Friends at all Times: The Correspondence of Isaiah Moses Coombs and Dryden Rogers

Friends at all Times: The Correspondence of Isaiah Moses Coombs and Dryden Rogers

By SANDRA DAWN BRIMHALL

The life-long friendship as revealed in the correspondence between Isaiah Moses Coombs and Dryden Rogers was unusual, and sometimes sorely tested, because the two men were fundamentally different in many ways. Coombs, who spent most of his adult life in Utah, was a school teacher and a Mormon; Rogers, who resided in Illinois and Kansas, was a physician and a Baptist.

Isaiah Moses Coombs.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

Their letters, which spanned the years 1855-1886, show how they were able to build upon the things they had in common and rise above the prejudices of their time and locale. They also provide an intimate portrait of the communities and period in which the two men lived.

Coombs was born March 21, 1834, in Columbia, Monroe County, Illinois. His parents, Mark Anthony Coombs and Maria Morgan, were both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Coombs received a common school education and began teaching school at the age of seventeen. 1

Almost half a continent away, Rogers was born on January 14, 1827, in Belchertown, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. His parents, Dr. John Rogers and Esther Atwell, moved to Illinois shortly after his birth. When he was a young man, Rogers attended medical lectures in St. Louis and graduated in March 1848 from the Missouri Medical College. 2

Coombs and Rogers first became acquainted in 1852 when Coombs accepted a teaching position in the small town of Waterloo, Illinois. Waterloo was an agricultural community located a few miles south of Columbia.

According to Coombs’s autobiography, “During the winter of ’52 Dryden and I and a number of others organized a Lyceum for our mutual improvement. Our meetings were public and well attended.” 3

Coombs made many friends in Waterloo and became a well-respected citizen. A year or two after his arrival, two pivotal events occurred in his life. First, he decided to commit to his parents’ faith and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 13, 1854. Second, he was married to Sarah Turk, a Methodist, on November 30, 1854. 4

Mormonism was a hiss and a byword in Illinois during the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1844, the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred in Carthage, Illinois. Two years later, the majority of Mormons were expulsed from the state. Coombs also experienced his share of prejudice and persecution as a Mormon. When word spread of his baptism, many of his patrons began to withdraw their children from his school and to clamor for his dismissal. His membership in the unpopular church also alienated him from friends, relatives, and eventually his wife. Rogers was one of the few close associates who remained loyal to him during this time. 5

Unable to make a living and isolated from the community, Coombs sought counsel from church leader Erastus Snow. Snow recommended that he either serve a mission in England or move to Utah. Coombs chose the latter and informed his wife of his decision. When she refused to accompany him, he decided to go without her, even though she was expecting their first child. 6

On April 24, 1855, Coombs began his journey west. He wrote in his diary, “I left home today. Parted with wife, father, sisters, brothers and all my relations perhaps never more to see them in this life. I arrived in St. Louis at about twelve o’clock in good health and was ordained an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” 7

The two men began corresponding shortly after Coombs departed Illinois. Coombs preserved many of Rogers’ letters and made copies of some of his own. The letters demonstrate that like one of their contemporaries, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Coombs and Rogers did not “treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage.” 8 They openly expressed their opinions on various subjects and confided their innermost feelings. Apparently no topic, including religion and politics, was taboo.

On September 15, 1855, Coombs received a letter from Rogers, which asked pointed questions about Mormonism:“I suppose that by this time you are duly installed in the City of the faithful. . . . Is Polygamy openly practiced and countenanced among the Saints? Does each male have his acre of ground set off for him at the public expense? Is the Bible or any part of it the rule of faith as practiced in the Valley? Do the Mormons believe that any are saved outside of their church? Does the “sealing” of a second or third wife to the Saint, impair his obligations to the first? Are divorces in vogue in Salt Lake City?” 9

Rogers assured Coombs his questions were sincere and that he was trying to keep an open mind, noting, “Rumor with her thousand lying tongues may prejudice, but it cannot entirely convince.” 10

Coombs replied to Rogers’s letter on November 29, 1855, answering some of his inquiries. Regarding the allocation of land, he wrote: “When this city was laid off, it was laid off in blocks comprising 10 acres. Each of these blocks was laid off in 1& 1 ⁄4 acre lots. As this is only a Territory, the land is not yet in market and that which is not already taken up belongs as much to one as another person. Of course then if any person settles upon any of these lots it belongs to him until it comes into market & then he can keep it by paying the government price for it. This you know is the law respecting all territorial lands. Thus you see it is not set off to him at the public expense.”

