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Dr. John. M. Bernhisle: Mormon Elder in Congress
Dr. John M. Bernhisel:Mormon Elder In Congress
BY GWYNN W. BARRETT
When the Council of Fifty selected an agent in 1849 to treaty with Congress in behalf of "Deseret," they chose one of their own number, an intelligent, cultivated, New York physician who had been an intimate companion of Joseph Smith. Dr. John Milton Bernhisel had demonstrated his complete acceptance of the doctrines promulgated by the martyred prophet since his first association with the Mormons in New York. The quiet, unassuming doctor, now in his fifty-second year, returned to the Salt Lake Valley in 1851 only to retrace his steps when "called" to return to Washington as the first delegate to Congress from the new territory Congress preferred to call Utah.
Delegate Bemhisel's Washington decade was only a brief span in a long life of four score and two years, most of which has been virtually neglected by scholars. When compared with the dissimilar experiences that he had during his seventy years of private life, the politico-statesman role seems unnatural unless one understands that the physician, the epitome of loyal, dedicated service, willingly responded to every assignment given him by his church.
Dr. Bernhisel left his successful practice and urban environment at the midpoint in his life and subjected himself to the rudeness of a frontier society to which he never became completely acclimated. Responsive and loyal when called upon to remain on the east side of the river and salvage Nauvoo property, to endure the crudity of a Winter Quarters log cabin, or to influence congressional committees when he bore the stigma of one of the "twin relics" himself, this man with uncommon characteristics, when compared with his compeers, remained orthodox and true to the faith and leadership which he had voluntarily accepted.
Some facets of John Bemhisel's personal, as well as public life, when taken alone, might support the supposition that a keen sense of loyalty and integrity, not religious conviction, guided the affairs of the doctor. Dr. Washington F. Anderson, of Salt Lake City, however, was convinced that his close friend John Bernhisel was thoroughly converted to Mormonism. While riding together one day to see a patient in a rural area, the doctor discussed doctrinal issues explained to him by his late confidant and friend Joseph Smith. When Dr. Anderson asked him if he really believed that such a Utopia could be realized, Dr. Bernhisel, raising his hands said, "as surely as the sun now shines in Heaven."
John Milton Bernhisel was not a demonstrative, emotional man, but a sensitive, thoughtful individual within whom, we may conclude, conviction was rooted much more firmly, and conversion quite obviously more complete than that of many of the opportunists who gravitated to Mormonism during the Nauvoo period.
PENNSYLVANIA FARM BOY
Six months before the death of George Washington, and six years preceding the birth of Joseph Smith, Samuel and Susan Bower Bernheisel greeted their first son, the second of nine children. In his will, grandfather Johannes Martin Berntheusel, bequeathed his property in Tyrone Township, Cumberland County, to his wife Anna Christina Chateau, and his son Samuel. Here John Milton was born June 23, 1799. The county records of Martin's benevolent grants for a church, school, and cemetery, as well as the large tracts of land transferred to his sons, serve to illustrate that Samuel became the possessor of considerable means.
The Bernhisel acres were near Loysville, about fifteen miles west of the great bulge in the Susquehanna River and ten miles north of Harrisburg, in that part of Cumberland County that became Perry County in 1820. Here grandfather Martin gave land for a church building which was shared by the Lutherans and the Presbyterians. He also helped to establish the subscription school in the neighborhood where John received his formal education until he was old enough to live away from home.
In Philadelphia, about one hundred horseback miles east of his farm home, John studied in preparation for application to the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. The records show that, in 1818, he attended the lectures of Dr. Philip Syng Physick, a firm advocate of Andrew Jackson's favorite remedy for "distressing attacks," bleeding. Dr. Physick's methods had a profound influence upon his students.
After a year or more of medical training, the young doctor settled in Harrisburg where he remained long enough to renew old friendships and acquire a "numerous circle of friends." Four months after his birthday, on the morning of November 1, 1820, he left Harrisburg by stagecoach for a visit to the family farm. Recalling this visit several years later, John wrote, "on the evening of the same day [I] arrived at the place of my nativity, the spot at which I had passed my earliest infancy, the theatre of my juvenile sports." In mid-November he left Perry County on horseback for a six-day journey to Pittsburgh, where he remained a few days before going on to Ohio.
FOUR YEARS IN THE WEST
If John Bernhisel kept a journal during his long and eventful life, it is a most elusive document; for family, friends, and scholars interested in his personal life have had to rely upon letters, primarily, when the accounts of friends or associates do not tell the story. Fortunately, John was a good correspondent, and a long letter written to an unknown friend, probably at Harrisburg, has been preserved. It is in this letter that John explained his purpose in going to Pittsburgh, and described his activities up to 1825, when he returned to his medical studies in Philadelphia.
