Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, Number 1, 1961

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

January, 1961

IN THIS ISSUE

The Ghost of Mercur

.

'. v% » * M

m\

^2xJ^P **»i »*§: ii ffl

l f i .ill iiPr

i

Kij X a

i fe.,:„.

l-

*n *K '

m•

, - - •

4-f'jLlai g . tt^ ^^^sS!

^KP"9|||HH

pL^W

**%&

J^^BI

8 WtM ft

•' '

'--*,£<• M M

H laaLfl^Ml

X

ABOUT THE COVER

• •.- = <vy/<• • . 7*J/MW

M&-.^rJUv Mercur, Utah, June 24, 1902.

Mercur, June 26, 1902, two and one-half hours after the start of the disastrous fire.

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

A. R. Mortensen, Editor

UTAH

STATE

VOLUME

HISTORICAL

XXIX,

NUMBER

SOCIETY

I

January, 1961

Copyright 1961, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah Entered as second-class matter January 5,1953, at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of August 24,1912.

STATEMENT REQUIRED BY T H E A C T OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AS AMENDED BY T H E ACTS O F MARCH

3,

1933, JULY

2,

1946 AND JUNE

1 1 , 1960

(74

Stat.

SHOWING THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION OF T H E Utah

208)

Histori-

cal Quarterly published quarterly (January, April, July, October) at Salt Lake City, Utah, by the Utah State Historical Society, A. R. Mortensen, editor, Iris Scott, business manager. The Utah State Historical Society is an agency of government of the State of Utah, located at 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Signed and sworn statement by A. R. MORTENSEN, editor.

CONTENTS Utah and the Depression

Mormonism's The

of the 1890's, BY LEONARD J . ARRINGTON

First Foothold

in the Pacific

3

Northwest,

BY WILLIAM B. SMART

21'

Ghost

33

of Mercur,

BY DOUGLAS D. ALDER

State Action in Relation to Preservation of Historical in the Expanding West, BY C. J . OLSEN Archives

Past and Future,

Resources 45

BY EVERETT L. COOLEY

Discourse by President Brigham Young Delivered Great Salt Lake City, August 4,1867,

57

in the

Bowery,

EDITED BY G. HOMER DURHAM

Reviews

and Recent

FURNISS, The

63

Publications

Mormon

Conflict,

HAFEN AND H A F E N , Fremont's

1850-1859,

Fourth

BY J U A N I T A BROOKS. . .

Expedition,

BY ROBERT V. H I N E

NUNIS, Andrew Sublette, Rocky Mountain Prince, 1808-1853, BY LE ROY R. HAFEN FROST, Notes on General Ashley the Overland Trail and South

PaSS, BY DAVID E. MILLER

HOMSHER. South Pass, 1858: James Chisholm's journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush, BY T. A. LARSON MAY, fames Strang's Ancient and Modem Michilimackinac, Including an Account of the Controvesry between Mackinac

and the Mormons,

BY M . WILFORD POULSON

Other Publications Historical

77 80

81 82

83

85

86

Notes

91

ILLUSTRATIONS George Q. Cannon,

President

Wilford

Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith

2

Tithing Scrip 8 Saltair Pavilion 13 Pioneer Electric Power Plant; Cottonwood Canyon Power Plant; Lehi Sugar Factory 15 Portland, Oregon, Front Street, in 1852 20 Early Day Mormon Missionaries 24 Mercur Business District 32 Methodist Church Choir of Mercur; Mercur Volunteer Fire Department 38 C. f. Olsen 44 Camp Floyd Cemetery 50 Brigham Young Home in St. George; facob Hamblin Home at Santa Clara 53 East South Temple in the 1860's 62 Panorama of Salt Lake City in the 1860's 64, 65 John Kitchen Ranch; Petrified Wood in the Circle Cliffs 90 Chase Home in Centerville 93

e First Presidency of the L. D. S. urch, 1889-1898, organized various remeasures in an important regional eft to stimulate economic activity and raise omes during the depression of 1890.

UTAH

AND T H E D E P R E S S I O N OF T H E 1 8 9 0 ' s

By Leonard f. Arrington*

The depression of the 1890's, sometimes called the Cleveland depression, was one of the most severe in United States history, and undoubtedly the gravest economic debacle in nineteenth-century America.1 Approximately one-fifth of the nation's nonagricultural work force was unemployed, more than 800 banks failed, and by 1894 some 156 railroad companies with a capitalization of $2.5 billion and 30,000 miles of track were in the hands of receivers. The disastrous Panic of 1893, which was both cause and effect of the business failure, produced a precipitous decline in die stock market, amounting to 15 points during the first day of the Panic (May 5, 1893), a drop of 64 per cent in new stock issues, a decline in bank-clearings by almost one-third, and a 50 per cent increase in business failures. More than one-sixth of the nation's railroads went into bankruptcy in the single year 1893. Many * Dr. Arrington is professor of economics, Utah State University, Logan. Research for this article was carried out under a grant from the Utah State University Research Council.

1 T h e best brief account of the depression is in Charles Hoffmann, "The Depression of the Nineties," Journal of Economic History, XVI (June, 1956), 137-64. The effects are described in Samuel Rezneck, "Unemployment, Unrest, and Relief in the United States during the Depression of 1893-97," Journal of Political Economy, LXI (August, 1953), 3 2 4 - 2 5 . See also Rendigs Fels, American Business Cycles, 1865-1897 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 179-219. I have borrowed heavily from all three analyses.

4

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

iron and steel companies suffered a similar fate. Financial panic spread as die nation's gold supply dwindled with the export and repatriation of gold by foreign capitalists no longer willing to risk their capital in an unsafe economy. Labor unrest increased as wage cuts were applied, and strikes shut down a number of basic industries. More important, perhaps, prices declined from an index of 120 in 1882 and 80 in 1890, to an index of 50 in 1896. Particularly acute was the drop in farm prices and income, which reached the lowest level in three decades. The national economy did not fully recover from the depression until after 1900. Apparently, the celebrated "Gay Nineties" were not really so gay after all!

Grave depressions of this character are usually an outgrowth of declines in investment, and the contraction of the 1890's was no exception. New railroad construction, which had contributed substantially to the boom of the late eighties, dropped from 4,584 miles in 1892 to 1,938 miles in 1895 — a decline of almost 60 per cent. There was a sharp reduction in the output of steel rails, and orders of railroad rolling stock (locomotives, freight, and passenger cars) fell off in like proportion. In the field of manufacturing, the output of producer's durable equipment declined 25 per cent between 1892 and 1894, and did not regain the earlier level until 1899. The drop in farm prices and income occasioned a particularly sharp drop in purchases of new farm equipment. Above all, there began a long decline in residential, industrial, and agricultural building construction, which was the nation's largest investment goods industry. Building activity dropped 60 per cent during the financial panic from May to October, 1893, and did not significantly expand again until 1904.

All of this, of course, produced a decline in wage earnings, spreading unemployment, lowering of levels of consumption, and widespread suffering and distress. Nevertheless, the attitude of die federal government was essentially one of laissez faire. Proposals for federal public works projects, for example, faced a cold reception. The convention of the American Federation of Labor called for an issue of $500,000,000 in paper money for this purpose, but the only outcome was a dramatic but completely unsuccessful "march on Washington" in the spring of 1894, led by Jacob Coxey of Ohio, to petition Congress for that sum to be spent on the construction of roads. It was clear that "people of substance" — the people with property — were opposed to such "interference" by the federal government with the private economy of the nation, and in this they were supported by respected

DEPRESSION

OF

THE

18 9 0'S

5

economists who declared that the only safe course was to rely on the automatic, harmonious, and benevolent laws of supply and demand.

Thus, the nation's economy drifted on until private investment was stimulated sufficiently by the eventual appearance of opportunities for profit to absorb the unemployed. Only when its own supply of gold declined to $42,000,000 did the federal government take desperate action, and this consisted essentially of inducing an international syndicate of bankers, led by J. P. Morgan and Company, and August Belmont and Company representing the Rothschilds, to furnish the government with $65,000,000 in gold, half to come from Europe. The syndicate was remarkably successful: gold exports stopped, and the price of government bonds rose sharply.

It devolved upon municipalities and private charities to alleviate the mounting distress by programs of relief, and even this was not extensive because of the strongly-held opinion that out-and-out relief destroyed character by accustoming the laboring classes to getting something for nothing. Some cities set up soup kitchens and bread lines; others required labor in the public parks or on the streets as a condition for relief.

The distress in the nation was accentuated in Utah, for Utah's economy in the 1890's depended upon agriculture, mining, and transportation, all three of which were marginal to the national economy and accordingly suffered heavy cutbacks with the onset of the depression. As elsewhere in the nation, farm income dropped heavily. Utah wheat, for example, came to sell for as little as 30 cents a bushel. A reporter for the Deseret News traveling through Cache Valley in July, 1896, wrote: "Money is scarce among the masses of the people, and the prevailing price of wheat, from 35 to 40 cents per bushel, dampens the ardor of the farmers." 2 Similarly, the construction of railroads which had sparkplugged Utah's speculative "boom" of the eighties slowed to a halt. But the most serious problem was the shutting down of the mines. The production of silver dropped from 8,750,000 fine ounces in 1891 to 5,891,901 fine ounces in 1894 — a decline of 33 per cent. Copper dropped from 2,209,428 pounds in 1892 to 1,147,470 pounds in 1894 — a decline of 48 per cent. And the production of salt dropped from 180,946 short tons in 1892 to 15,200 short tons in 1893 — for a decline of almost 92 per cent!3 'Deseret Weekly (Salt Lake City), July 11, 1896, p. 112.

"Measures of Economic Changes in Utah, 1847—1947" in Utah Economic and Business Review, VII (December, 1947), 68, 70.

3

6

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The problem in Utah was rendered still more serious by heavy population increases in that and preceding decades, caused by high birth rates and heavy immigration. Utah's population rose from 144,000 in 1880 to 277,000 in 1900. Apostle Abraham H . Cannon estimated in 1893 that there were 60,000 children in Utah for whom jobs would soon have to be provided.4 Indeed, thousands of them were already grown up and looking for work but could find neither land for farming nor employment in industry. According to one report, 4,347 of the 9,000 laboring men in Salt Lake City were out of work in the spring of 1894.5 The Deseret News, which doubted the accuracy of this figure, nevertheless agreed that the proportion of unemployed and underemployed was dangerously high.

Contemporary newspaper editorials and feature articles, letters to the editors, diaries, sermons of religious leaders, and financial journals all furnish evidence of the seriousness of the Cleveland depression in Utah. Even in 1898 when the rest of the nation had pretty well recovered from the depression, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having heard there were 1,000 persons in Salt Lake City out of work, was urging Utah boys to volunteer for the Cuban War, partly of course to show the patriotism of the Mormons, but also partly, they said, to help solve the problem of unemployment. As if to reinforce that they meant it, Mormon church employees were promised half of their regular pay during their military service if they would volunteer.6 What measures were taken in Utah to counteract the slump and relieve distress? There were occasional proposals for territorial intervention, as for example the suggestion of Jeremiah W. Sanborn, president of the then Agricultural College of Utah, now Utah State University. In his quarterly report to the Board of Trustees, on December 22, 1893, President Sanborn recommended that the territory proceed immediately to the construction of the center building, or what is now the center section of Old Main, to provide much needed facilities: I may say [he explained] that it has been the policy of strong rulers in hard times, notably the French emperors, to make great public improvements. * Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, September 2, 1893, p. 12, in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah. " Deseret News (Salt Lake City), March 2, 1894.

"Journal History of the Church (hereafter referred to as JH), January 13 1898' Deseret News, April 28, 30, 1898.

DEPRESSION

OF T H E

1890'S

7

This policy is the sound and only true policy. All the necessities of the state in the way of improvements should be put in when the people are not occupied, as it will then aid in keeping those needing labor quiet and contented, as a State should do when it can properly. At such times improvements can be done at less cost. For the state to build when its own children, wealth producers, are all occupied is to build at the highest cost and fail to serve itself at an opportune time, for the idle labor in bad times is so much energy lost to the State. The State may then at its leisure meet the obligations made in hard times. 7 Despite some suggestions of this character, however, Utah citizens appear to have relied primarily upon officials of the dominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to handle the problems of relief.

While Latter-day Saints accepted a laissez faire role on the part of the national, territorial, and city governments, they believed in active supervision of their affairs by their church. Less than a month prior to the commencement of the 1893 Panic this philosophy had been reasserted with unforgettable poignancy in a special prayer circle of 115 leading Mormon officials in the newly-completed Salt Lake Temple. After the leaders had accepted of the temple and affirmed their faith in church leadership, the aged president of the L.D.S. Church, Wilford Woodruff, said: You acknowledge that the Presidency of the Church are set to govern and control the affairs of the Church and Kingdom of God. . . . I hope from this time henceforth, whenever you see that spirit manifest that the Presidency of the Church have no power to govern or teach anybody except to preach the gospel, you will remember that you have all testified to the truth that upon their shoulders rest the responsibility of teaching, governing, controlling and counselling the Church and Kingdom of God in all things on earth.

Then President Joseph F . Smith said: You have each expressed yourselves individually to the effect that you acknowledge the right of the First Presidency to direct in all affairs pertaining to the work of God, also that you accept the First Presidency and their teachings in this Holy House.

H e asked those present who "stood by those positions" to raise their right hand. T h e vote was unanimous. 8 7 Report of President J. W. Sanborn, December 22, 1893, in "Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College of Utah," MS, Vol. I, 1888-1900, pp. 164-65. s Diary of L. John Nuttall, April 19, 1893, MS, in Brigham Young University Library,

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

\^-*$%<£&^%^^ mfiM . .t„iiise

m BISHOP'S QE^IERALSTOREHQUS S A L T LAKE CITY UTAH

lt\ One of the measures adopted by the church tithing office to combat the effects of the depression and to increase the circulating medium was the issuance of tithing scrip redeemable at the Bishop's Storehouses, and duly backed by meat, produce, and other items contributed as tithing.

t*

Ibis is not intended to be used as ^ o n e y j ' ^ ^ l k | H IS WHITING *»NESSETH THAT Tftg

.*/

,1

7i7f

PRODUCED MERCHANDISE TO THE A M O U N T

fl'.»

'-£2&T

OF

40££ft£3. •$«»>

JAIT [ Ah E Cl VTMTA H

At.

Date <&*? / ^ f /

\7to7l7

DEPRESSION

OF T H E I 8 9 0 ' S

9

The steps taken by Mormon leaders, far more extensive than is commonly supposed, included moral admonition, stop-gap relief, resettlement or colonization, and the establishment of new industries.

Altogether, these measures amounted to what was perhaps the most important regional effort in the nation to stimulate economic activity and raise incomes. That the effort was not overwhelmingly successful demonstrated the inadequacy of localized effort in the face of spreading and generalized national paralysis.

The church's program, in its genesis, was essentially piecemeal, consisting of specific efforts to solve specific problems; but from the vantage point of 1961 it seems surprisingly comprehensive. The first public concern in the state over the deepening depression was expressed during the winter of 1893-94 and continued to mount during succeeding winters until the winter of 1896-97 when there was alarm at the continuance of the unemployment. At first, there were merely sermons from church officials deploring the "extravagance" of previous years which had led to the situation now confronted, cautions against going into debt, and admonitions to be thrifty and industrious.9 Noting that there were strikes and disturbances elsewhere in the nation, church officials commended their followers for their stable and conservative temperament, and expressed the belief that this would ultimately redound to their benefit.10 Early measures adopted for mitigating the suffering and hardship included the following: 1. Those who could do so were encouraged to leave Salt Lake City and go out into the "country settlements" where there was not so much want, where living was much cheaper, and where they would be in a better position to help themselves.11 2. At the same time, missionaries elsewhere in the United States and in Europe and the South Seas were told to discourage the migration of converts to Utah.12 3. Wards in Salt Lake City arranged for unused real estate to be loaned to the poor for vegetable gardens.13 "Deseret News, August, September, October, 1893.

10 JH, July 9, 1894, p. 2.

11 Ibid., September 2, 1893, May 5, 1895, March 2, 1895, December 12, 1897; Deseret News, September 5, 8, 1893.

12 JH, January 31, October 1, 1896, September 16, 1897, April 6, 1898.

"Deseret News, March 22, 1895.

10

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

4. Wards organized gleaning parties at which those in need went in groups to outlying farms to glean wheat, fruit, and potatoes left by the harvesters.14 5. Members were encouraged to fast one day a month and turn over the food thus saved to the local bishop to be used under his direction to support those in need.15 According to a report at the Salt Lake Stake Conference held on March 4, 1894, 1,637 persons in Salt Lake were drawing support from the church. One-third of this support came from "fast offerings" and two-thirds from the church's tithing fund, which consisted of contributions from members amounting to one-tenth of ti'ieir net incomes.16 In addition, the Women's Relief Society had a sizeable relief program of its own.

6. Members of the church were urged to raise the level of employment in Utah by giving exclusive patronage to "home" industries â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Utah woolens, boots and shoes, overalls, butter and cheese, soap, and similar products.17 Because of the shortage of cash, Utah factories and stores were encouraged to print due bills as a means of paying their help and facilitating the exchange of goods.18 The church tithing offices contributed to this circulating medium by increasing their issues of tithing scrip, duly backed by meat, produce, and other items contributed as tithing.

The seriousness of the unemployment problem during the winter of 1896-97 led church officials to establish a church employment service, called the "Industrial Employment Bureau" or "Bureau of Information." 19 One of the first such devices in the western United States, this bureau was operated by the Presiding Bishop's Office in Salt Lake City and had branch organizations in each of the wards (parishes) and stakes (dioceses) of the church. There were, of course, no fees or charges. The purpose of the bureau was to provide a clearing house for workmen seeking land or employment and for communities needing settlers, or employers in need of labor. On a printed form, bishops were asked to report members in their wards in search of work, as well "Ibid., August 1, 4, 14, 1894; Deseret Weekly, September 18, 1897, p. 427.

"Deseret News, November 1, 5, 1893, November 17, 1894, March 10, 1894; JH, March 2, 1895.

10

JH, November 5, 1893; Deseret News, March 5, 1894, March 4, 1895.

JH, September 2, October 15, 1893; Deseret News, November 12, 1893, November 16, 1894. '"Deseret News, September 16, 1893, October 9, 1894.

18 "Industrial Bureau Minute Book," MS, Church Historian's Office; JH, April 7, 22, 28, August 28, September 11, 25, 1897; Deseret News, August 7, November 20, 1897.

17

DEPRESSION

OF THE

I890'S

II

as opportunities for employment in their wards. T h e information in these reports was regularly published in the Deseret News which went to nearly every household in the region. In this way hundreds of farmers, mechanics, and professional persons were provided with remunerative employment, and outlying communities were provided with sawmills, creameries, blacksmiths, shoemakers, carpenters, and schoolteachers.

T h e bulletins published each week in the News usually began with some such statement as the following: Industrial Bureau. Here is something of interest to die u lemployed who really want to work. Where they can get it and from whom, from Idaho to Arizona. 20 T h e "opportunities" were organized under four headings: 2 1 (1) Farms to rent and farm labor wanted; (2) Industrial plants wanted; (3) Mechanics; (4) Opportunities for settlers.