As to whether or not the Bible was the Mormons’ rule of faith and if it was possible for a non-Mormon to be saved, Coombs said, “We believe the Bible to be a divinely inspired record of God’s ancient peoples . . . . We believe that a great portion of that sacred volume is applicable to us . . . . Again, we believe the Bible just as it reads with the exception of some few passages that have been wrongly translated . . . . those who believe and were baptized in his name [Christ] were saved, those who did not were damned. This is the exclusiveness of the Bible & this is the exclusiveness of the Mormons.”

Coombs boldly admitted the practice of polygamy, maintaining, that “there is no doctrine believed in & practiced by us that cannot be proven by the Bible. If you will take the Bible & prove to me that polygamy has ever been discountenanced or proscribed by God or any of his servants I am ready to bid goodbye to Mormonism and return to my native home.”

He asserted that the sealing of a second or third wife to a man did not impair his obligation to the first because “a man is under as much obligation to one wife as to another, for all are alike sealed to him for time and all eternity & if he does not treat them as he ought they will leave him.” Coombs acknowledged that some marriages were less than ideal when he tersely wrote that divorces were indeed in vogue in the valley. 11

In another letter, Coombs opened his heart to Rogers about his own matrimonial difficulties and his pain in leaving his wife behind in Illinois. “Ah! Dryden that was a trying time. I thought my soul would rend asunder when I took my loved wife to my bosom in a last embrace and breathed scarce audibly the chilling word, ‘Farewell,’ I almost faltered in my purpose but the Spirit whispered ‘He that loveth his wife more than me is not worthy of me.’ I tore myself away from her & all my kindred and bade farewell to home . . . do I regret this? No, but I rejoice that I have been enabled to make this small sacrifice for the cause in which I am engaged.” 12

On a different occasion, he lamented the loss of other loved ones and friends as a result of his conversion to Mormonism and wondered if his friendship with Rogers would also wither and die. “In years that are past, Dryden, I have enjoyed your friendship and confidences, in years to come your friendship may be put to the test and your confidence shaken but remember the injunction of the Savior, ‘Judge not,’ for the secrets of the heart you cannot know. In the visions of my mind, I often read my future destiny and I see friend after friend depart from my side to become an enemy. Dryden, will you be one of that number? I feel that you will not.” 13

Rogers also had his trials. On September 25, 1858, he wrote Coombs a letter about the death of one of his children and his father’s lingering illness. “Since you were last here, death has visited us and taken to a better and happier sphere than this, our lovely Minnie. I trust your faith will not deny the efficacy of the atonement on her behalf, if peradventure you deny it to her Gentile parents. Father also has been brought to the ver y door of death and raised again and now he is able to perform the duties of life and his professions, with but half of his accustomed vigor.”

Dr. Dryden Rogers and his grandchildren.

In another part of the letter, he discussed an upcoming election, which was a topic of special interest to both men. “Politics is the engrossing theme here. The question is Buchanan Democrats, Douglas Democrats or Republicans? In this country Douglas will triumph gloriously from present appearances. He was here on the 11th of this month, and of course everybody and their friends turned out to hear the Little Giant. His speech as far as listened to by me was not of the first order by any means. His opponent, Abraham Lincoln, I never saw.”

Rogers then brought up a controversial subject for Coombs and other Mormons—President James Buchanan’s decision to send 2,500 troops to Utah. The troops were assigned to suppress the alleged Mormon rebellion against federal authority and to install a new governor, appointed by Buchanan, to replace Brigham Young. Buchanan’s action, known as the “Utah War,” (1857-1858) was popular among Utah non-Mormons and also was enthusiastically supported in the East. Rogers wrote, “You know that I am not partial towards the present administration, but I must tell you that you impute wrong purposes and motives to them . . . . I must believe that Buchanan never thirsted for Mormon blood, or that he never sent Col. Johnston to Utah, for both facts come to me in the same tangible shape. I have heard grievances on one side and complaints on the other. You will naturally view me with suspicion because I will not take the word of a Mormon as good against the united testimony of our distinguished Gentile Statesmen. If I was a Mormon I certainly would. I esteem it an unfortunate event that the Mormons ever resisted the United States authority, but a sign of returning reason that Brigham backed down from his lofty threats which every intelligent reader knew was negatory. I find new revelation very expedient in times of emergency, especially in presence of United States troops . . . .” 14