John traveled west from Pittsburgh to the Western Reserve "which was my place of destination when I left Harrisburg . . . having resolved on going to Ohio, and commencing the practice of medicine." Of all the towns that he visited, Cincinnati impressed the young doctor the most. "The commercial metropolis of this great and flourishing state . . . delightfully situated . . . [grew] moderately until 1814-15, when the hotbed of the banking system began to operate completely . . . and bloated it." No reason is given for his not staying in Cincinnati instead of going twenty-five miles north to Trenton, a small village with "twenty or twenty-five dwelling houses, and eighty or ninety inhabitants." Here John "entered on the exercises of . . . [his] profession with all the enthusiasms and high expectations which young men generally launch out upon the tempestuous reign of life." After "above twelve months" he decided to leave Trenton and moved on to Missouri, where he remained but a short time.
In the autumn of 1823, John made his way to Nashville where he "had the honor of seeing the justly celebrated and immortal General Jackson." In April 1824 he left Nashville and spent the next two months in Lexington, Kentucky, where he drank from the Blue Lick Springs "for the benefit of my health," and enjoyed the "intelligent and refined" society in which the "ladies for beauty, modesty, delicacy, and uneffected politeness . . . are not surpassed by those in any of the eastern cities,"
The summer months of 1824 were spent in Woodruff County just a few miles west of Lexington. Here John met Henry Clay, the speaker of the national House of Representatives, whom he described in considerable detail. The "wise and virtuous" Clay, John said, "was not only an eloquent and accomplished Orator, but an ardent and magnanimous Patriot [whose] countenance . . . strongly expresses energy, firmness, and intelligence." Clay made quite an impression on his young admirer, who filled a page with interesting complimentary observations, noting that as a presidential candidate Clay "has . . . great claims on the national confidence."
PHILADELPHIA
After nearly five years "abroad" John returned to the University of Pennsylvania. With several years of practical experience behind him, John continued his studies under Dr. Philip Syng Physick, graduating in 1827, after completing a dissertation on apoplexy During this period he was certified to practice medicine at the Aims-House in Philadelphia. It is quite likely that he continued this service as well as private practice for several years. However, by the end of Jackson's administration he had moved to New York City where he opened his office in rented quarters at 176 Hudson Street.
NEW YORK CITY
Doctor Bernhisel accepted Mormonism and joined the church during the first decade of its existence. The details of his conversion are not clear. However, on April 15, 1841, while practicing medicine in New York City, he was ordained a bishop. In the months that followed he was in frequent correspondence with Joseph Smith, to whom he sent $500.00 for the purchase of a tract of land in Nauvoo. In this letter, dated July 12, 1841, after disposing of his personal affairs, Bishop Bernhisel turned to church business and added "I have delivered your message to the Brethren here respecting . . . baptism for the dead. We were rejoiced that you were delivered out of the hands of wicked and ungodly men. It was reported that you designed making us a visit about the latter part of May ... it is superfluous to add that we are disappointed."
The following month, not having received an acknowledgment from Joseph Smith, the doctor wrote him to check and see if his bank certificate had been safely received, then renewed his request that land be purchased for him, acting in this matter "as if you were purchasing for yourself." Three weeks later, having received a letter from Joseph Smith on September 5, John sent "as a small testimony of my gratitude to you for the valuable service you are rendering me" a copy of John L. Stephen's Incidents and Travels in Central and South America. He then added his condolences in regard to the death of Joseph's brother Don Carlos.
With his land purchase completed, Dr. Bernhisel made preparations to leave his medical practice in New York City and move to Nauvoo. Shortly before doing so he addressed a final letter to Joseph Smith, in which he said he hoped to be ready to depart from New York City the latter part of the month or about April 1. Assuming that he carried his "recommend" with him, he must have been delayed a month longer than he expected, for this document was endorsed April 23, 1843.
NAUVOO
There were opportunities for civic responsibilities in the Mormon capital, but a special council was, by far, the most significant and influential organization. Several months after Dr. Bernhisel arrived in Nauvoo, he met with Joseph Smith and eight others on a Thursday morning, September 28, 1843, in a room over the prophet's store. That evening the same group met in the doctor's quarters in the Mansion and unanimously elected Joseph Smith president of the special council. The nature of the deliberations of this Council are not clear, but it is significant that those present took a prominent part in the organization of the Council of Fifty which played an important role in the temporal affairs of the "kingdom" for the next forty years, and perhaps longer. John was a member of this body for the rest of his life, but never mentioned it in his correspondence. Others were not so secretive, however, for John D. Lee, Hosea Stout, and L. John Nuttall all mentioned the activities of the Council, or "YTFIF" in their diaries and journals.
In March of 1844 the "charter" members of the council met with thirteen new members including Brigham Young, Willard Richards, and Heber Kimball, among others, to discuss migration proposals that had been submitted by Lyman Wight and George Miller. It was at this meeting that Joseph Smith charged this council with the specific responsibility of supervising the migration to the West. The council membership was soon increased to fifty, this being considered the optimum size for a governing body concerned with the social, economic, and political welfare of an ever expanding society.
