Utah Historical Quarterly Volume 41, Number 2, 1973

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UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY EDITORIAL STAFF MELVIN T. S M I T H ,

Editor

G L E N M . LEONARD, Managing

Editor

MIRIAM B. M U R P H Y , Assistant

Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER, Provo,

1974

M R S . I N E Z S. COOPER, Cedar City, 1975 S. GEORGE E L L S W O R T H , Logan,

1975

DAVID E. MILLER, Salt Lake City, 1976 LAMAR PETERSEN, Salt Lake City, 1974 RICHARD W. SADLER, Ogden,

1976

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City, 1975 J E R O M E S T O F F E L , Logan,

1974

The Utah Historical Quarterly is the official publication of the U t a h State Historical Society and is distributed to members upon payment of the annual dues: institutions, $7.00; individuals, $5.00; students, $3.00 (with teacher's statement). Single copies, $2.00.

T h e primary purpose of the Quarterly is to publish manuscripts, photographs, and documents contributing new insights and information to Utah's history.

Manuscripts and material for publication — accompanied by return postage — should be submitted to the editor. Review books and correspondence concerning manuscripts should be addressed to the managing editor.

Membership applications and change of address notices should be addressed to the membership secretary. Utah State Historical Society, 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84102.

Phone (801) 328-5755.

The Society assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by contributors.

The Utah Historical Quarterly is entered as second-class mail and second-class postage is paid at Salt Lake City, Utah.

US ISSN 0042-143X

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

SPRING 1973/VOLUME 41/NUMBER 2

Contents IN THIS ISSUE

115

UTAH ANTI-IMPERIALIST: SENATOR WILLIAM H. KING AND HAITI, 1921-34 ISAAC TRUMBO AND THE POLITICS OF UTAH STATEHOOD . . .

HAUPTMAN

116

EDWARD LEO LYMAN

128

LAURENCE

.

UNPACKING THE NEA: THE ROLE OF UTAH'S TEACHERS AT THE 1920 CONVENTION

M.

BUCHANAN

150

FAE DECKER DIX

162

W.

DRIGGS

178

ALLAN KENT POWELL

182

FREDERICK

UNWILLING MARTYR: THE DEATH OF YOUNG ED DALTON

S.

WHEN CAPTAIN FREMONT SLEPT IN GRANDMA McGREGOR'S BED .

.

TRAGEDY AT SCOFIELD

.

NEVADA

BOOK REVIEWS

195

BOOK NOTICES

207

RECENT ARTICLES

210

HISTORICAL NOTES

215

T H E C O V E R Completed in 1882, the Beaver County Courthouse served as the seat of justice in the territory's Second Judicial District until 1896. U. S. Marshal William Thompson was tried and acquitted here of the murder of polygamist Edward Meeks Dalton of Parowan in 1886. Photograph from the Society's Richard K. A. Kletting Collection. As seen on the back cover, the courthouse was partially rebuilt following a fire in 1889 which accounts for the changed appearance of the roof. The Beaver County Courthouse — now listed on the National Register of Historic Places—is considered an outstanding example of the architecture of public buildings in the 1880s. Utah Heritage Foundation photograph by Kent Fairbanks.

© Copyright 1973 U t a h State Historical Society

BILLINGTON, R A Y A L L E N , The

Genesis of the

Frontier Thesis: A Study in Historical Creativity

.

.

.

C H A R L E S S. PETERSON

195

GRESSLEY, G E N E M., West by East: The

American Gilded

West in the

Age

.

.

.

.

HARRY N. SCHEIBER

196

BAKKER, E L N A , and LILLARD, RICHARD G.,

The Great Southwest:

The Story of a

Land and Its People

.

J O H N FRANCIS BANNON

F R O S T , K E N T , My Canyonlands

.

BATES E. W I L S O N

D W Y E R , ROBERT J O S E P H , The Gentile

198 199

Comes

to Utah: A Study in Religious and Social Conflict

(1862-1890)

.

RICHARD D. POLL

CARR, S T E P H E N L., The Historical

Utah Ghost Towns

.

.

200

Guide to

MURRAY M . M O L E R

201

Books reviewed B R O O K S , JUANITA, ED., Journal

Southern Thomas

Indian

Mission:

D. Brown

of the

Diary of

.

.

R A L P H J. R O S K E

T H O M P S O N , GREGORY C O Y N E , Southern

202

Ute

Lands, 1848-1899: The Creation of a Reservation, and J E F F E R S O N , J A M E S ; D E L A N E Y , ROBERT W . ; a n d T H O M P S O N , GREGORY C , The

Utes: A Tribal

History

.

Southern

RICHARD N. ELLIS

203

T I B B L E S , T H O M A S , a n d GRABER, K A Y , ED.,

The Ponca Chiefs: An of the Trial of Standing

Bear

.

Account LAURENCE M. H A U P T M A N

BAILEY, P A U L , City in the

Sun:

The Japanese Concentration Camp at Poston, Arizona .

W I L S O N , ELINOR, Jim

Black Mountain Chief

204

.

T E D NAGATA

205

D E L M O N T R. O S W A L D

206

Beckworth:

Man and War

of the Crows

.

THC KhU 4MIA0 o* YOU «S

%P knur

TMrt «*ete TAKft

PRCilD€MT £>0 JOHN A.WI0T5OE OP THE U.o^U. i i THE. CHAMPION Slforr-SECING CONDUCTOR, AND KNOWS VfHeRE TO TAKE. ' E M ;

In this issue If there is a common motif in the articles of this issue it is that sometimes Utah events and people command attention on a broader scene than is usual for local history. The stories told here encompass politics and folklore, statesmanship and human drama—themes which know no boundaries. In each instance the happenings or the characters contribute to the American story as well as to the history of Utah. Until recently some have been largely forgotten; others will never be forgotten.

Three of the articles are political in their major emphasis, dealing with United States foreign policy, the politics of Utah statehood, and the internal governance of a national professional organization. The other three convey a sense of the tragic—or near tragic—as remembered in the small town lore of Parowan and Scofield.

The political offerings resurrect the forgotten careers of Utah Senator William H. King and would-be senator Isaac Trumbo. We read of King on minorities and sugar interests, Trumbo on statehood and party strategem. The third glance at political history confirms muckraker Upton Sinclair's charge that Utah teachers were compliant pawns in the National Education Association reorganization of 1920. The death of a Mormon polygamist, 200 deaths in a devastating mine explosion, and the fortuitous rescue of the exhausted exploring party of John C Fremont: these are the events captured in contemporary headlines nationwide and never yet forgotten by townspeople.

Like the tour guide in Jack Sears' cartoon (above)—published in the Deseret News for the 1920 NEA convention—historians are only able to direct us to the landmarks in our history because to someone, somewhere, sometime, they were important.

Utah Anti-imperialist: Senator William H. King and Haiti 1921-34

BY L A U R E N C E M . H A U P T M A N

William H. King, Utah State Historical Society collections.

Senator King and Haiti

117

. . . T h e United States has too often landed military forces upon friendly shores a n d has interfered in the internal affairs of friendly peoples.

Senator William H . King M a y 12, 1926 T h e Haitian people are in a condition of political servitude. T h e i r Government has been taken from them, their constitution has been destroyed, they have no national assembly, no local self-government, no control over their own fiscal affairs, and no controlling voice in their domestic affairs. Ninety-nine percent of the Haitian people bitterly resent the course of this Republic [United States] and the subjugation of their country by the armed forces of this powerful nation.

Senator William H . King February 1, 1927

XXisTORiANS HAVE GENERALLY ignored the political career of William H. King of Utah. The former Democratic senator's historical obscuritycan be explained in part by the presence of the omnipotent Republican Reed Smoot in Utah politics. King remained in the shadows of Smoot for much of his career. Yet, King's interest in the plight of minority groups in the United States, in self-determination for inhabitants of America's insular possessions and protectorates, and in justice for the victims of genocide—Armenians after World War I and the Jews in Hitler's Germany—makes him a public figure worthy of study. The intention of this article is to shed light on one aspect of Senator King's long and distinguished public service: his campaign to end the occupation of Haiti.1 On July 28, 1915, United States marines intervened in the chaotic world of Haiti, establishing the fifth American protectorate in Latin America. Participants in the occupation as well as historians have analyzed in detail the reasons for and the nature and course of the intervention;2 however, the role of Senator King and his colleagues in the Senate in criticizing policy, arousing public and official opinion, Dr. H a u p t m a n is assistant professor of history at State University College, New Paltz, New York. He is grateful for the assistance given him in finding material for this article by former congressman David S. King of Washington, D . C , a son of Senator King.

1 Senator King's anti-imperialist activities were not limited to Haiti. T h e Utah senator often spoke in behalf of self-determination for Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Virgin Islanders, Nicaraguans, and Chinese. For brevity I have restricted my discussion to King's actions vis-a-vis Haiti. King was not the only U t a h n calling for an end to military intervention in the Carribbean. At approximately the same time, J. Reuben Clark, Jr. in his famous State Department memorandum was urging a similar policy.

2 For the best and most recent treatment of the Haitian intervention and occupation see Hans Schmidt, The United States' Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1971); for another first-rate study see Ludwell Lee Montague, Haiti and the United States, 1714-1938 (Durham, N.C., 1940), 196-277.

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and showing the practical advantages of terminating American rule has been virtually overlooked.5 Senator King's interest in Haiti can be traced back to his membership on a Senate committee, established in 1921, inquiring into the occupation and administration of Haiti and Santo Domingo.4 This committee was headed by Republican Senator Medill McCormick of Illinois who in 1920 had insisted upon the need to remain in Haiti for twenty more years.5 Other members included Philander Knox, Pennsylvania Republican of "dollar diplomacy" fame; Atlee Pomerene, Democrat of Ohio, who was going "to defend the Democratic administration [Wilson] . . . from Republican charges of mismanagement"; and Tasker Oddie, Republican of Nevada, an engineer who could only see the need "to build roads." New Mexico's Andrieus Jones, "a pacific sort of Democrat whom Republicans in power like to place on an investigating committee," was subsequently chosen to fill the vacant seat caused by the death of Knox.<!

The committee held a series of hearings in Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Washington. They interviewed native Haitians and Dominicans, American military administrators of the occupations, James Weldon Johnson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, journalists Oswald Garrison Villard and Ernest Gruening, and Roger Farnham of the National City Bank of New York. Testimony included disclosures of sporadic atrocities committed by the occupying American forces; strict press censorship; the revival of the French corvee, the harsh "tax" which conscripted natives to build and improve public roads and which in many cases was a fate worse than the punishments accorded common criminals; the racial bias of American officials; and the annihilation of thousands of so-called "bandits" in marine campaigns of pacification.7 The final report of the McCormick Committee admitted some military abusesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;isolated acts of cruelty, executions of several caco ("bandit") prisoners without trial, the killing of peaceful natives caught 3 For King's colleagues in the Senate, see Laurence M. Hauptman, "To the Good Neighbor: A Study of the Senate's Role in American Foreign Policy" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1971).

4 U.S., Congress, Senate, Inquiry into the Occupation and Administration of Haiti and Santo Domingo: Hearings before a Select Committee of the Senate, 67th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess., 1921-22.

"Medill McCormick, " O u r Failure in Haiti," Nation, December 1, 1920, pp. 615-16.

"X.Y., " T h e Senate Selected," New Republic, February 8, 1922, pp. 303-5.

7 See especially, Inquiry into the Occupation and Administration of Haiti, 83, 245, 4 6 0 509, 530, 533, 550-65, 599, 627, 653-61, 1253, 1596-99. For a full treatment see Hauptman, " T o the Good Neighbor," 55-68.

Senator King and Haiti

A band of Haitian "bandits'"' being brought into Port au under marine guard. U.S. Marine Corps photograph.

119

Prince

inadvertently in the crossfire between "bandits" and marines, the resultant destruction of property, and the injustices of the corvee.

Nevertheless, the Senate committee lauded the efforts of American officials and marines while at the same time recommended ways to correct the malevolence of the occupations. Furthermore, the report interpreted the initial interventions as justifiable, blaming many of the problems on the rapid turnover in United States personnel at the State Department and in the officer corps of the marines and navy in Haiti and Santo Domingo.8 Senator King was the only member of the McCormick Committee not to sign the report. Instead he introduced three resolutions in a three-month period in 1922. On March 4, 1922, he called for a Senate inquiry into President Harding's appointment of General John Russell as high commissioner to Haiti, a move made without the advice and consent of the Senate." Six days later, he introduced a resolution to s U.S., Congress, Senate, Senate Report No. 794, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1922. T h e report is reprinted in U.S., Congress, Senate, Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 4th sess., 1922-23, 64, pt. 2:1121â&#x20AC;&#x201D;27. For press reaction to the report, see "Whitewash on the Black Republic," Literary Digest, July 15, 1922, p. 15.

8 "Queries Naming of Envoy: Senator King Asks Inquiry on Harding Appointment of Russell," New York Times, March 5, 1922, p. 2.

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end the United States military occupation, to establish a native government, and to abrogate the Treaty of 1915 by which Haiti became a protectorate.10 On May 11, 1922, in his most significant move vis-a-vis Haiti, the Utah Senator offered an amendment to the naval appropriation bill for fiscal year 1922-23: T h a t no part of said sum shall be used for the purpose of maintaining or employing marines, cither officers or enlisted men, in the Republic of Haiti, or the Dominican Republic, or Nicaragua, after December 31, 1922, except in the event of an uprising in either Republic menacing the lives of citizens of the United States, or the lives of subjects of a foreign power or powers friendly to the United States, and then only for the purpose of affording protection to said citizens or subjects. 11

This amendment, as well as other King-sponsored resolutions, failed to pass on several occasions during the 1920s;12 nevertheless, these efforts helped focus the attention of the nation on Caribbean policy.

Perhaps the most heralded and extensive coverage Senator King received occurred in March 1927 when he announced that he would conduct his own fact-finding tour of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Haiti. For several years Senator King had maintained that President Louis Borno of Haiti had been elected illegally. King had repeatedly accused Borno of being the puppet of the American occupation administration headed by General John Russell.13 The irate president of Haiti, after hearing of King's intended visit, refused to allow him to enter the country on the pretext that the Utah senator had made false and offensive statements against Borno and "made himself the agent in the United States of the worst element of disorder in Haitian politics."14 Senator King took full advantage of this snub to dramatize the Haitian plight. Writing to Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, he asked "whether the State Department

10 "Would Evacuate Haiti: Senator King Introduces Resolution to Set Up Native Government," New York Times, March 11, 1922, p. 8.

11 "Would Cut Off Funds for Marines in Haiti: Senator King Will Move to Amend Navy Bill . . . ," New York Times, May 13, 1922, p. 15; Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, 62, pt. 9:8974.

12 Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, 62, pt. 9:8974. See also the following entries in Congressional Record, 69th Cong., 1st sess., 1925-26, 67, pt. 4:4082 and pt. 8:9256-69; 69th Cong., 2nd sess., 1926-27, 68, pt. 3:2702-3; 70th Cong., 1st sess., 1927-28, 69, pt. 7:7047; 71st Cong., 1st sess., 1929, 71, pt. 1:107. The 1922 rider received only nine votes.

1:1 See for example, Congressional Record, 69th Cong., 1st sess., 1925-26, 67, pt. 8:925669. ""Haitian Republic Bars Senator King as Undesirable," Neiv York Times, March 13, 1927, p. 1; "Of Utah," Time, March 21, 1927, p. 10; "The Week," New Republic, March 23, 1927, p. 126: "Caribbean Comedy," Independent. March 26 1927, p. 329.

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approves their action." He caustically referred to the unusual ties of the department and General Russell to the Borno regime and requested an immediate reply.10 Kellogg cabled Borno that his actions were an affront to the United States Senate and at the same time weakly replied to King that "there is nothing more which the United States can do about it."1G The incident received front-page attention.17 Most observers agreed with the Independent's view that Borno had made a mistake, since "it would have been better politics to let Senator King come to Haiti, and then say it with flowers."18 Although Senator King was still denied " K i n g to Kellogg, March 12, 1927, in U.S., Department of State, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1927, 3 vols. (Washington, D . C , 1942), 3:82.

10 Quoted in George Haynes, The Senate of the United States (Boston 1938), 2:683; Acting Secretary of State [Grew] to the Governor of Puerto Rico [Towner], March 12, 1927, in Foreign Relations, 1927, 3:83.

17 "No Haitian Probe a. la King," Literary Digest, April 2, 1927, pp. 18-19. The KingBorno confrontation can be traced in the following New York Times articles: "Haitian Republic Bars Senator King as Undesirable," March 13, 1927, p. 1; "King Case Dilemma Confronts Kellogg," March 14, 1927, p. 2; "Closure in Haiti," March 15, 1927, p. 18; "Borno's Foes Hope to Welcome King," March 16, 1927, p. 14; "Senator King Decides against Going to Haiti," March 17, 1927, p. 1; "Senator King Tells of Barring by Haiti," March 26, 1927, p. 9.

38 "Caribbean Comedy," 329.

Louis Borno, president

of

Haiti.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

entrance, his ploy helped bring the Haitian question as well as the Caribbean policy of the United States back into the headlines.19 Throughout the 1920s and until the announcement of withdrawal in 1933, Senator King condemned the American administration of Haitian affairs, demanded immediate withdrawal and termination of the Haitian Treaty of 1915, or clamored for a new inquiry. He repeatedly maintained on and off the floor of the Senate that Haiti was "in the position of a conquered country and the Haitian people regard themselves as the victim of an oppressive foreign invader."" Having the then well-known economist Paul H. Douglas of the University of Chicago as his speech writer,21 King relentlessly continued his assault on Haitian policy. Often, to emphasize his arguments, Senator King cited the findings of noted authorities on Haiti or those of independent commissions.22 The Utah Democrat's insistence on Haitian self-determination reached radical proportions by the late 1920s. On May 13, 1928, King was the principal speaker at a New York meeting of the American Anti-Imperialist League held at the New Harlem Casino on 116th Street and Lenox Avenue. On that occasion he shared the rostrum with leaders of the league and the NAACP as well as the editor of the Daily Worker, organ of the Communist party.23 In addition, on several occasions during the 1920s, he charged the United States government with "militarism" and insisted that it stop playing the role of "master of Latin America."21 After anti-American disturbances occurred in Haiti in 1929â&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially the one at Aux Cayes25â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Hoover administration began to think of withdrawal. Senator King recognized the significance of the Haitian unrest: "The people resent American occupation, and no 10 "No Haitian Probe a la King," 18-19. Hans Schmidt in his recent study of the occupation of Haiti insists that W. W. Cumberland, the United States financial adviser, influenced the Borno decision. H e told the president to deny entrance to the U t a h senator in order to make Haiti appear to be independent; Schmidt, United States' Occupation of Haiti, 190.

-"Quoted in Donald B. Cooper, " T h e Withdrawal of the United States from Haiti, 1 9 2 8 1934," Journal of Inter-American Studies, 5 (January 1963), 86.

21 Douglas to H a u p t m a n , August 23, 1970.

22 For example, on February 1, 1927, he referred to the findings of the Quaker-NAACPWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom Commission to Haiti, headed by Emily Greene Balch. Congressional Record, 69th Cong., 2nd sess., 1926-27 68, pt. 3:2703. For the commission's findings, see Emily Green Balch, ed., Occupied Haiti (New York, 1927). Douglas, King's speech writer, was a member of the commission.

2:1 "Senator King Protests Marine Rule in Haiti," New York Times, May 14, 1928, p. 24. ' ' S e n a t o r Charges Militarism Here," New York Times, March 18, 1929, p. 18; "Aims at Military Missions," New York Times, December 9, 1928, p. 13.

2r ' Marines fired into a mob at point-blank range. Statistics of casualties vary from five to twenty-four dead and from twenty to fifty wounded. Schmidt, United States' Occupation of Haiti, 199-205.

Senator King and Haiti

123

matter how long we maintain our marines in Haiti, there will be continuing resentment which will be a handicap in the proper development of the country."2" On January 18, 1930, King conferred with Hoover at the White House, insisting upon the immediate appointment of a commission to formulate plans of withdrawal, a free election, a new constitution, the recall of General Russell, and an end to military rule in Haiti.27 Nineteen days later Hoover appointed Cameron Forbes, former governor-general of the Philippines to head an investigatory commission to Haiti.28 It is interesting to note that President Borno threatened to resign if Senator King were appointed to the commission.29 The Forbes Commission "was the beginning of the end of the occupation."2 Despite this milestone King did not abandon interest in Haiti. Urged on by the NAACP,31 King continued to insist upon Haitian self-determination through the early Roosevelt years. Despite his later split with New Deal policies King's early relationship with Franklin D. Roosevelt was amicable, especially during the campaign of 1932.32 It is significant to note that when the final Haitian withdrawal plan was formulated in 1933 King was one of two privileged senators consulted by official policymakers.33 20

Quoted in " T h e Hate of Haiti," Literary Digest, December 21, 1929, pp. 6-7.

"Senator King Asks Civil Rule in Haiti," New York Times, January 19, 1930, p. 1. " For the Forbes Committee findings, see Report of the President's Commission for the Study and Review of the Conditions in the Republic of Haiti, 1930 (Washington, D . C , 1930).

President Hoover also appointed a committee headed by Dr. Robert Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute, to make a study on education in Haiti. Report of the United States Commission on Education in Haiti, 1930 (Washington, D . C , 1931).

29 Russell to Secretary of State [Stimson], December 8, 1929, 838.00/B64/14, Department of State Records, National Archives, Washington, D . C 30 Cooper, " T h e Withdrawal of the United States from Haiti," 94. See also D a n a Munro, " T h e American Withdrawal from Haiti, 1929-1934," Hispanic American Historical Review, 49 (February 1969), 1-26; Alexander De Conde, Herbert Hoover's Latin-American Policy (Stanford, Calif., 1951), 86-89.

81 Walter White to King, September 28, 1932, Box C-329, NAACP MSS, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Many Afro-Americans felt that Haiti was a "continuing symbol of Negro revolt against slavery and oppression, and capacity for self-rule." W. E. B. DuBois, Dusk of Dawn (New York, 1940), 239. James Weldon Johnson, the noted poet, songwriter, diplomat, and civil rights advocate, wrote to Marcus Garvey and others on September 22, 1920: " I t is exceedingly necessary that the colored people of America unite with their brothers in Haiti to bring pressure to bear that would restore to Haiti its sovereignty and independence.

T h e Negro in Haiti has the best chance in the world to prove that he is capable of the highest self-development and self-government." Johnson to Garvey, September 22, 1920, Box C-325, NAACP MSS. See also Charles Kellogg, NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Feople, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1967), 1:284-86.

32 See especially the deferential letter sent by Roosevelt to King, August 30, 1932, Box 751, Democratic National Campaign Committee MSS, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y. Cordial relations between the two dated from at least 1928. See King to Roosevelt, September 19, 1928, Box 96, Governor Roosevelt MSS, F D R Library; and King to Roosevelt, November 26, 1928, Box 749, Democratic National Campaign Committee MSS. "At Mr. Hull's request this general plan was taken up with Senator Pittman [chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee] and Senator King, both of whom expressed complete approval," U n d e r Secretary of State William Phillips to Roosevelt, August 3, 1933, in Edgar Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, 1933-1937, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 1:343-45.

7 s

Central market of Port au Prince in 1920 drew a crowd of noisy but good-humored buyers and sellers daily. U.S. Marine Corps photograph.

The question arises: Why was King, a conservative corporation lawyer from Salt Lake City, the foremost critic of Haitian policy?31 To the Utah senator the occupation of Haiti and other protectorates and insular possessions was immoral, for he believed that the existence of an American empire was demeaning to the honor of the United States and contrary to American tradition. He insisted that it "was not compatible with our form of government to adopt a colonial system and subject alien people to our authority under laws and policies which treat them as inferior people."35 King argued that an America bent on foreign conquest could not remain a free, lib84 For evidence of Senator King's conservatism, see Robert K. Murray, Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 (Minneapolis, 1955), 65, 71, 80, 83, 95, 2 3 2 ; Frank H .

Tonas, " U t a h : Sagebrush Democracy," in Thomas C Donnelly, ed., Rocky Mountain Politics "(Albuquerque, 1940), 3 1 - 3 2 ; James T . Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal (Lexington, Ky., 1969), 50, 200-202. :,5 King to Moorfield Storey, February 21, 1922, Box 4, Storey M S S , Library of Congress; "Would Cut Off Funds for Marines in Haiti" New York Times, May 13, 1922, p. 15.

Senator King and Haiti

125

eral democracy at home.30 Consequently he advocated independence for Haiti as well as the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Santo Domingo, and Nicaragua. Writing to Moorfield Storey, he expressed a hope for the day when the United States would "give to the Filipinos their own country and that we will withdraw from Santo Domingo and Haiti, and then, by helpful suggestion and disinterested friendship, aid the people in their hard struggle for selfgovernment."37 The Utah senator was primarily motivated by these moralistic principles in his anti-imperialist stand, yet to conclude that King was moved exclusively by them would indicate a certain obtuseness.

Another important consideration seems to have been Senator King's conservative views on government spending. He was a firm advocate of reducing expenditures, and, consequently, throughout the 1920s he urged slashes in military appropriations. On January 4, 1922, he maintained, "The overhead of both the Army and the Navy is entirely too great. We have not learned the art of economy in handling the Army and in handling the Navy." King continually insisted on immediate reduction to that effect.38 His anti-imperialist position was directly related to his conservatism with regard to government spending.39 In his speeches the Utah senator lamented the excessive costs of the protectorate system. In typical fashion King asserted: It is almost impossible to determine what the costs are to the American people resulting from these imperialistic policies which find expression in the occupation of Haiti and Santo Domingo. We have kept in those two countries for a number of years several thousand marines at a cost of millions and tens of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of the United States. 40

King had earlier estimated that the United States government had spent almost fifty million dollars in the seizure and pacification of those two Caribbean nations.11 It is little wonder that his anti-imperialist efforts often took the form of riders to naval appropriations bills.

3G

Schmidt, United States' Occupation of Haiti, 17.

"King to Storey, February 21, 1922.

38 Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, 62, pt. 1:749. "Congress has been liberal, not to say lavish in the appropriation of public money to support the naval establishment." William H. King, "A Condemnation of United States Naval Policy," Current History, 22 (May 1925), 167-77.

39 Theodore Friend, Between Two Empires: The Ordeal of the Philippines, 1929-1946 (New Haven, 1965), 70.

10 Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 4th sess. 1922-23, 64, pt. 2:1117.

"Ibid., 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, 62, pt. 9:8969. See also "Haitian Republic Bars Senator King as Undesirable." In almost every major speech on Haitian policy, King used this economic argument.

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The beet sugar industry, a most vital staple in Utah's economy, was inextricably connected to King's anti-imperialism. As was true of much of American agriculture, the beet sugar industry was especially prosperous during World War I. With the sudden ending of the conflict and the resulting surplus of sugar in the postwar era, prices fell sharply and economic disaster came to Utah. On May 19, 1920, raw sugar sold for 23.57 cents per pound. By the end of 1921, the price of raw sugar had fallen to 1.81 cents per pound. The fall was also reflected in the price of beets. Utah beets which sold for $12.03 a ton in 1920 dropped to $5.47 in 1921. Much of the blame for the crash was placed on the overproduction of Cuban sugar, for American-owned Cuban sugar companies had "tragically underestimated the ability of the European beet sugar industry to recover from the war." As a result Cuban sugar flooded the world market, precipitating a depression in the industry. In fact the Utah beet sugar industry became so depressed that the Mormon church bailed out the leading producer with a loan.42 Utah's senators, both Mormons, reacted to the state's economic misfortune. In this crisis both King and Reed Smoot were fierce economic nationalists favoring high tariffs to exclude Cuban sugar.43 Consequently they favored such measures as the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921, the Fordney-McCumber Act of 1922, and, eventually, the Smootsponsored Tariff of 1930, hoping to bring relief to one of their state's major industries. 4 ' To Senator King—unlike Smoot—the tariff was only part of the solution. The Utah Democrat saw the steadily increasing tariff-free sugar supplies entering the United States from her insular possessions and protectorates—Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Isands, Hawaii, and the Philippines. King's solution to the sugar problem entailed giving

''Leonard J. Arrington, Beet Sugar in the West: A History of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1891-1966 (Seattle, 1966), 87-100, 201. The number of beet growers working for the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company dropped from 8,096 in 1921 to 6,497 in 1922.