Coombs assured Rogers that his faith would not consign Minnie to Hell. “Of course you meant not that question in earnest. I repudiate all such faith as that and would have no fellowship with anyone who would cherish such a doctrine. Infants come into this world pure and if they fall asleep in their infancy they are still pure and all is well with them whether or not their immediate predecessors be righteous or unrighteous.” 15

The Civil War had a great impact on the content and frequency of Coombs’s and Rogers’ correspondence. As the conflict between the North and the South began to escalate, Coombs described to Rogers the Mormons’ reactions to the impending war. “As a people, we are making preparations to store up wheat in abundance against the famine and distress we are assuming on this nation . . . . The South rebels as he [Joseph Smith] said it would and in the very place, too. He foretold the arming of the negroes against their masters. He said that the nation would be split into fragments, state would be arrayed against state, city against city and man against his neighbor until he that would not take up his sword would have to flee to Zion for safety; that famine would tread upon the heels of war and that pestilence and earthquakes would complete the destruction of those who reject God and his prophet . . . . We will share in our prosperity with you and like Bunyan’s good evangelist, point you the way that leads to the Celestial City. My friend may you escape the judgments that are on the earth. For your kindness to me may you never know want, may the destroyer be kept from your habitation and may we meet again in peace.” 16

In 1864, Coombs wrote: “Ever since the breaking out of the war I have been anxious to hear from you but have refrained from writing under the impression that you might possibly be absent with the army in the enemies’ country. I did not forget that you were as emphatically a man of peace as ever was a follower of William Penn, but I knew that the government was drafting men for the war & that any man was liable to be pressed into service whether his organs of combativeness was developed or not. This may be all right but I consider it unwarrantable stretching of the powers granted by the Constitution of our country. Of course every patriot will hold himself in readiness to go at the call of his country and maintain the honor of her flag whether it be against a foreign foe or as a domestic traitor, but in my opinion it should be a voluntary service. If I were going to lead an army into the field I should prefer one thousand willing patriotic men in whose bosoms burned a pure and sacred love for the cause of right to ten thousand drafted, or paid hirelings.” 17

Fanny McLean Coombs.

Rogers replied that he had indeed been drafted “into the service of Father Abraham but sent an Irishman which cost me $650.” 18

In a subsequent letter he wrote, “I guess my Irishman fights. ’Tis their nature especially when mixed with tanglefoot.” 19 Rogers digressed from the subject of war when he asked Coombs if he had married again and, if so, how many wives and children he nowhad. 20 Coombs, who had married Fanny McLean on June 28, 1858, without obtaining a divorce from Sarah, testily replied that he had but one wife, like Rogers. “You see now that it was not for wives that I became a Mormon. I acknowledge polygamy as an institution of heaven revealed for the salvation of the human family to arrest the tide of corruption that was fast hurrying our race from the earth, but for several reasons have not seen fit to take others and there are plenty of willing women to choose from but I stick to the unit. You have been told that no man can be a good Mormon unless he has a plurality of wives. That is not true. My standing here in the church is good and it would be no better if I had a dozen helpmetes. Marriage here, as among other people, is an individual concern . . . . Women are as much respected and are as well treated as they are in any other part of the United States and what is more they are as virtuous and good to say the least.” 21

What Coombs didn’t tell Rogers was that he had asked at least two young women to become his plural wives. The first proposal was made to Sara Alexander on January 5, 1860. Alexander was an actress and dancer, who performed at the Salt Lake Theatre. 22 The second offer was made to Fanny’s sister, Lexy, on June 10, 1860. 23 Both proposals were ultimately refused.

In June of 1865, Rogers wrote Coombs about a family mishap that occurred while Rogers was out all night on a medical call. When he returned home, he found his house, “a mass of coals, burnt timbers, calcined rocks and a blackened chimney. Children bare-headed and footed, trees and fence destroyed and plenty of Job’s comforters to pity me with their tongues.”