T h e bulletin in the Deseret Weekly for September 4, 1897, for example, lists four farms available for half of the crop; seven opportunities for shoemakers, some with tools and shop furnished; eleven openings for blacksmiths, in some of which the potential customers would furnish tools and shop and city lot free of charge; one dressmaker, two masons, four carpenters, one tinner, and nineteen schoolteachers. There were also opportunities to acquire farms at seventeen different places, for prices of $5.00 per acre and up.

D u r i n g the twenty-six months the bulletin was published the following plants were advertised for in the bulletin: starch factory, flour mills, roller mills, saw mills, dairy, creamery, wool scouring plants, pottery, and general merchandise store. 22 Apparently some of these advertisements met with success. For example, the following in the News for January 14, 1898: In several recent issues of the News, in the column devoted to the use of the Industrial Bureau, has appeared a statement to the effect that the town of St. 20

Deseret News, June 25, 1898.

Ibid., May 2 1 , 1898.

22 T h e Deseret Weekly for March 5, 1898, comments editorially on the need for a wool scouring plant at Coalville, which is "in the center of a region in which vast n u m bers of sheep are sheared each spring"; a pottery at Wanship, where there is "plenty of clay"; a roller mill at Preston â&#x20AC;&#x201D; "one of the most thrifty, prosperous and promising towns in the intermountain country . . . in the center of an extensive region where great quantities of wheat are raised and which dry farming is being made a huge success, and is the terminus of a branch of the Oregon Short Line railroad"; and a creamery at Cambridge, in Marsh Valley, Idaho, a valley which is "ideal for cows."

11

12

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Charles, Bear Lake County, Idaho, offered inducements for a sawmill and a dairy. A late communication from Bishop E. C. Keetch of that place to this paper contains the gratifying intelligence that plants of the kinds named are about to be established there, and that the statement that they are wanted need no longer be published . . . .

In the months of 1899 the list grows shorter and shorter, and the last issue in which the bulletin was published was October 28, 1899.

Apparently, by that time the problem of unemployment was no longer serious. T h e bureau was later resurrected by Bishop Charles W . Nibley in this century under the name "Deseret Employment Agency," and apparently functioned effectively for a number of years.

While the employment agency facilitated the reemployment and resettlement of many persons on an individualistic basis, thus alleviating particular distress, a far more important program of group colonization was inaugurated in 1896 and continued until 1904. T h e program was directed by a "Colonization Committee," consisting of two members of the Council of Twelve Apostles of the L.D.S. Church: John Henry Smith and Abraham O. Woodruff. Under their supervision, and with the assistance of the church, colonies were established or expanded in Millard County, Utah; White Pine County, Nevada; Upper Snake River Valley, Idaho; Big H o r n Basin and Star Valley, Wyoming; southern Alberta, Canada; and in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Pressure was also exerted, with eventual success, to open the Uintah Reservation in eastern Utah to settlement by white men. One is inclined to regard Brigham Young as the great Mormon colonizer, and with good reason, but this should not lead us to suppose that there was not much colonization after his death in 1877. T h e number of people involved marks the period 1896-1904 as one of the most intense colonization efforts in Mormon history. 23 Moral admonition, temporary aid and relief, employment bureau, and colonization, of course, did not really solve the employment problem. In many ways, these measures simply redistributed the suffering by arranging for the great mass of the people to share the burden of distress with the unemployed. More positive action was required to save existing firms in financial distress and to establish new industries which would build up the income potential of the region. Industries singled out for special assistance and development included beet sugar, 23

1900.

See JH, July 28, October 8, 1898, January 19, March 30, July 9, 1899, Januaryy 23 '

DEPRESSION

OF

THE

13

I 8 9 0'S

salt, hydroelectric power, and a number of other ambitious but less successful ventures.

Sugar. T h e Utah Sugar Company had been incorporated in 1889 in order, in the words of the First Presidency, to "provide labor for hundreds, save the outgo of a very large amount annually, and yield a good profit to investors. . . ." W i t h the financial support of the church a $400,000 factory was built at Lehi, Utah, in 1891. " W e began to feel," said President Joseph F . Smith, "that there was a responsibility resting upon us which required something to be done, in a small way at least, in the direction of giving employment to our people." 2i T h e financial condition of the infant company, however, was endangered by the onset of the depression. T h e church found it necessary to hold or endorse a total of $325,000 of the company's notes, which were later redeemed with the proceeds of $400,000 worth of first mortgage bonds, backed by the church and sold to a rubber magnate of Providence, Rhode Island, Joseph Banigan. 25 George Q. Can* Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), March 27, 1889, December 16, 1893.

25 The financial transaction is detailed in Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), 389-91.

The Saltair Pavilion, long a landmark on the Great Salt Lake, was constructed in 1893 as part of the plan to ease the unemployment problem and build up new industries in an effort to increase the economic potential.

iTlTiTil hi""i ' ' M n'i I .

I it I h I

'

14

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

non, who represented the church in this and other negotiations, stated that he emphasized to Banigan and other eastern investors the integrity, industry, and thrift of the Latter-day Saints: I have endeavored [said Cannon] to create the impression that in the mountains there was a conservative element that could be relied upon in the days of trouble. They would not organize into mobs, they would not raise riots, they would not be carried away by the ridiculous ideas which find circulation from time to time throughout the country; but in days when other people would be quaking and trembling, and perhaps breaking forth in riot, they could be relied upon as conservative and stable. . . . I have also called attention to the fact that we were a people who were true to our engagements; that when we created an obligation that obligation would be maintained, and that our country was not plastered with mortgages, as many parts of the land were.26 With this and other financial assistance, not to mention the high duties of the McKinley Tariff, the company began to prosper. By 1899, the Lehi factory employed more than one hundred hands and provided income to more than six hundred farmers. In that year the company doubled the capacity of the Lehi plant, and in succeeding years erected a million dollar factory at Garland, Utah. At the same time, private companies built plants at Ogden, Logan, and Lewiston, Utah, and at Idaho Falls, Sugar City, Blackfoot, and N a m p a , Idaho. In 1907 most of these plants were united under a $13,000,000 church-controlled enterprise known as the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company.

Salt. Conscious of the opportunities for employment presented by development of the resources of the Great Salt Lake shoreline, church officials combined with private interests in the early 1890's to build a salt refinery, a swimming resort, and a railroad to connect it all with Salt Lake City. There resulted the Inland Crystal Salt Company, the Intermountain Salt Works, the Saltair bathing palace, and the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railroad (later the Salt Lake, Garfield, and Western). Total investment in these enterprises in the 1890's approached $1,000,000. One of them, the Saltair Pavilion constructed in 1893, was very nearly a church make-work project. 27 Hydroelectric power. An equally important endeavor to the resources of the region and raise the level of income and ment in the 1890's was the Pioneer Electric Power project at Utah. Under church auspices a company was organized in 20 27

Deseret Evening News, August 26, 1893.

Arrington, op. cit., 391-93.

develop employOgden, 1893 to

ft*

'.-.",*:.•'

An early picture of the Pioneer Electric Power Plant at Ogden.

The power plant in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake City.

Lehi Sugar Factory, Lehi, Utah, main plant of the Utah Sugar Company.

:

7:,.. , ,..,:,.,....

MB 1 1 1 -7 i _

i

Ke<

h

tt'TlL

* II * ' J|B*§

11

:

ftmm,. ' %-M

I 11 1

K m K 1

" l ,: ?:|-' •'-'Y^S^SK^..:

A nmllllMII

16

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

build a dam across Ogden River, in Ogden Canyon, about ten miles east of Ogden, to create a huge reservoir of water for power, culinary, and irrigation purposes. The eventual aim was to provide power for the city of Ogden, for the use of electric railways in Ogden and Salt Lake City, and for a sugar beet factory yet to be erected. A closely related objective was die provision of irrigation water for some 20,000 acres of arid land in the northwestern part of Weber Valley thought to be peculiarly adapted to the culture of sugar beets.

Under the active direction of the church First Presidency, and with their financial assistance, initial developmental work was carried out in 1893, 1894, and 1895. The site for the dam was located, a contract was let to manufacture and lay the water pipe, and the land to be irrigated was settled.

In the meantime, church agents located a New York broker by the name of George A. Purbeck who was willing to market $1,250,000 in securities for this and other Utah enterprises through his connections in New York, Boston, London, Paris, and Amsterdam. "I have felt," wrote President Woodruff in his diary, "that the Lord has raised up that man to assist us in our temporal deliverance." 28 But it became clear that Mr. Purbeck's primary interest was promotional profits, not economic development, and the deepening national financial crisis rendered it progressively more difficult to sell the securities. Eventually, that "angel" of the beet sugar company, Joseph Banigan, agreed in 1895 to invest $1,500,000 in the Ogden project, provided the bonds were "unconditionally and absolutely guaranteed" by the First Presidency and the church. "It is only my absolute confidence in the . . . honest character of your people which promptfs] me to make an offer," said Mr. Banigan.29 By 1897 the Union Light & Power Company, as the enterprise was now called, was thought by Utah people to be the most extensive and complete system for the distribution of electrical energy and power over a wide area in the nation. Its system, capitalized at almost $5,000,000, embraced both the Salt Lake and Weber valleys, with 200 miles of overhead line construction. The company obtained power from the Ogden River, Big Cottonwood River southeast of Salt Lake City, and from two steam plants in Salt Lake City and one in Ogden. In addition, the company distributed natural gas from wells near Salt Lake City, and manufactured and distributed coal gas in Salt Lake 28 !B

Diary of Wilford Woodruff, May 17, 1894, MS, in Church Historian's Office.

Arrington, op. cit., 394-99.

DEPRESSION

OF

THE

1890'S

17

City and Ogden. Its enterprises were taken over in this century by the Utah Power and Light Company.

T h e sugar, salt, and power enterprises were only the most successful of many ventures sponsored by Mormon authorities during the depression of the 1890's to develop resources, generate income, and increase employment. T h e most significant abortive efforts contemplated exploitation of coal resources at Coalville, Utah, coal and iron mines at Cedar City, the construction of a belt-line railroad around Salt Lake City, and of a direct line from Salt Lake to Los Angeles. 30 In these and other cases, corporations were formed, capital was solicited in the East, and developmental and surveying work was financed by the church. At one point, plans were well advanced for a huge Utah development scheme which would have cost $75,000,000. T h e deteriorating financial position of the church, the continuing national financial crisis, and the death of the church's chief entrepreneur, Abraham H . Cannon, prevented the consummation of this gigantic scheme.

Had the Latter-day Saints observed the instructions of God [stated Mr. Cannon at the time that these plans were being developed] there would not now be poor and unemployed in our midst . . . . It was not only the duty of those in authority in Zion to attend meetings and look after the spiritual welfare of the people, but also to see that their temporal wants were complied with; men and women who were cold and hungry could not worship God as they should do.

In a prophetic vein, he concluded: If our Utah people do not awaken to the situation, one of these days, after their Rip Van Winkle sleep, they will peep out and see all these valuable resources taken up and operated by outsiders. Eastern capitalists and foreign capital will do for us what we ought to unite and do for ourselves. We may be sure we will have to pay dearly for our privileges.31 In summing up the attempts made in Utah to counteract the depression of the 1890's, three observations seem appropriate: First, church and Utah business leaders seemed to be quite willing to borrow to the limit of possibility, and invest for the purpose of counteracting the adverse trend of business in the region. Deficit finance was part of a calculated church policy until Lorenzo Snow succeeded to the office of church president in 1898.

Second, although there are no figures on which to base a conclusion, it is probable that the efforts of church officials did mitigate the 30

Ibid., 399-400.

"History of Utah Stake," April 15, 1894, MS in Church Historian's Office; Deseret Weekly, April 4, 1896, p. 492.

31

18

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

effects of the depression in Utah. T h e Deseret News was inclined to gloss over the difficulties too easily, but had some justification for saying, as it did in 1897: For the last four years Utah has been better off financially than almost any neighboring state. Her banks and commercial institutions have stood the strain of the panic of 1893 and the subsequent hard times better than have those of most of the other far western states, while actual distress among her people, on account of poverty, has been almost unknown. Nearly everywhere else in the West there has been a more or less complete stoppage of the development of local resources and enterprises, and public improvements generally have been postponed indefinitely.

But in Utah, when the pressure of the panic was at its height, several great enterprises were being steadily pushed. This is especially true of the gigantic scheme of the Pioneer Power Dam company at Ogden, the Big Cottonwood Power company of this city, and the extension of the Rio Grande Western railway system in the southern part of this state, to say nothing of the vast amount of work and money that have been devoted to the development of our mineral wealth since the panic fell upon the country. When financial conditions in most of the other states, this last four years, are considered, the progress Utah has made in that time is surprising.3Finally, the extensive activities of the church in the field of business led to renewed fears on the part of free enterprising businessmen that the church sought control of the resources of the region. On the basis of the evidence, it now appears that the church's primary interest was expansion and development, rather than monopoly, but non-Mormon business interests at the time were not convinced that this was so. Noting their suspicions and opposition, the leading Mormon paper complained that when prominent churchmen saw fit to "engage in some enterprise, as a railroad, manufactory, and irrigation or electric power plant, etc., whispers begin to be circulated that the 'Mormon Church is behind it,' and die inference is conveyed that some sinister purpose is sought to be accomplished." 33 Whether justified or not, this negative reaction of non-Mormon business interests was sufficiently strong and contagious to crystallize sentiment against Mormon Church economic activity. There resulted the senatorial investigations in connection with the trial of Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot in 1904-7. Pressure was exerted to induce the church to dispose of its economic properties and get out of business. By then, however, the depression of the 1890's was a matter of history, and the expansive forces of the twentieth century seemed to make unnecessary church stimulation of economic activity. ''"Deseret News, February 26, 1897.

"Ibid., January 10, 1898.

nt Street, Portland, Oregon, in 1852. ?firstMormon missionaries to reach the •n arrived there in 1857, but were not irably received by the inhabitants.

M O R M O N I S M ' S F I R S T FOOTHOLD IN T H E P A C I F I C N O R T H W E S T

By William B. Smart*

Oregon, that rich mosaic of bustling cities, stately firs, odorous fishing ports clinging to a craggy coastline, golden wheatlands sweeping toward distant, snow-capped mountains, has recently finished its first century of statehood.

Celebrating the event with their fellow Oregonians were no fewer than 32,500 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Organized into seven stakes, they own sixty-two handsome chapels and a 373-acre welfare farm. Portland is the headquarters of one of the church's most successful missions. The missionaries find ready ears in that beautiful green land, partly because so many members of the church are highly-respected— in some cases distinguished — members of their communities.

But it was not always this way. Mormonism never had an easy time in its early days, and Oregon was no exception. There was a day, a century and more ago, when mobbings, rotten eggs, threats of death — all the hazards of early missionary life — were used with enthusiasm by Oregon's stalwart but suspicious early settlers as they battled to determine what kind of society theirs would become.

The Pacific Northwest, in fact, is a classic case study of the church's growth — from early suspicion and violent opposidon by good men * Mr. Smart is chief editorial writer for the Deseret News, Salt Lake City.

22

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

and women who did not understand, to gradual tolerance, and finally to warm acceptance by their descendants.

Oregon at one time seemed marked for an even bigger role in the early drama of the church. How close it, instead of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, came to being the goal of the great Mormon pioneer exodus might never be fully understood.

The story of Mormonism in Oregon falls into two separate periods.

The second period — the one known to history — began in 1887. In that year David C. Eccles built a tiny sawmill on the North Powder River in eastern Oregon and invited his fellow church members to settle around him. From that beginning, die Northwestern States Mission was organized in 1898 and the Union Stake in 1901. Since that time the church has enjoyed steady expansion in the Pacific Northwest.

But there was an earlier, considerably less successful beginning, known today only in yellowed Oregon newspaper files and in a longforgotten missionary journal. That beginning tells a classic story of early struggles that stand in sharp contrast to later successes.

Mormon attention early turned to the fabled fertility of the Oregon Territory. As early as 1839, when Joseph Smith went to the nation's capital seeking justice and protection (and was told by President Van Buren: "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you . . ."), Henry Clay tersely told him, "You had better go to Oregon."

Five years later, when the Oregon boundary was the subject of a seething political issue and of a ringing, chauvinistic slogan — "Fiftyfour forty or fight" — Joseph Smith showed clearly where the church stood. He presented a petition offering to raise a "company of one hundred thousand armed volunteers . . . to protect inhabitants of Oregon from foreign aggressors" as well as to help deliver Texas.1 Congress refused to listen to that petition. Nor did an offer to help build a series of stockade forts on the route to Oregon get a kinder reception, despite a declaration of the High Council in Nauvoo that: . . . under our peculiar circumstances, we can do it with less expense to the government than any other people. We also further declare . . . that our patriotism has not been overcome by fire, by sword, nor by assassination. . . . Should hostilities arise between the government of the United States and any other power, in relation to the right of possessing the territory of Oregon, we are on hand to sustain the claims of the United States Government to that country.2 1 Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, March 30, 1844, in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.

2 Ibid., April 25, 1844.

MORMONISM

IN

THE

PACIFIC

NORTHWEST

23

About that time, in the spring of 1844, Orson Pratt and John E. Page were sent to Washington to present the two proposals. Pratt's report, mailed to Joseph Smith on April 25, 1844, tersely summarized the prospects of the church's moving to Oregon: Oregon is becoming a popular question . . . the fever of emigration begins to rage; if the Mormons become the early majority, others will not come; if the Mormons do not become an early majority, the others will not allow us to come.3 A Mormon exodus to Oregon was not to be. Congress gave no help. T h e exploring company Joseph Smith had appointed to search Oregon and California for a location "where we can build a city in a day" never got started. T w o months later, Joseph himself was dead, the victim of assassins' bullets. In the confusion, the Oregon project was lost.

It never reappeared, but a sort of sister plan did. In England, in November, 1846, hardly five months after the Oregon boundary had been fixed at the 49th (not at 54^10) parallel, British church members sent to Queen Victoria a petition measuring 168 feet and containing 13,000 signatures. T h e members asked H e r Majesty's help in sending Mormon emigrants to Vancouver Island, off what was then the Oregon coast, pointing out that Americans were moving rapidly into the Pacific Northwest. T h e petition suggested: "Will not your Majesty look well to British interests in those regions, and adopt timely and precautionary measures to maintain a balance of power in that quarter . . . ? " * Some report of the movement under way in England may have reached the ears of the Quincy (Illinois) Whig which carried a report, reprinted by the Oregon Spectator, that: Nootka or Vancouver Island . . . we have it from good authority, is to be the final destination and home of the Mormon people . . . . The English . . . have one or two trading posts on the island but for the most part it is inhabited by Indians . . . it is a long journey but can be accomplished. . . . If the Mormons do emigrate to that distant land, they will be out of the reach of . . . white men, and may enjoy their peculiar notions . . . until the devil breeds his own discords and confusions among them.

T a k i n g an increasingly anxious air over the possibility of a mass Mormon migration to Oregon, the Spectator reported in August, 1846, 3

Ibid. * Latter-Day

Saints' Millennial

Star (Liverpool, March 1, 1847).

24

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the arrival at the Sandwich Islands of the sailing ship Brooklyn with its cargo of Mormons, and added that "an immense emigration of Mormons . . . exceeding twenty-five thousand in number, are to set out in May from Illinois and Missouri, bound . . . to the southern part of this territory."