Dr. Bernhisel did not build on the property which he acquired through correspondence before moving to Nauvoo. For a short time he lived at the home of an old acquaintance John Snyder, but soon accepted the prophet's invitation to move into the Mansion House, where his quarters on the second floor became the scene of important council meetings,
Joseph Smith enjoyed the companionship of this quiet, scholarly gentleman. Just a week or so before the important meeting in which the Council of Fifty was planned, Joseph had spent an evening "conversing with Dr. John M. Bernhisel." In December the prophet recorded a conversation in which he had related to the doctor "mycommencement in receiving revelations." On several occasions, and perhaps frequently, the two men found time for a leisurely ride and pleasant conversation. In May, a few weeks before the assassination,they rode out, "to the praire which is now very green" with two of the Smith boys, Frederick and Alexander. Four days later, Joseph "went to Dr. Bemhisel's room and had counsel with Brothers Richards and Phelps."
Several doctors, attracted to Mormonism during the early years of the church, took up residence in Nauvoo, but there were few, if any, who had had the training and experience of John Milton Bernhisel. On numerous occasions he was called upon to administer to the needs of the people. In December 1843 he dressed the wounds of Richard Badham who had been stabbed in the stomach by robbers. Soon after this he treated William, the son of Lorenzo Young. Somewhat later he attended to the wounds of a Mr. Moore who had been accidently shot. When "Cyrus Daniels was shot through the right arm just above the elbow . . . Br. Turley set the bones . . . then Dr. Bernhisel was sent for who undone his arm and set it over again." In November 1845 Dr. Bernhisel conducted a post-mortem examination of the body of Joshua Smith who had claimed, shortly before his death, that he had been poisoned by the Carthage militia. Bernhisel found that the victim was right, poisoning had taken place.
Just five days before Joseph and his brother Hyrum were killed, a council meeting had been held in John's room in the Mansion House. It was during the course of this meeting that John C. Calhoun's two sons arrived for an interview with the prophet, interrupting the meeting. Both the doctor and John Taylor were tired, having just returned from a conference with Governor Thomas Ford in Carthage, so when Joseph left the room they lay down and were soon asleep. The next morning they learned that Joseph and Hyrum had crossed the Mississippi during the night.
In their last meeting the prophet had informed Dr. Bernhisel and the others that he had "determined to go to Washington and lay the matter before President Tyler." They had also talked about crossing the river, but no decision had been made the night before. The doctor crossed over to visit Joseph on the Iowa side. About 4:00 P.M. the group started back, paused briefly in Nauvoo then went on to Carthage. Later Dr. Bernhisel told John Taylor that Joseph, "looking him full in the face, and solemn as eternity, said I am going as a lamb to the slaughter."
On June 14, at the request of Joseph Smith, John Bernhisel had addressed a letter to Governor Ford in which he confirmed the correctness of Smith's report concerning the action the Nauvoo City Council had taken with regard to the destruction of the press of the Expositor, a newspaper published by a group of disgruntled Mormons. In this letter he gave this personal testimony about the character of the prophet; "Having been a boarder in General Smith's family for more than nine months . . . I have concluded to give you a few of my impressions of him ... a man of strong mental powers . . . much energy and decision of character, great penetration, and a profound knowledge of human nature." More than a page of sincere complimentary observations preceded this interesting concluding statement, "It is almost superfluous to add that the numerous ridiculous and scandalous reports in circulation . . . have not the least foundation in truth."
Obviously John Bernhisel accepted Joseph Smith to be just what he purported, a prophet of God. During the last days immediately preceding the Carthage massacre the doctor was in constant touch with Joseph. Throughout the imprisonment, he was either at the jail or on errands. On June 26, the doctor had a conference with Ford and returned to the jail to report that the governor was apparently doing all he could. When the trial was set, he was to have been a witness for the defense, but death brought to a sorrowful and abrupt conclusion, in June 1844, the warm, personal relationship enjoyed by John Bernhisel and Joseph Smith for less than a year.
A few months before his death, Joseph Smith helped to create the image which may have served to influence the decision of those who later selected John Bernhisel as their agent to Congress. Politics were frequently discussed by the two men. In February 1844, in preparation for his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, Joseph sought out the doctor "who proposed some alterations in my views of government. Phelps read the same and the doctor seemed better pleased with it than before." In May John Bernhisel became the New York City representative at the "State Presidential Convention" held in Nauvoo.
As a member of the "Central Committee of Correspondence," the doctor's name appeared on a letter which optimistically proclaimed that "General Smith's prospects are brightening every day." In a letter to James Arlington Bennett, who was to be the candidate for the vice presidency, Willard Richards said, "Come and see us, Bro. Joseph's, Young's, and Bemhisel's respects to you." Notwithstanding his lack of political experience, Bernhisel was becoming implicated in the political aspirations of the prophet. Clearly the confidence the church leader placed in the doctor started him along a path that led to political prominence in Mormondom.
