Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, Number 2, 1977 by Utah Historical Society

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UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY EDITORIAL STAFF MELVIN T. SMITH,

Editor

STANFORD J. L A Y T O N , Managing

Editor

M I R I A M B. M U R P H Y , Assistant

Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS T H O M A S G. A L E X A N D E R , Provo,

1977

M R S . I N E Z S. C O O P E R , Cedar City, 1978 S. G E O R G E E L L S W O R T H , Logan,

1978

G L E N M . L E O N A R D , Bountiful,

1979

DAVID E. M I L L E R , Salt Lake City, 1979 L A M A R P E T E R S E N , Salt Lake City, 1977 R I C H A R D W. SADLER, Ogden,

1979

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City, 1978 J E R O M E S T O F F E L , Logan,

1977

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, a n d reviews contributing to knowledge of U t a h ' s history. T h e Quarterly is published by the U t a h State Historical Society, 603 East S o u t h T e m p l e , Salt Lake City, U t a h 84102. Phone (801) 533-5755. Members of the Society receive the Quarterly a n d the bimonthly Newsletter upon payment of the a n n u a l d u e s ; for details see inside back cover. Single copies, $2.00. Materials for publication should be submitted in duplicate accompanied by r e t u r n postage a n d should be typed double-spaced with footnotes a t t h e end. Additional information o n requirements is available from the m a n a g i n g editor. T h e Society assumes no responsibility for statements of fact o r opinion by contributors. T h e Quarterly is indexed in Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals, America: History and Life, a n d Abstracts of Popular Culture. Second class postage is p a i d a t Salt Lake City, U t a h . I S S N 0042-143X

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Contents S P R I N G 1 9 7 7 / V O L U M E 45 / N U M B E R 2

IN T H I S ISSUE

107

T H E SECULARIZATION OF T H E U T A H LABOR M O V E M E N T

U T A H AND T H E NATIONWIDE COAL MINERS' STRIKE OF 1922

M I N I N G AT ALTA: A FURTHER LOOK

K E N N E T H DAVIES

108

ALLAN K E N T POWELL

135

JAMES

LEVITT, PHILIP

NOTARIANNI, and BARBARA BANNON

158

T H E NURSE: MARVA CHRISTENSEN H A N C H E T T OF SEVIER COUNTY ELECTRIC POWER COMES T O U T A H

PATRICIA

. . . .

OBED

H. C.

SORENSON

163

HAYCOCK

173

HISTORIC UTILIZATION OF PARIA RIVER

P. T.

REILLY

188

BOOK REVIEWS

202

BOOK N O T I C E S

210

T H E C O V E R For thirty-five years members of the Farr family operated the Advance Roller Mills in Ogden out of the four-story stone and frame building on the left. They produced up to 10,000 pounds of flour daily and supplied the Montana mining camps. The Farrs sold out to Joseph Clark and David Eccles who built the structure on the right and equipped it with the most up-to-date machinery. The older mill was used for storage and later as a macaroni factory and then a potato chip factory. The photograph is from the 1889 album Ogden City Utah

PETER G. CZERNY. The great

Great Salt Lake

. . . .

COOLEY

202

A. J. SIMMONDS. The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley: A Study of the Logan Apostasies of 1874 and the Establishment of Non-Mormon Churches in Cache Valley, 1873-1913 . . . . LAWRENCE

COATES

203

RICHARDS

204

CONNIE MORNINGSTAR.

Utah Furniture

EVERETT

Early

. . . .

NANCY

WARD B. STUDT, JEROLD G. SORENSEN,

and BEVERLY BURGE.

Medicine

in the Intermountain West: A History of Health Care in Rural Areas of the West . . . CHARLES W. BODEMER 205

Books reviewed VIRGINIA PAUL. Tliis Was Sheep

Ranching Yesterday and Today

CHARLES

M. SYPOLT

206

FRED R. GOWANS

207

RAYMOND W I L S O N

208

F. YURTINIS

209

P. HAMMOND. The Adventures of Alexander Barclay,

GEORGE

Mountain

Man

E. KROEKER. Great Plains Command: William B. Hazen in the Frontier West . . .

MARVIN

FRANCIS HAINES. The Plains

Indians

JOHN

In this issue M u c h has been written about enterprise and initiative on the American frontier. U t a h historians and buffs, like their counterparts elsewhere, have been fond of emphasizing the achievements, cleverness, and audacity of the frontier generation. Perhaps this emphasis has been so great as to distort the historical record slightly—in the direction of suggesting, albeit implicidy, that these attributes somehow began disappearing after the closing of the frontier. If so, this issue should help right the record. Few endeavors in U t a h have occasioned the maneuverings, the machinations, and the energy that went into the organization of labor. This d r a m a began very early and extended through three long generations—as chronicled in part by the first two articles. Although much of this activity centered around Utah's mines, not all of those operations have been unionized. At least one mining endeavor going on today hearkens back to a pioneer time for its simplicity of scale and organization. Proceeding from the flotsam of a bygone boom period while tapping the technological opportunity of the modern era, this singular enterprise is explored for historical profit in an oral interview. From labor and mines the focus shifts to the individual—an extraordinary individual whose pioneering achievements in the field of public nursing reflect a story of w a r m h u m a n interest and represents an important example of initiative and enterprise asserting themselves in a quiet and personal but lasting way. T h e final two articles-—one on the advent of electricity, the other on the intractable Paria River—comprise a fitting capstone to this issue. They serve as a poignant reminder of just how titanic has been man's struggle with nature in his ongoing pursuit of a better life.

The Secularization of the Utah Labor Movement BY J . K E N N E T H DAVIES

Blacksmiths, "The Sons of Vulcan," were among the first organized workers in Utah. Utah State Historical Society photograph, courtesy Salt L a k e T r i b u n e .

the

JL H E MORMON PIONEERS OF 1847 brought with them from Nauvoo, Illinois, not only a strong religious faith but also experience with the budding unionism of that day, a development with its roots in the trade union movement of England and the northeastern states. A number of craft guilds for tailors, smiths, boot and harness makers, coopers, wagonDr. Davies is professor of economics at Brigham. Young University.

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makers, printers, and actors had been established in Nauvoo. 1 The guild of Boot and Shoe Makers, founded in Nauvoo in 1843, was not well received by many of the residents who feared that it was organized to create a monopoly in shoemaking, forcing prices higher. The members replied in the Nauvoo Neighbor that they were attempting to bring the high prices down—so that footwear made in Nauvoo could compete with that from eastern facilities—through the establishment of a producers' cooperative with increased buying power in the purchase of raw materials. The boot and shoe makers were willing to barter and hoped to bring employment to 200 of their craft. Their dedication to unionism was shown by their quoting the Glasgow spinners that "the working man's only protection . . . is U n i o n . . . . " U n i o n walls are high a n d g r a n d U n i o n walls, if nobly m a n n e d , U n i o n walls are m a d e to stand, Against the strongest foe.

The next year a spinners' consumers' cooperative was established. Joseph Smith commented that the cooperative was a good idea and would be a source of employment for mechanics and would provide consumer items at a low cost.2 EARLY WORKER ORGANIZATIONS IN U T A H

The urge to organize continued among the Mormons after they reached Utah. On February 20, 1852, a group of Latter-day Saints met at the home of musician and dramatist William Clayton, at the request of Brigham Young, to form an association to promote the theatre in Salt Lake City.3 Although the Deseret Dramatic Association may not have been intended to become a union and indeed may never have actually become such, it did lead the way, as the precursor of such union organizations as the Actor's Guild, Musicians Union, and Stage Employee's Union. The charter members included such prominent pioneers as 1 Reta Latimer Halford, "Nauvoo—the City Beautiful," Proceedings of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters 23(1945-46): 4 1 ; Charles Lambert Diary, Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; 11a Fisher Maughan "History of Staging and Business Methods of the Deseret Dramatic Association, 1852-1869"' (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1949), p. 27. 2 Robert Bruce Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965), pp. 154-55. 3 Maughan "History . . . Deseret Dramatic Association," p. 27. Of the original thirteen men at least four became associated with other guild-type organizations—three of them with the typographers. Of those who became members later, 15-20 percent were also associated with other guilds. Ibid, and Deseret News, July 4, 1861.

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William Pitt, William Clayton, Robert Campbell, Horace K. Whitney, and Orson Whitney. The first known concerted action of the association, other than putting on dramatic productions, was their petitioning in 1852 for use of the Salt Lake Tabernacle for performances, the old bowery being considered inadequate. Although the request was turned down, Brigham Young did appoint an architect to draw up plans for the Social Hall, a much finer facility than the association had planned on.' By 1864 the Social Hall had been replaced by the Salt Lake Theatre, and the inflation associated with the Civil War had begun to take its toll. Association members were in the unpaid employ of Brigham Young, the owner of the theatre; however, visiting performers were paid. O n April 30, 1864, a meeting of the association was conducted by Brigham Young. Several members indicated financial problems and requested pay for their services or they would have to leave. Annie Adams Kiskadden, mother of famous frontier actress Maude Adams, later reported: Brigham spoke and said we were only doing our share for the uplift of the community as were elders and missionareies . . . only our work, he said, was being done at home. We were asked to state our demand individually, but there was a deep silence. No one made demands on Brigham Young. . . . T h e chief agitators were silent. . . . Finally David Evans in the orchestra and a shoemaker by trade, pulled his crippled frame up on crutches and hit out straight from the shoulder. He said we were all forced to earn our daily bread outside the theatre and yet we were giving half our lives to it. He told Brigham that the theatre was making oodles of money and he could not see why the entertainers should not share in the profits. . . . The intimation was plain. It was "no pay, no work." Brigham tried every means and every plan to settle the matter without putting the hometalent players on salary, but none of the plans suited the actors and grumbling grew louder with the final result that a salary list was drawn up. No one could say that the salaries were magnificently large, but it comforted us to know that we were worth something. 5

The association seems to have died between 1869 and 1874. If it lasted as long as 1874, it was probably a victim of the depression then in progress, as were many other unions and worker organizations throughout the territory and country. It may have also been a victim of Retrench4 Maughan, "History . . . Deseret Dramatic Association," pp. 29, 30. The association went into a decline in 1855-60, possibly due to the economic recession of those years. However, on March 9, 1861, a meeting was held in Brigham Young's office to reconstitute the association and to get his "mind on the reorganization." Ibid., pp. 35, 47. 3 Ibid., pp. 119-21.

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ment in 1869 or of the new economic experiment of Brigham Young, the United Order, beginning in 1874. The first known permanent craft guild in Utah, and the first known guild to evolve into a full-fledged labor union was established at the latest by February 24, 1852, when Brigham Young opened the First Annual Printers Festival with prayer. That same year the National Typographical Union, America's first permanent national union, was formed. Apparently the printers' guild was the successor to a similar organization in Nauvoo. It was a unique craft guild, motivated at its outset more strongly by religious ideals than by economic goals. But considering the reform nature of much of the worker movement prior to and contemporary with that period, its religious orientation was not quite as strange as it might seem today. Nevertheless, it was undoubtedly the only guild in the world to open a meeting with the song "Come All Ye Sons of Zion" and to offer nonalcoholic toasts to, among others, the First Presidency.6 On January 13, 1855, a more formalized Typographical Association of Deseret was organized. To join this group one had to be a member of the LDS church in good standing, and association members could be expelled for immoral conduct after an impartial trial and a two-thirds vote. Involved in the association were such prominent men as George Q. Cannon, later a member of the First Presidency of the Mormon church; William W. Phelps, well known Mormon printer and poet; Horace K. Whitney, prominent LDS musician; and Phineas H. Young, Brigham Young's brother and a church leader in his own right. Phineas Young became the first president of the association. Other LDS General Authorities who played key roles in or with the association over the next few years were Ezra T. Benson, Jedediah M. Grant, Erastus Snow, Albert Carrington, Orson Pratt, Amasa Lyman, and Wilford Woodruff. In 1856 the requirement of church membership was evidently dropped and the name changed to Deseret Typographical and Press Association. In 1868 the Deseret Typographical Association, Local 115, was chartered by the National Typographical Association. Henry McEwan was the president of the local; at least eight of the ten charter members were endowed Mormons. 7 â&#x20AC;˘ " ' J o u r n a l History of the C h u r c h , " February 24 a n d J a n u a r y 22, 1852, M a r c h 16, 1854, L D S Archives. 7 Ibid., J a n u a r y 13, 1855, October 4, 1 8 5 3 ; November 1, 1855, February 8, 1856; C h a r t e r of the Deseret Typographical U n i o n , Local 115, copy in author's possession. Endowed church members are those who at least at one period of time were especially devout members of the church, conforming to rigid requirements of obedience. Family and church d a t a on the officers of Local 115 is on Family G r o u p Sheets in the Latter-day Saints Genealogical Library.

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The unique interests of workers other than typographers and theatre employees w^ere recognized rather early. At the Fourth of July parade of 1861 groups of workers participated by marching according to their trades. 8 Fortunately for the labor historian, the event was recorded in some detail by the Deseret News. The parade had three interwoven and recurring themes: religious, patriotic, and economic. Emphasizing the economic were the marching workmen, organized by craft or trade, and led by a prominent member of the trade. Some of the workmen's banners proclaimed religious and patriotic messages, but the economic implications were strongest. At least twenty of the trades represented in the parade had organized into unions across the nation by 1860, many of them in the decade of the 1850s. Most of the rest were to organize into unions within the next two decades. As already noted, a number of these crafts had formed associations in Nauvoo, indicating a substantial period of craft organization for some. Several trades carried banners in the 1861 parade that would seem even stronger evidence of formal organization approaching, if not yet achieving that of unions.9 The printers or Typographical Association carried a banner "Printers of Deseret." Although this appellation is not conclusive of union organization, the fact that this group was led by a former Scotsman, Henry McEwan, who was to be a charter member and the first president of the Deseret Typographical Association, Local 115, indicates some movement in that direction.10 The blacksmiths led by Jonathan Pugmire, formerly of Carlisle, England, marched under the banner "The Sons of Vulcan." The United Sons of Vulcan, a national union, was organized as a local in a Pittsburgh ironmill in 1858 and adopted a constitution and bylaws in 1861. A more general constitution was adopted in 1862. It would appear that Utah Territory may have been a leader, if transient, in the organization of this craft. The tinsmiths and coppersmiths led by Dustin Amy carried a banner "True to the Constitution and Union." Whether the word "LJnion" 8

"Journal History," July 5, 1861. Information on these organizations was gleaned from several standard labor history texts: Harry A. Millis and Royal E. Montgomery, Organized Labor (New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1945) ; Philip Taft, Organized Labor in American History (New York: Harper and Row, 1964); Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America, a History (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1966). 10 McEwan was also a member of the Deseret Dramatic Association. His father had been active in a union-like workers' Mutual Benefit Association in Great Britain in the 1860s. 9

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referred to the union of states or to labor unions is not known, but the smith trades were among the earlier trade unions nationally, and among the earlier known unions of Utah. The carpenters and joiners broadcast a typical union slogan: "Union is Strength." The inclusion of the two tradesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;carpenters and joinersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; is indicative of at least a philosophical association with the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners, an English-based union formally established about 1860 but not coming to the LJnited States as far as is known for another decade. It is interesting to note that the leader of this group, Miles Romney, formerly of Dalton, England, had just returned from an LDS church mission to England. Just as capital, goods, and ideas, including the idea of cooperatives, were brought home by returning missionaries, it is possible that the idea of a union was likewise imported. The coopers, led by Abel Lamb formerly of Rowe, Massachusetts, claimed that "United in These Bands We Stand." This trade had been Organized in the United States since the early 1800s. The painters and glaziers, led by Edward Martin, formerly of Preston, England, had emblazoned "United Painters," a common terminology within the labor movement. The boot and shoe makers, led by Edward Snelgrove formerly of Saint Mary's, England, had two banners indicating a strong group cohesiveness and possible union organization. One banner read "May the True Sons of St. Crispin ever feel an interest in the soles of all mankind." A local union, called the Knights of Saint Crispin, was organized in Milford, Massachusetts, in 1864, being credited as the first local of the national union, with the first lodge established in 1867 in Milwaukee. At least the idea, if not the actual organization, in Utah seems to antedate that of the rest of the country. The use of the adjective " T r u e " may have been an attempt to differentiate Deseret's shoemakers from those elsewhere. At least one of the craft leaders, Charles Lambert, the leader of the stonecutters and a Mormon convert from England, had had union experience in England, being a member of a Mechanics Institute and an Operative Society in his native land. He also had participated in at least one strike.11 All of the above-named trade and craft leaders were LDS church members, and of the fifty listed trade leaders in this 1861 parade, at least 11

Charles Lambert Diary.

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forty-seven were members of the LDS church at the time. A substantial number of these were endowed members and others soon were. A maxim u m of three were not Mormon, but one of these soon joined the church. Of the fifty trades in the 1861 parade, only ten were represented again in the 1869 parade, although the Mechanics Union probably represented the building trades and others that were prominent in the 1861 parade. In addition to the mechanics, there were five other new crafts or trades represented in 1869.12 One more guild-type organization with roots in the early guild movement of the 1860s was the Deseret School Teachers Association which marched at the end of the worker section of the parade. Following that activity nothing is known of this group until October 4, 1872, when the territorial teachers convention effected a "permanent organization" known as the Deseret Teachers Association. Evidently the earlier association had become defunct. Prominent at this meeting were Robert Lang Campbell, a clerk in the LDS Church Historian's Office and Utah's first superintendent of schools; the Dusenberrys who established the precursor to Brigham Young University and Karl G. Maeser, first president of that institution; and John R. Park, prominent in establishing the University of Utah. History is silent on this particular organization after a brief entry a few days later. T h e association, too, may have become a victim of the depression of the 1870s.13 LABOR STRIFE AND T H E BREAK IN C H U R C H SUPPORT

T h e 1850s and early 1860s saw general support of the budding union movement in U t a h by Mormon authorities. Brigham Young had actively encouraged the organization of at least two guilds, the theatre workers and the printers. In 1855 he said: The capitalists and mighty men of the earth should notify the Lord that he made a mistake when forming the balance of the human family, and petition that they be made with bones of iron, sinews, nerves, ligaments and muscles of steel, and flesh of brass. Then they could labor for them without food, rest, or shelter, and would not have to answer for not "multiplying and replenishing the earth;" neither wrould the magnates then have to account for the terrible oppression they are meting out to their fellows, often depriving them of the enjoyment even of the pure air and light of heaven and of the pure water of earth, of the privilege of properly raising familes, of the necessary society of friends, of all or nearly all 12 13

"Journal History," July 5, 1869. Ibid., October 4, 1872.

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chances for mental improvement, crushing them down to constant physical work and toil, with little or no remuneration. For this cause we suggest to the corrupt wealthy of the world that they consider and practice upon the idea that their fellow beings are flesh and blood like themselves, that they have a right to a fair share of the bounties bestowed by a kind creator, and cease using h u m a n beings as though they were made of iron, steel, and brass. But lest this suggestion should not be followed, it would certainly seem far better, than dragging out a miserable existence in bloated cities and districts where labor is a b u n d a n t and element monopolized, for the poor to constantly plan a scheme to free themselves from the trammels which bind them, and go forth to the wide west where labor meets its reward, and element is free and abundant. And when they have escaped, and, instead of siding with the oppressor so soon as they are prospered, lend all the aid in their power to enable the down trodden to obtain the same vantage ground they have achieved. 14

U n d e r strong church encouragement, worker organization in Deseret kept pace with the budding, locally oriented unionism of the rest of the country, perhaps originally being organized for fraternal purposes but with several groups evolving into unionlike organizations. However, the Civil W a r years brought great economic pressure on the 'workmen of Zion as well as workers throughout the country. T h e "uprising" of the Deseret D r a m a t i c Association in April 1864 was not the only inflation-induced difficulty. T h e Deseret News editorial of August 3, 1864, referring to the high prices of that year, implied that a strike was imminent. T h e upshot was a convention called by the L D S leadership to do something about prices. At this meeting worker representatives were allowed to express themselves, and out of it came a system of price regulation that apparently helped to calm the troubled waters. Probably more important in controlling wages was the collapse of prices nationally. O n February 1 of the following year, the Deseret News reported that a sufficient supply of breadstuffs protected laborers and mechanics from injustices and that conditions of work were improving. 10 T h e fact that workers were admonished again to refrain from strikes, however, would indicate that unionism or at least collective action was not dead. I n 1866 high wages were still a common complaint. 16 It was felt that high wages m a d e it difficult for U t a h ' s production to compete with goods from other states and territories. This presumed inability to compete ^Deseret News, August 1, 1855. 13 Ibid., February 1, 1865. M "Journal History," September 17, 1866.

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meant that the people would purchase goods from Gentile importers rather than Mormon craftsmen thus retarding the balanced, self-sufficient economic development of Mormondom. Deseret was still apparently far from being economically independent from the rest of the country. On May 27, 1868, the Deseret News recognized the growing conflict between capital and labor, appealing for a Christian approach to its resolution : T h r o u g h o u t the world there is a struggle for p o w e r a n d s u p r e m a c y between capital a n d labor. C a p i t a l seeks to h a v e labor helplessly in its power, tied h a n d a n d foot so to speak, a n d entirely subservient to its will. A n d labor, to find a n equality, resorts to every m e a n s in its p o w e r to successfully c o m b a t capital. . . . A result of this is class combinations. Capitalists u n i t e together to m a k e terms for t h e laborer. W o r k m e n form societies a n d d e m a n d terms from the employer. . . . . . . T h e gospel h a s to remove the cause of every existing w r o n g , to h e a l u p the w o u n d s of society, to i n t r o d u c e correct feeling, brotherly love. . . . W e are looking for a d a y . . . w h e n the O r d e r of E n o c h shall be established . . . for C a p i t a l m u s t deal by labor, as it w o u l d wish to be d o n e by . . . a n d labor m u s t learn to act in the same m a n n e r . 1 7

This balanced approach to the labor question was not to last. The friction between the church and labor unions was to grow as Mormon workers joined with outsiders, as the church became more and more persecuted, as the church as an employer came face to face with union demands, and as closed shops (often excluding church members) became more and more prevalent. By 1869 there was so much concern that the newly organized School of the Prophets took action to induce the mechanics to agree to a lowering of their wages, and Brigham Young and other church leaders took an active interest in this movement. 18 T h e late 1860s and the 1870s marked a breaking point in the relationship between worker organizations and the Mormon church. There is no reason to believe that there was any strong antagonism to that point, at least not until the confrontations of 1864â&#x20AC;&#x201D;66 over wages. In fact, the evidence would seem to indicate a compatability. Previous to the entry of railroaders and miners the population was homogeneous, practically all Mormon, and LDS leaders maintained considerable influence over the fledgling worker organizations. T h e Gentile "invasion" was yet to 17

Deseret News, M a y 27, 1868. L e o n a r d J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day 1830-1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: H a r v a r d University Press, 1958), p p . 2 4 5 - 5 1 .

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come, and there was still confidence that Utah was a sanctuary for Mormons, who largely came from the oppressed agricultural and industrial classes, engaged in building up Zion. The church leaders, expressing themselves through the Deseret News and in conferences, were certain that the church and its politico-economic institutions constituted the answer to the social and economic evils that had become a part of capitalism. It would appear that in the early support of the various worker associations, Mormon leaders hoped they could be instruments of economic control by the church. They felt that there was no need to go outside of the church and its organization for any social, political, economic, or religious purpose. Zion was to be self-contained and free from the world. It may well have been the confrontations of 1864-66 that convinced President Young that his hope for economic influence over Zion through control of the craft guilds could not be maintained. On the other hand, the confrontations could well have convinced some craftsmen that they would need to exercise independence, at least in secular affairs, from ecclesiastical authority. Evidence of this independence may be seen in the national chartering of the Deseret Typographical Union, Local 115, in 1868. With the organization of the printers local, that guild, at least, may be said to have been transformed into a full-fledged union. It also demonstrated the evolutionary character of many unions of the period. The business unionism of the later decades of the nineteenth century often found its roots in the local reform unionism and guilds of the first half of that century. However, as unionization proceeded, it was found necessary to become affiliated with national organizations. As markets expanded, workers came into competition with each other. Unrestricted competition drove wages down and often emasculated the crafts as they were broken up into components for greater efficiency. The functions could then be taken over, in large measure, by semiskilled workers or machinery. To protect their crafts and their perquisites, locals united into national unions. This the printers of Deseret accomplished in 1868. For Zion's craft organizations this trend proved troublesome, for the religious motivation and influence characteristic of earlier years would now suffer as the local unions merged their interests with those of the national unions. The LDS church would affect the decisions and actions of the unions less and less, understandably creating some apprehension on the part of Mormon leaders who were somewhat protective

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of their positions of influence and whose vision was still one of a theocratic Zion. T h e new outside affiliations represented a breakdown of Zionic hopes. Separateness was to be the wave of the future, not only for M o r m o n workers but also for M o r m o n professional and business groups. T h e affiliation of the printers with the national union indicates that the religiously motivated and influenced printers guild was not adequately representing the interests of its members, at least in their view. It must be remembered that this affiliation took place before the intrusion of Gentile or n o n - M o r m o n unionism and was dominated, if not monopolized, by Latter-day Saints. T h e break in the encouragement of worker organizations by the L D S church was not isolated but was p a r t of a general Retrenchment by Brigham Young and other church leaders in 1868-69. With the coming of the railroads, they anticipated a substantial influx of nonMormons. It was possible that non-Mormons might even become a dominant influence, bringing with t h e m the ways of the world, an influence that could break down the cohesiveness of the Saints as well as the moral fiber of the community. This concern brought about a movement called Retrenchment, an attempt to reconvert the Saints and to isolate themâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;politically, socially, a n d economicallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from the growing n u m b e r of Gentiles in their midst. O n e means of implementing Retrenchment was the M o r m o n cooperative movement of which the Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution was the parent organization. M o r m o n businessmen were expected to deal only with M o r m o n businessmen a n d Z C M I . Strong social and economic sanctions were used to enforce a policy of not trading with the Gentile community. O n e reaction to this policy was the Godbeite heresy, which led to the disaffection and eventual excommunication of a number of M o r m o n businessmen, intellectuals, and some church leaders. M o r m o n unionists were caught in the middle. T h e growing antagonism between the M o r m o n and n o n - M o r m o n communities is seen in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune of December 23, 1871, in which a n o n - M o r m o n criticized Mormons for being clannish. T h e article t h e n recommended t h a t Gentiles should do likewise, acting in concert. T h e writer further suggested that the mines would serve as a haven for Gentiles; they would be well received there. T h e Tribune also saw union activity as " a n indication of the growing independence of workingmen a n d as evidence of the widening breach betwen the C h u r c h and State." 19 T h e very fact that the now firmly established anti-Mormon 19

Salt Lake Tribune, May 27, 1872.