13 King was less identified with Utah sugar interests than Smoot, an officer of the UtahIdaho Sugar Company. For the best studies of Utah's "Sugar Senator," see Milton Merrill "Reed Smoot, Apostle in Politics" (PhD. diss., Columbia University, 1950), and his Reed Smoot, Utah Politician, Utah State Agricultural College Monograph Series, vol. 1, no. 2 (Logan, 1953), 5-59. "During the last forty years the prime purpose of protecting our national sugar industry has been to guard the interests of the sugar-beet farmers in the western United States. Whether the assistance has taken the form of tariffs or quota-benefit payments, the principal objective has always been the same, i.e., to support the beet sugar industry which contributes about 2 5 % of our national requirements." John E. Dalton, Sugar: A Case Study of Government Control (New York, 1937), 145. See also Fred G. Taylor, A Saga of Sugar, Being a Story of the Romance and Development of Beet Sugar in the Rocky Mountain West (Salt Lake City, 1944).

44 See the petition of the beet sugar growers signed by Ephraim Bergeson of the Utah State Farm Bureau in Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, pt. 2:11008.

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these insular possessions independence and then applying the tariff to the newly created countries. It also involved discouraging foreign investors from potential sugar-exporting countries such as Haiti and Santo Domingo by granting full independence. 4 ' Therefore it appears that King's anti-imperialist standâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his advocacy of immediate selfdetermination for Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Philippinesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was motivated to some degree by the depressed economic condition of the Great Basin beet sugar industry.4'1 Senator King's campaign for Haitian independence ended in August 1934 with the withdrawal of the last United States marines.

His efforts on behalf of the Black republic finally reached fruition after more than thirteen years of continuous protest. Throughout the New Era his attempted riders to naval appropriations bills and dramatic headline-grabbing helped keep the Haitian question alive on Capitol Hill, at Foggy Bottom, and in executive chambers. Despite his not altogether altruistic motives, King's tireless struggle to end the American empire, whether in Haiti or elsewhere, makes the Democratic senator an interesting as well as a significant public statesman both in Utah and in American history. ' ' I n the debates over King's amendment to the naval appropriations bill in 1922, Haiti's and Santo Domingo's economic potential was mentioned. In addition, an article written by H. P. Davis of the United West Indies Corporation was also cited. In this article Davis suggested that Haiti and Santo Domingo were potential Cubas, that the soil on Hispaniola was equal to Cuba's, that labor was plentiful and cheap, and that all that was needed for bounteous agricultural production was Uncle Sam's tutelage. Congressional Record, 67th Cong., 2nd sess., 1921-22, pt. 2 : 8 9 4 0 - 7 0 ; H. P. Davis, "Notes on Haiti and Santo Domingo," PanAmerican, March 1917, pp. 239-52.

10 On October 10, 1929, King, during a debate on the tariff, introduced a resolution for the immediate independence of the Philippines. The New York Times cynically noted in an editorial: "The devotion of the sugar senators to the pocketbooks of their constituents apparently knows no limits. Having failed to check the importation of Philippine sugar into the United States, they have suddenly become converts to complete, immediate, and absolute independence." "Independence and Sugar," New York Times, October 11, 1929, p. 30.

Although King was not suddenly converted to Filipino independence, he nevertheless realized the need to protect Utah's vital economic interests and hence insisted upon self-determination for all American protectorates and insular possessions. See also Friend, Between Tivo Empires, 10.

Isaac Trumbo, courtesy of Mrs. Leila T. Ethington

Isaac Trumbo and the Politics of Utah Statehood

BY EDWARD LEO LYMAN

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the Union was assured by Congress, immediate past delegate Joseph L. Rawlins and Delegate Frank J. Cannon received due credit for their efforts. But the most laudatory congratulatory messages poured in to a now-forgotten, former California businessman, Colonel Isaac Trumbo. By those in a position to really know how statehood had been attained, Trumbo was given credit for having clone most to reach that long-sought goal.

Trumbo played an important though controversial role in one of Utah's most crucial eras. For eight years prior to 1896 he labored and lobbied extensively with statehood as his aim. T h e political associations formed and the interest aroused largely by him paved the way for achievement of that elusive end. Having helped secure statehood for Utah Trumbo next sought a place for himself in the political structure of the new commonwealth. His aim was to win election as one of Utah's first United States senators. That effort, unlike his lobbying in behalf of the enabling act, went contrary to his hopes. Disappointed when Frank J. Cannon and Arthur Brown were chosen for the honor, Trumbo soon left Utah for his mansion home on San Francisco's Sutter Street.

In the years since that time, Trumbo's name has gone almost totally unmentioned in Utah's written history. Although this obscurity has made biographical information sketchy, the most significant contribution of the manâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;his role in Utah politics during the decade leading to statehoodâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;can be reconstructed.

Isaac Trumbo was born in the Nevada section of Utah Territory at Reese's Station, Carson Valley, in 1858. His Mormon grandfather was Colonel John Reese, the first permanent settler in that part of the West. Trumbo's mother, Mary Reese, married one of her father's Gentile associates, John K. Trumbo. During Isaac's childhood the family moved to Salt Lake City where their neighbors included Mary Trumbo's cousin, Hiram B. Clawson, one of the city's most prominent men. Young Trumbo grew to maturity without ever affiliating with Mormonism. At the age of twenty-two Isaac left Utah for greater opportunities in California. After establishing himself through successful mining ventures in Sutter County he moved his base of operations to San Francisco. From there, capitalizing on a natural speculative instinct, he entered many profitable enterprises, including additional mining W H E N

U T A H ' S ADMISSION INTO

Mr. Lyman is a candidate for a doctoral degree in history at University of California at Riverside. Most of the research for this article was made possible through a research grant from the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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properties, wheat marketing, and cracker manufacturing. 1 In 1887 Trumbo served on California Governor Robert W. Waterman's staff as an executive officer in the national guard. His rank of colonel remained a constantly used title thereafter.

Trumbo's interest in Utah was probably rekindled by H. B. Clawson who since the early 1880s had been extensively involved with the Bullion-Beck silver mine at Eureka. Alexander Badlam, Arbogast & Trumbo confectionery another San Francisco finanshop was pictured in Salt Lake City cier with a Mormon backIllustrated published by S. W. Darke ground, was among the other in 1887.

Californians interested in the mine. 2 These two men were also drawn to Utah by a projected railroad scheme. In the latter part of 1887 they were active in promoting and incorporating the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railroad, apparently in association with both leaders of the Mormon church and the Southern Pacific Railroad. 3 In late 1887 Trumbo and Badlam were in Washington, D . C , and visited Utah Congressional Delegate John T. Caine. They expressed interest in the straits the Mormons were then in largely as a result of the stringent Edmunds-Tucker Act passed earlier that year. They mentioned to Caine that on their return West they intended to stop off at 1

Interview with Trumbo's niece, Leila T. Ethington, Salt Lake City, August 1, 1972.

In 1887, Presidents John Taylor and George Q. Cannon of the Mormon church First Presidency, along with John Beck and other stockholders in the mine, were in grave danger of losing their property through lawsuits instituted by the adjacent Eureka Hill Mining Company.

Trumbo and Badlam. in association with other prominent Californians, formed the California Company, which contracted to intercede with the courts in behalf of the Bullion-Beck Mining Company. They were successful in reaching a favorable settlement and, as previously agreed, the California Company received payment in the form of one-fourth of the shares of BullionBeck and Champion stock. See Salt Lake Herald, March 19, 1890. Also Abraham H. Cannon Journal, January 24, 31, April 8, 1890, holograph, Clark Library, Brigham Young University, Provo. â&#x20AC;˘'San Francisco Morning Call, January 5, 1888, and W. C. Spence to Clawson, January 10, 1891, James Jack Letterbooks, Archives Division, Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City (hereinafter referred to as LDS Archives).

T h e often discussed dream of a railroad to Los Angeles didn't get beyond the promotional stages at this time.

2

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Salt Lake City to discuss these matters with church leaders.4 This was the beginning of an involvement in Utah affairs which would continue for more than a decade.

Trumbo and Badlam came upon the scene during a crucial year in Utah's political history. The territory was mounting its sixth and most concerned fight for statehood. John W. Young, one of the most active in that effort, was in New York City securing extensive arrangements for altering the image of the Mormons through the press. Younghad recently suggested that the church enlist the services of a trustworthy non-Mormon agent to promote favorable news items so that the cooperating newspapers would not be open to the charge of obtaining their stories from Mormon sources.5 Trumbo proved to be just the man for such an endeavor. His subsequent efforts met with marked success. President Joseph F. Smith later praised Trumbo and his associates, saying they had "traveled through the United States and had subsidized the leading newspapers and prevented their making any hostile statements concerning the 'Mormons' during the statehood movement." Similar expressions of appreciation and recognition were frequent among private communications of the General Authorities and their associates.0 In April 1889 Colonel Trumbo and Alex Badlam gave the First Presidency of the church a grand tour of the San Francisco-Monterey vicinity. They introduced their guests to leading local dignitaries, including Senator Leland Stanford. The California senator had often been an ally of the Mormons and expressed a willingness to further aid them in their cause. Probably even more significant was the First Presidency's introduction to Judge Morris M. Estee who had been chairman of the 1888 Republican party convention when it had nominated the successful candidate for president, Benjamin Harrison. Estee, through the efforts of Trumbo, had become interested in helping the Mormons, and he too did invaluable service in the Saints' political interest.7 4 Caine to First Presidency, December 31, 1887, Caine Letterbooks, LDS Archives. T h e Edmunds-Tucker Act had eliminated polygamists from participation in voting, holding office, or serving on juries, and it called upon the government authorities to escheat most of the property of the dissolved church corporation. Also at this time the effort to imprison polygamists was reaching its peak.

5 Franklin S. Richards to Taylor and G. Q. Cannon, May 23, 1887, Franklin S. Richards Letterbooks, LDS Archives. ''A. H. Cannon Journal, January 24, 1890. Also First Presidency to C. W. Penrose, December 20, 1887; Woodruff and G. Q. Cannon to Joseph F. Smith, February 28, 1888; Woodruff to J. F. Smith, March 6, 1888; Woodruff to James S. Clarkson, September 11, 1894, Wilford Woodruff Letterbooks, LDS Archives.

7 Wilford Woodruff Journal, April 15-24, 1889, holograph, LDS Archives. The journal reveals that President Woodruff and his counselors conferred and corresponded with Trumbo and Estee numerous times between this meeting and the arrival of U t a h statehood.

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Besides working with the newspapers, Isaac Trumbo often traveled to the nation's capital where with Estee's help he soon became well known to many prominent Republican leaders. Colonel Trumbo played a key role in securing the amnesty proclamation which relieved polygamous Mormons from prosecution for past offenses. He was similarly in the forefront of successful efforts to have church property held under provisions of the Edmunds-Tucker Act returned to its rightful owners and to prevent further disfranchisement of the Saints.8 In 1893 Trumbo and James S. Clarkson, one of Estee's associates who was chairman of the national Republican Party Central Committee, supplemented their political ties to Utah by entering a business association with the Mormon leaders to build a railroad from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles. As financial agents, Trumbo and Clarkson pressed the sale of bonds for the railway. Church leaders were eager to include these men not only because of their eastern financial connections but also because they felt that their contacts in California would be useful in securing terminals and other concessions in that state.9 However, the greatest effort Trumbo engaged in was in lobbying at the capital to get Utah's enabling act passed. With the word out that polygamy had been abandoned, his job lay mainly in convincing the nation's lawmakers of the trustworthiness of the Mormons. The colonel incessantly expounded on the good faith, industriousness, and patriotism of the citizens of Utah. Eventually many elements in Congress came to acknowledge the reality of Trumbo's pronouncements and to visualize the potential of the territory as a model new state.10 In 1894 Utah's delegate to Congress, John L. Rawlins, introduced the bill to enable Utah to enter the Union as a state. As he guided it toward passage in the Senate, it became apparent that Senator Orville H. Piatt of Connecticut was going to oppose the bill. But as Piatt rose to speak, a Republican colleague whispered a message which induced him to resume his seat, and the Utah bill passed without opposition. Later Rawlins discovered that the whispered communication was to the effect that "if Utah were admitted into the Union 8 Caine to F. S. Richards, March 22, 1892, Caine Letterbooks; A. H. Cannon Journal, January 30, 1891; Deseret Weekly (Salt Lake City), February 12, 1898.

9 The proposed railroad was to connect with the San Joaquin Valley line at Cajon Pass and thereby give Utah another route to San Francisco as well as the one to Los Angeles. This time the Southern Pacific Railroad was considered a rival. First Presidency to Frank J. Cannon and Nephi W. Clayton, September 14, 1894, and G. Q. Cannon to Clarkson, September 24, 1894, Woodruff Letterbooks. Also A. H. Cannon to First Presidency, August 31, 1895, Woodruff Papers, and A. H. Cannon Journal, November 29, 1893. in New York Tribune, July 20, 1894. Clawson to Woodruff, May 16, 1894, Hiram B. Clawson Papers, LDS Archives.

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she would line up as a Republican state."" Such assurance, probably made by Trumbo or a close associate, was sufficient to quiet the senator from Connecticut.

During this period church leaders had been drawing closer to the Republican party, depending more on that party's support to get Utah admitted as a state. Joseph F. Smith, who had spent some time in the nation's capital, had earlier been reported as saying, "I know many prominent men of this party who are today our friends and are working in our interests, but I do not know a single Democrat who is helping us. Such men as [James G.] Blaine, Clarkson, Stanford, and Estee are deeply interested in our affairs and desire to do us good." 12 Through lack of communication, Trumbo, Clarkson, and others apparently came to believe the church had promised to maintain Utah as a permanently Republican state as a reward for those services.13 Further misunderstanding led Clarkson to believe he had been conceded a voice in choosing Utah's first United States senators. After discussion with such fellow party leaders as Senators Orville H. Piatt, Matthew r S. Quay, and Nelson A. Aldrich, Trumbo was designated as one senator and President George Q. Cannon as the other. Mention of these men in connection with the senatorship was subsequently widespread. 14

" J o s e p h L. Rawlins, Autobiography, p. 126, typescript, Joseph L. Rawlins Papers, Western Americana, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Also Alta R. Jensen, The Unfavored Few: The Auto-biography of Joseph L. Rawlins (Monterey, 1965), 184-88.

12 A. H. Cannon Journal, July 9, 1891.

13 Whoever made these promises was apparently not authorized by those who could so act in behalf of the church. The First Presidency was aware of the problem and in a letter to Estee they said, "One of the causes which has produced misunderstanding has been that we have not been kept informed of what was expected of us. Promises have been made so lavishly to accomplish the end in viewâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Statehoodâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that we cannot, as we view it at present, fulfill them in the manner that is desired." Similarly, President Cannon stated to Clarkson that "promises have evidently been made immeasurably beyond any right which we would have assumed in the name of our people." See First Presidency to Estee, December 18, 1894, and G. Q. Cannon to Clarkson September 24, 1894, Woodruff Letterbooks.

14 Trumbo's actual recollection, from about five years after was as follows: "When General Clarkson spoke to me in Washington in regard to the Senatorial position that I never had a thought pass my mind in respect to asking for anything, and when the agreement was made in New York that General Clarkson would have the naming of the Senators, prior to that time I had no idea that the General in his generosity and good wishes would give me one of the places. Bishop Clawson was present at the conversation in Washington when General Clarkson said what he was going to do. He spoke to Piatt, Quay and Aldrich upon the subject, and they all selected me. I said then that they would make a mistake, and I wished that they would withdraw my name and give the Senatorship to President George Q. Cannon, as he was the one it belongs to, and I did not wish it. Bishop Clawson at this same conversation joined me and said that President Cannon should be one of the Senators and that Colonel Trumbo ought to be the other. General Clarkson, in answer to this, said: We will take care of Mr. Cannon ourselves." Trumbo to First Presidency, January 28, 1898, recorded in G. Q. Cannon Journal, February 1, 1898, and copied from there by B. H. Roberts, B. H. Roberts Papers, LDS Archives (referred to hereinafter as G. Q. Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers).

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When the great day of admission came at last, Trumbo's name was hardly mentioned in Utah. 15 However, the leading lights of the G O P in Congress made very clear in the telegrams they sent to Trumbo their high regard for him, his efforts, and his future. Colorado Senator Henry M. Teller, who had become a friend and occasional house guest of Trumbo's, said, "You have made the best fight ever before the American Congress and all sing your praises." Congressman Jonathan P. Dolliver similarly stated, "No one ever came to this city who made so many friends and had so poor a cause." The long-time opponent and recent key convert to Utah's cause, Senator Orville H. Piatt, remarked that "you have built yourself as well as the Mormons in good faith before the country." The "czar" of the House of Representatives, Speaker Thomas B. Reed, expressed the sentiments of many colleagues when he said, "I feel assured that the faithful work you have done will be recognized by a generous people."" 1 Possibly the long-time anti-Mormon lecturer and Washington commentator, Kate Field, best summed up Trumbo's contribution in her widely quoted weekly review: In all probability Statehood would have been delayed but for the untiring vigilance of one man. Early and late, in season and out of season, Isaac T r u m b o labored in behalf of immediate admission. Kindly, courteous, popular with all, a born diplomatist, Col. T r u m b o converted enemies into friends, and accomplished with a smile what could not be obtained with an argument. Others worked to this end, of course, but I have never seen so well-managed a campaign as the still hunt of Isaac T r u m b o and Bishop Clawson during the last six months. 1 7

The congratulatory praise was not limited entirely to the East.

In response to a telegram from Clarkson, Trumbo, and Clawson which said "statehood bill signed, your people are free and this ends our labor," 18 the First Presidency sent the following reply to T r u m b o : . . . We rejoice with, and congratulate you on the successful termination of your labor, which has resulted in Utah's enfranchisement, and political " U t a h ' s enabling act was passed by the Senate on July 10, and was signed by President Grover Cleveland on July 16, 1894. The enabling act called for a state constitutional convention (held from March 4 to May 8, 1895), and for election of state officers (held in November, 1895). After that it was only necessary for President Cleveland to sign a proclamation stating that the requirements of the enabling act had been complied with. The proclamation was signed January 4, 1896, and U t a h was a state.

18 Telegrams to Trumbo quoted in campaign broadside "To the People of Utah . . .

(Salt Lake City, October 10, 1895), 6-8. ''Kate Field's Washington, July 25, 1894. Quoted in To the People of Utah, 11-12.

18 Clara, Tobias, and Clio [Clarkson, Trumbo, and Clawson] to Woodruff, July 17, 1894, Woodruff Papers.

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deliverance to her people. For while your hand has not been seen, and others claim all the honor, tiiose who know the facts fully appreciate your efforts, and fully accord to you their heartfelt gratitude for the deep interest you have taken in the matter. 1 9

Soon after, Colonel Trumbo returned to make his permanent residence in Utah. He moved into Brigham Young's former mansion, then known as the Gardo House. Though this has been labeled an ostentatious act, Trumbo did it in cooperation with the church leaders, practically as a favor to them.2" It was agreed that he would host any dignitaries needing to be entertained as they visited in Salt Lake City. The colonel went to considerable effort to renovate the mansion, decorating it with much of the furnishings from his former fiftythousand-dollar home on Sutter Street, San Francisco.2' As his wife later recalled, Trumbo had entered Salt Lake City on a Sunday to avoid the brass band and crowd he assumed would be at the railway station to meet him. He could have spared the effort because there would not have been such a welcome no matter when he arrived. The people of Utah had not been apprised of the colonel's efforts in their behalf,22 and the voters were never to be convinced that he was entitled to high political office.

In spite of this the colonel established his Utah residence and began quietly seeking means to attain the senatorship he now so much desired. In due time he formed a political alliance and warm personal friendship with Charles Crane, territorial Republican committee chairman.23 Crane had become chairman of the GOP in time to perfect its local campaign machinery and was given much credit for Frank J. 39 To the People of Utah, 1. Late in the campaign Rawlins inquired of the First Presidency whether they were referring to him as claiming undue honors. He mentioned that he had been informed the publication of the telegram had been unauthorized, but there was no question as to the authenticity of the telegram. See Rawlins to First Presidency, December 9, 1895, Woodruff Papers.

20 Prior to passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which placed such property in the hands of a government receiver, the Gardo House was a much utilized headquarters of Mormon leaders. Even after the mansion property was escheated, the church continued to rent it for some four years. They rented the building because they did not want an undesirable tenant ruining the property they expected to soon have returned to them. But finally, as the rental rate skyrocketed and the financial straits of the church increased, they were forced to move out.

T h e receiver advertised that the Gardo House was for rent. See Salt Lake Herald, November 15, 1891. Rent paid United States Receivers on the Gardo House was $900 in 1888, $900 in 1889, $4,200 in 1890, and $5,400 in 1891. See Presiding Bishopric to B. H. Roberts, May 10, 1915, Roberts Papers.

21 Trumbo to Woodruff, November 14, 1897, Woodruff Papers.

"Salt Lake Tribune, September 17, 1899.

23 Charles Crane was a Civil War veteran who had followed his Mormon convert brother to Utah. Crane had settled at Kanosh, Millard County, and became one of the leading sheepmen in the West. Though active in the anti-Mormon Liberal party, he had early seen the need to unite with the Saints on national party lines and had been one of the first to move in that direction.

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Cannon's victory in the 1894 con:':-M'M gressional campaign and for giving the party a favorable edge in the approaching elections of 1895. His name was often mentioned as a candidate for first governor of the state.

By mid-May 1895, with Crane's help, Trumbo had worked his way into the local scene sufficiently to be elected one of Utah's delegates to the annual League of Republican Clubs convention held at Cleveland, Ohio. This off-year gathering was not taken too seriously by many eastern delegations.

Trumbo achieved the rank of But the delegates from the Intercolonel in the California National mountain West planned to make it Guard in 1887. However, his a forum through which they could detractors sometimes implied he had no right to the title. defend free silver doctrines, alCourtesy of Mrs. Leila T. ready the most controversial poliEthington. tical issue of the times.

Trumbo emerged as one of the leaders of that contest. As chairman of the committee which was to steer the silver fight, he presided over several caucuses of western silver delegates. They planned to present a resolution to the convention boldly favoring free and unlimited coinage at a ratio of sixteen to one and to further publicize their strength by running Trumbo for president of the league against some of the nation's most powerful Republicans. Even before the convention began newspapers throughout the country commented on the proceedings. Trumbo's name was prominently mentioned alongside such well known figures as Senator Stephen B. Elkins, Senator Fred T. Dubois, and General James S. Clarkson.24 At the convention Trumboâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;along with Senator Thomas H. Carter of Montana, Senator Dubois of Idaho, and Clarence E. Allen of Utah â&#x20AC;&#x201D; labored tirelessly with the committee on resolutions, attaining what was considered a victory. Many in the national party had intended to pass an anti-free silver resolution, but the westerners' efforts had ::

24 Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 16, 1895, and many other items of that date in Isaac Trumbo Scrapbook, in possession of Leila T. Ethington, Salt Lake City; microfilm copy at Utah State Historical Society.

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prevented any resolutions from coming forth. This strategy left the avenue open for the big fight of the following presidential year convention when silverites could begin the crucial platform struggle without having to overcome any past party declarations against silver coinage.25 A considerable segment of the nation's press continued to publicize Trumbo as "silver champion of the West" and leader of the fight to protect the white metal. The notices that followed him on a triumphal visit to New York often mentioned him as a positive selection for one of Utah's first senators. He was undoubtedly the best-known Utah political figure in the nation beyond the Great Basin.26 However, his accomplishments were carefully minimized back home by the Salt Lake Tribune which never had a good word for the "California interloper." Even the Salt Lake Herald, later rather friendly to him, accused Trumbo of having acquired his publicity through generous arrangements with the Associated Press news agency.27 As interest in the late August 1895 Republican nominating convention began to mount, the Tribune launched a sustained attack on the Trumbo-Crane partnership. Some of the points raised in the barrage of always-biased columns may have been legitimate, but the paper obviously had strong ulterior motives in mind, too. What opponents called the "Tribune ring" hoped to seize the gubernatorial nomination for former Territorial Governor Arthur L. Thomas and send Tribune editor Charles C. Goodwin to Washington as Utah's Gentile senator.28 Criticism of Crane centered upon his continuing to hold the position of party chairman after he became an active candidate for governor. The Tribune conceded he was entitled to run for office but held that it was an unfair advantage for Crane to be in a position to use the territorial party machinery for personal ends. They repeatedly called for his resignation and, whether accurately or not, took some credit for his doing so a month before the state GOP nominating convention.29 There is evidence that Crane jeopardized his own popularity through his ties to Colonel Trumbo. One editor, who preferred Crane's 25

Cincinnati Enquirer, June 21, 1895, and other clippings, T r u m b o Scrapbook.

Milwaukee Journal, June 18, 1895; Cleveland Leader, June 19, 1895; Boston Herald, J u n e 28, 1895; New York Recorder, June 30, 1895; Buffalo Evening News, June 19, 1895; and other clippings in T r u m b o Scrapbook. ^ Salt Lake Herald, June 29, 1895. Also Salt Lake Tribune, July 21, 1895.

28 Salt Lake Herald, August 28, 1895. It was widely assumed that one U t a h senator would be a Mormon and the other a non-Mormon.

29 Salt Lake Tribune, July 23, 26, 29, 30, 1895.

20

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candidacy to Thomas's, said Trumbo would "prove a veritable Jonas" to Crane's chances.30 The Provo Enquirerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;speaking for a county delegation that had been most friendly to Crane the year beforeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;observed that "if Charles Crane had rested on his laurels won last fall and not commenced his questionable wire-pulling for office, he could have had anything in sight. His chances of success through his misdirected zeal are now slim. We fear he will never get the nomination."3 The questionable tactics referred to the reported use of money to secure delegate and newspaper support. As already indicated, Crane's associate, Trumbo, had been adept at such "subsidizing" on the national scene. Though there is evidence of some success in Utah, the reaction against such alleged practices far offset any good that their cause could have received.

The Tribune, which implied "boodle" repeatedly, printed the following at the height of the fight: T h e Murray in the Murray

American

American

is now a furious supporter of C r a n e ; b u t

for J u n e 15th there was a furious editorial in

denunciation of C r a n e . . . . W h a t makes the American

s suprising flop?

Soap? 3 2

Even the respectable Democratic Salt Lake Herald was accused of accepting access to the "Trumbo money barrel."33 One editor implicated his fellows by saying "there are so many evidences of boodle that we wonder sometimes what the people think of the newspaper men."34 Josiah F. Gibbs, one of Utah's most capable editors, hit hard when he said, "There is not a self-respecting Republican in Utah that cares to have future history record that Isaac Trumbo purchased a seat in the U. S. Senate."35 The reported attempts to win delegate support by such means may have been even more damaging. Utah County's delegation was later M

Nephi Blade, August 10, 24, 1895.

Provo Enquirer, August 21, 1895.

32 Salt Lake Tribune, July 28, 1895. Boodle was a frequently used term referring to bribery or other corrupt political bargaining.

33 Springville Independent, June 21, 1895.

34 Provo Enquirer August 2 1 , 1895.

35 Nephi Blade, August 3, 1895. Gibbs, who was later a bitter apostate and author of Lights and Shadows of Mormonism, was at this time a respected editor and publisher. He was often quoted by his contemporaries in other small town Utah newspapers. In election matters, as in his socialistic political views (he called himself a Joseph Smith socialist), he was ahead of his time. He argued that the practice of allowing state legislators to elect U . S. senators instead of having the entire electorate do it directly was wrong in that it encouraged such dishonest practices as were attributed to Crane and Trumbo. T h e seventeenth amendment to the Constitution finally provided for direct election of senators in 1913.

31

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credited with having been instrumental in the defeat of Crane. Prior to the convention, rumors spread countywide that "corrupt agencies" were seeking pledges of delegate votes through bribery. One delegate was proudly quoted as saying "you cannot buy my vote with all the money in Utah County."3" Most of this important delegation headed for the state convention unpledged, with considerable talk of a compromise candidate for governor.

The most heated exchanges continued between the Ogden Standard and the Salt Lake Tribune. The Standard was as firm in Crane's defense as the Tribune was in attacking him. Just before the Republican convention, the Tribune uncovered an alleged secret society with oathbound loyalty to Crane rather than to the party. The Standard labeled the "expose" the laughing stock of Salt Lake City and denied that any such organization existed.37 With the bitter battle persisting right up to convention time, the delegates converging upon Salt Lake City brought with them a primary desire of securing harmony within the party. Many felt that pacification could best be achieved through the nomination of a third, dark horse candidate. The faction opposing Crane also favored putting up the names of other men to draw votes away from him and prevent his nomination on the first ballot. This strategy, they reasoned, would defeat Crane, assuming that some delegates who felt an obligation to cast a complimentary vote for the man who had done so much to strengthen the party as its chairman would then abandon him and vote for someone else. The Crane group ridiculed the idea of a dark horse and claimed their man was the only one deserving of the nomination.

Heber M. Wells was one of the alternate candidates some began to advocate less than a week before the convention. When his name was first publicly mentioned it was received with favor. Although he had done no preliminary campaigning and had no formal headquarters, he sprang into contention for the nomination.38 Crane's forces continued to canvass through the eve of the convention. At an outing for delegates at Saltair, Trumbo moved actively through the crowd, arguing that Crane was entitled to the nomination.39 30

Provo Enquirer, August 22, 1895.

Salt Lake Tribune, August 28, 1895; Ogden Standard, August 29, 1895.

Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1904), 4:619. Wells, Whitney's brother-in-law, was the son of earlier church leader Daniel H. Wells. He was well respected and had incurred the gratitude of many Salt Lake Republicans by running as the party candidate for mayor several years before when there was no chance to break the antiMormon Liberal Party's domination of the city.

39 Salt Lake Tribune, August 27, 1895.

37

;,s

^REPUBLICAN TERRITORIAL DEMONSTRATIONS j

Saltair, Honday, August 26th, 1895. %%

The Host Noteworthy Political Gathering Ever Held in Utah.

NOTED SPEAKERS, MARTIAL MUSIC, MARCHING CLUBS,

fj ±.

p

Q{ub '

| |

FLAMBEAU PARADE,

Qhe

S a # La/ce G/ee C/u6,

L^)l'>

Seventy-Five

Members

of OQUIRRH

CLUB

SINGING, DANCING.

H -^*~-In Uniform Drill. ^^ AMONG T U B DAYS S P E A K E R S WILL B E H E A R D : JUDGE C C GOODWIN.

HON. FRANK J. CANNON.

JUD(ii: C. W. BENNETT.

JUDGE rllNER.

HON. C. S. VARIAN.

EX-OOV. A. I. THOMAS,

" O N . A. R. HAYWOOD.

COL. ISAAC TRUMBO.

HON ARTHl M BROWN. HON. CHAS. CRANE. HON. ALMA liLDREDGE.

JUDGE C. S. ZANE. JUDGE Q. W . BARTCH.

Vocal Selection b_v Mrs. Swenson, of Swedish Ladies' Quartette.

Be sure to bring your lunches.

JUDGE BOREMAN.

HON. JOHN E. BOOTH.

HON. P. T. PARNSWORTH.

Come one; come all.

MAJOR M. A. BREEOEN.

HON. C. E. ALLEN.

-

M0N

-

M&

F

-

MRS

- SI*1™,

- LILL1E R. PARDEE. s

™ * - EMMELINE B. WELLS.

Hiss Irene Rckes, (9 years), Elocutionist.

Half Fare on Union Pacific and Rio Grande Railroads.

Half-page advertisement from the Salt Lake Tribune of August 25, 1895, boosting the Republican gathering to be held the following day at Saltair.

Trumbo, Crane, and Frank J. Cannon were among the day's featured speakers.

As the convention opened, the race for the gubernatorial nomination remained the center of interest. Wells's name was put forward first. The nominating speaker promoted Wells as the man to unite the party and said it would be unwise to concede to either the Crane or Tribune factions. Crane and Thomas were then nominated along with two prominent Utah businessmen, Philo T. Farnsworth and George A. Lowe. On the first ballot Crane showed a lead of 200 votes to Wells's 172, but since 269 votes were necessary for a nomination a second ballot was called for. In the hectic interim Crane's supporters "used every art to keep their forces from breaking and to add to their strength." But the second ballot showed that, relieved from their pledges, more delegates preferred someone else, and Wells was nominated.40 The following day Crane attributed his defeat more to the general feeling that a Mormon should head the ticket than to any influence ,n

Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, 1895.

Isaac Trumbo

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141

of the Tribune. Soon after, the Tribune issued another explanation: " T h e expressions of the Wells men during the balloting for the governorship showed that a special reason for their fight on Crane was due to his alliance with Trumbo." 4 1 Crane's defeat was a blow to Trumbo's hopes as well. If his associate had been victorious, a campaign tour with the gubernatorial candidate wTould have enhanced his own prestige. Despite this setback, Crane valiantly remained involved. He and T r u m b o assembled and financed their own program to supplement the main party campaign contingent of Wells, congressional candidate Clarence E. Allen, and territorial delegate and would-be senator Frank J. Cannon. In company with Standard editor William Glassman, a professional quartet, and a humorist, they stumped the state with vigor. Asked why he continued to campaign, Crane explained he did it for the good of the party, to rally his disappointed supporters behind the Republican nominees. Far from receiving any official party expressions of appreciation for these efforts, the former chairman rather bitterly complained that reports had reached him that the present chairman, George M. Cannon, was trying to discredit them. 42 A second objective of Crane's continued campaigning was "the vindication of Colonel T r u m b o " who, he felt, had been grossly misjudged and misrepresented in the party and beyond. 43 Crane authored a campaign pamphlet addressed to the Utah legislature and the general public to answer negative reports that had been spread about Trumbo. Denying the prevalent but unsubstantiated allegations of any connection with the sugar trust or Southern Pacific Railroad, this political tract stated that T r u m b o was actually as much a long-time and permanent Utah resident as any of the aspiring senatorial candidates.

As for Trumbo's being a boodler, "the only time he was ever a boodler was when he was giving of his money lavishly to elect Hon. Frank J. Cannon to congress." Trumbo, Crane asserted, had legitimately contributed more to the party than any other man in Utah. 44 With such a heated campaign both Republican and Democratic candidates drew large audiences throughout the territory. However, it is doubtful that the efforts put forth by Trumbo's people enhanced his chances,

41

Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, 30, 1895.

Ogden Standard, November 14, 1895.

43 Ibid.

44 Charles Crane, To the Members of the ([Salt Lake City, 1895]).

12

Utah

Legislature

and the

General

Public

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Utah Historical

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for at this same time, he was losing support where he most needed it to secure a senate scat.

Meanwhile, Mormon leaders discussed the approaching state legislative session on several occasions and expressed the most concern about the United States senators that would be selected by that body.

O n November 21 President Wilford Woodruff indicated his desire that George Q. Cannon be one of the men selected. Cannon confessed on that same occasion his hope that Trumbo would not be one of the senators. " H e is not a person whose manners and characteristics we would desire to represent us, for he is very ignorant, and then he would be, no doubt, a boodler, accepting bribes for services which he would render." 1 ' Commenting in his journal several years later on Trumbo's senatorial attempt, Cannon said that as much as Trumbo had done for Utah and the Mormons "it was never understood by us that he was to be repaid for his services to us by being made a senator." Cannon remembered, "There was a time when I might have felt entirely willing, but after the contest opened it was in a shape that I thought he would not be a suitable man for a senator, and so expressed myself." This feeling, he explained, arose from the way Trumbo had conducted his Utah campaign and the unfavorable comments it had brought forth. 40 Despite Woodruff's desires, Cannon, as his journal indicates, had no real ambition to go to Washington. H e did want his son Frank to go and acted to promote Frank's chances at the expense of Trumbo's.

Frank had allied politically with those who hoped Charles C. Goodwin would be the Gentile senator. This group was also close to Idaho Senator Fred T. Dubois who had long been interested in U t a h affairs. In early December 1895, Dubois wrote to Abraham H. Cannon, the apostle son who had most influence with his father. He cautioned against any proposed candidacy of President Cannon and belittled any claims Colonel T r u m b o might have to such an honor. Dubois was convinced that the election of Frank Cannon and Judge Goodwin was of the greatest importance to Utah. As he later explained to Goodwin's manager, Tribune publisher Pat Lannan, Dubois had intended the

43

A. H. Cannon Journal, November 21, 1895.

'Entry for February 1, 1898, Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers. The report of Colonel Trumbo's use of money in the campaign was discussed in meetings of church leaders. See Franklin D. Richards Journal, November 21, 1895, microfilm, LDS Archives. It was reported that T r u m b o had hinted that he had "some kind of a pull" on George Q. Cannon to insure that he get the senate seat he wanted. It had also been early revealed that Crane was spreading derogatory reports about Frank Cannon to damage his senatorial hopes. See A. H. Cannon Journal, May 14, 16 and November 27, 1895.

4I

Isaac Trumbo and Statehood

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message to Abraham H. Cannon to filter down to his father in hopes of discouraging any lingering senatorial aspirations there.47 Abraham H. Cannon soon reassured the Idaho senator that his "father has declared himself unequivocally out of the race for the senatorship. He would not accept it under any circumstances." The letter went on to say that it was President Cannon's feeling that Frank had earned the Mormon senate seat and that the church leaders did not expect to be involved in selection of the Gentile one. Apostle Cannon did promise Dubois that if asked, his own personal choice would be Goodwin. No public announcement of his father's withdrawal from the race would be made until the last minute, Abraham said, for the express purpose of thwarting Isaac Trumbo's plans. The Cannons feared that if Trumbo learned too soon of his abandonment he might retaliate by forming a combination harmful to Frank's chances for success.48 As the crucial time drew near, General Clarkson wrote to President Woodruff and reminded him of the men he wanted chosen as senators.

The venerable president answered at length. He expressed concern over the subject but stated that because of recent events49 church authorities felt it advisable to abstain from any active involvement in the political situation. Woodruff agreed that President Cannon would be a most suitable senator but added that Cannon had no aspirations for it and felt reluctant to be nominated. The church leader acknowledged Trumbo's services and his own kind feeling for the colonel. However, Woodruff sensed great obstacles in the way of Trumbo's election.

The non-Mormons of the community, as I understand, have thought that one Mormon should be sent as senator. I am told they have conceded this. But they look upon Colonel Trumbo as having come to the Territory merely for the sake of office, and that he secretly represents the Southern Pacific corporation. Others believe that he represents us, and therefore are adverse to his selection, as it would mean too much Mormon influence.

47 Dubois to A. H. Cannon, December 6, 1895, and Dubois to P. H. Lannan, December 31, 1895, Fred T. Dubois Letterbooks, Idaho State University Library, Pocatello.

4S A. H. Cannon to Dubois (copy undated, received by Dubois December 11, 1895), Dubois Letterbooks. The leading non-Mormon senatorial contestants were Goodwin, Trumbo, and attorneys Charles W. Bennett and Arthur Brown.

49 In the midst of the recent campaign President Joseph F. Smith had publicly hinted that two general authorities, Democrats B. H. Roberts and Moses Thatcher, had displeased the First Presidency by running for seats in the U . S. House and Senate respectively, without prior consent from their ecclesiastical superiors. Thereafter, the issue of church interference in politics became the most heated issue of the campaign. See Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1930), 6:329-33.

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Finally, Woodruff confessed, the church leaders did not have the power accredited to them to decree their wishes and have them obeyed by the legislature as far as senatorial elections were concerned.50 By this time Frank Cannon was certain of the inside track for a nomination. It was customary for the incumbent territorial delegate to be given a senate seat, and delegate Cannon had been soliciting pledges from probable state legislators since early in the contest. Further support came from his cousin George M. Cannon, the man running the state party campaign, who had publicly pledged to support Frank if George Q. Cannon withdrew as a candidate.' 1 While Utah was still celebrating her entrance into the Union as a state, Isaac Trumbo wrote to the First Presidency. Attempting to rejuvenate the assumed commitment to support his senatorial aspirations, Trumbo reminded the church leaders of his efforts: Statehood as an accomplished fact has been the dream of eight years of my life . . . and at last the consummation so devoutly sought for has become a reality. T h e closing scenes of this most realistic drama are about to be enacted, and my sequel is still to be told; but possessed of an equal confidence to that with which you viewed the progress and final achievement of M Y portion of the understanding, I now look to you, believing and knowing that you will perform your part as faithfully and as perfectly as I have performed mine. T h e Senatorial struggle will end the strife, and with it comes the final test for the mutual fulfillment of all obligations. T h a t the finale to the agreement will terminate in a complete and perfect fulfillment of all promises, will be determined in a few days; and then I wish to rest with the satisfaction of being one of Utah's first Senators/"'2

Apparently the First Presidency did not answer Trumbo's letter, thus leaving him in a rather helpless position, only able to hope for what he thought was due him.

As the crucial first state legislative session got down to business, the Republican majority held a caucus. The managers for both Arthur Brown and Charles W. Bennett, each confident of winning, wanted to call for a vote on the senatorial nominees immediately while all the GOP legislators were assembled. While the meeting had not been â&#x20AC;˘"â&#x20AC;˘"Woodruff to Clarkson, December 30, 1895, Woodruff Letterbooks. The Clarkson letter may have caused some indecision among the First Presidency over the senatorial race.

See Jean B. White, "Utah State Elections, 1895-1899" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1968), 103-9.

51 Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 1896. .

52 Letter copied in "Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 6, 1896, LDS Archives.

Isaac Trumbo and Statehood

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called for such a purpose and many of the members were caught off guard, they decided after some discussion to proceed.''3 After quickly nominating Frank Cannon by acclamation, the group turned its attention to the selection of his Gentile counterpart. The strategy of Goodwin's supporters called for backing Brown on the first ballot and then leading a breakaway from him to their man on the second ballot. They never dreamed that Brown's floor agents had lined up sufficient support to win on the first ballot. When that happened many decided to remain firm when the formal vote was taken on the floor of the legislature.54 Two versions of Trumbo's status at this point later emerged.

The less favorable story—allegedly originating with a Tribune reporter —said that the colonel's "name was not presented because no one could be found to nominate him." The more friendly Standard explained that "it was a well-known fact that Col. Trumbo fought against a caucus and refused to have his name presented."55 Some pieces of information can now be assembled to indicate what probably happened to the colonel. On the decisive day of the caucus—possibly after hearing rumors of the impending gathering— Isaac Trumbo called on the First Presidency and received their verbal answer to his letter of the previous week. Their response must have crushed his senatorial hopes, linked as they were to George Q. Cannon's candidacy for the other senate seat. For on this very day President Cannon publicly announced that he was not a candidate for the senate.50 Trumbo was caught, as intended, without the opportunity to cultivate sufficient support independent from President Cannon. Without enough potential votes to be in contention, Trumbo abstained from participation in the caucus.

News of the selection of Utah's senators provoked considerable discussion among the members of Congress. Frank Cannon's choice was well accepted, but, as in Utah, Brown's choice met with little enthusiasm. A special news dispatch to the Herald reported, "The impression prevailed here that Colonel Trumbo would be selected as one of the senators. Some of his friends declare Trumbo's defeat to be a piece of rank ingratitude." His efforts for statehood were well remembered,

03

Salt Lake Herald, January 16, 1896.

Ogden Standard, January 16, 1896.

K Ibid., January 18, 1896.

50 "Journal History," January 14, 1896.

M

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Quarterly

and it was "expected that he would be rewarded for his loyalty to the Mormons." Some could not understand what had gone wrong. 5, Trumbo was undoubtedly disappointed. He remained in Utah at least part of the year, having further conferences with President Woodruff.5" He also invited Apostle John Henry Smith, an ardent Republican, to attend the G O P national convention as his guest. Smith respectfully declined the imitation, and Trumbo was infrequently heard from in Utah thereafter. 59 Late in the following year, William B. Preston of the Presiding Bishopric, who had a responsibility for some of the church property and finances, sent Trumbo a bill of rent on the Gardo House. Trumbo's pent up feelings burst forth in response: I don't propose to stand any more humiliation from those people over there. I simply went over there understanding certain things, and they were all defaulted in, in not a single instance did your people keep their word to me, but in return threw all kind of stigmas and infamy it was possible to do. (i "

He had kept his negative feelings to himself, but after talking to Clarkson and other friends he intended to press for settlement of the matter.

President Woodruff immediately apologized and said that Preston's bill had been a mistake, sent without knowledge of the First Presidency.01 They sent Hiram B. Clawson to San Francisco to try to make a reconciliation. By that time, however, Trumbo had been further incensed by a San Francisco newspaper report linking him to Mormon church property and money. T h e colonel sent Clawson back with some firm demands that had to be met. T h e presidency discussed the Trumbo matter, and all expressed a desire to comply with his terms so that they could secure the legal receipt held by Clawson and thus conclude the entire business. Trumbo claimed he had spent $17,000 on the "Salt Lake Herald, January 16, 1896. There is no evidence that Arthur Brown was entitled to the nomination. All of the defeated candidates had better claims to this nomination through party service and they were at least equally qualified in personality and experience.

Brown apparently shared the services of State Senator Ed Allison, one of the most capable floor managers, with Frank Cannon (in spite of Cannon's previously mentioned alliance with Goodwin). It may be that he was elected because he was the only one of the Gentile candidates who had not alienated a large number of legislators. See Roberts, Comprehensive History, 6:342-43. r,s Woodruff Journal, April 9 and October 20, 1896.

59 Trumbo to J. H. Smith, April 9, May 23, June 6, 1896. John Henry Smith Papers, Western Americana, Marriott Library. ''"Trumbo to Woodruff, November 14, 1897, Woodruff Papers.

"Woodruff to Trumbo, November 19, 1897, Woodruff Letterbooks.

Isaac Trumbo

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mansion but would be glad to return his claim to the church for $10,000. The First Presidency promptly complied with that proposal. 0 " Trumbo also demanded "complete exoneration by the First Presidency to all the people, showing the position [he] had taken, where [he] had been, and the assistance rendered them." 03 Such an acknowledgement was forthcoming in the Deseret Weekly News. The First Presidency made a lengthy statement concerning the generosity and energetic contributions Trumbo had made in behalf of the church.

His newspaper work and the role he had played in securing amnesty and preventing further disfranchisement were outlined and acknowledged. The statement concluded that "probably no single agency contributed so much to making Utah a State as the labor of Colonel Isaac Trumbo." 0 1 A similar, though briefer, statement was made by President Woodruff from the Tabernacle pulpit the following Sunday. 05 With these demands met, the First Presidency received the receipt from Trumbo which released President Woodruff and his people from all financial claims for services rendered. However, Trumbo emphasized that "this paper has no political significance whatsoever, nor does it release them from political promises made to the Republican party."

When the document had been delivered, the First Presidency discussed the matter. George Q. Cannon commented that "nothing Colonel Trumbo asks in regard to this matter comes in the least conflict with my feelings."00 Trumbo had undoubtedly wanted the church leaders to publicly acknowledge his role in Utah's behalf for a long time, and the more recent San Francisco newspaper allegations probably added to the desire for vindication. One of Trumbo's primary objectives in pressing for the statements from the First Presidency was to clear his name with former political associates outside of Utah. He hoped a time would come when he could meet with President Cannon and Bishop Clawson in Washington, D . C , "and have them assure [his] friends personally that [he] in no way sold them out or accepted money in lieu of the promises made to eastern friends.'" There is no indication 112 G. Q. Cannon Journal, February 1, and March 29, 1898, Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers. See also "Journal History," February 1, 1898.

03 G. Q. Cannon Journal, February 1, and March 29, 1898, Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers. This is quoting a letter from Trumbo to First Presidency, January 28, 1898.

04 Deseret Weekly, February 12, 1898.

"Salt Lake Tribune, February 14, 1898, and Salt Lake Herald, February 14, 1898.

00 Entry of February 1, 1898, Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers.

1,7 Ibid. See also footnote 13.

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that such a meeting ever materialized or that Trumbo ever regained his stature among former associates in political circles of the East.

Isaac Trumbo obviously did not entertain ill will against President Woodruff. In the summer of 1898, the two men celebrated the Fourth of July together in Salt Lake City. os Later that summer, the aged president made one of several journeys to the coast to bolster his failing health. He and George Q. Cannon made Trumbo's residence their headquarters. In early September, Cannon telegraphed to Utah that Woodruff was gravely ill and that doctors were pessimistic because of his age. He died the following day at Trumbo's home. 09 One further episode in Trumbo's connection with Utah history occurred during the election campaign of November 1898. Trumbo, along with Apostle John Henry Smith and other Republicans, spoke at a party rally in Ogden. They all referred to the inconsistency of incumbent Senator Frank J. Cannon who had bolted the party and had subsequently entered the campaign as a Democrat. 70 The same week as the rally, George Q. Cannon noted in his journal that according to a reputable source Trumbo had told a story which reflected adversely upon his son Frank. In the time of the statehood fight a proposal was made to send some bright young Mormons to Washington as examples of the character and intelligence typical of future citizens of Utah.

Several men were mentioned, with Trumbo suggesting Frank J. Cannon. Now, more than seven years later, Trumbo's story had reportedly recalled that President Cannon himself had asked that his son's name be withdrawn because he was unreliable.

George Q. Cannon denounced the entire matter as a "myth and a fiction so far as my connection with it was concerned." 71 He did not remember any such incident. However, there was some basis for the allegations. An incident recorded in Abraham H. Cannon's journal could coincide with Trumbo's story. As a result of an alleged drinking spree reported to George Q. Cannon by another son, John Q., Frank's name was withdrawn from a delegation slated to go to Washington to work in the interest of the church. 72 The details vary, but at least there is a marked similarity with what Trumbo had remembered.

Right or not, Trumbo had further alienated one of the most prominent ,ls

Woodruff Journal, July 4, 1898. "''Ibid., August 14, September 1, 2, 1898. The Journal was concluded by L. John Nuttall. '"Ogden Standard, November 6, 1898. Frank Cannon was one of the western senators who walked out of the national Republican convention in disagreement on the silver issue.

71 G. Q. Cannon Journal, November 6, 1898, Cannon excerpts, Roberts Papers.

72 A. H. Cannon Journal, January 19, 1891.

Trumbo's residence on the corner of Octavia and Suiter streets, San Francisco, as it looks today. President Woodruff died there in 1898.

Photograph by Joseph PI. Lyman.

families in the state. After that he faded permanently from the Utah scene.

Trumbo's fortunes declined in California as well. He must have lost much of the vigor that had sustained his earlier efforts in behalf of Utah and probably some of his grasp on reality. In 1911 the pathetic story was recounted of Trumbo's expulsion from his Sutter Street mansion for failure to pay an $18,000 mortgage debt even though money was available. It was estimated that the furnishings and art treasures of the house would bring $200,000 at forced sale. Yet the colonel refused to part with a single item. Even after the power and water were turned off in the house, he was said to have sat alone in the dark musing over the beauties of his beloved paintings.73 Soon afterwards he was forced to auction off the art collection which was the last remaining portion of his wealth. On November 2, 1912, he was found unconscious on the streets of San Francisco, the victim of an apparent beating and robbery. He never regained consciousness. The colonel's Utah obituary reminded a rather unappreciative people of the service he had done in Washington in the interest of the Mormons.

It also recalled that "in the heyday of his fortune, he had ambitions toward the United States Senate."74 Once laid to rest, Isaac Trumbo's name passed from Utah's memory.

73 Goodwin's Weekly (Salt Lake City), March 18, 1911. This article cited information gathered from San Francisco newspapers of previous week.

71 Salt Lake Herald Republican, November 9, 1912.

Unpacking the NEA: The Role of Utah's Teachers at the 1920 Convention

BY F R E D E R I C K S. B U C H A N A N

Deseret News artist Jack Sears drew attention to the coming XEA convention in a cartoon published July 3, 1920, and captioned "There are many school problems outside of books."

Unpacking

the NEA

151

I H E MILITANT STAND ASSUMED by Utah's public school teachers in the early 1960s over the issue of school financing and teacher salaries precipitated a school crisis which attracted national attention.

The teachers had threatened to withhold their contracts if their demands were not met, and the National Education Association supported the local affiliate, the Utah Education Association, by raising the spectre of a national boycott of Utah schools if the state's teachers decided to strike. Under the heading "Showdown in U t a h , " Time magazine described the struggle as having the potential of greatly hurting or of helping the NEA. The Time report added that "the normally silent but influential Mormon church . . . denounced the U.E.A. tactics." 1 This denunciation took the form of a letter to the U E A from Ernest Wilkinson, president of Brigham Young University, and was similar to the criticism leveled at the U E A by officials of Utah State University and the University of Utah. 2 A few months later at the NEA annual convention in Detroit, the tactics adopted by the Utah teachers were the focus of the national convention's deliberations. 3 T h e outcome of the Utah teachers' struggle with the governor and the legislature was viewed as a portent for the future of national educational politics. A new breed of teachers was emerging which was the very antithesis of the traditional "school m a r m " caricature of former years, and Utah's teachers were symptomatic of the change. This was not the first time, however, that Utah's teachers had played an important role in NEA affairsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in 1920 they were the kingpins of a plan to reorganize and "democratize" the national association. But, whereas in the 1960s they were being decried as radical in their actions, in 1920 they were accused by some social critics of being willingly manipulated by the power of school administrators and big business interests.

According to Upton Sinclair, the power of teachers to resist the encroachments of business interests was seriously impaired by their own organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the National Education Association. In The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools, Sinclair presents an expose of the way in which he thought the NEA was subservient to the VanderDr. Buchanan is assistant professor of cultural foundations of education at the University of Utah.

1

Time, May 24, 1963, p. 62.

For an analysis of the struggle which developed between various Utah factions at this time, see Dallas Dee Morgan, "The U t a h Educational Controversy, 1963-1964: A Study in Political Behavior," (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1967). The Wilkinson letter is discussed on pp. 54-56 of this thesis.

3 " U t a h Key Issue at N.E.A.," Scholastic Teacher, 38 (September 13, 1963), 1.

2

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bilts, Morgans, and Rockefellers of American business. In chapters entitled "A Plot Against Democracy," "Mormon Magic," "The Funeral of Democracy,"4 he points to the NEA convention of 1920 as one of the events which effectively reduced the teachers' power in the schools.

The main points of Sinclair's argument were that (1) the leadership of the NEA were stymied in their efforts to make the organization more compliant to business interests by the political influence of "radical" teacher organizations in the large urban centers who were able to control the yearly meetings through deliberate packing of the convention (as had happened on at least three previous occasions) ; (2) in order to avoid the influence of these "packed" assemblies, the NEA leadership decided that the 1920 convention should be held as far away as possible from the center of radical teacher power; (3) Salt Lake City was chosen as the convention site because of its isolation and because Utah's Mormon teachers would be easily controlled through the dominance of the Mormon church in the state; and (4) compliant Utah teachers were "herded" into the convention and instructed to vote en masse for the amendment which would change the government of the association from a town-meeting type to that of a delegate assembly in which local teachers would have no more power than teachers from other areas and in which the administration would wield more power in terms of votes than teachers.

It was perhaps inevitable that the cry of Mormon collusion with business interests would be raised, especially when one considers that earlier muckrakers tied the Mormon church to the "Sugar Trust" and that Sinclair himself in The Goosestep repeated the charge that the Mormon church had exerted pressure on the University of Utah to stifle anti-Mormon sentiments among the faculty in 1915.5 In addition, the convention itself was held in the Mormon Tabernacleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; where the delegates were greeted by Mormon leaders and entertained

by Mormon choirs.

To Sinclair's mind the setting and circumstances of the convention in the Salt Lake Tabernacle were indicative of a capitalist plot to deprive America's teachers of their democratic right to have a say in the affairs of their profession. It reminded him of a story he had read in his childhood, "a fearsome story about an innocent American 4 Upton Sinclair, The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools (Pasadena, Calif., 1924), 204-57.

5 See for instance, J. C. Welliver, "The Mormon Church and the Sugar Trust," in Years of Conscience: The Muckrakers, ed. Harvey Swados (New York, 1962) ; Upton Sinclair, The Goosestep: A Study of American Education (Pasadena, Calif., 1923), 184-88.

Unpacking the NEA

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virgin lured into the clutches of a diabolical Mormon patriarch; and here is the story made realâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the victim being the associated school marms of America."0 Sinclair stopped short of claiming that the Mormon church controlled the NEA, but he did not hesitate to assert that the church hierarchy was a significant influence at the 1920 convention in the form of "the Mormon governor, the Mormon mayor, the Mormon bishops, the presidents and professors of the Mormon colleges and universities, and the two United States senators from the 'Sugar Trust.' "7 This was the power that Sinclair believed was used to seduce the "associated school marms of America."

According to Sinclair, the leadership of the NEA ran into opposition to their reorganization plan at a meeting of classroom teachers from Salt Lake City: You may imagine the effect upon the Salt Lake City school teachers of this array of religious and financial power; but even so, it was not enough! Church and State and Big Business combined could not prevail against a few simple facts put before the teachers of the city! At the very outset of the convention there was a meeting of classroom teachers, with Margaret Haley and Ethel Gardner and the rest on hand, and Mr. Magill, field secretary of the N.E.A., was so indiscreet as to come upon the platform and face the questions of these teachers. At the end of the session the gang could not muster three votes among those present; rebellion was spreading, and the great educators were frantic.

T h a t night hundreds of telegrams were sent out all over the state of Utah. Superintendents and principals of schools summoned their teachers to Salt Lake City. It was J. Fred Anderson, president of the U t a h Educational Association, who knew these teachers; and we have seen in our story of Oakland how Superintendent H u n t e r presented to him a high salaried position in the Oakland schools. H u n t e r was here, hard at work, and received his reward by being elected president at this convention.

T h e master of ceremonies of course was Howard Driggs, who was on his home ground, and had guaranteed to put the job through. With the help of the Mormon hierarchy, both religious and educational, he got the teachers of U t a h into a caucus on the night preceding the business meeting of the convention. These teachers were told nothing whatever about the significance of the issue; they were merely told how to vote. T h e radicals, of course, got wind of this meeting, and came to it, but some of them were excluded and the stenographer they had brought was ordered to leave. A motion was made that none should be granted the floor except U t a h state teachers, or those who might be invited by them. Once during the proceedings a man ventured to ask 0 7

Sinclair, The Goslings, 250.

Ibid.

154

Utah Historical Quarterly if they might not hear the other side and know what were the objections to this plan. Chairman j . Fred Anderson glowered at the assembly, and roared: "If there is anyone from the state of U t a h who objects to this plan, we'll listen to him!" 8

On first reading Sinclair's expose of the 1920 convention, one may tend to regard his claims as excessive and designed for radical propaganda purposes. However, as one studies the reactions and responses to the convention from other sources, it becomes very apparent that Sinclair was dealing in less hyperbole than might be supposed. What follows is an attempt to show that Sinclair was not simply drawing conclusions based on his own muckraking biases but that his claims regarding the manner in which the convention was packed were based on accurate data.

From its inception in 1857 until 1920 the NEA was governed by a town-meeting form of democracy ostensibly controlled by the members who were in attendance at the annual meeting. In spite of this, effective leadership was securely in the hands of superintendents and college presidents. Opposition to this centralization of power in the association led to a dispute over control of association funds. Margaret Haley of Chicago, a proponent of a greater teacher role in the NEA, objected to control being exercised through a board of trustees and proposed that members rather than trustees should control association money. Her opposition was ineffective, however, and Congress granted a new charter in 1906 which increased the degree of centralization.9 Despite this charter change, the town-meeting form of government, coupled with the rapid rise in the number of teachers in the United States, increased the difficulties of controlling the association's deliberations. The leaders of the association "feared that the meetings would be overwhelmed by local members who would break precedents, change policies, and elect their own candidates." The efforts of the NEA's leadership to give the organization stability and to make it national would thus be defeated "by sudden seizure of control by a local or regional group."10 An editorial in the School Review of September 1920 argued that at the meetings held in Boston, Milwaukee, and Chicago in previous years "a body of voters, supposed to be professional teachers, voted in blocks after arriving on special trains for no purpose other than "Ibid., 250-51.

"Edgar B. Wesley, The N.E.A.: 328-31.

10 Ibid.

The First One Hundred Years (New York, 1957),

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political control of the association."11 This fear of political control of the association by local teachers or by teachers from nearby cities prompted the leadership to seek constitutional changes which would make the annual convention a representative assembly rather than a town-meeting democracy. They hoped thereby to depoliticize the association and make it more professional and democratic.

Many of the teachers in cities such as New York, Chicago, and Milwaukeeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who had most to lose in terms of power over decision "Editorial," School Review, 28 (September 1920), 482.

<&ht SATURDAY

m

ÂŁ11153 .JULY .". I'fju

SALT

LAKE

CITY

! T.UI

EDUCATORS GATHER FOR NATIONAL CONVENTION

State school superintendents, pictured above, won their to wrest control of the NEA from local teachers.

fight

Boj Ti

Utah Historical Quarterly

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making and policy formulating in the NEA if such a change were made â&#x20AC;&#x201D;were opposed to any measure which would reduce the little power they had; and, led by Margaret Haley, groups of urban teachers were successful in persuading the leadership of the Milwaukee convention in 1919 to drop the idea of reorganizing the association. However, at Milwaukee the decision was made to hold the 1920 convention in Salt Lake City, and notice was given that in Salt Lake City a motion would be made to repeal that part of the NEA constitution which required a year's notice before a constitutional amendment could be adopted.12 In effect, the motion would allow the Salt Lake City convention, under the control of Utah teachers, to make whatever changes the leadership required. The person who gave notice of this proposed motion was Howard R. Driggs, professor of English at the University of Utah and a vice-president of the NEA. In Salt Lake City he was in charge of ensuring that local control would be used at the convention to support rather than stymie the plans of the national leaders. Considering the leadership's complaints against domination of the convention by local pressure groups, it seemed a strange procedure until one realizes that Salt Lake City's local control was exactly what was needed to put over the plan to eliminate local control in other cities where the NEA leadership had run into opposition. The convention was deliberately held in Salt Lake City "far enough away from the great center of population so as to make it quite impossible to pack the meeting"13â&#x20AC;&#x201D;impossible, that is, for the opponents of the reorganization plan but possible Howard R. Driggs was one of for those who favored reorganithe Utah proponents of NEA zation. Indeed, that was the reorganization.

Utah State Historical Society collection* strategy followed by the NEA Wesley, The N.E.A., 331.

"Editorial," 481-82.

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leadership. They were determined to join the "radicals" and, by using their tactics, beat them.

The Salt Lake Telegram reported that the opponents of the NEA plan believed that such a reorganization would destroy teacher power in the organization and that some administrators feared that if teachers became more organized, strike tactics would be adopted. 11 Under the headline "Utah Holds Strategic Position in N.E.A. Fight," the Telegram noted that Utah had Margaret Angela Haley failed more representatives at the convento halt NEA reorganization. tion than all the other states comCourtesy Chicago Historical Society. bined and that "the way Utah goes so will go the convention." According to this report, "moral dyspepsia" might keep Utah from using her numerical advantage, and in addition, there was some fear expressed that the enmity with which other states would regard her would reduce Utah's chances of ever hosting another NEA convention.15 However much "moral dyspepsia" the Utah delegation may have suffered, their leaders were determined to use the balance of power in favor of the reorganization plan. On the day before the vote on the reorganization was scheduled, all members of the Utah Education Association were urged to attend an important meeting at the Hotel Utah for the purpose of having the reorganization plans for the national association explained and discussed. Margaret Haley attempted to persuade the Utah delegates to vote against the reorganization but was not permitted to speak, and the Utah teachers decided to "vote unitedly for the change"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a decision which was viewed by the Salt Lake Herald as tantamount to overcoming any opposition to the plan.10 During the debate in the Mormon Tabernacle on the motion to change the constitution and the organization of the NEA, opponents were often ruled out of order by the chair, and charges of steamroller 14

Salt Lake Telegram, July 7, 1920.

"Ibid., July 8, 1920. Since 1920 no NEA conventions have been held in Utah.

"Deseret News, July 7, 1920; Salt Lake Herald, July 8, 1920; "Utah Holds Strategic Position in N.E.A. Fight," Salt Lake Telegram, July 8, 1920.

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tactics and Prussianism were made at the administrator-dominated leadership. 17 President Josephine Preston refused to recognize Miss Haley and others who opposed the reorganization and was determined that the "radicals" would have no opportunity of stopping the "democratization" of the N E A !

An observer at the convention, James Winship, editor of the Journal of Education, described in a somewhat humorous vein the scene in the Mormon Tabernacle when Margaret Haley rose to ask a question: I n either wing at the front of the vast auditorium were seated the noble women who had consecrated themselves to the noble work of rescuing the perishing N.E.A. In front of these noble women, behind them and beside them were men whose hands had been hardened for applauding that would be deafening.

All went well until far back in the audience rose the Little Woman who was denied a hearing and, as prearranged, a thousand voices shouted: "Question, question, question."

For the first time the outraged sentiment of those who failed to see the glory of the boasted Democracy of this Autocracy sought expression in the voice of David O. McKay, at the head of the educational interests of the Latter Day Saints, but he was promptly silenced by "Question, question, question."

This was too much for Dr. Richard R. Lyman, co-official with Mr. McKay, and as he sat near the front and had a voice worth while he demanded that there be fair play, that the Little Woman be heard.

By this time the Holy Rollers decided that they were rolling over time and the Little Woman said: "I would like to ask a question." This relieved the tension somewhat, and the Steam Roller was put into "intermediate." 1 8

Despite Margaret Haley's efforts, however, the convention decided by a voice vote of the Utah teachers to make local teacher control of future conventions impossible. The individual votes of the nonteachers (past presidents, state superintendents, and other administrative personnel, all of whom were made "ex-officio delegates" to future conventions) were to be counted as equal to the votes of the single representatives of from one hundred to five hundred classroom teachers, depending on the size of the local association.

An editorial in the School Review commented after the convention that it was "well that the association has taken away the possibility of being packed, and it certainly did wisely in turning itself into 17

Salt Lake Herald, July 9, 1920; Salt Lake Telegram, July 8, 1920.

"The Great Event," Journal of Education, 91 (August 19, 1920), 119; see also Salt Lake Herald, July 9, 1920. A detailed account of the floor fight was written by Vincent J. Keating in "Steam Roller of Superintendents Controls Session," Salt Lake Telegram, July 9, 1920. Both McKay and Lyman were apostles of the LDS church.

1S

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a representative organization rather than a town meeting." 19 The irony is that the efforts to do just this involved turning the Salt Lake City meeting into a town meeting and packing it with Utah teachers who used their local power to reduce the teachers' power in the national organization. Sarah Fahey, president of the Classroom Teachers Association, claimed that "she had never seen in any section of the country any more evidence of local influence than in Salt Lake." 20 The records indicate that indeed the political power of Utah's teachers had been used to "democratize" the NEA, as many speakers hailed the change.

Apparently the leadership feared that Margaret Haley might succeed in marshalling teachers against the reorganization as she had at previous conventions. They had gone to great lengths to prevent this possibility and in doing so subjected Utah teachers to charges of being herded into the convention and instructed on how to vote. Editor James Winship asserted that the steamroller tactics adopted at the convention were a result of undue panic among the leadership and were totally unnecessary, given the small number of non-local teachers in attendance at the convention. The autocratic manner in which the affair was managed led Winship to comment that "Utah had given a final demonstration of how local teachers could be autocratically mobilized as crusaders for nationalization," and "it must be confessed that the birth throes of the deliverance of democracy were the most autocratic deliverance on record, a real Caesarean deliverance." 21 The Utah Educational Review expressed regret that Utah's educational leaders should be charged with "railroading" and "herding" Utah's teachers at the meeting and concluded "that such leaders must have acted under the excitement of the moment in a way they would not have done in cooler blood." 22 It appears, however, that the intention to pack the convention was not decided upon "under the excitement of the moment" and that Utah's teachers had indeed been well rehearsed to accomplish what the reorganizes wantedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a packed convention controlled by conservative teachers designed to rid the NEA of the evils of packed conventions controlled by radical teachers. In this respect some of Sinclair's charges in The Goslings are based on evidence and not simply on journalistic sensationalism: Utah's teachers were manipulated to serve the purposes of the NEA leadership.

19

"Editorial," 482.

"Reorganization Forces Win in Convention: Delegates All Wrought U p in Fierce Contest," Deseret News, July 9, 1920.

24 "The Great Event," 120.

22 Utah Educational Review, 14 (September 1920), 21.

0

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In another respect, Sinclair's suggestion that the Mormon church per se was actively engaged as a partner with business and administration in a nefarious plot to destroy constitutional democracy in the NEA seems to be somewhat overdrawn and based on an ideological framework which saw all of organized religion as the handmaiden of capitalistic influences. Sinclair, it should be noted, had already written a polemic along these lines called the Profits of Religion. Indeed, one is hard pressed to see much difference between Sinclair's advocacy of conspiracy as an explanation for social, political, and economic problems and the ideas advanced by some Mormon writers23 that the capitalists themselves are part of the worldwide communist conspiracy to destroy constitutional government. In a sense, of course, Sinclair's charges of a Mormon-NEA conspiracy are but an extension of an earlier nineteenthcentury theme that Mormons were a threat to the purity of the family and the American way of life.24 As the dean of American muckrakers, Sinclair followed a tradition which stressed sensationalism and which sometimes conveniently glossed over other aspects of a particular situation. For instance, Sinclair makes much of the convention's being held in the Mormon Tabernacleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the necessary setting, he claimed, for the success of the plot and the use of "Mormon Magic." The fact is, of 6oyen.N0* course, that the Tabernacle was, until 5IM0N very recently, the only building in mWMR Utah which could accommodate large crowds. Interestingly enough, the 1913 convention was also held in Salt Lake City in the self-same Tabernacle, but no word of Mormon conspiracy about the meeting was ever uttered.

Sinclair insists that the Mormon educational hierarchy was an active conspirator against democracy in the NEA but conveniently ignores the Upton Sinclair erroneously identified Governor Bamberger as a Mormon.

Jack Sears cartoon in Deseret News, July 9, 1920 23

See, for example, W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Capitalist (Salt Lake City, 1958).

David B. Davis, "Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 47 (September 1960), 205-24.

21

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vocal protests of David O. McKay and Richard R. Lyman—both members of the hierarchy—over the shabby treatment of Miss Haley on the convention floor. He was apparently convinced of the direct relationship between the Mormon church and the convention proceedings and did not allow for any other possibility. He even identifies the governor as a Mormon and one of the hierarchy who greeted and eventually seduced the "associated schoolmarms of America." In actual fact the governor, Simon Bamberger, was a Jew. Sinclair also assumes that because Howard R. Driggs was a Mormon he was therefore representing the Mormon leadership. However, when the Mormon ex-superintendent of schools of Salt Lake City, D. H. Christensen, protested the tactics employed by the NEA leadership, Sinclair does not thereby conclude that the Mormon leaders were opposed to the tactics. Perhaps the term "selective perception" best describes this penchant for glossing over evidence that might contradict one's favorite theories.

None of the foregoing, of course, weakens Sinclair's central claims that the NEA leadership used the geographic location of Salt Lake City and also its unique religious orientation to its fullest advantage. They intended to pack the meeting and succeeded. However, if a conspiracy was involved in their strategy, it was in the best, or worst, tradition of power politics-—a field to which Utah's educators of 1920 were apparently no strangers.

HISTORICAL S K E T C H OF BRIGHAM D A L T O N ,

ROCKVILLE

Most of the Polygamists I knew were law abiding, loyal citizens, very congenial; in their home life of course, there's few exceptions, but most of them were successful in raising their families. My brother Edward Dalton living at Parowan was a polygamist; the U . S. Marshall tried to get him but he evaded them and hid out in the hills, but one of the neighbors, a Mr. T h o r n t o n told the officers that he came home a certain time each night so the officers, hid behind the fence on the corner of the street he h a d to go to get home, and when Edward came u p they called to him to halt, but instead of doing so he first put spurs to his horse a n d was fleeing away; the officer shot and hit him and he died soon after. T h e officer did not shoot him intentionally, but done it to frighten him so he would stop, never thought of hitting him. (Extract from W P A Manuscript File A l 181, U t a h State Historical Society.)

Unwilling Martyr: The Death of Young Ed Dalton

BY FAE DECKER DIX

Edward Meeks Dalton.

Courtesy Myra

Dalton.

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almost twenty years ago I stood by the grave of Young Ed Dalton in the century-old cemetery that shields the dead of my little home town. Snow lay across the quiet graves—melting here and there where the red earth and the green juniper trees converge. It made a gentle scene.

I remembered how the townspeople walked or drove to the graveyard to place May flowers and paper wreaths on the resting places of their loved ones. They would stop at family plots to visit friends and talk in hushed tones of those long gone—taking great care when they left not to show disrespect for the dead by stepping on the graves.

Then they would walk to Young Ed's grave.

Edward Meeks Dalton (called Young Ed to tell him from his father) enjoyed a special regard among the older families of our southern U t a h valley, for Ed—a civic-minded Mormon and an idol of Parowan's youth—had been killed in 1886 by a federal marshal's gunfire during the government crusade against plural marriage.

T h e mounded graves at Parowan's burying place, in the days before the red dirt was laid smooth in green lawn, were surrounded by a scattering of native wild flowers dominated by the purple-blue of the stiff-stemmed iris which the people of our arid land called lilies.

These flourishing plants, transplanted from town gardens, along with lilacs and wild yellow roses were a traditional part of the local landscape. Traditional, too, was the lore recalled on Decoration Day by townspeople as they strolled from grave to grave, stopping always by the headstone which was our valley landmark. This was the monument marking the burial place of Young Ed Dalton. Someone would always recall the sorrow Parowan felt in losing this favorite son and point to the fine-chiseled words on the monument which reaffirmed that he "was murdered in cold blood."

The story was legend in our town. I had heard it often from my father who always spoke in grief of the memory; for father was one of those who helped carry Young Ed away from the old Page house as he breathed his last.

Father was eighteen at the time—an ardent worshiper of Young Ed whose athletic prowess and gay temperament fascinated young swains of the day. In relating the story, father would tell it to us from U N

A COLD NOVEMBER DAY

Mrs. Dix, a native of Parowan, now a resident of Salt Lake City, is a former program director for the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Utah. Earlier versions of this article were read to history groups in Cedar City and Salt Lake City.

:••' |lli 1 ^ ' • »

77t« dying Ed Dalton was carried into the nearby Daniel Page home.

Temporarily reviving, he demanded to be taken from the house of a man he considered an enemy. Courtesy Mrs. Woodrow Decker.

the beginning of the December morning when he was out in the corral doing chores. It was toward noon when he heard a gunshot ring out.

T h e sound came from the south, and being young and curious he simply dropped his pitchfork and started out to find the trouble. Leaping the pole fence, he was crossing the quaint chip bridge which spanned the big ditch back of the corrals when someone ran by and cried out, "Run—we'll be needing you. They've just shot Ed Dalton!"

"Where?"

"Over at Page's corner."

This was the home of Daniel Page, a disaffected church member and hotel owner who collaborated with the federal marshal stationed in the area.

By the time father ran the block and turned the corner west, Ed had been moved first to the porch and then inside the home. Father burst into the room and bent over his friend asking, "What have they done to you, E d ? " T h e dying man replied, "They've got me this time."

Young Ed, suddenly recognizing that he lay in the home of his enemy, cried out, "Don't let me die in this house." The crowd took up his plea, delegating my father and two others to carry him up the street to his mother's home. They lifted him gently but were only a

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short distance along the "pathwalk" when he died. This my father could never forget. Whenever he reached this point as he retold the story, his voice broke and his eyes blurred.

A slain son's image lingers long in a little town. If you asked any of the elderly what they recalled hearing of Young Ed's death, they'd start you back at the "old Page corner three blocks west from Main Street, where the blood still stains the porch and the parlor floors."1 For sixty years and more, they used to claim the house was painted red "because no one could wash Ed Dalton's deathblood from its floors."2 They would send you next to read the lettering on the tall monument in the cemetery.

Inscribed on the east panel is the scriptural passage: " A n d they cried with a loud voice, saying, H o w Long, O h Lord, holy a n d true, dost thou not judge a n d avenge our blood on t h e m t h a t dwell on the e a r t h ? " REVELATIONS

6:10

T h e north side carries this poetic cry: H e r e lies a victim of a Nation's blunder, Which m a n y to untimely graves h a t h brought, It nature's holy ties h a t h torn asunder, And, untold suffering, woe, a n d anguish wrought, By ruthless h a n d this m a n crossed death's dark river, His was the sacred blood of innocence, T h e taker of his life will meet the giver, Before the T r i b u n e of Omnipotence. 3

O n the west side of the monument you read: In memoriam EDWARD

MEEKS

DALTON

4 This article is drawn in part from interviews with many Parowan residents. These recollections have been checked against printed accounts. Of the newspaper reports, those published in the Deseret Evening News and Salt Lake Daily Tribune are the most complete.

These competing dailies entered into an intense debate which lasted through the ensuing court trial. T h e secondary account most often consulted is that of Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1892-1904), 3 : 5 2 5 - 3 7 . See also B. H . Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church . . . , 6 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1930), 6:116. ' After later changing owners, the Page home was remodeled and repainted light, bright colors. T h e front porch was removed, making it a trim cottage.

Said to have been composed by Lorenzo Dow Watson, a prominent Parowan citizen; confirmed in interview by Arvilla Connell Marsden with Alma Watson McGregor, 93, of Provo, daughter of Lorenzo Dow Watson, April 17, 1966.

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Son of Edward & Elizabeth DALTON Born, Parowan, Utah, August 25th. 1852 DIED December 16th, 1886, 34 Yrs, 3 Mos, & 21 Das.

And, on the south side are the words they always quote in Parowan: H e was shot and Killed December 16th, 1886, in cold blood by a deputy United States Marshal, while under indictment for a misdemeanor under the Edmunds Anti-polygamy law.

Dalton family members say they did not put in writing their own version of his death ("Grandmother just couldn't bear to talk about i t " ) . But there are bits and pieces: his first wife Emily's old diary, a letter here and there, and a plethora of town legends. They have read and reread the account of historian Orson F. Whitney and found it near to their family legends. A few excerpts give the tone of the times: It was between four and five o'clock on the morning of the fatal day —Thursday, December 16th—that Daniel Page admitted Marshals Thompson and Orton 4 into his domicile. [The two had traveled the thirty-two miles from Beaver under cover of darkness after learning that Dalton had come out of hiding in Arizona.] About 8 o'clock, according to Page's statement, he went at Thompson's request, across the street to the house of John J. Wilcock, from whom he borrowed a gun— a Browning rifle, .32 calibre. . . .

[Page's teen-age son, Willie, was sent to look for Young Ed,] and reported that he had seen him near Edgar Clark's corral. H e had probably learned also that it was Dalton's design to drive a herd of stock to the range that morning, in doing which he would come from the east and pass Page's house, situated on the north-west corner of a block. . . .

Just as Dalton was passing the house, Thompson and Orton went out at the back door on the south side, while the Pages . . . stationed themselves at the north and west windows . . . and watched Dalton as he turned the corner to go south. He was riding a horse, bare-back, was unarmed and apparently unsuspicious of danger. T h a t he had no weapon was plainly to be seen, as his coat was off. . . . As Dalton was riding slowly in a southwesterly direction, . . . he was suddenly hailed by voices on his left and ordered to halt. T h e order was twice or thrice repeated but the calls were so close together as to seem almost simul4 Marshal William Thompson from Beaver, where the district court was held, and William O. Orton of Parowan, his assistant, were both deputy U. S. marshals. Thompson had been known to shoot at at least one other Parowan "cohab" before (Peter M. Jensen), and thus residents were not friendly towards him. Whitney, History of Utah, 3:526-27.

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taneous. Immediately afterwards, a shot was fired from Page's backyard, . . . and Dalton was seen to reel and grasp his horse's mane.

T h e animal reared slightly, . . . [and] its rider fell to the ground, writhing in agony. H e was mortally wounded. . . .

Thompson . . . declared that the gun went off sooner than he intended. T h e n stooping down and tapping Dalton on the shoulder, he said, " I told you to halt; why didn't you stop?" T h e wounded m a n made no reply.

Dalton, whose life was fast ebbing away, was carried into Page's house, where he temporarily revived. Recognizing Thompson, who was holding his hand, he ordered him to "let go." Dr. King examined the wound and pronounced it fatal. . . .

Dalton now seemed sinking, and forthwith the cry was raised, "Why let him die in the house of his murderers? T a k e him to his mother's." Strong arms tenderly lifted the dying man and bore him into the open air; but it was too late for him to reach home alive. . . . It was a quarter past twelve o'clock when he breathed his last. . . .

T h e funeral of the deceased took place two days later. T h e principal speaker was John Henry Smith, who, with his fellow Apostle, Heber J. Grant, happened to be in that part of the territory attending Stake Conference. Every effort was made by these Elders, on hearing of the tragedy, to prevent any possible tumult that might arise. Two-thirds of the population of Parowan followed Dalton's remains to their last resting place. 5

Although Marshal Thompson, who had been an officer since 1874 and was a former Mormon, declared he had fired the gun "with the intention of shooting over him" the stunned residents of the little town called it a likely story and pronounced the tragedy "cold-blooded murder." Their descendants for decades supported this belief and expressed indignation over what seemed to them the total injustice that followed in the court trial at Beaver. Some who were there left their version of the sad day. If others could not remember it, they again told what their fathers had told them. Although the Salt Lake Daily Tribune took up the cause to defend Thompson against his Mormon detractors, there was no voice raised in the marshal's behalf in Parowan. Residents could not accept the incomplete, and thus to them insincere, explanation in the telegram dispatched to United States Marshal Frank H. Dyer in Salt Lake City: P A R O W A N , U T A H , D e c e m b e r 16,

1886

This morning at about eleven o'clock I undertook to arrest E. M .

Dalton of this place, he having esccped from the officers last spring. H e was on horseback. Myself and W. O. Orton both hailed him, but he 5

Ibid., 3:527-30.

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turned his horse and started to get away. I fired with the intention of shooting over him. Called his name before I called to him to halt. Write you further from Beaver tomorrow.

W. THOMPSON, JR. 0

There were threats of lynching. One quiet woman stated she could remember that the school principal dismissed his class and joined several friends who went weeping down the dusty road avowing revenge. 7 But calmer voices prevailed. T h e town sheriff was the respected church and civic leader Hugh L. Adams, Sr., and he, with Bishop Morgan Richards and Young Ed's father, joined in a stern warning not to "make a move toward retaliation." Ed's father kept saying, "Two wrongs won't mend one." 8 Sheriff Adams found Thompson at the Parowan telegraph office and placed him under arrest. Together with Orton, the accused was taken before a local magistrate where the two of them waived preliminary examination. A coroner's inquest, meantime, had declared the shooting "was feloniously done." 9 Adams offered the two deputies the shelter of his own home for protection. His wife cooked the evening meal, but with the shadow of the day's events hanging heavily over them, they declined her hospitality, instead waiting anxiously in an upstairs bedroom until Sheriff Adams brought further counsel.1" Armed with a writ of habeas corpus from the district court in Beaver, a posse was already on its way to Parowan. The group of four included Thompson's sons, Oscar and Edward, and was followed by R. H. Gillespie, a grand juror sent by the court attorney. After Gillespie's departure ten more jurors, ignoring Judge Jacob S. Boreman's pleas, headed south. They were accompanied by the court clerk and six Beaver citizens.

The first Beaver posse met no difficulty in securing Adams's hostage and were accompanied north that same evening by the sheriff and two Parowan men. This convoy soon met the party of grand jurors

"Quoted in ibid., 3 : 5 3 1 .

7 Interview with Sarah Durham Connell, November 1953. Unless otherwise noted, all interviews are with Parowan residents.

"Interview with Samuel C. Mortensen, November 1953. These cautions were echoed

by Apostles John Henry Smith and Heber J. Grant who cancelled their St. George conference to be in Parowan. Whitney, History of Utah, 3:530.

9 Pamphlet published by the Deseret News, Murder by a Deputy U.S. Marshal. E. M. Dalton Waylaid and Assassinated in Cold-blood. Sworn Testimony of Eye-witnesses (Salt Lake City, 1886), 4.

10 Interview with Barbara Matheson Adams, daughter-in-law of the sheriff, November 1953.

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near Paragonah and continued their night-long journey to Beaver, arriving near eight o'clock the next morning.11 As the posse rode their horses through Parowan, the echo of hammer and saw followed them on the cold night wind. Ed Dalton's coffin was being finished at the old PUMI shop—Parowan United Mercantile Institution—where the coffinmakers lined it with white muslin and trimmed the outside with black velveteen.

The funeral service was held on Saturday afternoon, December 18, in the muslin-draped chapel of the small rock meeting house. There were no flowers to carry to the church, but the women sent their house plants to place against the draped pulpit. The men of the town rode their well-curried saddle horses on either side of the hearse as an honor guard for Young Ed. The hearse itself was a new wagon box on a freshly cleaned wagon gear. The Deseret Evening News reported that "about 600 people, being three-fifths of the entire population of the entire town" turned out to pay homage to their fallen son. Those remembering back claimed that not a wagon nor a riding pony was left in the corrals and fields of the town.12 A single file of Indians came down from their homes in the hills to join the solemn procession—for they were Ed's friends and protectors on many a flight from the federal officers, and they grieved in their own stoical way.

When the last stone was rolled onto Young Ed's grave at the foot of the red hill which once served him as a lookout, the mourning town went back to its way of life with new wounds to heal and new prayers to repeat.

Edward M. Dalton had been in violation of the Edmunds Act, passed by Congress in 1882. It gave the United States government the right to arrest, imprison, and fine men with plural wives. This law focused national attention on the Mormon church whose members had sincerely obeyed "the principle" for almost fifty years before one was to die at the hands of a federal marshal. Indeed, it was the only known death over polygamy during the fateful years of the crusade.13 That it occurred in a remote town nearly three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City could have been due to the clash of personalities involved.

11

Murder by a Deputy, 14, and Deseret Evening News, December 17, 1886.

Deseret Evening News, December 20, 1886; interviews with Mortensen, Barbara M. Adams, and John Benson, November 1953.

13 The Salt Lake Daily Tribune of December 23, 1886, called it the "only account of a Mormon killed by a Gentile!"

12

UO

Utah Historical Quarterly

Young Ed was no easy man to catch. He had fled the officers in several daring escapes before that day when he drove a herd of cattle past the home where the two deputies lay in wait. In a telegram to U. S. Marshal Frank H. Dyer telling of the shooting, Thompson referred to Dalton's escape "last spring." Dyer reacted by promptly revoking Thompson's commission and dispatching another officer to the Parowan area. He told the Deseret Evening News: "He [Thompson] had no right to shoot . . . the man was only charged with a misdemeanor, and an officer has no right to shoot in such a case."14 Thompson was restored to his post, however, following the trial which was covered in great detail by newspapers in Utah and in the East.1" The grand jury at Beaver, which included the men who had gone to Thompson's rescue, brought out an indictment for manslaughter, and trial was set for January 6, 1887, at Beaver. Twelve jurors, nonMormons from mining towns in southern Utah (Silver Reef, Marysvale, Star, and Frisco), heard witnesses describe E. M. Dalton as a "hard man" who would be difficult to arrest. The prosecution told the story of the shooting and declared that Dalton was charged with a crime punishable by imprisonment in the territorial penitentiary.

This was significant; the penitentiary under territorial laws was to house crimes classified a felonies, and arresting officers could fire on persons thus charged. The Tribune had already taken this position, which would justify the shooting. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles S. Varian, was expected to follow the argument of the News that cohabitation under the Edmunds Law was only a misdemeanor.

There were many surprised observers, therefore, when Varian argued that cohabitation was in effect a felony. The jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty."10 The Deseret Evening News, having prepared its case against Thompson by sending reporter George C. Lambert to interview witnesses, published their accounts before the trial commenced.17 In a January 10 editorial, following the jury's decision, the Mormon paper commented in language so fiery as to bring a $25,000 libel suit against

14

Deseret Evening News, December 17, 1886.

"Besides the running commentary in Utah papers, mention appeared in the LDS Millennial Star and additional comment was carried by the Springfield Republican, the New York Times, and publications in Washington, D.C. The Washington news notes are reprinted at length in the Deseret News.

10 Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, 6 : 1 1 6 ; Deseret Evening News, January 6-8, 1887; Salt Lake Daily Tribune, January 7-9, 1887.

17 Murder by a Deputy.

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it. ls But to avoid a trial the publishers effected a financial settlement, and Thompson accepted "a tithe of the sum which the News company paid, and thus the matter ended."19 Young Ed had married two wives—Emily Stevens in 1871 and Helen Delila Lown Clark eight years later—and his story was common to the times when hounded men sought means of flight as their places of refuge became places of fear. The Mormons, normally a zealous people filled with the secure sense of being "right," were by 1884 a harrassed people haunted by the federal crusade to imprison and fine "religious law-breakers." Intense feelings gripped the men who championed or discredited the plural marriage doctrine. And, while adherents found it hard to live by and only a few were willing to attempt it, many of these were among the territory's most respected and influential citizens. Many Utahns, both Mormon and non-Mormon, sought compromise. Appeals were carried to the church president, Wilford Woodruff, "to exercise the authority conferred upon him by revelation and suspend thereby the further extension of plural marriage."20 But it was six more heart-rending years before the official declaration known as the Manifesto would abolish the marriage custom.21 Many ingenious ways of "safe-hiding" the men being pursued were devised by the Mormons. Some heads of households sought work in Colorado, Arizona, and old Mexico. Others found hiding places in their own valleys and mountains.22 Young Ed had vowed never to be taken prisoner nor to pay the fine. Others might languish for months in the territorial penitentiary, but it was not for him. Better he should use his own daring and stay free. Although some doubted the wisdom of this decision, he knew he could count on family and friends. And although out of this decision he became a martyr to a profound belief of his church, it can scarcely be said that he intended paying with his life. Full of wild abandon and good humor he was far more likely to make a quick getaway than to be caught in any marshal's trap.

18 The Tribune editorial of January 11, 1887 saw the acquital as a "foregone conclusion," and the shooting "a chance shot. . . . The officer had a gun with a hair trigger which was accidentally discharged." The Tribune also gloated over the libel charge in its February 25, 1887, edition. " W h i t n e y , History of Utah, 3:537.

20 Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life and Labors (Salt Lake City, 1909), 566.

21 Ibid., 744-45. The Manifesto was issued September 24, 1890, over the signature of Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon church. In summary it reads: "And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." Doctrine and Covenants, p. 257.

22 For a story of the "underground" see L. Marsden Durham, " 'Thus Saith the Lord': A Tale of the 'Underground'—1887," Utah Humanities Review, 1 (October 1947), 347-54.

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So he had made the decision to stay with his families and continue his ranching a n d livestock raising. He had finished homesteading a ranch in the lush "Chimney Meadows" northwest of Parowan and had dreams of b r e e d i n g thoroughbred horses. He owned a home in the northwest section of The Main Street home of Col. William H. Dame was purchased by Young Ed for his town for Emily and their wife Delila. Courtesy Mrs. Woodrow Decker. children, and he had purchased the Main Street home of Colonel William H. Dame for Delila and family.23 Tall and dark and high spirited in his younger days, he would ride "hell-for-leather across the flats—whoopin' and hollerin,' his black hair flyin' for all git out," one old-timer told me. "There wasn't anything Ed wouldn't try. Once he broke a desert pony by clinging to it bareback with his legs wrapped 'round the trunk of a young sapling.

Just let it buck itself out, and he got off fresh as ever."24 Joseph E. Dalley, at ninety-four years of age, commented freely on the athletic prowess of Young Ed: "I remember Ed Dalton well, a large man, no coward, a brave man — good wrestler — good sport. They didn't give him a chance at all—he had eluded them so often."2 In Young Ed's youth he had paid little attention to his church.

Then he spent a year (October 1881 to November 1882) in the Southern States Mission field, returning early because of illness from chills and fever. Upon Ed's recovery, the ward bishop, it is said, called him to the superintendency of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. This sparked his determination to teach the young people

23 According to records of his youngest son, John S. Dalton. This home is remembered as the first post office and first telegraph office in Parowan, and when Dame was stake president it held the distinction of sheltering President Brigham Young on trips south. Later it became the home for both Emily and Delila, lending itself well to polygamous living, since the two north doors represent separate entrances divided by a picket fence which still marches across the lawn and up the porch to the dividing wall. The two halves of the home today are owned separately by descendants of the two families. A gate on the porch provides the only access from one half to the other.

24 Interview with Mortensen.

M Interview with Joseph E. Dalley, November 1953.

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to come early to their belief.20 He would stride down the chapel aisle with his impressive gait, and the whole MIA was his. "Ed had a way with him that made everybody want to cater to him," Sam Mortensen remembered.

We just liked him, that's all. Wonderful speaking voice. Wonderful with the banjoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;used to saunter out on his mother's front porch on summer evenings and start strumming. Pretty soon all the young folks in town would cross the town "Square" and they'd sit there singing all the old-time songs they knew. 27

Later, many of these singers joined the stirring game of helping Young Ed outwit the United States marshals.

The most quoted tale of Young Ed's bravado is recorded by Orson F. Whitney: In the spring of 1886 Dalton was arrested by Deputy Marshal William O. Orton, but made his escape from that officer, or rather from R. H .

Benson, City Marshal of Parowan, to whom Orton had temporarily entrusted his prisoner. . . . T h e deputy marshal had gone to the telegraph office to notify his superiors at Beaver of the capture, and had left Dalton standing with Benson and others in the street. T h e prisoner, a fine, manly fellow, brimming with health and good nature, six feet in height and weighing over two hundred pounds, was noted not only for strength and courage, but for activity and swiftness in running. As the shades of evening fell, and Orton delayed his coming, Dalton remarked jocularly to Benson that he wished the deputy would return as it was his intention to escape and he did not wish to get the city marshal into any trouble. H e added with a smile, that if Orton did not come soon â&#x20AC;&#x201D;he had been gone more than an hourâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he would have to leave anyhow. Suiting the action to the word, he adroitly slipped off his boots, gave Benson a sudden slap on the shoulder, bade him "good night" and was off as on the wings of the wind. Benson, who was also fleet of foot, gave chase, in the darkness. H e [Dalton] was seen about town the next day, but was not arrested.

Young Ed left for Arizona soon after this incident and for several months helped on a mail contract. With the approach of winter, he returned to his family, reaching Parowan about December 10. "Warned of danger by friends, . . . [he] impulsively replied: T must see my mother if it costs me my life.' Within a week from his return, he lay cold in his coffin, shot through the back with a rifle-ball." 2R 'M Morgan Richards, Jr., to editor, December 22, 1886, published in Deseret Evening News, December 27, 1886; interview with Mortensen.

27 Interview with Mortensen.

28 Whitney, History of Utah, 3:525-26.

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During that last week in Parowan the town again took pride in seeing Ed ride his favorite horse, Red Man, a part-thoroughbred which his mother kept saddled and bridled day after clay in her own corral ready for her son's escape on a moment's notice. He could dart from her home, leap in the saddle, snatch the reins which his doting mother was already loosening from the post, and be off through the back lot to the foothills and safety, for Red Man was known as the fastest brush horse in the countryside. His spirited mother, Elizabeth Meeks Dalton, had already signaled their Indian friends to help make the getaway safe for her much-loved son. And the Indiansâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who called him "Mattone," meaning "man without fingers," since he had lost the fingers of his right hand in an accidentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were not only willing but waiting for him to flee "the feds."

And what of his wives who waited out his maneuvers to safety and before that his year's mission service? First there was Emily, the only daughter of English converts, a shy violet of a girl who wore her hair in waist-length ringlets and often dressed in white through her youth and early marriage. She changed to black and to subdued prints after his death and even removed the gold earrings from her pierced ears. To be loved by the dashing Emily Stevens Dalton son of the town mayor when she married Young Ed in 1871. was scarce seventeen and he Courtesy Myra Dalton. twenty was enchantment for her.

As the mother of three living sons and a daughter and suffering a deafness which steadily worsened, she faced a heartbreaking test when Young Ed in 1879 had taken a second wife, tall and fashionable Delila Clark who was given to a "worldy turn of mind."

Still the young wives got along well and held Ed in a common bond of love. In Emily's diary, written while their husband was on his mission, she recorded under the date of April 1, 1882: "Lila has got a baby boy this morning they are both doing well we have

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sent word to Ed the first thing for he will be so anxious to hear." Sixteen days later she wrote, "Lila's baby is dead, Father in heaven help us to bare [sic] the trials of this life in a right way." And in July (no date), "Oh dear how my heart does ache we have got a letter from our dear Husband he is very sick."29 She cherished a letter he wrote her from the mission field under the date of April 28, 1882: "Dear Wife I received your kind and welcome letter of 11th inst. and read it with pleasure especially the part that referred to your self." Mentioning that he had sent handkerchiefs to her and to Delila, he added that he had bought for himself a suit of clothes for $10.00 and had been to "every store in Farboro to get a coat that was large enough for me." He counseled her, "You must take good care of yourself and if you feel poorly get someone to come and do the work. Have Zina stay with you this summer if you go on the ranch and don't over do yourself."30 Delila, known locally as Lylie, had only two living children, a son and a daughter. Others were stillborn or died in infancy. She always carried her head high, wore clothes of the latest fashion, and was seen often at the racetrack and other "sociable places" in her wellremembered green velvet gown and sweeping plumed hats. After Ed's death she remarried and divided Helen Delila Lown Clark her time between southern Utah became Young Ed's second wife and California. For a time Delila in 1879. Courtesy Mrs. Gary Bentley. ran an ice cream parlor on Sundays and holidays in her home on Main Street, serving ice cream with soda crackers at small tables in the parlor or, on sunny days, out on the lawn among the summer flowers of her yard. Young men of the day remember turning the freezer for a free dish of ice cream and a soda cracker.31 29 Diary extracts in the possession of Shirley Dalton Mercer, a granddaughter.

Location of the original diary is not known.

30 Typewritten copy in possession of author, made from original in possession of Shirley Dalton Mercer.

31 Interviews with M y r a Dalton and Blanche H a m m o n d , M a r c h 29, 1 9 7 3 ; and M a r k A r d a t h Dalton, The John Dalton Book of Genealogy (Salt Lake City, 1964), 62.

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Emily stayed on in Parowan, struggling against poverty, frail health, and her growing deafness which she mentioned often in her diary. In later life she used an old-fashioned ear trumpet and was unable to hear except when friends and family bent to her ear and spoke loudly. Her skin took on a transparency and her figure such frailty that one wondered at her strength to work. She moved through our town softly as she worked at the tasks of her life.

Her four sons in maturity gave her love and respect. They were often seen at public celebrations walking her proudly down the church aisle or across the square, speaking tenderly into her ear trumpetâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; these men of the rough frontier who had known so much of life's grimness. When they were children they worried that she worked so hard. They knew she stayed up late into the night to braid the straw hat she would sell next day for a quarter. Often their only meal was water-gravy and bread she had baked in the night. By day she took in sewing, wove carpeting, and pressed suits for the pittance with which she supported her six children, all under fifteen years of age when their father was killed. Through all this adversity, the ward bishop always knew she would contribute a tenth of her income for tithing.

In time the Mutual Improvement Association of the Mormon church began sending her money for a suitable monument to be placed at the grave of Young Ed. It came in dimes and dollars from wherever Mormon youth lived. She saved it all and solemnly placed the order when there was enough.

The years moved on and sorrow still haunted her door, for both daughters died in childbirthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one at eighteen and the other at age twenty-nineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and a son's wife and baby died, leaving a two-year-old daughter. Emily wrote pitifully of these tragedies in her diary and ended each account by recording a prayer. And, to her way of thinking, there was still to come the ultimate grief, for Lylie died first. Emily had lived with an abiding trust that she, the first wife, would be the first to meet Ed in another world. How could it be that Lylie should have this coveted reward? Emily sank into deep, almost bitter, mourning, refusing at first to attend the funeral or even the viewing which was to be held in her own son's front parlor when Delila's body was brought home from California. But yielding to the kind persuasion of her sons, Emily went timidly to the coffinside, bent over Delila, bade her greet Young Ed with her love, and then she quietly attended the funeral.

However, she stayed by a solemn decision made some days before: Delila should not be buried on the left side of their husband as was

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Irises cluster at the base of Young Ed's monument in the Parowan cemetery.

The chiseled words summarize the town's view of his tragic death. Charles Kelly Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

customary in polygamous burials. She should lie far right with space saved for Emily by his side and between them when her hour came.32 So the three martyrs lie together under the monument by the red hill, where the blue iris bends in the wind. The sorrow which rested so long over a whole town has softened with time and echoes now the memory of the man who revelled briefly in his own daring, the two women who loved him, the children who scarcely remembered him, and the parents who could not forgive his death.

Interviews with Martha R. Dalton and Barbara M. Adams, November 1953.

Sketch

of Grandma

When Captain Fremont Slept in Grandma McGregor's Bed

McGregor's

bed by Patrick

Driggs

Fraley.

r \ T THE TIME THAT Captain Fremont slept in her best bed, she was not Grandma McGregor, but the wife of John Calvin Lazelle Smith, head of the colony sent by Brigham Young to go south and settle Parowan, Utah. Calvin Smith was from Massachusetts, and his wife, Sarah Fish, was a girl of eighteen from Quebec when they were married in the Nauvoo Temple May 12, 1846.

During the Nauvoo exodus, Calvin and Sarah crossed the river ice with a pair of white steers. They stayed at a place called Farming-

BY NEVADA W . DRIGGS Mrs. Driggs, a former resident of Parowan, lives in Seattle, Washington.

Fremont Slept in Grandma's Bed

179

ton, Iowa, and left Council Bluffs for Salt Lake Valley in 1848. Smith was established as a school teacher in Centerville, Utah, when Brigham Young called him to settle Parowan^so named by the Indians because of the clear water gushing down the canyon.

Calvin was presiding over the settlement when Captain Fremont came through in February 1854, four years after the town was founded.1 It was really a fort with walls five feet thick at the base, reinforced by cedar posts and filled with tamped earth. There were inner and outer gates to the fort. The outer gates closed at sundown, and a guard was posted for those working until dark. Already Parowan had become fairly self-sufficient, having a flour mill, a carpenter shop, and a tannery.

We tend to think of pioneers as being old, but Calvin was in his early thirties and Sarah in her twenties,, and most of the members of the colony were young and vital, capable of extreme hardship.

When I was a very small child my mother, Emily Craine Watson, a school teacher from England already widowed with a large family, was commissioned to write the life stories of the then remaining first pioneers of the town.

Calvin Smith had died in his thirties, and Sarah had married William C. McGregor, a Mormon convert from Scotland. Sarah had a family by Smith and also one by McGregor. Two of her sons, Joseph and Donald McGregor, became eminent doctors.

My mother had to go out to work every day, so later she would go to the homes of these elderly people to have them tell her the stories of their lives. I well remember her going to Brother Thomas Durham's.

1 Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1901-36), 1:532. John C. L. Smith was sent to Parowan in May 1851. One year later Brigham Young appointed him to preside over all the settlements in Iron and Washington counties. H e was the first president of the Parowan Stake. He died in December 1855 at age thirty-four of heart disease.

Sarah Fish Smith McGregor.

Courtesy Nevada W. Driggs.

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He had been a member of that ill-fated Martin Handcart Company, surviving because of his youth. Then there was "Auntie Ward," whose husband had passed away, and several others. When mother announced that she was going to visit Grandma McGregor I begged to go along.

Though I was very young I knew that Grandma had raised two families and also an Indian girl who had been rescued from hostile tribes.

Mother sat with her pencil and paper; she wrote swiftly with a beautiful Spenserian hand. This is the story Grandma told my mother: They had a bright fire burning on the hearth, although Calvin had gone to bed tired from his long clay at the flour mill. Sarah was setting her bread dough when she heard a cry of distress. She ran and awakened Calvin who said it was probably a coyote or an Indian, but then the cry came again. Calvin quickly dressed, but Sarah begged him not to go out alone, so he went for his neighbors Jesse N. Smith, John Steele, and Edward Dalton. These men wrapped up warmly; one took a gun, and they followed the cry. About a quarter of a mile away they found a man almost buried in a snowdrift. He was completely exhausted, so they carried him to Sarah. She had already built up the fire and heated water. The man was undressed and placed in Sarah's best, big white bed. When he revived he told them that he was Captain John C. John C. Fremont as pictured in Fremont who had been sent by W. H. Davis's book, Seventy-five the federal government to disYears in California, 1831-1906. cover a new route to California but had been overtaken by heavysnows. The company of men had been reduced to eating their horses and mules, and their last meal was a dog given them by an Indian. He said his surviving men were huddled in a canyon about five miles back (probably Red Creek Canyon).

Calvin told the captain to relax and allow Sarah to nurse him with her remedies for cold and exhaustionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that come daylight they would assemble a rescue group and seek out his men. In the morning ox teams

Fremont

Slept in Grandma's

Bed

181

were hitched to sleighs loaded with quilts and food. The half-frozen men were brought to the fort, and each was placed in a home for care. There they were nursed back to health. The company was reoutfitted with horses and supplies and continued a successful trip to California. 2 Grandma asked me if I would like to see the bed in which Captain Fremont had slept. It was a large white bed with handturned posts, most probably of mountain pine. The coverlet was a handmade quilt which I touched reverently, because I loved and honored the pioneers.

While a student at the University of California at Berkeley, I researched in the Bancroft Library and found Fremont's journal in which there is an account of this incident. I also found the account by his wife, Jessie, which had been published in a magazine of that time called Wide Awake. She had titled her account "A Modern Ghost Story," and in it she told of how she was suddenly seized with anxiety about her husband, though he had made many explorations and returned safely. She became quite distraught. When there appeared before her a big white bed in which her husband lay relaxed, she immediately told all those in the house that he was safe.

Some weeks later a Mormon missionary traveling east brought a letter to Jessie from her husband, reassuring her of his welfare. When Captain Fremont returned home he verified that at that same moment he had been so wishing he could communicate with his wife to assure her of his safety.

Because Jessie's story in Wide Awake was brought into question, all members of the household were interviewed, including Fremont.

Their replies are also found in the Bancroft Library. In Irving Stone's book Immortal Wife, which is the story of Jessie Fremont, this incident of thought communication between Jessie and her husband is also recounted. 3 This brief incident in Fremont's life is recorded by his biographers, and his stay in Parowan has been remembered by my family because the captain slept in grandma's big white bed.

2

T h e ordeal of the Fremont expedition is vividly described in Solomon N. Carvalho, Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West (New York, 1860), chapter 21. Carvalho, artist with the expedition, was taken in by the Heaps family. He was very ill and remained in Parowan February 8-21. T h e incident is also recounted in Luella Adams Dalton, comp., History of the Iron County Mission and Parowan, the Mother Town ([Parowan, 1963]), 3-5, with some variations, and in biographies of Fremont. Most accounts have the party arriving in Parowan together.

3 Irving Stone, Immortal Wife: The Biographical Novel of Jessie Benton Fremont (Garden City, N.Y., 1944), 290-92, 295-96. See also Catherine Coffin Phillips, Jessie Benton Fremont: A Woman Who Made History (San Francisco, 1935), 192-93.

Have you heard of the Scofield Disaster?

'Tis a heartbreaking story to tell; I was there and partook of the sorrow and grief.

I remember, remember so well.

O h , mothers and wives of the miners, Who perished so suddenly there, Did you give them a loving embrace that morn.

Did you bid them "Goodbye" with a prayer? 1

Tragedy at Scofield

BY ALLAN KENT POWELL

Mourners await arrival of coffins at the Scofield cemetery.

Photograph by Bedlington E. Eewis first appeared in J. W. Dilleys history of the disaster. Gift of Robert W. Edwards.

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183

V J N MAY 1, 1900, 200 men lost their lives in what was to that time the most disastrous mine explosion in terms of men killed in the history of the United States. 2 The explosion at the Winter Quarters mine— located a mile west of Scofield in Utah's Carbon County—affected the course of labor not only in Utah but also in other parts of the country.

The aftermath of tragedy brought intense human suffering to the families and friends of the dead. The emotional shock for those who lost husbands, sons and brothers was as great as the financial problems created by the loss of the family breadwinner. In a time when industrial insurance was unheard of, victims were left to the mercy of private relief, but the manner in which Utahns rallied to the support of the dead miners' families was generous and noble. More clouded was the controversy of the explosion's cause and who should bear the guilt and the intolerance exhibited by some toward the Finnish miners.

This article attempts to place the events of May 1900 in historical perspective, looking at the human drama and weighing its implications in the future of the labor movement.

Forty days before the explosion at Scofield miners were forewarned of possible disaster. At the nearby Castle Gate mine, on March 22, a terrific blast caused extensive damage. Fortunately the mine was empty at the time of the explosion. It was company policy at Castle Gate to evacuate the mine before the shots were triggered by electricity. Such safeguards were not practiced at the Winter Quarters mine.

Within a few minutes after the explosion at Scofield—which according to the stopped watch of one of the dead men occurred at 10:28 a.m.—a relief party headed by mine superintendent T. J. Parmley entered the mine. The rescuers were hampered by several problems. Afterdamp remained in the mine, and two members of the first rescue party were overcome by the lack of oxygen and carried unconscious from the mine. Physically the rescuers were nearly overwhelmed by the stench of the burnt bodies, and emotionally they were Mr. Powell is preservation historian of the U t a h State Historical Society. ' This is the first verse of a ballad entitled "The Scofield Disaster." It was discovered through the research of LaVerne J. Stallings and published in Western Folklore, 18 (April 1959), 174-76. ' The Scofield tragedy ranks as the fourth greatest mine disaster in the history of the United States. Explosions in which loss of life was greater are: Monongah, W. Va., 362 killed on December 6, 1907; Dawnson, N. M., 263 killed on October 22, 1913: and Jacobs Creek, Pa., 239 killed on December 19, 1907. U.S., Bureau of Mines, Historical Summary of Coal-Mine Explosions in the United States, 1810-1958, by Hiram Brown Humphrey, Bulletin No. 586 (Washington, D . C , 1960), 6, 22-23, 38.

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Utah Historical Quarterly

i

1 •

J'art of the rescue crew at Winter Quarters no. 4 mine. Salt Lake Tribune Mining Centennial Collection, Utah State Historical Society, courtesy Mrs. Norman Smith.

stunned by the fact that the dead were friends and relatives. Since mine officials had no record of who was in the mine at the fatal moment, the rescue team feared that many men lay buried and that recovery of their bodies would be difficult.

The first rescue effort ended at 2 A.M. May 2. The men had become too exhausted to continue. The next day miners from Clear Creek, Castle Gate, and Sunnyside arrived at Scofield. They were divided into parties and organized into shifts. By May 6 almost all of the bodies had been recovered. The first victim brought from the mine was Harry Betterson, supposed at the time to be John Kirton.

Burned so seriously he was unrecognizable, he was nevertheless still conscious and crying out in agony for his comrades to end his misery.

That night Betterson died.

In his report, state mine inspector Gomer Thomas said most of the men in the Number One mine—which connected to the Number Four mine where the explosion took place—could have made it to safety had they run out of the mine when the blast occurred.3 Most of the men who attempted to get out tried to leave through the Number Four mine because the way was shorter. Instead of escaping the afterdamp they ran right into it.

'State of Utah, Gomer Thomas, Report of State Coal Mine Inspector for 1900 (Salt Lake City, 1901), 62.

Tragedy at Scofield

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The official number of dead as determined by company and state officials was 200, a figure far short of the estimates made by newspaper reporters, miners, and others who investigated the disaster. The miners who counted the bodies at the mouth of the tunnel listed 246 dead.1 A week after the explosion the Finns maintained that 15 of their countrymen had not been recovered.5 The account of John Wilson is one of the most extraordinary tales to come out of Scofield. James W. Dilley gives this account of Wilson's experience during the explosion: . . . We hastened to the mouth of the mine, where one horse was found dead but his driver could not be seen until someone looking down the gulch saw the form of someone, supposed to be the driver, John Wilson. A few of the men hurried to his side and found that life was not yet extinct, although he had been blown eight hundred and twenty feet, by actual measurement. He was tenderly picked up and conveyed to his home where it was found that the back part of his skull had been crushed, besides a stick or splinter had been driven downward through his abdomen. He was in a critical condition and no one supposed he would live to be carried home, but, strange to relate, he has recovered rapidly.6

One man was even more fortunate than Wilson. James Naylor had been thrown two hundred feet by the force of the explosion, but remarkably he was uninjured and was able to aid in the first rescue attempts.

About twenty of the victims were young boys who worked as couplers and trap boys inside the mine. However, many of their young comrades escaped from the earth unharmed. Thomas Pugh, a boy fifteen years old, upon hearing the explosion immediately seized his hat in his teeth and kept his nostrils covered while he ran a mile and a half to the entrance. He ran the entire distance without a light.

Upon reaching the mine entrance he fainted. His father, with whom he had been working, died inside the mine.7 The dead miners in the Number One mine were brought out in coal cars with as many as twelve bodies in a car. Those bodies which were mutilated and burned by the explosion were brought out in sacks.

The Salt Lake Tribune described the process once the bodies were out of the mines: 'Deseret Evening News, May 8, 1900, p. 1.

Ibid.

James W. Dilley, History of the Scofield Mine Disaster, 7 Ibid., 102.

D 0

(Provo, Utah, 1900), 49.

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When a corpse is brought out it is usually carried from the mouth of each tunnel at the respective entrances to the place of deposit. Here there is a corps of men from four to ten in number, with sponges, hot and cold water in tubs and other receptacles. T h e clothing is first removed, the soot, smoke and powderburns washed from their faces and the bodies prepared and laid out in long robes, where they are identified by a tag with name and address attached to them, to await identification of relatives or friends. 8

Most of the miners were first taken to the company boarding house at Winter Quarters. C. L. Nix, an employee of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company who had the duty of issuing coupon books to the miners, was sent by the company to take charge of the boarding house and to try to identify the dead as fast as they were carried out.

One miner, Roderick Davis, managed to escape from the mine after the explosion and joined one of the rescue parties. While inside the mine he was overcome by the gas and fell unconscious. He was believed to be dead and was thrown into one of the cars being filled with dead bodies. Taken from the mine, he was placed in a row of corpses which were waiting to be washed. When the men began to wash him he regained consciousness and walked out of the room. 9 Salt Lake City was able to furnish only 125 coffins, and a shipment of 75 additional coffins was made from Denver. After the bodies were washed and dressed in underclothes, white shirt and collar, necktie, and black suit, they were taken to the Scofield school. When the coffins arrived the bodies were placed inside and then taken to the dead miners' homes. T h e fifty-one who were to be buried other than at Scofield were taken by special trains to their destinations.

The 125 graves in the northwest corner of the cemetery were trenches with the coffins placed scarcely three feet apart. T h e remainder of the graves were dug in various parts of the cemetery where family members had been previously buried.

J. H. Eccles, the local sawmill operator, filled an order for 200 headboards. T h e inscriptions were made with a lead pencil. T h e Salt Lake Tribune claimed that fifty percent of the names were misspelled and that the spelling of many of the names had to be changed by friends and relatives.10 O n the day of the burial, Thursday, May 5, a man stood at the gate of the cemetery and checked the names of those who were to "Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 1900, p. 1.

"Ibid., May 4, 1900, p. 2.

10 Ibid., May 10, 1900 p. 1.

Tragedy at Scofield

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Wasatch Store at Scofield where men unload caskets sent from Denver.

Bedlington E. Lewis photograph, gift of Robert W. Edwards.

be buried. Another man matched each casket with the number on its assigned grave. A driver was then instructed where to take the casket.

The weather suited the dismal occasion. It rained much of the day, and at times a heavy wind blew. The next morning the ground was covered by a thick frost, and higher in the mountains considerable snow had fallen.

Two burial services were held at Scofield. The first serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in memory of the sixty-one Finnish minersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was conducted by Reverend A. Granholm, a Finnish Lutheran minister who had come from Rock Springs, Wyoming. The second service was performed under the direction of Mormon Apostles George Teasdale, Reed Smoot, and Heber J. Grant, and Seventies President Seymour B. Young. Burial services were also held in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, Coalville, Springville, American Fork, Eureka, Richfield, Price, and other small towns in Utah.11 Because of the magnitude of the disaster and the necessary haste in taking care of the dead, some mistakes were made in the identifica11 For a detailed account of the burial services in these Utah towns see Dilley, of the Scofield Mine Disater, 69-90.

History

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tion of the bodies. Two caskets were exhumed in the search for the body of Thomas Padfield. On the evening of May 4 a joint committee of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias identified the remains of one of their members. The next day it was discovered that the body had been shipped somewhere in Utah and that of an unknown man was in its place. The mistake could not be corrected, and at least one family buried the wrong remains.12 There were stories of deep tragedy but none so touching as that of the Louma family. Seven sons and three grandsons of Abe Louma and his wife had left their home in Finland and come to America, eventually arriving at the Winter Quarters mine. They wanted their father and mother, ages seventy and sixty-five, to come live the rest of their days with them. The sons told their parents they were earning more money than they had ever made in Finland and that it would be unnecessary for the old people to work any longer. Abe Louma and his wife arrived in Scofield three months before the explosion.

Six sons and three grandsons were killed in the disaster. Five of the sons and two of the grandsons were married. Only one son, Matako Louma, survived.13 Newspaper reporters wrote melodramatic accounts reflecting the journalistic style of the day. Nevertheless, many of their reports serve as important historical documents of the tragedy at Scofield. The following story from the Salt Lake Tribune tells of the indifferent manner in which mourners chose their funeral attire.

An incident now common, but always pathetic, is the selecting of funeral apparel at the company's store. The men who are left working night and day in the relief shifts and at other duties, hence the matter of selecting devolves upon the heart-broken. The listless manner in which the poor women attend to this necessity is touching to the extreme. It only demonstrates again the paralized nature of their feelings, for they perform the function with a far-away cast of the eyes, accepting in almost every case what the clerks suggest.14

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help came from many people and in a variety of ways. Three railroad cars were loaded with flowers by citizens and school children from Salt Lake City and other towns along the railroad to Scofield. Messages of condolence were sent by many including President William McKinley.

"Salt Lake Herald, May 6, 1900, p. 6.

13 Ibid., p. 1.

11 Salt Lake Tribune, May 4, 1900, p. 1.

Tragedy at Scofield

189

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Floral tributes deck the plain pine boxes prior to burial.

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Edwards.

Bishop Lawrence Scanlan opened Saint Ann's Orphanage to all the fatherless children of Scofield. When a food shortage was reported in Scofield, Salt Lake bakeries donated three thousand loaves of bread.

Other foodstuffs were sent by people throughout the state. Clothes were also given for the orphan children. Miners from Castle Gate, Clear Creek, and Sunnyside gave freely of their time in rescue efforts. Citizens of Scofield aided in preparing the bodies for burial. When Mayor A. H. Earll feared he would not have enough men to dig the graves, fifty Provo men volunteered to go to Scofield as gravediggers. Women went to Scofield to comfort the mourners and to help with the housework and care of the children.

An attempt was made to solicit financial help from the federal and state governments. In an editorial, the Logan Tri-Weekly Journal called for Governor Heber M. Wells to convene a special session of the legislature to make an appropriation for the relief of the sufferers at Scofield.15 In Washington, D.C, Representative William H. King Tri-Weekly Journal (Logan, Utah), May 5, 1900, p. 4.

IQO

Utah Historical

Quarterly

of Utah met with leading members of the House to discuss federal relief for the widows and orphans of the Scofield disaster. T h e representatives expressed sympathy for those stricken but were opposed to any federal aid because precedent was against such action. 10 With no help coming from either the state or federal governments the burden of relief was thrown on the shoulders of the coal company and individual citizens.

The Pleasant Valley Coal Company provided each of the dead men with a casket and suit of burial clothes. One report placed the cost of the funerals at Scofield at twenty-five thousand dollars. Coffins were said to have cost ninety dollars each.17 The company store erased an $8,000 debt that the dead miners had accumulated during the month of April. Miners were given coupon books at anytime during the month; at the end of the month, on payday, the amount of the coupons was deducted. The families received the full amount earned by the dead miners during the month of April. Instead of the usual line at the company offices on payday, mine officials distributed the pay privately to each home. The Pleasant Valley Coal Company also donated $500 to the family of each man killed, making a total of $100,000. ls In the end the company responded generously, although this response was motivated more by public pressure than by humanitarian feelings.

Donations also came from private groups and individuals. A central relief committee appointed by Governor Wells coordinated relief efforts. In many Utah communities local committees collected donations. For example, Thistle gave $100; Price, $500; Beaver, $400; Park City, $1,000; and Nephi, $500.1!l T h e miners at Castle Gate assessed every miner and laborer in the camp $2.50 for the aid of the Scofield widows and orphans. 20 Along with direct donations fund-raising activities were undertaken for the relief effort. Numerous baseball games were played throughout the state. Dances, concerts, theatrical performances, ice cream and cake sales, and even a children's "magic lantern" exhibition â&#x20AC;&#x201D;which earned $1.06â&#x20AC;&#x201D;were held. Of special interest was the publication by James W. Dilley of his History of the Scofield Mine Disaster.

10

Salt Lake Herald, May 6, 1900, p. 6.

Tri-Weekly Journal, May 8, 1900, pp. 1 and 5.

State of Utah, Heber M. Wells, Message of the Governor of Utah to the Fourth sion of the State Legislature of Utah, January 15, 1901 (Salt Lake City, 1901), 23.

"Dilley, History of the Scofield Mine Disaster, 218, 220, 222. "'"Eastern Utah Advocate (Price, U t a h ) , May 17, 1900, p. 3.

47

18

Ses-

Tragedy at Scofield

191

This important contemporary document was issued as both a memorial to the dead and as a fund-raising project. A total of $216,289.81 was donated for the relief of the widows, orphans, and dependent parents by citizens and organizations throughout the United States. 21 T h e generosity, especially of Utah's people, had proven to be of an allencompassing and noble nature.

Not so charitable in retrospect was the intolerance shown towards the Finnish miners at Scofield. They were first criticized for their refusal to aid in the rescue effort. Later the attacks grew more severe.

Under the headlines "Finns were Heartless," "Disgusted with Finns," and "Act Like Vultures," the Salt Lake Tribune wrote: . . . T h e y would not so m u c h as care for their dead, saying that the company should provide men to explore the mine, bring out the remains of those inside a n d do many things which was entirely out of the question under the circumstances attending the conditions here for the past three days.

T h e people of the camp, as well as the company and men are disgusted with their actions, and when matters are finally cleaned u p it will undoubtedly be many a day before they will have the standing they did u p to the time of this disaster, which has been calculated to try men's souls. . . .

T h a t vulture n a t u r e of the Finlander, was again strikingly displayed today. While most of the people of the two towns were attending the funerals, a n d those left in charge of the charnel houses were cleaning them for habitation again, several of these creatures appeared at Edward's boarding house and began carrying away the blackened a n d coal-besmeared clothing a n d shoes cut from the bodies of the dead and removed from the feet of the luckless miners. They were summarily stopped before proceeding far in their ghoulish work. 22 21 Wells, Message of the Governor, 23. This total includes the $100,000 donated by the Pleasant Valley Coal Company.

"Salt Lake Tribune, May 4, 1900, p. 1 and May 6, 1900, p. 1. Later, during the 1901 coal miners' strike in Carbon County, the Finnish miners were ridiculed because they believed ghosts haunted the mines and cemetery at Scofield. T h e following report is taken from the Eastern Utah Advocate, Price, Utah, January 17, 1901, p. 2: " T h e superstitious miners, who are foreigners, have come to the conclusion that the property is haunted, inhabited by a ghost. Several of them heard strange and unusual noises, and those favored with a keener vision than their fellow workmen have actually seen a headless man walking about the mine, and according to their statements have accosted the ghost and addressed it or he.

"At other times the headless man would get aboard the coal cars to which mules and horses are worked, and ride with the driver to the mouth of the tunnel, when he would mysteriously vanish and again reappear in the mine. Many supposedly intelligent men have claimed this, and some twenty-five or forty have thrown up their jobs in consequence.

"These same people and others have seen mysterious lights in the graveyard on the side of the hill where many victims of the explosion of May are buried, and all efforts to ferret out the cause have been fruitless, though close observations have been made by reputable citizens of the camp. These lights are always followed by a death, so it is alleged by others than the miners who might be disciples of the supernatural.

"Tombstones where the light appeared have been blanketed but the light remains clear to the vision of those who watch from town. T h e ghost of the mine is known among the workmen as 'Sandy McGovern.' "

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Utah Historical Quarterly

T. J. Parmley, mine superintendent, believed that the Finns had secretly taken large quantities of giant powder into the mine in order to dislodge greater bodies of coal and thereby earn more money. When the giant powder was touched off it ignited the dust inside the mine.23 Others, however, charged the company with failing to keep the level of coal dust at a safe minimum and to provide proper ventilation.

Mine inspector Gomer Thomas allegedly charged the coal company with negligence and failure to sprinkle the mines properly. Later Thomas denied having made the accusation.21 Probably the best evaluation of the miners' attitude was expressed by a Deseret Evening News reporter: Inquiry on the p a r t of a "News" m a n among the miners disclosed the fact that they entertained various opinions regarding the terrible affair, some being exceedingly bitter in their denunciation of the company a n d others took a more conservative view of the matter and said it was one of those things over which no m a n has control and for which no m a n or men should be held responsible. 25

Despite the accusations and denials which cloud the assessment of guilt, some evaluation can be made. The March 22 explosion at Castle Gate should have served as a warning to both miners and company officials. Had the system of blasting while the miners were not in the mines been used at Winter Quarters as it was at Castle Gate the tremendous loss of life could have been prevented. An information circular published by the United States Bureau of Mines, Explosions in Utah Coal Mines, noted that although the exact cause of the explosion had never been determined, it could have been prevented by the "removal of dust, use of water, proper handling of explosives."2 Yet, official investigations by a coroner's jury, the state coal mine inspector, and the state chemist all failed to find the company guilty in any way.2' On May 28, 1900, the mines at Winter Quarters were reopened.

Some miners left Scofield because of the explosion. They moved on to other mines or found new vocations. The explosions at Castle Gate and Winter Quarters were one factor which led to a larger influx of "foreigners" into the Carbon County mines. â&#x20AC;˘J New York Times, May 3, 1900, p. 1, and Deseret Evening News, May 2, 1900, p. 1.

24 For a discussion of the newpaper reports quoting Thomas as accusing the coal company of negligence, his denial, and counter charges by newspaper reporters see Allan Kent Powell, "Labor at the Beginning of the 20th Century: T h e Carbon County, Utah Coal Fields 1900 to 1905," (M.A. thesis, University of U t a h 1972), 69-70. ^Deseret Evening News, May 2, 1900, p. 1.

2,; U.S., Bureau of Mines, Explosions in Utah Coal Mines, 1900-1932, by D. J. Parker, Information Circular 6732 (Washington, D . C , n.d.) 5, 7.

27 Thomas, Report of the State Coal Mine Inspector; Wells, Message of the Governor.

Tragedy at Scofield

193

Following the disaster a large segment of the Scofield miners became very vocal in their criticism of the mine owners. The ill-feeling lingered, and the following January the coal miners at Scofield and Winter Quarters voted to strike against the Pleasant Valley Coal Company. An attempt was made during this strike to affiliate with the United Mine Workers of America, but the effort was short-lived partly because other miners in the company failed to support the strike. Two and one-half years later a countywide strike occurred which led to prolonged confrontation between newly organized members of the UMW and the coal operators. During this strike the Utah Militia spent almost three months in the coal fields. In neighboring Colorado in 1903-4 striking coal miners drawing on their own experiences and the reminder of Scofield demanded "better preservation of the health and lives of our craftsmen."28 The tragedy received national and international attention. The London Telegraph reported, "There will be deeper sympathy with America in this awful catastrophe than has been evoked by any event on the other side of the Atlantic since the loss of the Maine."29 28 U.S., Congress, Senate Commisioner of Labor, A Report on Labor Disturbances in the State of Colorado, from 1880 to 1904, Inclusive, with Correspondence Relating Thereto, Senate^doc. no. 122, 58th Cong., 3rd sess., 1904-5 (Washington, D.C, 1905), 331.

29 Quoted in Dilley, History of the Scofield Mine Disaster, 206.

In this haunting

view of Scofield,

Of the 200 dead

miners

the cemetery

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here

looms

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Bedlington E. Lewis, gift of Robert W. Edwards.

h

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Utah Historical Quarterly

But perhaps Bishop Scanlan best summed up the lessons of the Scofield disaster in an article for the Intermountain Catholic: It will serve to teach the owners and workers of coal mines, however careful they may have been in the past, to redouble their watchfulness in the future, and to employ every best means known to science and experience to make impossible a repetition of Tuesday's horror, at least on so large a scale. It may be, too, that this hecatomb of human lives offered at the shrine of capital amid the tears and lamentations of helpless widows and fatherless children, may touch and soften its heart, so it may, at least, realize how much it owes to labor and the great sacrifices the latter has, sometimes, to make in order to serve the former and promote its growth and interests. This thought, too, may lead not only coal, but other companies or corporations to treat more justly, considerately and kindly those fellow men who, by reason of their circumstances, are obliged to work for them, and by whose labor, sweat and even blood they are being enriched.'5"

The explosion served to illustrate the high cost in human life and suffering that was being demanded by industry. Given the intense national and local response to the tragedy, other miners realized the sacrifice they were making to business. History is made in obscure places and in split-seconds of time. The event at Scofield on May 1, 1900, at 10:28 A.M., had a definite influence on the national labor movement at the turn of the century.

30

Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), May 5, 1900, p. 8.

T W O H O U R S FOR SPEED Automobilists With Scorch Craze Will Be Treated With Severity If Necessary Automobilists who want to speed up their machines for a hill climbing contest to be held in this city in the near future will have to do it between 3:30 and 5:30 A.M. and from Seventh East out on South Temple street. This order was issued by Chief Pitt of the city police department this afternoon. The order prohibits car drivers from speeding on South Temple street and all other streetsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the two hours given being for South Temple street only, and those who disregard the ruling will be dealt with severely as the speed craze is a menace to life and limb in this city. Speeding on paved streets is to be stopped if the most extreme measures have to be taken, is the way the police explain their stand. (Deseret News, August 1, 1908.)

The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis: A Study in Historical Creativity. B Y RAY A L L E N BILLINGTON. (San Marino, Calif.: T h e Huntington Library, 1971. xi + 317 pp. $8.50.)

Few men have h a d an influence upon the thought and the writing of American history equal to Frederick Jackson Turner. Enunciated in 1893 his frontier thesis has enlightened, directed, motivated, and in some cases angered and frustrated three generations of American historians. T u r n e r was creative and ingenious in his method, bold and sweeping in his presentation, effective in teaching, attractive and persuasive in personal qualities, and above all useful in what his work suggested to other scholars. Taken together these qualities have attracted many proteges and a goodly number of distinguished biographers. In the hands of the latter Turner's attributes have been added upon and extended.

Included among those who have in greater or lesser scope undertaken biographical efforts on T u r n e r are such luminaries as Carl L. Becker and Merle Curti, both of whom wrote widely heralded essays before Turner's death.

More recently Wilbur Jacobs has done a book length study, and numerous honorary publications and commentaries have appeared over the years.

Now, in attracting Ray A. Billington as a biographer, T u r n e r continues to be fortunate in those who favor him with their attention and successful in extending his contributions to American history.

T h e dean of living historians of the American West, Billington has made T u r n e r the object of intensive research

extending back at least to 1960. His study of T u r n e r has been productive.

Numerous articles and three books have issued from Billington's fruitful quest.

In The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis, Billington has made a truly worthwhile contribution. Elements of ancestor worship are obvious in his approach and, indeed, in the very fact that he sees T u r n e r as a fit subject for study. However, the real message of The Genesis is not one of veneration but one of recognition that the person, the method, and the thesis of T u r n e r continue to be relevant.

In seven chapters Billington traces the emergence of the thesis in Turner's mind and its presentation in 1893 in a paper entitled " T h e Significance of the Frontier in American History." T h e influence of Turner's boyhood in the Wisconsin village of Portage is established as are his development as a scholar at the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University and the process of articulation through study, thought, and public presentation during his years as a neophyte teacher back at Wisconsin.

Billington has faithfully followed T u r n e r through the multitudinous files saved by the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who in Billington's words was "a magpie by instinct who threw nothing away" (p. 7 ) . Collected in the main at Huntington Library, with lesser collections at Wisconsin and Harvard, Turner's papers reveal a scholar very much in touch with and

196 responding to the great minds of his time. Especially important in molding Turner's thoughts were Professors William Francis Allen at Wisconsin, and Herbert Baxter Adams, Richard T. Ely, and W'oodrow Wilson at Johns Flopkins. A host of other historians, social scientists, and men of affairs also contributed divers geographical, biological, and methodological ideas. Indeed, little in the general climate of intellectual progress which characterized Turner's early years escaped his attention. While T u r n e r was indebted to many for various elements in both the method and the concept of the thesis, Billington reaffirms that it was nevertheless T u r n e r whose trademark rightly belonged on the idea that the frontier was uniquely responsible for the development of American traits and institutions.

Actually two people speak eloquently for T u r n e r in this book. Billington is joined by T u r n e r himself, as Billington's excuse for writing is five collections of letters in which T u r n e r explains his own methods and his progress in the development of the thesis. Somewhat repetitious and anticlimatic after

Utah Historical Quarterly Billington's thorough commentary, the letters reveal the humanness of T u r n e r including his need for acclaim and the admirable relationship between himself and several colleagues and former students. In order of their chronological development Billington has presented Turner's letters to William E. Dodd (1919), Constance Lindsay Skinner (1922), Carl L. Becker (1925-27), Merle Curti, (1928-31), and Luther L. Bernard (1928).

For this reader the whole comes off with a powerful effect.

Billington's exegesis is a first-rate intellectual historyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one that is the more impressive for what it will suggest to readers not merely about the evolution of the frontier thesis but about the general process by which man's understanding of his past is advanced. Like the works of T u r n e r himself this book suggests points of access to various aspects of American history and will thus be useful for what it promises the future as well as what it tells about the past.

C H A R L E S S.

Associate

PETERSON

Professor of History Utah State University

West by East: The American West in the Gilded Age. B Y G E N E M. GRESSLEY. Charles Redd Monographs in Western History, no. 1. (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1972. iv + 54 pp. $2.50) Western regional history in a period of hectic change, from the 1870s to 1900, is the subject of Gene M. Gressley's study, the first contribution to appear in a newly established monograph series. T h a t this is a beautifully written interpretive essay and not a monograph at all need not trouble us, but its excellence does pose a problem for the editors: what to do for an encore? In this fine piece, the author â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a master archivist as well as a greatly admired craftsman of historical scholarshipâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has written an incisive analysis

of social change in the West. But he also provides us with a good deal of wisdom about the literature, and in this respect his work is a bibliographer's delight, and he skillfully raises some important questions about western history seen in light of contemporary themes in social science.

T h e major premise of the essay is that to explain western development during the Gilded Age we must recognize, above all, its complexity. H e accepts as a hard fact of the western historian's job that "we know both too

Reviews and Notices little and too much" of the region's history to be "ensnared by the simplicity of an all-embracing explanation."

But with that constraint given its due, he goes on to find and define "intelligible patterns" that permit at least partial explanation of the Gilded Age history. H e finds these patterns by concentrating the analysis upon points of "intersection" at which various institutions, cultural traits, and environmental forces interacted, moving the society forward, holding it back, or giving it new direction.

One such intersection was that between region and nation.

Gressley therefore probes the congressional measures that shaped institutions in western states and territories: he considers, with great subtlety, the phenomenon of "colonialism," which he has explored fruitfully in some earlier studies; and he considers the record made by western legislatures as they pushed up against the limiting boundaries, both of constitutional and policy content, that the national government had established.

In another illuminating section Gressley looks with fresh insight at entrepreneurial styles, but one wishes he had gone further beyond railroad leaders as exemplary types, illustrating the shift from exploitative, freeswinging innovation to more modern "managerial" style, and that he had surveyed a wider range of enterprises and their leaders. But what he does examine is suggestive enough to make historians reconsider standard categories of analysis when we study "the intersection of public and private interest." This last-mentioned point of historical interaction, or "intersection," is used as a lens through which Gressley offers important new perspectives on land development, mining, and other areas of economic activity. H e portrays them in the light of the imposing reality that Americans (certainly not least

197 westerners) subscribed to a "creed of increasing productivity." Any student who is concerned with explaining the tension between seemingly irrepressible privatism in economic affairs and the recurrent need for planning (not as a single "planning" concept, but rather planning that subsumed various competing ideas for inducing change) will now have to read Gressley side by side with David Potter, Willard Hurst, and the studies of government and the pre-1860 economy that have long been staples of the professional literature.

If we ought to celebrate Frederick Jackson Turner's landmark paper of 1893, " T h e Significance of the Frontier in American History," as Ray Billington has said, because of the author's understanding of "a series of relationships that had escaped others," leading him to forge "a workable theory that would help explain the distinctiveness of the American historical experience," then comparison of Gressley's essay with Turner's does not seem to me extravagant. For Gressley has taken the frontier as a laboratory for the study of social change, as T u r ner did, and he produces "workable theory" that does full justice to diversity, deviancy, and randomness of discrete patterns, as well as to recurrence of them.

One can fault the piece for a tendency toward purple prose where a lighter color might have permitted the data to show through the surface with somewhat more clarity. And one could argue that there should have been more attention to quantitative analyses of political behavior and mobility, and also to the literature on such institutions as scientific agencies, which helped reshape and color western consciousness as to resources and resource limits.

But such quarrels are inappropriate.

For in this essay, Gressley has provided the editors of the Charles Redd series

198 with a model of precisely the kind of intelligent historical generalization toward which monographs should be directed.

Utah Historical Quarterly HARRY N.

SCHEIBER

Professor of History University of California San Diego

The Great Southwest: The Story of a Land and Its People. By E L N A BAKKER and RICHARD G. LILLARD. (Palo Alto, Calif.: T h e American West Publishing Company, 1972. 288 pp. $17.50.)

At times one may be tempted to dismiss such a volume as this with the not always complimentary remark, "Just another picturebook!" In this instance, at least, such a snap judgment would be a mistake; in making it a potential reader would be depriving himself of some very fine commentary accompanying the excellent illustrations, many in color, and would also be missing valuable and carefully assembled data on the Great Southwest, past and present.

T h e authors propose to tell the story of "the desert subcontinent [which] extends from the abrupt Tehachapi and San Bernardino mountains to the rolling plains east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the red waters of the Pecos River, from the plateau country north of the Colorado River to the southern edge of the C h i h u a h u a n Desert, from below sea level at Bad Water in Death Valley to the snow-capped ridge of the Sierra [Madre] Occidental, that rugged barrier between Sonora and C h i h u a h u a " (p. 11). T h u s they let nature, not man with his artificial international boundaries, set the limits of the Great Southwest; they are to be complimented on this realistic decision, and throughout they tell a northMexican story as well as that of the so-called American Southwest.

Parts One and T w o deal with nature in the Great Southwest, the land and its creatures, plant and animal, and the natural forces which have made it a desert. T h e seven chapters, presum-

ably Bakker's prime contribution, are well done, enlightening, and thoughtprovoking. T h e ecologist and his fellows will be thrilled.

Part Three, in this reader's opinion, is the least satisfactory of the total fourâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the quality of Part Four is definitely superior. T o be sure, one has no right to expect in sixty-one pages, even of near-folio size and liberally dotted with illustrations and maps and explanatory drawings, a full history of centuries of prehistory and three of written record. Lillard, again presumably the responsible author, is somewhat better as prehistorian, anthropologist, and ethnologist, than he is as historian. O n e can go along with his Indianist sympathies. It is less easy to forgive the much too frequent bias which shows in narrative and judgment once the Spaniards come on the scene.

H e tells that segment of his story as though it were one of unrelieved atrocity, by choice of incident and adjective and adverb. Granting that there were black spots aplenty, there were also many, many brighter ones.

T h e Spaniards did make a number of beneficial contributions.

Part Four deals, both competently and often very suggestively, with the post-1846 Southwest.

The author sketches many of the problems which the Anglo invasion has created and alerts the reader to the less desirable by-products of industrialization, mechanization, and, in general, "moderniza-

Reviews and Notices tion," which are in the process of robbing the Great Southwest of its natural and historical charm and distinctiveness.

My Canyonlands. $6.95.)

199 J O H N FRANCIS B A N N O N

Professor of History Saint Louis University Saint Louis

By K E N T FROST. (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1971. 160 pp.

"Would you like to go on a little hike with me, Ruell?" Thus, did young Kent Frost and his cousin walk away from a group picnic on Blue Mountain into what became a month's adventure in southeastern Utah's rugged canyon country, climaxed by a float through Glen Canyon.

Their provisions might seem minim a l : one pack, candy, dried fruit, raisins, matches, hatchet, and .38 pistol.

Their course, a bit simplistic: "Earlier that day I had climbed to the nearest peak and figured out the way from Blue Mountain toward the Henrys."

But by page 61 of My Canyonlands, the reader has come to realize that an uncommon man prowls these pages, a man destined to set foot on more slickrock country than perhaps anyone since prehistoric man.

When he was a boy, Kent's family homesteaded land near Monticello. At one time they also ran a sawmill on Blue Mountain, then a flour mill in town. Kent was a part of all these endeavors but developed his own preferences. "I could have ridden a horse, but I preferred hiking. I would walk the ten miles into Monticello and back rather than catch an unwilling horse."

Any spare time he spent searching out new country from the talus slopes of the twelve-thousand-foot La Sal Mountains to the sandstone corridors of Grand Gulch, tributary to the Colorado River. His childhood idols were the men who lived with the land â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the cowboys, the prospectors, the trappers. He, too, learned to live with the country, accepting it on its own terms. " I might often be without water

or food for a stretch of time. It is a very unusual feeling to lack one of the common commodities of life. Suddenly, when it is found, a man feels very rich and comfortable."

But to be able to turn one's consummate interest into a livelihood is rare fortune. Kent and I have both had this privilege. His backcountry guide service enriches visitors with much of the lore and ingenuity that are the lessons of man's survival here. Through our mutual love of the country, we both came to feel that national park status should be sought for protection of the area around the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers. Kent was along on the National Park Service field investigations in 1959.

Since he had donated jeep and guide service to the expedition, I insisted that he be relieved of cooking chores.

H e was still the first one up to build a fire before dawn. T h e n he would disappear to see what was over the next canyon. H e would turn up at breakfast, barefoot. I asked him once if the cactus didn't bother him a bit on those hikes. H e said you learned to watch out for it all right. What did bother him, was hiking after about ten o'clock in the morning in the desert. T h e sand began to burn through the soles of your feet.

M u c h later, when Canyonlands National Park became a reality, we found we would have to control four-wheeldrive erosion in Chesler Park. As we pondered alternative accesses, I was reminded of an unusual route Kent had once mentioned in passingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a crack you could walk through from

Utah Historical Quarterly

200 Chesler Canyon into Chesler Park.

I had never found it. But, in due time it was found, the Joint Trail, that unique access to a beautiful walled-in meadow.

If you are seeking a guidebook to the sandrock country, My Canyonlands will not tell you how-to-get-there-fromhere. If you seek to understand one The Gentile Comes to Utah: A Study

By ROBERT J O S E P H D W Y E R .

(Rev.

man's compulsion to find what is around the next canyon bend or atop a sheer-walled mesa, Kent's matter-offact experiences will broaden your scope. H e is the desert's answer to the Mountain Man. BATES

E. W I L S O N

Moab

(1862-1890). in Religious and Social Conflict e d V S a l t Lake City: Western Epics, 1971.

2nd

xii + 270 pp. $7.50.)

This reprint of Archbishop Robert Joseph Dwyer's doctoral dissertation will be welcomed by scholars and history buffs who have become interested in late nineteenth-century U t a h history since the original volume, published by the Catholic University of America Press in 1941, went out of print.

O n e has only to review the literature of the last thirty years which touches on the role of non-Mormons in U t a h Territory to appreciate the contribution of this work. Many writersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Leonard Arrington, Gustive Larson, T h o m a s Alexander, T. Edgar Lyon, Stewart Grow, Everett Cooley, Howard Lamar, and George Ellsworth, to mention a fewâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;have added important elements to the story, but no synthesis on Mormon-Gentile relations has yet appeared to displace Father Dwyer's book.

While the title suggests that the emphasis is on religious and social conflict, this is primarily the story of a struggle for political power, from the advent of Colonel Patrick Edward Connor's California Volunteers in 1862 until the Woodruff Manifesto marked the end of the acute phase of the contest for control of U t a h Territory a generation later. Zealous ministers (mostly Protestant), ambitious politicians, and crusading ladies move through the pages, their colorful language as well as their deeds attesting their commitment to the deliverance

of U t a h from the Mormon despotism.

Based primarily on newspapers and the U t a h materials which were in the National Archives at the time the research was done, The Gentile Comes to Utah sees neither Mormons nor nonMormons as villains and sees elements of virtue and villainy on both sides.

It throws only a little light on the economic, social, or cultural activities and characteristics of the growing Gentile population except as they bore directly on the conflict which is its theme.

T h e preface of the reprint states: "Inasmuch as the cost of . . . republication precludes much in the way of textural [sic] emendation, it has been thought better to issue it substantially in its original form, with some addenda and corrigenda" (p. v i ) . None of the pages of the 1941 edition appear to have been reset before the photocopies for the reprint were made. Without detailed comparisons on the basis of a carefully marked copy of the first edition, the number of small corrections and modifications cannot be determined. Having read and m a d e extensive use of a library copy of the first edition years ago, this reviewer did not now undertake that correlation.

RICHARD D.

POLL

Vice-President for Administration Western Illinois University Macomb, Illinois

Reviews and Notices

201

The Historical Guide to Utah, Ghost Towns.

By S T E P H E N L. CARR (Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1972. ii + 166 pp. Cloth, $7.95; paper, $4.95.)

T h e r e are many lively ghosts in Dr. Stephen L. Carr's well-written, deeply researched, and delightfully illustrated new Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.

T h e author is a young Holladay area pediatrician whose hobby has longbeen visiting and photographing the remains of once-flourishing U t a h mining, railroading, and agricultural communities.

H e realized that there was no really definitive guidebook available that told the ghost town story in terms of today.

So, aided by U t a h State Historical Society files, he wrote his own. H e traveled more than ninety-three hundred miles during 1971 and 1972, "not counting the fun trips," to update his own material, taking pictures as he drove or walked.

Dr. Carr took one precaution, as publication date neared, to mitigate the possible interest his publication would stir among vandalism-prone travelers. H e wrote to the sheriff of each county that has a ghost or semi ghost town and told them that the book would be printed before Christmas of 1972.

H e suggested they strengthen their protection of these civic remains.

In the forward of the book, he repeated his plea to respect property and historical rights, ending with the old adage, " T a k e nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."

T h e book is exceptionally well organized. T h e ghost towns are arranged by section—single county or multicounty—and the guide includes clear maps on how to get to each of the 160 described in the main section of the publication.

Dr. Carr also established a novel, helpful system of ghost town classification. H e lists the type—mining, agri-

cultural, railroad, or miscellaneous— and then puts each in a class.

Class 1 covers towns which have completely disappeared with no trace.

Class 7 towns are the lively ghosts— still fairly well inhabited (such as Corinne) but full of deserted buildings and relics.

Appendix 1 lists the towns by types and Appendix 2 by classification—both handy for those who want to specialize in a particular style of ghosts. Appendix 3 lists—in bare bones manner, to use a ghostly term—twenty "unresearched ghost towns" about which little is available.

References are well detailed, covering two full pages, numbered for checking with a brief notation for each town.

And the index is complete a n d easy to use.

As a native of a town that is a lively ghost in its own right (Virginia City, N e v . ) , I found Stephen Carr's Utah Ghost Towns most interesting reading. Whetted my appetite to see more of our own state, too. And there were many things about the past—and present—of the 180 communities discussed that left me thinking, "Gee, that's good to know."

Serious historians should find this publication helpful in providing a wellrounded picture of this phase of Utah's past. Should be a blessing to students, as well, and to tourists—natives or nonU t a h n s — w h o have an urge to go and see something different.

Dr. Carr, I'm confident, will welcome suggestions from readers for inclusion in future editions, particularly on the past of ghost towns that were so ghostly their full history didn't appear to his eye or in references.

T h e photographs—Dr. Carr's of the towns as they are today and U t a h State Historical Society pictures of them in

202 their glory years—are generous in quantity and well selected. T h e photos on the covers—of Grafton on the front and Park City on the back—are in color, the others black and white.

Utah Historical Quarterly M U R R A Y M.

Ogden

MOLER

Associate Editor Standard-Examiner Ogden

Journal of the Southern Indian Mission: Diary of Thomas D. Brown. Edited by JUANITA BROOKS. (Logan: U t a h State University Press, 1972. xx + 175 pp. $3.00.)

J u a n i t a Brooks has written and edited many works on U t a h and the Wrest, and this, her latest effort, is generally executed in the same tradition of excellence. H e r edition of the Journal of the Southern Indian Mission: Diary of Thomas D. Brown is carefully and fully edited. Copious notes usually identify places and persons mentioned.

Mrs. Brooks had first become interested in this journal in 1936, but events conspired to make it thirty-six years before her edited version appeared in print. It contains many interesting descriptions of M o r m o n life as well as the Indians of southern U t a h and and southern Nevada. It comprises a diary kept by T h o m a s D. Brown, a Scottish convert to Mormonism, who was sent as "clerk and recorder" on this mission from April 1854 to April 1856. T h e Mormons h a d been interested in converting the Indians ever since the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830.

Many interesting and important characters in western history appear in the pages of Brown's account as sweaty, hard-toiling figures whose earnest efforts met with both success and failure. These characters vary from members of the M o r m o n hierarchy, such as Brigham Young, to the buckskin apostle, Jacob Hamblin. O t h e r clearly delineated figures are the desperate Porter Rockwell and the controversial John D. Lee. Incidentally,

Brown never liked Lee, and as a result he does not come off well in the pages of Brown's journal. O t h e r prominent Mormon leaders such as Parley P. Pratt. Heber C. Kimball, and George M. Bean come alive in the diary.

In addition, Indians as prominent as Chief Walker (Walkara) as well as many historically obscure Utes and Paiutes appear vividly in these pages.

There is a particularly graphic description of an Indian doctor's attempts to cure an Indian woman's chest pains.

Brown briefly visited the then-new mission of Las Vegas in J u n e 1855. H e simply but effectively describes both the refreshing springs of that oasis as well as the cruel, unrelenting heat endured by these missionaries.

Yet Brown's narrative often rambles, and it is doubtful if any casual reader would be willing to plod through many pages of commonplace happenings and repetitious religious fervor to glean the most rewarding parts of the book. T h e western history expert will certainly find this journal of use in his research, and this edition makes the work generally available for the first time.

T h e index, unfortunately, is not as all-inclusive as it might have been, and a m a p or maps would have helped make some of the missionaries' wanderings more easily followed.

Included in this work are nine appendices of documents which vary from relatively trivial to greatly significant

Reviews and Notices in their importance. However, these shortcomings are minor compared to the advantage of having Brown's Journal of the Southern Indian Mission easily a n d inexpensively available.

203 R A L P H J.

ROSKE

Professor of History University of Nevada Las Vegas

Southern Ute Lands, 1848-1899; The Creation of a Reservation.

By GREGORY C O Y N E T H O M P S O N . Occasional Papers of the Center of Southwest Studies, no. 1.

(Durango, Colo.: Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, 1972. v + 62

pp. $2.00.)

The Southern Utes: A Tribal History. By J A M E S J E F F E R S O N , ROBERT W. D E L A N E Y , a n d GREGORY C. T H O M P S O N . Edited by FLOYD A. O ' N E I L . (Ignacio, Colo.: South-

ern U t e Tribe, 1972. xi + 106 pp. $7.50.)

It is unfortunate that historians have so far failed to develop a thorough and scholarly history of either the Southern Utes or the U t e people as a whole.

However, numerous articles a n d several useful theses a n d dissertations have appeared on select aspects of U t e history and culture, and Gregory C. Thompson's master's thesis on Southern U t e lands, which has just been published by the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, is an example of such recent scholarship.

Utilizing Bureau of Indian Affairs a n d army records, congressional documents, and records of the Indian Rights Association, Thompson has prepared a chronological history of government policy regarding the land of the Southern Utes from 1848 to 1899. I t is primarily a legislative history, for T h o m p son has described a n d evaluated the treaties, agreements, bills, laws, a n d other proposals relating to the subject and has described, where possible, the motives of the proponents of these measures. T h e story is that of the great reduction of the land base of the Utes a n d has many parallels in the histories of other tribes. Anglo miners and farmers demanded U t e land for exploitation, a n d the government, bowing to such pressure, gradually acquired Indian land. However, Coloradans failed in their efforts to secure

the removal of the Southern Utes from the state because of opposition from U t a h , the activity of the Indian Rights Association, a n d opposition from the Southern Utes.

The Southern Utes by James Jefferson, Robert Delaney, and Gregory Thompson is much broader in scope, is less technical, a n d is intended as a text for the schools serving the children of the tribe. It is also the result of cooperation by the Southern U t e tribe and the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History Project at the University of U t a h and is similar to The Ute People, a history of the people on the U i n t a h - O u r a y Reservation in U t a h .

T h e first half of the book is a history of the tribe to 1900 by Thompson of the Duke Project a n d Robert Delaney, director of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis. T h e second section is by James Jefferson, a member of the tribe w h o was selected for the task by the tribal council, a n d includes material on government, economy, religion, a n d other aspects of Southern U t e life a n d society. U n fortunately, the brevity of the text prevented anything more than a cursory survey a n d did not permit the authors to utilize the vast amount of oral a n d documentary records collected by the tribe a n d the Duke Project. However, the photographs, maps,

204 bibliography, and a chronology of U t e history enhance the value of the book for classroom use. Perhaps the authors will now devote their energies to a full-scale history of the U t e people.

Utah Historical Quarterly R I C H A R D N.

ELLIS

Associate University

Professor of History of New Mexico Albuquerque

The Ponca Chiefs: An Account of the Trial of Standing Bear. By T H O M A S H E N R Y TIBBLES. Edited by K A Y GRABER. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972. xiii + 143 pp. Paper, $2.25; cloth, $5.50.)

T h e bureaucratic maze of government has often plagued the Native American. T h e removal of the Ponca Indians tragically supports this generalization. The Ponca Chiefs not only exposes the failings of late nineteenth century Indian policy, but also reveals the dangers of big, distant, and impersonal government when administering the affairs of h u m a n beings.

In 1887, in direct violation of an earlier treaty, the peaceful Poncas were forcibly removed from the Dakotas to Indian Territory, since their land had been ceded inadvertently to their traditional enemies the Sioux.

Many deaths resulted because of the long trek, the lack of promised food and shelter, and exposure to disease. Chief Standing Bear, after most of his family had died in the removal, decided to return to the Dakota homeland. H e escaped to O m a h a where he was arrested. Consequently, T h o m a s Henry Tibbiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; former militant abolitionist with John Brown in Kansas, soldier, scout, pullman car conductor, itinerant Methodist preacher, newspaperman, husband of the famous Susette L a Flesche [Bright Eyes], and Populist vice-presidential candidate in 1904â&#x20AC;&#x201D;took up the cause of the Poncas.

The Ponca Chiefs is Tibbles's brief aimed at arousing the American people to reevaluate Indian policy. It is an account of the legal battles to free Standing Bear which resulted in the precedent-setting federal court decision

recognizing the Indian as a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States and his inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Standing Bear v. Crook, 1879). Ponca publicity generated by Tibbles's writings and his speaking tours with Standing Bear and Bright Eyes in the first caravan "Trial of Broken Treaties" inspired Helen H u n t Jackson to write A Century of Dishonor and gave impetus to the reformation of Indian policy culminating in the Dawes Act of 1887.

This new and inexpensive edition contains an illuminating introduction and epilogue written by Kay Graber who draws upon the recent scholarship of Robert Mardock and James King and complements the research of Norma Kidd Green on the LaFlesche family. Graber admirably puts the reformers' interest in the Ponca tragedy into broader historical perspective by comparing it with the new concern over Indian policy. The Ponca Chiefs exposes the intransigence of administrators, especially Commissioner E. A. Hayt, in refusing to admit and correct their mistakes and reveals their too often accepted "pass-the-buck" attitude. T h e lesson to be learned from the Ponca disaster was eloquently expressed by Chief White Eagle: "You [people of United States] cannot bring our dead back to life, but you can yet save the living" (p. 120).

205

Reviews and Notices The Ponca Chiefs uncovers a major problem of Indian policy whether it be 1880 or 1973: "white tape." It would seem well-suited for use in a course on the history of Indian-white relations. Although a minor point, the inclusion of a m a p would have added

substantially to the value of this new edition.

L A U R E N C E M.

City in the Sun: The Japanese Concentration Camp at Poston, Arizona.

BAILEY. (LOS Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1971. 222 pp. $7.95.)

Paul Bailey's City in the Sun describes the tragic evacuation of one hundred ten thousand U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast into concentration camps during the hysteria preceding World War I I . As one of the internees of these camps, I found that the book brought back numerous memories during my early years.

T h e author recounts the shocking uprooting of families stripped of their possessions and birthright and the ensuing scavenging of property left in its wake. Reception centers were the first stop in this ordeal, many being race tracks and horse stalls. I remember the awful stench and flimsy bedsheets that were hung to separate families forced into these animal quarters.

T h e book is well illustrated with photographs and vividly portrays life in the camps. O n e photo in particular portrays a W^orld W a r I veteran in full uniform being interrogated, stripped of his possessions, and shipped off to a c a m p â&#x20AC;&#x201D; m a d e a prisoner of war in reverse.

Herded into buses and trains, the citizens were then shipped to more permanent relocation centers spread throughout U t a h , Idaho, Arizona, and Arkansas. Mr. Bailey's account deals mainly with the c a m p located in Poston, Arizona.

All of the camps were similar, row upon row of thin-walled, black tarpapered barracks. Most were located in remote, arid climates where the sun

HAUPTMAN

Assistant Professor of History State University College New Paltz, New York

By PAUL

became unbearable during summer and the temperature deathly chilling during winter. Barbed wire fences and guard towers with armed guards were commonplace. During the early months, military surveillance was high, but this was relaxed considerably later on as the insanity of the project became apparent. Not one act of espionage was ever detected.

T h e author goes to great lengths in describing the attitudes, feelings, and emotions of the people. At times the selections seem harsh but for the most part are factual. M u c h of the material came from the collection of Dr. Edward Spicer, Poston's community analyst for the W a r Relocation Authority, and from interviews with the people themselves.

T h e camps were divided into blocks comprised of approximately three hundred people. Each block had its own community mess hall, laundry, block office, restrooms, showers, and tree.

I can remember the joy when our block received its first and only fully grown tree, a twenty-five foot elm. Insects, especially scorpions, were always a problem. O n e had to be careful in the showers where the moisture seemed to attract them.

T h e formation of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat T e a m is told by the author. H e recounts how anxious the citizens were to prove their loyalty and j u m p at the opportunity to volunteer for military service. T h e 442nd, comprised of Japanese American boys,

206 went on to become the most decorated combat team in World War II but paid dearly for it in lives lost.

By this time W7ar Department authorities had slowly come to unanimous agreement that the evacuation was unnecessary and was proving to be a tragic blunder.

Shortly thereafter, Dillon Myer, head of the War Relocation Authority, announced that all relocation centers would be phased out during 1944.

T h e book concludes by describing the awkward dispersal of one hundred ten thousand people with no immediate

Utah Historical Quarterly place to go. Deprived of their birthright and of all material possessions, they were like their pioneer parents who arrived in this country a half-century earlier. T h e book ends rather abruptly at this point and does not cover the difficulties encountered in reestablishing families, businesses, and self-respect in the years following.

Paul Bailey's volume does offer the reader a vivid description into this dark chapter of American history.

T E D NAGATA

Salt Lake

City

Jim Beckwourth: Black Mountain Man and War Chief of the Crows. By ELINOR W I L S O N . ( N o r m a n : University of Oklahoma Press, 1972. xvi + 248 pp. $8.95.)

Few men in the annals of history worked as hard to achieve renown and yet had to wait so long to receive it as James P. Beckwourth. Long a source of American fur trade history, his memoirs have been frequently cited in historical works but always with a tongue-in-cheek attitude due to questions of their veracity. Scholars like Parkman, Chittenden, and De Voto have continually relegated him to the ranks of mythmaker, so that unlike contemporaries such as Bridger, Carson, Ashley, Smith, and Sublette, he has been relatively unknown. Now, thanks to the interest of current scholars like Elinor Wilson, Beckwourth is finally receiving the recognition he so desired.

In fact, modern works on western America are careful not to leave out mention of his name and to include his picture. Not only is he important as a representative of a racial minority previously ignored in Western American history, but much of his autobiography has now been exonerated, allowing him the position he deserves as one of the fur trade's most colorful chroniclers.

Building on the research of her predecessors, Elinor Wilson, a professional writer in California, here gives

us a complete and extremely well researched view of Beckwourth's life and adventures. Drawing as well on a great amount of new material that she has patiently dredged from archives in Virginia, Washington, D . C , Colorado, Missouri, and California, she carefully fills many gaps in the mulatto Mountain Man's history and disproves most of his questioners. This scholarly and well balanced biography had long been needed and certainly helps place Beckwourth in a better perspective and more proper place in American history.

T h e author chooses first of all to present an almost mathematically balanced account of Beckwourth's life which paradoxically is both a strength and weakness. T h e strength of such a presentation is perhaps most obvious, the weakness lies in the relatively brief coverage given to the chapters on Beckwourth's fur trade experience and life with the Crows compared to the amount of material available. Specific events such as the Ashley expeditions, the descriptions of Indian customs and raids, etc., that were uniquely pictured and participated in by Beckwourth seem too quickly glossed over or ignored. Perhaps this is due to the

207

Reviews and Notices author's assumption that the readers will not be novices to American fur trade history or Beckwourth's memoirs.

Although there is no question whose side of the story is favored in this biography, Jim's life is presented in a very objective "warts a n d all" manner.

Wiiile the author attempts repeatedly to exonerate Beckwourth she still feels no compunction in mentioning his faults a n d weaknesses. Although she does not discuss his supposed connections with the notorious Peg-leg Smith and the U t e chief Walkara a n d their horse-stealing ventures into California, she does mention, however, that he participated in similar dealings at other times.

T h e numerous journeys of Beckwourth back a n d forth across the American continent are documented in exacting detail, and new proof is given to substantiate his brief excursion against the Seminoles in the Florida W7ar a n d his part in the apprehension of those responsible for the Reed fam-

ily massacre at Mission San Miguel.

There are also excellent chapters providing new insights in the lives of his father, Jennings Beckwith, a n d the itinerant writer T h o m a s D. Bonner who wrote down the original memoirs in 1855 (although there is no mention of Philip Stoner w h o attempted this earlier). O n e of the most exciting elements of this work, however, is an essay listed under Appendix A entitled " T h e Language of Beckwourth." This short piece opens an entirely new area of renown for the Mountain M a n to conquerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that of a literary representative of W,restern Americana.

All things considered, the strengths of this work far outnumber any weaknesses, a n d with its publication Beckwourth's renown seems much closer to being insuredâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;too b a d it is 107 years too late.