He reported that in seven weeks, he had removed the rubbish, rebuilt and moved his family into a new home. He observed, “You must not suppose that my house was insured for such was not the case . . . . Don’t suppose because I devote so much space to my loss that I regard it for ‘tis not so. I never once compare it to the loss of a member of my family. I have tried both, so I know how to sympathize with those that are afflicted. When property is destroyed it only urges the necessity of industry and economy without which mortals are unhappy.” 24

Throughout the years, the two men occasionally exchanged harsh words as a result of their differing views on religion. Part of the friction was caused by Coombs’s repeated efforts to convert Rogers to his faith, and Rogers’ resistance to such missionary zeal.

On June 11, 1867, Rogers wrote a letter which strongly condemned polygamy, compared Brigham Young to Mahomet [Muhammad] and questioned the Mormon prophet’s motives in attempting to enforce the Word of Wisdom: “You ask if men can thus control their appetites and passions are not worthy of more than one wife. The Mahomet answers yes. The Pope answers that he can control himself and consequently needs none. Civilization and Christianity unite in characterizing it as revolting, dehumanizing, in this, that if man is entitled to 100 wives, a woman is certainly entitled to 100 husbands. Does not your women also curb their passion? Are they less pious than the men, are they less devoted? . . . .”

“You tell me that Brigham Young is great. The devout Muslim replies Allah is great and Mahomet was his prophet. Do you see the point? It is an insult to you to compare Mahomet with Young. It would be an insult to a Muslim man for me to compare Mahomet with Young. Do you see the point? Do I make it plain enough for you to comprehend my feelings? . . .”

“Now as regards the matter of which you asked my opinion. President Young advised the disuse of tobacco, tea and coffee, and the people actually abstained from their use. I do not wish to wound your feelings in the least, but honesty compels me, if I reply at all, to speak what I believe. I do not believe that any considerable number of Mormons, say 1 ⁄4 to 1 ⁄2 of the communicants of your church had abandoned the use of those luxuries, provided they are as easily obtained there as here. . . . Now for the motive in giving such council. . . . Does the building of the temple demand sacrifice? Are these articles exotic and not to be obtained without crippling the resources of the people? If either of these exist the council was appropriate, if not, then fix a name for it yourself. . . . I say such blind fidelity betrays a sad want of intellect.” 25

Coombs took umbrage at Rogers’ comments and penned an angry response, which he sent by return mail.

“Accept my assurance that your plain, blunt, unreasoning assertions concerning polygamy and Brigham Young have failed to hurt my feelings. I accord most cheerfully to you what I claim for myself – the privilege of thinking, talking and writing on subjects as you please. I claim to be your friend, and being such shall not allow myself to get offended at trifles . . . . You have revealed your feelings on the subject of Mormonism in your last letter very plainly – there can be no misunderstanding. I humbly beg your pardon for forcing the subject so often upon your consideration in my correspondence . . . . I am very sorry to be obliged to change my opinion of you and to place your name on my long list of religious bigots; men who tie themselves down to an iron bedstead and say thus far will I grow and no farther and all who are longer or shorter than this are fools and idiots . . . . you will excuse me for being plain and pointed for this once. I but follow your example and by doing so we will henceforth know each other on these points perfectly and as we differ so widely, as friends we may avoid it in the future.” 26

Whenever they quarreled, Rogers would offer Coombs an olive branch, assuring him of his continued friendship. “When I condemn some parts of your theology, do not think that it includes you. Such was not ever at any time my meaning. The ‘tartness’ was general not personal, and I think you can bear me witness that I have repeatedly objected to our writing on the subject, as I did not wish to offend a real friend.” 27

In the majority of their letters, the two men focused on their mutual interests, rather than their differences, discussing family life, education, current events, crop prices and the economy. Rogers periodically provided Coombs with updates concerning Waterloo and their common acquaintances: “Emery Slate met quite a loss a fortnight ago. Lost a valuable mule for which he paid cash $250; worked her all day, put her in the stable, fed her, and before going to bed, turned her into his 2 acres horse lot. Next morning, gone, hunted 10 days and came home, found her 60 yards from door a slight depression in the ground had proved a sink hole caved in with her 12 feet deep and 8 feet off and when found, (by blowflies) was barely visible i.e. her head was. To look at it now it seems it would require the strength of 100 men to drag her in the hold. It was known there was a small hole there, but as boys had tried to enter & had not been able, it had been filled with brush and straw and was filling up as all sinks generally does.” 28