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Tribune was championing the labor movement as an instrument for driving a wedge between the people and the Mormon church in itself helped to make the church leadership and devout members skeptical of trade unionism. But, in addition, the publication of such a notion indicates that some breach between union and church may have already occurred. Nevertheless, some union members were ambivalent, as may be seen in the case of Robert Gibson Sleater, a charter member of the Deseret Typographical Union, Local 115. In 1869 Sleater, in addition to his work as a typographer, was associated with George D. Watt, a church reporter and clerk to Brigham Young, in a commission merchant business in Salt Lake City. A victim of Retrenchment, the business was boycotted because of its dealings with the Gentile community. Watt became disaffected and eventually was excommunicated. Sleater remained loyal to the church and to Brigham Young despite this financial loss. In 1871 Sleater, as president of Local 115, signed one of the first strike orders in Utah, forbidding union members from working in the Salt Lake Tribune office until further notice. The order, published in the Tribune November 7, was branded as unauthorized by some members of the local who published their own, larger notice. The newspaper made wry comments in its local news column on this split in the union ranks. Whatever the outcome of the strike, Sleater's standing as a union official was not impaired. In 1872 Local 115 sent him as a delegate to the national convention of the International Typographical Union where he was elected a national vice-president.20 The following year, with the blessing of Brigham Young, he went to Provo where with others he became the publisher and editor of Utah County's first newspaper. As such he followed, almost slavishly, the editorial policy of the Deseret News during the newspaper war with the Salt Lake Tribune and other antiMormon publications. He returned to Salt Lake following the death of Brigham Young in 1877, rising to prominence in the Utah labor movement, the International Typographical Union, and even the American Federation of Labor. 21 DEPRESSION AND T H E U N I T E D ORDER

The winter of 1873 was a bad one economicallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in the territory as well as the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;initiating a depression that was to last until 1879. 20

I.T.U. Convention Proceedings, 1872. J. K e n n e t h Davies, "Robert Gibson Sleater, Pioneer Mormon Union Leader," u n p u b lished article in author's possession. 21

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Unemployment was widespread with a resulting downward pressure on wages. Evidently, employers were, despite the unemployment, seeking even greater power to drive wages down by advertising for additional craftsmen to move into Salt Lake City. O n M a r c h 24, 1874, two hundred workingmen assembled in Independence Hall in Salt Lake to protest a statement in the Salt Lake Herald, a Mormon-controlled newspaper, that "there is employment in this city for outside mechanics." T h e Herald statement seems to have emanated from a M o r m o n building contractor and self-styled capitalist, Nicholas Groesbeck. Apparently, he h a d attempted to p u t into practice the goal of the School of the Prophets to reduce wages by a third to a half, a policy strongly attacked by the apostate Godbeites associated with the Tribune.22 O n e man, S.H. Carlisle of the stonecutters, a somewhat rebellious ex-Mormon and a Godbeite, was vocal in condemning President Young's reported plan to reduce mechanics' wages to $1.50 and laborers' to 75 cents per day. T h e chairman of the workers' meeting was James Stevens, a carpenter and a member of the L D S church, with Edward Tyson, a nonM o r m o n who represented the plasterers, as secretary. 23 A resolution committee was n a m e d to express the sense of the meeting. T h e resolution that was adopted read in p a r t : . . . Resolved, T h a t we, the workingmen of Salt Lake, in mass meeting assembled do most emphatically denounce the policy of inviting an outside laboring population into our midst to flood the labor market, as being inimical to their interest and our own. Resolved, T h a t it is the expressed sense of this meeting that the labor market has been overstocked for at least two years, and that at no time has the demand been equal to the supply. 24

Outside of the criticism of the reported wage-cutting policy of Brigh a m Young, the meeting demonstrated little animosity toward the church. Even though the meeting was dominated numerically by nonMormons, some leaders and representatives were not antagonistic tow a r d the church and did not want the meeting to get involved in an attack on it. At least one of these leaders, James Watson, became a bishop a few years later. T h e hope for a permanent city federation of unions soon died out, the apparent victim of depression and the apathy toward trade union activity usually associated with it. 22

The Godbeites were apostate Mormons who, in the 1870s, attempted to reform the church and to maintain economic, social, and political ties with the non-Mormon community. 23 Salt Lake Tribune, March 24, 1874. 24 Ibid.

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A big change had come over the worker movement since the 1860s. The earlier movement had been dominated by Mormons, By contrast, the 1874 workers' protest meeting, although chaired by a Mormon, was noted for the paucity of church members. Of the twenty-one major participants known by name, only six or 28.6 percent were known to be Latterday Saints.25 This trend was not so marked in other cases. The Mormon domination of the typographers, for example, was no doubt diluted by the creation of the anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribune whose employees had become members of the local; but in 1879 the local leadership was still dominated by Mormons. Of the seven officers that year, at least five were Mormons, a decline since 1868. The local president, Henry McEwan, was a devout church member, and the local was still named Deseret.26 There was little known union activity from 1874 to 1879. In a survey of the Tribuneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Salt Lake newspaper most likely to print labor newsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;for the years 1875 and 1876 no labor news items were found. In the 1876-79 period the only published labor news concerned union activity in the mining industry. 27 T h e virtual collapse of the trade union movement in the 1874-79 period could have been predicted from a purely historical perspective. Certainly it is not surprising to contemporary students of labor history. During prosperity, unions flourished. The opposite was true during recession. With profits low, employers could not afford to give in to union demands, and they would just as soon lose some of their workers anyway. Consequently, unions had little success in improving worker benefits. In turn, the workers, seeing little value in union membership, tended to drop out. This scenario appears to have been generally valid for the 1875-79 period in Utah. One response to the depression was the Mormon church's United Order movement, commencing in the spring of 1874. Patterned somewhat after an experimental effort in Brigham City, about two hundred Orders were established that year, most of them being general or undifferentiated communitywide organizations. Also associated with the United Order movement were the as yet relatively little known specialty United Orders, producing single or closely related products and composed of workers and management controlled through the church priest25

Biographical d a t a on these men, compiled from various sources, is in the author's files. â&#x201E;˘I.T.U. Convention Proceedings, 1879-86. 2T Survey of the Salt Lake Tribune for 1879 in author's files.

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hood. The formation of these specialties and crafts was more often found in the urban wards in Ogden and Salt Lake City but also in such smaller towns as St. George and Logan. For example, United Orders for brickmakers and shoemakers were established in St. George in June 1874 and in the Salt Lake Twentieth Ward in October of that year. A tannery Order was established at Farmington September 26, 1874. On July 17, 1874, the United Order of Tailors of Salt Lake City was organized, and reportedly became one of the leading tailoring establishments in Salt Lake City.28 T h e United Orders cut down the number of potential Mormon members of conventional unions and had the specific effect of drawing Mormons, both members and leaders, from whatever unions remained after the onset of the depression beginning in 1874. Thus, these unions largely came under the control of non-Mormons and/or the less devout members of the church. The movement was short-lived. By the death of Brigham Young in 1877 few United Orders remained, most of them evidently being the specialty type. By 1886 the remaining United Orders had either collapsed, been converted into conventional cooperatives, or had become strictly private enterprises. 29 The St. George Builders Union provides a good example of an occupational specialty associated with the United Orders. On June 6, 1877, members of the St. George United Order, under the direction of the stake presidency, organized the union "to promote our interests and those of the community." Wages were to be fixed or controlled by the union, similar to attempts of secular unions. The disposition of any surplus of union receipts was to be made as directed by the union and the priesthood, no member having any claim to them. 30 Similar to the Deseret Typographical Association in 1855, the builders had a closed union, only LDS church members being allowed to join. All union members were required to sign the articles of agreement and could be expelled by a two-thirds vote for "an act detrimental or prejudicial to the interests of the union." The presiding officer (superintendent) was assisted by foremen over each department of work. All were elected to office by the union membership and were to hold office as long as willing to serve or until rejected by a two-thirds vote.31 28 29 30 31

See " J o u r n a l History" under above dates. Ibid., 1874-86. Ibid., J u n e 6, 1877; Manuscript History of St. George, M a r c h 27, 1877, L D S Archives. Ibid.

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Each member agreed to allow the union officers to negotiate all contracts for work and to be controlled by the officers in his labor. Meetings were held as called, except that one was scheduled for June 1 of each year for the purpose of sustaining the leaders. Any five members could require the superintendent to call a meeting. The work day was held at ten hours. Wages were to be credited for overtimeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but evidently at no premium rates. Intoxicating beverages were not to be consumed on the job.32 Most of the leaders in this organization were men who had been prominent in the construction of the St. George Tabernacle and Temple. Bishop Miles P. Romney, a son of Miles Romney, the general superintendent of construction for these church buildings and a leader of the Salt Lake Carpenters and Joiners in 1861, was elected the first superintendent of the union. RAILROADERS AND M I N E R S

As already mentioned, one reason for the shift away from the Mormon-dominated guilds of the 1850s and 1860s was the coming of the railroads in 1869 that brought a great influx of non-Mormon railroad workmen into Utah from the unionized East. Even though Mormons played a major role in the construction of railroad trackage through Utah and its approaches, these were temporary jobs. Once the tracks were laid, the workers most likely returned to their homes and usual occupations, leaving non-Mormons to control the railroad unions. Another factor influencing the changing labor scene in Utah was the mining industry. In addition to the activities of traditional, craftoriented unionism, a new form of labor organization, industrial unions, began to take shape in Utah in the 1870s. With the railroads, the economic feasibility of developing the rich ore bodies of Utah improved. Large numbers of non-Mormon miners entered the territory, diluting Mormon political and economic power, which up to that time was almost absolute. 33 Associated industries boomedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially construction and the processing of precious metals. Working conditions in the mines were abominable, health and safety standards almost nonexistent. In addition, the pay was low and uncertain. The result was organizational activity among the miners. 32

"Journal History," J u n e 10, 1877. ' Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 242.

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In 1871 miners in the Logan area attempted to organize. The effort was less than successful, due largely, it was said, to the antagonism between non-Mormons and the dominant Mormon community that looked with disfavor on typical mining town gambling, liquor, violence, and prostitution. The Salt Lake Tribune recorded that the miners were "determined to be governed by [laws] of their own making." 34 This friction probably did not differ greatly from that found whenever settled, conservative, agriculturally oriented communities felt threatened by large numbers of outsiders coming in. In this instance, Mormons were dominant and probably sought to impose their standards of morality on a mining community characterized typically by relative lawlessness. Not only did the miners organize, they were also engaged in disputes with their employers over the payment of wages. Workers were usually supposed to be paid once a month. However, if anything interfered with the company's income, it frequently refused to pay wages, saying that workers could not be paid if the company did not have the money. T h e result of miner agitation on this issue was the enactment in 1872 of a territorial miner's law that gave miners legal title to wages earned, whether company income was sufficient or not.30 This law did not necessarily guarantee payment. It only meant that workers could sue to recover wages earned but not paid. Few were in a position to do so. The mining industry, except for coal mining, was dominated by non-Mormons and those who had drawn away from the church. This characteristic developed largely because of the opposition of Brigham Young to precious metal mining by the Mormons. The church leader feared that gold and silver fever would weaken devotion to the building up of the kingdom and that greater economic security would be found in the long-run development of agriculture and industry rather than short-run, highly speculative precious metal mining. Also, mining camps were notoriously immoral. Somewhat contrary to much of the union activity in the Gentile mining communities was coal mining. In Pleasant Valley in the southeastern corner of U t a h County in central Utah, the miners engaged in a strike in 1883, indicating some form of organization. A.O. Smoot, the LDS stake president of the area, visited the valley and induced the men to return to work. Several "hostile strikers" were arrested for "intimidatM 33

April 19, 1871. Salt Lake Tribune,

April 11, 1872.

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ing their fellows." 36 It is probable that mons over whom Smoot ecclesiastically count for his influence in settling the Gentiles and Mormons was antagonistic Smoot could have induced other than work.

125 most of the strikers were Morpresided. 37 Only this would acstrike. As the feeling between at that time, it is doubtful that church members to return to

T H E K N I G H T S OF LABOR AND C H U R C H

RESISTANCE

T h e Noble O r d e r of the Knights of Labor, organized nationally in 1869, was probably introduced in U t a h in the early 1880s when local news of their activities began to appear. In 1883 the telegraphers and the tracklayers, whose unions were affiliated with the Knights, struck. T h e n in J u n e 1884 coal miners at Grass Creek, near Coalville, organized Fidelity Assembly No. 3286 of the Knights of Labor and the following June celebrated their first anniversary. Of the thirty-six participants at least half were Mormon. Several months later, on August 18, 1885, the Knights, in a communication from Ogden signed by a Committee of Knights of Labor, opposed the importation of Chinese labor. Although the Deseret News was also opposed to the importation of Chinese labor, it decried the violence used by some of the Knights to exclude them. In 1886-87 the Knights formed a District Assembly, and by 1888 membership in this national federation of unions reportedly reached a peak of about eleven hundred in Utah. 3 8 It might seem, given certain similarities in the economic programs of the Knights and the LDS churchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both encouraged cooperation, education, and arbitration, eschewing strikesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that they could harmonize their efforts. However, a number of factors interfered. First, although the Knights' national leaders opposed strikes and violence, they were not able to control local assemblies. T h e only power they had was moral suasion, and that was insufficient to control rebellious local groups. Violent mob action often ensued where the Knights were involved, something Mormon leaders feared. A second factor was the church's general policy of avoiding involvement with Gentiles during the 1870s and 1880s. There was no reason to make an exception to this policy for the Knights. Third, both organiza30

Millennial Star 45(1883) : 174. branch of the church existed in Pleasant Valley at that time. Salt Lake Tribune, June 16, 1885; Ogden Daily Herald, August 18, 1885; Edward L. Christensen "The Development and Stature of the Utah Industrial Council" (Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1939), pp. 21, 55-67. 37 A 38

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tions h a d a high degree of secrecy connected with them. C h u r c h temple services were not open to the public nor were Knight meetings. T h e very existence of secrecy generated suspicion on both sides. Fourth, the Knights basically represented workers, whereas the church represented members as workers a n d as employers a n d was itself an employer, creating an obvious conflict. A fifth possible stumbling block m a y have been t h a t M o r m o n leaders considered the producers' cooperatives of the Knights as counterfeits of the Lord's cooperative economic program, created to deceive the people. Sixth, the Knights opposed polygamy and statehood during the time the church was fighting against extinction at the hands of antipolygamy forces. This automatically placed the Knights in the c a m p of the enemy, at least in the minds of the M o r m o n leaders. Early in 1886 the editors of the Deseret News advised the Saints not to become members of any secret society including t h e Knights. 3 9 Later t h a t year the Salt Lake City Knights, which retained vestiges of secrecy, retaliated by passing a resolution proposing to exclude polygamists from union membership. 4 0 T h e Deseret News reacted: " T h e r e may be a few stragglers professing to be members of the C h u r c h w h o have identified themselves with the movement thus far, but doubtless they could almost be counted on the fingers. A n d even they are probably of doubtful faith a n d standing." 41 This conclusion must have h u r t devout church members within the Knights, but it was a conclusion t h a t would gain in currency within the church and be extended to cover unions in general. O n September 11, 1886, a reply to the News editorial was m a d e , signed anonymously by " V i n d e x " w h o averred t h a t there were m a n y church m e m b e r s associated with the Knights. H e went on to enunciate the principles of the Knights, m a n y of which the Deseret News supported in reply. I n addition, " V i n d e x " informed the editors t h a t forces within the Knights h a d been able to eliminate the a n t i - M o r m o n resolution, evidence of the probable numerical importance of active M o r m o n s in that organization. 4 2 It m a y also reflect the continued substantial role of Latter-day Saints in t h e typographical union and p e r h a p s the influence of the polygamous R. G. Sleater. 39

Deseret News, May 10, 1886. Salt Lake Tribune, August 22, 1886. 41 Deseret News, August 30, 1886. 42 This action did not prevent Utah Knights' delegates to the national convention that year from submitting a similar resolution as well as one opposing statehood for U t a h which Mormon leaders were seeking. 40

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T h e M o r m o n leaders undoubtedly remained skeptical of this outside organization with which some church members h a d become associated and over which church leaders h a d little direct influence. This skepticism was no doubt enhanced by the violence then accompanying mLich Knights' activity in U t a h and the West, especially in Wyoming. O n e student of the U t a h labor scene has concluded that T h e Knights of Labor uprising in U t a h planted the seeds of Church opposition to organized labor. It was the first known time that the C h u r c h came so close to forbidding its members from taking part in activities of labor organizations akin to "secret combinations" such as the Knights of Labor. T h e Church vehemently denounced all the radical methods to achieve goals of labor though at times it was verbally quite sympathetic to the cause of labor. . . . As there was no place whatsoever for radical philosophies in the theological teaching of the M o r m o n Church, these labor organizations were naturally looked upon with caution. Afterwards, the C h u r c h always remained on guard whenever confronted by a labor question. . . . O u t of this general environment of the late 1880s was born a conservative (union) leadership that dominated the ( U t a h ) labor movement. 4 3 SECULARIZATION I S

ACHIEVED

O n e of the best documented cases in the secularization of the union movement may be seen in the typographers. As already indicated, when Local 115 was chartered by the National Typographical Association in 1868, at least 80 percent of the charter members a n d officers were Latterday Saints. I n 1879, of the eleven different officers and executive committee members, nine, or 81 percent were known church members. By 1885 the figures were four out of six (67 percent) ; in 1886, 33 percent and in 1887, 22 percent of the local union officers were known Latterday Saints. T h e known Local 115 presidents u p to 1885 were M o r m o n s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; H e n r y M c E w a n , an active, devout church m e m b e r frequently employed by the Deseret News, and Robert Gibson Sleater, also a member. In 1886 H . L. White, whose religious affiliation is unknown, became local president. I n that same year, when the president and a majority of the officers were probably non-Mormon, the local's n a m e was changed from Deseret Local 115 to Salt Lake Local 115. 44 Although the religious affiliation of the local's members has not yet been ascertained, most were probably non-Mormon. T h e local h a d regis43

Sheelwant Bapurao Pawar, "An Environmental Study of the Utah Labor Movement" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1968), p. 104. 4i I.T.U. Convention Reports, 1886.

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tered a considerable increase in membership, growing from fourteen in 1880 to fifty in 1886. This increase could have taken place only from a heavy influx of typographers, mostly non-Mormon, from outside U t a h . I n 1886 alone, twenty-two union members were admitted to the local by c a r d â&#x20AC;&#x201D; t h a t is, h a d transferred into the local. 45 This n o n - M o r m o n domination of Local 115 became even more evident in 1890 when the local leadership, supported by the International Typographical Union organizer, decided to take on the Deseret News, which h a d maintained an open shop policy. Until that time, that newspaper's employees were free to belong to the union or not, and local union members were free to work for the Deseret News, even though they might be working alongside nonunion men, a violation of the principles of the union. T h a t year the union decided on a showdown, with the international organizer visiting both News and church officials. T h e union official reported to the I T U convention of that year that he h a d thought he had the support of church officials, but "the business manager threw obstacles in the way and . . . his influence arrayed the board of directors against any change. . . . " T h e employees, w h o h a d reportedly favored affiliation, suddenly turned against the tmion, "remaining with the Deseret News claiming no benefit outside the M o r m o n C h u r c h would be commensurate with union membership. All of this doubtless inspired by the business manager." As a result, Local 115 declared that the News was "closed to union men and such union men as were at present employed be called out . . . (with) but one remaining in the office so called out. . . ." 4C This confrontation was most significant as the typographers h a d previously been in a position to mediate differences between the church and the unions. T h e lines having been drawn, they were no longer in such a position. By 1889 the unionization of U t a h workers h a d developed to the extent t h a t there were about twenty local unions in Salt Lake City, m a n y of them associated with national unions. Fourteen of these unions representing twenty-four h u n d r e d men organized into a central body, the Federated Trades and Labor Council, under R. G. Sleater's leadership. 4 7 Of the original sixteen officers, board, and executive committee members, at least seven were Mormons, W h a t the exact relationship of these locals was to the Knights of Labor vis-a-vis the American Federation of Labor " Ibid. * c lbid., 1890. 47 Lee Scorup, "Organized Labor in U t a h " (Master's thesis, University of Utah, 1935), p. 10.

Uniformed members of three unions displayed their strength and pride, probably prior to a Labor Day parade ca. 1920 in Salt Lake City. Flags and representations of Uncle Sam stressed patriotism. Local 27 of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, top, posed on Pierpont Avenue between West Temple and 200 West. Also shown are Local 231 of the Iron Moulders Union, center, and Local 68 of what is presently called the Plasterers and Cement Masons Union. Utah State Historical Society collections, courtesy Shiplers.

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remains uncertain. From 1881 to 1886 the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the national level h a d attempted to live side by side. T h e Knights, in theory, were organized as a single union composed of all trades; the federation consisted of autonomous nationals and internationals. By 1886 the leaders of both national organizations realized that they could not coexist. Dual association was impossible. Nationals and members had to make a choice. T h e year 1886 is usually dated as the zenith of the Knights, with the American Federation of Labor ( A F L ) , created at the 1886 convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, henceforth gaining ascendency and becoming the dominant, overarching federation as the Knights sank into oblivion. T h e use of the n a m e Federated Trades and Labor Council in U t a h indicates at least a philosophical alliance with the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, the predecessor of the A F L . However, U t a h was not represented at that group's national conventions in the 1881-86 period. T h e desertion of the U t a h trade unions from the Knights may well have been influenced by the conflict between the Knights and the M o r m o n church leadership. Active Latter-day Saints would have had a tendency to eschew the Knights in the face of church criticism, finding a more comfortable home with the Federated Trades. I n December 1889 U t a h and Salt Lake City were represented by R. G. Sleater at the convention of the fledgling American Federation of Labor held in Boston. 48 U t a h was one of the earliest city or state-territory central federations to be so represented and was actually the only territory represented in the A F L . It appears that no other Utahns attended an A F L convention until 1896 when George A. Whitaker, a non-Mormon cigarmaker from Salt Lake, represented the Cigarmakers International Union. Although Sleater participated in the 1889 A F L convention as a representative of the U t a h Federated Trades and Labor Council and was an organizer for the A F L in 1891-92, the first evidence of official association with the body as a constituent member was in 1893 when a charter was granted by Samuel Gompers, A F L president. I n 1890 Sleater attempted to create an alliance between Mormons a n d unionists in the formation of the Workingmen's party in the Salt Lake County elections of that year. T h e anti-Mormon Liberal party h a d achieved sufficient strength to seriously challenge domination of county offices by Mormons. T o answer that challenge, the M o r m o n People's 48

A.F.L.

Convention

Report,

1889.

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party, which h a d dominated the political scene, and the Workingmen's party, evidently created by Sleater for the occasion, collaborated in the formation of a common ticket. This action—to which neither the typographers nor the U t a h Federated Trades had evidently been privy— produced strong union reaction, and Sleater became the object of vigorous verbal and written attack by fellow unionists. 49 T h e collaboration proved ineffective—perhaps even counterproductive. T h e Workingmen-People's party ticket was defeated and Sleater's leadership in the union movement seriously challenged, although he was to spring back in 1896 as the first president of the new U t a h Federation of Labor which superseded the old council following the depression of 1893-95. 5 0 T h e defeat of the Mormon-worker alliance constituted one more element in the secularization of the U t a h labor movement. Direct M o r m o n influence was certainly on the wane. O n e final piece of evidence of the secularization of the U t a h labor movement is in the composite of U t a h ' s known union leaders in 1890. Of the thirty different leaders of the U t a h Federated Trades and local unions listed in the Salt Lake City Directory of that year, only twelve, or 40 percent, have thus far been identified as Mormons compared with 96 percent in 1861. 51 However, the importance of L D S church members in the established union movement is seen in the fact that four of the six officers of the federation itself were Mormons. S U M M A R Y AND

CONCLUSIONS

T h e following factors were probably the most significant in the secularization of the U t a h labor movement between 1852 and 1896: 1. T h e heavy influx of non-Mormon workmen associated with the mining and railroad industries as well as the construction unions and, eventually, the typographical union. 2. T h e radical, sometimes violent, activities of the Knights of Labor, railroaders, and miners. 3. T h e insistence upon closed shops by conservative unions. 4. T h e firm resistance of the M o r m o n church to closed shops when controlled by unions. 5. T h e anti-polygamy campaign of the late 1880s that polarized the Mormon and non-Mormon communities and with which the Knights became openly involved, albeit temporarily, against the church. 49

Salt Lake Tribune, August 4, 1890; Pawar, "An Environmental Study," p. 136. See the Salt Lake City directories for the years 1894—96. 51 Mormons were identified through data in the LDS Genealogical Library.

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6. T h e organization of cooperatives and United Orders that drew off many Latter-day Saints from the budding union movement, depriving local unions of Mormon leadership and membership. 7. T h e strong public pronouncements of L D S leaders against unions and union activities that influenced some active church members to leave union activity. 8. T h e emasculation of the Mormon politico-economic system. T h e People's party was defeated in the Mormon capital and the United Orders either disappeared or were absorbed by private Mormon capitalists. Non-Mormon capital came to dominate the territory. Therefore, Mormon workmen, except the few working for church-owned business houses, were secularized. They were no longer working directly toward the building of the kingdom in their occupational pursuits, although they could work indirectly for such through contributions to the church. Even church-owned business houses accommodated themselves to the secularized business world, adjusting business practices to those of the Gentile community. 9. By the time the U t a h economy had become secularized, the Mormon leadership had established a negative posture toward unionism, and devout Mormons who obeyed counsel were not as free to join the worker movement as they had been in the days of its infancy. Therefore, nonMormons came to dominate. 10. Many relatively conservative Mormons were undoubtedly turned off by the rambunctious, intimidating posture of a union movement beginning to feel its oats. Strikes, demonstrations, picketing, demands, and sometimes even violence were foreign to most of the Mormons in the work force, many of whom had only recently come from quiet farming villages and espoused nonviolent Christianity. 11. T h e few M o r m o n union leaders who remained were in a most difficult situation. Unions were highly democratic, and union leaders had to respond to worker demands to stay in office. If the M o r m o n union leader responded to worker demands to the point of confrontation with businessmen who were church leaders or who were supported by the church hierarchy, they were considered as rebels against "constituted authority." O n the other hand if they "obeyed counsel" against the perceived interests of the workers, they would lose all influence within the. union movement. Only the very strongest and most devout of men could stand up to the pressures of such a dilemma. 12. Once the local unions became associated in national union activities, their sovereignty became limited as their goals and practices merged with those of their union brothers throughout the country. Even in the absence of compulsion this merger of interests would take place as the new influence of unionists from outside the community became felt.

T h e process of secularization represents a breakdown in the singular control or influence of a religious body over an institution, such control

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or influence passing to a number of nonreligious forces. For secularization to take place requires the following: the introduction of pertinent nonreligious influences and controls of sufficient strength to be self-sustaining; the weakening or redirection of the influence of religious authorities over the institution through removal of the singular influence, dilution of the power of the singular influence, separation of the institution's members and leaders from the religious body, a n d / o r the purposeful decision of the religious body to secularize the institution; the bifurcation of goalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the goals of the religious body moving in one direction and those of the associated institution moving in a different and incompatible direction. These conditions for secularization existed in the relationship of the U t a h labor movement to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 1800s. I n the 1850s the singular power and influence of the church in Deseret h a d created a religiously oriented worker movement. With the 1860s a number of nonreligious forces began to make themselves felt. In the early years of that decade, war-induced inflation began to affect worker goals, as was true of the unemployment associated with the depression of the 1870s. With the coming of the railroads in 1869 and the opening u p of the mining industry in the 1870s, non-Mormon workers were introduced into the community in great numbers bringing different cultural values, as was also true of many craftsmen who entered the area in support of the expanding economy in the 1870s a n d 1880s. As previously localized worker groups became associated with the national union movement, especially in the 1880s and thereafter, they came under first the influence and then the control of secular or nonreligiously oriented forces. Church leaders hastened the secularization of the worker movement by the organization of the cooperatives, then the United Orders, and finally the Board of T r a d e movement of the 1869â&#x20AC;&#x201D;86 period, attracting M o r m o n workers out of the unions and thus reducing the influence of devout Mormons on the budding union movement. T h e church policy of nonintercourse with the non-Mormon community in the 1870s, although strengthening some Saints, induced others to pursue a course in opposition to the church policy, hastening separation for them. T h e attacks against independent worker organizations by M o r m o n representatives beginning in the late 1880s aggravated the separation from the church of some union members. At the same time, the insistence of some

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unions on the use of violence a n d of others on the establishment of closed shops served to bifurcate goals. T h e bifurcation of goals was completed with the political a n d business secularization of the 1890s. T o achieve statehood, L D S c h u r c h leaders agreed to political secularization. C h u r c h leaders m a y also have agreed to t h e secularization of the business life of the community. If so, such agreement only hastened w h a t was already taking place with t h e demise of the m a j o r c h u r c h economic p r o g r a m s a n d the ascendency of private capitalism, with the organizationally and economically superior corporation as its chief economic advantage. M o r m o n w o r k m e n were thus divested of the protection of a church economic p r o g r a m , losing their role as Zion's w o r k m e n building the kingdom. T h e y became t h e employees of three kinds of secularized businesses: n o n - M o r m o n capitalists, M o r m o n capitalists, a n d church-owned businesses operating in competition with private capitalists, all of t h e m receiving the sanction a n d blessing of c h u r c h leaders. Although the workers h a d the goal of personal economic improvement, their employers h a d the goal of profits. Not necessarily incompatible, the two differing goals generally were in t h a t period. Employers almost universally viewed increased economic benefits to workers as reducing their profits. By statehood in 1896 all of the requirements for the secularization of U t a h labor h a d been met. But labor was not alone. T h e religiously directed political a n d business life of the c o m m u n i t y h a d likewise been secularized, a n d the educational institutions were well on the way to secularization. Only the c h u r c h itself a n d the social life it fostered through t h e intense c h u r c h involvement of its m e m b e r s h i p remained religiously directed. Officers of the Utah Federation of Labor prior to the 1904 Labor Day parade. From the left: Thomas Watkins, treasurer (from Local 184 of the carpenters); John Osborne, financial secretary (from Local 115 of the typographers) ; H. B. Cromar, president (from Local 19 of the plumbers) ; J. T. Lavery, recording secretary (from Local 27 of the iron workers) ; and Charles M. Vinson, parade grand marshal. Utah State Historical Society collections.