D E L M O N T R. OSWALD

Assistant to the Dean College of Social Sciences Brigham Young University

BOOK NOTICES

"The Place Where Hell Bubbled A History of the First National

By DAVID A. CLARY.

Up": Park.

(Washington,

D . C . : National Park Service, U . S .

Department of the Interior, 1972. iv + 68 pp. Paper, $1.00.)

A quotation from Jim Bridger is used as the title of this attractive little book written by a Park Service historian to capitalize on the interest generated by last year's Yellowstone centennial ob-

servance. I t is generously illustrated with the faces of the m e n behind the concept of the famed preserve, the natural features first photographed by William Henry Jackson a n d sketched

by T h o m a s Moran during the 1871 Hayden survey, a n d the early tourists who came by stagecoach, motor bus, or automobile to examine "these wonderful fountains" a n d "immense cauldrons" of boiling m u d a n d water. T h e

Utah Historical Quarterly

208 historic pictures, reproduced in duotone, fill more than two-thirds of the attractively designed pages. An engaging narrative tells the story in summary.

Offered at a souvenir price, "The Place . . ." will find its way into many a traveler's collection of vacation m e mentos a n d will be consulted for an overview of America's first national park.

Mormon Migrations and Related Events, vol. 5 of The Pioneers of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Regions. By J O S E P H F I S H . Edited by SEYMOUR P. F I S H . (Provo, U t a h :

[Privately published, 565 pp. $10.00.)

1973.] xiv +

Joseph Fish, a resident of Parowan before he pioneered in northern Arizona, prepared a seven-volume manuscript history of western exploration and settlement prior to his death in 1926. T h e family has selected volume five as the first of the set to be published, a n d , according to the editor, it "may be the last" (p. x i ) . Fish's descendants felt that his retelling of the Mormon story would have a larger potential audience than t h e general histories of European explorers, fur traders, or other western settlers, a n d for that reason have printed this volume. Mormon Migrations, with a pocket m a p of L D S migrations, 1830-47, emphasizes the church's westward movement, with considerable space given to the Mormon Battalion story.

Great Basin settlement efforts, transportation, a n d biographical notes on pioneers. Publication makes available another of the manuscripts of a voluminious writer whose autobiography, The Life and Times of Joseph Fish, Mormon Pioneer, was edited for publication in 1970 by John H . Krenkel.

A. R U S S E L L M O R T E N S E N .

When this book was first published

by Alfred A. Knopf, John W. Caughey suggested in an October 1958 review in the Quarterly that the job of selecting firsthand accounts h a d been done so skillfully that Among the Mormons henceforth would likely appear at the top of every reading list on U t a h a n d the Mormons. T h e validity of his prediction has been proven by the collection's wide acceptance a n d frequent use as a source book. It will be welcomed now, after fifteen years, in an inexpensive paperback edition which reproduces without alteration t h e original book of readings.

Al Nestler's Southwest: The Rugged and Beautiful Southwest Interpreted

by One of Arizona's Foremost Painters. By [ A L NESTLER]. Preface by

Edited

by

WILLIAM

MULDER

and

ROBERT

MACLEOD.

(Flagstaff,

Ariz.: Northland Press,, 1970. xii + 92 pp. $12.50.) Includes a section on U t a h : "Rock Sculptures a n d Wild Rivers."

Behold, the Sun Rises! By EZRA J. POULSEN. (Salt Lake City: Granite Publishing Co., 1972. viii + 258 p p . $4.50.) Novel set in a Mormon community in southern Idaho in the early to m i d twentieth century.

The Black Military Experience in the American West. Edited by J O H N M .

CARROLL. (New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 1971. 591 p p . $17.50.) Sixty essays a n d other selections by recent historians a n d contemporary observers make u p this reader.

The

Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers.

(Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1973. xiv + 482 + xiv p p .

Paper, $2.45.)

Christmas

Tree.

By JUANITA

B R O O K S . Illustrated by DAVID C R O C K -

ETT. (Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Inc., 1972.

Reviews and Notices 36 p p . $4.50.) ville, Nevada.

Diggings

209

A story of Bunker-

and Doings in Park City. By

R A Y E C A R L E S O N PRICE.

by HARRY H A R P S T E R .

Photographs

(2nd ed.; Salt

Lake City: University of U t a h Press, Bonneville Books, 1972. 148 p p . $5.95.)

Dispossessing the American Indian: Indians and Whites on the Colonial Frontier.

By

WILBUR

R.

JACOBS.

(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972. xiv 4- 240 p p . Cloth, $7.95.

Paper, $3.95.)

The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943. By JERRE

MANGIONE.

(Boston:

Little,

Brown a n d Co., 1972. xvi + 416 pp. $12.50.)

Folklore in the Bear Lake Valley. By BONNIE T H O M P S O N . (Salt Lake City: Granite Publishing Co., 1972. viii 4- 219 p p . $3,500 The Great Landslide Case. By M A R K T W A I N . (Berkeley: T h e Friends of the Bancroft Library, University of California, 1972. x + 58 pp.) Involves Orson Hyde and Carson Valley Mormons.

The History dian.

of the Southern

Ute In-

By CLARA M . M A Y F I E L D . (New-

York: Carlton Press, 1972. $2.50.)

History

of Weston,

FREDRICKSON.

Idaho.

on

Horseback.

The

Mexican

pretations.

War: Changing

Inter-

Edited by O D I E B. F A U L K .

(Chicago: T h e Swallow Press, Inc., 1972. Paper, $3.95. Cloth, $10.00.) " T h e Mexican W a r : A Seminar Approach," April 1972 number of Journal of the West, consisting of thirteen articles, expanded a n d published as a book of seventeen chapters.

New are chapters 1, 7, 10, 12.

The Nevada Desert. By SESSIONS S. W H E E L E R . (Caldwell, I d a h o : T h e Caxton Printers, 1971. 168 p p . $2.95.)

Nevada's Governors: From Territorial Days to the Present, 1861-1971. By MYRTLE

TATES

MYLES.

(Sparks,

Nev.: Western Printing a n d Publishing Co., 1972. xvi + 310 p p . $10.00.)

Pioneering try.

the Snake River Fork

By L o u i s

FIAROLD

S.

J.

CLEMENTS

FORBUSH.

Counand

(Rexburg:

Eastern I d a h o Publishing Co., 1972. [iv] + xxvi + 312 pp. $7.75.) Settlement of Madison County, Idaho, including history of the fur trade and Indians, Ricks College, a n d ecclesiastical a n d civic affairs to the present.

By LARS

Edited by A. J. S I M -

MONDS. Western Text Society No. 5.

(Logan: Utah State University Press, 1972. vi + 78 p p . $2.00.)

Man

mounted m a n from the Scythians to the American cowboy;" a world history of horsemanship, illustrated with 170 drawings of saddles, bridles, bits, a n d other equestrian gear.

By G L E N N

R.

V E R N AM (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972. xii + 436 pp.

Paper, $2.45.)

Reprint of Harper a n d Row, Publishers, edition of 1964. Tells " t h e story of the

Planning for Successful Teaching and Learning with Utah's Heritage.

Part I: A Planning Model for Teachers.

Compiled by A L L E N E. BAUER. Part II: Historical Resource Materials for the Teacher. Compiled by

S.

GEORGE

ELLSWORTH.

(Salt

Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1972. Part I, 114 p p . Part I I , 119 pp. $4.00.) Teacher's guide to Ellsworth's textbook, Utah's Heritage.

Utah Historical Quarterly

210 Red Man's Landâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;White Man's Law: A Study of the Past and Present Status of the American Indian. By WILCOMB

E.

WASHBURN.

(New-

York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1971. viii + 280 pp. $7.95.)

Restless grants

Strangers: and Their

Nevada's ImmiInterpreters.

By

W I L B U R S. S H E P P E R S O N . T h e Lance-

head Series: Nevada and the West.

(Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1970. xiv 4- 287 p p . $7.00.)

Sagebrush Doctors and Health Conditions of Northeast Nevada from Aboriginal Times to 1972. By EDNA B. PATTERSON. [Lamoille, N e v . : Au-

thor], 1972. xvi 4- 196 p p . $10.00.)

Limited edition of 500 numbered, autographed copies.

Selections from the Fifth and Sixth National Colloquia on Oral History.

vi 4- 110 pp.) Selections from the 1970 and 1971 fall meetings reproduced from typescript.

Includes papers on the uses of oral history in folklore, biography, ethnic studies, etc.

The Trail of the Ancients. By ALBERT R. LYMAN. (Blanding: Trail of the Ancients Association, 1972. 71 p p . $3.95.)

The Western American Indian: Case Studies in Tribal History. Edited by RICHARD N . E L L I S .

(Lincoln:

Uni-

versity of Nebraska Press, 1972. 203 pp. $6.95.) Essays examining the effects of policies of enforced acculturation.

The Wilford C. Wood Collection, ume I: An Annotated Catalog Documentary-Type Material in Wilford C. Wood Collection.

Volof the By

and

L A M A R C. BERRETT. (Bountiful: T h e

FORREST C. POGUE. (New York: T h e

Wilford C. Wood Foundation, 1972. x + 236 pp.)

. . . Edited by P E T E R 1). O L C H

Oral History Association, Inc., 1972.

AGRICULTURE AND RANCHING Hutchinson, William H . " T h e Cowboy a n d the Class Struggle ( O r , Never P u t M a r x in the S a d d l e ) , " Arizona and the West, 14 (Winter 1972), 321-30.

Leftist labor activities among cowboys on the Powder River in Wyoming a n d the Texas Panhandle.

Jordan, Terry G. " T h e Origin a n d Distribution of Open-Range Cattle Ranching," Social Sciences Quarterly, 53 (June 1972), 105-21.

Packer, Kipp. "They D o Their T h i n g in the Rodeo Arena," Utah Farmer-Stockman, 93 (February 1, 1973), 6-8. Summit County broncs. Complete issue on horses.

Articles and Notes

211

Wroelz, William D. "Metropolis: Death of a D r e a m , " The Northeastern Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 3 (Spring 1973), 2-15. An abortive agricultural town near Wells,, Nev., founded in 1910 by New York financiers (Pacific Reclamation Company) with offices in Salt Lake City.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES Carlson, Alvar Wi "A Bibliography of the Geographical Literature on the American Indian." Professional Geographers, 24 (August 1972), 258-63.

"Genealogy Notes: Federal Population and Mortality Census Schedules," Prologue, 4 (Winter 1972), 242-46. Includes tables of available census schedules.

Kuehl, Warren F. "Dissertations in History, 1961-70," American Historical Association Newsletter, 10 (September 1972), 17-24. An analysis, by the author of the recently published dissertations index of the same title.

Nichols, Elizabeth L. " T h e Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Genealogical Journal, 1 (December 1972), 108-12. Its purposes and location of holdings in new church office building.

CONSERVATION Anderson, Bette Roda. "Living Wonders of the Rockies: Life and Nature at the Crest of a Continent," The American West, 10 (March 1973), 24-32.

Boynton, K. L. "Prairie Dogs: Desert Merry Makers," Desert Magazine, 36 (January 1973), 12-15.

Cox, Lois M. "Getting Answers from Utah's Salt Desert," Utah Science, 33 (September 1972), 73-74, 84. Soil studies in southeastern Utah.

Crafts, Edward C. "Foresters on T r i a l : Ex-forester Calls for End to Clearcutting Abuses," The Living Wilderness, 36 (Winter 1972-73), 38-42. Address given before the Society of American Foresters October 4, 1972, and reprinted from the January 1973 issue of Journal of Forestry.

Hicks, Laney. "Green Water for New Pollution," Sierra Club Bulletin, 58 (February 1973), 22. Possible use of Green River water for coal and shale oil development in Wyoming.

M c H u g h , Tom. "Buffalo Travels, Buffalo Travails," Audubon, 1972), 22-31.

74

(November

Merriam, Lawrence C , Jr. " T h e National Park System: Growth and Outlook," National Parks and Conservation Magazine, 46 (December 1972), 4-12.

ETHNIC

GROUPS

Bellamy, Donnie D. "Free Blacks in Antebellum Missouri, 1820-1860," Missouri Historical Review, 67 (January 1973), 198-226. Mentions fur trader James P. Beckwourth and H i r a m Young of Independence, Mo., who outfitted western travelers with wagons.

Carter, Gregg. "Social Demography of the Chinese in N e v a d a : 1870-1880," Southern Nevada Historical Society Backtrails, 1 (January 1973), 1-11.

Derig, Betty. "Celestials in the Diggings," Idaho Yesterdays, 16 (Fall 1972), 2-23.

Chinese in Idaho. Includes U t a h influences and persons.

Kiser, George C. "Mexican American Labor before World War I I , " Journal of Mexican American History, 2 (Spring 1972), 122-42.

212

Utah Historical Quarterly E X P L O R A T I O N AND FUR TRADE

Carter, Harvey L. " T h e Divergent Paths of Fremont's 'Three Marshalls,'" New Mexico Historical Review, 48 (January 1973), 5-25. Lives of Mountain Men Antoine Godey, Kit Carson, and Robert Owens.

Garber, D. W. "Jedediah Strong Smith: A Miscellany of Information," The Pacific Historian, 16 (Winter 1972), 12-24.

Miller, David H. " T h e Ives Expedition Revisited: Overland into Grand Canyon," The Journal of Arizona History, 13 (Autumn 1972), 177-96.

Pedersen, Lyman C , Jr. "Early Penetration of the Uinta Basin," Journal of the West, 11 (October 1972), 596-615.

FIISTORICAL ACTIVITIES Evans, Frank B. "Justifying and Implementing a National Historic Records Program," American Historical Association Newsletter, 11 (February 1973), 24-26.

Hoffman, Alice M. "Oral History in the United States," Journal of Library History, 7 (July 1972), 277-84. " T h e Humanities and the Public Interest: T h e N E H State-based Program," Humanities, 2 (December 1972), 1-2, 5-7.

Lord,*Donald C. " T h e Historian as Villain: T h e Historian's Role in the Training of Teachers," Historian, 34 (May 1972), 407-20.

Papenfuse, Edward C. "Preserving the Nation's Heritage through a National Historic Records Program," American Historical Association Newsletter, 11 (February 1972), 19-23. A plea for a records preservation program as part of the Bicentennial observance.

Russell, William D. "New Historical Society Founded," Courage: A Journal of History, Thought, and Action, 3 (Fall 1972), 45. Announcement of September 18, 1972, formation of John Whitmer Historical Association (named after first church historian) for persons interested in R L D S church history.

Sprague, Stuart Seely. "How to Increase the American History Research Potential of Small Academic Libraries," American Historical Association Newsletter, 11 (February 1973), 27-31.

FIISTORIOGRAPHY Danhof, Clarence H. "Whither Agricultural History?" Agricultural History, 47 (January 1973), 1-8.

Jacobs, Wilbur R. " T h e Indian and the Frontier in American History: A Need for Revision," The Western Historical Quarterly, 4 (January 1973), 43-56.

Knight, Oliver. "Toward an Understanding of the Western Town," The Western Historical Quarterly, 4 (January 1973), 27-42.

Lamar, Howard R. "Persistent Frontier: T h e West in the Twentieth Century," The Western Historical Quarterly, 4 (January 1973), 5-25.

Meinig, D. W. "American Wests: Preface to a Geographical Introduction," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 61 (June 1972), 159-84.

INDIANS Dippe, Brian W. "This Bold but Wasting R a c e : Stereotypes and American Indian Policy," Montana, the Magazine of Western History, 23 (Winter 1973), 2-13.

Froncek, Thomas. " T Was Once a Great Warrior': T h e Tragedy of Black Hawk, Who Became the Eponym of a W a r H e Tried to Avoid," American Heritage, 24 (December 1972), 16-21, 97-99.

Articles and Notes

213

Hilliard, Sam B. "Indian Land Cessions" map supplement to the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 62 (June 1972). Five multicolor maps, 34" x 45", depicting data from C. C. Royce's Indian Land Cessions in the United States (1899) for the period 1784 to the present.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. "The Hopi Way: Isolation Ends for 'The People of Peace,' " American Heritage, 24 (February 1973), 49-55.

Kitching, Jessie. "Petroglyphs: A Plea for Protection," National Parks and Conservation Magazine, 47 (March 1973), 25-26.

Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr. and Lonnie E. Underhill. "Renaming the American Indian: 1890-1913," American Studies, 12 (Fall 1971).

Looney, Ralph, and Bruce Dale. "The Navajo Nation Looks Ahead," National Geographic, 142 (December 1972), 740-81. Includes map: "Indians of North America," pp. 739-39a.

Marden, David L. "Anthropologists and Federal Indian Policy prior to 1940," The Indian Historian, 5 (Winter 1972), 19-26.

Perry, Frank Vernon. "The Last Indian Uprising in the United States: Little High Rock Canyon, Nevada, January 19, 1911," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 15 (Winter 1972), 23-37. Written by a member of the posse which pursued and killed the small tribe of Shoshone Mike.

Ring, Frances. "Symbols in Sand," Westways, 64 (November 1972), 38-41. Navajo sand painting.

Stewart, Omer C. "The Peyote Religion and the Ghost Dance," The Indian Historian, 5 (Winter 1972), 27-30^ Thompson, Gerald E. " 'To the People of New Mexico': Gen. Carleton Defends the Bosque Redondo," Arizona and the West, 14 (Winter 1972), 347-66.

Role of James H. Carleton in the Navajo removal.

Underhill, Lonnie E. and Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. "Hamlin Garland and the Navajos," The Journal of Arizona History, 13 (Winter 1972), 275-85. Firsthand observations on Indian life in the late nineteenth century, quoting Garland's manuscript article, "Glimpses of the Navajo Indians."

LITERATURE Guthrie, A. B., Jr. "Why Write about the West?" Western American Literature, 7 (Fall 1972), 163-69. On writing historical fiction.

Hutchinson, W. H. "Packaging the Old Wrest in Serial Form," Westways, 65 (February 1973), 18-23. Writings of Emerson Hough and illustrations of W. H. D. Koerner in Saturday Evening Post.

Lent, John A. "Two Migratory Newspapers of the West," The Pacific Historian, 16 (December 1972), 54-69. The Frontier Index and The Sweetwater Mines.

McKiernan, F. Mark. "The Tragedy of David H. Smith," Saints Herald, 119 (December 1972), 20-22. Poet son of Joseph Smith, Jr. Smith, D. J. "The American Railroad Novel," Part 1, The Markham Review, 3 (October 1972), 61-71; Part 2: 4 (February 1973), 85-93.

Walker, Don D. "Ways of Seeing a Mountain: Some Preliminary Remarks on the Fur Trader as Writer," The Possible Sack, 3 (August-September 1972), 1-7.

MILITARY AND LEGAL Arrington, Leonard J. "Church Leaders in Liberty Jail," Brigham Young University Studies, 13 (Autumn 1972), 20-26.

214

Utah Historical Quarterly

Blair, Alma R. " T h e H a u n ' s Mill Massacre," Brigham Young University Studies, 13 (Autumn 1972), 62-67. Mormons in Missouri.

Brudnoy, David. "Of Sinners and Saints: Theodore Schroeder, Brigham Roberts, and Reed Smoot," Journal of Church and State, (Spring 1972K 261-78.

Schroeder was attorney against B. H . Roberts in the 1899 congressional eligibility proceedings and author of a pamphlet, " T h e Case of Senator Smoot" (1903).

Buchanan, Frederick S. " T h e Yoder Case: Precedent for Polygamy?" The Christian Century, 90 (February 21, 1973), 223-24. Discusses Wisconsin v. Yoder (May 1972), a Supreme Court decision allowing Amish religious views to prevail against Wisconsin education laws, and its implications for the Reynolds decision of 1878 barring polygamy as a religious practice.

Burton, Jeff. "Suddenly in a Secluded and Rugged Place," Part 1, The Brand Book [The English Westerner's Society], 14 (April 1972), 1-21. New Mexico trial of Butch Cassidy associate "William FI. McGinnis," an alias of William Ellsworth Lay. D u r h a m , Reed C , Jr. " T h e Election Day Battle at Gallatin," Brigham Young University Studies, 13 ( A u t u m n 1972), 3 6 - 6 1 . Mormons in Missouri.

Patterson, Gerard. " 'To Meet a Rebellion': T h e M o r m o n Confrontation," American History Illustrated, 7 (December 1972), 10-23. Johnston's Army.

RELIGION H u n t , Larry E. "Frederick Madison Smith: Saint as Reformer," Courage: A Journal of History, Thought, and Action, 3 (Fall 1972), 3 - 2 1 . R L D S president's social gospel during the populist-progressive era.

Russell, William D. "James J. Strang: Sincere Religious Leader or Power-Hungry C h a r l a t a n ? " Parts 1-3, Saints Herald. 120 (January 1973), 2 0 - 2 2 : (February 1973), 2 0 - 2 2 ; ( M a r c h 1973), 22-23.

Simmonds, A. J. "A Legacy of Principle," Outlook: Utah State University, 4 (February 1973), 12. A historical look at religion on the campus; entire issue treats current religious student organizations.

Thomas, N. Gordon. " T h e Millerite Movement in Ohio," Ohio History, 81 (Spring 1972), 95-107. William Miller's pronouncement of an impending Second Coming of Christ declared in lectures, 1831-44, throughout the "burned-over" district, and the Seventh-Day Adventist organization which grew out of the movement.

WESTWARD M O V E M E N T AND

SETTLEMENT

"Brown Rounds and White Flats," Torch and Oval [American Oil Company], 12 (Novemberâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; December 1972), 16â&#x20AC;&#x201D;17. Use of buffalo chips as fuel in the West.

Collar, Helen. " M o r m o n L a n d Policy on Beaver Island," Michigan History, 56 (Summer 1972), 87-118. Land transactions by the followers of James J. Strang.

Kimball, Stanley B. "Discovery: 'Nauvoo' Found in Seven States," The Ensign of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3 (April 1973), 21-23. Origin and use of Nauvoo as a placename.

Kramer, William M., ed. " T h e Western Journal of Isaac Mayer Wise," Part 4, Western States Jewish Historical Quarterly, 5 (January 1973), 117-34.

Lyon, T. Edgar. "Independence, Missouri, and the Mormons, 1827-1833," Brigham Young University Studies, 13 (Autumn 1972), 10-19.

Articles

and

Notes

Tenney, Gordon.

Pow Wow, 6 Trennert, Robert Conflict over 381-400.

215

"The Donner Party: Blazers of the Mormon Pioneer Trail," (July 1972), 6.

A., Jr. "The Mormons and the Office of Indian Affairs: The Winter Quarters, 1846-1848," Nebraska History, 53 (Fall 1972),

H]

T O R I C A L NOTES oc^Z

The Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Utah State Historical Society will be held in Salt Lake City on Saturday, September 8, 1973. Details on the program will be announced in the Society's Newsletter, and registration information will be mailed to all members and to others upon request.

An article published in Utah Historical Quarterly, Fall 1971, has received the Mormon History Association's award for the best recent article on Mormon history. The $25 award was presented at the association's April 1973 meeting in Salt Lake City to Henry J. \Volfinger for "A Reexamination of the Woodruff Manifesto in the Light of Utah Constitutional History.*, The association granted a special award to S. George Ellsworth for his seventh grade history text, Utah's Heritage, which was published last year by Peregrine Smith, Incorporated.

The diary of Seymour Bicknell Young (1837-1924) for the years 1876-85 has been accessioned by the Utah State Historical Society library. The record includes numerous comments on news events of the day, a report of Brigham Young's final illness and death, and information on medical practice (Young was an M.D.) and church and territorial affairs. The diary ends twenty-seven months after Young's appointment to the LDS First Council of Seventy.

A biographical article about a poet son of Mormon leader Joseph Smith, "The Sweet Singer of Israel: David Flyrum Smith," by Paul M. Edwards was given Courage magazine's best article award for 1972. A plaque noting the award was presented at the Mormon History Association meeting April 5.

The article appeared in Courage: A Journal of History, Thought, and Action, Summer 1972 issue, and earlier in Brigham Young University Studies, Winter 1972.

216

Utah Historical Quarterly

The 1900 Census records, scheduled to open in 1972, will remain closed temporarily at the request of the Department of Commerce. The action was requested pending the resolution of questions over confidentiality and public access.

The Newberry Library and the Committee on Institutional Cooperationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; an organization representing eleven mid-western universitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;will develop a new center for the history of the American Indian at the Newberry Library.

A five-year program has been planned to develop the center with the first year devoted to planning. Aims of the center include the encouragement of study in the field of Indian studies and the making of research and study material available at all levels of education. The center plans to offer postgraduate fellowships and employ pre-doctoral fellows to work in the field of American Indian history. Preference will be given to American Indians.

Institutes for high school teachers and biliographies available in microprint will encourage teaching of Indian history in the schools.

The diaries of Richard W. Young, Jr., a Mormon missionary in England, 1909-11, and of Richard W. Young, Sr., 1877-78, 1882, have been received at Western Americana, Marriott Library, University of Utah. The latter includes a description of the death of Brigham Young (the diarist's grandfather) in 1877. Other recent additions to the library are a collection of Brigham Youngspeeches, a manuscript map of Fort Bridger drawn in 1858 by Capt. James A. Simpson of the Topographical Engineers, and the only known copy of the 1862 Denver edition of a Table of Distances of the Ben Holladay Stage Line.

The papers of Reed Smoot, U.S. Senator from Utah, 1903-13, have been inventoried by the Brigham Young University Archives. The collection includes Smoot's diaries (1880-1932) and materials on government finance, tariff, war debts, taxation, and his relationships with presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

Letters from Ezra Taft Benson and others are included in the collection of letters concerning agricultural problems during the Eisenhower years received at the Archives of Contemporary History at the University of Wyoming.

A Journal of Ethnic Studies will be published by the College of Ethnic Studies at Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Washington 98225.

According to managing editor Jeffrey D. Wilner the journal will be an interdisciplinary quarterly devoted to articles on the history, literature, art, and social and cultural institutions of Black, Chicano, Indian, and Asian Americans.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY D i v i s i o n of D e p a r t m e n t of D e v e l o p m e n t S e r v i c e s BOARD O F STATE

HISTORY

M I L T O N C. A B R A M S , Smithfield,

1977

President D E L L O G. D A Y T O N , O g d e n , 1975

Vice President M E L V I N T . S M I T H , Salt Lake City Secretary MRS.

J U A N I T A B R O O K S , St. George, 1977

M R S . A. C. J E N S E N , Sandy, 1975 T H E R O N L U K E , Provo, 1975

C L Y D E L. M I L L E R , Secretary of State

Ex officio M R S . H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City, 1977 H O W A R D C P R I C E , Jr., Price, 1975 MRS.

E L I Z A B E T H S K A N C H Y , Midvale, 1977

R I C H A R D O . U L I B A R R I , Roy, 1977

M R S . NAOMI WOOLLEY, Salt Lake City, 1975 ADMINISTRATION MELVIN T. SMITH,

Director

G L E N M . LEONARD, Publications JAY M. H A Y M O N D , Librarian I R I S SCOTT, Business Manager

Coordinator

T h e U t a h State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited U t a h n s to collect, preserve, and publish U t a h and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; locating and documenting historic buildings and sites; and maintaining a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live u p to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

MEMBERSHIP Membership in the U t a h State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions interested in U t a h history.

Annual membership dues a r e : institutions, $7.00; individuals, $5.00; students, $3.00.

Life memberships, $100.00. Tax-deductible donations for special projects of the Society may be made on the following membership basis: sustaining, $250.00; patron, $500.00; benefactor, $1,000.00. Your interest and support are most welcome.