He also described an event that caused a scandal in Waterloo. “I saw a loving couple promenading, one I knew as Dr. H. P. Roden, and I was credibly informed that the other was his wife, daughter of Scipio M. Baird, aged about 14 years. I was informed that they eloped, went to St. Louis and were married, returned and reported progress. The inquisitive father wished to know who were the witnesses, being informed, swore one was a lunatic, the other a fool, and that they should be married right. Sent for a license and a clergyman and reenacted the farce.” 29

Coombs and Rogers occasionally discussed the anti-polygamy legislation enacted by the federal government against the Mormons. One of these laws was the Cullom Bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois. In 1862, Congress had passed the Anti-Bigamy Morrill Act which had made polygamous marriages a crime within the United States territories. The Cullom Bill of 1870 sought to strengthen the previous Anti-Bigamy law and to revamp the territorial government in Utah. The bill, when it passed the House but was defeated in the Senate, caused great excitement in Utah. 30

In his diary, on January 21, 1870, Coombs wrote: “Have finished a long letter to Dryden Rogers. . . .In it I have written at length on the Cullom Bill. Told him this people would never submit to such oppressive and unjust laws. The nation may drive us or destroy us but we will not tamely submit our necks to the yoke.” 31

Rogers wrote Coombs, “The Cullom bill mentioned by you makes no noise or stir here. No one cares much about it. The general maintains that it is useless, as the question will soon solve itself by letting alone. Universal experience teaches that pressure consolidates. Polygamy being a human invention is no exception to the rule.” 32

One controversial topic where Coombs and Rogers saw eye to eye, was the ineptitude of some of the federal judges who had been sent to Utah to deal with Mormons and polygamy. Rogers wrote, “I see by the papers that there is occasionally a farce called a trial for Bigamy or kindred crimes in Utah. It is looked on as a farce all over the world & the best thing to do would be to kick a judge or two out of the Territory . . . . possess your soul in patience & keep still and you will not be molested. But drilling militia will not frighten anyone. Neither will polygamy always continue.” 33

After Brigham Young was indicted for murder in the fall of 1871, on trumped up evidence, Rogers was appalled. “I see by the papers that your great leader Brigham Young is a prisoner, furnishing his own jail, boarding himself a refused bailer charged with murder. Oh, what a judge! Is there not a lunatic asylum in the Territory? If not, send him back to his.” 34 On July 30, 1870, Coombs sent word that he and his wife, Fanny, were expecting another child: “We are well excepting my wife who is expecting to be confined again shortly. We expect to have another son and to call his name Dryden Rogers. What say you? Would you like to have a namesake among the Mormons?” 35

Isaiah Moses and Fanny McLean Coombs and some children.

In the same letter, he described a cooperative movement that had been launched by Brigham Young as a stepping stone for the “Order of Enoch,” or the order of Heaven. Mormon “cooperatives” were joint-stock corporations, which were sponsored by the church, to achieve both spiritual and material goals. Coombs wrote: “The day is not far distant when poverty will be unknown among us, when all will share the blessings of life alike, i.e., all who are industrious and deserving. . . . The cooperative system we have introduced here is bound in a very few years to enter into every branch of business, and make us all rich. I expect to see the day when my interest in stores & factories will bring me in all my clothing; when my interest in the dairy will supply my family with butter, cheese & meat, and when my shares in a cooperative farm will bread me. . . .The system is a good one & with us it will work. Men without the cementing influence of the gospel and priesthood have tried it and have failed but it will win this time.” 36

A few weeks later, Coombs wrote to Rogers about a recent territorial election: . . . . “It would make you stare could you but take a peak at our polls today. Order and peace reigns there supreme. No drinking of spirits (the judge and clerk have a bucket of water sitting under the table from which they quench their thirst ever and anon.) There is no swearing, there is no electioneering, no challenging. . . . All this you would be prepared to see perhaps among saints but what would make you stare is the ladies who throng in there to deposit their votes along with their husbands, brothers and sons. . . . How I envy yon aged veteran who has just walked up and deposited of his seven votes assisted by his half dozen wives. . . . No case has come under my observation of a man coercing his wife to vote and I do not think an instance of it could be found in our territory and yet the women all vote for the Mormon officers . . . .”