Doubtless, this anxiety was caused chiefly by Sam Brannan, leader of the Brooklyn group, who, shortly before the ship sailed from New York, announced to the saints, "I declare to all that you are not going to California but Oregon, and that my information is official." 5 He confirmed his intentions in a letter to Brigham Young, stating, "When I sail, which will be next Saturday at 1 o'clock, I shall hoist a flag with Oregon on it." 6 In the summer of 1846 the Spectator reported the invasion was on its way. The advance party of a large group of emigrants which reached Oregon City over the Barlow road late in August announced that "between 500 and 600 waggons accompanied with Mormons = Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 12, 1846, in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah. ° Ibid., letter of Brannan to Young, January 26, 1846.

These two Mormon missionaries are typical of those in the early days who traveled without "purse or scrip" to carry their message to the world.

MORMONISM

IN

THE

PACIFIC

NORTHWEST

25

crossed the river at St. Joseph, bound for Oregon . . . it is presumed that they will not arrive here this season."

They didn't reach Oregon, of course, that season or any other.

Their leaders were inspired with different ideas, ideas that involved carving a great empire out of a desert instead of out of Oregon's fertile greenness.

By the 1850's, the Mormons were busy building their own Territory of Deseret, and the Oregon pioneers were equally busy preparing for statehood. But even though no Mormon invasion threatened, the Oregon press still kept very much aware of what was going on among their neighbors to the south. Oregon editors during this period developed a free-swinging, name-calling tradition of personal vituperation that gave the name "Oregon Journalism" to this sort of writing wherever it appeared. N o t least among the epithets hurled at each other by Oregon editors during the decade 1845-55 was that of "Mormon." This despite the fact that one early editor, Asahel Bush, reported in his Oregon Statesman (April 13, 1852) that he did not "know of a single Mormon . . . within the limits of our territory . . . Mormonism is as foreign to Oregon affairs as is Mohammedanism."

Apparently some of the politicians in the territorial legislature were determined to keep things that way. T h e Statesman on December 26, 1854, recorded legislative proceedings to the effect that: Council bill to prevent negroes and mulattoes from coming to and residing in Oregon was read.

Mr. Logan offered an amendment to include Chinese. . . .

Various other amendments were offered — one to include Brigham Young and the Mormons — another to include the know-nothings and the natural know-nothings — another half-breeds . . and still another, and a crowning amendment, was offered to embrace skunks.

T h e bill was tabled. N o such legislation ever found space in Oregon statute books — possibly thanks to the penetrating humor of the frontier that led to that last amendment.

Finally, in 1857, the long-feared Mormon "invasion" of Oregon actually materialized. It consisted of exactly four men, missionaries, unarmed, and, indeed, "without purse or scrip." They were Silas G Higgins, Lorenzo F . H a r m o n , John H . Winslow, and David M. Stuart. Elder Stuart was the leader. Their calling, as reported by the Western Standard, was to "open the gospel dispensation in Oregon."

T h e group reached Oregon on May 9, 1857, aboard the schooner Columbia from San Francisco. Sailing up the Columbia River to St.

26

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Helens, they soon learned the gospel dispensation had already been opened. A missionary had been there earlier, as the elders learned in a manner calculated to dispel any hopes they may have held about receiving a welcome reception in Oregon. Mrs. Bodwell, wife of the hotelkeeper at whose place the missionaries had stopped, refused to serve them when she learned who they were. She remembered a John Hughes had stayed there two years earlier and had been run out of the country by a mob when he attempted to preach.

Despite this warning, the elders were able to preach peacefully in St. Helens. They then crossed the Columbia to Clark County, Washington Territory, where they found a group of church members who had been baptized by Hughes in 1855. The saints reported they had not met for over a year because of opposition. No record of an Elder Hughes seems to exist, either in the Oregon press or in church archives.

He may not have been a regularly designated missionary. It is noteworthy that Elder Stuart felt it necessary to rebaptize the converts Hughes had left behind.

After reorganizing the "Lewis River Branch" with Daniel W. Gardner at the head, the missionaries separated. Harmon and Winslow continued their labors north of the Columbia while Higgins and Stuart crossed back into Oregon. At Hillsboro, where they preached on June 17, the pattern of opposition which was to plague them throughout their mission appeared. The missionaries were preaching before a full house, Stuart related in his journal,7 when a "Reverend Barton" arose to read a letter from Judge Drummond condemning the Mormons.

Barton then led a mob which drove the missionaries from the town, forbidding them to return under pain of death.

The elders were led by a sympathetic gambler, whose name was never recorded, to the home of a Mr. Simonds, five miles from town, where they spent the night in safety, though Stuart wrote that Mrs. Simonds sat up all night, fearing what might happen with those desperate men in her house.

On the following Sunday, escorted by an armed band of sympathizers, the elders returned to Hillsboro and held services. The meeting ended peacefully, though the congregation was an armed camp with half the group ready to mob the missionaries and the rest prepared to defend them. ' Journal of David M. Stuart, MS in Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.

MORMONISM

IN

THE

PACIFIC

NORTHWEST

27

They next traveled to Portland and were promptly mobbed and egged in one of the town's principal halls. At Oregon City, a large branch of the church was established, with Joseph Tracey presiding.

Moving on up the Willamette to Salem, the pair was again egged, and at that point the Oregon Statesman took up the gauntlet for religious freedom. O n July 28, 1857, the paper editorialized: Elders Stuart and Higgins of the Mormon church preached here on Thursday evening; some boys threw rotten eggs at them and broke up the meeting, though some of our citizens put a stop to the egging, resolved that the Mormons should have a hearing. They preached again on Saturday without molestation.

The disturbance was without excuse . . . the remarks of the speakers were in no way offensive. . . . Freedom of opinion and speech are as much boasted of as are any of our boasted liberties, and they ought to be held as sacred rights. These men have just as much right to preach Mormonism as other men have to preach Universalism, Methodism, Infidelity, &c. If any prefer not to hear them, they have but to stay away.

T h e Statesman found particular pleasure in venting its wrath on T. H . Pearne, editor of the Salem Christian Advocate, who strongly opposed the missionary work. Rev. Pearne called on all decent people to leave the Mormons alone and then, according to the Statesman's account, sneaked in a side room to listen. T h e Statesman blasted that hypocrisy, accusing the Advocate editor of assailing the Mormons purely because it was the popular thing at the time. W h e n Pearne called for a law to prohibit the Mormons from preaching in Oregon, his opponent found material for another editorial. Quoting the Bill of Rights at length, the Statesman reminded one and all on November 3, that one basic principle of American law is that men are punished for committing crime, not for contemplating it.

Virtually nothing is known of the activities of Elders H a r m o n and Winslow in Washington Territory, since neither left journals. However, from Stuart's account, it is apparent their lot was not an easy one.

We preached 150 miles up the Willamette River and were mobbed in every place [he reported]. While we were battling away in Oregon for the gospel's sake, our brethren in Washington were having a hot time. An organized mob . . . ran the Elders out of the country at the point of the bayonet and ordered the saints to renounce Mormonism or leave the country.

T h e echo of these events found its way into die columns of the Oregonian on August 8 in a set of resolutions drawn up by the citizens of Lewis River. Its curious mixture of self-righteous patriotism

28

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

and threat of mob rule is typical of the raw, direct-action spirit of the American frontier.

Our community is now under considerable excitement, owing to the presence of some Salt Lake pirates . . . self-styled Missionaries . . . now lurking about . . . preaching some of the peculiar beauties of Mormonism.

Since the arrival of these hocus pocus actors, the three or four families among us that belong to this order of "earth's rejected" . . . have been revived. . . . Four new converts were caught, three of which have already backslid, while one, a female, who having been assured . . . she was "to become the mother of many nations," sticks with double-geared, steam-concentrated adhesion. If she is to be the mother, who are to be the fathers? . . .

Knowing that Salt Lake Mormonism is treason, we are resolved that men shall not sow the seeds among us. . . . Are Oregon and Washington Territories to have the seeds of this treasonable heresy sown upon their soils? Are we the sons of revolutionary sires to tamely submit to a lawless banditti? . . . Mormonism is not preached here; it is mere catchtrap deception which accounts for the new conversions....

My patriot brothers, prepare to drive these traitors from our land; maintain the legacy bequeathed to us by our revolutionary fathers! . . . Peaceably warn them to leave our country; if they refuse, force them from it. . . .

Remember our patriot brothers who have fallen at Salt Lake. . . . Remember that these Mormons are resolved upon the overthrow of our government. . . .

Let our motto be: Our country first, our country last, our country always.

No Mormonism or treason among us.

Mormon preachers leave, or take what comes.

This type of opposition, the violence of which fortunately never reached in action the intensity of the words, failed to stop the proselyting movement. In October, 1857, converts were being made in increasing numbers. Stuart reported baptism of sixteen persons in the forks of the Willamette above Eugene, but announced in the Oregon Statesman at the same time that plans were being formulated for the exodus of the saints to Utah.

As a beginning to accomplish diis, Stuart decided to consolidate the saints in one place and left for the Washington Territory to meet H a r m o n and Winslow and bring the church members back. H e found the elders had been driven out, and the saints were afraid to recognize him in public or invite him to their homes. H e wrote: They had all backed out but Sister Louisa A. John [no doubt the "female" referred to in the Lewis River resolutions], who was neither afraid nor ashamed to invite me to her house, although her husband was in sympathy with the mob. I remained there two weeks trying to break the yoke of bondage from the necks of the Saints, but all to no purpose.

MORMONISM

IN

THE

PACIFIC

NORTHWEST

29

W h e n Stuart left the Washington Branch, it quickly disintegrated.

Only Sister John, later to marry a Mr. Bozarth, remained faithful. For forty years she privately held her faith u n d l at last, when the Northwestern States Mission was organized in 1898, she was able to meet again with the saints. She was vividly remembered by the earliest Mormon families that settled in Portland around the turn of the century.

D u r i n g the time the four missionaries were laboring with some success against prejudice and opposition, events were shaping elsewhere that would bring to a close the church's efforts in Oregon. Johnston's Army was marching upon Utah. In answer, Brigham Young issued a call for all scattered outposts of the church to return to Utah and prepare for whatever might come. T h e missionaries answered the call.

They quickly gathered what faithful members they could on the "Coast fork of the Willamit" and prepared for the journey. They were not left undisturbed. Elder Stuart wrote: We were employed in getting an outfit and protecting ourselves and the Saints from mob violence for we were continually beset by wicked men who sought our lives and declared openly that they would drive us from the country if we did not leave. Elder Keyes, the president of the Willamit Branch, had a rifle ball shot through his ax helve, while chopping in the woods alone, by some fiend in ambush. This circumstance gave the Saints a hint to hurry up.

Preparations complete, the exodus was begun March 6, 1858. T h e departure is unrecorded, but an event that occurred shortly after the group set out showed that pioneer Oregon and Mormonism were at odds to the end. O n March 16,1858, the Statesman reported: In obedience to the order of Brigham Young, calling in all the saints . . . all the Mormons in this and Washington Territories, numbering sixty or seventy, have left for Salt Lake. . . . Mr. Bruner, of Josephine County, informs us that he met the train last week, about 20 miles beyond Eugene City, and that they were overtaken by about fifty men, who took from the Mormons two young girls they were taking with them. The mothers of the girls were Mormons and objected to the taking away of their daughters. Mr. Bruner says the discussion between the Mormons and the rescue party was rather rich.

So closed, on this dramatically tragic note, the gospel dispensation in nineteenth-century Oregon. But inevitably, not for long. Time and progress have a way of softening differences and opening understanding. Oregon's land was too good, its people too fundamentally solid and intelligent to allow misunderstanding and suspicion to prevail for long.

30

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The spires of Mormon chapels reaching today into Oregon skies, the contributions being made to Oregon community, business and educational life by thousands of respected, valued Mormons, and the general feeling of co-operation and understanding between Mormons and non-Mormons throughout the entire Pacific Northwest, all testify that when the second beginning was made, four decades after that tragic little exodus to Utah, it found fertile and receptive soil.

~~C^

â&#x20AC;˘ business district of Mercur before the n was destroyed by fire. The flags dis<ed on the buildings, the platform on bandstand, and the festive air of the vd indicate a celebration, probably the rth of July, about 1901.

THE

GHOST

OF

MERCUR

By Douglas D. Alder*

Mercur's magnetic appeal draws a different public in 1961 than her annals show for 1900. Today only an occasional motorist or hiker persists through the parched Manning Canyon1 of the Oquirrh Mountains to the ghost town, at one time Utah's mining mecca. The only present evidence of occupancy is the lazy tinkle of sheep bells. The richest "find" left for discovery, apparently, is a "prospective" topic for a history thesis.

After the first minutes of peering into huge cement tanks, filled with tons of sediment, and kicking rusty pipes, the contemporary "Mercur meanderer" may become perplexed. There appears considerable variety in the age of the ruins, and astute observers may perceive that Mercur's ghost is not one but three!

1870-1893 LEWISTON

To recover artifacts in the present ruins of Mercur, which would date back to die first or 1870 era of the town, would require the aid of an archeologist. For among the hills of the canyon today, the evi* Mr. Alder is a teaching fellow in the department of history, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.

1 U . S. Geological Survey Map names the canyon Manning, but it has also been called Lewiston, after Lewiston Peak at the head of the canyon.

34

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

dences of the two later periods are far more predominant. But the strike that opened the canyon to wide notice came in 1870. R. C. Gemmell published the following account of Mercur's origin twentyseven years after the first claim was laid: The first location in the district was a placer claim, located by L. Greeley on April 20th, 1870. Other and similar locations followed, but placer diggings could not possibly be made to pay for two very good reasons — lack of gold that could be panned and lack of water. In fact, there is no evidence that placer mining was ever seriously attempted. The Sparrow Hawk, Last Chance and Marion claims were among the first lode claims located, and were the first ones surveyed for patent, the surveys having been made early in 1872. These claims are but a few hundred feet northwest of the present town of Mercur. Some very rich silver ore was discovered on them (some of it going $4,000 or $5,000 to the ton) and they were soon sold to an English syndicate. The ore proved to be very "pockety," and after building a mill, spending about $700,000 and clearing only about $100,000, the company suspended operations.

Soon after the Sparrow Hawk discovery, a rich strike was made in the Carrie Steele. It is said that from this pocket a few men took out about $83,000 in three months. Other strikes followed and in 1872 and 1873 the hills were swarming with prospectors. The town of Lewiston was built on the present site of Mercur, and was soon a full-fledged mining camp, with the attendant typical saloons, gambling-houses and dance-houses. But no steady producing mines were found; the excitement began to die away, and Lewiston, which had grown to a town of some 1,500 people by 1880 had dwindled down to one house and to one inhabitant, Moses Manning, who remained to work out his own and others' assessments. It is estimated that during this excitement only about $350,000 were taken out and that many times that amount was expended. Machinery, supplies and labor were all so high that it required $60 ore to pay.2 Correlating GemmelFs report with later research 3 one can summarize the first period of Mercur's history with the following generalizations: the first important ore was silver; placer activities failed; a town, Lewiston, of about 1,500 persons, grew and disappeared quickly; because of "pockety" lodes, milling activities were also a failure — however, 46,000 ounces of silver were extracted from 1871 to 1881 with a value of $55,936;4 losses generally exceeded profits; of the present ghost town, very little, if anything, dates back to the first period.

2

R. C. Gemmell, The Engineering and Mining Journal, LXII1 (April 24, 1897), 403.

V . C. Heikes, "Camp Floyd or Mercur District — History and Production," U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 111 (1920), 382. *Ibid., 384.

3

THE

GHOST

OF M E R C U R

35

1890-1917 MERCUR

O n April 30, 1879, a Bavarian, Arie Pinedo, found die Mercur lode.

T h e tradition is that he believed he had discovered a vein of cinnabar and therefore named it after its product â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mercury. (Mercury in German is "der Merkur," hence the name "Mercur" for the mine, town and company.)

Pinedo was unsuccessful in extracting significant amounts of mercury and the excitement soon passed. But the canyon remained the haunt of roving silver and gold prospectors.

According to Heikes, the gold discovery came about 1883. T h e ore assayed in paying quantities, but the yellow metal was able to evade its captors for a full decade. T h e clay-like nature of the red earth and extreme fineness of the gold made panning completely ineffective.

Even the mills at first failed to extract the elusive material. This story is briefly summarized by Franklin and Miller: About 1890, when the cry for more gold and less silver was going up, a group of promoters secured an option on the Mercur property from the German owner' and sold it to some men in Nebraska â&#x20AC;&#x201D; John Dern," E. H. Airis, G. S. Peyton, and Hal W. Brown, who organized the Mercur Gold Mining and Milling Company. The first plant was built at Manning, 7 where a good supply of water was available. The owners were in despair, and all but two refused to put more money into the seemingly worthless mine.

About this time, William Orr arrived from Australia bringing news of the recently invented McArthur-Forrest cyanide process for the treatment of gold ores. Peyton borrowed money from a bank to send a car of the ore to the metallic extraction plant in Denver, Colorado where good recoveries had been reported on small samples. The result of the test on this carload lot of ore justified raising enough money to build a cyanide plant, the first built and operated in the United States. (Peyton and Brown sold their stock to the Dern interests.) The plant was enlarged in 1893 to 100 tons; again in 1896, to 200 tons; and again, in the same year to 350 tons.8 T h e cyanide process saved Manning! T h e amalgamation process intended for the $25,000 mill built by the Mercur Gold Mining and Milling Company did not prove successful and the company faced 5

Pinedo was paid $10,000 for his claim. R. C. Gemmell, op. at., 403.

° Father of Utah's Governor George H . Dern.

7 Manning is located three miles south of Mercur in Manning Canyon; Mercur is 11.5 miles northwest of Fairfield. s W . J. Franklin and Virgil Miller, "Metallurgical Developments at Mercur, Utah," Bureau of Mines Technical Paper 588 (1938), 2.

36

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

failure. The stockholders were ripe for a new process and cyanide proved to be worth their risk. The cyanide method departed from the previous system of separating the gold by means of crushing and washing. The principle of chemical precipitation was its basis. First the ore was crushed and roasted. Then it was placed in large tanks.

After mixing with water, cyanide was added and allowed to leach through. As it filtered down, the gold was dissolved by the cyanide and carried to the bottom. There sluices diverted die valuable liquid from all tanks to a central receiver. Zinc was then added, replacing the gold in solution and causing it to settle. It was then collected as pure gold.9 This process required expensive equipment and high voltage electricity. Evidences of both are examinable in the present ghost town.

The entire system is not what the layman expects of gold mining. The pick and shovel are not the secret at Mercur. Like the nearby Bingham copper mine, the process was designed for low grade ore. The average extraction in 1896 was about one-half ounce of gold per ton of ore. By 1912 the ratio declined to one-fourth the 1896 figure.10 So it is doubtful that any prospector ever did or ever will stumble across nuggets of the sought-after metal.

Such a process explains the unique nature of Mercur. Construction of large mills, water pipelines, a 32-mile high-voltage electricity transmission line and a railroad to Mercur were necessary to transform the desolate canyon into productivity. This is not to mendon the erection of a booming village to house and service 2,351 people.11 The cyanide process assured the success of the Manning Mill; but in like manner assured its obsolescence, for with a profitable extraction available, investors were easily convinced to place new mills nearer the ores. Captain J. L. De La Mar bought the Golden Gate group near die Mercur Mine in 1895. After two years of research improving the extraction methods, the Golden Gate Mill was begun.

In 1898 the mill began operations and thus idled the Manning Mill, three miles soudi of the mine. The Golden Gate was the major factor in all of Mercur's activities. It soon became the employer of nearly all the Mercur miners. The tailings from the mill are yet the predomi" For technical description see Franklin and Miller, op. cit.

