in the valley had been busy staking off fields, irrigating them, and planting vegetables and grain. Some buildings, among them a blacksmith shop, were begun. The members of the Battalion, about four hundred of whom had now arrived, constructed a "bowery." Camps of Utah Indians were visited, and the white men witnessed their method of securing for food the abundant black crickets, by driving them into an enclosure fenced with brush which they set on fire.

On July 28, after a council of the Quorum had been held, the site of the Temple was selected by Brigham Young, who waved his hand and said: "Here is the 40 acres for the Temple. The city can be laid out perfectly square, east and west."* The 40 acres were a few days later reduced to 10, but the site then chosen is that on which the big Temple now stands. It was also decided that the city should be laid out in lots measuring to by 20 rods each, 8 lots to a block, with streets 8 rods wide, and sidewalks 20 feet wide; each house to be erected in the centre of a lot, and 20 feet from the front line. Land was also reserved for four parks of to acres each.

* Tullidge's "Life of Brigham Young," p. 178.

Men were at once sent into the mountains to secure logs for cabins, and work on adobe huts was also begun. On August y those of the Twelve present selected their "inheritances," each taking a block near the Temple. A week later the Twelve in council selected the blocks on which the companies under each should settle. The city as then laid out covered a space nearly four miles long and three broad.*

* Tullidge says: "The land portion of each family, as a rule, was the acre-and-a-quarter lot designated in the plan of the city; but the chief men of the pioneers, who had a plurality of wives and numerous children, received larger portions of the city lots. The giving of farms, as shown is the General Epistle, was upon the same principle as the apportioning of city lots. The farm of five, ten, or twenty acres was not for the mechanic, nor the manufacturer, nor even for the farmer, as a mere personal property, but for the good of the community at large, to give the substance of the earth to feed the population . . . . While the farmer was planting and cultivating his farm, the mechanic and tradesman produced his supplies and wrought his daily work for the community." He adds,"It can be easily understood how some departures were made from this original plan." This understanding can be gained in no better way than by inspecting the list of real estate left by Brigham Young in his will as his individual possession.

On August 22 a General Conference decided that the city should be called City of the Great Salt Lake. When the city was incorporated, in 1851, the name was changed to Salt Lake City. In view of the approaching return of Young and his fellow officers to the Missouri River, the company in the valley were placed in charge of the prophet's uncle, John Smith, as Patriarch, with a high council and other officers of a Stake.

When P. P. Pratt and the following companies reached the valley in September, they found a fort partly built, and every one busy, preparing for the winter. The crops of that year had been a disappointment, having been planted too late. The potatoes raised varied in size from that of a pea to half an inch in diameter, but they were saved and used successfully for seed the next year. A great deal of grain was sown during the autumn and winter, considerable wheat having been brought from California by members of the Battalion. Pratt says that the snow was several inches deep when they did some of their ploughing, but that the ground was clear early in March. A census taken in March, 1848, gave the city a population of 1671, with 423 houses erected.

The Saints in the valley spent a good deal of that winter working on their cabins, making furniture, and carting fuel. They discovered that the warning about the lack of timber was well founded, all the logs and firewood being hauled from a point eight miles distant, over bad roads, and with teams that had not recovered from the effect of the overland trip. Many settlers therefore built huts of adobe bricks, some with cloth roofs. Lack of experience in handling adobe clay for building purposes led to some sad results, the rains and frosts causing the bricks to crumble or burst, and more than one of these houses tumbled down around their owners. Even the best of the houses had very flat roofs, the newcomers believing that the climate was always dry; and when the rains and melted snow came, those who had umbrellas frequently raised them indoors to protect their beds or their fires.

Two years later, when Captain Stansbury of the United States Topographical Engineers, with his surveying party, spent the winter in Salt Lake City, in "a small, unfurnished house of unburnt brick or adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on," which let in the rains in streams, he says they were better lodged than many of their neighbors. "Very many families," he explains, "were obliged still to lodge wholly or in part in their wagons, which, being covered, served, when taken off from the wheels and set upon the ground, to make bedrooms, of limited dimensions, it is true, but exceedingly comfortable. In the very next enclosure to that of our party, a whole family of children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where they slept all winter."

The furniture of the early houses was of the rudest kind, since only the most necessary articles could be brought in the wagons. A chest or a barrel would do for a table, a bunk built against the side logs would be called a bed, and such rude stools as could be most easily put together served for chairs.

The letters sent for publication in England to attract emigrants spoke of a mild and pleasant winter, not telling of the privations of these pioneers. The greatest actual suffering was caused by a lack of food as spring advanced. A party had been sent to California, in November, for cattle, seeds, etc., but they lost forty of a herd of two hundred on the way back. The cattle that had been brought across the plains were in poor condition on their arrival, and could find very little winter pasturage. Many of the milk cows driven all the way from the Missouri had died by midsummer. By spring parched grain was substituted for coffee, a kind of molasses was made from beets, and what little flour could be obtained was home-ground and unbolted. Even so high an officer of the church as P. P. Pratt, thus describes the privations of his family: "In this labor [ploughing, cultivating, and sowing] every woman and child in my family, so far as they were of sufficient age and strength, had joined to help me, and had toiled incessantly in the field, suffering every hardship which human nature could well endure. Myself and most of them were compelled to go with bare feet for several months, reserving our Indian moccasins for extra occasions. We toiled hard, and lived on a few greens, and on thistle and other roots."

This was the year of the great visitation of crickets, the destruction of which has given the Mormons material for the story of one of their miracles. The crickets appeared in May, and they ate the country clear before them. In a wheat-field they would average two or three to a head of grain. Even ditches filled with water would not stop them. Kane described them as "wingless, dumpy, black, swollen-headed, with bulging eyes in cases like goggles, mounted upon legs of steel wire and clock spring, and with a general personal appearance that justified the Mormons in comparing them to a cross of a spider and the buffalo." When this plague was at its worst, the Mormons saw flocks of gulls descend and devour the crickets so greedily that they would often disgorge the food undigested. Day after day did the gulls appear until the plague was removed. Utah guide-books of to-day refer to this as a divine interposition of Heaven in behalf of the Saints. But writers of that date, like P. P. Pratt, ignore the miraculous feature, and the white gulls dot the fields between Salt Lake City and Ogden in 1901 just as they did in the summer of 1848, and as Fremont found them there in September, 1843. Gulls are abundant all over the plains, and are found with the snipe and geese as far north as North Dakota. Heaven's interposition, if exercised, was not thorough, for, after the crickets, came grasshoppers in such numbers that one writer says, "On one occasion a quarter of one cloudy dropped into the lake and were blown on shore by the wind, in rows sometimes two feet deep, for a distance of two miles."