“In the northern part of the territory where the gentiles do mostly congregate, I presume they are not having such quiet lines. We have only one bonafide gentile town in Utah, Corrine. They are very smart folks that live there, especially on election day. Two years ago, there were only 60 voters in that place and they polled no less than 1800 votes. They did that on the principle of voting early and voting often, they got in only 30 votes to the head. But then that was done to defeat the Mormons and introduce civilization into Utah.” 37

Rogers and his family left Waterloo in October 1872 and moved to Topeka, Kansas. In describing his new home, he told Coombs, “This is a rather pretty place on both banks of the Kansas river, but principally on the South. It is the Capitol of the State. Contains 9,000 or 10,000 inhabitants. Churches are numerous and well attended. The morals, generally speaking, are good, especially among the residents. Floating population here as in every other place is generally rough. Rent is exorbitant, living high, pride costing more than necessity. I do not know what my success will be. The profession is overdone here, and I may not succeed at all. I have to run that risk. My children are all going to school.” 38 In a later letter, he reflected on the peaceful interaction that existed between the members of different religions in his new locale and asked if Mormons were equally tolerant. “Here all denominations are called orthodox, and several very heterodox seem to thrive. Here Spiritualists pitch their tabernacle. Here Unitarian and Universalist, Deist & Atheist sit side by side. It is so in the valleys? Is opinions, or not opinions, creeds, litanies tolerated or are your people an exclusive association? True, the law makes all equal, i.e., before the law. But I mean socially and in a business point of view. Could I with my present views and practices succeed in a Mormon City where I would necessarily come in conflict with those of a faith different than mine?” 39

The two men also demonstrated a keen interest in world, as well as national, politics. After the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-1878, the Congress of Berlin was called by the signers of the Treaty of Paris of 1856 to reconsider the terms which Russia had forced on the Ottoman Empire. 40

Rogers wrote to Coombs in the summer of 1878 and expressed his opinion about the events that had taken place in Europe. “The first chapter in the history of European diplomacy is closed. How many sons are covered up, how much rottenness concealed, volcanic fires smothered, only to break out again with redoubled fury. The end is not yet. Russia needs an outlet that is not frozen over six months during the year and Europe should have had sense enough to awarded it, if permanent peace was the aim. Alexander may not fight again for it, but Nicholas will if he ascends to the throne of the Czars.” 41

Coombs viewed the European troubles as the wages of sin and the judgment of an angry God. He was more ambivalent regarding the rise of communism, perhaps because of his own experience with the cooperative movement in Utah. “As to the communist, they are a dangerous clan, no difference whether they are foreigners or natives. They are dangerous because they are desperate and they have been rendered desperate by a long series of wrongs and deprivations at the hands of those very ‘better classes.’ . . . . If those ‘better classes’ had within them the feelings of humanity and were to organize society with a view to provide labor for all and to do good to all, there would be no communists in this or any other country. I am not apologetic for lawlessness, on the contrary, I would bring all law breakers to justice were it in my power, but I am bold to declare that I hold the ‘better classes’ responsible in a measure, for much of the evils that afflict society in general. Our mother earth produces enough for all her children, and if some roll in wealth and luxury while others starve there is something wrong and men who have it in their power to right that wrong are responsible for it. May God bless the friends of mankind, right the wrongs of all his children and bring in the long looked for reign of peace.” 42

Rogers disagreed with Coombs’s assertion that wars, pestilence and natural disasters came from God. To support his argument, he presented his theory on the Biblical story of Noah’s ark and the great flood. “It seems strange to me at least that you should think a flood or deluge, a judgment of God, when on the other hand floods are such blessings. One river overflows its banks and does harm, another like the overflow of the Nile, is a great blessing. . . .Let me tell you how it looks to me. In those primitive times men built their houses and barns together near rivers, for water was an object, when rain fell all congregated in the building, water raised floated the building and Noah being wealthy has the best building of anyone in that part of the country and it floated, and saved him and family as they lived together and their inferences while all the rest was destroyed.” He admonished Coombs to have more compassion for the differences of others. “Practice charity my friend. If others worship God in a different method from you, do not condemn, there is too much of that done in the world. Leave that to God when He judges the world, he will do right. If he gives you more light than he does me, do not think more honesty goes with it.” 43

Home of Isaiah Moses and Fanny McLean Coombs in Payson.