10 Heikes, op. cit.

"U.S. Census 1900, Population, I, pt. 1, Table 5, p. 392. Newspaper reports and old citizens claim populations up to 6,000. This sounds exaggerated but may have some validity when considering the transiency.

THE

GHOST

OF M E R C U R

37

nant feature of Mercur's ghost. Since their deposit, the weather has beaten them so that they now appear somewhat like Bryce Canyon.

In 1899 the De La Mar and Mercur interests joined to form the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Company. Although there were many private prospectors and small firms active in the canyon in the first years, the Consolidated company became paramount in the life and activity of the town and remained so until 1917.12 Transmission of electricity to Mercur was one of the most significant factors in the camp's history. The extraction process in the mills depended on electrical power. (Water power was nearly nonexistent, and the importing of coal for all needs would have been burdensome and expensive.) While De La Mar was planning his mill at Mercur, a colorful and enterprising engineer, L. L. Nunn, was projecting an extended electric power scheme for central Utah. In 1897 Nunn contracted with De La Mar to provide the Golden Gate Mill with 500 horsepower of electricity. A sixteen-foot dam was built across the Provo River and the Olmstead Generating Plant was constructed there. The line from the plant skirted the north end of Utah Lake and then went up over the mountains into Mercur. The 40,000 volt transmission line was laid a distance of thirty-two miles and stirred wide acclaim as being the first long-distance high-voltage project in the world.13 Another problem facing residents in the canyon was the water shortage. In the early days it is said that whisky-drinking was condoned because water was so scarce. But the laying of a pipeline from Ophir Canyon, eight miles away, exploded such excuses.

Also remarkable among the phases of the Mercur story is the Salt Lake and Mercur Railroad. Originally the line was intended to bring the ore from the Mercur area three miles south to the Manning mill. The tracks were soon extended on down the canyon to Fairfield connecting with the Union Pacific lines. This allowed passenger and 12 For a survey of the mines of the entire area see: Gilluly, James, "Geology and Ore Deposits of the Stockton and Fairfield Quadrangles, Utah," U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 173 (1932). Gilluly divides the mines into three groups: (1) The Mercur area, including the Consolidated Mercur, Geyser-Marion and Sacramento mines, (2) T h e Sunshine area with the Overland and Sunshine mines and (3) The West Mercur area with the Daisy and La Cigale mines.

13 "Utah Power and Light Company â&#x20AC;&#x201D; History, Origin and Development," unpublished manuscript in files of Utah Power and Light Company in Salt Lake City, Appendix to Statement A, p. 127.

The Methodist Church Choir ready for a Christmas program.

The Mercur Volunteer Fire Department preparing for a Fourth of July parade photographed in front of the new City Hall. Date about 1901.

L'.3l -V*

ÂĽ

ÂŤ :

THE

GHOST

OF M E R C U R

39

equipment to travel by an all-rail route from Salt Lake City via Lehi and Fairfield. Much of the color of the 1890's in Mercur was connected with this one-car railroad. James W . Neill gives this contemporary account of a ride on the "Salt Lake and Mercur."

Mercur is reached from Salt Lake via the Union Pacific Railway with one change of cars at Lehi Junction, change again at Fairfield, where the Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad, with a little narrow gauge car on broad gauge track, meets the Union Pacific trains and conveys one to Mercur. This railroad is a wonder to the traveler: the trip over it is well worth the taking even if the mining camp at its western end were no attraction. . . . It is 12 miles long, and I heard an old railroad man say that he would wager "big money" that in four miles of it one could not find a straight rail! It crosses a divide 1,800 feet above the Fairfield station, reaching this point by a series of curves, loops, twists and turns which fairly make one dizzy, and discounts any of the scenery on the famed Marshal Pass on the D. & R. G. Railway or the Hagerman Pass of the Colorado Midland. The single car is taken over by a diminutive engine of the Shay type, and at every turn the passenger holds his breath for fear this little machine will actually jump over what, to all appearances, is the end of the track. The rails are not yet laid into the town of Mercur proper, but a short drive of one-half mile in a "hack" fills the gap. 14 Neill described the town as comparable to those he had visited in Colorado and gave a description of the "real estate boom." H e records in 1896 that "city lots 25 X 100 ft. . . . were actually changing hands for money consideration at a rate of from $500 to $1,500. . . ." 1 5 T h e recently acquired picture collection at the Utah State Historical Society gives a vivid account of daily life during this the second of Mercur's lives. T h e collection shows such glimpses of the town life as the Methodist Church Choir, the Rat Ball T e a m , the Golden Gate Band, the Volunteer Fire Department, the Mormon Bishopric, the Fourth of July celebrations, the Marshal and his aides and the Scarbarough Boarding House and tenants. Also pictured are the buildings and machinery of the Golden Gate Mill, the city officials and the Great Fire of 1902.

T h e most remarkable and widely publicized event of Mercur's entire history was the great fire of June 26, 1902. Other fires broke out in the town prior to that date, but they were less devastating. William Waterfall, the major collector of the pictures mentioned above, " James W . Neill, "Camp Floyd District Utah,' Engineering LXI ( 1 8 9 6 ) , 85.

15 Ibid.

and Mining

Journal,

40

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

was then among the volunteer firemen. H e records his experiences at the fire in the journals of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers as follows: The most serious fire Mercur ever had occurred June 26, 1902. At 9:30 a.m.

I was operating the electrical hoist for the Consolidated Mercur Mines, which raised and lowered workmen to and from the mine and to different levels. The cage was about 1,500 feet away from the operator when the phone rang. I answered and was told that a serious fire had broken out down town. From outside the hoist house I could see the flames coming through the roof of the Preble Building. I blew the fire signal and phoned the mine, telling them to turn out as the town was doomed. By the time I reached town, 1,200 feet below the hoist house, the fire was beyond control. By 12 o'clock every business house in the town was gone. 16 T h e fire leveled the entire business district but left many of the homes intact. T h e mill was also untouched and continued to operate until 1913. As other mining camps, Mercur thus displayed the amazing ability miners have to thrive on uncertainty.

Among the residents of the town who moved on to prominence in the state and nation were D . C. Jackling and George H . Dern. Jackling was the builder of the Golden Gate Mill and remained there many years prior to his activities at the Bingham Copper Mine. After the move to Bingham he founded the open cut mining mediod which was revolutionary to the whole world of mining. 1 7 George H . Dern was general manager and superintendent of the Consolidated Company at twenty-nine years of age. H e later gained national prominence as governor of the state of Utah from 1924 to 1930 and as Secretary of W a r in 1933 under Franklin D . Roosevelt.

In 1935 Dern penned a letter for publication at the Mercur reunion.

His comments, quoted here in part, give an indication of life in the community: Although I was actively associated with Mercur Mining operations from 1894 until the mines were shut down in 1913, my most vivid recollections are of the five-year period from 1904 until 1909, during which I resided in Mercur with my family.

That was not very long ago, but still it was before the automobile era.

It is true that an occasional car of that period wearily chugged its way up the canyon and reached Mercur all out of breath, but no Mercurite was so plutocratic as to be the owner of one of those new-fangled contraptions.

"William Waterfall, "Experiences of a Mercur Volunteer Fireman," in Kate B. Carter (ed.), Heart Throbs of the West (12 vols., Salt Lake City, 1939-51), IV, 75.

"See Wain Sutton (ed.), Utah A Centennial History (3 vols., New York 1949) II, 875 ff.

THE

GHOST

OF M E R C U R

41

When we wanted to go places we used horsepower produced by oats and hay, rather than horsepower produced by gasoline. If we wanted to go to the City, we went by the trusty Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad, with its more or less dependable Shay engine â&#x20AC;&#x201D; dependable when it stayed on the track.

If we wanted to go to Tooele or elsewhere down in the Valley, we used horsedrawn vehicles. Many a happy hour have I spent in the old Con. Mercur buckboard.

If we wanted to roam the hills, we either did our roaming on our own power or else rode horseback. So long as I live I shall cherish the memory of dear old Topsy, my saddle horse, known to everybody in town.

Not only were we still in the horse and buggy days, but we were also in that primitive age when there were no movies. Can you imagine that?

How did we ever stand it?

We stood it fine. I venture to say that every old Mercurite today will say, with fervent sincerity, "Those were the happiest days!" I am willing to admit that they were the happiest days of my life. This was partly because I was very deeply interested in my work as General Manager and Superintendent of the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Company, and partly because I liked the people with whom I was associated. By that time Mercur was a one-mine Camp, and we were all working for, or dependent upon, the same company, and were one big, happy family.

It was an ideal community life. Nobody high-hatted anybody else.

Everybody knew everybody else, and everybody was interested in everybody else.18 By the fall of 1913 the gold extraction ratio per ton had declined below the profit margin which caused a shutdown. Four years later the mill and equipment were dismantled and sold. Gilluly reports 19 that until then the total output of the Consolidated Company and its preceding component companies amounted to 4,336,621 tons. This yielded about $16,500,000 of which about $3,500,000 went to dividends.

By 1917 Mercur was again a ghost town.

1933-

T H E SNYDER M I N E S

Except for the tailings remaining from the Golden Gate Mill, most of the present ghost town originated during the third of Mercur's lives. This makes the town not so old after all, as the third activity began in 1933. In that year the use of the Consolidated Mercur properties was leased to W . F . Snyder & Son Company and the Manning Gold Mines Company. D u r i n g the idle period of twenty years, two changes occurred which made new endeavors feasible. First, advance18 George H. Dern, "Mercur Community Life," The Mercur Miner and The ton Mercury (Souvenir Edition), September 8, 1935, p . 1. " G i l l u l y , op. cit.

Lewis-

42

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

ments in metallurgical methods presented possibilities of extracting higher percentages of gold from the ores. Second, the increase in the market price of gold from $20.67 to $35.00 per ounce made work with even lower-grade ores profitable.20 The combination of these factors invited a project to rework the massive tailings which had been deposited at the sites of the old mills from the two past eras.

Manning was again the first area of activity. A counter current decantation cyanide plant was put into operation on die site of the old Manning Mill. After reworking those dumps, the mill was dismantled and moved to Mercur in 1937. There operations continued until die beginning of World War II. The processes of the Snyder Mines in 1933 and at die Golden Gate Mill in 1900 are similar in their use of cyanide extraction. The Snyder plan, however, arranged a system which sent the gold in solution to the top of the tanks where it was caught in a runoff system. The earlier process extracted the solution at the bottom as it leached through. Detailed accounts of the metallurgical aspects and productivity of the project are outlined by Franklin and Miller in their Bureau of Mines Technical Paper.21 The Beaver Press reported22 that in 1937 a $15,000 monthly payroll was being paid at Mercur. In addition, the paper claimed $20,000 to $30,000 monthly went for equipment and supplies being shipped to the camp. Despite these figures, the camp of the 1930's never seriously threatened the reputation of the "glorious days" of 1900. Very few permanent buildings were erected. In fact, a real community with schools, churches, newspapers, stores, etc., is not discernable in the ruins of the third Ghost. However, most of the plant is still standing and tells a story of advanced mineralogical procedure.

The future of Mercur is indefinite. Since the beginning of World War II the Snyder Mines have been generally idle. Various surveys have been made and projects entertained since then. Whether the Ghost will submit after expending three lives or try for nine will be recorded in future annals.

1 1

Franklin and Miller, op. cit.

Ibid.

'"Timely Methods Rout Mercur Ghost," The Beaver Press, June 25, 1937.

C. J. OLSEN

Chester J. Olsen, the first director of Utah State Parks and Recreation Comsion, stands against the background of spectacular Dead Horse Point area in fuan County, which has been desig?d a future state park-

S T A T E A C T I O N IN R E L A T I O N TO P R E S E R V A T I O N OF H I S T O R I C A L R E S O U R C E S IN T H E E X P A N D I N G WEST

By C. J. Olsen

[September 10-12, 1959, the Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, held its fifty-second annual meeting in Salt Lake City, one session of which was devoted to the general subject "Conservation of Historic Sites in the Expanding West." Panel discussions on this topic were as follows: "Federal Responsibility and Policy," by John O. Littleton, Chief, National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings, National Parks Service, U. S. Department of Interior, Washington, D. C ; "State Action" by C. J. Olsen, Director, Utah State Parks and Recreation Commission; and "The Role of the Professional Historical Agency," by Clifford L. Lord, Dean, School of General Studies, Columbia University, President, American Association for State and Local History. Because of its pertinence and significance to Utah, the speech by Mr. Olsen is here printed.]

The wording of the topic for this panel, "State Action in Relation to Preservation of Historical Resources in the Expanding West," implies, as I view it, three things: (1) that history in general is important in any society and that its physical evidences, therefore, deserve to be preserved; (2) that local or provincial history is likewise important and that the state and local government should assume

46

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

the largest possible responsibility to preserve die significant sites and objects of history within its own boundaries; (3) that our amazingly expanding population in the Western states makes doubly urgent the efforts of preservation of our historical monuments, those which have not already been destroyed, while there is yet time.

On the point of population trends, the figures indicate a rate of increase destined to accelerate, at least through the next few decades, to a degree almost frightening. These figures call to mind the statement of one of our modern scientists that two things and two only will determine the ultimate number of people any nation or the world itself can support: food supply, and man's ability to tolerate his own kind.

We are all familiar with figures predicting population increase.

Trends within the United States indicate that the percentage of gain will be accentuated in the West, especially in the three Pacific Coast states. The eight Mountain States, taken as a unit, are due to gain 44 per cent in the next eleven years. Mr. Philip M. Hauser, of the University of Chicago and one-time deputy director of the United States Census Bureau, concluded an interview on this subject (in U.S. News and World Report, November 28, 1958) with words to this effect : there is room in the United States for any increase we can foresee between now and 1980; after that, all bets are off.

Certainly then, if the historical resources of a state are of importance, not merely to historians and all associated specialists but to all of the people, we must act wisely and act soon.

Now we may ask: What are the general trends and what is being done by the various Western states to preserve their historical heritage ?

Over the last half century, state action, supplementing the work of federal agencies in the conservation of our natural resources, has been strongly evident. But only in the last decade or so have the states taken positive official action to preserve their historical resources. Increasingly, during the last ten years, the states have become more sharply aware of the fact that whereas a forest may be regenerated, game restocked, and ground cover restored (to help assure the stability of soil), historical resources once forfeited may never be recoverable. Historical buildings, it is true, may be restored or reconstructed, but any attempted duplication is fraud unless based on perfected evidences â&#x20AC;&#x201D; evidences often lost forever where need may be most important.

PRESERVING

HISTORICAL

RESOURCES

47

O n the one hand it is gratifying to note the awakening of the separate states to the need for acting more fully in their own behalf; on the other stands the fact that all have awakened regrettably late.

S. K. Stevens, director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, states that while figures are not available, it is likely that no state fifty years ago had spent more than a few thousand dollars to conserve its historical resources. His own state, Pennsylvania, so rich in early American history, did not create a commission of any kind to foster preservation until 1913. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, N e w York, where striking evidences of our history also lay so rich and deep, were equally late in taking official state action.

In the East generally, state agencies tended from the outset to retain semiprivate status. H e r e in the West, there has been a favoring of the attitude that state governments should accept more fully the duty of preserving the things that most clearly bespeak its history and distinguish the state itself. Various states now combine the privately supported and privately directed society with a state department of history or with a historical commission functioning as an official unit of the government.

In return for direct aid from the states (and usually proportional to the amount of that aid) state governments have sought increased representation on the governing boards of historical societies or of other agencies designed to develop and perpetuate the state's historical resources.

Time allows only brief attention to the programs of the various Western states.

In N e w Mexico the superintendent of the State Park Commission reports: . . . considerable work has been done in the matter of conserving historical sites. In this state the Museum of New Mexico . . . encompasses a broad scope of activities and has been primarily responsible for the location, preservation, and maintenance of historical sites, each designated as a State Monument; whereas the State Park Commission has within its system only one facility of real historical significance.

F r o m Wyoming, the director of the W y o m i n g State Archives and Historical Department states that by act of the legislature (1959) this department is now to assume the duties of the former Historical Landmarks Commission. As of the present summer, therefore, the state of W y o m i n g is formulating a new, and it is said, an ambitious program.

48

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

From Nevada, the chairman of the State Park Commission expresses hearty approval of the criteria adopted in the Arizona program and is hopeful that Nevada will establish similar practices. It is the Nevada chairman's opinion, and diat of commission members generally, that ". . . historically significant sites, especially those of statewide interest, ought to be cared for by state agencies." Their feeling is that sites of lesser significance should become the special responsibilities of counties or local municipalities.

Under such a circumstance there always arises a serious question as to who should preserve what â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and inevitably then, die question as to whether some sites even though of consequence may be preserved at all, where responsibility itself remains unsettled.

In Montana the state parks agency is a division under the State Highway Commission. Its director reports as follows: . . . we believe that individual states have a primary responsibility to preserve and interpret their historic sites and monuments. . . . The state of Montana cannot set itself up as a good example. . . . The reason for this is that we simply have not had the money â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not because there is not a desire on the part of the State Park Administration.

These words regarding funds have a familiar sound, and it is no coincidence that their echo is the same whether heard in the Wasatch, the Bitterroots, or the Cascades. California seems to be the exception.

A letter from the historian of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission says: We believe our historical areas should be preserved and interpreted. . . .

People cannot be attracted from the East or Midwest merely by rest rooms, camping areas, or picnic grounds. We do know that many people come across the country to view our historical sites as well as our scenic and geological wonders. As we interpret these areas to the people we . . . have preserved our heritage.

And it is at this point precisely that I feel the academic historian must leave at times the archives and his chair to go into the field itself and serve a vital role, not merely as an informer, but as a compelling interpreter of historical fact. In 1954 Washington had only fifteen historical sites. As of this summer it has twenty-nine. The Washington letter concludes with diis line: "In addition, we have five historical museums. This will indicate our interest in historical interpretation!'

Concerning the California program, the following facts are taken from a letter of the chief of the Division of Beaches and Parks of the

PRESERVING

HISTORICAL

RESOURCES

49

California Department of Natural Resources, under whose authority the historical resources program is administered.

1. Here again the director pointedly stresses the need to interpret effectively whatever is preserved.

2. At the present time some thirty historical areas are included in the State Park System. These range in theme from early Indian to things recent.

3. In addition to the responsibility for historical parks and monuments, the Division of Beaches and Parks in California has the duty of registering all historical landmarks in the state. This is the case even though most of these markers have been established by lesser governmental divisions or by private groups. More than 680 such landmarks have been registered in California in conformity with legislative criteria.

4. The California program has been worked out to provide close co-operation between the Division of Beaches and Parks and other branches of state government as well as with federal agencies, county and municipal governments, and with private groups.

5. Despite all that is being done in California, the director concludes that in a state whose population now numbers fifteen million and is destined to increase enormously still, "much else needs to be done while there is yet time."

6. Important new efforts of acquisition and restoration are currently being launched in California. Among these are the Columbia Historic State Park, the Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and (one of their most recent and important acquisitions) the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument containing, among many other things of importance, one of the nation's outstanding art exhibits.

Seen in total perspective, the efforts being made by the Western states, while varying greatly as to both organizational pattern and degree of effort, are largely uniform as to main attitudes and objectives. Dominant among diese attitudes is the conviction that a state's historical resources are immensely worth preserving and that it is a fundamental duty of the state to preserve them. In proportion to the degree of acceptance of this attitude in any state, funds have been augmented to support programs set up. Currently, however, the budget provided in any state (unless it is California) does not seem to have risen to a point wherein funds meet needs.