But the crops, with all the drawbacks, did better than had been deemed possible, and on August 10 the people held a kind of harvest festival in the "bowery" in the centre of their fort, when "large sheaves of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other productions were hoisted on poles for public exhibition."* Still, the outlook was so alarming that word was sent to Winter Quarters advising against increasing their population at that time, and Brigham Young's son urged that a message be sent to his father giving similar advice.** Nevertheless P. P. Pratt did not hesitate in a letter addressed to the Saints in England, on September 5, to say that they had had ears of corn to boil for a month, that he had secured "a good harvest of wheat and rye without irrigation," and that there would be from ten thousand to twenty thousand bushels of grain in the valley more than was needed for home consumption.

* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 406.

** Bancroft's "History of Utah;' p. 281.



CHAPTER II. Progress Of The Settlement

With the arrival of the later companies from Winter Quarters the population of the city was increased by the winter of 1848 to about five thousand, or more than one-quarter of those who went out from Nauvoo. The settlers then had three sawmills, one flouring mill, and a threshing machine run by water, another sawmill and flour mill nearly completed, and several mills under way for the manufacture of sugar from corn stalks.

Brigham Young, again on the ground, took the lead at once in pushing on the work. To save fencing, material for which was hard to obtain, a tract of eight thousand acres was set apart and fenced for the common use, within which farmhouses could be built. The plan adopted for fencing in the city itself was to enclose each ward separately, every lot owner building his share. A stone council house, forty-five feet square, was begun, the labor counting as a part of the tithe; unappropriated city lots were distributed among the new-comers by a system of drawing, and the building of houses went briskly on, the officers of the church sharing in the labor. A number of bridges were also provided, a tax of one per cent being levied to pay for them.

Among the incidents of the winter mentioned in an epistle of the First Presidency was the establishment of schools in the different wards, in which, it was stated, "the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, Tahitian and English languages have been taught successfully"; and the organization of a temporary local government, and of a Stake of Zion, with Daniel Spencer as president. It was early the policy of the church to carry on an extended system of public works, including manufacturing enterprises. The assisted immigrants were expected to repay by work on these buildings the advance made to them to cover their travelling expenses. Young saw at once the advantage of starting branches of manufacture, both to make his people independent of a distant supply and to give employment to the population. Writing to Orson Pratt on October 14, 1849, when Pratt was in England, he said that they would have the material for cotton and woollen factories ready by the time men and machinery were prepared to handle it, and urged him to send on cotton operatives and "all the necessary fixtures." The third General Epistle spoke of the need of furnaces and forges, and Orson Pratt, in an address to the Saints in Great Britain, dated July 2, I850, urged the officers of companies "to seek diligently in every branch for wise, skilful and ingenious mechanics, manufacturers, potters, etc."*

* The General Epistle of April, 1852, announced two potteries in operation, a small woollen factory begun, a nail factory, wooden bowl factory, and many grist and saw mills. The General Epistle of October, 1855, enumerated, as among the established industries, a foundery, a cutlery shop, and manufactories of locks, cloth, leather, hats, cordage, brushes, soap, paper, combs, and cutlery.

The General Conference of October, 1849, ordered one man to build a glass factory in the valley, and voted to organize a company to transport passengers and freight between the Missouri River and California, directing that settlements be established along the route. This company was called the Great Salt Lake Valley Carrying Company. Its prospectus in the Frontier Guardian in December, 1849, stated that the fare from Kanesville to Sutter's Fort, California, would be $300, and the freight rate to Great Salt Lake City $12.50 per hundredweight, the passenger wagons to be drawn by four horses or mules, and the freight wagons by oxen.

But the work of making the new Mormon home a business and manufacturing success did not meet with rapid encouragement. Where settlements were made outside of Salt Lake City, the people were not scattered in farmhouses over the country, but lived in what they called "forts," squalid looking settlements, laid out in a square and defended by a dirt or adobe wall. The inhabitants of these settlements had to depend on the soil for their subsistence, and such necessary workmen as carpenters and shoemakers plied their trade as they could find leisure after working in the fields. When Johnston's army entered the valley in 1858, the largest attempt at manufacturing that had been undertaken there—a beet sugar factory, toward which English capitalists had contributed more than $100,000—had already proved a failure. There were tanneries, distilleries, and breweries in operation, a few rifles and revolvers were made from iron supplied by wagon tires, and in the larger settlements a few good mechanics were kept busy. But if no outside influences had contributed to the prosperity of the valley, and hastened the day when it secured railroad communication, the future of the people whom Young gathered in Utah would have been very different.

A correspondent of the New York Tribune, on his way to California, writing on July 8, 1849, thus described Salt Lake City as it presented itself to him at that time:— "There are no hotels, because there had been no travel; no barber shops, because every one chose to shave himself and no one had time to shave his neighbor; no stores, because they had no goods to sell nor time to traffic; no center of business, because all were too busy to make a center. There was abundance of mechanics' shops, of dressmakers, milliners and tailors, etc., but they needed no sign, nor had they any time to paint or erect one, for they were crowded with business. Besides their several trades, all must cultivate the land or die; for the country was new, and no cultivation but their own within 1000 miles. Everyone had his lot and built on it; every one cultivated it, and perhaps a small farm in the distance. And the strangest of all was that this great city, extending over several square miles, had been erected, and every house and fence made, within nine or ten months of our arrival; while at the same time good bridges were erected over the principal streams, and the country settlements extended nearly 100 miles up and down the valley."*

* New York Tribune, October 9, 1849.

The winter of 1848 set in early and severe, with frequent snowstorms from December 1 until late in February, and the temperature dropping one degree below zero as late as February 5. The deep snow in the canons, the only outlets through the mountains, rendered it difficult to bring in fuel, and the suffering from the cold was terrible, as many families had arrived too late to provide themselves with any shelter but their prairie wagons. The apprehended scarcity of food, too, was realized. Early in February an inventory of the breadstuffs in the valley, taken by the Bishops, showed only three-quarters of a pound a day per head until July 5, although it was believed that many had concealed stores on hand. When the first General Epistle of the First Presidency was sent out from Salt Lake City in the spring of 1849,* corn, which had sold for $2 and $3 a bushel, was not to be had, wheat had ranged from $4 to $5 a bushel, and potatoes from $6 to $20, with none then in market.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 227.

