Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 2, 1986 by Utah Historical Society

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Roads Less Traveled

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UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY (ISSN 0042-143X)

EDITORIAL STAFF STANFORD J. LAYTON, M a n a g i n g MIRIAM B. MVKPHY, Associate

Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS KENNETH L . CANNON u.Salt Lake City, 1986 ARLENE H . EAKLE, Woods

Cross, 1987

PETER L. Goss. Sa/< Lake City, 1988 G L E N M . LEONARD, F a r m m g f o n , 1988

LAMAR PETERSEN,Sa/< Lake City, 1986 RICHARD W. SADLER, O g d e n , 1988

HAROLD ScHiNDLER.Sa/^ Lake City, 1987 GENE A. SESSIONS, Boun<j/u/, 1986

GREGORY C. THOMPSON, Sa/t Lake

City, 1987

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to p u b l i s h articles, d o c u m e n t s , a n d reviews c o n t r i b u t i n g to k n o w l e d g e of U t a h ' s history. T h e Quarterly is p u b l i s h e d by t h e U t a h State Historical Society, 300 R i o G r a n d e , Salt L a k e City, U t a h 84101. P h o n e (801) 533-6024 for membership and publications information. Members of the Society receive t h e Quarterly, Beehive History, a n d the b i m o n t h l y Newsletter u p o n p a y m e n t of the a n n u a l dues: i n d i v i d u a l , $15.00; i n s t i t u t i o n , $20.00; student a n d senior citizen (age sixty-five or over), $10.00; c o n t r i b u t i n g , $20.00; s u s t a i n i n g , $25.00; p a t r o n , $50.00; business, $100.00. Materials for p u b l i c a t i o n s h o u l d be s u b m i t t e d i n d u p l i c a t e a c c o m p a n i e d by r e t u r n postage a n d s h o u l d be typed double-space, w i t h footnotes at the end. Additional i n f o r m a t i o n o n r e q u i r e m e n t s is available from the m a n a g i n g editor. T h e Society assumes n o responsibility for statements of fact o r o p i n i o n by c o n t r i b u t o r s . Second class postage is paid at Salt L a k e City, Utah. Postmaster: Send form 3579 ( c h a n g e of address) to Utah Historical Quarterly, 300 R i o G r a n d e , Salt L a k e City, U t a h 84101.

HZSTORZCJLX^ a i 7 A R T E R Z . i r

Contents SPRING 1986/VOLUME 54/NUMBER 2

IN THIS ISSUE

WILLIAM CHANDLESS: BRITISH OVERLANDER, MORMON OBSERVER, AMAZON EXPLORER ONE MAN'S AIR FORCE: THE EXPERIENCE OF BYRON DUSSLER AT WENDOVER FIELD, UTAH, 1941-46 HOUSEWIVES, HUSSIES, AND HEROINES, OR THE WOMEN OF JOHNSTON'S ARMY LETTERS FROM PARIS

. .

EDWINAJOSNOW

ROGER

AUDREY

LAUNIUS

116

137

M. GODFREY 157

WILLIAM

C. SEIFRFE 179

BOOK REVIEWS

203

BOOK NOTICES

212

THE GOVER Wendover, Utah, ca. 1941. USHS collections.

Books reviewed

J. ARRINGTON. Brigham Young: American Moses . . . F. Ro.s.s PETER.SON 203

LEONARD

ed. Cowboy Gathering.

Poetry:

H A L CANNON,

CAROL A. EDISON, ed. Cowboy

from Utah: An Anthology

Poetry STEVE SIPORIN

FRED R . GOWANS. Rocky

Mountain

Rendezvous: A History of the Fur Trade Rendezvous, 1825-1840 . . MERRILL G . RICHARD

A Wilderness Besieged

Atlas of the Outlaw West GRACE MCCLURE.

Women

BURLINGAME

205

Yellowstone:

BARTLETT.

RICHARD PATTERSON.

204

. . D. GENE PACE 206

Historical

. . .

MURRAY

207

MILTON C . ABRAMS

208

ROBERT

The Bassett

Time Machines: The World of Living History DAVID W.

JAY ANDERSON.

WALDEN

210

Swwww P i U W " *

**^.Âť

Wendover Field, Utah, looking east toward construction of first bomb group's billet in late 1941. Courtesy of Byron Dussler.

In this issue The men and women whose activities are examined in this issue seem to exemplify the poet Robert Frost's observation that choosing the road "less traveled . . . made all the difference." William Chandless, discussed in the first article, was one of only a handful of British travelers drawn to America's western frontier in the 1850s. He stands apart from even that small group for the length of his stay in Salt Lake City, his visits to outlying settlements, and his dispassionate writings about the Mormons and their practice of polygamy. Another atypical, albeit involuntary, visitor to Utah was Byron Dussler, stationed at Wendover Field during World War II. Refusing to let army regulations stand in the way of getting a job done. Private Dussler soon became Sergeant Major Dussler and an important cog in the smooth running of the base. His letters to relatives in Illinois are full of informative detail, insights, and humor. The women who accompanied Johnston's Army to Utah in 1857 have been largely ignored, but, as the third article suggests, the different path taken by these wives, laundresses, and others affected not only the troops but the larger Utah story as well. The final article in this issue looks at a group of artists who went to Paris to refine their skills. Their study abroad, unusual for Utahns in the nineteenth century, greatly enhanced our artistic heritage and demonstrated the opportunities and rewards to be found on less traveled roads.

William Chandless: British Overlander, Mormon Observer, Amazon Explorer BY E D W I N A J O S N O W

T H E BOOK IS EXCEEDINGLY LIVELY AND picturesque, combining pleasant reading with just observation, impartiality, and good sense." That is how Richard Burton, the nineteenth-century explorer Mrs. Snow lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Above: William Chandless, ca. I860. Courtesy of Cecil R.

Chandless.

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who visited the Mormons in September 1860, described the book of William Chandless, a fellow English traveler who had spent November and December of 1855 with the Mormons. Jules Remy, a French naturalist who observed the Mormons in October 1855, read Chandless's book, A Visit to Salt Lake; Being a Journey across the Plains and a Residence in the Mormon Settlements at Utah (1857), and stated that Chandless's "observations are marked with justice and good sense."^ Present-day historians have similarly praised the Chandless travel narrative, citing it in a number of works dealing with the Mormon settlements or the overland experience in 1855. However, only Andrew Love Neff in the History of Utah attempted to describe and assess the man and his book in any detail. Without the benefit of any outside biographical information, relying on the travel account alone, Neff accurately concluded that Chandless was an "educated and prosperous Englishman" who wrote with "color and comprehension, sympathy and appreciation," telling a story "full of humor and pathos, of information and commiseration, a galaxy of humanistic pictures and personal portraits."^ This article goes beyond Neff to put both the Chandless account and the man himself in broader perspective. The Chandless narrative is distinctive in subject matter and point of view. While categorized as an overland account like hundreds of other records of the trek from the Missouri River to California, it is specifically what Neff calls "the classic narrative of the entire twenty years of ox-team freighting from the Missouri River to Great Salt Lake City."^ It is one of a dozen or so book-length accounts written by travelers about the Mormons during their first decade of settlement in the Great Basin. It is one of an even smaller number of accounts by a "Winter Mormon," defined by contemporary Mormons as a Gentile who wintered among the Mormons but did not join the church, and furthermore, it is the only lengthy account written by a British traveler in that first decade. Chandless boarded with a polygamous family in Salt Lake City. Indeed, his 'Richard F. Burton, The City of the Sainls, ed. Pawn M. Brodie (1861; reprint ed.. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 196,^), j). 226; Jules Remy and Julius Brenchley,/i Journey lo Great Salt Lake Cily with a Sketch of ihe History, Religion, and Customs of ihe Mormons, and an Introduction of the Religious Movement in the United States, 2 vols. (London: W. Jeffs, 1861), 2:,568. 2Andrcw Love Neff, History of Utah, 1847-1869 (Sail Lake C;ity; Deseret News Press, 1940), pp. 319-20. nhid. p. 319.

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book is best known as an outsider's inside view of polygamy. But the narrative is also exceptional in its description of the barter economy and British Mormon converts. In contrast to the negative image of the Mormons that prevailed in nineteenth-century novels, plays, periodicals, newspapers, and pictorial representations, Chandless, like some other early travelers, wrote sympathetically about the Mormons. Beyond this, he was articulate, perceptive, and witty.^ As well as analyzing the Chandless travel narrative and comparing it to similar accounts, this article brings forward for the first time biographical information about Chandless who, after publishing A Visit to Salt Lake, explored and mapped the southern tributaries of the Amazon River. These later accomplishments substantiate the characterization of him as an accurate and openminded observer, one deserving more attention than he has so far received. BACKGROLND

William Chandless's background is similar to that of other nineteenth-century British travelers in America—he was upper class, wealthy, and well-educated, with a bent for wTiting.^ Born November 7, 1829, William was the youngest of four children. His father, Thomas, was queen's counsel, the highest rank of barrister. William, like his two brothers and one sister, inherited money and property from his paternal grandfather. At school William showed an early facility in Greek, Latin, and writing. He continued his interest and achievement in classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a B.A. in 1852. He then began to study law, following the footsteps of his father, his uncle, and his brother. He received an M.A. from Cambridge in 1855. But he " h a d n o taste for the legal profession" and "possessing an ample fortune," departed the family path and made his own way as a traveler and an explorer.^ "•For a listing and analysis of tra\el accounts, inc hiding those of the 1860s, see Edwina Jo Snow, "Singular Saints: Ehe Image of the Mormons in Book-Length Tra\el Accounts, 1847-18,'J7" (M.A. thesis, Cieorge Washington University, 1972). For a disc ussion of "Winter Mormons" and "Winter Saints," the latter defined hy Hosea Stout as "those Emegrants [sic]\\bo sloj) here, join the church 8c marry wi\esand go to tfie mines in tlie Spring," see Brigham D. Madsen, (JOUIRush Sojourners in Great Sail Lake CUy: 1849 and 1850 {Sdh\:AkvCh\-.Vni\vys[\\o[ViAhV\vss, 198.^), pp. 1 16-17. For a listing of works discussing the "image" of the Moiiiions in \arious media see James B. Allen and Cilen M. Leonard, TheSlory of the Latter-day Sainls (Salt LakeCaty: Deseret Book C^ompany, 197()), pp. 6 18-49, and Gary L. Bunker and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914: Carloons, Caricalures, and Illuslralions (Salt Lake City: Uni\ersity of Utah Press, 198.^). •'Ric hard L. Rapson, BriIons View America: Trai'el Commentary, 1860-1935 (Seattle: Universitv of Washington Press, 1971), pp. 198-200. ''Ohituary, The Geographical Journal Including the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 8 (1896): 77-79 (tfiis is a new journal name beginning in 1893; the previous name was The

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After leaving Cambridge, Chandless, like a number of other Englishmen, made a trip to the United States. Between 1836 and 1860, approximately 230 British travelers published accounts of their American tours; however, the Missouri River was as far west as most journeyed. Accounts including the plains, the Rocky Mountains, and California appeared in significant numbers only after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.^ In the middle of July 1855 Chandless found himself on the banks of the Missouri River at St. Joseph waiting for an upriver boat, his "intentions being to travel by water to Council Bluffs . . . and then turn eastward" to the Mississippi River. But an "accident or the w^him of an hour" caused him to change his itinerary, continue west, and cross the continent.^ The catalyst for this atypical trip was a wagon train bound for Salt Lake City and needing hands, however inexperienced. The idea of crossing the plains took Chandless's fancy. He applied for a job as a teamster and was hired on the spot. He posted "necessary letters" so that a letter of credit would await him in San Francisco; "threw off all smooth dress, and donned a woollen shirt and shooting jacket, still, as it seemed, fragrant of the last year's heather"; and made arrangements for his excess luggage. He was "ready to start when ordered," thinking there would be a "delightful novelty in working for less than a dollar a day, and mixing in a wholly untried and very miscellaneous society; one was sure to be amused, and likely to learn something too."^ Chandless was sufficiently diverted and enlightened by his sixand-a-half-month journey from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean to write a travel account when he returned to England in the fall of 1856. In 1857 the account was published by Smith Elder, a distinguished publishing house that, in the 1840s, had published the five volumes of Charles Darwin's Zoology of the Voyage of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society); photocopy of part of the Chandless family pedigree chart kindly provided to author by Cecil Raymond Chandless, great nephew of William Chandless, who also provided a tape recording, June 1982; copy of the Will and Codicil of William Chandless, 22 May 1896 ; J. B. Lawson, Librarian, Shrewbury School, T h e Schools, Shrewbury, Salop, England, letter to author, 31 March 1981; John Venn and J. A. Venn, compilers. Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates, and Holders of Office at ihe Unix'ersity of Cambridge, from ihe Earliest Times to 1900, Part II from 1752-1900, 10 vols. (Cambridge, 1922), 2:8. 'Max Bergei, The British Traveller in America, 1836-1860 (1943; reprint ed., Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1964), pp. 190, .51; Robert G. Athearn, Westward the Brilon (New York: C^harles Scribner's Sons, 19.53), p. 185. ^William Chandless, A Visit lo Sail Lake; Being a Journey across ihe Plains and a Residence in the Mormon Settlements at Utah (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1857), pp. 1, iv; or (1857; reprinted.. New York; A.M.S. Press, 1971), pp. 1, iv. (There is also an early Danish edition, VedSallsoen; et besog hos Mormonerne i Utah, trans. F.G. Serensen (Kjobenhavn: Forlaglaf ÂĽ. Woldife, 1858). 91bid., pp. 6-7, 325.

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Beagle. Contemporary London reviewers called Chandless the first Englishman to describe the Mormon settlements in any length or detail but condemned his rather favorable point of view towards the Mormons. ^^ A J O l RNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS

An 1857 London Athenaeum reviewer passed over Chandless's "clever and picturesque" narration of his plains' crossing to focus on the description of Mormon polygamy. Later readers, however, have better appreciated his distinctive record of a joint freighting and cattle venture. His account is, furthermore, a noteworthy overland narrative well exemplifying major characteristics of the overland experience set down by John Unruh in his excellent work, The Plains Across. Unruh described various overland enterprises.^^ Chandless depicted a livestock and freighting undertaking very likely connected with the Salt Lake City mercantile establishment, Livingston and Kinkead, since one of the owners mentioned by Chandless was "Mr. Kinkead" of "the Salt Lake firm." Chandless and forty other "cattle drivers" joined a venture consisting of thirty-eight freight wagons carrying 3,500-4,500 pounds each, three supply wagons, an office wagon, and over 400 head of cattle. There were five yoke of cattle to a wagon. T h e teamsters from the time they engaged had no more expenses. They were issued two blankets each and slept on the ground or in the wagons. They ate biscuits, bacon, and coffee supplemented only occasionally by fresh buffalo meat and rarely by fresh milk and vegetables. T h e duties were herding and watering the cattle, forming corrals, yoking up, driving, and cooking. A main duty of all was night watch. Chandless complained that "keeping guard half of every other night is hard work, and worst of all being hard at work from midnight to noon without any rest or a morsel of breakfast."^^ Unruh emphasized the overlanders' interaction with other groups in the West.^^ Indeed, Chandless depicted continuous interaction with Mormon emigrant and goods trains, the overland mail, Indians, General Harney's army, army deserters, traders at '"Leonard Huxlev, 7/;eHou5e o/Smi7/i ÂŁWcr (London: William Clowes & Sons, Limited, 1923), p. 22; New Quarterly Review 6 (1857): 394-99; Athenaeum, May 23, 1857, pp. 65:5-57. " J o h n David Unruh, The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979). pp. 391-95. '^Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 28, 8-21, 83. '^Unruh, The Plains Across, p. 27.

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trading posts, and settlers. T h e English teamster noted the comings and goings of his own train as men who were fired, left, died, or stayed behind because of sickness, were subsequently replaced by new hands. In describing the difficulties of the last hundred miles of the trail to Salt Lake, Chandless said, "the two other trains [Mormon emigrant trains] fared no better than ourselves, and companionship, even in misfortune, was pleasant; not to speak of a sort of tortoise race tacitly agreed on between us."^^ Unruh concluded that the extent of Indian attacks on overlanders has been greatly exaggerated and that Indian begging and thievery were the main nuisance. In addition, overlanders "were not above stealing from their colleagues."^^ Chandless's train experienced a number of false alarms of Indian attack. As if quoting Unruh on Indian retaliation, Chandless stated, " m u c h of their [the Indians'] hostility . . . has been caused by emigrants wantonly firing at natives, just for rifle practice, when they thought it safe; sometimes when it was not so." Although the train lost several mules to Indian theft near Laramie, Chandless recounted more thefts among the men themselves, including the theft of his blanket which he never got back and his gun which he did get back through the help of the probate court in Salt Lake City.^^ Rather than Indian attack, the main dangers on the trail for all overlanders were disease and accidents.^^ T w o men in Chandless's train died, probably of cholera, and others were ill, including Chandless. For about two weeks he lay on his "bed of coffee sacks," wearing the same clothes, drinking water "now and then." One morning he went by "many stages" 200 yards to the Mormon train to see their doctor. The doctor gave him "effervescing draughts" which took away his fever. Chandless attributed his recovery to this, to a bath ("many thought me stark mad to bathe, but cleanliness is a step not only towards comfort but towards health"), and to fresh buffalo meat "taken at first very moderately." After two more weeks, he recovered.^ ^ Unruh emphasized the "democratizing quality of overland travel"i9 but did not pay any attention to the interaction of various i'C:handless, A Visit 'Wnruh, The Plains 'fiChandless, A Visit " U n r u h , The Plains isChandless, A Visit i^Unruh, The Plains

to Salt Lake, pp. 113-14. Across, pp. 386, 194. lo Salt Lake, pp. 283, 96, 26, 58, 120, 22:5-26. Across, p. 408. to Salt Lake, pp. 56-62, 90. Across, p. 389.

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nationalities on the trail. Chandless, however, perhaps because he was "the solitary Englishman of the w^hole camp" and because he could speak French and Italian, wâs aware of the ethnic overtones of trail life. Among the hired hands were Irishmen, Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, a Mexican, and a Scotsman, as wêll as Texans, Missourians, and other Americans. T h e men were allowed to group themselves into messes of ten â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one mess consisted chiefly of "professional teamsters, and entirely of Americans"; another was in the main "American mechanics"; w^hile Chandless's mess was the "relic of the rest," the "hotch-potch" of nationalities, although near the end of the trail the "Emerald Isle had . . . a decided pred o m i n a n c e . " One of these Irishmen was "little T o m , " the "character of the whole c a m p " and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Chandless recounted that he and T o m sometimes "capped Latin verses by the campfire, to the intense astonishment of the rest of 'ours,' who had not given T o m credit for so much learning, and he would hold his head a little higher after such exhibitions."ô The "hotch-potch" of nationalities in Chandless's mess may have been friendly enough with each other, but, unlike their English trail mate, they were not friendly with their countrymen in the nearby Mormon trains. While visiting the Mormon trains Chandless found a couple of Piedmontese families, fifteen or sixteen together, with a wagon between them. When I spoke of them to the Italians of our camp, they expressed as niuch scorn as the Irish did at the Mormon Irishmen, and would not go near them. Perhaps it is a Catholic feeling; yet our Irish had half diopped their religion: one today said to me, 'T'm Catholic, but all religions are ways to heaven, except the Mormon; all their priests will go to hell."2'

The sentiments voiced by the Italian and Irish teamsters w^re not uncommon. Gentile travelers expressed negative feelings about the Mormons well before reaching the Mormon settlements. Furthermore, even though the Mormon "half-w^ay house" considerably eased the overland experience, as it did for Chandless, anti-Mormon stories prevailed in the western press. Unruh suggested such stories were a "tertiary force in bringing on the Mormon War." Some of the more bitter and extensively printed complaints about the Mormons were generated by overlanders who wintered with the Mormons, as Chandless did. Unruh wondered, "How justly and benevolently the 20C:handless, A Visit lo Salt Lake, pp. 20, 41, 47-49. 2'lbid., p. 37.

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Saints had in fact treated the overland emigrants—winter and summer—remains the unanswered question. Relatively few contemporaries attempted dispassionate assessments."22 Chandless's account may be numbered among these few. A RESIDENCE IN FHE MORMON S E I T L E M E N I S AT U I A H

T h e Chandless narrative can be appreciated as an overland trip eased by wintering at the Mormon half-way house. But the account is also noteworthy in relation to other early travelers' descriptions of the Mormon communities in the Great Basin. Chandless is one of a small group of travelers who published firsthand accounts of the Mormons in their first decade of settlement. Except for Jules Remy, Chandless and the other early visitors did not go to Salt Lake City for the express purpose of observing or writing about the Mormons. They were gold seekers, itinerant preachers, members of government surveys or expeditions, and territorial officials. Besides Chandless, the only other British traveler in the 1850s to publish observations about the Mormons, exluding Mormon converts and apostates, was William Kelly, a good-natured Irish gold seeker who spent several days in Salt Lake City in early summer 1849.^^ Chandless's journey to Salt Lake took three and a half months and was fraught with hardship. So it was for most of these initial travelers. A number, like Chandless, stayed at some length with the Mormons, spending time in the winter as well as the summer. And like him, some of these first visitors wrote positive assessments of certain aspects of the Mormon settlements, such as the imposing setting, the rapid development, and the industry, sobriety, health, and cleanliness of the Mormons.^^ ^^Snow, "Singidar Saints," p. 36; Unruh, The Plains Across, chap. 9, " T h e Mormon 'Halfway House,"' pp. 302-37, 336, 329. Madsen concluded thai winter "'cabin fever' . . . exacerbated differences only lightly felt during the short summer stopovers" (Gold Rush Sojourners, p. 124). ^•'William Kelly, Across the Rocky Mountains, from New York to California with a Visit lo the Celebrated Mormon Colony al the Great Salt Lake (London: Simms and M'Intyre, 1852). A British overlander who did not pass through Salt Lake Caty and who had a brief encounter with Mormon emigrants on the trail was Henry J o h n Ck)ke, A Ride over the Rocky Mountains lo Oregon and California with a Glance at Some of the Tropical Islands, Including the West Indiesand the Sandwich Isles (London: Ric hard Bentley, 1852). A British Mormon convert who published an overland account in 1854 and 1855 was Frederick Hawkins Piercy, Route from Lwerpool lo Great Salt Lake Valley, ed. Fawn M. Brodie (C:ambridge, Mass.: Harxard Uni\ersity Press, 1962). A British overlander who wintered with the Mormons and joined ihechuic h was John Hudson whose letters and journal aie published in Brigham D. Madsen, eel., A Forty-niner in Utah with the Stansbury Exploration of Great Sail Lake: Letters and Journal of John Hudson, 1848-50 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Fainier Trust Fund, 1981). Anotherrecently published journal is that of a British forty-niner, James Mason Hutchings, who passed through Salt Lake City: Shirley Sargent, ed.. Seeking the Elephant, 1849: James Mason Hutchings; Journal of His Overland Trek to California, 1848, and Letters from the Mother Lode (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1980). ^''Snow, "Singular Saints," p. 12.

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Later travelers differed in several ways. As it became faster and easier to get to Salt Lake Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;by mail stage in the sixties and then by rail after 1869â&#x20AC;&#x201D;the number of travelers and travel books increased. In the sixties at least five British travelers, including Richard Burton, passed through Salt Lake City and wrote about the experience. The later travelers tended to stay a shorter time and usually made their visits in the summer. In the main, they were professional journalists with every intention of publishing their overland adventure, including a chapter on the Mormons. Some of these later travelers also wrote about the same positive aspects as the earlier travelers. But, with the exception of Richard Burton, the later accounts are more stereotyped than the early ones.^^ Historians value travel accounts such as Chandless's for the historic detail recorded therein, for the outside perspective shed on native views, and for the values and preoccupations of the times that are reflected by the traveler himself. A drawback of travel literature, however, is that occasionally rumor is repeated as fact. Chandless made such an error in writing that Brigham Young had Chief Walker secretly put to death. This rumor was later repeated by Burton who cited Chandless. Chandless himself said there may be errors of fact or opinion in his book but that he introduced no "incident" unless it occurred.2^ Indeed, it is in the telling of personal incidents that his book has much charm and verisimilitude. The Chandless narrative seems relatively free of two other characteristics attributed to travel accounts: a tension between what travelers expected and what they actually saw and a tendency to embellish their experiences. Just as British travelers in Colorado found the West to be less raw and bawdy than expected, the travelers to Salt Lake City found the Mormons less depraved and lascivious than expected.27 Chandless, more than most travelers, seemed to realize that what little he had read of the Mormons before his trip was "not taken from personal, or anything like personal, observation." 251bid., pp. 129-35. Accounts published by British travelers in the 1860s include: William Abraham Bell, New Tracks in North America (New York: Scribner, Welford &: Ck)., 1869); Burton, City of the Saints; Charles Clarleton Ckjffen, Our New Way Round the World (London: Sampson, Law, .Son and Marslon, 1869); C^harles Wcntworth Dilke, Greater Britain (London: Macmillan and Ck)., 1868); William Hepworth I^ixon, New America (London: Hinst and Blackett, 1867). Dixon was editor of the Athenaeum, and his traveling companion, Dilke, was the son of the owner of Athenaeum (Athearn, Westward the Briton, p. 191). 26Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 184, iii; Burton, City of the Saints, p. 650. In fact. Chief Walker "died of a cold which had settled on his lungs." See B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century I, 6 vols. (Pro\o: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 3:464. "Athearn, Westward the Brilon, p. 7. Snow, "Singular Saints," p. 17.