The cemetery near old Camp Floyd, site of the Johnston Army encampment, 1858â&#x20AC;&#x201D;61, was for many years run down and neglected, marked only by a fence and a monument erected to the memory of the soldiers, officers, and civilian employees who died during the Utah campaign. The site is now under the jurisdiction of the State Parks Commission and with the co-operative efforts of the Utah State Historical Society and volunteer workers those buried there have been identified and appropriate markers placed. The grounds will be landscaped and maintained as a unit of the state parks system.

PRESERVING

HISTORICAL

RESOURCES

51

T H E U T A H PROGRAM Since the coming of the first Utah pioneers in July, 1847, Utah people generally have been extremely pioneer-minded; and this amounts, in turn, to their having been very historically minded.

But here as elsewhere the state as official sponsor and guardian of its own history has been slow to act. This condition, while not totally excusable, is largely explainable by the fact that Utah history has been greatly conditioned throughout all of the state by Mormon pioneer settlement, and in church writings at least (subject to the religious perspective) appears much of the state's written history which otherwise might not have been written at all. Along with such written record and out of this pronounced pioneer history interest have been saved many objects, relics, early buildings, and sites which also might have been lost to time.

But not until 1957 did Utah enact a law creating a State Park and Recreation Commission, one of whose major responsibilities as stipulated by the law is to acquire and preserve, among other things, historical monuments and sites in the state. The legal arrangement whereby members of the commission are secured is clearly indicative of the close dependence intended by the law between related branches of the state government. Of the twelve-man commission, seven are ex-officio members, including the director of the Utah State Historical Society.

All members are selected because of an understanding and demonstrated interest in problems centering in the park and recreation program along with its historical interests. As a matter of bodi preference and of need, the efforts of the Utah State Park and Recreation Commission are carried on throughout all areas of the state in the closest possible collaboration with county and city administrators, church groups, business organizations, societies, or other agencies concerned in any way with state history and in the preservation of its evidences for the people.

In the newly established Utah State Park and Recreation Commission, the efforts being launched to expand and improve park and recreational areas are inseparable at many points from efforts needed to secure, restore, and make available to the public those historical resources of the state not already preserved and maintained by other groups. Granted an initial budget of $50,000 in 1957 (a sum smaller than that needed for park maintenance in many city systems) the

52

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Utah Commission has nevertheless worked vigorously, and has attempted whenever possible to use the logic and eloquence of its advocates instead of cash. To date some sizeable favors and much collaboration have been achieved from agencies, organizations, or private persons having strong faith in the value of the things the commission was expressly created to promote. Among the specific agencies offering valued support to the Parks Commission are: the National Park Service, the California Division of Beaches and State Parks, the Utah National Guard, the State Highway Commission, Utah State Tourist and Publicity Council, and the Utah State Historical Society. The Historical Society, in its attentive and constant concern for all things related to state and regional history, has been an indispensable ally.

And prior to the creation of a state park commission, the Society served not merely to keep state and regional history alive and warm through effective use of the written word, but took to the field itself to secure and preserve various important sites in the state. Our state Park Commission, at its inception, was the fortunate beneficiary of these acts.

The Rockefeller family, as an extension of its long-standing concern for conservation, donated $20,000 to the Utah Park Commission to further its program. In making this gift, the money was offered (among other stated reasons) to further Utah's historic interests and as "seed money to encourage other gifts."

The State Land Board, the Fish & Game Department, the Water and Power Board â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in fact all state agencies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; have been most co-operative.

Motivated in part by the Rockefeller suggestion, gifts from within the state have already been forthcoming. These mark the beginning, we hope, of others yet to come â&#x20AC;&#x201D; all of importance in a program of acquisition which we are keenly eager to expand and accelerate.

Responsible in large measure for the careful, scrutinizing look being directed in Utah toward conservation of the state's resources (including its historical ones) is Harold P. Fabian, a retired lawyer serving without salary as chairman of the Utah State Park and Recreation Commission. As a long-time friend of ardent conservationists, Mr. Fabian has been invaluable to the commission in drawing influential businessmen and others of high professional caliber to serve on hard-working committees, survey teams, and regional study groups.

As a result of such leadership, an encouraging number of sizeable

These two homes built by important early Mormon leaders represent types of early architecture and depict extremes of frontier life. President Brigham Young wintered in his St. George home (above) from 1874 until his death in 1877. The home (below) in Santa Clara of facob Hamblin, missionary to the Indians, was built in 1863 and occupied by his family until 1870.

Both are being restored and preserved under the state parks program.

t»Vi

1 j t,

&£**'A

7- "* W 4, @Km

•»IR

54

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

projects already have been completed or are currently being developed.

Various other committee members are also giving excellent service to the state.

Perhaps I can conclude my remarks regarding the Utah effort in no better way than by quoting from two sources. T h e first is an excerpt from a letter received a year ago from the director of the National Park Service concerning some of the survey work in Utah then in progress: . . . there are doubtless many problems to be faced by the commission in launching its program. But whatever you are able to accomplish now is a lasting investment in the future of Utah and in the welfare of its present and future citizens. . . . I hope you will consider seriously the "high cost of waiting," and take bold forward-looking steps on acquisition of lands before spiraling property values or other uses of the land make areas unattainable. . . .

My second quotation involves Governor Clyde's emphasis of the commission's responsibilities in preserving the historical heritage of the state, in which he said: "This is your heritage. Cherish it, preserve it, protect, foster it. Transmit knowledge of it to your children and all who come after us."

It is in such spirit that we are pressing ahead with the Utah program as vigorously and as wisely as we know how.

I N T E R P R E T I N G HISTORICAL RESOURCES I should dislike to conclude this paper without re-emphasizing as strongly as I can this point: that only to the extent that our interpretive techniques are effective is the whole effort of preserving an historical resource worthwhile.

Initially, I think this means that we must combine all of our best interests with all such major agencies of public influence as the school, book publisher, magazine and newspaper editor, tourist agency, radio and television to help the public know more fully (what you and I are supposed to know so well) that history itself is important. Obviously this must be accomplished by continuing effort, but ultimately it must be done more fully and perfectly if the things we preserve are to gain meaning rather than remain objects of mere curiosity.

The person who carries to Gettysburg only curiosity, knowing nothing of the great war issues, or of Lincoln and of all he symbolizes, is likely to carry away from Gettysburg nothing that impresses die mind or touches the heart. T h e person who visits Utah's Pioneer

PRESERVING

HISTORICAL RESOURCES

55

Monument, knowing nothing of the history that motivated the migration of eighty thousand dedicated people by wagon or by handcart may see in Brigham Young only an anonymous and meaningless figure looking down from a sixty-foot granite shaft.

T h r o u g h persistent and ingenious alliances with forces such as I have named, perhaps we can help people know more truly that good history is prophecy in retrospect; that history and its objects are the only witnesses qualified to give expert testimony of things passed; that history, adequately understood, is a voice forever sounding across the centuries to reveal not merely what men thought or said or did, but giving clues to what is universally right or wrong. In this perhaps we can help John and Mary Citizen and more of the Little Citizens know with Voltaire (and with us) the important fact that history can be written truly enough only in societies of free men.

Basic also to the interpretation of our historical resources must be, I think, a more positive effort to help the people of any state know that local or provincial history is important. I suspect that the word history transmitted into some kind of image in the general mind is most commonly an old man with a dim eye and a long gray beard. I suspect too that if this old m a n is not quite dead, he dwells, of necessity, in a remote land. But perhaps we can help people to know more surely that history is people of all ages, all colors, ancient and immediate, existing in all times, and in all places â&#x20AC;&#x201D; often as close to home as Butch Cassidy's old log cabin, or Miles Goodyear's log hut on the Ogden which served as the first permanent post in Utah.

I borrow words written by D r . William Mulder of die University of Utah (as printed in the Utah Historical Quarterly, January, 1959) to impress this idea more fully: . . . A history of the world narrowly conceived and poorly written may be very parochial, whereas the history of a town or country written with insight and imagination and a sense of the humanly significant may be universal. All history is inescapably local history, in the sense that it happened in a particular place at a particular time. Yet a musket fired at Concord Bridge may be the shot heard round the world, or a word spoken at Gettysburg find itself addressed to the ages. . . . The eddy is always part of the larger current. . . . The waters of history originate in a thousand remote and local springs, but they all issue in the same great sea that is the story of mankind.

I shall not pretend to tell you specifically how Voltaire's ideas or D r . Mulder's are to be made known and made meaningful to die public. I only k n o w that die words are important and true, and that

56

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

through our collective wits in the years ahead and in alliance with all good educative forces we should help to plant the spirit of such words in the minds of people in every state. Only to the extent that this is achieved can all the labor of acquiring and preserving historical resources bear fruit.

In addition, provision should be made on the site itself with the most ingenious interpretive statements and other devices we can contrive. This means that through the adroitly written word, through impressive and expertly produced audio-visual aids, and through other eye-catching, thought-stimulating, and sentiment-stirring devices, we must learn more fully how to capture interest and impress deeply, when too often we have been content merely to inform. In this, and in this especially, the administrators of state programs need both the knowledge and the interpretive understandings which only the qualified historian can well enough supply.

ARCHIVES

PAST

AND

FUTURE

By Everett L. Cooley*

As I stand before you this evening, I am mindful of those who have preceded me on this spot to make their annual report to the general membership of the Society. I am indeed humbled by this contemplation.

Last year D r . Creer concluded his report with a quotation I would like to use as an introduction.

The chief monument of the history of a state is its archives . . . it is unquestionably as much a function of the government to provide for the preservation and use of its archives as it is to make laws and levy taxes. This is recognized in all civilized countries, and to neglect properly to perform this function is not only unbefitting the dignity of a great state, but it endangers an inheritance which future generations have a right to demand shall pass to them unimpaired.

W h a t I am going to say tonight about the needs of the Archives, may in some people's minds, place Utah in the category of failing to live up to its responsibilities of preserving its archives for future generations. A n d I must confess that those who have such an idea will be correct.

During the past month, the dominant church of Utah has made public its plans to build a twelve story archives building, costing several million dollars, to preserve the permanent records of that church.

T h e permanent records of the state of Utah, on the other hand, are presently housed in damp, dirty, musty rooms in the Capitol, in sheds and warehouses, and in the former wine, silver, and jewelry vaults of the Historical Society Mansion. After taking a tour of these spots, as did the Archives Committee recently, I think any person with a sense of history will conclude with me that the government of the state of * Dr. Cooley, as State Archivist, delivered the report on the Utah State Archives at the annual dinner meeting of the Utah State Historical Society on May 7, 1960. He is presently associate professor of history, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

58

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Utah is not discharging its responsibility to its founding fathers, to us today, and to those who follow in decades to come.

With a charge such as this made by the officer legally designated to preserve the archives of the state, I believe you as taxpayers, as citizens, as members of this Society are entitled to know then what I have been doing with my time and your tax money, and I dunk you are entitled to know what plans have been made to correct the deficiencies.

With no thought of boasting, I would like to say that the state's records are in a better condition than they have ever been. But this does not mean that diere is not a long, long way to go. I would like to summarize briefly what we in the Archives have accomplished in the past few years.

(1) We have located and brought into the Archives, the territorial executive records. These have been classified and arranged

by Mrs. Mary Anderson. Mrs. Margery Ward has prepared a helpful guide to direct the researcher in their use.

(2) We have built a complete file of the laws and journals of the territory. We have in our possession and systematically arranged all the known original and engrossed bills of the territorial legislature plus the ones for the state from 1917-1933. Lack of space prevents our acquiring additional ones.

(3) We have collected and are presently arranging all the known correspondence of the governors of the territory and state up to the present governor.

(4) We have gathered some correspondence, reports, and other records from practically every state agency.

(5) We are especially proud of one record series, namely, the Nauvoo Legion or Territorial Militia records. These have been unfolded, encased in plastic, and are presently being indexed and arranged under the direction of Mr. Robert Inscore, head of the Military Records Section. I am certain these will prove to be some of the most significant records of the Archives and the state.

(6) We have microfilmed some of the most fragile and important state, county, and municipal records. The originals are being protected and the microfilm is used by researchers.

(7) We have assisted numerous county and city officers in solving some of their most perplexing record problems.

ARCHIVES

PAST A N D F U T U R E

59

(8) We have helped scholars, lawyers, government officials, genealogists, and plain cranks with research. Although sometimes having to take refuge in a basement vault or an attic hide-away, to avoid listening to yet another tale of how grandpa helped Brigham Young build the temple or the Chase Mill, we have honestly and sincerely tried to serve the public to the best of our ability — and with a smile.

(9) We have through the pages of the Quarterly and the help and encouragement of Dr. A. R. Mortensen and Mrs. Dorothy Summerhays been able to publish a few of the gems uncovered in the old records — among these are the Journals of the Legislature 1856, the Bliss Journal, and reports of various committees or commissions. We were also able to publish with the financial support of Secretary of State Lamont Toronto a rather unique edition of the Constitution of the State of Utah. Incidentally, the publications of the Archives were to a large degree the result of hard work by Mrs. Margery Ward.

(10) We have, during the past few weeks and will continue for the next several weeks, conducted weekly classes on the subject of public records for records officers from each state agency.

These things I have mentioned are the ones, I suppose, we will be remembered for — be it for good or evil. In addition, we have played an important role in staging a national convention, in holding the old Kearns Mansion together, in keeping lawns green, and the furnace running. While consuming valuable time, these items will not show up on the balance side of our ledger sheet — neither will all the interminable reports required of public officials.

Now I come to that portion of my report concerning the future of the Archives.

I feel it is unfortunate that the phase of a complete archival program which is most easily sold to those public officials who control the purse strings is that phase which involves destruction of records.

This being the case, we have to stress the fact that last year (1959) we in the Archives were instrumental in destroying 3,345 cubic feet of records, thereby saving the state some $43,890 in recovered filing equipment and vacated floor space. Although this is what I consider a negative approach to an archival program, it is a necessary phase.

And as previously stated, it is the one which can be sold to the budget-makers and legislators, whereas, the preservation of historical

60

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

documents or permanent records is too often classified as one of the "frills" of government that should be eliminated or can wait for some future time.

But we can wait no longer. The records of the state have been accumulating for 110 years. They need protection. The great bulk of the more recent records need to be screened out and destroyed. The remaining permanent ones should join the old ones in a vault specially designed and constructed for their care and preservation.

What is to be done? I think there are three steps involved.

(1) We in the Archives should present a plan to the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society. This we have partially accomplished.

(2) The Board should, if they believe in die plan, endorse it and press for the adoption of the plan by (a) the present administration or a new one if a change is made in November, (b) the legislative council and ultimately the whole legislature. This the Board has partially done.

(3) The third step falls to you as members of the Utah State Historical Society. It seems to me that when you paid your membership in the Society you showed your interest in the history of Utah. It also seems to me that you assumed a responsibility to further the cause of Utah history. If my assumptions are correct, then I call upon you to live up to your obligations and support the Archives program before your legislator this fall. I think you are aware, that in government, legislators respond to pressure.

We in the Historical Society staff are few â&#x20AC;&#x201D; twelve with an additional eleven members on the Board. Our Society membership numbers only in excess of 1,200, so we shall have to make up in noise, enthusiasm, and dedication what we lack in numbers.

Here in brief is what we are asking you to support.

(1) A new Archives building, constructed to archival specifications.

(2) A records management program which will include the construction or renting of space for a records center (a building for the temporary records of the state).

(3) An adequate operating budget to provide a staff of approximately twenty people to carry out the legally assigned responsibilities of the Archives.

ARCHIVES

PAST

AND FUTURE

61

(4) N e w legislation to give the Archives carefully defined powers to assure compliance with a full archival program.

Only when these steps have been completed can it be said that Utah has an archival program worthy of the name. Only then can we boast that we are paying more than lip service to the cause of history in Utah.

The chief monument of the history of a state is its archives . . . it is unquestionably as much a function of the government to provide for the preservation and use of its archives as it is to make laws and levy taxes. This is recognized in all civilized countries, and to neglect properly to perform this function is not only unbefitting the dignity of a great state, but it endangers an inheritance which future generations have a right to demand shall pass to them unimpaired.

,

.

•

-

.

...

f, \ y I!*?::: -«:^t

^

•v 3*i

:ii? HP-HM

' i'

. . ' £v?*| ..

r ' i ••'•".

£*•*,

•

&f3E i

t%M*fiBB& :

.

~7-;xi&77.^

-shaded east South Temple as it aped that August Sunday in 1867 when ham Young walked past the Beehive se, the Lion House, the office building, the mint on his way to the Tabernacle. >ss the street (lower right corner) is home of Daniel H. Wells.

D I S C O U R S E BY P R E S I D E N T B R I G H A M YOUNG D E L I V E R E D IN THE BOWERY, G R E A T S A L T LAKE C I T Y , AUGUST 4 , 1867 Introduction and Notes By G. Homer Durham*

In August, 1867, Brigham Young was sixty-six years of age. He had grounded a new religion on a firm administrative base, conquered the desert, established a new American commonwealth, and successfully married twenty-six wives, the two most recent being Harriet Amelia Folsom and Mary Van Cott. Amelia, who was 25 (and Brigham 61) when married January 24, 1863, brought forth no children. But the union with Mary Van Cott (21 and Brigham 63) of January 8, 1865, produced a daughter, Fannie, January 14, 1870. A twenty-seventh wife, Ann Eliza Webb â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the only marriage contracted by Brigham to result in divorce â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was yet to be taken on April 6, 1868. With fifty-five of his fifty-six children born, and forty-five of them living, Brigham left the Lion House on Sunday, August 4, 1867, and walked west to Temple Square. The now famous Tabernacle with its elliptical roof was all but completed. In two months it would open for official use at the thirty-eighth semiannual conference of the Church of Jesus * Dr. Durham is president of Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.

The panoramic view of Great Salt Lake City in the 1860's was taken from Arsenal Hill, present head of Main Street.

Christ of Latter-day Saints, October, 1867. But on this August Sunday Brigham's destination was the Old Bowery. There, with the scriptures before him, he arose to address the saints. At a table nearby sat David W. Evans, pioneer stenographer (grandfather of Richard L. Evans, whose "spoken word" on CBS from Temple Square, now carries weekly from the Tabernacle with its choir and organ) to take the sermon down as it fell from the lips of the desert prophet.

The congregation sat in their calicos and homespun, some in finer fabrics brought overland by wagon. The transcontinental railroad, moving west, was at North Platte, Nebraska, but the golden spike-driving, at Promontory, Utah, was still nearly two years distant.

Having planted 231 settlements in the past twenty years (with 127 more to follow before his death in 1877), and organized and operated an emigration system that stretched around the globe, Brigham's eyes were on the world of men and ideas, not on the Lion House, Amelia's Palace, nor the congregation. He stood in the heart of the great American West at the prime of life and gave forth his thoughts on the "universal meaning," if any, of that American development, Mormonism. Alleging it was a "subject for philosophers," he began with a confident, sweeping (if over-simplified!) epistemology, arguing for

Mormonism's place not as an American, nor as a World, but as the religion of the Universe! "Aiming," he said, at all "the knowledge that is possessed by the Gods, all the holy angels, and I may say the unholy angels"; and, calculating to "commence right." He identified Jew and Gentile, white and black, as children of a single father who "is the framer and finisher of our bodies." He offered a few thoughts to indicate the advantages enjoyed by the Church of Salt Lake City over the Church of Rome and its Protestant offspring. A rather neat doctrinal point was offered in an imaginary dialogue with Mr. Alexander Campbell â&#x20AC;&#x201D;â&#x20AC;˘ who, unfortunately, had died in Bethany, Virginia, sixteen months ear Her (March 4, 1866), and was not present to respond.