The people generally exerted themselves to obtain food for those whose supplies had been exhausted, but the situation became desperate before the snow melted. Three attempts to reach Fort Bridger failed because of the depth of snow in the canons. There is a record of a winter hunt of two rival parties of 100 men each, but they killed "varmints" rather than game, the list including 700 wolves and foxes, 20 minks and skunks, 500 hawks, owls and magpies, and 1000 ravens.* Some of the Mormons, with the aid of Indian guides, dug roots that the savages had learned to eat, and some removed the hide roofs from their cabins and stewed them for food. The lack of breadstuffs continued until well into the summer, and the celebration of the anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the valley, which had been planned for July 4, was postponed until the 24th, as Young explained in his address, "that we might have a little bread to set on our tables."

* General Epistle, Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 227.

Word was now sent to the states and to Europe that no more of the brethren should make the trip to the valley at that time unless they had means to get through without assistance, and could bring breadstuffs to last them several months after their arrival.

But something now occurred which turned the eyes of a large part of the world to that new acquisition of the United States on the Pacific coast which was called California, which made the Mormon settlement in Utah a way station for thousands of travellers where a dozen would not have passed it without the new incentive, and which brought to the Mormon settlers, almost at their own prices, supplies of which they were desperately in need, and which they could not otherwise have obtained. This something was the discovery of gold in California.

When the news of this discovery reached the Atlantic states and those farther west, men simply calculated by what route they could most quickly reach the new El Dorado, and the first companies of miners who travelled across the plains sacrificed everything for speed. The first rush passed through Salt Lake Valley in August, 1849. Some of the Mormons who had reached California with Brannan's company had by that time arrived in the valley, bringing with them a few bags of gold dust. When the would-be miners from the East saw this proof of the existence of gold in the country ahead of them, their enthusiasm knew no limits, and their one wish was to lighten themselves so that they could reach the gold-fields in the shortest time possible. Then the harvest of the Mormons began. Pack mules and horses that had been worth only $25 or $30 would now bring $200 in exchange for other articles at a low price, and the travellers were auctioning off their surplus supplies every day. For a light wagon they did not hesitate to offer three or four heavy ones, with a yoke of oxen sometimes thrown in. Such needed supplies as domestic sheetings could be had at from five to ten cents a yard, spades and shovels, with which the miners were overstocked, at fifty cents each, and nearly everything in their outfit, except sugar and coffee, at half the price that would have been charged at wholesale in the Eastern states.*

* Salt Lake City letter to the Frontier Guardian.

The commercial profit to the Mormons from this emigration was greater still in 1850, when the rush had increased. Before the grain of that summer was cut, the gold seekers paid $1 a pound for flour in Salt Lake City. After the new grain was harvested they eagerly bought the flour as fast as five mills could grind it, at $25 per hundredweight. Unground wheat sold for $8 a bushel, wood for $10 a cord, adobe bricks for more than seven shillings a hundred, and skilled mechanics were getting twelve shillings and sixpence a day.* At the same time that the emigrants were paying so well for what they absolutely required, they were sacrificing large supplies of what they did not need on almost any terms. Some of them had started across the plains with heavy loads of machinery and miscellaneous goods, on which they expected to reap a big profit in California. Learning, however, when they reached Salt Lake City, that ship-loads of such merchandise were on their way around the Horn, the owners sacrificed their stock where it was, and hurried on to get their share of the gold.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 350.

This is not the place in which to tell the story of that rush of the gold seekers. The clerk at Fort Laramie reported, "The total number of emigrants who passed this post up to June 10, 1850, included 16,915 men, 235 women, 242 children, 4672 wagons, 14,974 horses, 4641 mules, 7475 oxen, and 1653 cows." A letter from Sacramento dated September 10, 1850, gave this picture of the trail left by these travellers: "Many believed there are dead animals enough on the desert (of 45 miles) between Humboldt Lake and Carson River to pave a road the whole distance. We will make a moderate estimate and say there is a dead animal to every five feet, left on the desert this season. I counted 153 wagons within a mile and a half. Not half of those left were to be seen, many having been burned to make lights in the night. The desert is strewn with all kinds of property—tools, clothes, crockery, harnesses, etc."

Naturally, in this rush for sudden riches, many a Mormon had a desire to join. A dozen families left Utah for California early in 1849, and in March, 1851, a company of more than five hundred assembled in Payson, preparatory to making the trip. Here was an unexpected danger to the growth of the Mormon population, and one which the head of the church did not delay in checking. The second General Epistle, dated October 12, 1849,* stated that the valley of the Sacramento was unhealthy, and that the Saints could do better raising grain in Utah, adding, "The true use of gold is for paving streets, covering houses, and making culinary dishes, and when the Saints shall have preached the Gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up the way for a supply of gold, to the perfect satisfaction of his people."

* Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 119.

Notwithstanding this advice, a good many Mormons acted on the idea that the Lord would help those who helped themselves, and that if they were to have golden culinary dishes they must go and dig the gold. Accordingly, we find the third General Epistle, dated April 12, 1850, acknowledging that many brethren had gone to the gold mines, but declaring that they were counselled only "by their own wills and covetous feelings," and that they would have done more good by staying in the valley. Young did not, however, stop with a mere rebuke. He proposed to check the exodus. "Let such men," the Epistle added, "remember that they are not wanted in our midst. Let such leave their carcasses where they do their work; we want not our burial grounds polluted with such hypocrites." Young was quite as plain spoken in his remarks to the General Conference that spring, naming as those who "will go down to hell, poverty-stricken and naked," the Mormons who felt that they were so poor that they would have to go to the gold mines.* Such talk had its effect, and Salt Lake Valley retained most of its population.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 274,

The progress of the settlement received a serious check some years later in the failure of the crops in 1855, followed by a near approach to a famine in the ensuing winter. Very little reference to this was made in the official church correspondence, but a picture of the situation in Salt Lake City that winter was drawn in two letters from Heber C. Kimball to his sons in England.* In the first, written in February, he said that his family and Brigham Young's were then on a ration of half a pound of bread each per day, and that thousands had scarcely any breadstuff at all. Kimball's family of one hundred persons then had on hand about seventy bushels of potatoes and a few beets and carrots, "so you can judge," he says, "whether we can get through until harvest without digging roots." There were then not more than five hundred bushels of grain in the tithing office, and all public work was stopped until the next harvest, and all mechanics were advised to drop their tools and to set about raising grain. "There is not a settlement in the territory," said the writer, "but is also in the same fix as we are. Dollars and cents do not count in these times, for they are the tightest I have ever seen in the territory of Utah." In April he wrote: "I suppose one-half the church stock is dead. There are not more than one-half the people that have bread, and they have not more than one-half or one quarter of a pound a day to a person. A great portion of the people are digging roots, and hundreds and thousands, their teams being dead, are under the necessity of spading their ground to put in their grain." The harvest of 1856 also suffered from drought and insects, and the Deseret News that summer declared that "the most rigid economy and untiring, well-directed industry may enable us to escape starvation until a harvest in 1857, and until the lapse of another year emigrants and others will run great risks of starving unless they bring their supplies with them." The first load of barley brought into Salt Lake City that summer sold for $2 a bushel.