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The Lion House was under construction and the Beehive House newly painted white when Chandless saw them in 1835. Photograph by David A. Burr, 1857. USHS collections.

Unlike Richard Burton, who included footnotes, an extensive bibliography, appendices, lengthy excerpts from both Mormon and non-Mormon sources, and numerous digressions comparing Salt Lake City to every exotic place Burton had previously visited, Chandless wrote "a narrative merely personal." He "read no books upon the subject" not wishing "either to borrow or controvert their facts or be impressed with their impressions." His object was to record "facts and incidents as they occurred" with little attempt to "theorize" or "generalize."^^ His account is concise, well-written, amiable, and literary enough with a scattering of classical and biblical allusions. It is a pleasure to read as well as a source of information. Like other firsthand accounts, Chandless's book has provided historians with details of the pastâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in this case, the winter of 1855-56, the "longest and severest" term of cold weather since the beginning of the settlement in 1847. T h e Englishman wrote that none of the 400 cattle in his train lived through the winter. In addition, he described the geography, natural resources, soil, buildings, roads, bridges, walls, irrigation method, crops, fuel, population make-up, and industries.29 In late November he made a brief walking tour of some northern settlements. Adding this jaunt to Chandless's journey to California via the Mormon corridor, readers today get glimpses of Weber, Ogden, Farmington, Cottonwood, Lehi, Battle Creek (now 2ÂťChandless, A Visit lo Salt Lake, pp. iii-v. 29Ibid., pp. 149, 143, 137-55.

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Pleasant Grove), Provo, Manti, Cedar Spring, Fillmore, Parowan, Cedar City, Las Vegas, and San Bernardino. Chandless reported on the state of culture in Salt Lake City. He gave a mixed review to the Social Hall theatrical productions, noted that the "city boasted one decent band which was called in upon all occasions of Church and State," and observed that "all the pianos you might count on one hand; everyone knows their number and present locality as well as an old Thames puntman does those of the big trout." He included some stanzas, written with "smoothness and ease," from Eliza R. Snow, "the Sappho of the Valley," and wondered if a "lofty genius" will be born to Mormonism, "penetrated with the spirit of the ancient Hebrews," taking as a motto "in exitu Israel," and thus finding "a worthy subject in the flight and emigration across the plains." A "new faith ought to produce its own historians, poets, and novelists," but the Mormons, although they did not despise poetry, were "afraid of anything fanciful, except their own fancies; and nothing great can spring up under a spiritual despotism."30 The "spiritual despotism," "unity of church and state," or "oligarchy working under and deadening the forms of democracy," Chandless felt to be the "very worst feature of Mormonism."^^ Other early travelers noted the unity of church and state, but perhaps because they had met Brigham Young and were uniformly impressed with him, they found some redeeming features in his leadership.^^ Chandless never met Brigham Young. He merely heard him speak, noting his affectation of "coarse and common language" and commenting that he was "in shrewdness and energy well fitted to be the head, though by no means the most intellectual or most eloquent in the 'Church."'33 Having studied law, Chandless took a particular interest in the Mormon courts, both civil and ecclesiastical. He noted that the Mormons discouraged litigation and relied on the bishop of the w ard as "a sort of county court judge" with a final appeal to Brigham. Regarding civil courts, he thought the Mormons showed "cool audacity and flagrant bad law" in giving the probate courts criminal 3oibid., pp. 223-24, 244-46. ^"Ibid.. D. 178. 'â&#x20AC;˘^Snow, "Singular Saints," pp. 70-72. Madsen notes that the good or bad opinions of Brigham Young expressed by the overlanders seemed related to whether or not they had met him (Gold Rush Sojourners, p.99). 33Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, p. 207.

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jurisdiction. T h e English visitor himself appeared before a Mormon probate judge in order to obtain a search warrant against the Irishman from his train who had stolen his gun. T h e revolver recovered, Chandless did not press charges. T h e judge permitted the thief to go free "on condition that he left the city before sundown the next evening." T h e constable, for his trouble in executing the search warrant and who "saw the currish nature of Moran, worked out of his fears twenty or twenty five dollars."^'^ Chandless is the only traveler who gave a description and analysis of the barter economy. He explained that the gold rush aided the Mormon economy in part by providing specie. However, trade with outsiders soon drained the specie from the Mormon settlements. T h e only source of specie at the time was money brought in by Mormon emigrants and the "salaries and etc. paid by the Federal Government of the United States." This lack of specie produced the direct interchange of commodities (including labor) and the circulation of promissory notesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the most valuable being orders for flour, sugar, coffee, hardware, butter, and orders on large stores with a variety of goods. The notes that were most likely to be discounted were orders for labor, chairs, hats, and shoes, and orders on small stores. T h e severest effect of the barter economy was on the poorest where "it comes rather to helping each other in a friendly way, and taking each from each what the other can best spare."^^ Chandless, like other British travelers in America at the time, was much interested in religion.^^ Unlike other travelers to Salt Lake, he did not characterize Mormonism as anti-Christian.^^ He obtained his information about Mormon doctrine not so much "from books (though from leisure hours among few but Mormon books, I am tolerably versed in their written theology) as from intercourse with the people and observation of its character." He pointed out the danger of "including in the general belief merely individual opinion." He attended service in the tabernacle "the very first Sunday," and thereafter he "rarely missed two out of three services: whether from curiosity, or principle, or habit, or association, or mere want of something else to do, I hardly know: perhaps a little of them all." He seems to have spent a good deal of time talking with his landlord "Ibid., pp. 187, 185,225-26. "Snow, "Singular Saints," p. 67. Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 215-21. ^^Rapson, Britons View America, pp. 19, 144. 3'Snow, "Singular Saints," p. 79.

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about religion. T h e English boarder said, "for many weeks my host made strenuous efforts to convert me, encouraged principally by my being the only unprejudiced Gentile he had ever met: and by contrast impartiality seemed partiality." Chandless found that "intelligent Mormons" were "rather given to speculation" on theological topics but had "more readiness than exactness in argument."^^ Chandless w^as particularly interested in his countrymen, the British Mormon converts. The London Athenaeum review of his book said, "Public curiosity is more exercised on Mormonism than on most other topics in our day," in part because it "is an AngloSaxon movementâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;originating in the States and fed with forces from England."39 In fact, in 1851 Mormon membership in England reached a high of nearly 33,000. Emigration of Mormon converts from England peaked between 1853 and 1856 when more than 11,000 sailed.40 Americans and British had differing views on the reasons for Mormon missionary success among the British. American travelers in Utah claimed that ignorant unchurched foreigners were easy prey for Mormon missionaries and that the English laboring classes in particular were more "amenable to authority" and were "less startled at innovations upon the common rules of morality, than the more astute, enterprising, and self-reliant Yankee.'"'^ On the other hand, the London New Quarterly Review claimed that Mormon missionaries falsely promised "a terrestrial paradise: land easily acquired, overflowing with milk and honey, with a delicious climate, a fruitful soil, and cattle in abundance." T h e Chandless account was useful, the reviewer continued, lifting comments out of context, in giving the lie to this vision of ease and plenty and describing the Mormon settlements as they really wereâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;plagued by drought, "locusts," severe cold, lack of wood, a "secret despotism" uniting "church and state," a barter economy, and of course, licentiousness and immorality of every kind.^^ As if responding to both the American and British stereotyped views, Chandless set down more thoughtful reasons for Mormon missionary success among the British, including the sincere belief, 38Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 1.56, 158, 205, 210, 240, 158-60. ^^Athenaeum, May 23, 1857, p. 655. "â&#x20AC;˘"P.A.M. Taylor, Expectations Westward: The Mormons and the Emigration of their Converts in the Nineteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966), pp. 20, 145. ""Snow, "Singular Saints," p. 92. ^mew Quarterly Review 6 (1857): 394-97.

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wrought through suffering, of the missionaries; the "certainty" of belief offered; the preaching of a "new dispensation"; and the church as "one family," as well as the subtlety and guile of the missionaries and their attention to the poor—"no religion that requires great sacrifices can attract many of those who have much to sacrifice." Polygamy, he believed, was not an inducement, "but rather kept back from the generality."^^ In Chandless's mind the advantage to the poor British converts in emigrating was educational rather than economic—in Utah their children would have a "decent education, . . . no matter how poor they" were. He saw a similar advantage in the missionary system which "insures a considerable number of Mormons to have traveled and seen the world outside; no small benefit to those who are valleybred; otherwise their minds might become as narrow as the valleys they live in."^^ Unlike some other travelers, Chandless did not interview or socialize with Mormon or Gentile leaders. He was aware that his manner of traveling as a teamster for pay gave him an advantage in observing "if not quite the 'creme de la creme,' at any rate Mormon society in general." In particular, he described individual British converts, stressing the diversity of their situations and faith. He reported some discouragement among the newly arrived, mainly because they could not get work in their trade and "Salt Lake was not what they had expected." Some emigrants expressed a certain jealousy that Americans "hold all the chief offices in church and state.'"'^ Yet what Chandless chiefly noted about the British converts was the "strong feelings of friendliness in Utah between people of the old country." He described evenings spent at the cottage of a Welsh convert: when the children were all lulled to sleep we put out the candles—too expensive to burn long—and gathered round the stove, the open doors of which let a cheerful glow into the room; and then we told stories of America and England, and Bagdad and Faerieland; and between times the women would sing hymns with their clear sweet voices. Mormon hymns they were, yet not all devoid of pathos, at least in those evening hours; one, for instance, that spoke of those whom we should never see "till the resurrection morn." Who has not lost some dear one? and who, turning his thoughts homeward, across mountain, and prairie, and "Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 173-75. "Ibid., pp. 36, 173. «lbid., pp. v, 210-13, 154.

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Vincent Shurtleff was Chandless's host during his stay in Salt Lake City. USHS collections.

Atlantic, might not fear some loss yet unknown? Walking home on such evenings along the quiet streets, one could not think the Mormons altogether a "filthy, sensual people."^^

As Chandless recorded his firsthand acquaintance with British converts, so too he recounted his familiarity wTth a polygamous family. Some gold rush sojourners boarded briefly with Mormon families during the summers of '49 and '50 and "seemed uniformly well-satisfied" with Mormon hospitality and "civility.'"'^ For two months, Chandless boarded with the family of " S " (on one occasion called "Shorncliffe" but who was actually Vincent Shurtleff), a "worthy Saint and High Priest, the centre of a fair quartette of wives, just as a church spire is of the four pinnacles at the corners of the tower." Chandless described S., his four wives, their house, and children, in favorable, even affectionate detail."^^ His narrative stands out from other travel literature, in part, because of the depiction of a polygamous family. Also, his tolerant attitude toward polygamy differed from the prevailing attitude. T h e contemporary London reviews denounced the English observer's ÂŤlbid., p. 238. ^^Madsen, Gold Rush Sojourners, p. 43. ^^Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 248, 198-205. Vincent Shurtleff and his wives fit perfectly Chandless's description of S. and his wives.. See Frank Esshom, ed. Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 2 parts (1913; reprinted; Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1966), part 2, p. 1160.

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attitude toward polygamy, not his description of it. These reviews, which exemplify the typical nineteenth-century response to polygamy, quoted Chandless's chapters on polygamy almost in their entirety, but added that the details of polygamy "outrage every sentiment of purity, violate every feeling of virtue, and loosen every sacred tie by which the dear home life of England has for ever been regulated."^9 Chandless, intentionally or not, failed to add such a disclaimer to his writings about polygamy. Other sympathetic travelers who, like Chandless, pointed out that polygamy was not as abominable as generally thought, nevertheless stressed that polygamy was a step backwards in progress. And lest anyone might doubt their personal values, these other travelers also included their testimony about the sanctity of monogamous marriage.^^ Chandless, on the other hand, to one reviewer at least, left the impression that he was "rather favorably impressed with the convenience of half a dozen wives. '51 Most travelers believed that polygamy defiled the sanctity of the home and assumed that Mormon wives were to some degree miserable and degraded and that Mormon children were neglected and exposed to "the mysteries of the harem."^2 Chandless held more positive views about the condition of the Mormon women and children. He wrote, " T h e wretchedness of wives in Utah has been greatly exaggerated . . . h u m a n nature is apt to suit itself to necessities." He explained that women could escape an unhappy marriage through divorce which they could obtain "for very trivial causesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;disagreement with other wives, etc." while men could not obtain a divorce except for adultery. As to children, "polygamy, rightly or wrongly, is valued as a means of numerical increase," and Mormon children are highly valued and well cared for. T h e newspaper stories "about 'the terrible immorality, blasphemous language, and ungovernable temper of the rising generation in Utah,' I look upon as so much sheer nonsense."^^ ^'^New Quarterly Review 6 (1857): 399. Polygamy was an "intolerable challenge" to the nineteenth-century social order. It also provided those in the nineteenth century a rare opportunity to speak about sex. See Charles Cannon, " T h e Awsome Power of Sex," Pacific Historical Review 43 (1974): 44-45; and Lawrence Foster, Religion and Sexuality: Three American Communal Experiments of the Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford Ihiiversity Press, 1981), p. 202. soSnow, "Singular Saints," pp. 17, 96, 102, 114, 149. ^^New Quarterly Review 6 (1857): 395. "Snow, "Singular Saints," pp. 97, 111-14, 149. Davis Bitton "Zion's Rowdies: Growing up on the Mormon Frontier," Utah Historical Quarterly 50 (1982): 185-86. "Chandless, A Visit to Sail Lake, pp. 191-93, 205. Foster concluded that getting a divorce was relatively easy for women but difficult for men (Religion and Sexuality, p. 334).

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Like some other travelers, Chandless included in his book the Mormon defense of polygamy.^"^ The defense Chandless heard rested, in part, on the assumption of the inferiority of women. He said Mormons speak of the subject of "plurality" before their wives without any restraint, argue the physical and mental inferiority of the female sex, and even touch on subjects too delicate, or too indelicate, to be heard without calling up a blush on the cheeks of any modest woman elsewhere. Sometimes the women would become very brusque with their husbands and half savage with myself, the innocent cause of the argument.^^

He added that although the "inequality of the sexes is a doctrine of their religious belief, as well as a rule of life," everyday life modified the theory in practice. "Solomon's heart, we know, was turned by his wives, and so are those of many less wise than he."^^ T h e Mormons also defended polygamy by citing the strict morality with which it was practiced. Chandless concluded, as did other observers, that the Mormons "are not a specially sensual people." Present-day historians have pointed out the "Puritanical" or "Victorian" aspect of polygamy. Richard Burton said Moslem "gloom" pervaded Salt Lake City.^^ Chandless, who was twenty-six and unmarried, seemed particulary aware of this atmosphere: Truth to tell, Utah is not a country of romance: . . . a wooing is commonly as short as Hiawatha's, and the girl says or has to say, "I will follow you my husband." Most men think anything of a lover-like deference to the fair sex a humilation of the superior sex . . . Love that is never sub rosa, will scarcely gain a roseate hue or the perfume of roses.^^ J U S T THE MAN FOR AN EXPLORER

Historians of the American West today know William Chandless as an observant but obscure British overlander. His name also occasionally appears in an entirely different contextâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in connection with the rivers and river tribes of Brazil.^^ Dale Morgan said the '^^Snow, "Singular Saints, "pp. 99-101. Chandless presented the Mormon defense of polygamy in the form of a dialogue between his host and himself. This may have been a gentle parody of the Mormon "defense" made in dialogue format which was "becoming popular in the church in the 1850s" (David J. Whittaker, "Early Mormon Polygamy Defenses," Journal of Mormon History 11 [1985]: 46). "Chandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, p. 241. 56Ibid.,p. 191. "Ibid. Snow, "Singular Saints," pp. 106, 150; P^oster, Religion and Sexuality, pp.207, 210, and 330 n. 72; Burton, City of the Saints, p. 481. ssChandless, A Visit to Salt Lake, pp. 259-60. "For example, Julian H. Steward, ed.. Handbook of South American Indians, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, 7 vols. (Washington D.C.: G.P.O., 1948), 3: 662, 686, 922.

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William Chandless in his later years. This photograph and the one below are both courtesy of Cecil R. Chandless.

Medicine case, drafting instruments, compass, and other items Chandless undoubtedly found useful on his travels in the Western Hemisphere.

overland journal, as well as being a record of the journey, the time, and the place, was a record of "a man's lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in some instances, all of that man's life we shall ever recover."^Â° T h e Chandless travel narrative, in addition to giving insights into a freighting and cattle enterprise and early Mormon communities in the Great Basin, also reveals characteristics of its author. These same characteristics are evident in the Englishman's river explorations in the Amazon basin. Relating the youthful travel account to Chandless's later pursuits increases understanding of the man himself. The Chandless family legend is that William, who never married, turned to exploration because he fell in love with a lady he ^^Dale Morgan, "The Significance and Value of the Overland J o u r n a l " in Kenneth Ross Toole, ed.. Probing the American West (Santa F"e: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1962), p. 33.

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could not marry—she being Catholic and already married.^^ Whether or not a lady played any role in his decision to become an explorer, an obituary lists qualities of character that suited the job: Apart from his classical attainments, he was a good mathematician and a keen observer. Generous, quiet, unassuming, and entirely regardless of self, his hand was ever open to unostentatiously assist others. T o these qualities he added great courage, caution, patience, tact, and love of nature—just the man for an explorer.^^

Although Chandless's early overland trip was motivated by a whim to cross a continent, his later explorations were purposeful and thorough. His facility of observation became scientific accuracy. After publishing A Visit to Salt Lake in 1857, he traveled extensively in South America. In 1861 he became an explorer in earnest when he took up residence in Brazil in Manaus, "the central city of the Amazon valley," and began to systematically explore and map the southern tributaries of the Amazon. His goal was the discovery of the "missing" river link between the eastern Andes and the Amazon. A continuous, navigable, water route would provide the means of transporting the riches of the eastern Andes, minerals and rubber, via the Amazon and the Atlantic to Europe.^^ From 1862 to 1870 he sent reports and maps of a number of rivers to the Royal Geographical Society in London. These reports include descriptions of animal and plant life, geological formations, and the various Indian tribes living by the rivers as well as detailed observations of the rivers.^"^ In 1866 the Royal Geographical Society awarded Chandless its gold medal for his exploration and mapping of the Purus River.^^ T h e Purus "had hitherto baffled all endeavors to trace its course" until Chandless ascended it 1,866 miles to its source, using astronomical and surveying instruments to map its entire length. Clement Markham, another South American explorer, said he "had seldom received a more admirable piece of geographical work than the minute and complete maps of Purus."^^ ^'Cecil Raymond Chandless tape. ^^Obituary, The Geographical Journal, p. 78. 63Ibid., p. 78; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 10 (1866): 252-53. •^^Reports by William Chandless in The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society: "Notes on the Rivers Arinos, Juruena, and Tapajos," 32 (1862): 268-280; "Ascent of the River Purus," 36 (1866): 86-119; "Notes of the River Aquiry, the Principal Affluent of the River Purus," 36 (1866): 119-28; "Notes of a Journey up the River J u r u a , " 39(1869): 296-311; "Notes on the Rivers Maue-assu, Abacaxis, and Canuma: Amazons," 40 (1870): 419-32. •*Man Cameron. To the Farthest Ends of the Earth: The History of the Royal Geographical Society, 1830-1980 (London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Limited, 1980), p. 264. ^^Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 10 (1866): 103-4; ibid., 11 (1867): 106.

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As his overland account shows Chandless to have been a practical traveler with a flair for overcoming difficulties, so his river explorations indicate an indefatigable characteristic. A Visit to Salt Lake describes dress, diet, personal habits, and carefully considered decisions that contributed to the success of his journey. Unfortunately, the explorer purposely omitted "personal details" from his river reports.^^ It would be interesting to know how Chandless managed his expeditions since, according to a current scholar, he made his river explorations at "the worst possible time" for exploring—years of danger and discomfort. One difficulty was in procuring and keeping a crew of Indians for the canoes. Another was the constant danger of attack by hostile Indians.^^ On the Purus trip his Italian servant and some crew members left the main party and were all killed. On a later trip Chandless and his crew were attacked but not injured. His crew, however, refused to continue and he wrote, "I shall always look back with shame on our return." Still later, a traveling companion and his crew were killed. The explorer nevertheless continued with his men until stopped by rapids.^^ Chandless, who seemed never "very eager . . . for a return to the restraints of city life or civilized touring," died in London of "inflammation of the lungs" in 1896.^0 Chandless could see beyond racial or religious stereotypes, whether in writing about the Mormons or later about riverside Indian tribes. In A Visit to Salt Lake he offered criteria for judging American Indians: " T o judge fairly any race whose habits differ from your own and especially of an uncivilized race, you must look beyond the mere repulsive exterior, or even actions, to motives, feelings, and principles."^^ He applied this standard in writing about the Amazon Indians, such as the tribe at the very headwaters of the Purus whom he described at some length because, he said, "from their industry, simplicity, friendliness, good manners, and utter ignorance of the existence of a world other than their own little world, they interested me much."''^ •"'Chandless, "Ascent of the River Purus," p. 92. •"^Robin Furneaux, The Amazon: TheSlory of a Great River (Vondon: Hamish Hamilton, 1969), p. \\3; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 10(1866): 106, 181,253. ^^Chandless, "Ascent of the River Purus," p. 104; Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 12 (1868): 340; The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 40 (1870): clxx. '^Chandless, A Visit lo Salt Lake, p. 302; obituary. The Geographical Journal, p. 77. "Chandless, A Visit lo Salt Lake, p. 97. '^Chandless, "Ascent of the River Purus," p. 112.

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Chandless was an independent traveler both in means and spirit. He undertook his explorations "entirely at his own expense"; he was not sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society as were Richard Burton and David Livingston in Africa.^^ He chose to go where few or no Englishmen had gone before, whether across North America or down the Purus. Yet his independence brought him future obscurity rather than notability. Although all his river reports were published in the journal of the Royal Geographical Society, his name is not found in later books about the accomplishments of the society because he was not sponsored by it.^"^ He may have been the first Englishman to go certain places, but they were not the sort of places to bring him far-reaching repute. One can confidently infer that his account of the Mormons was not widely appreciated by his contemporaries. Although his extensive river explorations were recognized by his peers, he did not find a river link between the Andes and the Atlantic. Instead, the result of his expeditions was "rather to destroy the hopes" that a commercially navigable route existed. Even the Purus, deep and free of rapids, had no commercial importance, because, as Chandless showed, it was "exceedingly tortuous." It is, in fact, one of the most crooked rivers in the world.'^^ T h e Brazilians named a tributary of the Purus the Chandless River "in honor of its explorer,""^^ but this river today is much the same as he found it a hundred years ago—in the midst of impenetrable rain forests. Since there is no metropolis on the Chandless River with inhabitants to look back with interest on the observations of an early visitor, the English traveler and explorer will probably continue to be primarily associated with A Visit to Salt Lake. Even so, Chandless may yet become somewhat better known and appreciated for the contribution he made to Utah history.

"'"•Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 11 (1867): 106; C^ameron, To the Farthest Ends of the Earth, pp. 275-79. '"•Chandless is mentioned in passing in Clements R. Markham, The 50 Years Work of the Royal Geographical Society (London: John Murray, 1881), p. 149; not mentioned in Hugh Robert Mill, The Record of the Royal Geographical Society: 1830-1930 CLondon: The Royal Geographical Society, 1930); and mentioned in one sentence in C^ameron, To the Farthest Ends of the Earth, p. 215. ^^Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 10 (1866): 106; Encyclopedia Brilannica, 11th ed. (1910), s.v. "Amazon," 1:786. ''^Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography 6 (1884): 402. The Proceedings and the Journal were combined in 1879; thus the new name.

One Man's Air Force: The Experience of Byron Dussler at Wendover Field, Utah, 1941-46 BY ROC.KR D. LAUNIUS

X HE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN f i g h t i n g m a n has been a subject of intense interest in recent years.^ T h e p u b l i c a t i o n of Dr. Launius is chief, Office of History, Headciuarters, Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. He wishes to express appreciation to Robert Van leperen, graduate student. University of Utah, for providing much initial information concerning Byron Dussler and his career at Wendover Field, Utah, and to Byron Dussler for granting permission to use the material he provided, for answering questions, and for his interest in recovering the history of Wendover Field. ' For examples, see the work of Peter Karsten, " T h e New American History: A Map of the Territory, Explored and Unexplored," American Quarterly 36 (1984): 389-418; David Lundberg, " T h e

Above: Pvt. Byron Dussler at Fort Douglas, summer 1941, before he was sent to Wendover Field. All photographs are courtesy of Byron Dussler:

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numerous accounts of the lives of common soldiers for such periods as the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Indian wars has greatly enhanced our understanding of these individuals.^ One of the most neglected areas of scholarship, however, concerns the experiences of the common soldier in World War II. This study seeks to illuminate this area as it relates to one master sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Force who was stationed throughout the war at Wendover Field, Utah, and left a remarkable series of letters written to two second cousins describing in detail his assignments, friends, enemies, and general army life.^ "Wendover was a profound experience for me," recalled Byron Dussler in April 1983. "Sometimes I tho[ugh]t of i t a s a prison where I was confined for an indefinite time during w hich I had very little liberty."^ At other times, however, he enjoyed the experience immensely. Dussler was born on a farm near Atwood, Illinois, in the central part of the state, in 1908, leaving his home for the first time, for an extended period, when drafted into the army late in June 1941. He resigned from his position as a clerk in an Atwood store, completed six weeks of basic training, and was sent along with thirty-six other draftees to a newly activated airdrome at Wendover, Utah. Wendover Field was one of several newly established training bases then being constructed throughout the United States in anticipation of conflict against fascist nations. Military leaders had found the desert area adjacent to the little town of Wendover, on the Utah-Nevada border, to be ideally suited for development of American Literature of Wâr: The Civil War, World War I, and World War II," American Quarterly 36 (1984): 373-88; Peter Karsten, ed.. Soldiers and Society: The Effects of Military Service and War on American Life (Westport, Cc:)nn.: Greenwciod Press, 1978). Âs examples of this see Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943); Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952); T. Harry Williams, Hayes of the Twentythird: The Civil War Volunteer Officer (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965); Jack D. F"oner, The United States Soldier between Two Wars: Army Life and Reform, 1865-1898 (New York: Humanities Press, 1970); Don R.'\ckey, Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963); Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War (Chapel Hill: University of North Cârolina Press, 1978); Victor Hicken, The American Fighting Man (New York: Macmillan Co., 1969). ^The Wendover Files of the Ogden Air Logistics Center's Office of History contain copies of a seriesof letters written by Byron Dussler to two second cousins. Lulu Hartwig and Josephine Ivey. Both were physicians and shared an office. Dussler remembered addressing the envelope to "Drs. Hartwig 8c Ivey" although his salutation was less formal, to "Lulu and Jos." They were only two of the many individuals to whom Dussler wrote during his years at Wendover. He did not keep any of the letters sent to him and did ncjt bother lo make cc:)pies of those sent. It came as a surprise when he met these ladies after the war, and they presented him with a stack of his letters. Later he made a transcription of these letters that ran 184 pages. It is from a copy of this transcription, given to the Office of History by Byron Dussler, that all quotations in this essay were taken. ^Dussler to Robert Van leperen, April 1983, copy in Wendover Files.

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bombing and gunnery ranges; it was far enough from population centers, close enough to transportation lines, and had good enough climate for aerial operations to be a desirable site for flight training.^ In all, some 1.8 million acres made up Wendover Field proper and its air crew training range. Most of this was acquired on September 20, 1940, when the U.S. Army Air Force gained from the Department of the Interior 1.56 million acres. The service acquired another 14,068 acres from the State of Utah, Tooele County, the Western Pacific Railroad, and a few private firms a short time later.^ Construction of the base's facilities, on the south side of the town of Wendover, began in November 1940. Workers built temporary barracks covered with tar paper, two paved runways, taxiways, and an aircraft ramp. T h e second phase of construction, completed in mid-1941, provided four sixty-three-man barracks, also covered with tar paper; a mess hall; officers' quarters; an administration building; a communications office; two ordnance warehouses; a dispensary; three ammunition storehouses; a bombsight storage building; an electrical plant; and a base theater.^ These meager facilities, all of which were considered temporary, greeted the first personnel assigned to Wendover Field, two officers and ten enlisted men comprising a bombing and gunnery range detachment. Officially activated on July 29, 1941, this detachment arrived at the field on August 12, 1941.Âť Other personnel arrived soon thereafter. Byron Dussler was one of these, moving with thirty-seven other draftees from Fort Douglas, outside of Salt Lake City, to Wendover in September 1941 as part of the growing bombing and gunnery range detachment. His first impression of the area surrounding Wendover Field reveals much about the man, showing that he was literate, relatively well-read, and thoughtful:

TJnited States Air Force Historical Division, "Brief History of Wendover Air Force Base, 1940-1956 " p p 1-2 Research Studies Institute, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.;/IFLC Wendover Range Complex (Hill Air Force Base, Ut.: Ogden Air Material Area, 1968), pp. 23-24; " T r a i n i n g Camp for the Atomic Age: Wendover Field," Aerospace Historian 20 (Fall 1973): 137; History of Wendover Army An Base Installment I, 1 January 1939-7 December 1941 (Wendover Field, Utah: Office of History, 1942), pp 1-3- O N Malmquist, "More T h a n $52,000,000 Spent on Tooele County War Plants, Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday Magazine, July 11, 1943, p. 4; Leonard J. Arrington and Thomas G. Alexander "World's Largest Military Reserve: Wendover Air Force Base, 1941 -1963," U^fl/i Wij/onca/Quar<er/y 31 (1963): .325-26. 6See note above; Roger D. Launius, The United States A ir Force in Utah: The Case of Wendover Field (Fort Douglas, Ut.: Fcjrt Douglas Military Museum Monograph Series, 1985), pp. 3-4. '"Brief History of Wendover, " p. 3; Arrington and Alexander, "World's Largest Military Reserve," p. 327. ^History of Wendover Army Air Base, pp. 1-2; Byron Dussler, " T h e Wendover Experience," United States Air Force in Utah Historical Record 1 (April-June 1984): 1, 4.

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Dussler's contingent boarding trucks at Fort Douglas for trip to Wendover Field, August 1941. Wendover, Nevada, and State Line Hotel and Casino in far center from Wendover Field, fall 1941. We were sent to a bombing range on the desert about seventy five miles west of Salt Lake City. T o reach the bombing targets we drove where there weren't any roads. T h e salt flats are quite level, but mountains are visible in all directions. T h e low flat surfaces of sand and salt glare in the sunlight, and on them nothing grows. On sandhills, where the salt has been bleached out, scraggly clumps of sage brush hold each hillock. What fantastic mirages one sees. Coleridge's Kubla Kahn [sic] comes to life. I saw an enormous lake, with islands in it of orange colored rocks rising abruptly from the water. On the shores reeds and rushes grew, but all the colors were wrong. Only in dreams could one see such an unnatural place. Of course, it was unapproachable; it always receded into the distance, or else, disappeared altogether. I saw distant trees, but as we drove toward them, they vanished.^

Once at Wendover, Dussler was assigned to a detail involved in building and maintaining ground targets for bombardment groups ^Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, August 6, 1941, Wendover Files.

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that would train on the expansive weapons range nearby. He spent several days, he wrote, "filling flares with kerosine which outline the night targets, and spreading used crankcase oil in an enormous circle to outline a day target"; but soon he was placed in charge of a maintenance detail tending the coal furnaces of the makeshift buildings on the base. Because of his job as chief of the furnace firing crew, Dussler received the nickname "Casey" after the famed engineer. Casey stayed with him throughout the war and became something more than a nickname. It was almost an alter ego. Few on base knew his real name, and later he even had a nameplate on his desk that read "MSgt Casey.''^^ As soon as Dussler was assigned to Wendover Field rumors began to circulate that since the United States was not at war all draftees over twenty-eight â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Dussler was thirty-three â&#x20AC;&#x201D; would be released from active service. Throughout the fall of 1941 he tried to determine the truth of this rumor and hoped for the possibility that he would be mustered out of the army because of it. He hinted at his disgust with military conventions when discussing this possibility in a letter to his cousins dated September 26. "Every night the train goes through Wendover with men going home with their over-28discharges," he wrote, but "here we can find out nothing."'^ A few days later Dussler held a meeting with other draftees having the possibility of being discharged. "We nominated one of our group to see our first sergeant," he wrote, "but the sergeant said he was busy and merely stated, at present it's thumbs down, terminating the interview with the same gesture." Dussler nosed around a bit more, however, and found out that the necessary paperwork for their discharges was "gently reposing in somebody's basket quietly gathering dust."^^ Eventually this paperwork was completed. The army released Dussler from active duty at Fort Douglas on November 29, 1941. He arrived at his home in Atwood, Illinois, on Saturday, December 6, 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course, following the Japanese attack, the United States entered World War II and mobilization commenced. Dussler was recalled to active duty and reported to Fort Sheridan, near Chicago, Illinois, where he remained

'oibid., August 6, 1941; .September 26, 1941. "Ibid., September 26, 1941. '2Ibid., Octobers, 1941.

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only a short time before being sent back to his old unit and job at Wendover Field.^^ Dussler's return to Wendover was more reminiscent of a conquering hero than of a soldier being transferred. He reported to his old first sergeant, learned he was once again in charge of the fire crew, and was told to report to a Lieutenant Thomas, known to all the draftees as Lieutenant "Rock-A-Bye" because of a peculiar tottering stance. T h o m a s told him that everyone was delighted he was back. " T h e place hadn't been warm since I left two months before," he told his cousins. He then saw the base commander, Capt. D. G. Smith, who interrupted his salute "with a hand shake," Dussler said, "and made me a corporal on the spot."^"^ Dussler did not remain in charge of the furnace crew long. Throughout the spring of 1942 Wendover's personnel were involved in readying the base for training of B-17-equipped bombardment groups, these growing activities requiring the expansion of the headquarters contingent. Consequently, many of the personnel assigned to other duties were brought into the headquarters to handle the administrative jobs that seemed to increase almost daily. Early in April 1942 Dussler was reassigned as a clerk in the headquarters of the 315th Army Air Force Base Unit, the organization that managed all Wendover activities, consolidating morning reports. He was clearly delighted with the new responsibilities. His letter to his cousins on April 5 is telling. "I feel like Cinderella must have felt," he wrote. "Yesterday I was chief chimney swêp and today I rode to the railway depot in a staff car to deliver a report which must be in the mail. I haven't quite recovered from the shock of getting this job after sweating it out for two weeks, I had entirely given up hopes, w^hen all at once it happened."^^ A month later he was promoted to sergeant, and in June he was assigned responsibility for the base's payroll. It required long hours of tedious work that eventually took its toll, especially because of the large numbers of personnel that had to be serviced when the bombardment groups began training at Wendover during April 1942. Because of the strain of meeting these commitments, Dussler 'Înterview with Robert Van leperen, January 21, 1985; Dussler to author, December 24, 1984, Wendover Files. '"â&#x20AC;˘Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, February 22, 1942. 'Îbid., April 5, 1942; Helen Rice, History of the Ogden Air Materiel Area, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, 1934-1960 (Hill AFB, Ut.: Office of History, 1963), p. 263.

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Left to right: Dussler's aunt; Dr. Lulu Hartwig, a cousin; Dussler's mother; Dr. Josephine Ivey, a cousin. The many letters Dussler wrote to his two cousins provide a graphic account of his military service.

was hospitalized for exhaustion in August 1942 and then sent home for two weeks to aid his recovery.^^ He stayed in that job for several months, all the while angling to get the position of base sergeant major, the highest ranking enlisted job at any army post and one that carried substantial respect and authority. On October 21, 1942, he was successful in this quest, after the previous sergeant major had arranged a transfer to a combat unit.^^ Dussler never could understand why his predecessor had transferred out of such an important and powerful job to risk his life. His opinion was that those who could only shoot should fight and those who had administrative skills should do that. At no time during his army career did Dussler have any real desire to enter combat.'^ He enjoyed his new position as base sergeant major enormously. Dussler wrote to his cousins that it had many benefits, not the least of '^Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, May 24, 1942; June 6, 1942; Rice, History of Ogden Air Materiel Area, p. 263. "Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, October 21, 1942. 'sibid., August 30, 1942.

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which was a lessening of his wT^rk load, his own telephone, and control of all appointments to anyone in the headquarters. He described some of the benefits of this position in a letter to his cousins in October 1942: I have a crew of enlisted men who man message center, distribution, special orders, mimeograph, general files and trial judge advocate's office. All mail and wire messages come to my desk after being removed from envelopes. I read them and route them to their proper dej)artments, and answer what I can myself. All answers and new correspondence are routed across my desk for final check.'^

Dussler confided not long after beginning work as sergeant major that he felt like "Alexander the Great, w ith no more worlds to conquer." He also noted, "It's like sitting on a throne all by myself. T h e fellows who used to tell me to 'go to hell' now say 'yes sir'." That is, all but one. One old associate from his pre-sergeant major days always greeted Dussler with a lusty, "Hello, exjanitor.''^^ While sergeant major, Dussler developed to a fine art a disgust for most of the officers assigned to the airdrome. He saw them essentially as either young punks without sense enough to recognize their own inadequacies or older soldiers without ambition, ingenuity, or connections. An air base headquarters unit in time of war, he reasoned, was not exactly w^here the cream of the officers' corps would be stationed. He was essentially correct; most exceptional officers were serving in combat units. A feel for his general attitude toward the Wendover officers can be gained from his discussion of a new private in his office that was excused from early morning roll call, calisthenics, KP, and other disagreeable assignments. Dussler could not see why this particular private got special consideration, as he was one of the least productive and most "thick-headed," to use Dussler's term, of the men in the squadron. Finally he learned that he was the brother-in-law of the squadron adjutant. "He has been in the army a few weeks," Dussler complained, "and has already started his application for officer's candidate school." Although, he quickly added, after considering the private's general uselessness, "I think he is fine officer material."^i Dussler endured what he thought was continuous nonsense from officers. As base sergeant major, however, he was in a position '9Ibid., October 25, 1942. 2<'Ibid., November 4, 1942. 2ilbid., December 4, 1942, May 8, 1943.

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to deal with officers as was no other enlisted man. He did not grant accepted military courtesies and got away with it. "Somehow," he reflected in a letter to his cousins on August 22, 1942, "I feel a little guilty with all my stripes as I consider myself the most unsoldierly person that ever got into the military service." He added, "I hate the army. I can't stand drill. It irks me to have to salute an officer. I do not 'sir' them when I talk to them. It is merely 'yes' and 'no' and I try to make my conversation as civilian as possible."^2 He also found ways of gaining revenge on officers that he particularly disliked. On one occasion in April 1943 Dussler took revenge on his squadron commander and adjutant after thay had in his estimation, "been pretty heavily passing out extra duty to my boys in headquarters." Not long thereafter the base commander had an unpleasant assignment for an officer and asked his adj utant to assign responsibility. Louie F. Wise, the first lieutenant to whom Dussler was directly responsible, then asked the sergeant major to handle the job. "As quick as a flash I nominated our squadron adjutant," Dussler wrote, "and he was forthwith elected." Later, he tormented the squadron commander by assigning him, at Wise's direction, the responsibility of writing a tedious report for the base commander on a training class being conducted at Wendover, and Dussler, as the individual reviewing all documents sent to the command section, returned the report for expansion and revision.^^ Byron Dussler did not dislike all officers, and with a few, like Lieutenant Wise, became good friends. In 1942 when Wise first arrived at Wendover he endeared himself by admitting that he did not understand his job and telling Dussler that the two would work together as partners.^^ Dussler relished the way Wise delegated so many jobs to him, allowing the sergeant major to solve most of the office's problems. In most instances Wise acted merely as Dussler's endorsing officer, a rubber stamp, never complaining about not being fully in control of affairs.^^ However, by December 1943 Wise had made captain and left Wendover; he was replaced by a young officer Dussler despised. T h e only virtue of the transfer, according to Dussler, was that the replacement was "new to the job and as green as grass and that's the way I like them, so I can break them in to suit 22Ibid., August 22, 1942. 23Ibid., April 6, 1943. 2qbid., December 4, 1942. "Ibid., February 17, 1943; February 18, 1943; February 19, 1943; February 20, 1943; April 15, 1943.

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me." Dussler continued, "He does everything I tell him and what more can I ask. I go through all the mail first and show him only what I want him to see. I usually pick out something that requires enough work to keep him busy and give it to him as an assignment."^^ Dussler was able to get away with these attitudes and actions in large measure because of his ability to get results on the job. He was, by all accounts, an exceptionally capable NCO. No doubt, Dussler's ability to circumvent the bureaucratic labyrinth to get work done quickly placed him in good graces with both his superiors and his fellow draftees. For instance, an officer telephoned the adjutant's office complaining about his inability to requisition a 2.5-ton truck for the afternoon and had been given a half-baked excuse by the motor pool supervisor. Since Lieutenant Wise was not in, Dussler called over to the motor pool and had the truck for him in a matter of minutes.27 Additionally, on August 20, 1943, an enlisted man came into the headquarters and asked for an emergency furlough. "I fixed him up in fifteen minutes flat," Dussler bragged, "whereas, if he had gone through his orderly room he probably would be delayed for another day.''^^ Dussler admitted that to get the soldier's emergency furlough, however, "I made generous use of forged signatures." He was not hesitant to cut corners to get his work done. And, interestingly enough, his superior did not seem to mind, provided no one up the chain of command complained.^^ Dussler, of course, rationalized his approach to doing his job by maintaining that the war necessitated prompt actions and everyone benefited. Wendover had grown from the tiny contingent Dussler had been a part of in 1941 to some 12,500 military and 2,000 civilians by 1943, and the bureaucratic necessities of managing such a large airdrome prompted many to allow him to disregard official procedures if he did not do so too flagrantly and was efficient. Moreover, Dussler believed many of the regulations and directives were unnecessary and needed to be ignored or thrown out entirely. He constantly berated others who did things that appeared foolish or nonproductive, even if they were according to regulation.^^ 26Ibid., July 28, 1943. 2'Ibid., April 15, 1943. 28Ibid., August 20, 1943. 29Ibid., April 14, 1943. ^oibid., January 7, 1943, and January 16, 1943; Arrington and Alexander, "World's Largest Military Reserve," p. 334.

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"G.l. party" in 1943. Every Saturday bunks were removed and the barracks scrubbed. Most early buildings were covered with tarpaper, right. By 1942 barracks were constructed more substantially, as in center.

> -^^asm,!*^**^

\^-

He complained, for example, that when one of his clerks had two straight days of KP, one of which involved moving from one mess hall to another and took about fifteen hours of work, he was so tired he missed the early morning roll call and was punished severely for his lapse. Dussler matter of factly wrote, "I fail to see the justice of this."^^ He thought this a much too rigid approach. There are several complaints about "tin soldiers" in Dussler's letters. Nor were his feelings any less kind toward incompetency among the enlisted force. He recalled two incidents of soldiers on leave. "Some dummy in Los Angeles," he wrote to his cousins on February 20, 1943, "wired for an extension on his furlough, but failed to give an address to which reply could be made. Another request came by telephone from a little town in Louisiana," he reported. "When I attempted to answer 3'Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, December 22, 1942; July 28, 1943.

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collect and approve, my call was refused." Such ridiculousness made Dussler boil.^^ As an organization operated by the Second Air Force, Wendover Field's primary mission throughout World War II was the training of aircrews for B-17, B-24, and B-29 bombers, as well as a limited number of fighter pilots. During the war no less than twenty-one heavy bombardment groups underwent training at Wendover, each participating in a four- to six-week program at the base. T h e 306th Bombardment Group was only the first such unit assigned for training at Wendover, arriving April 6, 1942; and the last was the 509th Composite Group, whose first elements departed Wendover for the Pacific on April 26, 1945. In between, several other units came and went, each taxing the base's and by extension Dussler's headquarters function. For instance, so active was Wendover Field during 1944 that its personnel were constantly managing the simultaneous training of at least two complete bombardment groups. Most of the time, Dussler remembered, it was a mad scramble to satisfy all the needs of those assigned to the base.^^ Dussler's world of paperwork, reports, and military inefficiency was far removed from the intense combat of World War II. Bombardment groups came and went, and Dussler mentioned a few of them upon occasion, but wartime censorship prohibited discussing in unofficial correspondence the activities of combat units. It seemed to Dussler that the war was truly far away for the soldiers at Wendover Field. His letters sometimes showed despair that his service at Wendover was somehow pointless. He wrote to his cousins not long after being reassigned to the desert base: " T h e war is the most remote thing on earth to us; we scarcely talk about it. Each day, Sunday included, is a repetition of the preceeding [sic] day." Later to a friend who asked him about the war, Dussler satirically replied, "I suppose they will let us know when it's over, won't they?" 32Ibid., February 20, 1943. 33Rice, History of Ogden Air Materiel Area, p. 263; 2849 Air Base Group, Civil Engineers, "Ogden Air Materiel Environmental Assessment for AFLC Test Range Complex," February 18, 1972, Office of History, Ogden Air Logistics Center; History of the Wendover Army Base and 315th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron, 7 December 1941-31 December 1944 (Wendover Field: Office of History, 1945), p. 1-3, 9; "Brief History of Wendover," p. 5-8.; Arrington and Alexander, "World's Largest Military Reserve," p. 328-30; Dussler, "Wendover Experience," pp. 1, 4; "Wendover Army Air Field, 1941-1977," U nited States Air F orce in U tah Historical Record 1 (April-June 1984): 4; "Wendover Field: T h e War Years," 1975, KSL Television Documentary Film, Salt Lake City, Utah; Michael Amrine, The Great Decision: The Secret History of the Atomic Bomb (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1959), pp. 59-61. ^â&#x20AC;˘'Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, February 22, 1942; January 18, 1944.

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At the same time, Dussler recognized the importance of Wendover as a training base and its place in the overall war effort. As base sergeant major he learned about many incidents of "personal heroism" among those working at the base. For instance, one of the most persistent problems at Wendover during the war was the lack of housing for the large numbers of military and civilian personnel who had moved into the area. Because of the base, Wendover grew rapidly during World War II from a few hundred to over 20,000. The tiny community was totally unprepared to house such large numbers, and the government was forced to construct new housing and support facilities. Even this was not enough. Dussler reported one instance where a woman came to him as base sergeant major in virtual desperation "to ask whom she should see to get a place to live. She was working at the sub-depot and was living in the back end of a truck." She had been at the base for several months and had been shoved from one office to another without any success in obtaining housing. In the middle of her meeting with Dussler she suddenly stammered, "I-I-I'm g-g-getting d-d-damned t-t-tired of this t-ttreatment." Dussler assisted her in finding a place to live. Later, he reflected on the situation: Oh! If only one could remedy all the misfortunes that happen to unfortunate people. Their problems are doubly acute because they are so helpless. 1 admire these people, who when war comes, live on the desert like soldiers under the most harrowing circumstances. Shame on those in society who contribute to the war effort by sponsoring benefit dances.3^

Later he reported on what he called "the motley crowd of soldiers, civilians, wives, girlfriends, all stranded at Wendover. I looked at them and thought of how many lives are turned topsyturvey by the war." Then he mused, "Will this [war] last for endless time?"3^ The war was difficult for Dussler and others stuck in the desert at Wendover. Even if one was patriotic beyond normal bounds, the long days away from civilization with no apparent feeling of accomplishment had to take its toll. Dussler, most of the time, hated the place. "If "Ibid., February 7, 1943; Arrington and Alexander, "W^orld's Largest Military Reserve," p. 327; "Brief History of Wendover," p. 4; Basic Information for Master Planning Purposes, Wendover Field, Utah, May 1946, Office of History, Ogden Air Logistics Center; interview with Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., by Arthur Marmor, September 1966, Oral Histories, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.; James Les Rowe, Project W-47 (Livermore, Calif.: Ja A Ro Publishing, 1978), pp. 2-4. ^^Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, January 23, 1944.

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The State Line Casino was a favorite place for servicemen to relax after duty. Here Pvt. Eldor Bernine, in civilian clothes, tries his hand at roulette.

I were to tabulate all the good and bad at Wendover," he wrote in April 1942, "it would be like this: Good

Bad

Weather Beer Sleep

No sheets Chow 6:15 rising 10:00 bed check double bunks everything else. ^7

T o fill the long hours Dussler and many of his friends frequented the State Line Hotel and Casino, which, according to Dussler, was "a desert rendezvous for travelers, gamblers, and other professional people of license," that had "a spirit and color that makes one feel the pep and tang of mischief."^^ T h e troops also held "beer busts" where the goal was to get drunk as quickly and cheaply as possible for as long as possible.^^ Dussler defended both extravagances by telling his cousins that there was little else to do. One of Dussler's favorite drinking buddies was Arthur W. Roberton, a sergeant known to all by his nickname, "Flash." Indeed, everyone knew their comrades by nicknames: Dussler was Casey, Lieutenant Thomas was Rock-A-Bye; and a Private Harris was called Iron Head. Roberton was a close friend who admired Dussler greatly. T h e two were inseparable. For instance, when Dussler was placed in "Ibid., April 11, 1942. 38Ibid., April 18, 1942. "Ibid., April 19, 1942; Mav 21, 1942; July 9, 1942; .September 14, 1942; December25, 1942; Januarv 8, 1943; January 10, 1943; January 23, 1943.

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Arthur H. Roberton, better known as "Flash," photographed at Wendover in 1942.

the hospital for exhaustion in 1942 Roberton visited him virtually every day.^^ Roberton even had himself assigned as Dussler's assistant in base headquarters. This was not an entirely satisfactory arrangement, however. Dussler complained that Roberton was a poor typist and not the quickest at analyzing a situation and acting appropriately. "He is a good flunky tho[ugh]," Dussler reported: He opens doors for me, steps aside and lets me enter first, and I believe he'd shine my shoes if I would ask him. . . . Some of the old acquaintences [sic] on the [bombing] range crew have noticed this situation and kid us. They say Casey took Flash under his wing so that when we get sent to Africa, and Casey gets tired of marching across the desert, he can call on his man Friday to carry him on his back.

Dussler admitted that there was some truth to their assessment. "I'm afraid I do, sometimes, evaluate people by what they are worth to ' '4 1

me. ^^ One of the areas that Roberton asked for advice from Dussler concerned relations with women. For some reason the ladies found him irresistible. As an example: a woman Roberton had been seeing ^"Ibid., May 29, 1942; .Se|)tember 7, 1942. ^'Ibid., May 9, 1942.

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before he was drafted kept writing him love letters and promising to visit him, hinting that they could run off to Las Vegas and get married."^2 After Roberton talked to Dussler about his situation, the sergeant major wrote to his cousins, "She wants to marry him so badly that she lost all control of her tongue." He then diagnosed what he thought was Roberton's basic problem: Poor Flash! He likes to start an affair but never wants to finish it. It is the same old story every time and I have to listen to it. Boy meets girl. A pleasant evening is planned and Roberton expects that to be the end. Then comes the deluge of letters. Every girl is ready to throw overboard every male she has ever known.^^

Dussler remarked in several letters that he was bored from listening to the details of Roberton's love affairs, but he seemed to enjoy living vicariously through his buddy's escapades. For instance, he took delight in the situation of Roberton visiting his first sergeant's girlfriend in Denver on his way back from furlough. It was only a short visit, but the first sergeant's friend, after one meeting, broke up with him to go with Roberton. Dussler reported with obvious delight the drunken brawl that took place in the State Line Casino when Roberton and the sergeant met afterward. But Dussler consoled his friend when the woman from home that Roberton had been going with found out about his indiscretions. He received a letter from her that said simply, "Wish me luck, I married Bill." T o help Roberton through his melancholy, Dussler took him to the State Line Casino where they enjoyed a wild evening. Roberton soon forgot all about his lost love.'^'' Later he barely missed the opportunity to become a recruiter for WACs in Denver, a position for which he thought he was uniquely qualified. When this did not materialize, he transferred to the European Theater of Operations where he worked in classification in England until the end of the war."*^ In January 1944 a new phase in Byron Dussler's military career at Wendover Field began. A new base commander came in and replaced the key staff personnel of the newly organized 216th Air Base Unit with his own appointees. One of those reshuffles involved Dussler, who was reassigned to the Directorate of Flying Training. At last he was a part of the central mission of the base. "I'm going to find «Ibid., May 16, 1944; May 29, 1942; October 25, 1942. «Ibid.,.September 14, 1942. ^nbid., January 19, 1943. «Ibid., October 14, 1943; Octciber 29, 1943.

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out all about combat flying," he told his cousins, "by reading about it." One of the unique aspects of this position was that all his clerks were black women assigned to the WAG detachment of the 216th Army Air Force Base Unit (Colored). "I'm sergeant major to a colored office force, and I like them," he exclaimed. "I hope they like me.'"'^ This situation was very educational for Dussler; he had never been closely associated with black workers before. He was from rural Illinois, where few blacks lived, and since the army air force and all other services were segregated he had not had much contact with blacks there. Indeed, Dussler's workers were members of the only black unit stationed at Wendover during the war, and the number of blacks in this organization never numbered more than a hundred. Consequently, headquarters personnel treated the black unit as something akin to a leper colony. Blacks had very few privileges. They were in fact segregated at all base functions and were housed in r u n d o w n barracks far removed from the a i r d r o m e ' s central buildings.''^ Dussler realized quickly that the four WACs he had working for him were not ordinary army air force clerks; they were really quite exceptional both in their capabilities and their outlooks toward the military. He made these observations about them in a letter dated January 8, 1944: Mrs. B., very black and a typical African, was a social science teacher in a Georgia High School. She is now a private first class and on KP regularly. Private First Class S. is the mother of a married daughter. She told me she used to have a column in a daily newspaper and is frequently writing articles for periodicals. She came into the Army because, like others in her organization, she thought it was the patriotic thing to do. Another, Corporal D. was a kindergarten teacher from Indiana. Corporal A. says she is an old maid. She is as slow and deliberate as a snail, and I worry about her, fearing she will never get her work done, but she always does.

Clearly, these women were not run-of-the-mill soldiers; they were better educated than most clerks Dussler had been associated with.

"Ibid., January 2, 1944. " T h e services did not begin desegregation until after the end of World War II. The standard accounts of this issue for the air force are Alan L. Grojnnan, The Air Force Integrates, 1945-1964 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, \91i),dnd kVsinM.Osurc, Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II: The Problem of Race Relations (Washington, D.C:.: Offic e of Air Force History, 1977). Vox a discussion of race relations at Wendover Field see History of the Wendover Army Air Base and 315th Base Headquarters, passim.

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and they served in the army air force only because they wanted to assist their country in the war effort.''^ Although the women w^anted to serve their country, Dussler recognized that his clerks' lives at Wendover were far from enjoyable. Their segregation from the rest of the base population was upsetting. He wrote, "They don't like it, but they are in the Army and stuck.'"^^ Dussler also believed he was stuck. "I w^onder why I was made sergeant major to a colored force?" he asked, as if it were a punishment. "I wonder if this is a demotion, the result of politics, or is it a job that someone thought I was fitted for?" As it turned out, in the reshuffling of personnel to make room for the new^ base commander's assistants, Dussler, as a master sergeant, received the only open billet for his rank available at the base. Had he cultivated the right officers, Dussler might have engineered some type of arrangement in a more prestigious office, but as it was he had to take what he received.^f* Dussler felt sorry for his black subordinates. He noticed one in particular who seemed to be lethargic on the job, presumably because of her shabby treatment at the base, and encouraged the others to act the same way. "I can see she has little love for whites. Perhaps, she is justified in this lack of affection," he noted, but Dussler recognized that for all her loafing, this WAG was a better clerk than many he had supervised while base sergeant major. Interestingly, he recognized and commented in his letters that "They are really no different from the whites I know." In their social position, he thought, he would probably act even more maliciously.^^ Dussler also experienced something of the racial inequalities of the United States when one of the WACs asked for and received a two-day pass. She told him she wanted to visit Salt Lake City and, to use her words, "see the Mormon things." T h e n she realized that the trip on the bus "would necessitate staying overnight." She then turned back the pass, telling Dussler somewhat sadly, "I wouldn't have a place to stay." Before desegregation of public facilities and without a black population to warrant hotels catering to blacks, the WAG was afraid to make a trip to Salt Lake City. T h e injustice of this

â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘^Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, January 8, 1944. ^9Ibid. ^^Ibid., January 12, 1945; interview with Robert Van leperen, July 18, 1985. 5'Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, January 23, 1944.

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bothered Dussler, who wrote, "What a tragedy it must be to be born black."52 Dussler remained in the Flying Training Office until the end of 1944. His black WACs were transferred along with the other members of their detachment to Sioux City, Iowa, on April 5, but he continued with a new crew. By the time of the WAG transfer, however, the training activities at Wendover were beginning to slow down. With the allies on the offensive and the end of the war in sight, fewer people were stationed at the airdrome and fewer bombardment groups underwent training.^^ indeed, by the fall of 1944 the only training being conducted at Wendover was that of Col. Paul W. Tibbets's 509th Composite Group, which was devising and testing delivery techniques for the soon-to-be constructed atomic bomb. Even before the completion of this unit's training, Dussler's office was all but closed down and the majority of its personnel reassigned. Dussler and a few others remained in the office to complete some final reports, but he expected to be sent to another base upon completion of that assignment late in 1944. Such was not the case. Instead, in January 1945 he moved back to the base headquarters as personnel sergeant major, charged with the increasingly important responsibility of mustering soldiers out of the army.^^ Although he had been busy before, soldiers' discharges began to consume most of Dussler's time after Germany surrendered in early May 1945. "I did not know VE Day could cause so much work," he complained to his cousins on May 18. "I've been stuck in the office every night until about ten. I have a pile of policies pertaining to discharge and it is becoming in size like a mail order catalog."" He reported similar problems three months later, after the surrender of Japan: T h e war is over but not for me. I am busy sending to separation centers all 38 years old and those high point men who fit in quotas. We had no celebration except free beer. We heard the noise and confusion over the radio. I worked the next day as usual. T h e end of the war made not one particle of difference to me. T h e war has always been very remote to me, and when it ended my routine was not disturbed.^^ "Dussler to Van leperen, April 2, 1985, Wendover Files. 53Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, March 26, 1944; April 2, 1944; May 9, 1944; September 7, 1944; Decembers, 1944. "Ibid., January 5, 1945, and January 15, 1945; "Admission Specialist, MOS-502," The Salt Tablet (Wendover Field, Utah), August 30, 1945, p. 3. "Dussler to Hartwig and Ivey, May 18, 1945. sqbid., August 20, 1945.

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The work of discharging part of the largest military force in American history began to pile up after the surrender of Japan. Dussler barely had time to reflect on his role in the war effort. He recalled in his letters that he remembered vaguely Colonel Tibbets, whose 509th Composite Group trained at Wendover during the winter of 1944-45, after learning he had gained fame by dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Otherwise, his only comments were that "it looks like I am going to be the only one who is going to be discharged twice from Wendover Field (once before, 29 November 1941)."" On October 14, 1945, Byron Dussler w^as sent to the separation center at Boise, Idaho, where he was mustered out of the army air force. This act alone improved his attitude toward the military, but it did not end his tour at Wendover Field. Three days later he returned to the Utah desert base as a civilian and continued his separation work. Master Sergeant Casey became Mr. Casey. His skills were too great to be lost, so the Second Air Force, his unit's parent command, approved his continuation until the rush of discharges followTng the war had been processed.^^ Dussler worked at Wendover throughout the winter of 1945-46, receiving high praise for his efforts. Finally, in March 1946 his work there ended. He wrote as an epilogue to a long career at Wendover: "As I pack to leave I think of the words of the mass I used to listen for: Ite. Missa est. Go. It is finished."^^ Byron Dussler's air force had been one filled with paperwork, bureaucracy, and internal politics. It was one that Dussler hated and one that he loved. When the war ended, however, he did not abandon government service. Instead, in 1946 he entered the permanent civil service and went to Japan as a civilian clerk with the United States Army of Occupation. In 1950 he returned to the United States and his home in Atwood, Illinois, where he continued in federal service two more years at an army signal depot. When a petrochemical complex opened a few miles from his home, Dussler left civil service and worked there until his retirement at age sixty-two. He still lives in Atwood.

"Ibid., September 3, 1945. 58Ibid., September 29, 1945; October 14, 1945; November 19, 1945. ^^Byron Dussler, "Ej)ilogue," March 1946, Wendover Files.

Housewives, Hussies, and Heroines, or the Women of Johnston's Army BY AUDREY M. GODFREY

near Fort Bridger in 1857, when bad weather and delays forced encampment, were three women — representative of many — Louisa Canby, Elizabeth Gumming, and Mrs. Marony. Louisa was the wife of Col. E.R.S. Canby, a career military man who would later establish Fort Bridger as an army post. Louisa had followed him on each tour of duty and A M O N G THOSE WINTERING WITH JOHNSTON'S ARMY

Mrs. Godfrey lives in Logan, Utah.

Stagecoach Inn, Camp Floyd State Park, was built in 1858 by the Carson family as a hotel near the military camp. Ca. 1960 photograph was taken before its restoration. USHS collections.

* it-MfSW »*•> m^,^^ lp|i»»,i

*--**4««to,^i«a4i^tt4^ ,dM,^^^^ ' - ^ l ^ i ^ i t

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would continue to do so throughout her life. Elizabeth, a civilian, was the wife of the new territorial governor Alfred Gumming who was being escorted by the army to his new office in Utah Territory. And Mrs. Marony, the wife of Sgt. Patrick Marony, would become a laundress and cook for Lt. Jesse Gove. All three women had left Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the previous July as part of the largest concentration of army troops in peacetime to quell the rebellion of the Mormons.^ Why had these women chosen life with the army rather than the comforts of nice homes and the settled life of a community? They were neither wanted nor encouraged to accompany husbands. Special permission from company commanders had to be given for them to be included in the expedition. And later women who chose to marry soldiers could only receive housing on the post through these same leaders. Army regulations, while not forbidding enlisted men to marry and include their wives in their tours of duty, made life difficult for those who did by not recognizing their wives' presence or by denying privileges unless the spouses became laundresses or cooks. Officers' wives, however, could travel with husbands if they chose to do so and received permission.^ Army life was not an experience to encourage this female entourage. T h e ladies would encounter cold, boredom, physical hardship, dust, and primitive living conditions. But on they came, joined by Indian women, prostitutes, actresses, servants, peddlers, barmaids, and girl friends during the years the army occupied Utah. Some would become, or already were, laundresses and cooks for the military. But they all had in common the love of, or service for, some member of Johnston's Army or the desire to make quick money. T o find out who some of these women were and why they came, and to reconstruct what life was like for them as they marched to and settled on the army post of Camp Floyd in Utah Territory, is a difficult task, for few personal writings have been found. Their story must rely, for the most part, on references to them in diaries and letters and some few citations in official records. Archaeological excavations at Camp Floyd have uncovered such things as perfume 'B. H. Roberts A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Century I, 6 vols. (Salt Eake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 4:453, quoting Horace Greeley who had visited Camp Floyd. ^Elizabeth B. Custer, Boots and Saddles; or. Life in Dakota with General Custer (New York: Harper and Row, 1885), p. 120; Patricia Y. Stallard, Glittering Misery: Dependents of the Indian Fighting Army (San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1978), p. 16.

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bottles and delicate buttons, definitely feminine articles, and more clues should come as the work progresses. Sutlers' records indicate the presence of women, although it is difficult to pinpoint a female population merely from soldiers' purchases. For instance, many yards of fabric of various kinds were bought, but they may have been purchased for polishing guns, shoes, and belt buckles, or for sewing by someone else's wife into male apparel, or as gifts to be sent back home. However, enough dress hoops, women's gloves and shoes, and other womanly articles were sold to suggest that there were many women at Camp Floyd. It is probable that few women came in the first group of forces. Elizabeth Gumming tells of saying good-bye at Salt Lake City to only four women she had traveled with, most likely Mrs. Canby, Mrs. William Burns, Mrs. Samuel S. Carroll, and possibly Mrs. E. B. Alexander, all officers' wives.^ T h e Utah Expedition comprised eight companies of the Tenth Infantry under Col. E. B. Alexander, two batteries of the Fourth Artillery, the Fifth Infantry, six companies of the Second Dragoons, volunteers, and various civil authorities. Col. Albert Sidney Johnston subsequently became the commander, and the force became known by his name. T h e government had amply provided for 8,000 persons for a period of twenty months. These provisions included rations for 200 women, most likely laundresses.^ Twenty-five hundred men were in the original group; if the ratio of one laundress to every nineteen and a half men was adhered to, there were roughly 120 women along in that capacity.^ Laundresses would not normally have been included among the "ladies" mentioned in writings of the time. T h a t term was reserved for officers' wives in most cases. Reveille was not later than dawn, with the march beginning two hours later. After marching one hour there would be a ten-minute rest and at each succeeding hour a pause of five minutes. Men of the battery walked every alternate hour, and all were expected to walk uphill or downhill.6 T h e women, undoubtedly, found places with their husbands' particular group. 'Ray Canning and Beverly Beeton, eds. The Genteel Gentile: Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857-1858 (Sah Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund, Marriott Library, University of Utah, 1977), p. 85n.lO. ^Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco, 1890), p. 528. \Stallard, Glittering Misery, pp. 58-59. ^General Orders of the Department of Utah lor 1857, 1858, and 1859, Special Collections, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo.

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Two women in labor were reported by an army surgeon during the march, "both primapara" or with their first child. In each case, the delivery occurred in a wagon en route, a novelty at that time in obstetric practice, according to the surgeon. T h e first labor was routine and the mother recovered rapidly, but the second was "remarkable for its duration, a period of sixty hours." T h e delay was attributed to a rigidity and narrowness of the pelvis, the age of the mother, and her excessive "nervous mobility."^ Strong feelings were expressed by some soldiers against the women who chose to accompany them. William Drown, a bugler in Company A of the Second Dragoons, found himself assigned to aid Lizzie Tyler, the wife of 1st Lt. Charles Tyler. As they neared the j u m p i n g off place for Utah on their way from Fort Riley, Drown recorded: A number of officers' ladies [are] along, and they expect the same attendance upon the march as they receive at home in quarters. Their tables, bed-clothes, chairs, and bedding must be exactly so. Knives, forks, spoons, cups and saucers, preserves, ladles and dishes are packed up every morning by the servants (while the companies are standing waiting in the hot sun). . . . There is one comfort, however, we have in going into a hostile country â&#x20AC;&#x201D; we are sure of leaving the silk and satin aristocracy behind.

He complained of the time needed to bring them wood and water and to pack and unpack their needs, ending with "God bless the ladies! I say, and keep them out of the way of the hostile savages; but as long as they travel with troops they must necessarily be attended to, as they cannot attend to themselves."^ Jesse Gove, captain of Company I of the Tenth Infantry, was equally apprehensive about the women in his company. In fact, he told 2d Lt. Samuel S. Carroll that if he brought his wife she would have to take care of herself as he needed Carroll's constant attendance to his duties. He warned Mrs. Carroll also that she must not expect her husband to be away from his company "to the neglect of his duty in a single instance." Mrs. Carroll stayed behind, joining the company again as they left Camp Scott. By journey's end, however, Gove paid tribute to her: "Mrs. Carroll I like very much. She takes the

'Richard H. Coo\\ds^v, Statistical Report on the Sicknessand Mortality in the Army of the United States (Washington, D.C:., 1860), p. 285. "Theodore F. Rodenbough, comp.. From Fi'erglade to Canon with the Second Dragoons (New York, 1875), pp. 206, 208.

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trip with a good deal of sense, and her little Katy is a picture of health and good nature."^ William Drown, too, while still begrudging somewhat the things he was asked to do for the ladies, found himself secretly pleased when Mrs. Tyler praised his excellent work in fixing her shoe. Hampered by the destruction of their supply wagons by the Mormons and the difficulty of advancing in the snow and cold, the expedition went into winter camp near Fort Bridger, naming their encampment Camp Scott after Gen. Winfield Scott. T h e camp was sheltered by bluffs that rose abruptly a few hundred yards' distance from the bed of a stream. One soldier, describing it shortly before it was abandoned, said, T h e view from the mesa, three miles from camp, was one of the most beautiful I ever saw. In front of and below us ran Black's Fork divided into five streams winding through a meadow half a mile wide. O n the largest island thus formed was the camp, a soldier city. Its streets and public square were regularly laid out and covered an area of fifty acres. In rear the stone wall of the old trading post, Bridger's Fort, above and below herds of cattle, horses and mules, with here and there a few lodges of Indians.10

T h e civilians of the expedition, including Elizabeth Cumming, were camped about a half-mile from the military and named their new town Eckelsville after the new chief justice of Utah Territory, D.R. Eckels. Housing was, for the most part, in a yet untried tent named after its inventor, Henry Hopkins Sibley, who was with the expedition. It resembled an Indian tepee with an iron tripod support. When the tent was closed a fire could be lighted beneath the tripods, a draught being created by a circular opening in the top. Some augmented this shelter by digging a depression the diameter of the tent's floor space and banking up dirt around the bottom of the tent on the outside. Others found a way to enclose a sod fireplace in the tent wall, though most were heated with sheet iron stoves. Floors were covered with animal skins, carpet, blankets, or canvas. Elizabeth Cumming lived in a "suite" of five tents filled with some furniture and was comfortable most of the time. On November ^Otis G . Hammond, ed.. The Utah Expedition, 1857-59 (Concord: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1928), p. 10. '"George P. Hammond, ed., Campaignsin the West, 1856-1861: Journal of Col. John Van Deusen Dubois (Tucson: Arizona Pioneer Historical Society, 1949), p. 67.

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15 she recorded that it was very cold and complained of not being able to wash for many days. But for the most part her accommodations were most certainly better than those of the wives of enlisted men. In his report on conditions at Camp Scott in December 1857, assistant surgeon Robert Bartholome said the tents were comfortable, but "It is hoped that the Quartermaster's Department, with its accustomed liberality, will, at an early date, authorize the issue of these tents [Sibley] to laundresses and servants of officers, as the health of these individuals is surely entitled to some consideration."^^ In December temperatures fell to twenty below zero. John Phelps, who kept a weather diary, recorded thermometer readings of nine degrees at sunrise to midnight readings of four degrees, while daytime temperatures were in the twenties and thirties for the most part. At times high winds made it feel even colder. Phelps also mentioned fog, which left a congealed shine on the trees, and nightly displays of the "Zodiacal light."^^ In this wintery setting the inhabitants of the tent city found ways of alleviating the dreariness. Timber was hauled by hand through the snow to construct pavilions with regimental flags flying above them where dances were held. A canvas theater became the setting for a Privates' Ball. And individuals visited and celebrated Christmas and New Year's in tents of acquaintances and friends. John Phelps reported having eggnog made from eggs laid by chickens brought on the expedition by an officer's w^ife. T h e Canbys, Burnses, Cummings, and others enjoyed wine together on Christmas day. Elizabeth Cumming noted, however, that there were infrequent visits between the women, "As ladies, of course, do not care to walk about in a camp, unattended, and as it interferes with a sociable impulse to seek a protector everytime one would visit, we see each other very little but send frequent and polite messages â&#x20AC;&#x201D; books, some treasure of a couple of turnips and such like."^^ As winter wore on these treasures would become even more important, for rations were cut because of shortages. Work oxen were killed and food was bought secretly from Mormon peddlers even though the army forbid it because of the disaster created when the army's supply train was destroyed by the Mormons earlier. Salt was especially missed. Brigham Young sent some but it was refused. "C:oolidge, Statistical Report, p. 298. ' T o h n Phelps Diary, tUah State Histc^rical Society Library, Salt Lake City. '^Canning and Beeton, Genteel Gentile, p. 28.

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Army

Elizabeth Cumming, wife of Territorial Gov. Alfred Cumming, was one of the genteel women accompanying Johnston's Army. Courtesy of Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah. Camp Scott, near Fort Bridger, where Johnston's Army wintered on its way to Utah. Photograph by David A. Burr, USHS collections.

However, some did not seem to suffer from these shortages. Lieutenant Gove enjoyed the talents of Mrs. Marony as she created delicacies from canned tongue and served salad, biscuits, butter, hot coffee, and milk toast. Her husband was able to transfer into Gove's company to enable her to work for the lietitenant. Her son Johnny often came with her, and Gove thought it refreshing to see a little

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child. Gove said of her, "Everyone in camp thinks . . . I have a prize. She is certainly one of the best women in the army."^"^ Indian women of the C u m u m b a h tribe living near Camp Scott were hired for other reasons. Money or clothing would buy their services. Several Indian women were reported as having contracted venereal disease as a result of their association with the soldiers.^^ But the army surgeon found the women to be models of industry. He said they were prolific and manifested as "much affection for their offspring as the most devoted of civilized mothers." He observed that they were more athletic and vigorous then the men of their tribe but were "far from approaching any elevated standard of beauty." One wonders what their views were of the army. Other women mentioned in journals or letters of those at Camp Scott were Mrs. Martin who was "as flat as a tailor's press board, both before and behind"; Mrs. William Burns and her daughter Mab; Mrs. Carroll and her daughter Katy; and Mrs. Charles Mogo. Mab Burns or Katy Carroll may have been the little girl remembered by Henrietta W. Wilson: One day when Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston's army came through [Ogden], one of the officer's wives spied the doll, [brought by an aunt from England] and persuaded Mrs. Wilson's mother to trade the doll for a piece of material to make her daughter a dress. This material was like the material with which we make our overalls at the present time.^^

In the latter part of October, Mrs. Mogo, who had been living in Salt Lake City with a child, desired to join her husband at Camp Scott. Charles Mogo, who had first come to Utah as a teamster, was later employed by the surveyor general and engaged in various business pursuits in the territory. An escort of four men brought Mrs. Mogo into camp, accompanied by a letter from Brigham Young, dated October 28, 1857, inviting any who wished to return to Salt Lake in the "conveyance" which had transported her. None accepted the invitation.^^ The Mormons made other suggestions relative to the camp women. Gen. Daniel H. Wells of the Mormon militia advised Colonel Alexander "that if he had ladies in the camp to put them in a 'TIammond, Utah Expedition, p. 157. '""Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:459. "'Henrietta Fmmett W^ilson, Pioneer Personal History, typescript. Special Collections, Merrill Library, titah State University, Logan. "Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:306.

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train by themselves, as he did not wish to injure them.^^ And the Deseret News oi October 14, 1857, included a poem by Eliza R. Snow from the ladies of Utah " T o the Ladies of the United States Camp in a Crusade against the 'Mormons'" which read in part. Why are you in these mountains, Expos'd to frosts and snows. Far from your shelt'ring houses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; From comfort and repose?'^

Its critical verses undoubtedly were contained in copies of the Salt Lake paper sent to Alexander "to enliven the monotonous routine of camp life" and were directed at Mrs. Canby and Mrs. Burns, according to Gove.^o Much could be written about Louisa Canby who was the epitome of the best of the military wives. T h e sutler at Fort Bridger, after Colonel Canby took command there, called her "the idol of the army." She was a cultured, educated woman who enjoyed a large library of books and magazines sent by friends. She had a brief illness during that first winter but withstood the rigors of the march admirably and rode horseback from Bridger to Camp Floyd, although she had had the comforts of an army ambulance before arriving at the winter encampment. She was known for her amiable personality and often entertained the officers, cooking them delicious meals and occasionally visiting their tents with her husband or a female companion. Her culinary skills were challenged at Camp Scott. She wrote home how gladly she had eaten wild garlic when it started under the snow early in the spring of 1858. She bought eggs at $1 a dozen and butter at $1.50 a pound and then distributed the food among the sick of the regiment. These special kindnesses were noted throughout her life by soldiers who served under her husband.21 During November 1857 Col. Randolph Marcy headed a rescue expedition to New Mexico to obtain supplies and draft animals for the army. His guide was a well-known mountaineer named T i m Goodale whose Indian wife, Jennie, underwent the hardships of the journey with him with "astonishing patience and fortitude." Jennie has been described as "a good-looking" woman "about 25 years old, 'sibid., 4:305. ^Weseret News, October 14, 1857. ^^Hammond, Utah Expedition, p. 81. 2'MaxL. Heyman, ]r.. Prudent Soldier: A Biography of Major General E. R. S. Canby, 1817-1873 (Glendale, Calif.: A r t h u r H . Clark C:o., 1959), pp. 109, 106, and various entries in Hammcjnd, Utah Expedition.

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who spoke good English and was neatly dressed and a clean housekeeper." She had a pet colt which was the first animal to be killed for food after the company became bogged down in snow. "She cried very bitterly when the colt was killed, as it had always been her pet; but she realized the necessity of the sacrifice, and was consoled" upon the promise of a replacement on arrival in New Mexico.22 The long winter finally ended, and the troops began the last phase of their journey to Utah in a June rain. Drown observed their difficulties: I really pitied the poor women of the Tenth, coming into camp on foot, wet as they could be, without a tent to put their heads in, and were then obliged to march all the way back; [across a bridge, as it was too wet and slippery to bring the wagons over to their camp] but, as I have said before, women have no business marching with a regiment."^^

It was at this point several women joined the force who had wintered at Camp Laramie, including, probably, Mrs. Carroll. If the women had looked back at their winter encampment they might have been impressed by the scene described a year later in the Atlantic Monthly: " . . . a few tents which remained unstruck glittering like bright dots on the wing of an insect. . . while stacks of turf chimneys, lodge poles, and rubbish marked the spots where the encampment had been abandoned."^^ And so they entered, finally, the abandoned city of Salt Lake, their arrival punctuated by the regimental bands.^^ The Tenth Regiment marched past Brigham Young's home with banners flying and drums beating. T h e Third Regimental Band halted in front of the home and played several national airs, then moved on to the home being occupied by Governor and Mrs. C u m m i n g where they were ordered to play " T h e Star Spangled Banner," which they did grudgingly as they felt the new governor was consorting with the The army ambulance was the conveyance most often used for officers' wives. A light spring wagon designed to transport the injured or ill, it had two long benches that could be made into bunks and was covered on the top and sides with canvas. The side co\erings could be rolled up and fastened to leave the interior open. Two carriage lainps were placed just abo\e and back of the driver's seat. It was jKdled by two or four mules and sometimes bore the letters tl S and or a large green Maltese cross. The museum at ÂĽon Bridger has a blue silk dress bodice that belonged to Louisa Canby. "Col. R. B. Marcy, Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1866), pp. 233-34; LeRov R. Hafen, ed.. The Mountain Menand the Fur Trade of the Far West, 10 vols. (Glendale. Clalif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 196.5-1972), 7:152. -'Rodenbough, From Everglade to Canon, p. 229. -^Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:444. " J o u r n a l History of theC:hurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, July 2, 1858, LDS Church Library-Archives, Salt Lake Catv; Henrv S. Hamilton, Reminiscences of a Veteran (Concord, N.H.: Republic Press Assn., 1897), p. 106.

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Mormons. The troops took a whole day to pass through the city. John Young, a nephew of the Mormon leader, was hiding in one of the houses and observed some of the officers uncover their heads as they marched through the deathlike silence. One of these was most likely Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke of the Second Dragoons, who had led the Mormon Battalion and had special feelings for the Mormons. Young said, " T o us western mountain boys, the solemnity of the march was oppressive, and glad relief came to our strained feelings when we saw the soldiers' campfires kindled on the other side of the Jordan."26 (The army spent their first evening in the valley camped on the flats beyond the Jordan River in the area of what is now Twenty-first South and Redwood Road.) Thirty miles away a broad valley of sagebrush surrounded the small town of Fairfield. Settled in the early 1850s by the Carson family, William Beardshall, and John Clegg, its few inhabitants were about to be invaded by Johnston's Army, not in a military sense, but by the loss of their quiet daily life. Some residents would move away as camp followers and rough elements set up saloons, hotels, and gambling houses in an area of the town three blocks long.^^ One soldier estimated that three million adobe bricks would be needed to construct the army quarters.^s There would be three to four hundred neatly built structures on streets r u n n i n g north and south. At the rear and parallel to the streets of the camp would be homes built for officers and staff. Behind them quarters for the bands, sutlers' stores, and huts of the camp followers would be scattered. There would be a theater, a social hall, and various other public buildings. By December 1858 the post was described as a large town . . . well laid out, with wide streets . . . , it is divided by a small stream from Fairfield, the population of both places must be over five thousand, in the limits of the Camp is only the Army and its employees but the population of the other side is composed of Saints, Gentiles Mountaineers Greasers, Loafers Thieves, Black Legs, Rumsellers Lager Beer Brewers and the Lord knows what else; every house is [a] Grog shop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or a Beer-shanty.^^ -'â&#x20AC;˘'"The Move South," Kate B. Ciarter, comp., Heart Throbs of the West, 12 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of tItah Pioneers, 1939-51), 10:256. ^ T m m a N. Huff, comp.. Memories That Live: A Centennial History of Utah County (Springville, tit.: Art Cily Publishing C;c)., 1947), p. 26. 28"Soldiering on the Frontier," letter of C. F. Ck)uld dated September 1858, in Annals of Wyoming 35 (April 1963): 83. 29"Charles A. Scott's Diarv of the lUah Expedition, 1857-1861," ed. Robert F. Stowersand lohn M. Ellis, Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (1960): 175-76.

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This grouping of colorful residents made up a wild, ramshackle area known as Frogtown, or Dobeytown. R. W. Jones recounted: Went to F"rogtown just over Cedar river and put up at the only Hotel, the mount vernon. Hard place. Frog town has a thousand or more inhabitants all gamblers or whore[s], houses adobe or holes dug in the ground covered over with cloth, or covered wagon bodies set on the ground, or some other fancy fixin. July 2 . . . In the evening I passed through Frog town, and saw women with their families living, some in holes in the ground covered over; Some in pens, made of sticks on end, and other sticks wove in as wicker work covered with tent cloth other in rock houses, hardly larger than play houses; and others in covered wagon-bodies, setting on the ground . . . such . . . is woman's love.^''

These terrible places in which the w^omen lived were not unusual to those who followed the military. Katherine Gibson, writing some years after the Utah period, said the women coped by holding "themselves above their environment." She felt that the privation and shared hardships drew army people closer "than many brothers and sisters." Husbands did not seem terribly sympathetic to their plight, telling them such things as, "You will have to learn to do as other army women doâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;cook in cans and such things, be inventive and learn to do with nothing.'"^^ Even when household goods were available the frequent moves and inadequate moving allowances and conveyances made it difficult to assemble and transport the items. So they did learn to do with nothing. Eve Alexander's table was made of wooden planks placed across saw horses, with a trunk for a chair, bed, ironing board, and bench. Other standard items were army blanket carpets and packing box bureaus covered with calico.^^ Patience Loader, who married a sergeant in Johnston's Army, John Rozsa, recalled her first home at Camp Floyd. One of John's lady friends had fixed up a room for them. When she took Patience to see it the first time she said, . . . this room has been prepared for you and we have made it as comfortable as we could. . . . she began to tell me that Mr. Rozsa got the table and two benches and bedstead made by the carpenter all of plain lumber no paint on them on a straw bed two pillows and Some good warm blankets then she Showed me my cupboard it was made of three boards nailed together three shelves with a curtain in front she slipt the 30R. W. Jones Diary, July 1-2, 1859, Utah State Historical Society Library. "C:uster, Boots and Saddles, pp. 3-5; Stallard, Glittering Misery, p. 12. '^Sandra L. Myres, "Romance and Reality on the .\merican Frontier: \'iews of Army Wives," Western Historical Quarterly 13 (1982): 419.

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curtain aside and Said see the contents of your cupboard this is all we could get there was six new tin plates two tin cups she said thees two cups and saucers a lady loaned to Mr. Rozsa as there was none in the store to buy as we thought you would feel bad to have to drink your tea out of a tin cup . . . there was one pound of allspice one of Cloves and one Cinnamon one of pepper and some salt coffee . . . tea . . . sugar there was no floor only a dirt floor a wagon cover served for a carpet in front of a blazing fire on the hearth a new bufalow robe was spread and a lovely large camp chair covered with red cloth was standing on the robe this was a preasant to me from Mr. John Kalapsery an Ungarian friend of My husband . . . and he also made me a present of a hue durham cow '^^

By the standards of most frontier posts Patience was very lucky to have friends provide so much comfort to welcome her. T h o u g h Cedar Valley was described as being pretty, surrounded by high mountains with snow on their crests year 'round, the soil was light, and the particular bane of the inhabitants as the population of people, animals, and wagons grew was the dry season which brought dust. Frequent and violent whirlwinds, sometimes six or seven at once in different directions, would rush through the camp. Then, according to Henry Hamilton, All hands would hasten into the houses and close the doors, for if we failed to do this, we would be almost strangled before it passed. Sometimes a washerwoman would not have time to get her clothes from the line, and in an instant all would be high up in the air, whirling around at enormous speed."^^

T h e wind typically began blowing at seven or eight in the morning and would continue until visibility was reduced to scarcely ten feet. About three in the afternoon it would begin to subside, leaving the nights calm and clear. Some dubbed the storms "Johnsoons" in honor of the post commander. One recruit complained if you put your foot down "in this adominable [sic] country it raises a cloud of dust." While another described a pillar of dust "a mile high" and within the camp limits no vegetation growing, only "dust, dust, dust." Probably many echoed Lafayette McLaws who said in April of 1859, "Dust Horribleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all hate the place."^^ '^Reminiscences of Patience Loader, pp. 104a, 105, 105a, typescript, Sjiecial C:ollections, Lee Library, BYU. 'TIamilton, Reminiscences, pp. 109-110. 'Tames Stewart, " T h e Cannoneer," Recollections of Service in the Army of the Potamac (Washington, D.C:., 1890), pp. 394-95; C:oolidge, Statistical Report, p. 301; Fhomas G. Alexander and Leonard'J. Arrington, "Clamp in the Sagebrush: Clamp Floyd, Utah, 1858-1861," Utah Historical Quarterly 34 (1966): 13; William Lee, Notes on a Journey across the Plains, Aprd 11, 1858, to October 1859, p. 19, tvpescript. Special CloUections, Merrill Library, USU; Jones Diary, July 2, 18.59; Lafayette McLaws Papers, April 27, 1859, Utah State Historical Society Library.

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Considering the uncivilized locale and the equally unsuitable living conditions, a great tribute is due to the women who followed army husbands to such outposts. Far from civilization, they sought to make life bearable. Social activities revolved around entertainment the post could provideâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;parties, dances, drama clubs, dinners, etc. The most popular entertainment, as far as written accounts reveal, was the theater. In 1858 Sgt. R. C. White organized a dramatic company among the soldiers and built a theater of pine boards and canvas. His scenery was painted with make-do items such as beet juice, mustard, and "other commissary delicacies."^^ His company became known as the Military Dramatic Association, and he recruited actresses from Brigham Young's Salt Lake Theater. The most interesting of these actresses was Mercy Tuckett who had accepted a two-year Mormon mission call to perform in the Bowery and later in the Social Hall in Salt Lake City. When Johnston's Army came her family was living in Spanish Fork. Her brother Phillip had organized a dramatic company in which she often acted, and she accompanied it on a tour to Camp Floyd where she was an instant success. Tributes described her musical voice, piquant style, and charm.^7 Mercy, w^ho had occasionally let her children perform, left her husband after the troupe disbanded and moved to Nevada with her two brothers and their families. She took the youngest child with her and left the two older ones with their father, who divorced her on the grounds of desertion. Mercy's move did not sever her army ties. Richard White went to California after his discharge, then joined Mercy's brothers' new troupe in Nevada, and two years later married Mercy. They had one child who died in Folsom, California. The Valley Tan, which reported Camp Floyd new s, followed the successes and failures of the desert theater. Mercy was joined on stage by Miss and Mrs. Whitlock, Mrs. Westwood, Mrs. Longee, Mrs. Kelting, Mrs. Lynde, and other talented thespians. Lucy Stevenson danced there during the fall of 1859, and the newspaper enthusiastically noted: "It is something in the desert to find a danseuse who possesses the advantage she does, and we hail her visit with pleasure."^^

'^H'alley Tan, November 12, 1858. "Ibid., December 2, 1858. 3ÂŤIbid., September 28, 1859.

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Camp Floyd, looking west toward the commanding general's quarters. J. H. Simpson expedition photograph, January 1859, National Archives.

In January 1859 two actresses, Mercy Tuckett and Mrs. Longee, refused to appear in any more dramatic productions on the post. It seems that the Military Dramatic Association wanted to present an anti-Mormon song that the actresses felt was very objectionable and "decidedly vulgar." A parody of "Root, Hog, or Die," it ridiculed the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and the current church president Brigham Young. T h e Valley Tan reported that although all were anti-Mormon, the association "had not enough tack [sic] to know the difference between principle and interest."^^ T h e furor was so intense that the theater was closed for a time. Nevertheless, the theater enjoyed success and served as entertainment for many. One evening Gen. and Mrs. M. S. Howe attended with "other ladies" and seventy-five laundresses of the Fifth and Seventh Infantries. William Lee thought it a "well gotten up affair." He described the drop curtain embellished by a representation of Camp Floyd with a regiment at dress parade saluting. He called the decorations "well designed, but badly executed" and thought that the orchestra was a very good string band. Another theatergoer took a

'sfbid., January 25, 1859.

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rather dim view of the whole thing, calling the plays "most vulgar and degrading" and those who attended them "motley."^o Other entertainment included an Ethiopian Opera Troupe, a circus (organized by the soldiers), a German singing club, a Masonic lodge (the first to be organized in Utah), a billiard hall, horse racing, parades, various classes such as nature study, Shoshone language instruction, and Bible study, lectures, and balls. Lectures were sponsored by the Temperance Society which numbered 250 to 300 members and which drew a large attendance every Sunday evening. Worship was held every Sunday in the theater by Capt. James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. Father Keller had a brief stint as a religious leader also and took occasion to record twenty-six baptisms and three marriages (another indication of female population)."^^ Balls were held in the Temperance Hall. The first one saw seventy ladies in attendance who "expressed themselves delighted with the order and decorum that prevailed." At another dance a week later, given by the Fifth Infantry, only nine ladies w ere present. So the men took turns polkaing and waltzing together when they couldn't have a feminine partner, "making believe one is a lady . . . in a rather dull way." John Wardell felt the greatest drawback of the dances was the "paucity of the fair sex, without whose presence nothing can be carried on with eclat."^^ In quiet dinners in various homes others obtained diversion. Charles A. Scott was highly entertained by his dinner companion, Mrs. Ogden, who discoursed on batter puddings and their creation. Yet, he found himself so awkward at the table that he "managed to upset a bottle of pickled beets staining the snow white table cloth with the crimson vinegar which could not have been more crimson than my face.'"^^ Diversion took many forms. On April 7, 1860, the excitement of the day was the arrival of the first mail from California by Pony Express. People stood on the w^alls of the fort looking southwest ^""The Utah War Journal of Albert Tracy, 1858-1860, " ed. J. Cecil Alter and Robert J. Dwyer, Utah Historical Quarterly 13 (1945): 76; Lee Notes, p. 28; Harold D. Langley, ed.. To Utah with the Dragoons; and Glimpses of Life in Arizona and California, 1858-1859 (Salt Lake Citv Universitv of Utah Press, 1974), p. 121. ' ^'"Charles A. Scott's Diary," p. 175; Jerome Stoflel, " T h e Hesitant Beginnings of the Claiholic C:hurc h in Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 36 (1968): 52, 52 n. 12. ^2John Bates Wardell to Col. Daniel Ruggles, December 14, 1859, Special Collections, Lee Library, BYU; "Utah War Journal," p. 79. ^'"C:harles A. Scott's Diary," p. 175.

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toward Five Mile Pass. A shout went up as a black speck appeared in the distance, rapidly enlarging as the rider drew closer.^^ Entertainment of another sort was available in Frogtown and other areas around the fort. William T h o m a s remembered a house of ill repute located just below the potato-vegetable pit of the camp, and there were dance hall and painted girls in saloons nearby. Another soldier called these establishments "hog ranches" and described the women as "the most wretched and lowest class of abandoned women." An eastern traveler said the women lived on the outskirts among the "Gentiles" as they were "too strong for the Saints."^^ Elizabeth Harris, though married, was one of these women. She had threatened once to kill her husband and was heard to call him "an Irish loafing s.o.b." Michael Mahon said she had once begged him to take her away from camp. Another time, while sitting on Mahon's lap in her home at Camp Floyd, she said she had given her husband twenty dollars to get him out of the house because she "expected her husky Pat Higgins that night.''^^ Richard Ackley remembered a pretty girl who took up with a fellow named Cloud "in very comfortable circumstances." She later went with another man to New Mexico where she became very common and was subsequently sold in the Plaza at Las Vegas for about forty dollars. Her parents frequently wrote her to come home but with no result."^^ One of the camp followers named Annie Lee used to frequent Mormon dances held in Fairfield. Her employment made it possible for her to have nicer clothes than those worn by the Mormon girls. This and her good looks made her attractive to the Mormon men, and she never lacked for dance partners. Jealous, the Mormon women banded together and took her out back one evening, took off her dress, and each in turn wore it for a dance. Finally, the woman was cast out. Because she had associated with the Mormons she was no longer desirable to her Frogtown companions. Later, she was " " F h e Establishment of C:amp Floyd, in Kate B. C:arter, td.. Our Pioneer Heritage, 20 vols. (Salt I ake C:itv: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958-77), 2:26. t^Garth N Jones, ed.. In the Shadow of the Tall Mountain (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young Universitv Press, 1979),pp. 119-20; Ckorge A. Forsyth, TheSlory of a Soldier (N,w York: I). Appleton 8c Co., 1909), pp. 140-41; Richard F. Burton, The City of the Saints; and Across the Rocky Mountains to Cah/ornzfl'(New York, 1862), p. 446. ÂŤW^ N. Davis, Jr., "Western Justice: FheC:ourt at Fort Bridger, Utah'Ferritory," Utah Historical Quar<er/v 23 (19.55): 11.5-17. n MO4M "Richard Thomas Ackley, "Across the Plains in 1858," Utah Historical Quarterly 9 (1941): 219-20.

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reportedly seen wandering the streets of Salt Lake City and finally made her way to San Francisco.''^ As a minority, among men who sometimes forgot their hard life in drink, women were sometimes molested by the ruffians of the troops. Court-martial records indicate several instances of rape and of entering women's quarters. Patience Rozsa, alone at home while her husband was away with his company, heard a man trying to break in. She went out another door and got a male friend to stay in the home until her husband returned. The intruder made several further attempts to enter the home. Later, Patience found he had a grudge against her husband for having punished him for bad behavior.^^ There was sadness, too. Ellen Foy, the daughter of a private at Camp Floyd, became engaged to Frank Mullins of the Fifth Infantry. Mullins, who was being transferred to New Mexico, endeavored to get the family to follow him. En route to New Mexico, Ellen changed her mind about marriage. As the couple sat in a tent together, Mullins drew a pistol and shot her through the neck and then shot himself through the heart. Both died instantly. Those who knew them were shocked, for Frank was considered "a fine specimen of a m a n " and Ellen an exceedingly nice girl who wâs much respected.ô The tragedy of Mountain Meadow revealed other women associated with the army such as Mrs. Black. The wife of an ordnance sergeant, she was given the assignment of accompanying the child survivors of the massacre and three children of a man who had died in Utah to Fort Leavenworth where relatives would meet them. Also attending the children would be four women from Salt Lake City, Ann Eliza Worley, Sally Squire, Hester Elvira Nash, and Elizabeth Mure.î One of the most appreciated groups of women w ith Johnston's Army, as with other troops, were the laundresses. Tributes abound in writings of army men as to their character and performance. Women were first allowed to accompany troops as laundresses in a ratio of four to each one hundred men. Over the years the ratio was changed "Cileaned from a Deseret News account (date unknown) by Kenneth W. Godfrey. "C:ourt-Martial Rec()rdsofC:amp Floyd, Special C;ollections, LeeLibrarv, BYU; Ck'neral Orders of the Department of Utah, December 31, 1859; Remini.scences of Patience Loader, pp. 108-12. ^"DaleF. Ciiese, ed.. My Life with the Army of the West: Memoirs of J. E. Farmer, 1858-1898 {SmUa l e : Stagecoach Press, 1967), pp. 29-30; De.seret News Weekly, October 17, 1860. ^'U.S., C;ongress, House, House Ex. Docs., vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 1193, 35th Clong., 2d sess., 1858-59; U S C:ongress, Senate, Forney to Major Whiting, June 28, 1858. pp. 63-69, in .SVna/f'tv Doc h 36th C o n e ' 1st sess., 1859-60. '

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to one for every nineteen and one-half men. Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke of the Second Dragoons noted that there were three or four with each of his companies. Under army regulations, "Laundresses were carried on the tables of organization, drew daily rations, were assigned quarters, furnished fuel and bedding straw, and accorded the medical services of the post surgeons."^2 These women were generally the wives of enlisted men and usually appointed by the captain of each company. Sometimes the appointment was not solicited nor appreciated. One day J o h n Rozsa came home and told Patience she was now the "acknowledged" company laundress and would be allowed government rations but would have to take her share of the wash every week and see it was properly done. Every Monday she would be brought her apportioned batch, and on Friday it would be picked up. Patience said, Why am I expected to do all that washing. I told him that I never had been used to do but very little washing in my life and was not able to work so hard. He told me that I did not have to do that washing that he would do that himself if we could not hire some women to come and wash for us but he told me that if there was any of the men Marr[i]ed in the company that was the rule for those Marr[i]ed folk to attend to the washing . . . and every Man Shall pay them one dollar pr Month for one dozen pieces and government furnishes all the soap.^=^

So every wash morning John got up at one or two o'clock to get the wash done by nine. After several months a woman was found who would do it for $2.50 per day, and later a woman boarded with them and received $20.00 to wash and iron two days a week and be free the other days to work for others. Later, when Patience's health improved, she helped with the ironing but never did wash. An account book records washing fees paid to laundresses as $4.50, $2.25, and $7.50. By comparison, fees of $22.50 for sawing wood, $14.00 for carpentering, and $13.25 for general work were paid to men. So women had the same problem then as now as far as receiving equal pay was concerned.^'' Payment of another sort was most probably appreciated, for the laundresses, as well as the women servants of officers' families, furnished the female element in the enlisted bachelor's social circle. "Rodenbough, From Everglade to Canon, p. 186; Rules and Regulations of the Army, 1813, American State Papers, Military Affairs V, 1:436. "Reminiscences of Patience Loader, pp. 106-7. 54Radford Account Book, January to June 1859, Utah State Historical Society Library.

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The women may have lived on "Soapsuds Row," but at a ball they were queens: "With their uniformed husband or lover on one arm and an infant or two in the other, the w^ashers would make an entrance exceeded only by their flamboyant dancing." And they were remembered. George A. Forsyth described them as being "ever ready for a fight" but "kind at heart if rough in manner, always ready to assist in times of distress. Often . . . the officers' wives would have found a hard life if they had not been at hand, and they were ever ready with a help that can not be paid for with money." He called them "honest, upright and most thoroughly reputable and respectable women in all relations of life." Albert Tracy made it a practice to send a bottle of wine to his two laundresses on his wedding anniversary. And Forsyth says they were the honored guests at dances, theatricals, and other entertainments. They also attended parties in the men's quarters, "for let it be known that no woman, old or young, beautiful or homely, has ever yet entered a garrison without having a wooer at her feet if her stay was reasonably l o n g . " " And what of the Mormon girls? Many men besides John Rozsa married local young ladies. Most of the men remained in Utah after their discharges, converting to their wives' religious faith and contributing to the communities in which they lived. These marriages came about in spite of the fact that Mormon leaders often preached against the soldiers and of the necessity of women arming themselves against them, and in spite of what the soldiers boasted they would do to the Mormon girls when they arrived in Utah and what they actually tried to do.^^ Several women from surrounding towns visited Camp Floyd, some to peddle pies and produce, some to purchase items at the sutler's store, and probably some to see the sights. One came to see her husband who was imprisoned there. Albert F. McDonald had been charged with murder, arson, and treason and was incarcerated at the camp. His twenty-eight-year-old wife Elizabeth visited him in June 1859. She first had to apply for a pass to Col. Pitcairn Morrison of the

''Tohn R. Sibbald, " CampY oWowcr % \\\," American West, Spring 1966, j). 66; Forsyth,.S'/cjry o/a Soldier, pp. 1 13, 134; "Utah War Journal of Albert Tracy," pp. 7, 67. 'â&#x20AC;˘"John R. Murdock, leader of a freight outfit bound for Salt Lake in 1857, reported hearing soldiers on their way to Utah brag of wintering sumptuously in Utah where the women "are thick as blackberries." Others expected Mormon women to j u m p into their arms when they arrived. One officer, while passing through Nephi, Utah, on duty, became the temporary guest of a prominent family and tried to obtain the services of the matron of the house with a large sum of money. See Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:250 n. 19, 458.

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Seventh Infantry in whose quarters her husband was being held. After her departure the colonel saw that Albert received library books, bed coverings, some boards to put under the straw he slept on, and a camp chair in which to sit. Elizabeth's visit brought results but was difficult for her. T h e following day she gave birth.^^^ During the short life of Camp Floyd many women crossed the prairies to join their husbands. Most of them were officers' wives. Travelers such as Richard Burton recorded visiting their camps as they made their journey. The wives of Lt. Gurden Chapin, Lt. James Dana, Capt. Gabriel Rene Paul, Lt. Augustus H. Plummer, and Peter Tyler Swain were among them. Then, with the outbreak of the Civil War, the occupation of Utah ended as troops were needed elsewhere. On April 20, 1860, the Deseret News reported: The weather here during the past few days has been quite pleasant, thus affording every facility for the advancing with the preparatory arrangements for the removal of the troops . . . . There is a general feeling of congratulations. . . . at the prospect of leaving, as they call it "this God-Forsaken country."

In May a number of companies left for New Mexico, and "a very large contingent of the camp followers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including women and gamblers that had infested Camp Floydâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;left with these detachments."^^ It would be some time before traces of the existence of this huge army would be erased. Some military property was sold at ridiculously low prices. The Salt Lake Theatre and the first cotton factory (built at Parowan) used materials from the post. Priscilla M. Evans, whose husband worked at Camp Floyd, was the recipient of a doorknob, a lock, and a stepstove that became "the wonder and admiration" of her neighbors. William Thomas said the day the army left he found "a big log house jammed full of carpets, rugs, and fine furniture" that the army wives had had to leave behind.^^ Household furnishings were not the only marks left by these gallant and brave ladies who endured what Martha Summerhays later described as "glittering misery." T h e days spent in sewing, reading, writing letters, reading letters, baking, and caring for husbands and children were not inconsequential. George D. Clyde, "Autobiography of Elizabeth Graham McDonald, LDS C:hurc h Library-Arc hives. ^^Roberts, Comprehensive History, 4:539. ^^Remembrances of Priscilla M. Evans, Utah State Historical Society Library; Jones, In the Shadow, p. 119.

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iiiiiiliiiiMiii|i!;

Gate into Camp Floyd cemetery near Fairfield, Utah, looking south. U.S. Army photograph by William P. Stephens, USHS collections.

former governor of Utah, in transmitting the deed for Carson's Inn at Fairfield to the state of Utah, suggested the 100-year old-building and land surrounding it (the area of Camp Floyd) were part of Utah's heritage. And an early writer suggested that women's presence in the frontier West was a mission of refinement second only to that of religion.^^ They also set an example of loyalty and love for husbands and lovers. One woman's explanation for enduring life with the army was, "I had cast my lot with a soldier, and where he was, was home to me." Patience Rozsa felt it was her duty to accompany her husband and expressed her willingness to follow him anywhere and share in whatever hardships he might experience. Some felt a need to provide comfort and cheerful surroundings for their soldier spouses. Perhaps, then, this loyalty was their greatest legacy.^^ But there is much more to learn from them. Unlike the soldiers they followed, "whose existence has been faithfully preserved in regimental histories and order books" and in reminiscences, the women of the frontier army may well be a "lost battalion."^2 Efforts to uncover and make known their lives have revealed them to be remarkable women. This account of their short existence in Utah Territory helps to create a more complete picture of the Utah Expedition.

â&#x20AC;˘iOMartha Summerhays, Vanished Arizona (C:hicago: Lakeside Press, 1939), p. 9; Isabella L. Bird, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (New York, 1890), p. 286. s'Sibbald, "C:amp Followers All," p. 56; Reminiscences of Patience Loader, p. 112. "^^Sibbald, "C:amp Followers All," p. 56.

Letters from Paris BY W I L L I A M C. S E I F R I T

artists in Paris during the 1880s and '90s changed Utah's artistic development for decades to follow is scarcely arguable. The knowledge, skills, approaches to

T H A T THE STUDIES ENGAGED IN BY U T A H

Dr. Seifrit is a historian in Salt Lake Caty. This article is part of a larger, unpublished manuscript. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Vern G. Swanson, direc tor of the Springville Museum of Art, in providing copies of the Hafen and Fairbanks letterscited herein, and the assistance of Will South, curator of the IJountiful-Davis Art Center, in providing copies of Harwood's unpublished letters.

Students and staff of the Academic Julian, 1890-91. John Hafen, from left in back row, and John B. Fairbanks, seated right with umbrella, have been identified by researchers. Courtesy of Vern Swanson.

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artistic production, and the entire Parisian experience enriched the artists individually and Utah's art history generally. Beginning with James T. Harwood's and Cyrus E. Dallin's study at the Academic Julian^ in 1888, and continuing in the 1890s with the arrival of John Hafen, John B. Fairbanks, John Willard Clawson, and Lorus Pratt, and still later by Edwin Evans and Herman H. Haag, these artists provided a cultural enrichment to the territory possibly unequaled before or since. The latter six of these eight artists were able to study in Paris in part because of a subsidy given by the Mormon church. T h e genesis of this unique financial arrangement will be examined later. The appeal of study in art centers away from Utah began as early as the 1870s when Lorus Pratt studied privately in England. Cyrus E. Dallin was studying sculpture in Boston in April 1880; Marie Gorlinski began a three-year course of study in painting in Europe in 1882; and during the winter of 1882-83 John W. Clawson attended the National Academy of Design in New^ York City and took honors for his work. By 1887 James T. Harwood had completed two courses of study in San Francisco's California School of Design.^ Other Utah artists dreamed of studying with the then acknowledged masters of drawing and painting. For example, in 1883 John Hafen wTote to his friend Harwood: I have a desire to go to San Francisco in preference to New York. T h e recommendations from reliable sources are overwhelmingly in favor of the former school at least for a landscape painter. Now James all that is left for me is to coax you to rig up and come with Lorus [Pratt] and I. About 3 or 4 hundred dollars will be all you need as you go west . . . I would so much like to have you with us and I cannot bear the idea otherwise. Education in our profession means independence, happiness, and usefulness.^

Within a few years Paris would become the dream destination for these artists. ' " T h e Academiejulian, where most of theUtahnsstudied, hadcome intobeing when theofficial sc hools had been overwhelmed by the influx of foreign students in the last decades of the [nineteenth] century. It was started as a business proposition by Julian, who provided a hall, mcxlels and paintercritics." James L. Haseltine, 100 Years of Utah Painting (Salt Lake C:ity: Salt Lake Art C;enter, 1965). 2Inter\iew with \'ern Ci. Swanson, December 17, 1985; "For Paris," Salt Lake Daily Herald, August 29, 1882, p. 8; Rell Ci. Francis, Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done (SpringxiUe, Ut.: Springville Museum of Art, 1976), p. 7; "Lcxal," De.seret Evening News, June 22, 1882, and May 21, 1883; "Cileanings,"Sa/< LakeEiiening Chronicle, Mav 25, 188.^; "Art Notes," Deseret EveningNews, October .SO, 1885, and October 26, 1886.^ 'Hafen to Harwood, September 17, 188.S. Hand-copied transcript from holograph in Harwood family scrapook. See author's note above. All spelling and punctuation in cited letters appear as written.

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Most of the Utah artists to study in Paris in the late 1880s and early '90s were active correspondents with family, friends, and sponsors. Scores—perhaps hundreds—of their letters are extant. Hafen and Fairbanks were probably the most prolific letter writers. Nearly every letter provides some insight into the experiences the Utahns were having. Prom comments on the prices of foodstuffs and housing to the intense interest in art shown by the French to the rigorously demanding requirements for entering some of the art schools to the self-revelatory estimates of their own artistic shortcomings and, occasionally, the small successes and advancements made by each—all reveal a broadening of personal horizons and a heightened artistic consciousness. Harwood had already established a reputation as an artist of merit when he decided to go to Paris for further study. He had exhibited some landscapes and still lifes at the Salt Lake Easel and shown other works in the second annual Utah Art Association exhibition. In an 1888 interview he announced his plan to go to Paris and then held a studio sale or auction to earn additional funds before his departure.^ Harwood described his initial reaction to Paris in a letter to Harriet Richards, whom he later married. He and some friends, including fellow art student Guy Rose of California, visited the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and a park: We leisiirely walked through beautiful walks with lovely trees, flowers and fountains, with beautiful statues placed artistically around. It seems like nothing is spared to make things perfect here. T h e buildings are more than I can describe and the streets are so clean that at night they reflect like a mirror.

He also described what may have been the stereotypic meal for art students: Instead of taking our supper at a restaurant Marvine proposed to have it in our room, so we l)ought a loaf of bread about a yard long—yes it was that if not more. Then some coffee, sugar, sardines, butter, cheese and something in a glass can which wasn't very good. And I tell you it was a jolly meal and there wasn't enough bread so [Guy] Rose and Pape went out for some, and got it all right—But they eat so much they were very restless at night.

But Harwood had gone to Paris to study art, and he told Harriet, ^"The Easel," Salt Lake Evening Chronicle, May 5, 188.S, and February 20, 1881: " T h e Art Show," Deseret EveningNews, May 29, 1884; "Utah Art," ibid., June 9, 1888.

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I feel so very ambitious sweet one—I feel as though I could exist ten times better than I could before I came. I am so anxious to get to work. I want to draw for a whole year before I paint and then paint hard for a whole year and I think I will accomplish something.^

By September 12 Harwood had been accepted into the Academic Julian. Admission to either the Julian or the Ecole des Beaux-Arts entitled a student to sketch from life from 8:00 A.M. until noon with a nude model from Monday through Saturday; afternoons, evenings, and Sundays were free. Some students elected to continue sketching weekday afternoons from models draped or in costumes, w^hile others chose to study and sketch art in the Luxembourg Palace or the Louvre. Still others, including Hafen and Fairbanks, occasionally went to the French countryside for sketching. During the winter as many as sixty students would crowd around a live model, easel to easel, in an unventilated studio. The tobacco smoke and ribald comments frequently disturbed the Utahns to the point that they left the atelier and sought artistic opportunities elsew here. Several weeks after his admission to the Academic Julian, Harwood met, quite by chance, Cyrus E. Dallin who had come to Paris a week or so after Harwood had arrived. They soon renewed their friendship. T h e two artists had shared an exhibition in Calder's music store in Salt Lake City some years earlier, an exhibition at which Dallin claimed that Harwood was the only one who sold anything.^ Eight months after their reacquaintance Dallin noted: "I see young Harwood quite often, and am glad to say he is making very good progress in his art, in fact he is doing remarkable well.""^ On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1868, Harwood and Rose celebrated at home with steaks and their own coffee: "Rose didn't know how to say grace, neither did I—but we both agreed that we felt just as thankful as the longest prayer made through the day would express. After the feast we had an hour fencing. . . ."^ Harwood continued at the Julian until the summer of 1889 when he prepared to take the examination for entry into the Ecole des " T h e auction of J. T. tiarwood'soil jjaintings, drawings and sketches will be held at 8 o'clock on Thursday evening, at 62 w.. Second Soutli Street. Fhere are 104 paintings, many of them of high merit, besides sketches, etching plates, art magazines, etc." Deseret Evening News, June 19, 1888. ''Harwood to Ric hards, .September 11, 1888. •^The exhibition referred to by Dallin was almost certainly the second annual Utah Art Association exhibit. See "Fragments," Deseret Evening News, May 24, 27, 1881, and note 4 above. '"A lUah Boy in Paris," Salt Lake Herald, May 28, 1889, p. 8. ^Harwocxl to Ric hards, November 28, 1888. Harwood had been titking fencing lessonsand was in turn instructing Rose.

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Beaux-Arts. His account of the three-week examination reveals the highly competitive nature of art study at that school: T h e examination is very hard. All are packed in one room and have to hold their work with the knees and one hand and draw with the other, the top of the sketch resting on an upright bar. After drawing the examination includes history, architecture, anatomy, perspective and modeling. T h e questions in history are given when all are placed, guards being stationed to prevent cheating, and the questions are taken from all the way between 2700 B.C. and 1889, A.D., soyoucan't very well look the matter over in the morning before. Then in architecture, when all are assigned to their places in boxes or stalls, the subject is given; this one was 'Christ at the foot of a Doric column in a chapel.' We had from eight a.m. till two p.m. to finish, hmch (which of course we had to pay for) being served to us like horses . . . . It is a very exciting affair. One feels like an ancient galley-slave with his guards over him.

T h e keen competition was heightened by the knowledge that every Frenchman who passed the examination would have two years' compulsory military service waived; for every foreign national like Harwood who passed, one French national would go into military service. Three to four hundred art students began the examination on June 24, and on July 17 when the results were posted, Harwood joyfully noted that he was the twenty-ninth of only seventy-five newly admitted students: I am now furnished by the French government with free schooling for two years, with professors in painting, anatomy, history and other branches who are equal to any in Europe. It is a very great honor to be a member of the Beaux Arts, for they have privileges which others do not. . . .

Harwood began to draw in earnest at the Beaux-Arts: My Prof., Benjamin Constant, told me one day that I had drawn long enough to go into painting. That pleased me very much, as I had wanted to start but felt a little timid about it. T h e next week we had a very interesting boy as a model and I went in for color with all my might. It brought very encouraging criticisms, and at the end of the week a fellow took a notion to it and bought my first painting.^

The criticisms referred to by Harwood were given twice weekly by visiting professors and were very harsh. T h e absence of a negative comment was regarded by the students as implicit praise: Criticism in a French studio is far different from that which one receives at home. T h e first idea of the French master seems to be to make the student fully realize that he knows absolutely nothing. That it is a ^"Utah Artists in Paris," Deseret Evening News, August 21, 1889.

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presumption on his part even to ask for a criticism . . . . Only such criticisms are made on three days of patient labor as "look at the model, you are working from imagination," "bad in movement." "bad in construction," "entirely too pretty," "look for the character," and the highest praise ever given is "not bad."'"

Matters were also progressing well for Cyrus Dallin. While still a student at the Julian he received a commission from an American dentist, Thomas W. Evans, to execute a memorial statue: I have a bronze model of an equestrian statue at the [Paris] exposition which I am to put up in the city of Paris. T h e subject is Lafayette, and is given to Paris by a rich American who lives here, and he has commissioned me to do the work, so you see that in one sense all goes well with me . . . I will be the only American who will have a statue in Paris."

So, the first two of what would later become a small band of "Utah boys" had arrived in Paris and achieved, each in his ow^n way, some degree of success. Harwood and Dallin went to Paris in the apparently true belief that they could obtain the best instruction there, even though both had received earlier formal training and enjoyed some public successes. Meanwhile, other motivation for Paris study had been moving to the surface of artistic and ecclesiastic thinking in Utah. Sometime in the late winter or early spring of 1890 Lorus Pratt and John Hafen discussed the idea with George Q. Cannon. On Marc:h 25 Hafen informed Cannon what a year's study in Paris would cost: "I have since investigated this matter and found that it cost Mr. J. T. Harwood of Lehi (who has taken a year's course in Paris) a little over [one] thousand dollars per year. This included fare both ways, board and lodging." Hafen gave credibility to his estimate by adding that Harwood "is economical and not addicted to any bad habits that I know of, that is, such as are expensive." At the heart of Hafen's plea for assistance from the church leader was his concern for the Salt Lake Temple: What are we going to do, biother Cannon, when one [our?] beautiful temple in Salt Lake City is ready to receive inside decorations? Who is there amongst all our people capable to do anything like near justice to artwork that should be executed therein? I must confess that it is impossible for me to see any other or more consistent course to pursue in this matter than to give two or three young men who possess talent to '"Henry Russell Wray, "Art Study in Paris," Salt Lake Herald, June 19, 1892, p. 13. " " A Utah Boy in Paris."

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John Hafen, left, and Cyrus E. Dallin, right, were among the first Utah artists to study in Paris. USHS collections. this direction, a chance to develope the same, in a way Bro. [Lorus] Pratt suggested in our conversation with you.

Hafen continued in this vein, expressing devotion to church and God and h u m b l i n g himself. He told Cannon that if it "should ever fall to my lot to receive assistance . . . and then return the same by decorating our beautiful temple or other necessary work . . . I would esteem it the highest honor and the crowning point of my ambition."^^ Hafen could not have been unaware that much temple painting and decorating had already been done; Danquart Weggeland had executed a "grand allegorical painting" for the Logan Temple and had also worked in the St. George Temple in 1881. In 1883 Weggeland and William Armitage did painting in the Logan Temple. William C. Morris did work in the Manti Temple in 1" i2Hafen to Cannon, March 25, 1890, Special Collections, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo.

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and Weggeland and C. C. A. Christensen produced murals there in the same period.^^ It is reasonable to conclude that Hafen was suggesting to the First Presidency that a new, fresher approach to mural painting for the temples was needed and that advanced training in Paris would provide him and other new-generation artists with the skills necessary to accomplish that purpose. Hafen introduced one of these new artists, J o h n B. Fairbanks, to Cannon in the following terms: . . . he is talented, earnest and industrious and above all is a devoted servant to the cause of God. Why I bring him to your notice, is, if I should be one of the honored ones selected to enjoy the privelages of an education and Bro. Fairbanks should be barred out, I should look upon it as a calamity . . . I would rather share one year with him and divide it between us, so that each could have a six month chance, than to leave him behind.

By April 25, 1890, Hafen, Pratt, and Fairbanks had determined that the three of them could study and work in Paris for a year for approximately $2,160. This sum was not to be divided equally; Hafen noted in his letter to Cannon that Pratt and Fairbanks thought they could support their families on their own, w^hereas he could not. Whatever specific financial arrangements were made, the important point remains that the First Presidency was willing to underwrite the cost of formal training for these three artists.^^ Hafen, Pratt, and Fairbanks found themselves in Liverpool on July 12, 1890. Hafen described the voyage to his wife Thora: I will tell you a little of ocean life. Second cabin bunks are in a little room about as long as our pantry and a little wider[;] in this space there are 4 bunks or beds large enough for a person each. These little rooms smell so strong because of dampness that it is very disagreeable. Breakfast at 7 A.M. Porage, beaf potatoes and bread. Dinner from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. Beaf rice potatoes, bread soup and some kind of pudding.

i^The Logan Temple painting was described in "Local," De.^ere/ Ei'eningNews, August 6, 1878: " T h e most imposing feature, however, in the ornamentation of the room, is the grand allegorical painting, on the wall, at the back of the speaker's stand, which reached from the settee to the lower edge of the cornice abcne. It is an illustration of the ancient fable of the Scythian king, inculcating the doctrine and necessity of union, in the minds of his two sons; one of whom has a bunclle of sticks, bound together in the attitude of vainly trying to break them over his knee, while his brother, with a similar bundle of sticks, takes them one by one, and readily shatters them into pieces. "tJnderneath the figures, in large, plain letters is the motto: t^nion is Strength. ' T l i i s fine piece of work, as well as the frescos on die ceiling is die product of the skill of our local artist, Mr. Dan Weggeland." See also "Talk," Deseret Evening News, August 29, 1881; Fragments," ibid., August 10 and October 11, 1883, January 5, 1884, and March 23, 1888; interview with Richard G. Oman, December 16, 1985; and Richard L. Jensenand Richard G. Oman, C. C. A. Christen.sen: Essays and Catalog (Salt Lake; City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1984), pp. 57-62. '<Hafen to Cannon, March 25, 1890, April 25, 1890, Lee Library, BYU.

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Supper could [cold?] meat and bread [;] with all meals there is coffee and tea. Everything is poorly cooked.'^

After about ten days in England in the care of Liverpool Mormons, touring museums and galleries and attending meetings with other Saints, Hafen and Fairbanks departed for Paris on July 24. On their first full day in Paris they received a happy visit and some disappointing news: Early this morning C. E. Dallin came to see us . . . . He located us in the art quarters, and now we begin to dive in at F'rench . . . . Friend Dallin will leave for Boston soon and Harwood is gone to Switzerland. Dallin told me that he, Harwood, would not return [to Paris] so we may be left to ourselves, excepting J. W. Clawson.^^

Hafen and Fairbanks lost little time in establishing their home base in Paris; they rented an apartment with bedrooms, a kitchen, and space suitable for use as a studio. Hafen also plunged right into art work: I expect to go out in the country about 20 miles with friend Dallin this coming week and stay a few days to sketch. I can send all the paintings [home] I want without duty by getting an order from the American Consul here; we can also be admitted to the Louvre to sketch statuary by getting an order from the same officer.^^

By August 1890 Hafen was deeply immersed in his art studies and adjusting to life in a foreign city. T h e little Utah band was reduced by one when Dallin left for Boston, but his departure offered an opportunity for the remaining artists: We bought all of his things for our use. He was very kind to us and saved us a great deal of trouble and expense. This evening we hired one of those French hand carts to haul the furniture from friend Dallin's. I got in the harness and Johnny [Fairbanks] and Lorus [Pratt] pushed. In the room with the furniture was a little painting of stillTife with the following words written on the bottom of it, " T o friend Hafen with regards from C. E. Dallin." He also gave me his portfolio and an anatomical cast of a man.

With this letter Hafen began sharing with his wife more details of what life was like in the Julian: Today I commenced to work from life. I will tell you how matters are conducted here. About every Monday morning men and women models come and show themselves with the object of being engaged . . . . This is '^Hafen to Hafen, July 12, 1890. See author's note above. "'Hafen to Hafen, July 22-25, 1890. Cllawson was accompanied in Paris by his family. "Hafen to Hafen, July 26, 1890.

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Pencil on paper drawing by John Hafen, 1891, of a domestic scene in "Chilleurs." Courtesy of the Springville Museum of Art. done by the man or woman entirely stripping off all their cloth[es] (one at a time of course) and get on the platform in full view of all the students, when the model will go through various posses after which a vote from the students will be called . . . . One model stands for the same pose every day in the week from 8 AM to 5 PM poseing 3/4 of an hour and resting one quarter of an hour alternately . . . . Of course, as might be expected the females are a very tough set generally and some of the students not a whit better . . . . I have acted continually in harmony with the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and . . . I can look upon and study those models without the slightest feelings of embarrasment.'^

Hafen was frequently torn by the demands upon his time: drawing at school, sketching in the suburbs, taking French lessons, receiving private tutoring, and finding moments to write home. During the early a u t u m n and winter of 1890 his artistic progress, with that of Fairbanks and Pratt, was mixed or irregular. He wrote on August 10: "It seems by what I hear that our drawing begins to draw some attentions and remarks inclined to be encouraging. Especially in my favor." Less than a week later he told Thora: '^Hafen to Hafen, August 8, 1890. A month and a half later, on September 26, Hafen was pleased to tell his wife that the model had an excellent figure, but, more important, "She would not allow any fooling with her."

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I have all and everything to learn in drawing; I know nothing at all. I know how I used to correct Herman [Haag?] in his drawings now the professors go for me here worse than I did for Herman. None of the Utah painters know how to draw the big toe of a foot. Even Willie Clawson is no where at all, he feels his nothingness just as much as I do. Johnny is steadily advancing[;] he works hard. I think he makes a decidedly better showing than Lorus. ^^

The artists became enamored of a small village, Auvers-sur-Oise, northeast of Paris. Hafen made frequent day trips to sketch and draw there. Fairbanks and Pratt were much elated over the place and want me to come and stay a week over there with them. I feel well satisfied in following my promptings. T h o u g h the course I pursue is different than my two companions, yet they begin to see the wisdom of it and are falling in line with me.

Of his own, nearly solitary experiences in Auvers, Hafen wrote: What makes me go to the village to sketch is because Mr. Brown an artist whom Dallin made me acquainted with is out there and he is a good painter and is kind to me so I learn from him . . . . I am sketching an old church, the architecture of which is eleven hundred years old. I am making mostly studies[;] none are salable pictures as yet. I am beginning anew as it were, a kind of experimenting, just as 1 have always wished to do.20

Hafen's trips into the countryside led to an event possibly familiar to present-day travelers abroad. He had been drawing in "Chilleurs" for a few days, sketching an old windmill on canvas, when two soldiers demanded to see some identification that Hafen was unwilling or unable to produce. By pantomime he persuaded the soldiers to allow him to collect his gear and walk back into the village. The trio attracted a large following: I soon noticed that all the men, women, children, cats, dogs, donkey etc., were out in the street. I suppose there was not more live stock left in the houses . .. the Mayor . . . was also out with the r e s t . . . one of the soldiers stepped up to him and held a short conversation . . . . T h e Mayor seemed to think there was nothing in the matter. However we got to my aunt's place, as soon as she noticed us through the window she came to my "rescue." She had a good laugh at the soldiers and they apoligised and made the most graceful bow to me I ever had the honor of catching. Well, boys by the star spangled banner if they didn't take me for a Prussian spy!!^'

'9Hafen to Hafen, August 10, 15, 1890. 2''Hafen to Hafen, August 31, 1890. 2'Hafen to J. B. Fairbanks, October 29, 1890. "Chilleurs" cannot be identified on present-day maps of France.

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Although Hafen, Fairbanks, and Pratt (and possibly Clawson) were dependent upon each other for emotional, psychological, and spiritual support, matters did not always run smoothly, according to Hafen: Both Johnny and I have had a rather hard time to get along with Lorus. By the time we were on the ocean I began to realize that it was no use to argue with Lorus . . . . But Johnny not being so well acquainted with him . . . would often . . . get into a dispute with him. You know how good natured Johnny goes at it . . . . Johnny got into a dispute with him one morning about a principle of perspective . . . my opinion was asked and I gave it, but that didn't stop it. So matters rested . .. Johnny going to school. Lorus and I [went] to the Louvre On our way there Lorus brought up the subject and I tried to convince him of the folley in thus wasting time. He blamed Johnny saying that his position was false and he was going to stick up for the truth. I . . . landed on him with rather straight l a n g u a g e . . . and a short quarrel followed. We both felt ashamed . . . he asked my forgiveness and I forgave him on condition that he would never engage in disputes any more on any subject. All has been peace ever since.22

Edwin Evans arrived in Paris during December 1890 and shortly after entering the Academic Julian described his experiences to Danquart Weggeland. Evans had been suitably impressed by the art he saw^ in galleries in New York, London, and elswhere in England, but he claimed to have been stricken dumb by what he saw in the Luxembourg Palace and the Louvre: "This is the first place that I have struck that I have not passed some remarks or criticism; but these paintings are so far beyond expectation that I could only stand viewing them in blank amazement." Evans had quickly caught the spirit of art prevailing in Paris during the 1890s: T h e public gardens are filled with sculpture, and in the public buildings also, in every design of architecture, sculpture has its share. Everybody takes a great interest in art. The air is full of it, and show windows are lined with it. Passers-by will stop and examine small illustrations that are hanging out on the sidewalk that our people would think nothing of if placed in show windows over there; but such is their love for it.

Evans's routine including drawing at the Julian six days a week; studying anatomy, French, and history in the evenings; and spending much of Sunday with the other Utah artists, holding "Sunday school in the morning and meeting in the afternoon, in which Brother 22Hafen to Hafen, September 6, 1890.

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Clawson and his family join with the four of us . . . enjoying the benefits granted through our most holy faith." Describing for Weggeland the varying skills of his classmates, Evans was pleased to note: "There is one thing sure in my caseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I have not learned anything that will have to be undone, as some say they have, and they all say the best for a beginner to do is to come here."^^ By 1890 recognition began coming to some of the Utahns: . . . Mr. Clawson was warmly complimented by one of the foremost students in the school . . . and at a late weekly exhibition, on which occasion each of the several hundred students presumed to make a picture in oil of a given subject... Mr. Clawson's painting was given the post of honor, being marked No. l.^^

This was no isolated incident. In early 1891 Hafen told his wife that "Bro. Pratt has succeeded in making a drawing last week good enough to take into the concour[s]. Johnny and Edwin say it was an excellent drawing." He then explained what the concours was and by implication how important it was to have one's drawings so noticed: A concour[s] consists of the best drawings selected each week out of the school until one month is up; then, judges decide which out of those is No. 1 and No. 2 etc., generally numbering 8 or 6. T h e balance are not numbered but put on exhibition which takes place once a month.

Pratt's initial success was so important to the Mormons that they celebrated wildly: "Last night Lorus treated us to an oyster supper in honor of his last weeks success. We ate 7 dozen raw oysters between us four and some raisons and nuts."^^ A charming exchange of correspondence occurred when J. Leo Fairbanks apologized to his father for not having written sooner. T h e delay was caused by the eleven-ycar-old's effort to compete for prizes in an art competition sponsored by the Juvenile Instructor. Leo copied the published review of his entry and sent it to his father: We received from Leo Fairbanks of Payson, a drawing of a horse and dog, which show that he is a real artist, although only eleven years old. We shall publish his picture in a future issue, and give our readers an idea of what excellent artists we have among our young folks.2*^

" " Y o u n g Utah in Paris," Deseret Eiiening News, December 22, 1890. 2i"Local," Salt Lake Herald, December 27, 1890, p.8. "Hafen to Hafen, January 25, 1891. 26J. Leo F'airbanks, January 13, 1891. See aho Juvenile Instructor, December 15, 1890, p. 778; a woodcut of Leo's drawing was published in the //, January 18, 1891, p. 68. Leo's mother later reported that her son wept over the poor representation ol hisdrawing made by the engraver. See Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, February 8, 1891. See author's note above.

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The response was typically loving, instructive, and proud: My Dear Son Leo, With pleasur I excuse you for not writing when you have been engaged in such a good cause. I was more than pleased to hear from you and of the success you have had in your drawing. You must not forget to draw with squares and angles and you will meet with better success than if you draw the forms round at first. I am glad that Bro. Cannon is taking the course he is in encouraging young artists. I hope you will do your best and get some more of your work in besides getting the prize . . . . I read your letter to some of the students [and] they think you are getting at it early and are sure to succeed if you stick to it.^^

J. B. Fairbanks was probably the first, and perhaps the only, one of the LJtah artists to witness a demonstration of photo-locomotion in Paris when he attended an evening at the American Club rather than the Julian Ball at which latter event the presence of "the demasmonds" (demi-monde) had been assured. I attended a lecture at the American club last night, One of the finest things I ever saw and heard . .. there were magic lantern illustrations of horses, oxen dogs, cats, elephants cammels, monkeys, men, women, babies, ect, all showing the different positions when walking, troting, pacing, running, ect, then he had a kind of machine which puts them in motion, every motion wasgixen just as natural as life its self. He showed the difference of the true position and the false (which is often given in pictures.)2s

Utah's Parisian art community members, each struggling with his own difficulties, must have had their outlook brightened by George Q. Cannon's letter of March 7 in which he stated, "We have decided to send you $500., which we direct to Brother Pratt, to be used for the benefit of you all, and we shall remit more in a short time."^^ Even with their ever-present financial difficulties eased, the work proceeded slowly, especially for Fairbanks. "My criticism this morning was as favorable as any I have had I think, but I realize that I have much to learn yet before accomplishing what I desire. I still hope to get a drawing upon the wall." Possibly Hafen and certainly Pratt had each sent in a painting to be juried for the Salon, and Fairbanks expressed hope that they would be accepted.^Â° Meanwhile, John Hafen was experiencing his own angst: ^'J. B. Fairbanks to J. Leo Fairbanks, February 2, 1891. 28J. B. Fairbanks to Ijllie Fairbanks, February 13, 1891. 29Cannon to John Hafen, March 7, 1891. 30J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, March 21, 1891.

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In regard to my intended Salon painting I can not say anymore than last time, I wrote, unless it is to say that I don't understand how it is going to end now that the time is so near at hand it looks impossible to finish in time. But I can not go in trusting the God who overrules all things for our best good . . . . Every day this week I worked at it all day until this afternoon when I quit as there was nothing in me.^'.

T h e struggle of the artists to have drawings selected for the concours, much less the Salon, occupied them throughout the spring of 1891. Fairbanks was especially torn between the need to have his work favorably noticed and maintaining a humble spirit: . . . J. H's drawing has been chosen for the concore I am very pleased to state. That is two out of our number. Now if the Lord will help me I will be pleased. I am pleased any way but it will please me more. T h e boys all thought my last weeks drawing would go in but I am not good enough yet for that, it appears, but if I can get in in the next two weeks I will be satisfied. No I will not for I want one of mine to get on the wall, if it is the will of God, but if it is not his will then I desire not to get one on the wall.^^

The Utahns generally praised each other's work; and from time to time each would acknowledge some improvement or progress in one or more of the others. When such progress was noticed by an artist outside the Utah group, it was truly something to write home about: "Last week Mr. Woodberry an artist from Boston told me that one of the best artists in school said it was marvelous [the way] those mormons were improving, when they came they could not draw at all but now thay are going right along."^^ Clawson, Hafen, Evans, and Pratt had drawings chosen for the concours; that left only Fairbanks without a work chosen that year. Fairbanks tried to conceal and then rationalize his disappointment: . . . I think if others win prizes why not I, but when I consider where I started I feel that I have no reason to be discouraged and yet at times in spite of myself I can not but feel a little peculiar to think I am the only one from Utah who has failed to get a drawing in the concour[s]. Still I could not help it[.] I did my best, it is not because they have studdied harder than I for I have studdied as hard as I could. Well I will lett this matter rest now . . . .^^

He was not the only one keenly disappointed at his failure to have a sketch chosen for the concours. When Lillie received his letter 3iHafen to Hafen, March 14, 1891. 32J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, April 2, 1891. 33J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, April 12, 1891. ^^J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, April 27, 1891.

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she responded: "I was washing. I felt so bad that my tears mingled with the suds. O, I felt so bad. You spoke of the good news, of all the others being chosen, it was not very good news for me."^^ Meanwhile, Hafen had returned to Auvers for sketching and sightseeing and had written off his Salon effort: " T h e painting I worked on for the Salon looks silly to me now . . . . T h u s it goes . . . .^^ Hafen had decided to go to Switzerland during the summer recess and asked Fairbanks to accompany him; the latter agonized over the prospect. He complained to his wife about the expense of such a venture and what a prolonged absence from Paris might do to his progress. She replied: "You may never have the chance again, and when you are so near . . . I would like you to see Switzerland, and get sketches, you will not be losing your drawing . . . . She also advised him that Herman Haag was going to join them in Paris and that his studies were paid for, in part, by his brothers to the amount of some nine hundred dollars.^^ In late May 1891 Fairbanks was still attempting to determine his artistic future. T h e failure to place a drawing in the concours weighed heavily upon him, but, as he told his wife: " . . . I have no reason to be discouraged. I have been blessed. I have improved. Bros. Pratt and Hafen have each been working at art many years. Bro. Evans is a gifted young man and especially in drawing I think."^^ On May 26, 1891, Hafen advised Cannon that he thought he was ready to return to Utah to begin an art career. He proposed traveling through Switzerland before sailing for America, and asked for additional money: I will need three hundred dollars more, means to carry me through, which (with my share of the 500 which was sent us lately . . .) will make $466 . . . I have greater expenses in the course of study I pursue than my brethren. They use only charcoal and paper (they only draw in school). I use paints, canvases, stretchers and moddles, etc., which is more expensive than the former. I have only about 12 francs left so I will borrow from my brethren until some can be sent me.^^

Fairbanks resumed sketching at "Chilleurs" where he met a Mr. Schultz who gave him criticisms while they both sketched. The tone of Fairbanks's letters became markedly more relaxed the longer he "Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, May 10, 1891. 36Hafen to Hafen, April 17, 1891. "Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, May 20, 1891. 38J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, May 27, 1891. 39Hafen to Cannon, May 26, 1891.

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Oil painting by John Hafen of his mother's home in Switzerland, 1891. Courtesy of the Springville Museum of Art.

stayed at "Chilleurs." He was relieved to be away from Paris and the "corruption that there is in school."^Â° Hafen stayed with Fairbanks and Schultz for a few weeks, and the trio had an apparently productive and enjoyable time together. They did attract some attention, however: Last night after supper we were still talking . . . at the table when one of the girls of the Hotel who was standing on the out side asked me to open the window. I did so and there were four other young women standing there. They wanted me to sing, after a while I sang Johnny smoker. It tickled them very much. We have an engagement to sing again tonight.

On another occasion two young French boys followed Fairbanks and Hafen out for a day's sketching: "They just wanted to hear us talk." A few days later, on a rainy evening, the three artists went walking: We took an umbrella, J H and I took our sketching umbrellas. They are made of buff cloth and are about twise as large as an ordinary one. We could see heads at every door and nearly every window. T h e people seemed very much amused. When we got outside the village we started to run a race. J. H. wooden shoes came off and he stepped in the mud with his socks. In a few more steps Mr. Schultz's came off also.'"

Shortly thereafter Hafen returned to Paris to prepare to go to Switzerland. Fairbanks had decided against joining him. In Paris, Hafen met J. T. Harwood, his fiance, and her family, and savored loj. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, May 29, 1891. 41J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, June 7, 14, 1891.

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J. T. Harwood and his wife in their Paris apartment admire fowl that "posed" for the artist and was later cooked and eaten by the couple. Courtesy of Will South.

Harwood's comments about his (Hafen's) painting: "I find out through James that I am in the same box as he is in style of painting. He expressed his pleasure at the complete change that has come over me in my style of work and assured me that I would be astonished at the difference when I got home.'"'^ In a belated response to Hafen's letter of May 26 to the First Presidency, Cannon wrote to him in Bern: Please find enclosed a check for $300., the amount which you have desired to enable you to settle up your affairs and to return home. . . . [We hope] that you will find that the advantages which you have had through your residence in Paris will prove of great value to you in your future artistic career.^'^

His return to Utah was duly noticed in the press: Mr. Hafen returns well pleased with what he has accomplished in his studies in Paris. While there he was under the tutelage of several of the greatest painters, among them Ben Constant and Jules Lefevre, who "Hafen to Hafen, June 17, 1891. " C a n n o n to Hafen, July 11, 1891.

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received Mr. Hafen and his two student companions from Utah, Mr. Lorus Pratt and Mr. J. B. Fairbanks, cordially and dismissed them with words of highest commendation and encouragement.^^

Hafen's study abroad was the briefest of all those who went to Paris from Utah, and there would be hints later that he regretted his early departure. However, his presence in Utah afforded him the opportunity of working with the First Presidency and the architects on plans for the general decoration of the Salt Lake Temple and the special requirements for certain ceremonial rooms. Meanwhile, the artistic environment in Paris had changed markedly. Fairbanks told his wife: "Bro. Evans and I talked till 12.30 o'clock. It seems quite lonesome now [with] J. H. gone. Bros. Pratt & Haag have moved nearer the school so Bro. Evans and I are here alone." Fairbanks also had his decision not to accompany Hafen to Switzerland validated: "I got a letter from John. He said don't come to Switzerland to sketch, there is nothing here, our own mountain homes are better than this country [I].'"'^ Fairbanks spent the bulk of the summer sketching and drawing in and around "Chilleurs"; this was probably the happiest time of his entire French experience and the most productive as well: I consider that my time spent has been very profitably spent and I will be well prepared for another winter of hard work in school. I think I have learned more here than I could have done in school for I have been out studying nature, and I have had my professor [Schultz] with me all the time . . . . I think I have helped him, in getting out, to work. He says it has been the most profittable summer he has ever spent in s k e t c h i n g . . . . I should think in all I have made 125 or 130 [sketches].'*^

Some of the most remarkable correspondence deriving from the experience of Utah artists in Paris came from Lillie Fairbanks. For example, when she happened upon John Hafen shortly after his return to Utah, she told her husband about her reaction: We met in the foto gallery. I tell you I felt that I came near to you, when receiving [your] letter,, and then seeing John. He dont look as well with his beard, as he does with out it. Well John you will want to know how I felt, well I was glad that it was not you, and that you have concluded to stay longer, that sounds funny for a wife to talk like that, but if we start out to do any thing what is the use of stopping when half done. If there is any honor or credit atached I think I knead some of it . . . . " O n e of Our Artists," Deseret EveningNews, August 28, 1891, p. 8. ÂŤJ. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, July 5, 19, 1891. â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘fij. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, August 23, 1891.

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She went on to advise Fairbanks that several months earlier she had had a quarrel with his mother about his going to Paris initially and about staying longer than first planned. While encouraging him to stay until he felt satisfied that he could be a successful artist, she poignantly voiced her own emptiness: Well I have had to live alone a good deal. I hope the time is not far distant when I can live with you, and have a companion to share my Joys and sorrow, I don't like to live a lone any better than any one else. I don't apercerate being my own boss. I am afraid I will get so used to it, that, I will be trying to boss you, but I guess you will be willing to come and wont be afraid of me.^^

In September Fairbanks reiterated his commitment to staying as long as he could and learning as much as he could. He also suggested that John Hafen may have erred in returning when he did: . . . he would like to have stayed but he felt that he could not afford to stay. I feel that I cant afford to go home. Yes Lillie I think John is missing it very much. I dont know^ whether he thinks so or not. Talk about being advanced in art why Lillie the very best of us has barely got started. Even Willie Clawson feels as though he knew nothing. I have no doubt that Harwood advised Hagg to come to Paris and it is the best time for him to come while we are here but he is not so far advanced but what Harwood could take him much farther. Herman does some . . . good drawing, but nothing extra.

Fairbanks went on in that vein and then made one of the most perceptive and revealing statements in all his letters: "I find that I have come to begin the study of Art and not to finish it. I do not expect to finish my study of art on this earth."^^ Interest in the progress of the five "church artists" still in Paris remained keen in the minds of church leaders. T h e artists had applied for additional funds, and the matter was presented to the Quorum of the Twelve: We then considered the situation of the young men (Lorus Pratt, John Fairbanks, Herman Haag, E. Evans and Willard Clawson) who are studying art in Paris, France, and need some assistance if they remain to complete their course. It was voted to send them $500 to assist them in their labors and studies.''^

The artists did not always write home just for money. In September 1891 they had at first asked permission to enter works in "Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, August 31, 1891. ''^J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, September 3, 1891. "â&#x20AC;˘^Abraham H. C^annon Journal, September 10, 1891, photocopy of holograph, Utah State Historical Society Library, Salt Lake City.

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the upcoming Utah Territorial Fair and then withdrew their request because of anticipated delays in clearing customs.^^ By late December Fairbanks had begun making tentative plans to return to Utah the following summer. Although he could not have been fully aware of it, his decision was a timely one. T h e Mormon church may have been beginning to feel the early symptoms of what would become a worldwide economic depression by 1893. In January 1892 Fairbanks and the other artists were down almost to their last dollar: "When the money came we had about $1.00 each, I dont know what we would have done if it had not come when it did."^^ Money was a concern at home as well. Fairbanks advised Lillie: "I have written to bro Cannon for $30.00 per month while I stay for you. So if I stay you will be provided for and if you are not provided for I will return." Lillie was not willing to be dependent on largesse from the church; she had been living cheaply and supporting herself, in part, by making and selling corsets: John you say you will write to Canon, well I dont think you had better write to him, for I think I can live along all right until fall . . . . I have $50.00 on hand. I sold $150.00 worth of corsets. I made from 75C to 1.95 on each. I had to pay freight and of cores I sold more of the ones that I made 75C on . . . .

Lillie's faith in and support of her husband were indeed remarkable. Her letter continues: I have not got all my hay in yet but I think I will be all right. I think I will canvass [solicit orders for her homemade corsets] a little this summer and by . . . saving I can get along all right. I would rather you had that extra pay, from Cannon, than me. I would rather you had it, to complete you in your studies. I would like you to stay the summer, if it is any benefit to us both . . . but no longer than fall can I consent to.^^

However, a few weeks later she reconsidered matters: John I feel different . . . than I did in my last letter, about the money affair, for if they [the F'irst Presidency] can furnish Evans and wife, with means, and Prat and wife, and Herman [Haag], then I think I am as worthy as they. We have more children, more in [the] family than eny of them, then have to do with less, and be so saving, and scheam, and work, and who thinks eny more of me, or you, for it. . . .^^ ^â&#x20AC;˘'"The Approaching Fair," Deseret Evening News, September 21, 1891, p. 5; "Territorial Fair News," ibid., .September 24, 1891, p. 5. " J . B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, December 20, 1891, January 27, 1892. ^2J. B. Fairbanks to I^illie Fairbanks, P>bruarv 6, 14, 1892; Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, February 23, 1892. "Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, March 20, 1892.

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Lillie was indeed a strong woman; without her emotional support, her honesty in the expression of her feelings, and her unexceptioned faith in her husband, one might doubt that Fairbanks could have stayed in Paris for more than a year. Lillie frequently urged her husband to invest in a camera, a "codac," to photograph scenes he enjoyed or that were artistically inspirational. She also, naturally enough, wanted visual souvenirs of scenes he had described to her. Then, a much more practical motive appeared when she suggested that he "take views of the . . . friscoe paintings" and other decoration inside buildings, "for that is what will be required of you, and what you was sent for . . . ."^^ Fairbanks would soon learn that her advice was most timely. In a letter telling Lillie of Harwood's success in being the first Utah artist to have a painting accepted for the Salon, he went on to note: I got a letter from John Hafen saying that the temple would soon be ready for the painters [and] that he was going there soon to make arrangements to begin work. T o think of us doing work in the temple has given all of us the blues to some extent. We feel so incompetent the longer we stay the more we feel that way.^^

These feelings of inadequacy must have been heightened by news from Hafen and George Q. Cannon. Fairbanks reported: We received a letter last week from John Hafen asking us to send in some sketches, for the temple decorations, one Subject the Garden of Eadin the other the lone and dreary world. T h e one who sends in the best sketch will be given the contract to do the work with the privilege of inviting his brethren to help. We also received one a short time since from the First Presidency, stating that they would like to have those of us who feel qualified to come home and work this fall and winter in the temple . . . .^^

The letter from the First Presidency advised the artists (Clawson, Pratt, Fairbanks, Evans, and Haag) that John Hafen would be given some works to do immediately, "but [we] shall reserve other important rooms until we hear from you concerning your intentions, whether you intend to remain longer than next fall or to return at that time."^^ T h e message to the artists was clear: the Salt Lake Temple was to be dedicated in April of the following year, and the ceremonial rooms would have to be ready. "Lillie Fairbanks to J. B. Fairbanks, April 12, 1892. " J . B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, April 17, 1892. 56J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, May 1 1, 1892. ^'First Presidency to J. W. Clawson, etal., April 18, 1892, Special C^ollections, Lee Library, BYU.

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FROM^ HAJJ v^0jD '. I t i l l H ^ I S

Painting by John B. Fairbanks in the collections of the LDS Church Museum was made by the artist after his return from Paris.

Fairbanks and presumably the other artists who were to work in the temple began preparing themselves for the project. Plans and specifications of the ceremonial rooms were sent to Paris, and Fairbanks reduced the time he spent at the Julian and devoted more time to sketching landscapesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;frequently in the company of an artist named Rigelot. On July 27, 1892, Fairbanks wrote his last letter from Paris, advising his wife of his plans to travel to a few cities in France and England, to spend a little time in New York and two days in Chicago, and then to be off to Utah.^^ Of the other artists, Harwood, Pratt, Clawson, and Haag all returned to Utah during the summer of 1892. Haag had requested and been sent additional funds in two installments, "owing to the stringency of the church finances." Edwin Evans received an additional $350 at the direction of the First Presidency in September 1892. T h a t sum was probably used by him to reach a suitable stopping point in his studies and to provide means for returning to Utah. By December 1892 he was established in a studio in Lehi, Utah.59 What identifiable results came from the expenditure of time, money, and effort by the eight artists and their several sponsors and

58J. B. Fairbanks to Lillie Fairbanks, May 23, June 3, July 27, 1892. ^^"Happenings Hereabouts," Salt Lake Herald, June 10, 1892, p. 8, and "Personal Items," ibid., July 29, 1892, p. 8; George Reynolds to Haag, November 12, 1892, First Presidency Letterbooks, reel 21, LDSClhurch llibrary-Archives, and Reynolds to Evans, Septembers, 1892, ibid; ' T h e Lehi Artist," Sa// Lake Herald, December 20, 1892, p. 5 (citing tlie Lehi Banner).

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supporters? Obviously, Cyrus Dallin's reputation continued to grow; his statue of Brigham Young and the equestrian Signal of Peace were exhibited at the Utah building during the Columbian Exposition of 1893. T h e latter work was purchased by the city of Chicago for placement in a park.^o Clawson, Evans, and Harwood had paintings accepted for the Columbian Exposition. Several rooms in the Salt Lake Temple were painted by the returned artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the Creation, Garden of Eden, Lone and Dreary (or Telestial), Terrestrial, and Celestial rooms and possibly a sealing room.^i This work was done by Fairbanks, Pratt, Evans, and Hafen, the latter being nominally in charge. Following two years of relatively informal collegiality and two exhibitions, seven of these eight Utahns who had studied in Paris formed the Society of Utah Artists.^^ This organization became one of the prime promoters of art in Salt Lake City until 1899 when the legislature created the Utah Art Institute. T h e two organizations coexisted until the 1930s when the SUA gradually became extinct. Art education in the public schools, academies, and institutions of higher learning received more intense attention. T h e Latter-day Saints College established an art department with Herman H. Haag in charge. Hafen, Fairbanks, and Evans were responsible for the art department at the Brigham Young Academy in Provo; and the University of Utah established an art department with Harwood and Haag as the principal faculty members.''^ What began initially as the desire of Dallin and Harwood to obtain advanced instruction and of the Mormon church to have professionally executed work done in the temples produced results that no one could have foreseen. T h e experiences of the initial group of Utah artists in Paris stimulated artistic productivity and artistic consciousness that altered for the better the development of Utah's artistic heritage.

ef'Brief and Breezy," Salt Lake Herald, November 3, 1893, p. 8. 6i"Dedicated to the Lord," Salt Lake Herald, April 7, 1893, p. 6. ^^Society of Utah Artists, Minute Book, holograph. Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Dallin was not a member. 63"Local," Deseret Weekly, December 23, 1893, p. 16; ' T h e B. Y. Academy," ibid., June 2, 1894, p. 757; "An Art School," Deseret Evening News, September 18, 1894, p. 4.

Brigham Young: American Moses. By LEONARD J. A. Knopf, 1985. xviii + 522 pp. $24.95.) Many years ago Leonard Arrington decided to utilize the vast Brigham Young collection in the LDS historical archives to write a definitive biography of Mormondom's most controversial leader, Brigham Young. All previous biographies of Young have suffered from the unavailability of the Young papers. Consequently, authors are condemned as either unbridled apologists or hateful critics. Professor Arrington set out to correct this historiographical dilemma and write a critically objective account of Young's life. At the time, he held the position of LDS archives historian and was considered "safe" insofar as access to the LDS archives. Arrington researched nineteenth-century Mormon history for decades and was eminently prepared for the task at hand. His first book, Great Basin Kingdom, is so important that Arrington's position in western history was secured. However, a critical biography of Brigham Young is an impossible task because of the nature of the reading constituency. Young is not an obscure individual, and most readers' opinions are set in concrete prior to the reading of the book. Readers want Arrington either to elevate Young above the rumors and innuendos that surround his thirty-year presidency or to show that Young was a powerhungry, lustful egomaniac. It is a "nowin" situation, as early newspaper reviews oi Brigham Young: American Moses indicate. Those who want a

ARRINGTON.

(New York: Alfred

vivid confirmation of Young's role in the Mountain Meadow or Morrisite massacres are disappointed. Conversely, readers who seek knowledge that Young was inspired by God in every decision feel Arrington has denied the truth. For those who seek a definitive analysis of the excesses of polygamy or an expose of Young's financial machinations, there is little. T h e true believers who want historical confirmation of miracles and the wisdom of Solomon are left wanting. Arrington has carefully chosen a middle course based on a careful reading of primary sources and a summation of recent secondary publications. Utilizing Young's personal journals, account books, and letters, as well as his colleagues', the author produces a detailed account of Young's life and his leadership. Arrington is able to d e m o n s t r a t e why Y o u n g can be viewed as both charlatan and prophet. He could be mean and vindictive, yet tender and caring. Indeed, this volume's major contribution is to put Young in the mainstream of midnineteenth-century America. He belongs with Stanford, Huntington, and Vanderbilt as well as with religious leaders. He was a builder of the nation. Finally, Arrington's biography illustrates that Mormon archives should be open and used. A church that has survived for a sesquicentennial has n o t h i n g to fear from historians. Young is a historical figure and not the basis for c u r r e n t L D S faith,

204 consequently Leonard Arrington's biography is not designed to destroy or promote faith. It is a good history, written for a national audience, and is

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well worth the effort. F. Ross PE I ERSON Utah State University

Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering. Edited and with an introduction by H A L CANNON. (Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., 1985. xvi + 210 pp. Paper, $9.95.) Cowboy Poetry from Utah: An Anthology. Compiled and edited by CAROL A. EDISON. (Salt Lake City: Utah Folklife Center, 1985. xvi + 127 pp. Paper, $9.95.) Not long ago I walked into a specialty used bookstore in Boise, Idaho, and asked the owner if he had any old books of cowboy poetry. He looked surprised. "What's all this fuss about cowboy poetry lately? Do you really consider that junk, poetry?" And even more recently, when I broached the subject of an Idaho collection of cowboy poetry with the piiblications director of a university press, I ran into actual angerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he was incensed that people were paying attention to this "doggerel" instead of the "complex" poetry which "deserves" attention. I was equally incensed at him and quoted the cowboy poet in Elko who said, disparagingly, that modern poetry has three rules: no rhyme, no sense, and no meaning. Clearly, a r t i s t i c l a n g u a g e still arouses passion in the "electronic age" in which we live. I am happy and excited to find that literature can be a cause argued with feeling by everyone from working people, like cowboys, to booksellers and professors of language. If these books on cowboy poetry did nothing else but revive the debate (both within and without the academy) about what is good in poetry, that would be blessing enough. But Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering and Cowboy Poetry from Utah: An Anthology do much more. The literary academy long ago recognized the poetic accomplishment of the British ballads, and the ballads

have been the unending subject of literary studies ever since. Cowboy poetry is the closest thing to a folk ballad tradition in the American West today, and perhaps its deceptive simplicity will also take the academy centuries of explication to unravel. Meanwhile, cowboys and others, with the added h e l p of C a n n o n ' s and Edison's anthologies, will continue to lo\c an art form born of their own language and raised to excellence by their own artists. We can judge for ourselves. Thanks to both Cannon and Edison (and many others who worked on the groundbreaking project from which these volumes derive), a great deal of historic and contemporary cowboy poetry is now readily available to readers. Cowboy poetry, though an orally performed art, has a long history of publication (like the ballads), going back to the end of the nineteenth century. Most books of cowboy poetry, however, are long out of print and difficult to find. I suggest that these two books should be read together, for the flaws of one are the strengths of the other. Cowboys Poetry from Utah is most n o t a b l e for its essays, especially "Cattle Ranching in Utah" and "A Definition of Cowboy Poetry." The definition chapter is one of the first attempts in print to grapple with the fundamental issues surrounding this genre. Edison claims that "the only

Book Reviews and Notices real difference between the nineteenthcentury American cowboy and the folk poet...is that the cowboy poet, as a result of his place in modern history, often composed and transmitted his expression of the cowboy culture on paper for a reading public. As a result, he was not necessarily anonymous and his work more quickly reached a much larger audience than it would have solely through oral transmission [p. Oral transmission, then, is but one conduit through which the folk group reshaped an individual's literary creation. T h e printed, copied, and often scribbled page was and is another channel. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the oral performance for other cowboys (the folk group) is still an essential ingredient of the tradition; but many of the poems collected in Cowboy Poetry from Utah apparently do not circulate among working cowboys nor are they performed orally. The weakness of this anthology is that some of the poetry only imitates the vernacular cowboy style without any evidence of having traveled the cowboy circuit. T h e strength is in the book's careful essays. Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering is stronger in the authenticity of its collected verse but weak on background material: it lacks a full-fledged folkloristic introduction to the genre. Among the approximately seventy poems, we

205 find both the anonymous and authored classics, like " T h e Zebra D u n " and Bruce Kiskaddon's " T h e Cowboy's Dream," as well as many new poems in the traditional style by today's working cowboys and buckaroos. There is an occasional misplaced poem that would be more appropriate in a literary quarterly. My regret is that this beautiful book with such fine selections contains little that will enlighten readers as to what makes Cowboy Poetry distinctive from a literary collection of western poetry. This problem is somewhat mitigated by the excellent bibliography of cowboy poetry at the end, a real service to scholars, cowboys, and anyone who wants to read more from the tradition. Both volumes were designed and illustrated with impeccable character. Cowboy Poetry from Utah contains evocative d r a w i n g s by F. Euray Anderson and photographs of the poets. Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering combines illustrations taken from cowboy poetry books of the 1930s and '40s. My recommendation is to read them both. Read together, the two books give a good notion of the rationale, the quality and the expressiveness of cowboy poetry.

STEVE SIPORIN

Idaho Commission

on the Arts

Rocky Mountain Rendezvous: A History of the Fur Trade Rendezvous, 1825-1840. By FRED R . GOWANS. Reprint ed. (Layton, Ut.: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., 1985. 239 pp. Paper, $9.95.) This useful book fills a lond-standing gap in basic information concerning the fur trade in the American West. The idea of the rendezvous was in the category of genius, another of the many exactly right ideas at the right time with which the American econo-

my has been blessed: a great trade fair held in a central location in the furgathering country, begun and finished in a single season. T h e amount of capital required was reduced to a fraction by the quick turnover; the need for the costly and burdensome perma-

206 nent fort was eliminated; the need for a protective army was at least greatly diminished. A major disadvantage was that because of geographical realities, it could not be carried on in many places. Indeed, Gowans's summary deals with the one small general area— including bits of Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah—where the major American rendezvous did take place. A comparison with the activites in other natural gathering places such as Michilimackinac and Santa Fe, and with the brigade system in the Pacific Northwest, would be worthwhile. This study, which makes a big advance on other summaries, reveals the continued lack of firm information concerning such matters as routes, locations, leadership, financing, competition, and Indian cooperation and opposition, but it sheds considerable light on all of these. Brief summaries by the author of the additional information provided on such confusing issues as the frequent changes in the structure of the fur companies and of the finances involved in the trade would have been of value. T h e narrow margin of profit for those actually

Utah Historical

engaged in the perilous operations increases one's admiration for their fortitude. T h e device of using quotations from eyewitnesses provides many of the details necessary to round out the story and warns that there may not be enough of these to make the story complete. T h e number of those written by missionaries gives insight concerning their influence in taming frontier violence and increasing settlement, which hastened the end of the fur trade period. T h e effects of the factors that caused the decline of the fur trade, such as the new silk industry, changing customs and fashions, and increasing settlement, are shown in the reduced efforts and dwindling profits. Through tracing a number of these important aspects of the rise and fall of the fur trade, this account makes an important contribution to the overall continuing investigation of the influence of the fur trade in the "westering" of the nation. T h e demand for a reprint indicates the importance of this book. MERRILL G . BURLINGAME

Montana State

Yellowstone: A Wilderness Besieged. By RICHARD A. versity of Arizona Press, 1985. xvi + 437 pp. $24.95.) Richard A. Bartlett's Yellowstone: A Wilderness Besieged complements the a u t h o r ' s previous work, Nature's Yellowstone (1974), which traced Yellowstone's history to 1872. By designating Yellowstone as America's first national park in that year, the United States Congress initiated an experiment in preservation that departed from the time-honored traditions of exploitation and spoilation. Bartlett's purpose, which he fulfills admirably, is to describe how this legislative experiment has fared since Yellowstone achieved national park status. In

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BARTLETT.

University

(Tucson: Uni-

d o i n g so, Bartlett addresses many important themes, yet he primarily tells the Yellowstone story by focusing on people, most notably tourists, concessionaires, and the park superintendents. T h e a u t h o r describes n u m e r o u s forces that have besieged "Wonderland." T h e sheer number of tourists (recently about 2.5 million annually) has strained park resources. T h e products of technological innovation— guns, automobiles, trail bikes, motorboats, and s n o w m o b i l e s — have threatened the environment. Poachers

Book Reviews and Notices have wastefully destroyed animal life. Railroad, mining, and irrigation interests have sought, unsuccessfully, to break the park's geographical integrity. Concessionaires have placed business concerns above public interests. Congress, typically preoccupied with other matters, has been slow to provide adequate oversight and funding. Bureaucrats, even when competent and sympathetic to Yellowstone's needs, have too often been shackled by political restraints. Fortunately, concerned individuals, conservationists, members of Congress, and United States presidents have taken a serious interest in protecting Yellowstone. Their efforts have helped offset the myriad challenges the park has faced and have kept Yellowstone intact and worth visiting. Bartlett provides a solid case study of park administration by democratic government. He describes the administration of Yellowstone by the Interior Department from 1872 to 1886, by the United States Army from 1886 to 1918, and by the National Park Service, a bureau of the Interior Department, from 1918 to the present. T h e author gives the military high marks for its accomplishments in Yellowstone but suggests that the Interior Department could have handled park management without the army's policing efforts. He argues that the National Park Service evolved from "a refreshing newcomer in Interior to just another stodgy, elephantesque bureau" (p. 295). His discussion of federal oversight in Yellowstone deepens

207 our understanding of the relationship between Washington and the American West. Far from describing a self-contained wilderness area largely immune from outside influences, Bartlett skillfully portrays a Yellowstone that has reflected national trends. He relates developments in Yellowstone to population growth, technological advance, business practices, antimonopoly sentiment, political conditions, governmental policies, railroad and mining development, tourism, boosterism, architecture, reclamation, public relations, the aesthetic conservation movem e n t , P r o g r e s s i v i s m , the G r e a t Depression, the two world wars, affluence, and vacationing patterns. This ability to link the park's history to broader historical issues increases the book's accuracy and importance. T h e author devotes relatively little space to the post-World War II period. He correctly argues that studying the recent past poses problems for historians, but still one wonders if greater attention could not have been given to the more recent decades, at least to the 1950s and 1960s. Bartlett's meticulous research and balanced, expressive writing combine to produce an excellent historical study, the finest to date on Yellowstone, and one that contributes positively to both western and general American history. D. GENE PACE

Alice Lloyd College Pippa Passes, Kentucky

Historical Atlas of the Outlaw West. By RICHARD PATTERSON. (Boulder, Colo.: Johnson Books, 1985. viii + 232 pp. Paper, $14.95.) Looking over some recent publisher lists, I was struck by the constant output on outlaws of the American West. T h e public seems to have almost a morbid fascination with these varied

elements of the western scene that included a few "Robin H o o d " types, a lot of plain opportunists, more than its share of drug addicts and alcoholics, and substantial numbers of just

Utah Historical

208 plain psychopaths! Yes, and those strange few who worked alternately on both sides of the law! Richard Patterson gives us yet another book, but a distinctly different book, on the subject. State by state he lists the towns and some rural sites that were the scenes of dramatic outlaw encounters with other outlaws and with the citizenry. He covers the whole region from the eastern fringe of the plains to the West Coast. In so doing, his coverage is of necessity brief. Patterson has done an immense amount of reading and some interviews with aged informants and, evidently, with many local history and folklore buffs. Working largely from these secondary and oral source materials, his accounts will often vary sharply from what the hard documentary meat of history in many situations might reveal. Serious readers will be well advised to consult Miller and Snell's Gunfighters of the Kansas Cowtowns and Ramon Adams's Burrs under the Saddle, not included in his otherwise fine bibliography. Region by region, Patterson obviously had to make some choices about what places and what outlaws to The Bassett Women.

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include. Some of my favorites would be Charlie Parker, the Wyoming payroll bandit who gave western Nebraska a classic comic-opera serial in which no one got hurt, or the enigmatic Jack Sully of south central South Dakota. But the book is generally well balanced, very well written, and attractively done u p by its publisher. Every fan of the western outlaw legends will want a copy. T h e major and strange omission is that fascinating motley crew of halfbaked cattlemen and hired outlaw guns that staged the Johnson County Invasion in 1892. As T i m Slessor said of their picture on a BBC program a few years back, the often-published photo of the group included "More baddies than ever assembled in one place." Still, Patterson is to be congratulated on his effort, his organizational and writing skills, and his ability to inoculate the reader with the "outlaw fever" that brought many of us into a more serious study of western history.

ROBERT A. MURRAY

Sheridan,

Wyoming

By GRACE M C C L U RE. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985.

xvi + 229 p p . Cloth, $25.00; paper, $1 0.95.) farmed there â&#x20AC;&#x201D; people such as the Brown's Park, k n o w n first as Bassett women and their men. McBrown's Hole, remains isolated with a Clure's book gives us some historical few ranches scattered about, giving perspective and insights into the lives little indication of the sometimes of the settlers, correcting our vision of r o m a n t i c a n d sometimes violent it as a place that served only outlaws. events that have transpired there since The Bassett women are portrayed as the trapper days of the 1880s. Its hisreal, in many ways heroic, and altory has been dominated by legendtogether believable. ary figures such as the fabled Wild Bunch and its most famous character. The author's sources gi\ e credibility Butch Cassidy. T h e Park served as a to the account, but it was not the hide-out and base of operations for documentation that impressed me so many years which has obscured the much as her apparent mastery of the accounts of those who came and stayed materials cited and her acknowledgeas residents and who ranched and ment that she had speculated as to

Book Reviews and Notices motives and the inner thoughts of her characters based on "a certain amount of logic and an ecjual amount of intuition." By the time I came to "the Requiem" I was enthralled by Josie and Ann Bassett. T h e concluding chapters on "Queen Ann of Brown's Park" and "Old Josie" were painful reading, like attending the funeral of a close friend or relative. I had come to think they were indestructible. Ann's ashes carried in the trunk of Frank's car and Josie's aging, death, and burial in her beloved Brown's Park were poignant reading experiences. Josie was recognized as a "Jensen neighbor," and her funeral was conducted by the Mormon church; Amy played the organ, Dothe and her h u s b a n d sang, a M o r m o n b i s h o p presided. Flossie was almost buried in her pants because a dress seemed inappropriate. Enough, perhaps even too much, has been written about the "Wild" and the "Chew" bunches and the various outlaws and outlaw trails in and about the Park. Enough has been written about Matt Rush, T o m Horn, Butch Cassidy, and Isom Dart. It is now time to appreciate Herb Bassett, husband of Elizabeth and father of Ann and Josie, Uncle Sam Bassett, and other men who played a role in the life of the Bassett women. Grace McClure not only knows her principal subjects; she also understands the setting in which they lived. This is made apparent by the information she so artfully sets within her narrative. T h e book is complete with details about ranching, cattle, range lands, the forests, the rivers, and the geography of the area. She mentions that cattle can be maintained only on land that is no more than two and a half miles from water, rendering thousands of acres of grassland unusable for a lack of it. During this period of history the only real authority in the region rested with the cattle barons

209 who were challenged by the smaller ranchers. T h e enactment of various enlarged homestead acts and their corruption by cattlemen led understandably to the situation which obtained in the area. T h e barons and the ranchers overgrazed. There were under these conditions first grass, then sagebrush, and finally cedar. So we are introduced to the Forest Reserve, created under Theodore Roosevelt, to preserve and foster timberland by protecting it from overgrazing. T h e introduction to the book is an admirable summary of the history of the area, describing the Wyoming basin as the last frontier in cattle country which extended as far south as Texas and as far east as Kansas and the Dakotas. Perhaps something more should be said aboiit the men in the lives of the Bassett women. A. H. " H e r b " Bassett was an unlikely partner for his wife Elizabeth. He is described as a "little old maid of a man." His education was a little better than most, and he was a competent musician on the piano and \iolin. T h e author says that the incongruity of his marriage was only equaled by the incongmity of his later migration west. He was religious but not puritanical, gentle, good humored, and one to avoid arguments. Whatever his weakness, the story of the Bassett women would never have unfolded save for his willingness to accede to the will of others, such as when he was persuaded by Sam Bassett to forget California and settle in Brown's Park with him. They were unlikely associates. Herb clung to his library and his religious beliefs. In those times the Bassetts were considered to be well educated but never shared Herb's interest in religion. He disliked disputation but could not avoid talking with Sam about his atheism or agnosticism. Sam is quoted as saying the Bible "seems like a fiddle to me, ready to play any tune you want it to."

210 T h e r e were other men of some consequence: Charlie Ranney, Josie's second husband; Elbert Bassett, who took his life when his p r o b l e m s seemed too burdensome; Isom Dart, a master cowhand; and Madison "Matt" Rush, Ann Bassett's sweetheart and president of the Brown's Park Cattle

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Association. There were others in the procession of men who aj^pear in this account, but this is the story of the Bassett women, and it is admirably well done. M i E i O N C . ABRAMS

Logan

Time Machines: The World of Living History. By J.\Y ANDERSON. (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1984. 217 pp. $19.95.) T h e r e is s o m e t h i n g for b o t h scholars and laymen in this survey of " T h e World of L i v i n g H i s t o r y , " where twentieth-century folks have "escaped" into the past to discover facets of ages long gone. In this book Anderson examines the broad spectrum of the living-history movement, which began on a small scale in the late 1800s. Jay Anderson has had extensive involvement in various living-history programs. For example, he was in charge of research, interpretation, and collections at Living History Farms in Des Moines, Iowa. For three years he visited n u m e r o u s programs in the United States and Europe and taught a variety of relevant classes, including the annual Fife Folklore Conference at Utah State University. He is currently the director of the Jensen Living Historical Farm being developed by Utah State University. T h e first section of this book deals with living-history museums, farms, and communities. These various programs concentrate on interpreting the past for visitors. This educational aspect of living history began in Europe when Arthur Hazelius organized in Sweden the first open-air museum. It featured native customs and folklife, such as traditional bands and Lapps herding reindeer. Hazelius's emphasis on activities and demonstrations has been ignored by many of the later open-air museums in Europe. However, his concepts spread to North

America at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, Old Sturbridge Village and Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, Living History Farm in Iowa, the Fortress of Louisburg in Nova Scotia, and Old Fort William on the Canadian shores of Lake Superior. T h e second part of Anderson's survey describes living history for research purposes. He starts with " T h e Taste of H i s t o r y " â&#x20AC;&#x201D; e x p e r i m e n t i n g with making Pilgrim beer. Several projects in experimental archaeology are covered, including the construction of a Stone Age house by Hans-Ole Hansen. His efforts led to the creation of a major research center in Denmark. Later the Butser Farm in England was begun to reconstruct an Iron Age farm of about 300 B.C. T h e work of Peter Reynolds at Butser Farm is a good example of the value of living history to scholars, for his results suggest that prehistoric southern England was more heavily cultivated than previously thought. While purists criticized Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation, which Anderson directed from 1972 to 1976, visitors showed great support for the hands-on approach to the past. T h e author's example of living history includes sea voyages using traditional ship designs and navigational methods: T h o r H e y e r d a h l ' s wellknown Kon-Tiki, Tim Severin's Saint Brendan expedition across the North Atlantic in 1976, the canoe Hokule'a voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti, and the 1957 sailing of Mayflower II.

211

Book Reviews and Notices Time Machines deals finally with the play aspect of living history, mainly groups that reenact past battles and military life-styles or who enjoy the life-styleof the mountain men and get involved in trapping and camping out using historical methods. Anderson praises the cooperative efforts and the emphasis on authenticity of many of the groups. Why living history? Participants have meaningful learning experiences involving their senses as well as their intellect, and they approach in some way what it meant to be a pioneer woman or a Stone Age farmer. There is probably no better way than living history to answer some questions about the past. What are the obstacles in making a workable reed boat? What does it feel like to work with draft a n i m a l s and make your own log cabin? Living history answers give a sense of the texture of the pastâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what it felt like, not just an intellectual understanding of history. Since experimental archaeologists are also frustrated by traditional techniques, they sometimes try living history. Anderson does not ignore the criticisms and limitations of living history. He agrees that it is impossible to experience wholly the values and beliefs of past generations. This reviewer doubts that there is any way for a twentieth-century person to really believe in ancient gods while making ancient tools. Living history seems

best suited to exploring material culture. Second, some medical aspects of the past would be difficult to experience. Participants are not going to be bled to relieve their illnesses. Some living-history projects have ignored the filth of the past while others have ignored past conflicts, such as slavery or political disagreements; and since the projects usually represent an indepth, synchronic slice of time, they often fail to show how the present evolved from the past. In s p i t e of these l i m i t a t i o n s , Anderson makes a strong defense of the living-history movement. This is an excellent book that examines the substantial professional issues surrounding living history. Another of its strengths is the vivid description of the impact of living history on individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the culture shock, for example, when one tries to live a past life-style. Included also is an excellent appendix with descriptions and addresses of relevant living-history museums, organizations, books, articles, magazines, and vendors of authentic, traditional equipment and clothing. T h e book has motivated this reviewer, raised in Iowa, to visit the L i v i n g History Farms in Des Moines. Most readers will want to visit Utah State University's living-history project here in Utah as well. DAVID W . WALDEN

Brigham Young

University

Book Notices Thomas Robinson Cutler: Pioneer, Sugarman, Churchman. By JESSE ROBINSON SMITH. (Salt Lake City: Eden Hill Publishing, 1985. xviii + 220 pp. $15.00.) Born in England in 1844, Thomas Robinson Cutler emigrated to Utah with his family twenty years later. They settled near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, where Thomas stayed only for a short time before moving to Lehi. There he turned an aptitude for business into a prosperous living as storekeeper, freighter, and merchant. He also left his mark as a community leader in other ways, serving as ward bishop for nearly twentyfive years, overseeing construction of the Lehi Tabernacle, and building one of the most splendid mansions in Utah Valley. It may well have been as early supporter and business official in Utah's sugar industry, however, that Thomas made his most lasting contribution. On the scene during construction of the Lehi Sugar Factory and incorporation of the Utah Sugar Company in the early 1890s, he was soon appointed as one of the company directors. During the next ten years, as the sugar beet industry proved its economic viability, Thomas led the company's expansion into northern Utah and southern Idaho. T h e dynamics of that venture and the subsequent emergence of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company are described and analyzed well through several chapters of this book. Although written by an admiring grandson, this study is a definite cut

iy^i^^cyM^

above most family-sponsored biographies. It is well designed, well organized, and supported by a surprising amount of original resource material. Short chapters on Thomas's family, his travels, and his prison experience (for unlawful cohabitation) provide additional insight into the man's values, personality, and achievements. Thomas retired as general manager of the U-I Sugar Company in 1917. By that time he had helped organize or develop a dozen other commercial enterprises in Utah, including life insurance companies, hydroelectric plants, and banks. He died in 1922 at age seventy-seven. The Making of a Cowboy. By VERN C. MORIFNSF.N. (New York: Vantage Press, 1985. 158 pp. $11.95.) Written by one of Utah's cowboy poets, this lively reminiscence recounts his experiences as a young cowhand in northern Arizona, southern Utah, and mideastern Nevada in the 1920s. Travels in America from the Voyages of Discovery to the Present: An Annotated Bibliography of Travel Articles in Periodicals, 1955-1980. By

GAROED L .

COEE. ( N o r m a n :

University of O k l a h o m a 1984. XX + 291 pp. $48.50.)

Press,

T h i s highly specialized bibliographic aid features fifteen entries for Utah, ten of which are from Utah Historical Quarterly.

U T A H S T A T E H I S T O R I C A L SOCIETY Department of Community and Economic Development Division of State History BOARD OF STATE HISTORY THOMAS G. ALEXANDER. Provo, 1987 Chairman LEONARD J. ARRINGTON, Salt Lake City, 1989 Vice-Chairman J A Y M . HAYMOND, Salt Lake City Secretary DOUGLAS D. ALDER, L o g a n , 1989 PHILLIP A. BuLLEN.Salt Lake City, 1987 J. ELDON DoRMAN, Price, 1987 H U G H C . GARNER, Salt Lake City, 1989 D A N E . JONES. Salt Lake City, 1989 D E A N L . MAY, Salt Lake City, 1987 WILLIAM D. OWENS. Salt Lake City, 1987 AMY ALLEN PRICE, Salt Lake City, 1989

ADMINISTRATION JAY M . HAYMOND. Acting Director and Librarian STANFORD J. LAYTON, Afanagmg Editor DAVIDB. MADSZN.State Archaeologist A. KENT POWELL, H i 5 t o n c Preservation Research WILSON G. M\RT\N. Historic Preservation Development PHILLIP F. NOTARIANNI. Mu5eum Services CKAIGYVI^LHR. Administrative Services

T h e Utah State Historical Society was organized an 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 a n d other historical materials: collecting historic Utah artifacts; locating, documenting, and preserving historic a n d prehistoric buildings and sites; and m a i n t a i n i n g a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs, museum, or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live u p to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past. This publication has been funded with the assistance of a matching grant-in-aid from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended. This program receives financial assistance for identification and preservation of historic properties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.

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Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 2, 1986

Articles inside

William Chandless: British Overlander, Mormon Observer, Amazon Explorer

One Man's Air Force: The Experience of Byron Dussler at Wendover Field, Utah, 1941-46

Housewives, Hussies, and Heroines, or the Women of Johnston's Army

Letters from Paris