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William C. Staines: "English Gentleman of Refinement and Culture"
William C. Staines: "English Gentleman of Refinement and Culture"
BY MAX J. EVANS
THE MORMONS, transplanted as they were in the Far West from the mature social structure of Illinois, wasted no time in making Salt Lake City a major urban center. They established governments, businesses, theatres, schools, libraries, and other institutions typically found in older and better established communities. While the pioneers — farmers, miners, craftsmen, and tradesmen — made the community prosper, another class contributed to its social, cultural, and educational life. William C Staines represents that class.
He was not part of the official Mormon hierarchy; he belonged to no prominent family; he is not remembered for the number of men he killed; he won no prizes for the size of his posterity; he burned no army supply trains; he pioneered no Mormon settlements. William C Staines fits none of the stereotypes of the Mormon frontier man; he has been forgotten.
Although obscure today, Staines occupied prominent positions during his lifetime, first as territorial librarian for twelve years, and later as emigration agent for the church. A look at Staines's life shatters the image of the bookish, introverted librarian. Cosmopolitan and sophisticated, Staines contributed much to territorial Utah and nineteenthcentury Mormonism. Obviously, not all can be Leonardos or Jeffersons, but Staines's interests and activities indicate that he at least approached the ideal of the Renaissance man.
In the Mormon time frame, Staines fits the Nauvoo-early Utah period. Born in England in 1818, he joined the church in 1841 and immigrated to Nauvoo in 1843 and to Utah in the fall of 1847. Staines made his home in Salt Lake City until his death in 1881, but he traveled frequently to New York City and other distant places after 1863 as emigration agent for the church. He was a religious man and a church man. Upon his conversion at the age of twenty-three, he claimed some spiritual manifestations, strengthening his faith. He left England for Nauvoo within two years of his conversion.
On the way west in 1846, Staines spent six months preaching Mormonism to the Ponca Indians along the Missouri River. This was the first of his proselytizing missions. Upon his return to England in 1860 as a missionary, he became president of the London Conference of the church, and later he served in Utah as a home missionary during 1863- 64. In that capacity Staines traveled around the territory with the apostles and other home missionaries, delivering sermons in the various settlements and speaking regularly in the tabernacle at the weekly Sunday meetings. Ordained a seventy in March 1851, he became one of the presidents of his quorum in November 1852 and remained in that office for the rest of his life. Today he would be called a temple worker. Before the construction of the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, he participated regularly as an officiator of the endowments, given at that time in the Council House, where he was in charge of the quarters. During January 1852, for example, Staines was "engaged in the endowment," as he put it, on nine different days. His companions on those occasions were others close to the center of the church: Heber C Kimball, Thomas Bullock, Albert Carrington, William W. Phelps, Orson Spencer, Lorin Farr, and others.
More than a loyal and active church man, Staines was also a spiritual man who accepted and acknowledged, without awe, the influence of the spirit on his life. He could write matter-of-factly in his journal of spiritual manifestations and of speaking in tongues. As a preacher he stressed "the necessity of having the spirit of the Lord to guide us in whatever we undertake to do." He was zealous in his defense of the faith; he rebuked the wrong ideas manifested by a Brother J. Lawson, and he could "constantly pray that both [Brigham Young and George A. Smith] may live to see [their] enemies fall."
Today it is common to think of the spiritual and rational as antithetical. Nevertheless, Staines found no conflict between his religious and his intellectual pursuits. Although he did not consider himself an educated man, he was interested enough in learning and the spread of ideas to accept an appointment as territorial librarian, which he held during 1851-60 and again in 1865-68. His role in the territorial library is particularly significant; he was the first librarian and served during the period of the early federal-Mormon conflicts.
Established by Congress as part of the Organic Act creating the new Utah Territory, the library was intended primarily as a law library. But the Mormons seized the opportunity to build a collection of general works. With a $5,000 appropriation, John M. Bernhisel, Utah's delegate to Congress, purchased and otherwise acquired, by 1852, over three thousand volumes consisting of literature, philosophy, religion, history, and scientific works.