* Ibid., Vol. XVIII, pp. 395-476.

The first building erected in Salt Lake City in which to hold church services was called a tabernacle. It was begun in 1851, and was consecrated on April 6, 1852. It stood in Temple block, where the Assembly Hall now stands, measuring about 60 by 120 feet, and providing accommodation for 2500 people. The present Tabernacle, in which the public church services are held, was completed in 1870. It stands just west of the Temple, is elliptical in shape, and, with its broad gallery running around the entire interior, except the end occupied by the organ loft and pulpit, it can seat about 9000 persons. Its acoustic properties are remarkable, and one of the duties of any guide who exhibits the auditorium to visitors is to station them at the end of the gallery opposite the pulpit, and to drop a pin on the floor to show them how distinctly that sound can be heard.

The Temple in Salt Lake City was begun in April, 1853, and was not dedicated until April, 1893. This building is devoted to the secret ceremonies of the church, and no Gentile is ever admitted to it. The building, of granite taken from the near-by mountains, is architecturally imposing, measuring 200 by 100 feet. Its cost is admitted to have been about $4,000,000. The building could probably be duplicated to-day for one-half that sum. The excuse given by church authorities for the excessive cost is that, during the early years of the work upon it, the granite had to be hauled from the mountains by ox teams, and that everything in the way of building material was expensive in Utah when the church there was young. The interior is divided into different rooms, in which such ceremonies as the baptism for the dead are performed; the baptismal font is copied after the one that was in the Temple at Nauvoo.

There are three other temples in Utah, all of which were completed before the one in Salt Lake City, namely, at St. George, at Logan, and at Manti.



CHAPTER III. The Foreign Immigration To Utah

When the Mormons began their departure westward from Nauvoo, the immigration of converts from Europe was suspended because of the uncertainty about the location of the next settlement, and the difficulty of transporting the existing population. But the necessity of constant additions to the community of new-comers, and especially those bringing some capital, was never lost sight of by the heads of the church. An evidence of this was given even before the first company reached the Missouri River.

While the Saints were marching through Iowa they received intelligence of a big scandal in connection with the emigration business in England, and P. P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, and John Taylor were hurriedly sent to that country to straighten the matter out. The Millennial Star in the early part of 1846 had frequent articles about the British and American Commercial Joint Stock Company, an organization incorporated to assist poor Saints in emigrating. The principal emigration agent in Great Britain at that time was R. Hedlock. He was the originator of the Joint Stock Company, and Thomas Ward was its president. The Mormon investigators found that more than 1644 pounds of the contributions of the stockholders had been squandered, and that Ward had been lending Hedlock money with which to pay his personal debts. Ward and Hedlock were at once disfellowshipped, and contributions to the treasury of the company were stopped. Pratt says that Hedlock fled when the investigators arrived, leaving many debts, "and finally lived incog. in London with a vile woman." Thus it seems that Mormon business enterprises in England were no freer from scandals than those in America.

The efforts of the leaders of the church were now exerted to make the prospects of the Saints in Utah attractive to the converts in England whom they wished to add to the population of their valley. Young and his associates seem to have entertained the idea, without reckoning on the rapid settlement of California, the migration of the "Forty-niners," and the connection of the two coasts by rail, that they could constitute a little empire all by itself in Utah, which would be self-supporting as well as independent, the farmer raising food for the mechanic, and the mechanic doing the needed work for the farmer. Accordingly, the church did not stop short of every kind of misrepresentation and deception in belittling to the foreigners the misfortunes of the past, and picturing to them the fruitfulness of their new country, and the ease with which they could become landowners there.

Naturally, after the expulsion from Illinois, in which so many foreign converts shared, an explanation and palliation of the emigration thence were necessary. In the United States, then and ever since, the Mormons pictured themselves as the victims of an almost unprecedented persecution. But as soon as John Taylor reached England, in 1846, he issued an address to the Saints in Great Britain* in which he presented a very different picture. Granting that, on an average, they had not obtained more than one-third the value of their real and personal property when they left Illinois, he explained that, when they settled there, land in Nauvoo was worth only from $3 to $20 per acre, while, when they left, it was worth from $50 to $1500 per acre; in the same period the adjoining farm lands had risen in value from $1.25 and $5 to from $5 to $50 per acre. He assured his hearers, therefore, that the one-third value which they had obtained had paid them well for their labor. Nor was this all. When they left, they had exchanged their property for horses, cattle, provisions, clothing, etc., which was exactly what was needed by settlers in a new country. As a further bait he went on to explain: "When we arrive in California, according to the provisions of the Mexican government, each family will be entitled to a large tract of land, amounting to several hundred acres," and, if that country passed into American control, he looked for the passage of a law giving 640 acres to each male settler. "Thus," he summed up, "it will be easy to see that we are in a better condition than when we were in Nauvoo!"

* Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 115.

The misrepresentation did not cease here, however. After announcing the departure of Brigham Young's pioneer company, Taylor* wound up with this tissue of false statements: "The way is now prepared; the roads, bridges, and ferry-boats made; there are stopping places also on the way where they can rest, obtain vegetables and corn, and, when they arrive at the far end, instead of finding a wild waste, they will meet with friends, provisions and a home, so that all that will be requisite for them to do will be to find sufficient teams to draw their families, and to take along with them a few woollen or cotton goods, or other articles of merchandise which will be light, and which the brethren will require until they can manufacture for themselves." How many a poor Englishman, toiling over the plains in the next succeeding years, and, arriving in arid Utah to find himself in the clutches of an organization from which he could not escape, had reason to curse the man who drew this picture!