Brigham's fellow New Englander, Mr. Jonathan Edwards (also not present!) was set straight on die matter of the will (without mention of Mr. Edwards, however), and then the tamer of the Great Basin deserts launched into a discussion of that perennial favorite, the farm problem.

I have been unable to determine whetiier Brigham's apostolic colleague, Ezra Taft Benson I (1811-1869) was present. But it is certain that his namesake and apostolic descendant, the man who was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Cabinet (1953-1960) would have pricked up his ears (and could read Brigham's comments herein on farm prices and their control with more than interest!). Brigham in 1867 seemed to favor "parity" price

66

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

fixing by someone, if not by government. Referring to the imbalance between farm purchasing power and farm prices Brigham said: I want to say to the farmers when you gather your wheat, put it in your bins, and if you owe a merchant, let him wait until the day of judgment unless he will pay you so that you can live. . . .

After a few words on the problem of h u m a n progress and the salvation of all God's children whether living or dead, the Vermont-born colonizer and leader of men said, "I have detained you long enough, and have talked long enough. May God bless you. [ A m e n ] . " With that, knowing what I have come to know of Brigham from his daughter Susa and her family, I suspect that Brigham left Temple Square, walked back up South Temple to the Lion House, hoping for some green corn, home-made ice cream, good talk and music with his large and talented family.

That which follows was discovered by Dr. John A. Widtsoe, 1 the compiler of Discourses of Brigham Young (First edition, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book Company, 1925, 760 pp.). Dr. Widtsoe collected Mormon memorabilia, books, pamphlets, and manuscripts for more than fifty years. T h e manuscript of the present discourse was given to me shortly before his death November 29, 1952. Dr. Widtsoe wrote on the fly leaf of this document: This is an original transcript made by David W. Evans, the stenographer, of his notes of President Young's discourse. It also shows the erasures and corrections made in preparation for printing. It seems to be an unpublished sermon.

Brigham's sermons in Utah (to his death August 29, 1877) were all published in the Journal of Discourses (26 vols., Liverpool, 1854â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1886). This one of August 4, 1867, however, is more than a discourse delivered on a warm Sunday in the Great Basin. It is an expression of the h u m a n spirit that scanned the heavens, reckoned with the use and price of earthly wheat, and hinted at doctrines of progress and perfectibility in that great land of liberty, nineteenth-century America.

DISCOURSE W e talk a great deal about our improvements and increase in knowledge. This is a subject for philosophers. There is no question 'John A. Widtsoe (1872â&#x20AC;&#x201D;1952) was a pioneer in scientific dry-farming and irrigation in Utah (B.A. Harvard, 1894; Ph.D. Gottingen, 1899; president of Utah State Agricultural College and later of the University of Utah, was widely known in the West as a principal "Mormon" scholar of the first half of the twentieth century) and one of the framers of the Colorado River Compact at Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1922.

DISCOURSE

BY B R I G H A M

YOUNG

67

but there is a great deal of knowledge in the world. But how much knowledge have we in proportion to that that does exist in, through and round about the earth, in the starry heavens and in the eternities of the Gods? When we draw this comparison, our knowledge is very limited, and although we hear our Elders talk Sabbath after Sabbath on the principles of the gospel diat we have embraced, yet we cannot improve as fast as we would like to. A child of seven or eight years of age when sent to school cannot learn the letters of the alphabet in one day; neither can he learn the English language in one week, month or year, and I will say not in one short lifetime like ours. So it is with regard to learning the principles of the Gospel — the principles of truth and righteousness comprised within the pale of the Gospel.

I want every man and woman here to understand that the Gospel we talk about circumscribes and comprehends the knowledge that is possessed by the Gods, all the holy angels, and I may say the unholy angels; the knowledge, glory, power and excellency, whether it be good or bad, in time and in eternity. We do not talk much like this do we?

When strangers come to our meetings they think, probably, that we do not exhibit any knowledge more than they possess. The fact is, we are endeavoring to commence right.

Suppose, for instance, we want to strike a direct line to the North Pole, and in order to do so we take a compass in which the needle is out of order and does not traverse correctly. It may go five degrees to the east or ten degrees to the west; if we start on the line indicated by this needle, do you suppose we will ever reach the North Pole?

Never, we will go past it, and by and by we will swing ourselves from the earth, and by going round a few times we would be left in open space, which would be worse than a ship on the ocean without sail, compass or rudder. This is the case with regard to the religions or what I may call the philosophical systems of the day pertaining to the life we now enjoy and that which is to come. If we start right and we continue in the right path — if we do not know everything today, or even as much as we desire and as other people expect us to know — do you not see it will eventually land us right in the fountain of eternal knowledge, so that we will see as we are seen and know as we are known?

The Gospel of the Son of God that we preach is the system of life and of salvation. The inquiry may arise, where did we get this, how came this people called Latter-day Saints into possession of the true principles of eternal life? Are they not disseminated to all the inhab-

68

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

itants of the earth? I will say they have been, but the inhabitants of the earth have rejected diem; consequently, they are left in darkness.

Nation after nation, people after people have wandered in darkness and ignorance, and have lived and died without the knowledge of the Gospel. (Asked a blessing on the water.) 2 On some points, that we may call religious peculiarities, we differ from all the rest of the inhabitants of the earth. How? In this, that we profess to have the fullness of the Gospel of the Son of God that is possessed by no other people that we know of. If our life and conduct as individuals and as a people have witnessed to God, to angels and to the inhabitants of the earth that we have something different from all the Christian world, it is time for them to reflect seriously on the matter, and not treat us with jealousy and contumely.

If we, for instance, were to go to that portion of the house of Israel who were left on the land of Palestine when the ten tribes marched to the northern country and learn the tenets of their faith, we should find that they do not possess one iota of truth but what is enjoyed by the Latter-day Saints. Where is the proof? I do not know that I will have time to measure and weigh these points on the present occasion, but the proof is right before us. We may ask them the question, "Do you believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and of Jacob?" So do the Latter-day Saints. If they believe in the God who told Moses to say to Pharaoh that He was a man of war; so do die Saints. I say, O Israel, ancient Israel do you believe in the God who brought the children of Israel out of Egypt with a high hand and an outstretched arm! "Yes," say they; and so do the Latter-day Saints. Have you faith, that if necessary, He would again shower manna from Heaven and send flocks of quails to allay your hunger and cause water to burst from the rock to quench your thirst as He did when the Children of Israel were passing through the Wilderness? Do you believe that He is the God whom Moses followed and by whom he was dictated? "Yes," says the whole house of Israel. Well, that is the very God that we — the Latter-day Saints — are serving. He is our Father. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — whom the tribe of Judah discard, heaping ridicule upon his name. He is the Father of our Spirits, everyone of us, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, white or black. Is that saying 2 The reference is to the Mormon mode of communion. Bread, and then water, is distributed to the congregation. The administration of the bread evidently preceded Brigham's discourse, he rising to occupy the time during its being passed among the members. At this point, then, he paused while the water was blessed prior to its distribution. (See the referrence to this Sacrament in his discourse, below).

DISCOURSE

BY B R I G H A M

YOUNG

69

too much? Is there any of us who will reject the idea that He is the Father of the spirits of all living? If there is, it is through ignorance.

All the varieties in physiognomy and the different shades of color — the tawney and copper colored, the black and white, are His; and if there be any who are not white and delightsome, it is because their sins and iniquities have brought a curse upon them. But our Father and our God is the Father of the spirits of all living. He is the framer and finisher of our bodies, and He set this machine in motion that has brought forth the whole human family; and He has laid, made and prepared the plan of Salvation for His children that all may be saved who will receive the Gospel.

Here, in our city, are many who profess to be of the tribe of Judah; some are of that tribe and some are of other tribes. Let them go into the houses of diis people and they will hear the prayers of the Elders of Israel ascend in behalf of the tribe of Judah; day by day they are borne before the throne of the Almighty for Him to hasten the day when the eyes of the children of Judah shall be opened that they may see, their ears unstopped that they may hear, and that their hearts may be penetrated by the power of God that they may understand the trudi as it is in Jesus. These few remarks with regard to the house of Israel will satisfy me.

Now, what have the Christians got that the Latter-day Saints have not got. Has the holy Catholic Church got faith in Jesus that we have not got? Not a particle that is true and pure. But as for the ordinances of the House of God, we say, and we say it boldly, and here is the standard of our faith — the Old and New Testament — that the mother church and all her daughters have transgressed the laws, every one of them; they have changed almost every ordinance of the House of God; and not only so, but like the children of Israel in olden days, they have broken the covenants made with the fathers. We are bold to say this and we will take diis book — the Bible — in which Jews and Gentiles believe for our standard and proof.

Has the holy Catholic Church the ordinance of baptism? So they say. What do you say Latter-day Saints ? We say they have not. There is but one mode of baptism and that is by being immersed in the water that the subject may come forth out of the water, in comparison like a child at its birth — struggling for breath — emerging into another element. This is the figure diat Jesus gave us. Jesus and others were baptized of John, and the disciples of Jesus baptized more; but none

TO

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

of them were baptized by pouring, sprinkling, kneeling, or face foremost, but diey were immersed in the water and came forth out of die water.

Have they die Sacrament? Yes, so diey say. "Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to die disciples, and said, 'Take, eat, diis is my body.' And he took the cup, and gave dianks and gave it to them saying, 'Drink ye all of it.'" N o w , I leave it to all whether they carry out this ordinance or not.

Leaving the mother church, we will go to her children â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the other churches of Christendom. And here permit me to politely invite my Christian brethren all over the earth, never to speak evil of their modier. " W h a t do you m e a n ? " say diey. I mean, do not speak evil of die church from which you have derived your authority and priesthood. You hear the Protestants crying against and depreciating the character of her who bore diem. I would say to all that portion of the Christian world not in communion with the Church of Rome, if you must speak evil of your beloved mother, do it very softly; she is your mother and you are her offspring. It is true that die Greek Church does not acknowledge diis, and the Protestants more or less deny it, but still if you trace the matter to its source, you will find diey derive their authority from the mother church; and she is as good as any of her children.

Yes, I will venture to say that there are just as serious, honest, virtuous and truthful men and women in die holy Catholic Church as there are in any other on the face of the earth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints not excepted so far as our truth and honesty as individuals are concerned. But go to each and all of die churches of Christendom and can we find the ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ practiced amongst them? W e may find a few of them.

Mr. Campbell, 3 some years ago, introduced the great principle of being baptized for the remission of sins. This was the reform from the Close Communion Baptists who baptized merely as a test of fellowship. But Mr. Campbell said "Be baptized for the remission of your sins"; they went no further than that. Said I, "I acknowledge that portion of your doctrine to be true but will you please read die scripture following that and see what it teaches?" " W e cannot do it; we do not believe in the laying on of hands for die Holy Ghost. N o , No, repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins, but we can go 'Alexander Campbell (1788-1866).

DISCOURSE

BY B R I G H A M

YOUNG

71

no further." How was it anciently. This book — the New Testament —• I think says, "Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost"; and we also read, "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake in tongues and prophesied." But Mr. Campbell says, "Stop, stop, that needs to be spiritually construed. It does not mean what it says." "Then," I say to Mr. Campbell and his followers, "what proof have you that it is necessary to be baptized for the remission of sins?" If one is the doctrine of Christ, so is the other. Repent ye, therefore, and be baptized for the remission of your sins that you may receive the Holy Ghost. What is the office of the Holy Ghost? It brings things past, present and to come to the minds of all who receive and enjoy it.

Do the Christian world believe in any of die doctrines of the gospel of Christ? They believe in faith in Jesus, and so do we. Many of them believe in strict honesty, so do we. Yet they frequently say, "How dishonest some of you Mormons are!" I acknowledge that some who are called Mormons are dishonest. I am sorry to say so. And then again I should not be sorry for if diis gospel gadiered none but the good, the words of the Savior would fall to the ground. He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind." I think we have gathered of all kinds, and this is collateral evidence and security to us that this is the gospel net; and if the world do not acknowledge it now, they will by and by.

We have this gospel, and it behooves us to live according to its precepts. Some are disposed to call us rogues and to say that we are ignorant. I do not care one farthing what the people from one end of the world to the other call me if they will only repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, receive the Holy Ghost and live according to the dictates of the spirit of Christ. But there are some rogues and some fools, and I would to God that all were foolish enough to believe and obey the gospel and to live it every day of their lives. All who will do this will be saved.

A good deal was said this morning in relation to our organization and possessing a will of our own. Our Fadier in Heaven has placed widiin each of our tabernacles the attributes that He, Himself, possesses. He has given to everyone of us — His children — the germ and foundation of all knowledge and wisdom; and we are fashioned, made and framed for the express purpose of exercising our will that we may become independent and that we may reign, rule and predom-

72

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

inate over all things. Brother Heber says that we have not got a will.

He meant that we should not let our wills lead us to destruction. We have all a mind, disposition and will, are capable of becoming gods even the sons of God to rule and reign forever and ever. With these wills of ours we will go to the Master — Him whom we have enlisted to obey as our Teacher, Head and Guide, and from Him we will receive our lessons day by day, and we will fashion our wills and passions accordingly. You and I and every individual will do this sooner or later. In doing this, however, we will each follow the promptings of the spirit within us, and there will be the same diversity as we now behold. Here is one man, for instance, says, "I want to go to the gold mines"; another says, "I will go and haul my potatoes"; another, "I will become a merchant"; another will go to making carriages or furniture, and each one uses the volition God has bestowed upon him with that independence that the angels exercise. It is true that we may be so far controlled by circumstances that we cannot do exactly as we please, which is, in part, the theory of the infidel, or what in England are called the Owenites. They pretend to say that every man and woman that lives are wholly controlled by surrounding circumstances; that we have no choice or will of our own, or if we have, the circumstances surrounding us, continually prevent its exercise.

This is true in part. We are capable to some extent of framing the circumstances by which our children will be surrounded. To illustrate, one man says, "I will become a thief" — we have just such characters in our midst — he is raising a family of children who are brought up to steal all they can lay their hands on, and by and by they are found in the penitentiary. Such characters are governed by surrounding circumstances but they are of their own making. If we will deal honesdy and justly with one another, we will so control circumstances that the rising generation will become honorable men of the earth — honorable before God and angels. Take a course opposite to this and their names will be cast out as evil, and not for righteousness sake, but for their bad deeds. It is for you and me to live according to the precepts of our holy religion.

There was one question hinted at very plainly this afternoon by Bro. George Q. Cannon,4 to which I will now refer, that is, whether this people are going to dictate to their leaders, or whether they are ^Cannon (1827-1901), formerly Brigham's secretary, had been ordained one of the twelve apostles of the church, August 26, 1860, and served as Utah's Territorial Delegate in Congress, 1872-81.

DISCOURSE

BY B R I G H A M

YOUNG

73

going to follow them and obey their counsel. I will tell the Latterday Saints, one and all, male and female, from beginning to end, that while God keeps me here in this capacity and calling, you will follow me, or we shall separate no more to meet. I can say of a truth, if you will follow me as I follow Christ, we will go into the Celestial Kingdom. The people can do as they please; I do not ask them to follow anything they do not choose to follow. They generally prefer taking their own course, like some of our merchants here, who buy and sell and oppress the people all they can. They are blinded by the spirit of the world; they cannot see things as they are; they act as they please, and by and by, as I told them years ago, if they are not careful, they will get their reward and go to hell.

I had a talk during the past week with one of our merchants, who, I understood, had taken a contract to furnish flour to Camp Douglas5 at five dollars and twenty-four cents a hundred. While conversing with him, I learned that he had taken but a small contract and that he had the flour and wheat on hand necessary to fill it, and he was disposed to sell, being satisfied that others would have done so if he had not.

I could not say much to him on the subject when I heard what he had to say. But what do such prices do for our farmers? They reduce their wages to twenty-five or fifty cents a day. Circumstances are woven around them that this is the inevitable result. To facilitate operations on their farms they have probably got reapers and mowers, thrashing machines, ploughs and other farming utensils on credit from some of these merchants, and being in debt they are obliged to let their wheat go at a dollar a bushel, when it cost them two dollars a bushel, and if their labor were paid for in proportion to that of our mechanics and common laborers, it would be worth from three dollars to five dollars per bushel. If our merchants and producers would be agreed in these matters, the outsiders could not affect the price of wheat or flour one sixpence, and we might have a fair remunerative price for them.

I recollect when Mr. Livingstone was here and the army was at Camp Floyd6 that he reduced the price of flour and wheat. I told him that it was the most impolitic thing he could do; for if instead of reducing, he kept up the price of wheat to three or four dollars a bushel he would make a thousand dollars where he only made a hun5

Camp (now Fort) Douglas, was established in Salt Lake City in 1862.

President Buchanan sent Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston with an armed force to Utah in 1857. Camp Floyd was their camp, soon abandoned.

0

74

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

dred. It is just so today. I want to inform our merchants, whether in or out of the Church, that diese gentlemen here on the hill â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I am disposed to call them gentlemen, I am acquainted with some of them, it is not Pat7 and his crowd â&#x20AC;&#x201D; would radier pay this community ten dollars a hundred for their flour than five. Why? Because they see that this is a laboring community and they ought to have pay for their labor. We ought to be reasonable with one another, and be as willing to give as to receive.

I think I will tell a story in relation to this matter. A few years ago when the people were very anxious to trade off their flour, a company passed dirough here, the captain of which was a pretty honorable man; he had been through before and was tolerably well-known.

When the flour was offered to him for three or four dollars a hundred, said he, "Gentlemen you are a set of damned fools; we do not want this flour short of ten dollars a hundred. Why do you sell it so cheap; you do not get anything for your labor?" I do not say diat our quartermasters who purchase here say this, but I guess it comes into their minds sometimes. Some of our friends think they are going to curry favors by selling so cheaply. What is it to them who let out the contracts; it is not they who pay for this flour; neither do those men who are sent to Washington pay for it, but it is paid for out of die millions that are gathered from the taxed hard laboring community of the United States. Do you not think diese gendemen here would as soon let us have a fair price for our flour as to see it gambled away? My solid opinion is that they would; whether it is so or not, it is no matter.

I will let diis rest.

I want to say to the farmers when you gather your wheat, put it in your bins, and if you owe a merchant, let him wait until the day of judgment unless he will pay you so that you can live. If you owe a man who has it in his power to control your labor and means, and would crush you, tell him to wait. If he were just and generous, he would be willing to let you live, as well as to live himself. It is almost straining my own feelings to say a man should not pay his honest debts, but is it honest for a man who has me in his power to crush out my life? No, it is damnable and will send many an Elder to hell.

Equal rights of live and let five is our doctrine.

'The reference is to General Patrick Edward Connor, first commandant of Fort Douglas and a founder of the "Liberal" party in Utah Territorial politics, designed to reduce Brigham's political power.