An official agency of the territorial government and supported by both federal and territorial legislatures, the Utah library not only served the needs of government but was also available for public use. The library existed until 1891 when the Supreme Court library was created from nearly forty-four hundred volumes in the law collection. The remainder, about thirty-five hundred volumes, wont to the University of Deseret. Although the library was used and books circulated, it is difficult to know exactly how much, or whether Staines promoted it. Unfortunately, it was probably true, as Jules Remy wrote, that "the majority of the Saints do not properly estimate these advantages as they ought to do, hence they are of little use to anyone, save a few studious individuals and travellers." In any event, Staines, less a humanist than a scientist, made the library an informal weather bureau when he asked that meteorological and other scientific data be reported to the territorial library.
Staines seems to have been a scientific associate of Orson Pratt, the Mormon scientist-theologian-apostle. In 1851, as Pratt received and unpacked his telescope and astronomical instruments, Staines assisted and unpacked his own microscope and chemical supplies. And in October 1851 Staines joined Pratt as one of those called to select, survey, and lay out the site for the new capital in Pauvan Valley (Fillmore).
William Staines was always interested in ideas. In 1858 a visitor to the city brought a sample piece of the Atlantic telegraph cable. Staines borrowed it for "the privilege of showing it to the workers in the president's Office." These workers, his friends — Brigham Young, Thomas Bullock, Thomas W. Ellerbeck, Nathaniel Felt, Albert Carrington, and Daniel H. Wells — along with Staines, had joined earlier in their investigation of another new skill: phonography, or shorthand. George D. Watt began a school of phonography in the president's office in 1852. Not typical frontiersmen, most of these men were clerks, and in those days clerks wore usually men of some education and management skill. Even the clerks of the emigrant companies were often unusually literate. Staines had been chosen historian and clerk of the company organized June 15, 1847, under Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor.
Though his interests were wide and varied, Staines concentrated on the study and promotion of horticulture. He was a member of the Deseret Agriculture and Manufacturing Society from its founding and a director from 1856 to 1860, at which time he left for England on a mission. Once home from his mission, he resumed his position as a director. He also promoted the establishment of county chapters of the Deseret Agriculture and Manufacturing Society and helped organize the Deseret State Horticulture Society in 1855 of which he was elected vice-president. He was appointed to the state fruit committee in 1855, and in 1873 was a delegate to the Horticulture Society of Philadelphia.
In addition to being a promoter of the cause of horticulture, Staines was actively engaged in its practice. During the 1850s he won prizes at the state fair for his grapes, cabbage, lima beans, rhubarb, cauliflower, eggplant, plums, strawberries, and cherries. He raised currants (he claimed "that from one acre of currants one thousand gallons of good wine can be made, such as is medicinal and kept a year or two, would be pronounced a superior article") and even tobacco. He made presents to his friends of peaches, grapes, and apricots. He offered his skills and the cuttings from his trees to the citizens of Utah, at no cost, to promote the cause. By 1862 Staines had added to his orchards mulberry trees that he sold to those interested in silk culture.
Staines made his living raising fruit and tending to gardens. As an indication of the size of his operations, Staines lost one hundred thousand fruit trees to the crickets in 1848 and five hundred thousand apple trees to grasshoppers in 1855. He was employed as Brigham Young's personal gardener and maintained, as well, his own garden and orchards. More than an economic enterprise, horticulture had been his love and chief scientific interest from his boyhood when he had neglected his studies to work with the gardeners on his father's estate in England. His attitude is revealed in an address to the Deseret Agriculture and Manufacturing Society in 1855: "Some argue that it is too expensive to fence and raise fruit, but it is my business to decorate and beautify Zion, it is part of my religion as much as going to meeting, praying or singing."
William Staines was also a political man, aware and concerned with social and civic issues. He served in the territorial legislative assembly, was a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1856, and in 1860 was elected to the Salt Lake City Council. As a young man in England he had stopped eating sugar as a protest against American slavery. When he arrived in America, however, he came to believe that the Negro slaves he met on the Mississippi River had a surprising degree of freedom, and he began to modify his feelings.