* John Taylor was born in England in 1808, and emigrated to Canada in 1829, where, after joining the Methodists, he, like Joseph Smith, found existing churches unsatisfactory, and was easily secured as a convert by P. P. Pratt. He was elected to the Quorum, and was sent to Great Britain as a missionary in 1840, writing several pamphlets while there. He arrived in Nauvoo with Brigham Young in 1841, and there edited the Times and Seasons, was a member of the City Council, a regent of the university, and judge advocate of the Legion, and was in the room with the prophet when the latter was shot. He was the Mormon representative in France in 1849, publishing a monthly paper there, translating the Mormon Bible into the French language, and preaching later at Hamburg, Germany. He was superintendent of the Mormon church in the Eastern states in 1857, when Young declared war against the United States, and he succeeded Young as head of the church.

In 1847, at the suggestion of Taylor, Hyde, and Pratt, who were still in England, a petition bearing nearly 13,000 names was addressed to Queen Victoria, setting forth the misery existing among the working classes in Great Britain, suggesting, as the best means of relief, royal aid to those who wished to emigrate to "the island of Vancouver or to the great territory of Oregon," and asking her "to give them employment in improving the harbors of those countries, or in erecting forts of defence; or, if this be inexpedient, to furnish them provisions and means of subsistence until they can produce them from the soil." These American citizens did not hesitate to point out that the United States government was favoring the settlement of its territory on the Pacific coast, and to add: "While the United States do manifest such a strong inclination, not only to extend and enlarge their possessions in the West, but also to people them, will not your Majesty look well to British interests in those regions, and adopt timely precautionary measures to maintain a balance of power in that quarter which, in the opinion of your memorialists, is destined at no very distant period to participate largely in the China trade?" *

* See Linforth's "Route," pp. 2-5.

The Oregon boundary treaty was less than a year old when this petition was presented. It was characteristic of Mormon duplicity to find their representatives in Great Britain appealing to Queen Victoria on the ground of self-interest, while their chiefs in the United States were pointing to the organization of the Battalion as a proof of their fidelity to the home government. Practically no notice was taken of this petition. Vancouver Island, was, however, held out to the converts in Great Britain as the one "gathering point of the Saints from the islands and distant portions of the earth," until the selection of Salt Lake Valley as the Saints' abiding place.

On December 23, 1847, Young, in behalf of the Twelve, issued from Winter Quarters a General Epistle to the church a which gave an account of his trip to the Salt Lake Valley, directed all to gather themselves speedily near Winter Quarters in readiness for the march to Salt Lake Valley, and said to the Saints in Europe:—

"Emigrate as speedily as possible to this vicinity. Those who have but little means, and little or no labor, will soon exhaust that means if they remain where they are. Therefore, it is wisdom that they remove without delay; for here is land on which, by their labor, they can speedily better their condition for their further journey." The list of things which Young advised the emigrants to bring with them embraced a wide assortment: grains, trees, and vines; live stock and fowls; agricultural implements and mills; firearms and ammunition; gold and silver and zinc and tin and brass and ivory and precious stones; curiosities, "sweet instruments of music, sweet odors, and beautiful colors." The care of the head of the church, that the immigrants should not neglect to provide themselves with cologne and rouge for use in crossing the prairies, was most thoughtful.

* Millennial Star, Vol. X, p. 81.

The Millennial Star of February 1, 1848, made this announcement to the faithful in the British Isles:—

"The channel of Saints' emigration to the land of Zion is now opened. The resting place of Israel for the last days has been discovered. In the elevated valley of the Salt and Utah Lakes, with the beautiful river Jordan running through it, is the newly established Stake of Zion. There vegetation flourishes with magic rapidity. And the food of man, or staff of life, leaps into maturity from the bowels of Mother Earth with astonishing celerity. Within one month from planting, potatoes grew from six to eight inches, and corn from two to four feet. There the frequent clouds introduce their fertilizing contents at a modest distance from the fat valley, and send their humid influences from the mountain tops. There the saline atmosphere of Salt Lake mingles in wedlock with the fresh humidity of the same vegetable element which comes over the mountain top, as if the nuptial bonds of rare elements were introduced to exhibit a novel specimen of a perfect vegetable progeny in the shortest possible time," etc.

Contrast this with Brigham Young's letter to Colonel Alexander in October, 1857,—"We had hoped that in this barren, desolate country we could have remained unmolested."

On the 20th of February, 1848, the shipment of Mormon emigrants began again with the sailing of the Cornatic, with 120 passengers, for New Orleans.

In the following April, Orson Pratt was sent to England to take charge of the affairs of the church there. On his arrival, in August, he issued an "Epistle" which was influential in augmenting the movement. He said that "in the solitary valleys of the great interior" they hoped to hide "while the indignation of the Almighty is poured upon the nations"; and urged the rich to dispose of their property in order to help the poor, commanding all who could do so to pay their tithing. "O ye saints of the Most High," he said, "linger not! Make good your retreat before the avenues are closed up!"

Many other letters were published in the Millennial Star in 1848-1849, giving glowing accounts of the fertility of Salt Lake Valley. One from the clerk of the camp observed: "Many cases of twins. In a row of seven houses joining each other eight births in one week."

In order to assist the poor converts in Europe, the General Conference held in Salt Lake City in October, 1849, voted to raise a fund, to be called "The Perpetual Emigrating Fund," and soon $5000 had been secured for this purpose. In September, 1850, the General Assembly of the Provisional State of Deseret incorporated the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company, and Brigham Young was elected its first president. Collections for this fund in Great Britain amounted to 1410 pounds by January, 1852, and the emigrants sent out in that year were assisted from this fund. These expenditures required an additional $5000, which was supplied from Salt Lake City. A letter issued by the First Presidency in October, 1849, urged the utmost economy in the expenditure of this money, and explained that, when the assisted emigrants arrived in Salt Lake City, they would give their obligations to the church to refund as soon as possible what had been expended on them.* In this way, any who were dissatisfied on their arrival in Utah found themselves in the church clutches, from which they could not escape.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 124.

There were outbreaks of cholera among the emigrant parties crossing the plains in 1849, and many deaths.

In October, 1849, an important company left Salt Lake City to augment the list of missionaries in Europe. It included John Taylor and two others, assigned to France; Lorenzo Snow and one other, to Italy; Erastus Snow and one other, to Denmark;* F. D. Richards and eight others, to England; and J. Fosgreene, to Sweden.

* Elder Dykes reported in October, 1851, that, on his arrival in Aalborg, Denmark, he found that a mob had broken in the windows of the Saints' meeting-house and destroyed the furniture, and had also broken the windows of the Saints' houses, and, by the mayor's advice, he left the city by the first steamer. Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 346.