DISCOURSE

BY B R I G H A M

YOUNG

75

With regard to this people, I will say, we do not advance as fast as we should. We have characters in our midst who are despicable in the eyes of justice, truth and mercy, but we cannot help it. Let me say to you, Latter-day Saints, that the man who refuses or rejects counsel pertaining to his temporal affairs will sooner or later go out of this Church and will go down to misery.8 Is this a hard saying? Yes, very hard. The feeling of a great many is that they should actually have the privilege of dictating their temporal affairs without being molested or meddled with. But stop! stop! Let me ask a question â&#x20AC;&#x201D; I will say of the whole Christian world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; when you get to heaven, do you not expect whether you are farmers, merchants, tradesmen, or whatever your calling may be to be subject in all things to the voice of Him who has the right to rule and dictate? Yes, everyone of you, and I want to say that if this order of things is not carried out on earth by the Latter-day Saints, God will choose another people who will carry out this principle to the very letter. Some will say, "I do not agree with Brother Brigham in temporal affairs." Who cares whether you do or not? You can do just as you please, but you who despise counsel in anything whatever, will, unless you repent, soon lose the spirit of this gospel and will be filled with the spirit of apostacy; that is to say the spirit of Christ will no longer dictate, prompt, and comfort you, but will give place to the spirit of darkness, mourning and discontent, and by and by you will go and join the bogus Josephites,9 for die Latter-day Saints will be so wicked that you will want to get away from them. It is true we are wicked. Jesus came to save sinners and if we were not sinners, we should be as independent of Him as Amasa Lyman.10 But I need the blood of Christ and I also need the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ to lead, guide and direct the affairs of this Kingdom.

Do you need the same? Yes. Let a woman rise up in rebellion against her husband that lives his religion, and I will promise her sorrow and woe. Do I desire this ? No, ladies I do not, but I would that all would live so as to receive the spirit of peace and comfort and enjoy an s At this time Brigham was about to organize Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution and other economic measures to defend the church's economy against postCivil War competition. * The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was established at Piano, Illinois, in 1860, with Joseph Smith III and his brother as titular leader. In 1863-64 "Josephite" missionaries came to Utah and mustered about "three hundred" proselytes. H . H . Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco, 1891), 645.

10 Amasa M. Lyman (1813-1877), an aposde of the church, 1842-67, denied the necessity of the atonement of Christ (see Young's reference next sentence) and was deprived of his apostleship October 8, 1867.

76

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

increase of it as long as they live on the earth. Children who rise in rebellion against their parents will receive the spirit of discontent and uneasiness; it will grow upon them; they will be dissatisfied everywhere, and the spirit of apostacy will grow upon them and they will go down to destruction. Every man that refuses counsel, or sets himself up as a guide to this Church or people had better go where his company is, for he has got one somewhere; but we will not follow him one inch.

I have said a good deal about the faith we have embraced and about the course this people ought to pursue; if we had time to go into the philosophy of this life and show what it is worth, it would be interesting. This life is one of the most precious lives ever given to any creature in heaven, earth, or hell; and this earth is one of the most beautiful planets if we were disposed to make it so. The wretchedness, misery and woe on the earth are through the wickedness of the children of men. The children of God have rebelled â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the laws, and every man has turned his own way, and the spirit of the Lord is not with them without it is to convict them.

I recollect when I first joined the Church a certain Elder making this assertionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-that all had gone out of the way; the question was asked him, "Do you suppose that John Wesley is damned and in hell?"

"Yes," said he, "he is weltering with the damned in hell." It was one of the most unwise expressions that could be made, and the man who made it was as ignorant as Henry Ward Beecher who has said that "to be born was the greatest misfortune that could befall man."

John Wesley is just as happy as he can be, or as he ever anticipated; but he is not with the Father and the Son, nor ever will be unless the ordinances are administered for him, and they will be by and by.

Do you recollect what Brother Macdonald said this morning about redeeming the dead? By and by when the world is subject to the law of Christ and we can build temples to the Lord, the responsibility of redeeming the dead will rest upon us. Then, if you and I do not, our children will enter the temples of the Lord and go through all the ordinances for every good man and woman that ever lived on the earth who have died without the privilege of hearing the gospel.

I have detained you long enough, and have talked long enough.

May God bless you.

REVIEWS

AND

RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859. By Norman F. Furniss. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1960, 311 pp., $5.00) Students of Western history will find Norman F. Furniss' The Mormon Conflict a very significant analysis of that little-known, turbulent period in Utah when United States troops were sent out to put down a "rebellion." In considering any phase of Mormon history, most writers assume the attitude of being either for or against the church, so that it is refreshing to read one whose approach is detached and unbiased. The author has gone through a great quantity of government documents, reports, letters, diaries, and contemporary publications and has sorted his materials with perception and skill. From it, by the alchemy of his own personality, he has produced an altogether readable book. The bibliography alone is a contribution of value, the footnotes numerous and detailed.

Had Dr. Furniss been allowed as much liberty in the use of L.D.S. Church records as he had in those of the government, he might have had a better insight into the inner workings of the theocracy, with Brigham Young at the head, the Council of Twelve to direct matters of religion, the Council of Fifty to deal with practical affairs of the Kingdom, the Bishop's Courts to settle differences between brethren, and the Stake High Councils to handle cases of malpractice or apostasy. He would have understood the forces behind the change in policy

78

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

from the initial "stand up and fight!" to the one of fleeing before the enemy and leaving only ashes behind.

Even without these documents Dr. Furniss has done well. His opening chapters, especially, are rewarding, showing as they do the conflicts which culminated in the sending of an expedition "so hesitatingly launched and ineptly prosecuted" on the one hand, and die reaction of Brigham Young that "with God's help, they shall not come here" on the other. Mormons, who are apt to read the Hand of God into all situations where their welfare is concerned, might well count the sudden descent of winter in mid-October as a special providence to prevent a bloody encounter. As it was, Jesse Gove wrote truly his summary of this war: "Wounded, none; killed, none; fooled, everybody."

Dr. Furniss succeeds in making many of his characters real people.

Often he depicts a man with a telling adjective, much as a cartoonist does widi a single, not-to-be-forgotten stroke. Usually this is well done indeed, but on occasion it produces a distorted image, as with the reference to the "Cyclopean Cradlebaugh." His portrayal of Thomas L. Kane, on the other hand, is especially apt. As this ardent young man presses his case in Washington, as he carries out his self-appointed task of commissioner of peace, dealing widi Governor Alfred Cumming, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston in the triangle of differing purposes, he becomes alive.

Every writer writes for a specific audience. As one student said, "This is a book by a Ph.D, for Ph.D-ers." D r . Furniss includes many words carrying classical connotations which are lost on the average reader, but light the page for the more erudite. There are times when this use of the long or unusual word actually befogs the meaning, as "In the light of these unfortuitous developments, the Colonel called another council of war to discuss strategy."

Perhaps an incident will help to point up die fact diat the Mormon story can be told completely only if one has access to all the records. Speaking of Judge Eckels' single conviction, the author says (page 226): . . . In July 1859 Marshall Peter Dotson had raided a Church tithing office hard by Brigham Young's residence and there had found evidence that a counterfeiter had been at work printing drafts upon die United States treasurer at St. Louis. Dotson seized the evidence, accidentally removing at the same time the plates of the Deseret Currency Association, and arrested

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

79

twenty-six-year-old David McKenzie as the engraver. Two other men, one a well-known gambler, involved with McKenzie in the conspiracy were apparently left unpunished, but from Judge Eckels the Mormon drew a fine of fifty dollars and a sentence of two years' imprisonment. . . .

F r o m Mormon sources, D r . Furniss could have learned that the counterfeiter, A . C. Brewer, had been a member of the church in Nauvoo, where he was employed in the printing office. B. H . Roberts names his accomplice as J. M. Wallace, and Hosea Stout writing on Thursday 13 July 1859 said: This evening I received a letter from David McKenzie. He states that he has been committed to the district court at Nephi and that Brewer & Wallace turned states' evidence and were turned loose.

Perhaps there was never a time when armed conflict between the soldiers and the Mormons was more imminent than following this arrest. T h e officers at Camp Floyd, learning that the counterfeit plates were found in Brigham Young's office, that the boy who had made them lived and boarded in the president's home, that the paper upon which they were reproduced came from the supply intended for the Deseret currency, felt that they had a clear case and proposed to surprise Brigham Young and take him by force. W o r d of this leaked out, and some five thousand Mormon men, members of the Nauvoo Legion, quickly assembled. Only the decisive stand of Governor Cummings prevented an open clash.

T h e one to suffer first was Marshal Dotson, who was brought into the probate court upon the charge that he had removed the plates for the Deseret currency and defaced them; he was convicted and fined $2,600.00, and when he could not pay it, a house which he owned was sold to satisfy the judgment. As for Brewer's escaping punishment, he escaped only until May 18 following, when he was shot through the head. Dying with him, evidently by the gun of the same assassin, was one Joaquin Johnson, a gambler.

These shots on a main street in Salt Lake City echoed throughout Mormondon. Charles L. Walker and George Laub both recorded them immediately; John D . Lee entered the facts in his diary within a fortnight, and C. C. Pendleton of Parowan wrote full details in a letter to William H . D a m e in England. Each of the four named "Brewer, the counterfeiter," and the last two called his companion "Hell-Roaring Johnson." W h a t happened to Wallace has not been determined.

80

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

This example is not used to discount die excellent work of Dr. Furniss, but only to point up the fact that Mormon history of this period has many facets, so many that it is difficult to consider them all.

JUANITA BROOKS

Utah State Historical Society Fremont's Fourth Expedition: A Documentary Account of the Disaster of 1848-1849 with Diaries, Letters, and Reports by Participants in the Tragedy. Edited widi Introductions and Notes, by LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen. Volume XI The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series 1820-1875. (Glendale, Arthur H. Clark Company, 1960, 309 pp., $12.00) LeRoy and Ann Hafen, so well known to workers in Western American history, introduce this volume with a broad picture of Manifest Destiny in the 1840's. Here are the voices of Asa Whitney and Thomas Hart Benton; here are the dreams of the transcontinental railroad and the overland passage to India; here, too, is the proper perspective for the Fremont Fourth Expedition of 1848-49. Fremont himself, stung by his court martial, plans at private expense and without government support, to prove that a central railroad route over the Rockies is practicable in winter. He leads a band of thirty-three men into the San Juan Range in southern Colorado during the storms of a peculiarly bitter season. Doggedly battling the elements, apparently lost in the search for the right passes, he will not retreat until sheer necessity requires. The result is disaster, a third of the men left dead on the trail.

Fremont blamed his guide, his men, almost anyone but himself; others put the responsibility squarely with the commander. The Hafens in their introduction judiciously refrain from taking sides and describe the whole effort as "heroic â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or foolhardy."

The main section of the book consists of documents. These include seven accounts by members of the expedition, such as the diaries of the three Kern brothers and the narratives of Thomas Martin, Micajah McGehee, and Tom Breckenridge; letters from Fremont and other participants written shortly after the tragedy; and subsequent statements in the long debate over responsibility, leading down to 1856 when the matter was thoroughly rehashed during Fremont's presidential campaign.

REVIEWS AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

81

All of the documents relating directly to the Fourtii Expedition are here widi one exception, the diary of Charles Preuss, which the Hafens have excluded because of its recent printing and easy availability elsewhere. A letter of Fremont to Snyder, December 11, 1849, reprinted in Bigelow's Fremont might have been included as showing Fremont's later thoughts on the results of the expedition, but this is a minor letter and certainly far on the periphery of relevance.

The book includes two maps and some excellent illustrations, heretofore unpublished, taken from Richard Kern's diaries and from the publisher's prospectus for Fremont's Memoirs.

Henceforth no one who wishes to join the endless debate of Western historians over the character and motives of John Charles Fremont can ignore this work of the Hafens.

ROBERT V. HINE

University of California, Riverside Andrew Sublette, Rocky Mountain Prince, 1808-1853. By Doyce Blackman Nunis, Jr. (Los Angeles, Dawson's Book Shop, 1960, 123 pp., $10.00) This biography brings together the scattered data upon one of the famous Sublettes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a family noted for having five brothers distinguished in the fur trade of the Far West. Although ranking in importance behind brothers William and Milton, Andrew did have a career worth the space devoted to it in this slim volume.

The Huguenot and Kentucky backgrounds of the family had been presented previously in Professor Sunder's recent biography of Bill Sublette. The general facts of Andrew's activity in the western fur trade had been outlined in the Colorado Magazine and elsewhere.

Mr. Nunis' principal contribution is in the material presented regarding Andrew's military activity and his California career in mining and freighting. He also clarifies various controversial matters. The volume contains considerable information on Andrew's brothers, Milton and Solomon.

Mr. Nunis has utilized the important Sublette and Campbell papers at the Missouri Historical Society and the collection of family papers owned by Miss Anne Wilson Patton of San Marino, California.

Some geographical and factual errors are made, such as assuming the proximity of Independence Rock to the Platte River (p. 35) and

82

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

describing E. W. Smith's route as taking him to Fort Laramie (p.

60). The author has confused the identity and locations of Fort Convenience and Fort Vasquez (pp. 56-57). But on the whole the study is a commendable piece of work, evidencing extensive and careful research.

Andrew's life was haunted by financial failures — with his fur fort on the South Platte, and his mining near the Amargosa River among others. But as the author points out in his Foreword, financial rewards are not a satisfactory measure of success. Andrew Sublette and his brothers "were among the heralds of Manifest Destiny. Their labors on the far frontier helped to create the American empire."

LEROY R. HAFEN

Brigham Young University Notes on General Ashley the Overland Trail and South Pass. By Donald McKay Frost. (Barre, Massachusetts, Barre Gazette, 1960, xii + 149 pp., $5.00) This small volume contains fifty-five pages of narrative written by its author; three letters of Daniel T. Potts (Appendix A ) ; seventynine pages of newspaper excerpts dealing with the fur trade of the 1820's (Appendix B); an index and a folded red-line pocket map inside the back cover. Page iv carries a notice to the effect that the book is a reprint from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society.

Since neither volume number nor date of the original publication is given anywhere, the book's 1960 publication date tends to suggest that this is a report of a very recent — not to say current — piece of research, which it is not. The publishers have done a disservice to this document, to its author (now dead) and to the reader by failing to supply the date of the original publication plus adequate introduction and annotation for the current volume. Not all readers will wish to take time to research out the fact that the material was originally published in 1945. Yet anyone reasonably familiar with the rapidly growing mass of literature dealing with the fur trade of the Far West will not get through the first page of the "Foreword" without realizing that the account is outdated. Results of much significant research dealing with the subject at hand have been published in the past fifteen years.

The whole epic of the conflict between Peter Skene Ogden of Hudson's Bay Company and the Americans was shrouded in mystery until the 1950 publication of Ogden's 1824-25 journals and subsequent

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

83

research which grew out of that publication. The book under examination here should carry a footnote on page 42 acquainting the reader with some of this literature, which, incidentally, proves that Jedediah Smith did not reach Great Salt Lake during the fall or winter of 182425 (page 44). It is also now known that Etienne Provost was not an Ashley man at all but operated his fur business out of Taos. Hence, any earlier claim made for him as die likely discoverer of South Pass in 1824 (pages 32, 37) as a member of an Ashley brigade is simply out of date.

These things and others contained in the volume were not known when Mr. Frost was preparing his manuscript in the early 1940's. He deserves an explanation to that effect with the re-issue of his work in 1960.

In dealing with a major subject of the book â&#x20AC;&#x201D; discovery of South Pass â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the author presents some very interesting material regarding the activities of Andrew Henry's men prior to 1812 and the possibility (but not proof) that some of them might have crossed the South Pass a year or two before the returning Astorians did. His attempt to show that Jedediah Smith's 1824 party missed the pass, but that another group of Ashley men, of which Daniel Potts was a member, were the first to cross it that season is unconvincing, especially in light of more recent research in the field.

The significant contribution of the volume is found in the Appendixes which bring the reader many important documents which would otherwise be difficult to obtain. The letters of Daniel T. Potts contain colorful eye-witness accounts of some aspects of the fur trade and the country in which it was carried on. His descriptions of portions of present-day Utah are exceptionally interesting. The newspaper excerpts of Appendix B contain reprints of letters and a mass of other vital material dealing with Ashley's fur trading activities.

DAVID E.

MILLER

University of Utah South Pass, 1858: James Chisholm's Journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush. Introduced and edited by Lola M. Homsher. (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1960, vi+244 pp., $4.50) The Pioneer Heritage Series, in which this is the third volume, tries to present the trans-Missouri West of frontier days as seen by ordinary people. James Chisholm, a Scot who had been in the United

84

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

States only three years, visited Wyoming in 1868 as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. His reportorial work during nine months in Wyoming was negligible, but for part of the time he kept a "journal" which is now published.

Curiously Chisholm, who was supposed to report on the South Pass gold mines, spent the six months, March — September, 1868, in the end-of-track towns along the Union Pacific. After leaving the town of Green River for South Pass in September he began his journal.

Once among the miners he noted: "What a contrast is there between the quiet life of this mountain camp and the roaring hells of railhead towns which I have but recently quitted."

In the mining area he found three small villages, South Pass City, Atlantic City and Hamilton City, each with perhaps 50 or 60 people.

A hundred or so deserted cabins indicated that the population had recently been larger.

The journal is a curious bag of random reflections about people and places. "Informal essays" would be more appropriate than "journal." Except for details about mining practices there is little information and few cogent insights.

Chisholm had a pleasant enough time in South Pass although he got thoroughly soaked and chilled on his way there in a light spring wagon. The people were hospitable. Few were making more than wages. The miners were "mostly old Californians — very intelligent."

He added, however, that "a vast amount of the gold dust is ground in the whiskey mill." The miners were skeptics: "You will rarely find an out-and-out orthodox man among what I would designate as the thinking population of the hills."

On the basis of a few contacts with Indians, who did him no harm, Chisholm concluded: "They are unlovely, intractable, useless, strutting, ridiculous, pompous humbugs — lying, faidiless, stealing, begging, cruel, hungry, howling vagabonds — cowardly, treacherous red devils."

Among individuals encountered, most attention is given to "Mountain Bill Rhodes" who "is as genuine an old hunter as Natty Bumpo."

Rhodes, whose experience in the region went back to 1857, had a cabin and a patch of farming land in the Wind River Valley. In his wanderings around South Pass Chisholm twice visited the Wind River Valley where he found a few ranchers in addition to the mountain man.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

85

Chisholm's journal confirms the suspicion which some people have entertained for a long time that the South Pass gold rush did not amount to much. Legends have placed the South Pass mining population at 10,000 in 1867 and 1868. The journal supports the view that there were never more than 2,000 there at one time.

When the snows began to pile up Chisholm made his way, how is not explained, to Cheyenne and on to Chicago where he became a drama critic for the Tribune. He probably had had enough of the frontier. In one of his essays he remarked that westerners "would have done better (and they know it) to remain where they came from. . . .

The populations in the States are on the average better off than the floating populations out in the mountains."

The publisher and the editor have done their parts well, better one judges than the author of the journal. â&#x20AC;&#x17E; , T 1 . A. LARSON

University of Wyoming James Strang's Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac, Including an Account of the Controversy between Mackinac and the Mormons.