Staines reflected that typical nineteenth-century Mormon cynicism about the American political system. In 1858 a visitor to the city, Sen. David C Broderick, told Staines that he should be careful about making contracts with the government, "for it would be a long time before we would get our pay, if at all." Staines eagerly reported this loose talk to his friends in the president's office. He also found much to criticize in government when he traveled to Washington, New York, and London in 1860. Of course, predicting the dissolution of the Union in the fall of 1860 required no crystal ball, but Staines was aware of conditions and, in his letters to Brigham Young, discussed social and political issues, both in the United States and in Great Britain.
Staines is best remembered, if he is remembered at all, for his managerial skills as church emigration agent for nearly twenty years. But before that he had sharpened his skills as a promoter, entrepreneur, and businessman in a variety of enterprises. As a small businessman he raised a variety of fruits and vegetables that he sold to the community. In 1854 he was listed among the city's businessmen as a "Wine and Spirit merchant," probably an outlet for by-products of his orchards, vines, and bushes. In 1856 Staines's and Candland's restaurant was under construction on Main Street, and by 1857 the Deseret News employees held a party at the "Saloon of Messrs. Staines and Candland." Finally, in 1859, Staines, Needham, and Company opened. Staines tells about this last business in his journal: "I purchased a stock of goods... in company with [two other men] . . . but they sold out their interest to John & James Needham . . . we purchased goods to the amount of 55,000 dollars and sold more goods in two months than any other house. . . . this induced us to purchase some 20,000 thousand [sic] Dollars worth more."
Later that year Staines and one of the Needham brothers were called on missions to England. A commentary on their business success was President Brigham Young's statement about their call: Some have "heard that they [Staines and Needham] are sent on this mission because they are speculators." Brigham denied that that was the reason for the mission call, without denying that they were speculators — in fact, he mentioned their business successes.
In addition to his business enterprises, Staines was a promoter of other economic causes. The Deseret Agriculture and Manufacturing Society, of which Staines was a charter member, promoted business enterprise and initiated other companies. The Jordan Canal Company, of which Staines was also a director, was founded by DAMS members. Some of these same members attempted to organize a chamber of commerce in 1860. They proposed an association to promote mercantilism, but Brigham Young discouraged it, believing people would not support it. Besides his own businesses, Staines managed others. His greatest
success was as emigration agent for the church, 1863-81. In a letter to Brigham Young in 1863, he referred to the obligation of the Saints to preach and gather Israel. "I do not profess to be a preacher, but what I have failed in the former, I have endeavored to make up in the latter." For almost twenty years, Staines gathered Israel from the Utah Emigration Office in New York City. His assignment was to administer the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company money sent from Utah as well as money sent ahead from England by tie emigrants, keep the books, meet incoming emigrant ships, and arrange overland transportation to the railroad terminals.
His most important contribution was to arrange comfortable accommodations at the least expense. To accomplish this he traveled widely throughout the East, visiting railroad agencies and offices. He bargained and dickered, and faced and fought price-fixing. Despite the unfair practices of the railroads, especially when dealing with emigrants, Staines was successful. In one season, 1871, he arranged for the emigrants to travel from New York City to Ogden for forty-three dollars, a reduction of eight dollars from the original price.
Before 1869 Staines spent summers and autumns at the Utah Emigration Office, in New York, returning in the late fall with the season's last emigrants. After the completion of the transcontinental railroad he still directed the emigration from his New York office but did not stay there all season. He felt free to travel to Salt Lake City for three- or fourday visits or to Boston, Omaha, Washington, Saint Louis, and even Liverpool, to conduct emigration business.
Emigration was not his only business. After the coming of the transcontinental railroad line, the Mormons organized the Utah Central Railroad Company, which connected Salt Lake City to Ogden. Staines acted as an agent for the Utah Central in the East and purchased rails and rolling stock for the line. He was obviously a trusted and able manager for the church.
Staines was referred to in the Utah newspapers as William C Staines, esq., signifying that he held an uncommonly high position in the community. Sir Richard Burton, who visited Staines in Salt Lake City in 1860, made him appear as an early Horatio Alger hero: a poor immigrant who made good in America. Staines seems to verify that he was a poor immigrant, at least he discussed his poverty after arriving in Nauvoo. Howover, he must have been somewhat accustomed to wealth; his father's household in England employed gardeners (from whom young William had learned his trade), indicating an upper-middle class or a gentry background. His Utah wealth was probably partly inherited, Burton notwithstanding, for by that time he was a woalthy man. By 1860 he was a partner in a business with an inventory worth $75,000. In 1865 he sold his residence for $20,000. He also owned 300 acres in Davis County, and at his death, after providing for his widows, he left an inheritance to the church that was used for the building of a greenhouse on Temple Square.
Staines enjoyed a good life in frontier Utah. He built, in 1857-58, what has been referred to as Utah's first mansion, the Devereaux House. Staines did not build it as the Devereaux House; that was the name given by William Jennings after he purchased and remodeled it in 1867. Earlier, as the Staines mansion, the home was impressive. Built away from a street (a feature that probably helped save it from demolition until now), it was set among Staines's orchards and gardens. Mrs. Alfred Cumming, with her husband a guest in the house in 1858, described it as "very pretty" and continued as follows:
A southern lady, Mrs. Cumming must have felt very much at home in such a house with servants, elegant furnishings, and genteel companions.
The Staines household entertained other visiting dignitaries. In addition to Governor and Mrs. Cumming, Col. Thomas L. Kane, Sen. David C. Broderick of California, and Gen. Alexander Wilson, U.S. district attorney for Utah, and his wife, all were guests in 1858, and Sir Richard Burton in I860.
Staines provided not only the facilities to entertain important visitors but also the necessary style. On one occasion, at which several territorial officials made a state visit to Brigham Young, William C. Staines was the only other leading church official or prominent Mormon present. He was sort of a protocol officer, or semi-official host for the church, and enjoyed a reputation for the style of his parties. Of a party for returned missionaries in 1855, the Deseret News commented: "As to the style in which the supper was served up, and the table set out, I need only say that Mr. Wm. C. Staines superintended the arrangements." Staines fulfilled similar functions at Fourth of July celebrations and at other parties.
Interested in improving the cultural and intellectual life of the community, Staines was a charter member of, and active in, the Deseret Dramatic Association. He achieved enough importance through his many endeavors that when he traveled outside Utah his arrival was noticed in the local papers. He was recognized by his contemporaries as "an English gentleman of considerable natural refinement and love of culture."
Finally, Staines was a friend and confidant of Brigham Young. Apparently he was Young's adopted son, although he made no filial references to the church president. In his letters to "Pres. B. Young," or simply to "Brigham Young," it was "Dear Brother." These letters, of which over fifty are available, reflect a familiar, almost intimate style. Staines, whether as friend, gardener, or church worker, was well acquainted with the Young household. His journal, which covers the 1850s, reported regularly on the president's health (usually bad). He seems to have had ready access to Brigham, for when the Deseret Agriculture and Manufacturing Society needed a favor of the president, Staines was appointed to ask for it. He and his family were always on easy, familiar terms with the Mormon president. At the occasion of the completion of his house, the First Presidency, members of the Twelve, and other church leaders were invited in for dinner: "I think I never felt better in mv life. . . . They were much pleased with my new home and gardens. The Presidency blessed me and my family, my home, and all that pertained to me."
Later, after Staines was called to England on a mission, his wife invited President Young to visit her on a matter of business. Her letter to him shows none of the common fawning and pleading found in much of Brigham's correspondence. Mrs. Staines knew her place in the community; she didn't even offer to go to the president's office. 40 It is easy to picture Staines paying a call on the president of the church with the same air of confidence as when he went to the general offices of the Union Pacific Railroad company in Boston to negotiate fares.
William Staines was a man of many parts. Churchman, politician, librarian, businessman, horticulturist, amateur scientist, emigration agent, and socialite, he is an example of the diversity of interests and talents found in nineteenth-century Utah.
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