The system of Mormon emigration from Great Britain at that time seems to have been in the main a good one. The rule of the agent in Liverpool was not to charter a vessel until enough passengers had made their deposits to warrant him in doing so. The rate of fare depended on the price paid for the charter.* As soon as the passengers arrived in Liverpool they could go on board ship, and, when enough came from one district, all sailed on one vessel. Once on board, they were organized with a president and two counsellors,—men who had crossed the ocean, if possible,—who allotted the staterooms, appointed watchmen to serve in turn, and looked after the sanitary arrangements. When the first through passengers for Salt Lake City left Liverpool, in 1852, an experienced elder was sent in advance to have teams and supplies in readiness at the point where the land journey would begin, and other men of experience accompanied them to engage river portation when they reached New Orleans. The statistics of the emigration thus called out were as follows:—

* See Linforth's "Route," pp. to, 17-22; Mackay's "History of the Mormons," pp. 298-302; Pratt's letter to the Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p. 277.

YEAR VESSELS EMIGRANTS 1848 5 754 1849 9 2078 1850 6 1612 1851 4 1869

The Frontier Guardian at Kanesville estimated the Mormon movement across the plains in 1850 at about 700 wagons, taking 5000 horses and cattle and 4000 sheep.

Of the class of emigrants then going out, the manager of the leading shipping agents at Liverpool who furnished the ships said, "They are principally farmers and mechanics, with some few clerks, surgeons, and so forth." He found on the company's books, for the period between October, 1849, and March, 1850, the names of 16 miners, 20 engineers, 19 farmers, 108 laborers, 10 joiners, 25 weavers, 15 shoemakers, 12 smiths, 19 tailors, 8 watchmakers, 25 stone masons, 5 butchers, 4 bakers, 4 potters, 10 painters, 7 shipwrights, and 5 dyers.

The statistics of the Mormon emigration given by the British agency for the years named were as follows:—

YEAR VESSELS EMIGRANTS 1852 3 732 1853 7 2312 1854 9 2456 1852 1854, Scandinavian and German via Liverpool 1053 1855 13 4425

In 1853 the experiment was made of engaging to send adults from Liverpool to Utah for 10 pounds each and children for half price; but this did not succeed, and those who embraced the offer had to borrow money or teams to complete the journey.

In 1853, owing to extortions practised on the emigrants by the merchants and traders at Kanesville, as well as the unhealthfulness of the Missouri bottoms, the principal point of departure from the river was changed to Keokuk, Iowa. The authorities and people there showed the new-comers every kindness, and set apart a plot of ground for their camp. In this camp each company on its arrival was organized and provided with the necessary teams, etc. In 1854 the point of departure was again changed to Kansas, in western Missouri, fourteen miles west of Independence, the route then running to the Big Blue River, and through what are now the states of Kansas and Nebraska.



CHAPTER IV. The Hand-Cart Tragedy

In 1855 the crops in Utah were almost a failure, and the church authorities found themselves very much embarrassed by their debts. A report in the seventh General Epistle, of April 18, 1852, set forth that, from their entry into the valley to March 27, of that year, there had been received as tithing, mostly in property, $244,747.03, and in loans and from other sources $145,513.78, of which total there had been expended in assisting immigrants and on church buildings, city lots, manufacturing industries, etc., $353,765.69. Young found it necessary therefore to cut down his expenses, and he looked around for a method of doing this without checking the stream of new-comers. The method which he evolved was to furnish the immigrants with hand-carts on their arrival in Iowa, and to let them walk all the way across the plains, taking with them only such effects as these carts would hold, each party of ten to drive with them one or two cows.

Although Young tried to throw the result of this experiment on others, the evidence is conclusive that he devised it and worked out its details. In a letter to Elder F. D. Richards, in Liverpool, dated September 30, 1855, Young said: "We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past. I am consequently thrown back upon MY OLD PLAN—to make hand-carts, and let the emigration foot it." To show what a pleasant trip this would make, this head of the church, who had three times crossed the plains, added, "Fifteen miles a day will bring them through in 70 days, and, after they get accustomed to it, they will travel 20, 25, or even 30 with all ease, and no danger of giving out, but will continue to get stronger and stronger; the little ones and sick, if there are any, can be carried on the carts, but there will be none sick in a little time after they get started."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. VII, p. 813.

Directions in accordance with this plan were issued in the form of a circular in Liverpool in February, 1856, naming Iowa City, Iowa, as the point of outfit. The charge for booking through to Utah by the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company was fixed at 9 pounds for all over one year old, and 4 pounds 10 shillings. for younger infants. The use of trunks or boxes was discouraged, and the emigrants were urged to provide themselves with oil-cloth or mackintosh bags.

About thirteen hundred persons left Liverpool to undertake this foot journey across the plains, placing implicit faith in the pictures of Salt Lake Valley drawn by the missionaries, and not doubting that the method of travel would be as enjoyable as it seemed economical. Five separate companies were started that summer from Iowa City. The first and second of these arrived at Florence, Nebraska, on July 17, the third, made up mostly of Welsh, on July 19, and the fourth on August 11. The first company made the trip to Utah without anything more serious to report than the necessary discomforts of such a march, and were received with great acclaim by the church authorities, and welcomed with an elaborate procession. It was the last companies whose story became a tragedy.*

* The experiences of those companies were told in detail by a member of one, John Chislett, and printed in the "Rocky Mountain Saints." Mrs. Stenhouse gives additional experiences in her "Tell it All."

The immigrants met with their first disappointment on arriving at Iowa City. Instead of finding their carts ready for them, they were told that no advance agent had prepared the way. The last companies were subjected to the most delay from this cause. Even the carts were still to be manufactured, and, while they were making, many a family had to camp in the open fields, without even the shelter of a tent or a wagon top. The carts, when pronounced finished, moved on two light wheels, the only iron used in their construction being a very thin tire. Two projecting shafts of hickory or oak were joined by a cross piece, by means of which the owner propelled the vehicle. When Mr. Chislett's company, after a three weeks' delay, made a start, they were five hundred strong, comprising English, Scotch, and Scandanavians. They were divided, as usual, into hundreds, to each hundred being allotted five tents, twenty hand-carts, and one wagon drawn by three yokes of oxen, the latter carrying the tents and provisions. Families containing more young men than were required to draw their own carts shared these human draught animals with other families who were not so well provided; but many carts were pulled along by young girls.