After the prophet's death, work on the single-spired temple located on the hill overlooking the city, was pushed with renewed vigor. Before leaving New York City, Bernhisel had collected funds and made personal contributions for the building of the temple. Between December 1845 and the following February when the exodus for Winter Quarters commenced, the temple was used for the special religious services for which it was being constructed. Jesse Crosby wrote in his journal "endowments commenced about the first of December ... as many as 500 went through in 24 hours, this not common ... all work stopped 8th Feb . . . ." Although he had received his own endowments in December 1843, John Bernhisel was in the temple and participated in the services during this time. He was sealed to his wife Julia Ann Haight Van Orden, whom he had married in the early part of 1845. He was also sealed to Dolly Ransom, Catherine Paine, Fanny Spafford, Catherine Burgess, her daughter Elizabeth Barker, and Melissa Lott Smith, all on January 20, 1846. The marriage to Melissa was for "time only" for she was sealed to Joseph Smith "for eternity" on the day the temple was closed, February 8, 1846.
William and Julia Ann Van Orden had arrived in Nauvoo in the fall of 1843 with their children, Charlotte, Peter, Mary Helen, Everett, Sarah, Antonette, and Arthur, whose ages ranged from three to thirteen. Two weeks after the martyrdom, Julia Ann became a widow when William died from complications that followed a severe cold. In another two weeks he was followed in death by his youngest son, Arthur. The widow was left with six children to support, a story-and-a-half brick house on Mulholland Street, and 160 acres of land. Julia Ann rented the land to William's half-brother E. A. Carine, and then married Dr. Bernhisel the following spring. After selling her house and trading her farm for two teams and two wagons, pregnant she set out for Winter Quarters on September 20, Peter driving one team and a hired man the other. Within a few years Peter and Everett established homes of their own and encouraged their mother to live with them.
Although the doctor had satisfied the marital demands made upon him through vows in the temple, he did not interpret the law as literally as many within the church did. After the departure of Julia Ann, his matrimonial responsibilities were reduced to the care of Catherine Burgess and her daughter Elizabeth, both of whom had been sealed to him the previous January. Born in Lancashire, England, in 1831, the daughter of Thomas Barker, Elizabeth won the affection of her patient, patronizing husband. The difference in their ages surely contributed to this deference, for other members of the family remembered him as a strict disciplinarian who imposed his personal habits and idiosyncrasies upon them. No personal letters or journals from this period survive to document his feelings.
Bernhisel did not leave Nauvoo with Julia Ann because the Council of Fifty had decided the previous January that he and others should remain behind to dispose of property, outfit emigrants, and complete the Nauvoo House and temple. By January 13, 1847, he had finished as much of his task as was practicable. A letter to Heber C. Kimball at Winter Quarters written on that date said, "I intend to leave as early in the spring as I can," because there were but few left in the city needing his help.
John Bernhisel was forty-six and Julia Ann forty when they were married early in 1845. After so many years of bachelorhood, the ordeal of adapting to a wife and family was no less trying for the doctor than was the family's efforts to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of a new husband and father. He was probably no less sensitive to the doctrine of plural marriage than were the members of his family, and it seems likely that Julia Ann was never asked to share her home in Nauvoo with another wife before she left in the summer of 1846 with her children.
Before Bernhisel left for Winter Quarters, Emma Smith offered to loan him Joseph's manuscript copy of the Bible. He kept it for three months while he made a copy for all except "some few additions and changes that were made in some of the books." Returning the original manuscript to Emma, he brought his copy with him to Utah, eventually presenting it to the Mormon church library.
WINTER QUARTERS
Julia Ann gave birth to a son December 21, 1846, in a log cabin built for the family by George Grant, a cousin of daughter Charlotte's groom, Ira West. After assisting the family through the winter, Grant went on to the Salt Lake Valley in Brigham Young's company. Walking back to Winter Quarters, he arrived in November 1847 not long after Dr. Bernhisel, Elizabeth, and Catherine arrived. On December 10, Mary Helen Van Orden and George Grant were married in a ceremony performed by Ezra Benson at Julia Ann's bedside. Both mother and baby had been ill for several long spells during the past year.
Brigham Young, Willard Richards, and Heber C. Kimball, now recognized as the First Presidency of the church, were among the notables who were in Winter Quarters during the winter of 1847. On December 10, the same day his stepdaughter, Mary Helen, was married, Dr. Bernhisel reported to the First Presidency concerning Nauvoo House affairs thus completing the assignment with which he had been charged.
William Clayton, John D. Lee, and other members of the Council of Fifty were also at Winter Quarters at this time. During the spring they made preparations to abandon their log and sod house town where Florence, Nebraska, would soon be established.
Busy getting ready to depart in May, John Bernhisel was not immune to the same problems that plagued many of the pioneers. Hosea Stout noted in his journal that they were visited by marauding Pawnees who took advantage of the distraction that favored them during a heavy rain, and stole two horses from "Dr. Barnhisels ... he recovered them by following them across the Platte at the mouth finding them asleep."
Soon to become life-long neighbors, the Bernhisels and Claytons traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with the Kimball company of 226 wagons and 662 people. On Saturday, May 27, 1848, John D. Lee's group came to a stream where they "found Dr. Burnhisel and a No. of the Brethren camped." Three weeks later, when Thomas Ricks, Howard Egan, and William Kimble gave chase to Indians who had stolen some cattle, their gunshot wounds were dressed by the doctor.
SALT LAKE VALLEY
President Kimball's company arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Sunday, September 24, just four days behind Brigham Young's, and nearly three weeks before Willard Richards'. The arrivals increased the population to five thousand, most of whom heard the sermons preached that important day when the decision was made to leave the log forts that had been constructed the previous year, and build individual houses. Brigham Young and Heber Kimball then proceeded to apportion off the land to applicants who were required to pay $1.00 for surveying and 50 cents for recording the land. Houses, it was revealed, should be placed twenty feet back from the inner line of the proposed sidewalks.
Most of the choice lots surrounding the Temple Block went to members of the Council of Fifty. John Bemhisel's one-and-one-quarter acre lot was on the northeast comer of North Temple and First West (West Temple), extending one-half block north and one-quarter block east. Immediately to the west, across the street, was William Clayton's comer, and next door, to the north, Clayton's brother-in-law, Lorin Farr. John Pack acquired the corner of First North and First West. Here on this corner, the first classes of the University of Deseret were conducted in 1850. Dr. Bernhisel became a member of the first Board of Regents and remained on the Board until 1858.
AGENT TO CONGRESS
"Let every man of the Council use his influence to put down extortion by reasoning with the People and getting up Prayre meetings and preaching to the People and thereby draw their attention from fidling, dancing, and fudling [drinking]," said Brigham at a "convention of the Council" held at the Kimball's January 6, 1849. It was on this occasion that "J. M. Burnhisal was appointed or delegated to go to the City of Washington," with a petition asking Congress for a territorial government. Dr. Bernhisel's commissions as agent and then delegate came from the Council, though his name was presented to the people on the regular election ballot every two years without opposition.
On February 24, John D. Lee recorded, the "Legislative council met at W. W. Phelp's school Room." After "Prayer by Counsellor Burnhisal . . . the members proceeded to buisiness" a part of which was to approve of Brigham Young's decision to produce a sleigh robe of fox skins for Dr. Bernhisel to present to Colonel Thomas Kane on his way to Washington. This was not the first public responsibility bestowed upon the doctor since arriving in the valley. On December 9, 1848, he had been appointed marshal by the Council of Fifty, a position which he held until his departure for the East the following May.
Until the plans for the two-story Bernhisel residence drawn by temple architect Truman O. Angell were completed in 1860, the family occupied somewhat less commodious quarters during the years when the doctor spent most of his time in Washington. When Dr. Bernhisel left the valley May 3, 1849, he bade farewell not only to Julia Ann and young John Milton Bernhisel II, now two-and-a-half years old, but to Elizabeth and baby William, born on February 28. The doctor left his families as comfortably situated as conditions would permit, however, his wives had little or no attachment for one another, consequently the family did not stay together. Julia Ann with all her children, including Milton, settled with her daughter Mary Helen Grant at Kaysville in the fall of 1851, after the doctor had returned home.
In May of 1849 Brigham Young assigned his brother, Lorenzo, who was going east on business, to act as guard for John Bernhisel, and to see him safely through as far as the Missouri River. The doctor carried with him a letter of introduction to Stephen A. Douglas and instructions to call on Thomas Kane before presenting a memorial to Congress, In March he had served as a member of a committee appointed to draft a constitution for the State of Deseret, however, his instructions were to ask for a territorial form of government.
The journey east proved to be arduous. On May 6, "Bro. Bemhisel's wagon tipped over into the creek and we were obliged to camp for the night. It rained and was very dark. We were tired and glad to crawl into bed without supper." The next day, Lorenzo Young recorded, "Doct. Bernhisel and myself visited the very same spot where petitions to the all-wise God" had been offered when Brigham Young was ill during the journey in 1847. Here they again paused for prayer.
Under the constitution of the "State of Deseret," which John Bernhisel had helped to prepare, Almon W. Babbitt was elected by the general assembly and left for Washington in July of 1849 as Deseret's "delegate to Congress." Babbitt had joined the church in 1830. Later, while a member of the Illinois State Legislature, he had been instrumental in securing the Nauvoo Charter. Babbitt, along with Dr. Bernhisel and several others, had remained in Nauvoo as trustees in 1846-47. Now he followed the doctor east with a memorial designed to supercede the original petition.
When Almon Babbitt arrived in Washington he expected to be seated. Congress, reacted adversely, refusing to recognize the "delegate" from Deseret. The Compromise of 1850, providing territorial status for Utah, not statehood for Deseret, was already under discussion. When Babbitt and Bernhisel returned to the valley in July 1851, they were accompanied by several of the new territorial officials. Patient lobbying on the part of Dr. Bernhisel had helped secure the governorship for Brigham Young.
En route to Washington in 1849 John had stopped in Nauvoo and New York while Wilford Woodruff had gone on to Massachusetts. From Lock Port, New York, the doctor penned a letter to Brigham Young in which he warned that a "dire calamity" in the form of "thousands of gold hunters" was about to "befall our quiet and peaceful retreat . . . [for] vast numbers . . . [are] determined to . . . quarter upon you during the approaching winter . . . this is deeply to be deplored." With regard to Nauvoo, he commented on the desolate and gloomy appearance of the temple which had burned, and was now used as a sheepfold and cowpen.
The Icarian community then established in Nauvoo was on the verge of collapse, thought the doctor. When he called at the Mansion House he said that Emma "received me in the kindest, and entertained me in the most hospitable maner, yet she did not make a single inquiry about the church, or any of its members — she has become quite corpulent . . . Mother Smith inquired of you and others. "
MORMON ELDER IN CONGRESS
Several years after his disaffection with the church, Edward W. Tullidge wrote a monograph on the congressional history of Utah in which he concluded that "Utah can scarcely be said to have possessed any political . . . history until the period of the war . . . John M. Bernhisel . . . something of a Mormon elder in Congress . . . had served his constituents faithfully, but no feature stands out of that service so prominent as to require special mention" The record shows, however, that the doctor was an indefatigable lobbyist who made a favorable impression upon congressional leaders as well as Presidents, and was instrumental in procuring appropriations for a territorial library, roads, mail, and telegraph service. More important, perhaps, as far as the Mormon church was concerned, was the role he played during the Utah War.
On August 4, 1851, John Milton Bernhisel became Utah's first territorial delegate to Congress, serving for four terms in the Thirtysecond through the Thirty-fifth Congresses, Succeeded by William Hooper in 1859, after requesting that he be allowed to remain with his family, he returned to Washington for the Thirty-seventh Congress in 1861, and then retired.
After the public announcement of polygamy as a doctrine of the Mormon church in 1852, the Utah delegate was subjected to not infrequent derision from the floor of the House. The scrupulous, impeccable doctor, ever faithful to the doctrines of his church, found it easier, nevertheless, to carry out his duties and even defend the position of the church, when he could answer, "one," to those who wanted to know how many wives he had. During the summer of 1851 he had reverted to monogamy. Julia Ann was settled with her family in Kaysville, remaining there until her death in 1869. Elizabeth's mother, Catherine Burgess, was "freed" from her covenants with the doctor in August 1851. Melissa Lott, Joseph's wife, who had been sealed to him "for time," remained in Nauvoo and married Ira Willes in 1849.
"The President and Mrs. Fillmore request the favor of Dr. Bemhisel's company at dinner on Thursday February 12th at 6 o'clock." This invitation, and a similar one from President and Mrs. Pierce, found among John Bernhisel's personal papers, are interesting, but notes and letters reveal that the delegate, whom Tullidge considered ineffective, enjoyed an even more intimate relationship with Lincoln. In a letter to Elizabeth dated December 12, 1861, he recalled a visit with President Lincoln; "On the 6th instant ... he received me very kindly and apparently very cordially. He is affable and agreeable, and I had quite a pleasant visit. On Tuesday he sent me a card, and wished to see me again, and I called on his Excellency again the next day." In March 1862 he told Elizabeth about a "large party at the President's. It is supposed to have been the most splendid party ever given in America.'
THE UTAH WAR
Delegate Bernhisel had also written to Brigham Young on December 12, 1861, with regard to his visit to the White House. When he arrived at the executive mansion he "found a number of gentlemen waiting . . . to see the President, however, when he commenced receiving, he sent for me first. . . ." The delegate then assured Lincoln that "we [are] firm for the constitution and the Union," this being the "language of Ex-Governor Young's dispatch," which had just been received.
The years immediately preceding Lincoln's election were difficult ones for Utah's delegate. He was present at the celebration in Cottonwood Canyon, July 24, 1857, when the first announcement about the Utah Expedition was made by Brigham Young. On September 14 he left for Washington in the carriage of the amiable Captain Stewart Van Vliet.
As early as 1852 Dr. Bernhisel had recommended to President Fillmore that a commission be sent to Utah to investigate conditions there, but this had not been done. When he arrived in Washington in 1857 accompanied by Jedediah M. Grant, a debate took place in the House before the delegate from Utah was finally seated. Dr. Bernhisel left his seat vacant until the House reached its decision.
