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UTAH
HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
NEGRO SLAVES IN UTAH By Jack Beller, B. S., University of Washington In Salt Lake City, at the intersection of Main and South Temple streets stands a monument to Brigham Young and the pioneers of 1847. At the end of the list of original pioneers on the bronze tablet on the north side of the monument are the names of "Qreen Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, Colored Servants." Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby were brought to Utah by John Brown, a native of Tennessee, who was sent on a mission for the L. D. S. Church to the Southern States in 1843. He labored in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, where he baptized a large number of persons and organized several branches of the Church. In April, 1846, he assisted in fitting out a company of fourteen families in Mississippi and started for the Rocky Mountains where they expected to meet the Saints from Nauvoo. They sojourned at Pueblo for the winter. Brown and seven others returned to Monroe County, Mississippi, for their families upon learning that President Brigham Young had not yet left Winter Quarters, and that the exodus was not yet complete. They were instructed to leave their families in Mississippi another year. John Brown continues the narrative in his journal: 1 "After a few days rest we began making preparations to move our families early in the spring, to Council' Bluffs, and thus be ready to go westward with the Church. About this time Elders Bryant Nowlin and Charles Crismon came to our settlement directly from Council Bluffs. They carried an epistle from the council of the twelve apostles, instructing us to remain another year with our families, but to fit out and send all the men we could spare ( to go west with the pioneers." "We held meetings to consider the matter, at which we concluded to send some four colored servants as pioneers, one of us going along to take charge of them. William Crosby, John. H. Bankhead, William Lay, and I each furnished a servant, and John Powell arranged for his brother David to go along. It fell to my lot to go and take charge of the company." "In order for us to reach Council Bluffs in time, it was necessary to make this journey of a thousand miles during the winter months. All arrangements being made, we left Mississippi on January 10, 1847. D. M. Thomas joined with his family, arid Brother Charles Crismon also accompanied us. W e were well Extracts from the private journal of the late John Brown, who for a period of twenty-nine years was Bishop of Pleasant Grove. Arranged by his son, Dr. John Zimmerman Brown. Improvement Era, July, '1910.