Edited by George S. May. (Reprinted from the original edition of 1854, Mackinac Island, Michigan, W. Stewart Woodful, 1959, xii + 100 pp., $5.00) This is mainly a limited edition reprint of a now very scarce pamphlet published in 1854 by James J. Strang, leader of a small faction of so-called Mormons living mostly on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. The Appendix (pp. 93-100) contains a reprint of "Some Remarks on the Natural History of Beaver Islands, Michigan" by James J. Strang which appeared originally in the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1854. This book includes also a fairly long introduction and footnotes by the editor, a modern map of the Beaver Islands, and seven well-chosen illustrations. The jirinting is very well done and readable.

The binding is in buckram.

The book will be welcomed, especially, by the ever-increasing number of present-day students who are really exploring into the various facets of the background of early Mormonism. As to factions of so-called Mormons, there have been and are today, many of them.

Not a few of their leaders have had published what they claimed to be divine revelations (see, for example, George B. Arbaugh's book Revelation in Mormonism published in 1932, and especially in it the fourteenth chapter entitled "Revelations of King James J. Strang").

86

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

Referring to Strang in his Introduction Editor May says, "Although physically a small, slightly built youth, he was possessed of unusual intellectual endowments." The first word of this sentence seems to imply that Strang's small physical size might be considered a necessary handicap to personal achievement. Such a "disadvantage" has very often proved to be a spur toward other kinds of bigness. In the diary which Strang kept as a young man (and to which this reviewer has had access) he often chides himself for not making better achievements in the direction of what he considered to be the high goals he had set for himself. He had dreams of some day exercising royal, military, or religious power. This also helps explain later frustrations which made him implement for himself the role of successor of Joseph Smith, discoverer of ancient plates, author, naturalist, legislator, and even a King. The editor's Introduction is a valuable part of this book and therefore should not be merely scanned. The one negative comment that perhaps should be said about it is that his many references to King Strang's small group of adherents as "the Mormons" is very misleading. A more correct designation would be "die Strangite faction of Mormons" or "the Beaver Island Mormons."

Thanks should go to the editor and the publication sponsor for M. WILFORD POULSON

Salt Lake City, Utah Historical Sites in Glen Canyon, Mouth of San Juan River to Lee's Ferry. By C. Gregory Crampton. (Anthropological Papers, Number 46, Glen Canyon Series, Number 12. University of Utah Department of Anthropology, June, 1960, 130 pp., $3.00) The above work follows an introductory volume, Outline History of the Glen Canyon Region, 1776-1922 (see review in the April, 1960, Quarterly). The first volume was written to provide an historical perspective for the studies to follow, for other investigators working in the same region, and for the general public, who, it is expected, will be visiting the region in greater numbers as time goes on.

In this latest volume are reported the facts of a detailed study of the historical sites in Glen Canyon below the mouth of the San Juan River.

The object of the study was to learn what historical areas and remains will be covered up by the waters of Lake Powell and to answer the question as to how extensive was the historical occupancy of Glen Canyon â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including both Indian and Anglo-American sites. By means

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

87

of documentary research, through informants, and by historical salvage a number of mining and Indian sites were found and reported, about which there was no prior knowledge. Even so, an attempt has been made to examine historical places, to record the character and location of each, and to ascertain the kind and degree to which human action has taken place. Although completeness has been die objective of this study, says the author, the time allotted to the project has admitted of thorough-going studies only at selected historical sites. The extensive use of photographs and maps, along with the descriptions of each site, and the inclusion of the extensive bibliography of materials on the Glen Canyon area make this study a most comprehensive piece of work.

Forty Years Among the Indians. A True Yet Thrilling Narrative of the Author's Experiences Among the Natives. By Daniel W. Jones. Volume XIX Great West and Indian Series. (Los Angeles, Westernlore Press, 378 pp., $8.50) No study of Mormon-Indian relations and the pioneer period in the Far West is complete without recourse to Forty Years Among the Indians, the reminiscent account by Daniel W. Jones. The first edition of 1890 has long been out of print, and this first re-publication in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Westernlore Press is an important addition to the record.

The strange introduction of Dan Jones to Mormonism, his conversion, his many relations with the Indians, his experiences succoring the Handcart Pioneers of 1856, his involvements in the Utah War and after, his introduction of Mormonism into Mexico, and his many colonizing activities in Utah and the Southwest demonstrate a vigorous living of frontier life unmatched by few in the history of the West.

His career spanned the continent west and extended well into the twentieth century.

California As I Saw It. Pencillings by the Way of Its Gold and Gold Diggers! And Incidents of Travel by Land and Water. By William M'Collum, M.D., a Returned Adventurer. With Five Letters from the Isthmus, by W. H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan. (Los Gatos, California, Talisman Press, 1960) Constitution of the State of Utah, Original and Amended. Compiled

by Utah State Archives. (Salt Lake City, the Secretary of State, 1959)

88

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The Fur Trade in the West, 1815-1846. Edited by Edwin R. Bingham.

(Boston, Heath, 1960) A Guide to the Microfilm of Papers relating to New Mexico Land Grants. By Albert James Diaz. (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1960) Men at Work *n tne Mountain States. By Harry Cogswell Rubican, Jr. ( N e w York, P u t n a m and Sons, 1960)

HYRUM L . ANDRUS, "Joseph Smith and the West," Brigham University Studies, Spring-Summer, 1960.

Young

KLAUS HANSEN, " T h e Political Kingdom of God as a Cause for Mormon-Gentile Conflict," ibid.

CLINTON F . LARSON, " T h e Mantle of the Prophet" ( A Poetry Drama),

ibid.

KENNETH W . PORTER, "William Gilpin: Sinophile and Eccentric as Seen by the German Scientist, Journalist and Traveler Julius Froebel," The Colorado Magazine, October, 1960.

FRANK JENSEN, "Kanab â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Southern Utah's Cow-Town Tourist Stop," Desert, September, 1960.

EDMUND C. JAEGER, "Cottonwood, the Desert's 'Tree of Many Pleasures,' " ibid., October, 1960.

WELDON F . HEALD, " T h e Indians Couldn't Catch H i m " [John Colter], Frontier Times, Fall, 1960.

BILL JUDGE, " T h e Echo Canyon War," ibid.

ROY J. OLSON, " T h e Peacemaker" [Jacob H a m b l i n ] , ibid.

RAYMOND W . SETTLE and MARY L U N D SETTLE, " T h e Early Careers of

William Bradford Waddell and William H e p b u r n Russell: Frontier Capitalists," Kansas Historical Quarterly, Winter, 1960.

REVIEWS

AND RECENT

PUBLICATIONS

89

"The Other Side of the Mountain" [opposite Bingham Canyon in the Oquirrh Range], Kennescope, October, 1960.

WILLIAM J. POWELL, " T h e Sign Said: 'Road to Oregon,' " The Pacific Northwesterner, Summer, 1960.

ZORRO A . BRADLEY, " T h e Whitmore-Mclntyre Dugout, Pipe Spring National Monument, Part I: History," Plateau, October, 1960.

CHRISTY G. TURNER II a n d MAURICE E . COOLEY, "Prehistoric Use of

Stone F r o m T h e Glen Canyon Region," ibid.

HAROLD E. DEAN, " T h e Weber Basin Reclamation Project Approach to Ultimate Development," The Sugar Beet, A u t u m n , 1960.

"Skyline Drive . . . the Wasatch Crest," Sunset, September, 1960.

S. G. MANTEL, " T h e M a n W h o Saved California" [General Albert Sidney Johnston, as told by Asbury H a r p e n d i n g ] , Tradition, October, 1960.

JOSEPH STOCKER, "Action in Glen Canyon," Westways, September, 1960.

m^7

if.

- . ..

— -~saiw,' •''•'••'•m'""'"'""

''

•

''

Kyi

gg

""••••:'•

,

"^Sai?P| •

*

;

•

. "..••J'X. ™:;

PHOTO BY PHILIP W. TOMI

T/je /o^rc Kitchen ranch on the upper Paria River.

Petrified wood in the Circle Cliffs area of Wayne Wonderland.

PHOTO BY PHILIP W. TOM]

HISTORICAL

NOTES

An ardent supporter of historical organizations and their work is Mr. P. W. Tompkins, a professional chemist, of San Francisco, Calfornia. It is his belief â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and he says, "Yours and similar organizations should be given all possible support and encouragement to the end that a full and permanent record be established of events and people that have laid the foundation for our development. . . . The trend of modern life, unfortunately, is to disregard the basic events that have contributed so much to our present successes."

Mr. Tompkins not only supports organizations intent upon the preservation of our culture, but he himself contributes immeasurably to that end. The photographs on the opposite page are examples of the beautiful work he has done in his attempt to "preserve natural scenic and scientific values," which, he feels, "should be protected for the benefit of present and future generations, both for enjoyment and as an antidote to modern city life."

Each summer for the past twenty-five years Mr. Tompkins has spent from one to three months traveling in Utah and photographing the matchless scenic attractions of the state. As a result of all this effort some fifteen albums of Western scenes, predominately of Utah, and a collection of about three thousand colored slides are now held by the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Desiring to bring more clearly to the attention of the people of Utah die "fabulous wealth of scenic attractions so characteristic of the state, areas that should be more extensively known and appreciated," some months ago Mr. Tompkins presented to this Society a collection of beautiful, framed, sepia-toned photographs of Utah subjects. These pictures are now a most valuable part of the photographic and art collection of the library and are on display. From time to time several of them have been reproduced in the Quarterly. The quality of the photography and the artistic composition of Mr. Tompkin's work make it instandy recognizable.

92

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

The Society is proud that Mr. Tompkins' name is on its life membership roll. In February of 1959 he requested life membership stating: "At my age (86) this is largely in the nature of a tribute to the organization and its efficient management that renders such distinctive public service dirough its research and outstanding publications." More recently he says: "I note that life membership has been increased from $50.00 (the amount I paid) to $100.00 which, to express an outsider's opinion, is more in keeping with what it should be. . . . To express the above in a more tangible form $50.00 is enclosed as a donation to the good cause."

It is through the generosity and support of men like Mr. Tompkins that historical organizations are enabled to continue the "painstaking search for facts otherwise forgotten and too little appreciated."

The year 1960 marked the one hundredth birthday of a gracious home in Centerville, Utah, a home built on the land known for many years as Chase Park. This home is probably the oldest continuously occupied house in Davis County, or all of Utah, perhaps, at least remaining in the hands of one family and occupied by family members during all that time.

In 1859 Isaac Chase received diis property in exchange for his interest in the Chase Mill and farm at what is now Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. Isaac, being seventy years old at the time, gave up his interest in the property, retired, and thus turned over to his son, George Ogden Chase, the 110 acres of unfilled land at Centerville.

Upon moving to Centerville, George and his family first lived in the little log cabin on the property built by Thomas Thurston in 1849 until he could build his own home. This little cabin, shown to the left of the main house in the picture, has a story in itself, for it has served over the years as a family bedroom, guest room, and as a relic hall. It has acquired a bath and kitchen with running water and electric lights, and a living-room. At present it houses a young couple and their child.

The home itself has not been preserved in a museum sense. The original porch was moved from the front to the north side of the house and converted into a kitchen. The present front porch with its stately pillars was added about forty years ago. The house now has all the appurtenances of modern life, including automatic gas heat, but die fireplaces in dining-room and living-room are as efficient as they were

HISTORICAL

NOTES

93

The Chase Home in Centerville when they provided the heat for the front part of the house. The fireplace in the dining-room is especially charming with its English tile patterned with various kinds of animals.

In the early years adjacent to the house there was a large stone granary, an icehouse, a smokehouse, and a laundry. A large barn and corral and other outbuildings accommodated the riding horses, work horses, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens.

Mrs. Josephine Chase Bradshaw, the present owner and granddaughter of the builder, purchased the house from her aunts, Kate M. Chase, Ella Chase, and Mrs. Joseph Mathews (Fanny Dean), who lived in the house for long years and lovingly preserved it. This charming home, located on the upper highway at Chase's Lane, has successfully bridged a way of life from early pioneering to the modern present. Its walls could tell many a story of the living that has gone on under its roof, of happy times at Christmas and other holidays when the family gathered from far and near to be together.

The annual meeting of the American Association for State and Local History was held in Iowa City, August 30 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; September 3, 1960.

Each year the Awards Committee of that organization meets to vote

94

UTAH

HISTORICAL

QUARTERLY

on the nominations as submitted for Awards of Merit. For the purpose of screening nominations, the United States and Canada are divided into ten regions, the regional chairmen from each region composing the Awards Committee. T h e regional chairman receives nominations submitted to him by various state chairmen. H e in turn rates those considered worthy of furdier consideration and submits them to the national committee for discussion and voting. A. R. Mortensen is national chairman of the committee, H . J. Swinney, director of the Idaho Historical Society, is chairman of the Mountain States Region which includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, N e w Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Winners of awards in the Mountain States for the year 1960 are: Colorado: Historical Society of the Pikes Peak Region Colorado Springs, Colorado President: Kenneth Engler For its effective use of modern devices, techniques, and programs to further the preservation and appreciation of local history.

Saguache Crescent Saguache, Colorado Editor: R. I. Coombs For setting an outstanding example of how a public-spirited, historically-oriented newspaper can foster community enthusiasm for its history.

South Park Historical Foundation, Inc. Colorado Springs, Colorado President: Leon H. Snyder For the establishment of a major outdoor museum in Fairplay, Colorado, to represent a mining town of the 1875-1885 period.

Colorado State Dental Association Denver, Colorado For the publication of History of Dentistry in Colorado, 1859-1959.

High Country Empire. By Robert G. Athearn Publisher: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

HISTORICAL

NOTES

95

Montana: Central Montana Historical Society Lewistown, Montana President: Asger Mikkelsen For developing a successful museum program which has enlisted widespread community support.

Great Falls Tribune Great Falls, Montana Columnist: Clyde Reichelt For a continuing series of well-illustrated feature stories in the Sunday Supplement on early Montana cattle ranches.

Nevada: Mrs. H. W. Sawyer Fallon, Nevada For her publications on Nevada history but especially for her guidance of school children in the production of competent historical research.

New Mexico: The Old Lincoln County Memorial Commission Lincoln, New Mexico For the restoration and interpretation of one of the most important buildings in die county's early history.

Utah: Hole-In-The-Rock- By David E. Miller Publisher: University of Utah Press Wyoming: Wyoming Archaeological Society Casper, Wyoming President: Mr. Art Randall For undertaking major archaeological projects and maintaining professional standards.

Mr. L. C. Bishop Cheyenne, Wyoming For his pioneering, scholarly work in charting the early trails of Wyoming.

UTAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES (Terms Expiring April 1, 1961)

(Terms Expiring April 1, 1963)

LELAND H. CREER. Salt Lake City

J. STERLING ANDERSON, Grantsville

NICHOLAS c. MORGAN, SR., Salt Lake City

RICHARD E . GILLIES. Cedar City

JOEL E. RICKS, Logan

j . GRANT IVERSON. Salt Lake City

RUSSEL B. SWENSEN, PrOVO

MRS. A. c. JENSEN, Sandy L. GLEN SNARR. Salt Lake City

(Ex-Officio

Member) OFFICERS 1959-61

LAMONT F. TORONTO, Salt Lake City

LELAND H. CREER. President

(Honorary

Life

Member)

NICHOLAS G. MORGAN, SR., Vice-President

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG. Salt Lake City

A. R. MORTENSEN. Secretary

ADMINISTRATION A. R. MORTENSEN. Director

JOHN JAMES, J R . . Librarian

r. T. JOHNSON. Records Manager, Archives

DOROTHY SUMMERHAYS. Associate Editor

ROBERT w . INSCORE. Registrar, Military Records Section EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: The Society was or-

ganized essentially to collect, disseminate and preserve important material pertaining to the history of the state. T o effect this end, contributions of manuscripts are solicited, such as old diaries, journals, letters, and other writings of the pioneers; also original manuscripts by present-day writers on any phase of early Utah history. Treasured papers or manuscripts may be printed in faithful detail in the Quarterly, without harm to them, and without permanently removing them from their possessors.

Contributions for the consideration of the Publications Committee, and correspondence relating thereto, should be addressed to the Editor, Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City 2, Utah.

The Editor assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts unaccompanied by return postage.

The Utah State Historical Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to this publication.

MEMBERSHIP: Membership in the Society is $4.00 per year. The Utah Historical Quarterly is sent free to all members. Non-members and institutions may receive the Quarterly at $4.00 a year or $1.00 for current numbers. Life membership, $100.00.

Checks should be made payable to the Utah State Historical Society and mailed to the Editor, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City 2, Utah.

VOLUMES UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY VOLUMES 1-6 (1928-1933). By many authors. Single issues 75/. Vol. I, No. 1 (January, 1928), and Vol. II, No. 1 (January, 1929), O U T OF PRINT. VOLUME 7 (1939). Nos. 1-2-3 (January, April, July, 1939), Diary of Almon Harris Thompson. Paper, $1.50. No. 4, The Orderville United Order of Zion. O U T OF PRINT. VOLUME 8 (1940). No. 1, Journal of Leonard E. Harrington, Early Utah Legislator. Paper, $1.00. Nos. 2-3-4, History of the State of Deserert.

Paper, $3.00, fabrikoid, $4.50.

VOLUME 9 (1941). By many authors. Nos. 1-2, paper, $2.50. Nos. 3-4, paper, $2.50. Nos. 1-4 combined, fabrikoid, $6.00.

VOLUME 10 (1942). Journal of Priddy Meeks. O U T OF PRINT. VOLUME 11 (1943). Father Escalante's Journal, 1776-77, edited by Herbert S. Auerbach. O U T OF PRINT. (See Volume 18.)

VOLUME 12 (1944). Nos. 1-2, by many authors, paper, $2.50. Nos. 3-4, A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks. By Angus Woodbury. Paper, $2.50. Nos. 1-4 combined, fabrikoid, $6.00.

VOLUME 13 (1945). Nos. 1-4. The Utah War —Journal Albert Tracy. Paper, $3.00, fabrikoid, $6.00.

of Captain

VOLUME 14 (1946). Nos. 1-4. Spirit of the Pioneers — Biography and Diary of Lorenzo Dow Young. Paper, $3.00, fabrikoid, $6.00.

VOLUME 15 (1947). Nos. 1-4. The Exploration of the Colorado River in 1869. Fabrikoid, $6.00.

VOLUMES 16-17 (1948-49). Nos. 1-4. The Exploration of the Colorado River and the High Plateaus of Utah in 1871-72. Fabrikoid, $7.50.

VOLUME 18 (1950). Nos. 1-4. Pageant in the Wilderness. The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776. Edited by Herbert E. Bolton. Fabrikoid, $5.00, deluxe red cloth, $5.50. Escalante maps, 50/.

VOLUME 19 (1959). Nos. 1-4. West from Fort Bndger. The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails Across Utah 1846-1850. By J. Roderic Korns. Paper, $4.50, fabrikoid, $6.00.

VOLUMES 20-28 (1952-1960). By many authors. All numbers are available at $1.00 per copy except the following. OUT OF PRINT. Vol. 20, No. 2 (April, 1952).

Vol. 23, Nos. 1 and 3 (January, July, 1955).

Vol. 26, Nos. 1 and 2 (January, April, 1958).

Vol. 27, Nos. 1 and 2 (January, April, 1959).

The special summer four-color, highly illustrated numbers which were printed in large editions are available as follows: VOLUME 26, No. 3 (1958), "Utah's Parks and Scenic Wonders," 50/.

VOLUME 27, No. 3 (1959), "The Valley of the Great Salt Lake," 50/.

VOLUME 28, No. 3 (1960), "The Colorado — River of the West," $1.00.

TAH

STATE

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY