Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, Number 1, 1994

UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY (ISSN 0042-143X)

EDITORIAL STAFF

MAX J EVANS, Editor

STANFORD J LAYTON, Managing Editor

MIRIAM B. MURPHY, Associate Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS

KENNETH L CANNON II, Salt Lake City, 1995

JANICE P DAWSON, Layton, 1996

AUDREY M. GODFREY, Logan, 1994

JOEL C JANETSKI, Provo, 1994

ROBERT S MCPHERSON, Blanding, 1995

ANTONETTE CHAMBERS NOBLE, Cora, WY, 1996

RICHARD W SADLER, Ogden, 1994

GENE A SESSIONS, Ogden, 1995

GARY TOPPING, Salt Lake City, 1996

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, and reviews contributing to knowledge of Utah's history The Quarterly is published four times a year by the Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. Phone (801)533-3500 for membership and publications information Members of the Society receive the Quarterly, Beehive History, and the bimonthly Newsletter upon payment of the annual dues: individual, $20.00; institution, $20.00; student and senior citizen (age sixty-five or over), $15.00; contributing, $25.00; sustaining, $35.00; patron, $50.00; business, $100.00

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In this issue

Ensign Peak, the subject of the first article in this issue, is one of several prominences in the hills north of the State Capitol. Its shape, though distinctive, hardly qualifies as a peak, and several of its neighbors exceed its modest 5,414-foot height Nevertheless, Ensign Peak has been the scene of more history—some of it disputed—and the object of more planning, promotion, and preservation activity than most of the majestic peaks of the Wasatch range

Evidently, the nascent settlement overlooked by Ensign Peak echoed with the howling of wolves in the early years. Organized hunts in the Salt Lake and Cache valleys attempted to eliminate wolves and other "wasters and destroyers." As the second article points out, these mass shootings of wildlife may offend late twentieth-century sensibilities, but today's more than adequate food supply was bound to change perspectives

With self-sufficiency the "politically correct" watchword in pioneer Utah's temporal affairs, attempts to make paper for printing newspapers, announcements, and other communications come as no surprise. Paper was a costly import and its deliveries were erratic, the third article notes, but the first locally made paper embarrassed the craftsmen who had to print on it.

German immigrants have carved a major place for themselves in Utah history, and much has been written about them. But even a welltraveled road may have unexplored branches The fourth article presents an intriguing story of German settlers in Dutchtown near Eureka in the Tintic Mining District. Jakob Brand's notebook opened a new area of research that ultimately helped the author understand the dynamics of community life in Juab County and the interaction of German settlers there with those living in Cache County and other locales.

The final piece recounts the fascinating life of John Steele, a medical practitioner in Toquerville who struggled unsuccessfully to find marital bliss Renowned as a bonesetter and herbalist, Steele also dabbled in astrology and witching A legend in his own time, he remains larger than life almost a century later.

John Steele. Courtesy of Genevieve S.

Jensen.

A Gauge of the Times: Ensign Peak in the Twentieth Century

BY RONALD W WALKER

Thefamiliar dome shape ofEnsign Peak rises to the left of the State Capitol in this 1964 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photograph in USHS collections.

Dr Walker is professor of history and senior research associate, Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, Brigham Young University

Xo THE NORTH OF SALT LAKE CITY A ROLLING SPUR juts west from the normally north-south Wasatch range. There, on July 26, 1847, Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders climbed a little dome-shaped promontory and laid out Utah's capital city. They called their little mount Ensign Peak, a name that told of their religious mission. Their movement, after all, hoped to be a beacon or ensign for gathering the righteous prior to the last days. This familiar event, so often mentioned as part of the pioneer saga, had a sequel. During the past one hundred years Utahns have argued over how to use the peak—both as a cultural symbol and as a piece of real estate. In the process Ensign Peak has charted the changing moods of Utah's popular culture

The peak's latter-day story began with the fifty-year Pioneer Jubilee inJuly 1897 As its part of the celebration the Salt LakeHerald ordered a wooden flagpole put on Ensign Peak The newspaper had the help of the Signal Corps of the Utah National Guard, which after carefully surveying the spot, placed the pole in a direct line with Salt Lake City's Main Street. To complete the project a hermetically sealed pipe containing the names of helping donors and officials was buried somewhere on the summit.1

The venture exuded patriotism. "For the first time in 50 years, or thereabouts," the newspaper claimed, "'Old Glory' floated from the historic peak yesterday morning, just as the sun came over the peaks of the Wasatch, faintly tingeing the valley. . . ."2 After the completion of these ceremonies, the lowered flag was given to Gov. Heber M. Wells, who, it was hoped, would have it raised on the peak at all suitable future times. The Deseret News, a sister publication of the Herald, also sketched these events in terms of commonwealth and national allegiance The recent unfurling of the Stars and Stripes on Ensign Peak, it editorialized, was a "signal of peace, prosperity, happiness and loyalty."3

It is understandable why the Herald and its friends should cast the event in terms of patriotism At the time Utah had just ended its long and tortuous national conciliation Only the year before, Washington had made peace with its edgy and enigmatic territory and made her a

1 Salt Lake Herald, July 25, 1897, pp 2, 6; Deseret Evening News, July 24, 1897, as quoted in the Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City [hereinafter JH]; and "Reminiscence of Albion W. Caine,"July 31, 1961, copy in author's possession. The editorial of the Deseret News is not found in current microfilm runs of the newspaper

2 Salt Lake Herald, July 25, 1897, p 2; Deseret Evening News, July 24, 1897, as cited inJH

:1 Deseret Evening News, July 24, 1897, as cited in JH

state For their part, Utahns were eager to show their appreciation— and their Americanism Their ancestors had been driven from New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois and as a result had entered the Great Basin with badly splintered loyalties These early pioneers were more willing to affirm the ideals of America than the conduct of those Americans who had tormented them But such a distinction was lost on their children and grandchildren. The new generation wished to be known as loyal citizens—without qualification.

For these Utahns Ensign Peak was a patriotic symbol According to the traditions that they had inherited and wished to foster, Brigham Young's first party had raised the American banner during itsJuly 26, 1847, reconnaissance. This episode, so the story went, was the first American flag-raising in the Great Basin. The Mormons had thereby wrested Utah's soil from Mexican control and furthered the manifest destiny of the rapidly expanding United States. The Mormons, in short, had been loyal American empire builders.

These ideas—repeatedly put forward during the first decades of the twentieth century by boosters of Utah's past and future—were rejected with equal force by those disputing such claims This first "cultural war" over the meaning of Ensign Peak had its roots in the religious and political conflict of the time The turn-of-the-century Salt LakeTribune, ever the curmudgeon to Mormon views, enthusiastically took on the issue In 1908 the newspaper noted the eagerness of its rival, the LDS-owned Deseret News, to accept uncritically the supposed Brigham Young, July 26, 1847, flag-raising. The only banner waved that day, according to the Tribune, was a "yellow bandanna decorated with black spots," which was attached to Willard Richards's walking cane. "That was the 'flag' that was first hoisted by the Mormon 'pioneers' in this valley," the Tribune claimed. To support its view the newspaper quoted, without citation, no less a light than Heber C. Kimball.4

A black spotted, yellow bandanna, of course, was a considerable come-down from an empire-claiming, patriotic American flag. Two years later the Tribune returned to the refrain. The newspaper quoted an address of William C. A. Smoot, once a twenty-year-old member of the first pioneer party, made at a gathering of the anti-Mormon American party Smoot challenged the idea that prior to the coming of the Saints the Salt Lake Valley had been a barren desert He further challenged Mormon pulpit oratory by agreeing with the Tribune's earlier

account of a boyishly waved, non-Arnerican-flag, a yellow bandanna, which at the time was meant to prefigure a scripture-fulfilling ensign, later to be lifted.5

By denying one of the increasingly accepted patriotic icons of the community, Smoot received the heavy scorn of the SaltLakeHeraldRepublican, often an ally of the Deseret News. The newspaper unfairly charged that Smoot was an "intense Mormon hater," who enjoyed "detailing the bitterest falsehood and railings against his former associates." He wished, the Herald-Republican continued, to rob the first settlers of their deserving "mead of praise." To be sure, Smoot had been an LDS bishop, a position he resigned after a dispute with church leaders. But his words in the intervening years had not been shrill—not at least until the Herald-Republicans editorial called them forth.6

The Mormons themselves were not united on the subject. Apostle Matthias F. Cowley upheld the traditional view. His biography of Wilford Woodruff, a member of the first Ensign Peak party, contained a paragraph that would muddle other Mormon accounts for the next several decades:

On Monday the 26th [1847], President Young and several brethren ascended the summit of a mountain on the north which they named Ensign Peak, a name it has borne ever since Elder Woodruff was the first to gain the summit of the peak Here they unfurled the American flag, the Ensign of Liberty to the world. It will be remembered that the country then occupied by the Saints was Mexican soil, and was being taken possession of by the Mormon Battalion and pioneers as a future great commonwealth to the credit and honor of the United States.7

5 Salt Lake Tribune, March 18, 1910, p 2

6 Salt Lake Herald-Republican, March 23, 1910, sec 1, p 4; W C A Smoot, "Bishop Smoot's Trenchant Reply," Salt Lake Tribune, March 27, 1910, p 12 Smoot may have lost his LDS moorings, but candor in this case seems to have been mistaken for enmity. For further information on the man see Salt Lake Evening Telegram, July 26, 1913, p 6, and "William Cockhorn Adkinson Smoot," in Our Pioneer Heritage, 20 vols (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1957-77) 2:557-58

7 Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff: History ofHis Life and Labors (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909), p 316

Close-up ofEnsign Peak, ca. 1940, shows its distinctive shape. USHS collections.

Perhaps Cowley had data that no one else before or later has unearthed, and events took place just as he wrote. But LDS historian B. H Roberts, writing a decade later, wanted cold, hard, validating facts and could find none In an article entitled "The 'Mormons' and the United States Flag," Roberts complained that if the Brigham Young party had raised the American flag an on-the-spot diary surely would have recorded the event. Roberts concluded that the ensign of Ensign Peak was simply a literary metaphor for the Mormons' Gospel mission and bore no relationship to any flag whatsoever.8

Less than ten years later Roberts's voice was rising. With LDS spread-eagle oratory and faith-promoting sermons continuing, the historian was clearly vexed. Treating the Ensign Peak episode once more in his magisterial, six-volume survey of LDS history, his words became sharp The peak had neither timber nor brush to mount a standard, Roberts argued, and no evidence confirmed the nine men had carried with them a flag. He concluded that the proposition was "utterly impossible" and "unwarranted," a "pious fiction [that] lives on and on by the force of parrot-like iteration and re-iteration adnauseam.''9

Roberts was not alone in insisting on what he believed was historical fact Assistant LDS historian Andrew Jenson, in turn, was rankled by a detailed description of the supposed pioneer flag-raising, which in one retelling had great specificity. According to this account, three pioneers were dispatched to the peak at 6 A.M. on July 24, 1847—before Young had even arrived in the valley—to claim the Great Basin from Mexico Their supposed proclamation had a chiseled-in-marble quality.

In raising this flag upon this mountain, which we name Ensign peak, we take possession of this valley and of all the mountains, lakes, rivers, forests and deserts of this territory in the name of the United States of America and proclaim this land to be the American territory.10

Jenson wanted proof for such an extraordinary statement, with its "startling details." It could not be accepted from memory alone, he insisted, because of "the abundant documentary proofs" to the contrary. To this complaint he offered a postscript. "We historians have

8 B H Roberts, "The 'Mormons' and the United States Flag," Improvement Era 25 (November 1921): 5 Also see B H Roberts, "The Oration," In Honor of the Pioneers (Salt Lake City: Bureau of Information, 1921), pp 24-25

9 B H Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 3:271-79

10 AndrewJenson, "Historian Gives Account of Ensign Peak," Salt Lake Tribune, August 1, 1931, p. 4.

done our best to prove the correctness of such tales," he admitted. "We have failed and have long ago concluded that no such event took place. ... In the interest of true history, let us stick to facts and not assert things that we have to refute later."11

But the tide was irresistible. Despite the objection of Mormon historians the fabled version of the Ensign Peak flag raising continued to be told as far away as Georgia and by such dignitaries as United States senators.12 It was also told visually within the Utah Capitol rotunda The celebratory panels of Works Progress Administration artists Lee Greene Richards, Waldo Midgley, Gordon Cope, and Henry Rasmussen contain one scene depicting the Brigham Young party hoisting the American banner on the peak. One critic swallowed hard:

Tourists gaze upon it and are deeply impressed. The youth of Zion view it reverently, and returning to their school desks write about it with pride Why contend that the story is too good to be true? In this instance, truth may never overtake fiction. The radiant fancy of the poet and painter has eclipsed the historian's carefully considered opinion.13

Like the Pilgrims' Plymouth Rock, Ensign Peak had gained a life of its own Susa Young Gates, Brigham Young's talented and prolific daughter, was another catalyst She was aware of the historical proscriptions of Roberts and others but would have none of it. Defending her patrimony, Gates's KSL radio address, June 1, 1929, argued that after the pioneer leaders had ascended and named Ensign Peak, the Stars and Stripes flew from a pole raised by Wilford Woodruff. She cited Cowley as her source.

14

Later she was more cautious. Working on a biography of her father, Gates wrote several rough drafts that acknowledged the revisionism of "recent students," but she used careful phrases to retain her intent The United States flag or "its equivalent" had been flown on the peak either on the first day or "a little later," she now said In her view the Saints' allegiance to the United States was staunch Joseph Smith and Brigham Young never had "the least idea of leaving the country whose flag of freedom had floated over the[ir] homes and [in whose] victorious armies . . . [had] marched their own revolutionary sires.

11 Ibid

12 Atlanta Georgian, February 17, 1908, as cited in Roberts, Comprehensive History, 3:272-73; and Deseret Evening News, November 4, 1911, p 31

13 Mark A Pendleton, "Ensign Peak," p 1, MS, University of Utah Library, Salt Lake City

14 Susa Young Gates, Brigham Young: Patriot, Pioneer, Prophet: Address Delivered Over Radio Station KSL, Saturday, June 1, 1929 (Salt Lake City?, n.d.), p 10

The land of America was Zion to these leaders and to their associates and friends—patriots and sons of patriots all."15 These passages were later cut when her severely reduced manuscript was published

There were several reasons why the mythic version of the flag-raising refused to die. First, for anxious Utahns hoping to mend fences with their fellow Americans it put to rest the nineteenth-century calumny of LDS disloyalty with compelling force. It told of a lifted ensign during the dramatic first moment of colonization and placed at front stage Mormon leaders, not subordinates But there was another reason. Despite the expert witness of Roberts and Jenson to the contrary, the legendary Ensign Peak flag-raising contained more than a kernel of truth. Recent probing into the documentary record suggests that the Mormon pioneers may have raised two distinctive flags on the peak. The first, an American banner, was hoisted not on July 26, 1847, but likely several weeks later. The second flag is more problematic. An emblematic church ensign, symbolizing the gathering mission of Mormonism, may have been lifted as part of Utah's first Pioneer Day celebration, July 1849. Ironically, the twentieth-century Ensign Peak history controversy produced a minor surprise. Patriotism, rather than expert opinion, proved to have the larger claim to truth.16

The dispute over the early flag-raising was not the peak's only twentieth-century cultural expression. More telling and widespread, Ensign Peak hosted popular ritual. Starting in 1916 and continuing off and on for two decades, Utahns honored the historic site by hiking to its summit, usually as part of the state's July 24 Pioneer Day rites The Boy Scouts sponsored the first two celebrations with camp fires, games, flag-raisings, and talks by Roberts and Ruth May Fox, a member of the LDS Young Ladies General Board So successful were these pilgrimages that the boys and their leaders planned to make them an annual event.17

15 These passages consistently appea r in the various preserved drafts of chap 9, Susa Young Gates Papers, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City

16 Th e question of the Ensign Peak flag-raising is treated in Ronald W Walker, "'A Banner Is Unfurled': Mormonism's Ensign Peak," forthcoming, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Two me n claimed to have been present when the American flag was hoisted; see Joh n P Wriston, 'Th e Book of the Pioneers," unpublishe d miscellany collected by the Utah Semi-Centennial Commission, 1897, Utah State Historical Society, p 344, an d "Remarks of Harrison Sperry," Deseret News, August 14, 1920, sec 4, p vii A tattered American flag that some claimed had bee n flown o n the peak in 1847 was displayed forty-one years later; see Deseret Evening News, July 25, 1888, p 2 For the possible flying of the distinctive Mormo n flag see Franklin D Richards Diary, July 21, 1849, an d Charles Benjamin Darwin, "Journal of a Trip across the Plains from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Francisco,"July 1849, Huntingto n Library, San Marino, California

17 Deseret Evening News, July 27, 1916, p 2; Salt Lake Tribune, July 27, 1916, p 14

But they were preempted. Adults as well as youth wished to be involved. In 1918 a World War I patriotic rally included the oratory of LDS general authority and historian Orson F. Whitney, his stentorian phrases lightened by patriotic singing and by the music of the University of Utah's U.S. Military Training Detachment Band. Some 700 citizens attended.18

The next year boosters planned "one of the most unique and historic church celebrations in the history of the state." "Autoists" were told to drive their vehicles to the new State Capitol and then proceed up West Capitol Street to the coiling dirt road that led to the base of the hill. Pedestrians could take the Capitol Hill streetcar line and walk on the new "scenic boulevard"—perhaps today's East Capitol Boulevard. Boy Scouts helped make these instructions explicit by marking the trail with buffalo-head emblems, each with an Indian arrow pointing to the summit.19

The program was as detailed as the travel instructions. It included flag raising and Scout salute; community singing, "America" and "Come, Come, Ye Saints"; invocation; soprano solo, "O Ye Mountains High"; historical sketch, Andrew Jenson; address, Richard W Young; community singing, "The Star Spangled Banner"; benediction; and the viewing of the summer sunset A small organ carted to the top provided music

Both Ensign Peak, immediately right of State Capitol, and streetcar line, farther right, show in this unusual Shipler photograph in USHS collections.

The address of World War I hero Gen. Richard W. Young, then president of the LDS Ensign Stake, was characteristic of the entire proceeding. He praised the pioneers and urged his audience to copy their example. But much of his talk reflected the era's sturdy national loyalty For fifty years, Young said, Ensign Peak had stood for Utah's patriotism. It was Utah's symbol of the national spirit and its love of country.20

Most of the annual celebrations that followed took place in the late evening with programs that included community sings, solos, campfires, games, flag-raising, and the usual watching of the summer sunset. Some of Utah's leading figures spoke. In addition to Roberts, Fox, and Young, audiences heard Melvin J Ballard, Heber J Grant, Richard R. Lyman, Nephi L. Morris, Oscar W. McConkie, George Albert Smith, and Anthony W. Ivins. Sometimes the evening's activity held an unexpected twist On one occasion the celebrants left the hill at nightfall, lighting their way with picturesque Japanese lanterns and singing as they went.21

With people trooping to Ensign Peak each year, hopes were kindled for some kind of memorial. As early as the turn of the century city boosters had campaigned for a commemorative park near or around the hill. In August 1908 LonJ. Haddock, secretary of the Manufacturers' and Merchants' Association, proposed that the city, which held title to the ground, franchise the area to private developers They in turn would make the needed improvements and gain a profit by charging for access. Haddock thought the Ensign Peak area, with its history and commanding view, could become a "sort of Mecca for Salt Lake tourists."22

The local newspapers agreed. The slopes of Ensign Peak deserved to be preserved, the Deseret News thought, as the scene of "one of the most remarkable events in American history"—an allusion apparently to Brigham Young's alleged flag-raising. Other Salt Lake City newspapers were equally enthusiastic. The Inter-MountainRepublican believed Haddock's proposed project would be an ornament to the city: "Every root of lawn, every mass of flowers, every tree [on the peak], would attract the attention and provoke approving comment from the people of Salt Lake." With such a plan in place, the newspa-

20 Deseret Evening News, July 28, 1919, p 3; Improvement Era, September 1919, pp 1015-16

21 These events were reported in the Salt Lake City newspapers usually a day or two after the event For Japanese lanterns see Deseret News, J\\\y 25, 1922, sec 2, p 1

22 Deseret Evening Neius, August 8, 1908, p 4

per predicted that a railroad to the summit was "inevitable." The SaltLakeHerald also joined the chorus. An Ensign Peak park was a "public necessity," it declared. Piping water to the summit would permit grass, shrubs, and trees, which would provide a "beautiful pleasure ground for all the people, rich and poor alike." The Herald was insistent: "Carry out the plans for Ensign Peak park, and do it now."23

For a while it seemed Ensign Peak and its neighborhood might harbor a forest. Several weeks after Haddock proposed his plan, U.S. Sen. Reed Smoot, recently returned from visiting Switzerland's managed forests, argued a similar policy for Utah The Deseret News immediately took hold of the idea and suggested the Ensign Peak area as a good place to start Utahns could sow hardy wildflowers on the top of the summit, while the sloping flat lands to the south might be planted with trees. Interested citizens had already begun offering funds for the project, the newspaper advised; now if only the sand and gravel diggers who were ripping at the west side of the hill could be restrained. The newspaper made a final suggestion that the city sponsor an annual children's Arbor Day for the peak. "When once the idea of reformation takes hold of the people and is made part of the work of the school children, the future of forests in this country will be practically assured," the News opined.24

None of these early plans materialized Eight years later Ensign Peak remained unchanged except for a new steel flagpole erected to replace the Herald's 1897 wood frame. But LDS Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley and his church had an innovative idea. In May 1916 he petitioned the city commission to permit the placing of a huge, concrete cross on the peak. The memorial, to be funded by the

Charles W. Nibley. USHS collections.

church, should be large enough to be "readily seen from every part of the city."25

It was an earnest time, given to good works and ideal symbols, and Bishop Nibley and his church saw the proposed cross as a progressive antidote to the city's growing social unrest. It would set the right moral tone, doing more, said one, than "all the drafting of statutes and ordinances, the preaching of sermons, or the publishing of newspapers can ever do in this city and state."26 But the Mormon church had another reason for suggesting the memorial Many visitors came to Salt Lake City believing the Mormons were not Christians. "The monument is intended as an insignia of Christian belief on the part of the Church which has been accused of not believing in Christianity," said the DeseretNews.27 In short, the proposed cross would be good public relations

Nibley's plan met immediate opposition

The Reverend Elmer I Goshen of the First Congregational Church voiced his disagreement, while City Commissioner W. H. Shearman asked the question that many Salt Lake City citizens felt: How could a cross, a symbol never used by the Mormons, be more fitting than an unfurled American flag?28 Emil S Lund, a state legislator, expressed stronger objections His lengthy petition to the city commission attacked the plan, Mormonism, and even Christianity itself. "I fail to recognize where the cross has ever performed police duties," he wrote sarcastically. Nor was he pleased with any recognition of organized religion: "Christianity has failed, and a new era [is] coming, based upon material facts and the rights of humanity, upon which the cross of Christ has been a burden and obstruction of freedom." To these arguments, Lund added a constitutional complaint. The erection of a religious symbol on public property was a First Amendment violation, he believed.29 Rabbis William Rice and Samuel Baskin also entered the fight. Neither objected to a monument honoring the pioneers but opposed a religious symbol on public property They left their meeting with Commissioner Karl A Scheid, the most vocal supporter of the plan on the city commission, unmollified. If the plan went forward, the men

25 Deseret Evening News, May 5, 1916, p 2

26 Karl A Scheid as quoted in Deseret Evening News, May 9, 1916, p 5

27 Deseret Evening News, May 5, 1916, p 2

28 Deseret Evening News, May 9, 1916, p 5

29 Emil S. Lund to the Board of City Commissioners, May 10,1916, copy in Charles W. Nibley Papers, LDS Church Archives

warned, the city's "united spirit of citizenship" would be destroyed— carefully measured words that were meant as an obvious warning.30 Five years earlier the city had thrown off the anti-Mormon partisanship of the American party. Rice and Baskin hinted that if the plans for a public cross went forward the old fires might be rekindled.

With the proposal facing a determined opposition, Commissioner Heber M. Wells, the former state governor, offered Bishop Nibley some behind-the-scenes advice. Wells recommended the church carefully nudge the petition through the city commission by not urging it too strongly. Most of the commissioners were already favorably inclined, he believed.31 Wells was right. His colleague, Commissioner Scheid, expressed the view of the majority in city government: "The commission could trust the organization that had constructed the temple, the Hotel Utah, the [LDS] administration building and the tabernacle to construct a monument that would be a credit to the city."32 Neither Scheid nor the other commissioners seemed concerned about the legality of erecting a religious monument on public land At least they did not address the issue

On May 25, three weeks after Nibley introduced the plan, a listless city commission met to consider it. Wells could see no reason for prolonging things. According to the former governor, everyone had "his mind made up anyway." The desultory discussion ended with a 41 vote. Shearman, complaining the plan had caused enough trouble already, cast the sole negative vote.33

The commission's approval failed to mute opponents Back at his B'nai Israel congregation, Rabbi Rice signaled his continuing resistance He promised that although neither he nor his congregation would seek an injunction against the building of the cross, a number of citizens, "not all of whom are Jews," probably would do so. Among the prospective litigants was Emil Lund.34

The opposition was not confined to non-Mormons. A number of Nibley's own communicants disagreed with the church's policy. One anonymous LDS letter writer ("I want to live quietly and privately") complained about the chosen symbol: "If a righteous man unfortunately was crucified I fail to see why the Mormons should perpetuate

this infamous death by building a cross on the Peak." He suggested the beehive or seagull as more appropriate commemorative tokens.35 His desire for anonymity was widespread. "Many of our good Mormon brethren have privately expressed to me their opposition," Wells reported in a letter to Nibley, "until I suggested that if they desired to make an argument against the proposition to please make it to you. Then they faded away."36 As always in such matters, some members were torn between religious compliance and personal feeling

Some LDS opposition was anti-Catholic, considering the cross to be papal One angry correspondent, who for once refused to be deferential, expressed "astonishment" at the church's position. "Bishop," he lashed out, "with all due respect to you and your intelligence, I do not hesitate to say to you, that you are either influenced by the Roman Church officials, or are ignorant of the moral turpitude of this same powerful influence, which seeks to dominate every institution in City, State, and Nation."37

James Z. Stewart, a devout churchman who had spent many years in proselyting in Catholic Mexico, also strongly opposed the scheme. "I have heard many Latter-day Saints express their disapproval of it, and I must say that I would regret very much to see it placed there," he wrote. For Stewart, like others, the rub was the symbol. Rather than a sign of true Christianity, he saw the cross as Romanish superstition or, worse still, the chilling, apocalyptic "sign of the beast" spoken of in the Book of Revelation.38 A multitude of appropriate pioneer symbols could properly adorn historic Ensign Peak, Stewart thought, "but the cross never."39

Even the parents' class of the influential LDS Twentieth Ward joined the controversy. After a "full and complete discussion," class members unanimously registered their "emphatic protest," which was conveyed in their written memorial. Perhaps a flag-topped obelisk bearing the name of Brigham Young would do. But authorities must not permit a cross on Ensign Peak's incline.40 Faced by the growing hostile tide, the church quietly dropped its proposal.

> To Charles W Nibley, May 9, 1916, Nibley Papers

3 Wells to Nibley, May 19, 1916

7 Charles Lerane? to Charles W Nibley, May 13, 1916, Nibley Papers

4 Revelation, chaps 13-14

'J Z Stewart to Charles W Nibley, May 30, 1916, Nibley Papers

5 A T Christensen, "Supervisor," to Charles W Nibley, June 14, 1916, Nibley Papers

EnsignPeak17

During the following years, other ideas for anEnsign Peak memorial surfaced Onesuggested a large sign on the hill saying "THIS IS THE PLACE," Brigham Young's aphorism, which perhaps could be blazoned in neon. 41 The 1934 Ensign Stake proposal was less flamboyant Its Mutual Improvement Association suggested a tower monument built ofeight- to twelveinch stones taken from the church's various units and historic sites. The latter, it was suggested, might include large rocks taken from such places asJoseph Smith's Sacred Grove near Palmyra, New York, thefabled temple lot from Independence, Missouri, and sites on the old Mormon pioneer trail.42

The Ensign Stake plan was elaborate It proposed that each stone mortared into the monument should be identified with a metal rivet—or failing that, perhaps a paper outline ofeach could be placed within the memorial On the outside or facade, the recently formed Pioneer Trails and Landmark Association promised a bronze plaque. John D. Giles, the PTLA executive secretary, thought the project would "doubtless be the greatest effort yetundertaken" by the fledgling association.43

The Salt Lake City Commission gave its sanction, while local architect George Cannon Young, a grandson of Brigham Young, provided the design. Most of the eighty main LDS church units complied by sending representative stones, though the Alberta, Canada, Stake,

42 Deseret News, May 23, 1934, p 9

43 Ibid.

A stone monument was erected in 1934 on Ensign Peak. Salt Lake Tribun e photograph in USHS collections.

" Junius F Wells, "Brigham Young's Prevision of Salt Lake Valley," Deseret News, December 20, 1924, Christmas News Section, p. 60.

either through misunderstanding or zeal, shipped an abounding one hundred pounds of material. Seven weeks after the project had been announced, masons put the first stone in place, taken from the old paper mill site at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. A plinth of granite secured from the old Salt Lake Temple quarry served as a base. The entire monument was ready for dedication a week later. It stood a commemorative-fitting 18.47 feet in height, marking, of course, the year of the pioneers' arrival. Its squared foundation was presumably the same dimension.44

Five hundred attended the unveiling on July 26, 1934, and if newspaper reports of the services were accurate, Ensign Peak once more hosted pioneer and patriotic themes. George Albert Smith sketched the history of the first trek to the summit; Anthony W. Ivins, counselor in the LDS First Presidency, recalled his youthful visits to the area when he dug sego lilies for scant nourishment; and Mormon President Heber J Grant reminisced about early Salt Lake City days when Main Street was scarcely more than a "cabbage patch."45 The Reverend John Edward Carver of Ogden provided the non-LDS counterpoint As the main speaker of the day, Carver continued the praise of pioneer virtue. Unlike the nineteenth-century trader and hunter, Utah's settlers had made homes and had transformed the Salt Lake Valley into the "most beautiful city in the world." Carver closed by urging LDS youth to continue the Mormon epic.

Then, with a full moon rising over the eastern mountains, the program closed with the singing of pioneer songs and the lowering of the American flag to the strains of "America."46 "It was very hard climbing [to the top]," said seventy-seven year old Grant after the experience. "But I thoroughly enjoyed the evening's entertainment."47 Apparently several flagpoles were put in place after the building of the Ensign Stake's memorial. In the late 1930s and early 1940s a tall, three-pillared pole rose on the mount, replaced later by a single post erected by the LDS Emigration Stake. In turn, in 1955 the 115th Engineers of the Utah National Guard prepared the foundation for yet another flag tower. Their blasting literally shook parts of the city

and brought a flurry of worried phone calls Then twenty volunteers from the Salt Lake City Fire Department and the Utah Power and Light Company lugged the new 700-pound, 40-foot pole to the summit, which was dedicated in a special Veterans' Day Service in honor of LTtah's servicemen.48 Thereafter, Guardsmen designated six annual events when they planned to fly the flag from the peak: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Pioneer Day, and Veterans' Day.49

While many continued to honor the spot, others were less respectful. Two years after the monument's dedication vandals fired thirty rifle shots into the bronze marker that had been attached on the south side of the stone monument "Many of the letters appear damaged. Too bad," disparaged a letter to the Deseret News. In succeeding years the marker was stolen, while still later the new flagpole was vandalized When members of the United Veterans Council hiked to the top of Ensign Peak to place a bronze plaque on the pole they found that pranksters had battered its locks and partially cut its cable. Both had to be replaced "Youngsters are only hurting themselves when they damage an American flagpole," one of the veterans lamented. "It's their flag that flies from that pole." Such destructive acts became commonplace to the poles and memorial on the summit.50

There were other indignities. From the start of the century businessmen had tried to exploit the promontory "An automobile at the top of Ensign Peak!" began a 1910 newspaper article. "That was where a Velie '40' was Tuesday, and no other car had been there before which simply proves that to a good, reliable car there is no such word as 'can't.'" Not to be outdone, two weeks later the picture of a competing automobile also appeared in the newspaper. Said the supporting caption: "A great deal of excitement was caused the past week when the Randall-Dodd Automobile company drove a model 10 Buick to the top of Ensign Peak. ... A year ago it was thought an impossibility to drive a car up the steep incline, but machines are made so perfect nowadays that hills do not prove much of an obstacle for the average driver."51 The gimmick was successful enough to bring

48 Deseret News and Telegram, November 8, 1955, p 2B.

49 Deseret News, May 7, 1957, p 12

50 C V Hansen in Deseret News, October 21, 1936, p 4 In 1992 the original plaque was found supposedly in a West Jordan, Utah, chicken coop. See Deseret News, LDS Church News Section, October 17, 1992, pp. 4, 7.

51 Salt Lake Tribune, March 10, 1910, p 4, and March 27, 1910, p 18

VELIE AUTOMOBILE CLIMBS ENSIGN PEAK

AUTOMOBILE ON ENSKIN' TEAK

From the Salt Lake Tribune, March 10, 1910.

another imitator. A Thor motorcycle with a passenger in a sidecar made it to the peak's flagpole in 1916 "An impossible feat for any previous motorcycle" was the boast.52

More disturbing, members of the Ku Klux Klan used Ensign Peak to further their purposes. Despite the on-going opposition of LDS and most Utah civic leaders to their cause, Klansmen in 1925 staged a nighttime Washington's Birthday recruiting parade in the capital city The event was heralded by a suddenly appearing, burning cross on Ensign Peak. Then a cavalcade of hooded and robed Klansmen, estimated to number several hundred, wove its way through downtown Salt Lake City.

Two months later an even more dramatic KKK event unfolded. On the evening of April 6, 1925—a date chosen to coincide with influx of visitors to the semiannual Mormon General Conference—startled Salt Lake City citizens once more saw Ensign Peak aglow, this time with several large KKK crosses that were starkly visible throughout the valley. Beneath these fiery tokens on the semilevel flats below, "thousands" of Klansmen met that evening in a formal Konklave. The

ceremony centered around two altars, about five hundred yards apart, where induction into the Klan's various orders took place. A circular sentry line of Klansmen, estimated to be a mile long, gave anonymity to the participants and their parked automobiles.

A KKK spokesman pronounced Utah's first Konklave to be "in every way a great success." It certainly seemed so In addition to the assembled Klansmen, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Utahns watched the event on the Ensign Peak downs, just beyond the KKK pickets, while still more observed from the valley. The "pageantry, mysterious garb, mystical ritual, fiery crosses, billowing flag displays, and martial music presented a spectacular sight," a historian of the Klan later wrote. To be sure, the nocturnal ceremony had an effect. For the next several days Salt Lakers were "talking Klan and thinking Klan," though the movement never established deep or long-lasting roots in the state.53

The Klan was not the only organization to use Ensign Peak Salt Lake City's West High School used its slopes to place timbers in an "W" configuration; the wood was periodically burned when the school had a special celebration And rumors circulated that Mormon Fundamentalists secretly used the place. Denied entry to LDS temples, so the story went, these LDS dissenters recalled Brigham Young's 1849 consecration of Ensign Peak for prayer and the endowment ceremony and performed such ordinances there themselves.54 A mysterious flag, flown from the peak six months after the start of the Second World War, seemed to lend credence to these rumors. This banner—probably a Fundamentalist standard—had thirteen red and purple stripes and a dark blue canton containing forty-eight, seven-pointed gold stars and a larger, truncated gold star in the middle bearing the insignia "United Israel of America." Arnry officials confiscated it from the local police for "investigation," and in the excitable spirit of the time cryptically refused to comment on the "possibilities of the flag's designer and what it stood for."55

Commercial interests also tried to use Ensign Peak for their purposes. One business hoped to put several large, electric advertising

53 Larry R Gerlach, Blazing Crosses in Zion: The Ku Klux Klan in Utah (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1982), pp. 104-9.

51 Franklin D Richards Diary, July 23, 1849, LDS Church Archives Immediately after Young's dedicatory prayer, Addison Pratt, already called to a South Seas LDS proselyting mission, received his endowment on the peak The tradition of other LDS endowments being performed there during the nineteenth century is preserved in the Deseret Neivs, July 24, 1897, p 9

55 Salt Lake Tribune, June 4, 1941, p. 13.

Confiscated United Israel of America flag displayed by, left to right, Sgt. Larson, Officer Springer, Capt. Carter, Put. C. L. Ping, Sgt. Steinfeldt, Allen George, and Lt. William A. Cody, provost marshal at Fort Douglas. Salt Lake Tribune photograph in USHS collections.

signs on the crest of the hill. The city commission rejected this proposal. Then an oil refining company returned with a new proposal, thinly disguised as a public service project The company promised to build a huge, flashing billboard on the summit that would encourage safe driving, asking only to prominently feature its trademark and name on the sign.56

These efforts raised several important questions. What was the best use of Ensign Peak land? Should commercial development or historic preservation receive the highest priority? The answers were not always environmentally sensitive. During the latter part of the twentieth century sand and gravel companies continued to gnaw at the mount's western slope Moreover, some traffic planners hoped to construct a multilane "Bonneville Drive," which, if built, would require deep and scarring cuts on the west and south sides of the hill or a three-mile tunnel burrowed near the peak Southbound Davis County traffic, they explained, needed better access to Salt Lake City.57

For a moment there was even talk of mining ore on the peak

During the uranium boom of the 1950s one prospector who claimed to hold mineral rights to some of the area hoped for a big strike. "We've had some determinations," he said The ore "is there, but we don't know in what quantity or quality."58 Such expansive rumors had

56 Salt Lake Tribune, March 25, 1952, p 9, and December 7, 1952, sec C, p 10

57 Deseret News, March 14, 1974, p 2B, and April 24, 1974, p 2D The length of the proposed tunnel, later shortened, proved too costly to build and the scheme was abandoned

58 C L Singleton in Salt Lake Tribune, March 30, 1956, p 8B

a precedent During the nineteenth century gold miners had pocked the hill with exploratory caverns and left tailings scattered across the hillside. Even the remnant of a cart road, used to take their mining machinery to the northern bench, remained visible.59

During World War I officials had tried to extract another kind of resource from the Ensign Peak bench. As City Commissioner Herman H. Green explained in June 1917: "In the present war situation, with increased food production a crying demand, I think it would be a little short of criminal to allow the [Ensign] flat to remain idle when it will produce grain." To carry out the enterprise, Green secured the "expert opinion" of University of Utah PresidentJohn A. Widtsoe, the loan of a state tractor, and several "gang plows" to aid the machinepowered machinery They city expected that 20,000 bushels of turkey red wheat could be dry farmed on 1,500 acres below the summit.60

None of the efforts had a permanent effect on the landscape. By the early 1950s the land north of the State Capitol remained largely intact—a "barren, wind-swept hill country" reserved for the eventual creation of a city park That at least was the repeated hope of several city officials. But such a prospect was threatened by growing land values. "The same topographic advantages which gave the peak area its historical significance have long drawn covetous glances from real estate men who know a good subdivision site when they see one," observed the Salt LakeTelegram. Indeed, the area promised to be "one of the most magnificent residential areas of the country."61

With such a valuable asset on their hands city officials equivocated. By 1952 Salt Lake City badly needed a new water purification plant in City Creek Canyon, and until one could be built the area was closed to recreation. Perhaps the Ensign flats land might be sold to finance City Creek water development, which in turn would reopen one of the area's old picnic spots. "What finer parting gesture could Ensign Flats make than to help out a fellow 'old-timer' in trouble," the Telegram thought.62

Evidently this rationale persuaded the city commission to act. It sold several hundred acres of the land immediately below Ensign Peak to a group of Salt Lake City businessmen in an uncompetitive

60 Salt Lake Telegram, June 29, 1917, 2d sec, p 10

61 Salt Lake Telegram, June 11, 1952, p. 12, and March 18, 1953.

62 Salt Lake Telegram, June 11, 1952, p. 12.

59 James Aitken, Erom the Clyde to California with Jottings by the Way (Greenock, Scotland: William Johnston, 1882), p 55

sale, which at the time rankled the Salt Lake Real Estate Board, the Utah Home Builders Association, and the Chamber of Commerce. 6 3

In later years the move equally angered preservationists, who censured the controversial deal as a breach of the city's long-standing aim of placing a park on the north bench.

For its part, the city claimed a memorial was still in its plans—if not on the recently sold land, at least on the summit There, officials promised, "something really splendid" would be worked out, with access routes and observation facilities for a "fitting monument." The proposed park would celebrate history and at the same time offer a vantage point of "unmatched beauty and inspiration."64 A half-dozen years later the National Guard seemed ready to help. As a training exercise it offered to build a road to the top of the peak that would open its "scenic and tourist" resources Such a scheme, predicted the Salt LakeTribune, "would prove quite an attraction."65

Those hoping to preserve the land were unsure of the city's resolve. This historical site must never be used for "commercial or for mercenary purposes," the Sons of the Utah Pioneers insisted. "It must be developed into a beautiful and sacred shrine where visitors may be made acquainted with the purpose for which it was dedicated."66 To ensure such a result, Wilford C Wood, a Bountiful furrier and historical collector, offered to buy Ensign Peak in 1955, but the city declined The "land atop Ensign Peak is destined to become a city park," Park Commissioner L. C. Romney once more affirmed.67

In the early 1960s an ambitious plan for a "memorial, public pavilion, information center, and outstanding landmark" rivaling the "This Is the Place" Monument was drawn by Salt Lake architect Roger M. Van Frank and received the support of such community boosters as Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr. The blueprint called for the surface of the summit to be paved with a giant concrete observation deck on which an "ultra-modern" building would be placed Its roof, explained Van Frank, was designed to mark the exact crossing of the pioneer eastwest, north-south meridians that had begun the nineteenth-century Utah land survey. Others attributed still greater significance to the location. "It would honor the spot where Brigham Young made his final

63 Deseret News and Telegram, March 18, 1953, p 12A

61 Ibid

m Salt Lake Tribune, October 21, 1959, p 20

66 "Brigham Young Foresaw Mount Ensign," Pioneer 5 (July-August 1953): 16-17, 50

"7 Salt Lake Tribune,July 13, 1955, p 25

decision to settle the valley," reported the Deseret News, "where some people believe the Mormon leader may actually have made his famous remark, 'This is the place.'" Unfortunately, this project, like the various ideas for an Ensign Peak park, died due to the lack of community support.68

Thirty years later the promise remained unfulfilled. Ajoint resolution of the Utah State Legislature called for the preservation of the area, and the current developer, Ensign Peak Incorporated, traded over sixty acres to the city to permit the building of a parking lot at the base of the peak and a hiking trail to the crest To assist this work a citizen's foundation was organized. It quickly abandoned the old ideas of a summit-climbing automobile road and the construction of a large memorial on the top Instead, foundation and city officials spoke of a nature and history walk that would allow future Utahns and tourists to savor Ensign Peak in a state similar to that of 1847.69 To initiate these plans the foundation once more sponsored Pioneer Day community hikes reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s The July 26, 1993, ceremony included LDS General Authorities Gordon B. Hinckley and Loren C. Dunn, Salt Lake City Councilwoman Nancy Pace, and state legislator Frank Pignanelli Crowd estimates ranged as high as 1,400. The new development was scheduled for the state's 1996 centennial celebration.70

Whatever its future, Ensign Peak has already played an important role in the history of Salt Lake City and the wider Utah community During the twentieth century it had pitted religious traditionalists and historians. Later, during its Christian cross controversy, the peak had briefly set at odds Mormon leaders and unmalleable followers. Still later, it put commercial boosters and preservationists in opposition to each other. Through all these twists and turns Ensign Peak, as symbol and site, has conveyed aspects of Utah's popular culture.

68 Deseret News, December 15, 1962, B7 The plan included a "perpetuating fund" for the future upkeep of the memorial

69 Deseret News, LDS Church News Section, October 17, 1992, pp 4, 7

70 Salt Lake Tribune, July 27, 1993, p. B3; Deseret News, July 27-28, 1993, and LDS Church News Section, July 31, 1993, pp 3, 6

The Wasters and Destroyers:

Community-sponsored Predator Control in Early Utah Territory

BY VICTOR SORENSEN

Monday, 25th [December 1848] Th e reports of guns were heard in every direction, which is nothing uncomo n about chrismas times, but insted of waisting their Powder as usual on such ocasions, hundred s of Ravens no doubt were killed on that day. Th e Boys being full of shoot as well [as] the Spirit of the Hun t went it steep. 1

THI S EXCERPT FROM JOHN D. LEE'S JOURNAL records the first shots fired in one of the major battles of man's war on predatory animals in Utah Territory The following study of two community-sponsored predator hunts that took place during the early settlement of Utah—one in the Salt Lake Valley and another in Cache Valley—will provide a narrative of the hunts, explain why they took place, and explore why they were

Mr. Sorensen lives in Hyde Park, Utah.

1 Robert Glass Cleland and fuanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries ofJohn D. Lee, 1848-1876, 2 vols (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1955), 1:85

Nauvoo Legion encampment, undated. Some members of this citizen army participated in the winter 1848-49 predator hunt, although the legion had not been reorganized in Utah at that time. USHS collections.

carried out in a particular fashion. In almost any historical event, multiple factors contribute to create and give meaning to what has happened In the case of these hunts, factors ranging from survival to hatred of predatory animals must be considered.

As the Mormon pioneers prepared for their second winter in the Salt Lake Valley, church leaders took steps to secure the community's livestock and foodstuffs against the uncertainties of frontier life in their new community. Early in December 1848, due to problems with wolves, foxes, ravens, and other animals, "it was considered advisable for rival companies to be organized to destroy the same."2 Entrusted to carry out this plan was the Council of Fifty. This body, made up of prominent leaders of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was organized byJoseph Smith in 1844 to act as the political or civil arm of the kingdom of God. In conjunction with the leaders of the Salt Lake Stake, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the First Presidency of the church, the Council of Fifty played a critical role in the preterritorial government of Utah.

John D. Lee, a member of the council, recorded in his journal the proceedings of that group as it debated the issue of predator control:

Amoung the Many, Th e wasters and destroyers was taken into consideration, to wit, the wolves, wildcats, catamounts, Pole cats, minks, Bear, Panthers, Eagles, Hawks, owls, crow or Ravens & magpies, which are verry numerous & not only troublesome but destructive. 3

To remedy the problem, Brigham Young appointed John D Lee and John Pack to be captains of two competing teams consisting of one hundred men each to make war on the predators. Thomas Bullock was designated as clerk to keep the whole affair in order.

On Christmas Eve 1848 Bullock and Pack went to John D Lee's home to make the proper arrangements for the hunt. They drafted the "Articles of Agreement for Extermination of Birds & Beasts" as well as a list of hunters who were to participate.4 In this document the rules and rewards of the hunt were defined:

Articles of Agreement between Captains Joh n D Lee and Joh n Pack, made this 24th day of December, 1848, to carry on a war of extermination

2 Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereinafter JH), December 7, 1848, microfilm copy in Special Collections, Merrill Library, Utah State University, Logan

' Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:82

4 Edith Jenkins Romney, ed., "Thomas Bullock Diaries," December 24, 1848, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City

against all the ravens, hawks, owls, wolves, foxes, etc., now alive in the valley of the Great Salt Lake Firstly; it is agreed that the two companies shall participate in a social dinner with their ladies, to be made in the house of said Joh n Pack, on a day to be hereafter name d and to be paid for, by the company that produces the least numbe r of game

Secondly; the game shall count as follows, the right wing of a raven counting one, a hawk or owl two, the wings of an eagle five, the skin of a minx or pole cat five, the skin of a wolf, fox, wild cat, or catamount ten, the pelt of a bear or panther fifty. No game shall be counted that has been killed previous to this date

Thirdly; the skins of the animals, and the wings of the birds, shall be produced by each hunte r at the recorder's office, on the 1st day of February, 1849, at 10 a.m. for examination and counting at which time the day for recreation will be appointed

Fourthly; Isaac Morley and Reynolds Cahoon shall be the judges or counters of the game, and to designate the winners and Thomas Bullock be the clerk to keep a record of each man's skill, and to publish a list of the success of each individual

Fifthly; the ma n who produces the most proofs of his success shall receive a public vote of thanks on the day of the feast.5

The list of hunters is an interesting document in itself. Those familiar with Utah or LDS church history will recognize many of the names. Brigham Young, Willard Richards, and Heber C. Kimball constituted the First Presidency. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, leaders of the Salt Lake Stake, and other important men in the community are also well represented Significantly, thirty-five of the participants were members of the Council of Fifty, as were the clerk, both judges, and both team captains, leaving no doubt that this was a Council of Fifty affair.6

On Christmas Day 1848 the shooting began. News of the hunt must have spread by word of mouth because the "Articles of Agreement" and the list of hunters were not made public until that evening when John Pack took them down to the old fort to post them, along with a "Notice to hunters to have a Field Dayon Monday next."7

Little detailed information exists to tell us how the hunt proceeded.John D. Lee, team captain, who kept an activejournal during this time, makes no mention of any hunting activity personally. The only record forthcoming of personal participation comes from a man

' JH, December 24, 1848 The Articles of Agreement and its accompanying list are found in both the Journal History and in John D Lee's journals with only minor discrepancies

6 D Michael Quinn, "The Council of Fifty and Its Members, 1844 to 1945," Brigham Young University Studies 20 (Winter 1980): 193-97

' Romney, "Thomas Bullock Diaries," December 25, 1848

J.D Lee

LIST OF HUNTERS

J Pack

J. D. Lee

Heber C. Kimble

W Richards

P.P Pratt

John Young

Edward Ellsworth

Gardner Potter

Seth Dodge

Aron Farr

Samuel Cams

David Cams

Wm A Pirkins

J.S. Fulmer

Horace Draker

Orson Drake

Jas Allerd

W.K Rice

Peter W Conover

David Fulmer

Jas Orr

Hosea Stout

Chas Kenedy

Jas Davis

A.C Brower

Samel Turnbow

Levi Stewart

Henry Gipson

Wm Bird

Justin Shepherd

Gilbreth Haws

Jas Gorden

Angus Dodge

Samuel Caldwell

John D Holyday

Alexander Williams

Seth Tanner

Stephen Chipman

Washburn Chipman

Isaac Morly.Jr.

John Scott

J.M Grant

S Keeler

Williard Snow

Jefferson Edmunds

Ethen Pettitt

Alexander Harriss

Wm Woodland

Wm G Perkins

Robert Campbell

Geo. Bean

Jas. Ivie

Jud Stadard

Franklin Ivie

John Higbee

Wm Norton

Edward Walters

Samuel Campbell

Robert Owens

Wm Matthews

Wm Croasby

A.P Dowdle

Jackson Allen

Francis Williams

Jos. L. Haywoode

CP Lott

Shadraich Holdaway

W.G. Pain

Ebneezer Brown

H.S Eldridge

John Bankhead

F.D Richards

Eprain Pearson

Richard Bush

[ ] Pace

Sandford Porter

Wm McKowen

Lorenzo Snow

W.W Phelps

Wm Clayton

J.L. Smith

Chas. Decker

A.P. Free

Wm. Lammy

Z.W Sparks

J.S Allen

Joel Ricks

E.D Wooley

Daniel McArthur

Z.W Rasacrance

Jefferson Hunt

J.W Hickerson

T.S Williams

Zerah Pulcipher

John Pack

B. Young

A Seymour

John Taylor

John Smith

Edward Hunter

Wm Potter

P Sessions

Jas Brown

G.D Grant

C.C Rich

Daniel Cams

D.H. Wells

Alex. Boss

Sandford Bingham

Hecter Haight

Fatter Drake

I.C Haicht

Thos Bingham

Chancy West

Chas Shumway

M.D Hamilton

Shadrach Roundy

B.F.Johnson

A. Rice

OP. Rockwell

Darwin Richardson

Vincent Shirtliff

[ ] Robbins

Daniel Spencer

Andrew Cahoon

Wm Empy

Jos Matthews

Jas M Flake

John Holladay

John Vancott

Lorenzo Young

Hyram Gates

Levi Reed

Wm. Kimble

Liwis Robbinson

Erastus Snow

Jazareel Shewmaker

Brown Crow

James Richey

Allen Smithson

Moses Thurston

John Norton

Loren Walker

Wm Brown

E.K Fuller

Daniel Hendrix

Isaac Higbee

Thos Bingham

J.A Armstrom

Elijah Clifford

John Kay

Bur Frost

J.M. Burnhisal

Albert Carrington

Jacob Gates

Abraham Conover

P.B Lewis

John Topham

Young Boyce

Schyler Jennings

Benj F Mitchel

Chas C Burr

Wm M Lamon

Jas Beck

Daniel M Thomas

Francis McKowen

Jos P Fielding

Phinehas Richards

Geo. B. Wallace

Young Thomas

Claudiaus V. Spencer

Chas Chapman

Isaac Lancy

Loran Farr

Thomas Richey

Simeon A Dean

James Craig

Samuel Wooley

Barnabas L Adams

Albert Petty

Hanson Walker

Lorenzo Twitchell

Nathanil Fairbank

Dimick Huntington

Abraham Washburn

John Brown

N.K Whitney

who is not found on the list of hunters. Thomas Bullock's journal entry for December 26 reads: "The brethren busy shooting the Crows ... in afternoon T.B. [Thomas Bullock] & R.C. [Reynolds Cahoon] go out on shooting foray, the Crows very wild secured 5 wings. ..." With Bullock and Cahoon serving as clerk and judge of the competition respectively, it seems odd that they would also be shooting Perhaps the early days of the hunt were something of a free-for-all. Writing from Salt Lake City on January 1, 1849,John L. Smith noted that "There is a general raid by the settlers on bears, wolves, foxes, crows, hawks, eagles, magpies and all ravenous birds and beasts."8 The fact that Bullock made at least a third "Agreement and list of Shooters" on December 27 shows that the hunt was still being defined.

In reality the teams were never composed of 100 men each. The lists vary between 186 and 209 names, but only 84 men ever turned in hides and wings to be counted Most of the men on the lists would not have found time to participate, especially those with pressing duties in their ecclesiastic, civic, and personal lives.After all, the individuals did not volunteer; rather, their names were chosen by the organizers. 1 JH, January

John Pack from A Bit of Pack History or Biography by WehrliD. Pack (1969).

John D. Lee. USHS collections.

Many of the notables on the lists were probably there purely out of respect and the prestige of having them associated with one's team. Others may have felt like Hosea Stout who, upon learning that he was chosen to participate, "declined to accept the office not feeling very war-like at this time."9

Despite a lack of information about the details of the hunt, the final figures grimly attest that it was carried out with success. During the month ofJanuary one alteration in the rules did occur, according to Lee's journal:

During the intermission of the council, the Hunters made such rapid havock, among the Wolves & Foxes especially, that it was thought best by the captains of the Hun t to continue slaying one mount h longer, which was aggreeable to the wish of the feelings of the council Th e Capts. however met on the first day of Feb. to notify their Men of the last arraingement. 1 0

March 1, the day appointed for counting the game, was clear and mild by all accounts. Thomas Bullock kept a record and a tally of the day's proceedings:

Captns. Pack & Lee with Fars. Morley & Cahoon as Counters 8c T.B. Clerk at Office to receive Game when the brethren brought as follows

Lee protested that roughly two thirds of his men were not accounted for, "not having notice in time; but the greater part of Capt. John Pack's game was brought in on that day." Not ready to give in, Lee probably petitioned the Council to make the final day of counting

9Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, 2 vols (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1964), 2:338

10 Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:87

11 Romney, "Thomas Bullock Diaries," March 1, 1849 The 84 people referred to on the list under "total killed" were, of course, total participants.

March 5, for on March 3 the council voted that "those persons who had not already reported the amount of game they had killed in the late hunt, have the privilege of counting the same on the following Monday at the Council house."12

Things seemed to be getting a little out of hand at this point. Lee recorded that on the morning of March 5,

Wolves, Foxes, mi[n]ks 8cc.8c the wings of Raven, Magpies, Hawks, owls

8c Eagles were roling in to the clerk's office in every direction to be counted, each Hunte r eager to gain the contest. At 4 P.M. poles closed, giving J.D Lee a majority of two thousand five hundre d 8c 43 skelps Th e entir No brought on both sides was estimated between Fourteen & Fifteen Thousand." 1 3

Bullock recorded it a little differently:

I. Morley - R. Cahoon -J.D. Lee & J. Pack in Office to meet the Hunters 8c count Scalps &c when the amoun t was counted, but on account of cheating I cannot record the exact amount but refer to the list-14

The "list" probably refers to the figures found in the Journal History, which gives a final inventory of the hunt's success as follows:

Joh n D Lee's company of 37 persons had killed 516 wolves, 238 foxes, 20 minks, 4 eagles, 173 magpies, and 439 ravens, which were considered equivilent to 8455 ravens and that Joh n Pack's company of 47 persons had killed 2 bears, 2 wolverine, 2 wildcats, 267 wolves, 171 foxes, 11 minks, 5 eagles, 359 magpies, hawks, and owls, and 687 ravens, equivalent to 5912 ravens; thus Lee's company claiming a count of 2543 ravens [majority] Total killed by both companies, 2 bears, 2 wolverines, 2 wild cats, 783 wolves, 409 foxes, 31 minks, 9 eagles, 530 magpies, hawks, and owls, and 1026 ravens. 1 5

The hunt may have achieved its objective of destroying many animals the pioneers considered threatening to their welfare, but the agreed-upon festivities and vote of thanks never came to pass.John D. Lee noted:

Thos. Williams on Capt. J.D. Lee's Side, won the vote of thank[s] by a majority of about 300 skolps He brought in about 2100 skelps Capt J

12 Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:97; JH, March 3, 1849

13 Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:100

14 Romney, "Thomas Bullock Diaries," March 5, 1849

lnJH, March 5, 1849. This list does not give an accurate description of the biological diversity existing in the Salt Lake Valley at the time Coyotes were undoubtedly killed by the hunters but counted as wolves or foxes Ermine and weasels were probably counted as mink And terms as general as fox, hawk, owl, and eagle make no distinction for specific species

Pack was rather wo[r]sted 8c sadly disapointed when he found that on e 100 me n beat two Tribes of Indians & the white Tribe of the valley However n o insinuations Th e hun t resulted in good. 1 6

Lee, regardless of his denial, does insinuate that Pack lost despite cheating byenlisting thehelp ofIndians. In allfairness, Leeis suspect as well It was, in all likelihood, Lee who favored moving the dayof counting from February 1 to March 1 and later from March 1 to March 5.17 Both moves were to hisadvantage AndTom Williams,who almost single-handedly put Lee's team on top, was a man whohas been credited byonehistorian asbeing able to "steal anything from a hen on her roost to a steamboat engine."18 However, no insinuations. Actually, cheating and dishonesty have a long tradition in the predator control business. Early bounty laws hadtobe carefully constructed to prevent fraud by those whowould try to collect on the same wolf more than once. 19

Regardless of who cheated whom, the promised dinner never took place due to the squabbling of the captains Andthe public vote of thanks wasnot forthcoming because of the "unsavory reputation" that TomWilliams had built for himself over the years. 20 With that, this particular episode in the "war of extermination" came to a close.

As the Mormon settlers continued to spread throughout the Intermountain West they often faced the same hardships that beleaguered the original pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. During the late 1850s and early 1860s the first settlers moved into the Cache Valley some ninety miles north of Salt Lake City. Notlong after their arrival problems with the fur-bearing residents of the valley resulted in another campaign to rid the area of predators Information about this Cache Valley hunt isvery sketchy and is taken entirely from reminiscences recorded decades after the fact Even the year it occurred is subject to debate But enough information exists to allow for a comparison with theSalt Lake hunt

One source says thehunt took place "about 1868,"butthat seems quite late considering thevalley hadbeen settled for almost ten years

16 Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:100

17 JH, February 20, 1849

18 Juanita Brooks, John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer, Builder, Scapegoat (Glendale, Calif.: A H Clark Co., 1964), p 142

19 William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (New York: Hill and Wang, 1983), p 133

20 Brooks, John Doyle Lee, p. 142.

by then.21 Thomas Irvine, a participant in the hunt, while not mentioning any date, places "the big wolf hunt" between 1860 and 1863 in his recollections of early events in the valley.

As in Salt Lake, the hunt in Cache Valley was competitive Two groups were organized by dividing the valley into North and South teams with Logan, the principal town, also being divided. A certain point value was attached to the targeted species as well. When the hunt ended there was to be a dinner and dance held at the expense of the losing team.22

Some confusion exists as to who led the teams Joel Ricks,Jr., lists Thomas E. Ricks as captain for the North and Moses Thatcher as captain for the South. Another source lists Thomas E. Ricks as captain of the South and Sylvanus Collett as captain for the North.23 The latter arrangement seems most likely for reasons that will be explained later The mention of Moses Thatcher suggests that he was involved in some way and gives more weight to an earlier date than 1868 for the event since Thatcher was serving a mission for the LDS church in England that year.

The hunt took place during the winter when wolves and coyotes could be more easily pursued in deep snow:

Th e me n took advantage of such an occasion and hundred s mounte d horses for the contest and made a careful search through the fields of the valley Hundred s of coyotes and wolves were killed with heavy clubs and guns. Th e north side won and the South side had to treat to a big dance and feed.24

From the accounts, wolves and coyotes appear to have been the principal targets of the hunt, but crows and foxes are also mentioned, and it is quite probable that all predatory birds and animals were included. This hunt seems to have incorporated more team effort in driving the targeted animals into a concentrated area—a style known as a ring hunt—whereas the Salt Lake hunt was more of an individual effort, unless the "field day" called for by Thomas Bullock onJanuary 1, 1849, was also a day for a collective effort to concentrate the targeted species.

21 M. R. Hovey, An Early History of Cache County (Logan, Ut.: Logan Chamber of Commerce, 1925), p 65

22 Joel Ricks, Jr., "Some Recollections Relating to the Early Pioneer Life of Logan City and Cache County," pp. 7-8, 60, typescript, Special Collections, Merrill Library, Utah State University.

23 Hovey, An Early History of Cache County, p 65

24 Ibid

Although there are a few differences, both hunts were carried out in a similar fashion. The Cache Valley hunt was likely modeled after the Salt Lake hunt. This was due, in large part, to the fact that Thomas E Ricks and his father, Joel Ricks, Sr., participated in the Salt Lake hunt, their names appearing on at least one of the two lists of hunters. The Salt Lake hunt was not a novel idea either. Community efforts to eradicate wolves and other predators have occurred since colonial times on this continent and had even deeper roots in Europe. Most of the participants in both of the Utah hunts had spent much of their lives on the American frontier where the side hunt, a type of competitive event in which points are earned for bagging certain species, was a popular pastime.25 The only thing that distinguished the Salt Lake and Cache Valley events from their larger American context was the level of organization. Collective organization, such as having captains of one hundred, characterized almost all Mormon endeavors, be it overland migration, constructing canals, or eradicating "noxious vermin."

Thomas E. Ricks from Snake River Echoes, vol. 5, no. 1 (1976).

Sylvanus Collett. USHS collections.

25 Cronon, Changes in the Land, p 133; James A Tober, Who Oivns the Wildlife?: The Political Economy of Conservation in Nineteenth-century America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981), p 16

These hunts occurred for a variety of reasons. Although some factors weigh more heavily than others, no single one can fully explain these events It was not merely a hatred of predatory animals, neither was it purely a means of survival. Only by evaluating a combination of beliefs and circumstances can we come to understand the hunts.

The Salt Lake hunt of 1848-49 was not the first time the settlers had waged war on the predators of the valley. During their first year in the valley Lorenzo Young reported, "I spread some strychnine about, and in the morning found fourteen white wolves dead."26 James Smithies, another resident of the valley in 1847-48, noted in his diary for February 22, 1848:

Hard frost, the Bell did ring about day Break for the people to gather together and then to start on a woolf hun t - Bro Wipple and my self went over the river Jorda n to look for the cows when we got over we see 2 woolfs at a ox which they had destroyed , 27

Mormon settlers were constantly on guard against predators, but the formal organization and timing of the hunt in 1848-49 may be attributed to the harshness of that notorious winter. The hunt differed from previous attempts at predator control in its scope and intensity. The shortage of food and relative destitution of most residents in the valley allow for a utilitarian analysis of this hunt, because many of the animals killed were also put to some sort of use. Priddy Meeks mentions some of the things that provided sustenance during these hard times:

I shot hawks and crows and they ate well I would go and search the mire holes and find cattle dead and fleece off what meat I could get and eat it. We used wolf meat, which I thought was good. 2 8

Other extant accounts attest to the consumption of this unusual, but welcome, table fare.29 It seems that in the winter of 1848-49 one way to "keep the wolf from the door" was to kill and eat it.

The settlers extracted other resources from the hunts, including crow quills for writing and hides, for which a variety of uses could be found. Brigham Young suggested gathering some of the fox skins to make a sleigh robe for Col. Thomas Kane, who befriended the Mormons in more than one time of need And in a cash short economy,

2h Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco: The History Company, 1890), p 277

2/James Smithies' Diary, February 22, 1848, microfilm, LDS Church Archives

28 J Cecil Alter, ed., "Journal of Priddy Meeks," Utah Historical Quarterly 10 (1942): 163

29 Church Educational System, Church History in the Fulness of Times (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1989), pp. 342-43.

the Salt Lake Stake High Council's decision to allow wolf and fox skins to be turned in for a tithing credit of one dollar each made such hides legal tender for a time.30

Wolves and other predators were also direct competitors with the settlers for game animals. As early as the second and third years, big game was becoming scarce around Salt Lake Valley Hunters often had to travel many miles from the valley to find elk, deer, and antelope. Certainly the pioneers felt that killing off the competition would result in an increase in wild game It may have done just that had not the constant flow of new settlers and California-bound travelers and the continued subsistence needs of the local Native Americans placed such a strain on big game populations.31

Another avenue for analysis that cannot be overlooked is the military aspect of these hunts The use of words such as raid, campaign, war, and captain in relation to these hunts may seem merely descriptive, but evidence suggests that it goes deeper than that. Hunting has frequently served as military training Hunting societies are often warrior societies. Skills obtained through hunting have direct applications to the martial arts, be it in horsemanship or the handling of weapons. 32 The hunts in early Utah may have served the same purpose

Every adult male capable of bearing arms was required to be a member of the militia in Utah Territory. This being the case, everyone who participated in the hunts was also a militiaman. The Nauvoo Legion, as the Utah Territorial Militia was called, had not been officially reorganized in Utah when the Salt Lake hunt began. Had there been an official military organization the hunt may have been conducted by it instead of the Council of Fifty As it was, the hunt may have served as a selection process for the militia that was organized just weeks later. Most of the high-level officers were men whose names are also found on the list of hunters.33 More interesting and informative is the fate of the hunt captains, John Pack and John D. Lee. Commenting on the organization of the militia, Hosea Stout recorded the following in his journal:

30 Romnev, "Thomas Bullock Diaries," March 16, 19, 1849; Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:99-100.

31 David Rich Lewis, "Plowing a Civilized Furrow: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change among the Northern Ute, Hupa, and Papago People," (Ph.D diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1988), pp 131-32

32 Thomas A. Lund, American Wildlife Law (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), p. 5.

53 Hamilton Gardner, "The Utah Territorial Militia," pp 155-57, in Hamilton Gardner Collection, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.

On e circumstance took place today which I never saw before Joh n Pack & Joh n D Lee were each put in nomination for Majors by regular authority 8c both most contemptestously hissed down. When any person is thus duly nominated I never before knew the people to reject it But on this occasion it appears that they are both a perfect stink in every body's nose Th e reasons of which is not needful to relate. 3 4

It is clear that Pack and Lee were not considered fit for high-level military service due to the way in which the hunt concluded.35

In late February, before the hunt came to a close, the first bloody engagement between the Mormons and the Tumpanuwac Ute Indians occurred in Utah Valley. A company of men were dispatched from Salt Lake to pursue a band of Utes who had killed some cattle belonging to the settlers Five out of the seven men who were officers in this paramilitary organization are found on the list of hunters, including the commander John Scott.36

The direct link between the militia and these hunts is even more obvious in Cache Valley. There is reason to believe that this hunt was carried out by the cavalry regiment of the Cache Militia or the Minutemen, a mounted group of men that served as the front-line component of the valley's defense prior to the official organization of the Cache Military District in 1865. As noted earlier, the men were on horseback in this hunt More important, the only five names mentioned in connection with this event are also found on the militia muster rolls as members of the cavalry regiment Thomas E Ricks and Sylvanus Collett, two suggested team captains, were colonel and lieutenant colonel of that regiment, respectively, its highest-ranking officers.37

It is not implausible that the militia was used for such purposes. The militia had been called out to watch livestock and build enclosures for them in addition to their principal duty of defensive (and offensive) moves against the Indians. Grizzly bears, numerous during the early days in Cache Valley, also had skirmishes with the militia, albeit by accident more than anything else Thomas Irvine recorded that two grizzlies interrupted a militia drill near Logan. Someone had chased the bears onto the drill grounds and "bullets were soon flying in every

34 Brooks, On the Mormon Frontier, p 351 :ta Davis Bitton, The Redoubtable John Pack: Pioneer, Proselyter, Patriarch ([Salt Lake City]: Joh n Pack Family Assn., 1982), p. 107.

36 Gardner, "The Utah Territorial Militia," pp 145-47

3 ' "Journal of Cache Military District," pp 5-11 , microfilm, Special Collections, Merrill Library, Utah State University

direction." No casualties were reported on either side.38 At a muster on the Logan River in September 1869, militiamen sighted five grizzlies near the camp. The official record reported: "On the Morning of the 22n Lt. Col. Collett with about 22 men well armed and mounted, went out at daylight to fight them. . . ,"39 Although this might seem coincidental, all such evidence together suggests that predator control could and often did serve the purpose of military training

If hunting served as military training and as a means of survival, it also provided recreation and a chance to get together, both for the hunters and their wives at the planned posthunt celebrations. The competitive nature of these hunts and the spoils of victory may be viewed purely as incentives, but frontier Americans would rate a chance for socializing very high on their list of priorities. Why else would Lee and Pack have been censured by the public for not carrying through with the dinner and dance even though their hunt had been a tremendous success in controlling predators?

Foremost in the Mormon pioneers' minds as a reason for having these hunts was the real loss they suffered in livestock and other foodstuffs.John D. Lee pointed out that thousands of dollars worth of grain and livestock had already been lost before the hunt and that many thousands of dollars in cattle were saved by having it Speaking of Cache Valley,Joel Ricks,Jr., said that 'wolves and coyotes were so thick in these first years, that sheep had to be watched and guarded constantly, and young calveswere often killed." Indeed, pioneerjournals attest to the fact that crickets were not the only animals eating precious food that the pioneers considered to be exclusively their own. 40 This was unavoidable The pioneers hunted out the majority of wild game in the region and then replaced itwith domesticated animals that were often easier for predators to catch and kill. It is doubu°ul that settlers lost as much stock to predators as they did to bad weather, lack of proper feed, and Indian depredations, but to people who had brought their domesticated animals so great a distance and who had no ready means to replace them for some time, any loss was worth preventing. Besides, there was nothing they could do about the weather outside of prayer; and while they dealt firmly with Indians who stole or killed cattle, wholesale slaughter was rarely considered a

38 "Utah Territorial Militia Correspondence, 1849-1875," microfilm, no 358, Special Collections, Merrill Library, Utah State University; Ricks, "Pioneer Life of Logan City and Cache County," p 8

39 "Journal of Cache Military District," pp 98-99

40 Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 1:82 100; Ricks, "Pioneer Life of Logan City and Cache County," p 60; "James Smithies' Diary," February 8, 22, 1848

viable option. Predatory animals, on the other hand, were prime candidates for a "war of extermination."

A final reason for these hunts mayhave been based on cultural perceptions. TotheMormon pioneers of the mid-nineteenth century, their new home—where the Rockies met the Great Basin—was a wilderness They did not have the luxury of appreciating wilderness and itsbiological diversity theway we do.They came to make a home, and wildness did not fit into their scheme of things—not wild land nor "wild" men nor wild things They had come to "make the desert blossom asa rose," anda "howling wilderness" stood in theway.41 Howling indeed. Thomas Bullock, just one month prior to the hunt, recorded:

Nov 26 - Wolves had bee n howling throug h the night in G.S.L City

Nov 27 - Th e howling of wolves ha d mad e the night hideous in G.S.L City.42

This howling, a constant reminder of the wilderness they had been forced to take refuge in, was also a factor in precipitating the great predator hunts. The two reasons given by Bullock for initiating the Salt Lake hunt were depredations on livestock andfoodstuffs and because "the citizens in Great Salt Lake City suffered so much annoyance from thewolves howling at night."43

The language used to describe predators and their behavior betrays the pioneers' deep hatred of them. From their perspective predators had no value; they were simply "wasters and destroyers." Wolves did not kill and eat livestock; they "destroyed" it. They made the night "hideous" with their howling, and the man who killed the most of these "ravenous birds and beasts" wasdeserving of a public vote of thanks. The Mormon pioneers were not alone in this sentiment. It was shared by all frontier Americans, probably by all people of all times who made a living from agriculture and stockraising.44

In theend, real andperceived threats that predators posed tothe welfare and progress of young frontier settlements were the driving force behind these hunts. Recreation, military training, and utilitarian aspects were also contributing factors, although they affected the timing andthestyle of the hunts more than anything else

41 Leonard J Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), p 43

42 "History of the Salt Lake Stake," November 26, 27, 1848, microfilm, LDS Church Archives

43 JH, January 14, 1850

44 Barry Lopez, Of Wolves and Men (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978), p. 144.

The impact of the hunts on predator populations was local at best. They came nowhere near their aim of extermination. Just one year after the Salt Lake hunt, officials thought it necessary to impose a bounty on predators in the area. 45 Nevertheless, the environmental changes that occurred in early Utah Territory as a result of decreasing natural predator populations is a subject deserving of continued investigation.

The Salt Lake and Cache Valley hunts were only the most intensive and organized campaigns in a war of attrition carried on for decades to come in Utah and elsewhere in the West. It is probable that similar hunts occurred in other regions of Mormon settlement, and it is certain that random predator control on a more individual basis was common.

There are those today who would consider the pioneers to be the real "wasters and destroyers." But as one writer of man's relationship with wolves has pointed out, "we forget how little, really, separates us from the times and circumstances in which we, too, would have killed wolves."46

"'JH,January 14, 1850.

s Lopez, Of Wolves and Men, p. 138.

Bear hunters of a laterperiod. Unidentified photograph in USHS collections.

yi'ii«i !•—» - Early settlers were urged by the Deseret News to save rags.

DESEREK^EWS.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER SO,18&o: BAGS! RAGS!! RAGS!!'..-; S&Ye ycmr rugs, eYeiyboa/.in I)*wel •arc yoar rag»; *ld irq^MTpri, ;U ^ quilU, *hirU, &*-, 4^jV«V^£4.- ^ /TWmcwtefficient .meupn« ire ifli.'prbgrtM i-toptit a.p*p*Vmill in ojpexitlon the"iomimf JieMon,in U»«'NriUej/tiiaAllyoiir'.?*£* ***! ^e;irinted^V Ma3te"7«>utr'H»^lfeai''*ag» in**

"Rags! Rags!! Rags!!!": Beginnings of the Paper Industry in the Salt Lake Valley, 1849-58

BY RICHARD SAUNDERS

MODER N CULTURES DEPEND HEAVILY UPON THE WRITTEN WORD to preserve and perpetuate themselves Although the printed word is rarely ranked alongside barbed wire and sawmills as a winner of the American frontier, in the broad territory of the West print consummated and legitimized contracts and claims, promoted the spread and enforcement of laws and governmental structure, and filled a vital role in disseminating information (and propaganda) through the evernecessary newspaper. Print requires, however, a medium on which to record; it is impossible to maintain publication without a substantial, reliable supply of paper stock Papermaking developed in Utah largely to feed the press of the Deseret News, an imprint that historian Seymour Dunbar cited as "perhaps the most remarkable and historically interesting newspaper that ever existed."1 Once printing became

Mr Saunders is a librarian at the Renne Library, Montana State University, Bozeman

1 Cited in "The William Robertson Coe Collection of Western Americana," Yale University Library Gazetted (October 1948): 109

regular in Utah, especially with the publication of the News, the demand on the press—and, through it, for paper—became constant.

Even barely off the frontier, in an area purposefully settled as was Utah, printing, especially a newspaper, was not a luxury. Before the arrival of the telegraph, Utah's territorial and religious leaders clearly saw that printing, which could produce multiple copies for distribution, offered the most economical way to communicate with outlying settlements and would be a key in the settlement and governance of the far-flung territory

So it was that the first true machinery to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley after settlement was a small Ramage printing press. 2 On this press and its successors the Deseret News Office produced most early official printing and the newspaper (which reprinted most official pronouncements, usually from the same type) together with speeches, notices, advertisements, sermons and instructions, and broadside proclamations

Early Utah lacked the material security of an industrial or production base, so securing a dependable supply of paper to feed the press involved substantial cost. To Utah belongs the distinction of producing the first paper made in the American West, two years before the importation of mill machinery to Taylorsville, California, in 1856.3 After the first experiments by hand, 1852-54, two mechanized paper mills operated in Utah between 1861 and 1893, when the second burned. Before then, maintaining a supply of paper in Salt Lake City

The first printing press in Utah was this small Ramage. USHS collections.

2 Orson Hyde to Howard Egan, May 7, 1849, Brigham Young Papers, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, abstracted in Journal History of the Church on that date The press was to be shipped in the spring of 1848, but shipping problems in Nebraska kept it there until the following spring. It is now part of a permanent exhibit at the Church Museum of History and Art, Salt Lake City

5 Dard Hunter, Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (New York: Dover, 1978), p 556

depended exclusively upon a thousand-mile supply line to ports either on the Mississippi River or the California coast The success of official printing, issuing a newspaper, and maintaining ajob-printing office was tied directly to the consistent arrival of the merchant's train of goods

The first paper mill in the American West, tucked away in one corner of the city's public works block (Temple Square), produced individual sheets formed by hand in a shed. The industry had humble beginnings. Far-sighted governor and church president Brigham Young was a shrewd planner determined to keep Utah out from under the economic thumb of eastern capitalists. The key to independence was to limit the population's reliance upon manufactured goods from the East. To this end Young, the LDS church, and the Utah Territorial Legislature encouraged a wide variety of home (i.e., local) manufacture.4 When a particularly scarce commodity such as paper was needed Young often used church or public capital under his control and the skills of private individuals tojump-start an industry.5 But even with skilled craftsmen at hand the most important consideration became, what could be produced and marketed economically? The rapid rate of paper consumption and the attendant cost of importation begged for a local solution

The hand-operated Ramage press ordered for Willard Richards arrived from the Mormon depot in Kanesville (present Council Bluffs), Iowa, barely two years after settlement in the Salt Lake Valley. Accompanying the press were fonts of type and type cases, ink, press furniture, and 8 1/2 packs of paper stock.6 Soon after the Ramage press arrived in the city, at a time when Utah's industrial capacity rested primarily on cottage industries and even before the issue of Utah's first titled imprint, plans to produce paper in the valley were being considered. In a general meeting on September 16, 1849, leaders enjoined those in attendance to "save their rags for the Purpose of establishing a paper Mill."7

4 Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials . . . Territory of Utah . . . 1852 (Great Salt Lake City, 1852), pp. 205-6

5 Leonard J Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), pp 63-130, 195-256; John L Clark, "The Mormon Church and Utah Salt Manufacturing, 1847-1918," Arizona and the West 26 (1984): 225-30

6 Hyde to Egan. The original letter is clear as to the amount, but the typist for the Journal History somehow recorded "872."

' Randy Dixon of the LDS Church Historical Department provided a typescript of this reference from his fde on Salt Lake City; it had no primary source citation but was probably taken from a minutes collection in the Historical Department.

Paper production is mechanically simple and can consume waste fibers, two qualities that made papermaking an ideal candidate for local production in Utah. Cellulose fibers from such sources as cotton or linen rags, or (in the Orient) the inner bark of certain trees, are cooked and beaten to separate the individual fibers and suspend them in water. This was first done by stamping in mortarlike vats, but the process was markedly accelerated by development of the mechanical Hollander beater Technology for making paper from ground wood wasjust coming into use in Europe and the East. To form the sheet by hand, a framed screen is dipped and lifted out of a stirred vat of floating fiber with the water draining away to leave a layer of matted fiber on the screen. The pulpy sheet is laid in a stack, each sheet separated by a piece of tightly woven felt (usually of wool), and the water squeezed out under pressure The wet paper sheets are then solid enough to handle; the felts are separated for immediate reuse and the paper is hung to dry. After drying, the sheets are sized by a brief soak in a tub of very thin, warm gelatin or starch solution, pressed, and again dried. Sizing makes paper slightly water resistant so that inks will not disperse too much on the surface, feathering the printed letters or images.

Despite the September 1849 injunction the project lacked both a production plant and, despite the deceptively simple process, someone at least familiar with papermaking Nevertheless, the determination to produce paper remained firm. The industry had begun.

A year later, in the fall of 1850, six months after the four-page weekly DeseretNews commenced publication, the cry for "RAGS! RAGS!! RAGS!!!"was reiterated, printed in the issue of November 30 A blessing to the project's beginning came with the almost simultaneous baptism of an English papermaker, Thomas Howard, who was hustled halfway around the world to superintend the process. 8

Thomas Howard was born in 1815, the son of a papermill superintendent In his father's Buckinghamshire mill he learned papermaking and worked in the mill for twenty-two years. Leaving England with an emigration company in April 1851, Howard arrived in Salt Lake City six months later. The event was significant enough for the Journal History to have noted on that date that "a papermaker arrived from England." He was put to work almost immediately and by the middle of October 1851 was busy outlining necessary mill machinery and a

8 Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 114.

plant in the First Presidency's office.9 An unsigned, undated report on papermaking machinery in the Brigham Young papers concerns improvising the elemental parts of a beater, a press, and mechanical sheet former Before the turn of the year Howard received the help of two men appointed to assist him—machinist/mechanic Thomas Hollis and Sidney Roberts, who apparently managed facilities for the concern. While Roberts went about planning a mill site six miles south and east of the city on Mill Creek, the paper manufactory was temporarily allocated some space on the northeast corner of the public works block In November 1851 Hollis began looking for sufficiently large parts.

Through the winter of 1851 and into the following spring Howard and Hollis worked at creating operable equipment while Roberts worked on a mill in Sugar House. Weaver Matthew Gaunt supplied the tightly woven woolen felts needed to separate the sheets being pressed Meanwhile, the canvass continued in local congregations to secure a stock of suitable rags as raw material. Despite the effort at drafting and staffing a proper concern, the project suffered from material shortage right from the start.10 Barely 150 pounds of usable rags were on hand when Howard began; near the end of 1851 a broader plea was issued.

We intend to be ready to commence our operations in the manufactory of all kinds of paper by the first of July next, we therefore solicit all the citizens of the territory of Utah, to save all the materials for the manufacturing of the same; namely, all kinds of ropes made of hemp , or flax, old paper hangings, or waste paper of all descriptions, and rags of all colors, of every nam e and denomination, either cotton, linen or woolen n

If Howard was able to produce usable paper at this time there is no record of it In fact, the manufacture of paper dropped completely from the pages of the Deseret News and other contemporary records, although securing paper stock overland remained a continual worry. 12 Why plans to manufacture paper were shelved is not certain All concerned understood within a year of commencing serious print-

9 William B. Beatty, "Early Papermaking in Utah," The Paper Maker 28 (1959): 12; Journal History, October 1, 1851

10

556-57

" Deseret Neius, December 27, 1851.

12 Deseret News, July 30, 1853.

Sidney Roberts to Brigham Young, January 20, 1852, Brigham Young Papers; Hunter, Papermaking, pp

Hunter mistakenly attributes first production to the later Sugar House location

ing that even the four-page Deseret News would probably consume more paper than could be inexpensively produced by hand, especially considering the state of the equipment. Despite the lengthy preparations suitable raw material was scarce, and the cobbled digester apparently did not work well enough to continue experimenting with it. The machinery was not the only problem. In January 1852 Sidney Roberts wrote to Brigham Young, pleading with him to reprovision the factory at Mill Creek. Unable to secure adequate tools and barely able to feed his workers, Roberts explained that they had only gotten as far as excavating a site for the foundation, mill wheel, and tailrace.13

That spring Hollis and Howard tried again. They arranged to borrow and adapt some juice-extraction machinery and sugaring equipment that had arrived in the city and was sitting idle on the public works block.14 A beet grinder was pressed into service, rigged as a beater for rags. They also used some copper-lined vats intended for the ailing beet sugar project to hold the rag-fiber slurry and for vat sizing. A branch of City Creek that ran through the block supplied water.15 The forms or molds (a two-piece wire screen and frame that actually makes the paper sheet) and drying boards for the formed sheets were improvised, probably produced locally The watermarks on several examples of the handwork suggest that the molds were crudely made of narrow wooden slats covered with cloth rather than woven wire screens A hydraulic press may also have been borrowed from the unestablished sugar works to squeeze excess water from the formed sheets. Gaunt's felts were again used but were only half the size required.

The attempts to create a paper manufactory, first from nothing and then with cobbled sugar machinery, did not succeed; and failure probably made the best argument yet for securing appropriate equipment. Young's secretaries opened negotiations toward securing the necessary equipment with an eastern manufacturer. Papermaking received a major boost in the spring of 1853 with the purchase and importation of some suitable machinery procured at a cost of $8,500. The equipment consisted of a Hollander beater, a machine that chews boiled rags in water and separates the individual fibers into the stuff of actual production The beater would have shortened production

13 Roberts to Young

14 See note 7

15

The small stone arch through which the stream left the block is still visible in the sandstone foundation of the wall, immediately north of the west entrance gates

time considerably A Gavit cylinder for forming binder's board for book covers also arrived in the city with the new equipment. 1 6

In January 1854 Howard and Hollis installed the new equipment in the northeast corner of the public works block and once again advertised for a collection of rags and waste paper. 17 They were operating by late spring and aimed toward finishing their handiwork in time for display at the April conference of the LDS church Despite five years of delays and supply problems a ream of Howard's locally produced paper was exhibited on schedule One of the hand-formed sheets from this first successful batch was belatedly presented to Governor Young onJune 1, 1854.18 The export of capital—for this product at least—could at last be curbed.

16 Th e machinery ordere d was probably for the maceration of pulp I seriouslv doub t that a mechanical former was delivered since a numbe r of contemporary references specify han d production

17 Deseret News, January 12, 1854 This would place the concern in a location today occupied by the foyer of the Salt Lake Temple

18 On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary oj Hosea Sfou<,Juanita Brooks, ed., 2 vols (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1963), p 512 (April 7, 1854); Beatty, "Early Papermaking in Utah," p 14; Deseret News, May 25, 1854

Temple Square looking north, 1867, xvas photographed by Charles R. Savage. Early papermaking activity in Utah was located in the northeast corner of the block. USHS collections.

Late spring to early summer was typically a lean time in Salt Lake City Until supplies began to arrive in midsummer or later the city consumed the remainder of stocks imported the year before. Understandably, byJune the paper supply for the News and other printing was low. When the season's first pack train from California arrived in the city on June 8 it probably did not contain a stock of paper Remarks reported from the first annual meeting of the Deseret Typographical Association tied Howard and Hollis's renewed efforts directly to an impending shortage of paper via California.19

With paper production now at least possible those involved renewed their plea for rags. 20 While the News struggled to maintain its publication schedule with a rapidly dwindling stock of paper, Howard and Hollis redoubled their efforts to make up the shortage, if necessary, to keep the News in print. By mid-June the supply of newsprint was gone. Howard's locally manufactured paper made its inelegant— and probably hasty—debut in half-sheets in the Deseret News issue of June 22 Given the conditions of a new mill, an eclectic collection of untried machinery, and a mishmash of raw materials, use of the local product was probably a measure of necessity rather than confidence. From the quality of the product it is doubtful that Howard was really ready to supply paper to the community The next day several members of the LDS church historian's office wandered down the block to watch Howard and Hollis hurriedly "making paper for the next News" and stayed to see the hydraulic press squeezing the new-laid sheets.21 The editor promptly apologized for the appearance of the newspaper. 22 The first demonstrably local paper was a grey, undistinguished sheet; nevertheless, for a month (four weekly issues) the Deseret News was issued on a single 22 x 16-inch leaf of this locally produced paper rather than the two-leaf (four-page) folio previously produced on imported newsprint.23 The issue of August 27 appeared on imported newsprint, and then the News resumed its use of the home manufactured product with a second, even darker batch of paper

This second batch of paper came from a new vat of stuff Possibly due to the rush its quality approached dismal. The composition of the

19 LDS Church Historian's Office Journal, June 8, 1854, LDS Church Archives; Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 114—15; Deseret News, February 15, 1855.

20 Deseret News, May 25, 1854

21 LDS Church Historian's Office Journal, June 23 1853

22 Deseret News, July 6, 1854

23 Deseret News, June 22 to July 20, 1854

paper itself is definitely rags, but the fibrillation (beating that separates the fibers) wasobviously incomplete; threads of varying sizes are visible throughout the sheets. At least one copy sported several masses of dark fiber, one nearly three inches long, on the front page; another had afly neatly formed into the paper in the center of one column. Bleaching agents were unavailable to lighten the paper's color The first batch emerged a pale beige grey, but the second was positively lavender. Due to the shortage of pulpable rags the makers could not be too choosy about those they put into the paper, though they tried to be.24 Howard's newsprint is noticeably thicker than the machine-made imported stock25 and is matted unevenly rather than distributed uniformly across the leaf, probably the best evidence that they produced it in a hurry to fill a large demand. The unevenly formed sheet and incomplete beating of the paper's stuff was not the only problem. They lacked felts for pressing a sheet the full size of the newspaper's 22 x 36-inch folio In retrospect, the overall quality of Utah's first paper is only fair.

After nearly two months of printing the Deseret News on the home product the press went back to printing on imported paper following the arrival of a supply train from St. Louis,26 with a polite thank you and thinly veiled relief:

We are happy in being enabled, by the arrival of our year's supply in the Church Train, to again issue the News on white paper, for we think our industrious subscribers will now be able to read their papers by candle light

At the same time we tender our thanks to Messrs Hollis and Howard for helping us to the best paper their facilities would permit, but as the yearly supply had been ordered before it was known that any could be made here, we are able to give our paper makers a chance to make preparations for manufacturing paper as good, and we hope cheaper than we can import it.

Until further notice we are obliged to stop paying cash for rags, but they will be taken on subscriptions for the News, and on tithing. 2 7

With that, the first attempt to put locally produced papers to commercial use came to an abrupt halt.

24 See "To Our Readers," ibid

K Average caliper on the imported sheets runs .004 to .006 inches. The local papers of the first batch run .005 to .008 and the second batch .007 to .009 Part of the difference in the second batch is explained by poor or unskillful forming of the sheets that left some areas thicker than others Howard's experience had been in operating a mechanized mill

26 LDS Church Historian's Office Journal, July 29, 1854 Whether or not it actually carried paper is open to conjecture, but the News did not resume printing on imported sheets until September 28

27 Deseret News, October 12, 1854

A few weeks later, perhaps in deference to the efforts made by Howard and Hollis to produce a usable product, the Deseret News ran a column on the mechanical process of papermaking. 2 8 Local production lapsed that fall, and Howard and Hollis parted company Eventually the sugar company requested that the borrowed machinery be returned The hydraulic press was dismantled, and part was sent to Cedar City to the iron works there. With the concern dissolved Thomas Hollis formed a partnership with William Jepson to produce paper in Davis County,just north of Salt Lake City. For a few years advertisements to buy rags (for a pricey nickel a pound) appeared sporadically. Production could not have been substantial. In August 1855 the pair advertised for rags, but by October Jepson had bowed out and "Messrs. Hollis and Vernon" announced that they were adding a lumber mill to their paper plant, probably a move of economic survival.29 Another little-known concern was sponsored by Howard's onetime assistant Sidney Roberts and others who petitioned the Legislative Assembly for the right to divert water from Big Cottonwood Creek "to propel machinery for making paper." The legislature refused to act on his request and disbanded the review committee.30 There is no record of paper being produced under Roberts's supervision

The dissolution of the Howard/Hollis/Roberts venture in 1854 marked the effectual end of the earliest efforts to make paper in Utah Those involved had learned several things about the paper industry in the process First, proper machinery and chemicals were absolutely necessary to turn out a consistent product of suitable quality Though mechanization helped in Howard's first efforts, the lack of bleaching agents and proper forming and finishing equipment severely affected quality. The poor product obtained from the "mill" was probably the single most important factor in tabling production.

A second, less controllable factor was the quality and quantity of the material used for stuff. Without bleaching agents only pale rags, such as worn wagon covers or bed linens, could be used, despite the zealous call for "rags of all colors, of every name and denomination." This was no small problem Clothing and yardage were made over until there was nothing left to remake; then thrifty families used the last worn scraps of fabric to make braided rugs instead of offering

28 "Paper Making—How it is Done," Deseret News, November 23, 1854

2" Deseret News, August 22, 29, October 31, 1855; August 27, 1856; October 24, 1855.

30

Brooks, On the Mormon Frontier, p 579 (December 31, 1855) and p 588 (January 16, 1856) All water was public property and was not open to riparian or proprietary claims

them for paper. 31 Papermaking in the territory remained permanently handicapped until a reliable source of rags could be found. Carting rags a thousand miles was not an attractive proposition, so a method to glean them systematically from within the territory had to be established.

Time also worked against the industry The 1857 Utah War pushed the industry's restarting back a year, and papermaker Thomas Howard's interim assignment to a colonizing mission in the Blackfoot, Idaho, area further postponed it. Despite the hopeful starts by Roberts, Hollis, and Jepson, Utah remained dependent on eastern mills for newsprint, stationery, and other consumer papers.

As the vats and machinery lay idle though the late 1850s, Brigham Young began negotiations with a Boston manufacturer for a larger, fully equipped mill, a move that quietly began the second period of industrial development for Utah paper With tinder in place, events of the early 1860s would put a spark into the Utah market that fed capital and institutional commitment into the fledgling industry and put it on its own feet Howard's less than spectacular successes in paper production nonetheless marked the faltering beginnings of an important production base, one that operated successfully until an unfortunate 1893 fire in Utah's single producing mill marked the end of Utah's paper industry. Thomas Howard's efforts in the 1850s were undoubtedly a learning experience. No production records remain to gauge the success of the venture other than to say that it successfully met an immediate demand, which may be the most suitable accolade. On these footings was built a thirty-year paper industry that remains one of Utah's most fascinating, necessary, and, in the end, productive attempts at self-sufficient local production.

S1 For a picture of conditions in Utah close to this period see Donald R Moorman and Gene A Sessions, Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War, Utah Centennial Series, vol. 7 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992), pp 55-56

Jakob Brand's Register of Dutchtown, Utah's Lost German Mining Colony

BY WILMA B N TILBY

Dutchtown miners in Tintic Mining District ca. 1898, including Gottlieb Brandt, third from right, top row;Dolph Ames, fifth from right, top row; and Michael J. Tischner, far right, second row. All photographs courtesy of author.

TODA Y ONE REMAINING "GHOST HOUSE" BELONGING to the original village of "Dutchtown" can be seen through the skeletal gallows headframe of John Beck's famous Bullion-Beck Mine. Only thirty feet from U.S. Highway 6, Dutchtown (a corrupted pronunciation of Deutschtown) grew in Eureka Gulch, just forty-five miles southwest of Provo, Utah, within the Tintic Mining District.

Looking through the open front and back doors of that deserted home, today's visitor can still see remnants of mine waste dumps stretching over jumbled rock foundations and thresholds once belonging to the homes of that community. Jakob Brand's Register Book, 1895-1899, holds the lists of names that become the threads rewoven into the town's tapestry.1 These German immigrants were converted by Mormon missionaries John Beck, Peter Lautensock, Franz Brems, and others who helped arrange their immigration to the territory of Utah.

From its beginning, the mining colony of Dutchtown contained all the elements of a traditional Mormon immigrant pioneer colony— like dozens scattered all over Utah and other western states from Canada to Mexico But on the Tintic Mining District outskirts, Dutchtown had a distinctive purpose. It was built around John Beck's mine, the famous Bullion-Beck, and developed as a colony within the community of Eureka, the first precinct of the Tintic Mining District

Johannes (John) Beck, was born in Aichelberg, Schorndorf, Wurtemberg, Germany, March 19, 1843, the first son of Johannes Beck and Christine Caroline Holl After the death of his father, at age fourteen, he helped his mother move the family to St. Imer, Switzerland. He became interested in the gospel of the LDS church while living there and was baptized on April 27, 1861, by Karl G Maeser A year later he was sent on a church proselytizing mission back to Baden, Germany. On May 12, 1864, the Beck family and a large group of converts left their homes in Germany and began the long journey of emigration, arriving in Salt Lake City on October 26, 1864.2

Mrs Tilby is a member of the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission and a freelance historian living in Salt Lake City

'Jakob Brand Register Book, 1895-1899, listingfifty-fiveGerman immigrant surnames, is in the possession of the author. It was given her in 1984 by LaVern Ames Hayward, granddaughter of Jakob Brand, and translated byjost Madrian of Salt Lake City This charming little record book opened the research window for the story that follows It fills much of the void within regional archives that annotate Dutchtown references with such frustrating entries as "lost . , burned . , missing "

2 Swiss-German Mission Registry, Book B, p 105, April 27, 1861, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City.

fakob Brand's Register Book lists fifty-five German immigrant surnames. Original in author's possession. Inset shows town ofEureka in early twentieth century.

The Beck family was welcomed byJohn Conrad Naegle who had been one ofJohn's mission companions. He graciously housed them temporarily in Lehi where he and several other German families congregated George Beck, John's younger brother, went to work for John Naegle in January 1865. He later wrote, "The people were very kind to one another as they all had hardships of the poor country and they assisted one another."3

From Naegle, John purchased a farm west of Lehi on the shore of Utah Lake. He became a successful fruit farmer, manufactured charcoal, and raised sheep during the next few years When he heard rumors in the spring of 1870 that gold and other precious metals had been discovered near theJuab-Tintic mountains, he ventured there to seek his fortune

Working faithfully alongside him in the Eureka Gulch were his brother George, his cousin Gottlieb Beck, and friends David Evans, John Harne, Thomas Biessenger, and Paul Schettler. Other miners ridiculed Beck because of the location he chose Most of the discoveries had been on the slopes of the mountains. Instead, he prospected the floor of the canyon, temporarily earning him the nickname "Beck, the crazy Dutchman." Stubbornly he persisted until he successfully located a gold vein at the two-hundred-foot level.4 He posted the usual required notice, filed his claim on June 10, 1870, and began developing the property nearby, initially called Mudtown. Thus began the celebrated Bullion-Beck Mine John Beck was president, general manager, and the principal owner of the company that was organized to operate the mine. He preferred hiring his own countrymen, many of whom were former friends and converts still living in Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, Bavaria, or his home area, Baden. The Franz Brems family was one such early example, arriving in 1878 Brems stated that he "yearned to come to America so his sons would not have to live and fight in an area of constant waring [sic]."5 Beck sponsored more than two hundred Swiss-German converts through the years 1880-95, mostly heads of families to whom he

4 Philip F. Notarianni, Faith, Hope and Prosperity: The Tintic Mining District (Eureka, Ut.: Tintic Historical Society, 1982), p 18; Alice P McCune, History ofJuab County, 1847-1947 (n.p.: Juab County Company of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1947), p. 190-91.

5 Franz Brems Family History, unpublished manuscript in possession of Robert Brems, Salt Lake City

8 George Beck (Johann George Beck), unpublished autobiography in possession of Sherwin Allred and Faye Peck, Lehi, Utah. Several other people also have copies of the Beck autobiography, including Jill Tuft of Salt Lake City who provided one to the author

promised work in the developing mines. The Beck home in Lehi served as a place for the German converts to rest from the long journey as they made arrangements for permanent homes and jobs. Most eventually worked in the mines in Tintic, but some chose farming in Providence, Cache County This pattern continued through the early settlement period as immigrants sponsored others in turn, according to family traditions and examples recorded in Jakob Brand's Register Book.

Dutchtown, within Eureka, developed with a steady flow of dedicated German convert immigrants with specific skills. Among them was a blacksmith (Tischner), brick masons (Keil and Gessel), two finish carpenters (Lautensock and Krauss), two midwife-nurses (Brand and Schmitt), a weaver (Keil), a shoemaker-freighter (Beck), a teacher (Von Baur), an assayer (Brohm), an engineer (Schmidt), a watchmaker-factory manager (Brand), and a religious leader-manager-organizer (Beck), all necessary for the colony's success.

The Bullion-Beck boarding house, which John Beck built near the mine for his first miners and freighters, was Dutchtown's first decent large building. It most likely was shared with the earliest arriving immigrants beginning about 1876. It was cleaned up and cleared out for regular church meetings and occasional social gatherings.

During the same years, 1872-76, thatJohn Beck and Dutchtown were developing in Utah, Mormon missionaries J. Theurer, Franz Brems, T Brandeli, J A Krauth, Peter Lautensock, Henry Eyring, John K. Schiess, Thomas Biessinger, and others were converting Germans in such regions as Baden, Pfalz, and Bavaria. Referred to in early church records as the Swiss-German Mission area, the Mannheim Branch Mission was organized by Henry Eyring on February 8, 1875, according to the diary of Peter Lautensock who was made branch president. Lautensock would one day be the first bishop of the LDS ward in Dutchtown.

Letters written by Peter to his sister Christina and her husband Franz Brems encouraged them to also immigrate as they had all joined the church together in Mannheim. These letters—referred to in his diary—to his convert friends and members of his old German branch no doubt told of the opportunities of the new land and the need for good members to build up the church. Such communication gave the encouragement necessary for immigration.

6 Peter Lautensock Diary in possession of Margaret Stone, St George, Utah

Arriving in America, Peter Lautensock lived in both Salt Lake City and Cottonwood the first year. Then in 1876 he decided to move to Lehi when he became personally acquainted with John Beck. Beck encouraged the move and even let the little family live in his home.

Peter had been a qualified master carpenter in Germany and with him came his treasure chest of tools. He was in great demand and found immediate work building wardrobes of all sizes. Shortly after, he made his way to Dutchtown where he designed and built interior decorative woodwork in many fine homes in the Tintic District.7 More important, he was needed to direct the timbering in the mines His "square set timbering" used in the Bullion-Beck Mine is still pointed to as an example of the influence of foreign methods on Utah mining.

Jakob Brand's widowed aunt, Charlotte Catherine Allebrand Krauss, a seamstress, and her sons Heinrich Karl, age twenty, a musician and master carpenter, and Julius, age eighteen, a musician and carpenter, joined the Mormon church in 1878 They were the first in the family to immigrate and graciously included their widowed mother-grandmother, Elisabeth Allebrand Brand, when settling in Providence. Elisabeth held her own place in the community, gleaning "more than 30 bushels of wheat for their winter flour" with her granddaughter, six-year-old Katherine (Gessel), that first harvest, 1880.8

Following the arrival ofJakob's family in Dutchtown, Krauss family members often struggled to make the 200-mile two-day trip from Cache County to visit and trade with the Brand family, thankful "at last they had finally joined them in Zion." Eventually grandmother Elisabeth moved to Dutchtown to be with her daughter Elisabeth Brand Schmidtt, remaining there until her death in 1906.9

According to Lavern Rippley in OfGermanWays, the German immigrants were very successful in their Americanization process because of all the ethnic groups "they specifically chose their immigration destination to suit their former geographical surroundings in addition to their occupational skills."10 The Rhine River divided the two cities in western Germany, where these people were coming from, with Mannheim on the eastern side serving as the industrial and business

' Interview with Albert Loutensock, Jr., Magna, Utah, September, 1991

8 Providence History Committee, Providence and Her People: A History of Providence, Utah, 1857-1974 (Providence, Ut.: Providence History Committee, 1974), p 413

9 Brand family records in possession of the author.

10 New York: Harper and Row, 1970, p. 13.

Jakob Brand family home, 1898-1900, in Dutchtown on the hill above the Bullion-Beck Mine. Mill and dump are at upper right.

Sonny Taylor'sfreight wagon, ca. 1905, decorated with Virginia creeperfor Pioneer Day parade. Emil Brandt family photograph.

center, and Ludwigshafen on the western side, where agricultural lands and minor services and marketplaces were located.

It was only natural that these immigrants chose that part of Zion that most closely resembled their former lifestyles and occupations. Their former missionaries, Fredriech Theuer, living in Providence, and Franz Brems, living in Lehi, continually encouraged and ultimately influenced their choices. Brems's three grown sons, John, Peter, and Fred, all lived in Dutchtown and worked for the BullionBeck Mine where their uncle Peter Lautensock helped secure work for them

Jakob Brand's in-laws—Allebrand, Krauss, and Gessel—followed Theuer to Providence, ninety-five miles north of Salt Lake City Providence was an agricultural area much like the area they had left in Germany. Brand, Franz Brom, and Marzelus Schmidtt followed Brems first to Lehi and then his sons to Eureka Jakob immediately went to work as "shift boss" at the Bullion-Beck after his arrival and shortly afterward was appointed mine foreman

The lives of these German immigrants continued to weave in and out in colorful and muted threads as they gathered for holidays such as Pioneer Day on July 24, weddings, and funerals Children from Eureka sometimes went to work on their relatives' farms in Providence during the summers. The families traded and exchanged farm produce, molasses, shoe repairs, crocheting, woven linens, horseshoes, wagon repairs, and household metal products such as tin cups and washtubs.

When Jakob Brand departed for America he left behind his wife Elisabetha, four-year-old son Emile, two-year-old daughter Anna, and newborn Katherina. He took with him his three oldest sons—Jakob, ten;Julius, eight; and Gottlieb, seven. They stopped in Lehi for a visit with Lautensock and Brems before continuing to Eureka, probably with Brems himself or a son or even possibly with George Beck, who drove huge freight wagons back and forth to the mines hauling supplies to Tintic and ore back to the Salt Lake Valley smelters.11

Jakob was greeted by old friends from Mannheim, including John Beck, newly called branch president. He and his sons may have boarded in Dutchtown at the Bullion-Beck boarding house, Lautensocks, or one of the Brems brothers' homes while getting established. He made arrangements to build a home—having carried suffi-

cient funds with him, in anticipation of his wife's arrival in May 1885 The Brand home was built on the hill above the new Bullion-Beck Mine building. Jakob was hoping the view across the gulch with its breathtaking seasonal glow would outweigh the problem of not having the floor boards installed in time for her arrival He worked with the boys to clear a large garden space in front of the house for flowers and vegetables, including cabbage which would be layered into sauerkraut in 50-gallon wooden barrels.

In front of the home Jakob carefully planted an apple tree to give desirable shade but not obstruct the view. The ground was rough and rocky. He and his sons hauled many little wagons and buckets of soil to ensure a successful planting. Their efforts were well rewarded. The stump of that apple tree is still there today

This humble home in a rough mining town must have been a shock to Elisabetha We have no records of her disappointment, but years later she is remembered describing her disbelief at that dirt floor. Also, for many years water had to be carried to the home in barrels.12 Harsh complaints were not noted among the German convert records researched nor were there many expressions of delight or joy, a reflection of the normally reserved demeanor of the German people in general.

The Brand family eventually included five more children born in Dutchtown. Their original German names are recorded in Jakob's Register in his own hand and translated "Jakob and Elisabetha ... we had the following children born to us " The names gradually changed as the children became more Americanized Jakob became Jake, Julius became Jules, Emile was anglicized to Emil, Anna turned to Annie, Katherina to Kate, Mathilde to Tillie, and so on. Jake and the other sons eventually changed the spelling of their surname from Brand to Brandt to better reflect the American-German phonetic pronunciation.

Elisabetha managed her family in a calm and dignified manner coming from a refined French background "She was a real lady," her sons said of her Emil particularly remembered her lovely singing voice as she moved lightly about the four-room house doing her chores.Just five feet and petite, Elisabetha kept her girlish figure even after having been delivered of eleven children, as can be seen in a family

12 Interviews with Helen Gray Scott, granddaughter of Elisabetha, Oakland, Calif., September 1987; interviews with Doreen Clement Ames, daughter-in-law of Kate Brand Ames, Eureka, Ut., 1965-93.

picture dated May 1901. That alone speaks of her personal stamina and family spirit She organized food preparation among the girls: Kate inherited the skill for beef marrow ball dumpling soup, Tillie worked diligently on her lovely jams and marmalades, Annie created memorable occasions with her unforgettable cider and root beer, and Martha's specialty was always coffee (kaffee) kuchen called "kua" by the family.13

Elisabetha also taught Kate how and where to find mushrooms in the hills and barns near their home. The family menus were generously seasoned according to the French style that she had learned in her own home as a child. Cottontail rabbits were plentiful and regularly found their way into the family stew pot. "When the staple— sauerkraut and pork roast—arrived, it was always served surrounded in a bowl-shaped mound of potatoes," recalls Helen Scott, who also remembers a pot constantly simmering on the wood-burning stove, often the beginning of a delicious meal. The daily table settings were crisp white linen cloths or the lacy crocheted cloths for Sundays and company Elizabeth served cocoa to Jakob in his silver mustache cup and drank hers in exquisite china from their Prussian past. Other memorable Dutchtown cooking includes Rosalia Tischner's liver dumplings, which "were always requested when church or family visters [sic] came from SLC," as reported in Tischner family papers.

The girls made most of their own clothes. Kate Brand was especially talented in crocheting and as a child learned to make lace and articles to beautify their clothing and brighten their home. Years later her crocheted tablecloths won prizes at the Utah State Fair, and her delicate lace collars made over sixty years ago still adorn dresses worn by her family members today in recurring fashion trends.14

Family recollections mention that Jakob looked forward to the American style of education for his children because "it was not so strict or stifling" as his schooling had been in Germany. Brand children went to the public schoolhouse John Beck built in Dutchtown in 1881 for all the children in the Tintic District. Americanization of children began to show when parents spoke to them in German and they replied in English. Their uncle Franz Brohm (married to Jakob's younger sister, Margaretha Brand) told his family "We are in America

13 Interview with Frances Brandt Schaerrer, daughter of Emil and granddaughter of Elisabetha, Salt Lake City, September 1991, interviews with Don Miller, grandson of Annie Brand Miller, Salt Lake City, September 1991.

14 Interviews with LaVern Ames Hayward, daughter of Kate, Salt Lake City, 1965-90.

now. For a newstart, we must try to do everything the new American "15 way

Charly, the youngest Brand son, beat braided rugs, helped with other household duties, and chased roaming dogs and rooting pigs away from his mother's splendid garden and fruit trees. A few years later, after building a regular front fence, Jakob protectively enclosed the garden byadding a second picket fence Thefamily's spring tulips and summer geraniums flashed and signaled to allwhopassed byon their way to theBullion-Beck Mine andlater themill smelter.

Dr. Albert Comes, a Tischner grandchild and friend who also grew r up in Dutchtown, remembered playing with UteIndian children in the hills in his early childhood years of the 1890s One dayhe was accidentally hit above the eyewith a flint-tipped arrow. The Indian's salve and bandages stopped the bleeding and thewound healed with no problems. His recollections also tell how his mother, Therisa Tischner, joined the Dutchtowners as a servant girl She worked for a total of four years, some in Salt Lake, before finally earning enough money to send for her father, Johann Tischner. He brought with him his much-in-demand skills atblacksmithing andmetal working; andin just one more year, working together, they were able to send for the remaining family in Germany.16

These Mormons did not always have an easy time gathering for

15 Interview with V. R. Brohm, daughter-in-law of Franz, Salt Lake City, September 1991.

IH Albert Comes unpublished papers in possession of Kathel Tischner, Payson, Ut. Tischner family history, unpublished biographies in possession of Kathel Tischner, Payson, Ut

Small building to left of two large structures is schoolhouse built by John Beck in 1881 in Dutchtown.

their meetings Early on, meetings were held in the open air at different locations in the Tintic Valley and adjoining canyons. They moved around to minimize harassment. When meetings were held in private homes, horsemen rode by whooping, hollering, and shooting. A meetinghouse was finally built in 1890 with land and materials furnished byJohn Beck, who was still the president of the branch, and that ended further molestation. Members furnished the labor. It was located in Dutchtown, between the Bullion-Beck Mine and the mill. In June 1893 Peter Lautensock was called to be bishop, as there were now enough people for a real ward.17

Thursday nights, adults and those young men and women not in grammar school went to the church for English lessons. Rudolph Von Baur, who taught school during the day, conducted these classes. Many used their Stern in German for a companion guide with the English MillennialStar. They often practiced their hymns in English and later organized a choir to sing favorite songs from home. 1 8

Julius Krauss, a Brand cousin from Providence, is remembered wending his way to Dutchtown through the years, entertaining relatives, neighbors, and guests with his singing and violin and flute playing, especially outside on their porch in the summertime. He finally moved to Dutchtown and is listed inJakob's Book

Over time the Bullion-Beck became entangled in bitter legal disputes, suffered from a lack of adequate working capital, foundered under poor management, exhausted rich ore bodies, and ran into water problems on the lower levels. One of the most serious problems was a bitter strike in 1893. In that year the managers cited a decline in the price of lead and silver in announcing a cut in miners' wages from $3.00 to $2.50 a day The cut was to be temporary, only until the price of silver climbed back to the normal level. The Mormon workers at the Bullion-Beck accepted the lower wages but the miners' union would not and called for a strike Accusations flew on both sides

John Duggan, the Irish Catholic secretary of the miners' union, sent a letter to Wilford Woodruff, Mormon church president, demanding he stop "church meddling" in labor problems. Moses A. Thatcher, president of Bullion-Beck Champion Company, and George Q Cannon, a board member, were both Mormon church officials at this time Other board members included John Beck, C S Burton,

17 Andrew Jenson, comp., Journal History, CR MH 2710-2718, LDS Church Archives; McCune, History ofJuab County, p 197

18 Beth K Harris, The Towns of Tintic (Denver: Sage Books, 1961), p 14

Above: Charly Brandt, left, and a friend; above right: Gottlieb Brandt and afriend at Lagoon.

Elisabetha Brand, oldest resident in Eureka's 1923 PioneerDay parade.

Emil Brandt, center, in Joe Garitty's barbershop, Eureka, ca. 1905.

and Philo T. Farnsworth. The Deseret News, representing the Mormon point of view, categorically denied charges of meddling Accusations soon turned into violence. InJune a terrific explosion shook the town as strikers blew up two houses and damaged several others in the area of the Bullion-Beck Mine hoist. Fortunately, the houses were empty at the time and no one was killed. A few days later strikers and workers engaged in a rock-throwing skirmish.19

A grand jury investigation followed and eventually a group of predominately Irish men and women were indicted for rioting. The strike failed and the union left town.20

Because of the mine expansion and the creeping dumps, in 1899 the Dutchtown Mormons moved their meetinghouse to a plot of ground on Main Street When Jakob Brand died unexpectedly in August 1901,at age forty-eight, his funeral was one of the last held in the old Beck church. A new Gothic style meetinghouse was built in 1902 and still stands today. It is used as a community center in Eureka.

Elisabetha struggled to stay in her home after Jakob's death. Resourceful and independent, she continued as a midwife even after Dr John Hensel moved to Dutchtown in 1899 from Baden, Germany. Tradition has it that when he was occupied with a patient and a baby was due, he would say "go for Elisabetta Brand, she will deliver the baby." She even took in washing and ironing. Children Martha, Tillie, and Charly helped her pour hundreds of tubs of soaking, washing, and rinsing water into the garden through the years They had to fetch the clean water from a pipe several blocks away. Charly and Tillie picked up and delivered the laundry

In the early 1900s several Dutchtown homes close to the dumps were moved across the main road Many first-generation Dutchtown children, including Kate and Annie Brand, lived in those homes or built new ones there when they married. In the meantime John Beck moved to Salt Lake City where he lived after reluctantly relinquishing his position as manager of the Bullion-Beck. Beloved friend to all the Dutchtowners, he passed away April 2, 1913, from blood poisoning in his foot.21

Later, during the 1918 flu epidemic, the Brand family suffered three tragic deaths Jules Brandt, his wife Martha, and Tillie's husband William of eighteen months all died at the same time. Relatives

19 Notarianni, Faith, Hope, and Prosperity, p 39 Deseret News, June 5, 1893

20 Salt Lake Tribune, June 9, 1893.

21 Deseret News, April 13, 1913

remember Jules's children walking alone behind the wagon carrying their parents' coffins as it passed by on the road below Elisabetha's home on the way to the cemetery. Everyone had been warned by the Public Health Department not to gather for fear of more contagion, so no one else in the family participated They had to stay at home. 2 2 Tillie, inconsolable, never recovered from her loss and returned home to live with her mother. Eventually they moved off the hill so others in the family could help and visit them more readily. Remorsefully, Elisabetha sold her beloved piano at the time of their move because she needed a cow. There would be plenty of room for her cow across the highway, Dutchtown's second phase. They relocated there among many friends and relatives. Excitement awaited them in 1922 when the Bell stope of the Bullion-Beck Mine caved in at about the 200-foot level, practically next door. Mr. Garbett, owner of the home, got up in the night to check around because he had heard strange

Left to right: father Jules Brandt, daughter Gladys, son Orson, mother Martha Anderson Brandt, ca. 1918. Both parents died in theflu epidemic.

noises out back He went out the front door, walked cautiously around the side of his house, and discovered his back porch had vanished into a gaping hole. He hurried to save his family and together they watched in horror and disbelief as some of their furniture and other possessions slid out the back of the house down into the black hole.

When morning light came, teenagers Marinus Tilby and Babe Ames and the rest of the town also watched for hours as parts of the house continued to break up and slide down into the bottomless pit. Undaunted by this strange situation, the Brands, Ameses, Tilbys, and others gave no serious thought to moving Where could they go anyway? The whole town of Eureka was built over a maze of mine tunnels, shafts, and stopes. Until recently, when the hole was finally filled in because it was edging toward Highway 6, few passersby could resist the urge to stop and throw a rock or two over the edge and try to outguess each other as to the hidden depths.23

At the time of her move Elisabetha refused to relinquish her baroque gilt mirror, piano music, few remaining pieces of precious china, or her husband's silver mustache cup She cared devotedly for Tillie some six years and was still sturdy enough to ride in one last parade the summer before she died in 1924. Tillie then entered the Provo Sanitarium and lived one more year

Through the 1930s Dutchtown continued to change and dwindle. German predominance faded. Recent recollections note the changing surnames of the residents: Ames, Brandt, Brown, Brohm, Franks, Tilby, Orr, Webb, Beckstead, Steiner, Drussel, Duffin, King, Peart, Frisby, Riser, Schmidt, Towers, Hahn, Meiers, Franke, Baurer, Mueller, Hensel, Dachstader, Kyte, Swartz, Gray, Pommell, Sudweeks, and Eastwood, to name a few.

None ofJakob's eight adult children married others of pure German heritage Jake,Jules, Gottlieb, and Emil Brandt assimilated when they all married English or Scandinavian wives who preferred to settle uptown away from the mines where it was "quieter, cleaner, healthier, and closer to the school and church."

Many young men in Dutchtown died of chronic illnesses just as the Brandt boys did—as a result of their early entry into the mines Charly, at age twenty-one, died suddenly one night after spending a normal evening playing with nieces LaVern and Katherine Ames. Other miners in the family felt his death was caused by the effects of

arsenic-lead poisoning, due to the mill's poor air systems Jake received a medical discharge from the Spanish-American War, suffering from poor health and eventually dying of "miner's con"—silicosis. Too ill to work, he rocked away many years on his porch. His wife Nell Anderson received a tiny government pension for years after he died, according to relatives.

Emil and Gottlieb became friends with Dolph Ames from Salem and urged him to board in their home after he got ajob as a miner He later married their sister Kate and settled permanently in Dutchtown. Dolph's death of tuberculosis/miner's con at age forty-three in 1925 continued the Brand family pattern as Kate began working in a laundry to support her sons and filled orders for her beautiful crocheted pieces. Emil also became mentor and friend to Marinus Tilby who married his sister Kate's daughter, Katherine (Babe). Then, following his four brothers, Emil died in his forties of a mining-related illness.

Left: Kate Brand Ames and grandson Vincent M. Tilby, ca. 1940, in Dutchtown phase two yard with Bullion-Beck dumps in far background. Right: Dolph Ames

Jakob's son Gottlieb lived the longest—fifty-five years. He had spent half his mining years as a top man, running the cage at the Bullion-Beck Mine. Daughters Annie B. Miller, Kate B. Ames, and Marth B. Gray lived many long wonderful years "gallivanting" from Eureka to Salt Lake City or from Reno to Los Angeles or Oakland and back at the slightest provocation or national holiday Kate promised to take her first grandson, Maurice Tilby, born in 1924, to visit her homeland, Ludwigshafen-Mannheim, Germany, some day.24 She never did. Ironically, Maurice was killed when his B-17 was shot down on a bombing raid deep in Germany, March 22, 1945. On that same day Robert J. "Bobby" Brandt, son of Gottlieb and grandson of Jakob, was also killed in Germany while serving in the U.S Army Dutchtown's story did not end with the exhaustion of the ore and the closing of the mines With each generation the ethnic uniqueness of Dutchtown became more diluted as residents married within other ethnic groups and non-Germans moved in. Nevertheless, the first generation's determination, stability, fierce love and loyalty to family, church, and their new country, along with their appreciation for nature's beauty and musical talent, were passed on to each succeeding generation Eventually, German Dutchtown disappeared altogether. Today it can only be located by the Bullion-Beck skeletal gallows frame while walking in the lonesome winds of lower Eureka.

24 Vincent M Tilby, "My Grandmother [Kate Brand Ames] Is Quite Independent," unpublished paper in author's possession, based on personal interview in 1954

John Steele: Medicine Man,, Magician, Mormon Patriarch

BY KERRY WILLIAM BATE

John Steeleand his wife Catherine Caynpbell Steele, "Toquerville Kane Co. Utah Territory. North America April 4th 1873. " Original in possession of Josephine Kay Garfield.

Mr Bate is the state housing programs manager in the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development. This paper was presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Mormon History Association on May 15, 1992, at a session called "New Mormon Biography."

WHE N THE "ROVING REPORTER OF THE DESERT," Nell Murbarger, visited Toquerville in 1951 she interviewed eighty-nine-year-old Lorine Lamb Higbee, a woman who could tell a lot of interesting western stories After all, Higbee was a long-time town member, her husband Richard was known as the "town kleptic-maniac," and her daughter Rhea was so given to pronouncing doom that she was nicknamed "Calamity."1

But when Murbarger and Mrs Higbee sat before the fireplace in the Higbee home and listened to the thunder, lightning, and rain outside, they talked instead about the history of the town. And one of the most colorful personalities in the older days, according to Higbee, wasJohn Steele, former Mormon Battalion member and shoemaker who "served as an unlicensed doctor, binding the wounds of the injured, setting broken bones, and treating the sick with remedies from native herbs."2

Born March 21, 1821, in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland, Steele was always curious, later reporting that he was "a pret[t]y fare hand at whatever I undertook to do," and that he received "a liberal Common School Education." Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he moved in 1839 to Belfast, courted and married an aristocratic woman named Catherine Campbell, and then migrated to Glasgow where he joined the Mormon church. He followed the Mormons to Nauvoo just in time for the exodus,joined the Mormon Battalion, and as a member of the Pueblo detachment made it into Salt Lake Valley onJuly 29, just days after Brigham Young's arrival. Catherine gave birth on August 9 to Young Elizabeth Steele, the first Mormon child born in Utah. Called in 1850 to settle in what became Parowan, John moved his family to Toquerville after losing a town election despite being the "priesthood" candidate

BecauseJohn Steele saw science and theology as united, he could subscribe to Raphael'sProphetic Almanacat the same time he was soliciting subscriptions for Scientific American. His descendants were not sure

1 Interview with Edwin Kenneth Slack, Toquerville, Utah, April 29, 1988, p 11: "He stole every thing he could git ahold of an git in his hind pocket, he took. ... It didn't make any difference if it wuz a bolt er an axe—he wuz more or less a kleptic-maniac." When Horace Slack and Hamilton Wallace got into a drunken brawl on November 18, 1890, one of the questions asked of a witness at the subsequent trial was, "Did you hear any body say Horace was as bad as Dick Higbee or Henry Jackson?" which suggests Higbee's community standing. See John Steele, Justice of the Peace Records, November 18, 1890, "Complaint Entered by Hamilton M Wallace , " photocopy in my possession

Lavina ("Vinnie") Sylvester Leeds, Los Angeles, May 22, 1956, to Maud Sylvester Gregerson, says, "according to her [Rhea Higbee Wakeling]—the mother [Lorine Lamb Higbee] is crazy as Hell." Also see Leeds to Gregerson, January 4, 1964, and an anonymous "Sketch of the Life of Richard Tait Higbee and Lorine Isabell Lamb Higbee," in Special Collections Room, Washington County Library, St George

2 Nell Murbarger, Sovereigns of the Sage (Tucson: Treasure Chest Publications, Inc., 1958), pp 188-89

how to classify his medical techniques: his great-granddaughter said he was "what you call a—well I was going to say a medicine man—I don't know what you call it But he set bones and he would take care of wounds . . . and do anything he could in the line of sickness."3 And perhaps it was not only the primitiveness of Steele's technique that made his descendants reluctant to call him a doctor

In Toquerville John's career as a doctor flourished: in the 1870 census he listed himself as "Dr & surveyor," and his library and papers confirm he practiced both, but it was medicine mixed with the magic world view that made him interesting. Magic met the requirements Michael Quinn noted in his seminal study EarlyMormonismandthe MagicWorldView: it was persuasive, gave verifiable results, and was emotionally satisfying.4 John's library hints at the ways he integrated medicine, magic, and astrology. One of the books in his still-intact library is Dr. Thomas Andrew's heavy leather bound Cyclopedia of Domestic MedicineandSurgery. Others are CareoftheSick,TheAmerican HealthImprovementAssociationBook I: Catarrh,Diseases of theUrinaryOrgans,Luytie'sPhysiciansPrice List, and The MedicalNews. He also had M. Young's Great Book of SecretsContainingManyof the MostValuable Recipes Known;Also, Dr. Lamotte'sCelebratedCureforConsumption;andDirections to theWorkingClass Howto Starta MontyMakingBusiness,WithorWithoutCapital,6fc,&c.

In John's earlier years in Parowan, Utah, there were three doctors: William A Morse, Priddy Meeks, and Calvin Crane Pendleton Morse was a sixty-four-year-old Canadian-born doctor famed for his knowledge of herbs and was also a one-time partner of Priddy Meeks. Morse was sent south in 1850, and when Parowan was organized on May 16, 1851, he was made one of several city councilors. But on February 28, 1853,John Calvin Lazelle Smith wrote the Deseret News, "We also have to lament the death of our Beloved Brother Dr. William A Morse."5 Despite Morse's short reign in Parowan, his medical theories

3 Among the copies of John Steele's papers sent me by Genevieve Sooy Jensen of Henderson, Nevada, is p 3 of an autobiography, written on the back of an 1875 subscription list for Scientific American. His papers show he solicited subscriptions for other publications, such as the Family Herald and Weekly Star of Montreal (see Steele's December 8, 1898, letter to the Montreal publication, transcribed by IoiiaJ Poling, typescript copy furnished me by Genevieve SooyJensen) Interview with Reba Roundy LeFevre, Salt Lake City, July 29, 1978, p 30

4 D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987), pp. xiii-xiv.

5 "Autobiography of Priddy Meeks," Utah State Historical Society Library, Salt Lake City, typescript (1936), pp. 60-61; George O. Zabriskie and Dorothy L. Robinson, "The U.S. Census of Utah, 1851," Utah Genealogical Magazine 29 (April 1938): 68; Millennial Star 13 (September 15, 1851): 276; Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereinafter JH), February 28, 1853, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City

may have had the most profound effect on John, for Morse was not only a doctor but an astrologer, and astrology came to play a large part inJohn's practice.

The second doctor, frontiersman Priddy Meeks, had lived an exciting life: his mother was tomahawked and his father was killed by Shawnee Indians in 1812 when Priddy was seventeen Meeks, John's personal doctor,6 was a Thomsonian herbal doctor whose favorite remedy was lobelia He sometimes treated John for kidney problems and John named his youngest daughter Susann Adams after Meeks's stepdaughter Susann Smith Adams.

The third doctor, Calvin Crane Pendleton, confirmed Matthew Carruther's boast that "No Lawyer nor Doctor can live here [in southern Utah] by his trade."7 Pendleton, trained at the Eclectic Medical College at Worthington, Ohio, was more renowned for his gunsmith work than his medical cures His school of medicine "condemned the use of calomel and the abuse of the lancet, placed emphasis on proper diet, and advocated temperance in eating and drinking."8

All of these men exerted some influence on John's developing theories. Meeks and Pendleton both gave public lectures on their medical theories but those theories were wildly divergent Unlike Meeks, Pendleton was enthusiastic about surgery. Meeks, like Morse, was a follower of Samuel Thomson, founder of the Thomsonian school of medicine Thomson learned his techniques from a "rootdoctor" and relied heavily on God, cayenne pepper, lobelia, cherry stones, and steaming According to Wesley P Larsen, "Thomsonianism was simply a modification of the early Greek humoral theory of disease. His idea was that heat is a manifestation of life and that cold is the cause of disease."9 Therefore, a sick person needed to first have his body cleansed with natural emetics, such as lobelia, and enemas. Second, lost heat should be restored through the use of cayenne pepper

bJohn Steele, Mormon Battalion Pension Application, affidavit, October 3, 1882, says John "was constantly treated by Dr P Meeks from the year 1847 for 30 years"; but an affidavit dated January 10, 1882, says "he is unable to obtain proof by Dr. Calvin C. Pendelton [sic], who first treated him for this disease of the kidneys"; and in a pension claim dated April 15, 1882, Meeks testified to having treated Steele for kidney problems since 1847

7 Millennial Star 15 (1853): 459, quoting a letter from Matthew Carruthers dated Cedar City, February 1853

8 Mark A Pendleton, "Dr Calvin Crane Pendleton," Utah Historical Quarterly 10 (1942): 34

9 "Autobiography of Priddy Meeks," pp 61-62; "Life of Henry Lunt and Family: Together with a Portion of His Diary," March 2, 1853, typescript, pp 155-56, Brigham Young University Library, Provo; Parowan Stake, High Priests Minutes, vol 1, 1855-87, see January 5, 12, 1861, LDS Church Archives Wesley Pratt Larsen, Indian and Pioneer Medicine in Utah Territory, 1847-1900 (Toquerville: Author, 1992), p. 20.

internally and hot pads and steam or vapor externally. Third, the residue of the "canker" should be carried away by doses of herbs

Probably one of the reasons for Thomson's relative success is that the alternative offered by others—nicknamed by their critics the "poison and pill" doctors—included bleeding, purging, blistering, surgery, and poisonous compounds such as calomel (mercurous chloride), arsenic, and strychnine.

Steele leaned toward the Thomsonian method, but when his young son Robert Henry had "a breaking out on its head and face" the boy was treated and killed by calomel, a chemical medicine repudiated by doctors with Meeks's training.10 Consequently, in Steele's handwritten pharmacy book we find an herbal emphasis. Cholera was to be treated with a mixture of gum camphor, laudanum, red pepper, oil of spearmint, oil of cedar, oil of hemlock, and alcohol which was mixed and to be taken "fifteen drops to a teaspoonful in a gill of hot water." So confident of this remedy was the self-taught medicine man that he insisted, "No one traveling in a Cholera district Should be without this excelant Remedy." Like Meeks, Steele favored lobelia— good "to produce a vomit" and excellent in solutions for "Deptheria," scarlet fever, and yellow fever. Dandelion was also helpful for scarlet fever and boneset or mint tea for yellow fever and for smallpox

It is a mistake to assume that these were timid recipes of the gentle herbal doctor—instead, suffering was emphasized. In treating yellow fever one took lobelia as an emetic and was expected to then "vomit for an hour or more As nearly to death as you can and live, then take a thorrough Steeming with wild Sage or Burning Rum, or alcoholl then take you out of the Sweating and give you half a pint of caster oil, then go to Bed and cover up, and Sleep Several hours " However, not all cures were herbal: for a bloody nose, "Chew a piece of paper rapidly, or place a role of mislin [sic], or role of paper under the upper lip which pressed hard upon will arrest the Bleeding at the nose."11

Besides being a doctor, Steele prided himself on his veterinarian skills: he had a "Horse Taming" concoction of equal parts of oil of rodium, cummin, anise, and poppy, to which shavings from the fore

11 In "Journal of Priddy Meeks," typescript by Beth Bringhurst, 1937, Utah State Historical Society Library, p 55, Meeks wrote, "Never knowing lobelia to fail in a case of poison neither indeed in any other case " Gary Hall Callister, when the owner of John Steele's papers, sent me a photocopy of Steele's booklet of handwritten medical cures and labeled it "Book #2."

10 Susan E.Johnson Martineau to James Henry Martineau, May 30, 1858, James Henry Martineau Collection, LDS Church Archives, MS 4786, folder 5.

limb of the horse were added to one teaspoonsful of castor and two or three drops of this in a handkerchief—or in serious cases, six drops on the tongue to calm the animal. This was a remedy given him by J H Williamson, "Ventroloquist and Lecturer."12

Steele was not busyjust administering doubtful herbal cures: he also was famous for his ability to set broken bones. Although Steele died in 1903, when I visited Toquerville in 1984 with a tape recorder under my arm, I was able to twice interview ninety-year-old Charles Andrew Olds whose arm had been set by "Doc Steele."

Olds called Steele "a nice old fellow Apparently he had quite a nice education, the way he talked. In fact at one time he used to come to school with one of the other fellows when they'd come over, the trustees, just to visit and tell us a few stories about what was the best thing to do for us in order to get an education while we was young, and all this, that, and the other." Olds "was getting over a rock wall with a big old watermelon like that," he said, motioning to show an enormous melon, "and I slipped and fell, broke my [right] arm. We stayed away from home. I didn't want to tell mother or anything about it, my broken arm, or dad neither We stayed there until about dark before we went home. Mother said, 'where you kids been? Why didn't you come home a long while ago?' And Arthur [his brother] or somebody, I don't know who it was, spoke up and said, 'couldn't come home,' he says, 'Andy broke his arm!' So they all surrounded me, you know, and rolled my sleeve up and it was broke Picked me up and took me up there, and that old man [John Steele] got a—them days all the boxes they had were made out of wood. Now you don't see so many of 'em. Broke the slats off that, put it down and put it along there, and you can't tell it was broke, it was right along in there, [you can] feel it."13 So you could.

But John Steele was reaching for an integrated approach to the world, and incorporating medicine wasjust one of the elements Consequently, following doctor and astrologer William A Morse, he was anxious to determine how the moon, the planets, the sun and the stars fit into medical care.

ForJohn, biology and astrology were intimately linked, a discovery

13 Interview with Charles Andrew Olds, Toquerville, Utah, October 11, 1984, pp 7-9; also see Kerry William Bate Journal, 1984, p. 92 (July 30, 1984), and p. 119 (October 11, 1984); and Kerry William Bate to Rodell Bate, August 7, 1984, in Kerry William Bate Letterbook, 1984, pp 172-73 Bate Journals and Letterbooks cited here and later are in my possession.

12 On a loose scrap of paper in the Genevieve Sooy Jensen collection; see also Poling tvpescript of Steele's letter to the Family Herald and Weekly Star.

Trunk, certificate, and booksof John Steele, photographed by author.

he made early in life. In 1900, writing to "Mr. Azrael of the PennyMagazine,"" he confessed, "I have worked in the Science [of astrology] for the last 40years."14 The date 1860 isconfirmed by his personal library, which includes The Grammar ofAstrology,Containing AllThings Necessaryfor Calculating a Nativity,By Zadkiel Authorof Several Works on Astrology, inscribed in the back, 'John Steele March 21 1860." Beginning at least as early as 1875, he subscribed to Raphael'sProphetic Almanac;or, The Prophetic Messenger andWeather Guide, "by Raphael, The Astrologer of the 19th Century."John's collection of these almanacs runs from 1876 to 1903, the year of his death; they are supplemented by Raphael'sKey to Astrology. It seems to have been the Raphael series that led him directly into what his great-great-granddaughter called his interest in "black magic, astrology, and numerology."15 The magazine carried advertisements for books on astrology, magic, witchcraft, spirits, and predictions, and the 1881 issue contained an article titled "Astrology and Medicine."

But other factors contributed to this interest: folk magic was widely practiced in southern Utah. Priddy Meeks owned a seer stone used with wonderful results by his foster son William Titt.16 Priscilla Parrish Roundy, wife of Kanarraville's bishop, bragged at age sixty-six that she had "never taken a bit of Doctor's medicine in her life" and later that "she did not believe in doctors but put her trust in Elders and the power of God." For her, the "power of God" included the use of a magic charm to cure toothaches.17 There were even rumors of witchcraft being practiced in some of the little Mormon communities.18 John's black magic interests are shown in several papers found in his handwriting in his old trunk. My favorite is the following:

14 John Steele, Toquerville, July 27, 1900, to "Mr Azrael of the penny magaz[ine]," torn copy in the John Steele papers

15 Conversation with JoAnn Sylvester Bate, February 12, 1992 (see Kerry William Bate Journal, 1992, under that date); JoAnn Sylvester Bate, Pima, Arizona, to Kerry William Bate, February 11, 1992 in Kerry William Bate Letterbook, 1992, pp 100-102

Ib "Journal of Priddy Meeks," p 64 Meeks wrote, "He was born a natural seer, but no knowledge of the fact was had until he came to live with me that I ever knew of seer stones or peepstones as they are more commonly called was very plenty about Parowan." Parowan Elders Quorum Minutes show that William H Titt was born October 27, 1841, London, England, son of William C and Maryann Titt, ordained an elder on December 17, 1859, and that he was excommunicated from the Mormon church on July 28, 1861, because he "Went to the United States" (Elders Quorum Minutes, 1856-1877, pp 35, 58, LDS Church Archives).

17 Kanarraville Ward Records, Book B, March 23, 1878 - September 24, 1905, p 163, p 161 (January 1, 1899), LDS Church Archives Reba Roundy LeFevre, St George, Utah, to Kerry William Bate, July 12, 1982, and April 30, 1983 (see Kerry William Bate Letterbook, 1983, p 75); interview with Karl G Roundy, June 20, 1981, Woods Ranch, Cedar Canyon, Utah; interview with Reba Roundy LeFevre, November 7, 1981, Salt Lake City; interview with JoAnn Sylvester Bate, August 11, 1982, Salt Lake City

18 'Journal of Priddy Meeks," pp 65-68 Meeks explained what the devil had to tell William Titt, and then talked about witches; he seems to identify witchcraft and evil spirits with mental illness, for he wrote, "Those kinds of spirits work mostly on the mental functions instead of the physical functions "

If the witches or wizzards is known or Suspected find or guess what plannet governs him or her Take a fowl or Creeping thing or Small animal that is unde r the Same plannet to represent him or her as a proxy, a male animal for a wizard and a female animal for a witch If the person to be worked against is not known, then take [ ] the moo n for the Significator, or Even if he or Shee is known or Suspected, if the moo n or her Sign discribe the person, The n you must Consider the Creture to be the huma n being address it as Such, and if the person of the witch is known, call the animal after his or her name, and many would name and Even Baptise the animal in the nam e of the person, in order that it might fully represent him or her The n three days before the new or full moo n or one of the Quarters if the Case is urgent, Confine the animal in a dark place, and feed it only [ J a day after Sunset, give it only [ ] and water, Soon after the moo n is full, Change or Quarter, take the animal and Stick an awl or needle in its belly a brass or copper nail is best, and made or bought for the purpose, you may put more than one in if you please. The n hang it u p by the legs in the chimney burn old feathures, horns, old leather, on the hearth until the animal is smothered to Death The n take it down open it take out its heart with [a] Knife or one made for the purpose and Kept for that use put salt in the Creature and burn it to ashes Except the Heart fill that with Salt and peppe r and han g it in the Chimney till it is dry then burn it all up.

There are, however, other spells of great interest, such as one "To make two persons Enemays and hate one another," which is done by making waxen images in the position of fighting each other. Another spell is used "To injure any wicked man or Enemay Write on parchment the Names or name and over the name the Spirit of mercury and its Gharacter then bury the parchment in the Earth, Spirit of mercury Tophtharath mercury."19 You may also injure a witch—or anyone else—by making a waxen image, and taking into account the stars and moon, sticking it with "a Copper nail in the image where you want it hurt and bury it in Earth."

Another spell requires that you "Write on the first day of the Moon and perfume it with aloes or a dried frogs head, then wrap in black Silk or white linen and ty a tape or String of the Same Kind about it then hang around your neck to reach the heart and Keep it there at least one moon then write in a Circle the following - In the begining was the word &c—full of grace and truth++-r E1+ Elohim+ Elohe+ Sabboth+ Elion+ Exerchie+ La+ Tetra gammation+ Adonay+

19 The astrological symbol for mercury and not the word is used in the original of this spell

Saday+++, Exierat denset dispentur inimsee, just mosen habent et prophetes exierat omnes Spiritus Candent Dominion."20

A thief may be forced to return stolen goods by writing the correct astrological symbols on a piece of parchment and, if the goods are not promptly returned, "prick the parchment full of holes and hang it up in a Chimney Whare it will be Kept warm and the heat of the fire scorch it a little -and the thief will be tormented in mind and body and bring back the goods."

Steele also knew magic signs, one of which says, "whoever beareth this sign all Spirits will do him homage" and underneath "with the 5 points in back." Each one has the points of the star or eighths of the circle labeled with astrological symbols.

Numerology served as a key to the laws binding the gods and the devil. To fight thievesJohn provided a table where each letter was represented by a certain number. Numbers corresponding to one's first name were written down and then wrapped "in Black Silk hang it about your neck, do it when [the moon] 2 1 Changes" and "the thief will be tormented in Mind and body and bring back the Goods."

John took these occult practices very seriously—so seriously that when a calf was born to his yellow cow he recorded the exact hour.22 When he wrote to "Azrael" in New York City, he admitted that despite all his best efforts, he "Could not Satisfy myself on Some points, — now I would like you to Send me the nature of the Disease or accident that will terminate my Existance here."23 Azrael was quick to reply: "Your health will be severely tried in January, Sept. and Dec. 1901. Passing those periods you come under affliction again, in April 1902 and in December of the same year If you escape those afflictions you might live to see your 87th birthday."24

He was much troubled by his big and, in his opinion, lazy, son John Alma Steele "I have one Son at home unmarried he is now 37," John confessed to his niece Letitia Todd. "He is rather Careless, but tends to the horses and teams. He is a stout man Six feet high and weighs 196 lbs and very good looking."John Alma was an alcoholic

201 have photocopies of these spells in Steele's handwriting.

23 Ibid

24

21 The symbol here seems to be meant for the moon; it is a half moon with a squiggled line representing the left face of it; copy in my possession

22 See draft of Steele's July 27, 1900, letter to Azrael, on the bottom of which is noted, "yellow cow -July 27 Cow had a calf 4 p m"; copy in my possession

Azrael, New York, undated, to John Steele; transcript typed by Iona J Poling; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen.

Man standing on left isfames S. Stapley. Mounted men areArch Kleinman, left, andfohn Alma Steele,fohn Steele'sson. Courtesy of author.

who on one of his rougher nights had had part of his ear bitten off by Bryan Roberts.25 John wildly and vainly insisted to skeptical winemakers in Toquerville that wine selling and wine drinking "paved the way to chicken stealing and other crimes," but when he preached such doctrine in sacrament meeting he was gently contradicted by the bishop's counselor and winemaker Charles Stapley, Jr.26

In frustration John wrote about his son to a Boston astrologist, Oliver Ames Goold, explaining that the young man had been born April 6, 1853, at 9 a.m "with Gemini ascending" and begged for guidance

25 John Steele, Toquerville, March 21, 1891, to Letitia Todd, Australia; copy in my possession John Steele, Toquerville, August 17, 1880, to George Spilsbury, Justice of the Peace Apparently no action was taken against Roberts John wrote at the bottom of his retained copy of the complaint, "but Justice crawls back in the Shade and if a person Speaks So as to be herd, the word is we are Sent here to make wine and we must Sell it to all who will buy ."; copy in my possession

26 Levi M Savage Journal, 3:128 (October 11, 1891), Collection of Mormon Diaries, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.John must have given up condemning wine, for he wrote his niece Letitia Connelly Todd in Australia just before Christmas (December 24, 1897) that "my Barrels are well filled with Wine, [and I] will drink your health in a full bumper"; copy in my possession Trying to convince her of the Utopia he lived in, he later insisted that "there is plenty of wine made here, But very few Drunkards as it is So Cheap few think any thing about it," September 12, 1902; copy in my possession Nevertheless in May 1894 he wrote or more likely copied into his papers a maudlin song about a wife begging her husband not to go out, for "Who can tell how much I suffer/ From the cursed cup he drinks." The husband was brought back drunk and crying for "rum, more rum!" See typescript by Iona J Poling, furnished me by Genevieve Sooy Jensen

Goold wrote back in a large, careless hand, "I am of the opinion that he will do something Yet—Have hope."John, desperate for solace, worked out the astrological signs based on the date and time of receiving the letter, and then carefully rewrote Goold's letter in his own cramped and rounded handwriting underneath Goold's ornate lettering.27

One might suppose that these strange practices going on in a small Mormon community would incite suspicion and hostility. Far from it John was in such demand for horoscopes that Olive DeMill Stevens wrote from Orderville, "My children often say 'why did not you get Brother Steele to figure about me.'" And, she inquired, could John tell Minnie "what kind of a man and when she is going to marry"? To be helpful, Olive included the fact that her daughter's full name was Minnie Deserett and that she was born on July 24, 1881, at half past seven or 8 p.m and "has been and is always a good trusty girl I can well recommend her." Meanwhile, what about her wayward son Nephi?28

John hurried an answer back, suggesting that Minnie was "a natural worker"; but he had miscalculated the day of birth, which brought a rejoinder from Minnie's mother and more information: "Minnie has went with three different boys, but she didn't feel like she wanted to go with them, and she told them they need not come any more." Anyway, "She don't think about marrying and, in fact, says she don't never want a husband unless he is a true Latter-day Saint." Olive invited John to come spend the summer with the Stevenses on their ranch on the North Fork and added a postscript that she herself had "a very little mold under my right eye" and "a dark spot on my left arm about the size of three or four pin heads."29 What he made of this the record does not say

After his wife Catherine's death John got a housekeeper, but that arrangement did not last. Then the seventy-two-year-old man took up with twenty-five-year-old Tamer Elizabeth Booth, a woman with a somewhat checkered past—she had been twice married but only once divorced when John married her on April 8, 1893 That was not the only problem: his Toquerville neighbors complained that "the marriage ceremonies were performed by a GentileJudge. This is contrary

2' Oliver Ames Goold, Boston, December 22, 1891, to "My Dear Fellow" John Steele; copy in my possession

28 Olive E. DeMill Stevens, Orderville, Utah, March 26, 1901, to John Steele; transcript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen of Henderson, Nevada

29 Olive E DeMill Stevens, Orderville, Utah, April 13, 1901, to John Steele; transcript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen

to the rule of the Church in such matters and excites unfavorable comment with many of the Saints."30

Things were sometimes grand: "Lizzie" sentJohn a valentine that insisted, "I love you, dear,/ I love you,/ You ne'er can know how well/ For the deep, deep love/ I bear you,/ No words have power/ to tell." But Lizzie hated the isolation of Toquerville as much as Catherine had and was much more confrontive about it. Even her mother reminded Lizzie "to keep a guard on your tongue for it is an unruly member." Six months after the marriage, Lizzie's mother wrote to John, "I am sorry to hear that you cannot live with her" and demanded of her daughter, "Now Lizzie I want you to repent at once. Ask your husband forgiveness for all your hard speeches." She then complained to both of them that "I think another [letter] like the last one would finish me up out right."31 Lizzie, unimpressed with her mother's letter, tore it in half.

"I should have answered your last letter," John wrote back to Matilda on October 25, "but was waiting to see if things would take a better turn, which oft it does, and at other times it returns with all the fury of a maniac." To his mother-in-law's pointed reminder that he had taken Lizzie knowing she had a foul temper, he replied: "It is true I took your daughter, not knowing or caring particularly if she was a saint or what she had passed through, and, as Brother Drakeford said, she had a bad temper. But as I have had considerable experience in handling different bad tempers and believing my own one of the best to control others with I thought it must be bad indeed if I could not manage it." Yes, Lizzie had asked John's forgiveness: "She did once, but it did not last but a few days until she was as bad or worse than before, and every trifle that takes her toe she flares up and then she uses the most pet names she can think of such as liar, whore, master, blackhearted, scoundral, etc etc etc."

Then there were his little stepsons: "they are always destroying something, whatever comes within their reach and leading other boys to do as they do." Besides all this, "when she gets one of her trantrums

S0Jane Catherine Steele Jensen, Taylor, Arizona, July 9, 1892, to "Mr John Steele/ Dear Father," copy of transcript by IonaJ Poling in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen This letter says, "I am delighted beyond expression to think you have got you a housekeeper I am sure you did not get her before you needed one. I hope you will enjoy yourselves together and see many pleasant hours." See also Levi M Savage Journal, 5:7 (April 23, 1893)

31 Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele to John Steele, undated valentine; and Matilda Booth, Salt Lake City, March 9, 1894, to John Steele and Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele; copies in my possession Matilda Booth, Salt Lake City, September 8,1893, to "Dear Son and daughter"; typescript by IonaJ Poling in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen.

[sic] coming on, which is very often, everything she takes hold of is dashed to pieces. She threw a bucket-full of water about me and then threw a stone about three-pounds weight, which by good luck just missed me. At another time she threw a washbasin of water about me as I was leaving the house to get away from her noise and abuse." As for himself, "I should not be controlled by one of the worst tongues that ever stuck in awoman's head." Besides, she was so loud that "everybody around here has heard her voice in the street." He continued, "for me to ask her forgiveness - that is simply nonsence. There is no compromise I am either right or I am wrong, and if she has any concessions to make I am ready to hear them, otherwise, there is a stand off. I have held my tongue and went into the garden among the trees and vines and there she would follow me and abuse me, then, when good-natured, it would be all kisses and in one hour it would be all curses, which made me think that a lunatic asylum were the proper place for herjust then."32

There seems to have been a stand-off, but byJanuary 26, 1894, Lizzie's mother was writing gently, "Now Lizzie I want you to take care of yourself Take plenty of cooling medicine I want you to tell your husband how you are, for he is a fine doctor and perhaps he will give you something that will do you good."33

John did have an herbal cure for irritable women or, as he put it, "For nervious Debillity, in Females," and he underlined the word "females." "Take Some puruvian Bark (Cinchini) 2 ozs. (Indian or Common hemp) Cannibis Satira 2 ozs Blue vervine (Verbena Hastata) 2 drs Elecampan 3 Drs. Latan name Inulin 3 ozs with one pind [sic] good Whiskey" and other ingredients. One stands amazed to see that calming down excitable women demanded both cannibas, or marijuana, and a pint of "good Whiskey."34

Perhaps that provides a clue to Catherine's ability to live with this man for fifty-one years, but it did not work with Lizzie. A postscript to the January 29, 1894, letter from Lizzie's mother said, "I was just going to post this letter when the other came, so I have put a bit more to it. So you need not expect me coming now, for if you are not wel-

53

54 From John Steele's booklet of handwritten medical cures labeled by Gary Hall Callister as "Book #2." Steele also recommended cannabis for "Kidney Blader Rheumatism occationed By fatigue ulcerated pains in Kidneys Catarrh inflamation of Chest &c."

i2John Steele, Toquerville, October 25, 1893, to Matilda Booth; copy of IonaJ Poling typescript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen.

Matilda Booth, Salt Lake City, January 26, 1894, to "Dear Son and daughter"; copy of IonaJ Poling typescript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen

come I know I should not be. But tell Brother Steele that I shall be very much obliged to him if he will send you straight away You have plenty of friends here if you have none there Tell him I begin to think marriage is a failure, tell him I would like him to release you honorably as you have not committed the unpardonable sin. Tell him we told him you had a very bad temper and we heard that he had another Everybody thot he loved children and he would have educated them good, but we have been deceived."35

John, in desperation, had written to astrologer Goold for marital advice The answer was clear and absolutely accurate: "Owing to the presence of Saturn in the 7th House of the Heavens, you do not seem to be destined to much good fortune in marriage." The stars were so opposed that "Had I been advising you early in life I should have counciled you to have nothing or not married any woman in the world"; but now that the mistake has been made, "get rid of the one you have, [and] do not take any other." A query to astrologer Azrael brought the answer, "old John Gadbury, suggests as little marrying as possible. If I were in your place, I would not risk it."36

Still, the saga of this doomed marriage dragged on. Lizzie was obviously a young woman full of life, writing the staid old man "you never miss a wive till she['s] gone," and "I will soon be with you and do my best to cheer you ... so cheer up. and dont die in a shell, live in hopes."37 Nevertheless, these two could not live together in peace and were soon talking of divorce.38

It seems doubtful that either needed incitement to violence: in one rage Lizzie pummeled John, broke his dishes, threatened his life, and broke in his doors and smashed his windows, but when he notified her of the divorce proceedings, she wrote back, "you know full well that i aint got a cent to get a divorce with" and signed her letter, "your loving wife Lizzie."39 The rages and fights between them became such a matter of public knowledge that Levi Savage wrote in hisjournal,

35 Matilda Booth, Salt Lake City, January 29, 1894, to "Dear Son and daughter"; copy of IonaJ Poling typescript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen

36 Oliver Ames Goold, Boston, September 19, 1893, to John Steele; copy in my possession Azrael, New York, to John Steele, undated, and Azrael to John Steele, August 4, 1900; typescripts by IonaJ Poling; originals in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen

37 Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele, Salt Lake City, ca September 3, 1894, to John Steele; copy in my possession

38 Ibid Matilda Booth, Salt Lake City, February 14, [1895?], to John Steele and Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele; copy in my possession

39 John Steele v. Tamer E. Steele, Third Judicial District Court, Beaver County, August 8, 1895; divorce papers in John Steele's handwriting; copy in my possession. Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele, Salt Lake City, August 27, 1895, to John Steele; copy in my possession

"Brother Steel and his wife quarreling was mentioned [in the Teachers Quorum meeting]. Some proposed to arrest them for disturbing the peace, others thought a better way could be adopted The matter rested here."40 They were finally separated, and Steele consoled himself by compiling a brief study of divorces, which were given "not only fore infidelity, for illegal Crualty, intemperance, prolonged absence, mental incapacity, Sent to the penetentiary," but, no doubt thinking of Lizzie, also for "incompatibility of temper."41

Even after the divorce she kept up a correspondence with him, writing on April 3, 1896, "Dear husband, if anyone has suffered more than I since I left home I sincerely pity them, but I have learned a lesson which I shall not easily forget We are married for life and all eternity and remember, if we are separated by the laws of the land we are as bound together by the laws of God. I feel sometimes I would not dare to come back after so much scandal and if anyone was to upbraid me it would affect me very much. ... I will have to come home as soon as we can make it convenient, I can't live this way much longer." She congratulated him on his birthday and said, "I drank your health the last birthday party, but, alas, not this." She thanked him for five dollars and gave him an update on the hellion stepsons, Charlie and Albert Cheetham. 4 2 Still, the relationship gradually diminished, and by August 15, 1901,John was writing somewhat disingenuously to his Australian niece that his first wife had died and "since then my house & home has been disorganized. I married another, and She departed this life also, So that I am measurably alone.

."43 He consoled himself by having hundreds of dead women sealed

40 Levi M Savage Journal, 6:9 (July 7, 1895)

41 Steele's handwritten notes on the back of an envelope; copy in my possession

42 Tamer Elizabeth Booth Steele, Salt Lake City, April 3, 1896, to "My dear Husband"; copy of IonaJ Poling typescript in my possession; original in possession of Genevieve Sooy Jensen

43 John Steele, Toquerville, August 15, 1901, to Letitia Todd; copy in my possession Lizzie's problems were more complicated than a "bad temper" or lack of self-control. On September 1, 1900, she was admitted to the state mental hospital in Provo where she spent the rest of her life, dying there October 18, 1914 The death certificate gave her name as "Elizabeth Renick Cheetham," but it was really Tamer Elizabeth Booth Cheetham Renick Steele Her son Charles Edwin Cheetham met an equally sad fate, reported by the Deseret News on July 20, 1922, sec 2, p 8, in "Death Follows Debauch": "As the result of drinking denatured alcohol, Charles Cheetham, 33, died Wednesday night [July 19] at the emergency hospital His two companions, William Gritten and Ed Lund who were also suffering from the effects of the alcohol, were asleep in the city jail when Cheetham died. The man has been arrested a number of times before on charges of drunkenness Efforts are now being made to locate relatives."

Salt Lake City Death Records, Entry #5-1106, are more blunt: "Charles Edward [sic] Cheetham died in Emergency Hospital 19 July 1922 of acute alcoholism Residence: Cityjail most of the time " Apparently no relatives could be found; what happened to Albert Henry Cheetham is unknown I thank Lorraine Booth Furse for sharing with me her research notes on this family.

to him in the St George Temple and carefully wrote down for his files the fate of the wives of Henry VIII.44

Eventually the old man also found himself left out of modern medicine When the state presumed to begin licensing doctors he wrote an angry blast to James Duffin, his state representative: "Dear Sir, as there has been great discrimination among a certain Class of Doctors, who . . . have amalgamated themselves togather As a Board Excluding Every other person who have not been, or are not able, to answer Certain Questions of Greek, and Latin, in medical practice, from practising the healing art, although they may have Served the public for Twent[y], or Forty years ... a Ring of professionals, have held Controle, Shutting out from practice all who Could not understand Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, of Greek, Or the Latin, ah, bay. . . . Having Spent a Couple of years in Some institution of learning, come out a full fledged Doctor with a Diploma as long as your arm, with the privilige of Charging a Fee as long as your leg ... I write to you as our Delegate asking you to draft a Bill to abolish this medical Ring business and Set the people free. . . ."45

As he got older, he gradually got shorter—losing an inch in the ten years between 1887 and 1897. But he lost none of his ferociousness, and when Dr. S. Husted of Silver Reef was called upon to give John a physical to see if he was entitled to a pension for kidney injuries supposedly sustained in the Mormon Battalion, the doctor did not think he deserved the pension but instead of telling John wrote quietly to the commissioner of pensions, "He is a Mormon and in this part of the Country my wellfare and life would scarcely be safe should he know of the nature of the report."46

There may have been some reason in the past for Husted to worry; a bizarre and nearly incoherent letter to John from Harrisburg's William Leany dated February 17, 1883, toldJohn as though it were common knowledge of "the day those three were murdered in our ward & the murderer killed to stop the shed[d]ing of more blood" and further that "blood tondreth blood if that was not fulfilled in the killing the three in one room in our own ward please saywhat it was. ... " One southern Utah historian, Wesley P. Larsen, argues that

44 See undated paper in Steele's handwriting, "Catherine of Arigon ."; copy in my possession

45 Photocopy of original in my possession; also see Larsen, Indian and Pioneer Medicine, pp 63-64

46 S Husted, Silver Reef, December 1887, to Hon Mr Black, Commissioner of Pensions, in the John Steele pension file for Mormon Battalion service, Utah State Archives, Salt Lake City

this refers to the murders of Seneca Howland, O G Howland, and William H Dunn of theJohn Wesley Powell Party in 1869.47

Much of what Steele stood for was beginning to be outmoded toward the latter part of the nineteenth century, though his astrology skills remained in demand and he continued to set broken bones. Honors were showered on him: he was elected justice of the peace, participated regularly in church services, and was a conscientious St George Temple worker.

When Apostle Matthias F. Cowley took a trip south in the early spring of 1903, he ordained eighty-two-year-old John Steele a patriarch.48 On his daughter Elizabeth's birthday, August 9, 1903, he was in vigorous good spirits and he and his daughter Susiejoined other family members at the Stapley ranch on the Kanarra Mountain for the birthday celebration. There he sang her a heartfelt—and at his age, probably reedy—rendition of "Oh My Father."49 Perhaps its reference to a mother God was a sop to Elizabeth, who was as strong-willed as he was.

It seemed nothing could wear him down But his great-granddaughter Reba Roundy LeFevre explained what happened late that year. "He stepped on a nail an they didn't do it right an it turned to gangrene."50 His daughter Elizabeth went to Toquerville to take care of him. "He had to take so many drops of medicine," Reba said. "I don't know what kinda medicine it was. But . . . they didn't have a medicine dropper. 'Now you count them drops an you make jest exactly what they are, no bigger, nor no littler.' The drops has got to be the same size. Then he would take his medicine. If he didn't, he wouldn't take it. An he's very strict. You done this. You done that. I think that's where Granma [Stapley] got her strictness from." He had a cure for gangrene, too: "Cantharis, Spanish Fly good in burning, itching of Skin rawness, Soreness of the whole body inflamation"; another standby for gangrene was hemlock But none of it worked, or perhaps he took too much hemlock; he gathered his family around him and gave his daughter Elizabeth a remarkable blessing where he

48 JH, March 26, 1903, p 6

49

50 For the details of Steele's death I have especially drawn on interviews with Reba Roundy LeFevre, St. George, Utah, May 1, 1986, pp. 5-6; January 24, 1987 p. 21; July 23, 1987, p. 5; April 29, 1988, p 1; and October 6, 1989, pp 10-11

47 William Leany, Sr., Harrisburg, February 17, 1883, to John Steele; original in possession of Gary Hall Callister, copy in my possession. See Wesley P. Larsen, "The 'Letter' or Were the Powell Men Really Killed by Indians?" Canyon Legacy, Spring 1993, pp. 12-19.

Mahonri M Steele, Panguitch, September 11, 1903, to John Steele, Toquerville; copy in my possession

John Steele with his grandson William B. Stapley, granddaughter

Mary Elizabeth Stapley

Kay, and daughter

Young Elizabeth Steele Stapley.

told her she was "a chosen vessel of the Lord" and would "do a great and a mighty work." Furthermore, he stated, "You shall live Yet Many Years upon the earth" and, in what struck me as a most remarkable promise, said, "The Lord will give unto thee in his own due time the Holy Priesthood in fullness."51

Then he went to Kanarraville to spend his last days with Elizabeth. He remained fiesty and arrogant to the end, boasting that if it were not for his foot he could "walk a mile in ten minutes." His old friend, convicted murderer George Wood, stopped by to see him, while the newspaper reporter commented that "He is surprisingly smart at the age of 82." However, a few days later things took a turn for the worse, and the Kanarraville correspondent reported to the IronCountyRecord that "Grandfather Steele is gradually climbing the

51 John Steele patriarchal blessing of Young Elizabeth Steele Stapley, Toquerville, December 6, 1903, scribe Mahonri M Steele; copy in my possession

ladder to the other side His sons and daughter have been telegraphed for."52 The issue which would have reported Steele's death is missing, but he died December 31, 1903, and two days later he was buried in Parowan, one of his few surrenders to his first wife, Catherine, who—still resentful of being forced to move to Toquerville—had insisted on being buried there

John received a posthumous sanctification; he was remembered in Toquerville as "Doc," who wore a blue cape with a red lining and carried a cane, always on call for the sick and wounded, riding his fine horse Charlie. His diaries and letters were kept in his old honey-colored trunk, depleted by occasional raids from bandit family historians In the first issue of the 1933 Utah HistoricalQuarterly one version of hisjournal and life story was published, safely edited with spelling errors corrected and everything potentially controversial deleted Historians of the southern Utah country have delighted in quoting his often pungent comments about his contemporaries, and time has softened the harsh qualities that his contemporaries found distasteful

But complete sainthood was only reached with the placement of the Steele home in Toquerville on the National Register of Historic Places The files at the Utah State Historical Society explain that the home belonged to "John Steele, the parent of the first Mormon child in Utah" and note that it is in good condition and has significance because of an "Associated Historic Person"—"John Steele."

52 Iron County Record, December 26, 1903, Kanarraville byline dated December 17 with a note that the article was received late

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION

The Utah Historical Quarterly (ISSN 0042-143X) is published quarterly by the Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84101-1182 The editor is Max J Evans and the managing editor is Stanford J Layton with offices at the same address as the publisher The magazine is owned by the Utah State Historical Society, and no individual or company owns or holds any bonds, mortgages, or other securities of the Society or its magazine.

The following figures are the average number of copies of each issue during the preceding twelve months: 3,431 copies printed; 110 dealer and counter sales; 2,698 mail subscriptions; 2,808 total paid circulation; 42 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 2,850 total distribution; 581 inventory for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total, 3,431

The following figures are the actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 3,482 copies printed; 110 dealer and counter sales; 2,731 mail subscriptions; 2,841 total paid circulation; 48 free distribution (including samples) by mail, carrier, or other means; 2,889 total distribution; 593 inventory for office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing; total, 3,482.

The Desert's Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. By DONALD K GRAYSON (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993 xx + 356 pp $44.95.)

Fragmentary clues to the Great Basin's environmental history reveal a past very different from the Great Basin of moder n times. In this elegant book Donald Grayson gathers together many of these clues to build a "natural prehistory," a panoramic account of the last 25,000 years in the Great Basin, its landscapes, and the plants, animals, and people who lived there

Th e author begins with the first public recognition, by Joh n C. Fremont, of a "Great interior Basin" in North America where rivers and lakes find no outlet to any ocean This hydrographic definition of the Great Basin is but one of several ways scientists distinguish the region: it is also distinctive in physiography (the Basin and Range geologic province), botany (the shrublands and woodlands of the cold Great Basin desert), and anthropology (the homeland of Ute, Paiute, Shoshoni, and Washo peoples)

How did it get to be this way? Th e answer is by no means obvious Were the reader somehow transported to the Great Basin of 20,000 years ago— a world of lakes and glaciers, forests and elephants—the Great Basin of today probably would be considered an unlikely future. For one thing, no other human s would be surveying the scene Th e reader would, however,

share the landscape with some two dozen genera of mammals and birds that are now extinct Grayson gives an excellent background on the first peopling of the Americas at the close of the Pleistocene and on the mammalian bestiary lost to North America at that same time; then he examines how these animals met their fates Grayson has played a prominen t role in the debate over the causes of these extinctions, mounting forceful arguments against the hypothesis that the first Americans killed them all off Instead, he suggests, massive climate change resulted in greater aridity, reorganization of biotic communities, and the sweeping extinctions

Increased aridity is best seen in the histories of glaciers and great Pleistocene lake systems in the Great Basin (chapter 5) Th e degree of biotic reorganization that occurred is best visualized by considering late Pleistocene plant communities (chapter 6) and animal populations (chapter 7).

Compare this Pleistocene setting with the last 10,000 years, the Holocene (chapter 8): the environment got drier and warmer (10,000-7,500 years ago), then drier and warmer still (7,500-4,500 years ago), then slightly cooler and wetter (4,500 years ago to now) Lakes shrank, marshes dwindled, rivers changed course. Ranges

of trees and shrubs expanded or withdrew long distances in response to fluctuating climatic constraints Mammals commo n during the Pleistocene became restricted in distribution or died out altogether. Th e Great Basin reached its generally moder n configuration only about 4,500 year ago

Broad patterns of huma n occupation during the changing Holocene fit these environmental fluctuations (chapter 9) Most early Holocene occupation is found in wetland settings. Evidence for Middle Holocene occupation is notably scarce, suggesting that the aridity was harsh for huma n life Th e climatic amelioration about 4,500 years ago allowed increased occupation by people who lived much like native peoples known historically. Whether these people were ancestors of the historic Paiute and Shoshoni is hotly debated; Grayson discusses one hypothesis, the "Numic Expansion," which suggests that Paiute an d Shoshoni peoples spread across the Great Basin within the past 1,000 years, replacing other groups, including the Fremont Culture

Th e historic period is covered in two final chapters Th e first gives a demographi c analysis of mortality among the ill-fated Donner party, while the second examines the role of

livestock and fire in changing the Great Basin environment. As Grayson points out, very little of the Great Basin is truly pristine, and no natural history can neglect huma n effects on the environment

Throughout, Grayson summarizes masses of current evidence and analyses, drawing on information from far beyond the Great Basin's confines to explain key concepts or to establish necessary frameworks for understanding Th e result is a clear, engaging account accessible to any interested reader Th e author highlights current problems where interpretations conflict or where the evidence needed to resolve them is lacking: in short, the cutting edge of the science These problems and their means to resolution are presented with such clarity that the effect is galvanizing: you want to march right out, find the necessary clues, and solve them. Easier said than done, of course, but that is both the challenge and the satisfaction of paleoecological research Th e reader will get a feel for both in this excellent vol-

DAVID RHODE Desert Research Institute Reno, Nevada

The Nexv Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past. Edited by D. MICHAEL QUINN. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. xx + 310 pp. Paper, $18.95.)

D Michael Quinn has selected fifteen articles from a potential pool of nearly a thousand published items that might be considered in some way revisionist or representative of the new Mormon history Th e essays are by men and women, academics and nonacademics, Mormons and nonMormons, and professional historians and nonhistorians. Most authors are well known to students of Mormon

history Seven authors are past presidents of the Mormon History Association, and another is past editor of the fournal of Mormon History.

Quinn includes as an epilogue B H Roberts's "Justice Will Follow Truth" excerpted from his Comprehensive History of the Church offesus Christ of latter-day Saints (1930) as a harbinger of the new Mormon history Roberts held that history should speak truth-

fully and allow condemnation or justification to fall where it will. Even so, Quinn maintains that the new Mormon history did not take hold until 1950 with the publication of Juanita Brooks's Mountain Meadows Massacre. This book represented several ingredients of the new history, including a willingness to deal with a controversial topic, refusing to conceal "sensitive" evidence, following the evidence where it leads—even to revisionist interpretations contrary to traditional assumptions, adhering to scholarly standards of objectivity, and refusing to cater to public opinion without being condescending, offensive, or didactic

Th e selections cover a broad array of subjects from female issues to frontier experiences, demographic studies to internal and external stresses of Mormonism. Studies of Joseph Smith, the Council of Fifty, and polygamy constitute other prominent topics

Five of the articles first appeared in Dialogue: Afournal of Mormon Thought, three in Sunstone, two in fournal of Mormon History, two in Utah Historical Quarterly, on e in Western Humanities Reviexu, and two as parts of books Stanley S. Ivins's article on polygamy is first chronologically, having appeared in 1956 Four additional articles were published in the 1960s, four in the 1970s, and six in the 1980s, with the last being Kenneth L. Can-

non's and Dean L May's articles published in 1983. Non e of these articles will be new to the student of Utah and Mormon history—some have even been subject to later revisionism Th e articles were chosen no t as the last word bu t because they represent the first reassessment of a particular subject and because they demonstrate the impact of the new Mormon history in the decades since 1950.

Th e articles also represent the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural nature of new history as well as the new techniques used by new history—be it new American history, new western history, or new Mormon history—to reexamine old topics in new ways and to give greater emphasis to some previously understated subjects such as women, families, minorities, and the commo n people.

To some more traditional lay readers there may be some controversial or shocking revelations included However, for the student of Mormon history there is nothing that is really new. Rather, the essays represent a nice, thoughtfully selected,orderly historiographic study of four decades of writings in Mormon history

WAYNE K HINTO N Southern Utah University Cedar City

Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society. By JILL MULVAY DERR, JANATH RUSSELL CANNON, and MAUREEN URSENBACH BEECHER (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1992 xiv +54 4 pp $21.00.)

Women of Covenant is a book detailing the history of the Latter-day Saint Relief Society from its inception to the 1992 sesquicentennial year, with chapters chronicling the events that occurred during the tenure of each of the thirteen general presidents Writ-

ten at the request of Barbara Smith, then general president of the Relief Society, it is an unembarrassed an d unapologetic song of praise for the Momon women's auxiliary association Assuming their dominant readership to be Mormon, the authors admittedly

present a one-sided viewpoint, using language familiar to Mormons and making numerou s references to moments of divine inspiration that will perhaps bemuse the non-LDS reader. When, for example, the authors refer to Brigham Young as "a divinely guided entrepreneur with expansive dreams and kingdom-centered ambitions," they make an assumption that a non-Mormon might find presumptuous

Nevertheless, since the purpose of the book is to show the power, courage, nobility, and inherent goodness of the women involved in this organization, its quality should be judge d on how well that goal is met; and on that basis the book is a fine success. It is not, as one might suppose by the title and structure, a treatise on the different personalities of the leaders, although their strengths are mentioned It is rather a general look at the historical situations faced by the Mormon church and the responsive actions they prompte d among the sisterhood of the society Th e book describes in some detail those political and social trends to which the society has had to adjust in order to stay relevant and vital: the struggles of the nascent church in Nauvoo, the pioneer trials in Utah, the fight for statehood and female enfranchisement, the concern over poor medical care and the concomitant infant and mother mortality rates of the twentieth century, the agonies of World War I, the unemployment and forced frugality of the Great Depression, the suffering of World War II, the dissent and dissonance of the sixties, and the worldwide growth of the church in the seventies and eighties Each of the major policy changes in the history of the Relief Society is explained in light of prevailing social needs at the time, changes that were

often prompte d by the creative thinking and improvisation of local units where individual needs of women were noted and met

Perhaps the strongest message in the book is that the success of the Relief Society is due to the dedication of individual members—their vision, determination, influence, obedience, and charity. Abundant quotations showing how women responded to situation after situation with selflessness and generosity are often a source of amazement and sometimes amusemen t to the reader It is astonishing, for instance, to read of Gertrude Zippro, a district Relief Society president in a Netherlands mission during World War II, who time and again braved bullets, German troop movements, and bombing raids in order to visit her "sisters" and complete an assignment to help train church leaders in Holland And it is delightful to read in one report to the society in 1917 that "Tahitian sisters not only made quilts and wove hats (to help raise money for local programs), but also kept enthusiastically busy diving for pearls to increase their funds."

Th e book refers often to the struggles of these "women of covenant" to balance their desire for independence against the requirement of obedience and their desire for unity against inevitable social and cultural diversity, emphasizing that one of the greatest assets of the organization is the ability of women to respond creatively to these types of difficult challenges. It is a panoramic view of a society that for 150 years has worked to use the strength of the female character to improve a world painfully in need of that which women have to offer.

REBECCA VAN DYKE Kaysville, Utah

The Mormons' War on Poverty: A History of LDS Welfare, 1830-1990. By

GARTH L MANGUM

and BRUCE D BLUMELL (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993 xvi + 320 pp $29.95.)

Garth L Mangum, an academic economist, and Bruce D. Blumell, a former researcher in the Historical Department of the LDS church, have produced an insightful, authoritative, readable, and solidly documente d account of the Mormons' approach to economic welfare from 1830 to press time in 1991

They rightly insist on the constancy of LDS economic welfare goals— short-term emergency help, self-reliance, and establishing the millennial ideal of an egalitarian Zion—throughout a history in which the economic status of church members and the means employed to meet those three goals have varied widely

The authors hold that early attempts to overcome poverty and economic inequality, such as stewardships, consecrations, and cooperatives, were largely symbolic and unrealized The period through 1900, occupying only one-fourth of the book, draws on excellent works already available.

Th e bulk of the narrative covers the present century and makes extensive use of more inaccessible sources Notable in early twentieth-century welfare activities were the church's support of progressive and reformist legislation; the organization of ward Relief Societies as units of the American Red Cross; and the professionalization of the Relief Society's Social Service Department Th e latter offered courses in family welfare, encouraged a core of Mormon women to pursue social work degrees at eastern schools, and, particularly when the depression arrived, worked closely with state and county welfare agencies.

Early in the depression it became clear that the enormity of the nation's

economic distress would prevent the church from fully caring for its own Nonetheless, the conservative views of J Reuben Clark, opposed as they were to "the evils of the dole," set the tone of the new Church Welfare Plan inaugurated in 1936. President Clark's philosophical differences with Presiding Bishop Sylvester Q Cannon make vivid reading after half a century Cannon's views eventually prevailed as the church focused on emergency assistance and self-reliance, leaving the weightier demands of the long-term needy to the federal government.

LDS welfare efforts after World War II became bureaucratized and correlated Fast offerings, welfare farms, Deseret Industries, employment centers, rehabilitation, LDS Social Services (adoption, foster care, counseling), disaster relief, and direct church support of soup kitchens and homeless shelters round out the familiar contours of today's welfare activities.

Perhaps the most compelling part of this book deals with burgeoning overseas involvement as the church internationalizes Th e authors list 75 LDS-supported humanitarian service projects, often initiated and managed on the basis of grass-roots contacts, carried out in several dozen countries since 1982. Micro-enterprise developmen t and employment centers have been particularly effective overseas

Th e authors detect competing priorities for LDS membership as opportunities for international welfare service increase, yet they rightly extrapolate from the historical record that proselyting and temple-related activities will never be curtailed to provide more resources for purely secular well-being

There is a nice symmetry in the thought that the efforts of Latter-day Saints for a century and a half to better themselves economically have borne fruit rich enough to permit a growing engagement with the needs of members and nonmembers through-

out the world. The Mormons' War on Poverty reliably documents and interprets that maturation

MARCELLUS S SNOW University of

Hawaii at Manoa

Honolulu

Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints: Science, Sense, and Scripture. By LESTER E BUSH, JR (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1993 xvi + 234 pp $24.95.)

Th e complete title of this book gives the impression that the text will be disjointed and scattershot. Indeed, the book can be looked upo n as a collection of individual essays But they do tie together and, considering the complexity of Mormon doctrine and history, this is really a tidy volume. Health in the title is to be taken broadly as huma n well-being in all its aspects and medicine as all measures taken to attain (or regain) that wellbeing

Th e book is part of a series called Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions, sponsored by the Park Ridge Center of the Lutheran General Health System Many worldwide faiths, both Christian and non-Christian, have contributed to this series Each contributor was asked to comment on ten themes: dying, passage, well-being, healing, suffering, madness, sexuality, caring, dignity, and morality In the book's eight chapters all of these subjects are thoroughly discussed and related to the doctrines and activities of the Mormon church. Still more, there is an explanation of how the church has adapted to new knowledge and new circumstances It has not been trapped by a doctrine of complete infallibility

A prominent theme in this work is the transition of Mormon philosophy in certain matters of health care A chapte r entitled "Healing," concerned with the relationship of the church and the medical profession, could have as a secondary title "From Contempt to Hearty Cooperation." In the early days, unde r the leadership of Joseph Smith, reliance was placed on faith-healing, herbal medicine, and "mild foods." Physicians, aside from their service in surgical matters, were looke d upo n as "ignoramuses " (Brigham Young's word) who "puked, purged, blistered, and bled" their patients and dosed them with potentially dangerous drugs, such as the mercury-containing calomel. As medical science developed, physicians became more readily accepted For example, Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the church, learned that a medicine containing quinine controlled his relapses of malaria where faith-healing, herbs, and "mild foods" had failed. Since the 1880s the church has endorsed and strongly supported scientific medicine, although faith-healing is still an important adjunct

Th e author, himself a Mormon, is a physician and a well-respected scholar and writer on the subject of Mor-

monism. H e has prepared a clearly written, well-thought-out volume. It is not large but packed with information and requires careful reading and reflection

Th e author has taken an evenhande d approach—as on e critic pu t it, "not promoting an ideology or over-pushing a thesis." A tremendous amount of documentary work has been done; for the chapter on healing alone there are 145 references and notes Primary sources are often quoted, and they add interesting and sometimes perplexing detail. In the Word of Wisdom there is the advice to eat meat sparingly; why, in practice, is this down-played? Is tobacco really good for bruises? Why is beer not acceptable, since barley is recommende d for "mild drinks"? (It was my grandfather, Anthon H. Lund, along with fellow apostle Matthias Cowley who touted the special virtues of Danish beer, mentioned in the text.) In discussing these and other more controversial subjects, such as faith-healing and casting out of devils, the author documents the incidents carefully, putting them in the perspective of history and science, but his presentation is wisely more documentary than judgmental.

There are many anecdotes, some of them quite amusing For example, Brigham Young, when criticized for diverting City Creek water through his hog-pen, pointed out that if he, himself, was drinking the water, why should any on e else complain Another example concerns the oil used in the ritual of anointing and laying on of hands. It was thought by many to have healing powers in itself and was rubbed over ailing parts of the body or even taken internally Ideally it was pure olive oil, but there were substitutes O n one occasion a worthy

Saint questioned the virtue of an oil being used, saying, "it was miserable stuff, possibly a good deal of Chicago lard—or something worse."

I grew u p in Salt Lake City early in this century (born in 1907) and was interested in changes that have occurred in my lifetime. Th e most notable were the acceptance of blacks into the priesthood (championed by Bush in earlier writings), the more liberal views about birth control, the stricter enforcement of the Word of Wisdom (always a valuable word of advice but now virtually a mandate), and, what may seem to be a trivial matter, restyling of the garments worn by worthy Saints as a token of their temple covenants and endowments. Originally, they covered the body from ankle to neck to wrist as modestly as possible, but we learn that several modifications have been made, even a two-piece model

Although marriage is discussed and there is a frank discussion of sexuality, there is n o discussion of divorce Certainly it occurs amon g the Latter-day Saints How is it accomplished and, considering the concept of marriage for "time and eternity," what problems arise?

This is an important book. It will stand on my shelf as a key reference to the history, practices, and directives of the Mormon church in matters of health care It has a certain similarity to Thomas G. Alexander's fine study, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930, and some of the subjects overlap; but mostly the range of subjects differs and the sweep of history is broader

HERBERT Z LUND, JR Greensboro,North Carolina

The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull. By ROBERT M. UTLEY. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993 xviii + 413 pp $25.00.)

Robert M. Utley's most recent book is a welcome addition to Stanley Vestal's (nom de plume of Walter Stanley Campbell) Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux: A Biography (new edition, 1957). In his foreword to the earlier work Raymond J DeMallie wrote, "Campbell's narrative thus presents very much of a subjective, insider's perspective, not a detached, objective analysis" of Sitting Bull and the Sioux Th e historian's wish for objectivity to recount events of the past accurately is accomplished by Utley's book on Sitting Bull.

He does what Campbell did not do, that is, write a scholarly documented account with ample footnotes and bibliography It is true that he utilizes Campbell's voluminous research (bibliography published as New Sources of Indian History by Stanley Vestal, 1934), but to that material he skillfully adds the latest research to broaden and validate conclusions about Sitting Bull and his people. Detailed descriptions of incidents in Sitting Bull's life vary somewhat from those given by Campbell but are nonetheless essentially the same

A commo n thread woven through Utley's book is that Sitting Bull and many of his associates epitomized the "four cardinal virtues of Lakota men": bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom Accounts of incidents in their lives where these virtues were developed or utilized make the book exciting and insightful reading.

Numerous accounts are given where the Sioux displayed the"capacity to endure physical pain and discomfort" and showed "dignity and reserve in emotional situations," thereby revealing their fortitude. Sitting Bull's reputation for wisdom, which grew out of his mastery of the other three virtues,

resulted in respect for him by friend and foe alike His wisdom came from "experience of age and maturity" and from "the power and insight gained through an active and fruitful spiritual life." He was regarded by his peers as an all-around leader: a fearless military inspiration in battle, a compassionate father figure in time of need, a spiritual prophet visionary when appropriate, and a statesman negotiator in dealing with his adversaries

Utley clearly contrasts the treatmen t of Native Americans in the United States with that of those living in Canada His vehicle for this is to trace Canadian dealings with Sitting Bull's band when it fled the United States after the battle of the Little Big Horn It seems that Canada's policy was much more enlightened than that of the United States government.

Of special interest to Great Basin readers is the narrative of Sitting Bull's adoption of Frank (Ephraim) Grouard, reported to be the son of a Mormon missionary and his Polynesian wife. Grouard's early years were spent in the family of Addison Pratt in Beaver, Utah Th e Indians captured him in Montana while he was carrying mail, and he became a membe r of Sitting Bull's family. During the few years he lived with them he became a advisor to the Hunkpapa Sioux, helping to bridge the gap between their culture and that of the white man.

Another Great Basin connection deals with furor over the inception of the Ghost Dance in the 1890s when a Paiute holy man name d Wowoka, residing in Nevada, claimed to be the Indian Messiah. It was the Ghost Dance movement that directly led to Sitting Bull's death and the subsequent battle at Wounded Knee

The Lance and the Shield is a gripping story that belongs in the library of those whose passion is military and Native American history.

Book Notices

Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory. Edited

by LINDA S CORDELL and GEORGE J GUMERMAN (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonia n Institutio n Press, 1989. xxii + 395 pp . Paper, $19.95.)

This volume is the soft-cover edition of an edited volume first published by the Smithsonian five years ago It is the result of an advanced seminar of the same nam e held at the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1983 and, by now, papers that were intended to be cutting-edge science are nearly eleven years old and somewhat out-of-date Fortunately, the eleven papers, which focus on the prehistoric peoples known as the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokom, still provide useful summaries of southwestern prehistory from about A.D. 500 to AD . 1500.

Unfortunately, the volume suffers from two major defects Th e first is that the theoretical orientation employed by most of these authors—systems theory—is on e that has been virtually abandone d by most archaeological anthropologists du e to its limited explanatory potential Th e second is that it is limited in scope. Apparently, the people who lived in the Southwest for thousands of years before the

DO N R MATHIS Carmichael, California

Anasazi or the Numic and Athabascan peoples who lived there after them, were no t dynamic enough to be included in a volume on southwestern prehistory. These defects make the volume useful only as a supplement to more comprehensive works on the Southwest

A Flood Cannot Happen Here: The Story of Lower Goose Creek Reservoir, Oakley, Idaho, 1984. By KATHLEEN HEDBERG (Burley, Idaho: Magic Valley Publishers, 1993. vi + 298 pp . Paper, $15.95.)

Th e residents of Cassia County in south central Idaho never expected to see thei r towns an d farmland s flooded; drought was their frequent worry. Only once since it was built in 1910 ha d they seen the Lower Goose Creek Reservoir fill to its 74,500 acre feet capacity Over the years the creek bed below the da m was filled in an d farmed. Farther downstream Burley developed as a regional center The n the unusually heavy winter of 1983-84 threatened farms, homes, and businesses.

Usingjournals, notes, letters, reports,

interviews, and newspaper accounts, the author weaves a gripping day-byday account of the heroic attempt to avert disaster Hundred s of volunteers cooperated with church leaders an d local, state, an d federal officials an d agencies to build an eighteen-mile canal to Murtaugh Lake in four days and a twenty-four-mile canal from Oakley to Burley and the Snake River in three days. Although these amazing feats helped to minimize flood damage, saving millions of dollars, they also engendered some hard feelings from farmers whose land was sacrificed for the community good But community good and good communities are what this dramatic story is all about.

Th e author, Kathleen Hedberg, a native of Burley, Idaho, is th e co-author of a high school textbook, People and Civilization: A World History, published in 1977 by Ginn and Company. She received he r bachelor's an d doctor's degrees from Brigham Young University and her master's from Indiana University

read as a first-person account by Grant Sawyer, it is my [King's] narrative treatment of the record that Sawyer an d [interviewer Gary] Elliott created." Th e interviews were conducted during a nine-month period in 1991 an d produced over twelve hundre d transcript pages King carefully explains the methodology behind his transformation of these interviews into readable text. His efforts have provided an engaging look at Nevada politics Readers will find Sawyer's forthright comments about the key issues an d political figures of his time refreshing.

Between the Cottonwoods: Murray City in Transition

By G WESLEY JOHNSON an d DAVID L SCHIRER (Murray, Ut.: Corporation of the City of Murray, 1992 x +

Hang Tough! Grant Sawyer: An Activist in the Governor's Mansion. By GARY

E ELLIOTT an d R T KING (Reno: University of Nevada Oral History Program, 1993. xxiv + 256 pp . $21.95.)

Governor of Nevada from 1959 to 1966, Grant Sawyer, an advocate of progressive reform, often found himself at odds with powerful political constituencies in th e state, particularly over civil rights and greater regulatory control of casino gambling

Th e book is "an effort to make th e fruits of oral history methodology coherent an d accessible Composed to

pp Paper, $10.00.)

190

Over time Murray, Utah, has evolved from a pioneer agricultural community to an industrial center with large smelters employing many foreign-born workers to a suburb of Salt Lake City with lovely parks an d active arts programs as well as a major shopping mall, a major hospital, and a significant retail automobile business Officials of Murray decided to mark the ninetieth anniversary of their town's incorporation (November 25, 1992) by commissioning a history that analyzes these transitions.

Th e co-authors were well suited to the assignment. Johnso n is a professor of history at Brigham Young University, an d Schirer wrote his master's thesis o n the industrial period in Murray They have made effective use of city records and numerous interviews

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Department of Community and Economic Development Division of State History

BOARD OF STATE HISTORY

MARILYN CONOVER BARKER, Salt Lake City, 1997 Chair

PETER L. GOSS, Salt Lake City, 1995 Vice-Chair

MAX J. EVANS, Salt Lake City Secretary

DALE L. BERGE, Provo, 1995

BOYD A BLACKNER, Salt Lake City, 1997

DAVID D. HANSEN, Sandy, 1997

CAROL CORNWALL MADSEN, Salt Lake City, 1997

DEAN L. MAY, Salt Lake City, 1995

CHRISTIE SMITH NEEDHAM, Logan, 1997

PENNY SAMPINOS, Price, 1995

THOMAS E SAWYER, Orem, 1997

JERRY WYLIE, Ogden, 1997

ADMINISTRATION

MAX J. EVANS, Director

WILSON G MARTIN, Associate Director PATRICIA SMITH-MANSFIELD, Assistant Director

STANFORD J. LAYTON, Managing Editor

DAVID B. MADSEN, State Archaeologist

The Utah State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited Utahns to collect, preserve, and publish Utah and related history Today, under state sponsorship, theSociety fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; collecting historic Utah artifacts; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric buildings and sites; and maintaining 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 up to itsresponsibility 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