The Iowans bestowed on the travellers both kindness and commiseration. Knowing better than did the new-comers from Europe the trials that awaited them, they pointed out the lateness of the season, and they did persuade a few members to give up the trip. But the elders who were in charge of the company were watchful, the religious spirit was kept up by daily meetings, and the one command that was constantly reiterated was, "Obey your leaders in all things."

A march of four weeks over a hot, dusty route was required to bring them to the Missouri River near Florence. Even there they were insufficiently supplied with food. With flour costing $3 per hundred pounds, and bacon seven or eight cents a pound, the daily allowance of food was ten ounces of flour to each adult, and four ounces to children under eight years old, with bacon, coffee, sugar, and rice served occasionally. Some of the men ate all their allowance for the day at their breakfast, and depended on the generosity of settlers on the way, while there were any, for what further food they had until the next morning.

After a week's stay at Florence (the old Winter Quarters), the march across the plains was resumed on August 18. The danger of making this trip so late in the season, with a company which included many women, children, and aged persons, gave even the elders pause, and a meeting was held to discuss the matter. But Levi Savage, who had made the trip to and from the valley, alone advised against continuing the march that season. The others urged the company to go on, declaring that they were God's people, and prophesying in His name that they would get through the mountains in safety. The emigrants, "simple, honest, eager to go to Zion at once, and obedient as little children to the 'servants of God,' voted to proceed." *

* A "bond," which each assisted emigrant was required to sign in Liverpool, contained the following stipulations: "We do severally and jointly promise and bind ourselves to continue with and obey the instructions of the agent appointed to superintend our passage thither to [Utah]. And that, on our arrival in Utah, we will hold ourselves, our time, and our labor, subject to the appropriation of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company until the full cost of our emigration is paid, with interest if required."

As the teams provided could not haul enough flour to last the company to Utah, a sack weighing ninety-eight pounds was added to the load of each cart. One pound of flour a day was now allowed to each adult, and occasionally fresh beef. Soon after leaving Florence trouble began with the carts. The sand of the dry prairie got into the wooden hubs and ground the axles so that they broke, and constant delays were caused by the necessity of making repairs., No axle grease had been provided, and some of the company were compelled to use their precious allowance of bacon to grease the wheels. At Wood River, where the plains were alive with buffaloes, a stampede of the cattle occurred one night, and thirty of them were never recovered. The one yoke of oxen that was left to each wagon could not pull the load; an attempt to use the milch cows and heifers as draught animals failed, and the tired cart pullers had to load up again with flour.

While pursuing their journey in this manner, their camp was visited one evening by Apostle F. D. Richards and some other elders, on their way to Utah from mission work abroad. Richards severely rebuked Savage for advising that the trip be given up at Florence, and prophesied that the Lord would keep open a way before them. The missionaries, who were provided with carriages drawn by four horses each, drove on, without waiting to see this prediction confirmed.

On arriving at Fort Laramie, about the first of September, another evidence of the culpable neglect of the church authorities manifested itself. The supply of provisions that was to have awaited them there was wanting. They calculated the amount that they had on hand, and estimated that it would last only until they were within 350 miles of Salt Lake City; but, perhaps making the best of the situation, they voted to reduce the daily ration and to try to make the supply last by travelling faster. When they reached the neighborhood of Independence Rock, a letter sent back by Richards informed them that supplies would meet them at South Pass; but another calculation showed that what remained would not last them to the Pass, and again the ration was reduced, working men now receiving twelve ounces a day, other adults nine, and children from four to eight. Another source of discomfort now manifested itself. In order to accommodate matters to the capacity of the carts, the elders in charge had made it one of the rules that each outfit should be limited to seventeen pounds of clothing and bedding. As they advanced up the Sweetwater it became cold. The mountains appeared snow-covered, and the lack of extra wraps and bedding caused first discomfort, and then intense suffering, to the half-fed travellers. The necessity of frequently wading the Sweetwater chilled the stronger men who were bearing the brunt of the labor, and when morning dawned the occupants of the tents found themselves numb with the cold, and quite unfitted to endure the hardships of the coming day. Chislett draws this picture of the situation at that time:—

"Our old and infirm people began to droop, and they no sooner lost spirit and courage than death's stamp could be traced upon their features. Life went out as smoothly as a lamp ceases to burn when the oil is gone. At first the deaths occurred slowly and irregularly, but in a few days at more frequent intervals, until we soon thought it unusual to leave a camp ground without burying one or more persons. Death was not long confined in its ravages to the old and infirm, but the young and naturally strong were among its victims. Weakness and debility were accompanied by dysentery. This we could not stop or even alleviate, no proper medicines being in the camp; and in almost every instance it carried off the parties attacked. It was surprising to an unmarried man to witness the devotion of men to their families and to their faith under these trying circumstances. Many a father pulled his cart, with his little children on it, until the day preceding his death. These people died with the calm faith and fortitude of martyrs."

An Oregonian returning East, who met two of the more fortunate of these handcart parties, gave this description to the Huron (Ohio) Reflector in 1857:—

"It was certainly the most novel and interesting sight I have seen for many a day. We met two trains, one of thirty and the other of fifty carts, averaging about six to the cart. The carts were generally drawn by one man and three women each, though some carts were drawn by women alone. There were about three women to one man, and two-thirds of the women single. It was the most motley crew I ever beheld. Most of them were Danes, with a sprinkling of Welsh, Swedes, and English, and were generally from the lower classes of their countries. Most could not understand what we said to them. The road was lined for a mile behind the train with the lame, halt, sick, and needy. Many were quite aged, and would be going slowly along, supported by a son or daughter. Some were on crutches; now and then a mother with a child in her arms and two or three hanging hold of her, with a forlorn appearance, would pass slowly along; others, whose condition entitled them to a seat in a carriage, were wending their way through the sand. A few seemed in good spirits."

The belated company did not meet anyone to carry word of their condition to the valley, but among Richard's party who visited the camp at Wood River was Brigham Young's son, Joseph A. He realized the plight of the travellers, and when his father heard his report he too recognized the fact that aid must be sent at once. The son was directed to get together all the supplies he could obtain in the city or pick up on the way, and to start toward the East immediately. Driving on himself in a light wagon, he reached the advanced line, as they were toiling ahead through their first snowstorm. The provisions travelled slower, and could not reach them in less than one or two days longer. There was encouragement, of course, even in the prospect of release, but encouragement could not save those whose vitality was already exhausted. Camp was pitched that night among a grove of willows, where good fires were possible, but in the morning they awoke to find the snow a foot deep, and that five of their companions had been added to the death list during the night.