On another occasion, Rogers again asked Coombs for forgiveness for the times that he had been uncharitable. “I can think of no more appropriate way of beginning the year than writing to you, and we will see if we can spare each others feelings, and let theology rest during the current year. . . . I will ask your forgiveness for all harsh, uncharitable, and unfriendly language of the past, and try to be more guarded in the future.” 44

A born philosopher, Rogers told Coombs he was willing to suspend judgment on Mormonism, and other religions, and allow historians to evaluate them in future years. “The enormities committed in the name and ostensibly by the command of God are as old as history. The people of one age speak for God and the next condemn. The history of religion is a history of the need of it, if not the absence of it, and if you never detect anything but good in your system, and among your brethren, and if historians are equally fortunate, you will indeed be entitled to the Kingdom of Heaven.” 45

Rogers last known letter to Coombs was written on April, 13, 1885, after he received word that Coombs’s wife, Fanny, had died, following childbirth, on March 17, 1885. “Your letter received in which you convey the sad news of your great loss. I would send you words of comfort, but in affliction like yours, it seems impossible. No one can appreciate the loss until they are called to endure it. . . .It seems to me as if I had known Mrs. Coombs for years. When I looked at her picture, I am satisfied that your estimate of her virtues is not exaggerated. . . .Our time will soon come and it matters little how soon. The only question should be are we ready. My grandfather used to say that the Lord would not have to call him but once. He was always ready. . . .I hope your children will inherit their Mother’s faith and imitate her virtues.” 46 Coombs, who never recovered from the shock of Fanny’s death, passed away a year later, in Payson, on May 20, 1886. 47

Rogers outlived Coombs by almost twenty years. He died on March 27, 1902, in Topeka, Kansas. Despite Coombs’s great efforts to convert him to Mormonism, he remained a firm believer in the Baptist faith and was considered one of the pillars of his community. 48

Coombs’s prediction, years earlier, that his friendship with Rogers would endure proved true. Throughout their lives, both men placed humanity above dogma. They were committed to the principles of loyalty, tolerance and forgiveness and, thus, were able to bridge a gulf that is sometimes too wide for society as a whole.

NOTES

Sandra Dawn Brimhall is a journalist living in West Jordan and the great-granddaughter of Isaiah Moses Coombs.

1 Kate B. Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 20 vol. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958- 77), 1: 330-408. Coombs’s father was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Isaac Morley at Independence Landing, Missouri in 1831. See Alice Coombs Mills, “Mark Anthony Coombs: His Roots and Branches,” (privately published, 1970s, copy in author’s possession.), 12.

2 Letter from Dr. Stephen von Hitritz, descendant of Dryden Rogers, to Sandra Dawn Brimhall, January 10, 2007.

3 Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 1: 331. Dryden’s father and sister, Dr. John Rogers and Cornelia Rogers, were among the attendees.

4 Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:337.

5 Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:338. One example of Rogers’s continued regard for Coombs is found in Coombs’s diary. Although Coombs left Illinois in 1855, he returned to the East in 1856-1857, at Brigham Young’s request, to serve a mission in Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. When he visited Waterloo, he received a cordial welcome from the Rogers family. Coombs wrote that, one evening, Rogers invited him and “a few friends to spend the evening in social talk and singing. Throughout the evening, he paid marked attention to me, thus showing he thought none the less of me on account of my religious principles.” See Coombs diary, December 18, 1856, MS 1198, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

6 Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:338-39. Coombs’s reception from his wife, Sarah, was less friendly. She had given birth to their son, John William Coombs, on October 11, 1855. Coombs never saw his son because the child died on July 18, 1856. The couple met several times during Coombs’s mission, but they were never reunited as man and wife. When Coombs returned to Utah, he married Fanny McLean on July 28, 1858, in Spanish Fork. A few years later, on June 28, 1875, he also married Charlotte Augusta Hardy. See Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 1:321-408. Coombs recorded his sister, Mary, informed him that Sarah had obtained a divorce after learning of his marriage to Fanny. See Coombs diary, November 10, 1860, MS 1198, LDS Church Archives. Sarah later married George L. Reiss, a Waterloo resident, on August 13, 1861. See Coombs diary, June 24, 1864. According to the 1880 Federal Census, Sarah and George eventually moved to Red Bud, Illinois. They were the parents of six children. By the time of the 1920 Federal Census, George had passed away and Sarah was still living in Red Bud with her oldest son, George. There is no evidence in Coombs’s letters or journals that he ever had any personal contact with Sarah after he returned to Utah, although Rogers provided him with periodic updates on her activities until he left Illinois and moved to Topeka, Kansas in September 1872.