In July of 1858, in a note published in the New York Weekly Herald he said, "I believe the President to be a man from whom the truth may be kept by court intrigue; but I trust him as one in every case incapable of perfidy." The doctor then advised his readers to "distrust the letters with which the journals now abound, coming, or purporting to come from the station of the army of Utah." He was referring to epistles such as that written by an officer on duty at Camp Scott in 1858 who said, "Bernhisel is among you, cognizant of the treason of his people, dispensing liberally from the church fund to crush and put down the truth...."
The principal endeavor during John Bemhisel's congressional years was the promotion of the admission of Deseret into the union as a free, independent state. This, along with the removal of federal troops, was consistently pursued by the doctor. In a note to his new Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, December 22, 1862, Lincoln said, "Please see Dr. Bernhisel, of Utah, who thinks a Regiment of troops at Salt Lake, are not needed there, and might go elsewhere."
WALTER MURRAY GIBSON
Among the most interesting, if not the most profound experiences afforded the doctor while in Washington was his contact with promoters, some of whom were quite sincere. One personality was Walter Murray Gibson, who eventually joined the church and filled two missions. In a letter to Dr. Bernhisel, Gibson mentioned his program:
"Kipikona," as he was later to be called, contacted Dr. Bernhisel in Washington and proposed the seeking of a congressional appropriation for the purpose of moving the Mormons to the western Pacific. Dr. Bernhisel did not promulgate the plan, but, nevertheless, both Brigham Young and James Buchanan were given an opportunity to consider the idea.
In the fall of 1859, Gibson went to Utah where he enjoyed the confidence of Brigham Young, gave lectures in the tabernacle and social hall, and was baptized by Heber Kimball January 15, I860. After filling a brief mission in the Eastern States, Gibson departed for the Pacific, November 21, 1860, with an engraved gold watch and a unique commission from Brigham Young. Dr. Bernhisel was in Salt Lake City at the time superintending the construction of his new house. He and Gibson had arrived in Salt Lake City about the same time, and may have made the journey across the plains together.
J.M.B.: PRIVATE CITIZEN
It has been suggested that Delegate Bernhisers failure to consummate the work of the Constitutional Convention of 1862 by getting Utah into the union resulted in a "fall from grace" and, consequently, his withdrawal from public life, but the evidence does not support this view. The doctor was sixty-four years old when he returned from Washington in 1863, requesting beforehand in a letter to Brigham Young that he be allowed to retire from public service.
Contrary to most opinion, John Bernhisel did not retire to his new home in Salt Lake City and fade away into the background. For nearly two more decades, he was a familiar and respected figure in medical, business, and political circles in Utah. Too, his growing family needed and received an increasing share of his time. The seven children frequently saw their half-brother Milton who was at home both in Kaysville and Salt Lake City. In 1870, soon after the death of his mother, Milton, along with his half-brothers Peter and Everett Van Orden, pioneered in Cache Valley, founding a settlement they called Lewiston.
In addition to his medical practice, which he resumed in 1864 from an office in his home, Dr. Bernhisel was an investor and participant in a new enterprise promoted by the leading members of the Council of Fifty. Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution was organized during the winter of 1868 with Brigham Young as president, John Milton Bernhisel, vice-president and William Clayton, secretary. Section Four of the ZCMI constitution specifically stipulated that "the officers of this Institution shall. . . each and every one ... be stockholders in this institution." Coincidentally, perhaps, the "New Movement," led by William Godbe, Henry Lawrence, Edward Tullidge, and others, started at about the same time. Lawrence had put $30,000 into ZCMI and became a director, but later withdrew. John Bernhisel had no official connection with the "Godbeites," nor is it likely that he was even sympathetic, for he was vice-president of ZCMI as late as 1873.
Dr. Bernhisel had practiced medicine for twenty years before coming to Utah. Considering his five years in the old West, between 1820 to 1825, as part of his training, his experience as a doctor began when he received his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1827. At the time, he was already working at the public Aims-House in Philadelphia, where he probably remained for several years before moving to New York City. He was here about ten years, and four years in Nauvoo where his practice was less formal than it had been in the East.
Health problems and diseases in nineteenth century Salt Lake City included infantile diarrhea, typhoid fever, and diptheria, all evidence of poor sanitation, milk and water pollution, and ignorance on the part of mothers and physicians. These problems, along with births, accidents, and occasional gunshot wounds kept the doctor busy. He was a familiar sight in his long frock coat and high silk hat, however, there were those who considered his methods antiquated and preferred to call on the younger doctors.
John Bernhisel was one of the few graduates of university medical schools, to come to the Salt Lake Valley before the completion of the transcontinental railroad. There were other types of "doctors," however. Willard Richards was one of several "Thompsonian" botanical physicians who owned a $20.00 certificate which gave him the right to "administer, use and sell the medicine secured by Samuel Thompson, by Letters ofPatent from the President of the United States." While serving as the president of the "Board of Examination of Physicians" in the 1860's, John Bernhisel was neither an opponent nor an advocate of Thompsonian methods.
A surgical operation performed by Dr. Bernhisel and Dr. Washington F. Anderson was reported in the Deseret Evening News, June 1, 1869. In this case the doctors found amputation to be necessary. In February the News described another operation by the same doctors. In another case, "Andrew Love had been under Dr. Bemhisel's treatment for a . . . kidney complaint and he was given up." At this point Priddy Meeks, a Thompsonian, administered "nothing but burdock and dandelion, and he soon recovered to the joy of all."
In the 1870's, neighbor and friend of many years, William Clayton, invested in the "Homeward Bound Lode" while serving as secretary of the Wasatch Mining Company. Clayton withdrew from this venture with experience, but nothing more to show for his precious investments. John Bernhisel followed a similar course during this same period, and with the same results. The experience was most unfortunate, for neither was able to recoup his losses — it was too late; both had but a few years yet to live.
SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS
A membership list of the Council of Fifty was attached to the minutes of a meeting held at the Council House Saturday, April 10, 1880. The first name on the list was that of J. M. Bernhisel, who had given unfailing interest to the Council and allied endeavors from the day he joined the church in New York City some forty-three years before. He was also concerned with both the School of the Prophets and the United Order. A meeting, for example, was held in his home, June 14, 1874, for the purpose of organizing a branch of the "United Order of Zion" at Brighton.
On numerous occasions Dr. Bernhisel participated in the meetings of the School of the Prophets. He must have attended regularly for irregular attendance was given as the reason for disfellowshipping several members in 1869. This being the case, the School of the Prophets may have been a vehicle for the control of political, social, and economic institutions along with the Council of Fifty. At any rate, John Bernhisel belonged to both august bodies, serving them faithfully through a long and interesting era.
William Clayton was conversing with his friend John about the old days at Nauvoo five minutes before his death December 4, 1879. Three days later, John Bernhisel was among the many who listened to John Taylor deliver the funeral sermon in the new Seventeenth Ward chapel on First North. Less than two years later the church president spoke over the remains of the Honorable John Milton Bernhisel from the same pulpit. The doctor passed away on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the inception on the Council of Fifty, September 28, 1881. Prayers at the funeral were offered by Daniel H. Wells, and Wilford Woodruff. The speakers, in addition to John Taylor, were George Q. Cannon and William H. Hooper.
On Monday, October 3, Charles Walker made the following notation in his diary, "I see that Dr. J. M. Bernhisel is dead." Orson Pratt had passed away on that very day, and Walker paid a brief tribute to both Pratt and the doctor. "Both of these men were staunch old members in the church and joined in the early days. Peace be to their ashes."
The newspapers belatedly published John Bemhisel's obituary explaining that "the immediate cause of death was intermittant fever, from which he had been prostrated four or five days, but he was aged and feeble before." The Salt Lake Tribune received the news from "an old Scandinavian gentlemen . . . [who] appeared grief-stricken and cried as one who had lost a near and dear friend." The newspapers were still carrying accounts of President Garfield's death at the time.
Nearly a month after the Bernhisel funeral the Deseret News, in an article, "The Late Honorable John M. Bernhisel," said that "there isno evidence that he . . . ever faltered a moment in his faith." This tribute would have appealed to the doctor, for the last few years had been some of the most difficult of his life.
Shortly before Bemhisel's death, the family home had been sold to the church for $7,500, so in October Bemhisel's widow, Elizabeth, movedto more modest quarters at 363 Sixth East. It was here that she died on January 4, 1909. On December 17, 1888, at a meeting of the apostles of the church, the decision was made to sell the "Bernhisel House and lot to Bp. Preston [who] had expended some $10,000 of tithing funds in putting the House and grounds into good shape to suit him."
John Milton Bernhisel lived a most interesting, eventful, and productive life. The congressional years were important, but when they are considered within the total scope of the delegate's life, recognizing the part that he played in the development of Mormon institutions, his services in Washington represent a splendid performance by a dedicated Mormon elder in the service of his church. This organization he loyally served as well as the people of Utah Territory.
Deseret was to have been a unique communitarian society, and John Bernhisel participated in the western phase of the evolution of this objective, the United Order. In the process the cultivated, sedate doctor, on intimate terms with three church presidents, was motivated by a profound attachment to Joseph Smith and his philosophy that developed during their brief association in Nauvoo. Mormonism appealed to the doctor because it embraced the total political and social well-being of the community. When Brigham Young attempted to continue the building of the temporal and spiritual kingdoms, he received the wholehearted support of the intimate friend and companion of Joseph Smith, John M. Bernhisel.
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