To add to the desperate character of the situation came the announcement that the provisions were practically exhausted, the last of the flour having been given out, and all that remained being a few dried apples, a little rice and sugar, and about twenty-five pounds of hardtack. Two of the cattle were killed, and the camp were informed that they would have to subsist on the supplies in sight until aid reached them. The best thing to do in these circumstances, indeed, the only thing, was to remain where they were and send messengers to advise the succoring party of the desperateness of their case. Their captain, Mr. Willie, and one companion acted as their messengers. They were gone three days, and in their absence Mr. Chislett had the painful duty of doling out what little food there was in camp. He speaks of his task as one that unmanned him. More cattle were killed, but beef without other food did not satisfy the hungry, and the epidemic of dysentery grew worse. The commissary officer was surrounded by a crowd of men and women imploring him for a little food, and it required all his power of reasoning to make them see that what little was left must be saved for the sick.

The party with aid from the valley had also encountered the snowstorm, and, not appreciating the desperate condition of the hand-cart immigrants, had halted to wait for better weather. As soon as Captain Willie took them the news, they hastened eastward, and were seen by the starving party at sunset, the third day after their captain's departure. "Shouts of joy rent the air," says Chislett. "Strong men wept till tears ran freely down their furrowed and sunburnt cheeks, and little children partook of the joy which some of them hardly understood, and fairly danced around with gladness. Restraint was set aside in the general rejoicing, and, as the brethren entered our camp, the sisters fell upon them and deluged them with kisses."

The timely relief saved many lives, but the end of the suffering had not been reached. A good many of the foot party were so exhausted by what they had gone through, that even their near approach to their Zion and their prophet did not stimulate them to make the effort to complete the journey. Some trudged along, unable even to pull a cart, and those who were still weaker were given places in the wagons. It grew colder, too, and frozen hands and feet became a common experience. Thus each day lessened by a few who were buried the number that remained.

Then came another snowstorm. What this meant to a weakened party like this dragging their few possessions in carts can easily be imagined. One family after another would find that they could not make further progress, and when a hill was reached the human teams would have to be doubled up. In this way, by travelling backward and forward, some progress was made. That day's march was marked by constant additions to the stragglers who kept dropping by the way. When the main body had made their camp for the night, some of the best teams were sent back for those who had dropped behind, and it was early morning before all of these were brought in.

The next morning Captain Willie was assigned to take count of the dead. An examination of the camp showed thirteen corpses, all stiffly frozen. They were buried in a large square hole, three or four abreast and three deep. "When they did not fit in," says Chislett, "we put one or two crosswise at the head or feet of the others. We covered them with willows and then with the earth." Two other victims were buried before nightfall. Parties passing eastward by this place the following summer found that the wolves had speedily uncovered the corpses, and that their bones were scattered all over the neighborhood.

Further deaths continued every day until they arrived at South Pass. There more assistance from the valley met them, the weather became warmer, and the health of the party improved, so that when they arrived at Salt Lake City they were in better condition and spirits. The date of their arrival there was November 9. The company which set out from Iowa City numbered about 500, of whom 400 set out from Florence across the plains. Of these 400, 67 died on the way, and there were a few deaths after they reached the end of their journey.

Another company of these hand-cart travellers left Florence still later than the ones whose sufferings have been described. They were in charge of an elder named Martin. Like their predecessors, they were warned against setting out so late as the middle of August, and many of them tried to give up the trip, but permission to do so was refused. Their sufferings began soon after they crossed the Platte, near Fort Laramie, and snow was encountered sixty miles east of Devil's Gate. When they reached that landmark, they decided that they could make no further progress with their hand-carts. They accordingly took possession of half a dozen dilapidated log houses, the contents of the wagons were placed in some of these, the hand-carts were left behind, and as many people as the teams could drag were placed in the wagons and started forward. One of the survivors of this party has written: "The track of the emigrants was marked by graves, and many of the living suffered almost worse than death. Men may be seen to-day in Salt Lake City, who were boys then, hobbling around on their club-feet, all their toes having been frozen off in that fearful march." * Twenty men who were left at Devil's Gate had a terrible experience, being compelled, before assistance reached them, to eat even the pieces of hide wrapped round their cart-wheels, and a piece of buffalo skin that had been used as a door-mat. Strange to say, all of these men reached the valley alive.

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 337.

We have seen that Brigham Young was the inventor of this hand-cart immigration scheme. Alarmed by the result of the experiment, as soon as the wretched remnant of the last two parties arrived in Salt Lake City, he took steps to place the responsibility for the disaster on other shoulders. The idea which he carried out was to shift the blame to F. D. Richards on the ground that he allowed the immigrants to start too late. In an address in the Tabernacle, while Captain Willie's party was approaching the city, he told the returned missionaries from England that they needed to be careful about eulogizing Richards and Spencer, lest they should have "the big head." When these men were in Salt Lake City he cursed them with the curse of the church. E. W. Tullidge, who was an editor of the Millennial Star in Liverpool under Richards when the hand-cart emigrants were collected, proposed, when in later years he was editing the Utah Magazine, to tell the facts about that matter; but when Young learned this, he ordered Godbe, the controlling owner of the magazine, to destroy that issue, after one side of the sheets had been printed, and he was obeyed.* Fortunately Young was not able to destroy the files of the Millennial Star.

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 342.

There is much that is thoroughly typical of Mormonism in the history of these expeditions. No converts were ever instilled with a more confident belief in the divine character of the ridiculous pretender, Joseph Smith. To no persons were more flagrant misrepresentations ever made by the heads of the church, and over none was the dictatorial authority of the church exercised more remorselessly. Not only was Utah held out to them as "a land where honest labor and industry meet with a suitable reward, and where the higher walks of life are open to the humblest and poorest," * but they were informed that, if they had not faith enough to undertake the trip to Utah, they had not "faith sufficient to endure, with the Saints in Zion, the celestial law which leads to exaltation and eternal life." Young wrote to Richards privately in October, 1855, "Adhere strictly to our former suggestion of walking them through across the plains with hand-carts";** and Richards in an editorial in the Star thereupon warned the Saints: "The destroying angel is abroad. Pestilence and gaunt famine will soon increase the terrors of the scene to an extent as yet without a parallel in the records of the human race. If the anticipated toils of the journey shake your faith in the promises of the Lord, it is high time that you were digging about the foundation of it, and seeing if it be founded on the root of the Holy Priesthood," etc.