7 Coombs diary, April 24, 1855.

8 Brooks Atkinson, ed., The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York: Random House, 1992), 206.

9 Dryden Rogers to Isaiah Moses Coombs, September 15, 1855, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS1198, box 3, folder 2.

10 Ibid.

11 Isaiah Moses Coombs to Dryden Rogers, November 29, 1855, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3 folder 6.

12 Coombs to Rogers, August 1856, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 6.

13 Coombs to Rogers, undated, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 5.

14 Rogers to Coombs, September 25, 1858, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 2. According to Stephen von Hitritz, Rogers’s descendant, Dryden Rogers and his wife, Elizabeth, were the parents of four children.

15 Coombs to Rogers, May 1, 1864, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 6.

16 Coombs to Rogers, undated, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2 folder 5.

17 Coombs to Rogers, May 1, 1864, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 6.

18 Rogers to Coombs, December 18, 1864, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 3.

19 Rogers to Coombs, March 20, 1865, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 3.

20 Ibid.

21 Coombs to Rogers, May 31, 1865, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 6.

22 Coombs to Sara Alexander, January 5, 1860, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 2; Susa Young Gates, “Actress –By Command of Brigham Young,” Susa Young Gates Collection, MS B95, box 14, folder 2; box 17, folder 9, Utah State Historical Society.

23 Coombs diary, June 10, 1860.

24 Rogers to Coombs, June 6, 1865, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 3.

25 Rogers to Coombs, June 11, 1867, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 3.

26 Coombs to Rogers, July 1867, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2 folder 6.

27 Rogers to Coombs, July 22, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 4.

28 Rogers to Coombs, April 30, 1869, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 3.

29 Rogers to Coombs, October 17, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 4.

30 Andrew Jensen, Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941), p. 48.

31 Coombs diary, January 21, 1870.

32 Rogers to Coombs, February 18, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 4.

33 Rogers to Coombs, December 12, 1871, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 4.

34 Rogers to Coombs, January 4, 1872, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 5. According to LDS Church leader, George A. Smith, Young had originally been arrested for “lascivious cohabitation” and was allowed bail at $5,000. Young went to St. George to spend the winter and a month after he arrived, he was indicted for murder. Young returned to Salt Lake City, where he learned that the only witness against him was William A. Hickman, an apostate. Hickman claimed to have committed several murders and named Young as an accomplice for one of those murders. Judge James B. McKean, committed Young to jail in his own house. See Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 26, 1872, microfilm in LDS Church Archives.

35 Coombs to Rogers, July 30, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2 folder 7.

36 Coombs to Rogers, July 30, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 7. Isaiah and Fanny were the parents of fourteen children. Isaiah also had six more children by his plural wife, Charlotte Augusta Hardy. For some unknown reason, Isaiah named the son he had proposed to call Dryden, Arthur Francis Coombs. Arthur was born on September 17, 1870. Isaiah and Fanny later had another son they named Dryden Rogers Coombs, who was born on May 14, 1875. Dryden Coombs, who became a well-known Utah educator, served as principal of both Riverside Elementary School and Jordan Junior High School. See Alice Coombs Mills, “Mark Anthony Coombs: His Roots and Branches,” (privately published, 1970s) 139, copy in author’s possession.

37 Coombs to Rogers, August 7, 1870, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 7.

38 Rogers to Coombs, October 21, 1872, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3.

39 Rogers to Coombs, May 24, 1874, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 5.

40 Ian Drury, The Russo-Turkish War 1877 (Oxford: UK, 1994).

41 Rogers to Coombs, July 28, 1878, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 7.

42 Coombs to Rogers, June 17, 1878, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 2, folder 7.

43 Rogers to Coombs, March 18, 1879, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 8.

44 Rogers to Coombs, January 1, 1882, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3.

45 Rogers to Coombs, October 15, 1881, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 9.

46 Rogers to Coombs, April 13, 1885, Isaiah Moses Coombs Collection, MS 1198, box 3, folder 10.

47 Kate B. Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage, 323.

48 Waterloo Republican, April 3, 1902.