* CUTTING

OFF THE SUPEBTLUOUS

GROWTH?"

Utah and the Nationwide Coal Miners' Strike of 1922 BY ALLAN K E N T POWELL Cartoon from the Sun (Price), 1922.

1918, FOURTEEN YEARS after the withdrawal of the United Mine Workers of America from the Carbon County coal fields following its IN

Dr. Powell is preservation historian with the Utah State Historical Society.

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defeat d u r i n g t h e 1903â&#x20AC;&#x201D;4 U t a h coal m i n e r s ' strike, 1 organizers from U M W A District 15 in C o l o r a d o r e t u r n e d to U t a h to recruit m e m b e r s for t h e n a t i o n a l g r o u p . D u r i n g 1918 a n d 1919 local unions w e r e established a n d foundations laid for a viable coal m i n e r s ' organization. H o w e v e r , unionization efforts w e r e h i n d e r e d in U t a h by d i s a g r e e m e n t s b e t w e e n local u n i o n m e m b e r s a n d District 15 officials. T h e p r o b l e m s led t h e U t a h m i n e r s t o petition U M W A P r e s i d e n t J o h n L. Lewis t h a t U t a h be reassigned to District 22, w h i c h comprised t h e W y o m i n g coal fields. T h e request w a s g r a n t e d a n d on J u l y 1, 1921, U t a h was transferred t o District 22. T h e challenge t o c o m p l e t e t h e organization of t h e U t a h coal fields w a s t a k e n seriously by W y o m i n g u n i o n officials; a n d w i t h i n a short t i m e organizers arrived, b r i n g i n g n e w life to t h e six U t a h locals t h a t h a d b e e n d o r m a n t since t h e end of 1919. 2 T h i s effort by District 22 coincided w i t h p r e p a r a t i o n s for a n a t i o n w i d e coal strike t h a t a p p e a r e d inevitable as m i n e o p e r a t o r s insisted t h a t wages w o u l d h a v e to be r e d u c e d following t h e e x p i r a t i o n of c o n t r a c t s o n A p r i l 1, 1922. As the-strike d e a d l i n e d r e w n e a r t h e strength of t h e U n i t e d M i n e W o r k e r s in U t a h was u n c l e a r . A C a r b o n C o u n t y n e w s p a p e r r e p o r t e d : " I n view of t h e lack of i n f o r m a t i o n c o n c e r n i n g t h e extent to w h i c h t h e U t a h fields h a v e b e e n e n t e r e d by organizers in recent weeks, a n d t h e possible effect of such efforts, even t h e o p e r a t o r s hesitate to m a k e any clear-cut prediction as to just w h a t will o c c u r . " 3 If t h e coal o p e r a t o r s w e r e u n s u r e a b o u t u n i o n s t r e n g t h in eastern U t a h , so w e r e U M W A officials. W h e n t h e n a t i o n w i d e strike w a s called for A p r i l 1, U t a h w a s n o t i n c l u d e d in t h e strike order. H o w e v e r , w h e n a r e d u c e d w a g e scale was p u t into effect on A p r i l 1 a large p e r c e n t a g e of t h e S p r i n g C a n y o n m i n e r s w a l k e d out. T h e y w e r e followed by w o r k e r s from C l e a r Creek, W i n t e r Q u a r t e r s , Scofield, K e n i l w o r t h , Castle G a t e , a n d R o l a p p . U n d e r those circumstances District 22 w a s requested to assist t h e striking miners a n d c o m p l e t e t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n of t h e U t a h coal fields. 4 1 For a n a c c o u n t of this strike see Allan K e n t Powell, " T h e 'Foreign Element' a n d the 1 9 0 3 - 4 C a r b o n C o u n t y Coal M i n e r s ' Strike," Utah Historical Quarterly 43 ( 1 9 7 5 ) : 1 2 5 - 5 4 . F o r a n excellent a c c o u n t of the 1922 strike emphasizing the Greek involvement see H e l e n Zeese Papanikolas, Toil and Rage in a New Land: The Greek Immigrants in Utah, published as Utah Historical Quarterly 38 ( 1 9 7 0 ) : 1 6 6 - 7 5 . 2 For a discussion of the organizing activities a n d difficulties between U t a h miners a n d District 15 officials see Allan K e n t Powell, " A History of L a b o r U n i o n Activity in the Eastern U t a h Coal Fields: 1 9 0 0 - 1 9 3 4 " ( P h . D . diss., University of U t a h , 1 9 7 6 ) , p p . 1 8 6 - 2 0 2 . "Sun ( P r i c e ) , M a r c h 24, 1922. 4 Samuel A. K i n g , " U t a h S t a t e m e n t a n d Brief C o n c e r n i n g the C a m p a i g n of the Coal O p e r a t o r s of U t a h against L a b o r a n d the Unionizing of t h e U t a h Coal Fields," July 1923, p p . 4_5 ? copy at the U t a h State Historical Society, Salt L a k e City.

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T h e reduced wage scaleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the initial reason for the U t a h strikeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; represented a loss of approximately 30 percent of miner income. Wages for the day laborers were dropped from $7.95 to $5.25 per day while rates for mined coal were reduced from 79 cents to 55 cents per ton. 5 In addition, such long-standing grievances as cheating by the coal companies at the weighing scales, high rents for company housing, favoritism, and other abuses by the coal companies became issues in the strike. By the fourth week of the strike it was estimated that the work force h a d been reduced 70 percent. 6 T h e coal mine operators responded in a variety of ways to the initial threat of a strike and, later, to the strike itself. I n an effort to ease the impact of wage reductions, mine owners lowered the cost of renting company houses, reduced the cost of coal to miners, and decreased the charge for mining supplies such as powder and fuses.7 However, the cost of coal to consumers was not changed and the 15 percent reduction in housing, coal, and supplies was greatly overshadowed by the 30 percent wage cut. M i n e owners publicly denied t h a t there was any discrimination against union men, stating that " t h e question of union membership enters into the question of employment no more t h a n does the man's religious belief." 8 Later, after the strike was in full swing the coal operators' position was somewhat reversed as they declared t h a t they would "never reemploy any of the m e n who h a d fomented and perpetuated the present difficulty." 9 T h e operators announced that coal production was continuing at a level necessary to meet the market d e m a n d ; and although there were m a n y out on strike, those w h o w a n t e d to work were now getting five days a week instead of the usual three as was the case before the strike began. U n i o n officials countered t h a t even though the coal companies were continuing to ship coal, 80 percent of it was from supplies stored before the strike began. 10 W i t h the t h r e a t of a strike, mine guards were employed to keep careful watch on company property and, after the strike began, to maintain deadlines along the edge of public lands. These guards were especially s

I b i d . , p. 8. â&#x20AC;˘Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 1922. 7 Ibid., April 1, 1922. 8 Sun, September 16, 1921. 9 Salt Lake Telegram, June 24, 1922. 10 Sun, April 28, 1922; Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 1922.

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troublesome to the strikers who blamed much of the difficulty on them, noting that the guards were "always of a domineering disposition and their general attitude was of a character which would provoke trouble any place in the United States." al The mine guards also carried out evictions, Unmarried miners who lived in company boardinghouses were, in some cases, evicted without any chance to pack their belongings. T h e occupants of company houses were given between five and ten days to move. Businessmen who had built stores on leased coal company property and were in sympathy with the striking miners found themselves in the same situation as the evicted strikers. In addition to the guards, spies employed by the coal companies infiltrated the miners' union and kept close tabs on the activities of union leaders. 12 T h e 30 percent wage reductions were ignored by company spokesmen who argued that the Utah strike was being led by outside agitators for the sole purpose of aiding the nationwide strike and not for the benefit of the Utah miners. 13 More specifically, the procompany Price newspaper the Sun labeled the Carbon County strike a "Wyoming strike." 14 T h e News Advocatey also published in Price, suggested that union officials were promoting violence by arming the foreign element with a lot of "expensive ugly automatics." 13 When a large percentage of the foreign-born miners, especially the Greeks, joined the strike, the local papers branded them as a "bunch of vicious bulls" who had no desire to become Americanized and whose low morals and lawlessness were a curse to the country. 16 O n the other hand, the Wyoming Labor Journal concluded that the coal operators considered immigrants all right "as long as they uncomplainingly pile up wealth for their employers, but when they tire of oppression and undertake with others to obtain justice the companies begin a campaign of persecution and anti-foreigner agitation." 1T Spokesmen for the coal operators declared that the efforts of the union were first directed toward the foreign groups and explained why the organizers met with such success among them. ;11

Salt Lake Telegram, April 30, 1922. Ibid., May 1, 1922. A copy of the eviction notice of the Spring Canyon Coal Company is in the Spring Canyon Area Coal Company Records, box 3, folder 4, Special Collections, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Reports from the Globe Inspection Company's Inspector S-3 are in the same folder. See also interview of George Zoumadakis by Helen Z. Papanikolas, April 21, 1966, quoted in Papanikolas, Toil and Rage, p. 175. 13 King, "Statement and Brief," pp. 5-6. 14 Sun, July 21, 1922. 15 News Advocate, August 3, 1922. 10 Ibid., July 13, 1922. 17 Wyoming Labor Journal (Cheyenne), July 13, 1923. 12

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Many groups of these foreigners are known to have their own secret societies, the members of which are under the complete domination of their leaders. It was only necessary, therefore, for the union organizers to win over the leaders of any one group in order to bring into their fold that entire national group. 18

Company officials showed a great reluctance to deal with the union leaders out of fear that any form of recognition would be detrimental to their cause. O n April 15 union representative William Houston offered to settle the strike at the reduced wage scale if the operators would agree to: 1) dismiss the armed guards patrolling the company properties; 2) permit the union men and organizers to hold meetings; 3) establish an absolutely open shop employment system with no discrimination between union and nonunion men; and 4) the reduced scale would apply until a wage agreement adopted in the central competitive district as modified to apply to Wyoming would also become the basis for a new U t a h scale.19 T h e operators claimed they were not notified of the union offer and refused comment on the proposal. Their efforts were concentrated on persuading the men to return to work and, when this failed, to import strikebreakers under the protection of company guards to operate the mines. This practice precipitated the first act of violence in the strikeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; an incident that occurred when the U t a h strike was four weeks old. During the month of April a tense situation developed at Scofield, especially after strikers in the company town of Winter Quarters, evicted from their homes and boardinghouses, congregated two miles to the east in the noncompany community of Scofield. According to N. J. Salyards, post office inspector from Provo, . . . the feeling was so tense that at the least unusual noise both miners and mine guards would look to their guns. . . . Anyone coming into the towns is accosted by representatives of the mining companies and miners as to his business and if he thinks he will be long in that vicinity. 20

T h e focal point for potential conflict between the strikers and company guards was the Scofield railroad station. A large congregation of strikers, ready to discourage any potential strikebreakers from entering the area, met each incoming train. In defiance of the strikers, a wagon, 18 Henry L. Stimson and Goldthwaite H. Dorr, "Brief No. 6, Utah, The Campaign of the United Mine Workers of America against the Non-Union Mines of Utah," p. 9, copy at the Utah State Historical Society. For a discussion of the importance of these organizations to the immigrants, see Philip F. Notarianni, "Italian Fraternal Organizations in Utah, 1897-1934," Utah Historical Quarterly 43 (1975) : 172-87. '"Deseret News, April 26, 1922; Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 1922; Sun, April 28, 1922; King, "Statement and Brief," pp. 10â&#x20AC;&#x201D;11. 20 Deseret News, April 28, 1922.

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protected by a mounted and armed squad of guards, was dispatched to meet incoming workers and escort them to the Winter Quarters mines. On April 27 at 1:30 P.M. as the detachment of company guards left the railroad station without any strikebreakers who, according to rumor, had been due to arrive on the afternoon train, shots were exchanged between strikers and company guards. Three men were wounded and one deputy's horse was killed. Sam Dorrity, a mine guard and former chief deputy United States marshal, was shot in the leg; Fred Jarvis, a striker, was shot in the back with the bullet passing through his lungs; and a Greek striker, Mike Makesmrticos [sic], was shot through the right shoulder. The company version, as reported by Sheriff T. F. Kelter in his request for the National Guard to be sent to Carbon County, placed the blame squarely on the strikers, charging they had thrown stones at the guards and that a Greek striker, George Manousos, had fired the first shot. The strikers' version of the incident predictably blamed Dorrity as the aggressor.21 When the Dorrity affair occurred Gov. Charles R. Mabey was in California, and Sheriff Kelter's request for the National Guard was sent to Acting Gov. H. E. Crockett and Adj. Gen. W. G. Williams. Kelter declared, "It is a reign of intimidation. They [the strikers] have threatened to kill any man, woman and child who goes to Scofield from the camps that are working, and they have the men and the guns and the inclination to carry out their threat." 22 County Commissioner A. E. Gibson reported to Acting Governor Crockett that "a large body of foreigners fully armed for a pitched battle are reported to be marching on one of the mines bent for destruction." 23 Despite newspaper headlines that troops would immediately entrain for the Carbon County coal fields, Crockett chose to wait for the return of Mabey before committing troops to the strike area. Union officials, anxious to prevent the National Guard from being sent, declared that peace would be maintained and instructed their men to "preserve order under all circumstances and to see that no further trouble occurs no matter what the provocation might be." l Taking a much more militant position, M. P. Bales, president of the Utah Federa21 Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 29, M a y 2, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, April 29, 30, 1922; K i n g , " S t a t e m e n t a n d Brief," p p . 25-26. T h e newspapers' spelling of "Makesmrticos" is obviously incorrect. T h e a u t h o r has not been able to find the true spelling. 22 Salt Lake Tribune, April 19, 1922. 23 Deseret News, April 29, 1922. 2i Salt Lake Tribune, April 28, 1922.

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tion of Labor, threatened that a general strike would be called if state troops were sent to Carbon County. 25 Governor Mabey returned from California the afternoon of April 29, two days after the shooting. That evening, coal operators met with the governor for three hours in an effort to persuade him that troops were needed. However, relying on reports from William M. Knerr of the State Industrial Commission, backed by the pleas of attorney Samuel A. King, Mabey decided that no troops would be sent unless conditions changed. In a meeting with Carbon County commissioners, Mabey placed the burden of law enforcement squarely on their shoulders: "I want you commissioners to get busy. I want you to see that those camps are properly policed and that the lives of innocent persons are protected. Police every camp in the county." 26 To meet the policing need, forty-nine men were hired from the communities of Salt Lake City, Bountiful, and Provo. The new deputies were immediately transported by a special train provided by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Carbon County. The men, paid by Carbon County, were told to "keep their heads" and show favor to neither the coal interests nor the strikers.27 The strikers in Scofield were not enthusiastic about the new county deputies, who were put up in the bunkhouse of the old Union Pacific mine and protested the action by a short boycott of a meeting called by William M. Knerr who was representing Governor Mabey. When the meeting finally began, the strikers refused A. E. Gibson, chairman of the Carbon County Commission, permission to speak because he had favored calling out the National Guard. Although the focus of attention during the first month of the strike was on the Scofield-Winter Quarters area, coal miners in other camps also left the mines. Tent colonies were established just outside company property at Hiawatha, Kenilworth and Sunnyside. In addition, Helper served as strike headquarters for the Castle Gate, Kenilworth, and Spring Canyon strikers as Scofield did for miners from Winter Quarters and Clear Creek. In both communities tents were located on vacant lots and property belonging to sympathizers. A number of tents were erected in Price to house strikers, however, the " 'official' sentiment at Price has not been very kindly to the strikers." 28 25

Salt Lake Telegram, M a y Salt Lake Telegram, M a y "Salt Lake Tribune, M a y the men as deputies. T h e Tribune hired. 28 Wyoming Labor Journal, 38

1, 1922 ; Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 2, 1922. 1, 1922. 2, 1922. Apparently some discretion was used in the hiring of said t h a t in Salt Lake City only 24 out of 200 applicants were June 16, 1922.

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Despite concern about providing food for their families and whether the strike would be successful, life for the strikers was restful in many ways. Baseball games were played, usually between the single and married men, and pitching quoits and horseshoes were also popular sports. T h e strikers at Scofield responded to a request by Mayor Lars Jensen to aid in a general town cleanup. When fire broke out in the Beddoes Hotel in Scofield, strikers became volunteer firemen and quickly extinguished the flames. A committee for law and order consisting of nine strikers was appointed at Scofield. One of their first acts was to declare that bootlegging would not be tolerated and that all violators of Prohibition would be instantly arrested. In an effort to prevent the gathering of strikers at the railroad station and a possible recurrence of an event similar to the Dorrity affair, the strikers' committee of nine was appointed to meet incoming trains and inform would-be strikebreakers of the situation. To discourage strikebreakers further, a delegation of ten strikers with banners was posted at Colton where the railroad to Scofield left the main branch of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. 29 During this same period union officials mounted an offensive campaign to strengthen union ranks and win support and sympathy for their cause. Utah coal operators were accused of using West Virginia tactics through their employment of guards in a despotic effort to control the strikers. The company gunmen were charged with provoking violence in an effort to preserve their soft and profitable jobs. By contrast, the strikers were praised for their stoic stand in the conflict. Organizer William Houston made a special trip to hold meetings in the Emery County communities of Castle Dale and Huntington where a large number of men were being recruited to work in the mines. Other organizers visited nearby counties on similar missions.30 In addition to the efforts to discourage strikebreakers from the towns and cities of Utah, the union directed a strong appeal toward the Japanese workers who, for the most part, had remained at work. A few Japanese miners had joined the United Mine Workers of America, including Hideo Kazuta who had been employed at Kenilworth as a team driver prior to the strike. In a letter directed to the general public and to his Japanese countrymen, Kazuta urged that they understand the reasons for the strike and lend their support to the union cause. In a second letter directed towards the Japanese miners, the union organizers sought to explain the 29 30

Salt Lake Telegram, May 4, 1922. Wyoming Labor Journal, June 23, July 7, 1922.

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necessity of the strike and why the Japanese should also lay down their tools.31 Articulate speakers simultaneously inspired and threatened strikers with the wrath of the coal company during the frequent meetings and demonstrations that were held. Many of those who worked during the strike were listed in the Wyoming Labor Journal and, in some cases, those who joined the union and returned to work before the end of the strike were formally expelled from the local unions.32 Despite the efforts of union leaders to maintain solidarity among the strikers, it was the shooting of a Greek striker by a deputy that most effectively united the striking community. The shooting of John Tenas by Lorenzo H. Young, like the Sam Dorrity affair, is clouded with accusations of guilt by each side. Both accounts agree that Tenas was shot at 12:30 P.M. Sunday, May 14, just west of Helper near the Ambrosia orchard, and a steel railroad bridge in Spring Canyon. However, from that point the discrepancies begin. According to Young's story he was en route from Latuda to his home in Huntington when his automobile became disabled and he took it to a garage in Helper. When a group of strikers threatened him, he was escorted out of town by the city marshal and began the return trip to Latuda on foot. While Young was walking along the public highway, Tenas, coming from the Ambrosia home, approached Young from a lane that intersected the Spring Canyon highway. When they were about forty feet apart, according to Young, Tenas pointed a rifle at him and told him to go back. Young immediately drew his revolver, and Tenas fired hitting him in the thigh near the hip. Young returned the fire, felling Tenas with the first shot and killing him with a second when Tenas started to get up. On the other side, witnesses to the shooting declared that Tenas was unarmed and that when Young left the scene he was not wounded. Witnesses also testified that Tenas was running away from Young when the deputy shot him in the back. No rifle belonging to Tenas was produced, and union spokesmen placed full blame on Young for an unprovoked attack. Young was arrested on charges of second degree murder but released on $5,000 bail. The case did not come to trial, and, the following April, Lorenzo Young died.33 31 T h e first letter was published in the Wyoming Labor Journal, J u n e 23, 1922. T h e text of the second letter appears in King, " S t a t e m e n t and Brief," p p . 4 1 - 4 2 . According to the coal operators, "This letter so frightened the Japanese workers t h a t m a n y of t h e m quit work." Stimson a n d Dorr, " T h e C a m p a i g n of the U M W A , " p . 4. 32 For a list of 258 miners from U t a h who worked during the strike see Wyoming Labor Journal, September 29, 1922. 33 Papanikolas, Toil and Rage, p p . 1 6 9 - 7 0 ; Sun, M a y 19, 1922, April 2 1 , 1 9 2 3 ; Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 15, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, M a y 15, 1922; King, " S t a t e m e n t a n d Brief," p p .

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The Tenas shooting precipitated another crisis in Carbon County, and many felt the strikers would seek retribution through violence. Headlines once again declared that a "Race War in the Coal Fields is Imminent" and Carbon County commissioners frantically requested five hundred rifles, ten machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition from state officials, declaring that "armed warfare between the American and foreign elements hangs on a hair trigger." 34 On May 15, the day after the Tenas shooting, Governor Mabey journeyed to the coal fields in an attempt to assess the situation for himself. Mabey chose to hide his identity in an effort to gain a clearer understanding. According to newspaper accounts he walked six miles through Price Canyon to reach the coal fields. The next morning, when Mabey tried to visit the company town of Kenilworth, he was stopped at the deadline by a company guard and refused entry when he declined to give his name and state his business. Mabey spent three days in Carbon County. He was criticized by many for once again refusing to send in the National Guard. Instead, Mabey insisted that the burden of law enforcement rested with local authorities. 35 The governor did take the lead in drafting and securing acceptance by coal company, union, and county officials of a five point peace plan: 1. All aliens were to disarm by 6 P.M. Monday, May 22. 2. All mine guards were to be discharged and their commissions (as deputy sheriffs) revoked. The companies were to have watchmen only. 3. All deputies were to be in direct charge of the sheriff, on county pay. 4. No intimidation was to be usedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;every man was to work where and when he pleased. 5. The state would not interfere until county officers had made a demand on citizens to preserve the peace. 36

Acceptance of the plan by the three factions was at best lukewarm. The coal operators attached reservations that the strikers could not, in good conscience, accept: 23â&#x20AC;&#x201D;24. A mine company doctor who examined Tenas declared that he had been shot in the front, but a Helper doctor's examination found that Tenas had been shot in the back. NewsAdvocate, May 25, 1922. I n an interview with Helen Z. Papanikolas on M a r c h 22, 1973, Steve Kelaidis stated that Tenas, who lived in the tent next to his in the Helper tent colony, was armed and that when he heard that the deputy sheriff's car had broken down near the Ambrosia farm, he went off in search of him over the protests of other Cretan strikers. M Salt Lake Telegram, M a y 18, 1922. "5 Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 17, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, M a y 18, 1922. T h e local newspaper, the Sun, deplored Mabey's inconspicuous visit with large headlines reading "Governor Flits I n and O u t " ( M a y 19, 1922). 80 Salt Lake Tribune, M a y 20, 1922.

Governor Mabey with a huge block of Carbon County coal on display in the State Capitol. Utah State Historical Society collections, gift of Charles R. Mabey. T h e operators, in their interpretations a n d reservations, placed m u c h stress u p o n the definition of the word "intimidation." T h e y insisted t h a t it must stop in every m a n n e r , and they gave it as their understanding t h a t such things as p a r a d i n g in front of or in the proximity of c o m p a n y property or like demonstrations should be construed as intimidation. Another interpretation they insisted u p o n was that the " w a t c h m e n " should be allowed to carry arms while on the company property and should have the right to say who should and who should not be permitted to go thereon. Another interpretation placed on the governor's proposal, in relation to the deputies being directly u n d e r the sheriff, was t h a t the m i n e guards when relieved of their commissions, should be permitted to take u p the work of watchmen. 3 7

Acceptance of the reservations would have, in effect, nullified the plan by merely maintaining the status quo. T h e U M W A acceptance of the plan was limited to Samuel King's advising William Houston that the union members should adhere "to the letter" of t h e governor's plan. T h e C a r b o n County commissioners agreed to the plan after their request for the loan of rifles, machine guns, and ammunition from the state h a d been granted. 3 8 I n less t h a n a week the peace plan was declared a failure. First, the striking aliens refused to turn over their weapons whichâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;considering the 37 3S

ibid. Ibid., May 20, 25, 1922.

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reservations of the coal operators that would have permitted their watchmen to go armedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;should have been expected. Second, county officials, fearful of the consequence to county finances, dismissed the county deputies who were to be the means of enforcing Mabey's peace plan. In doing so, the commissioners declared their inability to deal with the situation and insisted that the responsibility for law enforcement must rest with Governor Mabey. 39 T h e dismissal of deputies was followed by a concerted effort on the part of striking miners to discourage working miners and strikebreakers. Threatening letters were sent to men still employed in the mines, and the stages to Hiawatha and Sunnyside were stopped and searched for scabs. At Sunnyside it was reported that some of the strikers cursed and spat in the faces of the stage passengers. 40 Six Greeks were arrested for holding u p the Hiawatha Stage. T h e stage holdups were followed by the shooting of man trips (trains of cars carrying men into or out the mines). T h e first incident occurred at Kenilworth on June 2 when a reported fifty to one hundred shots were fired at the m a n trip as it left the Kenilworth No. 2 mine between 4 : 0 0 and 4 : 3 0 P.M. Fortunately none of the miners was injured; however, the cars in which they were riding were struck in many places. T h e strikers blamed the shooting on company guards. T h e shooting at Standardville occurred a week later on June 9 and, according to reports, was the work of three snipers. About twenty shots were fired as men were leaving the m a n trip at the hoist house. As at Kenilworth, none of the miners was injured, but one miner's hat was pierced and bullets passed through the dinner buckets of two others. Troop F and Battery A of the National Guard were mobilized following the Kenilworth incident and held in readiness for four days. Despite the pleas of the antistrike element, Mabey once again followed the advice of his agents on the scene and declined to order the guardsmen into the coal fields.41 T h e situation remained tense with acts of intimidation reported against both sides. Strikers were accused of setting fire to an engine house of the U t a h Railway Company 89

Ibid., May 25, 1922; Sun, May 26, 1922. Salt Lake Tribune, May 16, June 1, 1922. 41 Ibid., June 3, 4, 10, 1922; Sun, June 9, 1922; Deseret News, June 9, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, June 4, 1922. King, "Statement and Brief," p. 20, blamed the company guards as did J. D. Ramsay in a letter dated June 4, 1922, Helper, Utah, and published in the Wyoming Labor Journal. A copy of the original letter is in a scrapbook kept by the UMWA now at the Helper Public Library. A microfilm copy of the scrapbook is available at the Utah State Historical Society. Guardsmen having regular employment were allowed to leave the barracks on June 7. Those who were unemployed were held indefinitely in the armories pending further developments in the coal fields. Salt Lake Telegram, June 8, 1922. 40

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at M a r t i n and two company houses at Sunnyside. 42 At H i a w a t h a , coal company officials trained powerful spotlights on the strikers' c a m p and "everything was done that could be devised to vex and annoy the . . . men and their families." 43 T h e strikers remained a d a m a n t in their attempts to prevent strikebreakers from entering the coal camps. U n d e r these circumstances the next act of violenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one which finally brought the National Guard to Carbon Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;occurred. O n J u n e 13 a group of about thirty strikebreakers recruited in Colorado was to be taken from Castle Gate to Standardville. W h e n the U t a h Railway crew assigned to the train refused to handle the engine and single passenger car, coal company and railroad officials resolved to operate the train themselves. Strikers at the tent colony, located at the mouth of Spring Canyon in the area called New Helper, h a d been meeting the trains transporting strikebreakers at Jacob's Switch where the trains were required to stop. T h r o u g h this practice the strikers h a d successfully persuaded many would-be scabs from entering the mines. Minor clashes between strikers on picket duty and company guards h a d occurred at Jacob's Switch. F. C. Henness, superintendent of the Standardville mine, was well aware of the effectiveness of the pickets at Jacob's Switch. According to the striker's version, Henness was determined not to have the picketing continue "either in a peaceful or violent manner." 44 W h e n the strikers heard that the train of strikebreakers was on its way to Standardville, they hurried to m a n the picket lines at Jacob's Switch. As the train engineered by C. L. Vaughn, a railroad official, assisted by A r t h u r P. Webb, a company guard serving as fireman, emerged from Tunnel No. 1 near the mouth of Spring Canyon, shots were exchanged between the train crewr and passengers and the strikers. A r t h u r W e b b was killed; H . E. Lewis and William F. Abbott suffered knee wounds; and a striker, Andreas Zulakis, was shot in the left forearm. Once again each side blamed the other. T h e strikers admitted that they were heavily armed but argued that the shots h a d first come from the train where both guards and strikebreakers had opened fire. T h e coal company declared it was a deliberate ambush, since shots had come from two directions and the location was ideal for an ambush. 45 43

Sun, June 9, 1922 ; Salt Lake Telegram, May 23, 1922. King, "Statement and Brief," p. 20. 44 The picketing effort was so successful that "if not interfered with, would, in all probability, have won the strike for the miners." "Kukis Caseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;To the Honorable Members of the Pardon Board, State of Utah," Gov. George H. Dern Correspondence, January to July 1925, box 3, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City. 43

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In retaliation for the shooting of Webb a group of men with masks and smudged faces entered the Liberty Pool Hall at Standardville and forced six Greeks to march down the canyon towards Helper. On the way they stopped at a bakery operated by George Marcoulis, and he and two others were forced to join the other prisoners.46 The Tenas funeral had served to unite the strikers, and the Webb funeral had much the same effect on those who had long maintained that a state of lawlessness had prevailed since the strike began. The remarks of Rev. R. C. Jones at the Webb funeral reflected a strong antagonism against the union organizers as he branded them responsible for the lawless acts and demanded they be driven out of the county.47 Governor Mabey acted quickly, and at 2:10 P.M. on June 14, the day of the Webb shooting, he ordered the National Guard to proceed to Carbon County. Eleven hours later, at 1:10 A.M. on June 15, detachments from Salt Lake City, Brigham City, and Ogden were en route to the strike area. Along with his National Guard mobilization order, Mabey issued a proclamation establishing martial law in several Carbon County towns and coal camps. 48 Headquarters for the National Guard was established in the Utah Hotel at Helper with Maj. Elmer Johnson in command. Thirteen officers 45

Salt Lake Tribune, June 15, 1922; News-Advocate, June 15, 1922. Salt Lake Telegram, June 16, 1922. George Marcoulis described the incident: "I am the owner of the half interest in the Bakery at Standardville. . . . O n the night of the 14th day of J u n e 1922 about 11 o'clock P.M. I was sleeping across of the bakery shop in a house leased from the Standard Coal Co. . . . somebody was kicking the door very hard . . . I opened the door then five men with masks, rifles and guns rushed in and poked their rifles against my chest . . . . another m a n Sefes Makris from Castle Gate who was sleeping there opened the light, they [searched] me and the other two men for guns, then they opened my truck and searched for guns . . . they pushed me out of the room and told me to go and open the Bakery . . . . they search there but no one was there. T h e n threatening to kill me they asked where is my partner George Vatsis, I told them that he is living in one Italian family house; They kicking and poking and striking me they led me in the road where I saw seven I think Greek[s] kept in a line and several men with mask and without masks poking their rifles and guns against those Greeks . . they drove us kicking poking abusing and insulting us with the worst words about 400 ' feet then . went to find my partner, but they did not found him . . . at their pleasure each one of these men [beat] the life out of us; there they start to argue about which is the best way to get rid of us, few they prefer the shooting few others the hanging and few to kick the life out of us Finally told us to walk again, then they stopped us very close to the Company Office where is the elevator; there was the same argument and the same and worst treatment. At that a young m a n from Price . . . took our side and he argued with others to not kill us or rbeafl the life out of us. I do owe my life to this young man. T h e n they decide to let us go and told us to start running . . . they start shooting us, and I heard bullets whistling very close to my ears and hitting the ground very close to my feet . . . we scattered on the hill side I was walking all night to reach Helper, U t a h . " A typescript copy of this statement and those of seven other Greeks involved in the incident are in the Samuel A. King Papers, Western Americana, Marriott Library, University of U t a h , Salt Lake City. 46

News-Advocate, June 22, 1922. State of U t a h , Biennial Report of the Adjutant General, Utah National Guard, 19211922 pp 17-18 For a detailed discussion of the Guard mobilization and activities in Carbon County during the strike see Richard Campbell Roberts, "History of the U t a h National Guard, 1894-1954" (Ph.D. diss., University of U t a h , 1973), pp. 219-42. See also Salt Lake Tribune, J u n e 15, 1922; Deseret News, J u n e 15, 1922. 48

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and 152 enlisted men, were stationed in Helper. T h e remainder of the Guard, 8 officers and 53 enlisted men, was assigned to Scofield, serving under M a j . Hamilton Gardner until he was relieved on July 13 by Capt. James B. Tucker. 4 9 T h e National Guard headquarters in Scofield was established at the O l d Union Pacific Hotel. W i t h little time for rest, guardsmen at Helper began a roundup of strikers on the morning of J u n e 15. Approximately three h u n d r e d miners were herded to a vacant lot west of Helper wdiere Major Johnson, aided by a Greek interpreter and chairman of the miners' picketing committee, read the governor's proclamation, explained the meaning of martial law, and requested the strikers to turn in their weapons. About twenty-five m e n voluntarily surrendered their weapons. After the entire group of strikers was searched, an additional fifteen or twenty weapons were found. T h e n the strikers were allowed to leave, with the exception of twenty men accused of participating in the W e b b shooting. Their names had* been given to Guard officers by H . E. Lewis of the Standard Coal Company. 5 0 T h e National Guard quickly m a d e its presence known by posting sentries on all roads leading to and from Helper and placing machine guns on the hills above the strikers' c a m p at N e w Helper. Within the Helper city limits several three-man patrols were dispatched to prevent street meetings and other gatherings and to enforce a 10:00 P.M. curfew. All incoming vehicles and pedestrians were stopped and searched for weapons, and patrols prevented entry into Spring Canyon to those who failed to secure "proper authority." W h e n citizens refused to turn in their weapons voluntarily, the Guard conducted numerous searches. Additional weapons were uncovered, often by digging in soft spots in the ground. 5 1 T h e initial policy of the National G u a r d toward the strikebreaker issue was favorable to the strikers. M a j . Elmer Johnson declared that under martial law the coal operators would not be permitted to ship strikebreakers into the field. Strikebreakers en route to the mines at Castle Gate, Rains, and H i a w a t h a were turned back by guardsmen. At Clear Creek, M a j . Elbert D. Thomas, who h a d served an L D S mission to J a p a n and would later serve as United States senator from U t a h from 1933 to 1951, uncovered five Japanese strikebreakers by questioning them in their native tongue. 52 49

State of Utah, Biennial Report of the Adjutant General, pp. 18-19. Roberts, "Utah National Guard," p. 228. 51 Salt Lake Tribune, June 19, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, June 19, 1922. 53 Salt Lake Tribune, June 24, 1922; Salt Lake Telegram, June 24, 1922. 50

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United Mine Worker officials praised the National Guard for its neutral position. In a letter published in the Wyoming Labor Journal John Ramsay noted: Judging from the wail of the local press, Carbon county, Utah, coal operators are not so sure of their position as they were when they finally induced Governor Mabey to order state troops into this field. T h e advent of the militia meant to them, as it has in most previous strikes, that they could freely import strikebreakers under any form of misrepresentation and be protected in so doing by the militia, but to their bitter chagrin they are now discovering that the National Guard of Utah is not a strike-breaking agency. It protects men who are voluntarily seeking employment at the coal camps, if necessary, but will not permit men to be shipped in under false representations as to conditions as the practice has been since the strike started. Operators are therefore raising a howl and are as anxious to get the troops recalled as they were primarily to have them in field, but without avail so far, and a condition we hope will con^ tinue. 53

Nevertheless, while Ramsay's letter was being published by the Cheyenne paper, the National Guard ceased preventing the entry of strikebreakers into the previously closed areas and adopted a position much more in harmony with the wishes of the coal operators. The headlines of a Salt Lake Telegram article of July 6, 1922, declared "National Guard is not Preventing M e n from Replacing Strikers." T h e article reported that because of a potential coal shortage that would bring great hardship to the public, the National Guard would no longer prevent men from entering the coal fields to work. Adj. Gen. W. G. Williams denied that a change of policy had occurred but confirmed that strikebreakers would now be allowed in the mines. Another blow was struck at the union efforts when Guard officers, using their power under martial law, denied union officials the right to address gatherings of miners who were at work in the coal camps. Meeting with Governor Mabey and Adjutant General Williams, attorney Samuel King unsuccessfully argued that if nonunion miners were allowed to work under the protection of the National Guard, the strikers should be guaranteed the right to picket and of free speech. 54 Voicing his resentment against the change in the National Guard's policy, King contradicted the earlier optimism voiced by organizer John Ramsay. True, at the outset, the operators were forbidden to import strike breakers, and protection was given individuals seeking employment on 53 54

Wyoming Labor Journal, July 7, 1922. Deseret News, July 6, 7, 1922; King, "Statement and Brief," p. 9.

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their own initiative. This policy received the hearty endorsement of the union officials. It was just and fair, but it only prevailed for a few days, when through certain underground workings unknown to these officials and through certain secret and mysterious influences this policy was changed. The commanding officer then announced that any non-union miner desiring to enter the employment of the company would be protected by the national guard. In other words, the operators could recruit unfair labor in any quarter. They could ship in the strike breakers from, surrounding states and receive guard protection in so doing. . . . T h e n the United Mine workers demanded the right to conduct peaceful picketing under the conditions defined by the highest courts of the land. But this right was denied them. They then asked that they be given the right of free speech, that they be given the right to hold public meetings and to advocate the cause of labor, that they be given guard protection in the exercise of these rights, but they were denied, these rights. I n other words, the guard became, as the operators desired it should become, a weapon in their hands to destroy the morale of the striking miners; that it be used to protect the strike breakers and to safeguard the operators in the enforcement of their policies designed to destroy organized labor.55

T h e National Guard troops were withdrawn from Carbon County between August 13 and September 15, 1922. The expenses for maintain55

King, " S t a t e m e n t and Brief," p . 45.

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ing the Guard in Carbon County for the three-month period amounted to nearly $75,000.56 The Utah strike was quickly ended upon settlement of the nationwide bituminous coal strike. On August 7, John L. Lewis signed with operators responsible for the production of 60 percent of the nation's bituminous coal. Other operators soon followed, and on August 16 Lewis ordered his union men back to work. The United Mine Workers were successful in preventing the proposed wage reduction that had precipitated the strike. The union and the coal companies agreed to accept the 1920 wage scale until April 1923. On September 1, 1922, the Utah coal operators announced that effective immediately a wage increase would be voluntarily granted to their men that would "approximate the average wage scale in effect in eastern and western field." The raise amounted to nothing more than a restoration of the wage scale in effect before the 30 percent reduction in April. In addition, the operators promised to reward the loyalty of those men who had worked during the five-month strike with a bonus.57 The new wage scale and bonuses were granted following a request to the operators by union officials to meet with them on September 2 to discuss a settlement of the strike. The operators' announcement, coming the day before the proposed meeting and emphasizing that the wage increases were being made "vountarily," left little doubt that their strategy remained one of avoiding any form of direct or indirect recognition of the United Mine Workers in Utah. The new wage scale provided a minimum wage of $7.00 a day for outside men and $7.95 for inside men. The scale, Utah operators declared, was "the highest ever paid in Carbon County." 58 To justify the wage adjustments, the price of coal to the consumer was raised from $9.50 to $10.00 a ton. The increase was met with strong resistance by state officials who declared that the operators had pledged no price increase would take place if the National Guard were sent to Carbon County. The public questioned why, with the same wage scale and freight rates in effect, the fifty-cent increase was justified. Frank N. ^ R o b e r t s , " U t a h National Guard," pp. 238-39. Salt Lake Tribune, September 1, 1922. Two and one-half years later some sixty-five Kenilworth miners sued Independent Coal and Coke for wages alleged to have been promised them as a bonus for their loyalty during the 1922 strike. Their disillusionment became one cause of the short strike at Kenilworth in 1925. See Frank Bonacci to Wyoming Labor Journal in issue of March 27, 1925. At Castle Gate all miners entitled to the bonus were promptly paid. Interview with Tony Priano, January 7, 1976, Helper, Utah. &s Salt Lake Tribune, September 6, 1922. 51

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Cameron, vice-president and general manager of the U t a h Fuel Company, acting as spokesman for the operators, declared that the rate increase was necessitated by overhead charges, taxation, a shortage of coal cars, and "other matters." T h e newspapers countered by asking why Wyoming coal, produced under schedules as high or higher than those in U t a h and costing twenty-five cents a ton more to be shipped to Salt Lake City t h a n from Carbon County, sold for a dollar less per ton than U t a h coal. Governor Mabey, in calling for an investigation of the price hike, calculated that if the U t a h mines produced approximately 500,000 tons of coal as they h a d in the preceding month of August, then the consumers would pay the operators $250,000 more per month or $3,000,000 more a year t h a n the coal companies were entitled to. Mabey also suggested that, since the price increase had been announced simultaneously by all operators, there might be a question of an illegal combination in restraint of trade. 5 9 A grand jury impaneled to investigate the coal price increase agreed with Governor Mabey and brought indictments against F. N . Cameron, general manager of the U t a h Fuel C o m p a n y ; C. B. Hotchkiss, assistant manager of the U t a h Fuel C o m p a n y : F. A. Sweet, president and general manager of the Standard Coal C o m p a n y ; Moroni Heiner, vice-president and general manager of the United States Fuel C o m p a n y ; F. H . Rolapp, president of the Royal Fuel C o m p a n y ; J. W. Knight, general manager of the Knight Fuel C o m p a n y ; and J. H . Tonkin, general manager of the Independent Coal and Coke Company. 0 0 Although union officials realized that the goal of union recognition h a d not been reached they encouraged their m e n to return to work following the clarification of the new wage scale. T h e miners were, however, urged to maintain their affiliation with the United Mine Workers of America a n d to encourage others to join the organization in anticipation of future confrontations with the U t a h coal operators. 6 1 W h e n the strike ended the United Mine Workers of America did not abandon the U t a h fields as they h a d following the 1903-4 strike. Instead, they remained to provide legal and monetary support for those w h o h a d been arrested during the strike. T h e first trial involved George Manousos w h o was charged with the attempted m u r d e r of Sam Dorrity. Despite the claims of eighteen defense 159 Ibid., September 7, 19, 1922; Deseret News, September 8, 1922; unidentified newspaper clipping in the U M W A scrapbook of the 1922 strike. 60 King, "Statement and Brief," p. 48. 01 Ibid., p. 9; Wyoming Labor Journal, September 15, 1922.

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witnesses that Dorrity fired the first shots, Manousos was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison. T h e next five trials involved eight Greeks charged with the m u r d e r of A r t h u r P. Webb. Although the state was willing to try all eight together, attorney Samuel King insisted on separate trials. King reasoned that the public would soon grow weary of the trials and in the end the men would either be given reduced sentences or acquitted. T h e defense strategy worked. I n the first two trials Pete Kukis and Mike Zulakis were found quilty of m u r d e r by Price juries and given life sentences. By the third trial the outlook began to brighten. Attorney King succeeded in obtaining a change of venue to Castle Dale for Mike Pagialakas. Although he, too, was found guilty, his sentence was reduced to ten years in prison. King was not satisfied with Emery County as a trial site, claiming that the influence of the coal companies was as strong there as in neighboring Carbon County. Another change of venue was obtained; and the fourth trial, that of Tony Kambourakis and J o h n Kriaris, was held in Salt Lake City. The, two men were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter but were given the m i n i m u m sentence of one year. T h e fifth and last trial was also held in Salt Lake City where J o h n Dantis, George Spetris, and Steven Lakakis were acquitted. Following the acquittal, bail for the remaining eight strikers charged with the m u r d e r of W e b b was reduced, and in November 1925 charges against all eight were dropped. O n M a r c h 20, 1926, paroles were granted to those in prison. 62 Although the efforts by the United Mine Workers of America to secure justice for the sixteen m e n h a d taken nearly four years and cost a great deal of money, the crusade h a d been well worth the effort. T h e union saw the trials as a conspiracy by the coal operators, not to punish the m e n for murder, though perhaps some were guilty, but rather to weaken the influence of labor unions. T h e expenses of the strike and trial nearly bankrupted the District 22 treasury. A total of $73,881.81 in aid was sent to U t a h between April and December of 1922. I n addition, nearly $70,000 was spent for legal service and expenses through November 1, 1923. Assessments were levied against the District 22 members, nearly all of w h o m were employed in the Wyoming coal fields, during November and December 1922; January, February, M a r c h , November, and December 1923; and J a n u a r y 1924. However, the funds raised fell short of the amount needed to pay the U t a h expenses, and district officials 62

Sun, February 16, 1923; King, "Statement and Brief," p. 35; Wyoming Labor March 26, 1926.

Journal,

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were forced to seek assistance from the International Executive Board of the United Mine Workers of America. The board provided, without any reluctance, $20,000 to assist with the Utah expenses.63 In the brief submitted to the United States Coal Commission, attorneys representing the Utah coal operators concluded that the Utah strike had been forced on the state in an effort by the United Mine Workers of America to keep nonunion coal out of the market during the nationwide strike. Accordingly, its paid agitators invaded a peaceful community, stirred up strife, fomented violence and discord, endeavored to strike terror into the hearts of a susceptible foreign population, used their utmost efforts to prevent the interference of the state authorities to maintain law and order, and finally created such a condition of lawlessness and disorder that the state authorities had to step in with their troops to bring about the peace and quiet and orderly government which had existed before the invasion. 64

The tactics of the United Mine Workers in Utah indicated, according to company attorneys, that the union's policy and methods were unAmerican, undemocratic, and "a distinct threat to our American form of government and its institutions." 6o From today's perspective the Carbon County miners, faced with a 30 percent wage reduction, seem justified in going out on strike in 1922. Although U M W A officials from District 22 were in Utah seeking to strengthen the union organization among the Carbon County miners at the beginning of the nationwide strike on April 1, 1922, they felt that union strength in Utah was still too weak to include the state in the nationwide strike call. However, the Utah miners, responding to the wage cuts and promises of better protection against the coal company abuses through a strong union organization, went on strike without the official sanction of U M W A headquarters. The Utah strike was, therefore, not the result of outside agitators who stirred up the previously "* George Zoumadakis stated t h a t among those arrested for the shooting of Webb "some were chosen who h a d n ' t been t h e r e ; some who were there were not [arrested]." Papanikolas, Toil and Rage, p . 175. Attorney K i n g saw t h e innocence of t h e m e n on trial in the following t e r m s : " T h e r e is no question as to the innocence of these men. T r u e , some of the miners fired; true, Webb was killed, but the men who did the firing shot in their own defense. They were not the 'aggressors. T h e y did not begin the controversy." K i n g to James M o r g a n , secretary and treasurer, District 22, U M W A , October 16, 1923, in United Mine Workers of America Records, District '22 Correspondence for 1923, U M W A H e a d q u a r t e r s , Washington, D . C. See also Wyoming Labor Journal, M a y 11, 1923. T h e expenses incurred a n d the need for help from national headquarters are explained in Proceedings of the International Executive Board, U M W A , November 20, 1923, which include a letter from James M o r g a n to John L. Lewis, November 2, 1923, U M W A Records. 61 Stimson and Dorr, " T h e C a m p a i g n of the U M W A , " p. 22. M Ibid., p . 23.

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contented miners as the coal operators claimed but rather a response to legitimate economic problems. Violence and intimidation were not policies advocated by organizers of the United Mine Workers of America. Through long experience they had learned that violence linked to the union would quickly destroy public sympathy for the strike. They continuously cautioned their men to avoid violence and any form of intimidation. The shooting incidents that did occur can be traced as much to the actions of coal company guards and officials as to the strikers. Although the miners gained a restoration of the pre-April 1 pay scale, the strike proved a failure on several counts. The restored pay scale was short-lived, and the miners were forced to accept pay reductions in 1925, 1928, and 1931. Perhaps an even more important issue than the pay reductions was that of union recognition. Union officials realized its importance at the beginning of the strike when they offered to accept the wage reductions if the union would be allowed to carry out organizing work among the miners. The failure to achieve some form of union recognition left the United Mine Workers of America in Utah in a nearly lifeless state until 1933. Although District 22 had accepted jurisdiction of U t a h in 1921 with high hopes for success in establishing a strong union in the previously unorganized Utah fields, it merely maintained a caretaker organization in Utah after the strike. T o the union's credit, however, it did not abandon the miners as it had following the 1903-4 strike, and district and national officials and the union miners in Wyoming accepted the financial obligations from the defeated region without any complaint. Governor Mabey deserves praise for refusing to be stampeded into calling out the Utah National Guard. However, the question remains unanswered as to how much his position was dictated by his program of reduced state spending rather than any great sympathy with the striking miners. The bitter attacks by the local papers against Mabey help to explain his poor showing in Carbon and Emery counties during his unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1924.66 The National Guard initially showed great potential as a neutral law enforcement body. However, its policies soon became supportive of the coal operators' efforts to bring in strikebreakers to replace the striking w

M a b e y failed to win reelection to the governorship. For a n account of the reasons for his failure see Stanford J o h n Layton, "Governor Charles R. M a b e y and the U t a h Election of 1924" (M.A. thesis, University of U t a h , 1 9 6 9 ) .

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miners. T h e National Guard policy was one of the most important reasons why the union did not push for other concessions once the wage scale h a d been restored. As in earlier strikes, the foreign-born miners proved to be the backbone and heart of the union organization. However, this also proved a liability, as a few of the immigrants overstepped the bounds of proper conduct and gave some misinterpreted credence to the charges of radicalism and anarchy. These charges against the foreign-born miners came at a time highlighted by nativism, the Red Scare, and a general spirit of intolerance. It would be eleven years before the United Mine Workers of America would have another opportunity to organize the U t a h coal fields. Then, the circumstances would be greatly different. Section 7a of the National Industrial Recovery Act would give unionism a legitimacy it h a d never known, and in U t a h the threats to the coal operators from the radical National Miners Union would cause them to embrace the U M W A organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a union against which they had fought for over thirty years. 67 07

H e l e n Z. Papanikolas, "Unionism, C o m m u n i s m , and the G r e a t Depression: the C a r b o n C o u n t y Coal Strike of 1933," Utah Historical Quarterly 41 ( 1 9 7 3 ) : 2 5 4 - 3 0 0 .

Mining at Alta: A Further hook BY J A M E S H . LEVITT, P H I L I P F . NOTARIANNI, AND BARBARA B A N N O N The Columbus Rexall dump near the present Alta Peruvian Lodge. New processes made mining of the dumps iwAlta profitable. Utah State Historical Society collections.

place in the history of Alta, Utah, today one of the major ski areas in America. Many who know of Alta, skiers J V I I N I N G HOLDS AN IMPORTANT

Dr. Levitt is an assistant professor of history at the State University of New York, Potsdam. Mr. Notarianni is presently on assignment as a preservation historian with the Utah State Historical Society. Ms. Bannon is a doctoral candidate in the English Department, University of Utah. The interview with Mr. Blakemore was conducted on August 6, 1974. A complete transcript of the interview is in Western Americana, Marriott Library, University of Utah.

Mining

at Alta

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and nonskiers alike, are aware of some of its early mining history. They know that in the early 1870s as many as five thousand persons occupied the area in a quest for silver and lead. They have heard of the fabulously rich E m m a mine and of the scandal that followed its sale to English investors. 1 Some may also be aware that mining, dormant after 1885, was revived in Alta at the turn of the century with the report of several large strikes and then, as the hoped-for wealth failed to materialize, died out again by the twenties. Few are aware, however, that sporadic attempts to extract wealth continued into the 1960s; for these operations were small, required little capital, and achieved no major finds. Because these ventures attracted so little notice, there are few written accounts with which to reconstruct this aspect of Alta history. T h e following edited interview is with Page Blakemore, a mining engineer who purchased some of the mining rights in the Alta area during the last decade a n d began a series of explorations. At the same time, he was involved with remining the old tailings or dumps. H e r e he provides some information through oral history about this aspect of mining in the area as well as about the future of mining at Alta. Interviewer: When did the mining of the dumps or tailings actually begin? Mr. Blakemore: Well I don't know the earliest dates. I assume it was mined prior to World War I, some of it, but I have no knowledge of this, The earliest I know was in the late '40s by Jay Jacobson who treated some of the dumps on the Flagstaff and treated some of the dumps on the Grizzly and Lavinia mines and a limited amount on the City Rocks mine, the latter three belonging to Michigan-Utah Mines Company. 2 Interviewer: What was he mining for? Mr. Blakemore: Well, he was simply screening the dumps; since the ore minerals are practically entirely oxidized at Alta [they] . . . are . . . quite soft. H e had a screening plant in which he screened the dumps and shipped the screened product directly to the smelter, so it was a very lackluster operation. Interviewer: How did this screening process work? Mr. Blakemore: H e simply used a slusher, which is a hoe-like device pulled by cables, to slush the dumps down onto a screen, and then the oversize went to discard and the undersize went into a truck to the smelter. Interviewer: What was [Jacobson] mostly gettingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;lead? silver? Mr. Blakemore: He was getting primarily lead and silver. The zinc content of those particular dumps is about l/2 percent under the minimum the smelter 1 See W. Turrentine Jackson, "The Infamous Emma Mine: A British Interest in the Little Cottonwood District, Utah Territory," Utah Historical Quarterly 23 (1955) : 339-62. 2 For the location of some mines in Alta see the USGS quadrangle maps of Dromedary Peak and Brighton.

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will pay for; the smelter will pay for something like 12 percent and they run 11^/2 [percent]. Interviewer: But there was then sufficient ore still in those old dumps to make it worth his while. Mr. Blakemore: That's correct. Interviewer: When did you begin to work these dumps? Mr. Blakemore: Well, it was in the '60sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;'64 probably and '65 and I shipped material for several years using exactly the same system that Mr. Jacobson used except that we put it on a conveyor . . . the material was moved by bulldozer and slusher . . . into a hopper, and the hopper had a feeder . . . [which] fed . . . a regular belt loader about sixty feet long. . . . The belt carried it up onto a screen . . . hung over a truck. . . . The oversize went over the side of the truck and the undersize went in and then the truck went to the smelter and another pulled under the screen. Interviewer: What smelter did it go to? Mr. Blakemore: It was sold to U.S. Smelting who in turn sold it to International in Tooele. Interviewer: Do you recall what percentages of minerals you got from that ore? Mr. Blakemore: I do not; all I know is that it made money. It's much more valuable now, about four times. . . . Interviewer: More valuable? Mr. Blakemore: Yes, it was more valuable than Jacobson's shipments and [now it would be] more valuable . . . as it is about four times the value that I shipped it at. Interviewer: Were you getting enough zinc out of that [to make it profitable]? Mr. Blakemore: We didn't get paid for the zinc. . . . Interviewer: Not enough zinc; so then it was strictly silver and lead. Mr. Blakemore: Well, that's what's paid for; it was zinc ore really but actually as far as the metallic contents [are] concerned, it was better than most zinc ores around the country but the smelter didn't choose to pay for it. Interviewer: Which mines were you working? Mr. Blakemore: The Grizzly and Lavinia. Interviewer: Do you have any idea how many tons you removed? Mr. Blakemore: No, I don't, several thousand tons. Interviewer: Do you remember what a ton was worth? Mr. Blakemore: No I don't, but I would imagine about 14-15 dollars. Interviewer: How many people did you employ in this operation? Mr. Blakemore: Three. Interviewer: Since it hasn't been mentioned, were the dumps at the Emma not worked during this period? Mr. Blakemore: I should have told you and I forgot, but there are so many details about Alta, you know. The Emma dumps were worked prior to World War I.

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Somebody ran some water around the hill in [a] pipe, probably from Grizzly Gulch and ran a jig plant just below the present road [not the paved highway at Alta but the dirt road above it which goes to what is called Michigan City], and they concentrated the area ore—because some of the ore they didn't even recognize—off the Emma dumps from the Emma tunnel, not the lower Emma, not the Bay City or anything, but the upper Emma tunnel which goes to the shaft. . . . Interviewer: You mentioned a jig plant. What is it? Mr. Blakemore: Well, a jig is a very archaic piece of equipment which is still in use. We are installing jigs in Nevada today, but it's a very archaic piece of equipment. I think it really came into its own in the Hartz Mountains [in Germany], and the jigs that they were using on the Emma dumps were Hartz-type jigs. Ore is sized more or less-—roughly sized—and passed over a box with a screen in it, and water is fed into the bottom of the. box through a clack valve, and a diaphragm is fastened to the back of the box which is driven by an eccentric. This creates a pulsating bed in the box, and the heavy materials go to the bottom; the fines go through the screen, and the heavys settle on the screen, and the waste goes over a weir at the end. It's quite an efficient method for concentrating ores, particularly when the gravity is as high as it is in some of the Alta ores; It's a hindered-bed settling process, [and it] was used extensively by hand in the tri-state area where they made a screen box and had a large tub. They simply put the crushed ore on the screen and fastened it by a bridle to a spring pole, a sapling cut and laid across a forked stick driven in the ground. They agitated this with a rope, which meant that they simply oscillated the box up and down in the water, and then they threw the chattel, the waste, off the top and saveH the lumps and then washed the stuff that went through the screen to concentrate the lead. So it is an old, old process. I really don't know how old but a couple of thousand years—the principal; naturally it has been mechanized. Interviewer: I heard that in the early days copper was not considered to be valuable, and therefore, in the [18] 70s and '80s they threw all the copper out on the dumps and that after the turn of the century someone went back in and mined the Emma and some of the other dumps for the copper. Mr. Blakemore: Not true. . . , There isn't any copper up there essentially; it is something like point four or something like that in the very best ore. . . . No, there was never any copper ore in there. 3 Interviewer: Any tungsten at all? Mr. Blakemore: Yes, there's tungsten in several of the mines. The Emma has a very rare tungsten mineral. . . . It's tungsten sulfide. It's one of the few locations in the world. And there's quite a bit of tungsten in the MichiganUtah area in copper ore that has tungsten and molybdenum both. s

For a differing statement on copper production at Alta, see Anthony Will Bowman, "From Silver to Skis: A History of Alta, Utah, and Little Cottonwood Canyon, 1847-1966" (M.A. thesis, Utah State University, 1967), p. 38 and table on p. 39.

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Interviewer: Sufficient to [make it profitable to mine?] Mr. Blakemore: No, small veins with scheelite in them. Interviewer: Why did mining cease at Alta? Mr. Blakemore: The work was halted by the fact that there was no available market for the Alta ores. They can't be shipped anywhere because of the closing of the Tooele smelter, and the imminence of the closing of the smelter made further exploration at this time an uncommercial project. The ore isn't capable of being concentrated by any presently acceptable method, and until hydrometallurgical methods are designed to treat Alta ores or a smelter is constructed in the Salt Lake area . . . there isn't a lead smelter nearer than East Helena, Montana, and the freight rates plus truck hauling out of Alta isn't practical unless you make special arrangements. Until technology has improved in treatment of oxidized ores, it isn't practical to mine Alta ores. However, processes have been developed that are practical but that don't have sufficient industrial acceptance for anybody to be brave enough to build a plant, and so the ore at Alta that is controlled by us is going to stay there until we can get a suitable market for it. Interviewer: Then, it would be possible for mining to start again at Alta if either technological changes make it profitable or a [lead] smelter were to begin again in the area? Mr. Blakemore: That is correct. Interviewer: Do you foresee that in the future? Mr. Blakemore: Well, yes I do. T h e Anaconda Company has developed a hydrometallurgy process for copper which they have installed at Butte [Montana] [with] which they are going to treat the ore from the Victoria mine which they presently have under development in the Dolly Varden [mining] district in Nevada. This is a hydrometallurgical process and there are others in use in Europe, particularly by the French and Italians, . . . which would be applicable to Alta ores. We have to remember that the prices for lead and zinc are much higher than they have ever been and that silver is at an all-time high, and these are the principal ore resources of Alta. Something more than 60, almost 70 percent of the zinc that is used in the United States is corning from foreign countries, and Alta has large amounts of zinc and large amounts of lead and silver. Both these metals are in considerable demand now; so the pressure of necessity, of obtaining these metals domestically, is almost a foregone conclusion, I think. It will create more interest in smelters and ore hydrometallurgical plants. The necessity in the Intermountain West is that plants be developed that are capable of treating an ore to make a finished productâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a directly saleable product at the mine; and of course this is the value of the hydrometallurgy process. There are many in existence for copper and almost none for lead and zinc. That's about the economic picture as far as Alta's concerned.

Marva

Christensen

on her graduation

day in

1931.

The Nurse: Marva Christeitsen Hanchett of Sevier County BY PATRICIA H . S O R E N S O N

Telia and Lelia, ran most of the way to school on the cold morning of December 3, 1908. They could hardly wait to tell the exciting news to their friends. They h a d become aunts during HE

C H R I S T E N S E N GIRLS,

Mrs. Sorenson, a resident of Annabella, Utah, is a daughter of Marva Christensen Hanchett. This article was awarded honorable mention in the 1976 Utah Bicentennial Biographies Contest, amateur class, jointly sponsored by the Utah State Historical Society, the Salt Lake Tribune, and the Utah American Revolution Bicentennial Commission. Most of the information for the article was obtained from an interview with Mrs. Hanchett.

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the night. Their brother Peter and his wife, Maud, after being married three and one-half years, had had a baby girl. T h e news spread fast in the small town of Annabella, Sevier County, Utah, population less than three hundred. It had been a difficult birth and the midwife had had to send to Richfield for the nearest doctor. But the girls assured their friends that both mother and baby were fine. The little girl was named Marva Christensen, and her parents planned for her to be a schoolteacher as her mother had been. But as she grew up they soon became aware of her great interest in anything that had to do with health. In the fall of 1919, when Marva was in the sixth grade, her family contracted smallpox, a dreaded, but not too uncommon, disease at that time. When the doctor made his regular calls, she was brimming with questions: " W h a t caused it? Why does each one in the family become ill at different times? Why is mother almost covered with the pox while my little brother Tex has only a few?" Marva bustled around the house carrying liquids to her patients, applying medicine to the pox to ease the itching; and when the pustular lesions broke, she changed and washed the soiled sheets. She cared for her loved ones willingly until she, last of all, became very ill. The whole family was quarantined (could not go outside of the fence around their home) until the last member of the family was declared well by the quarantine officer. Later that winter Marva contracted scarlet fever, and six weeks later she was confined with rheumatic fever. H e r bed was brought downstairs to the warmth of the large kitchen. As soon as she was sufficiently recovered, her tonsils were removed. During that year she missed much school; but tutored at home by her mother, she kept up with her class. More important, she gained a first-hand knowledge of the needs and feelings of the sick. A few years later an unexpected illness in the family changed Marva's life and shaped her career. Her youngest brother, Sheldon, became ill two days after Christmas 1924. At first the family thought the boy, less than two years old, had the flu, but the doctor diagnosed Sheldon's worsening condition as double pneumonia. Marva listened to the detailed instructions Dr. Clark gave her mother on caring for Sheldon and helped her to carry them out. Years later she could still remember the details of that experience: There were mustard plasters to be applied to both the front and back of his chest every four hours and cooling sponge baths to be given to keep his temperature down as much as possible. He was to have liquids often,

The

Nurse

/6\5

cough medicine as needed, the room temperature and humidity h a d to be kept just right. I n fact all of the nursing and medical care known at that time were necessary. I remember thinking how nice it would be if we h a d a hospital in the area. T h e only medical facility we had was a h o m e owned by a nurse where doctors could operate on their patients, but she would not admit children under twelve years of age. She was owner, operator, and nurse on duty or on call for twenty-four hours.

T h e youngster failed to respond to his mother's and sister's ministrations a n d grew weaker, breathing in shallow gasps. W h e n Dr. R. G a r n Clark examined Sheldon again, he said t h a t the boy h a d developed empyema, a condition in which pus accumulates between the two coverings of the lungs. T h e doctor said he would have to remove a small section of rib a n d insert a soft rubber tube to drain the pus. Hopefully, Sheldon would have enough strength to recover. Discouraged, but willing to do all they could to save the boy's life, M a r v a and her parents followed the doctor's instructions. T h e operation was planned for Saturday and I stayed out of school Friday to help M o t h e r prepare the parlor for an operating room. T h e walls, floor and windows were scrubbed with a Lysol solution, the curtains were taken down and all the furniture except two tables removed. Friday night I was so tired I fell asleep soon after supper, but was u p early the next morning to prepare breakfast. None of us could eat much.

F a t h e r h a d been sent to get "Nurse A m a n d a , " a w o m a n w h o h a d sometimes helped Dr. Clark deliver babies. A large woman, she stood straight and tall in a starched white dress, a stern look on her face. M a r v a wished a trained nurse were available. W h e n the doctor arrived, only Sheldon's m o t h e r was allowed to remain in the room. But M a r v a was determined to observe the operation. She and her father dressed themselves warmly a n d went outside where they could look through the window into the parlor that h a d been transformed into an operating room. We could see that the nurse had spread out the linens a n d instruments on one of the tables. O n the other table Mother tenderly placed her little boy, kissed his forehead and then stepped back. "Nurse A m a n d a , " as she liked to be called, blocked p a r t of our view. W e could not be sure if the doctor gave Sheldon any anaesthetic or "shot" before he p u t on his rubber gloves. W e saw his arm move as if he were making a n incision. His other h a n d reached for a gauze sponge, then he picked up a very small saw. His elbow moved back and forth a few times. Suddenly it h a p p e n e d ! I could hardly believe my eyes. T h e big woman in her starched outfit went down in a heap on the floor. We could hear the thud outside. D a d and I started to run in, then stopped ourselves quickly and ran back to the window. T h e doctor was moving A m a n d a onto her side

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with his foot. He was talking excitedly to Mother. I saw Mother nod her head and come to take over. Her lips were pursed and her face pale, but I saw the same determined look appear on her face which had been there during other though perhaps less critical times. Dad pulled me from the window and said I shouldn't watch. But I had to. Dad wrent into the kitchen where the "nurse" had crawled and returned angry and disgusted. "Some nurse," he said, "She is in there now being sick."

Sixteen-year-old Marva then and there made her commitment to professional nursing, telling her father of her determination to go to Salt Lake City to receive training as soon as she finished high school. Marva could hardly wait to get into nurses training. When she graduated from high school in 1926 she was just seventeen years old and had to wait until she became eighteen, the required age for admission to nursing school. She and her friend Mildred Fillmore were accepted at the Salt Lake General Hospital School of Nursing on January 4, 1927. Both girls packed two large suitcases with blue pin-striped uniforms, starched white-front aprons, white hose and shoes, and as many other necessities as they could cram into the bags. They rode with Mildred's relatives as far as Provo and then took the train to Salt Lake City. Arriving late on the night of January 3, the girls were tired and hungry and wondered if they could make it to the hospital. Their instructions were to go to State Street, catch the number 12 streetcar and go to Twenty-first South, where the hospital was located, then walk east until they came to the nurses home. When they finally arrived at their living quarters, the girls were told that it was too late to get anything to eat and that their room was on the top floor of the nurses home where all the "probies" had to live for their first year. Once again they picked up their heavy cases and wearily climbed up the stairs. They talked for a few minutes before falling into bed, wondering what the next three years would bring. It is probably just as well they could not forsee all that would happen, or even with Marva's strong desire to be a real nurse her career might have ended at that point. T h e first six months of the nurses training consisted of a full day of classes and demonstrations with long study assignments to be done at night. T h e nurses who successfully completed this period of schooling were given their caps and, besides continuing the classes and study, were assigned to work an eight-hour shift on one of the wards. O n Marva's first night alone on W a r d G (women's medical), a patient expired and Marva had to take her downstairs to the morgue.

Left: Jessie Crawford and Marva Christensen with county infirmary in background. Right: Mildred Fillmore (Keyes), lifelong friend of Marva's, Frieda Wisenburg, and Marva of the steps of the Salt Lake County General Llospital. All photographs in this article are courtesy of the author.

When she reached the bottom floor, she could not get the elevator door open. She pushed the up button and pulled hard on the handle of the old iron cage, but again nothing happened. Frightened and worried about her patients left alone, she prayed and then took off her shoe and banged hard on the old bar door. In about ten minutes the night supervisor and the maintenance man came down the steps. Marva was finally freed. Peter and M a u d Christensen were worried when they received the letter telling them that their daughter Marva was assigned to Red Isolation, a ward in a red brick building away from the main hospital where those with communicable diseases were sent. At that time an epidemic of spinal meningitis had hit the state, and most of the cases were sent to Red Isolation. This serious disease caused many complications even among the patients who recovered. T o help the patients it was often necessary to do a spinal puncture to relieve the pressure of the fluid built up in the brain and spinal cord. Most of the time Marva would hold the patient in the proper position; but because she was not strong enough to hold some patients, the doctor would show her just where and how to insert the needle and then he would hold the patient while she did the spinal puncture.

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O n e little boy was m a d e completely deaf by spinal meningitis. W h e n his parents c a m e to see h i m they h a d to talk to h i m through the window. After they left the boy asked M a r v a why they did not talk out loud. W h e n she tried to explain he asked wdiy she only moved her lips. This was typical of the sad experiences she encountered. Shortly after her required time in R e d Isolation, M a r v a herself became ill with pneumonia. She was exhausted and her resistance was low. After her acute illness subsided, the doctor said she should go h o m e to rest. W h e n she arrived home a n d her parents saw how m u c h weight she h a d lost a n d h o w tired and pale she looked, they were determined t h a t she should not return to the hospital again. However, after a couple of m o n t h s ' rest and her mother's good cooking, M a r v a ' s strength returned a n d she convinced t h e m t h a t she should complete her training. D u r i n g the late 1920s a n d early 1930s every bed in the Salt Lake County Hospital was filled. At times it was necessary to place beds in the halls. Nurses worked six and a half days a week, took regular classes, and studied in their off hours. T h e interns and doctors were also overworked. T h e nurses often did some of their work to relieve t h e m a little. M a r v a consoled herself by thinking w h a t a wonderful learning experience she was getting. After three years (plus m a k e - u p for the time taken for recuperation) of h a r d work, graduation day arrived. M a r v a ' s parents came to see their d a u g h t e r receive her diploma. T h e y were as p r o u d as if it h a d been their idea. After graduation M a r v a worked for a while at the hospital in Salt L a k e City before returning h o m e to do w h a t she h a d planned on t h a t cold day in 1923. T h e area still did not have a regular hospital, a n d she was the only registered nurse available for service. T h e doctors welcomed her h o m e a n d immediately started to ask for h e r assistance. T h e first real case she was called on was one she would not soon forget. An elderly m a n in one of the small towns a few miles from A n n a bella h a d w h a t was called dry gangrene of his leg; it was extremely painful. D r . J o h n Gray M c Q u a r r i e h a d done all of the usual things to relieve the condition, but he could not relieve the pain. T h e patient insisted t h a t h e either w a n t e d to have the leg cut off or to die a n d he didn't m u c h care which. However, the m a n h a d been to the hospital once before, a n d h e insisted was not going back. T h e doctor asked if M a r v a would go to the m a n ' s h o m e a n d help h i m do an amputation. H e also asked M a r v a to fix a sterile bundle, which she did.

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O n the planned day the doctor picked her up and they went to the Gottfried Brugger home. Marva asked who else was going to help and the doctor told her. T h e patient's daughter in-law would drip the ether anaesthetic, while Marva looked at the eyes frequently to see that all was well. Marva was also to scrub her hands and put on sterile gloves, hand Dr. McQuarrie the instruments, clamp the blood vessels, keep the area dry with the sponges, and so on. T o her amazement, and maybe even the doctor's, everything went along just fine. After about a week of good nursing, Marva had the old fellow standing up using crutches. O n several occasions Mr. Brugger had his family take him to visit Marva so he could show her he had been worth saving. Marva had many other challenging experiences helping to care for the people in her area. She respected the doctors and worked well with them, assisting with home deliveries of babies, caring for the ill in their homes, and handling emergencies when the doctor asked. Many times she was paid with a bucket of honey or a loaf of bread instead of money. Sometimes she received no pay. After a year or so, Marva became restless and journeyed to California where she was successful in getting a job as supervisor of the maternity ward in a large private hospital in Los Angeles. This was an excellent experience, and although the depression was still on, her pay was regular and she was able to save a little money. In the late summer of 1933 she decided to return home. Her future husband arrived back in Sevier County about that same time, and after their first date she knew why she had returned. She was married to Myron Hanchett, an old acquaintance, on December 6, 1933. From then on her life was not only concerned with helping others but with being a good wife and, later, a good mother. Soon after they were married Myron's work called him out of town. Marva did not remain idle long. She resumed home nursing. In January 1934 Marva set up the first regular public health program in Sevier County and in April became the first regular public health nurse in the county. Her work included clinics, school nursing (there were seventeen small schools in the county at that time), home nursing, and many other duties. One of the memorable experiences of that period in her life concerned a poor family with eleven children, all of whom became infected with scabies (commonly called the seven-year itch). They lived in a three-room house with parents and two smallest children sleeping in one

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room, five girls sleeping in another room, and the four boys sleeping on the floor in the kitchen with wall to wall quilts. Imagine the task Marva faced in helping to clear up this problem. There seemed to be a child in almost every class in school and of course the infection spread. In order to solve this problem, Marva prevailed upon one of the area farmers to let the family live in a vacant farmhouse that had running water. She also was successful in getting a used appliance dealer to contribute a used washer and a generous doctor to donate free medication. It was necessary to inspect daily the school children who came in contact with this family and occasionally to send notes to their parents to have the children see the family doctor. Marva quit working at the end of the school year in May 1935 to await the birth of a son, Thann Myron, on October 26. Although times were still hard, Myron was ambitious and things were going along quite well until July 1936 when he became very ill with appendicitis. Marva had gone to work part-time for Dr. Frank Lowe and Dr. David Ostler who had just opened a new hospital above the Richfield Commercial Bank. When Myron called and gave her his symptoms, she said, "You better bring your tooth brush; this time I'm afraid you will need an operation." When the doctor checked Myron, he told Marva to get ready for emergency surgery. They had Myron on the operating table within an hour. Marva was giving the anaesthetic when she heard the doctor say, "oh, oh, he is full of pus." At that time a ruptured appendix was a serious condition. Marva was well aware of that but wrhen asked if she wanted someone to relieve her, she replied that she wanted to continue her job. She could not trust anyone else with the life of her husband. Myron got along very well and within three weeks was out weeding his garden. But now with their financial burdens, Marva arranged for a good housekeeper and started to work regularly. She continued as nursing supervisor for Dan W. Manning when he bought the local hospital from the doctors and also later when he built a new hospital called the Sevier Valley Hospital in Richfield. Patients were brought from the surrounding area; Garfield, Piute, and Wayne counties as well as from Sevier. Marva spent about ten years in hospital supervision. For nearly a year during World War II, she was the only registered nurse available. She worked her regular shift and was on call for emergencies and surgery twenty-four hours each day. In addition, she trained several nurses aides who were later licensed as practical nurses, and she was also instrumental

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in getting several outstanding registered nurses to come to southern U t a h to work. M u c h of M a r v a ' s time was spent at home with her children, T h a n n , Patricia, and Trudy. She planned their care and was able to secure good help in the home at that time. H e r husband also took much of the responsibility. After she was able to leave her youngest daughter in 1950 she returned to public health nursing until 1957. I n November 1957 the state director of public health nursing called to ask M a r v a if she would accept the job as acting supervisor of the eightcounty a r e a : Beaver, Garfield, Millard, Sanpete, J u a b , Piute, Wayne, a n d Sevier. After a conference with her family, it was felt t h a t she should m a k e her own decision. She accepted, thinking a qualified nurse would move in a n d she could give up some of her duties. She did not plan to take the advanced state merit examination which was necessary to be placed on regular status as a supervisor. However, when she received notice to take the examination, she did and passed with a high grade. M a r v a covered the eight-county area until the p r o g r a m and responsibilities increased to the point that Beaver and Garfield counties were assigned to the supervisor of Iron, Washington, and K a n e counties. This left M a r v a to cover approximately one-fifth of the state.

mmMMM. ,

The Richfield

Health Center, 1951

Marva Christensen Hanchett just before her retirement in 1974.

Marva's responsibilities included a preventive disease program, with emphasis on immunization for disease; better sanitary conditions; health education; a home visiting service to encourage and demonstrate better health practices; a school nursing service; and several clinical services, including heart, orthopedic, mental health, and pediatrics. Whenever a nurse retired or quit work, Marva recruited new professionals and provided orientation as needed. Her responsibilities were great, but she enjoyed her job and always said it was because she had such good nurses, doctors, and others to work with. During her more than eighteen years of continuous supervision, medical care and nursing programs advanced rapidly, and new nursing programs were implemented to meet the needs of the public. Shortly before her retirement the Utah Public Health Association honored her with a lifetime membership in that organization during its convention in Salt Lake City. January 1, 1974, was the special day Marva set aside for her retirement from nursing. Since then, however, she still receives many calls at home and provides guidance and consultation to the nurses as needed. This modern nursing pioneer successfully combined the careers of nurse and homemaker. T o her family she is always lovingly thought of as wife and mother; but to many people in a wide area of southern U t a h she is respectfully referred to as " T h e Nurse."

Electric Power Comes to Utah BY OBED C. H A Y C O C K

Pioneer Electric Power Company plant near Fourteenth and Harrison Boulevard in Ogden. The photographs in this article are courtesy of Utah Power and Light Company unless credited otherwise. U N N O V E M B E R 26, 1879, the Deseret News editorialized: " T h e excitem e n t of electricity as an illuminating agent has to a great extent subsided. Edison's scheme by which the electric light was to have been utilized for household as well as public purposes does not seem to be so feasible as at first supposed. . . ." Less t h a n a year later the Deseret News reversed itself: " T h i s is emphatically the age of electricity. T h a t is, the power and capabilities of the force known by that n a m e are being developed in a m a n n e r unknown to ages of the past. . . ." 1 As experiments continued M r . Haycock is professor emeritus of electrical engineering, University of U t a h . Parts of this article are based on the author's personal knowledge. ' J u l y 7, 1880.

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and demonstrations (sometimes in a carnival-like atmosphere) occurred, public interest in electricity grew. 2 Once begun, the growth of electric power was rapid. U t a h generally kept pace with other parts of the country and, at times, surged ahead. T w o native Ohioans, Lucien L. Nunn and Paul N. Nunn, were key figures in the development of electricity in U t a h and the West. This article will describe the growth of electric powerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;primarily before the formation of U t a h Power and Light Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the contributions of the Nunn brothers and others to the state's development. Events proceeded rapidly in the summer and fall of 1880. T h e Cole Brothers Circus advertised as part of its show "the only genuine electric light." { Then, a determined agent of the Brush Electric Light Company tried to sell his electric light machine to the gas company, but they were not interested. So the salesman organized a demonstration at the Patient Smelting and Concentrating works south of the city in cooperation with manager Patrick E. Connor. Salt Lake City Mayor William Jennings, members of the city council, and other prominent citizens attended. T w o electric lamps illuminated the building "in brilliance second only to sunlight." Plans called for the plant to be operated around-the-clock with the works illuminated at night. It was estimated that a hundred tons of ore could be processed in twenty-four hours. 4 T h e industrial potential of electricity was immediately evident. T h e Salt Lake Power, Light, and Heating Company was formed in November, and in April 1881 Salt Lake City became the fifth city in the world to adopt a central power system for lighting. 5 Following close behind was Ogden. T h e first plant was located in the center of the second block south of Temple Square, near the stage of the present U t a h Theatre. T h e thirty-by-seventy-foot brick structure contained four 60-horsepower boilers that drove a buckeye engine of 150-horsepower capacity. T h e engine, in turn, drove three Brush generators of 40-lamp capacity each. T h r e e circuits, strung on insulators and brackets fastened to the building, supplied light to most of the businesses on M a i n Street between First and T h i r d souths. Loops ran into the stores for the number of lights required there, then to the next store and the next. T h e circuit consisted of wire "See, for example, "Utah Power and Light Company," in Electrical West 129 (August 1962) : 296, in which the demonstration of four arc lights at Ogden in 1881 is described. !! Salt Lake Tribune, August 1, 1880. 4 Salt Lake Tribune, September 3, 1880. 13 Salt Lake Tribune, November 5, 1880; Electrical West, p. 294. The others were London, New York, San Francisco, and Cleveland.

Electric Power Comes to Utah

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run from light to light until it returned to the generator. There were forty lights per circuit. The new electric service offered stiff competition to the gas company which had to reduce rates from $4.00 per 100 cubic feet to $3.00 per month. Electric rates were $27.00 per month per lamp for all-night service, $19.00 for twelve-hour service, and $12.50 for service to 10 P.M. So successful was the lighting of downtown businesses that one month after the initiation of electric service in Salt Lake City the same promoters organized the Ogden City Electric Light Company. 0 Although outages and other problems beset the first suppliers of electricity, enthusiasm for the new service was high. Many small plants were built in the next few years. These were located near their respective loads as direct current could not be transmitted economically any distance. 7 Until 1891 most people believed that alternating current was only a laboratory curiosity that would never be used as a power source. The Nunn brothers, Judge William Story, Sr., and others were to challenge that presumption by building the Ames plant in Colorado to supply alternating current to the Gold King Mining Company near Telluride over a distance of approximately 2.3 miles.8 The success of this "fantastic scheme" brought the men national prominence and led Lucien and Paul Nunn to expand their pioneering activity into Utah and other parts of the West. In 1880 Lucien L. Nunn, a twenty-seven-year-old Ohioan who had studied law at Harvard and at universities in Germany traveled to Leadville, Colorado, where he operated a restaurant for a short time. 9 Following news of rich strikes, he moved on, ending up in 1881 at Telluride where the mines were booming. Nunn began practicing law, and by 1888 he was both prosperous and influential. In partnership with Judge Story,10 Nunn acquired interests in mining properties and water rights 6

Electrical West, pp. 295-96. Direct current from a plant at 155 South West Temple continued to supply power for elevators, lights, and other uses in downtown Salt Lake City until the 1960s. 8 See Charles C. Britton, "An Early Electric Power Facility in Colorado," Colorado Magazine 49 (1972) : 185-95; Electrical West, pp. 298-99; "Utah Power and Light Company: History of Origin and Development," pp. 8-9, mimeographed report prepared by the company in connection with a Federal Power Commission request order dated May 11 1937. George Westinghouse had spent years and a great deal of money trying to prove the practical possibilities of alternating current. He was opposed by those with large investments in direct current who attempted to label him a crackpot. The Ames plant would help to dispel that notion. 19 Biographical data on Lucien L. Nunn may be found in, "Utah Power and Light Company: History of Origin and Development," pp. 86-98; Stephen A. Bailey, L. L. Nunn: A Memoir (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cayuga Press, 1930) ; obituary in Deseret News, April 3, 1925. 10 Story was a carpetbagger judge in Arkansas after the Civil War. Later, he had mining interests at Ouray, Colorado. Story met Nunn at Telluride and impressed him with his legal ability. See "Utah Power and Light Company: History of Origin and Development," p. 89 n. 7

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The old Ames plant at the Gold Hill Mine near Telluride, Colorado, and its Pelton wheel, a high-pressure impulse water turbine.

and studied methods of harnessing water power to operate the mills. His investigation of direct current, cable drive, and compressed air as power sources led him to inquire also about George Westinghouse's experimental work with alternating current. T h e problem was one of transmission. In purchasing control of the San Miguel Valley Bank in 1888, Nunn became acquainted with Saint Louis entrepreneur James Campbell, president of the Gold King Mining Company, one of the bank's principal creditors. 11 High operating costs had plagued the Gold King. 12 As a possible remedy, Nunn suggested alternating current to power the mine operation. Campbell agreed and, impressed with Nunn's determination, 11

A wealthy m a n , Campbell proved to be one of Nunn's most dependable financial backers. See ibid., p. 92 n. At first, Campbell was unsure whether his diminutive visitor ( N u n n was only five feet one inch tall) was an idiot or a genius. But N u n n ' s "singular intensity" won the businessm a n over. 12 T h e mines at Telluride h a d exhausted much of the rich surface ore. Mills were built near the mines to concentrate lower grade ores. Steam engines fired by wood a n d , later, coal powered the mills. Packed in by burros, coal cost forty dollars a ton, making mill operation financially disastrous for many mine owners. See ibid., p p . 8 9 - 9 0 , 92.

Electric

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suggested that he take over management of the Gold King. Returning to Telluride in 1890, Nunn made improvements at the mine and mill and began plans for an alternating current power plant. At this point, Lucien wrote to his younger brother, Paul N. Nunn, a teacher and high school principal who had studied science and engineering. 13 Paul was asked to familiarize himself with the new alternating current and its generation and transmission. The rest of the story is fairly well known. The Nunn brothers and other secured Westinghouse's approval to produce alternating current in the new Ames power plant, and the machinery was installed in the winter of 1890.14 T h e Ames plant, a wooden shed in a gorge two thousand feet below the Gold King mill, was among the first commercial alternating current plants in the world transmitting power at high voltage. 15 In addition to proving that alternating current generation and transmission was practical, the Ames plant carried out an extensive research and training program. Many things used later in the industry were developed there, including transformers, switches, insulators, and lightning arresters. 16 Eventually the electric power operation became a separate corporate entitity called Telluride Power Company, a predecessor of Utah Power and Light Company. 17 After the people at Ames had shown the feasibility of alternating current generation and transmission, the fever to build plants in Utah was very high. Hydroelectric plants were built in almost every canyon where enough water was available, and in some canyons several were constructed. As a result, many small independent companies competed for the power loads. In many localities competing lines were run along 13 Biographical d a t a on Paul N. N u n n m a y be found in Who's Who in America for the years 1 9 1 4 - 1 5 to 1 9 4 0 - 4 1 ; obituaries in Deseret News, O c t o b e r 28 and October 30, 1939; R a l p h B. Simmons, ed., Utah's Distinguished Personalities (Salt L a k e City, 1932â&#x20AC;&#x201D;33), p . 162. 14 T h e others involved were Lewis B. Stillwell, a consulting engineer who worked with Westinghouse; O. B. Shallenberger, an engineer with Westinghouse a n d the inventor of the first integrating m e t e r ; a n d Charles F. Scott, a Westinghouse engineer a n d later a professor of electrical engineering at Yale. See " U t a h Power and L i g h t C o m p a n y : History of Origin a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , " p . 94. For details of the installation a n d e q u i p m e n t specifications, see ibid. p p . 96-97. 13 O r e g o n h a d a p l a n t t h a t m a y have been o p e r a t i n g sooner. See Britton, " A n Early Electric Power Facility in C o l o r a d o , " p . 185 n. 3. ac Experiments using voltage as high as 60,000 volts were carried over the 2.3-mile line. For one experiment t h e 60,000-volt transformers were connected in series on the high side to give 132,000 volts ( t h e generator voltage was increased slightly). Observers reported t h a t the line was luminous and could be seen for a quarter-mile. T h e transformer finally failed. O n e i m p o r t a n t development was classified as a "smooth a r m a t u r e . " All generators were soon m a d e with "smooth a r m a t u r e " a n d are m a d e t h a t way today. T h e m e n engaged in this research read like a " W h o ' s W h o in P o w e r " : Scott, Stillwell, Shallenberger, R a l p h D . M a r s h o n , Alexander J. W u r t s , a n d V . G. Converse. 1T A detailed study of Telluride Power C o m p a n y , including a corporate chart and m a p , is found in " U t a h Power a n d Light C o m p a n y : History of Origin a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , " p p . 8 3 - 1 4 2 .

LAicien L. Nunn, left, and Paid N. Nunn, right, the Ohio-born brothers who spurred the development of electric power in the West through the Telluride Power Company.

the same street. The competition was intense. In some cases a company would build a line in the daytime, and a competing company would tear it down during the night. The Nunns were also interested in the Utah market. In 1894 Lucien came to Utah and went on up into Montana in search of hydroelectric sites. He located many, including Provo River.1S Eventually he would build two plants in Provo Canyon with his brother as the construction engineer for both. The Nunn and Olmstead plants were extremely significant in the development of Utah and of the power industry. They involved new ideas and practices not possible before and provided the first technical training program for powerhouse employees in Utah. At first the citizens of Provo welcomed the idea of a power plant in the nearby canyon: The scheme is a gigantic one and will add greatly to Provo's prosperity. But it is only one out of many that will come with the advent of statehood. . . . Moneyed men have always fought shy of Territories, but in Utah our past politics were such as to frighten all outsiders. . . . Provo is blessed with some of the finest water power, now running to waste, to be found in the new State. It ought to be utilized not only for a power plant, but for more factories. 19

By May 1896 seventy-five men were working at the damsite, and Nunn was seeking a street-lighting contract from city officials. Then, one month later, nervous residents, recalling the Johnstown flood of 1889, began to fear that an eighty-foot-high dam would bring disaster upon them if it broke. In addition, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad protested that is

lbid., p. 123.

Electric

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water behind the d a m would flood its right-of-way. After a court battle, N u n n was limited to building a d a m no higher than fifteen feet. When it appeared that the Nunn brothers might abandon the project altogether, local businessmen threw their support behind it. A sixteen-foot-high d a m was built, and by November 1897 teams were hauling in machinery for the power plant. 20 Lucien Nunn had signed a contract with Capt. Joseph L. De La M a r of Mercur, a mining town west of Provo, to provide his Golden Gate mill with 500 horsepower. 21 After the Nunn plant, located three miles above the mouth of Provo Canyon, was completed, it was used to charge the line to Mercur on January 7, 1898.22 T h e line ran north of U t a h Lake, across Cedar Canyon, and up to Mercur. This difficult terrain created problems for the construction crew, according to Orson Twelves, one of the workers: Teams were unable to pull the poles up the hills and in many places block and tackle work was necessary. T h e same was true in Provo Canyon. At times some rather unique methods were employed in digging holes, especially when we ran into boulders. They were larger than a man's head and the spoon would not hold them. We'd loosen the boulder, and put Ikie King, a small individual, into the hole head first and then pull both Ikie and the boulder out.2:5

Despite these difficulties, work proceeded, even during a brief strike by linemen. Upon completion, the thirty-two-mile transmission line to Mercur was the longest power line in the world and the first 40,000volt line in the United States. Manufacturers of that time would not guarantee their transformers for the higher pressures required for 40,000-volt transmission. Therefore, Telluride decided to make its own. T h e transformers were connected star on the low side and star on the high side. They were immersed in engine oil and were the forerunner of the present oil-insulated, air-cooled transformer. T h e line was insulated with a specially designed insulator developed by the company. In use for many years, it became known as the Provo-type insulator. In thus meeting the demands of new situa19

Provo Daily Enquirer, D e c e m b e r 2 3 , 1895. See " U t a h P o w e r a n d L i g h t C o m p a n y : History of O r i g i n a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , " p p . 124â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 27, for details, including e q u i p m e n t . A c c o r d i n g to this r e p o r t 100 Provo businessmen, led by m e r c h a n t R. A. Barney, worked to forestall a b a n d o n m e n t of the power p l a n t . 21 See Douglas D . Alder, " T h e Ghost of M e r c u r , " Utah Historical Quarterly 29 ( 1 9 6 1 ) : 36-37. 22 T h e N u n n p l a n t used two 750-kw generators driven by two twin-horizontal turbines u n d e r a 125-foot head. 2 " " U t a h Power a n d L i g h t C o m p a n y : History of O r i g i n a n d D e v e l o p m e n t , " p . 128. 33

Olrnstead Power Plant,

Provo City, Utah

The Olmsted plant and the buildings of the Telluride Institute at the mouth of Provo Canyon. Utah State Historical Society collections.

tions, the Nunns and their associates took a lead in engineering new equipment to meet growing power demands in the West. As more power was needed, the Olmsted plant at the mouth of Provo Canyon was built in 1903. It had a three-mile wooden flume, ten feet wide and seven feet high, that was patrolled both summer and winter. The flume was subject to damage from snow, ice, and slides as well as from competitors. The Olmsted plant utilized a 340-foot head, driving three 3,600-horsepower turbines. 21 At that time it was difficult to find experienced power and operation men for the growing industry. Lucien Nunn "conceived the idea of placing young men under the direction of his brother, who would give them a course of study each day in addition to practical training in the plant operation." 25 Thus the Telluride Institute was founded at the Olmsted plant in 1903. The institute probably offered the first technical education in Utah, preceding work at the University of Utah. Paul Ashworth (later president of Telluride Power Company) described his experience at the institute: 21 Prior to completion of the Olmsted plant, the capacity of the N u n n plant had been doubled and lines had been built to serve Eureka and Bingham. 25 "History of O u r Electric Service," Circuit, M a y 1967, p. 7. This article contains an excellent description of student life.

Electric Power Comes to Utah

181

T h a t fall 1909 I started school at O l m s t e d a n d t a u g h t several classes, including physics^ chemistry, English, a n d G e r m a n , in addition to studying several subjects. I h a d various o t h e r jobs a r o u n d the p l a n t in addition to o p e r a t i n g , including some work in the shop where we were developing rotary switches a n d d r o p - o u t links, over in the standards laboratory in various experimental projects, a n d in the automobile shop helping J. C. Miller keep t h e cars in operation. I n the s t a n d a r d s laboratory a n d in the adjoining high voltage laboratory, major pioneering developments were carried o u t on high voltage e q u i p m e n t , relays, a n d m a n y other phases of t h e p o w e r business u n d e r the direction of P. N . N u n n . 2 6

The turn-of-the-century years were marked by rapid power development in Utah. Both hydroelectric and steam plants were built. Many mining companies, for example, depended upon their own steam plants for power and were skeptical of long-distance transmission from hydroelectric plants because of the risk of power failure. To overcome this objection, Lucien Nunn built several plants in northern Utah, purchased the Hercules Power Company plant in Logan Canyon, and interconnected all the Telluride holdings with two hundred miles of line. Still on the lookout for more promising hydroelectric sites in waterscarce Utah, Nunn scouted Bear Lake and Bear River for power development and built the Old Grace plant. 27 Essentially his plan was to pump and store water from the Bear River into the natural reservoir of Bear Lake. A canal could then be dredged from the lake back to the river and the flow from the lake controlled. The water could be used to generate power on its way down the river. This is roughly the plan carried out by the Utah Power and Light Company after it acquired Telluride. T h e Bear River then became one of the most scientifically controlled rivers for irrigation and power in the United States. Many power plants were built during the industry's pioneering period, but most were poorly financed and poorly equipped. These early plants did not operate around-the-clock but only when the load was large enough to justify it. As lighting was the principal load, the plants normally ran from dusk to 10 P.M. or midnight on theatre and dance nights. Power was also supplied on Monday and Tuesday mornings for washing and ironing. 28 To survive, companies frequently merged to stop destructive competition such as duplicate lines and equipment. A graphic example of the intense competition surrounding early power development occurred in 1893 when R. M. Jones, a civil engineer 20

Paul Ash worth, "The Telluride Power Company," report in the files of Utah Power and Light Company, Salt Lake City. 27 "Utah Power and Light Company: History of Origin and Development," pp. 133-35. 28 Electrical West, pp. 305-6.

The Stairs station in Big Cottonwood Canyon east of Salt Lake City near the turn of the century.

and inventor, applied to Salt Lake City for a franchise to build a power plant at the Stairs in Big Cottonwood Canyon. In December 1893 Jones and his associates incorporated as the Big Cottonwood Power Company. Quarrels over water rights ensued. A second group of men financially interested in the Salt Lake City streetcar system organized the Utah Power Company in 1895 to build a plant at the mouth of Big Cottonwood. Into this situation came Frank H. Gillespie who claimed prior rights to the stream. As a clam was being built across the stream, Gillespie went so far as to build a flume over the dam. Utah Power workmen tore the flume out with sledgehammers and axes. According to the Salt Lake Tribune of February 4, 1896, Mr. Gillespie's men were completely routed and the flume which had been constructed over the . . . dam during the preceding night was demolished by sledge and axes in the hands of Francis Armstrong's men. While the work was being carried out, Mr. Armstrong and one of his assistants stood by fondling double-barreled shotguns.

The Granite plant of the Utah Power Company was completed and serving the street railway in February 1897. The Stairs plant was completed in May 1896.29 Leaders of the Mormon church took an active part in developing "u For details of this intensely competitive situation, see " U t a h Light and Traction Comp a n y : History of Origin and Development," p p . 41â&#x20AC;&#x201D;42, 79-80, mimeographed report prepared by the company in connection with a Federal Power Commission request order dated M a y 11, 1937. Francis Armstrong was a former Salt Lake City mayor. Others involved in the two companies were also men of substantial influence.

Electric

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the fledgling power industry. O n e example is the Pioneer Electric Power C o m p a n y which was organized in 1893 with George Q . Cannon as president a n d Wilford Woodruff a n d Joseph F. Smith among the directors. 30 T h e i r plan was to build a d a m on the Ogden River about ten miles east of Ogden to form a large reservoir for power, culinary, and irrigation purposes. T h e eventual aim was to supply power to the Ogden Power and Electric Railway in O g d e n a n d Salt Lake City and to a sugar factory, the site of which was to be selected. Irrigation water would be supplied to about twenty thousand acres of land in northwestern Weber County that seemed especially suitable for sugar beets. W h e n completed, the Pioneer plant at the mouth of Ogden Canyon was a model of modern design a n d equipment. It drew much attention locally and was discussed at the annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1897. 31 T h e n e w plant h a d an estimated 10,000-horsepower capacity, only 1,000 of which h a d been subscribed by Ogdenites. Surplus power was a problem. Distribution of power from the Pioneer plant h a d already been a subject of m u c h controversy. 32 W h e n the company m a d e application to Salt Lake City to supply power for street lighting, the bid was approved by the city council but vetoed by Mayor James Glendinning because: It is a m a t t e r of public notoriety t h a t the Pioneer Electric Power C o m p a n y , the Salt Lake & O g d e n Gas & Electric Light C o m p a n y , Citizens' Electric L i g h t C o m p a n y , a n d the Big C o t t o n w o o d Power C o m p a n y are a b o u t to form a gigantic combination to control the m a n u f a c t u r e of gas a n d light a n d dictate the price. 3 3

Shortly after, some of the same m e n w h o h a d organized Pioneer organized the Union Power a n d Light Company, a n d on August 9, 1897, Union took over management of the four companies mentioned by Glendinning plus the Little Cottonwood W a t e r Power a n d Electric Company. 3 4 Not all the officers of the company were Mormon, however. For example, F J. Kiesel, the vice-president, had been elected mayor of Ogden on the Liberal party ticket in 1889 after an emotionally charged campaign that saw voters split along religious lines with most Mormons voting for the defeated People's party candidate. But a new spirit of cooperation was in the air by 1893 as the territory prepared for statehood. ,!l " U t a h Light and Traction Company," pp. 8 3 - 9 1 , presents a detailed look at Pioneer Electric. ::2 Ibid., pp. 8 8 - 9 1 . :!:i Ibid., p. 90. "4 Ibid., p. 9 1 . T h e competitive situation among these companies prior to consolidation is discussed in ibid., pp. 92â&#x20AC;&#x201D;94.

Utah Light and Traction

Company

substation,

ca 1892.

First hydroelectric plant of the Ogden City Electric Light Company, 1883, supplied direct current to a few private customers until high water in the spring of 1884 partially destroyed the building.

Mobile ladder unit, ca. 1910, permitted arc lights.

utility workers to repair or clean

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Union Power immediately faced problems with titles and bonds a n d stiff competition from the O g d e n Street Railway Company. 3 5 Exactly two years after its formation, Union Power was absorbed by U t a h Light a n d Power Company. 3 0 I n another three years this company merged with Consolidated Railway and Power C o m p a n y to form the U t a h Light a n d Railway Company. An excellent example of free enterprise in the Gilded Age, the new company h a d evolved from eighteen different predecessor companies in the Salt Lake City a n d O g d e n areas. 37 Most of the electric power and street railway systems plus several gas suppliers in U t a h ' s two largest cities were absorbed by U t a h Light a n d Railway. I n 1904, its first year of operation, the new company began consolidating its railway, gas, and electric systems. Personnel were shifted, obsolete equipment discarded, a n d distribution simplified. Service was improved an estimated 50 percent. 3S I n 1906, E. H . H a r r i m a n , president of Union Pacific Railroad, purchased 60 percent of the stock of U t a h Light and Railway with the intention of building a model u r b a n transit system. T h e company m a n agement was reorganized with William H a z a r d Bancroft, vice-president and general m a n a g e r of the Oregon Short Line, n a m e d as president. O t h e r prominent U t a h businessmen were also officers a n d directors. 39 A major p r o g r a m of u p d a t i n g equipment and improving service was begun under the new board of directors. For example, heavy steel rail was ordered to replace some eighty miles of light track, fifty new cars were purchased, new car barns and repair shops were built on the site presently called Trolley Square, daily gas output w7as more t h a n tripled, a n d electric generation and transmission was modernized. 4 0 I n September 1914 U t a h Light and Railway merged with Salt Lake Light a n d Traction C o m p a n y to form the U t a h Light and Traction Com33

Ibid., pp. 94-100. Ibid., pp. 104—10, gives a history of this company, including its difficulty in meeting power demands and its building of the Jordan River Steam plant that was powered by an immense engine that had been used for lighting at the Chicago World's Fair. The company's insufficient power production led Salt Lake City merchants in November 1903 to lodge a protest that "lighting service was inadequate to meet demands of their business and in view of the approaching demand for the Christmas trade, they asked the [Commercial] Club to use its influence in remedying the trouble." 37 Ibid., p. 115. The text says there were seventeen predecessor companies, but the listing shows eighteen. 38 Ibid., pp. 116-17. 39 Ibid., pp. 1 18—19. For more information on Bancroft and four other officers—William S. McCornick, Heber M Wells, David S. Burley, and Lewis S. Hills—see Men of Affairs in the State of Utah (Salt Lake City: The Press Club of Salt Lake City, 1914), pp. 7, 17, 43, 391, 393, 40 " U t a h Light and Traction Company," pp. 119-24. 36

X ••'"•

ilH*

Car barns and repair shops of the Utah Light and Traction Company, part of entrepreneur E. H. Harriman's ambitious plan to modernize Salt Lake City's transit system.

pany. 41 The millions of dollars worth of improvements made by Harriman and his associates benefited the state in many ways. However, his dream of modern urban transit was superseded in a few years by the tremendous success of the internal combustion engine. By 1912 most of the companies producing electric power had been consolidated into several major companies in Utah and southeastern Idaho. In addition, a number of small companies continued to serve isolated towns.42 Despite the number and size of companies serving the area, some parts of the state had only partial electric service, and hundreds of farm communities had none at all. Most power plants— usually located on small canyon streams—had been built to fill a local need such as electricity for mining operations, streetcars, commercial and home lighting, or industry. The early power companies faced major problems: "inadequate financing, shortage of water, lack of capacity and standby, scattered territory, limited markets, poor load factor, inadequate equip41

Ibid., p. 126. Examples of these smaller companies a r e : U t a h Hotel Company, organized in 1909 to provide heat and power for the new Hotel U t a h and other buildings in the immediate vicinity; Progress Company, organized in 1897 in M u r r a y , U t a h , to light a new opera house and nearby businesses and homes; Electric Power and Milling Company, organized in 1909 to supply electric power and telephone service to p a r t of Emery County and to operate a flour mill at Orangeville. See " U t a h Power and Light C o m p a n y : History of Origin and Development," pp. 275, 2 8 7 - 9 2 , 327-29. 42

Electric Power Comes to Utah

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ment, management recruited largely from men experienced in fields other than the power business." 43 T o integrate power service into one areawide system the Utah Power and Light Company was incorporated on September 6, 1912, and began consolidating into one organization the diverse companies then in operation. 44 Telluride Power Company was acquired November 22, 1912; Knight Consolidated Power Company on February 7, 1913; Idaho Power and Transportation Company on April 19, 1913; and the electric properties of Utah Light and Traction Company were leased on January 2, 1915.45 Pioneering entrepreneurs and engineers in league with local mining interests and the business community successfully introduced large-scale electric power development into Utah. Dozens of companies were started in the highly competitive turn-of-the-century years, and many consolidations followed. However, many small companies remained, serving Utah's far-flung towns. The potential for electric power on the farm, in industry, and in the home (the electric iron was about the only home appliance then in common use) was just beginning to be realized in 1912 when the formation of Utah Power and Light Company ushered in a new era of power development in the state. 43

Ibid., p. 46. Ibid., p. 5. Telluride h a d declared no dividends during its entire existence. Lucien N u n n h a d believed in reinvesting profits for experimenting and expansion. By 1903 the energetic N u n n was complaining of his heavy work load as " a dog's life." H e had lost weight (down to u n d e r 103 p o u n d s ) , and doctors in the East diagnosed tuberculosis. O n e of his last objectives was to form the Telluride Association, "a self-governing and self-perpetuating body of students." H e endowed the organization "with a large p a r t of his personal fortune" in 1911. Lucien N u n n died in Los Angeles on April 2, 1925. Ibid., p . 142. Histories of the K n i g h t Consolidated Power C o m p a n y and I d a h o Power and T r a n s p o r t a tion C o m p a n y are found in ibid., p p . 1 6 8 - 9 1 , 195-210. T h e former is a good example of entering the power business through the back door. T h e mining interests of Provo m a g n a t e Jesse K n i g h t led him to develop power sources for his properties that eventually p u t him into the electric power business in "bitter rivalry" with Telluride. I d a h o Power h a d operating and financial difficulties t h a t h a d p u t the company into receivership on M a r c h 3 1 , 1911. 45 Ibid., p . 6, contains a list of smaller companies acquired by U t a h Power and Light C o m p a n y and the dates. See also the chart of predecessor companies on p. 4. Histories of these miscellaneous small companies are in ibid., pp. 214â&#x20AC;&#x201D;334. 44

Historic Utilization of Paria River BY P . T. REILLY

In 1912 the American Placer Corporation drove cottonwood pilings across a wash in Paria Canyon in an attempt to halt erosion. Photograph courtesy A. C. Waller.

of Bryce Canyon National Park, the Paria River courses generally south-southeast through Utah and Arizona to join the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry. The United States Geological Survey defines the area drained as 1,570 square miles. The stream's JLXEADING BENEATH T H E RIM

Mr. Reilly of Sun City, Arizona, has contributed a number of articles and reviews to the Quarterly on the Colorado River and southern Utah topics.

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exact length has never been measured accurately, but it probably covers eighty to ninety miles, with one-fourth of this distance meandering between the precipitous walls of a deep gorge. Officially called a river, the stream usually appears as a small creek and in dry years disappears underground. On some occasions, however, raging floods have thundered downstream to leave marks high on the narrow walls and to measure a volume greater than the Colorado River itself. Man's efforts to utilize the water of Paria River date from the spring of 1865 when Peter Shirts preempted a low bench on the banks of the stream. Peter was a Daniel Boone type of pioneer who shunned the proximity of his brethren and usually located on the outermost fringe of Mormon exploration. If other settlers gathered around him, he moved to a more remote place. His home on the Paria was in a cove that protected him from attack on three sides. He built his house of rock; and, to counter the danger of flaming arrows being shot from the cliff, he covered the roof with thin slabs of flagstone. Lastly, he dug a trench from the creek into and through his house, presumably watering his garden by means of a headgate as the ditch returned to the stream. 1 Shirts was besieged by Paiutes when Dr. J. M. Whitmore and Robert Mclntyre were murdered by other Indians near Pipe Spring in January 1866. This was the first act of a general uprising that signaled the opening of the Black Hawk War in southern Utah and the Arizona Strip. Deep snows prevented Col. D. D. McArthur's militia out of St. George from making a rescue attempt. For several weeks the fate of the Shirts family was unknown. Tradition says that Peter's stone fort and water ditch enabled him to withstand the siege, and when spring arrived the defenders were in better condition than the attackers. A truce ensued and Shirts shared his food with the natives, by then on the verge of starvation. During the meeting he pointed out that since they had killed one of his two oxen he was unable to plow and thus raise food to feed them all. After being promised part of the crop, the Paiutes agreed to pull the plow and the garden was planted. The settlement of Kanab, however, was abandoned later in March 1866. At the same time Peter Shirts and his family were removed unwillingly to the larger villages to the west. Shirts never returned to his remote homestead, and its exact location has not been preserved. A subsequent flood is said to have taken out his water-conveying trench and much of his bench, ending the first use of Paria water for irrigation. 1

Robert Glass Cleland and J u a n i t a Brooks. A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of ]ohn D. Lee, 1848-1876, 2 vols. (San Marino, Calif.: T h e H u n t i n g t o n Library, 1955), 2 : 1 3 7 - 3 8 , 183.

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M o r m o n relations with the Southern Paiutes gradually improved, and in the summer of 1869 Jacob H a m b l i n and three others ventured to plant a crop a n d cut wild hay at Pipe Spring. 2 T h e n he organized the Indians on K a n a b Creek into cadres to raise food and to guard against Navajo raids. K a n a b ' s old log fort was refurbished to serve as shelter and protection for both white m a n and Paiute. In December of the same year H a m b l i n headed a small group in organizing an I n d i a n farm on P a r i a River. 3 This foothold was a h a n d y place from which to rotate a guard at the U t e Crossing and it effectively stopped Navajo raids directed against the livestock of the larger ranches to the west. At the same time, agriculture was expanded behind the safety of the guard in an effort to m a k e the Indians self-sustaining. J a c o b H a m b l i n wrote the following to his superior, Apostle Erastus Snow: Kanab.

M a r c h 27th, 1870

Bro. Erastus Snow D e a r Sir: I have just returned from Pahreah. All well there. Business prospering finely under the Presidency of William Meeks. T h e r e is a safe G u a r d House and small corral there where men can cook and lodge safely with 20 or 25 horses; one outside gate only for horses and corral. We have finished there one mile and a half of water ditch. I consider it permanent, as we need no dam. We have put in 6 acres of wheat and some garden seeds. W e have eight laboring native m e n there ; two women and six children. I took them in on condition that they subsist on half rations depending on roots and their former diet for the balance. T h e y have a large bredth of land ready for the plow and were still clearing off, when I came away, at the rate of one acre and a half a day. T h e r e is no lack of water or the very best of land on the stream. We have not been able to discern any sign of Navajos since Bro. Miller was there. W e have 800 yards of good fence newly p u t up at K a n a b , we expect to finish the fencing this week Jacob Elamblin 4

Canalized irrigation h a d come to the Paria, and at the same time the first of several settlements a p p e a r e d on its banks. 0 2

Erastus Snow to Brigham Young, July 20, 1869, in Brigham Young Incoming Correspondence, box 56, folder I, Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. 3 Ibid., under date of December 7, 1869. * James G. Bleak, "Annals of the Southern U t a h Mission," Book B, pp. 41-42, Dixie College Library, St. George, Utah. 5 Maj. John Wesley Powell is responsible for the spelling of Paria. The Paiute word was spoken softly and the pioneer Mormons interpreted it phonetically as Pahreah. The post office was established as Pahreah on July 26, 1893, and it was maintained under that spelling until it was discontinued permanently on March 1, 1915.

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J o h n D . Lee settled at the m o u t h of Paria Canyon during the waning days of December 1871. Six weeks later Lee h a d a d a m under construction, a ditch dug and leveled. His ground was plowed, sowed, and irrigated early in M a r c h . c But within another m o n t h the unpredictable stream h a d flooded a n d washed out the d a m . Lee's dams, and those of his successors, were flimsy affairs. T h e builders were forced to use materials at hand—driftwood deposited by the seasonal high w a t e r of the Colorado, willows a n d other local brush, rocks, and wagonloads of soft Moenkopi shale. T h e backbone of each d a m usually was a crooked cottonwood snaked out of the Paria delta by a t e a m and placed crosswise in the creek. Willows, shale, and rocks were placed on the upstream side of the cottonwood, intermixed with additional cross-trunks a n d branches until the structure h a d impounded enough water to enter the ditch—usually about four or five feet above the n o r m a l bed of the stream. Subsequent dams were moved farther u p the canyon to take advantage of the n a t u r a l fall of the bed. At the same time the ditches, of necessity, became longer. W h e n Lee's successor, W a r r e n M . Johnson, sold his interest in the ranch in 1896 the deed included one and one-half miles of ditch. 7 A longer ditch ushered in other problems: invasive cottonwoods took root in the channel a n d h a d to be eradicated each spring; flumes h a d to be built across the tributary washes a n d even if a minor flood did not take out the d a m , it filled the ditch with stinking m u d t h a t h a d to be shoveled out by h a n d . J a m e s S. E m e t t succeeded Johnson as proprietor of the ranch, and his luck with P a r i a River was n o better t h a n his predecessors'. T h e same was true of the G r a n d Canyon Cattle C o m p a n y which operated the ranch from 1909 to 1925. A group of polygamists, some of w h o m h a d been born on the ranch prior to 1900, fared no better; and when the last family departed in J u n e 1934, the headgate h a d been washed out and the fields u n w a t e r e d for a month. T h e P a r i a has h a d its share of exploitation through promotion, too. After the Charles H . Spencer placer schemes collapsed at Lee's Ferry in the spring of 1912, the officers moved field headquarters to the dying village of P a h r e a h , then inhabited only by A b n e r Potter a n d his wife. T h e extensive outcropping of the Chinle formation west of town a n d the 10

Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 2 : 182—83. Coconino County, Arizona, "Deeds," Book 4, p. 228, county recorder's office, Flagstaff. Johnson's dam was located in NW y4 of NE }4 of Sec 11 T40N, R7E. 7

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need to escape Arizona creditors are said to have been the decisive factors behind the relocation. Most of the itinerant crew scattered, but a handful—hoping that new sources of finance would be found to pay back wages and prolong their jobs—accompanied Spencer and Herbert A. Parkyn, the chief purveyors of the enterprise. Refinancing of the plan to recover gold from placering the Chinle did not materialize, however, and the promoters gradually shifted their efforts to land and water development. One mile below the townsite, Paria River Abner Potter and his wife were the sole breaches the upturned Jurasresidents of Pahreah when the Spencer crew moved there from Lee's Ferry in sic sandstone in the East 1912. Photograph courtesy H. A. Parkyn Kaibab monocline, resulting 8 in a short, narrow box canyon. T o the laymen this place appeared to be a natural and ideal damsite. They gained control of it by locating eight lode-mining claims December 10, 1913. 9 At the same time they made application for use of 300,000 acre-feet of Paria water, along with lesser amounts from W a r m and Sentinel (Wahweap) creeks. 10 Six months later, with Spencer's name conspicuous by its absence, Parkyn sold an interest in the eight lode-claims and water rights to Rolla E. and Marbeth B. Clapp of Salt Lake County. The trio then set

H e r b e r t E. Gregory a n d R a y m o n d C. Moore, The Kaiparowits Region: A Geographic and Geologic Reconnaissance. . . . U . S. Geological Survey Professional P a p e r 164 ( W a s h i n g t o n , D . C : G o v e r n m e n t Printing Office, 1 9 3 1 ) , p p . 1 4 1 - 4 2 , also p p . 30, 3 1 , 148. B K a n e County, U t a h , " M i n i n g Claims, Book V , " p p . 223—26, county courthouse, K a n a b . 10 K a n e County, U t a h , "Applications to A p p r o p r i a t e W a t e r , " Book 1 — 14, p p . 4 7 0 - 7 2 , application no. 4 7 9 1 .

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up the Cucan Corporation under the laws of Utah. 1 1 T h e Clapp couple appears to have had second thoughts about their venture because the operation never became active. O n November 11, 1914, Parkyn reorganized the scheme as the Pahreah Mining Company but referred to it privately as the Arizutah Land Company. Unable to obtain capital, the project never got off the ground. Abortion of this plan appears to have satisfied Parkyn's desire to promote in the West because he returned to Chicago and, despite several overtures, never again collaborated with his erstwhile partner. Spencer, however, had faith that land and water development was a promising field and in 1915 he filed a number of claims for water rights and millsites between Lee's Ferry and Jacob's Pools.12 These claims seem to have been filed for their effect as assets when he organized the Coconino Water Development Company on December 9, 1916. This promotion was designed to collect water from the heavy snowfall on the San Francisco Peaks and channel it through ditches and pipelines to silt-lined crater reservoirs in the numerous cinder cones in the area. 13 Several companies were formed to handle the promotion. T h e Arizutah Company was resurrected and legally incorporated in 1917, augmented by a glowing report by A. L. Field and N. D. Ingham, who represented the Paria range as being potentially capable of supporting 12,000 to 15,000 head of cattle. Sixty thousand acres of choice land were said to be available on Clark Bench. T h e Paria Reservoir, holding 350,000 acre-feet of water, was sketched on plats, with minor dams planned for Coyote and Hackberry creeks. Entry of the United States into the European war on April 6, 1917, combined with several judgment errors, doomed Spencer's projects to failure and they dropped into the limbo of inactivity. But Charlie made one more run at his objective. In 1922 he obtained limited backing from F. C. Rockwell and L. S. Hackney to resurrect the Paria scheme. H e had thrown in with a drinking engineer, John W. Calhoun, who claimed to be a great-grandson of the nineteenth-century states' rights advocate. Spencer also obtained the services of four Lee's Ferry citizens to form a crew that eventually ran the levels for six miles of flume from the Paria damsite to the Clark Bench. T h e financing, however, dried u p and the scheme died of atrophy, thus ending the promotional phase of Paria water. 11

Kane County, Utah, "Deeds," Book J, pp. 414-15. Coconino County, Arizona, "Millsites and Water Rights," Book 4, pp. 150â&#x20AC;&#x201D;51. M See Plateau 29 (1957) : 36-40. 12

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Meanwhile, political struggles over the West's last major waterhole resulted in the Colorado River Compact, signed at Santa Fe on November 24, 1922. T h e compact divided the river's water between the u p p e r and lower basin states and established Compact Point as a hypothetical place one mile below the m o u t h of the Paria. This action placed the Paria watershed in the u p p e r basin. Since sizeable floods h a d been known to come down the tributary in the past, it was necessary to establish a gauge above its m o u t h to determine the amount of water it contributed to the parent stream. This was done and hydrographer James E. Klohr m a d e the first reading on November 22, 1923. A major Paria flood of more t h a n 16,000 second-feet destroyed the gauge on October 5, 1925. This figure stood as the m a x i m u m measured flow for the Paria until 1958 when 19,000 cubic feet per second was recorded on September 12. I n slightly more t h a n a half-century, over a score of floods have been measured in four figures and three have run into five digits. Leo Weaver, citizen of Flagstaff and next owner of the ranch, m a d e no a t t e m p t to farm there but concentrated instead on a guest ranch operation and the raising of Anglo-Arabian horses. Faced with the need to grow feed for his stock, he built a d a m in the winter of 1938â&#x20AC;&#x201D;39 on the same site as that selected by his M o r m o n predecessors and put enough water down the ditch for a couple of irrigations. T h e n a minor Paria flood in late M a r c h 1939 enlarged the reservoir and created sufficient pressure to wash the d a m away. T h e calamity discouraged Leo who ceased his marginal operation and returned to Flagstaff. A subsequent proprietor of the ranch, C. A. Griffin, abandoned the d a m concept entirely and installed an engine-driven p u m p on the bank of the creek. A large flexible hose sucked Paria water directly from a n a t u r a l pool into a slab-lined ditch and thence it went by gravity-flow to the cultivated land. T h e following owners improved on Griffin's idea by bulldozing a large settling pond a n d reservoir in the shale above the p u m p . This enabled t h e m to p u m p water into the settling pond even when the creek was a m u d d y flood. T h e settled water then flowed into the reservoir and a valve controlled the gravity-flow of clear water onto the extensive fields and orchards of the ranch. Variations of this technique are presently in use in the hamlets along the Paria's u p p e r drainage. P e r h a p s the most interesting attempts to utilize Paria water were dual efforts about ten years a p a r t which never quite came off.

"LE

•

••>•••••-•

•

;.::•

. , . . . . , . , .

**'-"-'%]

-:"-a.-*-a.s-..'»

T o p : Paria River flood of 6,200 cubic feet per second at 10:55 A.M. September 13, 1939, photographed by hydrographer W. S. Stuart. Bottom: At the same site in April 1975, the Paria River as it usually appears, photographed by P. T. Reilly.

The decade of the 1930s ushered in more than the Great Depression; it also brought widespread drought throughout the West. Winter precipitation usually was subnormal, and although summer skies frequently grew dark and threatening, little rain fell. The Arizona Strip was especially hard hit. Many cattle failed to survive. There was scarcely enough rain to fill the waterholes, although the hard-pressed cattlemen hung on in hope that the dry period was about to end. But the drought did not

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end and the cattle business became more marginal there each year, Pioneer cowman Johnny Adams was one of the pinched owners. Adams's range was in the Sandhills, officially known as the Paria Plateauâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an island of rock in an area noted for spectacular erosion. T h e plateau is unique in that it is almost completely isolated. Its southern exposure is the 1,600-foot escarpment called the Vermilion Cliffs that bends northward on the edge of House Rock Valley on the west and along the rim of Paria Canyon on the east. T o the north, the deeply incised Buckskin Gulch joins Paria Canyon close to the Utah-Arizona state line to form an intaglio in sandstone impossible to cross for m a n or beast. Near the House Rock-Coyote divide, however, there is access to the naturally isolated four hundred square miles. From the desert below, the Sandhills give little indication of being able to support stock. Nobody expected to find living water there, and no one did. T h e surface of the Navajo sandstone is an undulating continuum of knoll, dune, and hollow, covered with juniper, piny on, and a surprising amount of grama grass. T h e innumerable depressions in the bare rock held precipitation for weeks and proved to be natural water tanks whose supply, when periodically renewed, appeared to be inexhaustible. Mormon stockmen had learned the value of the Sandhills range at an early date and had been using its resources for over fifty years when the drought arrived. T h e shallow basins dried up first, and the cattle were forced to travel farther to seek out the large tanks. T h e nature of the country made it difficult to locate stock; a rider might pass within a few yards of a cow and not see it. As one dry month followed another the weaker animals fell beside the dry basins and the smell of death was in the air. T h e Adams range was in the northeast corner of the Sandhills. M any times the old cattleman h a d pondered the possibility of gaining access to the Paria water which he knew was bubbling away in the depths of the canyon below. As the waterholes dried up and the carcasses of his cattle littered the landscape, Adams decided during the winter of 193839 that his operation could not survive another waterless summer. H e h a d investigated p u m p capabilities and knew that equipment was available that could move water from the Paria River to the rim, a vertical distance of about seven hundred feet at that point. H e also had spotted a likely place to reach the canyon floor. Although building an access trail would be laborious, it was feasible.

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T h e trail was hacked out in the spring of 1939, and the p u m p , gasoline engine, and a thousand feet of two-inch pipe were trucked over the access road. Pack animals were used from the end of the road to the jump-off. D e a n Cutler straw-bossed the job for the elderly owner. T h e remaining members of the crew were Lorin Broadbent, Eugene McAllister, and Lynn Ford. T h e country was very rough; merely getting the equipm e n t to the rim was a major undertaking. W a t e r and food were packed in, and the most luxurious comfort was one's bedroll spread out on the ground, although rattlesnakes were numerous after the weather warmed. T h e trail was never intended as a pack route but was only the pecking of a n a r r o w ledge as a means for the men to scramble u p a n d down. 14 Horses were left on top, as no one even thought of subjecting a pack animal to the trail's precarious footing. T h e p u m p was lowered by ropes, one difficult leg after another, and finally came to rest on the shelf above the creek. Each section of pipe was carried down as it was needed, the first length having one end immersed in a fair-sized pool, the other connected to the p u m p . It h a d been Adams's plan to use several large natural potholes in the sandstone for reservoirs and to fill them with w a t e r ' f r o m the creek. But the conditions were difficult and the job went slowly. At times it seemed that the summer might come and go while the pipeline was being inched u p the cliffs. W h e n still a good fifty feet below the rim, the last section of pipe was coupled and the job came to a halt. Doggedly the m e n determined to test the rig by starting the p u m p the following morning before going in to town for more pipe. But when they climbed down into the canyon they found the creek thick with gray-green silt and rising fast. R a t h e r t h a n get the p u m p clogged with mud, they abandoned their plan and climbed back to the rim. T h a t night rain began to fall in the Sandhills. It not only rained, it poured. Never h a d there been such a storm. All potholes were filled a n d overflowing as the drought was broken. T h e last few lengths of pipe were never brought to the job and the p u m p remained untested because there was no need. I n 1941 A d a m s sold the rig to another cattleman, A. T. Spence, who m a d e no effort to use it. H e sold it to Merle Findlay three years later. 15 14

The Adams trail is located in the northeast quarter of section 1, township 41 north, range 5 east. The north line of the section was never surveyed due to the rough terrain. The foot of the trail is 19.9 miles upstream from the Paria bridge at Lee's Ferry. 15 Oral statement of Floyd Maddox, partner and business manager to A. T. Spence.

Gerald Swapp and his pump and intake pipe at the mouth of Judd Photographs by Wilma Swapp Topham and P. T. Reilly.

Hollow.

Findlay's reason for buying the pump is not known, and the untested rig continued to rest, never having fulfilled its purpose. But every cattleman in the country knew the story of the pump, its location and availability. Northeast of the Adams Sandhills range, on the opposite side of Paria Canyon, lie the Flat T o p and East Clark Bench, the sandy range of Gerald Swapp. It had sufficient feed when favored by rain but there was relatively little bare sandstone on the surface and consequently few natural potholes to catch and hold precipitation. In fact, the lack of water restricted Swapp's range from ever attaining its grazing potential. Ten years after Johnny Adams decided to install a rig to pump water to the Sandhills, Gerald Swapp bought the unused outfit to bring water up J u d d Hollow to his thirsty land beyond the Echo Cliffs. Swapp obtained the services of Eugene McAllister (of the original Adams crew) and Tony Woolley. T h e three men tested the pump in December 1948 and got a good stream of water out of the upper end of the pipeline. Several days were devoted to uncoupling the pipe and toting the sections to the floor of the canyon. Woolley then emulated the 1871 feat of John D. Lee by riding a horse down the canyon to the foot of the Adams trail. By this time it was January 1949 and the weather was bitter cold. Ice was thick on the floor of Paria Canyon, with much of the creek frozen. T h e problem of packing the awkward lengths of two-inch pipe was solved by tying several pipes near one end and looping the rope over

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the cross-tree of a pack saddle. The horse dragged the pipes travoisfashion over the ice to the mouth of Judd Hollow, two miles below the Adams pump site. The pump was packed on the horse. The men dug a sump along the Paria's left bank and lined it with native rock. A test showed that water filtered into the reservoir as fast as it was pumped out, insuring the feasibility of Swapp's plan. However, it was nearly a thousand vertical feet from the creek to the Echo rim and about two miles of additional pipe would be needed, along with a booster. The men separated, Woolley riding the horse downstream to Lee's Ferry, Swapp and McAllister hiking out to drive the truck in to town for the booster. Gerald Swapp had been ill, presumably from something he had ingested. It was only with difficulty that he remained in Paria Canyon as long as he did, and the hike out required a mighty effort. He managed to drive his truck back to Kanab but resolved to remain there until he recovered. But his condition became worse and he never returned to* J u d d Hollow. Instead, he was taken to a hospital in Cedar City and after a prolonged stay he died there on March 28, 1949. No one else revived the scheme to pump Paria water to either plateau. Today the equipment that remains is being disintegrated by the elements. It is examined by occasional backpackers, some of whom probably wonder at the story behind its presence. 16 M a n has used the water of Paria River for drinking and culinary purposes since he first entered the drainage basin, but it was inevitable that the introduction of livestock and human habitation along its banks would result in pollution, and it did. Records reveal that the Lees, Johnsons, and Emetts all drank Paria water directly from the stream or irrigation ditch. They also show that these people suffered frequently from dysentery and related illnesses. In April 1914 Tom Caff all, then operating the Lee's Ferry ranch for the Grand Canyon Cattle Company, came down with a severe case of typhoid. The Caffalls concluded that he could have caught the disease only by drinking from the creek, which he was in the habit of doing. The illness incapacitated him for several weeks. Duties of the hydrographer at Lee's Ferry for the United States Geological Survey have changed drastically over the years. With water flows now measured automatically, the gauger merely maintains the equipment w T h e a u t h o r is indebted to Eugene McAllister of St. George; Leonore Swapp J u d d , Floyd M a d d o x , a n d Mrs. Joseph S. Johnson of K a n a b , and Lorin Broadbent of Fredonia for oral interviews. A r t h u r Waller of Seattle a n d Gerald Swapp's sister, Mrs. Earl T o p h a m of Salt Lake City, were also most helpful.

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and has become more involved with water quality. M a t h e w Pierce, Lee's Ferry hydrographer since M a y 1971, takes samples of water from both the Colorado River above the mouth of the Paria and from the tributary itself. T h e samples are tested for specific conductants (salt buildup) and for bacterial content in the U S G S T u n a r Topographic Laboratory. T h e water of the Colorado above the mouth of the Paria, which comes from the lower levels of the Powell Reservoir 15.25 miles upstream, is pure and safe for drinking. T h e water of Paria River, however, has a very high bacterial content of both fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci. Bacterial counts in the Colorado below the mouth of the Paria continue at such high levels that the water is unfit for drinking except after treatment. 1 7 It is evident that major pollution comes from the Paria and is augmented by dangerous amounts of bacteria from the other large tributaries. 18 Mandates of the federal government first affected the Paria watershed when Bryce Canyon National Monument was created by presidential proclamation on June 8, 1923. A year later Congress authorized the establishment of " U t a h National Park" which was to include the monument. Consequently Bryce Canyon National Park was created September 15, 1928, and the original allotment of 12,920 acres was nearly tripled in size. Mormon villages had appeared on the upper part of the drainage when Cannonville was founded in 1875. Henrieville came into being three years later. Tropic, now the largest and most prosperous of the settlements due to the economic advantage derived from being closest to the park, appeared in 1891. Clifton, Losee, and Georgetown, villages long abandoned, now are unknown except to the older inhabitants. T h e mid-region saw limited life spans for Pahreah and Adairsville, settlements that bracketed the rock house of Peter Shirts upstream and downstream, about ten miles apart. Congressional authorization of Glen Canyon D a m in 1956 led to the building of Page and the rerouting of Highway 89 between Bitter Spring, Arizona, and K a n a b , U t a h . T h e highway crosses the Paria in its midregion, a short distance downstream from the remnants of abandoned Adairsville and about five miles above the entrenchment of Paria Canyon. This provided convenient access for backpackers to the scenic values of the gorge, and several traverses to Lee's Ferry were m a d e before the end of the 1950s. lT 18

Interview with Mathew Pierce. G. C. Slawson, Jr., and L. G. Evertt discuss this pollution in Plateau 46 (1974) : 158-67.

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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established April 18, 1958. Its boundaries encompass the lower ten miles of M*""M Paria Canyon, wdth the entire : M- r reserve being administered by the National Park Service. In the late 1960s the secretary of the interior established the Paria Canyon Primitive Area and delegated its control to the Bureau of Land A4anagement. Besides emphasizing the spectacular grandeur of the gorge, the bureau stress archaeology, history, geology, and wildlife. It also warns hikers about the seasonal danger in the narrows from flash floods and the need to purify the water if it is to be used for drinking. Hikers in Paria Canyon between In June 1974, the historic the Adams Trail and Judd Hollow. ranch where J o h n D. Lee and his Photograph by P. T. Reilly. successors struggled to keep Paria water on the parched crops passed by sale from private ownership to the United States for the National Park Service. Although presently polluted, the Paria, over the centuries, has been a proven resource to aborigine, pioneer, and modern man. T h e scope of its utilization has been extensive, ranging from a simple source of lifesustaining water for Indians to the basis for complex water-distribution formulas to urban areas. With burgeoning industries and populations, the seven states directly affected base many of their projected plans on the apportionment of the West's last waterhole. If the Colorado River Compact should be adjusted to include Mexico in a redistribution of this water, the Paria would remain a viable political factor and its national significance would assume an international stature. T h e gauging facilities near the Paria's mouth will remain, as James J. Ligner of the U.S. Geological Survey said, "the most important station in the United States." 19 ' James J. Ligner to P. T. Reilly, October 30, 1964.

The great Great Salt Lake. By PETER G. CZERNY. University Press, 1976. Viii + 121 pp. $10.95.) T h e great Great Salt Lake is obviously an account of the author's love affair with Utah's Inland Sea. T h e story is told with beautiful photographs and in prose that, if not elegant, is a sincere effort to convey the author's affection and concern for the lake he has been consorting with for numerous years. The historic portions of the text are borrowed from two principal sources, Dale L, Morgan's Great Salt Lake and Howard Stansbury's Exploration and Survey of the Great Salt Lake. . . . The remainder of the wrork is Mr. Czerny's, gathered from years of contact with the lake. T h e author's arrangement is first an overall "Guide to the Lake," denoting the pleasures and cautions for those persons adventuring in, on, and around the salty water. He gives repeated warning "to go prepared for all sorts of emergencies." Among the musts is an effective insect repellent to ward off murderous mosquitoes and irritating brine flies. For swimmers, especially in those areas where there are no fresh water showers, the author recommends his own " Q 2 method"â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a quick dry and use of two towels. T h e first towel is to quickly sponge off most of the water; the second is to rub the body thoroughly before salt crystals form. Czerny insists that this leaves the skin tingling and refreshed, a sensation not experienced after a fresh water shower. Mr. Czerny is incorrect (p. 12) when he states that the Mormons were the first to note the buoyancy of bathers in

Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young

the lake. Heinrich Lienhard, the Swiss immigrant who preceded the Donner party around the south end of the lake by a few weeks and the Mormons by one year, has left us with a delightful account of his floating in the water and then suffering from the salt crystals that formed on his flesh. (August 9, 1846, "The Journal of Heinrich Lienhard," Utah Historical Quarterly 19 [1951]: 138-39.) After a chapter on the "Facts about the Lake," and another on "Pictures of the Past," Mr. Czerny gives a tour of the lake, section by section and island by island. H e does this through beautiful photography on all aspects of the lake. These are photographs from Mr. Czerny's camera at ground level, from the surface of the water, and from the air. In all, he has done an outstanding job, although the text could have benefited from a careful reading for inaccuracies, i.e., Fremont was first on the lake in 1843 not 1842 (p. 11). T h e word "squaw" is unacceptable as used here (p. 99). And Mr. Czerny's use of "bugs" to describe some of the fauna of the lake is hardly in keeping with his other descriptions. A word should be said about the bookmaking of Brigham Young University Press. T h e press has done a good job, with a few exceptions. T h e color work for the most part is of good quality. The reproductions on pp. 5, 9, and 53, for example, are the equal of some of the best press color work being done today in Utah. T h e historic photographs are

Book Reviews

and

Notices

ones that this reviewer has been looking at for years, but they have been given new life in these reproductions. But now for the minuses. Good copy editing would have caught misspellings, tense changes, and the numerous shifts from personal to impersonal pronouns. T h e press should have known better than to place photograph captions in the gutter where they are largely illegible (pp. 11, 89, 103, etc.) and to sew a map in the

203 gutter so a significant portion (the Southern Pacific causeway) is lost to the reader. Withal, this, The great Great Salt Lake, is a fine book, and to paraphrase the author, the lake has a magical quality that draws the lover of the lake back again and againâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so with this book. EVERETT L.

COOLEY

University

of Utah

The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley: A Study of the I^ogan Apostasies of 1874 and the Establishment of Non-Mormon Churches in Cache Valley, 1873-1913. By A. J. SIMMONDS. (Logan: U t a h State University Press, 1976. Xvi + 143 pp. $5.00.) During his youth, A. J. Simmonds heard many tales and exploits of his grandfather Andrew Montom Simmonds, his friends, and outlaw Black Jack Nelson. These intriguing stories led Simmonds to examine the family tradition that told how his ancestors joined the Mormon faith, crossed the plains, settled in Cache Valley, eventually left the Utah church, and again became Protestants. During his research, Simmonds measured this family tradition against a variety of historical sources-â&#x20AC;&#x201D; church, court, land office records, election returns^ census data, oral history, letters, and diaries. T h e result is the story he tells in The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley. Simmonds's interpretation explainingwhy a few people in Cache Valley abandoned Mormonism is based on his assessment of the apostates' reaction to certain events, church policies, and practices after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. As Simmonds explains it, the Mormons, faced with the coming of the railroad, created the Logan Cooperative Mercantile Institution as part of a larger economic movement, pressured local Mormon merchants to join the cooperative, and requested all Mormons to boycott Gentile firms for the purpose of protecting Zion from the corrupting influences of

Gentiles from "Babylon." A few merchants objected to this policy and some Saints continued to buy goods from the Gentiles. Eventually, teachers quorums and bishops contacted those who violated church policy and pressured the nonconformists to follow counsel by threatening to disfellowship or excommunicate them. Some refused to comply, so they were either excommunicated or they voluntarily left the church. Meanwhile, other conflicts created additional tensions in Cache Valley. Two crimes, the killing of David W. Crockett and the subsequent lynching of the accused assassin, Charles A. Benson ; who was a son of the Apostle E. T. Benson, ignited family feuds. At the same time, church leaders when they urged the Logan Saints to build a tabernacle created some bitter feelings while erecting this structure. All of these tensions and social conflicts prepared some people for the anti-Mormon preaching of the Protestant pastors who came to Logan with the construction of the U t a h Northern Railroad in 1874. Although Simmonds's interpretation is persuasive, there may be other important reasons why apostasy occurred in Cache Valley. There may be some social psychological reasons. Did these people live in communities that were

204 racked with family feuds, ethnic conflicts, or other personal trouble? Is it not strange that many of the apostates were converts who did not share the early persecution that many Saints experienced? Answers to these questions may shed additional light on this very important topic. However, despite other possible interpretations, Simmonds makes at least two important contributions to Utah history. One, he examines a group of apostates from the Mormon faith who subsequently left an important mark not only upon the history of Cache Valley but also on the larger stage of territorial history. Many accounts of Mormon history ignore the tensions within the faith and assume a monolithic unity among the Saints during the territorial period. Future interpretations must include

Utah Historical

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Simmonds's discoveries as well as the new insights revealed by recent studies on various other minority groups in Utah. Two, Simmonds includes much valuable data in his lengthy appendices which contain fourteen biographical sketches of apostates in Cache Valley, data on the Cache County election returns for the Liberal and People's parties from 1882-90, the petitions of apostates for the appointment of probate judges in Cache County, and a petition against the admission of Utah as a state in 1872. Any serious student of Utah history will want to read this small volume on a much neglected topic, Mormon apostates. LAWRENCE COATES

Ricks College Rexburg} Idaho

Early Utah Furniture. By C O N N I E MORNINGSTAR. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1976. 93 pp. $9.95.) The 1970 centennial exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "19th Century America," gave heretofore n e g l e c t e d nineteenth-century American decorative arts a new respectability. The 1975 traveling exhibit, "Frontier America: The Far West," of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts gave legitimacy to the study of western American decorative arts. And various Bicentennial projects provided encouragement for the study of regional decorative arts. Thus it is that Connie Morningstar's pioneering work, Early Utah Furniture, is welcomed by the growing circle of pine furniture fans and history buffs. Unlike the Shakers, who developed a distinctive style of architecture and decorative arts reflecting their beliefs, the Mormons built in the prevailing styles of nineteenth-century America, modified by the limitations of their local materials. Nevertheless, the furniture of the pioneers was vigorous and colorful and tells a fascinating story.

In her introductory section Mrs. Morningstar describes Utah's settlement by pioneers who transplanted an essentially New England culture. In lieu of eastern hardwoods, they utilized the native pine, juniper, cottonwood and quaking aspen to make their furniture in the familiar Sheraton and Empire styles. The uninteresting softwoods were enlivened with paint and often also grained to simulate the more interesting oak, mahogany, bird's-eye maple and burled walnut. The author describes some of the common pioneer furniture forms: the lounge or "Mormon couch," the pioneer version of the popular Boston rocker, the rush bottom chairs and flour boxes. She discusses the activity of the Salt Lake City cabinet shops and of other furniture-making centers throughout the territory. Although the United Orders continued to promote domestic manufacture in rural areas through the 1870s,

Book Reviews

and

Notices

the advent of the railroad bearing stylish, factory-made furniture signaled the end of pioneer furniture making. T h e book's second section is a directory of pioneer cabinetmakers. T h e photographs in the book's final section illustrate the varieties of furniture they made. Early Utah Furniture is a modest coffee table companion. Of interest to the average antique collector or history buff, it is somewhat disappointing to the more critical reader. T h e a u t h o r includes without questioning many of the oft-repeated old stories which cry for documentation. Where is it written that hardwood came to U t a h in the form of packing crates and wagon boxes? Did Brigham Young really ever make furniture in U t a h ? O n e wishes continuously for footnotes to indicate her sources of information. Almost any checklist is obsolete from the m o m e n t it is published, and the directory of cabinetmakers in this volu m e is no exception. For example, the 1867 Salt Lake City directory includes thirty cabinetmakers not listed here. And, for some reason, Isaac Carling who is credited with making the desk on p . 83 has been omitted from the list. T h e photographs indeed illustrate most of

205 the pioneer furniture forms, but the examples chosen are not the most typical nor the most important examples, merely the most accessible. Snapped in situ, many of the pieces are either cropped or fade into sepia-toned shadows. T h e inaccurate captions, missing pagination and haphazard layout all belie the promise of the eye-catching dust jacket. Admittedly, as a pioneer in the study of U t a h decorative arts, Mrs. Morningstar's trail was strewn with obstacles. O n e of the largest obstacles, the limited period of "over a year" devoted to the study, explains why her treatment is necessarily superficial. She was also handicapped by the fact that some of the best examples of pioneer furniture are D U P relics, unavailable for publication. And contemporary written accounts of pioneer craftsmen and their wares are buried deep and widely scattered. Mrs. Morningstar having blazed the trail, it remains for those who follow to expand it and to explore and to cultivate the vast virgin field of pioneer decorative arts. N A N C Y H.

RICHARDS

Pioneer Trail State Park Salt Lake City

Medicine in the Intermountain West: A History of Health Care in Rural Areas of the West. By W A R D B. S T U D T , J E R O L D G. S O R E N S E N , and BEVERLY BURGE. (Salt Lake City: Olympus Publishing Co., 1976. 336 p p . $10.95.) H e a l t h care has recently received m u c h attention in the United States, and, as the country attempts to resolve the inequities, the need for d a t a is increasingly important. Appropriately, this volume originated in a n analysis of the health care provided in the Interm o u n t a i n West, conducted in order to acquire a n understanding of the problems a n d to suggest future improvements. T h e book derives from contemporary concerns; but, unlike m a n y comparable documents, it describes the his-

tory of health care in rural western areas, providing the reader with a special insight into the problems associated with health care in nonmetropolitan areas. T h e book begins with a review of medicine, the health needs a n d health care in the I n t e r m o u n t a i n states before the twentieth century, and then concerns itself with the present century, concluding with consideration of current rural health care efforts in the I n t e r m o u n t a i n West.

206 From the outset the reader preceives that in the rural Intermountain West distances and a dispersed population, inadequate medical manpower, and limited facilities have created problems of health care since settlement began. Pioneer physicians often had a two-day journey to the hospital and, even after the introduction of the automobile, were frequently forced by poor roads, lack of roadmaps, and bad weather to employ the horse and buggy. Distance often meant expediency, and many medical and surgical procedures were performed because the physician could not make repeated visits. T h e automobile had a positive impact upon medical practice in the rural areas, but the Depression caused the collapse of the entire structure of health care. T h e majority of people were now indigent; unemployment was common; ill health was most common. T h e New Deal reflected the philosophy that the federal government must play a larger, more planned role in the economy; and, with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1933, the government entered into public health programs and the provision of medical care for the indigent. There have been many subsequent efforts to improve rural health care, but whether it has been the Works Progress Administration, voluntary cooperatives, or hospital construction and renovation programs emanating from

Utah Historical

the 1946 Hill-Burton bill and the 1964 Hill-Harris amendments, the results have been disappointing. Most have helped the rural areas at first and then gradually diminished in importance as the program or the people behind it withdrew. New efforts and programs, involving federal and state governments, medical schools, and private organizations, are currently underway in Intermountain rural areas. Medex and nurse practitioners are more common; the National Health Service Corps, which provides public health, physicians, nurses, and dentists where other health resources are inadequate, and federally assisted health maintenance organizations have been active since the beginning of this decade. These and other rural health efforts in the Intermountain West are described and analyzed. Medicine in the Intermountain West is a clearly written and documented specific source of information about the history of health care in the rural Intermountain West; but, because the authors examine some successful contemporary rural health delivery programs there and elsewhere in an attempt to identify the key factors accounting for their success, it acquires value to anyone interested in the past and future of rural medicine. C H A R L E S W.

University

This Was Sheep Ranching Yesterday and Today. By VIRGINIA PAUL. Superior Publishing Company, 1976. 1 76 pp. $14.95.) Between the covers of this thin volume Virginia Paul has crammed an unbelievable amount of information relative to the domestication, development, and dispersion of sheep. Domestication, according to the author, took place as early as ten thousand years ago, and she goes on to make clear that sheep were an integral part of the Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and R o m a n civilizations. And

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BODEMER

Washington (Seattle:

down through the centuries as the two kinds of domesticated sheep (urial and mouflon) were dispersed throughout the known world they adjusted to their environment and were selected to meet the needs of man, thereby bringing into existence the many breeds now known. T h e author explains that domestic sheep were permanently introduced to the American continent in 1519 by Hernan

Book Reviews

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Notices

Cortez (sheep h a d earlier been brought to the New World by Leif Eriksson) a n d that thereafter they remained in the vanguard of the exploration of America. I n addition, the reader is m a d e aware of the substantial contributions the sheep industry has m a d e to the physical comfort, economic welfare and national defense of the United States. O n e is also given an intimate insight into the dedication, joys, a n d heartaches of the western sheep industry through numerous biographical sketches of m a n y of the personalities who shaped the wool industry of the West a n d through the large n u m b e r of fascinating photographs gathered from sources throughout the nation. I t is obvious when reading this book that the. author has researched her sphere of study in great depth a n d that she is intimately aware of the subject. I t is unfortunate, therefore, that such an important work should not have engendered the same degree of effort on the p a r t of the publisher. A competent editor could have corrected the numerous incomplete sentences (for example: " I n Lincolnshire, a hardy, native domesticated breed with a heavier body." p . 15) and the several instances where the a u t h o r selected the

207 wrong verb tense. I n addition, an editor would have been able to remove the inconsistencies of thought within a paragraph, the following being typical: T h e year the thirteen eastern colonies declared their independence from England ( 1 7 7 6 ) , the mission was dedicated at San F r a n cisco, California. T h e Papago Indians in Arizona h a d large flocks of sheep and there were 30,000 head at H o p i pueblos, [p. 27]. Skillful editing could have weeded out the great n u m b e r of nine- a n d ten-word paragraphes sandwiched between others of similar brevity concerned with the same theme. T h e minor historical errors, the lack of correlation betwen photographs a n d text, and the photographs that add nothing to content or clearer understanding would also have been eliminated. Even with the above flaws, however, this is a book that should appeal to anyone concerned with the livestock industry or w h o is interested in the history of our country. C H A R L E S M.

SYPOLT

Northland Pioneer Show Low,

College Arizona

The Adventures of Alexander Barclay, Mountain Man. By G E O R G E P. H A M M O N D . (Denver: Old West Publishing Company, 1976. Viii + 246 p p . $17.50.) W h e n Alexander Barclay left England in 1833 en route to C a n a d a , little did he realize t h a t five years later he would be the superintendent of Bent's Fort on the A m e r i c a n . southwestern frontier. Barclay's stay in u p p e r C a n a d a was unprofitable, a n d by 1836 he was satisfied t h a t his niche in life was not that of a farmer. H e moved to Saint Louis where he was employed as a bookkeeper for two years. I n 1838 he accepted a position from the firm of Bent and St. V r a i n as superintendent of Bent's Fort where he remained until 1842. Feeling that he

could do better financially as an independent trader, Barclay left the employ of Bent and St. V r a i n and settled near Pueblo (Colorado) where he remained for the next six years. I n 1848, with his partner Joseph Doley, he started construction of Fort Barclay at the junction of the M o r a a n d Sapello rivers, tributaries on the u p p e r C a n a d i a n River (New M e x i c o ) . Barclay remained there until his d e a t h in 1855. The Adventures of Alexander Barclay, Mountain Man, by George P. H a m m o n d , is divided into two major

208 parts. T h e first half of the text contains the author's narrative of Barclay's exploits, based upon his correspondence and personal papers. T h e second part contains the facsimile of Barclay's diary kept between the years of 1845-50, plus copies of the more important correspondence quoted in the narrative. Dr. H a m m o n d , who for years has been one of the leading authorities on southwestern history, once again demonstrates his expertise in research and writing. T o produce a work of this caliber from a meager diary and spotty correspondence requires in-depth knowledge of the time period and the geographical setting. T h e author has skillfully re-created a portion of western history through the life of one of its participants. T h e book's major contribution to western history is found in Barclay's experiences at Bent's Fort (1838â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 42) and Fort Barclay (1848-55). Although some insights into the hardships in upper Canada and the domestic scenes of St. Louis in the 1830s are found, they are meager. Barclay's correspondence leaves valuable descriptions of the southwestern frontier and the intrigue of the day-today life-style at Bent's Fort. His descriptions of the Comanche and Kiowa Indians are vivid, and his views concerning the annihilation of the buffalo are prophetic. His years as an independent trader, which brought him in contact with the American Fur Company at Fort J o h n (Fort L a r a m i e ) , reveal that the awe-

Utah Historical

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some power of the AFC was still being challenged by the independent traders and that the company had not created a monopoly with the overthrow of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Barclay's comments on the settling of Mormontown at Pueblo by detached members of the Mormon Battalion are of value due to the limited non-Mormon literature in this area. However, the author makes no reference to the availability of diaries kept by the Mormons during the winter layover at Mormontown and their reference to Barclay and his activities. T h e life and experiences at Fort Barclay are important, since the fort was the hub of activity in New Mexico until 1851 when Fort Union was established. Barclay had hoped the United States government would purchase his fort, but like most of his dreams, this, too, ended in tragedy. Even in death, Barclay was cheated by his partner Doyle. T h e book may have been more appropriately titled The Adventures of Alexander Barclay, Fur Trader. Barclay was certainly not the mountain man type. T h e Old West Publishing Company is to be congratulated on the quality of the publication. T h e reproduction of Barclay's painting enhances the value of the text, and the availability of the three maps helps the reader to follow the travels and adventures of Alexander Barclay. FRED R.

Brigham Young

GOWANS

University

Great Plains Command: William B. Hazen in the Frontier West. By MARVIN E. K R O E K E R . (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976. Xvi + 216 pp. $9.95.) William Babcock Hazen spent more than twenty years as an army officer in the West. After an unimpressive four years at West Point, Hazen graduated in 1855 and served in California, the Pacific Northwest, and Texas. When the Civil W a r began, Hazen, through the

influence of his old friend James A. Garfield, was appointed colonel in comm a n d of the Forty-first Ohio Regiment. H e fought in western campaigns as well as in the South with Sherman. After the war ended, Hazen held a number of different positions, serving as inspector

Book Reviews

and

Notices

general in the Department of the Platte, special Indian agent on the southern plains^ superintendent of Indian Affairs for the southern superintendency, post commander in Kansas and Dakota Territory, and chief of the Signal Corps. During his entire military career Hazen found himself embroiled in a number of controversies. H e was an outspoken critic of the policies of the W a r Department, particularly the corruption of the trader system at forts and on reservations; and he debated with George A. Custer in newspapers throughout the United States on the promotional techniques used by the Northern Pacific Railroad to advertise the fecundity of western lands. Hazen argued that the western lands could not sustain a large population because of their aridity. H e was also a prosecution witness during the impeachment of Secretary of W a r William Belknap, which later resulted in a highly personal campaign to discredit Hazen by friends of Belknap.

209 Because he wras unable to locate any personal or family collection of Hazen's papers, Marvin Kroeker has relied heavily on materials at the National Archives and other depositories. This perhaps explains, in part, why the author fails to detail Hazen's early life; but it does not satisfy this reviewer's disappointment concerning Kroeker's neglect to develop Hazen's role as chief of the army Signal Corps. William B. Hazen was not a spectacular Indian fighter. His significance lies, rather, in his attempts to denonunce graft and corruption in the military service and on Indian reservations and to suggest possible solutions. Although the book has several minor shortcomings, Kroeker has contributed to the growing and important literature on army officers who served in the TransMississippi West. RAYMOND W I L S O N

University

of New

Mexico

The Plains Indians. By FRANCIS H A I N E S . (New York: T h o m a s Y. Crowell Co., 1976. 213 pp. $8.95.) T h e Wild West Shows of the nineteenth-century and the western movies of mid-twentieth-century America symbolize the often unfortunate degree to which the Plains Indians survive in myth and legend. All too frequently, Francis Haines argues, Indian tribes are portrayed as culturally homogeneous people who ". . . all lived in the same environment, all looked alike, all dressed alike, and all followed the same customs over endless years. . . ." (p. 4) . T o dispel myths of this nature The Plains Indians offers an overview and reexamination of regional Indian culture from its prehistoric origin to the creation of reservations in the latter nineteenth-century. Haines defines the Great Plains as the pasture lands stretching southward from central C a n a d a to northern Texas and westward from the forest fringes of the

Mississippi Valley to the Rocky Mountains. After A.D. 1200 twenty-seven distinct tribes, both nomadic and seminomadic, settled this vast uninhabited sea of grass. T h e author devotes several chapters to the transmission of cultural life-styles across the region. H e is at his best describing the diffusion of guns, horses, and cultural practices, while astutely depicting their dramatic impact upon tribal life-styles. Similarly, the narration of the dreaded smallpox epidemics and of the Great Council at Fort Laramie shows his ability to select crucial themes. Interpretive protrayals of the sun dance, intertribal warfare, and in-group social control justify Haines's thesis that each tribe retained its distinctiveness because it was selective in adopting specific cultural practices. For example, the "Dog Soldiers"

210

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or c a m p police of many tribes consisted of a social unit based on age, whereas in other tribes it became a religious entity. However, in the case of the individualistic Comanches, they refused to sanction this specific form of social control in any form. Although The Plains Indians is enhanced by the inclusion of eight maps depicting locations of the various tribes, it suffers from a paucity of footnotes, lack of illustrations, a n d a meaarer bibliography. T h e story's general flow could have been refined by restructuring several choppy and short chapters. R a t h e r than place population statistics and location patterns in the text, charts,

graphs, and timeline tables would succinctly summarize information. Incorporation of twentieth-century material would have immeasurably enhanced the book's utility. Disdainful of the romantic tradition, The Plains Indians is a factually realistic book. Incorporating the scholarship of several eminent archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians, Francis Haines succeeded in writing a compact and admirable book useful in introducing the Plains Indians to the novice.

Portraits

Upstairs to a Mine. By V I O L E T BOYCE and M A B E L H A R M E R . (Logan: U t a h State University Press, 1976. V + 189 pp. $6.95.)

of the Hurricane

Pioneers. By (Hurricane, U t . : Homestead Publishers, 1976. X

JANICE FORCE D E M I L L E .

+ 313 pp.) Mrs. DeMille has used personal interviews and unpublished family histories to great advantage to produce a readable account of thirty-seven Hurricane families mostly those who h a d settled there by 1912. W h a t emerges from these family portraits is a vivid picture of daily life. O n e special delight are the many items pertaining to pioneer remedies and other bits of folklore. For example: "Whenever the pioneers saw a ring around the moon which they called the M o o n Box, they looked within this ring and counted the stars. T h e number of stars within the circle told them how m a n y days . . . before a rain."

J O H N F. Y U R T I N U S

Arizona

College of

Technology Winkelman

People who grew u p in Bingham seem marked for life; the colorful, ethnically rich scenes of their childhood can never be forgotten. T h e authors of Upstairs to a Mine are no exception. Their nostalgic memoir describes scenes that will likely never recur in U t a h : "soiled doves" parading down M a i n Street to make their Saturday visits to the doctor's office, Finns using their backyard saunas, Greeks roasting lambs on the hillside for a n a m e day feast, Aunt Becky steeping quassia in vinegar as a cure for alcoholism. T h e town is gone, but books like this will not let it be forgotten.

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211

The Bitter Issue: The Right to Work Law in Arizona. By M I C H A E L S. WADE. (Tucson: The Arizona Historical Society, 1976. Vii + 152 pp. Cloth, $10.00; paper, $6.00.) A detailed study of the successful, but bitterly divisive, 1946 campaign in Arizona for a right-to-work law and its political repercussions. Chicanos in Utah. By DAVID R. BYRNE, LIONEL A. MALDONADO, and LANDO A. RIVERA. (Salt Lake

OR-

City: Utah State Board of Education, 1976. V + 9 1 p p . Paper, $1.25.)

This monograph, based on research done at the University of Utah under a grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, sets forth historical and demographic data on Chicanos in Utah and looks at specific problems in such areas as employment and education. Although the study is intended to help social service agencies, including schools, better understand their Chicano clients, historians will also find the information useful. The Complete Las Vegas. By C. GREGORY CRAMPTON. (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1976. Vii + 151 pp. Paper, $5.95.) One third of Professor Crampton's guide is devoted to the physical setting, prehistory, and history of the area. The remainder of the book gives detailed information to visitors on the city and the surrounding scenic areasâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as far north as Brian Head, Utah, and west to Death Valley, California.

nado to the Spanish king in 1541 describing the discovery of the Province of Tiguex; a brief sketch of the alabado, a centuries-old Spanish song form still heard as far north as Colorado; and essays on such contemporary concerns as educational opportunities for Chicanos. Historic Glimpses of Trees of the West. By LAMBERT FLORIN. (Seattle, Wash.: Superior Publishing Company, 1977. 192 pp. $13.95.) Trees are as distinctive as other parts of the western landscape. Florin pays tribute to that with photo essays on some of his personal favorites. Memoirs

of a Pioneer Surgeon. By W. MIDDLETON. (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1976. Xvii + 286 pp. $9.95.)

GEORGE

In 1894 Dr. Middleton completed his medical studies and set up practice in Cedar City where he often performed emergency surgery in his patients' homes or traveled up to fifty miles to bring his medical skill to those living in Utah's smallest settlements. Later, he joined Dr. Samuel H. Allen in a busy surgical practice in Salt Lake City. These memoirs, completed in 1937, give present-day readers fresh insight into medical care in Utah in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His narrative is best when he is writing about his personal experiences rather than about historical events such as "Johnson's [sic] army."

Hispanic Colorado; Four Centuries: History and Heritage. Edited by EVELIO A. EcHEVARRfA and JOSE OTERO. (Fort Collins, Colo.: Centennial Publications, 1976. Ii + 206 pp. $13.95.)

The Missions of New Mexico, 1776: A Description by Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez with other Contemporary Documents. Translated and annotated by ELEANOR B. ADAMS and FRAY ANGELICO CHAVEZ. (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1975. Xxi + 387 pp. $25.00.)

This compilation includes such historic documents as a letter from Coro-

The reprint of this book is one of the excellent products of New Mexico's

212

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Historical

Quarterly

Bicentennial celebration. First published in 1956, The Missions of New Mexico, 1776 has been out of print for several years. T h e reports and letters of Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez provides students with an excellent picture of major portions of New Mexico two hundred years ago. His careful details of the missions, including church properties and practices, settlements and their inhabitants, customs, foods, economics, geography and politics are invaluable eighteenth-century d a t a banks not available elsewhere. T h e reader quickly discovers the sophisticated, complex nature of life in 1776 New Mexico. H e learns also a great deal about the character of Fray Dominguez, senior partner in the famous Dominguez-Escalante Expedition undertaken between July 1776 and J a n uary 1777. T h e excellent introduction a n d footnoting of Ms. Adams and Fray Chavez compliments their important work on the American Spanish Southwest.

with the Newark Overland Party led by Gen. John S. Darcy. An astute observer, Gray wrote in a lively style, recording in Salt Lake City, for example, his visit to the mineral baths north of the city to rid himself of the grime of travel. T h e party spent several days in the city while a wagon wheel was repaired. This is an exceptional account of the familiar overland journey.

A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography by Annie Clark Tanner. Reprint. (Salt Lake City: T a n n e r Trust Fund, University of U t a h Library, 1976. Xxxiii + 346 pp. Paper, $5.00.)

Cockerell came to the Wet M o u n t a i n Valley in south-central Colorado from England in search of a cure for his tuberculosis. While there, he m a d e detailed notes on the flora and fauna of the area to begin a distinguished career as a naturalist. T h e excerpts from his letters to family and friends in England present a vivid picture of his life.

A Mormon Mother, the first volume in the U t a h , the Mormons^ and the West Series, quickly went out-of-print in the limited, hard-cover edition. T o satisfy the demand for w h a t is considered one of the best autobiographies by a U t a h n , Annie Clark Tanner's life story has been reprinted as a paperback. Off at Sunrise: The Overland Journal of Charles Glass Gray. Edited by T H O M A S D. C L A R K . (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1976. X x x + 185 p p . $12.00.) Gray left Independence, Missouri, on May 1, 1849, arriving in San Francisco on November 19 after spending only a short time panning for gold. H e traveled

The Story of the Western Railroads from 1852 through the Reign of the Giants. By R O B E R T EDGAR R I E G E L . Reprint. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977. X v + 345 pp. Cloth, $14.95; paper, $3.95.) A reprint of the 1926 edition published by Macmillan. Theodore D. A. Cockerell: Letters from West Cliff, Colorado, 1887-1889. Edited by W I L L I A M W E B E R . (Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1976. Xxvii + 222 p p . $8.95.)

William Clark: Jeffersonian Man on the Frontier. By J E R O M E O. S T E F F E N . ( N o r m a n : University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. Xii + 196 p p . $8.95.) T h e primary focus of this new biography of the great explorer is the period following the expedition, the years, 1807â&#x20AC;&#x201D;38 when Clark's varied career included serving as governor of Missouri Territory, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the western United States, and partner in the Missouri F u r T r a d i n g Company.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY Department of Development Services Division of State History BOARD O F STATE H I S T O R Y MILTON C. ABRAMS, Smithfield, 1977

President DELLO G. DAYTON, Ogden, 1979

Vice President MELVIN T. SMITH, Salt Lake City Secretary M R S . JUANITA BROOKS, St. George, 1977 T H E R O N L U K E , Provo, 1979

DAVID S. MONSON, Secretary of State

Ex officio M R S . ELIZABETH MONTAGUE, Salt Lake City, 1979 M R S . MABEL J. OLIVER, Orem, 1980

M R S . HELEN Z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City, 1977 HOWARD C. PRICE, J R . , Price, 1979 M R S . ELIZABETH SKANCHY, Midvale, 1977 RICHARD O. ULIBARRI, Roy, 1977

ADMINISTRATION MELVIN T. SMITH, Director

STANFORD J. LAYTON, Publications Coordinator JAY M. HAYMOND, Librarian DAVID B. MADSEN, Antiquities Director

The Utah State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, and publish Utah and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric 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 up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

MEMBERSHIP Membership in the Utah State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions interested in Utah history. Membership applications and change of address notices should be sent to the membership secretary. Annual dues are: Individual, $5.00; institution, $7.00; student, $3.00 (with teacher's statement) ; family, $6.00*; contributing, $15.00*; sustaining, $25.00*; patron, $50.00* (*includes Beehive History) ; life member, $150.00. Your interest and support are most welcome.

Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, Number 2, 1977

Articles inside

The Secularization of the Utah Labor Movement

Utah and the Nationwide Coal Miners' Strike of 1922

Mining at Alta: A Further Look

The Nurse: Marva Christensen Hanchett of Sevier County

Electric Power Comes to Utah

Historical Utilization of Paria River